Catholic Holy Relics in the United States

 

The United States is home to numerous holy relics, primarily Catholic ones, including fragments of saints' bodies (first-class relics), items they owned or touched (second-class), and pieces associated with Jesus, such as fragments of the True Cross.

These relics are venerated in churches, shrines, and chapels across the country, with some sites housing vast collections authenticated by the Church.

St. Anthony's Chapel in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, holds the largest collection of relics outside the Vatican, with over 5,000 items, including relics from more than 1,200 saints and multiple fragments of the True Cross.

Maria Stein Shrine of the Holy Relics in Maria Stein, Ohio, is the second-largest collection in the U.S., featuring over 1,200 relics (mostly first-class, such as bones) from around 900 saints, plus several fragments of the True Cross.

Other notable sites include: Churches and shrines in places like Louisville, St. Louis, Tampa, and Sedona.

Fragments of the True Cross are particularly widespread, found in at least a dozen documented locations, including the Shrine of the True Cross in Dickinson, Texas.

Spain: Legends and Lore

Lost Treasures and Wonders

The Death of General George Patton

 

On December 9, 1945, General George S. Patton Jr.—the audacious commander whose Third Army raced across Europe—set out for a pheasant hunt near Mannheim, Germany. In the back seat of his 1938 Cadillac staff car, driven by PFC Horace Woodring, Patton sat beside Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Hobart “Hap” Gay. At 11:45 a.m., near a railroad crossing a slow-turning 2.5-ton U.S. Army truck cut across their path. The low-speed collision—barely 20 mph—sent the unrestrained Patton slamming forward into the steel-framed glass partition.

 He suffered a severe spinal cord injury. Bleeding from a deep scalp laceration, Patton remained conscious.  He lay in traction for twelve days.

 On December 20 a blood clot traveled to his lungs. He died in his sleep at 5:55 p.m. on December 21, 1945, at age 60, from a pulmonary embolism.  On Christmas Eve he was buried, at his own request, among the men of his Third Army in Luxembourg American Cemetery.

 A conspiracy theory surrounding General Patton's death alleges that his December 9, 1945, low-speed car accident was deliberately staged as part of an assassination plot, rather than a tragic mishap, with the goal of silencing his outspoken anti-Russian views.  Believers in this theory claim Patton was a loose cannon who might expose scandals, run for president in 1948, or spark WW 3, making him a threat to U.S., British, or Soviet interests.

Wars and Invasions (Four alternative history stories)

The Invasion of Canada 1933

The Klan Act of 1871: Then and Now

 

The Enforcement Act of 1871 also known as the Klan Act, was enacted to combat the violent anti-government vigilantism of the Ku Klux Klan in the post-Civil War South.  The core purpose of the act was to make it a federal crime to “injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate” American citizens in the free exercise of their constitutional rights, especially when done by a group.

The act was passed April 20, 1871, during the administration of President Ulysses S. Grant.  The statute has been subject to only minor changes since then.  In its early history, under the Grant Administration, this act was used to bring to justice those who were violating the Civil Rights of newly freed African Americans. 

In February 2021, a suit was filed alleging violations of the Act pertaining to attempts to reject certification of the election results during the 2021 United States Electoral College vote count, as well as alleging conspiracy to incite violence leading to the 2021 United States Capitol attack.

In 2026, the Klan Act has been invoked in the case off anti-government vigilantes in the state of Minnesota who allegedly disrupted a church service in furtherance of a political agenda. Federal prosecutors allege that the Minnesota church protest amounted to a conspiracy to interfere with the congregants’ constitutional right to unimpeded practice of their religion—exactly the type of conduct the statute was designed to criminalize.

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi 1861-1875: A Portrait

The Gilded Age and Revolution

General William T. Sherman After the Civil War

 

Following the American Civil War, William Tecumseh Sherman, the Union general renowned for his "March to the Sea," continued his military career with distinction. In 1869, after Ulysses S. Grant's election to the presidency, Sherman succeeded him as Commanding General of the United States Army, a position he held until 1883. Promoted to full general, he oversaw operations in the West, leading campaigns against Native American tribes during the Indian Wars. Sherman advocated for a harsh strategy to subdue resistance, viewing it as necessary for national expansion, though he criticized corrupt agents on reservations.

Retiring in 1884, Sherman relocated to New York City, where he became a sought-after speaker and author. He published his memoirs in 1875, reflecting on the war's brutality. Despite his popularity, he staunchly rejected political ambitions, quipping that if nominated for president, he would not run, and if elected, he would not serve.

Sherman died of pneumonia on February 14, 1891, in New York, leaving a complex legacy.

 

Women Doctors in the Civil War

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi 1861-1875: A Portrait

“The Mad Mullah” of Somalia

 

In the scorched sands of 19th-century Somaliland, where nomadic clans roamed under the  relentless sun, Sayyid Muhammad Abdullah Hassan was born in 1856.  He was to become a staunch enemy of foreign influence in Somalia.

Hassan pursued religious studies, and after a transformative Hajj to Mecca in the 1890s,  embraced the strict fundamentalist message of the Salihiyya order.

Returning to Somalia in 1895, he preached against foreign encroachments and missionary influences, uniting disparate Somali tribes under a banner of Islamic purity and independence.

In 1899, he declared jihad, founding the Dervish movement—a guerrilla force that waged relentless campaigns against British, Italian, and Ethiopian forces.

His fighters effectively employed hit-and-run tactics.  The British mounted four major expeditions against the Dervishes between 1900 and 1904 but failed to subdue the movement.  Dubbed the "Mad Mullah" by the British, Hassan was suspected of conspiring with Germany in World War one to raise a widespread Muslim uprising in British controlled areas.

No such uprising arose, but the British continued to pursue Hassan’s forces after World War one, finally smashing the Dervish strongholds by the use of aerial bombardment in 1920.

A fugitive, Hassan died of influenza in Ethiopia on December 21, 1920.

History's Ten Worst Generals

Wars and Invasions (Four alternative history stories)

Truman Tries to Buy Greenland

 

On April 9, 1940 Denmark was occupied by Nazi Germany.  One year later, on April 1941 the United States occupied Greenland to defend it against a possible German invasion.   The occupation continued until 1945.

In 1946, American President Harry Truman’s quietly explored purchasing Greenland from Denmark, viewing the vast Arctic island as a strategic bulwark. American planners saw Greenland as a crucial platform for air bases and early warning systems against potential Russian bombers crossing the polar route toward North America.

Secretary of State James Byrnes raised the idea with the Danish foreign minister during a visit to New York, suggesting that an outright sale might be the “most clean-cut and satisfactory” arrangement. The United States was prepared to offer about 100 million dollars …(2 billion dollars in today’s money) in gold, a substantial sum in the immediate postwar period.

The U.S. bid for Greenland had historical precedents. At the outbreak of World War I in Europe, the United States fearing that the Danish West Indies would be seized by Germany as a submarine base offered to buy the islands.  The sale price was equivalent to 614 million dollars in today’s money. The deal was finalized on January 17, 1917. The United States took possession on March 31, 1917, and the islands were renamed the Virgin Islands of the United States

Denmark ultimately rejected the notion of selling Greenland in 1946, but the episode underscored the island’s growing geopolitical value. Instead of a purchase, Washington secured expanded defense rights and air base access, integrating Greenland into the broader Western security architecture without formally changing its sovereignty.

                                                             Secrets of American History

Nuclear War 1962 (Alternate History)

Winter Misery at Valley Forge 1778

 

General George Washington wrote of the march into Valley Forge: "To see men without clothes to cover their nakedness, without blankets to lay on, without shoes by which their marches might be traced by the blood from their feet, and almost as often without provisions as with; marching through frost and snow and at Christmas taking up their winter quarters within a day's march of the enemy, without a house or hut to cover them till they could be built, and submitting to it without a murmur is a mark of patience and obedience which in my opinion can scarce be paralleled."

George Washington reached out for support, writing, "for some days past, there has been little less, than a famine in camp. A part of the army has been a week, without any kind of flesh, and the rest for three or four days. Naked and starving as they are, we cannot enough admire the incomparable patience and fidelity of the soldiery.

The Continental Army that marched into Valley Forge consisted of about 12,000 people, including soldiers, women, and children. That winter, starvation and disease killed nearly 2,000 soldiers.

Murder in Colonial Virginia

Who Were the Slaves of the Founding Fathers?

George Washington’s Winter Storm

 

      Weather information goes back a long time in Virginia, thanks to record keeping by observers such as George Washington, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. Snow is the most common form of natural disaster in Northern Virginia.  George Washington recorded that a gigantic snow storm on January 28, 1772 left thirty six inches of snow on the ground in Northern Virginia.  This number is the unofficial record for the area.  Washington also reported a late season cold snap, with spits of snow and a hard wind on May 4, 1774.  During the winter of 1783-1784 the Potomac River froze over in November and the ice did not break up until March 15.  The previous year an entire regiment of the Virginia infantry marched across the frozen Rappahannock River. 

How Martha Washington Lived: 18th Century Customs

 

Love, Sex, and Marriage in Colonial America 1607-1800