Good morning.
Whitewater’s Tuesday looks to be mostly sunny, with a high of eighty-five, and light winds from the northeast at about 5 mph.
On this day in 1940, the Battle of Britain began: “the 114-day Battle of Britain began as Nazi forces began attacking southern England by air. By late October, Britain managed to repel the Luftwaffe, which suffered heavy losses.”
The Wisconsin Historical Society writes that on this day in 1832, Gen. Atkinson order construction of a fort during the Black Hawk War:
1832 – Fort Koshkonong Construction Begins
On this date General Henry Atkinson and his troops built Fort Koshkonong after being forced backwards from the bog area of the “trembling lands” in their pursuit of Black Hawk. The Fort, later known as Fort Atkinson, was described by Atkinson as “a stockade work flanked by four block houses for the security of our supplies and the accommodation of the sick.” It was also on this date that Atkinson discharged a large number of Volunteers from his army in order to decrease stress on a dwindling food supply and to make his force less cumbersome. One of the dismissed volunteers was future president, Abraham Lincoln, whose horse was stolen in Cold Spring, Wisconsin, and was forced to return to New Salem, Illinois by foot and canoe. [Sources: History Just Ahead: A Guide to Wisconsin’s Historical Markers edited by Sarah Davis McBride andAlong the Black Hawk Trail by Willilam F. Stark]
Civil War buffs will have an advantage with Google’s daily puzzle: “If you traveled, by bike, from where the Civil War began to where Robert E. Lee surrendered, what’s the fewest amount of miles it could take?”