This Date in Military History:

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22 November

1542– New laws were passed in Spain giving protection against the enslavement of Indians in America.

1718– Edward Teach, also known as Blackbeard, is killed off North Carolina’s Outer Banks during a bloody battle with a British navy force sent from Virginia. Believed to be a native of England, Edward Teach likely began his pirating career in 1713, when he became a crewman aboard a Caribbean sloop commanded by pirate Benjamin Hornigold. In 1717, after Hornigold accepted an offer of general amnesty by the British crown and retired as a pirate, Teach took over a captured 26-gun French merchantman, increased its armament to 40 guns, and renamed it the Queen Anne’s Revenge. During the next six months, the Queen Anne’s Revenge served as the flagship of a pirate fleet featuring up to four vessels and more than 200 men. Teach became the most infamous pirate of his day, winning the popular name of Blackbeard for his long, dark beard, which he was said to light on fire during battles to intimidate his enemies. Blackbeard’s pirate forces terrorized the Caribbean and the southern coast of North America and were notorious for their cruelty.

In May 1718, the Queen Anne’s Revenge and another vessel were shipwrecked, forcing Blackbeard to desert a third ship and most of his men because of a lack of supplies. With the single remaining ship, Blackbeard sailed to Bath in North Carolina and met with Governor Charles Eden. Eden agreed to pardon Blackbeard in exchange for a share of his sizable booty. At the request of North Carolina planters, Governor Alexander Spotswood of Virginia dispatched a British naval force under Lieutenant Robert Maynard to North Carolina to deal with Blackbeard. On November 22, Blackbeard’s forces were defeated and he was killed in a bloody battle of Ocracoke Island. Legend has it that Blackbeard, who captured more than 30 ships in his brief pirating career, received five musket-ball wounds and 20 sword lacerations before dying.

1812 – Seventeen Indiana Rangers are killed at the Battle of Wild Cat Creek. The Battle of Wild Cat Creek, was the result of a November 1812 terror campaign against Native American villages during the War of 1812. It has been nicknamed “Spur’s Defeat,” which is thought to refer to the spurs used by the soldiers to drive their horses away from the battle as quickly as possible. The campaign is sometimes referred to as the Second Battle of Tippecanoe. Colonels Miller and Wilcox accompanied Captain Beckes and sixty Indiana Rangers to recover the body of a Solider fallen in skirmishing the previous day. After riding about six miles up Wildcat Creek, they found a dead comrade’s head stuck on a pole and a Native standing beside the head taunting them. Thirteen Indiana Rangers were outraged by this and chased the rider, but he managed to stay ahead of them, and led them into a narrow canyon. Here, Kickapoo, Winnebago, and Shawnee warriors ambushed the Rangers. Within two minutes, twelve men and several horses were dead or dying. Many of the officers were killed, and the Rangers fled.

One man who escaped did so by spurring his horse to gallop faster, hence the naming of the battle “Spur’s Defeat”. Scouts learned that a large force of Native Americans were gathering to fight Hopkin’s army, and they prepared to do battle as soon as possible. Bitter cold set in, however, and a snowstorm threatened the expedition. When the Indian camp was reached on 24 November, it was deserted. Hopkins turned back, stopping at Fort Harrison to recover from the weather before proceeding to Vincennes. By the time they reached Fort Knox, two hundred men were suffering from sickness or frostbite. Major General Hopkins became so depressed from his successive losses that he resigned. General Samuel Hopkins was brought before a Court of Inquiry for his actions in the Illinois Territory and Prophetstown. He was cleared of any wrongdoing by the military tribunal and later ran for the Senate.

1858 – Denver, Colorado, is founded.

1862 – Joint Army–Navy expedition to vicinity of Mathews Court House, Virginia. Raid under Lieutenant Farquhar and Acting Master’s Mate Nathan W. Black of U.S.S. Mahaska destroyed numerous salt works together with hundreds of bushels of salt, burned three schooners and numerous small boats, and captured 24 large canoes.

1864 – Confederate General John Bell Hood invades Tennessee in a desperate attempt to draw General William T. Sherman out of Georgia. This movement was part of the sad saga of Hood’s Army of Tennessee in 1864. In the spring, the army, commanded then by Joseph Johnston, blocked Sherman’s path to Atlanta from Chattanooga. During the summer, Sherman and Johnston fought a series of relatively small engagements as Sherman tried to flank the Rebel army. Johnston slowly retreated toward Atlanta, but kept his army intact. By July, Confederate President Jefferson Davis had seen enough territory lost to the Yankees, so he replaced the defensive Johnston with the aggressive Hood. Hood made a series of attacks on Sherman outside of Atlanta that did nothing but diminish his own army’s capabilities. After a one-month siege, Hood was forced to withdraw from Atlanta. He took his army south, then swung around west of Atlanta in an attempt to cut Sherman’s supply line. This line ran down the corridor from Chattanooga covering the same ground over which the two armies had fought in the summer. Although Sherman had to commit a substantial part of his force to protect the lines, Hood could do little more than pick at them.

In October, Hood headed into Alabama to rest his beleaguered army. Hood then embarked on a bold expedition to save the western theater for the Confederates. He planned to move toward Nashville, into Kentucky and maybe even into the Northern states before turning east and joining up with General Robert E. Lee’s army, which was under siege at Petersburg, Virginia. It was an enormous task, but Hood was determined to carry it out. The November 22 passage into Tennessee marked the start of a new campaign that spelled disaster for the Confederates. In early November, Sherman took part of his force, cut loose from his supply lines, and began his March to the Sea, which would end with the capture of Savannah just before Christmas. He sent the rest of the force under George Thomas back to Nashville to guard against Hood. Hood charged toward Thomas and attacked part of his force at Franklin, Tennessee, on November 30. Hood suffered a devastating defeat there but continued on to attack Thomas at Nashville on December 15. After that attack, little remained of Hood’s once-proud Army of Tennessee.

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1906– The “S-O-S” (SOS) distress signal was adopted at the International Radio Telegraphic Convention in Berlin. Considerable discussion ensued and finally SOS was adopted. The thinking was that three dots, three dashes and three dots could not be misinterpreted. It was to be sent together as one string.

1910– Amy Elizabeth Thorpe, a Minnesota-born British spy known as “Cynthia” was born in Minneapolis. She has been described as World War II`s “Mata Hari.” Family and friends called her Betty. William Stephenson, who ran Great Britain’s World War II intelligence activities in the Western Hemisphere, would one day give her a code name–“Cynthia.” She reputedly was one of the most successful spies in history.

1915 – The Wilson administration rejects a German offer of $1000 for each passenger killed following the torpedoing of the Lusitania on May 7th.

1923– President Coolidge pardoned WW I German spy Lothar Witzke, who was sentenced to death. Witzke, a member of a “fifth column” organization run from Mexico. He was suspected in the “Black Tom” explosion that damaged the Statue of Liberty in 1916 and convicted of the Mare Island explosion the following year.

1935– Pan Am inaugurated the first transpacific airmail service, San Francisco to Manila. The Pan Am China Clipper under Captain Ed Musick took off from Alameda Point bound for the Philippines. It was the company’s first trans-Pacific flight. The plane was a 25-ton Martin M-130 flying boat with a wingspan of 130 feet, and was the largest aircraft in world service.

1943– President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek met in Cairo to discuss measures for defeating Japan.

1943– On the Tarawa Atoll, there is heavy fighting. The American marines are advancing. On Makin Atoll, the American infantry occupy most of Butaritari by nightfall. On Abimama Atoll, there are American landings.

1944– Operations of the US 9th Army and the US 1st Army secure Eschweiler. Forces of the US 3rd Army capture Metz. US 7th Army forces take St. Die as others approach Saverne. The French 1st Army occupies Mulhouse, after defeating a counterattack by German forces.

1948– Ho Chi Minh’s Democratic Republic of Vietnam requested admittance to the UN.

1952 – Captain Cecil G. Foster of the 51st Fighter-Interceptor Wing became the 23rd ace of the Korean War.

1953 – A great boon to ocean navigation for aircraft surface vessels was the completion of four new LORAN stations in the Far East. The stations were built at Mikayo Jima, Ryuku Islands; Bataan and Cantanduanes Islands, Philippines; and Anguar, Palau Island in the Carolinas chain. Now replaced by the more accurate LORAN-C network, these stations on sparsely-populated, remote and typhoon-battered islands.

1963– President John F. Kennedy is assassinated during a visit to Dallas, Texas. His death caused intense mourning in the United States and brought Vice President Lyndon Johnson to the presidency. Kennedy’s untimely death also left future generations with a great many “what if” questions concerning the subsequent history of the Cold War. In the years since Kennedy’s death, a number of supporters argued that had he lived he would have done much to bring the Cold War to a close. Some have suggested that he would have sharply curtailed military spending and brought the arms race under control. The most persistent claim, which served as the centerpiece of Oliver Stone’s 1991 film JFK, is that Kennedy would have withdrawn U.S. troops from Vietnam after being re-elected in 1964. Stone went on to charge that right-wing militants in the U.S. government coordinated the assassination plot. It is difficult to say what Kennedy would have done had he not been killed in November 1963, but the arguments raised by Stone and others do not seem supported by the available evidence.

During his brief presidency, Kennedy consistently requested higher military spending, asking for billions in increased funding. After the humiliating defeat at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba, his administration approved Operation Mongoose, a CIA program that involved plots to destabilize the communist government in Cuba. There was even discussion about assassinating Cuban leader Fidel Castro. In Vietnam, Kennedy increased the number of U.S. advisers from around 1,500 when he took office, to more than 16,000 by the time of his death. His administration also participated in the planning of the coup that ultimately overthrew South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, who was murdered by his own military just three weeks prior to Kennedy’s assassination. If Kennedy was going to become less of a cold warrior after 1964, there was little to suggest this change prior to November 22, 1963.

1963– Two amateur films recorded the assassination of Pres. Kennedy. A 24 ½ second video by Orville Nix Sr. and Abraham Zapruder, a dress manufacturer, captured the assassination on video tape.

1963– Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit was slain by Oswald 45 minutes after Kennedy was shot when he called Oswald over for questioning.

1964– 40,000 paid tribute to John F Kennedy at Arlington Cemetery on the first anniversary of his death.

1967– The U.N. Security Council approved Resolution 242, which called for Israel to withdraw from territories it captured in 1967, and implicitly called on adversaries to recognize Israel’s right to exist.

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1967 – General William Westmoreland, commander of U.S. Military Assistance Command Vietnam, briefs officials at the Pentagon and says that the battle around Dak To was “the beginning of a great defeat for the enemy.” The battle for Dak To began on November 3 when 4,500 U.S. troops from the U.S. 4th Division and the 173rd Airborne Brigade engaged four communist regiments of about 6,000 troops in the Central Highlands. The climax of the operation came in a savage battle that began on November 19 on Hill 875, 12 miles southwest of Dak To. The 173rd defeated the North Vietnamese, causing them to abandon their last defensive line on the ridge of Hill 875. However, it was a costly victory for the Americans, who suffered the loss of 135 men. In the 19 days of the battle in and around Dak To, North Vietnamese fatalities were estimated at 1,455. Total U.S. casualties included 285 killed, 985 wounded, and 18 missing. In his briefing at the Pentagon, Westmoreland stressed the positive outcome of the battle. He revealed that a document removed from the body of a dead North Vietnamese soldier on November 6 stated that the Dak To battle was to be the beginning of a winter/spring offensive by the Communist B-3 Front. This document also revealed that the main objective of the action at Dak To was the destruction of a major American unit.

The communists came close but ultimately failed in this objective. The Americans, despite heavy losses, defeated the North Vietnamese, mauling three enemy regiments so badly that the they had to be withdrawn from South Vietnam to Cambodian and Laotian sanctuaries for refitting. Westmoreland was reportedly brought home from Vietnam by President Johnson to fulfill a public relations task and revive flagging morale throughout the country. His message on U.S. military prospects in Vietnam was continually optimistic, as he emphasized that progress was being made in the fight against the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong. These public statements came back to haunt him when the communists launch a massive offensive during the Tet New Year holiday on January 30, 1968.

1972– The United States ended a 22 year travel ban to China.

1972 – The United States loses its first B-52 of the war. The eight-engine bomber was brought down by a North Vietnamese surface-to-air missile near Vinh on the day when B-52s flew their heaviest raids of the war over North Vietnam. The Communists claimed 19 B-52s shot down to date.

1974– UN General Assembly recognized Palestine’s right to sovereignty and national independence.

1982– President Reagan called for defense-pact deployment of the MX missile.

1988 – In the presence of members of Congress and the media, the Northrop B-2 “stealth” bomber is shown publicly for the first time at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California. The aircraft, which was developed in great secrecy for nearly a decade, was designed with stealth characteristics that would allow it to penetrate an enemy’s most sophisticated defenses unnoticed. At the time of its public unveiling, the B-2 had not even been flown on a test flight. It rapidly came under fire for its massive cost-more than $40 billion for development and a $1 billion price tag for each unit. In 1989, the B-2 was successfully flown, performing favorably. Although the aircraft had a wingspan of nearly half a football field, its radar signal was as negligible as that of a bird. The B-2 also successfully evaded infrared, sound detectors, and the visible eye. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the original order for the production of 132 stealth bombers was reduced to 21 aircraft. The B-2 has won a prominent place in the modern U.S. Air Force fleet, serving well in bombing missions during the 1990s.

1986– Justice Department found a memo in Lt. Col. Oliver North’s office on the transfer of $12 million to contras from Iran arms sale.

1990– President Bush, his wife, Barbara, and top congressional leaders shared Thanksgiving dinner with US troops in Saudi Arabia.1991- In an attempt to break a deadlock, the Bush administration proposed that Middle East peace talks resume in Washington, D.C.

1993 – NATO began enforcing United Nations’ Resolutions 713 and 757 that set in place an embargo against the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro). Four Coast Guard LEDETs were deployed to Southern Europe to support the operation and were placed aboard 11 NATO warships.

1994– A gunman opened fire inside the District of Columbia’s police headquarters; the ensuing gun battle left two FBI agents, a city detective and the gunman dead.

1995– Acting swiftly to boost the Balkan peace accord, the UN Security Council suspended economic sanctions against Serbia and eased the arms embargo against the states of the former Yugoslavia.

1997– A 75 man team of U.N. weapons experts including 4 Americans returned to work in Iraq, searching eight sites for signs the Iraqis might have worked on biological, chemical or other banned arms during a three-week forced halt in inspections.

2000– Gov. George Bush called on the US Supreme Court to stop the vote counting in Florida. In Palm Beach Circuit Court Judge Jorge Labarga ordered election officials to consider dimpled ballots. In Dade County election officials called off the recount due to their inability to meet the Nov 27 deadline.

2000– Yemen identified the bombers of the US Cole as 2 Saudi Arabian citizens with Yemeni family roots. One was named Abdul Mohsen al-Taifi and both had suspected to Osama bin Laden.

2001– In Afghanistan Northern Alliance engaged the Taliban in heavy fighting outside Kunduz. A Kunduz surrender deal was in jeopardy.

2001– Pakistan ordered the Taliban to close its embassy in Islamabad.

2001– Talks on Russia-Nato relations began in Moscow. A plan was proposed that would give Russia equal status with the 19 permanent members.

2002 – President Bush stopped in Vilnius after a NATO summit at which Lithuania and six other former communist countries received invitations to join the alliance: “The long night of fear, uncertainty and loneliness is over.”

2002– At the NATO summit in Prague, Russian President Vladimir Putin told President Bush the United States should not wage war alone against Iraq, and questioned whether Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were doing enough to fight terrorism.

2003– Five Pakistani prisoners arrived home after being freed by American authorities from the US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

2008 – Saudi Arabia’s Royal Navy joins NATO’s mission in combating piracy in Somalia.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

*BONNYMAN, ALEXANDER, JR.
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Marine Corps Reserves. Born: 2 May 1910, Atlanta, Ga. Accredited to: New Mexico. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as Executive Officer of the 2d Battalion Shore Party, 8th Marines, 2d Marine Division, during the assault against enemy Japanese-held Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands, 20-22 November 1943. Acting on his own initiative when assault troops were pinned down at the far end of Betio Pier by the overwhelming fire of Japanese shore batteries, 1st Lt. Bonnyman repeatedly defied the blasting fury of the enemy bombardment to organize and lead the besieged men over the long, open pier to the beach and then, voluntarily obtaining flame throwers and demolitions, organized his pioneer shore party into assault demolitionists and directed the blowing of several hostile installations before the close of D-day. Determined to effect an opening in the enemy’s strongly organized defense line the following day, he voluntarily crawled approximately 40 yards forward of our lines and placed demolitions in the entrance of a large Japanese emplacement as the initial move in his planned attack against the heavily garrisoned, bombproof installation which was stubbornly resisting despite the destruction early in the action of a large number of Japanese who had been inflicting heavy casualties on our forces and holding up our advance.

Withdrawing only to replenish his ammunition, he led his men in a renewed assault, fearlessly exposing himself to the merciless slash of hostile fire as he stormed the formidable bastion, directed the placement of demolition charges in both entrances and seized the top of the bombproof position, flushing more than 100 of the enemy who were instantly cut down, and effecting the annihilation of approximately 150 troops inside the emplacement. Assailed by additional Japanese after he had gained his objective, he made a heroic stand on the edge of the structure, defending his strategic position with indomitable determination in the face of the desperate charge and killing 3 of the enemy before he fell, mortally wounded. By his dauntless fighting spirit, unrelenting aggressiveness and forceful leadership throughout 3 days of unremitting, violent battle, 1st Lt. Bonnyman had inspired his men to heroic effort, enabling them to beat off the counterattack and break the back of hostile resistance in that sector for an immediate gain of 400 yards with no further casualties to our forces in this zone. He gallantly gave his life for his country.

SHOUP, DAVID MONROE
Rank and organization: Colonel, U.S. Marine Corps, commanding officer of all Marine Corps troops on Betio Island, Tarawa Atoll, and Gilbert Islands, from 20 to 22 November 1943. Entered service at: Indiana. Born: 30 December 1904, Tippecanoe, Ind. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as commanding officer of all Marine Corps troops in action against enemy Japanese forces on Betio Island, Tarawa Atoll, Gilbert Islands, from 20 to 22 November 1943. Although severely shocked by an exploding enemy shell soon after landing at the pier and suffering from a serious, painful leg wound which had become infected, Col. Shoup fearlessly exposed himself to the terrific and relentless artillery, machinegun, and rifle fire from hostile shore emplacements.

Rallying his hesitant troops by his own inspiring heroism, he gallantly led them across the fringing reefs to charge the heavily fortified island and reinforce our hard-pressed, thinly held lines. Upon arrival on shore, he assumed command of all landed troops and, working without rest under constant, withering enemy fire during the next 2 days, conducted smashing attacks against unbelievably strong and fanatically defended Japanese positions despite innumerable obstacles and heavy casualties. By his brilliant leadership daring tactics, and selfless devotion to duty, Col. Shoup was largely responsible for the final decisive defeat of the enemy, and his indomitable fighting spirit reflects great credit upon the U.S. Naval Service .

*LORING, CHARLES J., JR.
Rank and organization: Major, U.S. Air Force, 80th Fighter-Bomber Squadron, 8th Fighter-Bomber Wing. Place and date: Near Sniper Ridge, North Korea, 22 November 1952. Entered service at: Portland, Maine. Born: 2 October 1918, Portland, Maine. Citation: Maj. Loring distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. While leading a night of 4 F-80 type aircraft on a close support mission, Maj. Loring was briefed by a controller to dive-bomb enemy gun positions which were harassing friendly ground troops. After verifying the location of the target, Maj. Loring rolled into his dive bomb run. Throughout the run, extremely accurate ground fire was directed on his aircraft. Disregarding the accuracy and intensity of the ground fire, Maj. Loring aggressively continued to press the attack until his aircraft was hit.

At approximately 4,000 feet, he deliberately altered his course and aimed his diving aircraft at active gun emplacements concentrated on a ridge northwest of the briefed target, turned his aircraft 45 degrees to the left, pulled up in a deliberate, controlled maneuver, and elected to sacrifice his life by diving his aircraft directly into the midst of the enemy emplacements. His selfless and heroic action completely destroyed the enemy gun emplacement and eliminated a dangerous threat to United Nations ground forces. Maj. Loring’s noble spirit, superlative courage, and conspicuous self-sacrifice in inflicting maximum damage on the enemy exemplified valor of the highest degree and his actions were in keeping with the finest traditions of the U.S. Air Force.

STONE, JAMES L.
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Army, Company E 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. Place and date: Near Sokkogae, Korea, 21 and 22 November 1951. Entered service at: Houston Tex. Born: 27 December 1922, Pine Bluff, Ark. G.O. No.: 82, 20 October 1953. Citation: 1st Lt. Stone, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and indomitable courage above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. When his platoon, holding a vital outpost position, was attacked by overwhelming Chinese forces, 1st Lt. Stone stood erect and exposed to the terrific enemy fire calmly directed his men in the defense. A defensive flame-thrower failing to function, he personally moved to its location, further exposing himself, and personally repaired the weapon.

Throughout a second attack, 1st Lt. Stone; though painfully wounded, personally carried the only remaining light machine gun from place to place in the position in order to bring fire upon the Chinese advancing from 2 directions. Throughout he continued to encourage and direct his depleted platoon in its hopeless defense. Although again wounded, he continued the fight with his carbine, still exposing himself as an example to his men. When this final overwhelming assault swept over the platoon’s position his voice could still be heard faintly urging his men to carry on, until he lost consciousness. Only because of this officer’s driving spirit and heroic action was the platoon emboldened to make its brave but hopeless last ditch stand.

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23 November

1765 – Frederick County, Md., repudiated the British Stamp Act.

1783 – Annapolis, Md., became the US capital until June 1784.

1785 – John Hancock was elected President of the Continental Congress for the second time.

1804 – Franklin Pierce, 14th president of the United States (1853-1857), was born in Hillsboro, N.H. Franklin Pierce. The 14th President of the United States, came to office during a period of growing tension between the North and South. A politician of limited ability, Pierce was behind one of the most crucial pieces of legislation in American history. Although he did not author the Kansas-Nebraska Act, he did encourage its passage by Congress. And that piece of legislation set the nation on its path to civil war. Like many American politicians, Franklin Pierce’s career was aided by his father, a two-term governor of New Hampshire. Before he was thirty, Franklin Pierce had served in the New Hampshire legislature and had been elected to the U.S. Congress where he served as both a congressman and senator. Bored and lonely in Washington, the young congressman developed a drinking problem and a reputation as a gossipy Washington insider.

In an attempt to settle down, the handsome, socially gregarious Pierce married Jane Means Appleton. Jane Pierce was her husband’s opposite; she was painfully shy, deeply religious, often in bad health, and a strong advocate of the temperance movement. She detested Washington and refused to live there, even after Pierce became a U.S. senator in 1837. Indeed, Jane’s disgust with the political life in Washington must have been behind Pierce’s decision to resign from the Senate in 1841. Subsequently, Franklin Pierce served in the Mexican-American War, and in something of a surprise was elected President in 1852. After his presidency he retired to Concord, New Hampshire, where he died in 1869.

1819 – Union General Benjamin Prentiss is born in Belleville, Virginia. Prentiss served in a variety of capacities during the war but is best known for defending Arkansas during the Vicksburg campaign. Prentiss was raised in Missouri but moved to Quincy, Illinois, at age 22. He joined the Illinois militia, and he was active when tensions arose between the Mormon and Illinois residents of the area after the Mormon prophet, Joseph Smith, was lynched by a mob. When the Mexican War began, Prentiss raised a company of volunteers and served under General Zachary Taylor at Buena Vista. Upon his return to Illinois, he practiced law until the outbreak of the Civil War. He remained active in the militia and rose to the rank of colonel. At the beginning of the Civil War, Prentiss was placed in charge of Cairo, Illinois, at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.

In August 1861, he was promoted to brigadier general and charged with protecting the Hannibal and Saint Joseph Railroad across northern Missouri. His brigade was sent to join General Ulysses S. Grant’s Army of the Tennessee, and he was elevated to divisional commander. Prentiss fought at Shiloh and was caught in the infamous Hornet’s Nest. He and part of his force were captured, and Prentiss spent six months in a Confederate prison. He was exchanged in October 1862 and served on the court-martial of General Fitz-John Porter, who was tried on charges of insubordination during the Battle of Second Bull Run, when he refused to conduct an attack ordered by his commander, John Pope. Porter was found guilty and cashiered from the army, but he said that Prentiss was “supposed unprejudiced, and acted so.”

After the Porter case closed, Prentiss commanded the District of Eastern Arkansas at Helena. He sent raids into the interior of the state and recruited escaped slaves into military service. On July 4, 1863, Prentiss’s command held off an attack by General Sterling Price, who was trying, belatedly, to rescue the Confederate force inside of nearby Vicksburg, Mississippi. That garrison had already surrendered, but Prentiss emerged as the victor in the Battle of Helena. Despite this success, Prentiss found himself without a command when the Union reorganized the theater after the fall of Vicksburg. Prentiss requested a leave from the army, citing ill health and family concerns, as his wife had died in 1860 and he had young children. Prentiss spent the rest of his life as a land agent and postmaster in Missouri until he died in 1901.

1835 – Henry Burden invented the first machine for manufacturing horseshoes. He then made most of the horseshoes for the Union Cavalry in the Civil War. Burden patented a horseshoe manufacturing machine in Troy, NY.

1862 – Landing party from U.S.S. Ellis, Lieutenant Cushing, captured arms, mail, and two schooners at Jacksonville North Carolina. While under attack from Confederate artillery, Ellis grounded on 24 November. After very effort to float the ship failed, Lieutenant Cushing ordered her set afire on 25 November to avoid capture. Cushing reported: “I fired the Ellis in five places and having seen that the battle flag was still flying, trained the gun on the enemy so that the vessel might fight herself after we had left her.”

1863 – From the last days of September through October 1863, Gen. Braxton Bragg’s army laid siege to the Union army under Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans at Chattanooga, cutting off its supplies. On October 17, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant received command of the Western armies; he moved to reinforce Chattanooga and replaced Rosecrans with Maj. Gen. George Thomas. A new supply line was soon established. Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman arrived with his four divisions in mid-November, and the Federals began offensive operations. On November 23-24, Union forces struck out and captured Orchard Knob and Lookout Mountain. On November 25, Union soldiers assaulted and carried the seemingly impregnable Confederate position on Missionary Ridge. One of the Confederacy’s two major armies was routed. The Federals held Chattanooga, the “Gateway to the Lower South,” which became the supply and logistics base for Sherman’s 1864 Atlanta Campaign.

1863 – The threat of Confederate torpedoes (mines) in the rivers and coastal areas became an increasing menace as the war progressed. The necessity of taking proper precautions against this innovation in naval warfare slowed Northern operations and tied up ships on picket duty that might otherwise have been utilized more positively. This date, Secretary Welles wrote Captain Gansevoort, U.S.S. Roanoke, at Newport News: “Since the discovery of the torpedo on James River, near Newport News, the Department has felt some uneasiness with regard to the position of your vessel, as it is evidently the design of the rebels to drift such machines of destruction upon her. . . . Vigilance is demanded.” Upon receipt of this instruction, Gansevoort replied 2 days later: “The Roanoke lies in the deepest water here, and until very lately, when the necessary force has been temporarily reduced by casualties to machinery, a picket boat has been kept underway during all night just above this anchorage to prevent such missiles from approaching the ship. This pre-caution has been renewed now that the Poppy has been added to this disposable force, and in addition I have caused . . . a gunboat to be anchored above us to keep a sharp lookout for torpedoes.”

1874 – Farmer Joseph Glidden’s patent for barbed wire was granted. Glidden designed a simple wire barb that attached to a double-strand wire, as well as a machine to mass-produce the wire. The invention was a welcome alternative to other types of fencing for farming on the arid Great Plains–wood fences and stone walls were difficult to construct because of the lack of sufficient rocks and trees, and the existing wire fences were easily broken when cattle leaned against them. The use of barbed-wire fences changed ranching and farming life. Farmers could keep roaming cattle and sheep off their land, but open-range cowboys and Native American farmers were restricted to the land and resources not claimed and marked by the new fences. As more settlers moved onto the plains, the amount of public, shared land decreased and open-range farming became obsolete.

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1878 – Ernest King, Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. fleet who designed the United States’ winning strategy in World War II, was born. Ernest King was born in Lorain, Ohio. He attended the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis and graduated in 1901 (4/67). He joined the US Navy and during the First World War was on the staff of Vice Admiral Henry T. Mayo, commander of the Atlantic Fleet. After the war King was head of the navy’s postgraduate school (1919-21) before becoming captain of a refrigerator ship. In 1922 King qualified as a submariner and later took over a sub-division. In 1930 King learnt to fly and was given command of the aircraft carrier Lexington (1930-32) until attending Naval War College. In 1933 he took over the Bureau of Aeronautics. King’s next post was commander of Air Base Force where he was responsible for over 1,000 seaplanes. Promoted to vice admiral he insisted that his pilots trained for night operations.

In January 1941 King was made commander of the Atlantic Fleet and after the Pearl Harbor disaster King was given the post of Commander in Chief of the US Fleet. King developed a reputation for being abrasive and argumentative. As a member of the Joint Chief of Staffs he often clashed with General George Marshall. King opposed plans to land the US Army in North Africa. He thought the most important area of concern was the Pacific War. What is more, he thought that the US Navy should play the decisive role in this as long as it was given adequate resources. King, General Douglas MacArthur the Supreme Commander of the Southwest Pacific Area, and Chester Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the US Pacific Fleet, decided that their first objective should be to establish and protect a line of communications across the South Pacific to Australia. This resulted in the battles of Coral Sea and Midway, where the Japanese Navy lost all four of her carriers.

King insisted on launching the Guadalcanal campaign although General Douglas MacArthur claimed that the US Army was not ready yet for a major offensive. MacArthur also disagreed with invasion of the Soloman Islands. There was also conflict over King’s view that American forces should bypass the Philippines. King also opposed Russian involvement in the Pacific War. He also objected to the idea that the Royal Navy should be moved to Pacific after gaining control of the Atlantic. In December 1944, King, along with William Leahy and Chester Nimitz, was given the five-star rank of Fleet Admiral. After retiring in December, 1945, King lived in Washington until ill-health forced him to stay in Portsmouth Naval Hospital in New Hampshire. Ernest King died of a heart-attack on 26th June, 1956.

1902 – Dr. Walter Reed (51) died from a ruptured appendix in Washington DC. His experiments in Cuba had helped prove that yellow fever was transmitted by a mosquitoes. Walter Reed, an American medical doctor had received his medical degree by the time he was 18 years old. He joined the Army and became a captain. For 16 years he had served in an outpost that was far away from other doctors. He wanted to be able to study and learn more about medicine, so he asked for a four month leave. He learned so well that they allowed him to study for seven months at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He continued to study and do experiments at the Army outpost. He and some other doctors studied typhoid fever and discovered that it was carried by flies. Yellow fever was a dreaded disease. 90,000 people in the United States had died of the disease. Many American soldiers in Cuba had died also.

Reed noticed that people who cared for the patients with yellow fever didn’t usually get the disease. So he concluded that people didn’t catch it from each other. Reed began looking for answers. He remembered the research they had done on typhoid fever. He wondered if maybe mosquitos might be spreading it. Some of the doctors and soldiers volunteered to take part in the experiment. The mosquitos were put in test tubes. First they bit the arms of men who already had yellow fever. Then they were allowed to bite the arms of people who didn’t have the disease. After many tests, they decided that the mosquito did carry the disease from one person to another. The next step was to get rid of the mosquitos. They sprayed the areas of water where the mosquitos were hatching, with chemicals. This stopped the spread of the disease. The Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C. is named in honor of him.

1903 – Determined to crush the union of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM), Colorado Governor James Peabody sends the state militia into the mining town of Cripple Creek. The strike in the gold mines of Cripple Creek began that summer. William “Big Bill” Haywood’s Western Federation of Miners called for a sympathy strike among the underground miners to support a smelter workers’ strike for an eight-hour day. The WFM, which was founded in 1893 in Montana, had already been involved in several violent strikes in Colorado and Idaho. By the end of October, the call for action at Cripple Creek had worked, and a majority of mine and smelter workers were idle; Cripple Creek operations ground to a halt. Eager to resume mining and break the union, the mine owners turned to Governor Peabody, who agreed to provide state militia protection for replacement workers. Outraged, the miners barricaded roads and railways, but by the end of September more than a thousand armed men were in Cripple Creek to undermine the strike.

Soldiers began to round up union members and their sympathizers-including the entire staff of a pro-union newspaper-and imprison them without any charges or evidence of wrongdoing. When miners complained that the imprisonment was a violation of their constitutional rights, one anti-union judge replied, “To hell with the Constitution; we’re not following the Constitution!” Such tyrannical tactics swung control of the strike to the more radical elements in the WFM, and in June 1904, Harry Orchard, a professional terrorist employed by the union, blew up a railroad station, which killed 13 strikebreakers. This recourse to terrorism proved a serious tactical mistake. The bombing turned public opinion against the union, and the mine owners were able to freely arrest and deport the majority of the WFM leaders. By midsummer, the strike was over and the WFM never again regained the power it had previously enjoyed in the Colorado mining districts.

1914 – The last of U.S. forces withdraw from Veracruz, occupied seven months earlier in response to the Tampico Affair. The U.S. occupation of Veracruz was a cause of Huerta’s resignation in August of that year as his southern armies’ supplies ran out. The Tampico incident had later repercussions, however, stemming from the lingering U.S.-Mexican resentments. These were taken advantage of by Germany in January 1917 when the so-called Zimmermann Telegram intimated that a Mexican alliance with Germany against the U.S. would result in Mexico regaining territory taken from it by the U.S. in prior wars. British interception of Zimmermann’s telegram was effectively the final justification President Wilson needed to request a declaration of war against Germany in April 1917. The anti-American atmosphere produced in Mexico by the Tampico incident was also a decisive factor in favor of keeping Mexican Neutrality in World War I. Mexico refused to participate with the USA in its military excursion in Europe and granted full guaranties to the German companies for keeping their operations open, specifically in Mexico City.

1933 – FDR recalled Ambassador Welles from Havana and urged stability in Cuba. Horace G. Knowles, former U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia and Nicaragua, had Sumner Welles of “openly helping the counterrevolution,” in Cuba. He suggests that the U.S. should recognize the revolutionary government. The revolutionary President Grau San Martin declared Welles persona non grata.

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1934 – Japan declares its intention to withdraw from the terms of the 1922 Washington Naval Conference. That treaty stipulated that the U.S. and Britain would be allowed to build five million tons of naval ships while Japan can only build three. Japan’s withdrawal will take effect in two years by the terms of the treaty for withdrawal.

1936 – U.S. abandoned the American embassy in Madrid, Spain, which was engulfed by civil war.

1939 – Thanksgiving. Franklin D. Roosevelt had proclaimed Thanksgiving Day a week earlier–on the fourth, not the last, Thursday of November–in an effort to encourage more holiday shopping.

1941 – U.S. troops moved into Dutch Guiana [Surinam] to guard the bauxite mines. Bauxite is the ore that is used to produce aluminum.

1940 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt appoints Admiral William D. Leahy as U.S. Ambassador to Vichy France to try to prevent the French fleet and naval bases from falling into German hands.

1940 – The new British Ambassador to the United States, Lord Lothian, talks in New York of the possibility of Britain running out of ready money and securities to pay for arms and says that Britain will need financial help in 1941. In fact by April 1941 British reserves of gold and dollars will be as low as $12,000,000 — a mere pittance when set against arms expenditure.

1942 – US Coast Guard Woman’s Auxiliary (SPARS) was authorized.

1943 – On Tarawa Atoll, the battle ends by noon. The US marines have suffered 1000 killed and 2000 wounded. The Japanese garrison of 4800 troops has been annihilated. A total of 17 wound Japanese troops and 129 Korean laborers are the only survivors. On Makin Atoll, the battle is also completed. American infantry have suffered about 200 dead and wounded. The Japanese have lost about 600 killed, wounded or captured. Meanwhile, the escort carrier Liscomb Bay is sunk offshore by a Japanese resulting in the loss of 600 sailors.

1944 – On the right flank of the German line, the 15th Army falls back in Holland. Meanwhile, the German 7th Army launches attacks on forces of US 9th Army. To the south, French troops of US 7th Army reach Strasbourg.

1945 – Most U.S. wartime rationing of foods, including meat and butter, ended.

1950 – A battalion from the Netherlands joined the U.N. forces in Korea. Better known as the “Dutch Battalion,” it was attached to the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division and first saw action on Feb. 12, 1951, in the major battle at Wonju, suffering more than 100 casualties and losing its commander, Lieutenant Colonel Marinus P. A. den Ouden. The battalion received the U.S. Distinguished Unit Citation for its action at Wonju. Lieutenant Colonel W. D. H. Eekhout, the new commander, was also killed in action in May 1951.

1963 – President Johnson proclaimed Nov. 25 a day of national mourning as JFK’s body lay in repose in East Room of White House.

1970 – Simas I. Kudirka, a Soviet fisherman, attempted to defect from his Soviet fishing vessel to the CGC Vigilant, during a meeting between the Soviets and the U.S. on fishing rights. The cutter’s commanding officer allowed other Soviets to board the cutter and forcibly remove Mr. Kudirka.

1971 – The People’s Republic of China was seated in the U.N. Security Council.

1972 – Secret peace talks resume in Paris between Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho, the North Vietnamese representative, but almost immediately reach an impasse. The sticking points were the implementation of the international supervisory force and Saigon’s insistence on the withdrawal of all North Vietnamese troops from South Vietnam. When the talks became hopelessly deadlocked, President Nixon ordered what became known as the “Christmas bombing” to force the North Vietnamese back to the negotiating table. Nixon halted the bombing when the communists agreed to return to Paris; a peace agreement was signed in January 1973. Because the United States was in such a hurry to end American participation in the war, the insistence on the withdrawal of North Vietnamese troops from South Vietnam ceased to be an issue. More than 100,000 communist troops were left in the south when the cease-fire went into effect. This played a major role in the fall of South Vietnam to the communists in April 1975.

1981 – President Ronald Reagan signs off on a top secret document, National Security Decision Directive 17 (NSDD-17), which gives the Central Intelligence Agency the power to recruit and support a 500-man force of Nicaraguan rebels to conduct covert actions against the leftist Sandinista regime in Nicaragua. A budget of $19 million was established for that purpose. NSDD-17 marked the beginning of official U.S. support for the so-called Contras in their struggle against the Sandinistas. The decision came several months after President Reagan directed the CIA to develop a plan to stop what his administration believed to be a serious flow of arms from Nicaragua to rebels in neighboring El Salvador. The administration also believed that the Sandinista regime was merely a cat’s paw for the Soviet Union. CIA officials subsequently set about securing pledges from Honduras to provide training bases and Argentina to give training to about 1,000 rebels (these would be in addition to the 500-man force trained and supplied by the CIA).

Beyond the original goal of halting the flow of arms from Nicaragua, the tasks of the rebels were expanded to include spy missions and even paramilitary actions inside Nicaragua. News of the directive leaked out to the press in March 1982, but Reagan administration officials quickly downplayed the significance of the action. They argued that the CIA plan was designed to support Nicaraguan “moderates” who opposed the Sandinista regime, not the disreputable former soldiers and allies of Anastasio Somoza, whom the Sandinista overthrew in 1979. Deputy Director of the CIA Admiral Bobby R. Inman argued that the $19 million allocation provided little buying power for arms and other materials, saying that “Nineteen million or $29 million isn’t going to buy you much of any kind these days, and certainly not against that kind of military force.” In the years to come, U.S. support of the Contras became a highly charged issue among the American public. Congressional and public criticisms of the program eventually drove the Reagan administration to subvert congressional bans on aid to the Contras. These actions resulted in what came to be known as the Iran-Contra scandal of 1986.

1985 – Retired CIA analyst Larry Wu-tai Chin was arrested and accused of spying for China. He committed suicide a year after his conviction. Chin, a CIA translator, analyst, and document control officer, may have been the most damaging anti-U.S. spy ever; he sold bushels of U.S. secrets to China, altering the course of history. The Chinese government knew about President Richard Nixon’s secret decision to re-establish diplomatic relations two years before Nixon’s historic visit to China, and it leveraged key concessions. The North Vietnamese likely benefited from the secrets that China forwarded from Chin during the Vietnam War. Chin’s spying career began in 1948 when he joined the U.S. Consulate in Shanghai as an interpreter, after a stint at a U.S. military mission in southern China. A former mission roommate introduced Chin to a Communist official, who recruited him. In 1952, the State Department asked Chin to help interrogate Chinese prisoners for the U.S.-allied forces in Korea. Chin promptly sold the Chinese government the names of Chinese prisoners who were anti-Communists. China responded by demanding the forced repatriation of all Chinese prisoners as part of negotiations to halt the fighting. Experts believe Chin’s treachery delayed the end of the Korean War for more than a year.

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1987 – Two days after a riot by Cuban inmates erupted at a detention center in Oakdale, La., Cuban detainees at a federal prison in Atlanta also rioted, seizing hostages in a drama that was not resolved until December 4th.

1990 – President Bush conferred separately with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo and Syrian President Hafez Assad in Geneva, seeking Arab support for his drive to expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait.

1990 – Iraq ended curfew in occupied Kuwait, but began calling up army reservists in their thirties.

1991 – Yugoslavia’s rival leaders agreed to a new cease-fire, the 14th of the Balkan civil war.

1992 – Iran added a Russian-built submarine to its navy, becoming the first Gulf nation to field a submarine.

1992 – The first smartphone, the IBM Simon, is introduced at COMDEX in Las Vegas, Nevada.

1993 – President Clinton signed legislation lifting remaining U.S. sanctions against South Africa, and announced an initiative to spur investment in South Africa’s black private sector.

1994 – NATO warplanes blasted Serb missile batteries in two air raids while Bosnian Serb fighters, for the first time, broke into the U.N.-designated safe haven of Bihac.

1994 – A large cache of bomb-grade uranium was transferred from Kazakhstan to the United States.

1995 – Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic grudgingly accepted the US-backed peace plan for the former Yugoslavia after meeting with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.

1996 – Following a four-day visit to Australia, President Clinton arrived in the Philippines for a summit of Asian-Pacific leaders.

1997 – Jorge Mas Canosa, Cuban exile leader and head of MasTec, died in Miami. He helped create Radio Marti and TV Marti and served as chairman of the US Information Agency stations that beamed uncensored news to Cuba.

1999 – In a plea met with scant applause and silent stares, President Clinton told ethnic Albanians in Kosovo that “you must try” to forgive Serb neighbors and stop punishing them for the terror campaign of Slobodan Milosevic.

1999 – Defense Secretary William Cohen called for a military-wide review of conduct after a Pentagon study said up to 75 percent of blacks and other ethnic minorities reported experiencing racially offensive behavior.

2000 – In Florida the Supreme Court rejected an emergency plea by Al Gore to force Miami-Dade County to resume manual counts. Meanwhile, Gore’s lawyers argued in a brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court that the high court should stay out of the Florida election controversy.

2001 – Following eleven days of intense bombing, the enemy began crumbling and General Daoud captured the nearby city of Khanabad. He next prepared to move directly on Kondoz but decided to try a little diplomacy first, initiating talks with the Taliban leaders in that city. Seeing that their position was hopeless, they agreed to surrender. Kondoz, the last Taliban stronghold in northern Afghanistan, was under Northern Alliance control.

2001 – Taliban troop contingents were reported to have dug in at 2 bases near Jalalabad including an estimated 1,200 at Tora Bora. It was also reported that Pakistani airplanes were being used to evacuate pro-Taliban Pakistani fighters in Kunduz.

2001 – In Belgium the UN war crimes tribunal announced that Slobodan Milosevic, former Yugoslav president, would stand trial on charges of genocide in the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia.

2001 – Japan said it would send 1,500 troops to help with relief operations in Afghanistan.

2001 – Spain set terms for extradition of 8 men charged with complicity in the September 11th attacks that included trial by a civilian court.

2003 – In Afghanistan a transport helicopter carrying US troops that crashed just north of Kabul, killing five Americans and injuring seven.

2003 – In Iraq the Governing Council named Rend Rahim Francke, an Iraqi-American woman and veteran lobbyist who has criticized Washington as being shortsighted in Iraq, as its ambassador to the United States.

2011 – The United States announces that it will stop observing the 1990 Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. The decision comes four years after Russia withdrew compliance from the treaty.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

BARNUM, HENRY A.
Rank and organization: Colonel, 149th New York Infantry. Place and date: At Chattanooga, Tenn., 23 November 1863. Entered service at: Syracuse, N.Y. Born: 24 September 1833, Jamesville, Onondaga County, N.Y. Date of issue: July 1889. Citation: Although suffering severely from wounds, he led his regiment, inciting the men to greater action by word and example until again severely wounded.

SEWARD, RICHARD E.
Rank and organization: Paymaster’s Steward, U.S. Navy. Place and date: Ship Island Sound, La., 23 November 1863. Entered service at——. Born: 1840, Kittery, Maine. Date of issue: 16 April 1864. Citation: Served as paymaster’s steward on board the U.S.S. Commodore, November 1863. Carrying out his duties courageously, Seward “volunteered to go on the field amidst a heavy fire to recover the bodies of 2 soldiers which he brought off with the aid of others; a second instance of personal valor within a fortnight.” Promoted to acting master’s mate.

TOFFEY, JOHN J.
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, Company G, 33d New Jersey Infantry. Place and date. At Chattanooga, Tenn., 23 November 1863. Entered service at: Hudson, N.J. Birth: Duchess, N.Y. Date of issue: 10 September 1897. Citation: Although excused from duty on account of sickness, went to the front in command of a storming party and with conspicuous gallantry participated in the assault of Missionary Ridge; was here wounded and permanently disabled.

VAN SCHAICK, LOUIS J.
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, 4th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: Near Nasugbu, Batangas, Philippine Islands, 23 November 1901. Entered service at: Cobleskill, N.Y. Birth: Cobleskill, N.Y. G.O. No.: 33, 1913. Date of issue: Unknown. Citation: While in pursuit of a band of insurgents was the first of his detachment to emerge from a canyon, and seeing a column of insurgents and fearing they might turn and dispatch his men as they emerged one by one from the canyon, galloped forward and closed with the insurgents, thereby throwing them into confusion until the arrival of others of the detachment.

SILK, EDWARD A.
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Army, Company E, 398th Infantry, 100th Infantry Division. Place and date: Near St. Pravel, France, 23 November 1944. Entered service at: Johnstown, Pa. Born: 8 June 1916, Johnstown, Pa. G.O. No.: 97, 1 November 1945. citation. 1st Lt. Edward A. Silk commanded the weapons platoon of Company E, 398th Infantry, on 23 November 1944, when the end battalion was assigned the mission of seizing high ground overlooking Moyenmoutier France, prior to an attack on the city itself. His company jumped off in the lead at dawn and by noon had reached the edge of a woods in the vicinity of St. Pravel where scouts saw an enemy sentry standing guard before a farmhouse in a valley below. One squad, engaged in reconnoitering the area, was immediately pinned down by intense machinegun and automatic-weapons fire from within the house. Skillfully deploying his light machinegun section, 1st Lt. Silk answered enemy fire, but when 15 minutes had elapsed with no slackening of resistance, he decided to eliminate the strong point by a l-man attack.

Running 100 yards across an open field to the shelter of a low stone wall directly in front of the farmhouse, he fired into the door and windows with his carbine; then, in full view of the enemy, vaulted the wall and dashed 50 yards through a hail of bullets to the left side of the house, where he hurled a grenade through a window, silencing a machinegun and killing 2 gunners. In attempting to move to the right side of the house he drew fire from a second machinegun emplaced in the woodshed. With magnificent courage he rushed this position in the face of direct fire and succeeded in neutralizing the weapon and killing the 2 gunners by throwing grenades into the structure. His supply of grenades was by now exhausted, but undaunted, he dashed back to the side of the farmhouse and began to throw rocks through a window, demanding the surrender of the remaining enemy. Twelve Germans, overcome by his relentless assault and confused by his unorthodox methods, gave up to the lone American. By his gallant willingness to assume the full burden of the attack and the intrepidity with which he carried out his extremely hazardous mission, 1st Lt. Silk enabled his battalion to continue its advance and seize its objective.

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24 November

1784– Zachary Taylor, the 12th president of the United States (1849-1850), was born at Montebello, Orange County, Va. Embarking on a military career in 1808, Taylor fought in the War of 1812, the Black Hawk War, and the Seminole War, meanwhile holding garrison jobs on the frontier or desk jobs in Washington. A brigadier general as a result of his victory over the Seminoles at Lake Okeechobee (1837), Taylor held a succession of Southwestern commands and in 1846 established a base on the Rio Grande, where his forces engaged in hostilities that precipitated the war with Mexico. He captured Monterrey in Sept. 1846 and, disregarding Polk’s orders to stay on the defensive, defeated Santa Anna at Buena Vista in Feb. 1847, ending the war in the northern provinces. Though Taylor had never cast a vote for president, his party affiliations were Whiggish and his availability was increased by his difficulties with Polk. He was elected president over the Democrat Lewis Cass. During the revival of the slavery controversy, which was to result in the Compromise of 1850, Taylor began to take an increasingly firm stand against appeasing the South; but he died in Washington on July 9, 1850, during the fight over the Compromise. He married Margaret Mackall Smith in 1810. His bluff and simple soldierly qualities won him the name Old Rough and Ready.

1832– South Carolina passed an Ordinance of Nullification. The US government had enacted a tariff. South Carolina nullified it and threatened to secede. Pres. Jackson threatened armed force on his home state but a compromise was devised by Henry Clay that ducked the central problem. South Carolina and other southern states were upset when Congress passed the Tariff of 1828 which Southerners dubbed the “Tariff of Abominations.” Southerners saw the tariff as protecting Northern industry at the expense of the South, and as unconstitutionally expanding the powers of the federal government. Many Southerners was not satisfied when Congress lowered tariffs slightly in 1832. In response, South CarolinaÌs state legislature passed laws nullifying the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 and forbidding the collection of the tariffs in South Carolina. South Carolina also threatened to secede to withdraw from the United States if its stance on the tariff was not respected.

1835– Texas Rangers, a mounted police force, was authorized by the Texas Provisional Government. Rangers served primarily as volunteers since government offers of payment rarely materialized. In 1835, as the movement for Texas independence was about to boil over, a council of colonial Texas representatives created a “Corps of Rangers” to protect the frontier from hostile Indians. For the first time, their pay was officially set at $1.25 a day and they were to elect their own officers. They were also required to furnish their own arms, mounts, and equipment. The corps was commanded by R.M. “three-legged” Williamson (so nicknamed because he had a wooden leg to support a crippled limb) and led by Captains William Arrington, Issac Burleson and John J. Tumlinson. Settlers rebelled against the Mexican government in 1836 over violations of their rights and the suspension of immigration from the U.S and Europe. The Texas Rangers played an important but little known role in this conflict. They covered the retreat of civilians from dictator Santa Ana’s army in the famous “Runaway Scrape,” harassed columns of Mexican troops and provided valuable intelligence to the Texas Army. The only men to ride in response to Col. William B. Travis’ last minute plea to defend the Alamo were Rangers who fought, and died, in the cause of Texas freedom.

1852 – Commodore Matthew Perry sails from Norfolk, VA, to negotiate a treaty with Japan for friendship and commerce.

1861 – Landing party from U.S.S. Flag, Commander J. Rodgers, U.S.S. Augusta, Pocahontas, Seneca, and Savannah, took possession of the Tybee Island, Savannah Harbor. “This abandonment of Tybee Island,” Du Pont reported, “is due to the terror inspired by the bombardment of Forts Walker and Beauregard, and is a direct fruit of the victory of the 7th [capture of Port Royal Sound].”

1862 – U.S.S. Monticello, Lieutenant Commander Braine, destroyed two Confederate salt works near Little River Inlet, North Carolina.

1863– Union troops capture Lookout Mountain southwest of Chattanooga as they begin to break the Confederate siege of the city. In the “battle above the clouds,” the Yankees scaled the slopes of the mountain on the periphery of the Chattanooga lines. For nearly two months since the Battle of Chickamauga, the Confederates, commanded by General Braxton Bragg, had pinned the Union army inside Chattanooga. They were not able to surround the city, though, and occupied Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge to the south and east of the city instead. In late October, arriving to take command, General Ulysses S. Grant immediately began to form an offensive. On October 27, Union troops attacked Brown’s Ferry southwest of Chattanooga and opened the Tennessee River to boats that brought much needed supplies to the besieged Yankees. On November 23, Grant began to attack the center of the lines around the city.

Lookout Mountain lay on the Union’s far right, and the action there commenced on November 24. General Joseph Hooker commanded this wing, and his men advanced toward the fog-covered peak. Hooker did not plan to attack the entire mountain that day, thinking the granite crags would be difficult to overcome. The fog covered the Union advance, however, and Hooker’s men climbed relatively easily. The Confederates had overestimated the advantages offered by the mountain, and only 1,200 Rebels faced nearly 12,000 attacking Yankees. Artillery proved of little use, as the hill was so steep that the attackers could not even be seen until they appeared near the summit. Bragg did not send reinforcements because the Union attack against the Confederate center was more threatening than the sideshow around Lookout Mountain. The Confederates abandoned the mountain by late afternoon. The next day, the Unions launched a devastating attack against Missionary Ridge and successfully broke the Confederate lines around Chattanooga.

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1863 – Under cover of U.S.S. Pawnee, Commander Balch, and U.S.S. Marblehead, Lieutenant Commander Richard W. Meade, Jr., Army troops commenced sinking piles as obstructions in the Stono River above Legareville, South Carolina. The troops, protected by Marblehead, had landed the day before. The naval force remained on station at the request of Brigadier General Schimmelfennig to preclude a possible Confederate attack.

1871– The National Rifle Association was incorporated in NYC, and its first president named: Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside. Dismayed by the lack of marksmanship shown by their troops, Union veterans Col. William C. Church and Gen. George Wingate formed the National Rifle Association in 1871. The primary goal of the association would be to “promote and encourage rifle shooting on a scientific basis,” according to a magazine editorial written by Church. After being granted a charter by the state of New York on November 17, 1871, the NRA was founded. Civil War Gen. Ambrose Burnside, who was also the former governor of Rhode Island and a U.S. Senator, became the fledgling NRA’s first president.

1932 – The FBI Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory officially opens in Washington, D.C. The lab, which was chosen because it had the necessary sink, operated out of a single room and had only one full-time employee, Agent Charles Appel. Agent Appel began with a borrowed microscope and a pseudo-scientific device called a helixometer. The helixometer purportedly assisted investigators with gun barrel examinations, but it was actually more for show than function. In fact, J. Edgar Hoover, the head of the FBI, provided the lab with very few resources and used the “cutting-edge lab” primarily as a public relations tool. But by 1938, the FBI lab added polygraph machines and started conducting controversial lie detection tests as part of its investigations. In its early days, the FBI Crime Lab worked on about 200 pieces of evidence a year. By the 1990s, that number multiplied to approximately 200,000. Currently, the FBI Crime Lab obtains 600 new pieces of criminal evidence everyday.

1941 – The United States extends Lend-Lease to the Free French Forces.

1943 – Japanese forces mount a small attack on the American divisions on Bougainville. The US marines hold.

1943 – The USS Liscome Bay is torpedoed near Tarawa and sinks, killing 650 men.

1944– 111 U.S. B-29 Superfortress bombers raid Tokyo for the first time since Capt. Jimmy Doolittle’s raid in 1942. Their target: the Nakajima aircraft engine works. Fall 1944 saw the sustained strategic bombing of Japan. It began with a reconnaissance flight over Tokyo by Tokyo Rose, a Superfortress B-29 bomber piloted by Capt. Ralph D. Steakley, who grabbed over 700 photographs of the bomb sites in 35 minutes. Next, starting the first week of November, came a string of B-29 raids, dropping hundreds of tons of high explosives on Iwo Jima, in order to keep the Japanese fighters stationed there on the ground and useless for a counteroffensive. Then came Tokyo. The awesome raid, composed of 111 Superfortress four-engine bombers, was led by Gen. Emmett “Rosie” O’Donnell, piloting Dauntless Dotty.

Press cameramen on site captured the takeoffs of the first mass raid on the Japanese capital ever for posterity. Unfortunately, even with the use of radar, overcast skies and bad weather proved an insurmountable obstacle at 30,000 feet: Despite the barrage of bombs that were dropped, fewer than 50 hit the main target, the Nakajima Aircraft Works, doing little damage. The upside was that at such a great height, the B-29s were protected from counter-attack; only one was shot down. One Distinguished Flying Cross was awarded as a result of the raid. It went to Captain Steakley.

1944 – The US 3rd Army captures crossings over the Saar River, about 25 miles north of Saarbrucken. To the south, the French 2nd Division (an element of US 7th Army) takes Strasbourg.

1947– Congress voted to cite the Hollywood Ten, who opposed the HUAC hearings, as “unfriendly witnesses” for contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions about alleged Communist influence in the movie industry. At the same time 50 top Hollywood executives convened and decided to discharge or suspend the Hollywood Ten until acquittal or declaration that they were not Communists. Among the ten were director Edward Dmytrak, who later recanted and gave names of suspected Communists, Lester Cole, and writer Ring Lardner Jr. Lester Cole later wrote “Hollywood Red.”

1950– UN troops began an assault with the intent to end the Korean War by Christmas.

1961– The UN adopted bans on nuclear arms over American protest.

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1963 – At 12:20 p.m., in the basement of the Dallas police station, Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of President John F. Kennedy, is shot to death by Jack Ruby, a Dallas strip club owner. On November 22, President Kennedy was fatally shot while riding in an open-car motorcade through the streets of downtown Dallas. Less than an hour after the shooting, Lee Harvey Oswald killed a policeman who questioned him on the street. Thirty minutes after that, he was arrested in a movie theater by police. Oswald was formally arraigned on November 23 for the murders of President Kennedy and Officer J.D. Tippit. On November 24, Oswald was brought to the basement of the Dallas police headquarters on his way to a more secure county jail. A crowd of police and press with live television cameras rolling gathered to witness his departure.

As Oswald came into the room, Jack Ruby emerged from the crowd and fatally wounded him with a single shot from a concealed .38 revolver. Ruby, who was immediately detained, claimed that rage at Kennedy’s murder was the motive for his action. Some called him a hero, but he was nonetheless charged with first-degree murder. Jack Ruby, originally known as Jacob Rubenstein, operated strip joints and dance halls in Dallas and had minor connections to organized crime. He also had a relationship with a number of Dallas policemen, which amounted to various favors in exchange for leniency in their monitoring of his establishments. He features prominently in Kennedy-assassination theories, and many believe he killed Oswald to keep him from revealing a larger conspiracy. In his trial, Ruby denied the allegation and pleaded innocent on the grounds that his great grief over Kennedy’s murder had caused him to suffer “psychomotor epilepsy” and shoot Oswald unconsciously. The jury found him guilty of the “murder with malice” of Oswald and sentenced him to die.

In October 1966, the Texas Court of Appeals reversed the decision on the grounds of improper admission of testimony and the fact that Ruby could not have received a fair trial in Dallas at the time. In January 1967, while awaiting a new trial, to be held in Wichita Falls, Ruby died of lung cancer in a Dallas hospital. The official Warren Commission report of 1964 concluded that neither Oswald nor Ruby were part of a larger conspiracy, either domestic or international, to assassinate President Kennedy. Despite its seemingly firm conclusions, the report failed to silence conspiracy theories surrounding the event, and in 1978 the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded in a preliminary report that Kennedy was “probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy” that may have involved multiple shooters and organized crime. The committee’s findings, as with those of the Warren Commission, continue to be widely disputed.

1963 – Two days after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, President Lyndon B. Johnson confirms the U.S. intention to continue military and economic support to South Vietnam. He instructed Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, in Washington for consultations following South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem’s assassination, to communicate his intention to the new South Vietnamese leadership. Johnson’s first decision about Vietnam was effectively to continue Kennedy’s policy.

1964 – USS Princeton (LPH-5) completes 7-days of humanitarian relief to South Vietnam which suffered damage from typhoon and floods.

1965 – U.S. casualty statistics reflect the intensified fighting in the Ia Drang Valley and other parts of the Central Highlands. In their first significant contacts, U.S. forces and North Vietnamese regulars fought a series of major battles in the Highlands that led to high casualties for both sides. A record 240 American soldiers were killed and another 470 were wounded during the previous week. These figures were a portent of things to come–U.S. and North Vietnamese forces began to engage each other on a regular basis shortly thereafter.

1967– Cambodian triple agent Inchin Lam was murdered. Special Forces Captain John J. McCarthy was accused and later tried for the murder in a court in Vietnam.

1969– U.S. Army officials announce 1st Lt. William Calley will be court-martialed for the premeditated murder of 109 Vietnamese civilians at My Lai. In Washington, Army Secretary Stanley Resor and Army Chief of Staff William C. Westmoreland announced the appointment of Lt. Gen. William R. Peers to “explore the nature and scope” of the original investigation of the My Lai slayings in April 1968. The initial probe, conducted by the unit involved in the affair, concluded that no massacre occurred and that no further action was warranted. The My Lai Massacre took place in March 1968, when between 200 and 500 South Vietnamese civilians were murdered by U.S. soldiers from Company C, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry, 11th Infantry Brigade of the Americal Division.

During a sweep of a cluster of hamlets, the U.S. soldiers, particularly those from Calley’s first platoon, indiscriminately shot people as they ran from their huts. They then systematically rounded up the survivors, allegedly leading them to a ditch where Calley gave the order to “finish them off.” After an investigation by the Army Criminal Investigation Division, 14 were charged with crimes. All eventually had their charges dismissed or were acquitted, except Calley, who was found guilty of murdering 22 civilians and sentenced to life imprisonment. His sentence was reduced twice and he was paroled in November 1974.

1969– HS-4 from USS Hornet (CVS-12) recovers Apollo 12’s all-Navy crew of astronauts, Commanders Richard Gordon, Charles Conrad, and Alan Bean, after moon landing by Conrad and Bean.

1979– U.S. admitted that thousands of troops in Vietnam were exposed to the toxic Agent Orange.

1985– The hijacking of an Egypt Air jetliner parked on the ground in Malta ended violently as Egyptian commandos stormed the plane. Fifty-eight people died in the raid, in addition to two others killed by the hijackers. Ali Rezaq of the Abu Nidal terrorist group was imprisoned in Malta for 7 years and then released. The US FBI apprehended him in Nigeria in 1993 and he was convicted by a US federal jury in 1996 and sentenced to life in prison.

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1987– The United States and the Soviet Union agreed to scrap shorter- and medium-range missiles in the first superpower treaty to eliminate an entire class of nuclear weapons.

1990– President Bush returned home from an eight-day tour of Europe and the Middle East, during which he’d lobbied foreign leaders on behalf of his Persian Gulf policy.

1991– The space shuttle Atlantis blasted off from Cape Canaveral with six astronauts and a military satellite. Launch set for November 19 delayed due to malfunctioning redundant inertial measurement unit on Inertial Upper Stage booster attached to Defense Support Program satellite. Unit replaced and tested. Launch reset for November 24, delayed 13 minutes to allow an orbiting spacecraft to pass and to allow external tank liquid oxygen replenishment after minor repairs to valve in the liquid oxygen replenishment system in the mobile launcher platform.

Launch Weight: 259,629 lbs. Dedicated Department of Defense mission. Unclassified payload included Defense Support Program (DSP) satellite and attached Inertial Upper Stage (IUS), deployed on flight day one. Cargo bay and middeck payloads: Interim Operational Contamination Monitor(IOCM); Terra Scout; Military Man in Space (M88-1); Air Force Maui Optical System (AMOS); Cosmic Radiation Effects and Activation Monitor (CREAM); Shuttle Activation Monitor (SAM); Radiation Monitoring Equipment III (RME III); Visual Function Tester-1 (VFT-1); Ultraviolet Plume Instrument (UVPI). Bioreactor Flow and Particle Trajectory experiment; and Extended Duration Orbiter Medical Project, a series of investigations in support of Extended Duration Orbiter.

1992– Former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger pleaded innocent to making a false statement in the Iran-Contra affair. However, Weinberger was pardoned by President Bush before the case could come to trial.

1992– Marines lowered the flag at Subic Bay, U.S. Naval Facility, Republic of the Philippines, for the last time during ceremonies to turn over the facility to the government of the Philippines. The withdrawal ended almost a century of U.S. presence in that nation.

1994– Rebel Serbs refused to withdraw from the U.N. designated safe area around Bihac and continued to advance on the city, despite recent NATO air strikes.

1995– Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic promised during a televised address to accept a U-S-brokered peace plan.

1997– It was reported that Iraq continued to withhold access to 63 weapons sites that included 47 presidential compounds.

2000– The U.S. Supreme Court stepped into the bitter, overtime struggle for the White House, agreeing to consider George W. Bush’s appeal whether the extended Florida ballot counting violates federal law.

2000– In Cambodia several dozen gunmen attacked government offices in Phnom Penh. At least 7 people were killed and 12 wounded. Police fought a US-based anti-communist group known as the Cambodian Freedom Fighters (CFF). 8 were killed and 60 rounded up. 38 people, including 4 American citizens, were later charged with terrorism. In 2002 a court sentenced 20 people to prison terms of 5 years to life for the plotting to overthrow the government.

2000– In Serbia police gave NATO a 72-hour deadline to stop incursions from Kosovo by ethnic Albanian militants.

2001– Hundreds of Taliban fighters surrendered at Kunduz. A few turned out to be suicide bombers, who killed 5-6 Northern Alliance commanders.

2002– In a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the Iraqi government complained that the small print behind upcoming weapons inspections would give Washington a pretext to attack.

2003– A Virginia jury decided that John Allen Muhammad, convicted of masterminding the 2002 sniper attacks in the Washington DC region, should be executed.

2003– The US-appointed government raided the offices of Al-Arabiya television, banned its broadcasts from Iraq for broadcasting an audiotape a week ago of a voice it said belonged to Saddam Hussein.

2014 – Chuck Hagel resigned as US defense secretary after less than two years in the top post.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

KAPPESSER, PETER
Rank and organization: Private, Company B, 149th New York Infantry. Place and date: At Lookout Mountain, Tenn., 24 November 1863. Entered service at: Syracuse, N.Y. Birth: Germany. Date of issue: 28 June 1865. Citation: Capture of Confederate flag (Bragg’s army).

KIGGINS, JOHN
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company D, 149th New York Infantry. Place and date: At Lookout Mountain, Tenn., 24 November 1863. Entered service at: Syracuse, N.Y. Birth: Syracuse, N.Y. Date of issue: 12 January 1892. Citation: Waved the colors to save the lives of the men who were being fired upon by their own batteries, and thereby drew upon himself a concentrated fire from the enemy.

POTTER, NORMAN F.
Rank and organization: First Sergeant, Company E, 149th New York Infantry. Place and date: At Lookout Mountain, Tenn., 24 November 1863. Entered service at: Pompey, N.Y. Birth: Pompey, N.Y. Date of issue: 24 June 1865. Citation: Capture of flag (Bragg’s army).

WILLIAMS, ANTONIO
Rank and organization: Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1825, Malta. Citation: For courage and fidelity displayed in the loss of the U.S.S. Huron, 24 November 1877.

*KNIGHT, NOAH O.
Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Army, Company F, 7th Infantry Regiment, 3d Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Kowang-San, Korea, 23 and 24 November 1951. Entered service at: Jefferson, S.C. Born: 27 October 1929, Chesterfield County, S.C. G.O. No.: 2, 7 January 1953. Citation: Pfc. Knight, a member of Company F, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and indomitable courage above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. He occupied a key position in the defense perimeter when waves of enemy troops passed through their own artillery and mortar concentrations and charged the company position. Two direct hits from an enemy emplacement demolished his bunker and wounded him. Disregarding personal safety, he moved to a shallow depression for a better firing vantage.

Unable to deliver effective fire from his defilade position, he left his shelter, moved through heavy fire in full view of the enemy and, firing into the ranks of the relentless assailants, inflicted numerous casualties, momentarily stemming the attack. Later during another vicious onslaught, he observed an enemy squad infiltrating the position and, counterattacking, killed or wounded the entire group. Expending the last of his ammunition, he discovered 3 enemy soldiers entering the friendly position with demolition charges. Realizing the explosives would enable the enemy to exploit the breach, he fearlessly rushed forward and disabled 2 assailants with the butt of his rifle when the third exploded a demolition charge killing the 3 enemy soldiers and mortally wounding Pfc. Knight. Pfc. Knight’s supreme sacrifice and consummate devotion to duty reflect lasting glory on himself and uphold the noble traditions of the military service.

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25 November

1758 – In the French and Indian War, the British captured Fort Duquesne in present-day Pittsburgh. On November 24, the French commander recognized that he faced total disaster if he were to resist. Under the cover of night, the French withdrew from Fort Duquesne, set it afire and floated down the Ohio River to safety. The British claimed the smoldering remains on November 25 and were horrified to finds the heads of some of Grant’s Highlanders impaled on stakes with their kilts displayed below.

1783 – Nearly three months after the Treaty of Paris was signed ending the American Revolution, the last British soldiers withdraw from New York City, their last military position in the United States. After the last Red Coat departed New York, Patriot General George Washington entered the city in triumph to the cheers of New Yorkers. The city was captured by the British in September 1776 and remained in their hands until 1783. Four months after New York was returned to the victorious Patriots, the city was declared to be the capital of the United States. It was the site in 1789 of Washington’s inauguration as the first U.S. president and remained the nation’s capital until 1790, when Philadelphia became the second capital of the United States under the U.S. Constitution.

1841 – The rebel slaves who seized a Spanish slave ship, the Amistad, two years earlier were freed by the US Supreme Court despite Spanish demands for extradition. John Quincy Adams (74), former US president, defended “the Mendi people,” a group of Africans who rebelled and killed the crew aboard the slave ship Amistad, while en route to Cuba. They faced mutiny charges upon landing in New York but Adams won their acquittal before the Supreme Court. In thanks they bestowed to him an 1838 English Bible. In 1996 the Bible was stolen from the Adams National Historic Site in Quincy, Mass.

1841 – 35 Amistad survivors returned to Sierra Leone, Africa.

1863 – Union General Ulysses S. Grant breaks the siege of Chattanooga, Tennessee, in stunning fashion by routing the Confederates under General Braxton Bragg at Missionary Ridge. For two months since the Battle of Chattanooga, the Confederates had kept the Union army bottled up inside of a tight semicircle around Chattanooga. When Grant arrived in October, however, he immediately reversed the defensive posture of his army. After opening a supply line by driving the Confederates away from the Tennessee River in late October, Grant prepared for a major offensive in late November. It was launched on November 23 when Grant sent General George Thomas to probe the center of the Confederate line. Stunningly, this simple plan turned into a complete victory, and the Rebels retreated higher up Missionary Ridge. On November 24, the Yankees captured Lookout Mountain on the extreme right of the Union lines, and this set the stage for the Battle of Missionary Ridge.The attack took place in three parts. On the Union left, General William T. Sherman attacked troops under Patrick Cleburne at Tunnel Hill, an extension of Missionary Ridge. In difficult fighting, Cleburne managed to hold the hill.

On the other end of the Union lines, General Joseph Hooker was advancing slowly from Lookout Mountain, and his force had little impact on the battle. It was at the center that the Union achieved its greatest success. The soldiers on both sides received confusing orders. Some Union troops thought they were only supposed to take the rifle pits at the base of the ridge, while others understood that they were to advance to the top. Some of the Confederates heard that they were to hold the pits, while others thought that they were to retreat to the top of Missionary Ridge. Furthermore, poor placement of Confederate trenches on the top of the ridge made it difficult to fire at the advancing Union troops without hitting their own men, who were retreating from the rifle pits. The result was that the attack on the Confederate center turned into a major Union victory.

After the center collapsed, the Confederate troops retreated on November 26, and Bragg pulled his troops away from Chattanooga. He resigned shortly thereafter, having lost the confidence of his army. The Confederates suffered 6,687 men killed, wounded, and missing, and the Union lost 5,824. Grant missed an opportunity to destroy the Confederate army when he chose not to pursue the retreating Rebels, but Chattanooga was secured. Sherman resumed the attack in the spring after Grant was promoted to general in chief of all Federal forces.

1864 – A Confederate plot to burn NYC failed. The leader of the “fire brigade” was a Confederate by the name of Robert Kennedy. Kennedy and the rest of his group met at the St. Dennis Hotel like planned. At that time final coordinates were made. Over the next few days his men were to each register for a weeks stay in several assigned hotels each — using assumed names and towns of course. This was to gain them access to rooms in the hotels. Arrangements had been previously made with a chemist residing in New York, but a Southern Sympathizer, to pick up a load of “Greek fire.” This was a special chemical combination that looked like water but, when exposed to air, after a delay, would ignite in flames. When Kennedy picked up the valise, he found it contained dozens of small bottles of the liquid and each bottle was sealed with plaster of Paris. Instructions were to use the bed in each room, pile it with clothing, rugs, drapes, newspapers, and anything else that would burn, Next, they were to empty two bottles of the “Greek fire” on top of the pile. In about five minutes, flames would ignite the pile. This delay gave them plenty of time to escape unnoticed before the fire started. After starting one fire, the man would then proceed to the next location and do the same. Each man would thus be capable of setting off several fires blocks from each other.

Still making final arrangements on November 2 to finish the deed, a disturbing telegram was sent by Secretary of State William Seward to the Mayor of New York. It read: This Department has received information from British Provinces to the effect that there is a conspiracy on foot to set fire to the principle cities in the Northern States on the day of – the Presidential election. It is my duty to communicate this information to you.” Later that afternoon the telegram was made public. (The same telegram was also sent to the mayors of other major Northern cities like Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland.) At this time most of the Order members decided to abandon the plan and get out of the city in an attempt to save their own lives — all that is except for Kennedy and five of the seven members of his band. After several meetings, it was decided by Kennedy and the rest of his gang to go ahead with the plan and set New York City on fire. They wouldn’t be in a position to capture New York after all but at least they could retaliate for Sherman’s March to the Sea.

On the evening of November 25, 1864 the fires began. Before the night was over almost every hotel in New York City had been set ablaze. These hotels included the St. Nicholas, St. James, Fifth Avenue, La Farge, Metropolitan, Tammany, Hudson River Park, Astor House, Howard, United States, Lovejoy’s, New England, and the Belmont. There were also fires on the Hudson River docks and a lumber yard. As a last minute thought, Kennedy decided to go into Barnum’s museum and up to the fifth floor where he could obtain a good view of Broadway and several of the fires. After watching for several minutes, Kennedy started going down the stairs. The remaining bottle of “Greek fire” dropped from his coat pocket and broke in the stairwell. Wasting no time, Kennedy ran from the museum, out the front door and on down Broadway. Meeting his band of men the next morning at the Exchange Hotel, one of the few that they hadn’t set fire to, Kennedy and his men read the morning papers. While there were some reports of the fires, the news didn’t fill the front page like they hoped it would.

Both the Times and the Herald however headed the news of the fires as a “Rebel Plot.” Kennedy and his men managed to get out of New York City on November 28. Soon a $25,000 reward was offered. This, combined with Kennedy’s boasting of his role in setting the fires, led to his capture three months later. After a short trial, Kennedy was found guilty on all counts. At this time, Kennedy signed a confession but refused to name anyone else involved in the plot. On March 25, 1865, — just three weeks prior the Lincoln’s assassination — Kennedy was hung.

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1864 – Confederate Cavalry under “Fighting Joe” Wheeler retreated at Sandersville, Georgia.

1867 – Alfred Nobel patented dynamite. In 1863, Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel invented the Nobel patent detonator (later used with dynamite) which detonated nitroglycerin (invented by Italian chemist Ascanio Sobrero in 1846) using a strong shock rather than heat combustion. In 1865, the Nobel Company built the first factory for producing nitroglycerin and later dynamite. Nitroglycerin in its natural liquid state is very volatile. Albert Nobel recognized this, and in 1866 he discovered that mixing nitroglycerine with silica would turn the liquid into a malleable paste (dynamite), which could be cylinder shaped for insertion into the drilling holes used for mining. In 1867, Albert Nobel patented this material under the name of dynamite – U.S. patent 78,317. To be able to detonate the dynamite rods he also invented a detonator or blasting cap that was ignited by lighting a fuse.

1876 – U.S. troops under the leadership of General Ranald Mackenzie destroy the village of Cheyenne living with Chief Dull Knife on the headwaters of the Powder River. The attack was in retaliation against some of the Indians who had participated in the massacre of Custer and his men at Little Bighorn. Although the Sioux and Cheyenne won one of their greatest victories at Little Bighorn, the battle actually marked the beginning of the end of their ability to resist the U.S. government. News of the massacre of Custer and his men reached the East Coast in the midst of nationwide centennial celebrations on July 4, 1876. Outraged at the killing of one of their most popular Civil War heroes, many Americans demanded an intensified military campaign against the offending Indians. The government responded by sending one of its most successful Indian fighters to the region, General Ranald Mackenzie, who had previously been the scourge of Commanche and Kiowa Indians in Texas. Mackenzie led an expeditionary force up the Powder River in central Wyoming, where he located a village of Cheyenne living with Chief Dull Knife. Although Dull Knife himself does not appear to have been involved in the battle at Little Bighorn, there is no question that many of his people were, including one of his sons.

At dawn, Mackenzie and over 1,000 soldiers and 400 Indian scouts opened fire on the sleeping village, killing many Indians within the first few minutes. Some of the Cheyenne, though, managed to run into the surrounding hills. They watched as the soldiers burned more than 200 lodges-containing all their winter food and clothing-and then cut the throats of their ponies. When the soldiers found souvenirs taken by the Cheyenne from soldiers they had killed at Little Bighorn, the assailants felt justified in their attack. The surviving Cheyenne, many of them half-naked, began an 11-day walk north to the Tongue River where Crazy Horse’s camp of Oglalas took them in. However, many of the small children and old people did not survive the frigid journey. Devastated by his losses, the next spring Dull Knife convinced the remaining Cheyenne to surrender. The army sent them South to Indian Territory, where other defeated survivors of the final years of the Plains Indian wars soon joined them.

1940 – First flight of the Martin B-26 Marauder. The Martin B-26 Marauder was a World War II twin-engined medium bomber built by the Glenn L. Martin Company. First used in the Pacific Theater in early 1942, it was also used in the Mediterranean Theater and in Western Europe. After entering service with the U.S. Army, the aircraft received the reputation of a “Widowmaker” due to the early models’ high rate of accidents during takeoff and landings. The Marauder had to be flown at exact airspeeds, particularly on final runway approach and when one engine was out. The 150 mph (241 km/h) speed on short final runway approach was intimidating to pilots who were used to much slower speeds, and whenever they slowed down below what the manual stated, the aircraft would stall and crash. The B-26 became a safer aircraft once crews were re-trained, and after aerodynamics modifications (an increase of wingspan and wing angle-of-incidence to give better takeoff performance, and a larger vertical stabilizer and rudder).

After aerodynamic and design changes, the aircraft distinguished itself as “the chief bombardment weapon on the Western Front” according to a United States Army Air Forces dispatch from 1946. The Marauder ended World War II with the lowest loss rate of any USAAF bomber. A total of 5,288 were produced between February 1941 and March 1945; 522 of these were flown by the Royal Air Force and the South African Air Force. By the time the United States Air Force was created as an independent service separate from the Army in 1947, all Martin B-26s had been retired from US service. The Douglas A-26 Invader then assumed the B-26 designation — before officially returning to the earlier “A for Attack” designation in May 1966.

1941 – Adm. Harold R. Stark, U.S. chief of naval operations, tells Adm. Husband E. Kimmel, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, that both President Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull think a Japanese surprise attack is a distinct possibility. “We are likely to be attacked next Monday, for the Japs are notorious for attacking without warning,” Roosevelt had informed his Cabinet. “We must all prepare for trouble, possibly soon,” he telegraphed British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Kimmel’s command was specifically at the mid-Pacific base at Oahu, which comprised, in part, Pearl Harbor. At the time he received the “warning” from Stark, he was negotiating with Army Lt. Gen. Walter C. Short, commander of all U.S. forces at Pearl Harbor, about sending U.S. warships out from Pearl Harbor in order to reinforce Wake and Midway Islands, which, along with the Philippines, were possible Japanese targets. But the Army had no antiaircraft artillery to spare. War worries had struck because of an intercepted Japanese diplomatic message, which gave November 25 as a deadline of sorts. If Japanese diplomacy had failed to convince the Americans to revoke the economic sanctions against Japan, “things will automatically begin to happen,” the message related. Those “things” were becoming obvious, in the form of Japanese troop movements off Formosa (Taiwan) apparently toward Malaya. In fact, they were headed for Pearl Harbor, as was the Japanese First Air Fleet. Despite the fact that so many in positions of command anticipated a Japanese attack, especially given the failure of diplomacy (Japan refused U.S. demands to withdraw from both the Axis pact and occupied territories in China and Indochina), no one expected Hawaii as the target.

1941 – The US Navy begins to establish compulsory convoying for merchant ships in the Pacific.

1943 – In Battle of Cape St. George, 5 destroyers of Destroyer Squadron 23 (Captain Arleigh Burke) intercept 5 Japanese destroyers and sink 3 and damage one without suffering any damage.

1943 – Bombers of the US 14th Air Force, based in China, raid the Japanes held island of Formosa for the first time. An estimated 42 Japanese aircraft are destroyed on the ground at Shinchiku airfield.

1943 – The Cairo Conference ends. Roosevelt, Churchill and Chaing Kai-shek meet. No major decisions are reached. No attempt is made to prepare a joint Anglo-American approach for the coming Teheran meeting with Stalin.

1944 – On Leyte, the advance of American forces is contained by Japanese defenses. Some US paratroopers advance across difficult terrain west of Burauen. At sea, Task Group 38.2 and TG38.3 conduct further raids on Luzon and surrounding waters. The air strikes, involving planes from 7 carriers, sink the cruisers Kumano and Yasoshima. Kamikaze attacks damage 4 of the carriers.

1944 – Forces of US 1st Army, to the southeast of Aachen, advance beyond Hurtgen.

1944 – Bombers of the US 8th Air Force raid the oil plant at Leuna and the Bingen railroad marshalling yards.

1946 – Supreme Court granted Oregon Indians land payment rights from the U.S. government.

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1947 – Meeting in what a newspaper report called “an atmosphere of utter gloom,” representatives from the United States, France, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union come together to discuss the fate of postwar Europe. The focus of the meeting was on the future of Germany. The atmosphere never appreciably brightened, and the meeting dissolved in acrimony and recriminations in December. The issue of what would become of Germany, which had been divided into sections occupied by forces from the four nations since the end of the war in 1945, was the key to understanding the failure of the meeting. The American delegation, headed by Secretary of State George C. Marshall, insisted on Western Germany’s participation in the European Recovery Program (ERP). This was the so-called Marshall Plan through which the United States pumped billions into the war-torn nations of western Europe in an effort to revive their sagging economies and establish a bulwark against the advance of communism in Europe.

The Soviets, led by Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov, responded by proposing an early reunification of Germany with no participation by that nation in the ERP. They also demanded heavy reparations from Germany. Marshall, French foreign minister Georges Bidault, and British foreign secretary Ernest Bevin opposed any plan that sought to economically cripple Western Germany or draw it away from western Europe, since Germany’s economic recovery was seen as essential to the recovery of all of western Europe. Since neither side was willing to compromise these positions in any essential form, the talks were doomed to collapse, which is just what happened. A newspaper account of the last minutes of the meeting was telling. Foreign Secretary Bevin asked the group, “Any suggestion as to the time or place of the next meeting?” This query was met with “dead silence.” In fact, despite the gloomy predictions for the meeting, it went as well as U.S. policy makers could have hoped. They staved off Russian attempts to push forward with German reunification and steadfastly supported Western Germany’s participation in the ERP. They had also decided prior to the meeting that should the talks fail, it should be made to appear that the Soviets were at fault. This they accomplished.

1950 – The Chinese released 57 U.S. prisoners in a propaganda move.

1950 – The Chinese Communist Forces launched their second-phase offensive.

1951 – A truce line between U.N. troops and North Korea was mapped out at the peace talks in Panmunjom, Korea.

1952 – After 42 days of fighting, the Battle of Triangle Hill ends as American and South Korean units abandon their attempt to capture the “Iron Triangle”. The Battle of Triangle Hill, also known as Operation Showdown or the Shangganling Campaign was a protracted military engagement during the Korean War. The main combatants were two United Nations infantry divisions, with additional support from the United States Air Force, against elements of the 15th and 12th Corps of the People’s Republic of China. The battle was part of American attempts to gain control of “The Iron Triangle”, and took place from October 14 – November 25, 1952. The immediate American objective was Triangle Hill, a forested ridge of high ground 2 kilometers (1.2 mi) north of Gimhwa-eup near the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The hill was occupied by the veterans of the People’s Volunteer Army’s 15th Corps. Over the course of nearly a month, substantial American and South Korean forces made repeated attempts to capture Triangle Hill and the adjacent Sniper Ridge. Despite clear superiority in artillery and aircraft, escalating American and South Korean casualties resulted in the attack being halted after 42 days of fighting, with Chinese forces regaining their original positions.

1956 – Fidel Castro and his 81 rebel exiles departed Mexico to liberate Cuba from the corrupt dictatorship of Fulgencia Batista. Che Guevara had recently joined Fidel and his band of Cuban rebel exiles as their doctor.

1957 – President Eisenhower suffered a slight stroke.

1961 – Commissioning of USS Enterprise (CVA(N)-65), the first nuclear powered aircraft carrier, at Newport News, VA.

1963 – Three days after his assassination in Dallas, Texas, John F. Kennedy is laid to rest with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was shot to death while riding in an open-car motorcade with his wife and Texas Governor John Connally through the streets of downtown Dallas. Ex-Marine and communist sympathizer Lee Harvey Oswald was the alleged assassin. Kennedy was rushed to Dallas’ Parkland Hospital, where he was pronounced dead 30 minutes later. He was 46. Vice President Lyndon Johnson, who was three cars behind President Kennedy in the motorcade, was sworn in as the 36th president of the United States less than two hours later. He took the presidential oath of office aboard Air Force One as it sat on the runway at Dallas Love Field airport. The swearing in was witnessed by some 30 people, including Jacqueline Kennedy, who was still wearing clothes stained with her husband’s blood. Seven minutes later, the presidential jet took off for Washington.

The next day, November 23, President Johnson issued his first proclamation, declaring November 25 to be a day of national mourning for the slain president. On that day, hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets of Washington to watch a horse-drawn caisson bear Kennedy’s body from the Capitol Rotunda to St. Matthew’s Catholic Cathedral for a requiem Mass. The solemn procession then continued on to Arlington National Cemetery, where leaders of 99 nations gathered for the state funeral. Kennedy was buried with full military honors on a slope below Arlington House, where an eternal flame was lit by his widow to forever mark the grave.

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1968 – The conclusion of Operation Lancaster II ended 10 months of action against the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army troops in the west-central sector of the demilitarized zone region. Over 1,800 enemy were killed, 42 captured, and 913 weapons seized during the operation.

1969 – Communist forces step up attacks against U.S. troops shielding Allied installations near the Cambodian border. Ten Americans were killed and 70 wounded. U.S. troops reported killing 115 enemy soldiers. North Vietnamese troops destroyed more than a dozen tanks and tons of ammunition near the Cambodian border.

1970 – World-renowned Japanese writer Yukio Mishima commits suicide after failing to win public support for his often extreme political beliefs. Born in 1925, Mishima was obsessed with what he saw as the spiritual barrenness of modern life. He preferred prewar Japan, with its austere patriotism and traditional values, to the materialistic, westernized nation that arose after 1945. In this spirit, he founded the “Shield Society,” a controversial private army made up of about 100 students that was to defend the emperor in the event of a leftist uprising. On November 25, Mishima delivered to his publisher the last installment of The Sea of Fertility, his four-volume epic on Japanese life in the 20th century that is regarded as his greatest work. He then went with several followers to a military building in Tokyo and seized control of a general’s office. There, from a balcony, he gave a brief speech to about 1,000 assembled servicemen, in which he urged them to overthrow Japan’s constitution, which forbids Japanese rearmament. The soldiers were unsympathetic, and Mishima committed seppuku, or ritual suicide, by disemboweling himself with his sword. Though his extreme beliefs did not gain him much of a following, many mourned the loss of such a gifted author.

1973 – In response to the 1973 oil crisis, President Richard M. Nixon called for a Sunday ban on the sale of gasoline to consumers. The proposal was part of a larger plan announced by Nixon earlier in the month to achieve energy self-sufficiency in the United States by 1980. The 1973 oil crisis began in mid-October, when 11 Arab oil producers increased oil prices and cut back production in response to the support of the United States and other nations for Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Almost overnight, gasoline prices quadrupled, and the U.S. economy, especially its automakers, suffered greatly as a result. The Sunday gasoline ban lasted until the crisis was resolved in March of the next year, but other government legislation, such as the imposing of a national speed limit of 55mph, was extended indefinitely. Experts maintained that the reduction of speed on America’s highways would prevent an estimated 9,000 traffic fatalities per year. Although many motorists resented the new legislation, one long-lasting benefit for impatient travelers was the ability to make right turns at a red light, a change that the authorities estimated would conserve a significant amount of gasoline. In 1995, the national 55mph speed limit was repealed, and legislation relating to highway speeds now rests in state hands.

1986 – Three weeks after a Lebanese magazine reported that the United States had been secretly selling arms to Iran, Attorney General Edwin Meese reveals that proceeds from the arms sales were illegally diverted to the anti-communist Contras in Nicaragua. On November 3, the Lebanese magazine Ash Shiraa reported that the United States had been secretly selling arms to Iran in an effort to secure the release of seven American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon. The revelation, confirmed by U.S. intelligence sources on November 6, came as a shock to officials outside President Ronald Reagan’s inner circle and went against the stated policy of the administration.

In addition to violating the U.S. arms embargo against Iran, the arms sales contradicted President Reagan’s vow never to negotiate with terrorists. On November 25, controversy over the administration’s secret dealings with Iran deepened dramatically when Attorney General Meese announced that the arms sales proceeds were diverted to fund Nicaraguan rebels–the Contras–who were fighting a guerrilla war against the elected leftist government of Nicaragua. The Contra connection caused outrage in Congress, which in 1982 had passed the Boland Amendment prohibiting the use of federal money “for the purpose of overthrowing the government of Nicaragua.”

The same day that the Iran-Contra connection was disclosed, President Reagan accepted the resignation of his national security adviser, Vice Admiral John Poindexter, and fired Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, a Poindexter aide. Both men had played key roles in the Iran-Contra operation. Reagan accepted responsibility for the arms-for-hostages deal but denied any knowledge of the diversion of funds to the Contras. In December 1986, Lawrence Walsh was named special prosecutor to investigate the matter, and in the summer of 1987 Congress held televised hearings on the Iran-Contra scandal. Both investigations found that North and other administration officials had attempted to cover-up illegally their illicit dealings with the Contras and Iran. In the course of Walsh’s investigation, eleven White House, State Department, and intelligence officials were found guilty on charges ranging from perjury, to withholding information form Congress, to conspiracy to defraud the United States.

In his final report, Walsh concluded that neither Reagan nor Vice President George Bush violated any laws in connection with the affair, but that Reagan had set the stage for the illegal activities of others by ordering continued support of the Contras after Congress prohibited it. The report also found that Reagan and Bush engaged in conduct that contributed to a “concerted effort to deceive Congress and the public” about the Iran-Contra affair. On Christmas Eve in 1992, shortly after being defeated in his reelection bid by Bill Clinton, President George Bush pardoned six major figures in the Iran-Contra affair. Two of the men, former defense secretary Caspar Weinberger and former chief of CIA operations Duane Clarridge, had trials for perjury pending.

1994 – NATO warplanes buzzed the besieged “safe haven” of Bihac in northwest Bosnia but did not carry out airstrikes against rebel Serbs.

1995 – Serbs in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo took to the streets by the thousands to protest the peace plan, vowing to fight to the death.

1996 – In Iraq the government agreed to implement the UN conditions set for a $2 billion oil-for-food sale.

1997 – It was reported that Iraq’s agency for electronic eavesdropping, known as Project 858, spied on UN weapons inspectors.

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1997 – In Russia Richard Bliss (29), an employee of Qualcomm Comm., was arrested for spying while performing land surveys using satellite receivers in Rostov-on-Don. Qualcomm was under contract to install a cellular phone system. Bliss was later released for a Christmas holiday with some assurance that he would return for trial.

2000 – Hundreds of military veterans and retirees, angered by the rejection of overseas absentee ballots in Florida, held a noisy demonstration in Pensacola, one of several rallies Republicans and Democrats staged across Florida.

2001 – US marines landed near Kandahar marking the 1st major use of US ground troops in Afghanistan.

2001 – Qala-i-Jangi revolt. Taliban fighters were being herded, as captured or surrendered, into the Qala-i-Jangi fortress near Mazar-I-Sharif, a few Taliban attacked some Northern Alliance guards, taking their weapons and opening fire. This incident soon triggered a widespread revolt by 300 prisoners, who soon seized the southern half of the complex, once a medieval fortress, including an armory stocked with small arms and crew-served weapons. One American CIA operative who had been interrogating prisoners, Johnny Michael Spann, was killed, marking the first American combat death in the war. The revolt was finally put down after seven days of heavy fighting. AC-130 gunships and other aircraft took part providing strafing fire on several occasions, as well as a bombing airstrikes. 86 of the Taliban prisoners survived, and around 50 Northern Alliance soldiers were killed. The quashing of the revolt marked the end of the combat in northern Afghanistan, where local Northern Alliance warlords were now firmly in control.

2001 – Taliban fighters in the vicinity of Tora Bora surrendered to Northern Alliance forces. Shortly before the surrender, Pakistani aircraft arrived to evacuate intelligence and military personnel who had been aiding the Taliban’s fight against the Northern Alliance. The airlift is alleged to have evacuated up to five thousand people, including Taliban and al-Qaeda troops.

2002 – Pres. Bush signed into law the Department of Homeland Security and named Tom Ridge as head of the Cabinet-level office.

2002 – Space shuttle Endeavour arrived at the international space station, delivering one American and two Russians, and another girder for the orbiting outpost.

2002 – UN Weapons Inspectors are allowed back into Iraq to resume their attempts to assess Iraqi weapons inventories and development.

2003 – Saudi police killed 2 militants and seized a car bomb ready for detonation in post Ramadan celebrations.

2003 – In Yemen security forces arrested Saudi-born Mohammed Hamdi al-Ahdal (32), the alleged mastermind of the attacks on the USS Cole, at a hide-out west of the capital, San’a.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

BROWN, ROBERT B.
Rank and organization: Private, Company A, 15th Ohio Infantry. Place and date: At Missionary Ridge, Tenn., 25 November 1863. Entered service at: Zanesville. Born: 2 October 1844, New Concord, Ohio. Date of issue: 27 March 1890. Citation: Upon reaching the ridge through concentrated fire, he approached the color bearer of the 9th Mississippi Infantry (C.S.A.), demanded his surrender with threatening gesture and took him prisoner with his regimental flag.

CART, JACOB
Rank and organization: Private, Company A, 7th Pennsylvania Reserve Corps. Place and date: At Fredericksburg, Va., 13 December, 1862. Entered service at:——. Birth: Carlisle, Pa. Date of issue: 25 November 1864. Citation: Capture of flag of 19th Georgia Infantry (C.S.A.), wresting it from the hands of the color bearer.

DAVIS, FREEMAN
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company B, 80th Ohio Infantry. Place and date: At Missionary Ridge, Tenn., 25 November 1863. Entered service at:——. Birth: Newcomerstown, Ohio. Date of issue: 30 March 1898. Citation: This soldier, while his regiment was falling back, seeing the 2 color bearers shot down, under a severe fire and at imminent peril recovered both the flags and saved them from capture.

GRAHAM, THOMAS N.
Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, Company G, 15th Indiana Infantry. Place and date: At Missionary Ridge, Tenn., 25 November 1863. Entered service at: Westville, LaPorte County, Ind. Birth: ——. Date of issue: 15 February 1897. Citation: Seized the colors from the color bearer, who had been wounded, and, exposed to a terrible fire, carried them forward, planting them on the enemy’s breastworks.

GREEN, GEORGE
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company H, 11th Ohio Infantry. Place and date: At Missionary Ridge, Tenn., 25 November 1863. Entered service at:——. Born: 1840, England. Date of issue: 12 January 1892. Citation: Scaled the enemy’s works and in a hand-to-hand fight helped capture the flag of the 18th Alabama Infantry (C.S.A.).

HOWARD, HIRAM R.
Rank and organization:. Private, Company H, 11th Ohio Infantry Place and date. At Missionary Ridge, Tenn., 25 November 1863. Entered service at: Ohio. Born. 17 February 1843, Urbana, Ohio. Date of issue: 29 July 1892. Citation: Scaled the enemy’s works and in a hand-to-hand fight helped capture the flag of the 18th Alabama Infantry (C.S.A.).

JOHNSON, RUEL M.
Rank and organization: Major, 100th Indiana Infantry. Place and date: At Chattanooga, Tenn., 25 November 1863. Entered service at: Goshen Ind. Birth: ——. Date of issue: 24 August 1896. Citation: While in command of the regiment bravely exposed himself to the fire of the enemy, encouraging and cheering his men.

JOSSELYN, SIMEON T.
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, Company C, 13th Illinois Infantry. Place and date: At Missionary Ridge, Tenn., 25 November 1863. Entered service at: Amboy, Ill. Born: 14 January 1842, Buffalo, N.Y. Date of issue: 4 April 1898. Citation: While commanding his company, deployed as skirmishers, came upon a large body of the enemy, taking a number of them prisoner. Lt. Josselyn himself shot their color bearer, seized the colors and brought them back to his regiment.

KELLEY, LEVERETT M.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company A, 36th Illinois Infantry. Place and date: At Missionary Ridge, Tenn., 25 November 1863. Entered service at: Rutland, Ill. Birth: Schenectady, N.Y. Date of issue: 4 April 1900. Citation: Sprang over the works just captured from the enemy, and calling upon his comrades to follow, rushed forward in the face of a deadly fire and was among the first over the works on the summit, where he compelled the surrender of a Confederate officer and received his sword.

MacARTHUR, ARTHUR, JR.
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, and Adjutant, 24th Wisconsin Infantry. Place and date: At Missionary Ridge, Tenn., 25 November 1863. Entered service at: Milwaukee, Wis. Birth: Springfield, Mass. Date of issue: 30 June 1890. Citation: Seized the colors of his regiment at a critical moment and planted them on the captured works on the crest of Missionary Ridge.

REED, AXEL H.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company K, 2d Minnesota Infantry. Place and date: At Chickamauga, Ga., 19 September 1863; At Missionary Ridge, Tenn., 25 November 1863. Entered service at: Glencoe, Minn. Birth: Maine. Date of issue: 2 April 1898. Citation: While in arrest at Chickamauga, Ga., left his place in the rear and voluntarily went to the line of battle, secured a rifle, and fought gallantly during the 2_day battle; was released from arrest in recognition of his bravery. At Missionary Ridge commanded his company and gallantly led it, being among the first to enter the enemy’s works; was severely wounded, losing an arm, but declined a discharge and remained in active service to the end of the war.

SCHMIDT, WILLIAM
Rank and organization: Private, Company G, 37th Ohio Infantry. Place and date: At Missionary Ridge, Tenn., 25 November 1863. Entered service at: Maumee, Ohio. Birth: Tiffin, Ohio. Date of issue: 9 November 1895. Citation. Rescued a wounded comrade under terrific fire.

SHALER, ALEXANDER
Rank and organization: Colonel, 65th New York Infantry. Place and date: At Marye’s Heights, Va., 3 May 1863. Entered service at: New York, N.Y. Born: 19 March 1827, Haddam, Conn. Date of issue 25 November 1893. Citation: At a most critical moment, the head of the charging column being about to be crushed by the severe fire of the enemy’s artillery and infantry, he pushed forward with a supporting column, pierced the enemy’s works, and turned their flank.

WALKER, JAMES C.
Rank and organization: Private, Company K, 31st Ohio Infantry. Place and date: At Missionary Ridge, Tenn., 25 November 1863. Entered service at: Springfield, Ohio. Birth: Clark County, Ohio. Date of issue: 25 November 1895. Citation: After 2 color bearers had fallen, seized the flag and carried it forward, assisting in the capture of a battery. Shortly thereafter he captured the flag of the 41st Alabama and the color bearer.

FORSYTH, THOMAS H.
Rank and organization: First Sergeant, Company M, 4th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Powder River, Wyo., 25 November 1876. Entered service at:——. Birth: Hartford, Conn. Date of issue: 14 July 1891. Citation: Though dangerously wounded, he maintained his ground with a small party against a largely superior force after his commanding officer had been shot down during a sudden attack and rescued that officer and a comrade from the enemy.

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26 November

1774 – A congress of colonial leaders criticized British influence in the colonies and affirmed their right to “Life, liberty and property.”

1778 – Captain Cook discovered Maui in the Sandwich Islands, later named Hawaii.

1783 – The city of Annapolis, Maryland, was the first peacetime U.S. capital. The U.S. Congress met at Annapolis November 26, 1783-June 3, 1784, following the signing of the Treaty of Paris on September 3, 1783, formally ending hostilities between Great Britain and her former colony. New York was the capital from 1785 until 1790, followed by Philadelphia until 1800 and then Washington, D.C.

1789 – George Washington proclaimed this a National Thanksgiving Day in honor of the new Constitution. He made it clear that the day should be one of prayer and giving thanks to God, to be celebrated by all the religious denominations. This date was later used to set the date for Thanksgiving.

1847 – Navy LT William Lynch in Supply sails from New York to Haifa for an expedition to the River Jordan and the Dead Sea. His group charted the Jordan River from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea and compiled reports of the flora and fauna of the area.

1861 – West Virginia was created as a result of dispute over slavery with Virginia.

1863 – The first of our modern annual Thanksgivings was held following the Oct 3 proclamation of Pres. Lincoln to assign the last Thursday in Nov for this purpose.

1863 – Union General George Meade moves against General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia after months of inaction following the Battle of Gettysburg. Meade’s troops found no weaknesses in Lee’s lines, and the offensive was abandoned after only five days. Meade was under pressure from the Lincoln administration to act before the end of 1863. For months after Gettysburg, the two battered armies nursed their wounds and gazed warily at one another across the Rappahannock River. In October 1863, Lee attempted to move his army between the Union force and Washington, D.C., but his offensive failed at Bristoe Station. Now, Meade hoped to attack part of Lee’s army. On November 26, Meade sent three corps against Lee’s right flank around a small valley called Mine Run.

Unfortunately for the Union, William French’s Third Corps took the wrong road and did not cross the Rapidan River (just south of the Rappahannock) on time. Lee moved part of his army east to meet the threat. While French’s corps wandered in the Virginia wilderness, Confederate General Edward Johnson moved to block their advance. French’s men fought Johnson’s at Payne’s Farm; French suffered 950 men killed and wounded to Johnson’s 545. The blunder cost the Union heavily. Lee’s men took up strong positions along Mine Run, and Meade realized that to attack head on would be foolish. By December 1, Meade began pulling his men back across the Rappahannock River and into winter quarters. There would be no further activity between the two great armies until spring.

1864 – Skirmish at Sylvan Brutal and Waynesboro, Georgia.

1864 – Colonel Kit Carson led the attack in the First Battle of Adobe Walls. Col. Christopher (Kit) Carson, commanding the First Cavalry, New Mexico Volunteers, was ordered to lead an expedition against the winter campgrounds of the Comanches and Kiowas, believed to be somewhere on the south side of the Canadian. On November 10 he arrived at Fort Bascom with fourteen officers, 321 enlisted men, and seventy-five Ute and Jicarilla Apache scouts and fighters he had recruited from Lucien Maxwell’s ranch near Cimarron, New Mexico. Two days later the column, supplied with two mountain howitzers under the command of Lt. George H. Pettis, twenty-seven wagons, an ambulance, and forty-five days’ rations, marched down the Canadian into the Panhandle of Texas. Carson’s destination was Adobe Walls, where he had been employed by Bent nearly twenty years earlier. After a delay caused by snowstorms the column set up camp for the night of November 25 at Mule Springs, in what is now Moore County, thirty miles west of Adobe Walls. Two of Carson’s scouts reported the presence of a large group of Indians, who had recently moved into and around Adobe Walls with many horses and cattle. Carson immediately ordered all cavalry units and the two howitzers to move forward, leaving the infantry under Lt. Col. Francisco P. Abreau to follow later with the supply train. After covering fifteen miles Carson halted to await the dawn. No loud talking or fires were permitted, and a late-night frost added to the men’s discomfort.

At about 8:30 A.M. Carson’s cavalry attacked Dohäsan’s Kiowa village of 150 lodges, routing the old chief and most of the other inhabitants, who spread the alarm to several Comanche groups. Pushing on to Adobe Walls, Carson forted up about 10 A.M., using one corner of the ruins for a hospital. One of the several Indian encampments in the vicinity, a Comanche village of 500 lodges, was within a mile of Adobe Walls. The Indians numbered between 3,000 and 7,000, far greater opposition than Carson had anticipated. Sporadic attacks and counterattacks continued during the day, but the Indians were disconcerted by the howitzers, which had been strategically positioned atop a small rise. Dohäsan led many charges, ably assisted by Stumbling Bear and Satanta; indeed, Satanta was said to have sounded bugle calls back to Carson’s bugler. With supplies and ammunition running low by late afternoon, Carson ordered his troops to withdraw to protect his rear and keep the way open to his supply train. Seeing this, the Indians tried to block his retreat by torching the tall bottomland grass near the river, but Carson set his own fires and withdrew to higher ground, where the battery continued to hold off the attacking warriors. At dusk Carson ordered a force to burn the Kiowa and Kiowa-Apache lodges, which the soldiers had attacked that morning. The Kiowa-Apache chief, Iron Shirt, was killed when he refused to leave his tepee. Concerned with protecting the supply wagons and Abreau’s infantry column moving up from Mule Springs, Carson decided to retreat. The reunited forces encamped for the night, and on the morning of November 27 Carson ordered a general withdrawal from the area.

In all, Carson’s troops and Indian scouts lost three killed and twenty-five wounded, three of whom later died. Indian casualties were estimated at 100 to 150. In addition 176 lodges, along with numerous buffalo robes and winter provisions, as well as Dohäsan’s army ambulance wagon, had been destroyed. One Comanche scalp was reported taken by a young Mexican volunteer in Carson’s expedition, which disbanded after returning to Fort Bascom without further incident. General Carleton lauded Carson’s retreat in the face of overwhelming odds as an outstanding military accomplishment; though the former mountain man was unable to strike a killing blow, he is generally credited with a decisive victory. Carson afterward contended that if Adobe Walls was to be reoccupied, at least 1,000 fully equipped troops would be required. The first eyewitness account of the battle other than Carson’s military correspondence was published in 1877 by George Pettis, who had served as the expedition’s artillery officer.

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1917 – Bolsheviks offered armistice between Russian and the Central Powers.

1933 – Fifteen thousand people in San Jose, California, storm the jail where Thomas Thurmond and John Holmes are being held as suspects in the kidnapping and murder of Brooke Hart, the 22-year-old son of a local storeowner. The mob of angry citizens proceeded to lynch the accused men and then pose them for pictures. On November 9, Brooke Hart was abducted by men in a Studebaker. His family received a $40,000 ransom demand and, soon after, Hart’s wallet was found on a tanker ship in a nearby bay. The investigative trail led to Holmes and Thurmond, who implicated each other in separate confessions. Both acknowledged, though, that Hart had been pistol-whipped and then thrown off the San Mateo Bridge. After Hart’s body washed ashore on November 25, a vigilante mob began to form.

Newspapers reported the possibility of a lynching and local radio stations broadcast the plan. Not only did Governor James Rolph reject the National Guard’s offer to send assistance, he reportedly said he would pardon those involved in the lynching. On November 26, the angry mob converged at the jail and beat the guards, using a battering ram to break into the cells. Thurmond and Holmes were dragged out and hanged from large trees in a nearby park. The public seemed to welcome the gruesome act of vigilante violence. After the incident, pieces of the lynching ropes were sold to the public. Though the San Jose News declined to publish pictures of the lynching, it condoned the act in an editorial.

Eighteen-year-old Anthony Cataldi bragged that he had been the leader of the mob but he was not held accountable for his participation. At Stanford University, a professor asked his students to stand and applaud the lynching. Perhaps most disturbing, Governor Rolph publicly praised the mob. “The best lesson ever given the country,” said Governor Rolph. “I would like to parole all kidnappers in San Quentin to the fine, patriotic citizens of San Jose.”

1940 – Sixth and last group of ships involved in Destroyers-for-Bases Agreement transferred to British at Nova Scotia.

1941 – President Roosevelt and Secretary Hull decide to present a 10 point note to the Japanese Government requiring their withdrawal from Indochina and China, and their recognition of the Chinese Nationalist Government. The tone of the note is uncompromising on these points, but promises to negotiate new trade and raw material agreements.

1941 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill officially establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day. The tradition of celebrating the holiday on Thursday dates back to the early history of the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies, when post-harvest holidays were celebrated on the weekday regularly set aside as “Lecture Day,” a midweek church meeting where topical sermons were presented. A famous Thanksgiving observance occurred in the autumn of 1621, when Plymouth governor William Bradford invited local Indians to join the Pilgrims in a three-day festival held in gratitude for the bounty of the season. Thanksgiving became an annual custom throughout New England in the 17th century, and in 1777 the Continental Congress declared the first national American Thanksgiving following the Patriot victory at Saratoga. In 1789, President George Washington became the first president to proclaim a Thanksgiving holiday, when, at the request of Congress, he proclaimed November 26, a Tuesday, as a day of national thanksgiving for the U.S. Constitution.

However, it was not until 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving to fall on the last Thursday of November, that the modern holiday was celebrated nationally. With a few deviations, Lincoln’s precedent was followed annually by every subsequent president–until 1939. In 1939, Franklin D. Roosevelt departed from tradition by declaring November 23, the next to last Thursday that year, as Thanksgiving Day. Considerable controversy surrounded this deviation, and some Americans refused to honor Roosevelt’s declaration. For the next two years, Roosevelt repeated the unpopular proclamation, but on November 26, 1941, he admitted his mistake and signed a bill into law officially making the last Thursday in November the national holiday of Thanksgiving Day.

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1941 – Admiral Chuichi Nagumo leads the Japanese First Air Fleet, an aircraft carrier strike force, toward Pearl Harbor, with the understanding that should “negotiations with the United States reach a successful conclusion, the task force will immediately put about and return to the homeland.” Negotiations had been ongoing for months. Japan wanted an end to U.S. economic sanctions. The Americans wanted Japan out of China and Southeast Asia-and to repudiate the Tripartite “Axis” Pact with Germany and Italy as conditions to be met before those sanctions could be lifted. Neither side was budging. President Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull were anticipating a Japanese strike as retaliation-they just didn’t know where. The Philippines, Wake Island, Midway-all were possibilities. American intelligence reports had sighted the Japanese fleet movement out from Formosa (Taiwan), apparently headed for Indochina.

As a result of this “bad faith” action, President Roosevelt ordered that a conciliatory gesture of resuming monthly oil supplies for Japanese civilian needs canceled. Hull also rejected Tokyo’s “Plan B,” a temporary relaxation of the crisis, and of sanctions, but without any concessions on Japan’s part. Prime Minister Tojo considered this an ultimatum, and more or less gave up on diplomatic channels as the means of resolving the impasse. Nagumo had no experience with naval aviation, having never commanded a fleet of aircraft carriers in his life. This role was a reward for a lifetime of faithful service.

Nagumo, while a man of action, did not like taking unnecessary risks-which he considered an attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor to be. But Chief of Staff Rear Adm. Isoruku Yamamoto thought differently; while also opposing war with the United States, he believed the only hope for a Japanese victory was a swift surprise attack, via carrier warfare, against the U.S. fleet. And as far as the Roosevelt War Department was concerned, if war was inevitable, it desired “that Japan commit the first overt act.”

1942 – President Roosevelt ordered nationwide gasoline rationing, beginning December 1st.

1942 – The German held airfield at Djedeida, Tunisia is raided by a US tank battalion.

1942 – Despite the lose of a destroyer to air attack, the Japanese provide reinforcement of their troops at Buna, New Guinea.

1943 – During World War II, the HMT Rohna, a British transport ship carrying American soldiers, was hit by a German missile off Algeria; 1,138 men were killed, including 1,015 American troops.

1943 – Edward H “Butch” O’Hare, US Navy pilot, lt-comdr (Chicago Airport named for him), died in battle.

1944 – Heinrich Himmler ordered the destruction of Auschwitz and Birkenau crematoriums.

1944 – The US 8th Air Force attacks Hanover (nominally the Misburg oil plant), Hamm (nominally the marshalling yards) and Bielefeld (nominally the railway viaduct). The Americans claim to have destroyed 138 German fighters for the loss of 36 bombers and 7 fighters.

1944 – The US 1st Army captures Weisweiler to the west of Cologne.

1944 – On Leyte, Japanese forces launch night attacks against US forces west of Burauen.

1950 – In some of the fiercest fighting of the Korean War, thousands of communist Chinese troops launch massive counterattacks against U.S. and Republic of Korea (ROK) troops, driving the Allied forces before them and putting an end to any thoughts for a quick or conclusive U.S. victory. When the counterattacks had been stemmed, U.S. and ROK forces had been driven from North Korea and the war settled into a grinding and frustrating stalemate for the next two-and-a-half years. In the weeks prior to the Chinese attacks, ROK and U.S. forces, under the command of General Douglas MacArthur, had succeeded in driving deeper into North Korea and were nearing the border with the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The PRC issued warnings that the Allied forces should keep their distance, and beginning in October 1950 troops from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army began to cross the border to assist their North Korean ally.

Their numbers grew to around 300,000 by early November. Some bloody encounters occurred between the Chinese and ROK and U.S. forces, but the Chinese troops suddenly broke off offensive operations on November 6. This spurred MacArthur, who had always discounted the military effectiveness of the Chinese troops, to propose a massive new offensive by U.S. and ROK forces. Alternately referred to as the “End the War” or “Home by Christmas” offensive, the attack began on November 24.

The offensive almost immediately encountered heavy resistance, and by November 26 the Chinese were launching destructive counterattacks along a 25-mile front. By December, U.S. and ROK forces had been pushed out of North Korea. Eventually, U.S. and ROK forces stopped the Chinese troops and the war settled into a military stalemate. The massive Chinese attack brought an end to any thoughts that U.S. boys would be “home by Christmas.” It also raised the specter of the war expanding beyond the borders of the Korean peninsula, something U.S. policymakers-leery of becoming entangled in a land war in Asia that might escalate into a nuclear confrontation with the Soviets-were anxious to avoid.

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1968 – While returning to base from another mission, Air Force 1st Lt. James P. Fleming and four other Bell UH-1F helicopter pilots get an urgent message from an Army Special Forces team pinned down by enemy fire. Although several of the other helicopters had to leave the area because of low fuel, Lieutenant Fleming and another pilot pressed on with the rescue effort. The first attempt failed because of intense ground fire, but refusing to abandon the Army green berets, Fleming managed to land and pick up the team. When he safely arrived at his base near Duc Co, it was discovered that his aircraft was nearly out of fuel. Lieutenant Fleming was later awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions.

1969 – Lottery for Selective Service draftees bill was signed by President Nixon.

1973 – President Nixon’s personal secretary, Rose Mary Woods, told a federal court that she’d accidentally caused part of the 18 1/2-minute gap in a key Watergate tape.

1975 – A federal jury in Sacramento, Calif., found Lynette Fromme, a follower of Charles Manson, guilty of trying to assassinate President Ford.

1985 – Movie-star-turned-conservative-hero President Ronald Reagan added the title of record-setting author to his resume, as Random House handed the president an unprecedented $3 million for the rights to publish his autobiography.

1986 – President Reagan appointed a commission headed by former Sen. John Tower to investigate his National Security Council staff in the wake of the Iran-Contra affair.

1987 – Cuban detainees concerned about the possibility of being sent back to Cuba continued to hold hostages at a prison in Atlanta and a detention center in Oakdale, La.

1990 – The Delta II rocket makes its maiden flight. Delta II is an American space launch system, originally designed and built by McDonnell Douglas. Delta II is part of the Delta rocket family and entered service in 1989. Delta II vehicles included the Delta 6000, and two Delta 7000 variants (“Light” and “Heavy”).

1991 – The Stars and Stripes were lowered for the last time at Clark Air Base in Angeles City, Philippines, as the United States abandoned one of its oldest and largest overseas installations, which was damaged by a volcano.

1993 – A U.S. diplomat was kidnapped by Yemeni tribesmen. Government officials negotiate for his release in the first known kidnapping of a diplomat in faction-ridden Yemen.

1997 – In a small but symbolic step, the United States and North Korea held high-level discussions at the State Department for the first time.

1997 – In Iraq Sadam Hussein invited foreign diplomats but not weapons inspectors to examine his presidential palaces. Under heavy international pressure Saddam Hussein said he would allow visits to presidential palaces where U.N. weapons experts suspected he might be hiding chemical and biological weapons.

2000 – In Florida Sec. of State Katherine Harris certified Gov. George W. Bush as winner in the state’s presidential election, 2,912,790 to 2,912,253, a 537-vote margin.

2001 – After nine days of heavy fighting and American aerial bombardment, Taliban fighters surrendered to Northern Alliance forces. Shortly before the surrender, Pakistani aircraft arrived ostensibly to evacuate a few hundred intelligence and military personnel who had been in Afghanistan previous to the U.S. invasion for the purpose of aiding the Taliban’s ongoing fight against the Northern Alliance.

2001 – The Taliban surrendered the border town of Spin Buldak as US Marines directed air attacks on a column of enemy vehicles. Fighting continued with prisoners at Qala Jangi and most were reported killed along with 40-50 Northern Alliance soldiers.

2001 – French and Belgian police arrested 14 people suspected of organizing the Sep 9 assassination of Northern Alliance leader Ahmed Shah Masood. Belgium released 12 of its suspects the next day.

2001 – 15 Taliban armored vehicles approached Camp Rhino, south of Kandahar, and were attacked by helicopter gunships, destroying many of them. Meanwhile, airstrikes continued to pound Taliban positions inside the city, where Mullah Omar remained. Omar remained defiant although his movement controlled only 4 out of 30 Afghan provinces by the end of November. He called on his forces to fight to the death.

2002 – Iraqi air defense units fired at American and British warplanes that carried out dozens of sorties in the country.

2002 – President George W. Bush signed into law a bill that created the Department of Homeland Security, the largest reorganization of the federal government in fifty years. The Coast Guard was one of a number of agencies that transferred to the new Department; the transfer is scheduled to go into effect on 1 March 2003.

2003 – The UN nuclear watchdog agency, IAEA, condemned Iran over an 18-year cover-up of its nuclear energy program and said future violations of non-proliferation obligations would not be tolerated.

2005 – In Baghdad, Iraq, assailants kidnapped four humanitarian aid workers (one US national, one UK national, and two Canadian nationals). On 7 March 2006, a video of the hostages was shown by al-Jazeera TV, dated 28 February 2006, showing only the UK and Canadian hostages.

2005 – At about 11:00 AM, in Baghdad, Iraq, assailants detonated a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) as a US military patrol passed, killing four civilians, wounding four others and one US contractor, and damaging two civilian vehicles and several nearby homes, but leaving the patrol unharmed. No group claimed responsibility.

2011 – NASA launches the robotic Mars Science Laboratory, the largest rover yet sent to Mars, with the aim of finding evidence for past or present life on Mars.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

POWELL, WILLIAM H.
Rank and organization: Major, 2d West Virginia Cavalry. Place and date: At Sinking Creek Valley, Va., 26 November 1862. Entered service at: Ironton, Ohio. Birth: England. Date of issue: 22 July 1890. Citation: Distinguished services in raid, where with 20 men, he charged and captured the enemy’s camp, 500 strong, without the loss of man or gun.

CRIST, JOHN
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company L, 8th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: Arizona, 26 November 1869. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Baltimore, Md. Date of issue: 3 March 1870. Citation: Gallantry in action.

STEWART, GEORGE E.
Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, 19th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Passi, Island of Panay, Philippine Islands, 26 November 1899. Entered service at: New York, N.Y. Birth: New South Wales. Date of issue: 26 June 1900. Citation: While crossing a river in face of the enemy, this officer plunged in and at the imminent risk of his own life saved from drowning an enlisted man of his regiment.

*SHERIDAN, CARL V.
Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Army, Company K, 47th Infantry, 9th Infantry Division. Place and date: Frenzenberg Castle, Weisweiler, Germany, 26 November 1944. Entered service at: Baltimore, Md. Birth: Baltimore, Md. G.O. No.: 43, 30 May 1445. Citation: Attached to the 2d Battalion of the 47th Infantry on 26 November 1944, for the attack on Frenzenberg Castle, in the vicinity of Weisweiler, Germany, Company K, after an advance of 1,000 yards through a shattering barrage of enemy artillery and mortar fire, had captured 2 buildings in the courtyard of the castle but was left with an effective fighting strength of only 35 men. During the advance, Pfc. Sheridan, acting as a bazooka gunner, had braved the enemy fire to stop and procure the additional rockets carried by his ammunition bearer who was wounded. Upon rejoining his company in the captured buildings, he found it in a furious fight with approximately 70 enemy paratroopers occupying the castle gate house. This was a solidly built stone structure surrounded by a deep water-filled moat 20 feet wide.

The only approach to the heavily defended position was across the courtyard and over a drawbridge leading to a barricaded oaken door. Pfc. Sheridan, realizing that his bazooka was the only available weapon with sufficient power to penetrate the heavy oak planking, with complete disregard for his own safety left the protection of the buildings and in the face of heavy and intense small-arms and grenade fire, crossed the courtyard to the drawbridge entrance where he could bring direct fire to bear against the door. Although handicapped by the lack of an assistant, and a constant target for the enemy fire that burst around him, he skillfully and effectively handled his awkward weapon to place two well-aimed rockets into the structure. Observing that the door was only weakened, and realizing that a gap must be made for a successful assault, he loaded his last rocket, took careful aim, and blasted a hole through the heavy planks. Turning to his company he shouted, “Come on, let’s get them!” With his .45 pistol blazing, he charged into the gaping entrance and was killed by the withering fire that met him. The final assault on Frezenberg Castle was made through the gap which Pfc. Sheridan gave his life to create.

*MITCHELL, FRANK N.
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Marine Corps, Company A, 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division (Rein.). Place and date: Near Hansan-ni, Korea, 26 November 1950. Entered service at: Roaring Springs, Tex. Born: 18 August 1921, Indian Gap, Tex. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as leader of a rifle platoon of Company A, in action against enemy aggressor forces. Leading his platoon in point position during a patrol by his company through a thickly wooded and snow-covered area in the vicinity of Hansan-ni, 1st Lt. Mitchell acted immediately when the enemy suddenly opened fire at pointblank range, pinning down his forward elements and inflicting numerous casualties in his ranks. Boldly dashing to the front under blistering fire from automatic weapons and small arms, he seized an automatic rifle from one of the wounded men and effectively trained it against the attackers and, when his ammunition was expended, picked up and hurled grenades with deadly accuracy, at the same time directing and encouraging his men in driving the outnumbering enemy from his position.

Maneuvering to set up a defense when the enemy furiously counterattacked to the front and left flank, 1st Lt. Mitchell, despite wounds sustained early in the action, reorganized his platoon under the devastating fire, and spearheaded a fierce hand-to-hand struggle to repulse the onslaught. Asking for volunteers to assist in searching for and evacuating the wounded, he personally led a party of litter bearers through the hostile lines in growing darkness and, although suffering intense pain from multiple wounds, stormed ahead and waged a single-handed battle against the enemy, successfully covering the withdrawal of his men before he was fatally struck down by a burst of small-arms fire. Stouthearted and indomitable in the face of tremendous odds, 1st Lt. Mitchell, by his fortitude, great personal valor and extraordinary heroism, saved the lives of several marines and inflicted heavy casualties among the aggressors. His unyielding courage throughout reflects the highest credit upon himself and the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.

PITTMAN, JOHN A.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company C, 23d Infantry Regiment, 2d Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Kujangdong, Korea, 26 November 1950. Entered service at: Carrolton, Miss. Born: 15 October 1928, Carrolton, Miss. G.O. No.: 39, 4 June 1951. Citation: Sgt. Pittman, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. He volunteered to lead his squad in a counterattack to regain commanding terrain lost in an earlier engagement. Moving aggressively forward in the face of intense artillery, mortar, and small-arms fire he was wounded by mortar fragments. Disregarding his wounds he continued to lead and direct his men in a bold advance against the hostile standpoint. During this daring action, an enemy grenade was thrown in the midst of his squad endangering the lives of his comrades. Without hesitation, Sgt. Pittman threw himself on the grenade and absorbed its burst with his body. When a medical aid man reached him, his first request was to be informed as to how many of his men were hurt. This intrepid and selfless act saved several of his men from death or serious injury and was an inspiration to the entire command. Sgt. Pittman’s extraordinary heroism reflects the highest credit upon himself and is in keeping with the esteemed traditions of the military service.

FLEMING, JAMES P.
Rank and organization: Captain, U.S. Air Force, 20th Special Operations Squadron. Place and date: Near Duc Co, Republic of Vietnam, 26 November 1968. Entered service at: Pullman, Wash. Born: 12 March 1943, Sedalia, Mo. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Capt. Fleming (then 1st Lt.) distinguished himself as the Aircraft Commander of a UH-1F transport Helicopter. Capt. Fleming went to the aid of a 6-man special forces long range reconnaissance patrol that was in danger of being overrun by a large, heavily armed hostile force. Despite the knowledge that 1 helicopter had been downed by intense hostile fire, Capt. Fleming descended, and balanced his helicopter on a river bank with the tail boom hanging over open water. The patrol could not penetrate to the landing site and he was forced to withdraw. Dangerously low on fuel, Capt. Fleming repeated his original landing maneuver. Disregarding his own safety, he remained in this exposed position. Hostile fire crashed through his windscreen as the patrol boarded his helicopter. Capt. Fleming made a successful takeoff through a barrage of hostile fire and recovered safely at a forward base. Capt. Fleming’s profound concern for his fellowmen, and at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Air Force and reflect great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of his country.

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27 November

1826 – Jedediah Smith’s expedition reached San Diego, becoming the first Americans to cross the south-western part of the continent. He crossed the Mohave Desert and the San Bernadino Mountains from Utah. In 1826 at the Cache Valley summer rendezvous, in what is now northern Utah, but at that time a part of Mexico, General William H. Ashley sold out his interests in the fur trade to Jedediah Smith, David Jackson, and William Sublette. Following the purchase, Smith and seventeen fellow trappers began the famous South West Expedition, which proved to be instumental in combating the pretensions of Mexico, Great Britain, France, and even Russia, to a vast domain, which would become (in large part) the western United States. Those eighteen men became the first Anglo-Americans to traverse the harsh Mojave Desert, before reaching California in November 1826. They had also been the first of their race to cross the high Sierra Nevada range of the Rockies and the Great Basin, the latter encompassing most of Nevada, along with parts of Utah, California, Oregon, and Idaho. In the process the expedition disproved the existence of a river, which it had been thought could be found, with an unobstructed flow from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean near San Francisco.

1863 – Battle of Payne’s Farm, Va. Payne’s Farm and New Hope Church were the first and heaviest clashes of the Mine Run Campaign. In late November 1863, Meade attempted to steal a march through the Wilderness and strike the right flank of the Confederate army south of the Rapidan River. Maj. Gen. Jubal A. Early in command of Ewell’s Corps marched east on the Orange Turnpike to meet the advance of William French’s III Corps near Payne’s Farm. Carr’s division (US) attacked twice. Johnson’s division (CS) counterattacked but was scattered by heavy fire and broken terrain. After dark, Lee withdrew to prepared field fortifications along Mine Run. The next day the Union army closed on the Confederate position. Skirmishing was heavy, but a major attack did not materialize. Meade concluded that the Confederate line was too strong to attack and retired during the night of December 1-2, ending the winter campaign.

1863 – Confederate cavalry raider John Hunt Morgan and several of his men break out of the Ohio state prison and escape safely to the South. Morgan was raised in Kentucky and served in the Mexican War under General Zachary Taylor. He was a successful hemp manufacturer before the war, but he moved to Alabama when Kentucky did not secede with the rest of the South. Morgan became a hero in the South when he made four daring raids on northern-held territory in 1862 and 1863. Though these raids were of limited strategic value, they boosted Southern morale and kept thousands of Federal troops occupied trying to hunt down Morgan. On his last raid, however, his reach exceeded his grasp. He took a large band and headed into Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio.

After riding past Cincinnati, Morgan and his men tried to cross the Ohio River back into Kentucky, but they were surprised and routed by a larger Federal force at Buffington Island, Ohio. With his escape blocked, Morgan turned into northeastern Ohio but was finally surrounded by pursuing Yankee cavalry at Salineville on July 26, 1863. Morgan and several of his top officers were incarcerated in the newly constructed Ohio State Penitentiary at Columbus while the rest of his men were sent to various Northern prisoner of war camps. Morgan and his men burrowed out of the prison by cutting a hole in the cell of one of the inmates. Below the cell was a crawl space for ventilation and they tunneled to the outside and journeyed safely to Confederate territory. Morgan returned to his cavalry activities in Tennessee after his escape. At Greeneville, Tennessee, in 1864, Morgan fell victim to the same kind of raid that he so often conducted and Yankee cavalry killed him.

1864 – An explosion and fire destroyed General Butler’s headquarters steamer Greyhound, on the James River, Virginia, and narrowly missed killing Butler, Major General Schenck, and Rear Admiral Porter, on board for a conference on the forthcoming Fort Fisher expedition. Because of the nature of the explosion, it is likely that one of the deadly Confederate coal torpedoes had been planted in Greyhound’s boiler. “The furnace door blew open,” recalled Butler, “and scattered coals throughout the room.” The so-called “coal torpedo” was a finely turned piece of cast iron containing ten pounds of powder and made to resemble closely a lump of coal, and was capable of being used with devastating effect. As Admiral Porter later described the incident: ”We had left Bermuda Hundred five or six miles behind us when suddenly an explosion forward startled us, and in a moment large volumes of smoke poured out of the engine-room.” The Admiral went on to marvel at the ingenuity which nearly cost him his life: ”In devices for blowing up vessels the Confederates were far ahead of us, putting Yankee ingenuity to shame.” This device was suspected of being the cause of several unexplained explosions during the war.

1864 – Ram U.S.S. Vindicator, Acting Lieutenant Gorringe, and small stern-wheeler U.S.S. Prairie Bird, Acting Master Burns, transported and covered a successful Union cavalry attack on Confederate communications in western Mississippi. Thirty miles of track and the important railroad bridge over the Big Black River, east of Vicksburg, were destroyed. Major General Dana praised the part of the gunboats in the expedition: ”The assistance of the vessels of the Sixth Division Mississippi Squadron rendered the expedition a complete success.

1868 – Without bothering to identify the village or do any reconnaissance, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer leads an early morning attack on a band of peaceful Cheyenne living with Chief Black Kettle. Convicted of desertion and mistreatment of soldiers earlier that year in a military court, the government had suspended Custer from rank and command for one year. Ten months into his punishment, in September 1868, General Philip Sheridan reinstated Custer to lead a campaign against Cheyenne Indians who had been making raids in Kansas and Oklahoma that summer. Sheridan was frustrated by the inability of his other officers to find and engage the enemy, and despite his poor record and unpopularity with the men of the 7th Cavalry, Custer was a good fighter. Sheridan determined that a campaign in winter might prove more effective, since the Indians could be caught off guard while in their permanent camps. On November 26, Custer located a large village of Cheyenne encamped near the Washita River, just outside of present-day Cheyenne, Oklahoma.

Custer did not attempt to identify which group of Cheyenne was in the village, or to make even a cursory reconnaissance of the situation. Had he done so, Custer would have discovered that they were peaceful people and the village was on reservation soil, where the commander of Fort Cobb had guaranteed them safety. There was even a white flag flying from one of the main dwellings, indicating that the tribe was actively avoiding conflict. Having surrounded the village the night before, at dawn Custer called for the regimental band to play “Garry Owen,” which signaled for four columns of soldiers to charge into the sleeping village. Outnumbered and caught unaware, scores of Cheyenne were killed in the first 15 minutes of the “battle,” though a small number of the warriors managed to escape to the trees and return fire.

Within a few hours, the village was destroyed–the soldiers had killed 103 Cheyenne, including the peaceful Black Kettle and many women and children. Hailed as the first substantial American victory in the Indian wars, the Battle of the Washita helped to restore Custer’s reputation and succeeded in persuading many Cheyenne to move to the reservation. However, Custer’s habit of boldly charging Indian encampments of unknown strength would eventually lead him to his death at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

1901 – The Army War College was established in Washington, D.C. The U.S. Army War College was established by General Order 155. Our founding father was Secretary of War Elihu Root, one of the great visionaries of the era. As he laid the cornerstone for the War College building at Washington Barracks (now Fort McNair) on 21 February 1903, Secretary Root made the following statement about why the College was founded: “Not to promote war, but to preserve peace by intelligent and adequate preparation to repel aggression….” It endures today as the U.S. Army War College motto. At the same time, he charged the College: “To study and confer on the great problems of national defense, or military science, and of responsible command.”

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1909 – U.S. troops land in Bluefields, Nicaragua, to protect American interests there. In October, 1909, there was an anti-Zelaya rebellion in Bluefields, a foreign and Conservative stronghold. The rebels supported the local governor, Juan Estrada. The rebellion “at least” had the sympathy of the US mining company and probably its connivance. When the Zelaya forces caught and executed two US citizens (professional dynamiters who worked for the company) for being in the rebellion, Taft broke relations with Zelaya and sent Marines to Bluefields. Zelaya was forced out and, in August, 1910, Estrada became the provisional president.

1942 – During World War II, the French navy at Toulon scuttled its ships and submarines to keep them out of the hands of the Nazis.

1942 – Guitar legend Jimi Hendrix is born in Seattle. Hendrix grew up playing guitar, imitating blues greats like Muddy Waters as well as early rockers. He joined the army in 1959 and became a paratrooper but was honorably discharged in 1961 after an injury that exempted him from duty in Vietnam. In the early 1960s, Hendrix worked as a pickup guitarist, backing musicians including Little Richard, B.B. King, Ike and Tina Turner, and Sam Cooke. In 1964, he moved to New York and played in coffeehouses, where bassist Bryan Chandler of the British group the Animals heard him. Chandler arranged to manage Hendrix and brought him to London in 1966, where they created the Jimi Hendrix Experience with bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell.

The band’s first single, “Hey Joe,” hit No. 6 on the British pop charts, and the band became an instant sensation. In 1967, the Jimi Hendrix Experience made its first U.S. appearance, at the Monterey Pop Festival. Hendrix made a splash by burning his guitar and was quickly established as a rock superstar. In the next two years, before the band broke up in 1969, it had released such classic songs as “Purple Haze,” “Foxy Lady,” and “The Wind Cries Mary.” The band’s albums included Are You Experienced? (1967), Bold as Love (1969), and Electric Ladyland (1969).

After the band dissolved because of creative tensions, Hendrix made his famous appearance at Woodstock, playing a masterful, intricate version of “The Star Spangled Banner.” Later that year, he put together a new group called the Band of Gypsies, which debuted on New Year’s Eve in 1969. The band put out only one album, Band of Gypsies (1969). (A second album, Band of Gypsies II, was released in 1986.) Hendrix then recorded another album, without the band, called The Cry of Love, which was released in 1971. Hendrix, one of the most innovative guitar players of the rock era, established an advanced recording studio in New York called the Electric Lady, boasting 46-track recording technology. The studio opened in August 1970, shortly before Hendrix died in London in September 1970, following a drug overdose. He was 28.

1944 – The second B-29 Superfortress bombing raid on Tokyo nominally targets the Musashi aircraft engine plant.

1944 – Around Burauen, on Leyte, Japanese force continue to attack and receive a small number of parachute reinforcements. There is heavy fighting around Burauen airfield. At sea, the battleship USS Colorado and 2 light cruisers are damaged in Kamikaze attacks.

1944 – Cordell Hull resigns his post as Secretary of State. Edward Stettinius is appointed to succeed him.

1945 – Gen. George C. Marshall was named special U.S. envoy to China to try to end hostilities between the Nationalists and the Communists.

1950 – Eighth Army’s 2nd, 24th and 25th Infantry Divisions began withdrawing to the south of the Chongchon River in the face of the Chinese offensive. In the east, X Corps launched its planned offensive, not knowing Eighth Army’s plight.

1950 – East of the Chosin River, Chinese forces annihilated an American task force. Col. Barber (d.2002 at 82) and 220 soldiers in Fox Company withstood a 5-day assault to protect an escape pass.

1951 – 1st rocket to intercept an airplane was fired at White Sands, NM.

1951 – Cease-fire and demarcation zone accord was signed in Panmunjom, Korea.

1954 – After 44 months in prison, former government official Alger Hiss is released and proclaims once again that he is innocent of the charges that led to his incarceration. One of the most famous figures of the Cold War period, Hiss was convicted in 1950 of perjury for lying to a federal grand jury. Specifically, Hiss was judged to have lied about his complicity in passing secret government documents to Whittaker Chambers, who thereupon passed the papers along to agents of the Soviet Union. Upon his release, Hiss immediately declared that he wished to “reassert my complete innocence of the charges that were brought against me by Whittaker Chambers.” He claimed that his conviction was the result of the “fear and hysteria of the times,” and stated that he was going to “resume my efforts to dispel the deception that has been foisted on the American people.” He was confident that such efforts would “vindicate my name.” Some observers remained skeptical of Hiss’s protestations.

Senator Karl Mundt felt that further investigation of the matter would probably be a waste of time, unless Hiss decided “to come clean and tell the whole story.” Chambers issued a brief statement in which he declared that the “saddest single factor about the Hiss case is that nobody can change the facts as they are known…They are there forever. That is the inherent tragedy of this case.” The controversy over the facts in the Hiss case is also here forever. It remains a highly charged issue. His defenders argue that Hiss was a victim of the Red Scare that swept through the U.S. during the 1940s and 1950s. Others are equally adamant in maintaining his guilt, claiming that documents recently released from Soviet archives strongly support the case that Hiss was a spy for the Soviet Union.

1957 – Army withdrew from Little Rock, Ark., after Central HS integration.

1959 – Demonstrators marched in Tokyo to protest a defense treaty with the US.

1961 – Navy reports first use of its cyclotron at Harvard University to treat a human brain tumor. After three treatments, the tumor of the 2-year old patient shrank by eighty percent.

1965 – The Pentagon informs President Johnson that if General Westmoreland is to conduct the major sweep operations necessary to destroy enemy forces during the coming year, U.S. troop strength should be increased from 120,000 to 400,000 men.

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1965 – The Viet Cong release two U.S. special forces soldiers captured two years earlier during a battle of Hiep Hoa, 40 miles southwest of Saigon. At a news conference in Phnom Penh three days later, the two Americans, Sgt. George Smith and Specialist 5th Class Claude McClure, declared that they opposed U.S. actions in Vietnam and would campaign for the withdrawal of American troops. Although Smith later denied making the statement, U.S. authorities announced that the two men would face trial for cooperating with the enemy.

1970 – A South Vietnamese task force, operating in southeastern Cambodia, comes under North Vietnamese attack near the town of Krek. The South Vietnamese command reported repelling the assault and killing enemy soldiers. The South Vietnamese command also reported killing 33 Viet Cong in the Rung Sat special zone, 23 miles southeast of Saigon.

1973 – The Senate voted 92-3 to confirm Gerald R. Ford as vice president, succeeding Spiro T. Agnew, who had resigned.

1991 – The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution paving the way for the establishment of a U.N. peacekeeping operation in war-ravaged Yugoslavia.

1995 – Defense Secretary William Perry, appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” suggested the Bosnian government had lost the war in the Balkans, and acknowledged NATO was powerless to stop the Serbs.

1996 – Evan C. Hunziker, an American jailed by North Korea on spy charges, was set free, ending a three-month ordeal.

1996 – In Bosnia Gen’l. Ratko Mladic agreed to resign. He passed authority to his deputy Gen’l. Manojlo Milovanovich. Mladic is still at large and wanted for war crimes.

1997 – aA day fter saying it would open its presidential palaces to international observers, Iraq declared that U.N. weapons monitors were not included in the invitation.

2001 – In Afghanistan the Northern Alliance declared the Taliban prisoner uprising at Qala Jangi crushed after 50 hours.

2001 – Afghan factions met in Bonn, Germany, and agreed to give former King Mohammad Zahir Shah a role in a new Afghan government. 4 factions included 11 delegates from the Northern Alliance, 11 from the Rome Group, 3 from exiles in Cyprus, and 3 from exiles in Pakistan.

2002 – Pres. Bush selected Henry Kissinger to lead an investigation into intelligence lapses before the Sept. 11 attacks. Report deadline was mid-2004. The following month Kissinger stepped down, citing controversy over potential conflicts of interest with his business clients.

2002 – International arms monitors searched a military missile-testing range and a state factory outside Baghdad, starting a new round of inspections that could determine the future of peace in the Middle East.

2003 – Pres. Bush flew to Iraq under extraordinary secrecy and security to spend Thanksgiving with US troops.

2009 – Space Shuttle Atlantis returns to Earth following the completion of its STS-129 mission. STS-129 (ISS assembly flight ULF3) was a NASA Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Atlantis was launched on November 16, 2009 at 14:28 EST, and landed at 09:44 EST on November 27, 2009 on runway 33 at the Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility. STS-129 focused on staging spare components outside the station. The 11-day flight included three spacewalks. The payload bay carried two large ExPRESS Logistics Carriers holding two spare gyroscopes, two nitrogen tank assemblies, two pump modules, an ammonia tank assembly, a spare latching end effector for the station’s robotic arm, a spare trailing umbilical system for the Mobile Transporter, and a high-pressure gas tank. STS-129 was the first flight of an ExPRESS Logistics Carrier. The completion of this mission left six space shuttle flights remaining until the end of the Space Shuttle program, after STS-135 was approved in February 2011.


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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

GOETTEL, PHILIP
Rank and organization: Private, Company B, 149th New York Infantry. Place and date: At Ringgold, Ga., 27 November 1863. Entered service at: Syracuse, N.Y. Birth: Syracuse, N.Y. Date of issue: 28 June 1865. Citation: Capture of flag and battery guidon.

PACKARD, LORON F.
Rank and organization: Private, Company E, 5th New York Cavalry. Place and date: At Raccoon Ford, Va., 27 November 1863. Entered service at. Cuba, N.Y. Birth. Cattaraugus County, N.Y. Date of issue. 20 August 1894. Citation. After his command had retreated, this soldier, voluntarily and alone, returned to the assistance of a comrade and rescued him from the hands of 3 armed Confederates.

SCHEIBNER, MARTIN E.
Rank and organization: Private, Company G, 90th Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Mine Run, Va., 27 November 1863. Entered service at: Berks County, Pa. Born: 13 October 1840, Russia. Date of issue: 23 June 1896. Citation: Voluntarily extinguished the burning fuse of a shell which had been thrown into the lines of the regiment by the enemy.

THOMSON, CLIFFORD
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, Company A, 1st New York Cavalry. Place and date: At Chancellorsville, Va., 2 May 1863. Entered service at: New York, N.Y. Birth:——. Date of issue: 27 November 1896. Citation: Volunteered to ascertain the character of approaching troops; rode up so closely as to distinguish the features of the enemy, and as he wheeled to return they opened fire with musketry, the Union troops returning same. Under a terrific fire from both sides Lieutenant Thomson rode back unhurt to the Federal lines, averting a disaster to the Army by his heroic act.

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GARCIA, MARCARIO
Rank and organization: Staff Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company B, 22d Infantry, 4th Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Grosshau, Germany, 27 November 1944. Entered service at: Sugarland, Tex. Born: 20 January 1920, Villa de Castano, Mexico. G.O. No.: 74, 1 September 1945. Citation: While an acting squad leader of Company B, 22d Infantry, on 27 November 1944, near Grosshau, Germany, he single-handedly assaulted 2 enemy machinegun emplacements. Attacking prepared positions on a wooded hill, which could be approached only through meager cover, his company was pinned down by intense machinegun fire and subjected to a concentrated artillery and mortar barrage. Although painfully wounded, he refused to be evacuated and on his own initiative crawled forward alone until he reached a position near an enemy emplacement.

Hurling grenades, he boldly assaulted the position, destroyed the gun, and with his rifle killed 3 of the enemy who attempted to escape. When he rejoined his company, a second machinegun opened fire and again the intrepid soldier went forward, utterly disregarding his own safety. He stormed the position and destroyed the gun, killed 3 more Germans, and captured 4 prisoners. He fought on with his unit until the objective was taken and only then did he permit himself to be removed for medical care. S/Sgt. (then private) Garcia’s conspicuous heroism, his inspiring, courageous conduct, and his complete disregard for his personal safety wiped out 2 enemy emplacements and enabled his company to advance and secure its objective.

*DESIDERIO, REGINALD B.
Rank and organization: Captain, U.S. Army, commanding officer, Company E, 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Ipsok, Korea, 27 November 1950. Entered service at: Gilroy, Calif. Born: 12 September 1918, Clairton, Pa. G.O. No.: 58, 2 August 1951. Citation: Capt. Desiderio distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the repeated risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. His company was given the mission of defending the command post of a task force against an enemy breakthrough. After personal reconnaissance during darkness and under intense enemy fire, he placed his men in defensive positions to repel an attack. Early in the action he was wounded, but refused evacuation and despite enemy fire continued to move among his men checking their positions and making sure that each element was prepared to receive the next attack.

Again wounded, he continued to direct his men. By his inspiring leadership he encouraged them to hold their position. In the subsequent fighting when the fanatical enemy succeeded in penetrating the position, he personally charged them with carbine, rifle, and grenades, inflicting many casualties until he himself was mortally wounded. His men, spurred on by his intrepid example, repelled this final attack. Capt. Desiderio’s heroic leadership, courageous and loyal devotion to duty, and his complete disregard for personal safety reflect the highest honor on him and are in keeping with the esteemed traditions of the U.S. Army.

*FAITH, DON C., JR.
Rank and organization: Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army, commanding officer, 1st Battalion, 32d Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. Place and date: Vicinity Hagaru-ri, Northern Korea, 27 November to 1 December 1950. Entered service at: Washington, Ind. Born: 26 August 1918, Washington, Ind. G.O. No.: 59, 2 August 1951. Citation: Lt. Col. Faith, commanding 1st Battalion, distinguished himself conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity in action above and beyond the call of duty in the area of the Chosin Reservoir. When the enemy launched a fanatical attack against his battalion, Lt. Col. Faith unhesitatingly exposed himself to heavy enemy fire as he moved about directing the action. When the enemy penetrated the positions, Lt. Col. Faith personally led counterattacks to restore the position. During an attack by his battalion to effect a junction with another U.S. unit, Lt. Col. Faith reconnoitered the route for, and personally directed, the first elements of his command across the ice-covered reservoir and then directed the movement of his vehicles which were loaded with wounded until all of his command had passed through the enemy fire. Having completed this he crossed the reservoir himself. Assuming command of the force his unit had joined he was given the mission of attacking to join friendly elements to the south.

Lt. Col. Faith, although physically exhausted in the bitter cold, organized and launched an attack which was soon stopped by enemy fire. He ran forward under enemy small-arms and automatic weapons fire, got his men on their feet and personally led the fire attack as it blasted its way through the enemy ring. As they came to a hairpin curve, enemy fire from a roadblock again pinned the column down. Lt. Col. Faith organized a group of men and directed their attack on the enemy positions on the right flank. He then placed himself at the head of another group of men and in the face of direct enemy fire led an attack on the enemy roadblock, firing his pistol and throwing grenades. When he had reached a position approximately 30 yards from the roadblock he was mortally wounded, but continued to direct the attack until the roadblock was overrun. Throughout the 5 days of action Lt. Col. Faith gave no thought to his safety and did not spare himself. His presence each time in the position of greatest danger was an inspiration to his men. Also, the damage he personally inflicted firing from his position at the head of his men was of material assistance on several occasions.

Lt. Col. Faith’s outstanding gallantry and noble self-sacrifice above and beyond the call of duty reflect the highest honor on him and are in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Army. (This award supersedes the prior award of the Silver Star (First Oak Leaf Cluster) as announced in G.O. No. 32, Headquarters X Corps, dated 23 February 1951, for gallantry in action on 27 November 1950.)

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28 November

1729 – Natchez Indians massacred most of the 300 French settlers and soldiers at Fort Rosalie, Louisiana.

1745 – French troops attacked Indians at Saratoga, NY. The Saratoga of 1745 was on the site of the present Schuylerville, NY, on the west bank of the Hudson River about eleven miles east of the present Saratoga Springs NY, and only about thirty miles north of Albany. The raiders were four hundred French troops and two hundred and twenty Indians of the Abnaki and Caughnawaga tribes. The Caughnawagas were a breakaway group from the Mohawk tribe. The Mohawks – eastern most among the six nations of the Iroquois League – were constrained by their proximity if nothing else to prefer the English, but at the time the official Iroquois position was one of neutrality. The Caughnawagas were a group of Mohawks who preferrred the French and had moved north and adopted the Caughnawaga name, but the Mohawks still considered them as wayward brothers.

Thus it was unthinkable that the Mohawks would stop these raiders as they came through Mohawk territory on this raid. There was no serious opposition to the attack on Saratoga, which came at dawn. The town was burned so completely that the only structure left standing was a sawmill somewhat apart from the main part of town. The raiders killed or captured one hundred and one individuals, incluging the salves of the residents. The terrified citizens had helped the raiders by burning their own fort and fleeing down the Hudson. The Iroquois, no fools, had given a promise of alliance to the English, when the massive English Army they had been told was coming to crush the French appeared – of course there was never a plan to send any such English Army to NY. The debacle of Saratoga was further proof to the Iroquois that the English were not committed to fighting the French but were instead trying to get the Iroquois to do it for them.

1775 – The 2nd Continental Congress adopts first rules for regulation of the “Navy of the United Colonies.”

1785 – The first Treaty of Hopewell is signed. The Treaty of Hopewell is the title of any of three different treaties signed at Hopewell Plantation. The plantation was owned by Andrew Pickens, and was located on the Seneca River in northwestern South Carolina. The first treaty was signed between the Confederation Congress of the United States of America and the Cherokee people. The historic site of the ‘Treaty Oak’, where the signings took place, is on Old Cherry Road in Pickens County, South Carolina.

1795 – US paid $800,000 and a frigate as tribute to Algiers and Tunis.

1861 – The Confederate Congress admitted Missouri to the Confederacy, although Missouri had not yet seceded from the Union.

1862 – Union troops under General John Blunt drive Confederates under General John Marmaduke back into the Boston Mountains in northwestern Arkansas. The Battle of Cane Hill was part of a Confederate attempt to drive the Yankees back into Missouri and recapture ground lost during the Pea Ridge campaign of early 1862, when Union forces secured parts of northern Arkansas. Now, Confederate General Thomas Hindman moved his army of 11,000 soldiers into Fort Smith, Arkansas, and prepared to move across the Boston Mountains into the extreme northwestern corner of the state. Awaiting him there was Blunt with 5,000 troops. Hindman hoped to attack Blunt’s force, which was over 70 miles from the nearest Union reinforcements. Hindman dispatched Marmaduke and 2,000 cavalry troopers to hold Blunt in place while Hindman moved the rest of his force through the mountains. Blunt disrupted the Confederate plan by advancing south when he heard of Marmaduke’s approach.

Marmaduke was not prepared to meet Blunt, who was 35 miles further south than expected. Marmaduke’s troops were surprised and outnumbered when Blunt suddenly attacked on November 28th. Marmaduke began a hasty retreat and ordered General Joseph Shelby to fight a delaying action while the rest of the Confederates headed for the mountains. Blunt pursued Marmaduke’s forces for 12 miles before the Confederates reached the safety of the hills. Though the conflict lasted for nine hours, casualties were light. The Yankees suffered 41 men killed or wounded, while the Confederates lost 45. This small engagement was a prelude to a much larger clash at Prairie Grove, Arkansas, nine days later. Blunt’s advance left him dangerously isolated from Union forces in Springfield, Missouri, but when Hindman attacked again on December 7, he still failed to expel Blunt from northwestern Arkansas.

1871 – Ku Klux Klan trials began in Federal District Court in SC.

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1872 – The Modoc War of 1872-73 began in Siskiyou County, northern California when fighting broke out between Modoc Chief Captain Jack and a cavalry detail led by Captain James Jackson. Brutally harsh conduct characterized white-Indian struggles in the Northwest, such as the 1,000-mile saga of the 1877 Nez Percé War and the Modoc War. Harvesters of fish and waterfowl, game, seeds and bulbs, the Modoc were a tribe of the I,utuamian stock. They lived on lava plateaus dotted with sage and the forested mountains of northern California and southern Oregon. Their houses, which resembled beehives, lined the banks of Lost River and the shores of Tule Lake. White settlers began to populate the attractive area in the 1860s. The Modoc resisted the encroachment at great cost and by 1864 the tribe had been reduced to about 250. Subsequently they surrendered their lands to the U.S. government and entered the former Klamath reservation in southern Oregon. They barely survived on the hardscrabble reservation.

In 1870 Chief Kintpuash, also known as Captain Jack, directed some of his band to California. When the group subsequently refused to return to the reservation, attempts were made to force the Modocs’ return, which precipitated the war of 1872-1873. U.S. soldiers pursued the Indians to Tule Lake. There, lava beds and caves furnished nearly perfect fortifications for the quarry. The small band of about 150 poorly armed Indians held out for six months. Repeatedly repulsed, the soldiers enlarged their ranks to 1,000 by March 1873. In the course of peace talks, negotiators General E. R. S. Canby and Eleazer Thomas were killed. The soldiers grimly stepped up their struggle to overpower the Modoc. In 1873 Captain Jack and his whittled-down band of approximately 30 surrendered; he and three others were hanged. A number of the rebellious group were returned to Klamath Reservation, and the rest were sent to Quapaw Reservation in Oklahoma. The Klamath Reservation was disbanded in 1963, and the Native Americans on the Quapaw Reservation merged with other tribes.

1914 – Following a war-induced closure in July, the New York Stock Exchange re-opens for bond trading.

1929 – Commander Richard E. Byrd completed the first South Pole flight.

1941 – The aircraft carrier USS Enterprise departed Pearl Harbor to deliver F4F Wildcat fighters to Wake Island. This mission saved the carrier from destruction when the Japanese attacked.

1942 – Coffee rationing went into effect in the U.S., lasting through World War II.

1942 – British and American forces of the brigade strength take Djedeida. However German forces are advancing from St. Cyprien at their rear.

1942 – The first production Ford bomber, the B-24 Liberator, rolled off the assembly line at Ford’s massive Willow Run plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Two years before, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had urged an isolationist America to prepare for its inevitable involvement in the war, declaring that U.S. industry must become “the great arsenal of democracy.” Roosevelt established the Office of Production Management (OPM) to organize the war effort, and named a former automotive executive co-director of the OPM. Most Detroit automobile executives opposed the OAW during its first year, and were dubious of the advantages of devoting their entire production to war material. However, on December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and American citizens mobilized behind the U.S. declaration of war against the Axis powers. Since profit ruled Detroit, the government made Ford and America’s other automakers an economic offer they could not refuse. For their participation in the war effort, automakers would be guaranteed profits regardless of production costs, and $11 billion would be allocated to the building of war plants–factories that would be sold to private industry at a substantial discount after the war.

In February of 1942, the last Ford automobile rolled off the assembly line for the duration of the war, and soon afterward the Willow Run plant was completed in Michigan. Built specifically for Ford’s war production, Willow Run was the largest factory in the world. Using the type of assembly line production that had made Ford an industrial giant, Ford hoped to produce 500 B-24 Liberator bombers a month. After a gradual start, that figure was reached in time for the Allied invasion of Western Europe, and by July of 1944, the Willow Plant was producing one B-24 every hour. By the end of the war, the 43,000 men and women who had worked at Ford’s Willow Run plant had produced over 8,500 bombers, which unquestionably had a significant impact on the course of the war.

1943 – The Teheran Conference begins. Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin and their staffs meet for the first time. The Americans appear to be attempting to distance themselves from the British during the discussions.

1944 – The first Allied convoy reaches Antwerp which is now operational after extensive repairs and mine clearing. Distribution of supplies to the Allied armies in the field remains a difficulty.

1944 – On Leyte, Japanese night attacks continue. There is heavy fighting at Kilay Ridge in the north and around Buri and Burauen.

1950 – Lieutenant General Walton Walker announced that the Eighth Army offensive was at an end. In Tokyo, General Douglas MacArthur announced an “entirely new war.”

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1954 – Nobel Prize-winning physicist Enrico Fermi, the first man to create and control a nuclear chain reaction, and one of the Manhattan Project scientists, dies in Chicago at the age of 53. Fermi was born in Rome on September 1, 1901. He made his career choice of physicist at age 17, and earned his doctorate at the University of Pisa at 21. After studying in Germany under physicist Max Born, famous for his work on quantum mechanics, which would prove vital to Fermi’s later work, he returned to Italy to teach mathematics at the University of Florence. By 1926, he had been made a full professor of theoretical physics and gathered around him a group of other young physicists. In 1929, he became the youngest man ever elected to the Royal Academy of Italy. The theoretical became displaced by the practical for Fermi upon learning of England’s Sir James Chadwick’s discovery of the neutron and the Curies’ production of artificial radioactivity. Fermi went to work on producing radioactivity by means of manipulating the speed of neutrons derived from radioactive beryllium.

Further similar experimentation with other elements, including uranium 92, produced new radioactive substances; Fermi’s colleagues believed he had created a new, “transuranic” element with an atomic number of 93, the result of uranium 92 capturing a neuron while under bombardment, thus increasing its atomic weight. Fermi remained skeptical, despite his fellow physicists’ enthusiasm. He became a believer in 1938, when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for “his identification of new radioactive elements.” Although travel was restricted for men whose work was deemed vital to national security, Fermi was given permission to go to Sweden to receive his prize. He and his wife, Laura, who was Jewish, never returned; both feared and despised Mussolini’s fascist regime. Fermi left Sweden for New York City, Columbia University, specifically, where he recreated many of his experiments with Niels Bohr, the Danish-born physicist, who suggested the possibility of a nuclear chain reaction. Fermi and others saw the possible military applications of such an explosive power, and quickly composed a letter warning President Roosevelt of the perils of a German atomic bomb. The letter was signed and delivered to the president by Albert Einstein on October 11, 1939.

The Manhattan Project, the American program to create its own atomic bomb, was the result. It fell to Fermi to produce the first nuclear chain reaction, without which such a bomb was impossible. He created a jury-rigged laboratory, complete with his own “atomic pile,” in a squash court in the basement of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago. It was there that Fermi, with other physicists looking on, produced the first controlled chain reaction on December 2, 1942. The nuclear age was born. “The Italian navigator has just landed in the new world,” was the coded message sent to a delighted President Roosevelt. The first nuclear device, the creation of the Manhattan Project scientists, was tested on July 16, 1945. It was followed less than a month later by the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After the war, Fermi, now an American citizen, became a Distinguished Service Professor of Nuclear Studies at the University of Chicago, consulting on the construction of the first large-particle accelerator. He went on to receive the Congressional Medal of Merit and to be elected a foreign member of the Royal Society of London. Among other honors accorded to Fermi: The element number 100, fermium, was named for him. Also, the Enrico Fermi Award, now one of the oldest and most prestigious science and technology awards given by the U.S. government, was created in his honor.

1958 – The US reported the first full-range firing of an ICBM.

1963 – Just six days after the assassination of President Kennedy, President Johnson announced that the Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, would be renamed “The John F. Kennedy Space Center.” Residents voted in 1973 to change the name back to Cape Canaveral.

1964 – The US Mariner IV space probe was launched from Cape Kennedy on a course to Mars. It later flew by Mars in Jul 1965 and saw craters but no canals.

1964 – President Lyndon Johnson’s top advisers–Maxwell Taylor, Dean Rusk, Robert McNamara, and other members of the National Security Council–agree to recommend that the president adopt a plan for a two-stage escalation of the bombing of North Vietnam. The purpose of this bombing was three-fold: to boost South Vietnamese morale, to cut down infiltration of Communist troops from the north, and to force Hanoi to stop its support of the insurgency in South Vietnam. While his advisors agreed that bombing was necessary, there was a difference of opinion about the best way to go about it. Johnson’s senior military advisers pressed for a “fast and full squeeze,” massive attacks against major industries and military targets in the north. His civilian advisers advocated a “slow squeeze,” a graduated series of attacks beginning with the infiltration routes in Laos and slowly extending to the targets in North Vietnam. Ultimately, the civilian advisers convinced Johnson to use the graduated approach. The bombing campaign, code-named Rolling Thunder, began in March 1965 and lasted through October 1968.

1965 – President Elect Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines states that he will send troops to South Vietnam, in response to President Lyndon Johnson’s call for “more flags” in Vietnam. Johnson hoped to enlist other nations to send military aid and troops to support the American cause in South Vietnam. The level of support was not the primary issue; Johnson wanted to portray international solidarity and consensus for U.S. policies in Southeast Asia. The Philippines sent a 1,500-man civic action force in 1966; the United States paid for the group’s operating costs and also provided additional military and economic aid to Marcos in return for sending his troops. Several other countries–including Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Thailand–responded to Johnson’s call and sent troops to South Vietnam. Collectively, these troops were known as the Free World Military Forces, and they fought alongside American and South Vietnamese troops.

1983 – The space shuttle Columbia blasted into orbit, carrying six astronauts who conducted experiments using the $1 billion Spacelab in the shuttle’s cargo bay.

1985 – Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Atlantis celebrated Thanksgiving with a dinner of irradiated turkey and freeze-dried vegetables, and launched a satellite from the cargo bay.

1986 – The United States under the Reagan administration violated ceilings in the unratified SALT II nuclear arms treaty for the first time as another Air Force B-52 bomber capable of carrying atomic-tipped cruise missiles became operational.

1995 – President Clinton continued to press his case for sending 20,000 US ground troops to Bosnia. President Clinton signed a $6 billion road bill that ended the federal 55 mile-an-hour speed limit.

1996 – A stuck hatch on the space shuttle Columbia prevented two astronauts from going on a spacewalk. A second planned spacewalk also had to be canceled; engineers later discovered a loose screw had jammed the hatch mechanism.

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