The Peshtigo Firestorm-- Part 1: One of Top Five Deadliest Disasters In U.S.

From the book "Firestorm At Peshtigo" by Denise Gess and William Lutz.

I have been writing a lot about this fire in my Saw the Elephant: Civil War Blog this past month.  I also just wrote about it in my Tattooed On Your Soul: World War II Blog today.

Peshtigo, Wisconsin, and towns around it burned down October 8, 1871 in an unbelievably horrific fire and between 1,500 and 2,500 people were killed.  Unfortunately, there was another, better known fire that day called the Great Chicago Fire so Peshtigo did not get much into the news.

This is considered as one of the top five deadliest disasters in U.S. history

1.  Galveston, Texas, hurricane of 1900, 6,000 to 8,000 people killed.

The Rest of the List In Next Post.  --Cooter

One Man's Travels By Water in 1836-- Part 6: Texas Vagabonds "Drinking Bad Whiskey" and the Alligator Incident

In Galveston, Texas, David Crandall observed a sandbar with "tents and a few shanties and the population consisted of Mexican prisoners taken at the Battle of San Jacinto" overseen by "vagabonds in Texas uniform ... who divided their time between drinking bad whiskey, playing poker and tormenting their Mexican prisoners."  (Well, at least the Mexican prisoners were still alive, which was not an option for the Texan defenders of the Alamo earlier in the year.)

Across from an old Spanish village at the head of Galveston Bay, Crandall saw a wide sandy beach "literally covered with water fowl."  He borrowed a a dugout canoe to go on a "shooting excursion" but didn't have much luck.

Intending to crawl under a nearby log to "get one fair shot," he approached slowly to avoid alarming the game.  However, "the log became alarmed and while I was yet thirty steps away, it started for the water at top speed.  ... What I had supposed to be a log proved to be a huge alligator."

--Cootgator