Lenora Rogers's Blog, page 29
July 17, 2017
Ancient Wonders: The Great Wall of China
Three years ago, I visited Beijing and by far the best thing I did there was visit the Great Wall of China. The scale of the Wall and the amount of time it has lasted, as well as the huge number of visitors it attracts every year are all reasons that I decided this should be the next place in my Ancient Wonders series.
Contrary to popular belief, the Great Wall was not built all in one go, and was not built solely to repel invaders. The earliest parts of the wall were star...
Honor Frost
We have all heard stories of the lost city of Atlantis, or have marvelled at the possibility of exploring the sunken Titanic, but not many of us have heard of the name ‘Honor Frost’. Frost is responsible for helping the possibility of such adventures being realised (well, perhaps not the exploration of Atlantis) as a pioneer of deep-sea archaeology.
View original post 492 more words
Ulysses S. Grant: The Appomattox Parole Perks
April 9, 1865 was arguably among the most important days in U.S. history.
U.S. Grant: The Surrender
General Lee surrenders to General Grant. It was over in an hour.
The Civil War had dragged on for four long years, and the casualty count was in the hundreds of thousands and would go higher. It had lasted far longer than anyone ever expected with casualties far more than anyone ever imagined.
Soldiers and civilians, North and South, were exhausted, but Union soldie...
July 14, 2017
Churchyard Calvary Cross, Great Mitton, Lancashire
Medieval Calvary cross at Great Mitton, Lancs.
OS Grid Reference: SD 71555 38958. In the churchyard of All Hallows parish church at Great Mitton in the Ribble Valley, Lancashire, stands a late Medieval round-headed calvary cross which is beautifully carved with scenes from the crucifixion of Christ. The long tapering shaft and base of this Grade II listed monument are, however, more recent in date, but the sculptured cross-head is ‘still’ a very wonderful sigh...
“The Little Regiment”: Stephen Crane’s Little-Known Story of the Battle of Fredericksburg, pt. 1
from: Harrison
The secondary anniversaries of a battle —the anniversaries of its portrayals and interpretations as well as of its delayed impacts upon people—follow its principal anniversary. This summer finds us in the aftermath of not only the 154th anniversary of the December 1862 battle of Fredericksburg but also the 120th anniversary of the publication in 1896 of “The Little Regiment,” Stephen Crane’s short story inspired by that battle. The story garnered wide c...
July 12, 2017
When friends became foes…
I’m glad to say that I finally managed to let go of my latest Liam Mannion novel, Patriots’ Blood (book four in the series). Both the book and I have had a few ups and downs along the way since I started writing it, but that’s another story. Here are the blurb and the opening few pages to give you a taster of what’s to come…
It’s 1922 and Liam Mannion is in despair as Ireland tears itself apart in a bloody civil war. Friends and families split over the te...The Tragic Tale of the Death of Ann Hoon, 1796
When aged just twenty-one years of age, Ann Rollstone was married to Thomas Hoon, a labourer, at the parish church in Longford, Derbyshire, about six miles from the town of Ashbourne. Just nine months later the couple produced their first child, a beautiful baby girl whom they named, Elizabeth.
Longford Church. © sarumsleuth via Flickr
Tragically though their joy at this birth was to be short-lived as the child died the following April. Despite this loss and unknown to...
Knights Templar: Sibford Gower
Map of Sibford Area
In ancient times, a track linked south-west Britain to the region of Lincoln and York, avoiding swamps and forests, along the ridge of high ground, to the Cotswolds. Four miles to the south of Sibford, near Hook Norton, it divides into two branch lines. One heads north-east, passing to the south of Sibford parishes, crossing Cherwell, near Banbury. The other headed northwards, over Oatley Hill, through Traitor’s Ford, along the Oxfordshire – Warwicks...
July 11, 2017
Benjamin Franklin: The Hell-Fire Club
The Hell Fire Club
Benjamin Franklin, remembered as one of the greatest of the Founding Father’s of the United States, having signed all original founding documents: (Declaration of Independence – Treaty of Paris – U.S. Constitution).
Benjamin Franklin played a major role in America’s development:
Unifying the colonists in their rebellion against England. Philosophy concerning the rights of mankind. Facilitating the American Revolution.Benjamin Franklin, member...
July 10, 2017
George Washington and the Miracle at Newburgh
There are several versions of this story, but the essence is always the same.
The Yorktown Surrender
Most people think the American Revolution ended in 1781 when Cornwallis surrendered his Redcoat army to Washington in Yorktown. That is not exactly true.
George Washington accepting Lord Cornwallis’ sword. An symbolic-historic painting. Photography was decades in the future.
In October, 1781, after nearly seven years of fighting a motley bunch of American militiame...
