US Army - 1775 AD - 'happy birthday'

 Salvete Omnes,

June 14 has been declared the birthday of our US Army. 

It has been 250 years since the creation of the Army - vivat!

Happy Birthday to all soldiers and officers, veterans and families of those who served and are serving. 

Valete

Belden, the white chief- apishamore saddle circa 1870

 Salvete Omnes,

George P. Belden, native of Ohio, was a cavalryman in the Nebraska Cavalry and then got his Lieutenant's commission in the regular army as as 2nd Lt US 2nd Cavalry , serving in Dakota Territory and Wyoming Territory. He was cashiered from the Army in Nov 1869, and died in 1871. 
He wrote and published his experiences as Belden, The White Chief; or Twelve Years Among the Wild Indians of the Plains (Vet pub, NY- 1870), with illustrations based on his and fellow soldier, Mr. Innman, drawings.

Within his book there is a short chapter on the 'apishamore'  or soft pad saddle made for  White Bear by his wife.

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to be continued

Salvete

Julisz Kossak - Pol's Mohort illustrations

 Salvete Omnes,

in 1836-39 while living in village of Kalenica Wincenty Pol,  already a poet and veteran of November 1831 Uprising,  met a nobleman and veteran of Polish pre-1795 army, Duchy of Warsaw and all the other wars Poles fought in the early XIX century,  general Franciszek Ksawery Krasicki. 

Pol also met and conversed with another veteran major Kazimierz Ostaszewski of Zarszyn. In Nienadowa he met another veteran soldier Antoni Debinski, commander of infantry battalion in the pre-1795 Polish Crown army.
All these veterans told to Wincenty Pol these chivlaric  stories about one brave cavalryman Szymon Mohort, who in the autumn of this life, being almost a 100 years old  and still a soldier, was killed  defending Polish lands against the Russian invasion in the battle of Bruszkowice in 1792.

Inspired by these conversations our Wincenty spent a dozen year composing and polishing his poem - Mohort or  knightly rhapsody, officially finishing the poem on December 28, 1852.

Mohort Rhapsodies was published in in Krakow in 1854, and immediately  was met with praise and admiration by other writers, intellectuals, artists and general readership. It was published in many editions, more than a dozen times, between 1854 and 1914.  Many Polish artists of the era painted canvases based on Mohort poem, including Juliusz Kossak, January Suchodolski, Jozef Brodowski and others. 
The  1882 edition of Pol's  rhapsodies was particularly finely presented for the demanding audiences by Herman Altenberg of Lwow, who asked  then famous Juliusz Kossak to create illustrations for the poem.

This edition was exquisite and widely admired, adding more to the spread and interest in the Pol's poetic work.

I corralled some of these full page and smaller illuminations for our viewing pleasure - 

all images come from Polona, Polish National Library, digitized  edition of  Pol's Mohort.

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Valete

Silver - Lone Ranger's horse

 Salvete Omnes,

June 1st, a light Sunday, for some places kind of hot - like in Russian Federation, where Ukrainian drones successfully attacked 4-5 military airfields in deep country, from Murmansk to Irkutsk, destroying or damaging long-range bombers.  Also,today  in Poland Polish citizens went to for for their President (voting ended at 9 PM) and the results will most likely come in the morning US Eastern time tomorrow. 

Lone Ranger series

ad  rem,

American pop-culture icon - Lone Ranger - subject to many books, comics books, radio programs and films. 

Silver was the faithful mount of Lone Ranger and on Archive.org there are comics books available to reading and downloading. Some covers and a sample page

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Lone Ranger rode with Tonto, an Indian/Native American  - and this character was subject to separate comics books. 

a page from Lone Ranger sidekick Tonto 

Enjoy

Valete