Saturday, May 6, 1911. One Colorado Senator.

Colorado's Senate adjourned after having failed to appoint a replacement for the late Senator Charles J. Hughes.  There would be only one Senator from Colorado until January 20, 1913.

It was a Saturday.

Last edition:

Friday, May 5, 1911. La Cruz Blanca Neutral.

Labels: 1910s, 1911, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, Red Cross

Saturday, September 12, 1874. Battle of Buffalo Wallow

Scouts William Dixon, Amos Chapman and soldiers Sergeant Z. T. Woodall, Co. I; Peter Rath, Co. A; John Harrington, Co. H.; George W. Smith, Co. M, 6th Cavalry fought some of the Kiowa and Comanche from the Lyman fight that encountered them on their way to rejoin their families on the Washita.

Billy Dixon.

The battle went on all day, with the soldiers and scouts taking refuge against the must larger native party in a buffalo wallow.  During the night, scout Billy Dixon went for help on foot which arrived the next day.   Two of the soldiers died in the encounter.   Their survival had a lot to do with effective marksmanship.

The troops Dixon brought for relief were engaged in a battle that day as well, at the Sweetwater Creek and Dry Force of the Washita River.  The encounter between the 8th Cavalry and the Native Americans was brief and two Native Americans were killed and six wounded.

Dixon would receive the Medal of Honor for his actions in retrieving a wounded soldier during the fight, and going for help.  It'd later be revoked given as he was a civilian, but subsequently restored.  He'd go on to marry in the early 1890s and have seven children.  He made his home in those years near Adobe Walls, the site of his most famous battle.  He died in 1913.

Last edition:

Friday, September 11, 1874. The fate of the German family.

Labels: 1870s, 1874, Cheyenne, Indian Wars, Kansas, Native Americans, Red River War

Mid Week At Work: The Forest Ranger. W. Herbert Dunton circa 1913.

 

The Mexican Revolution. . . where we're at in terms of century delayed time.

Yesterday we ran this item:

Lex Anteinternet: Venustiano Carranza assassinated . . .: .

Venustiano Carranza assassinated . . .

on this day in 1920, by officers who had betrayed him, pretending to offer him a safe lodging for the night in the town of Tlaxcalantongo.  Sometime during the night, their forces surrounded the house and then opened fire into ito.  Oddly, the assassins then telegramed Obregon to inform him that "we are at your service" but also asked for permission to bring Carranza's body to Mexico City for burial.  Obregon replied with the comment "It is very strange that a group of officers who vouched their loyalty and honor should have permitted him to be assassinated instead of complying with your duty."

And it goes on from there.

So, where are we at on this story that we've been following for years and for which there are now 306 entries on this blog.

The story starts with the revolution against Porifirio Diaz in 1911

Well, not really.  Diaz, who had been a lieutenant of Mexican revolutionary and then president Benito Juarez, served as President of Mexico three times with his last period of dictatorial service running form 1884 until May 21, 1911.  An odd statement to an American reporter about being willing to hold elections in 1908 lead to one and ultimately he proved unwilling not to run, as he'd promised, with his running meaning an assured reelection..  That lead to the rebellion in 1910 we now call The Mexican Revolution, lead at first by the improbable Francisco Modero.

Diaz at age 77.

On this date in 1920, Diaz had been dead five years.  He'd died of natural causes at age 85 in France.

In 1911 he took to his exile and was succeeded by Francisco León de la Barra y Quijano, whom Mexican conservatives called the "white president" due to his purity.  He only served until November.

León.

During his short administration León had to attempt to deal with the growing revolution against him and the growing right wing extremism in his army.  He wouldn't succeeded, but he did succeed in outliving the revolution  He was still living in 1920 and had a career as a diplomat ahead of him.  He ultimately retired to Spain, but even there was used unofficially in this capacity as a go between between France and Spain.  He died in 1939 of natural causes.

Modero.

León's successor was Modero who was a weak president from November 1911 until he was killed in a military coup on February 19, 1913.  His death threw the country back into civil war.

The fallen Huerta.

His successor was the successful head of the coup, Victoriano Huerta.  Huerta was able to topple Modero, but he couldn't quell the revolution, and he went into exile in July 1914.  Going first to Europe and then the United States, he died an alcoholic in 1916.

His successor, Francisco Sebastián Carvajal y Gual, served for only a month before also going into exile, a victim of Huerta's failed effort to reclaim Diaz's position in Mexico.  His story was happier, however, as he met his wife in exile in the United States and he ultimately returned to Mexico in 1922 to resume his legal practice, which he occupied until his death by natural causes in 1932.

And then came Carranza.

So, so far we've seen the assassination of two of the real revolutionary presidents of Mexico, the odd but admirable Modero and the determined and not so admirable Carranza.  And we've seen the exile of three of the right wing pretenders, two of whom had died by natural causes.

Not dying by natural causes up to this point were thousands of Mexican soldiers who had fought on both sides of the Mexican Revolution, and in some cases literally on both sides.  Included in that number was Emiliano Zapata, the greatest of the Mexican revolutionaries, who was its best post Modero hope.

And the revolution was getting increasingly extreme. Having gone from a hope for democracy with Modero it was coming to increasingly reflect the extreme left wing politics of revolutions of its age, something that would have ill consequences for Mexico in coming years.

Indeed, a real oddity of Mexico's post Maximillian politics in general, up to this point, is how radical it was even when seemingly combined with conservative elements.  If Diaz sometimes dressed like Napoleon, his politics, he in some ways was like him.  He was a political liberal but one who did not trust the democratic process.  Ultimately he governed as a moderate liberal with a focus on stability.  Even today he is credited with having laid the foundations for modern Mexico.  His real fault was in not trusting democracy and running for reelection in 1910, when he promised not to.

Had Diaz held to his initial promise, Modero would have been elected in 1910.   Whether Diaz stepping away from politics voluntarily would have necessarily resulted in a Mexican army that would have accepted the election is another question, and one we will never know the answer to.  Had that occured, Mexico would have stepped into being a true democracy in 1910, something that would take another century to occur.  Diaz's failure to trust his own people lead to a revolution in which propelled radicals to the top.  One of those radicals was Carranza, who ended up sharing that lack of trust with Diaz.  He sought to dictate the results of the upcoming 1920 Mexican election, which in turn lead to his bloody end in May, 1920.  That put Obregon in the position of being the assured ultimate next president of the country, with extreme radicals rising up right behind him.

Churches of the West: Changes in Downtown Casper. First Presbyterian becomes City Park Church, the former First Baptist Church

Churches of the West: Changes in Downtown Casper. First Presbyterian be...:

Changes in Downtown Casper. First Presbyterian becomes City Park Church, the former First Baptist Church.

I debated on whether to put this entry here or on our companion blog, Lex Anteinternet.  In the end, I decided to put it up here first and then link it over. This will be one of a couple of posts of this type which explore changes, this one with a local expression, that have bigger implications.

When we started this blog, some of the first entries here were on churches in downtown Casper.  These included the First Presbyterian Church and the First Baptist Church, with buildings dating to 1913 and 1949 respectively.  First Baptist, it should be noted, has occupied their present location, if not their present church, for a century.

Indeed, while I wasn't able to get it to ever upload, I have somewhere a video of the centennial of the First Presbyterian Church from 2013, featuring, as a church that originally had a heavy Scots representation ought to, a bagpipe band.  Our original entry on that church building is right below:

First Presbyterian Church, Casper Wyoming

This Presbyterian Church is located one block away from St. Mark's Episcopal Church and St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, all of which are separated from each other by City Park.

The corner stone of the church gives the dates 1913 1926. I'm not sure why there are two dates, but the church must have been completed in 1926.

Well, since that centennial, First Presbyterian has been going through a constant set of changes, as noted in our entry here:

Grace Reformed at City Park, formerly First Presbyterian Church, Casper Wyoming

This isn't a new addition to the roll of churches here, but rather news about one of them.  We formerly posted on this church here some time ago:

Churches of the West: First Presbyterian Church, Casper Wyoming: This Presbyterian Church is located one block away from St. Mark's Episcopal Church and St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, all of whi...

People who have followed it would be aware that the Presbyterian churches in the United States are undergoing a period of rift, and this church has reflected that.  The Presbyterian Church, starting in the 1980s, saw conflict develop between liberal and more conservative elements within it which lead to the formation of the "moderate conservative" EPC.  As I'm not greatly familiar with this, I'll only note that the EPC is associated with "New School Presbyterianism" rather than "Old School" and it has adopted the motto  "In Essentials, Unity; In Non-Essentials, Liberty; In All Things, Charity. Truth in Love.".

The change in name here is confusing to an outsider in that this church is a member of the EPC, but it's no longer using its original name.  As it just passed the centennial of its construction, that's a bit unfortunate in some ways. 

We'd also note that the sought set of stairs is now chained off.  We're not sure why, but those stairs must no longer be used for access.

The changes apparently didn't serve to arrest whatever was going on, as there's a sign out in front of the old First Presbyterian, later Grace Reformed, that starting on February 23, it'll be City Park Church.

City Park Church, it turns out, is the name that the congregation that presently occupies another nearby church, First Baptist Church, will call its new church building, which is actually a much older building than the one it now occupies, which is depicted here:

First Baptist Church, Casper Wyoming

This is the First Baptist Church in Casper, Wyoming. It's one of the Downtown churches in Casper, in an area that sees approximately one church per block for a several block area.

This particular church was built in 1949, and sits on the same block as Our Savior's Lutheran Church.

What's going on?

Well, it's hard to say from the outside, which we are, but what is pretty clear is that the rifts in the Presbyterian Church broke out, in some form, in the city's oldest Presbyterian Church to the point where it ended up changing its name, and then either moving out of its large church, and accompanying grounds, or closing altogether.  I've never been in the building but I'm told that its basement looked rough a couple of years ago and perhaps the current congregation has other plans or the grounds and church are just too much for it.  At any rate, the 1949 vintage building that First Baptist occupies is apparently a bit too small for its needs and it had taken the opportunity to acquire and relocate into the older, but larger, church.  It can't help but be noted that both churches have pretty large outbuildings as well. Also, while they are both downtown, the 1913 building is one of the three very centrally located old downtown Casper churches, so if church buildings have pride of place, the Baptist congregation is moving into a location which has a little bit more of one.

While it will be dealt with more in another spot, or perhaps on Lex Anteinternet, the entire thing would seem to be potentially emblematic of the loss that Christian churches that have undergone a rift like the Presbyterian Church in the United States has sustained when they openly split between liberal and conservative camps.  The Presbyterian Church was traditionally a fairly conservative church, albeit with theology that was quite radical at the time of its creation.  In recent years some branches of that church have kept their conservatism while others have not and there's been an open split.  As noted elsewhere this has lead in part to a defection from those churches in a lot of localities, and a person has to wonder if something like that may have happened here, as well as wondering if the obvious fact that a split has occurred would naturally lead to a reduction in the congregation as some of its members went with the other side.  We've noted here before that the Anglican Community locally not only has its two Episcopal Churches in town, but that there are also two additional Anglican Churches of a much more theologically conservative bent, both of which are outside of the Episcopal Diocese of Wyoming.

A person can't really opine, from the outside, if something like this is "sad" or not, but it's certainly a remarkable event.  We've noted church buildings that have changed denominations of use before, but this is the first one where we've actually witnessed it.  And in this case, the departing denomination had occupied their building for a century.

1959 El Camino

Today's installment on recently viewed cars of the past features a 1959 Chevrolet El Camino.

The El Camino was Chevy's effort to combine the pickup truck with the coup.  The result was a light pickup truck that really wasn't very suitable for much, but which had a certain appearance that people either love or hate to this day.

The El Caminio followed a prior mid 1950s Chevrolet pickup truck that was specifically aimed at an urban market.  That model, based on its standard pickup, had some sedan features that Chevy incorporated in the hopes of breaking into the suburban market, and in fact it was called the Suburban Carrier.  The El Camino followed and was sold first in 1959, with various models lasting all the way to 1987.  By that time it had evolved from a really sporty looking car/truck to a fairly pedestrian looking late 80s sedan/truck and, by that time, the plethora of trucks in the urban market, including light duty Japanese trucks, rendered it pointless.

Which is to assume it ever had a point in the first place.

But maybe it did.

Pickup trucks entered the American market really early and in fact there were pickup truck conversions for Model T body's available as early as 1913.  Dodge introduced a factor built pickup in 1924 and Ford followed in 1925.  While early pickups were on car frames, with car suspensions, the heavy duty nature of cars at the time made them pretty suitable for such conversions.  By the 1930s, however, with improvements in roads, pickups were departing company with automobiles in significant ways.  While postwar automobiles remains more suitable for dirt roads than any car made today, the direction was very clear and by the 1960s car suspensions were low and no longer really suitable for double duty, rural and urban.

Not that the El Camino really was either, but pickups of the 1940s and 1950s were definitely rather stout vehicles.  In the rural West there were plenty of people who used a pickup as their primary daily driver, almost all of which were two wheel drives, but Chevrolet was on to the need for an urban carrier.

El Caminio's filled a notch that nothing else really did, but they were a vehicle of mixed success.  It really took the introduction of Chevrolet's sleek styled pickup in 1968 to begin the move towards urban popularity of pickup trucks.  Dodge followed suit in 1972 when it remodeled its D Series trucks along similar lines.  Ford had started towards a sleeker line of truck, which still remained a work styling, in the 1960s, but followed suit with a major restyling in 1987.

Ford in some ways ultimately won this contest. . . for the time being, with the Ford F Series trucks absolutely dominating the market for the most part.  Ironically, however, Dodge's 1994 turn from this style of truck to a more rugged appearing body style brought beefy back into the truck market and secured, at least for the time being, Chrysler as the heavy truck king, a position it had held from the end of World War Two until at least the early 70s due to its wartime Power Wagon series of truck.  Everyone else has followed since then except that Ford and Chevrolet both make light duty trucks that are more car like, but still trucks.

Poster Saturday: Good Housekeeping, November 1913.

Sharp Headgear and the Unversity Student.

From the Laramie Daily Boomerang, April 17, 1913. The height of the bowler era.

I wonder how many university students decked themselves  out with bowlers in 1913?

___________________________________________________________________________________

Related Threads: 

Caps, Hats, Fashion and Perceptions of Decency and being Dressed.

The British Pattern 13 Enfield

This is part of a series, which will lead up to the M1917 Enfield, whose adoption date this is.  You'll have to read the later post for the story of the "American" Enfield.

The British Patter 13 Enfield.



It never served, but it darned near did.

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: St. Patrick's Catholic Church, Sidney Nebraska

Churches of the West: St. Patrick's Catholic Church, Sidney Nebraska:

This is St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Sidney, Nebraska.  It's a striking church that was built in 1913, although I wonder if part of the structure may have been added on to much more recently.  If so, the architects did an amazing job of keeping later construction consistent with the original design of the church.

Thursday, January 13, 1916. Death of Huerta.

Victoriano Huerta, age 65, died in El Paso.  Huera had occupied the position of President of Mexico, illegitimately from February, 19, 1913 to July, 1914.

As a total aside, those dates would place setting for Sam Peckinpah's classic The Wild Bunch prior to July, 1914, which makes for one of the film's inaccuracies, albeit a minor one, in that aircraft are referenced as something that's "going to be" used in the war in Europe.  World War One had not yet quite broken out, but then perhaps this can be rationalized in some fashion.  Gen. Mapache is referenced as being "a butcher for Huerta".

A huge race riot occurred in El Paso on the same day in reaction to news of the Santa Ysabel Massacre, not all of which was completely accurate, even though the accurate news was bad enough.

British troops attacked Ottoman troops under the command of Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz along the Wadi River.

Last edition:

Wednesday, January 12, 1916. War likely.

Labels: 1910s, 1916, Austro Hungaria, German Army, German Luftwaffe, Mexican Border War, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, Montenegro, Pancho Villa, Santa Ysabel Massacre, World War One

Saturday, November 14, 1914. Declaring a holy war.

Following up on something the Ottoman Emperor had already done, the state's religious leader (Sheikh-ul-Islam) declared a holy war against the Allies.

Interestingly, the prior Sheikh-ul-Islam had lost his position in 1913 and was exiled to Egypt for opposing the then coming war.

Last edition:

Friday, November 13, 1914. Moroccan setback.

Labels: 1910s, 1914, French Empire, Morocco, Zaian War

Tuesday, April 28, 1914. President Wilson orders Federal troops into the Colorado Coalfield War.

On this day in 1914, President Wilson ordered Federal troops to Colorado at the request of Gov. Eliam M. Ammons following days of fighting (the Ten Day War) between miners, Colorado National Guardsmen and mine owners that had broken out with the April 20 Ludlow Massacre, which we should have covered but managed to omit, occured.

Tensions had been high since the summer of 1913 between miners of the United Mine Workers of America (UMW) and the Rockefeller-owned Colorado Fuel and Iron (CF&I) due to low pay and dangerous working conditions.  Colorado's mine accident rate was much higher than elsewhere in the US at the time.  The UMW had started making demands to address the situation without success and adopted demands on September 16, 1913, calling for a seven-step plan of improvements and recognition of the UMW.

On September 23, they went on strike during a rainstorm.  Soon, 20,000 miners were evicted from their company housing. The union supplied tents, and tent cities resulted.  80.5% of the miners went on strike, far higher than the company's had expected. Mary J. Harris, "Mother Jones", spoke on September 23 in Trinidad, stating:

Rise up and strike! If you are too cowardly, there are enough women in this country to come in here and beat the hell out of you.

The companies brought in strike-breaking forces, and law enforcement was generally aligned with the companies.  They also had influence in the Colorado National Guard, which would soon be deployed, which was extremely unfortunate as the Guard had been working since the early 20th Century to escape this role specifically, and had made progress in that regard with the passage of the Dick Act, which made them the official reserve of the Army.  In classic Western form, gunmen were recruited from Texas and New Mexico, some of whom became National Guard "recruits".  Colorado's National Guard CO, Gen. John Chase, had, additionally, played a role in suppressing strikes at Cripple Creek in 1903-04, making him literally a pre Dict Act figure, as the Dick Act, which officially established the Guard system, came into effect in 1903.

In October 1913 the Colorado National Guard was called out, but six months later the financial drain on the state caused all but two companies to be withdrawn.  When more fully deployed miners had welcomed it, as it was a neutral party, but the change, with quite a few of the Guardsmen deployed in that period being imported strikebreakers with no military experience, changed things considerably.  Strikebreakers were additionally brought in by the mines in the form of Baltwin-Felts detectives, who had experience in the same from West Virginia.

Clashes occured all winter long, with the Guard sometimes acting as strikebreakers and sometimes acting as intervening parties between strikers and private strikebreakers.  Things had largely calmed down by early 2014, but the death of a strikebreaker near Ludlow caused increased tension once again.  Mother Jones returned in late March and was detained in dank conditions.

On Orthodox Easter, April 20, 1914, many of the miners were Greek immigrants, fighting broke out after early morning negotiations between the parties, the miner's UMW representative Louis Tikas being among those participating in discussion. The negotiations were brought about by rising tensions and threads the prior day.  Perhaps ironically, Tikas, who had initially refused to meet, was encouraged to do so by Colorado National Guard Major Patrick J. Hamrock, who had been with the Army at Wounded Knee.

UMW rep John McLennan and Patrick Hamrock.  Hamrock would be charged with murder for his actions at Ludlow, but was acuitted.  He later went on to command the Colorado National Guard.

The two parties nonetheless began to move for position and fighting broke out.  

The remaining Guard companies attacked the camp and fighting went on all day long. At some point Lt. Karl "Monte" Linderfelt, a notable figure in the actions locally, butt stroked Tikas in the head, although later examinations showed Tikas, who was a Cretan immigrant, to have multiple gunshot wounds. Linderfelt's unit had been kept some distance from Ludlow as he was so inclined to violence. Thirty-two strikers or their families, including women and children, were killed, and thirty-seven Guardsmen lost their lives. Four Hundred miners were arrested, and the camp was destroyed.

The violence at Ludlow led to a union call to arms throughout Colorado and a switch to miner sympathy on the part of the press.  The Southwestern Mine Co.'s Empire Mine was laid under siege on April 22, with the miners yielding after 21 hours, a ceasefire being negotiated by a Protestant minister.  An attempt to take Delagua, Colorado, was made by strikers who were republished, but three mine guards were killed in the assaults.  A mine guard was killed at Tabasco and the Las Animas County Sheriff's Department cabled that it had been defeated and requested Federal troops.

Linderfelt, who was also tried for murder but acquitted.

  

Linderfelt had served in the Philippine Insurrection and in China with the U.S. Army and Colorado National Guard.  He's also served in the Mexican Army in 1911 and his name was in the Colorado newspapers frequently due to that at the time, usually under his nickname "Monte".  Prior to the 1913 mine labor troubles in Colorado, he's been working as a mine guard.  He was activated again during the Puntive expedition and then again for World War One, during which he rose to the rank of Colonel in the Colorado National Guard in spite of Ludlow.  His name was frequently in the news in the teens, with the papers being very hostile to him at first, but later more sympathetic as the Punitive Expedition and World War One rolled on.  The troops he was in command of did deploy to France, but not until October 1918, making it unlikely that hey saw much, if any, wartime combat.  In 1919 he purchased a farm in Custer County, Colorado.  In 1922, however, he was being foreclosed upon. He died at age 80 in 1957, at which time he was living in Los Angeles.    

While this was going on, the UMW briefly organized a truce, but at the same time the Governor attempt to deploy the National Guard to what had become a 175-mile-long front.  Of the 600 Guardsmen who were expected to answer the call, only 362 men reported showing that the insurrection and public sympathy had passed to the miners, who now had the press's full support nationwide.  One of the cavalry troops of the Colorado Guard, which included two of the Colorado Guard's commander's sons, mutinied and had to be removed from deployment.  Artillery was deployed from Denver, but the miners also secured firearms.

The Chandler Mine near Cañon City was fired upon on April 25, breaking the truce. On the 26th, 1,000 armed miners attacked and took the town.  Residents of Walsenburg's fled.  Greek miners grew unhappy with union officials and began guerilla attacks on the town and attacked the McNally Mine.  Communiques from both sides took on the nature of those from regular combatants.

The Women's Peace Association staged a sit in Denver starting on April 25, which forced Governor Ammons to act, sending his request on the 25th.  On the 26th, protesters in Denver demanded the impeachment of Governor Ammons.  One of the speakers was former Denver Police Commissioner George Creel.

The National Guard deployed in force on April 27 near Trinidad, where Tikas' funeral was scheduled to, and did, take place without incident. There had been plans to retake the town, which was in miner control, but the assault did not occur.

On this day, the Battle of Heclar Mine in Louisville took place, with that mine owned by the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company.  This was considerably further north than the other mine attacks and fairly near Denver.  National Guardsmen that had been rotated off of the southern front were sent to quell that attack.

The Army was on its way.

Ironically, perhaps, on the same day a mine explosion in Eccles, West Virginia, killed over 180 miners.

British suffragettes Hilda Burkitt and Florence Tunks burned down the Felixstow Bath Hotel in Suffolk as part of an ongoing suffragette terror campaign.

Last prior edition:

Sunday, April 26, 1914. No longer in doubt.

1910s, 1914, Cheyenne Wyoming, Exploration, Food, Mexico, Newspapers, Occupation of Veracruz, Roosevelt–Rondon Scientific Expedition, Theodore Roosevelt

Wednesday, March 29, 1911. The adoption of the M1911.

In 2024 we noted this:

The Colt M1911 is a John Browning designed semi-automatic pistol that can legitimately be regarded s the greatest handgun ever made, although there are, or perhaps more accurately were, a few other contenders.  Other than the mostly John Browning Designed Hi Power, none of the other contenders remain in service somewhere however and the M1911 has by far the longest period of service.

Adopted by the U.S. on March 29, 1911, in 1923 the handgun received some minor modifications, the most significant of which is a curved spring housing which changed the profile of the grip.  The trigger was also shortened.  In 1924 the modified design started to ship, this month, from Colt.  The M1911A1 designation came in 1926.  

When we posted this, we actually thought we might have noted the adoption of the M1911 when the centennial of the pistols adoption came up, in 2011, but we didn't.  We covered a fair amount of ground regarding it in the thread above, but not really it's whole history.

Of course, that would require a book.

Given the ostensible purpose of this blog, however, we really ought to cover this.

Lex Anteinternet?

The Consolidated Royalty Building, where I work, back when it was new.

What the heck is this blog about?

The intent of this blog is to try to explore and learn a few things about the practice of law prior to the current era. That is, prior to the internet, prior to easy roads, and the like. How did it work, how regional was it, how did lawyers perceive their roles, and how were they perceived?

Part of the reason for this, quite frankly, has something to do with minor research for a very slow moving book I've been pondering. And part of it is just because I'm curious. Hopefully it'll generate enough minor interest so that anyone who stops by might find something of interest, once it begins to develop a bit.

The 1911 is part of the history we're covering, and moreover, it was a brand new pistol in that period.

Vast amounts have been written about the M1911 over its century plus history.  Most of that starts right around 1900, when the very first tests of semi automatic pistols took place.  But in order to really grasp the M1911 you need to start earlier. . . in 1873.

1873 was the year that the Army officially adopted its first cartridge using revolver, the legendary Colt Single Action Army Revolver.  The M1873 replaced a series of cap and ball revolvers that had been the standard sidearms dating back to 1846.  We won't get into those, but Colt managed to pioneer really effective revolvers with this series which were widely used by civilians as well, and very well liked.  When cartridges started to come in, particularly during the Civil War, it was obvious that soon revolvers would be adapted to take them, and very soon after the war Colt introduced what would become and remain the premier single action revolver, chambered in .44-40. The cartridge closely approximated the black powder load taken by the earlier cap and ball revolvers.  The M1873 did have competitors, even in military service, with the primary one being the Smith & Wesson No. 3, which had the advantage of being a break open design allowing for more rapid reloading, but nothing really challenged the Cold Peacemaker for dominance in the U.S. Army, or for that matter, the civilian market.

What was a challenge, however, was that it became pretty clear in the last quarter of the 19th Century that double actions had arrived.  Indeed, double action cap and ball revolvers had been produced and used during the Civil War, albeit not in large numbers.  The fact that the Army didn't go straight to a double action revealed its real conservatism after the Civil War, which also showed itself in the long arms that it adopted.

By the 1890s black powder was being replaced by smokeless powder, which also yielded higher pressures and therefore higher velocities.  As this occurred, a movement towards smaller projectiles occurred, with the thought that the same or better lethality could be achieved with a lighter cartridge.  In rifles, this proved to be quite true.  Pistols, however, are another matter.

This led to the military adopting the Colt M1892 "New Army" in that year, which was a very well designed double action revolver.  The basic design would be used by Colt for decades.  Slight improvements to the design would occur over time, leading to the Models 1892, 1894, 1896, 1901, and 1903 for the Army, the Model 1895 for the Navy and the Model 1905 for the Marine Corps, although they were all very similar.  Manufacture of the basic design for civilian shooters as well as policemen, in various cartridges, would continue until at least the 1950s, although the original New Army pattern went out of production in 1908..

What the problem would prove to be was the cartridge.

The M1892 took the .38 Long Colt cartridge.

The new handgun was first used in the Spanish American War where there were no complaints regarding it.  Soon thereafter, however, it was sent with U.S. troops to the Philippines where it proved to be pretty much completely inadequate.  In the hardscrabble guerilla wars that followed U.S. troops landing there, the pistol simply lacked stopping power.

This lead to a series of emergency responses by the Army, part of which was to reissue M1873s, often with barrels refitted to the 5.5" length.  The M1873s immediately proved successful, and as a result the Army adopted the Colt New Service civilian double action revolver, a massive .45 Long Colt, as the M1909.  Like the New Army, the New Service was a very well designed modern double action revolver, and it was produced for military and civilian use over its long life, with production ceasing in 1946.

As good as the New Service revolver was, it was a stop gap when adopted.  The Army was already looking for a semi automatic pistol.  Trials had started in 1900 with John Browning's Model 1900, Mauser's C96, and Mannlicher's weird M1894 having been purchased for evaluation. The Browning design was by far the best, and in 1906 it came back in a new version, the Model 1905, to compete against submissions by Bergmann, Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken (DWM), Savage Arms, Knoble, Webley, and White-Merrill. Some of  the new pistols, such as DWM's Luger and Savage's John Pederson designed automatic were very good indeed.  The Colt 1905, hwoever, wa the best.  Browning improved the M1905 and came out with the M1910, and the M1910 and the Savage went on to the final test.

The M1911, the final Colt design, was adopted on this day in 1911.  The Navy, and hence the Marine Corps, would not adopt the pistol until 1913.

A fire broke out at the library of the New York State Capitol in Albany at 2:00 am, hours after legislators had adjourned for the night destroying more than 600,000 books, and manuscripts, many of them irreplaceable.  A night watchman was killed in the fire.

Last edition:

Tuesday, March 28, 1911. The Lost Patrol

Labels: 1910s, 1911, 1920s, 1922, Canada, Disaster, Mexico, New Mexico, North West Mounted Police

Friday, November 19, 1909 Sabin sentenced and Belgian abuse.

Today In Wyoming's History: November 19: 1909  George Sabin sentenced for Second Degree Murder for his part in the Spring Creek Raid.  He escaped on December 25,1913, while on a work gang in  Basin, and was never recaptured.

The sentencing is remarkable and significance as it effectively meant an end to private warfare over sheep in Wyoming, and it also meant that conventional justice had come to the Big Horn Basin, where previously juries would not convict in these circumstances.  This reflected in part the horror of the  Spring Creek assault, but also the fact that the Basin was now closer to the rest of the state, having been connected some time prior by rail.

Members of the leadership of the Church of England, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, and fifty members of parliament assembled at Albert Hall to protest Belgium abuses in the Congo.

Last edition:

Saturday, November 13, 1909. Cherry Mine Disaster.

Labels: 1900s, 1909, Coal, Disaster, football, Illinois, Mining