Sweden's "Lion of the North"
Bacon's Rebellion
Governor Kieft's Personal War
King Philip's War
By Steve Wilson
In the skies over a modern battlefield a joint tactical air control team is often credited for carrying their platoon's “big gun,” or radio, as devastating airstrikes are vectored in from aircraft loitering in the battle space where friendly forces are taking fire.
Laser guided munitions, global positioning systems, joint direct attack munition technology and real-time communications make it possible for military units to shape the battlefield to their advantage.
However, coordinated efforts on an ever changing fluid battle space aren't new concepts. In fact, credit for this military innovation, and several others, belongs to Gustavus II Adolphus, King of Sweden, whose reign lasted from October 12, 1617 until his death in battle, Nov. 6, 1632.
By Walt Giersbach
Nathaniel Bacon was caught in a dilemma on a hot July day in 1676. The settlers’ avowed enemy, the Susquehannocks and their allies, were in front of him in the upper counties of Virginia while Governor William Berkeley’s English army and militia were getting ready to attack Bacon from the rear. Hundreds of landowners, indentured servants, slaves and other volunteers making up Bacon’s army waited for orders.
By Walt Giersbach
For a brief period, the Dutch managed one of the most democratic, tolerant and
socially liberal settlements in the New World. In contrast, one of its
governors, Willem Kieft, will forever be known as the spiteful tyrant of New
Amsterdam. In the wake of his administration lay more than a thousand dead
Indians—men, women and children.* Such was the viciousness of his warfare that
a contemporary complained to authorities in Holland that the Indians were being
decapitated and burned alive by Kieft's soldiers.
By Walt Giersbach
The war is named for King Philip, the son of Massasoit and chief of the
Wampanoag nation. In his language, his name was Metacom, Metacomet, or
Pometacom. In 1662, the court at Plymouth Colony arrogantly summoned the
Wampanoag leader Wamsutta to Plymouth. Major Josiah Winslow (later Colonel) and
a small force took Wamsutta, Philip's brother, at gunpoint. Soon after
questioning, Wamsutta sickened and died and his death infuriated the Wampanoag
nation.