Good morning, Whitewater.

Saturday in town will be sunny with a high of seventy-nine.  Sunrise is 6:38 AM and sunset 6:59 PM, for 12h 21m 09s of daytime.  The moon is almost full today, with 99.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1787, delegates to the Constitutional Convention sign a final document for presentation to the states:

From August 6 to September 10, the report of the committee of detail was discussed, section by section and clause by clause. Details were attended to, and further compromises were effected.^[27][29] Toward the close of these discussions, on September 8, a “Committee of Style and Arrangement” – Alexander Hamilton (New York),William Samuel Johnson (Connecticut), Rufus King (Massachusetts), James Madison (Virginia), and Gouverneur Morris (Pennsylvania) – was appointed to distill a final draft constitution from the twenty-three approved articles.^[29] The final draft, presented to the convention on September 12, contained seven articles, a preamble and a closing endorsement, of which Morris was the primary author.^[23] The committee also presented a proposed letter to accompany the constitution when delivered to Congress.^[31]

The final document, engrossed by Jacob Shallus,^[32] was taken up on Monday, September 17, at the Convention’s final session. Several of the delegates were disappointed in the result, a makeshift series of unfortunate compromises. Some delegates left before the ceremony, and three others refused to sign. Of the thirty-nine signers, Benjamin Franklin summed up, addressing the Convention: “There are several parts of this Constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them.” He would accept the Constitution, “because I expect no better and because I am not sure that it is not the best”.^[33]

The advocates of the Constitution were anxious to obtain unanimous support of all twelve states represented in the Convention. Their accepted formula for the closing endorsement was “Done in Convention, by the unanimous consent of the States present.” At the end of the convention, the proposal was agreed to by eleven state delegations and the lone remaining delegate from New York, Alexander Hamilton.^[34]

On this day in 1862, Wisconsinites defending the Union see fighting in Maryland:

September 17, 1862, was the bloodiest day in U.S. military history. More than 125,000 troops faced off and over 24,000 were killed, wounded or missing as Union forces stopped the first Confederate invasion of the North. The 2nd, 6th and 7th Wisconsin Infantry regiments were in the thickest of the fighting. The 6th Infantry led a charge that killed or wounded 150 of its 280 men. Of the 800 officers and men in the Iron Brigade who marched out that morning, 343 were wounded or killed.

Good morning, Whitewater.

Friday in town will see heavy thunderstorms in the morning, with a daytime high of seventy-four. Sunrise is 6:37 AM and sunset 7:01 PM, for 12h 24m 02s of daytime. The moon is full, with 99.8% of its visible disk illuminated.

So who was Granny Smith, and why is an apple named after her? Here’s the who and why of it –

General Motors was founded by William C. Durant on September 16, 1908 as a holding company after a 15-year contract with the McLaughlin’s of Canada. Initially, GM held only the Buick Motor Company, but it rapidly acquired more than twenty companies including Oldsmobile, Cadillac, and Oakland, now known as Pontiac. Durant signed a 15-year contract in Canada with the exchange of 500,000 shares of Buick stock for 500,000 shares of McLaughlin Stock. Dr. Campbell, Durant’s son-in-law, put 1,000,000 shares on the stock market in Chicago Buick (then controlled by Durant).

Durant’s company, the Durant-Dort Carriage Company, had been in business in Flint since 1886, and by 1900, was producing over 100,000 carriages a year in factories located in Michigan and Canada. Prior to his acquisition of Buick, Durant had several Ford dealerships. With springs, axles and other key components being provided to the early automotive industry by Durant-Dort, it can be reasoned that GM actually began with the founding of Durant-Dort.^[3]

Durant acquired Oldsmobile later in 1908. The next year, he brought in Cadillac, Cartercar, Elmore, Ewing, and Oakland (later known as Pontiac). In 1909, General Motors also acquired the Reliance Motor Truck Company of Owosso, Michigan, and the Rapid Motor Vehicle Company of Pontiac, Michigan, the predecessors of GMC Truck. A Rapid became the first truck to conquer Pikes Peak in 1909. In 1910, Welch and Rainier were added to the ever-growing list of companies controlled by GM. Durant lost control of GM in 1910 to a bankers trust as the deal to buy Ford for $8,000,000.00 fell through, due to the large amount of debt (around $1 million) taken on in its acquisitions R S McLaughlin Director and friend left at the same time.

Durant left the firm and co-founded the Chevrolet Motor Company in 1911 with Louis Chevrolet. R S McLaughlin in 1915 built Chevrolet in Canada and after a stock buy back campaign with the McLaughlin and DuPont corporations, and other Chevrolet stock holders, he returned to head GM in 1916,as Chevrolet owned 54.5% with the backing of Pierre S. du Pont.

Here’s JigZone‘s daily puzzle for Friday:

Good morning, Whitewater.

Thursday in town will be partly cloudy with a high of seventy-seven. Sunrise is 6:36 AM and sunset 7:02 PM, for 12h 26m 55s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 97.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

Uber’s testing self-driving cars in Pittsburgh.  Here’s what that looks like:

On this date a a treaty was signed between the Ho-Chunk and the United States that stipulated that the Ho-Chunk cede lands lying to the south and east of the Wisconsin river as well as lands around the Fox river of Green Bay. [Source: Oklahoma State University Library]

JigZone‘s puzzle of the day is of a flower:

Good morning, Whitewater.

Midweek in the city will be partly cloudy with a high of seventy-two. Sunrise is 6:35 AM and sunset 7:04 PM, for 12h 29m 46s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 98.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

There’s a Fire Department Business Meeting scheduled for tonight at 7 PM.

On this day in 1812, dictator & imperialist Napoleon captures Moscow, but doesn’t find what he expects:

On September 14, 1812, Napoleon moved into the empty city that was stripped of all supplies by its governor, Feodor Rostopchin. Relying on classical rules of warfare aiming at capturing the enemy’s capital (even though Saint Petersburg was the political capital at that time, Moscow was the spiritual capital of Russia), Napoleon had expected TsarAlexander I to offer his capitulation at the Poklonnaya Hill but the Russian command did not think of surrendering.

As Napoleon prepared to enter Moscow he was surprised to have received no delegation from the city. At the approach of a victorious general, the civil authorities customarily presented themselves at the gates of the city with the keys to the city in an attempt to safeguard the population and their property. As nobody received Napoleon he sent his aides into the city, seeking out officials with whom the arrangements for the occupation could be made. When none could be found, it became clear that the Russians had left the city unconditionally.^[67]

In a normal surrender, the city officials would be forced to find billets and make arrangements for the feeding of the soldiers, but the situation caused a free-for-all in which every man was forced to find lodgings and sustenance for himself. Napoleon was secretly disappointed by the lack of custom as he felt it robbed him of a traditional victory over the Russians, especially in taking such a historically significant city.^[67]

Before the order was received to evacuate Moscow, the city had a population of approximately 270,000 people. As much of the population pulled out, the remainder were burning or robbing the remaining stores of food, depriving the French of their use. As Napoleon entered the Kremlin, there still remained one-third of the original population, mainly consisting of foreign traders, servants and people who were unable or unwilling to flee. These, including the several hundred strong French colony, attempted to avoid the troops.

Napoleon would later retreat from Russia entirely, having lost most of the Grande Armée, and having caused on both sides the deaths of over one-half million people in the campaign.

For Wednesday, JigZone offers a cat puzzle:

Good morning, Whitewater.

Tuesday in the city will see thunderstorms this morning, then cloudy skies in the afternoon, with a high of seventy-five. Sunrise is 6:33 AM and sunset 7:06 PM, for 12h 32m 39s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 86.1% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1862, Union soldiers discover Robert E. Lee’s Special Order 191, battle plans for a Maryland campaign:

Special Order 191 (series 1862) (the “Lost Dispatch,” and the “Lost Order“) was a general movement order issued by Confederate Army General Robert E. Lee in the Maryland Campaign of the American Civil War. A lost copy of this order was recovered in Frederick County, Maryland, by Union Army troops, and the subsequent military intelligence gained by the Union played an important role in the Battle of South Mountain and Battle of Antietam….

The order was drafted on or about September 9, 1862, during the Maryland Campaign. It gave details of the movements of the Army of Northern Virginia during the early days of its invasion of Maryland. Lee divided his army, which he planned to regroup later: according to the precise text Maj. Gen. Stonewall Jackson was to move his command to Martinsburg while McLaws’s command and Walker’s command “endeavored to capture Harpers Ferry.” Maj. Gen. James Longstreet was to move his command northward to Boonsborough. D. H. Hill‘s division was to act as rear guard on the march from Frederick.

Lee delineated the routes and roads to be taken and the timing for the investment of Harpers Ferry. Adjutant Robert H. Chiltonpenned copies of the letter and endorsed them in Lee’s name. Staff officers distributed the copies to various Confederate generals. Jackson in turn copied the document for one of his subordinates, Maj. Gen. D. H. Hill, who was to exercise independent command as the rear guard. Hill said the only copy he received was the one from Jackson.^[1]

About noon ^[2] on September 13, Corporal Barton W. Mitchell of the 27th Indiana Volunteers, part of the Union XII Corps, discovered an envelope with three cigars wrapped in a piece of paper lying in the grass at a campground that Hill had just vacated. Mitchell realized the significance of the document and turned it in to Sergeant John M. Bloss. They went to Captain Peter Kopp, who sent it to regimental commander Colonel Silas Colgrove, who carried it to the corps headquarters. There, an aide to Brig. Gen. Alpheus S. Williams recognized the signature of R. H. Chilton, the assistant adjutant general who had signed the order. Williams’s aide, Colonel Samuel Pitman, recognized Chilton’s signature because Pitman frequently paid drafts drawn under Chilton’s signature before the war. Pitman worked for a Detroit bank during the period when Chilton was paymaster at a nearby army post.^[3]Williams forwarded the dispatch to Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, the commander of the Army of the Potomac. McClellan was overcome with glee at learning planned Confederate troop movements and reportedly exclaimed, “Now I know what to do!” He confided to a subordinate, “Here is a paper with which, if I cannot whip Bobby Lee, I will be willing to go home.”^[4]

McClellan stopped Lee’s invasion at the subsequent Battle of Antietam, but many military historians believe he failed to fully exploit the strategic advantage of the intelligence because he was concerned about a possible trap (posited by Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck) or gross overestimation of the strength of Lee’s army.

JigZone has a puzzle of a flamingo for today: