I'm going to throw this one out but don't share it with any teasips, because I always tell them College Station is God's country because it lies in the arms of God.

A European mapmaker switched the Colorado and Brazos river names on his map and the error stuck. When Spanish explorers came to central Texas they saw the muddy red Brazos and called it the Colorado (Red) River. Moving up the Colorado River they saw the huge bluffs on either side of the river and called it the Rio de Los Brazos de Dios (The River of the Arms of God) as if the bluffs were the arms of God running down either side of the river. When the maps were made in Europe, a mapmaker flipped the names of the rivers. The error stuck.

And for an even more localized mind blowing fact about my personal local area. When the Santa Fe Expedition filibusterers gathered on the banks of Brushy Creek at Kenney's Fort, in modern Round Rock, in 1841, they were hunting alligators in the Creek and in the San Gabriel River (Georgetown). They must have been through in their hunting.

George II and III's sons were much more martial and randy than them.

William, Duke of Cumberland, second son of George II, was wounded at Dettinger and narrowly escaped defeat at Fontenoy in the Seven Years War. Considered a martinet, he had better luck against the Bonnie Prince Charlies defeating him at Culloden. His illegitimate son George Fitzclarance served with the 10th Hussars under Wellington on the Peninsula.

Ernest Augustus, fifth son of George III, Duke of Cumberland, lost an eye at Tournai in the French Revolutionary War leading the Hanoverian Cavalry. He ultimately became a Field Marshal and King of Hanover. HIs valet attempted to murder him with his own saber. He is rumored to have had a child with his sister Sofia (ehhh!)

Frederick, second son of George III, Duke of York, seems to have been a decent commander but luck never smiled on him in Flanders and Helder during the French Revolutionary War. He got into trouble when his mistress used his reputation to enrich herself. He had two illegitimate sons fight in the Battle of Waterloo. Lt. John "Scamp: Stillwell died in the battle with the 95th Foot and Capt. Charles Hesse of the 18th Hussars was wounded there. Hesse was a "short plump, vulgar-looking man" but was a famous Lothario himself who had affairs with Princess Charlotte and the Queen of Naples. Ironically he died in a duel with one of Napoleon's illegitimate sons

Probably the most remarkable medical officer in the history of the British Army was James Miranda Barry. Barry entered the army in 1813 as a hospital assistant, two years later was appointed an assistant surgeon and rose to become inspector general pf the Army Medical Department in 1858. While serving at the Cape of Good Hope, Barry was described as a very skilled physician but "a most wayward man" whose quarrelsome nature had led to the fighting of a duel.

When Dr. Barry died in 1865, it was discovered that he was a she, who at one time had given birth to a child. Barry had successfully disguised her sex for her entire 46 year military career.

On January 6, 1853, Franklin Pierce got on a train in Boston with his wife and their 11 year old son. He had been elected president two months earlier. He had not taken office yet.

An axle snapped a few miles outside Andover, Massachusetts. Their car came off the rails and… pic.twitter.com/bhIsVSU9Qt

— Echoes of War (@EchoesofWarYT) August 24, 2026

Man, that's incredible.

Quote:

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On January 6, 1853, Franklin Pierce got on a train in Boston with his wife and their 11 year old son. He had been elected president two months earlier. He had not taken office yet.

An axle snapped a few miles outside Andover, Massachusetts. Their car came off the rails and rolled down a twenty foot embankment.

Franklin and Jane climbed out of it with barely a scratch on them.

Bennie did not climb out.

He was the only person on that train who died. His father lifted him out of the wreckage and did not understand what he was holding until he took the boy's cap off. Pierce laid him down and covered him so his wife would not have to see it. She saw it anyway.

Here is the part people leave out.

Bennie was their third son and their last one. Franklin Jr. lived three days in 1836. Frank Robert died of typhus in 1843 at four years old. Bennie was the one who made it. Now the Pierces were a family of two.

And Jane had never wanted any of this. She hated Washington, hated politics, hated what the whole business did to her husband. When the Democrats nominated him in 1852 she fainted. She spent the entire campaign praying he would lose. Bennie had written to her about it and told her he hoped his father would not be elected.

So when she stood up in that field and found her son dead in the grass, she landed on an explanation and she never let go of it for the rest of her life. God had taken Bennie on purpose. He had done it so that Franklin would have nothing left in the world to distract him from the presidency.

Her husband had traded their child for the office.

Pierce basically agreed with her. He thought it was judgment on his ambition.

Nine weeks later he was inaugurated.

Jane was not there. She had skipped the burial too. The vice president was not there either, he was in Cuba dying of tuberculosis and took the oath on a plantation, then came home and died six weeks into the term. The inaugural ball was canceled.

Pierce walked out on March 4 and refused to put his hand on the Bible. He affirmed the oath instead of swearing it. He is the only president in American history who has ever done that.

Then he delivered the entire inaugural address from memory. No notes, no paper, nothing in his hands. First president who ever pulled that off. And this is how he opened it, in front of the whole country:

"It is a relief to feel that no heart but my own can know the personal regret and bitter sorrow over which I have been borne to a position so suitable for others rather than desirable for myself."

That is a man announcing he does not want the job on the day he accepts it.

The rest went how you would guess. Jane stayed in black for years and the staff started calling her the shadow of the White House. She wrote letters to her dead son from the residence. She sat for a sance with the Fox sisters trying to reach him. Pierce signed the Kansas Nebraska Act, cracked the country open faster than almost anyone thought possible, and became the only elected president whose own party refused to renominate him. The slogan going into the 1856 convention was Anybody But Pierce.

He drank himself to death. Cirrhosis, 1869. Jane was already gone, tuberculosis, 1863, still in mourning clothes.

Every other passenger on that train walked away.

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Itemized Roster of Aggie Casualties by Vessel

Shinyo Maru (5 Casualties)

• Class of 1926: LTC Rufus Hayden Rogers (Died 1944-09-07)
• Class of 1935: CPT Gus Herman Froebel (Died 1944-09-07)
• Class of 1937: 1LT Maxey Cleburne Chenault (Died 1944-09-07)
• Class of 1938: 2LT William Marion Taylor Jr. (Died 1944-09-07)
• Class of 1939: CPT Ross Iyon Miller (Died 1944-09-07)
  

Arisan Maru (12 Casualties)

• Class of 1932: CPT William Mark Curtis (Died 1944-10-24)
• Class of 1934: PVT William J. Collier Jr. (Died 1944-10-24)
• Class of 1935: CPT Roy McMahan Vick Jr. (Died 1944-10-24)
• Class of 1936: 1LT John Brown McCluskey Jr. (Died 1944-10-24)
• Class of 1936: CAPT James Russell Holmes (Died 1944-10-24)
• Class of 1938: 1LT Edgar Beaumont Burgess (Died 1944-10-24)
• Class of 1939: 1LT James Maurice Henry (Died 1944-10-24)
• Class of 1939: CPT Henry John Schutte Jr. (Died 1944-10-24)
• Class of 1940: 1LT John Darrell Stukenburg (Died 1944-10-24)
• Class of 1940: 1LT Melvin Ray Millard (Died 1944-10-24)
• Class of 1941: 1LT Charles Earl "Jack" Gaskell (Died 1944-10-24)
• Class of 1943: CPL George Perry McMillan Jr. (Died 1944-10-24)
  

Oryoku Maru (5 Casualties)

• Class of 1921: MAJ Maynard Goldman Snell (Died 1944-12-15)
• Class of 1928: Lt. Col. Eugene Thomas Lewis (Died 1945-01-31)
• Class of 1929: CPT Jack William Kelly (Died 1944-12-15)
• Class of 1930: CPT George Halsey Peets Jr. (Died 1944-12-22)
• Class of 1940: 2LT Orman Lester Fitzhugh (Died 1944-12-15)
  

Enoura Maru (2 Casualties)

• Class of 1922: MAJ John Vernon King (Died 1944-12-15)
• Class of 1945: 2LT Howard Preston Hardegree (Died 1945-01-09)
  

Brazil Maru & Transport Chain (10 Casualties) (Includes officers transferred from earlier bombed transports who perished en route or in Japanese air/hospital camps immediately following the voyage)

• Class of 1926: MAJ Adolph Hartung "Gies" Giesecke Sr. (Died 1945-02-06)
• Class of 1928: MAJ Paul Armstrong Brown (Died 1945-02-11)
• Class of 1931: CPT Graham MacFie Hatch Jr. (Died 1945-02-09)
• Class of 1933: MAJ Chester Alan "Pip" Peyton (Died 1945-02-17)
• Class of 1934: CPT Travis Edward Perrenot (Died 1945-01-22)
• Class of 1934: CAPT Cary McClure Abney III (Died 1945-01-28)
• Class of 1935: CPT Charles Martin Dempwolf (Died 1945-01-23)
• Class of 1937: CAPT Wilbert Arthur Calvert (Died 1945-01-22)
• Class of 1937: CPT Willis Arthur Scrivener (Died 1945-02-07)
• Class of 1939: 1LT Hugh A Derrick (Died 1945-01-23)
• Class of 1940: 2LT Marshall Howard Kennady Jr. (Died 1945-02-19)

In April 1945, during the closing days of WWII, the rare Lipizzaner horses of Austria’s historic Spanish Riding School, along with hundreds of other thoroughbreds, were trapped in Hostau, Czechoslovakia. Nazi Germany had confiscated the horses to build an experimental "Aryan"… pic.twitter.com/i9ZrGmG7JU

— Archaeo - Histories (@archeohistories) August 27, 2026

Oragator - I assume you're being facetious, but if you're not, check out Disney's "Miracle of the White Stallions." It's actually an interesting movie about the rescue from the German/Austrian perspective. Also, when I was assigned to 2nd Armored Cav Regiment in Nuernberg the '80s, the Regiment would send an officer to Vienna for the Spanish Riding School's annual commemoration of the rescue. Toujours Pret and Gig'Em!

• Quote:

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  Class of 1928: MAJ Paul Armstrong Brown (Died 1945-02-11)

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My uncle. I appreciate you remembering him.

OldArmy71 said:

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• Quote:

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  Class of 1928: MAJ Paul Armstrong Brown (Died 1945-02-11)

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My uncle. I appreciate you remembering him.

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A short summary from my research of the Texas Aggie newspapers

Maj. Paul A. Brown '28
Brown's story runs the length of the entire Corregidor thread. He was in Shanghai in 1941, protecting American citizens as Japanese forces closed in. He was transferred to Manila, then Corregidor, where he participated in the April 21, 1942, muster held under shellfire as the island was about to fall. He was awarded the Silver Star for heroism in the Philippines campaign and promoted to Major. He was captured when Corregidor fell. In February 1944, Maj. Jack Hawkins of the 4th Marines himself an escapee from Japanese Philippine Camp No. 2 brought word to Brown's wife that Brown was hopeful, well, and heavier than when Corregidor fell, and had received letters from home. He survived prison camps in the Philippines for two and a half years. In December 1944, he was placed aboard the prison ship that was torpedoed on December 15, and survived that too, recaptured from the water and taken to ***uoka Prison Camp on Kyushu. He died there of disease on February 11, 1945. He was a Marine officer and civil engineer who went on active duty from the U.S. Engineers office in Galveston in 1940 a prisoner since the fall of the Rock, a survivor of the Death Transport, and the war outlasted him by six months. Source: Texas Aggie, June 15, 1942 (Image 2 Silver Star confirmed and promoted to Major); February 15, 1944; March 2, 1944; October 1, 1945 (seq-2).

This request ran on the front page of the April 1, 1946 Texas Aggie

AGGIES, PLEASE!
Since we have learned such scanty information about Marine Major Paul A. Brown, '29, formerly of Galveston, Texas, we feel that you or some brother Aggie can help us. Major Brown survived one of the December 1944 ship sinkings, was recaptured and taken to ***uoka Prison Camp on the Island of Kyushu, where he reportedly died. If you have any knowledge of his experiences while imprisoned either at Cabanatuan or ***uoka, kindly communicate with his sister, Mrs. C. C. Edge, 1006 S. College Ave., Bryan, Texas, or phone her at 2-1281 if you attend the grand April 21 Homecoming this year.

Thank you so much for finding that information!

The note in the Texas Aggie is from my aunt, Grace Edge.

I have quite a bit of information on my uncle.

Navy Lieutenant George Petritz, who had been with Paul in the camp at Cabanatuan, escaped when the Oryoku Maru was sunk, and he eventually made his way back to the United States. In June of 1945 he wrote a letter to Paul's wife. He had become close friends with Paul in the camp, was able to give Paul's family what he intended as hopeful news, but of course Paul had died months earlier.

I don't want to bore everyone with all the details.

I found a photo online taken by an American plane that shows the Oryoku Maru sinking in Subic Bay and POWs swimming to shore.

A real super soldier program existed. In 1940, Germany shipped 35 million doses of an experimental compound to 3 million soldiers before the invasion of France.

Men marched for three days straight without sleep. Tank columns pushed through the Ardennes on a route commanders… https://t.co/CVATtmi4vK

— Aakash Gupta (@aakashgupta) August 30, 2026

Another story I had no idea about.

Quote:

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A real super soldier program existed. In 1940, Germany shipped 35 million doses of an experimental compound to 3 million soldiers before the invasion of France.

Men marched for three days straight without sleep. Tank columns pushed through the Ardennes on a route commanders considered impossible and reached the coast so fast the British army barely escaped at Dunkirk.

The compound was Pervitin, made by the Temmler pharmaceutical company in Berlin. Each tablet held 3 milligrams of methamphetamine. Crystal meth, sold over the counter since 1938 as an alertness pill. Tank crews got it baked into chocolate bars called Panzerschokolade.

Then came the part every serum story skips.

Officers started having heart attacks. One tank division commander collapsed an hour after a single pill. Soldiers came off multi-day marches shaking, hallucinating, unable to function without the next dose. Berlin restricted the drug in 1941. The army ignored the ban and kept dispensing it.

The Allies pulled Pervitin from a downed German plane, figured out the secret, and answered with Benzedrine. Eisenhower alone ordered 500,000 tablets.

Every side got the same result. A few weeks of superhuman output, then broken men the army quietly cycled out.

Marvel keeps writing serum stories because history already ran the experiment. The super soldiers were real. What happened to them afterward is the reason no country brags about the program.

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Germany/Hitler alike of course had a big drug problem back in the day.

Quote:

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Though he would later usher Germany into a period of heavy drug usage, Adolf Hitler first used an anti-drug platform to seize control of the country.

This platform was part and parcel of a broader campaign built upon anti-establishment rhetoric. At that time, the establishment was the Weimar Republic, the unofficial name that Hitler had coined for the German regime that ruled between 1919 and 1933 and that had grown economically dependent on drugs specifically cocaine and heroin.

To give you an idea of this dependency's scale, Germany was responsible for 40 percent of global morphine production between 1925 and 1930 (cocaine was a similar story), according to Ohler. All in all, with their economy largely wrecked by World War I, Germany had become the world's drug dealer.

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More at the link.

One of my friends at UF, his dad was Coast Guard admiral Bennis. He organized that from his car on I95. When the severity became clear, he drove back to NyC and when he couldn't get into the city by car, got a boat from Sandy Hook to his command and managed it from there.
Part of Charleston Harbor is now named after him in honor of what he did that day.