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America Accidentally Attacked the Soviet Union and Other Lesser Known History Moments

Khalid Elhassan February 27, 2020 34 min

Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star - Aircraft — American F-80s in action during the Korean War. Squdron

31. A Drummer For Life

Alexander Johnson after the Civil War. Pintrest

After the war, Alexander H. Johnson settled in Worcester, Massachusetts, taught drumming, and founded that town’s first drum corps. Nicknamed “Major”, in reference to his being the drum major of the town’s drum corps, Alexander settled down and raised a family of seventeen children. He was a lifelong active member in the Grand Army of the Republic, as well as a member of the Sons of Union Veterans.

The 54th Massachusetts Memorial in Boston. Pinterest

In 1897, a memorial sculpted by Augustus Saint-Gaudens was unveiled in Boston. It honored the 54th Massachusetts and its colonel, Robert Gould Shaw, who died fighting at the regiment’s head during the assault on Fort Wagner. Erected in front of the Massachusetts State House in Boston, it depicts Colonel Shaw and his regiment leaving Boston for the South. Alexander is depicted with his drum, tapping the beat at the head of a column of his comrades. He lived to the age of 83, and died in 1930.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.