Location: Escambia County
Campaign: Operations of Gulf Blockading Squadron (1861)
Date(s): October 9, 1861
Principal Commanders: Col. Harvey Brown [US]; Confederate Brig. Gen. Richard H. Anderson [CS]
Forces Engaged: Santa Rosa Island Garrison (approx. 600 men) [US]; infantry and artillery detachments (approx. 1,200 men) [CS]
Estimated Casualties: 154 total (US 67; CS 87)
Description: After midnight on October 9, Brig. Gen. Richard Anderson crossed from the mainland to Santa Rosa Island with 1,200 men in two small steamers to surprise Union camps and capture Fort Pickens. He landed on the north beach about four miles east of Fort Pickens and divided his command into three columns. After proceeding about three miles, the Confederates surprised the 6th Regiment, New York Volunteers, in its camp and routed the regiment. Gen. Anderson then adopted a defensive stance to entice the Federals to leave the fort and attack. Receiving reinforcements, Col. Harvey Brown sallied against the Confederates, who reembarked and returned to the mainland.
Result(s): Union victory
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I was indeed very humbled and pleased with the response from my latest dispatch. You see, as these ideas and con-cepts reveal themselves to me so freely and naturally, I quite often forget how foreign they may seem to you. I therefore will make an effort to speak deliberately this time, as I truly do not wish to confound.
I was asked just recently by the voice of someone genuinely perplexed:
‘Why do we even need the four-fold?’
You need the four-fold because the Pre-Socratic AllStarz is spiritually bankrupt.
‘Why is the PSAS spiritually bankrupt?’
The PSAS is spiritually bankrupt because, most likely, it is you that is spiritually bankrupt.
‘What does it mean to be spiritually bankrupt?’
Being spiritually bankrupt means to descend into a culture of frivolity. It means being confused; not knowing oneself. Spiritual bankruptcy is an affliction from which no amount of reserve dollars can save you. It is everywhere around us, all-consuming, and it eats at us in the same way the acid from the rain slowly weakens the ancient columns that have stood for centuries. This League, which has stood for only four years, is on the verge of collapse; only, most would not even know it.
‘How do you know it?’
I do not ‘know’ it, but I feel it.
Think of the most beautiful gemstone you have ever seen in your life. In its splendor, it shines and wants only to shine. But know the effort it took to polish, sculpt, uncover, reveal its radiant beauty. It takes hours, days, months, even longer, but once finished it mesmerizes and enthralls. It is finally an offering worthy of the gods. If you have ever held such beauty and seen it with your own eyes, you know this to be true.
Such is the state of the PSAS today, it is ugly, dark, and dilapidated. Do you not also see this?
It begs for the artisanship of the master craftsman.
‘Why?!’
To build!
‘Come again?’
Well, we know building is really dwelling. The Old English word for building, buan, means to dwell. This signifies: to remain, to stay in a place. This is the goal we must all have for the PSAS - to re-main. But the real meaning of the verb bauen, namely, to dwell, has been lost to the PSAS. You can still see this con-cept with the word "neighbor". The Old English word is neahgehur; neah, near, and gebur, dweller. The neighbor is the Nachgebur, the Nachgebauer, the near-dweller, he who dwells nearby.
‘It would seem that the verb bin ("ich bin"; english: "I am") shares the same etymology with bauen, or buan. What then does ‘ich bin’ mean?’
Good question. The old word bauen, to which the bin belongs, answers: ich bin, du bist mean: I dwell, you dwell. The way in which you are and I am, the manner in which we humans are on the earth, is Buan, dwelling. To be a human being means to be on the earth as a mortal. It means to dwell. The old word bauen, which says that man is insofar as he dwells, also means at the same time to cherish and protect, to preserve and care for, specifically to till the soil, to cultivate the vine.
‘I see. But who will cherish and protect, preserve and care for all of us in the Pre-Socratic AllStarz?’
The Four-Fold will.
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