“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

Colonel Mosby’s Daring Rangers

 

North Central Virginia became the preserve of one of the most dashing figures of the Civil War, John Singleton Mosby, nicknamed, the “Gray Ghost”.

 Mosby’s rangers immobilized 30,000 Union troops during the Civil War. Mosby’s command, often consisting of fewer than 50 men, captured thousands of Union troops, horses and mules.  Sam Moore of Berryville (Loudon County) wrote, “They had for us all the glamour of Robin Hood and his merry men, all the courage and bravery of the ancient crusaders, the unexpectedness of benevolent pirates and the stealth of Indians.”

 Soon civilians in the area became conscious of the Mosby magic and offered to enlist under the Confederate law which authorized the creation of guerilla bands. 

Sergeant William T. Biedler, 16 years old, of Company C, Mosby's Virginia Cavalry Regiment was one such enlistee. Many of Mosby’s soldiers were too young to join the regular army.  Mosby favored these young troopers. “They haven’t sense enough to know danger when they see it, and will fight anything I tell them to,” he once said.

Love, Sex, and Marriage in the Civil War

Civil War Humor 1861-1865

 

Colonel John Mosby’s Thoughts on War

 

North Central Virginia became the preserve of one of the most dashing figures of the Civil War, John Singleton Mosby, nicknamed, the “Gray Ghost”.

Ruminating on war, Mosby wrote, “It is a classical maxim that it is sweet and becoming to die for one's country; but whoever has seen the horrors of a battlefield feels that it is far sweeter to live for it.”

Mosby disapproved of slavery but once said,  “I am not ashamed of having fought on the side of slavery – a soldier fights for his country – right or wrong – he is not responsible for the political merits of the course he fights in . . . The South was my country.”

The 1865 Fall of Richmond in Pictures

The Great Northern Rebellion of 1860 (alternate history)

Mosby’s Confederacy in the Civil War

 

North Central Virginia became the preserve of one of the most dashing figures of the Civil War, John Singleton Mosby, nicknamed, the “Gray Ghost”.  Mosby commanded the 43^rd Battalion, 1^st Virginia Cavalry, known to history as Mosby’s Rangers or Mosby’s Raiders.   The 43rd Battalion operated officially as a unit of the Army of Northern Virginia, but the 1,900 men who served under Mosby from January 1863 through April 1865 lived outside of the norms of the regular army. 

 The Confederate government created special rules to govern partisan rangers such as Mosby’s men.  These rules included permission to share in the disposition of the spoils of war.  Because of this, Union officers considered Mosby’s men little better than common outlaws.  In 1864, several of Mosby’s men captured in battle were executed by Union forces.  Mosby retaliated, executing a similar number of Union soldiers.

The 1865 Fall of Richmond in Pictures

Treasure Legends of the Civil War

 

 

The Grave of John S. Mosby “The Gray Ghost”

 

The grave of Colonel John S. Mosby, the Gray Ghost, is in the Warrenton Cemetery in Warrenton, Virginia.  During the course of the Civil War Mosby was wounded seven times. For someone who had been a sickly youth, he proved quite resilient, dying at the age of 82 on May 30, 1916. After the war, the thirty-one-year-old Mosby went on to become a distinguished railway lawyer.  He also served as U.S. consul to Hong Kong and in several other Federal government posts.  Although Mosby’s war time exploits have been romanticized, he himself once said that there was, “no man in the Confederate Army who had less of the spirit of knight-errantry in him or took a more practical view of war than I did.”

The Civil War Wedding

The 1865 Fall of Richmond in Pictures

Robert E. Lee after the Civil War

 

After surrendering the Army of Northern Virginia to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, Robert E. Lee transitioned from Confederate general to civilian advocate for national healing. He was not arrested or tried, but he was stripped of voting rights and the Arlington estate, which became a national cemetery.  Lee signed an amnesty oath on October 2, 1865—though his citizenship was not restored until 1975.

Declining lucrative offers, Lee accepted the presidency of struggling Washington College in Lexington, Virginia. He modernized the curriculum, emphasizing practical education, engineering, and journalism, while promoting reconciliation: "I think it wisest not to keep open the sores of war." In a post-war interview, Lee expressed relief at slavery's abolition, viewing the conflict as tied to states' rights rather than perpetuating bondage.

His health, weakened by heart issues, failed after an 1870 stroke. He died on October 12 at age 63. Lee's post-war focus on unity influenced the renamed Washington and Lee University and symbolized Southern reintegration into the United States.

The Confederate Woman: Soldier and Spy

Treasure Legends of the Civil War

Colonel John S. Mosby After the Civil War

 

John Singleton Mosby, the legendary Confederate guerrilla leader known as the "Gray Ghost," navigated a controversial path after the American Civil War ended in 1865. Rather than formally surrendering, Mosby disbanded his Rangers near Salem, Virginia, and returned to civilian life as a lawyer in Warrenton. Defying Southern expectations, he became a Republican, supporting Reconstruction and endorsing Ulysses S. Grant's 1868 presidential bid—a move that drew death threats from former Confederates.

Grant rewarded Mosby's loyalty by appointing him U.S. consul to Hong Kong from 1878 to 1885. Returning stateside, Mosby served in the Department of Justice from 1904 to 1910 under President Theodore Roosevelt, investigating land frauds in the West. He also authored memoirs defending his wartime actions.

Mosby's post-war reinvention symbolized reconciliation for some, betrayal for others. Living until 1916, he remained a complex figure: a Southern warrior who embraced the Union’s future.

The 1865 Fall of Richmond in Pictures

Love, Sex, and Marriage in the Civil War

The Death of Crazy Horse

 

Crazy Horse, born around 1840 as Tashunke Witko, was a revered Oglala Lakota warrior and leader known for his fierce resistance against U.S. encroachment on Native lands. He played a pivotal role in the Great Sioux War of 1876-1877, notably at the Battle of Little Bighorn, where Lakota and Cheyenne forces defeated Lt. Col. George Custer's 7th Cavalry.

After the harsh winter of 1876-1877 depleted resources, Crazy Horse surrendered with about 900 followers at Camp Robinson (later Fort Robinson) in Nebraska on May 6, 1877, under General George Crook. Promised a reservation in their homeland, tensions arose amid rumors of his potential flight or uprising. On September 5, 1877, military authorities ordered his arrest to prevent disruption.

Escorted to the guardhouse, a scuffle erupted when Crazy Horse resisted confinement. In the chaos, he was bayoneted in the back by a soldier—accounts vary on whether it was intentional or accidental—and mortally wounded. He died that evening, around midnight, at age 37.  Crazy Horse's remains were move to an undisclosed location, His final resting place remains unknown.

Today, the Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota honors his legacy as a symbol of Indigenous resilience.

Custer’s Last Stand: Portraits in Time

Custer’s Last Stand Re-examined

The Mysterious Death of President Harding

 

President Warren G. Harding’s sudden death in San Francisco on August 2, 1923, quickly became one of the most puzzling episodes in United States presidential history. Stricken during a cross-country political tour he had been suffering for weeks from exhaustion, chest pains, shortness of breath, and what his doctors variously called ptomaine poisoning, pneumonia, and an overstrained heart.​

 That evening at the Palace Hotel, Florence Harding read aloud a flattering article about her husband as he appeared to be recovering, when he reportedly shuddered and collapsed, dying almost instantly at age fifty-seven. An official bulletin, signed by five physicians, attributed his death to a stroke, but no autopsy was performed because the First Lady refused one and ordered immediate embalming, a decision that fueled suspicion.​

 In the absence of conclusive medical evidence, rumors flourished: whispered tales of suicide, whispers that Florence had poisoned him because of his extra-marital affairs, or that political enemies silenced him as many scandals involving political corruption such as Teapot Dome were closing in.

Secrets of American History

U.S. Intervention in Latin America 1898-1948

General George Pickett after the War

 

After the Civil War, George E. Pickett lived a difficult existence. Under investigation for the 1864 hanging of twenty-two Union prisoners in North Carolina, he fled with his wife and their infant son to Montreal, fearing prosecution as a war criminal. Intervention by his old West Point acquaintance Ulysses S. Grant led to the quiet termination of the inquiry, allowing Pickett to return to Virginia in 1866.​

Back home, Pickett discovered that neither his health nor his reputation would support a prominent public role. Unable to re-enter the U.S. Army, he attempted farming near Richmond and worked as an insurance agent.

He lived modestly, often brooding over Gettysburg and the destruction of his division, and rarely spoke publicly about his wartime service. In 1874 Congress removed his remaining political disabilities, granting him a formal pardon, but the gesture could not repair his declining health or restore his fortunes before his death the following year.​

Pickett died in Norfolk, Virginia, on July 30, 1875, at the age of fifty, his health broken in the hard postwar years. Suffering from what contemporaries described as a liver abscess or “gastric fever,” he passed away far from the Pennsylvania fields that had made his name synonymous with the doomed assault at Gettysburg.​

Pickett was first laid to rest in Cedar Grove Cemetery in Norfolk, a modest interment for a man once celebrated across the former Confederacy. Within months, however, friends and admirers arranged for his remains to be moved to Richmond, the old Confederate capital, a shift meant to honor both his rank and symbolic status.​

On October 23–24, 1875, Pickett’s body was disinterred and carried in solemn procession to Hollywood Cemetery, where thousands lined the route and joined the funeral cortege. There he was buried among other Confederate dead, his grave later marked by a prominent memorial dedicated in 1888, though the exact spot of his remains beneath the monument is uncertain.​

Love, Sex, and Marriage in the Civil War

The Great Northern Rebellion of 1860 (alternate history)

The Philosophy of Chief Plenty Coups

 

Plenty Coups was the last traditional chief of the Crow Tribe and a visionary leader. Plenty Coups experienced a vision when he was very young that non-Native American people would ultimately take control of his homeland. He allied the Crow with the whites when the war for the West was being fought.

One of his famous quotes is: "Education is your greatest weapon. With education you are the white man's equal, without education you are his victim and so shall remain all of your lives. Study, learn, help one another always. Remember there is only poverty and misery in idleness and dreams – but in work there is self-respect and independence." 

Arizona Legends and Lore

Gold, Murder and Monsters in the Superstition Mountains

Crow Chief Plenty Coups: Visionary Leader

 

Plenty Coups was the last traditional chief of the Crow Tribe, renowned for his warrior prowess and prophetic visions that shaped his people's future. Born near Billings, Montana, he earned his name through daring coups against rivals like the Sioux and Cheyenne. A childhood vision in the foretold white dominance over Native lands, advising cooperation to ensure Crow survival—the chickadee, his spirit guide, symbolized listening and wisdom.

As chief from his late 20s, Plenty Coups allied with the U.S. Army in 1876 during the Great Sioux War, aiding at battles like Rosebud to counter territorial threats. He made multiple Washington trips to safeguard Crow reservations, retaining most lands amid allotment pressures. Advocating education as the "greatest weapon," he transitioned his tribe to reservation life while preserving traditions.

In 1921, he honored the Unknown Soldier at Arlington, placing his war bonnet on the tomb. His legacy endures in Chief Plenty Coups State Park, his donated homestead, and his 1930 autobiography chronicling Crow history.

Custer’s Last Stand: Portraits in Time

Gold, Murder and Monsters in the Superstition Mountains

Why the Crow allied with Custer

 

The Crow tribe allied with Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and the U.S. Army during the 1876 Great Sioux War primarily because of long-standing intertribal warfare with their traditional enemies: the Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho.

For decades, these powerful groups had raided Crow lands, stolen horses, and pushed into prime buffalo hunting territories in the Powder River country and Bighorn region—territories guaranteed to the Crow by the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie. The Lakota expansion threatened the Crow's survival and way of life, creating deep enmity.

Crow leaders, including visionary chief Plenty Coups, saw alliance with the United States as a strategic way to counter this existential threat, gain military protection, and preserve their territory against stronger rivals. The Crow were generally at peace with Americans and viewed the U.S. Army as a lesser danger compared to ongoing Sioux and Cheyenne incursions.

Traditional Crow warriors exemplified the fierce independence and martial culture that drove their decision to fight alongside the Army:

By siding with Custer, the Crow aimed to expel the Sioux from their reservation lands. After the broader defeat of the Lakota, Crow chief Plenty Coups noted his people could finally sleep without fear of raids—a direct outcome of this pragmatic alliance in a complex era of survival.

Custer’s Last Stand Re-examined

Legends of the Superstition Mountains

Custer's Indian Allies at the Little Bighorn

 

George Armstrong Custer relied heavily on Native American scouts. These men, primarily from the Arikara and Crow tribes, served the U.S. Army to strike against their traditional enemies—the Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho.

The Arikara provided around forty scouts, including the famed Bloody Knife, Custer's favorite and trusted guide. Several Arikara, like Bloody Knife, Bobtail Bull, and Little Brave, died in the fighting. The Crow contributed six key scouts, such as Curley, White Man Runs Him, Goes Ahead, Hairy Moccasin, Half Yellow Face, and White Swan. Familiar with the terrain in their own historic lands, they spotted the vast encampment from the Crow's Nest overlook and delivered dire warnings Custer largely ignored.

Their service highlights the complex alliances of the Indian Wars, where Native warriors fought on both sides of the conflict.

Custer’s Last Stand: Portraits in Time

Gold, Murder and Monsters in the Superstition Mountains