August 19th: Today in 1782 the Battle of Blue Licks occurred, the last major battle of the American Revolution. This was almost a year after the surrender at Yorktown. The battle was small, a force of about 1,000* Indians with about 50 British Rangers ambused a force of about 200 colonists and wiped them out and it took place out in the far frontier of Kentucky. Daniel Boone, who urged caution and escaped was there but lost a son, Israel, in the fighting. No word on his plucky sidekick George… Hmm now that I think of George was Davey Crockett’s plucky sidekick. I am always confusing Boone and Crockett, anyone have a good memnomic to tell them apart? Something simple like ‘Boone was in the Revolutionary Days and Crockett gets his at the Alamo‘ but pithier.

*Interestingly the monument says there were only about 240 on the Indian/British side, which sounds better ‘We got beat but there was a thousand of em’ or ‘We walked into an ambush and got beat by a slightly bigger force’?

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