Five Important American Events That Happened on July 4th

July 4th is the day we celebrate our independence, despite the fact that the actual act declaring independence passed the Continental Congress two days earlier.

Today, it's a day of fireworks, barbecues, and celebration.  In the past, however, it also was remembered for humiliating defeat, sad passings, and decisive victories.  Each involved one of America's most respected figures.

Fort Necessity at Great Meadows.  Here in a clearing in western Pennsylvania began a world war that transformed the British Empire and gave an American icon his first taste of military responsibility.

Europe had divided into two camps: Britain and her small club of allies against France and the most formidable empires on the Continent.  Any spark could set off a war covering the globe.  France and the British colony of Virginia both claimed the Forks of the Ohio, now Pittsburgh.  Virginia's colonial government sent 19 year old Major George Washington to set their claim on more solid ground.

Washington found Fort Duquesne already built at the forks, watched his Indian allies butcher a French patrol, then went to Great Meadow and built one of the worst fortifications ever constructed.  It sat near a source of water, but was surrounded by high ground on all sides, had large gaps in the wall, and had treelines within shooting distance.  The French could fire into it all day while hiding behind the massive virgin timber.

The Virginians fled the fort on July 4th.  French troops caught up, forced Washington to sign humiliating terms of capitulation, then sent him home to Virginia who immediately put him to work . . . building forts. 

July 4, 1754.  Proof that failure teaches better than success. 

One of the greatest friendships/rivalries in the history of this, or any other country.  John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

They knew each other for nearly 50 years, although no one would say they spent that long as friends.  Adams' careful editing of the Declaration of Independence chased Jefferson from the Continental Congress into a multi-year pout.

Jefferson's self-imposed exile eventually ended.  Both men spent the post war period struggling to represent the United States (one nation or 13, many asked before passage of the Constitution.)  Both Adams and Jefferson earned more respect as individuals than they could sell for their country.  Their intellects differed, Adams more pragmatic, Jefferson more idealistic, but they complemented each other at this point even as they mainly interacted through correspondence.

Later, Jefferson and Adams clashed.  Not so much when Jefferson served as a restive secretary of state and Adams an ignored vice president, but  certainly when both ran for president.  One of the few major flaws in the founding document gave second place in the Electoral College the vice presidency.  The Federalist Adams had to constantly fend off attacks from his own vice president in the highly partisan press of the time.

Both men ran again in 1800.  Reason turned some of the more vicious partisan statements into campaign ads. Their mutual hatred lasted for well over a decade after.

Eventually hard feelings softened.  The two preeminent American intellects of the early 19th century sat on the political trash heap, rarely consulted.  Adams' son John Quincy and Jefferson's political son James Madison assumed the stage.  Between the two men emerged a remarkable series of letters about a wide spectrum of subjects.  Much of the correspondence involved questions, answers, and responses to answers.  

Intellectual sharing grew into a fully reborn and close friendship that lasted until July 4th, 1826.  As Adams lay on his deathbed, his final words were, Jefferson still lives.

But Adams was wrong.  His former bitter rival and close friend had died the same day.

One thing often forgotten about the Civil War, the Union did not see its victory as inevitable until the very end.  Northern superiority in so many fields could not easily defeat a fully mobilized Confederacy fighting on its own soil.  

The Union in 1862 had come close to capturing the Confederate capital of Richmond, but had to retreat despite being in sight of its goal.  Antietam was technically a victory for the Union in the fall of the year, but left Lincoln frustrated because General McClellan seemed uninterested in finishing off Lee's army.

Meanwhile, social cohesion in the South deteriorated.  Most of the Confederate States saw their ability to enforce authority break down in the back country.  Lee knew that European help would not come and that the South would lose a war of attrition.  He gambled on a master stroke: striking north.

Meanwhile, Ulysses S. Grant hammered his own war of attrition against Mississippi Valley strongholds.  Like Lincoln, he understood the Confederacy would only lose when its armies were destroyed.  He ground away at strong points that the South felt compelled to defend, like Vicksburg.

Lee's three day assault on fortified Union lines near Gettysburg cost his army.  The best of his beloved Virginians died on the third day and his Army of Northern Virginia staggered home on July 4th.

Grant surrounded Vicksburg, last Confederate held position on the Mississippi.  Over several weeks, his tightening grip strangled Confederate resistance.  When Vicksburg ran out of victuals, its commander proposed surrender.  Grant refused to accept until the 4th of July.

Ten Interesting Presidents

Not the best ten.  Just ten interesting holders of the highest office in the land.

The American presidency has always had an allure unique among worldwide offices.  It grants many of the powers assumed by Augustus, first emperor of Rome.  The caveat is that office holders have a relatively short time to govern and that they must be chosen.

George Washington

Not just the greatest President.  Not just the greatest American.  Truly one of the great figures in world history.  Without his calls to action and leadership, the American Revolution likely dissolves into a society of complainers and philosophy students.  Guided the Constitutional Convention, often with glances instead of words.  Defined what a president should be and how one should act.

Those who downgrade his accomplishments forget that he had to also establish international respect for America's territorial integrity and national credit during a world war.

Not placing Washington in the top spot as president is sheer trolling.

Washington believed strongly in the dignity of office, even among close friends as Governeur Morris found to his embarrassment. His belief in republican simplicity extended to wearing black suits instead of military dress and forbidding music or announcements when he entered a room.  If a president deserves respect and attention, he will get it without the extra fuss.

John Adams

Obviously not a digital photo of the real John Adams.  This is Paul Giamatti from the outstanding HBO miniseries based on the outstanding David McCullough book.

Modern students of history love John Adams.  We all know someone like Adams.  Or maybe some of us are this guy.  Brilliant beyond measure.  But also jealous (rightfully) of not getting the credit he deserves.  Often grumpy and cynical (these traits usually soothed, but also occasionally stoked by his also brilliant wife Abigail.  And held legendary grudges against Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson and others.

Adams just didn't fit in.  Not on his diplomatic missions to North Africa, Britain, and elsewhere; not with the intellectual set at the Constitutional Convention; not with men of action like Washington.

But without his intellect, work, and guidance, our Republic may not be here.  His 20 hour days keeping things together at the Continental Congress built the nation.  His presidency is remembered more for its foolish acceptance of bad laws than its creation of the United States Navy and successful fight against France.

The second president proves that social awkwardness and unchained, stubborn, untactful brilliance can succeed somewhere besides social media.  Then again, in our time, Adams may never have been able to break free of Facebook argument.

By the way, Adams owes David McCullough big time.

Andrew Jackson

Jackson needs more attention.  It is tempting to judge him directly on a single action, the Cherokee removal.  Here, Jackson violated property rights and federal law to assist gold prospectors (basically the kind of crony capitalism that happens regularly in Washington today.)

That being said, Jackson represented a new democracy that in many ways diametrically opposed his removal of the Cherokees from their home.  He stood for property rights, individual freedom, limited government, and workable state sovereignty.  For the first time, the West had a voice in government through the figure of the backwoods warlord. William Henry Harrison, James Polk and Lincoln would follow after.

Jackson's impact on the Democratic Party lasted longer.  Mistrust of big business and big government alike permeated the Southern backwoods.  Belief that the Democratic Party represented these values only died in the last generation.

James K. Polk

Polk was neo-con when neo-con wasn't cool.  This surprisingly Mel Gibson looking president represented the Democratic Party's return to running backwoodsmen who could pass as commoners (after the one term of New York businessman Martin van Buren.)  Polk stood for election on annexing Texas and Oregon.  As it turns out, most of the nation agreed.  As did Texas and the region of Oregon Territory ultimately added to the Union.

Polk gets blamed for the Mexican War.  Historians cite both Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee as sources blaming land greed for a war they deemed wrong.  Grant and Lee were also both in the Whig Party, which could give some context to their opposition.

Fact is that Polk may have wanted a war with Mexico.  But he did not want war worse than the Mexicans themselves.  Mexico picked fights repeatedly during the mid 1800s and lost all of them, including (I kid you not) the Pastry War with France.  The Mexicans refused Polk's offer to pay for Texas annexation, which was completely unnecessary under international law.  They declared war.  If Polk had set a trap, Mexico walked into it.

Polk's handling of the Mexican War should have blown up in his face.  He removed Zachary Taylor from command out of fears that the general would grow too popular and become president, a correct prediction.  But Mexico, under the leadership of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, lacked the organization and the economic strength behind the American forces.

Polk promised to serve one term.  He kept his promise.  That alone is worth remembering.

No Lincoln here

The most written about man in human history, which would have surprised him.  No need to write more.

Ulysses S. Grant

This is how America should remember Grant.  Grant's most well-known Civil War era picture shows the 21st century what swagger truly is.  Against his enemies both in the Confederacy and in the Union Army itself, Grant applied slow, steady, relentless pressure.  He used Northern economic and population superiority to wear down the South, while relying on Lincoln's support against military command rivals.

But America remembers the image that goes along with fifty dollar bill Grant.  Rounder face, protruding stomach tightening his suit.  History associates this Grant with his poor choices of friends and officeholders, many of whom betrayed him and the public trust.

Grant, however, earned his enemies while president by doing the right things as well.  He aggressively used the power of the new Department of Justice and the military to stamp out Ku Klux Klan terrorism.  Grant worked to treat Indians as humanely and respectfully as possible, blaming much of the friction on settler troublemakers.  These grew unpopular as Reconstruction lasted 12 years longer than the Civil War itself and as political officeholders found themselves booted from Indian Affairs jobs.

He also lost support during one of the worst depressions in American history.  Grant and the Republican Congress strengthened the dollar and did little else.  The economy bounced back in four years, as opposed to much longer stretches under Franklin Roosevelt and Barack Obama.  All of these unpopular moves required courage in the face of certain declines in popularity.

Grant was a great general.  He was also one of the great autobiographers in history.  But his virtues as a military man and a writer failed to serve him as a president or a businessman.

Rutherford B. Hayes

At the time of his nomination in 1876, Hayes had earned the description of "the good gray governor."  This came from a lifetime of being quietly competent and just.

Hayes' Civil War service started in the backwoods of western Virginia.  He was among the first to encounter the rise of guerrilla fighting as he marched his columns through narrow valleys.  Despite the frustrations, Hayes rarely let the situation get the better of him.  He upbraided a subordinate for the punitive burning of a courthouse.  Toward the end of the war, Hayes escaped the raid that captured two other Union generals.  He, Washingtonlike, shared the discomforts of his men by camping with them in frigid February 1865.  the other two stayed in a lavish hotel with few guards.

Reconstruction ended in 1877 as part of the deal bringing Hayes to office.  The razor thin margins threatened to unleash another Civil War.  Neither side particularly supported the quid pro quo and its contribution to the long term establishment of Jim Crow is undeniable.

So why is Hayes "interesting?"  Because he and his wife "Lemonade Lucy" (named so because she did not allow alcohol in the White House) may be the most boring of First Families.  Hayes lived quietly, administered the government, did not seek attention, and stepped aside after one term.  Like his military career, his presidency was quiet, effective, competent, and forgettable due to its success.  No one ever writes about cruise ship captains who never wreck.  And few are interested in a president so lacking in the dazzling show that the office has become.

And that is precisely why he is worth remembering.

William McKinley

Last of the Civil War officer presidents.  McKinley, like Garfield, Harrison, and Hayes all served in the West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky theater of war.

McKinley ushered in a generation of Republican Party dominance and straddled eras.  He was the last front porch campaigner who sat at home in the traditional way and let subordinates do all the work.  But his campaign started the use of mailed campaign literature.  Historians lump him with the 19th century presidents, but his annexation of the Philippines marked the United States' entry into international affairs.

McKinley fails to make the grade of "great presidents" in most academic lists.  He, however, won a war against Spain that he personally tried to head off.  Under McKinley the national economy boomed (albeit under anti-free market and probably unnecessary protective tariffs.)

It's hard to argue with success.

History's problem with McKinley is that he served right before Theodore Roosevelt, who was never supposed to be president.  Had McKiney not died by an assassin's bullet, he likely would have been succeeded by another honest competent senator, West Virginia's Stephen Elkins who was seen as the next Republican option.  McKinley was, however, assassinated by a terrorist and the polymath Roosevelt took office.

William Howard Taft

Taft, like Adams, has earned a spot in the hearts of historians (if not their rankings) because of his humanness next to a blue star of a predecessor.

He did not want to go to law school in the first place.  His father, however, insisted that law school provided more of a future than catching for the Cincinnati Reds.

Taft worked well when working with someone else.  Under Theodore Roosevelt, he solved problems across the globe, most notably in the Philippines where his conciliatory policies quelled a revolt.

He never wanted to be president.  Mrs. Taft, however, had enough ambition for both of them.  Jealous of the spotlight on her husband's friend Teddy, she allied with the president to badger Taft into a job he didn't want.

Roosevelt expected his friend to remain his cipher, following his policies to the letter.  The lawyer Taft, however, made decisions based on rule of law, as opposed to the Roosevelt way of favoring friends and skewering enemies.  This made an enemy out of Roosevelt who skewered Taft in the election of 1912, bringing an ignominious end to the political careers of both.

Taft got the last laugh, ending up with the job he coveted more than any other.  Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, making him one of the most accomplished men in US history that few remember outside of a certain bathtub incident.

Calvin Coolidge

Less talk.  Only acted when necessary.  Country remained at peace.  National economy boomed.

And he wore a dazzling array of cool hats.

Gettysburg, Vicksburg, and Other Thoughts

A century and a half ago, the bloodiest battle on American soil erupted.  Over the course of three days, more American soldiers died than in ten years of fighting the Vietnam War.  Lessons and meanings from this battle both shaped the next century of warfare and were also ignored.  Following are a few in no certain order of importance:

Gettysburg set the tone for many 20th Century battles  Every officer educated in warfare in the first half of the 1800s learned Napoleonic ideas of the war of movement.  Robert E. Lee generally followed those precepts.  Military thinkers going back to classical Europe and ancient China warned against attacking a superior enemy on his own ground.  Lee, understanding the accelerating degeneration of the Confederate home front, sought to attack a stronger enemy well entrenched on the high ground.  Had Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson had lived and been there, he certainly would have counseled Lee to wait until a portion of George Meade's Union force became isolated, then throw the whole weight of his army on it, annihilate it, then move on quickly.

Instead, Lee on the final day attacked the center of the Union line across open ground.  Confederate troops marched in formation against artillery and infantry positioned behind a stone wall.  Lee lost the core of his army that day.

World War I is full of "Gettysburg" type battles.  Troops bashing themselves against unmovable obstacles of enemy formations for four years.  Amazingly, few in Europe learned about modern warfare from this.  The dash of the Prussian Army against France's unprepared forces in 1871 seduced Europe. 

Gettysburg may have prevented a Northern revolution We remember the sanguinary days early in July 1863 in Pennsylvania, but forget the horrific events in New York City at about the same time.  New York had suffered economically from the elimination of Southern trade.  Almost as much as Baltimore, New York City sympathized with the Rebellion.  Economic problems combined with the grind of a seemingly (at that point) unwinnable war, the draft, and a substantial black population created a catalyst for social explosion. 

These were some of New York City's darkest days.  Rioters attacked draft offices, then turned their attention to the black population.  Victims hung from street lamps.  Not even an orphanage for black children was spared.  Republican editors handed out guns to defend their lives and newspaper property.  Overwhelmed, the New York City police had to be reinforced by regiments from nearby Gettysburg.  If those units had been much farther away, the riot could have bloomed into something much worse.

Don't forget the other battle that officially ended the same day July 4th marked the last day of Gettysburg.  George Meade won the field; Lee stumbled away dazed.  In Mississippi, Ulysses S. Grant won a victory no less significant.  The Siege of Vicksburg had actually ended a few days prior, but Grant insisted that the Confederates officially surrender on July 4th.  From then, Union forces dominated the length of the Mississippi River.

Grant's victories meant that Lincoln could follow his instinct and move the fighting general into command, despite the many naysayers.  Meade's inability to crush Lee's army after Gettysburg also made this decision an easy one.

Intelligence  For the first time in American history, an official and permanent military intelligence bureau played a key role in a battle.  Stonewall Jackson had been a pioneer in his insistence upon accurate maps, but these came from local help.  Meade had the services of the Bureau of Military Intelligence.  They employed spies, mapmakers, and analysts to track and predict the movement of Lee.  Lee relied on traditional intelligence gathering, the cavalry.  Unfortunately, Lee's cavalry was gallivanting across the rich countryside. 

No one would ever give Meade credit for being a superior general to Lee.  But his information gave his teh advantage over Lee's relative blindness.

Military thought  Lee, McClellan, and other generals on both sides thought in Napoleonic ways.  Points on a map represented strategic objectives.  Capture an important city and win the war.  Why anyone thought the capture of Richmond in 1862 (when Union forces approached within ten miles of it) would halt the war remains unclear.  Frederick the Great never quit when Russians seized Berlin.  George Washington gave up New York and Philadelphia.  So long as his army remained intact, he fought. 

Lincoln came to understand that the strategic objectives of the Union Army had to be the military might and resources of the Confederacy itself.  William Tecumseh Sherman attacked the farmland and infrastructure of Georgia.  Phil Sheridan systematically annihilated the Shenandoah Valley's farmland.  Grant only pushed against Richmond because Lee's Army of Northern Virginia insisted on defending it.

World War II saw a similar dynamic in three dimensions.  Strategic bombing aimed to eliminate industrial resources and infrastructure.  Hitler's armies and Japan's navy needed to disappear before the Allies could move against their respective homelands. 

In the 1940s the Allies attacked the enemy population themselves.  Royal Air Force bombers launched attacks against German neighborhoods.  The Red Army pillaged, massacred, and raped German civilians in Prussia (to be fair, Germans acted the same while in Russia.)  Just like when Sherman fired civilian homes in Georgia, this did little to eliminate the will to fight.  It merely inflamed the hatred. 

Just a few thoughts as we pause to remember Gettysburg, Vicksburg, and their meanings in war.