Battlefield Biker is situated at the intersection of Motorcycle Touring and Military History and their relationships to Current Events.

Some features of the site include;

• Battlefield Biker TV Pilot.
• Battlefield Biker Tours (NEW for 2010 tour season!!)
• Descriptions of rides.
• A blog which discusses various topics about the site, current events and the business associated with it.
• A reading room where you can find the books and movies associated with Military History and Motorcycle Touring.
• A store where you can buy Battlefiled Biker gear. This includes the NEW Battlefield Biker Ride Guides.
• A maps and navigation page for finding the information you need to ride around battlefields confidently.

Come on in and take a look around. If you like what you see, please tell others who might enjoy Battlefield Biker.

Battlefield Biker TV
Below is an 8 minute pilot that we are using to pitch an 8 episode TV series.

I hope so. This article makes a pretty good case for it. It quotes Wayne Lee at UNC-CH, one of my PhD supervisors. John Lynn makes the case that the sheer nastinest of the present war situation has made many wake up and take notice to the world we live in and maybe Military History has something to say about it.

The new World Military History Blog has a concise history of the US Berlin Brigade.

Here's a good article on why Americans don't cherish the memories and soldiers of World War I as much as they do with WWII, the Civil War, etc.
No conclusions really, but it has set me to thinking. I, too, haven't spent as much time visiting WWI sites and battlefields. (in fact, I have done hardly anything on the American participation)
I think it is high time I broke this mold and started doing more WWI work here. Yes, the Civil War, WWII and, to a lesser extent, the Indian Wars are what bring in traffic, but I think it is time we Americans remember more about our WWI past.
Stay tuned for more WWI rides and comments.

Gavin Robinson over at Investigations of a Dog is thinking about starting a blog carnival on military history. I've offered to participate. How about joining us?

At the confluence of the Two Medicine and Cut Bank Rivers is where the Marias River begins and flows east for approximately 60 miles to Lake Elwell, then on for another 80 miles where it meets the Missouri River near Loma, Montana. Somewhere along this stretch of river (possibly here), there lies an ancient site where Major Eugene Baker of the U.S. Army took his mixed detachment from the 2nd US Cavalry and the 13th Infantry to surround an encampment of Piegan Indians on 22 January 1870. (See a picture of Baker and some of the 2d Cavalry officers in 1871, here) What happened next is clear, but why is not so clear.
The area had seen an altercation between two hotheads, one white, Malcolm Clarke, and one Indian, Owl Child. Clarke beat Owl Child, who he claimed had stole his horses. Owl Child retaliated by killing Clarke. As so happened in those days, this caused cries for the army to make sure another white was not killed by another Indian, so Baker was sent to teach the Indians a lesson. Baker's detachment left Fort Shaw on 15 January 1870 and rode north to find a group of Indians known as the Piegans. Baker found an encampment at a big bend on the Marias River and surrounded it in the winter's night of 22/23 January 1870. There is some debate as to whether Baker knew it was the camp he was looking for or another one.

On the morning of the massacre, Chief Heavy Runner tried to stop the attack by showing papers that he claimed gave him and his people clear passage in the area. Regardless, Baker issued the order to fire on the camp and many women, children and elderly were killed, the camp was burned and the survivors set afoot in the Montana winter without provisions.

Some said Baker knew that it as the wrong encampment, some said he didn't care, some said he was a drunken commander and didn't know what was happening. None of the PR options were good and the Army made it worse by ignoring, at the least, but probably covering up the massacre. As so often happens in these cases in the U.S. Army, a young soldier steps up where his superiors have fallen down and tells the truth. Lieutenant William Pease, acting as a Blackfoot agent, reported the massacre to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Ely Samuel Parker. Parker, a Civil War veteran, confidante to U.S. Grant and an Iroquois Indian whose real name was Donehogawa, demanded a investigation, but the outcome was prevarication as the Army closed ranks with General Sherman saying he would prefer to believe his soldiers.

In the end, no official recognition of the massacre was forthcoming and only time has brought a gradual acceptance of the fact of this massacre. Author Dee Brown, in Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, puts the casualties at 33 men, 90 women and 50 chldren. Best research on the topic seems to be by Stan Gibson. He and Jack Hayne are working on a book on the topic.

Books from Amazon.com

Motorcycle Ride

This is a long ride starting and ending at Browning, Montana at the Museum of the Plains Indians. The ride passes through the origin of the Marias and also runs about 5 miles north and parrallel to the Marias for a good while on the beautiful U.S. Highway 2.

Maps

I am a fortysomething guy who loves military history and riding motorcycles. Its that simple. I combine the two loves into this site to help provide information and inspiration to others who may share my tastes.

I was originally inspired by a motorcycle trip to the D-Day beaches a few years ago. Like so many others, I was awestruck by the solemnity of the sites, but I also realised that riding my motorcycle gave me some unique advantages to understanding the sites. Experiences like exposure to the elements, having to pay attention to road and path conditions, map reading whilst on the move and walking around with a lot of protective kit on vaguely simulates some of the challenges faced by the historic players. Not to mention the more mundane advantages of easy parking and avoiding long traffic tailbacks around popular sites.

I am a veteran of the Persian Gulf War (December 1990- April 1991) and the Cold War (June 1988 - October 1990). I served for seven years in total and I am the son of a veteran of both world War II and Viet Nam. Although I claim little special insight into the historic combat I write about on this site, I do feel I have a special connection to my brothers in arms, regardless of nationality. Whether 1644 or 2007, warriors have always been willing to put their beliefs to the ultimate test. That's why I ride to remember.

I hope you enjoy the site and, more importantly, I hope you are inspired to use some of the information found here to do your own rides.

Ride To Remember

Battlefield Biker

On 29 December 1890, a group of Sioux, led by Bigfoot, arrived at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation after hearing of Sitting Bull's death on 15 December. The resurgance of Indian spirituality in the form of the "Ghost Dance" was worrying the U.S. government agents in the area who feared violence. The attempt to disarm the Sioux descended into chaos that left nearly 200 Sioux, including many women and children, and 25 Cavalrymen dead. One can find many interpretations of the battle of Wounded Knee...many not calling it a battle, but a massacre. Wounded Knee marked the end of the Indian Wars of west, in much the same way as it started... duplicitousness, misunderstanding, confusion, chaos and death to many innocents and warriors on both sides.
Read a few different versions and decide for yourself;
"Massacre At Wounded Knee, 1890," EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (1998).
Wikipedia
Bowling Green State University
Public Broadcasting Service

Books from Amazon.com

Motorcycle Ride

Try South Dakota State Route 44 southeast out of Rapid city to Scenic. From Scenic, go south along bombing Range Road, Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) 27, Indian Service Road (ISR) 27, ISR-33 and finally Big Foot Trail to Wounded Knee. See map, here.

Maps

By 1862, the Union army had pentrated deep into the south in Tennessee. The Rebel army seemed incapable of stopping the southern push with force, so they decided to try to disrupt the Union's supply lines from Kentucky, namely the L&N railroad. The Confederates sent native Kentuckian General John Hunt Morgan.
Morgan launched a raid over the Christmas holidays and evaded capture and destruction from determined Union forces to destroy a critical bridge of the L&N.

Books from Amazon.com

Motorcycle Ride

Try US 31E from Glasgow to Bardstown to follow some of the route Morgan took. Also Check out Lincoln's boyhood home and birthplace near Hodgenville.

Maps

On 22 December 1944, the German Army was near their zenith in the Battle of the Bulge and had surrounded the town of Bastogne, a key road hub of the area. The USA 101st Airborne had control of the town, but had no support. The German Army sent 2 officers and 2 NCOs to deliver the ulimatum to surrender, but were met with the reply of 101st acting commander General Anthony McAuliffe of "NUTS!" A source of great pride in the 101st forever more, McAuliffe's response has gone down in history as possibly the 2nd best defiance of a surrender request. Molon Labe being the undisputed best.

Books from Amazon.com

Motorcycle Ride

Try the N84 southeast out of Bastogne to the Luxembourg border where the road continues as the N15 to Ettelbrook.

Maps

General Patton died this day in 1945* after an automobile accident on December 9th 1945. He was buried amongst the dead of the Battle of the Bulge on Christmas Eve 1945.

Books from Amazon.com

Motorcycle Ride

Check out this ride in Luxembourg, then head down to the US military cemetary in Luxembourg.

Maps

*"Old Blood and Guts" dies, http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=6650 (last visited Dec 21, 2006).

On 20 December 1860, South Carolina seceded from the USA and set in motion the events that would tear the USA apart for 5 years.

Books from Amazon.com

Motorcycle Ride

To get a feel for South Carolina, try the Savannah River Scenic Byway and follow along the S.C. and Georgia border.

Maps

On 20 December 1914 the French launched The First Battle of Champagne in an attempt to take the offensive to the Germans. Joffre, the French Commander-in-Chief wanted to pound the Germans in the Sayon salient near Reims and Verdun. As with virtually all battles of WWI, it ended in stalemate with thousands lost to the cause.

Books from Amazon.co.uk

Motorcycle Ride

Try the N135 and the N35 from Gondrecourt-le-Chateau to Erize-la-Brulee passing through Bar-le-Duc. Part of this ride is on the La Voie Sacree.

Maps

This article in the Wall Street Journal is exactly why even the best newspapers are having such a hard time adapting to the new content culture. Joseph Rago obviously believes what he says, but with people as myopic as him in editorial positions at newspapers, how can they change? Below is my letter to the Editor about his article.

Dear Sir,
It is hard to know where to begin. The WSJ just dropped in my estimation with this article. Surely, there was no editorial review of this piece. From the punctuation mistake, to the oblivious recursiveness of his opinion on opinion, to the extreme myopia of speaking as if blogs that mirror newspapers or magazines are all that exist.
There are literally millions of blogs and other websites (let's drop the pretence that there is any real difference) whose produce of original, informative and timely material dwarfs the .....what can I call it without offending Mr Rago?.... traditional media?
Yes, if I want a review of what was said at Davos (sorry, bad example, the MSM covered for one of there own there until a blogger exposed Eason Jordon), I need to read the WSJ, NYT, LAT or The Times, but if I want to know how last night's local school board vote went and I don't want to wait for the once a week local paper to print it, I will seek a blog of someone who attended the meeting. Is this information so much better for having passed through the local paper's editorial desk for a week before being committed to the sacred process of printing ink on newspaper? Please.
One wonders if Mr Rago would have any time for yesteryear's bloggers, the pamphleteers? Would Mr Rago have called Thomas Paine a fool and his readers imbeciles?
The more I think about this article and re-read it, the shallower it seems. Rago must have dashed this off as his opinion, right then. Was this meant to be a joke...or irony that Mr Rago thinks is missing from blogs?
I am really disappointed in the WSJ.

Today is the 65th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
This post from Terrestrial Musing's also reminds us how stupid today's conspiracy theories should look. Hat tip Instapundit

Having lived and worked in the United Kingdom for the last 12 years, I've had a good chance to see a lot of the countryside of the UK. However, my recent rides around the English Civil War battlefields have given me a new perspective on the countryside and how much of it remains. There is still a good amount and it is beautiful.....and much against my gut, civil planning has made this the case.
I am torn over the level of civil planning required to build in the UK. The liberal in me says, if you own the land, you should be able to do what you want to with it. However, the pragmatist in me knows that the countryside would be quuickly overrun by the hordes building houses all over the place. Whilst it is understandable and even agreeable for this to be the case in place like the US, it is open to much more debate in a place the size of Oregon and a population of 60 million. Back on the other hand, why should urban dwellers be subjected to high housing prices and cramped, mid-20th century standards of living just because someone wants to see a 400 year old hedge retained instead of a string of houses. I think, in the balance, I still come down on the side of much less restrictive planning, but not as wholly as I might have at one time.

Prince Rupert was one of the King's leading Commanders of the English Civil War. He was trained in the continental wars preceding the 1640s and deployed the most recent theory in cavalry actions. Rupert believed that cavalry was more effective with shock, speed and driving the opposing forces from the field. The Parliamentarians started the war relying more on the traditional tactics of deeper formations and firepower.

Early in the war, Rupert struck several shocking and decisive blows against Parliamentary targets, cavalry and otherwise. Rupert was the leading proponent of striking a decisive blow against London early on to spook the populace and cower the still disorganised Parliamentary forces.