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William Hall (VC)
William Nelson Edward Hall (28 April 1827 – 27 August 1904) was the first Black person, first Nova Scotian, and the third Canadian to receive the Victoria Cross due to his actions in the 1857 Siege of Lucknow, amid the Indian Rebellion. In the face of heavy enemy fire, Hall and an officer from his ship continued to load and fire a 24-pounder gun at the walls of the Shah Nujeef mosque, a prominent stronghold of the Sepoy defence. Hall's actions were integral to the breaking of the siege and subsequent British evacuation. Early life William Edward Hall was born at Horton, Nova Scotia, in 1827 as the son of Jacob and Lucy Hall, who had escaped American slave owners in Maryland during the War of 1812 and were brought to freedom in Nova Scotia by the British Royal Navy as part of the Black Refugee movement. The Halls first lived in Summerville, Nova Scotia, where Jacob worked in a shipyard operated by Abraham Cunard until they bought a farm across the Avon River at Horton ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horton, Nova Scotia
Wolfville is a Canadian town in the Annapolis Valley, Kings County, Nova Scotia, located about northwest of the provincial capital, Halifax. The town is home to Acadia University and Landmark East School. The town is a tourist destination due to its views of Cape Blomidon, the Bay of Fundy and Gaspereau Valley, as well as its wine industry. The downtown portion of Wolfville is home to pubs, bars, cafes and shops. Wolfville is also home to the Acadia Cinema Cooperative, a non-profit organization that runs the local movie/performance house. In the past few years, several Victorian houses in Wolfville have been converted to bed and breakfast establishments. History First Nations From ancient times, the area of Wolfville was a hunting ground for First Nations peoples, including the Clovis, Laurentian, Bear River, and Shields Archaic groups. They were attracted by the salmon in the Gaspereau River and the agate stone at Cape Blomidon, with which they could make stone tools. Ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
War Of 1812
The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the United Kingdom, declared war on Britain on 18 June 1812. Although peace terms were agreed upon in the December 1814 Treaty of Ghent, the war did not officially end until the peace treaty was ratified by the 13th United States Congress, United States Congress on 17 February 1815. AngloAmerican tensions stemmed from long-standing differences over territorial expansion in North America and British support for Tecumseh's confederacy, which resisted U.S. colonial settlement in the Old Northwest. In 1807, these tensions escalated after the Royal Navy began enforcing Orders in Council (1807), tighter restrictions on American trade with First French Empire, France and Impressment, impressed sailors who were originally British subjects, even those who ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Taylor Wood
John Taylor Wood (August 13, 1830 – July 19, 1904) was an officer in the United States Navy and the Confederate Navy. He resigned from the U.S. Navy at the beginning of the American Civil War, and became a "leading Confederate naval hero" as a captain in the Confederate Navy. He was a lieutenant serving aboard when it engaged in 1862, Bell, 2002, p.1 one of the most famous naval battles in Civil War and U.S. Naval history. Bell, 2002, p.41 He was caught in 1865 in Georgia with Confederate President Jefferson Davis's party, but escaped and made his way to Cuba. From there, he got to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he settled and became a merchant. His wife and children joined him there, and more children were born in Canada, which is where he lived out the remainder of his life. Early life John Taylor Wood was the son and first child of Robert Crooke Wood from Rhode Island, an army surgeon, and Ann Mackall Taylor, eldest daughter of Zachary Taylor, (who would become a major ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mexican–American War
The Mexican–American War (Spanish language, Spanish: ''guerra de Estados Unidos-México, guerra mexicano-estadounidense''), also known in the United States as the Mexican War, and in Mexico as the United States intervention in Mexico, (April 25, 1846 – February 2, 1848) was an invasion of Second Federal Republic of Mexico, Mexico by the United States Army. It followed the 1845 American annexation of Texas, which Mexico still considered its territory because it refused to recognize the Treaties of Velasco, signed by President Antonio López de Santa Anna after he was captured by the Texian Army during the 1836 Texas Revolution. The Republic of Texas was ''de facto'' an independent country, but most of its Anglo-American citizens who had moved from the United States to Texas after 1822 wanted to be annexed by the United States. Sectional politics over slavery in the United States had previously prevented annexation because Texas would have been admitted as a slave state ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft carrier fleet, with List of aircraft carriers in service, eleven in service, one undergoing trials, two new carriers under construction, and six other carriers planned as of 2024. With 336,978 personnel on active duty and 101,583 in the Ready Reserve, the U.S. Navy is the third largest of the United States military service branches in terms of personnel. It has 299 deployable combat vessels and about 4,012 operational aircraft as of 18 July 2023. The U.S. Navy is one of six United States Armed Forces, armed forces of the United States and one of eight uniformed services of the United States. The United States Navy traces its origins to the Continental Navy, which was established during ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kentville, Nova Scotia
Kentville is an incorporated town in Nova Scotia. It is the most populous town in the Annapolis Valley. As of 2021, the town's population was 6,630. Its census agglomeration is 26,929. History Kentville owes its location to the Cornwallis River which, downstream from Kentville, becomes a large tidal river at the Minas Basin. The riverbank at the current location of Kentville provided an easy fording point. The Mi'kmaq name for the location was "Penooek". The ford and later the bridge in Kentville made the area an important crossroads for other settlements in the Annapolis Valley. Kentville also marked the limit of navigation of sailing ships. Acadian settlement The area was first settled by Acadians, who built many dykes along the river to keep the high Bay of Fundy tides out of their farmland. These dykes created the ideal fertile soil that the Annapolis Valley is known for. The Acadians were expelled from the area in the Bay of Fundy Campaign (1755) by the British authori ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barque
A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel with three or more mast (sailing), masts of which the fore mast, mainmast, and any additional masts are Square rig, rigged square, and only the aftmost mast (mizzen in three-masted barques) is Fore-and-aft rig, rigged fore and aft. Sometimes, the mizzen is only partly fore-and-aft rigged, bearing a square-rigged sail above. Etymology The word "barque" entered English via the French term, which in turn came from the Latin language, Latin ''barca'' by way of Occitan language, Occitan, Catalan language, Catalan, Spanish, or Italian. The Latin may stem from Celtic language, Celtic ''barc'' (per Rudolf Thurneysen, Thurneysen) or Greek ''baris'' (per Friedrich Christian Diez, Diez), a term for an Egyptian boat. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'', however, considers the latter improbable. The word ''barc'' appears to have come from Celtic languages. The form adopted by English, perhaps from Irish language, Irish, was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minas Basin
The Minas Basin () is an inlet of the Bay of Fundy and a sub-basin of the Fundy Basin located in Nova Scotia, Canada. It is known for its extremely high tides. Geography The Minas Basin forms the eastern part of the Bay of Fundy which splits at Cape Chignecto and is delineated by the massive basalt headlands of Cape Split and Cape d'Or. The Minas Basin is divided into four sections: (1) the Minas Channel, from the shortest line between Cape Chignecto and the Annapolis Valley Shore to Minas Passage, between Parrsboro and Cape Blomidon; (2) Central Minas Basin, from Minas Passage to the mouth of Cobequid Bay, the shortest line point between Economy and the Noel Shore; (3) Cobequid Bay which extends to the mouth of the Salmon River; and (4) the Southern Bight, from the mouth of the Avon River to the shortest line between Cape Blomidon and the Noel Shore. Several large rivers drain into the Minas Basin: the Shubenacadie River, Cornwallis River, Avon River, Gaspereau Riv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Avon River, Nova Scotia
__NOTOC__ The Avon River is a small river in central Nova Scotia, Canada. A northerly flowing river, the Avon River's flow rises at an elevation of 145 metres (475 ft.) at Card and Bag Lakes on the South Mountain, a distance of approximately 29 kilometres (18 miles) southwest of the town of Windsor. Its meander length is . At Windsor Forks, the West Branch Avon River (the main tributary) and the Southwest Branch Avon add their flow to the Avon. The West Branch Avon River rises at an elevation of 175 metres (574 ft.) at Black River Lake. Both the flows of the Avon and the West Branch have been impeded by hydropower developments in the early twentieth century. Near the rural community of Martock, the river enters a broad glacial river valley forming a ria where it becomes tidal, creating an estuary for its remaining route to the Minas Basin at Kempt Shore, several kilometres downriver from the town of Hantsport. Another tributary, the St. Croix River joins just below ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abraham Cunard
Abraham Cunard (1756 – January 10, 1824) was a United Empire Loyalist carpenter, timber merchant, and ship owner from Halifax, Nova Scotia, best known as the father of shipping magnate Samuel Cunard. Biography Abraham Cunard was a descendant of Thones Kunders, a German Quaker who immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1683. Abraham Cunard enjoyed youthful success as a timber merchant and shipowner, but his entire fleet was confiscated by rebels in the American Revolution and Cunard came to Halifax with the Loyalist migration in 1783. Cunard worked as a foreman carpenter with the British Army. In 1799 he was appointed master carpenter of the Royal Engineers at the Halifax garrison by Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, the commander-in-chief in British North America. Cunard held his post until he retired in 1822. Cunard also pursued a private business career, building and buying wharves, warehouses and considerable land holdings. In July 1812, he founded the firm of A. Cunard and Sons to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
