Andrew Green

No coward soul is mine, No trembler in the world’s storm-troubled sphere.

[Andrew Green @GheeButtershnap]

@GrantPaulsen @Wipps But the dodgers also have the best farm system in baseball (like, 8 Top 100 prospects which is two more than anyone else).

I think that’s a bigger reason why they can trade away prospects and not feel it.

[Echoes of War @EchoesofWarYT]

245 years ago today, a 35-year-old Spanish nobleman fired a single artillery shell that redrew the map of North America, broke British power in the Gulf of Mexico, and arguably saved the American Revolution. His name was Bernardo de Gálvez. He's not in your textbook. He should be.

When Spain entered the war against Britain in June 1779, the American cause was bleeding out. Washington's army was unpaid and shrinking. The Continental dollar was worth pennies. The British had taken Savannah and were preparing to take Charleston. France was helping, but France alone couldn't bankrupt the British Empire.

Spain could. And in New Orleans sat the man who would prove it.

Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid was 33 years old, the governor of Spanish Louisiana, a battle-scarred career officer who had been wounded fighting Apaches in northern Mexico and Algerians in North Africa. The day he learned Spain had declared war, he didn't wait for orders from Madrid. He raised an army of Spanish regulars, Louisiana Creoles, free Black militia from New Orleans, Acadian refugees, German settlers, and Choctaw scouts, and he went on the attack.

In three months he took Manchac, Baton Rouge, and Natchez. The next year he took Mobile. The British presence on the Gulf shrank to one last fortress. Pensacola, the capital of British West Florida, defended by Major General John Campbell with 1,500 redcoats, the 3rd Waldeck Regiment of German mercenaries, loyalist battalions from Maryland and Pennsylvania, and a powerful alliance of Creek and Choctaw warriors led by the brilliant mixed-race chief Alexander McGillivray.

Gálvez arrived off Pensacola in March 1781 with 7,000 men and a fleet. The Spanish naval commander, Admiral Calbo de Irazábal, refused to enter Pensacola Bay. The entrance was narrow, raked by British guns at Fort Barrancas Coloradas, and treacherous with sandbars. So Gálvez did something insane. He boarded his own little brig, the Galveztown, hoisted his personal pennant, and sailed her into the bay alone, in full view of the British batteries, daring the Royal Navy to sink him. The British fired and missed. The Spanish fleet, shamed, followed him in. For this he was awarded the right to put the words "Yo Solo," meaning "I alone," on his coat of arms by the King of Spain.

The siege ground on for two months. Gálvez was shot in the abdomen and the finger directing artillery and refused to leave the field. The British defenses at the Queen's Redoubt, also called the Crescent, held against everything thrown at them. And then, on the morning of May 8, 1781, a Spanish howitzer crew lofted a shell over the parapet. It dropped, by pure luck or perfect skill, directly into the open powder magazine.

The explosion killed roughly 100 defenders in a single instant. Waldeck grenadiers, British regulars, loyalists, all gone. The blast tore the redoubt's wall open like paper. Spanish grenadiers and Louisiana militia poured through the breach within minutes and turned the captured British guns on the inner works. Campbell knew it was over.

The next morning, May 9, white flags went up. By May 10 the entire province of West Florida belonged to Spain. Over 1,100 British troops marched out as prisoners of war.

The strategic consequences were catastrophic for Britain. The Gulf Coast was lost. The Mississippi was a Spanish river from source to sea. Britain could no longer reinforce its southern armies by sea from the Caribbean, and the Royal Navy's Caribbean squadron had to be redeployed. Five months later, Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, in a siege funded in part by 500,000 silver pesos that Gálvez and the people of Havana raised in a matter of days to pay French Admiral de Grasse's fleet to come north.

Without that money, no French fleet. Without the French fleet, no Yorktown. Without Yorktown, no independence on those terms.

Gálvez was made Count of Gálvez and Viscount of Galveztown. The bay he charted in Texas still bears his name, Galveston. His portrait hangs in the United States Capitol by act of Congress. In 2014, he was made an honorary citizen of the United States, an honor given to only eight people in American history, including Lafayette, Churchill, and Mother Teresa.

He died of yellow fever in Mexico City at 40 years old, three years after the war ended.

Most Americans have never heard his name.

[Thomas Rid @RidT]

M Street and Wisconsin in Georgetown taken over by a large crowd of celebrating Iranians, chanting USA USA … not what I was expecting during my run today.

[Andrew Green @GheeButtershnap]

@tcschell @MarkZuckerman He’s on the major league disabled list, so all this time counts as MLB service time

[Andrew Green @GheeButtershnap]

@EODHappyCaptain Not a chance, that speech is where I get my time back for every weekend I spent writing SIRs for their outrageous malfeasance 😂

[Neil Stone @DrNeilStone]

Sometimes vaccine efficacy is subtle

Sometimes it isn't

[American Veteran @amvetsupport]

I am ready to get stupid responses from maga supporters saying I can’t be a veteran because I think trump is destroying America

I say this. Bring it on

Anyone who served this country and still supports trump is out of excuses. He has no respect for you and certainly not for our allies. Today, they are starting to tear apart our military, they put a Russia sympathizer in charge of our security and an inebriated frat boy running our DOD

Yesterday trump blamed Zelensky for starting the war we all watched Putin start. He called Zelensky a dictator and praised Putin. This has to stop.

Take your shots at me and other veterans who have been telling you how dangerous he is. This is not liberals and conservatives. This is about Americans who love our military and want to stand for good, not evil

[Duffel Blog @DuffelBlog]

NEW: Duffel Blog's guide to making a horrific aviation accident about your politics https://t.co/eJXp5oTQ7w

[ONE PIECE @OnePieceAnime]

What a crazy thing to witness!

[Historic Vids @historyinmemes]

One of the funniest comedy clips in history

[Andrew Green @GheeButtershnap]

How’s your morning? Because my wife just greeted me by burping into my hand

[Duffel Blog @DuffelBlog]

Outstanding community note

[Andrew Green @GheeButtershnap]

@TopSausage_7 @callsigncowgirl Goes to the 1SG, he validates the request and pushes to me. They’re limited because the company only has 11 computers… I can’t create them out of thin air. We have a scanner in the COF thats open for everyone

[Andrew Green @GheeButtershnap]

@Thrones_Memes *technically* Edmure has a son, so not the last Tully 🤓

[Andrew Green @GheeButtershnap]

@TheWTFNation There’s big block on the sick call slip that says “Unit Commander Signature”, I’ll go ahead and give you 3 guesses why thats there

[Andrew Green @GheeButtershnap]

Discovering in the year of our Lord 2023, that my wife is an ‘overhead light person’ first thing in the morning may be the death of me

[Dr. matthew pierce, PhD, MDiv, RN, LPC, CPA, Jedi @MatthewEPierce]

ladies, as warm weather approaches, please consider your brothers in christ as u decide what to wear.

a thread

[Matt. @MattTheBrand]

weighted blankets are not enough. hit me with a shovel

[Brady Africk @bradyafr]

Ukrainian forces have liberated more than 64,000 square kilometers of territory since April, maps from @criticalthreats and @TheStudyofWar show.

[Institute for the Study of War @TheStudyofWar]

Here are today's control-of-terrain maps for #Russia's invasion of #Ukraine from @TheStudyofWar and @criticalthreats

https://t.co/mCKqMDElRM