Daniel Grimes

The fighting in the war turned out to be not only on the front lines, but also at a giant prisoner of war camp, Koje-do.

This would turn out to be another battle far from the front lines. And it would be a major issue for the United Nations.

Details of the above will all be in one of my new books.

The ill-fated "Ten-Cent Beer Night" promotion at a baseball game between the Cleveland Indians and the Texas Rangers in Cleveland on June 4, 1974, led to the biggest riot at a sporting event in North America.  On the Rangers team were pitcher and future Hall of Famer Ferguson Jenkins and future Cleveland Indians manager Mike Hargrove.

1974 was also a season of many other memorable events.  These included Hank Aaron breaking Babe Ruth's all-time home run record and Ron LeFlore, an ex convict, making his major league debut with the Detroit Tigers. Tommy John surgery, which is credited with saving the careers of many pitchers, was performed for the first time that year.

For more details, you can purchase my ebook "Ten-Cent Beer Night and the 1974 Baseball Season" on the store page.

On April 14, I successfully completed the Garden Spot Village Half Marathon in New Holland, PA. Over seven months of rigorous training, including many 5k's and 5-Mile Runs have made me a seasoned long-distance runner. More half-marathons will likely follow sometime in the future.

On January 10, 1776, Thomas Paine’s famous pamphlet, Common Sense, was published.  It was highly critical of the system of monarchy and argued for American independence from England. This 48-page pamphlet was read all over America and even in England and France.  More copies were sold than any other book in America up until that time.  George Washington ordered it be read to his troops that were encamped in Massachusetts.

When Paine wrote Common Sense, he used language the common people in America could easily understand.  This was in contrast to many other authors of that time, who used language more oriented to those in the upper class.  Even many illiterate people in America heard the words of Common Sense, which energized almost all of the patriots.  A Loyalist pamphlet entitled Plain Truth, an attempt at a persuasive rebuttal of Paine’s pamphlet, was largely a failure.  However, the Loyalists did have British military victories to rally people to their side for a while.

On July 12, 1979, “Disco Demolition Night,” an infamous promotion at a baseball game on the South Side of Chicago, took place.  Fans who brought a disco record to be destroyed received a game ticket for less than a dollar.  In between the doubleheader of the Chicago White Sox vs. Detroit Tigers, fans stormed the field, and all kinds of mayhem ensued.  The second game of the doubleheader was forfeited to the Tigers–the last forfeit to occur in the American League. This riot was the biggest one by fans at a baseball game since Ten-Cent Beer Night in Cleveland five years earlier.  Coincidentally, a couple of players and an umpire who were at Ten-Cent Beer Night were also present at Disco Demolition Night.

Two hundred forty years ago on December 16, the Sons of Liberty, some disguised as Indians, dumped chests of British tea into the Boston Harbor protesting the tax on tea.  The Boston Tea Party was actually the first of two such events in Boston and the first of many that would take place throughout the eastern seaboard of America.

In response, the British ordered the port of Boston closed to all commerce, except for supplies for the British.  This action was the first of the Intolerable Acts—a series of new laws the British passed aimed at punishing the colony of Massachusetts for its resistance to British policies.

Many Americans considered England’s reaction heavy-handed.  The Intolerable Acts backfired as Americans from all over the colonies sent emergency supplies to Boston.  The First Continental Congress was held in Philadelphia the following fall at which American delegates called on the King of England to rescind the Intolerable Acts.

However, a sizable minority of Americans, known as Loyalists or Tories, vowed to remain loyal to England.  The Boston Tea Party led to greater hostility and violence toward all Loyalists and further divided the colonists.

I mentioned “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” in the epilogue of my book The Hessians and the American Revolution: The Whole Story.  In the original version, written by Washington Irving in 1820, the Headless Horseman was said to be the ghost of a Hessian decapitated by a cannonball in a fictional battle of the American Revolution.

In the new television series Sleepy Hollow, however, the Headless Horseman is not a Hessian but a British redcoat.  Instead of losing his head to a cannonball, he is decapitated by Ichabod Crane.  Furthermore, the Headless Horseman is depicted as one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

The German Hessians who fought with the British against the Americans in the Revolutionary War are generally less well-known today than when Irving wrote his story.  The writers of the television series probably thought that many people today would not understand who the Hessians were.  Instead the network opted for a major overhaul of the original story, appealing to popular interest in science fiction and a broad “saving the world from evil” approach.

After the American defeat at the Battle of Brandywine, George Washington made a bold attack on the British army led by General William Howe. The result was a British victory. Nevertheless, American morale benefited from the battle because it was based on a sophisticated plan that almost worked. In addition, France became convinced that America could win the war and deserved aid. The Battle of Germantown can be considered one of the turning points in the American Revolution.

August 1776 was a pivotal month in the American Revolution. England first received word of the Declaration of Independence. With the largest army the British had ever sent to North America, King George III was pulling out all the stops to crush the rebellion. On August 27, the British and Hessians soundly defeated George Washington and the Continental Army at the Battle of Long Island. The New York Campaign of 1776, a decisive victory for the British, was made possible by the participation of large numbers of Hessian troops.  American morale, which had been so high due to previous military victories and the announcement of the Declaration of Independence, plummeted. The British success in New York convinced the large numbers of Loyalists in New York, as well as elsewhere in America, to take a more active role in supporting the British.  George Washington and the Americans would face the dual challenge of surviving the onslaught of the formidable British and Hessian troops and the tidal wave of Loyalist support that was engulfing many areas. 

For more detail about these significant events, you may want to read my books, The Long Road to Revolution and The Hessians in the American Revolution.

The bloody battle of Bunker Hill was fought on June 17, 1775 near Boston.  After the British defeat at Concord two months earlier, the British were determined to use overwhelming force to crush the American rebellion.  However, the American forces were able to place the British troops in Boston under siege.  Although Bunker Hill was ultimately a British victory, the British lost more men than the Americans.  In fact, the British army suffered heavier losses at Bunker Hill than in any other day during the American Revolution.  These appalling losses caused the British commander, General Thomas Gage, to be relieved of his command.  For England to ultimately prevail in this conflict, Gage argued that British officials should mobilize an enormous army, which would include a significant number of foreign soldiers.  The following year, the German Hessians would be shipped to America, along with the largest British army ever sent overseas at that time.