This Date in Military History:

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1865 – The final offensive of the Army of the Potomac gathers steam when Union General Phil Sheridan moves against the left flank of Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. The limited action set the stage for the Battle of Five Forks on April 1. This engagement took place at the end of the Petersburg line. For 10 months, the Union had laid siege to Lee’s army at Petersburg, but the trenches stretched all the way to Richmond, 25 miles north of Petersburg. Lee’s thinning army attacked Fort Stedman on March 25 in a futile attempt to break the siege, but the Union line held.

On March 29, General Ulysses S. Grant, General-in-Chief of the Union Army and the field commander around Petersburg, began moving his men past the western end of Lee’s line. Torrential rains almost delayed the move. Grant planned to send Sheridan against the Confederates on March 31, but called off the operation. Sheridan would not be denied a chance to fight, though. “I am ready to strike out tomorrow and go to smashing things!” he told his officers. They encouraged him to meet with Grant, who consented to begin the move. Near Dinwiddie Court House, Sheridan advanced but was driven back by General George Pickett’s division. Pickett was alerted to the Union advance, and during the night of March 31, he pulled his men back to Five Forks. This set the stage for a major strike by Sheridan on April 1, when the Yankees crushed the Rebel flank and forced Lee to evacuate Richmond and Petersburg.

1870 – Following its ratification by the requisite three-fourths of the states, the 15th Amendment, granting African-American men the right to vote, is formally adopted into the U.S. Constitution. Passed by Congress the year before, the amendment reads, “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” One day after it was adopted, Thomas Peterson-Mundy of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, became the first African American to vote under the authority of the 15th Amendment.

In 1867, the Republican-dominated Congress passed the First Reconstruction Act, over President Andrew Johnson’s veto, dividing the South into five military districts and outlining how new governments based on universal manhood suffrage were to be established. With the adoption of the 15th Amendment in 1870, a politically mobilized African-American community joined with white allies in the Southern states to elect the Republican Party to power, which brought about radical changes across the South. By late 1870, all the former Confederate states had been readmitted to the Union, and most were controlled by the Republican Party, thanks to the support of African-American voters.

In the same year, Hiram Rhoades Revels, a Republican from Natchez, Mississippi, became the first African American ever to sit in Congress. Although African-American Republicans never obtained political office in proportion to their overwhelming electoral majority, Revels and a dozen other African-American men served in Congress during Reconstruction, more than 600 served in state legislatures, and many more held local offices. However, in the late 1870s, the Southern Republican Party vanished with the end of Reconstruction, and Southern state governments effectively nullified the 14th and 15th Amendments, stripping Southern African Americans of the right to vote. It would be nearly a century before the nation would again attempt to establish equal rights for African Americans in the South.

1899 – Malolos, capital of the First Philippine Republic, was captured by American forces. The Capture of Malolos, alternately known as the Battle of Malolos, occurred on Bulacan, during the Philippine-American War. General Arthur MacArthur, Jr.’s division advanced to Malolos along the Manila–Dagupan Railway. By March 30, American forces were advancing on Malolos. Meanwhile, the Aguinaldo government had moved its seat from Malolos to San Isidro, Nueva Ecija.

1916 – General Pershing and his army routed Pancho Villa’s army in Mexico.

1917 – The United States takes possession of the Danish West Indies after paying $25 million to Denmark, and renames the territory the United States Virgin Islands.

1918 – Daylight Savings Time went into effect throughout the U.S. for the first time.

1933 – Congress authorized the Civilian Conservation Corps in an attempt to relieve rampant unemployment. The US unemployment rate had reached 25%. In its nine years of existence, the New Deal’s Civilian Conservation Corps had a total of 2.9 million men aged 18 to 25 enrolled. The program was designed to provide jobs for young men in the national forests, conservation programs and national road construction. Enacted as one of President Franklin Roosevelt’s first New Deal programs, it lasted until World War II. At its high point in September 1935, the CCC had 2,514 work camps across the U.S. with 502,000 men enrolled.

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1943 – An American battalion occupies positions around Morobe at the mouth of the Waria River.

1945 – The U.S. and Britain barred a Soviet supported provisional regime in Warsaw from entering the U.N. meeting in San Francisco.

1945 – US naval forces, including Task Force 58 and TF52, continue air strikes on Okinawa while TF54 continues bombarding the island. Japanese Kamikaze and submarine attacks continue.

1945 – A defecting German pilot delivers a Messerschmitt Me 262A-1, the world’s first operational jet-powered fighter aircraft, to the Americans, the first to fall into Allied hands.

1948 – Congress passed a $6.2 billion foreign aid bill, the Marshall Aid Act, to rehabilitate war-torn Europe.

1951 – Operation RIPPER was officially terminated as Eighth Army fought its way back to the 38th parallel.

1951 – Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau.

1952 – The Kimpo Provisional Regiment was organized by and within the U.S. 1st Marine Division for the defense of the Kimpo peninsula.1958 – US Navy formed the atomic sub division.

1958 – Moscow declared a halt on all atomic tests and asked other nations to follow.

1965 – US ordered the 1st combat troops to Vietnam.

1965 – Responding to questions from reporters about the situation in Vietnam, President Johnson says, “I know of no far-reaching strategy that is being suggested or promulgated.” Early in the month, Johnson had sent 3,500 Marines to Da Nang to secure the U.S. airbase there. These troops were ostensibly there only for defensive purposes, but Johnson, despite his protestations to the contrary, was already considering giving the authorization for the U.S. troops to go from defensive to offensive tactics. This was a sensitive area, since such an authorization could (and did) lead to escalation in the war and a subsequent increase in the American commitment to it.

1967 – President Lyndon Johnson signed the Consular Treaty, the first bi-lateral pact with the Soviet Union since the Bolshevik Revolution.

1968 – In a televised speech to the nation, President Lyndon B. Johnson announces a partial halt of bombing missions over North Vietnam and proposes peace talks. He said he had ordered “unilaterally” a halt to air and naval bombardments of North Vietnam “except in the area north of the Demilitarized Zone, where the continuing enemy build-up directly threatens Allied forward positions.” He also stated that he was sending 13,500 more troops to Vietnam and would request further defense expenditures–$2.5 billion in fiscal year 1968 and $2.6 billion in fiscal year 1969–to finance recent troop build-ups, re-equip the South Vietnamese Army, and meet “responsibilities in Korea.”

In closing, Johnson shocked the nation with an announcement that all but conceded that his own presidency had become another wartime casualty: “I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president.”

1970 – The U.S. forces in Vietnam downed a MIG-21, the first since September 1968.

1970 – Explorer 1, the first US satellite, launched in 1958, re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere after 12 years in orbit.

1971 – Poseidon (C-3) missile becomes operational when USS James Madison began her 3rd patrol carrying 16 tactical Poseidon missiles.

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1972 – After firing more than 5,000 rockets, artillery, and mortar shells on 12 South Vietnamese positions just below the Demilitarized Zone, the North Vietnamese Army launches ground assaults against South Vietnamese positions in Quang Tri Province. The attacks were thrown back, with 87 North Vietnamese killed. South Vietnamese fire bases Fuller, Mai Loc, Holcomb, Pioneer, and two smaller bases near the Demilitarized Zone were abandoned as the North Vietnamese pushed the defenders back toward their rear bases. At the same time, attacks against three bases west of Saigon forced the South Vietnamese to abandon six outposts along the Cambodian border. These were a continuation of the opening attacks of the North Vietnamese Nguyen Hue Offensive, a major coordinated communist offensive initiated on March 30.

Committing almost their entire army to the offensive, the North Vietnamese launched a massive three-pronged attack. In the initial attack, four North Vietnamese divisions attacked directly across the Demilitarized Zone into Quang Tri province. Following the assault in Quang Tri province, the North Vietnamese launched two more major attacks: at An Loc in Binh Long Province, 60 miles north of Saigon, and at Kontum in the Central Highlands. With the three attacks, the North Vietnamese had committed 500 tanks and 150,000 regular troops (as well as thousands of Viet Cong) supported by heavy rocket and artillery fire.

After initial successes, especially against the newly formed South Vietnamese 3rd Division in Quang Tri, the North Vietnamese attack was stopped cold by the combination of defending South Vietnamese divisions (along with their U.S. advisers) and massive American airpower. Estimates placed the North Vietnamese losses at more than 100,000 and at least one-half of their tanks and large caliber artillery.

1980 – Iranian officials say American hostages may be handed over to government by militants holding U.S. embassy, as militant leaders meet with President Bani-Sadr.

1991 – The Warsaw Pact spent the last day of its existence as a military alliance.

1992 – The U.N. Security Council voted to ban flights and arms sales to Libya, branding it a terrorist state for shielding six men accused of blowing up Pan Am Flight 103 and a French airliner.

1992 – USS Missouri (BB-63), the last active American battleship is decommissioned. USS Missouri (BB-63) (“Mighty Mo” or “Big Mo”) is a United States Navy Iowa-class battleship and was the third ship of the U.S. Navy to be named in honor of the US state of Missouri. Missouri was the last battleship commissioned by the United States and was the site of the surrender of the Empire of Japan which ended World War II. Missouri was ordered in 1940 and commissioned in June 1944.

In the Pacific Theater of World War II she fought in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa and shelled the Japanese home islands, and she fought in the Korean War from 1950 to 1953. She was decommissioned in 1955 into the United States Navy reserve fleets (the “Mothball Fleet”), but reactivated and modernized in 1984 as part of the 600-ship Navy plan, and provided fire support during Operation Desert Storm in January/February 1991.

Missouri received a total of 11 battle stars for service in World War II, Korea, and the Persian Gulf, and was finally decommissioned on 31 March 1992, but remained on the Naval Vessel Register until her name was struck in January 1995. In 1998, she was donated to the USS Missouri Memorial Association and became a museum ship at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

1993 – The U.N. Security Council increased international pressure on Bosnian Serbs, authorizing NATO warplanes to shoot down aircraft that violated a ban on flights over Bosnia.

1995 – President Clinton briefly visited Haiti, where he declared the U.S. mission to restore democracy there a “remarkable success.”

1995 – Coast Guard Communication Area Master Station Atlantic sent a final message by Morse Code and then signed off, officially ending more than 100 years of telegraph communication.

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1998 – The UN Security Council imposed a new arms embargo on Yugoslavia to press Milosevic to grant ethnic Albanians concessions in Kosovo.

1999 – Three peacekeeping US soldiers were captured by Serb forces near the Yugoslav-Macedonia border. Sgt. James Stone (25), Spec. Steven Gonzales (21) and Sgt. Andrew Ramirez (24) were shown on Serbian TV and were released more than a month later. Azen Syla, founder of the KLA, said that his guerrilla supply lines from Albania were cut off when the bombing began. Yugoslav soldiers herded ethnic Albanians onto trains bound for the Macedonian border as NATO bombing continued for the 8th day.

1999 – NATO bombs destroyed the Sloboda household utilities plant in Cacak, Serbia. It had employed some 5,000 people. Allied leaders said they would bomb government buildings in Belgrade.

1999 – On Serbian TV Ibrahim Rugova appealed for an end to NATO bombings. He had recently been quoted by a German magazine that chaos would result if NATO does not send in ground troops immediately. Serbs put Rugova under house arrest and ordered him to appear on TV.

2000 – The UN Security Council decided to let Iraq spend more money to repair its oil industry—an investment intended to boost the amount of food and medicine Baghdad could buy through the UN humanitarian program.

2001 – In Serbia commandos stormed the residence of Slobodan Milosevic and attempted to arrest him as the US deadline for cooperation with the UN War Crimes tribunal approached. But a defiant Milosevic rejected a warrant, reportedly telling police he wouldn’t “go to jail alive.”

2002 – Serbia’s government, faced with a midnight suspension of US aid, issued arrest warrants against 4 former Milosevic associates.

2003 – In the 13th day of Operation Iraqi Freedom US-led troops fought pitched battles with Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard within 50 miles of the capital. B-1, B-2 and B-52 bombers struck communication and command centers in Baghdad, and cruise missiles set Iraq’s Information Ministry ablaze. Casualties from the war to date US total: 40 dead, 7 captured, 18 missing; British total: 25 dead. Of 8,000 precision bombs dropped since the war began, 3,000 fell in the last 3 days. Port operations at Umm Qasr looked to be delayed for weeks.

2003 – NBC said it severed its relations with reporter Peter Arnett after he told Iraqi television that the US war plan against Saddam Hussein had failed. Arnett was quickly hired by London’s Daily Mirror.

2003 – In Macedonia the EU began its first military operation by taking over peacekeeping duties from NATO.

2004 – The US Navy closed Naval Station Roosevelt Roads, its last base in Puerto Rico. It was transferred to a special naval agency that will coordinate the closing process. The base had been used for 6 decades to keep watch over the Caribbean.

2004 – The highly-publicized killing and mutilation of four Blackwater private military contractors takes place. Five days before American troops withdrew from Fallujah after intense fighting on March 26, 2004 (at which point Fallujah had already been declared insurgent-occupied) killed one Marine. The troops retreated to the city’s outskirts. The four independent contractors were guarding food shipments for a U.S. base on the outskirts of Fallujah, Iraq, when they took a wrong turn and entered the city. They were killed in a grenade attack by suspected insurgents, and their corpses were mutilated by cheering crowds.

2004 – The US suspended $26 million in aid to Serbia for refusal to give up war crimes fugitives.

2005 – A US presidential commission reported that US intelligence agencies were wrong in their prewar assessment of Iraq’s nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

BOEHM, PETER M.
Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, Company K, 15th New York Cavalry. Place and date: At Dinwiddie Courthouse, Va., 31 March 1865. Entered service at: Brooklyn, N.Y. Birth: New York. Date of issue: 15 December 1898. Citation: While acting as aide to General Custer, took a flag from the hands of color bearer, rode in front of a line that was being driven back and, under a heavy fire, rallied the men, re-formed the line, and repulsed the charge.

HOOPER, WILLIAM B.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company L, 1st New Jersey Cavalry. Place and date: At Chamberlains Creek, Va., 31 March 1865. Entered service at:——. Birth: Willimantic, Conn. Date of issue: 3 July 1865. Citation: With the assistance of a comrade, headed off the advance of the enemy, shooting two of his color bearers; also posted himself between the enemy and the led horses of his own command, thus saving the herd from capture.

KING, HORATIO C.
Rank and organization: Major and Quartermaster, U.S. Volunteers. Place and date: Near Dinwiddie Courthouse, Va., 31 March 1865. Entered service at: Brooklyn, N.Y. Born: 22 December 1837, Portland, Maine. Date of issue: 23 September 1897. Citation: While serving as a volunteer aide, carried orders to the reserve brigade and participated with it in the charge which repulsed the enemy.

LUTES, FRANKLIN W.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company D, 111th New York Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 31 March 1865. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Oneida County, N.Y. Date of issue: 3 April 1865. Citation: Capture of flag of 41st Alabama Infantry (C.S.A.), together with the color bearer and one of the color guard.

SICKLES, WILLIAM H.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company B, 7th Wisconsin Infantry. Place and date: At Gravelly Run, Va., 31 March 1865. Entered service at: Columbia County, Wis. Birth: Danube, N.Y. Date of issue: Unknown. Citation: With a comrade, attempted capture of a stand of Confederate colors and detachment of 9 Confederates, actually taking prisoner 3 members of the detachment, dispersing the remainder, and recapturing a Union officer who was a prisoner in hands of the detachment.

WILSON, JOHN
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company L, 1st New Jersey Cavalry. Place and date: At Chamberlains Creek, Va., 31 March 1865. Entered service at: Jersey City, N.J. Birth: England. Date of issue: 3 July 1865. Citation: With the assistance of one comrade, headed off the advance of the enemy, shooting 2 of his color bearers; also posted himself between the enemy and the lead horses of his own command, thus saving the herd from capture.

STOKES, JOHN
Rank and organization: Chief Master-at-Arms, U.S. Navy. Born: 12 June 1871, New York, N.Y. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 525 29 July 1899. Citation: On board the U.S.S. New York off the coast of Jamaica, 31 March 1899. Showing gallant conduct, Stokes jumped overboard and assisted in the rescue of Peter Mahoney, watertender, U.S. Navy.

CAHEY, THOMAS
Rank and organization: Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 13 April 1870, Bellfast, Ireland. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 85, 22 March 1902. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Petrel for heroism and gallantry, fearlessly exposing his own life to danger in saving others on the occasion of the flre on board that vessel, 31 March 1901.

GIRANDY, ALPHONSE
Rank and organization: Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 21 January 1868, Guadaloupe, West Indies. Accredited to: Pennsylvania. G.O. No.: 85, 22 March 1902. Citation: Serving on board the U.S.S. Petrel, for heroism and gallantry, fearlessly exposing his own life to danger for the saving of others, on the occasion of the fire on board that vessel, 31 March 1901.

PFEIFER, LOUIS FRED
Rank and organization: Private, U.S. Marine Corps. (Served as Theis, Louis F., during first enlistment.) Born: 19 June 1876, Philadelphia, Pa. Accredited to: New Jersey. G.O. No.: 85, 22 March 1902. Citation: Serving on board the U.S.S. Petrel; for heroism and gallantry, fearlessly exposing his own life to danger for the saving of the others on the occasion of the fire on board that vessel, 31 March 1901.

THACKER, BRIAN MILES
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Army, Battery A, 1st Battalion, 92d Artillery. Place and date: Kontum Province, Republic of Vietnam, 31 March 1971. Entered service at: Salt Lake City, Utah. Born: 25 April 1945, Columbus, Ohio. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. 1st Lt. Thacker, Field Artillery, Battery A, distinguished himself while serving as the team leader of an Integrated Observation System collocated with elements of 2 Army of the Republic of Vietnam units at Fire Base 6. A numerically superior North Vietnamese Army force launched a well-planned, dawn attack on the small, isolated, hilltop fire base. Employing rockets, grenades, flame-throwers, and automatic weapons, the enemy forces penetrated the perimeter defenses and engaged the defenders in hand-to-hand combat. Throughout the morning and early afternoon, 1st Lt. Thacker rallied and encouraged the U.S. and Republic of Vietnam soldiers in heroic efforts to repulse the enemy. He occupied a dangerously exposed observation position for a period of 4 hours while directing friendly air strikes and artillery fire against the assaulting enemy forces.

His personal bravery and inspired leadership enabled the outnumbered friendly forces to inflict a maximum of casualties on the attacking enemy forces and prevented the base from being overrun. By late afternoon, the situation had become untenable. 1st Lt. Thacker organized and directed the withdrawal of the remaining friendly forces. With complete disregard for his personal safety, he remained inside the perimeter alone to provide covering fire with his M-16 rifle until all other friendly forces had escaped from the besieged fire base. Then, in an act of supreme courage, he called for friendly artillery fire on his own position to allow his comrades more time to withdraw safely from the area and, at the same time, inflict even greater casualties on the enemy forces.

Although wounded and unable to escape from the area himself, he successfully eluded the enemy forces for 8 days until friendly forces regained control of the fire base. The extraordinary courage and selflessness displayed by 1st Lt. Thacker were an inspiration to his comrades and are in the highest traditions of the military service.

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1 April

1621 – At the Plymouth settlement in present-day Massachusetts, the leaders of the Plymouth colonists, acting on behalf of King James I, make a defensive alliance with Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoags. The agreement, in which both parties promised to not “doe hurt” to one another, was the first treaty between a Native American tribe and a group of American colonists. According to the treaty, if a Wampanoag broke the peace, he would be sent to Plymouth for punishment; if a colonist broke the law, he would likewise be sent to the Wampanoags. In November 1620, the Mayflower arrived in the New World, carrying 101 English settlers, commonly known as the pilgrims. The majority of the pilgrims were Puritan Separatists, who traveled to America to escape the jurisdiction of the Church of England, which they believed violated the biblical precepts of true Christians. After coming to anchor in what is today Provincetown harbor in the Cape Cod region of Massachusetts, a party of armed men under the command of Captain Myles Standish was sent to explore the immediate area and find a location suitable for settlement. In December, the explorers went ashore in Plymouth, where they found cleared fields and plentiful running water; a few days later the Mayflower came to anchor in Plymouth harbor, and settlement began. The first direct contact with a Native American was made in March 1621, and soon after, Chief Massasoit paid a visit to the settlement. After an exchange of greetings and gifts, the two peoples signed a peace treaty that lasted for more than 50 years.

1778 – Oliver Pollock, a New Orleans businessman, created the “$” symbol.

1789 – The U.S. House of Representatives held its first full meeting, in New York City. Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania was elected the first House Speaker.

1823 – Simon Bolivar Buckner (d.1914), Lt. Gen. (Confederate Army), was born.

1853 – Cincinnati became the first U.S. city to pay its firefighters a regular salary.

1826 – Samuel Morey patents the internal combustion engine.

1833 – The Convention of 1833, a political gathering of settlers in Mexican Texas to help draft a series of petitions to the Mexican government, begins in San Felipe de Austin.

1863 – First wartime conscription law went into effect in the U.S.

1865 – Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s supply line into Petersburg, Virginia, is closed when Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant collapse the end of Lee’s lines around Petersburg. The Confederates suffer heavy casualties, and the battle triggered Lee’s retreat from Petersburg as the two armies began a race that would end a week later at Appomattox Court House. For nearly a year, Grant had laid siege to Lee’s army in an elaborate network of trenches that ran from Petersburg to the Confederate capital at Richmond, 25 miles north. Lee’s hungry army slowly dwindled through the winter of 1864-65 as Grant’s army swelled with well-fed reinforcements. On March 25, Lee attacked part of the Union trenches at Fort Stedman in a desperate attempt to break the siege and split Grant’s force. When that attack failed, Grant began mobilizing his forces along the entire 40-mile front. Southwest of Petersburg, Grant sent General Philip Sheridan against Lee’s right flank. Sheridan moved forward on March 31, but the tough Confederates halted his advance. Sheridan moved troops to cut the railroad that ran from the southwest into Petersburg, but the focus of the battle became Five Forks, a road intersection that provided the key to Lee’s supply line. Lee instructed his commander there, General George Pickett, to “Hold Five Forks at all hazards.”

On April 1, Sheridan’s men slammed into Pickett’s troops. Pickett had his force poorly positioned, and he was taking a long lunch with his staff when the attack occurred. General Gouverneur K. Warren’s V Corps supported Sheridan, and the 27,000 Yankee troops soon crushed Pickett’s command of 10,000. The Union lost 1,000 casualties, but nearly 5,000 of Pickett’s men were killed, wounded, or captured. During the battle, Sheridan, with the approval of Grant, removed Warren from command despite Warren’s effective deployment of his troops. It appears that a long-simmering feud between the two was the cause, but Warren was not officially cleared of any wrongdoing by a court of inquiry until 1882. The vital intersection was in Union hands, and Lee’s supply line was cut. Grant now attacked all along the Petersburg-Richmond front and Lee evacuated the cities. The two armies began a race west, but Lee could not outrun Grant. The Confederate leader surrendered at Appomattox Court House on April 9th.

1865 – Worn down by the stresses of his office, Florida Governor John Milton commits suicide at his plantation, Sylvania. Milton was a capable governor who valiantly defended his state and supplied provisions to the Confederacy, but by the end of the war much of Florida was occupied by Union forces and the state’s finances were depleted. Just before his death, Milton addressed the Florida legislature and said that Yankees “have developed a character so odious that death would be preferable to reunion with them.” Milton was 57 when he put a pistol to his head.

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1884 – Florence Blanchfield, an American nurse who was the first woman to become a fully ranked officer of the U.S. Army, was born. She was the first woman to receive a commission in the Regular Army. In making the presentation of her commission in a ceremony in 1947, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower paid tribute to the heroism of the Army nurses. The War Department credited Colonel Blanchfield, who at the time had spent 30 years in the Army Nurse Corps, with being “largely instrumental in securing full military rank for nurses.” She marshaled her arguments for “full” rather than “relative” rank at hearings before a succession of Congressional committees. Full rank was won on a temporary basis in July, 1944, and was made permanent by the Army and Navy Nurse Corps Law of April 16, 1947. Behind all the arguments was a matter of down-to-earth pay–or, in today’s terms, should women earn less than men for the same work?

In March, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Mrs. Julia O. Flikke, Miss Blanchfield’s predecessor as superintendent, as a colonel and Miss Blanchfield as a lieutenant colonel. The Controller General then ruled that there could not legally be a woman colonel in the Army. He issued Colonel Flikke the pay of a major and Lieutenant Colonel Blanchfield the pay of a captain. It took a new law to permit the rate of pay to catch up with the rank. She was born at Sheperdstown, W. Va. She attended the public schools of Walnut Springs, Va., and was graduated from the Granda Institute of Granda, Va. She took a secretarial course at the Martin Business College of Pittsburgh and other courses at the University of California and Columbia University. Her attention then turned to nursing, and she studied at Pittsburgh’s South Side Training School for Nurses, from which she was graduated in 1906. She took a postgraduate course in surgical techniques and operating room supervision at Dr. Howard Kelly’s Sanitarium and at Johns Hopkins Hospital and worked in three Pennsylvania hospitals. A year of work in the Canal Zone followed, with general and anesthetic duties, and she became industrial nurse at the United States Steel Company’s plant at Bessemer, Pa.

In 1916 she went to the Suburban General Hospital in Bellevue, Pa. and then, in 1917, took a military leave. She entered the Army Nurse Corps on Aug. 20, 1917. Miss Blanchfield, who never married, concerned herself with the privilege of Army nurses to take a husband. In June, 1944, with the war still on, she reported that over a four-month period an average of 14 nurses each day became wives. At the time the Nurse Corps numbered about 40,000. It was another six months, in January, 1945, that the Navy Nurses Corps permitted nurses in service to marry without resigning. The Navy at the time still barred married nurses. The reason for the reluctant acceptance of the married nurse was the hard fact that nurses who wanted to be married were resigning in large numbers, and the only way to keep them, it seemed, was to permit them to be married. Miss Blanchfield, in service in many countries, China, the Phillipines and Europe in addition to a number of Army installations in the United States, paid tribute to the nurses’ aides, and added: “We have no fears of there being a surplus of nurses after World War II as after World War I.”

1893 – Navy General Order 409 of 25 February 1893 establishes the rank of Chief Petty Officer as of this date.

1917 – In Baltimore some 4,000 pro-war demonstrators stormed a meeting of the American League Against Militarism and threatened to hang the participants that included Stanford Univ. Chancellor David Starr Jordan.

1924 – Adolf Hitler was sentenced to five years in prison for “Beer Hall Putsch.” General Ludendorff was acquitted for leading the botched Nazi’s “Beer Hall Putsch” in the German state of Bavaria.

1935 – General Electric Co. announces the first radio tube made of metal. Metal tubes were smaller and lighter than the glass vacuum tubes used in earlier radios and they improved short-wave radio reception. Radio had started to catch on as an entertainment medium in the 1920s, and its popularity grew until the rise of television in the early 1940s.

1941 – US Navy took over Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay.

1942 – First Naval Air Transportation Service (NATS) squadron for Pacific operations commissioned.

1942 – The Japanese resume major attack on the Bataan Peninsula. The American and Philippine troops have 24,000 of their men ill due to short rations (1/4 of normal ration size) and tropical diseases.

1943 – The Italian blockade-runner Pietro Orseolo is attacked off the coast of Spain by British Beaufort and Beaufighter torpedo bombers. Escorting German destroyers shoot down 5 of the aircraft. After dark, the US submarine Shad hits the ship with a torpedo, causing substantial damage.

1944 – US aircraft from Task Force 58 (Admiral Spruance) attack Woleai Island. In three days of attacks about 130,000 tons of Japanese shipping has been sunk as well as 7 small warships. American forces have lost 26 planes and claim 150 Japanese airplanes shot down.

1944 – Navigation errors lead to an accidental American bombing of the Swiss city of Schaffhausen.

1944 – US forces occupy Ndrilo and Koniniat in the Admiralties.

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1945 – On Okinawa, American forces launch Operation Iceberg, the invasion of Okinawa. Two corps of the US 10th Army (General Buckner) land in the area of Hagushi, in the southwest of the island. US Task Force 51 (Admiral Turner) provides the 1,200 transports and landing ships including seven Coast Guard-manned transports, 29 LSTs, the cutters Bibb and Woodbine, and 12 LCI(L)s, with over 450,000 Army and Marine Corps personnel embarked. The troops landed are from US 3rd Amphibious Corps (Geiger) with US 6th and 1st Marine Divisions, on the left or northern flank, and 24th Corps (Hodge) with US 7th and 96th Infantry Divisions, on the right or southern flank.

On land, US forces encounter almost no resistance on the first day and establish a beachhead three miles deep and nine miles wide. (Okinawa is 70 miles long and a maximum of 10 miles wide.) Kadena and Yontan airfields are captured. Japanese forces on the island, consisting of the 130,000 troops of the Japanese 32nd Army (General Ushijima), are entrenched in concealed positions and caves, mostly to the south of the American landing area along the Shuri Line. (There are also 450,000 civilians on the island.) At sea, US TF58 and TF54 as well as the British Pacific Fleet conduct air and naval bombardments. Japanese conventional and Kamikaze air strikes hit the battleship USS West Virginia, and the carrier, HMS Indomitable, along with eight other ships.

1945 – The US 1st and 9th Armies link up at Lippstadt, cutting off the German forces in the Ruhr which consist of 325,000 men mostly from German 15th Army and 5th Panzer Army of German Army Group B (Field Marshal Model). Other elements of US 1st Army capture Paderborn while US 9th Army units take Hamm. To the north, forces of British 2nd Army have crossed the Mitteland Canal near Munster and are advancing to Osnabruck.

1945 – The US 158th Regiment (General MacNider) lands at Legaspi in the southeast of Luzon and takes the town and nearby airfield. Elsewhere on Luzon American forces are beginning to advance toward the southeast of Manila after much hard fighting against the Japanese forces of the Shimbu Group (General Yokoyama). Forces of the Japanese 14th Army (General Yamashita), in the north of the island, have also engaged by American and Filipino forces.

1948 – Soviet troops stop U.S. and British military trains traveling through the Russian zone of occupation in Germany and demand that they be allowed to search the trains. British and U.S. officials refused the Soviet demand, and the problems associated with the Soviet, British, and U.S. occupation of Germany grew steadily more serious in the following months. Soviet and U.S. differences over the post-World War II fate of Germany began even before the war ended in 1945. The Soviets were determined that Germany would never again pose a military threat to Russia and they also demanded huge postwar reparations. The United States shared the Soviet concern about German rearmament, but as the Cold War began to develop, American officials realized that a revitalized Germany might act as a bulwark against possible Soviet expansion into Western Europe. When Germany surrendered in 1945, it was divided into British, American, Russian (and, eventually, French) zones of occupation.

Berlin was located within the Russian sector, but the city itself was also divided into occupation zones. As it became clear during 1946 and 1947 that the United States, acting with the British and French, were determined to economically revitalize and militarily rearm Western Germany, tensions with the Soviet Union began to mount. On April 1, 1948, Soviet troops began stopping U.S. and British military trains traveling through the Russian sector to and from Berlin. Both the British and American governments responded with indignant letters of reproach to the Soviet Union. Eventually, the stoppages ceased, but in June 1948 the Soviets began a full-scale blockade of all ground travel to and from the U.S.-British-French sectors of Berlin. Thus began the Berlin Blockade, which was only broken when U.S. aircraft carried out the amazing task of flying and dropping supplies into Berlin. Germany remained a major Cold War battlefield throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

1951 – U.N. forces again crossed the 38th Parallel in Korea.

1952 – Air Force Colonel Francis S. Gabreski, flying his F-86 Sabre “Gabby” out of the 51st Fighter-Interceptor Wing, became the eighth ace of the Korean War and the third ranking U.S. ace of all time. Colonel Gabreski achieved a total of 37.5 aerial victories, including five in Korea. Air Force F-86 Sabres scored their second greatest victory of the war, shooting down 10 MiGs confirmed with two others probable.

1954 – U.S. Air Force Academy was founded in Colorado. President Dwight Eisenhower signed a bill authorizing the establishment of an Air Force Academy, similar to West Point and Annapolis. On July 11, 1955, the first class was sworn in at Lowry Air Force Base. The academy moved to a permanent site near Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 1958.

1960 – The first weather satellite, TIROS 1, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

1960 – France exploded 2 atom bombs in the Sahara Desert. The heat from those blasts turned miles of sand into glass shards.

1964 – Former Vice-President Richard Nixon begins a three day visit to Vietnam during which he sharply criticizes US policies for “compromises and improvisations,” calling for continued aid and promising to make this an issue in the upcoming US Presidential race.

1965 – 17 non-aligned nations appeal to the UN, the US, Britain, the Soviets, North and South Vietnam and other bodies in a call for a “peaceful solution through negotiations.” President Johnson formally responds on 8 April that the US agrees with the goals, but cannot negotiate until North Vietnam ceases its aggression.

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1965 – President Johnson agrees to send more US ground forces to Vietnam and to allow them to take offensive action. Public statements do not mention this change in policy.

1966 – The command, US Naval Forces Vietnam established.

1966 – The Vietcong set off a 200 pound bomb at a Saigon hotel housing US troops. The building is heavily damaged. Three US and 4 South Vietnamese troops are killed.

1967 – Helicopter squadron HAL 3 activated at Vung Tau.

1967 – The Coast Guard ended its 177-year association in the Treasury Department to enter the newly-created Department of Transportation when President Lyndon Johnson signed Executive Order 167-81. The Coast Guard was the largest agency in the new department.

1968 – Operation Pegasus/Lam Son 207 begins. A two week joint combined operation between US 1st Air Cavalry, Marines and four ARVN airborne battalions. The goal is to relieve the Marines besieged at Khe' San.

1969 – Defense Secretary Melvin Laird announces that B-52 bomber raids in Vietnam will be decreased by 10% as a result in cuts in next year’s defense budget.

1969 – The Vietcong’s Liberation News Agency claims that their offensive has shattered General Creighton Abrams’ strategies following the 1968 Tet Offensive.

1970 – Captain Ernest Medina is formally charged with the murder of Vietnamese civilians by members of his company at Songmy. Medina, speaking to the media reveals that he is accused of the premeditated murder of 175 people and denies participation in any mass killing.

1971 – Vice-President Spiro Agnew refers to war critics as “home-front snipers” accusing anti-war activists of garnering disproportionate coverage, overbalancing, what he sees as the majority view, that US forces in Vietnam have acted patriotically.

1971 – The Poseidon (C-3) missile becomes operational when USS James Madison began her 3rd patrol carrying 16 tactical Poseidon missiles.

1972 – Following three days of the heaviest artillery and rocket bombardment of the war, between 12,000 and 15,000 soldiers of Hanoi’s 304th Division–supported by tanks, artillery, and antiaircraft units equipped with surface-to-air missiles–sweep across the Demilitarized Zone. They routed the South Vietnamese 3rd Division and drove them toward their rear bases. This attack was the opening move of the North Vietnamese Nguyen Hue Offensive (later called the “Easter Offensive”), a massive invasion by North Vietnamese forces designed to strike the blow that would win them the war. The attacking force included 14 infantry divisions and 26 separate regiments, with more than 120,000 troops and approximately 1,200 tanks and other armored vehicles. The main North Vietnamese objectives, in addition to Quang Tri in the north, were Kontum in the Central Highlands, and An Loc farther to the south. North Vietnam had a number of objectives in launching the offensive: impressing the communist world and its own people with its determination; capitalizing on U.S. antiwar sentiment and possibly hurting President Richard Nixon’s chances for re-election; proving that “Vietnamization” was a failure; damaging the South Vietnamese forces and government stability; gaining as much territory as possible before a possible truce; and accelerating negotiations on their own terms.

Initially, the South Vietnamese defenders were almost overwhelmed, particularly in the northernmost provinces, where they abandoned their positions in Quang Tri and fled south in the face of the enemy onslaught. At Kontum and An Loc, the South Vietnamese were more successful in defending against the attacks, but only after weeks of bitter fighting. Although the South Vietnamese suffered heavy casualties, they managed to hold their own with the aid of U.S. advisors and American airpower. Fighting continued all over South Vietnam into the summer months, but eventually the South Vietnamese forces prevailed against the invaders and retook Quang Tri in September. With the communist invasion blunted, President Nixon declared that the South Vietnamese victory proved the viability of his Vietnamization program, instituted in 1969 to increase the combat capability of the South Vietnamese armed forces.

1975 – More than half of South Vietnam’s territory is now controlled by the North. Communist forces begin the envelopment of Saigon, coming in from the south, threatening Highway 4, Saigon’s connection ot the Mekong Delta.

1979 – Iran proclaimed to be an Islamic Republic after the fall of the Shah.

1982 – The U.S. transferred the Canal Zone to Panama.

1984 – The CGC Gallatin made the largest maritime cocaine seizure to date when it boarded and seized the 33-foot sailboat Chinook and her crew of two. A boarding team had discovered 1,800 pounds of cocaine stashed aboard the Chinook.

1986 – The U.S. submarine Nathaniel Green ran aground in the Irish Sea.

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1992 – Battleship USS Missouri (on which, Japan surrendered) was decommissioned.

1992 – President Bush pledged the United States would help finance a $24 billion international aid fund for the former Soviet Union.

1994 – In Guatemala Judge Gonzalez Dubon was assassinated. He had recently signed an order to extradite to the US former Army Lt. Col. Carlos Ochoa Ruiz on drug trafficking charges.

1995 – U.N. peacekeepers officially took over from the U.S.-led multinational force in Haiti.

1995 – With U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry looking on, Ukraine began the process of dismantling its nuclear missiles.

1996 – In Spokane, Washington, a US Bank branch was robbed and bombed. In 1997 three members of an anti-government militia were convicted for this and another robbery and 3 bombings.

1996 – FBI officials in Jordan, Montana continued to guard a stronghold of Freemen, an anti-government group that does not recognize the legitimacy of US laws.

1999 – The United States branded as an illegal abduction the capture of three U.S. Army soldiers near the Macedonian-Yugoslav border; President Clinton demanded their immediate release.

1999 – Serbia planned to start criminal proceedings against the 3 US soldiers captured on the Macedonian border. Allied planes bombed the Danube bridge at Novi Sad.

2001 – A US Navy EP-3 surveillance plane with 24 aboard collided with a Chinese fighter jet over the South China Sea and was forced to land on China’s Hainan island. The fighter jet crashed. Chinese pilot Wang Wei parachuted out of his F-8 jet but had not been found. Zhao Yu, a 2nd pilot, later blamed the US plane banked and hit Wei’s plane.

2002 – A SF Court of Appeals ordered the US government to pay out millions of dollars in retroactive disability benefits to Vietnam veterans with prostate cancer, who were exposed to Agent Orange.

2002 – Eight Army soldiers and two Air Force pararescuers are killed when an Army MH-47 Special Forces Chinook helicopter crashes in the southern Philippines, in the ocean waters just off the coast of the south-central city of Dumaguete.

2003 – In the 14th day of Operation Iraqi Freedom American soldiers on the road to Baghdad fought bloody street-to-street battles with militants loyal to Saddam Hussein. The US opened the assault on Karbala.

2003 – Pfc. Jessica Lynch (19), part of the 507th Maintenance Company captured on Mar 23, was rescued in a U.S. commando raid on an Iraqi hospital in Nasiriyah. 11 bodies were also recovered and 8 were identified as US personnel. It was later reported that Iraqi troops had already left the hospital. Mohammed Odeh al-Rehaief, a former Iraqi lawyer, disclosed Lynch’s location to US forces and provided detailed information prior to her rescue.

2003 – In Jordan authorities said they had foiled two recent Iraqi terror plots, including one by Iraqi diplomats allegedly planning to contaminate water supplies to Jordanian and US troops on Jordan’s desert border with Iraq.

2004 – Afghanistan and its neighbors agreed to cooperate in stemming the country’s drug exports after donors pledged $8.2 billion in new reconstruction aid.

2009 – Balkan states Croatia and Albania join NATO.

2009 – A Computer virus called Conficker was spread through millions of computers, getting onto their computers and destroying files, and sharing information. This was supposed to be an April Fools’ Day Joke.

2009 – The United States’ World War II motor ship City of Rayville is located near Australia. The SS City of Rayville was the first American vessel sunk during World War II, and was sunk by a German mine just off Cape Otway, Australia. This field of approximately 100 mines had already claimed the British steamer SS Cambridge, less than 24 hours previously off Wilsons Promontory.

2011 – After protests against the burning of the Quran turn violent, a mob attacks a United Nations compound in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, resulting in the deaths of thirteen people, including eight foreign workers.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken this Day

BENYAURD, WILLIAM H. H.
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, Engineers. Place and date: At Five Forks, Va., 1 April 1865. Entered service at: Philadelphia, Pa. Birth: Philadelphia, Pa. Date of issue: 7 September 1897. Citation: With one companion, voluntarily advanced in a reconnaissance beyond the skirmishers, where he was exposed to imminent peril; also, in the same battle, rode to the front with the commanding general to encourage wavering troops to resume the advance, which they did successfully.

BLACKMAR, WILMON W.
Rank and organization: Lieutenant, Company H, 1st West Virginia Cavalry. Place and date: At Five Forks, Va., 1 April 1865. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Bristol, Pa. Date of issue: 23 October 1897. Citation: At a critical stage of the battle, without orders, led a successful advance upon the enemy.

BONEBRAKE, HENRY G.
Rank and organization: Lieutenant, Company G, 17th Pennsylvania Cavalry. Place and date: At Five Forks, Va., 1 April 1865. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Waynesboro, Pa. Date of issue: 3 May 1865. Citation: As 1 of the first of Devin’s Division to enter the works, he fought in a hand-to-hand struggle with a Confederate to capture his flag by superior physical strength.

DE LAVIE, HIRAM H.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company I, 11th Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Five Forks, Va., 1 April 1865. Entered service at: Allegheny County, Pa. Birth: Stark County, Ohio. Date of issue: 10 May 1865. Citation: Capture of flag.

EDWARDS, DAVID
Rank and organization: Private, Company H, 146th New York Infantry. Place and date: At Five Forks, Va., 1 April 1865. Entered service at: Sangersfield, N.Y. Birth: Wales, England. Date of issue: 10 May 1865. Citation: Capture of flag.

EVERSON, ADELBERT
Rank and organization: Private, Company D, 185th New York Infantry. Place and date: At Five Forks, Va., 1 April 1865. Entered service at: Salina, N.Y. Birth: Cicero, N.Y. Date of issue: 10 May 1865. Citation: Capture of flag.

FERNALD, ALBERT E.
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, Company F, 20th Maine Infantry. Place and date: At Five Forks, Va., 1 April 1865. Entered service at: Winterport, Maine. Birth: Winterport, Maine. Date of issue: 10 May 1865. Citation: During a rush at the enemy, Lt. Fernald seized, during a scuffle, the flag of the 9th Virginia Infantry (C.S.A.).

FERRIS, EUGENE W.
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant and Adjutant, 30th Massachusetts Infantry. Place and date: At Berryville, Va., 1 April 1865. Entered service at: Lowell, Mass. Birth: Springfield, Vt. Date of issue: 16 October 1897. Citation: Accompanied only by an orderly, outside the lines of the Army, he gallantly resisted an attack of 5 of Mosby’s cavalry, mortally wounded the leader of the party, seized his horse and pistols, wounded 3 more, and, though wounded himself, escaped.

GARDNER, CHARLES N.
Rank and organization: Private, Company E, 32d Massachusetts Infantry. Place and date: At Five Forks, Va., 1 April 1865. Entered service at: ——. Birth: South Scituate, Mass. Date of issue: 10 May 1865. Citation: Capture of flag.

GRINDLAY, JAMES G.
Rank and organization: Colonel, 146th New York Infantry. Place and date: At Five Forks, Va., 1 April 1865. Entered service at: Utica, N.Y. Birth: ——. Date of issue: 14 August 1891. Citation: The first to enter the enemy’s works, where he captured 2 flags.

KAUSS (KAUTZ), AUGUST
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company H, 15th New York Heavy Artillery. Place and date: At Five Forks, Va., 1 April 1865. Entered service at: New York, N.Y. Birth: Germany. Date of issue: 10 May 1865. Citation: Capture of battle flag.

KOOGLE, JACOB
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, Company G, 7th Maryland Infantry. Place and date: At Five Forks, Va., 1 April 1865. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Frederick, Md. Date of issue: 10 May 1865. Citation: Capture of battle flag.

MURPHY, THOMAS J.
Rank and organization: First Sergeant, Company G, 146th New York Infantry. Place and date: At Five Forks, Va., 1 April 1865. Entered service at: New York, N.Y. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 10 May 1865. Citation: Capture of flag.

O’CONNOR, ALBERT
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company A, 7th Wisconsin Infantry. Place and date: At Gravelly Run, Va., 31 March and 1 April 1865. Entered service at: West Point Township, Columbia County, Wis. Birth: Canada. Date of issue: Unknown. Citation: On 31 March 1865, with a comrade, recaptured a Union officer from a detachment of 9 Confederates, capturing 3 of the detachment and dispersing the remainder, and on 1 April 1865, seized a stand of Confederate colors, killing a Confederate officer in a hand to hand contest over the colors and retaining the colors until surrounded by Confederates and compelled to relinquish them.

SCOTT, JOHN WALLACE
Rank and organization: Captain, Company D, 157th Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Five Forks, Va., 1 April 1865. Entered service at: ——. Born: 1838, Chester County, Pa. Date of issue: 27 April 1865. Citation: Capture of the flag of the 16th South Carolina Infantry, in hand_to_hand combat.

SHIPLEY, ROBERT F.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company A, 140th New York Infantry. Place and date: At Five Forks, Va., 1 April 1865. Entered service at:——. Birth: Wayne, N.Y. Date of issue: 10 May 1865. Citation: Captured the flag of the 9th Virginia Infantry (C.S.A.) in hand-to_hand combat.

SHOPP, GEORGE J.
Rank and organization: Private, Company E, 191st Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Five Forks, Va., 1 April 1865. Entered service at: Reading, Pa. Birth: Equinunk, Pa. Date of issue: 27 April 1865. Citation: Capture of flag.

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STEWART, JOSEPH
Rank and organization: Private, Company G, 1st Maryland Infantry. Place and date. At Five Forks, Va., 1 April 1865. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 27 April 1865. Citation. Capture of flag.

THACKRAH, BENJAMIN
Rank and organization: Private, Company H, 115th New York Infantry. Place and date: Near Fort Gates, Fla., 1 April 1864. Entered service at: Johnsonville, N.Y. Birth: Scotland. Date of issue: 2 May 1890. Citation: Was a volunteer in the surprise and capture of the enemy’s picket.

THOMPSON, ALLEN
Rank and organization: Private, Company I, 4th New York Heavy Artillery. Place and date: At White Oak Road, Va., 1 April 1865. Entered service at: Port Jarvis, N.Y. Birth: New York, N.Y. Date of issue: 22 April 1896. Citation: Made a hazardous reconnaissance through timber and slashings preceding the Union line of battle, signaling the troops and leading them through the obstruction.

THOMPSON, JAMES
Rank and organization: Private, Company K, 4th New York Heavy Artillery. Place and date: At White Oak Road, Va., 1 April 1865. Entered service at: Sandy Creek, N.Y. Birth: Sandy Creek, N.Y. Date of issue: 22 April 1896. Citation: Made a hazardous reconnaissance through timber and slashings, preceding the Union line of battle, signaling the troops and leading them through the obstructions.

TUCKER, JACOB. R.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company G, 4th Maryland Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 1 April 1865. Entered service at: Baltimore, Md. Birth: Chester County, Pa. Date of issue: 22 April 1871. Citation: Was 1 of the 3 soldiers most conspicuous in the final assault.

WINEGAR, WILLIAM W.
Rank and organization: Lieutenant, Company B, 19th New York Cavalry ( 1st New York Dragoons). Place and date: At Five Forks, Va., 1 April 1865. Entered service at:——. Birth: Springport, N.Y. Date of issue: 3 May 1865. Citation: While advancing in front of his company and alone, he found himself surrounded by the enemy. He accosted a nearby enemy flag_bearer demanding the surrender of the group. His effective firing of one shot so demoralized the unit that it surrendered with flag.

BRETT, LLOYD M.
Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, 2d U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At O’Fallons Creek, Mont., 1 April 1880. Entered service at: Malden, Mass. Born: 22 February 1856, Dead River, Maine. Date of issue: 7 February 1895. Citation: Fearless exposure and dashing bravery in cutting off the Indians’ pony herd, thereby greatly crippling the hostiles.

HUGGINS, ELI L.
Rank and organization: Captain, 2d U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At O’Fallons Creek, Mont., 1 April 1880. Entered service at: Minnesota. Birth: Illinois. Date of issue: 27 November 1894. Citation: Surprised the Indians in their strong position and fought them until dark with great boldness.

FISHER, FREDERICK THOMAS
Rank and organization: Gunner’s Mate First Class, U.S. Navy. Born: 3 June 1872, England. Accredited to: California. G.O. No.: 55, 19 July 1901. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Philadelphia, Samoa, Philippine Islands, 1 April 1899. Serving in the presence of the enemy on this date, Fisher distinguished himself by his conduct.

FORSTERER, BRUNO ALBERT
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps. Born: 14 July 1869, Koenigsberg, Germany. Accredited to: Massachusetts. G.O. No.: 55, 19 July 1901. Citation: For distinguished conduct in the presence of the enemy at Samoa, Philippine Islands, 1 April 1899.

HULBERT, HENRY LEWIS
Rank and organization: Private, U.S. Marine Corps. Born: 12 January 1867, Kingston-upon-Hull, England. Accredited to: California. G.O. No.: 55, 19 July 1901. Other Navy award: Navy Cross. Citation: For distinguished conduct in the presence of the enemy at Samoa, Philippine Islands, 1 April 1899.

McNALLY, MICHAEL JOSEPH
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps. Born: 29 June 1860, New York, N.Y. Accredited to: California. G.O. No.: 55, 19 July 1901. Citation: For distinguished conduct in the presence of the enemy at Samoa, Philippine Islands, 1 April 1899.

BEIKIRCH, GARY B.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company B, 5th Special Forces Group, 1st Special Forces. Place and date: Kontum Province, Republic of Vietnam, 1 April 1970. Entered service at: Buffalo, N.Y. Born: 29 August 1947, Rochester, N.Y. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Sgt. Beikirch, medical aidman, Detachment B-24, Company B, distinguished himself during the defense of Camp Dak Seang. The allied defenders suffered a number of casualties as a result of an intense, devastating attack launched by the enemy from well-concealed positions surrounding the camp. Sgt. Beikirch, with complete disregard for his personal safety, moved unhesitatingly through the withering enemy fire to his fallen comrades, applied first aid to their wounds and assisted them to the medical aid station.

When informed that a seriously injured American officer was lying in an exposed position, Sgt. Beikirch ran immediately through the hail of fire. Although he was wounded seriously by fragments from an exploding enemy mortar shell, Sgt. Beikirch carried the officer to a medical aid station. Ignoring his own serious injuries, Sgt. Beikirch left the relative safety of the medical bunker to search for and evacuate other men who had been injured. He was again wounded as he dragged a critically injured Vietnamese soldier to the medical bunker while simultaneously applying mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to sustain his life. Sgt. Beikirch again refused treatment and continued his search for other casualties until he collapsed. Only then did he permit himself to be treated. Sgt. Beikirch’s complete devotion to the welfare of his comrades, at the risk of his life are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit on him, his unit, and the U.S. Army.

LEMON, PETER C.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company E, 2d Battalion, 8th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division. place and date: Tay Ninh province, Republic of Vietnam, 1 April 1970. Entered service at: Tawas City, Mich. Born: 5 June 1950, Toronto, Canada. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Sgt. Lemon (then Sp4c.), Company E, distinguished himself while serving as an assistant machine gunner during the defense of Fire Support Base Illingworth. When the base came under heavy enemy attack, Sgt. Lemon engaged a numerically superior enemy with machine gun and rifle fire from his defensive position until both weapons malfunctioned. He then used hand grenades to fend off the intensified enemy attack launched in his direction. After eliminating all but 1 of the enemy soldiers in the immediate vicinity, he pursued and disposed of the remaining soldier in hand-to-hand combat. Despite fragment wounds from an exploding grenade, Sgt. Lemon regained his position, carried a more seriously wounded comrade to an aid station, and, as he returned, was wounded a second time by enemy fire.

Disregarding his personal injuries, he moved to his position through a hail of small arms and grenade fire. Sgt. Lemon immediately realized that the defensive sector was in danger of being overrun by the enemy and unhesitatingly assaulted the enemy soldiers by throwing hand grenades and engaging in hand-to-hand combat. He was wounded yet a third time, but his determined efforts successfully drove the enemy from the position. Securing an operable machine gun, Sgt. Lemon stood atop an embankment fully exposed to enemy fire, and placed effective fire upon the enemy until he collapsed from his multiple wounds and exhaustion. After regaining consciousness at the aid station, he refused medical evacuation until his more seriously wounded comrades had been evacuated. Sgt. Lemon’s gallantry and extraordinary heroism, are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit on him, his unit, and the U.S. Army.

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2 April

1513 – Near present-day St. Augustine, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon comes ashore on the Florida coast, and claims the territory for the Spanish crown. Although other European navigators may have sighted the Florida peninsula before, Ponce de Leon is credited with the first recorded landing and the first detailed exploration of the Florida coast. The Spanish explorer was searching for the “Fountain of Youth,” a fabled water source that was said to bring eternal youth. Ponce de Leon named the peninsula he believed to be an island “La Florida” because his discovery came during the time of the Easter feast, or Pascua Florida. In 1521, he returned to Florida in an effort to establish a Spanish colony on the island. However, hostile Native Americans attacked his expedition soon after landing, and the party retreated to Cuba, where Ponce de Leon died from a mortal wound suffered during the battle. Successful Spanish colonization of the peninsula finally began at St. Augustine in 1565, and in 1819 the territory passed into U.S. control under the terms of the Florida Purchase Treaty between Spain and the United States.

1781 – Frigate Alliance captures 2 British privateers, Mars and Minerva.

1792 – Congress passed the Coinage Act, which authorized establishment of the U.S. Mint. It established the US dollar defined in fixed weights of gold and silver. State chartered banks issued paper money convertible to gold or silver coins to ease business transactions. U.S. authorized $10 Eagle, $5 half-Eagle & 2.50 quarter-Eagle gold coins & silver dollar, dollar, quarter, dime & half-dime. A dollar was defined as 371 4/16 grain (24.1 g) pure or 416 grain (27.0 g) standard silver. That quantity of silver at the end of 2014 was valued at about $16.

1814 – Henry Lewis “Old Rock” Benning, Brig General in Confederate Army, was born.

1827 – First Naval Hospital construction begun at Portsmouth, VA.

1863 – In Richmond, Va., a large crowd of hungry women from one of Richmond’s working-class neighborhoods demanded bread from Governor John Letcher. When the governor did not respond favorably to the rioters’ demands, the women marched down Main Street, shouting “Bread” as they made their way to the commissary, where they smashed store windows and grabbed food and anything else they could get their hands on. Not until the mob faced President Davis and his troops did the rampage end. Varina Howell Davis wrote an account of the riots after her husbands death in 1889.

1865 – Confederate President Davis and most of his Cabinet fled the Confederate capital of Richmond, Va. Grant broke Lee’s line at Petersburg. President Jefferson Davis moved his government headquarters to Danville, Va., when its previous capital, Richmond, became engulfed in flames. Though it would have been safer to secure a location further south, Danville was naturally protected by the Dan and Staunton rivers, and it was in close proximity to Gen. Robert E. Lee’s army to the north and Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s army to the south. The Piedmont Railroad connected Danville and Greensboro, N.C. and offered easy access to supplies.

1865 – Confederate Secretary of the Navy Mallory ordered the destruction of the James River Squadron and directed its officers and men to join General Lee’s troops then in the process of evacuating Richmond and retreating westward toward Danville.

1865 – US Maj Gen James H Wilson’s cavalry captures Selma, Alabama.

1865 – After a ten-month siege, Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant capture the trenches around Petersburg, Virginia, and Confederate General Robert E. Lee leads his troops on a desperate retreat westward. The ragged Confederate troops could no longer maintain the 40-mile network of defenses that ran from southwest of Petersburg to north of Richmond, the Rebel capital 25 miles north of Petersburg. Through the winter, desertion and attrition melted Lee’s army down to less than 60,000, while Grant’s army swelled to over 120,000. Grant attacked Five Forks southwest of Petersburg on April 1, scoring a huge victory that cut Lee’s supply line and inflicted 5,000 casualties. The next day, Lee wrote to Confederate President Jefferson Davis, “I think it absolutely necessary that we should abandon our position tonight…” Grant’s men attacked all along the Petersburg front.

In the predawn hours, hundreds of Federal cannon roared to life as the Yankees bombarded the Rebel fortifications. Said one soldier, “the shells screamed through the air in a semi-circle of flame.” At 5:00 in the morning, Union troops silently crawled toward the Confederates, shrouded in darkness. Confederate pickets alerted the troops, and the Yankees were raked by heavy fire, but the determined troops poured forth and began overrunning the trenches. Four thousand Union troops were killed or wounded, but a northern officer wrote, “It was a great relief, a positive lifting of a load of misery to be at last let at them.”

Confederate General Ambrose Powell Hill, a corps commander in the Army of Northern Virginia and one of Lee’s most trusted lieutenants, rode to the front to rally his men. As he approached some trees with his aide, two Union soldiers emerged and fired, killing Hill instantly. Hill had survived four years of war and dozens of battles only to die during the final days of the Confederacy. When Lee received the news, he quietly said “He is at rest now, and we who are left are the ones to suffer.” By nightfall, President Davis and the Confederate government were in flight and Richmond was on fire. Retreating Rebel troops set ablaze several huge warehouses to prevent them from being captured by the Federals and the fires soon spread. With the army and government officials gone, bands of thugs roamed the streets looting what was left.

1866 – U.S. President Andrew Johnson declares war to be over.

1877 – The 1st Easter egg roll was held on White House lawn. President Rutherford B. Hayes and his wife Lucy made it an official event the following year. The egg roll has been held every year since except during the war years of WWI and WWII until 1953 when Ike made the egg roll tradition again.

1898 – Adoption of U.S. Naval Academy coat of arms.

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1900 – The United States Congress passes the Foraker Act, giving Puerto Rico limited self-rule.

1917 – President Woodrow Wilson addresses Congress concerning the country’s deteriorating relationship with Germany. Wilson states, “I advise that the Congress declares the recent course of the Imperial German government to be in fact nothing less than war against the government and people of the United States…[and] to exert all its power and employ all its resources to bring the government of the German Empire to terms and to end the war.”

1924 – Congress appropriated ($13,000,000) to the Cutter Revenue Service for ten air stations and equipment. Congress first authorized the stations on 29 August 1916 but did not provide for sufficient funding until this date.

1935 – Sir Watson-Watt patented RADAR.

1941 – USS Hornet with Jimmy Doolittle’s B-25s departed from San Francisco.

1941 – Roosevelt orders the transfer of 10 coastguard cutters to the Royal Navy. These are very useful vessels for escort work, having a long range and good sea keeping qualities. They will be in Royal Navy service by June.

1942 – Glenn Miller and his orchestra recorded “American Patrol” at the RCA Victor studios in Hollywood.

1942 – US bombers from India attack Japanese shipping in the Andaman Islands.

1943 – American aircraft conduct 8 raids on Kiska and one on Attut in the Aleutians.

1944 – The 22nd Marine Regiment secured Majit Island in the Marshall Islands.

1944 – Merrill’s Marauders heavily engaged at Nhpum Ga Burma.

1945 – On Okinawa, forces of the US 10th Army easily advance across the island to the east coast and make some progress to the north and south. At sea, in addition to the bombardment and air support missions performed by the US naval forces, there are attacks by the British carriers on Skashima Gunto Island. In Japanese Kamikaze attacks four US transports are badly damaged with many casualties among the troops aboard.

1945 – Part of the US 163rd Regiment is landed on Tawitawi, in the Philippines Sulu Archipelago.

1947 – UN places former Japanese mandated islands under U.S. trusteeship.

1951 – First Navy use of jet aircraft as a bomber, launched from a carrier, USS Princeton.

1951 – Far East Air Force flew 1,245 sorties in the third highest daily total in the war.

1958 – National Advisory Council on Aeronautics was renamed NASA.

1967 – Per a new South Veitnamese conswtitution elections are held in 948 villages, som 5 million people, for local People’s Councils.

1976 – US officials express concerns that the North Vietmese may be brainwashing US prisoners of war in order to elicit propaganda statements from them.

1968 – Public criticism of continuing heavy air strikes in North Vietnam prompts the administration to explain that such attacks are limited north of the 20th parallel. This area contians 90 percent of the population and 75% of it’s territory.

1969 – A South Vietnamese spokesperson announces that the Vetcong have assassinated 201 civilians in the last week of March, bringing the total for the quarter of 1969 to 1,955.

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1972 – Soldiers of Hanoi’s 304th Division, supported by Soviet-made tanks and heavy artillery, take the northern half of the Quang Tri province. This left only Quang Tri City (the combat base on the outskirts of the city) and Dong Ha in South Vietnamese hands. South Vietnam’s 3rd Division commander Brig. Gen. Vu Van Giai moved his staff out of the Quang Tri combat base to the citadel at Quang Tri City, the apparent North Vietnamese objective. This attack was the opening move of the North Vietnamese Nguyen Hue Offensive (later called the “Easter Offensive”), a massive invasion by North Vietnamese forces designed to strike the blow that would win them the war. The attacking force included 14 infantry divisions and 26 separate regiments, with more than 120,000 troops and approximately 1,200 tanks and other armored vehicles. The main North Vietnamese objectives, in addition to Quang Tri in the north, were Kontum in the Central Highlands, and An Loc farther to the south. Initially, the South Vietnamese defenders were almost overwhelmed, particularly in the northernmost provinces, where they abandoned their positions in Quang Tri and fled south in the face of the enemy onslaught. At Kontum and An Loc, the South Vietnamese were more successful in defending against the attacks, but only after weeks of bitter fighting. Although the South Vietnamese suffered heavy casualties, they managed to hold their own with the aid of U.S. advisors and American airpower. Fighting continued all over South Vietnam into the summer months, but eventually the South Vietnamese forces prevailed against the invaders and retook Quang Tri in September. With the communist invasion blunted, President Nixon declared that the South Vietnamese victory proved the viability of his Vietnamization program, instituted in 1969 to increase the combat capability of the South Vietnamese armed forces.

1973 – ITT pleaded guilty to asking CIA to “influence” Chilean presidential elections.

1973 – Presidents Nixon and Thieu end a two day vistit with a an expression of “full consensus” and a US promise of continuing economic aid. Thieu says he will never ask the US to send troops back to Vietnam.

1975 – As North Vietnamese tanks and infantry continue to push the remnants of South Vietnam’s 22nd Division and waves of civilian refugees from the Quang Ngai Province, the South Vietnamese Navy begins to evacuate soldiers and civilians by sea from Qui Nhon. Shortly thereafter, the South Vietnamese abandoned Tuy Hoa and Nha Trang, leaving the North Vietnamese in control of more than half of South Vietnam’s territory. During the first week in April, communist forces attacking from the south pushed into Long An Province, just south of Saigon, threatening to cut Highway 4, Saigon’s main link with the Mekong Delta, which would have precluded reinforcements from being moved north to assist in the coming battle for Saigon. This action was part of the North Vietnamese general offensive launched in late January 1975, just two years after the cease-fire had been established by the Paris Peace Accords.

The initial objective of this campaign was the capture of Ban Me Thuot in the Central Highlands. The battle began on March 4 with the North Vietnamese quickly encircling the city. As it became clear that the communists would take the city and probably the entire Darlac province, South Vietnamese president Thieu decided to protect the more critical populous areas. He ordered his forces in the Central Highlands to pull back from their positions. Abandoning Pleiku and Kontum, the South Vietnamese forces began to move toward the sea, but what started out as an orderly withdrawal soon turned into panic. The South Vietnamese forces rapidly fell apart. The North Vietnamese pressed the attack and were quickly successful in both the Central Highlands and farther north at Quang Tri, Hue and Da Nang. The South Vietnamese soon collapsed as a cogent fighting force and the North Vietnamese continued the attack all the way to Saigon. The South Vietnamese surrendered unconditionally on April 30th.

1978 – Velcro was 1st introduced to the market.

1980 – Terrorists holding Dominican embassy in Bogota release five hostages, four waiters and a doctor; U.S. ambassador and other diplomats still held captive.

1982 – The newest addition to the Coast Guard’s air fleet, the HU-25A Guardian, was dedicated and christened at Aviation Training Center Mobile.

1983 – The State Department forwards a request for assistance from the United Arab Emirates to help prepare for an oil spill cleanup in the Persian Gulf. The spill occurred after combat operations during the Iran/Iraq war left many oil wells burning and leaking oil. Four Coast Guard pollution experts respond to the request.

1986 – Four American passengers were killed when a bomb exploded aboard a TWA jetliner en route from Rome to Athens, Greece.

1989 – General Prosper Avril, Haiti’s military leader, survived a coup attempt. The attempt was apparently provoked by Avril’s U.S.-backed efforts to fight drug trafficking.

1991 – Iraqi state media reported that only a few more days were needed to stamp out fighting with Kurdish rebels, who reported renewed skirmishes around the strategic oil center of Kirkuk.

1992 – The space shuttle Atlantis returned from a nine-day mission.

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1997 – An Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt jet with four 500- pound bombs was lost over the Colorado Rockies. It was piloted by Capt. Craig Button (32). Wreckage of the plane was found Apr 20 on the sheer face of New York Mountain [Gold Dust Peak], 15 miles from Vail. It was later suspected that he committed suicide due to a possible revelation of homosexuality. A 1998 official report cited unrequited love for a former girlfriend and his mother’s Christian pacifist faith.

1998 – In Columbia Thomas Fiore (43), one of the hostages captured Mar 27, escaped captivity by the FARC rebel group.

1999 – Allied forces conduct air strikes on Basra, in southern Iraq. The attacks strike a communications facility and a radio relay station, which is used, in part, as one of three relay stations controlling the flow of crude oil from Iraq’s southern oil fields to the port of Mina al-Bakr.

1999 – Sec. of Energy Bill Richardson ordered the computer systems at Los Alamos laboratory to be shut down due to security leaks.

2001 – Pres. Bush demanded that the Chinese release the US Navy crew and spy plane that had made an emergency landing on China’s Hainan Island after colliding with a Chinese fighter.

2003 – In the 15th day of Operation Iraqi Freedom American forces crossed the Tigris River in the drive toward the Iraqi capital and destroyed the Baghdad Division of Iraq’s Republican Guard. Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, supported the war plan along with Defense Sec. Donald Rumsfeld against criticism. US Marines took Numaniya, a city of 80,000.

2003 – A Navy F/A-18C Hornet after his fighter jet went down during a bombing run over Karbala. 7 US Army soldiers were killed when their Black Hawk helicopter was shot down.

2003 – Polish troops fighting with the US-led coalition in Iraq reported encountering many Iraqi combatants in civilian clothes.

2003 – PFC Jessica Lynch is rescued from the Hussein Hospital in Nasiryah where she has been held since 23 March. This is the first POW rescue by the US military since WWII.

2004 – Washington announced plans to fingerprint and photograph millions of travelers to the United States. The measure, which will take effect by September 30th affected citizens in 27 countries who had been allowed to travel within the US without a visa for up to 90 days.

2004 – The Pentagon said it released 15 people held as terrorism suspects at a U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, reducing the number confined there to 595.

2004 – In Brussels an official ceremony welcomed Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia into the NATO alliance.

2005 – The Battle of Abu Ghraib was an attack on United States forces at Abu Ghraib prison, which consisted of heavy mortar and rocket fire, under which armed insurgents attacked with grenades, small arms, and two vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIED). The U.S. Military’s munitions ran so low that orders to fix bayonets were given in preparation for hand-to-hand fighting. An estimated 80–120 armed insurgents launched a massive coordinated assault on the U.S. military facility and internment camp at Abu Ghraib, Iraq. It was considered to be the largest coordinated assault on a US base since the Vietnam War.

2006 – After about three months captivity as a hostage in Iraq, Jill Carroll, an American former journalist (now working as a firefighter), returns to American soil in Boston, Massachusetts. Carroll was a reporter for the Christian Science Monitor at the time of her kidnapping. After finishing a fellowship at Harvard University’s Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy she returned to work for the Monitor. After her release, Carroll wrote a series of articles on her recollection of her experiences in Iraq.

2009 – United States Federal Judge John D. Bates rules that enemy combatants incarcerated at the U.S. Air Base in Bagram, Afghanistan, have rights to legal trials.

2014 – A spree shooting occurs at the Fort Hood Army Base near the town of Killeen, Texas, with four people dead, including the gunman, and 16 others sustaining injuries. The shooter, 34-year-old, Army Specialist Ivan Lopez, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.


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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

ALLEN, ABNER P.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company K, 39th Illinois Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Bloomington, Ill. Birth: Woodford County, Ill. Date of issue: 12 May 1865. Citation: Gallantry as color bearer in the assault on Fort Gregg.

APPLE, ANDREW O.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company I, 12th West Virginia Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Northampton, Pa. Date of issue: 12 May 1865. Citation: Conspicuous gallantry as color bearer in the assault on Fort Gregg.

BABCOCK, WILLIAM J.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company E, 2d Rhode Island Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: South Kingston, R.I. Birth: Griswold, Conn. Date of issue: 2 March 1895. Citation: Planted the flag upon the parapet while the enemy still occupied the line; was the first of his regiment to enter the works.

BARBER, JAMES A.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company G, 1st Rhode Island Light Artillery. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Westerly, R.I. Birth: Westerly, R.I. Date of issue: 20 June 1866. Citation: Was one of a detachment of 20 picked artillerymen who voluntarily accompanied an infantry assaulting party, and who turned upon the enemy the guns captured in the assault.

BEAUMONT, EUGENE B.
Rank and organization: Major and Assistant Adjutant General, Cavalry Corps, Army of the Mississippi. Place and date: At Harpeth River, Tenn., 17 December 1864; at Selma, Ala., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Wilkes Barre, Pa. Birth: Luzerne County, Pa. Date of issue: 30 March 1898. Citation: Obtained permission from the corps commander to advance upon the enemy’s position with the 4th U.S. Cavalry, of which he was a lieutenant; led an attack upon a battery, dispersed the enemy, and captured the guns. At Selma, Ala., charged, at the head of his regiment, into the second and last line of the enemy’s works.

BLACKWOOD, WILLIAM R. D.
Rank and organization: Surgeon, 48th Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Philadelphia, Pa. Born: 12 May 1838, Ireland. Date of issue: 21 July 1897. Citation: Removed severely wounded officers and soldiers from the field while under a heavy fire from the enemy, exposing himself beyond the call of duty, thus furnishing an example of most distinguished gallantry.

BOUTWELL, JOHN W.
Rank and organization: Private, Company B, 18th New Hampshire Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at:——. Birth: Hanover, N.H. Date of issue: Unknown. Citation: Brought off from the picket line, under heavy fire, a comrade who had been shot through both legs.

BUFFINGTON, JOHN E.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company C, 6th Maryland Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Carroll County, Md. Date of issue: Unknown. Citation: Was the first enlisted man of the 3d Division to mount the parapet of the enemy’s line.

BUMGARNER, WILLIAM
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company A, 4th West Virginia Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1862. Entered service at: Mason City, W. Va. Birth:——. Date of issue: 10 July 1894. Citation: Gallantry in the charge of the “volunteer storming party.”

CAMP, CARLTON N.
Rank and organization: Private, Company B, 18th New Hampshire Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Hanover, N.H. Birth: Hanover, N.H. Date of issue: Unknown. Citation: Brought off from the picket line, under heavy fire, a comrade who had been shot through both legs.

CORCORAN, JOHN
Rank and organization: Private, Company G, 1st Rhode Island Light Artillery. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Pawtucket, R.I. Birth: Pawtucket, R.I. Date of issue: 2 November 1887. Citation: Was one of a detachment of 20 picked artillerymen who voluntarily accompanied an infantry assaulting party, and who turned upon the enemy the guns captured in the assault.

CORLISS, STEPHEN P.
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, Company F, 4th New York Heavy Artillery. Place and date: At South Side Railroad, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: ——. Born: 26 July 1842, Albany, N.Y. Date of issue: 17 January 1895. Citation: Raised the fallen colors and, rushing forward in advance of the troops, placed them on the enemy’s works.

CURTIS, JOSIAH M.
Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, Company I, 12th West Virginia Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Ohio County, W. Va. Birth: Ohio County, W. Va. Date of issue: 12 May 1865. Citation: Seized the colors of his regiment after 2 color bearers had fallen, bore them gallantly, and was among the first to gain a foothold, with his flag, inside the enemy’s works.

DOLLOFF, CHARLES W.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company K, 1st Vermont Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: St. Johnsbury, Vt. Birth: Parishville, N.Y. Date of issue: 24 April 1865. Citation: Capture of flag.

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ENNIS, CHARLES D.
Rank and organization: Private, Company G, 1st Rhode Island Light Artillery. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Charleston, R.I. Birth: Stonington, Conn. Date of issue: 28 June 1892. Citation: Was one of a detachment of 20 picked artillerymen who voluntarily accompanied an infantry assaulting party and who turned upon the enemy the guns captured in the assault.

EVANS, IRA H.
Rank and organization: Captain, Company B, 116th U.S. Colored Troops, Place and date: At Hatchers Run, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Barre, Vt. Born: 11 April 1844, Piermont, N.H. Date of issue: 24 March 1892. Citation: Voluntarily passed between the lines, under a heavy fire from the enemy, and obtained important information.

EWING, JOHN C.
Rank and organization: Private, Company E, 211th Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Westmoreland County, Pa. Date of issue: 20 May 1865. Citation: Capture of flag.

FANNING, NICHOLAS
Rank and organization: Private, Company B, 4th lowa Cavalry. Place and date: At Selma, Ala., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Independence, Buchanan County, lowa. Birth: Carroll County, Ind. Date of issue: 17 June 1865. Citation: Capture of silk Confederate States flag and 2 staff officers.

FASNACHT, CHARLES H.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company A, 99th Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Spotsylvania, Va., 12 May 1864. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Lancaster County, Pa. Date of issue: 2 April 1878. Citation: Capture of flag of 2nd Louisiana Tigers (C.S.A.) in a hand-to-hand contest.

FESQ, FRANK
Rank and organization: Private, Company A, 40th New Jersey Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Newark, N.J. Born: 4 April 1840, Germany. Date of issue: 10 May 1865. Citation: Capture of flag of 18th North Carolina (C.S.A.) within the enemy’s works.

FISHER, JOSEPH
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company C, 61st Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Philadelphia, Pa. Birth: Philadelphia, Pa. Date of issue: 16 January 1894. Citation: Carried the colors 50 yards in advance of his regiment, and after being painfully wounded attempted to crawl into the enemy’s works in an endeavor to plant his flag thereon.

FOX, WILLIAM R.
Rank and organization: Private, Company A, 95th Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at:——. Birth: Philadelphia, Pa. Date of issue: 28 March 1879. Citation: Bravely assisted in the capture of one of the enemy’s guns; with the first troops to enter the city, captured the flag of the Confederate customhouse.

GARDNER, ROBERT J.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company K, 34th Massachusetts Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Berkshire County, Mass. Birth: Livingston, N.Y. Date of issue: 12 May 1865. Citation: Was among the first to enter Fort Gregg, clearing his way by using his musket on the heads of the enemy.

GIBBS, WESLEY
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company B, 2d Connecticut Heavy Artillery. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Salisbury, Conn. Birth: Sharon, Conn. Date of issue: 10 May 1865. Citation: Capture of flag.

GOULD, CHARLES G.
Rank and organization: Captain, Company H, 5th Vermont Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Windham, Vt. Birth: Windham, Vt. Date of issue: 30 July 1890. Citation: Among the first to mount the enemy’s works in the assault, he received a serious bayonet wound in the face, was struck several times with clubbed muskets, but bravely stood his ground, and with his sword killed the man who bayoneted him.

HACK, LESTER G.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company F, 5th Vermont Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Salisbury, Vt. Born: 18 January 1841, Bolton, N.Y. Date of issue: 10 May 1865. Citation: Capture of flag of 23d Tennessee Infantry (C.S.A.) with several of the enemy.

HARMON, AMZI D.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company K, 211th Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Westmoreland County, Pa. Date of issue: 20 May 1865. Citation: Capture of flag.

HAVRON, JOHN H.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company G, 1st Rhode Island Light Artillery. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Providence, R.I. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 16 June 1866. Citation: Was one of a detachment of 20 picket artillerymen who voluntarily accompanied an infantry assaulting party and who turned upon the enemy the guns captured in the assault.

HAWKINS, GARDNER C.
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, Company E, 3d Vermont Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Woodstock, Vt. Birth: Pomfret, Vt. Date of issue: 30 September 1893. Citation: When the lines were wavering from the well-directed fire of the enemy, this officer, acting adjutant of the regiment, sprang forward, and with encouraging words cheered the soldiers on and, although dangerously wounded, refused to leave the field until the enemy’s works were taken.

HIGHLAND, PATRICK
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company D, 23d Illinois Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Chicago, Ill. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 12 May 1865. Citation: Conspicuous gallantry as color bearer in the assault on Fort Gregg.

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HOFFMAN, THOMAS W.
Rank and organization: Captain, Company A, 208th Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Perrysburg, Pa. Date of issue: 19 July 1895. Citation: Prevented a retreat of his regiment during the battle.

HOWARD, JAMES
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company K, 158th New York Infantry. Place and date: At Battery Gregg, near Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at:——. Birth: Newton, N.J. Date of issue: 12 May 1865. Citation: Carried the colors in advance of the line of battle, the flagstaff being shot off while he was planting it on the parapet of the fort.

HUNTER, CHARLES A.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company E, 34th Massachusetts Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Spencer, Mass. Birth: Spencer, Mass. Date of issue: 12 May 1865. Citation: In the assault on Fort Gregg, bore the regimental flag bravely and was among the foremost to enter the work.

ILGENFRITZ, CHARLES H.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company E, 207th Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Fort Sedgwick, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Pennsylvania. Birth: York County, Pa. Date of issue: Unknown. Citation: The color bearer falling, pierced by 7 balls, he immediately sprang forward and grasped the colors, planting them upon the enemy’s forts amid a murderous fire of grape, canister, and musketry from the enemy.

JAMES, ISAAC
Rank and organization: Private, Company H, 110th Ohio Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Montgomery County, Ohio. Date of issue: 10 May 1865. Citation: Capture of flag.

KANE, JOHN
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company K, 100th New York Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 12 May 1865. Citation: Gallantry as color bearer in the assault on Fort Gregg.

LEWIS, SAMUEL E.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company G, 1st Rhode Island Light Artillery. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Coventry, R.I. Birth: Coventry, R.I. Date of issue: 16 June 1866. Citation: Was one of a detachment of 20 picked artillerymen who voluntarily accompanied an infantry assaulting party and who turned upon the enemy the guns captured in the assault.

LILLEY, JOHN
Rank and organization: Private, Company F, 205th Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at:——. Birth: Mifflin County, Pa. Date of issue: 20 May 1865. Citation: After his regiment began to waiver he rushed on alone to capture the enemy flag. He reached the works and the Confederate color bearer who, at bayonet point, he caused to surrender with several enemy soldiers. He kept his prisoners in tow when they realized he was alone as his regiment in the meantime withdrew further to the rear.

LOYD, GEORGE
Rank and organization: Private, Company A, 122d Ohio Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at. ——. Birth: Muskingum County, Ohio. Date of issue: 16 April 1891. Citation: Capture of division flag of General Heth.

MANGAM, RICHARD C.
Rank and organization: Private, Company H, 148th New York Infantry. Place and date: At Hatchers Run, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 21 September 1888. Citation: Capture of flag of 8th Mississippi Infantry (C.S.A.).

MARQUETTE, CHARLES
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company F, 93d Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Lebanon County, Pa. Birth: Lebanon County, Pa. Date of issue: 10 May 1865. Citation: Sergeant Marquette, although wounded, was one of the first to plant colors on the enemy’s breastworks.

MATTHEWS, JOHN C.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company A, 61st Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Westmoreland County, Pa. Date of issue: 13 February 1891. Citation: Voluntarily took the colors, whose bearer had been disabled, and, although himself severely wounded, carried the same until the enemy’s works were taken.

MATTHEWS, MILTON
Rank and organization: Private, Company C, 61st Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Pittsburgh, Pa. Birth: Pittsburgh, Pa. Date of issue: 10 May 1865. Citation: Capture of flag of 7th Tennessee Infantry (C.S.A.).

McCAUSLlN, JOSEPH
Rank and organization: Private, Company D, 12th West Virginia Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Ohio County, W. Va. Birth: Ohio County, W. Va. Date of issue: 12 May 1865. Citation: Conspicuous gallantry as color bearer in the assault on Fort Gregg.

McGRAW, THOMAS
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company B, 23d Illinois Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Chicago, Ill. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 12 May 1865. Citation: One of the three soldiers most conspicuous for gallantry in the final assault.

McKEE, GEORGE
Rank and organization: Color Sergeant, Company D, 89th New York Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 12 May 1865. Citation: Gallantry as color bearer in the assault on Fort Gregg.

McMILLEN, FRANCIS M.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company C, 110th Ohio Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Piqua, Ohio. Birth. Bracken County, Ky. Date of issue: 10 May 1865. Citation: Capture of flag.

MERRILL, AUGUSTUS
Rank and organization: Captain, Company B, 1st Maine Veteran Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Lyndon, Maine. Birth: Byron, Maine. Date of issue: 23 October 1891. Citation: With 6 men, captured 69 Confederate prisoners and recaptured several soldiers who had fallen into the enemy’s hands.

MILLER, JAMES P.
Rank and organization: Private, Company D, 4th lowa Cavalry. Place and date: At Selma, Ala., 2 April 1865. Entered service at. Henry County, lowa. Birth: Franklin, Ohio. Date of issue: 17 June 1865. Citation: Capture of standard of 12th Mississippi Cavalry (C.S.A.).


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[SHOOTER13]

MITCHELL, THEODORE
Rank and organization: Private, Company C, 61st Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Pittsburgh, Pa. Birth: Tarentum, Pa. r)ate of issue: 10 May 1865. Citation: Capture of the flag of the Tennessee Brigade (C.S.A.).

MOLBONE, ARCHIBALD
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company G, 1st Rhode Island Light Artillery. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: West Greenwich, R.I. Birth: Coventry, R.I. Date of issue: 20 June 1866. Citation: Was one of a detachment of 20 picked artillerymen who voluntarily accompanied an infantry assaulting party and who turned upon the enemy the guns captured in the assault.

ORR, ROBERT L.
Rank and organization: Major, 61st Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Philadelphia, Pa. Born: 28 March 1836, Philadelphia, Pa. Date of issue: 28 November 1892. Citation: Carried the colors at the head of the column in the assault after two color bearers had been shot down.

PARKER, THOMAS
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company B, 2d Rhode Island Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865, at Sailors Creek, Va., 6 April 1865. Entered service at: Providence, R.I. Birth. England. Date of issue: 29 May 1867. Citation. Planted the first color on the enemy’s works. Carried the regimental colors over the creek after the regiment had broken and been repulsed.

PHILLIPS, JOSIAH
Rank and organization: Private, Company E, 148th Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Sutherland Station, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Ulysses, Pa. Birth: Wyoming County, N.Y. Date of issue: 10 May 1865. Citation: Capture of flag.

PLIMLEY, WILLIAM
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, Company F, 120th New York Infantry. Place and date: At Hatchers Run, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Catskill, N.Y. Birth. Catskill, N.Y. Date of issue: 4 April 1898. Citation: While acting as aide to a general officer, voluntarily accompanied a regiment in an assault on the enemy’s works and acted as leader of the movement which resulted in the rout of the enemy and the capture of a large number of prisoners.

POTTER, GEORGE W.
Rank and organization: Private, Company G, 1st Rhode Island Light Artillery. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Coventry, R.I. Birth: Coventry, R.I. Date of issue: 4 March 1886. Citation: Was one of a detachment of 20 picked artillerymen who voluntarily accompanied an infantry assaulting party, and who turned upon the enemy the guns captured in the assault.

REEDER, CHARLES A.
Rank and organization: Private, Company G, 12th West Virginia Infantry. Place and date: At Battery Gregg, near Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at:——. Birth: Harrison, W. Va. Date of issue: 3 April 1867. Citation: Capture of flag.

SARGENT, JACKSON
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company D, 5th Vermont Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Stowe, Vt. Birth: Stowe, Vt. Date of issue: 28 October 1891. Citation: First to scale the enemy’s works and plant the colors thereon.

SHUBERT, FRANK
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company E, 43d New York Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at:——. Birth: Germany. Date of issue: 10 May 1865. Citation: Capture of two markers.

SPERRY, WILLIAM J.
Rank and organization: Major, 6th Vermont Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Vermont. Birth: Cavendish, Vt. Date of issue: 12 August 1892. Citation: With the assistance of a few men, captured 2 pieces of artillery and turned them upon the enemy.

SWAN, CHARLES A.
Rank and organization: Private, Company K, 4th lowa Cavalry. Place and date. At Selma, Ala., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Mt. Pleasant, lowa. Born: 29 May 1838, Green County, Pa. Date of issue: 17 June 1865. Citation: Capture of flag (supposed to be 11th Mississippi, C.S.A., and bearer.

THOMPSON, FREEMAN C.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company F, 116th Ohio Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Monroe County, Ohio. Date of issue: 12 May 1865. Citation: Was twice knocked from the parapet of Fort Gregg by blows from the enemy muskets but at the third attempt fought his way into the works.

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TRACY, CHARLES H.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company A, 37th Massachusetts Infantry. Place and date: At Spotsylvania, Va., 12 May 1864; At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Springfield, Mass. Birth: Jewett City, Conn. Date of issue: 19 November 1897. Citation: At the risk of his own life, at Spotsylvania, 12 May 1864, assisted in carrying to a place of safety a wounded and helpless officer. On 2 April 1865, advanced with the pioneers, and, under heavy fire, assisted in removing 2 lines of chevaux_de_frise; was twice wounded but advanced to the third line, where he was again severely wounded, losing a leg.

TUCKER, ALLEN
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company F, 10th Connecticut Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Sprague, Conn. Birth: Lyme, Conn. Date of issue: 12 May 1865. Citation: Gallantry as color bearer in the assault on Fort Gregg.

VAN MATRE, JOSEPH
Rank and organization: Private, Company G, 116th Ohio Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Mason County, W. Va. Date of issue: 12 May 1865. Citation: In the assault on Fort Gregg, this soldier climbed upon the parapet and fired down into the fort as fast as the loaded guns could be passed up to him by comrades.

WELCH, RICHARD
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company E, 37th Massachusetts Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Williamstown, Mass. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 10 May 1865. Citation: Capture of flag.

WHITE, ADAM
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company G, 11th West Virginia Infantry. Place and date: At Hatchers Run, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Parkersburg, W. Va. Birth: Switzerland. Date of issue: 13 June 1865. Citation: Capture of flag.

WILSON, FRANCIS A.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company B, 95th Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Philadelphia Pa. Birth: Philadelphia, Pa. Date of issue: 25 June 1880. Citation: Was among the first to penetrate the enemy’s lines and himself captured a gun of the 2 batteries captured.

DEARY, GEORGE
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company L, 5th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Apache Creek, Ariz., 2 April 1874. Entered service at:——. Birth: Philadelphia, Pa. Date of issue: 12 April 1875. Citation: Gallantry in action.


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3 April

1776 – George Washington received an honorary doctor of law degree from Harvard College.

1797 – CAPT Thomas Truxtun issued first known American signal book using numerary system.

1817 – The “Peace Establishment Act” reduced the Marine Corps to 50 officers and 942 enlisted.

1847 – Marines and Sailors from the USS Portsmouth landed and captured San Lycas, Mexico.

1860 – The first Pony Express mail simultaneously leaves St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California, carried by Henry Wallace riding west and John Roff riding east. During the 1,800-mile journey, the riders changed horses dozens of times, and on April 13 the westbound packet arrived in Sacramento, beating the eastbound packet’s arrival in St. Joseph by two days. Operating on a semiweekly basis for nearly two years, the route followed a pioneer trail across the present-day states of Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Nevada to California, carrying mail as well as some small freight for the young Wells Fargo Company.

The Pony Express Company, a private enterprise, charged $5 for every half-ounce of mail. Although short-lived and unprofitable, the mail service captivated the American imagination and helped win federal aid for a more economical overland mail service. The Pony Express also contributed to the economy of the towns on its route and served the mail-service needs of the American West in the days before the telegraph or an efficient transcontinental railroad. Pony Express mail service was discontinued in October 1861.

1865 – The Rebel capital of Richmond falls to the Union, the most significant sign that the Confederacy is nearing its final days. For ten months, General Ulysses S. Grant had tried unsuccessfully to infiltrate the city. After Lee made a desperate attack against Fort Stedman along the Union line on March 25, Grant prepared for a major offensive. He struck at Five Forks on April 1, crushing the end of Lee’s line southwest of Petersburg. On April 2, the Yankees struck all along the Petersburg line, and the Confederates collapsed. On the evening of April 2, the Confederate government fled the city with the army right behind. Now, on the morning of April 3, blue-coated troops entered the capital.

Richmond was the holy grail of the Union war effort, the object of four years of campaigning. Tens of thousands of Yankee lives were lost trying to get it, and nearly as many Confederate lives lost trying to defend it. Now, the Yankees came to take possession of their prize. One resident, Mary Fontaine, wrote, “I saw them unfurl a tiny flag, and I sank on my knees, and the bitter, bitter tears came in a torrent.” As the Federals rode in, another wrote that the city’s black residents were “completely crazed, they danced and shouted, men hugged each other, and women kissed.” Among the first forces into the capital were black troopers from the 5th Massachusetts Cavalry, and the next day President Abraham Lincoln visited the city. For the residents of Richmond, these were symbols of a world turned upside down. It was, one reporter noted, “…too awful to remember, if it were possible to be erased, but that cannot be.”

1865 – Battle at Namozine Church, Virginia (Appomattox Campaign).

1865 – Fifty of the sixty Midshipmen at the Confederate Naval Academy, under the command of Lieutenant William H. Parker, escorted the archives of the government and the specie and bullion of the treasury from Richmond to Danville.

1926 – Virgil Grissom (d.1967), Lt. Col. USAF, astronaut (Mercury 4, Gemini 3), was born in Mitchell, Ind. He was the Mercury and Gemini astronaut who was killed in a fire while preparing for the first Apollo flight.

1926 – Robert Goddard launched his 2nd flight of a liquid-fueled rocket.

1942 – The Japanese infantry stage a major offensive against Allied troops in Bataan, the peninsula guarding Manila Bay of the Philippine Islands. The invasion of the Japanese 14th Army, which began in December 1941 and was led by General Masaharu Homma, had already forced General Douglas MacArthur’s troops from Manila, the Philippine capital, into Bataan, in part because of poor strategizing on MacArthur’s part. By March, after MacArthur had left for Australia on President Roosevelt’s orders and been replaced by Major General Edward P. King Jr., the American Luzon Force and its Filipino allies were half-starved and suffering from malnutrition, malaria, beriberi, dysentery, and hookworm. Homma, helped by reinforcements and an increase in artillery and aircraft activity, took advantage of the U.S. and Filipinos’ weakened condition. The Japanese attack signaled the beginning of the end and would result, six days later, in the surrender of the largest number of U.S. troops in U.S. military history.

1942 – ADM Nimitz named Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas, a joint command, and retained his other title, Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Fleet.

1943 – Attacks by American General Patton’s 2nd Corps around El Guettar are held by the Axis defenders.

1944 – The B-17 and B-24 bombers of the US 15th Air Force drop 1100 tons of bombs on rail and industrial targets in Budapest. During the night, RAF Liberator and Wellington bombers carry out a follow-up raid. The attacks necessitate the closure of all the railway stations in the city.

1945 – On Okinawa, Marines of the III Amphibious Corps continued to make good progress all along their front, clearing Zampa Misaki and seizing the Katchin Peninsula, thus effectively cutting the island in two. By this date (D+2), III AC elements had reached objectives thought originally to require 11 days to take. In Kamikaze attacks by Japanese planes, one escort carrier and other ships are hit. American artillery spotter planes begin operating from Kadena airfield.

1945 – Part of the US 40th Division lands on Masbate to assist Filipino guerrillas who have controlled part of it for several days.

1946 – Lt. General Masaharu Homma, the Japanese commander responsible for the Bataan Death March, was executed outside Manila in the Philippines.

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1948 – President Harry S. Truman signs off on legislation establishing the Foreign Assistance Act of 1948, more popularly known as the Marshall Plan. The act eventually provided over $12 billion of assistance to aid in the economic recovery of Western Europe. In the first years following the end of World War II, the economies of the various nations of Western Europe limped along. Unemployment was high, money was scarce, and homelessness and starvation were not unknown in the war-ravaged countries. U.S. policymakers considered the situation fraught with danger. In the developing Cold War era, some felt that economic privation in Western Europe made for a fertile breeding ground for communist propaganda. A key element of America’s policy to contain the influence of the Soviet Union was the recovery of Western Germany (Eastern Germany was occupied by Soviet troops), and that recovery required the revitalization of Germany’s natural markets in Western Europe. In addition, strengthening the economies of other Western European countries would better equip them to fight the threat of communism, either from Soviet expansion or from domestic communist parties.

In June 1947, Secretary of State George C. Marshall made a dramatic call for a massive economic recovery program, one that would provide billions for the stagnant economies of Western Europe. The result of Marshall’s call to action was the Foreign Assistance Act of 1948, which was passed by wide margins in Congress. In signing the act, President Truman declared that it represented “perhaps the greatest venture in constructive statesmanship that any nation has undertaken.” Secretary Marshall congratulated Congress for having “faced a great crisis with courage and wisdom.” The act provided an initial grant of $4 billion for Western Europe. By the time the program came to an end in late 1951 over $12 billion had been expended. Although the Marshall Plan was not an absolute success (the large influx of American dollars led to rampant inflation in some areas), it did stabilize and revitalize the economies of Western Europe. British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin declared that it had been “a lifeline to sinking men.”

1951 – Eighth Army, led by the 1st Cavalry Division, crossed the 38th parallel.

1951 – U.S. Air Force Captain Robert H. Moore, 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing, shot down his fifth enemy plane and became the ninth ace of the Korean War.

1965 – Three days of combined US/South Vietnam air raids begin against bridges and roads in the North. Particular targets are the Hamrong and Dongphong bridges, major rail links to Hanoi. Four Russian built MiG fighters engage the raiders in the first reported combat by the North Vietnamese Air Force.

1966 – Three-thousand South Vietnamese Army troops led a protest against the Ky regime in Saigon.

1968 – North Vietnam agreed to meet with U.S. representatives to set up preliminary peace talks though Hanoi first denounces bombing limitations as a “perfidious trick.” In its regular radio broadcasts they characterize the meeting to discuss “the unconditional cessation of the US bombing raids and all other acts of war against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam so that talks may start.” President Johnson ignores the rhetoric and simply announces the intent to “establish contact with the representatives of North Vietnam.”

1969 – Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announces that the United States is moving to “Vietnamize” the war as rapidly as possible. By this, he meant that the responsibility for the fighting would be gradually transferred to the South Vietnamese as they became more combat capable. However, Laird emphasized that it would not serve the United States’ purpose to discuss troop withdrawals while the North Vietnamese continued to conduct offensive operations in South Vietnam. Despite Laird’s protestations to the contrary, Nixon’s “Vietnamization” program, as he would announce it in June, did include a series of scheduled U.S. troop withdrawals, the first of the war.

1969 – U.S. military headquarters in Saigon announce that combat deaths for the last week of March have pushed the total number of Americans killed during eight years of U.S. involvement in Vietnam to 33,641. This was 12 more deaths than during the Korean War. By the end of the war, 47,244 Americans had been killed in action in Vietnam. An additional 10,446 died as a result of non-hostile causes like disease and accidents.

1970 – US troops pursuing a Communist battalion toward the Cambodian border meet heavy resistance.

1972 – The United States prepares hundreds of B-52s and fighter-bombers for possible air strikes to blunt the recently launched North Vietnamese invasion. The aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk was sent from the Philippines to join the carriers already off the coast of Vietnam and provide additional air support. This attack was the opening move of the North Vietnamese Nguyen Hue Offensive (later called the “Easter Offensive”), a massive invasion by North Vietnamese forces designed to strike the blow that would win them the war. The attacking force included 14 infantry divisions and 26 separate regiments, with more than 120,000 troops and approximately 1,200 tanks and other armored vehicles. The main North Vietnamese objectives, in addition to Quang Tri in the north, were Kontum in the Central Highlands, and An Loc farther to the south. North Vietnam had a number of reasons for launching the offensive: impressing the communist world and its own people with its determination; capitalizing on U.S. antiwar sentiment and possibly hurting President Richard Nixon’s chances for re-election; proving that “Vietnamization” was a failure; damaging the South Vietnamese forces and government stability; gaining as much territory as possible before a possible truce; and accelerating negotiations on their own terms.

Initially, the South Vietnamese defenders were almost overwhelmed, particularly in the northernmost provinces, where they abandoned their positions in Quang Tri and fled south in the face of the enemy onslaught. At Kontum and An Loc, the South Vietnamese were more successful in defending against the attacks, but only after weeks of bitter fighting. Although the defenders suffered heavy casualties, they managed to hold their own with the aid of U.S. advisors and American airpower. Fighting continued all over South Vietnam into the summer months, but eventually the South Vietnamese forces prevailed against the invaders and retook Quang Tri in September. With the communist invasion blunted, President Nixon declared that the South Vietnamese victory proved the viability of his Vietnamization program, instituted in 1969 to increase the combat capability of the South Vietnamese armed forces.

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1973 – Martin Cooper of Motorola makes the first handheld mobile phone call to Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs, though it took ten years for the DynaTAC 8000X to become the first such phone to be commercially released.

1974 – A tape from the SLA announced Patty Hearst’s decision to “stay and fight” with the SLA.

1974 – The Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation of the Congress reported that $476,531 in back taxes and interest was owed by President Richard Nixon. Responding to charges of fraud, Nixon requested the committee investigation of his taxes and, upon its report, agreed to pay. The report made no conclusion regarding fraud.

1981 – The Osborne 1, the first successful portable computer, is unveiled at the West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco.

1991 – U.N. Security Council Resolution 687 specifies the cease-fire conditions. The Resolution mandates that Iraq respect the sovereignty of Kuwait and declare and destroy, remove, or render harmless all ballistic missile systems with a range of more than 150 kilometers. It also confirms that Iraq must repatriate all Kuwaiti and third-state nationals and extend complete cooperation to the Red Cross in these efforts; and create a compensation fund, financed by Iraq, to meet its liability for losses, damages, and injuries related to its unlawful occupation of Kuwait.

1992 – First five coed recruit companies from Orlando, FL Naval Training Center graduate.

1996 – At his small wilderness cabin near Lincoln, Montana, Theodore John Kaczynski is arrested by FBI agents and accused of being the Unabomber, the elusive terrorist blamed for 16 mail bombs that killed three people and injured 23 during an 18-year period. Kaczynski, born in Chicago in 1942, won a scholarship to study mathematics at Harvard University at age 16. After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, he became a professor at the University of California at Berkeley. Although celebrated as a brilliant mathematician, he suffered from persistent social and emotional problems, and in 1969 abruptly ended his promising career at Berkeley. Disillusioned with the world around him, he tried to buy land in the Canadian wilderness but in 1971 settled for a 1.4-acre plot near his brother’s home in Montana.

For the next 25 years, Kaczynski lived as a hermit, occasionally working odd jobs and traveling but mostly living off his land. He developed a philosophy of radical environmentalism and militant opposition to modern technology, and tried to get academic essays on the subjects published. It was the rejection of one of his papers by two Chicago-area universities in 1978 that may have prompted him to manufacture and deliver his first mail bomb. The package was addressed to the University of Illinois from Northwestern University, but was returned to Northwestern, where a security guard was seriously wounded while opening the suspicious package. In 1979, Kaczynski struck again at Northwestern, injuring a student at the Technological Institute. Later that year, his third bomb exploded on an American Airlines flight, causing injuries from smoke inhalation.

In 1980, a bomb mailed to the home of Percy Wood, the president of United Airlines, injured Wood when he tried to open it. As Kaczynski seemed to be targeting universities and airlines, federal investigators began calling their suspect the Unabomber, an acronym of sorts for university, airline, and bomber. From 1981 to 1985, there were seven more bombs, four at universities, one at a professor’s home, one at the Boeing Company in Auburn, Wash., and one at a computer store in Sacramento. Six people were injured, and in 1985 the owner of the computer store was killed–the Unabomber’s first murder.

In 1987, a woman saw a man wearing aviator glasses and a hooded sweatshirt placing what turned out to be a bomb outside a computer store in Salt Lake City. The sketch of the suspect that emerged became the first representation of the Unabomber, and Kaczynski, fearing capture, halted his terrorist campaign for six years. In June 1993, a lethal mail bomb severely injured a University of California geneticist at his home, and two days later a computer science professor at Yale was badly injured by a similar bomb. Various federal departments established the UNABOM Task Force, which launched an intensive search for a Unabomber suspect. In 1994, a mail bomb killed an advertising executive at his home in New Jersey. Kaczynski had mistakenly thought that the man worked for a firm that repaired the Exxon Company’s public relations after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.

In April 1995, a bomb killed the president of a timber-industry lobbying group. It was the Unabomber’s last attack. Soon after, Kaczynski sent a manifesto to The New York Times and The Washington Post, saying he would stop the killing if it were published. In 1995, The Washington Post published the so-called “Unabomber’s Manifesto,” a 35,000-word thesis on what Kaczynski perceived to be the problems with America’s industrial and technological society.

Kaczynski’s brother, David, read the essay and recognized his brother’s ideas and language; he informed the FBI in February 1996 that he suspected that his brother was the Unabomber. On April 3, Ted Kaczynski was arrested at his cabin in Montana, and extensive evidence–including a live bomb and an original copy of the manifesto–was discovered at the site. Indicted on more than a dozen federal charges, he appeared briefly in court in 1996 to plead not guilty to all charges. During the next year and a half, Kaczynski wrangled with his defense attorneys, who wanted to issue an insanity plea against his wishes.

Kaczynski wanted to defend what he saw as legitimate political motives in carrying out the attacks, but at the start of the Unabomber trial in January 1998 the judge rejected his requests acquire a new defense team and represent himself. On January 22, Kaczynski pleaded guilty on all counts and was spared the death penalty. He showed no remorse for his crimes and in May was sentenced to four life sentences plus 30 years.

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1996 – Ronald H. Brown, the U.S. secretary of commerce, is killed along with 32 other Americans when their U.S. Air Force plane crashes into a mountain near Dubrovnik, Croatia. Brown was leading a delegation of business executives to the former Yugoslavia to explore business opportunities that might help rebuild the war-torn region. Brown, born in Washington, D.C., in 1941, grew up in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood, where he worked as a welfare caseworker before joining the U.S. Army. After holding positions in the National Urban League, an advocacy group for the renewal of inner cities, he became a member of the U.S. Supreme Court bar and served as chief counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee. In 1989, he was elected chairman of the Democratic Party National Committee, becoming the first African American to hold the top position in a major political party in the United States. As chairman, Brown played a pivotal role in securing the 1992 election of Bill Clinton, the first Democratic president in 12 years. In 1993, Clinton appointed Brown to be the first African American secretary of commerce, a position he held until his death in 1996.

1998 – Douglas Fred Groat, a disgruntled spy fired by the CIA, was charged with espionage and extortion. Groat later pleaded guilty to extortion, and was sentenced to five years in prison.

1999 – NATO missiles struck downtown Belgrade for the first time, destroying the headquarters of security forces accused of waging a campaign against Kosovo Albanians. NATO bombs struck the Serbian Internal Ministry buildings near the Sava River.

1999 – The Iraqi port of Mina al-Bakr, export terminal for roughly half of all Iraqi oil exports under the United Nations oil-for-food program, is reopened.

2000 – US defense chief Cohen said that the US would join an int’l. force in south Lebanon when Israel pulls out.

2000 – In Bosnia NATO troops arrested Momcilo Krajisnik, former speaker of the Bosnian Serb assembly, for war crimes and flew him to the Netherlands to stand trial.

2001 – President Bush warned China it risked damaging relations with the United States unless it quickly released the American crew of a damaged Navy spy plane. The plane had made an emergency landing in China after colliding with a Chinese fighter.

2002 – The US-financed Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty began broadcasting in the North Caucasus region that included Chechnya. The Kremlin viewed the broadcasts as interference with internal affairs.

2002 – Afghan security officials reported the arrests of hundreds of political opponents who planned a conspiracy and bombing campaign that was linked to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. 140 men were released the next day, while 160 remained under detention.

2003 – Moving with a sense of wartime urgency, the House and Senate separately agreed to give President Bush nearly $80 billion to carry out the battle against Iraq and meet the threat of terrorism.

2003 – In the 16th day of Operation Iraqi Freedom US Marines and infantry moved with surprising speed toward Baghdad. Central Command said there was “increasing evidence” that Saddam Hussein’s regime had lost control of its fighting forces. US troop casualty totaled: 51 dead, 16 missing and 7 captured. A power blackout in Baghdad coincided with heavy artillery fire. US forces attacked Saddam Int’l. Airport.

2003 – US Secretary of State Colin Powell assured NATO allies and the EU that the Bush administration seeks a partnership with the United Nations for the reconstruction of post-war Iraq.

2003 – Afghan militia soldiers and 2-day blistering airstrikes by US-led coalition planes killed eight suspected Taliban fighters in the southern mountains.

2004 – A U.S.-led multinational force trying to bring stability to Haiti helped detain Jean Robert, a rebel sympathizer and gang leader accused of terrorizing supporters of Aristide.

2004 – In Spain Sarhane Abdelmajid Fakhet (35), a Tunisian national and the alleged ringleader of last month’s train bombings in Madrid, was among 5 suspects who blew themselves up as police raided their apartment.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

BLICKENSDERFER, MILTON
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company E, 126th Ohio Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 3 April 1865. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Lancaster, Pa. Date of issue: 10 May 1865. Citation: Capture of flag.

BRANT, WILLIAM
Rank and organization: Lieutenant, Company B, 1st New Jersey Veteran Battalion. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 3 April 1865. Entered service at:——. Birth: Elizabeth, N.J. Date of issue: 10 May 1865. Citation: Capture of battle flag of 46th North Carolina (C.S.A.).

BRIGGS, ELIJAH A.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company B, 2d Connecticut Heavy Artillery. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 3 April 1865. Entered service at: Salisbury, Conn. Birth: Salisbury, Conn. Date of issue: 10 May 1865. Citation: Capture of battle flag.

*WETZEL, WALTER C.
Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Army, 13th Infantry, 8th Infantry Division. Place and date: Birken, Germany, 3 April 1945. Entered service at: Roseville, Mich. Birth: Huntington, W. Va. G.O. No.: 21, 26 February 1946. Citation: Pfc. Wetzel, an acting squad leader with the Antitank Company of the 13th Infantry, was guarding his platoon’s command post in a house at Birken, Germany, during the early morning hours of 3 April 1945, when he detected strong enemy forces moving in to attack. He ran into the house, alerted the occupants and immediately began defending the post against heavy automatic weapons fire coming from the hostile troops.

Under cover of darkness the Germans forced their way close to the building where they hurled grenades, 2 of which landed in the room where Pfc. Wetzel and the others had taken up firing positions. Shouting a warning to his fellow soldiers, Pfc. Wetzel threw himself on the grenades and, as they exploded, absorbed their entire blast, suffering wounds from which he died. The supreme gallantry of Pfc. Wetzel saved his comrades from death or serious injury and made it possible for them to continue the defense of the command post and break the power of a dangerous local counterthrust by the enemy. His unhesitating sacrifice of his life was in keeping with the U.S. Army’s highest traditions of bravery and heroism.

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4 April

1776 – The first Columbus, a 24-gun armed ship, was built at Philadelphia in 1774 as Sally; purchased for the Continental Navy in November 1775, Captain Abraham Whipple in command. Between 17 February and 8 April 1776, in company with the other ships of Commodore Esek Hopkins’ squadron, Columbus took part in the expedition to New Providence, Bahamas, where the first Navy-Marine amphibious operation seized essential military supplies. On the return passage, the squadron captured the British schooner, Hawk.

1788 – Last of the Federalist essays was published. The series of 85 letters were written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay urging ratification of the US Constitution. Defects in the Articles of Confederation became apparent, such as the lack of central authority over foreign and domestic commerce and the inability of Congress to levy taxes, leading Congress to endorse a plan to draft a new constitution.

1790 – Congress establishes the Revenue Marine Service, a forerunner of the Coast guard.

1812 – The territory of Orleans became the 18th state and later became known as Louisiana.

1812 – President James Madison fired an economic salvo at the British government and enacted a ninety-day embargo on trade with England. Madison’s embargo was the last in a steady succession of putatively peaceful trade measures; like its predecessors, the embargo was designed to protect America’s embattled merchant ships from continued attacks by the British and French (American ships had been under siege since 1807). But, the non-violent nature of Madison’s response barely masked his readiness to lead America into battle, especially against the British. Indeed, in November of 1811, the President had urged Congress to cloak the country in “an armor and an attitude demanded by the crisis.”

Madison’s rhetoric was perhaps a bit disingenuous: his willingness to do battle stemmed as much from his desire to usurp British territory in Canada, Spanish Florida and what would become the American West. While expansionists, including Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun, licked their chops in anticipation of war, moderate legislators still hoped to forge a more peaceful solution. Though the embargo may have temporarily appeased the moderates, it did little to forestall war: the British refused to cease harassing American ships, prompting Madison to lead America into the War of 1812.

1818 – Congress decided the flag of the United States would consist of 13 red and white stripes and 20 stars, with a new star to be added for every new state of the Union.

1841 – Only 31 days after assuming office, William Henry Harrison, the ninth president of the United States, dies of pneumonia at the White House. Born in Charles County, Virginia, in 1773, Harrison served in the U.S. Army in the old Northwest Territory and in 1800 was made governor of the Indian Territory, where he proved an able administrator. In 1811, he led U.S. forces against an Indian confederation organized by Shawnee Chief Tecumseh, and victory at the Battle of Tippecanoe brought an end to Tecumseh’s hopes for a united Indian front against U.S. expansion. In the War of 1812, Harrison gained his greatest fame as a military commander, recapturing Detroit from the British and defeating a combined force of British and Native Americans at the Battle of the Thames.

In 1816, he was elected to the House of Representatives and in 1825 to the Senate. Gaining the Whig presidential nomination in 1840, he and his running mate, John Tyler, ran a successful campaign under the slogan “Tippecanoe and Tyler, too.” At the inauguration of America’s first Whig president, on March 4, 1841, a bitterly cold day, Harrison declined to wear a jacket or hat, made a two-hour speech, and attended three inauguration balls. Soon afterward, he developed pneumonia. On April 4, President Harrison died in Washington, and Vice President John Tyler ascended to the presidency, becoming the first individual in U.S. history to reach the office through the death of a president.

1850 – The city of Los Angeles was incorporated.

1854 – Chinese Imperial Troops under the command of General Keih were stationed near the western edge of the International Settlement of Shanghai. On the 3rd April 1854 a Western couple were assaulted by some of the Imperial troops whilst the couple were walking in a park, and as a result a message was sent to General Kieh ordering him to move his troops by 4 p.m on 4th April. This message was ignored by General Kieh. At 16.00 hours a force led by Captain O’Callahan of HMS Encounter, and Lieutenant Roderick Dew, and consisting of 200 men from HMS Encounter, 75 men from USS Plymouth, 30 men from US merchant ships, and 75 Shanghai Volunteers, marched to the Chinese camp near an area known as Defense Creek. The area was marshy and deep in water and mud. A short battle ensued in which the Chinese Imperial Troops were routed. The Imperial Troops lost about 50 men, whilst the Allied Force lost just four men.

1859 – At Mechanics Hall in New York, Daniel Emmett introduced “I Wish I was in Dixie’s Land.” About two years later the song became the Civil War song of the Confederacy. [From the Richmond Dispatch, March 19, 1893]. This colloquial expression was not, as most people suppose, a Southern phrase, but first appeared among the circus people of the North. In early fall, when nipping frosts would overtake the tented wanderers, the boys would think of the genial warmth of that section for which they were heading, and the common expression would be, “Well, I wish I was down in Dixie.”

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1862 – U.S.S. Carondelet,. Commander Walke, shrouded by a heavy storm at night, successfully ran past Island No. 10, Mississippi River, and reached Major General John Pope’s army at New Madrid. For his heroic dash through flaming Confederate batteries, Walke strengthened Carondelet with cord-wood piled around the boilers, extra deck planking, and anchor chain for added armor protection. “The passage of the Carondelet,” wrote A. T. Mahan, “was not only one of the most daring and dramatic events of the war; it was also the death blow to the Confederate defense of this position.” With the support of the gunboats, the Union troops could now safely plan to cross the river and take the Confederate defenses from the rear.

1865 – President Abraham Lincoln visits the Confederate capital a day after Union forces capture it. Lincoln had been in the area for nearly two weeks. He left Washington at the invitation of general-in-chief Ulysses S. Grant to visit Grant’s headquarters at City Point, near the lines at Petersburg south of Richmond. The trip was exhilarating for the exhausted president. Worn out by four years of war and stifled by the pressures of Washington, Lincoln enjoyed himself immensely. He conferred with Grant and General William T. Sherman, who took a break from his campaign in North Carolina. He visited soldiers, and even picked up an axe to chop logs in front of the troops. He stayed at City Point, sensing that the final push was near.

Grant’s forces overran the Petersburg line on April 2nd, and the Confederate government fled the capital later that day. Union forces occupied Richmond on April 3rd, and Lincoln sailed up the James River to see the spoils of war. His ship could not pass some obstructions that had been placed in the river by the Confederates so 12 soldiers rowed him to shore. He landed without fanfare but was soon recognized by some black workmen who ran to him and bowed. The modest Lincoln told them to “…kneel to God only, and thank him for the liberty you will hereafter enjoy.”

Lincoln, accompanied by a small group of soldiers and a growing entourage of freed slaves, walked to the Confederate White House and sat in President Jefferson Davis’s chair. He walked to the Virginia statehouse and saw the chambers of the Confederate Congress. Lincoln even visited Libby Prison, where thousands of Union officers were held during the war. Lincoln remained a few more days in hopes that Robert E. Lee’s army would surrender, but on April 8 he headed back to Washington. Six days later, Lincoln was shot as he watched a play at Ford’s Theater.

1912 – President Taft recommended abolishing Revenue Cutter Service. His actions led to the creation of the Coast Guard by merging the Revenue Cutter Service and the Life-Saving Service on 28 January 1915.

1917 – U.S. Senate voted 90-6 to enter World War I on Allied side.

1918 – During World War I, the Second Battle of the Somme, the first major German offensive in more than a year, ends on the western front. On March 21, 1918, a major offensive against Allied positions in the Somme River region of France began with five hours of bombardment from more than 9,000 pieces of German artillery. The poorly prepared British Fifth Army was rapidly overwhelmed and forced into retreat. For a week, the Germans pushed toward Paris, shelling the city from a distance of 80 miles with their “Big Bertha” cannons. However, the poorly supplied German troops soon became exhausted, and the Allies halted the German advance as French artillery knocked out the German guns besieging Paris.

On April 2nd, U.S. General John J. Pershing sent American troops down into the trenches to help defend Paris and repulse the German offensive. It was the first major deployment of U.S. troops in World War I. Several thousand American troops fought alongside the British and French in the Second Battle of Somme. By the time the Somme offensive ended on April 4, the Germans had advanced almost 40 miles, inflicted some 200,000 casualties, and captured 70,000 prisoners and more than 1,000 Allied guns. However, the Germans suffered nearly as many casualties as their enemies and lacked the fresh reserves and supply boost the Allies enjoyed following the American entrance into the fighting.

1921 – The US Navy Department completes the first helium production plant in Fort Worth, Texas.

1933 – Navy airship USS Akron crashed off the Barnegat Lightship, off the New Jersey coast. The search employed over 20 Coast Guard vessels under Navy supervision. USS Akron (ZRS-4) was a helium-filled rigid airship of the U.S. Navy that was destroyed in a thunderstorm killing 73 of the 76 crewmen and passengers. This accident was the greatest loss of life in any known airship crash. During its accident-prone 18-month term of service, the Akron also served as a flying aircraft carrier for launching and recovering F9C Sparrowhawk fighter planes. With lengths of 785 ft (239 m), 20 ft (6.1 m) shorter than the German commercial airship Hindenburg, which was destroyed in 1937, the Akron and its sister airship the Macon were among the largest flying objects in the world. Although the Hindenburg was longer, it was filled with hydrogen, so the two U.S. airships still hold the world record for helium-filled airships.

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1941 – Roosevelt agrees to allow Royal Navy warships to be repaired in the US. Among the first ships to benefit from this order are the battleships Malaya and Resolution. RN warships are also to be allowed to refuel in the US when on combat missions.

1944 – The Bucharest marshaling yards are bombed by heavily escorted bombers of the US 15th Air Force. A total of 20 aircraft are lost. Civilian casualties are reported to amount to 2942 killed and 2126 injured.

1945 – US 9th Army units have reached the river Weser opposite Hameln. Troops from US 3rd Army capture Kassel while other units take Gotha and advance near Erfurt. French units take Karlsruhe. The Nazi gold reserves are captured in the salt mine at Merkers.

1945 – American troops liberate Ohrdruf forced labor camp in Germany. It was part of the Buchenwald concentration camp network and the first Nazi concentration camp liberated by U.S. troops.

1945 – On Okinawa, the forces of US 10th Army begin to meet the first real Japanese resistance on the ground. Troops of US 24th Corps are brought to a halt on a line just south of Kuba while the forces of 3rd Amphibious Corps have reached the Ishikawa Isthmus. A storm damages many landing craft and hampers further reinforcement.

1949 – The United States and 11 other nations establish the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a mutual defense pact aimed at containing possible Soviet aggression against Western Europe. NATO stood as the main U.S.-led military alliance against the Soviet Union throughout the duration of the Cold War. Relations between the United States and the Soviet Union began to deteriorate rapidly in 1948. There were heated disagreements over the postwar status of Germany, with the Americans insisting on German recovery and eventual rearmament and the Soviets steadfastly opposing such actions. In June 1948, the Soviets blocked all ground travel to the American occupation zone in West Berlin, and only a massive U.S. airlift of food and other necessities sustained the population of the zone until the Soviets relented and lifted the blockade in May 1949. In January 1949, President Harry S. Truman warned in his State of the Union Address that the forces of democracy and communism were locked in a dangerous struggle, and he called for a defensive alliance of nations in the North Atlantic–NATO was the result.

In April 1949, representatives from Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Portugal joined the United States in signing the NATO agreement. The signatories agreed, “An armed attack against one or more of them … shall be considered an attack against them all.” President Truman welcomed the organization as “a shield against aggression.” Not all Americans embraced NATO. Isolationists such as Senator Robert A. Taft declared that NATO was “not a peace program; it is a war program.” Most, however, saw the organization as a necessary response to the communist threat. The U. S. Senate ratified the treaty by a wide margin in June 1949. During the next few years, Greece, Turkey, and West Germany also joined. The Soviet Union condemned NATO as a warmongering alliance and responded by setting up the Warsaw Pact (a military alliance between the Soviet Union and its Eastern Europe satellites) in 1955. NATO lasted throughout the course of the Cold War, and continues to play an important role in post-Cold War Europe. In recent years, for example, NATO forces were active in trying to bring an end to the civil war in Bosnia.

1951 – Far East Air Forces aircraft racked up 1,000 sorties hitting enemy frontline positions and supply areas.

1951 – Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Powers in Europe (SHAPE) is established with General Dwight D. Eisenhower in command.

1966 – US F-4C Phantom bombers hit the main supply route between North Vietnam and Naning, China, striking the Phulangthong bridge, among others.

1967 – “CHINOOK II” ended in Vietnam (17 February – 4 April).

1967 – The U.S. lost its 500th plane over Vietnam.

1967 – Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. indicates that a link is forming between the civil rights movement and the peace movement. King proposes that the US stop all bombing in Vietnam, declare a unilateral truce in hopes of fostering peace talks, setting a date for the withdrawal of all troops from Vietnam, and include the National Liberation Front in any resulting negotiations.

1968 – Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 6. Apollo 6 was the second A type mission of the United States Apollo program, an unmanned test of the Saturn V launch vehicle. It was also the final unmanned Apollo test mission. Objectives were to demonstrate trans-lunar injection capability of the Saturn V with a simulated payload equal to about 80% of a full Apollo spacecraft, and to repeat demonstration of the Command Module’s (CM) heat shield capability to withstand a lunar re-entry. The flight plan called for following trans-lunar injection with a direct return abort using the Command/Service Module’s (CSM) main engine, with a total flight time of about 10 hours. A phenomenon known as pogo oscillation damaged some of the Rocketdyne J-2 engines in the second and third stages by rupturing internal fuel lines, causing two second-stage engines to shut down early.

The vehicle’s onboard guidance system was able to compensate by burning the second and third stages longer, though the resulting parking orbit was more elliptical than planned. The damaged third stage engine also failed to restart for trans-lunar injection. Flight controllers elected to repeat the flight profile of the previous Apollo 4 test, achieving a high orbit and high-speed return using the Service Module (SM) engine. Despite the engine failures, the flight provided NASA with enough confidence to use the Saturn V for manned launches. Since Apollo 4 had already demonstrated S-IVB restart and tested the heat shield at full lunar re-entry velocity, a potential third unmanned flight was cancelled.

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1970 – About 15,000 people stage a rally at the Washington monument to support “victory over the Communists in Vietnam.”

1970 – The heaviest fighting in five months involving US troops occurs along the DMZ and new clashes in Cambodia where South Vietnamese battalions move 10 miles into Cambodia.

1971 – Veterans stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was dedicated.

1973 – A Lockheed C-141 Starlifter, dubbed the Hanoi Taxi, makes the last flight of Operation Homecoming. Operation Homecoming was a series of diplomatic negotiations that in January 1973 made possible the return of 591 American prisoners of war held by North Vietnam. On Feb. 12, 1973, three C-141 transports flew to Hanoi, North Vietnam, and one C-9A aircraft was sent to Saigon, South Vietnam to pick up released prisoners of war. The first flight of 40 U.S. prisoners of war left Hanoi in a C-141A, later known as the “Hanoi Taxi” and now in a museum. From February 12 to April 4, there were 54 C-141 missions flying out of Hanoi, bringing the former POWs home. Each plane brought back 40 POWs. During the early part of Operation Homecoming, groups of POWs released were selected on the basis of longest length of time in prison. The first group had spent 6-8 years as prisoners of war.

After Operation Homecoming, the U.S. still listed about 1,350 Americans as prisoners of war or missing in action and sought the return of roughly 1,200 Americans reported killed in action and body not recovered. These missing personnel would become the subject of the Vietnam War POW/MIA issue. The Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines each had liaison officers dedicated to prepare for the return of American POWs well in advance of their actual return. These liaison officers worked behind the scenes traveling around the United States assuring the returnees well being. They also were responsible for debriefing POWs to discern relevant intelligence about MIAs and to discern the existence of war crimes committed against them.

1975 – The first group of boat people from Vietnam began arriving in Malaysia. More than 1 million people fled from the close of the war to the early 1980s.

1975 – A major U.S. airlift of South Vietnamese orphans begins with disaster when an Air Force cargo jet crashes shortly after departing from Tan Son Nhut airbase in Saigon. More than 138 passengers, mostly children, were killed. Operation Baby Lift was designed to bring 2,000 South Vietnamese orphans to the United States for adoption by American parents. Baby Lift lasted for 10 days and was carried out during the final, desperate phase of the war, as North Vietnamese forces closed in on Saigon. Although this first flight ended in tragedy, all subsequent flights were completed safely, and Baby Lift aircraft brought orphans across the Pacific until the mission’s conclusion on April 14, only 16 days before the fall of Saigon and the end of the war.

1977 – The Coast Guard designated its first female Coast Guard aviator, Janna Lambine. She was Coast Guard Aviator #1812.

1983 – The space shuttle Challenger roared into orbit on its maiden voyage and the first US female into space was Sally Ride. Space Shuttle Challenger (NASA Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-099) was the second orbiter of NASA’s space shuttle program to be put into service following Columbia. The shuttle was built by Rockwell International’s Space Transportation Systems Division in Downey, California. It launched and landed nine times before breaking apart 73 seconds into its tenth mission, STS-51-L, on January 28, 1986, resulting in the death of all seven crew members. It was the first of two shuttles to be destroyed. The accident led to a two-and-a-half year grounding of the shuttle fleet; flights resumed in 1988 with STS-26 flown by Discovery. Challenger itself was replaced by Endeavour which was built using structural spares ordered by NASA as part of the construction contracts for Discovery and Atlantis. Endeavour launched for the first time in May 1992.

1984 – President Ronald Reagan calls for an international ban on chemical weapons.

1992 – His campaign acknowledged that Bill Clinton had received an induction notice in April 1969 while attending college in Oxford, England; Clinton said the notice arrived after he was due to report, and that his local draft board had told him he could complete the school term.

1992 – Jury deliberations began in the Noriega case in Florida.

1993 – President Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin wrapped up their two-day summit in Vancouver, B.C. Clinton extended $1.6 billion in aid; Yeltsin proclaimed the two countries “partners and future allies.”

1995 – Francisco Martin Duran, who had raked the White House with semiautomatic rifle fire in October 1994, was convicted in Washington of trying to assassinate President Clinton. Duran was later sentenced to 40 years in prison.

1996 – US intelligence indicated the Libya was building a chemical weapons plant at Tarhunah, 40 miles southeast of Tripoli. The plant was reportedly designed to replace a plant a Rabta, 55 miles SW of Tripoli, where Libya insists that only pharmaceuticals are produced.

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