I appreciate the tedious searching you both did for me. It's funny how this kind of thing stares you in the face until you need to document it, and then you have to turn over a lot of rocks to find it again.

Speaking of things staring you in the face, both of you came roughly to the same conclusion, although from different sources. Actually, you didn't find anything, which is an answer in itself. It is starting to look as though the weather had been so cold before that just a few degrees warmer made enough difference to men looking for it, but not enough that the news media or diarists found it worthy of comment. I guess it got just warm enough for guerrillas and their mounts who had been cooped up for a while so they felt they could get out and finally do something--in several widely separated parts of the state.

That's what I like about history. When the facts, or the lack of them, proves your theory was wrong, you just go with the facts in the new direction and see where it leads. I can live with that.

If anybody finds something different, please let us know.

Bruce