A Sports Dispute Started the Cuban Missile Crisis and Other Odd Facts

1. A Dramatic Betrayal

The bottom fell out for Napoleon when his Saxon allies pulled off a well-timed double cross on the afternoon of October 18^th, 1813. With his forces already stretched to their limit, a Saxon corps of about 10,000 men occupying a sector of the French line suddenly abandoned their positions, deserted Napoleon, and marched out to meet the allies.

With a gaping hole now suddenly appearing in their lines, Napoleon’s forces had to abandon that entire sector. That night, with their positions untenable, they began a retreat. It went smoothly at first, but the following day, incompetence led to the premature blowing up of a bridge while it was still crowded with retreating Frenchmen. The result was a panicked rout in which thousands were killed, while tens of thousands more were stranded on the wrong side of the destroyed bridge and captured, transforming the battle from an arguable tactical draw into a catastrophic French defeat.

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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading

Reedsburg Times Press, May 21^st, 2016 – Reedsburg Youth is Civil War Drummer Boy

Reedsburg Times Press, June 24^th, 2016 – Schuette Column: Civil War Drummer Boy Story Continues

British Battles – Siege of Mafeking

CNN – The Cold War: 5 Things You Might Not Know

Cracked – 5 Everyday Things With (Mostly Forgotten) Nazi Origins

Encyclopedia Britannica – Pierre Charles L’Enfant, French Engineer and Architect

Forgotten Weapons – The Worst Gun Ever

Guardian, The, May 4^th, 1900 – Baden-Powell on the Mafeking Front Line

Herodotus – The Histories, Book 4, Logos 11

Historum – Scythia, the Scythians, and Darius

History of War – The Battle of Leipzig (‘The Battle of Nations’), 16-18 October 1813

Medium, April 5^th, 2015 – How Baseball Betrayed Cuba’s Covert Ops

Men’s Journal – Jagermeister Tries to Grow Up

Metropolitan Museum of Art – Falcata

Mirror, March 11^th, 2014 – Steve Irwin, Karl Marx, Bob Marley: The Final Words of Nine Famous Faces

Napoleon Guide – Battle of Leipzig

Smithsonian Magazine, April 30^th, 2018 – A Brief History of Pierre L’Enfant and Washington, DC

Smithsonian Magazine May 2016 – Why Benedict Arnold Turned Traitor Against the American Revolution

Telegraph, The, January 17^th, 2018 – Jagermeister: 11 Facts About Everyone’s Favourite Apres Drink

Washington Post, February 12^th, 2012 – Drummer Boys Played Important Roles in the Civil War, and Some Became Soldiers

Wikipedia – Baseball in Cuba

Wikipedia – Julius Caesar’s Planned Invasion of the Parthian Empire