Here is another post giving some little-known information about the city of St. Louis. Did you know that St. Louis and the Battle of Fort San Carlos was a crucial moment of the Revolutionary War? I didn’t. Some historians think the country could have wound up a very different place if the colonists did not win this battle. Via KSDK.
When you think of the great battles of the Revolutionary War, you might not include the battle of St. Louis. To learn more, we turned to Dr. Robert Archibald, President and CEO of the Missouri Historical Society in St. Louis, and the National Parks Service.
“What most people don’t realize is that the battle in the American Revolution that took place the farthest west occurred there in May of 1780,” said Archibald.
According to the National Parks Service, St. Louis, in 1780, was a Spanish Colony and under the leadership of Spanish Lieutenant Governor, Fernando DeLeyba. As the American Revolution began heating up, particularly after the French became open allies of the Americans in 1778, the Spanish began to provide covert aid and supplies to the English colonists.
DeLeyba, fearing British reprisals, urged that four stone towers be built to protect St. Louis. At the top of the hill, near where the Old Courthouse exists today, the first of the towers, called Fort San Carlos was built in April, 1780 and a trench was dug around the town.
On May 26, 1780, between 1,300 and 2,000 British-led Sioux, Sac, Fox and Winnebago warriors suddenly fell upon the unsuspecting community of 900 people. The Indians killed several settlers and slaves who were tending their fields on the outskirts of town. The firing alerted St. Louis’s militia, who ran to the barely-completed entrenchments. The attackers were hit with a withering fire from militia musketry. But it was the cannon placed in the tower called Fort San Carlos that repelled the attack.
The battle lasted for two hours, with 21 villagers killed and 71 captured. George Rogers Clark and his Americans drove off a simultaneous British attack against Cahokia on the east side of the river.
“Historians say it may have been one of the seminal battles of the Revolutionary War, because if it had been lost, it’s possible all that land in North America might have been retained by Great Britain. we may have ended up a very different nation,” said Archibald.
Very interesting. You learn something new every day. Stay tuned for more little-known facts about St. Louis.
St. Louis History: Macaroni and Cheese is Born
To continue with posts about St. Louis history as reported by KSDK, here’s a bit about Kraft and the birth of Macaroni and Cheese.
In 1937, poor sales leads the National Dairy Products company to adopted the idea of one of its St. Louis salesmen. The idea? To combine grated American cheese with Tenderoni Macaroni, thus Kraft Macaroni and Cheese was born.
So next time you get those “blue box blues” you have the great city of St. Louis to thank.
Sammy Hagar is a Tool
St. Louis has always been a strong supporter of Sammy Hagar. His shows sell out here whenever he plays, the radio stations have always been friendly to him, and I’m sure he’s sold a great deal of records in the St. Louis area. That all may change thanks to his recent show where he revealed just how immature he really is. Before I continue I must state that the story I’m telling is not one I personally witnessed. I was not at his show, but what happened has brought up a heated discussion on radio shows and the internet. According to one fan, this is what happened:
Seriously, how immature can you be? Your concert is not a place to air out your grievances because a company didn’t want to do business with you. And, as anyone in St. Louis will tell you, coming into our city and talking bad about our beer is on the same level as going to Mecca and criticizing Islam or to Vatican City and criticizing Catholics. St. Louis is a proud city. We are proud of our city, our baseball and our beer. Talk smack on any of those things and you’ve declared war. Grow up Sammy.
New Music
I need some new music. I’ve gotten CunninLynguists’ Dirty Acres album, but I’ve had that for a while now. It’s definitely a great album, and I listen to it all the time, but that’s the problem. I need to mix my music listening up a bit so I don’t burn myself out on it. It’s really that good of an album that I’ve been listening to it non-stop for about a month or so. I need someone to recommend some good music. I like pretty much anything except for country and death metal. If you’re a regular reader you’ve seen me post or talk about music from a wide variety of genres, from hip hop to jazz and electronic to rock, and pretty much everything in between. So my friends, what will it be? I need something good.
Lack of Motivation
I’ve not posted in a while. I’ve been going through a rough few days. It’s probably not something I’ll be posting here, and if I do it will be very vague. The whole situation has drained my motivation to actually write anything. I have a few drafts that have been started but after a paragraph or so I just give up. I can’t write right now. Hopefully in a day or so I’ll be able to properly update. So, to my three loyal readers, hang in there.
St. Louis History: Battle of Fort San Carlos
Here is another post giving some little-known information about the city of St. Louis. Did you know that St. Louis and the Battle of Fort San Carlos was a crucial moment of the Revolutionary War? I didn’t. Some historians think the country could have wound up a very different place if the colonists did not win this battle. Via KSDK.
When you think of the great battles of the Revolutionary War, you might not include the battle of St. Louis. To learn more, we turned to Dr. Robert Archibald, President and CEO of the Missouri Historical Society in St. Louis, and the National Parks Service.
“What most people don’t realize is that the battle in the American Revolution that took place the farthest west occurred there in May of 1780,” said Archibald.
According to the National Parks Service, St. Louis, in 1780, was a Spanish Colony and under the leadership of Spanish Lieutenant Governor, Fernando DeLeyba. As the American Revolution began heating up, particularly after the French became open allies of the Americans in 1778, the Spanish began to provide covert aid and supplies to the English colonists.
DeLeyba, fearing British reprisals, urged that four stone towers be built to protect St. Louis. At the top of the hill, near where the Old Courthouse exists today, the first of the towers, called Fort San Carlos was built in April, 1780 and a trench was dug around the town.
On May 26, 1780, between 1,300 and 2,000 British-led Sioux, Sac, Fox and Winnebago warriors suddenly fell upon the unsuspecting community of 900 people. The Indians killed several settlers and slaves who were tending their fields on the outskirts of town. The firing alerted St. Louis’s militia, who ran to the barely-completed entrenchments. The attackers were hit with a withering fire from militia musketry. But it was the cannon placed in the tower called Fort San Carlos that repelled the attack.
The battle lasted for two hours, with 21 villagers killed and 71 captured. George Rogers Clark and his Americans drove off a simultaneous British attack against Cahokia on the east side of the river.
“Historians say it may have been one of the seminal battles of the Revolutionary War, because if it had been lost, it’s possible all that land in North America might have been retained by Great Britain. we may have ended up a very different nation,” said Archibald.
Very interesting. You learn something new every day. Stay tuned for more little-known facts about St. Louis.