The Berlin Wall by the Brandenburger Tor.

Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you’ve probably noticed by now that today marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was on this day, November 9th, in 1989 that the Wall was breached and East Germans finally allowed into West Germany.

This was the result of a long, complicated process by which the Soviet Union and other communist states in Eastern Europe slowly collapsed throughout the 1980s. Originally, the East German government only wanted to reform — like its Soviet counterparts — by offering its citizens more freedom. Part of this freedom was the ability to move between the two Germanys. Once the Wall was breached, however, the reunification of Germany became possible and even became a part of official policy. After almost a year of negotiations, Germany officially became one country again on October 3, 1990.

One of the more interesting aspects of it in my opinion is that the photograph required an eight hour exposure during daylight which means if you look closely, you can see that the buildings are illuminated from both the east and the west sides. I also find it quite fascinating that this photograph was taken almost 200 years ago and is, in some respects, a quick and simple glance into that time period.

Here is the photo:

View from the Window at Le Gras - The first permanent photograph taken by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826.

Marker at Battle of the Washita

The Battle of the Washita was a battle that took place in the morning of November 27, 1868. The Seventh Division of the US Calvary under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer surrounded a Cheyenne village in the night and at the first sign of day light, attacked the village. Men, women and children were killed in the chaos, however, most of the women and children were taken prisoner to later be used as a bargaining chip to try to convince the Cheyenne to settle their reservations.

Despite losing some of their own officers and other prominent men in the Seventh Division, Custer and his command were successful. In the immediate aftermath of the battle, they had control of the village, they had taken most of the village’s women and children prisoner and they had control of the village livestock — most of which were killed to prevent them from falling into the hands of the enemy again.

The Battle of the Washita

The Battle of the Washita was the first battle of a winter campaign designed by General Sheridan to bring the Cheyenne, Kiowa and Arapaho tribes into their reservations with the intention of stopping the raids performed by these tribes on settlers and frontier towns. Winter was chosen as the time of year because the tribes were at their weakest due to poor grazing for their war ponies who spent most of the winter barely surviving. They also did not expect a military campaign to be directed against them in the heart of winter.

By the end of the winter campaign in the spring of 1869, Custer and his command had successfully convinced the majority of the Kiowa, Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes to settle their reservations in the interest of peace.

German WWI soldier, Dieter Finzen

I’ve been contacted by the person running the online journal of Dieter Finzen and asked if I would be willing to do translations for the site. The idea behind the site is to post journal entries made by the German World War I solider, Dieter Finzen. Each entry is posted 93 years after it was originally written. The entries were originally written in German of course, but I will be translating them into English. The English translations will be posted at the same time as the original German versions. There will also be French translations for those of you who prefer French.

I find the journal very interesting because it provides a good insight into the life of a German soldier during the First World War. As Americans, we hear about the American, British and French sides of the war, but we rarely get an opportunity to see it from the German perspective. This website gives us a unique view of what life was like for the German solider during this war.

You can find the blog here: http://dieter-finzen.blogspot.com.

I know this post is a bit short, but unfortunately I don’t have a whole lot of time to write more at the moment. Future posts will be longer and more informative.

I’ve been looking into some different graduate schools around the US. A couple of my favorites so far have been the University of Missouri and Missouri State University. One reason those two have stood out is because the history faculty has research areas which pertain to my interests. Another reason is that Missouri is bursting with interesting 19th century history. Missouri has a lot of unique history in that time period from having been a border state during the Civil War and being the point from which settlers in the West would “jump off.”

Although I like the two universities in Missouri, I would like to know which universities any of my readers might recommend for 19th century US history. Any suggestions?

George Armstrong Custer

It is really quite amazing to read through some of the theories produced during the 19th century about the origin of the Native Americans. As I talked about in my last post, I am currently reading the memoirs of George Custer about his life on the plains and his personal experiences with the Indians.

The second chapter in the book Custer uses to paint a picture of some of the various theories of his time on the origins of the Native Americans. He briefly mentions the most widely accepted theory today: they were migratory groups that followed the game into North America from eastern Asia over a land bridge between modern day Russia and Alaska. A couple of other theories he briefly mentions is that they came directly from Africa and that they are simply autochthonous.

Although he briefly mentions these, he spends most of the chapter discussing and giving proofs for a theory in which the Indians are directly descended from the Hebrews. He argues that scientists during his time period had gathered enough behavioral evidence from the Indians to prove that this theory is the most probable. One such proof was that a scientist studying the origins of the Native Americans “once heard an Indian apply the following expression to a culprit: ‘Tschi kaksit canaba‘ — ‘Thou art like unto a Canaanite sinner.’”¹

I find this theory to be quite ridiculous. All of the evidence Custer provides is merely circumstantial and behavioral. I have no way of proving whether or not the translation of the above quote in the Indian language is accurate or not, but I am very skeptical. One hundred and thirty years from now they may be laughing at our theories as well, but I think they are based on much more solid ground that those of one hundred and thirty years ago.

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1. George Armstrong Custer, My Life on the Plains: Personal Experiences with the Indians (New York: Barnes & Noble, Inc, 2009), 19.

My Life on the Plains by George A. Custer

Now that I’ve treated myself to some good ol’ ghost stories, it’s time to get back to business. This time I’ve chosen to read My Life on the Plains: Personal Experiences with Indians by George Armstrong Custer of Little Bighorn fame. As of now, I’ve read the introduction which give a little bit of background information about Custer and about his memoirs.

Ghost Stories of the Old West edited by Dan Asfar

So I decided to take a break from reading non-fiction and treat myself to a book full of short ghost stories of the old west. The book I found is appropriately titled Ghost Stories of the Old West and is by Dan Asfar. I really haven’t gotten very far into it at all; only a few pages, but so far I am really enjoying it. If you’re up for some ghost stories with a Western theme, then you might want to give this book a try.