Lost Battalion Dispatch #15 for the Week of October 9, 2022

Lost Battalion Dispatch #15 for the Week of October 9, 2022

He left college without completing a degree because of World War I, during which he served with the Navy. After that war, he worked as a journalist. When World War II began, he was too old for military service. Instead, he took a position as Director of Information for the War Production Board. In 1948, he wrote The War Lords of Washington: The Inside Story of Big Business Versus the People in World War II. The book was not a commercial success. It condemns the War Department for inefficiency and political infighting, concluding that the production miracle that was the foundation for America’s victory occurred in spite of government involvement rather than because of it. Pre-dating Eisenhower’s warning about the military-industrial complex by 11 years, Catton advances the idea that in winning World War II the United States also lost its republic.

Despite the commercial failure of his first published work, Catton quit federal employment and became a full-time author. In the early 1950s, he wrote the Army of the Potomac trilogy consisting of Mr. Lincoln’s Army, Glory Road, and A Stillness at Appomattox. The latter, his first commercial success, also won him a Pulitzer Prize for History in 1954. He would go on to write two more Civil War trilogies, one centered on the career of Ulysses S. Grant and another honoring the Centennial of the war, along with several single-volume works. In one of these, 1958’s America Goes to War, he proposes that the Civil War was the first “total war” in which civilian infrastructure was regarded as a legitimate target for military action.

Catton was the founding editor of American Heritage magazine for which he wrote over 100 essays. In one of these, he warned against “regarding the past so fondly we are unable to get it in proper focus.” Pulitzer Prize-winning author David McCullough regarded his time as an editor and writer for the magazine under Catton’s direction as “my graduate school.” Catton continued to write for American Heritage until his death in 1979.

In his 10th of October Manifesto, de Céspedes outlined several aims of the insurrection including enjoying “the benefits of freedom, for whose use, God created man,” “freedom of assembly, freedom of the press and the freedom to bring back honest governance,” and the abolition of slavery. He freed his own slaves and asked them to join him in the fight.

The revolution was centered in the eastern provinces of Cuba where the insurrectionist quickly achieved success, taking eight towns and enlisting 12,000 volunteers. A constitutional assembly was held in April of 1869, creating a House of Representatives for the Republic in Arms, electing de Céspedes as the first president, and naming Manuel de Quesada as Chief of Armed Forces. The colonial government responded by passing laws that allowed insurgent leaders, males 15 and older caught outside the grounds of their plantation, and the occupants of ships carrying supplies to the rebels to be executed without trial. Women caught away from their residences were to be taken to concentration camps and any town not surrendering immediately to colonial forces was to be burned to the ground. Acts related to these laws were mostly performed by a pro-colonial militia known as the Voluntary Corps.

After de Céspedes was surprised and killed by a Spanish patrol on February 27, 1874, the rebels became embroiled in political strife which hampered further operations. In 1876, a quarter of a million Spanish troops, freed up by the end of the Third Carlist War, arrived on the island. Neither side was able to achieve any clear victory, but it was clear that Spanish numbers would prevail in the end so the Pact of Zanjón was signed on February 10, 1876. The pact allowed for a constitution and Cuban government and for reforms to improve the financial situation of residents. It eventually led to the abolition of slavery on the island with former slaves continuing to work for their owners in indentured servitude.

Sixteen-year-old Jose Marti, a student and ardent supporter of the rebellion, had been arrested for treason and sentenced to six years of hard labor early in the war.  When he became ill during his imprisonment, he was exiled to Spain and allowed to continue his education in the hope that studying in the home country would renew his loyalty. Instead, it inspired him to pen revolutionary tracts. After stints in Mexico, Guatemala, and Venezuela, he would return to the island during the final war of revolution against Spain where he would be killed at the Battle of Dos Rios and become a Cuban national hero.

The Ango-Saxon shield wall repelled attacks by Norman infantry and mounted knights and apparently resisted Norman efforts to break it by “feigned flights” on the part of the cavalry during the initial phase of the battle. However, during a second Norman attack in the late afternoon, Harold was killed, and the leaderless English force collapsed. One contemporary account records that Harold was simultaneously wounded by a Norman knight and killed by an arrow in the eye. Modern historians continue to debate the cause of his death. Regardless of how he died, his defeat led to the Norman conquest of England and added yet another layer of complexity to the language we call English today.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

– Martin Luther King, Jr.

In the near future, where the government has stepped up censorship of online and broadcast media content, Jack Richards, a curmudgeon and hack writer, develops a relationship with an unusual woman named Brandy and begins to pen a dystopian novel at her prompting. Brandy wants Jack to “red pill” America about what might happen if current trends go unabated. The mysterious Brandy continually disrupts Jack’s mundane, mildly decadent existence, pushing him out of his well-established comfort zone. His writing reflects this personal struggle. In a book within the book, he tells the story of 22nd Century protagonist, Kelly Wallace who becomes embroiled in a sequence of events that force her to break away from her complacent but relatively untroubled life under the regime of the Central Authority and strike out into the unknown. Jack’s metaphysical journey toward healing his self-inflicted wounds is reflected in Kelly’s physical trek from the dystopian town of New Destiny to the promised utopia of Liberty City. Along the way both find mentors, face emotional challenges, and experience real danger.

Blood of Patriots, book one of the Dystopia Redeemed series, is now available for preorder as an Amazon Kindle e-book here. The publication date of the hardcover edition from Lost Battalion Publishing will be announced soon.