The Drunkard and the Dancing Master
Even today, when people often change careers, General Edward Ferrero’s resume might seem startling. The son of Italian political refugees, the future general was practically raised on the shining...
View ArticleThe Battle of Brooklyn
At first light, Daniel McCurtin awoke. He checked the weather and then glanced down the Upper Bay toward the open sea. He paused. There had been a change during the night. It was June 19, 1776, and the...
View ArticleHonore Jaxon, Professional Rebel
In December 1951, a ninety-year-old man was evicted from 157 East 34th Street. The building's former live-in janitor and furnace tender, his old age and ill-health had precluded satisfactory...
View ArticleNapoleon’s Older Brother
On August 19, 1815, the Commerce, an American brig of 200 tons, Captain Misservey commanding, raced through the Narrows under full sail after outrunning two British frigates in the lower Bay....
View ArticleTrouble up in Harlem
If warfare were boxing, General Sir William Howe had George Washington on points in early September 1776. Having driven the rebels off Long Island in eight days, Sir William now spent two weeks in...
View ArticleHaughty Bill, Fighting Cock of the Army
Broadway and Fifth Avenue meet between 23rd and 25th Streets, across from Madison Square Park. North of the intersection stands a marble obelisk. On bands around the shaft are names of battles and...
View ArticleThe Glorious November 25th
The fighting ended when Cornwallis surrendered his army to George Washington at Yorktown on October 19, 1781. But the Royal Army held New York for another two years. They had taken the city in the fall...
View ArticleSheridan’s Ride
Greenwich Village’s Sheridan Square is not named for Richard Brinsley Sheridan, who wrote The Rivals. The statue of General Philip Sheridan, for whom the square is named, is around the corner in...
View ArticleI Fights Mit Sigel
Joseph Brodsky, in "Homage to Marcus Aurelius," describes the "etiquette of equestrian statuary: "...when a horse, for instance, rears up under the rider, it means that the latter died in battle. If...
View ArticleRebels on the Green
On the morning of Wednesday, October 19, 1864, the Civil War seemed far away from St. Albans, Vermont. The local newspaper, the Daily Messenger, wrote that Grant was fighting Lee at Petersburg, roughly...
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