August 11, 1904: The Russian fleet in the harbor of Port Arthur, Manchuria, was exposed to artillery on the hill above the harbor; Russian ships attempted escape, but most were forced back into the harbor by Japanese ships. Russia’s ignominious defeat in 1905 at the hands of the better-equipped and more competently led Japanese Navy has never been forgotten. The Russians had sought a “small victorious war”, but they got themselves trounced.
—
On August 11, 1857, N. H. Wolfe and Company, the oldest flour and grain company in New York City, failed. This failure shook investor confidence and began a slow selloff in the market which continued into late August. Several other failures followed, and this cascaded into what was later called the Panic of 1857. Coincidentally, the Rawles family arrived in California by covered wagon in late August of 1857. Thankfully, California’s local economy was less affected by the Panic of 1857 than the eastern states. From the InfoGalactic Wiki: “The early 1850s had great economic prosperity in the United States, stimulated by the large amount of gold mined in the California Gold Rush that greatly expanded the money supply. By the mid-1850s, the amount of gold mined began to decline, causing western bankers and investors to become wary. Eastern banks became cautious with their loans in the eastern US, and some even refused to accept paper currencies issued by western banks.”
—
As part of the 20th Anniversary celebration for SurvivalBlog, we are running our biggest sale ever on all of our percussion gun inventory at Elk Creek Company. (Elk Creek Company is a spin-off venture that helps pay the bills for SurvivalBlog.) Take note that most of our percussion revolver inventory is hand-selected for the availability of cartridge conversion cylinders. This is particularly important for folks who live in any of the 23 states that have de facto registration on the sales of private party modern (post-1898) cartridge guns. This sale pricing on our percussion guns will end on Friday, August 15, 2025. Oh, and by the way, if you’d like to pay in pre-1965 “junk” U.S. 90% coins, you can divide your order total by 29.7.
—
Today’s feature article is a review written by SurvivalBlog Field Gear Editor Tom Christianson.
Read the full article here