Plenty of Nothing

The Ikeda Mission in Egypt

On the way to France in 1864 the members of the Ikeda Mission took time to visit the Sphinx. Photo by Antonio Beato. Source.

Young Hercules

This bronze statue of young Hercules was uncovered in Rome in 1864 near the Theatre of Pompey. It had been ritually interred after being struck by lightning. Source.

Southerner

"Southerner of Greenock, Captain James Grant, Entering Smyrna, 1864" by Raffaele Corsini. Source.

No one knows for sure why Greenock Morton is named Morton. Is the club named after Morton Terrace, or Provost James Morton, or maybe even the Earl of Morton? One reason why it wasn't simply named Greenock FC is that there were other football clubs springing up around town at the same time as Morton. One of those was Greenock Southern. Morton met them in Round Three of the 1884-85 Scottish Cup and won 5 - 0.

Port Glasgow Athletic played against two other early Greenock clubs. They beat Greenock Rangers 11-0 in Round One of the 1887-88 Scottish Cup, and Greenock Abstainers 8 - 0 in Round Two of the 1889-90 Scottish Cup.

Today St Mirren visit Cappielow. This is the first rearranged fixture of the season for both clubs. It was to have been played on October 22nd but was preempted by Morton's League Cup semi-final.

What a terrible season St Mirren are having. They have played eleven league matches and have yet to record a win. The Buddies became the first Championship club to sack their manager this season, doing so on September 18th. They have held last place in the division since Week Five.

But, to their credit, they did win three of four in the League Cup group stage, and they're into the quarter-finals of the Challenge Cup.

If Morton win tonight they move into fourth place. If St Mirren win by four goals the Buddies move into ninth.

Morton have not had a win against St Mirren since April 10th, 1999.

[Morton win 3 - 1. Goals by O'Ware, Forbes, and Oliver.]

Livingston have been ordered to replay their Challenge Cup fourth round match against Crusaders, because they fielded an ineligible player the first time. That goes tonight. [Crusaders 0 - 3 Livingston.]

Also: Forfar vs Edinburgh City in the Scottish Cup. [Edinburgh City win 0 - 1.]

Jai Quitongo has been added to Scotland's U-21 squad.

Which saints play in Scottish football, and at what level?

Premiership: John the Baptist (St Johnstone FC)

Championship: Mirren (St Mirren FC)

South of Scotland League: Cuthbert (St Cuthbert Wanderers FC)

North Caledonian League: Duthus (St Duthus FC)

East Region Superleague: Andrew (St Andrews United FC)

North Region Superleague: Ternan (Banchory St Ternan FC)

North Region First Division West: Ninian (Nairn St Ninian FC)

West Region Central District First Division:

Roch (St Roch's FC)

Anthony (St Anthony's FC)

Caledonian League: Mungo (St Mungo's AFC)

Scottish Amateur Football League Premier Division:

Joseph (St Joseph's FP AFC)

All of them (Oban Saints AFC)

Scottish Women's Football League First Division:

All of them (Paisley Saints Ladies)

How to do early football research. Your most important resource is the newspaper. When you read a match report in a daily newspaper the only person between you and the play is the reporter, who in most cases was there at the game. (Sometimes they're at the pub.) Newspaper reports offer a level of detail that you won't find in football history books, and they put the game in the context of what else was going on in town. Sports historians are often guilty of not knowing their civic history. Oftentimes the answer to a question about the football club comes from some other page than the sports page.

For Greenock Morton, your best resource is the Greenock Telegraph. Unfortunately, the online archive only goes back to 1998, so you need to find a library with the Tele on microfilm. If you are not in the UK this will probably be a problem.

Second best is the Glasgow Herald. It carried summaries of football matches from across Scotland. Any Morton game will receive a paragraph, and you will at least learn the names of the players. The Herald did not publish on Sunday, so the Saturday results were printed on Monday. A more or less complete run of the Herald is available at the Google News Archive. The images of the newspaper pages are scans of photos, so sometimes the text is illegible.

Much of the statistical work has already been done for you by FitbaStats and Scottish Football Historical Archive. But they're not infallible, so it never hurts to test them against the old newspaper results.

Fathers of Invention, 1864

The Fathers of Confederation pose before Government House, the Lieutenant-Governor's residence in Charlottetown, September 1864, and not Province House, the provincial legislature, which is a stone building.

Geneva Convention

On August 22nd in 1864 twelve European countries signed the first treaty in what would come to be known as the Geneva Conventions, titled the Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field. And not a moment too soon, considering all the wars going on in 1864. The artist of record, Charles Édouard Armand-Dumaresq, was himself a painter of military subjects.

Fall of Nanjing, 1864

The fourteen-year war between the Qing dynasty and the breakaway Taiping Heavenly Kingdom culminated in the burning of the rebel capital Nanjing in July 1864. We tend to remember the 1860s for the American Civil War, but this Chinese civil war was much more ferocious and resulted in 20 million deaths. Source.

The Second Schleswig War

The Eighth Brigade Counterattacking at Dybbøl, April 18, 1864 (1894) by Vilhelm Rosenstand. The painting is housed at Frederiksborg Castle.

Denmark got into a couple of wars with Prussia over the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein in the 19th Century. The Danes took the first round in 1849, but lost decisively in 1864. Swedish neutrality in the second war is one of the reasons why the Danes still hate the Swedes. To mark the 150th anniversary of the war, Danish television has produced this historical epic.

The Shimonoseki War

150 years ago today the Chōshū Domain took on Britain, France, Holland and the United States in a bid to expel all barbarians from Japan. The Shimonoseki War is not much commemorated in the West, but it was a major event in the development of modern Japan. And though the Chōshū Domain lost this battle, its leaders went on to dominate the governments of the Meiji period.

The painting is Attack on the Japanese Battery at Shimonoseki by a Naval Brigade, September 1864 by Niels Møller Lund. It's held at the National Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth.