4. Secret Military History

I am sick and tired of repeating myself.
History.

1779-0725, War, the Worst US Naval Defeat Until Pearl Harbor.
Without telling his superiors, US Navy, Commodore Dudley Saltonstall recruits a Naval Armada consisting of 19-warships, 25-transport ships, 1-thousand-militia-Infantrymen, 4-thousand-men-total.
He wants to fight the British. His plan: Capture a 750-man British Garrison.
His expedition attacked the British on land with the infantry.
The British had time to call for help and reinforce.
7-British warships arrive. Saltonstall panics.
To the surprise of everybody and the laughter of the British, he orders his 44-ship armada to beach and then set them on fire.
470-Americans KIA, 13-British KIA, 44-American Ships lost.
Saltonstall was court martialed and dismissed from the Navy. This was the worst US Navy defeat until Pearl Harbor 160-years later.

Report, UCMJ, 1781-0801, The First Major US Military Scandal.
1781-0801, a convoy of four wagons, 20 horses & 20-men led by COL John Wade are camped for two-nights on Longstreet, near the present day Fort Bragg, NC. COL Wade is moving his household goods (HHG) from SC to NC. His 20-man detail is made up of 10-civilian movers & 10-Cavalry guards. He also had a 12-year old homeless boy along; he calls the boy his “protégé.”
2000H, One of the members of COL Wades party sneaks over to a nearby farmhouse & steals a piece of cloth from a clothesline.
1781-0802, Local farmers learn of the theft & rightly so, blame the four-wagon caravan led by COL Wade camped nearby.
1500H, Eight farmers from Longstreet travel to a British bivouac area 10-miles away & ask for help getting the piece of cloth back, the British agree & gather 200-Infantry Soldiers. A 9th farmer visits the US camp & completes a reconnaissance.
1781-0803, 0430H, 200-British Soldiers attack the 22 sleeping Americans, killing six. The Brits also killed the homeless boy with a powerful blow to the head with a Cavalry saber; the blow split the boy’s head in half. They find the piece of cloth. The British Soldiers loot COL Wade’s HHG wagons & kill the horses. The British Soldiers politely returned the cloth to the farmer’s wife.
1781-0805, 1800H, COL Wade survives the attack & gathers 100-US Cavalry troopers to ride back & avenge the massacre. He also brings along four empty wagons to retrieve his HHG. CPT Bogans, the Cavalry Troop Commander & his troopers plan to avenge the massacre @ Piney Bottom. They were most angry with the boys killing. The Cavalry troop plans on killing farmers on Longstreet who they suspected of being spies for the British.
1781-0806, 0900H, The 100-Cavalry Troopers ride to Longstreet, they capture a farmer. They tie the farmer to a tree & bullwhip him until he gives the names of all nine farmers involved in the pre-dawn attack 3-days ago.
1300H, The Cavalry Troop conducts a house-to-house search on Longstreet; they find six of the nine farmers. CPT Bogans tortures the six prisoners by beating them with swords & screwing their thumbs in gunlocks
2000H, CPT Bogan, drunk & angry orders the 6-prisoners killed. He commands, "death by sword!” since that is what split the boys head. The 100-Cavalry troopers mount their steeds. The six prisoners were brought out & hacked @ with Cavalry sabers by mounted men. The prisoners kept deflecting the blows & running away into the dark. Everybody was drunk even the farmers. The 6-farmers were eventually shot with muskets.
1781-0807, 0900H, The Cavalry Troop ransacks the farmhouses on Longstreet belonging to the nine farmers. The livestock are herded inside the farmhouses & set on fire. No harm comes to women or children. COL Wade sat alone during the kill, pillage & burn phase of this operation, he was seen repeating, “My beautiful boy” while holding his face in his hands. 17810808, 0900H, The Cavalry troopers mount to find the three farmers still living & on the run.
1300H, They find the 7th farmer a few miles away & kill him.
1600H, The hunt continues. The troopers shoot & kill two innocent farmers riding home on a wagon from Fayetteville. Now, with nine farmers dead, the Cavalry Troop considers their mission of revenge complete & head home with the four empty wagons.
1785-0130, Five years later, the now General Wade, has one of the surviving farmers who escaped, charged with murdering the boy. The farmer was acquitted.

1818-0410, Military, Army CPT Tries to Reach the Center of the Earth.
CPT John C. Symmes, Jr., who theorized that the center of the Earth was hollow and filled with productive farms that created cheap vegetables.
He dedicated much of his life to organizing an expedition to look for an entrance for explorers to establish trade relations with the people who lived inside the planet.
Symmes believed that all planets formed in layers with gaps in between. Part of this theory went that Saturn’s rings were a collapsed layer of that planet which had partially broken away, leaving trails of dust.
According to Symmes’ theory, a large open hole near the planet’s poles allowed access to the inner layers of the planet. Strangely, he claimed that the circumference of these holes included areas which had already been explored, such as northern Canada.
In 1818, he solicited for 100 people to join him on an exploration of the Arctic to find the hole to the center of the Earth.
No opening was found.