Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I like my history to be entertaining, and nothing cranks up the drama like the fall of a leader. There are of course many who qualify with spectacular, especially gruesome, or truly tragic demises. Caesar's end fits the first two of those descriptives, the last would be a matter of judgment.
Kings have gone down in battle, Richard at Bosworth, Harold at Hastings, Leonidus at Thermopylae, but my three favorite stories are about generals.
# 1 is Leonidas "Bishop" Polk, Major General in the Army of Tennesse, known as Bishop Polk because he was indeed a Bishop in the Episcopalian church before the war. In 1864, when Johnston's army was falling back against the advance of Sherman, a defensive position was thrown up near Marieta, GA, which incorporated Pine Mountain. Sherman entrenched before the Confederate line and Johnston decided to climb an otherwise unoccupied forward height to get a firsthand look. He took Generals Hardee and Polk along with him.
At the same time, Sherman was riding and inspecting his lines. When he came before the hill being used by Johnston and the others, he spotted the figures at the top, watching his army without a care. He of course did not know the identities of the officers on the hill, but he was annoyed that they were carrying out their mission unmolested. He sent word for one of his batteries to open fire and chase those "sausy" rebels off the hill.
The Union artillery opened up. The first round of shots were close enough to send Johnston and Hardee running to get off the hill, but Polk apparently found that undignified. To show his contempt for the enemy, he clasped his hands behind his back and strolled at a unconcerned pace in the direction taken by the others. This meant he was still in range when the second round was fired, one shell from which passed completely through Polk's side and exited the other, nearly cutting him in two. But they couldn't stampede him.
The next was also during the Civil War and involves a Yankee general, John Sedgwick. During the battle of Spotsylvania, Segwick ordered a lateral movement to the right for one segment of his command. As the soldiers rose from their cover, sporadic sniper fire came from the rebel lines, though they were shooting from extreme range. Sedgwick saw that some of his men began to duck and he chided them for their fears, concluding his pep talk with "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance." Immediately after saying this, he was struck by a ball under his left eye and he died within a few minutes.
The last was far earlier, Hasdrubal Barca, the brother of Hannibal of Carthage and a general in his army. Hannibal was operating in southern Italy and Hasdrubal had an independent command for northern Italian campaigns. While marching to rejoin his command with Hannibal's, Hasdrubal's army was met and defeated by a Roman force at the River Metaurus, Hasdrubal being killed in the fighting.
Now it wasn't the manner of his death that get's Hasdrubal on this list, but rather the manner in which Hannibal was notified of the loss. The Romans apparently were sensitive to family matters and felt that they should be the ones to deliver the bad news. To that end they cut off Hasdrubal's head, stuffed it into a sack and fired it across the lines into Hannibal's camp with a catapult.
Too bad he wasn't a king or general, otherwise the all time champion historical death would of course be Rasputin's.
If we're voting, then I cast my ballot for Harold at Hastings. As it is, the whole battle was nip-and-tuck. Had Harold not been killed, there's a decent chance that the English might have rallied and turned back the Normans. What a difference that would've made to history!
Honorable mention to Benito Mussolini, although he was not actually in power at the time of his death. Captured, shot, and then hanged after death by his own people.
Here's my pick:
The death of Richard Coeur de Lion (Richard the Lion Heart)
After a short siege of a castle in Limoges he and a friend were walking around the castle.
All of a sudden he was hit in the neck with an arrow. The youth who fired it was brought to him and Richard asked why the boy wished to harm him. The boy told him that he,Richard, had killed his father and brother and that he was not sorry..the King could do with him as he pleased.
Richard's response was:"I forgive you my death and will extract no revenge. By my bounty behold the light of day."
The boy's chains were removed and Richard gave him some coins.
That night Richard died of his wound and the boy was flayed alive!!
Richard's body was buried at Anjou, his breain buried at Poitou and his heart at Rouen.
Bishop of Rochester declared that he spent 33 years in purgatory to atone for his sins.
Bishop of Rochester declared that he spent 33 years in purgatory to atone for his sins.
Really? He was able to determine the exact length of an after life sentence? Could that Bishop also tell us the precise temperature of the hellfires which were burning all the blaspheming Jews? Was there some formula for calculating such things?
Really? He was able to determine the exact length of an after life sentence? Could that Bishop also tell us the precise temperature of the hellfires which were burning all the blaspheming Jews? Was there some formula for calculating such things?
Yes there is such a formulafor the temperature of Hell:
The Temperature of Hell (http://www.iusb.edu/~physclub/Humor/hell.html - broken link)
And while we're at it.. let's not forget Limbo!!!
In the Indians Wars, there was but one US general who lost his life, and that was under fairly dramatic circumstances.
In the early 1870's Edward Canby had been dispatched to Oregon to cope with hostile Modoc Indians who had rebelled under the leadership of tribal leader known as Captain Jack. Their beef was that they were being forced to share a reservation with their long time traditional enemies, the Klamath Indian tribe. Jack was a resourceful fellow and he created a stronghold in an area covered by lava beds, a natural defensive position. After a 350 man strong force was defeated by Captain Jack, General Canby decided to try and negotiate a peace. Jack agreed to the talks and in April of 1873, met with Canby for a parley at a point halfway between his stronghold and the US army position. None were supposed to bring weapons, but two of Canby's aids did conceal pistols...and all of Jack's entourage were also clandestinely armed.
Apparently the negotiations did not go too terribily well. Whether planned all along, or reactive to something he heard and disliked, Jack suddenly pulled out his pistol and shot Canby twice in the head, followed by his cutting Canby's throat. Several other negotiators and soldiers were killed. Jack and his party escaped.
This action of course brought the national wrath down upon Jack and within a few months, a much larger force assaulted the lavabed stronghold and this time captured Jack and his band. He was hanged along with several of his followers in October of 1873.
Custer of course was also killed in the Plains Indians Wars, but he was not a general at the time. He had been breveted to that rank during the Civil War, but reduced to Colonel in peacetime. Canby was the only general to to be killed fighting Indians.
An amazing number of civil war generals fell in battle. Testement to the honor and bravery of the officers and, more importantly, the method of combat at the time - standing in line facing similiar line of soldiers a hundred yards away armed with accurate 50 caliber rifled barreled long arms, the officers mounted in front on horses of all things.
One thing I can remember reading about Polk's death was the non-chalant attitide that Sherman wrote about it in his reports" "Killed Polk today, making good progress..."
Other memorable death's were Stonewall Jackson, shot by his own men while actually past the front lines doing recon...and A.S. Johnston at Shiloh. Johnston was arguably the highest ranking officer in the CSA at the time. What the heck was he doing at the front lines? Picture Eishonhower on the beach on D-day. I visited the place he fell, you can literally throw a rock to where the union line was. Altough even with this death he may have been shot by his own troops by accident.
Johnston was arguably the highest ranking officer in the CSA at the time. What the heck was he doing at the front lines? .
Johnston's battle plan called for the troops to attack straight in, and then sweep to the NE, shoving Grant's army back upon the Tennessee River and trapping him there. As the battle unfolded, the CSA had success against the Union right, driving those troops back, but the attack stalled in the middle ground around the Peach Orchard. The rebel left was far outracing the rebel right and center as a consequence and Johnston deemed it necessary to go to the front and restore the NE echelon movement by getting the troops on the right and center underway again.
Johnston had a personal physcian who was supposed to follow him around and be prepared to render instant aid if he was hurt, but Johnston had dispatched him to care for wounded soldiers. Johnston died because he bled out from a wound in his leg, a process that could have been easily stopped had his doctor been on hand at the time Johnston was shot. As it developed, the non medical personnel looking after Johnston took too long to discover the location and nature of the wound.
Yeah, the peach orchird and the sunken road. It's a rhetorical question on why Johnston was there.
Shiloh is just an amazing battlefield to visit. It's all still there, it hasn't changed much at all. The bloody pond, the sunken road, the burial pits, the bluffs along the river where the union soldiers fled and hid in, they are replanting peach trees in the orchird. You go there, you can picture everything, you understand the battlefield. The sunken road is very clear to understand. It's 100 yards before an open rise running before it, greycoats coming over that ridge would receive point blank fire. The orchird was the left flank of that union line. They have the actual spot where Johnston was shot marked.
I don't know how dramatic this is, but King John--the English king who was so despised that no other monarch in that country ever adopted the name--is supposed to have died after overindulging in some bad apples.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
