January 22: Patrick O’Donohue

January 22: On this date in 1854, Patrick O’Donohue, Irish patriot and leader of the Young Irelander Movement, who had been sentenced by a British court to be hung, drawn and quartered for hight treason, then was pardoned, died.

January 21: Fitz John Porter

January 21: Major General Fitz John Porter, described as “the most magnificent soldier in the Army of the Potomac,” made the mistake of being a Democrat in a Republican administration; he was court martialed and dismissed from the Army on this date in 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, but was restored to the Army in 1886.

January 18: Seth Low

January 18: The only man elected mayor of the Cities of Brooklyn and New York, Seth Low, was born on this date in 1850. He funded the Low Memorial Library, on the campus of Columbia University, in memory of his father.

January 17: Lola Montez

January 17: “The Spanish Dancer,” Lola Montez, who achieved worldwide fame for her affairs with the rich and famous, died penniless in Queens on this date in 1861.

January 16: Edward Brush Fowler

January 16: Edward Brush Fowler, who led the 14th Brooklyn in battle during the Civil War, and was brevetted a major general “for gallant and meritorious services,” died on this date in 1896. He is memorialized in a heroic bronze that stands at Lafayette Avenue and South Portland Street in Brooklyn.

January 15: Daniel Tompkins Van Buren

January 15: Daniel Tompkins Van Buren, born on this date in 1826, goes on to graduate from West Point, serve in the Mexican and Civil Wars, and be brevetted a brigadier general for “faithful and meritorious services during the Rebellion.”

“Escaping the Cube”

I started practicing law, fresh out of N.Y.U. Law School, in 1974. I worked representing indigent criminal defendants for the next 33 years, both at the trial and the appellate level. I enjoyed that work very much–I have always been a fan of the underdog, and little is more underdog that someone arrested and accused … Read more