Infinite Wisdom

"You’ve never lost a battle if you don’t have the feeling you’re beaten."

La Triviata

• During the “Orange Day Riot” in New York City on July 12-13, 1871, the 9^th Militia was commanded by the notorious robber baron James “Big Jim” Fisk, who so discredited himself that he had to be relieved.
• The last person who was not an Emperor to celebrate a Roman Triumph was Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus, father of the later Emperor Caligula, on May 26, AD 17, who, as adoptive son of Tiberius, he was heir presumptive.
• Although Dorothea Dix made many important contributions to the Union cause during the Civil War (most notably in organizing hospitals and a nursing corps), she did less well when, though a lifelong spinster, she designed a new type of underwear for the troops, which proved so uncomfortable the men reportedly discarded them at the first opportunity.
• The Battle of Marignano (Sept. 14, 1515) in northern Italy, in which the French defeated the Swiss, was the last in which the crossbow played a major role, taking place a dozen years after that of Cerignola (Apr. 28, 1503), also in Italy, in which the arquebus, a proto-musket, enabled the Spanish to defeat the French.
• While nearly 30 towns in the U.S. are named in honor of Napoleon's victories (nine for Arcola, eight for Marengo, six for Lodi, two each for Auerstadt and Jena, plus one for Ulm), at least a dozen places are named in honor of his defeat at Waterloo, not counting Austin, Texas, which formerly bore that name.
• During the early twentieth century, though comprising only about 1 percent of the population of British India, Sikhs totaled about 20 percent of the personnel in the Indian Army.
• Anticipating the German invasion of Denmark, in early April of 1940, literally days before it came about, A.P. Moeller, head of the Maersk Shipping Lines, dispatched his 27-year-old son Maersk McKinney Moeller to New York and ordered all 46 of the company’s ships to report to the young man and to ignore all future orders emanating from company headquarters.
• The rise of phalanx-style warfare in Greece in the period c. 850-c. 600 BC, characterized by the heavily armed and armored hoplite warrior, resulted in armor and swords becoming too valuable to inter with deceased warriors, contrary to the custom in previous ages.

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