This Date in Military History:

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

ATKINSON, THOMAS E.
Rank and organization: Yeoman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1824, Salem, Mass. Accredited to: Massachusetts. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Richmond, Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864; commended for coolness and energy in supplying the rifle ammunition, which was under his sole charge, in the action in Mobile Bay on the morning of 5 August 1964. He was a petty officer on board the U.S. Frigate Congress in 1842-46; was present and assisted in capturing the whole of the Buenos Ayrean fleet by that vessel off Montevideo; joined the Richmond in September 1860; was in the action with Fort McRea, the Head of the Passes of the Mississippi, Forts Jackson and St. Philip, the Chalmettes, the rebel ironclads and gunboats below New Orleans, Vicksburg, Port Hudson, and at the surrender of New Orleans.

AVERY, JAMES
Rank and organization: Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1825, Scotland. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 71, 15 January 1866. Citation: Served on board the U.S.S. Metacomet. As a member of the boat’s crew which went to the rescue of the U.S. monitor Tecumseh when that vessel was struck by a torpedo in passing the enemy forts in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864, S/man Avery braved the enemy fire which was said by the admiral to be “one of the most galling” he had ever seen, and aided in rescuing from death 10 of the crew of the Tecumseh, eliciting the admiration of both friend and foe.

BAKER, CHARLES
Rank and organization: Quarter Gunner, U.S. Navy. Born: 1809, Georgetown, D.C., Entered service at: New York, N.Y. G.O. No.: 71, 15 January 1866. Citation: Served on board the U.S.S. Metacomet. As a member of the boat’s crew which went to the rescue of the U.S. monitor Tecumseh when that vessel was struck by a torpedo in passing the enemy forts in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864, Q.G. Baker braved the enemy fire which was said by the admiral to be “one of the most galling” he had ever seen, and aided in rescuing from death 10 of the crew of the Tecumseh, eliciting the admiration of both friend and foe.

BLAGHEEN, WILLIAM
Rank and organization: Ship’s Cook, U.S. Navy. Born: 1832, England. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Brooklyn during successful attacks against Fort Morgan, rebel gunboats and the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, on 5 August 1864. Stationed in the immediate vicinity of the shell whips which were twice cleared of men by bursting shells, Blagheen remained steadfast at his post and performed his duties in the powder division throughout the furious action which resulted in the surrender of the prize rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.

BRAZELL, JOHN
Rank and organization: Quartermaster, U.S. Navy. Born: 1837, Philadelphia, Pa. Accredited to: Pennsylvania. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: Served on board the U.S.S. Richmond in the action at Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864, where he was recommended for coolness and good conduct as a gun captain during that engagement which resulted in the capture of the rebel ram Tennessee and in the destruction of Fort Morgan. Brazell served gallantly throughout the actions with Forts Jackson and St. Philip, the Chalmettes, batteries below Vicksburg, and was present at the surrender of New Orleans while on board the U.S.S. Brooklyn.

BROWN, JOHN
Rank and organization: Captain of the Forecastle, U.S. Navy. Born: 1826, Scotland, Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Brooklyn during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite severe damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks from stem to stern, Brown fought his gun with skill and courage throughout the furious battle which resulted in the surrender of the prize rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.

BROWN, ROBERT
Rank and organization: Captain of the Top, U.S. Navy. Born: 1830, Norway. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Richmond in action at Mobile Bay on 5 August 1864. Cool and courageous at his station throughout the prolonged action. Brown rendered gallant service as his vessel trained her guns on Fort Morgan and on ships of the Confederacy despite extremely heavy return fire. He participated in the actions at Forts Jackson and St. Philip, with the Chalmette batteries, at the surrender of New Orleans and in the attacks on batteries below Vicksburg.

BROWN, WILLIAM H.
Rank and organization: Landsman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1836, Baltimore, Md. Accredited to: Maryland. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Brooklyn during successful attacks against Fort Morgan rebel gunboats and the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay on 5 August 1864. Stationed in the immediate vicinity of the shell whips which were twice cleared of men by bursting shells, Brown remained steadfast at his post and performed his duties in the powder division throughout the furious action which resulted in the surrender of the prize rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.

BROWN, WILSON
Rank and organization: Landsman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1841, Natchez, Miss. Accredited to: Mississippi. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the flagship U.S.S. Hartford during successful attacks against Fort Morgan, rebel gunboats and the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay on 5 August 1864. Knocked unconscious into the hold of the ship when an enemy shellburst fatally wounded a man on the ladder above him, Brown, upon regaining consciousness, promptly returned to the shell whip on the berth deck and zealously continued to perform his duties although 4 of the 6 men at this station had been either killed or wounded by the enemy’s terrific fire.

BURNS, JOHN M.
Rank and organization: Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1835, Hudson, N.Y. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Lackawanna during successful attacks against Fort Morgan, rebel gunboats and the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, on 5 August 1864. Although severely wounded and sent below under the surgeon’s charge, Burns promptly returned to his station and assisted the powder division throughout the prolonged action which resulted in the capture of the rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of Fort Morgan.

CARR, WILLIAM M.
Rank and organization: Master-at-Arms, U.S. Navy. Birth: Baltimore, Md. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Richmond during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks, Carr performed his duties with skill and courage throughout the prolonged battle which resulted in the surrender of the rebel ram Tennessee and in the successful attacks carried out on Fort Morgan.

CASSIDY, MICHAEL
Rank and organization: Landsman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1837, Ireland. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: Served on board the U.S.S. Lackawanna during successful attacks against Fort Morgan, rebel gunboats and the ram Tennessee, in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Displaying great coolness and exemplary behavior as first sponger of a gun, Cassidy, by his coolness under fire, received the applause of his officers and the guncrew throughout the action which resulted in the capture of the prize ram Tennessee and in the destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.

CHANDLER, JAMES B.
Rank and organization: Coxswain, U.S. Navy. Born: 1838, Massachusetts. Accredited to: Massachusetts. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Richmond during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Cool and courageous although he had just come off the sick list, Chandler rendered gallant service throughout the prolonged action as his ship maintained accurate fire against Fort Morgan and ships of the Confederacy despite extremely heavy return fire. He participated in the actions at Forts Jackson and St. Philip, with the Chalmette batteries, at the surrender of New Orleans and in the attacks on batteries below Vicksburg.

CHAPUT, LOUIS G.
Rank and organization: Landsman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1845, Canada. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Lackawanna during successful attacks against Fort Morgan, rebel gunboats and the rebel ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Severely wounded, Chaput remained at his gun until relieved, reported to the surgeon and returned to his gun until the action was over. He was then carried below following the action which resulted in the capture of the prize ram Tennessee and in destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.

COOPER, JOHN
Rank and organization: Coxswain, U.S. Navy. Born: 1832, Ireland. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Second award. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Brooklyn during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee, in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite severe damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks from stem to stern, Cooper fought his gun with skill and courage throughout the furious battle which resulted in the surrender of the prize rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.


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CRIPPS, THOMAS
Rank and organization: Quartermaster, U.S. Navy. Born: 1837 Philadelphia, Pa. Accredited to: Pennsylvania. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: As captain of a gun on board the U.S.S. Richmond during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks, Cripps fought his gun with skill and courage throughout a furious 2-hour battle which resulted in the surrender of the rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.

CRONIN, CORNELIUS
Rank and organization: Chief Quartermaster, U.S. Navy. Born: 1836, Michigan. Accredited to: Michigan. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Richmond in action at Mobile Bay on 5 August 1864. Cool and vigilant at his station throughout the prolonged action, Cronin watched for signals and skillfully steered the ship as she trained her guns on Fort Morgan and on ships of the Confederacy despite extremely heavy return fire. He participated in the actions at Forts Jackson and St. Philip, with the Chalmette batteries, at the surrender of New Orleans, and in the attacks on batteries below Vicksburg.

CURTIS, JOHN C.
Rank and organization: Sergeant Major, 9th Connecticut Infantry. Place and date: At Baton Rouge, La., 5 August 1862. Entered service at: Bridgeport, Conn. Birth: Bridgeport, Conn. Date of issue: 16 December 1896. Citation: Voluntarily sought the line of battle and alone and unaided captured 2 prisoners, driving them before him to regimental headquarters at the point of the bayonet.

DAVIS, SAMUEL W.
Rank and organization: Ordinary Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1845, Maine. Accredited to: Maine. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Brooklyn during successful attacks against Fort Morgan, rebel gunboats and the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, on 5 August 1864. Despite severe damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks from stem to stern, Davis exercised extreme courage and vigilance while acting as a look-out for torpedoes and other obstructions throughout the furious battle which resulted in the surrender of the prize rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.

DEAKIN, CHARLES
Rank and organization: Boatswain’s Mate, U.S. Navy. Born: 1837, New York, N.Y. Accredited to: Pennsylvania. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: As captain of a gun on board the U.S.S. Richmond during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks, Deakin fought his gun with skill and courage throughout a furious 2-hour battle which resulted in the surrender of the rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan. He also participated in the actions at Forts Jackson and St. Philip.

DENIG, J. HENRY
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps. Born: 1839, York, Pa. Accredited to: Pennsylvania. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Brooklyn during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee, in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite severe damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks, Sgt. Denig fought his gun with skill and courage throughout the furious 2-hour battle which resulted in the surrender of the rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.

DENNIS, RICHARD
Rank and organization: Boatswain’s Mate, U.S. Navy. Born: 1826, Massachusetts. Accredited to: Massachusetts. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Brooklyn during successful attacks against Fort Morgan, rebel gunboats and the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, on 5 August 1864. Despite severe damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks from stem to stern, Dennis displayed outstanding skill and courage in operating the torpedo catcher and in assisting in working the bow chasers throughout the furious battle which resulted in the surrender of the prize rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.

DENSMORE, WILLIAM
Rank and organization: Chief Boatswain’s Mate, U.S. Navy. Born: 1834, New York. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: As captain of a gun on board the U.S.S. Richmond during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks, Densmore fought his gun with skill and courage throughout a furious 2-hour battle which resulted in the surrender of the rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.

DIGGINS, BARTHOLOMEW
Rank and organization: Ordinary Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1842, Baltimore, Md. Accredited to: Maryland. G.O. No.: 391, 12 November 1891. Citation: On board the flagship, U.S.S. Hartford, during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks, Diggins, as loader of a gun, remained steadfast at his post throughout the furious 2-hour battle which resulted in the surrender of the rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.

DONNELLY, JOHN
Rank and organization: Ordinary Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1839, England. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 71, 15 January 1866. Citation: Served on board the U.S.S. Metacomet. As a member of the boat’s crew which went to the rescue of the U.S. Monitor Tecumseh when that vessel was struck by a torpedo in passing the enemy forts in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864, Donnelly braved the enemy fire which was said by the admiral to be “one of the most galling” he had ever seen and aided in rescuing from death 10 of the crew of the Tecumseh, eliciting the admiration of both friend and foe.

DOOLEN, WILLIAM
Rank and organization: Coal Heaver, U.S. Navy. Born: 1841, Ireland. Accredited to: Pennsylvania. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Richmond during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Although knocked down and seriously wounded in the head, Doolen refused to leave his station as shot and shell passed. Calm and courageous, he rendered gallant service throughout the prolonged battle which resulted in the surrender of the rebel ram Tennessee and in the successful attacks carried out on Fort Morgan despite the enemy’s heavy return fire.

DUNCAN, ADAM
Rank and organization: Boatswain’s Mate, U.S. Navy. Born: 1833, Maine. Accredited to: Maine. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: As captain of a gun on board the U.S.S. Richmond during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks, Duncan fought his gun with skill and courage throughout the prolonged battle which resulted in the surrender of the rebel ram Tennessee and in the successful attacks carried out on Fort Morgan.



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FREEMAN, MARTIN
Rank and organization: Pilot, U.S. Navy. Entered service at: Louisiana. Born: 18 May 1814, Germany. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: As pilot of the flagship, U.S.S. Hartford, during action against Fort Morgan, rebel gunboats and the ram Tennessee, in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. With his ship under terrific enemy shellfire, Freeman calmly remained at his station in the maintop and skillfully piloted the ships into the bay. He rendered gallant service throughout the prolonged battle in which the rebel gunboats were captured or driven off, the prize ram Tennessee forced to surrender, and the fort successfully attacked.

GARDNER, WILLIAM
Rank and organization: Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1832, Ireland. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: As seaman on board the U.S.S. Calena in the engagement at Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Serving gallantly during this fierce battle which resulted in the capture of the rebel ram Tennessee and the damaging of Fort Morgan. Gardner behaved with conspicuous coolness under the fire of the enemy.

GARRISON, JAMES R.
Rank and organization: Coal Heaver, U.S. Navy. Born. 1840, Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the flagship, U.S.S. Hartford, during successful engagements against Fort Morgan, rebel gunboats and the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, on 5 August 1864. When a shell struck his foot and severed one of his toes, Garrison remained at his station at the shell whip and, after crudely bandaging the wound, continued to perform his duties until severely wounded by another shellburst.

HALSTEAD, WILLIAM
Rank and organization: Coxswain, U.S. Navy. Born: 1837, New York. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Brooklyn during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee, in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite severe damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks from stem to stern, Halstead fought his gun with skill and courage throughout the furious battle which resulted in the surrender of the prize rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.

HAMILTON, HUGH
Rank and organization: Coxswain, U.S. Navy. Born: 1830, New York, N.Y. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Richmond during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks, Hamilton performed his duties with skill and courage throughout the prolonged battle which resulted in the surrender of the rebel ram Tennessee and in the successful attacks carried out on Fort Morgan.

HARRIS, JOHN
Rank and organization: Captain of the Forecastle, U.S. Navy. Born: 1839, Scotland. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 17, 15 January 1866. Citation: As captain of the forecastle on board the U.S.S. Metacomet, Harris was a member of the boat’s crew which went to the rescue of the officers and crew of the U.S. Monitor Tecumseh, when that vessel was struck by a torpedo in passing the enemy forts in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864 Harris braved the enemy fire which was said by the admiral to be “one of the most galling” he had ever seen, and aided in rescuing from death 10 of the crew of the Tecumseh, thereby eliciting the admiration of both friend and foe.

HAYES, THOMAS
Rank and organization: Coxswain, U.S. Navy. Born: 1840, Rhode Island. Accredited to: Rhode Island. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: As Captain of No. 1 gun on board the U.S.S. Richmond during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Cool and courageous at his station throughout the prolonged action, Hayes maintained fire from his gun on Fort Morgan and on ships of the Confederacy despite extremely heavy return fire.

HUDSON, MICHAEL
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps. Born: 1834, Sligo County, Ireland. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Brooklyn during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite severe damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked the decks, Sgt. Hudson fought his gun with skill and courage throughout the furious 2-hour battle which resulted in the surrender of the rebel ram Tennessee.

IRLAM, JOSEPH
Rank and organization: Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1840, England. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: Stationed at the wheel on board the U.S.S. Brooklyn during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. When heavy enemy fire struck down several men at their guns and replacements were not available, Irlam voluntarily released 2 men who were stationed with him and carried on at the wheel with the assistance of only one of the crew throughout the furious battle.

IRVING, JOHN
Rank and organization: Coxswain, U.S. Navy. Born: 1839, East Brooklyn, N.Y. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Brooklyn during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee, in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite severe damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks from stem to stern, Irving fought his gun with skill and courage throughout the furious battle which resulted in the surrender of the prize rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.

IRWIN, NICHOLAS
Rank and organization: Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1833, Denmark. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Brooklyn during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee, in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite severe damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks from stem to stern, Irwin fought his gun with skill and courage throughout the furious battle which resulted in the surrender of the prize rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.

JAMES, JOHN H.
Rank and organization: Captain of the Top, U.S. Navy. Born: 1835, Boston, Mass. Accredited to: Massachusetts. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: As captain of a gun on board the U.S.S. Richmond during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks, James fought his gun with skill and courage throughout a furious 2-hour battle which resulted in the surrender of the rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.

JOHNSON, HENRY
Rank and organization: Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1824, Norway. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 82, 23 February 1867. Citation: As seaman on board the U.S.S. Metacomet, Johnson served as a member of the boat’s crew which went to the rescue of the U.S. Monitor Tecumseh when that vessel was struck by a torpedo in passing the enemy forts in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. He braved the enemy fire which was said by the admiral to be “one of the most galling” he had ever seen, and aided in rescuing from death 10 of the crew of the Tecumseh, thereby eliciting the admiration of both friend and foe.

JONES, ANDREW
Rank and organization: Chief Boatswain’s Mate, U.S. Navy. Born: 1835, Ireland. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: Served as chief boatswain’s mate on board the U.S. Ironclad, Chickasaw, Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Although his enlistment was up, Jones volunteered for the battle of Mobile Bay, going on board the Chickasaw from the Vincennes where he then carried out his duties gallantly throughout the engagement with the enemy which resulted in the capture of the rebel ram Tennessee.

JONES, JOHN E.
Rank and organization: Quartermaster, U.S. Navy. Born: 1834, New York, N.Y. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: Served as quartermaster on board the U.S.S. Oneida in the engagement at Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Stationed at the wheel during the fierce action, Jones, though wounded, carried out his duties gallantly by going to the poop to assist at the signals after the wheel ropes were shot away and remained there until ordered to reeve new wheel ropes.

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JONES, WILLIAM
Rank and organization: Captain of the Top, U.S. Navy. Born: 1831, Philadelphia, Pa. Accredited to: Pennsylvania. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: As captain of a gun on board the U.S.S. Rlchmond during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks, Jones fought his gun with skill and courage throughout the prolonged battle which resulted in the surrender of the rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.

JORDAN, THOMAS
Rank and organization: Quartermaster, U.S. Navy. Born: 1840, Portsmouth, Va. Accredited to: Virginia. G.O. No.: 59, 22 June 1865. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Calena during the attack on enemy forts at Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Securely lashed to the side of the Oneida which had suffered the loss of her steering apparatus and an explosion of her boiler from enemy fire, the Calena aided the stricken vessel past the enemy forts to safety. Despite heavy damage to his ship from raking enemy fire, Jordan performed his duties with skill and courage throughout the action.

KENDRICK, THOMAS
Rank and organization: Coxswain, U.S. Navy. Born: 1839, Bath, Maine. Accredited to: Maine. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: Served as coxswain on board the U.S.S. Oneida in the engagement at Mobile Bay, 5 August, 1864. Volunteering for the Mobile Bay action from Bienville, Kendrick displayed courageous devotion to duty, and his excellent conduct throughout the battle which resulted in the capture of the rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging of Fort Morgan, attracted the attention of the commanding officer and those serving around him.

KENNA, BARNETT
Rank and organization: Quartermaster, U.S. Navy. Born: 1827, England. Accredited to: Massachusetts. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Brooklyn during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee, in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite severe damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks from stem to stern Kenna fought his gun with skill and courage throughout the furious action which resulted in the surrender of the rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.

KINNAIRD, SAMUEL W.
Rank and organization: Landsman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1843, New York, N.Y. ,Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: Served as a landsman on board the U.S.S. Lackawanna during successful attacks against Fort Morgan, rebel gunboats and the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Showing a presence of mind and cheerfulness that had much to do with maintaining the crew’s morale, Kinnaird served gallantly through the action which resulted in the capture of the prize rebel ram Tennessee and in the destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.

LAWSON, JOHN
Rank and organization: Landsman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1837, Pennsylvania. Accredited to: Pennsylvania. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the flagship U.S.S. Hartford during successful attacks against Fort Morgan, rebel gunboats and the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay on 5 August 1864. Wounded in the leg and thrown violently against the side of the ship when an enemy shell killed or wounded the 6-man crew as the shell whipped on the berth deck, Lawson, upon regaining his composure, promptly returned to his station and, although urged to go below for treatment, steadfastly continued his duties throughout the remainder of the action.

MACHON, JAMES
Rank and organization: Boy, U.S. Navy. Born: 1848, England. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Brooklyn during successful attacks against Fort Morgan, rebel gunboats and the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, on 5 August 1864. Stationed in the immediate vicinity of the shell whips which were twice cleared of men by bursting shells, Machon remained steadfast at his post and performed his duties in the powder division throughout the furious action which resulted in the surrender of the prize rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.

MACK, ALEXANDER
Rank and organization: Captain of the Top, U.S. Navy. Born: 1836, Holland. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Brooklyn during successful attacks against Fort Morgan, rebel gunboats and the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, on 5 August 1864. Although wounded and sent below for treatment, Mack immediately returned to his post and took charge of his gun and, as heavy enemy return fire continued to fall, performed his duties with skill and courage until he was again wounded and totally disabled.

MADDEN, WILLIAM
Rank and organization: Coal Heaver, U.S. Navy. Born: 1843, England. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Brooklyn during the successful attacks against Fort Morgan, rebel gunboats and the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, on 5 August 1864. Stationed in the immediate vicinity of the shell whips, which were twice cleared of men by bursting shells, Madden remained steadfast at his post and performed his duties in the powder division throughout the furious action which resulted in the surrender of the prize rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.

MARTIN, EDWARD S.
Rank and organization: Quartermaster, U.S. Navy. Born: 1840, Ireland. Accredited to: Pennsylvania. G.O. No.: 59, 22 June 1865. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Calena during the attack on enemy forts at Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Securely lashed to the side of the Oneida which had suffered the loss of her steering apparatus and an explosion of her boiler from enemy fire, the Calena aided the stricken vessel past the enemy forts to safety. Despite heavy damage to his ship from raking enemy fire, Martin performed his duties with skill and courage throughout the action.

MARTIN, JAMES
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps. Born: 1826, Derry, Ireland. Accredited to: Pennsylvania. G.O. No: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: As captain of a gun on board the U.S.S. Richmond during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks, Sgt. Martin fought his gun with skill and courage throughout the furious 2_hour battle which resulted in the surrender of the rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.

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McCULLOCK, ADAM
Rank and organization: Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1830, Maine. Accredited to: Maine. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Lackawanna during successful attacks against Fort Morgan, rebel gunboats and the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, on 5 August 1864. Wounded when an enemy shell struck, and ordered to go below, McCullock refused to leave his station and continued to perform his duties throughout the prolonged action which resulted in the capture of the prize ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of Fort Morgan.

McFARLAND, JOHN
Rank and organization: Captain of the Forecastle, U.S. Navy. Born: 1840, Boston, Mass. Accredited to: Massachusetts. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: Stationed at the wheel on board the flagship U.S.S. Hartford during successful action against Fort Morgan, rebel gunboats and the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, on 5 August 1864. With his ship under terrific enemy shellfire, McFarland performed his duties with skill and courage and, when the Lackawanna ran into his ship and every man at the wheel was in danger of being crushed, remained steadfast at his station and continued to steer the ship.

MclNTOSH, JAMES
Rank and organization: Captain of the Top, U.S. Navy. Born: 1833, Canada. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Richmond during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks, Mclntosh performed his duties with skill and courage throughout the prolonged battle which resulted in the surrender of the rebel ram Tennessee and in the successful attacks carried out on Fort Morgan.

MELVILLE, CHARLES
Rank and organization: Ordinary Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1828, Dover, N.H. Accredited to: New Hampshire. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the flagship U.S.S. Hartford during action against rebel gunboats, the ram Tennessee, and Fort Morgan in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Wounded and taken below to the surgeon when a shell burst between the two forward 9_inch guns, killing and wounding 15 men, Melville promptly returned to his gun on the deck and, although scarcely able to stand, refused to go below and continued to man his post throughout the remainder of the action resulting in the capture of the rebel ram Tennessee.

MIFFLIN, JAMES
Rank and organization: Engineer’s Cook, U.S. Navy. Born: 1839, Richmond, Va. Accredited to: Virginia. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Brooklyn during successful attacks against Fort Morgan, rebel gunboats and the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, on 5 August 1864. Stationed in the immediate vicinity of the shell whips which were twice cleared of men by bursting shells, Mifflin remained steadfast at his post and performed his duties in the powder division throughout the furious action which resulted in the surrender of the prize rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.

MILLER, ANDREW
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps. Born: 1836, Germany. Accredited to: Washington, D.C. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: As captain of a gun on board the U.S.S. Richmond during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks, Sgt. Miller fought his gun with skill and courage throughout the furious 2_hour battle which resulted in the surrender of the rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.

MORGAN, JAMES H.
Rank and organization: Captain of the Top, U.S. Navy. Born: 1840, New York. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: As captain of a gun on board the U.S.S. Richmond during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks Morgan fought his gun with skill and courage throughout a furious 2_hour battle which resulted in the surrender of the rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.

MURPHY, PATRICK
Rank and organization: Boatswain’s Mate, U.S. Navy. Born: 1823, Ireland. Accredited to: New York. Citation: Served as boatswain’s mate on board the U.S.S. Metacomet, during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks, Murphy performed his duties with skill and courage throughout a furious 2_hour battle which resulted in the surrender of the rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.

NAYLOR, DAVID
Rank and organization: Landsman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1843, Thompsonville, N.Y. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: Served on board the U.S.S. Oneida in the engagement at Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Acting as powder boy at the 30-pounder Parrott rifle, Naylor had his passing box shot from his hands and knocked overboard where it fell in one of the Calena’s boats which was under the bow. Jumping overboard, Naylor recovered his box, returned to his station and continued to carry out his courageous actions throughout the engagement which resulted in the capture of the rebel ram Tennessee and the damaging of Fort Morgan.

NEWLAND, WILLIAM
Rank and organization: Ordinary Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1841, Medway, Mass. Accredited to: Massachusetts. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: Serving on board the U.S.S. Oneida in the engagement at Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Carrying out his duties as loader of the after 11-inch gun, Newland distinguished himself on board for his good conduct and faithful discharge of his station, behaving splendidly under the fire of the enemy and throughout the battle which resulted in the capture of the rebel ram Tennessee and the damaging of Fort Morgan.

NICHOLS, WILLIAM
Rank and organization: Quartermaster, U.S. Navy. Born: 1837, New York, N.Y. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Brooklyn during successful attacks against Fort Morgan, rebel gunboats and the ram Tennessee, in Mobile Bay, on 5 August 1864. Despite severe damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks from stem to stern, Nichols fought his gun with skill and courage throughout the furious battle which resulted in the surrender of the prize rebel ram Tennessee, and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.

NOBLE, DANIEL
Rank and organization: Landsman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1840, Bath County, Ky. G.O. No.: 71, 15 January 1866. Citation: As landsman on board the U.S.S. Metacomet, Noble served among the boat’s crew which went to the rescue of the U.S. Monitor Tecumseh when that vessel was struck by a torpedo in passing enemy forts in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Noble braved the enemy fire which was said by the admiral to be “one of the most galling” he had ever seen and aided in rescuing from death 10 of the crew of the Tecumseh, thereby eliciting the admiration of both friend and foe.

O’CONNELL, THOMAS
Rank and organization: Coal Heaver, U.S. Navy. Born: 1842, Ireland. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the flagship U.S.S. Hartford, during successful attacks against Fort Morgan, rebel gunboats and the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay on 5 August 1864. Although a patient in the sick bay, O’Connell voluntarily reported at his station at the shell whip and continued to perform his duties with zeal and courage until his right hand was severed by an enemy shellburst.

OVIATT, MILES M.
Rank and organization: Corporal, U.S. Marine Corps. Born: 1841, Cattaraugus County, N.Y. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Brooklyn during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite severe damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked the deck, Cpl. Oviatt fought his gun with skill and courage throughout the furious 2_hour battle which resulted in the surrender of the rebel ram Tennessee.

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[SHOOTER13]

PARKS, GEORGE
Rank and organization: Captain of the Forecastle, U.S. Navy. Born: 1823, Schenectady, N.Y. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Richmond during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks, Parks performed his duties with skill and courage throughout a furious 2_hour battle which resulted in the surrender of the rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.

PELHAM, WILLIAM
Rank and organization: Landsman, U.S. Navy. Born: Halifax, Nova Scotia. Enlisted in: Nova Scotia. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the flagship U.S.S. Hartford during successful actions against Fort Morgan, rebel gunboats and the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. When the other members of his guncrew were killed or wounded under the enemy’s terrific shellfire, Pelham calmly assisted the casualties below and voluntarily returned and took his place at an adjoining gun where another man had been struck down. He continued to fight his gun throughout the remainder of the battle which resulted in the capture of the Tennessee.

PHINNEY, WILLIAM
Rank and organization: Boatswain’s Mate, U.S. Navy. Born: 1824, Norway. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Lackawanna during successful attacks against Fort Morgan, rebel gunboats and the ram, Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Serving as a gun captain Phinney showed much presence of mind in managing the gun, and gave much needed encouragement to the crew during the engagement which resulted in the capture of the prize rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of Fort Morgan.

PRESTON, JOHN
Rank and organization: Landsman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1841, Ireland. Accredited to: Massachusetts. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: Served on board the U.S.S. Oneida in the engagement at Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Severely wounded, Preston remained at his gun throughout the engagement which resulted in the capture of the rebel ram Tennessee and the damaging of Fort Morgan, carrying on until obliged to go to the surgeon to whom he reported himself as “only slightly injured.” He then assisted in taking care of the wounded below and wanted to be allowed to return to his battle station on deck. Upon close examination it was found that he was wounded quite severely in both eyes.

PRICE, EDWARD
Rank and organization: Coxswain, U.S. Navy. Born: 1840, New York. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Brooklyn during successful attacks against Fort Morgan, rebel gunboats and the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. When the sponge broke, leaving the head in the gun, and completely disabling the weapon, Price immediately cleared it by pouring powder into the vent and blowing the sponge head out, thereafter continuing to man the weapon until the close of the furious action which resulted in the capture of the prize rebel ram Tennessee and in the infliction of damage and destruction on Fort Morgan.

ROANTREE, JAMES S.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps. Born: 1835, Dublin, Ireland. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Oneida during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks and penetrated her boilers, Sgt. Roantree performed his duties with skill and courage throughout the furious battle which resulted in the surrender of the rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.

SEANOR, JAMES
Rank and organization: Master_at_Arms, U.S. Navy. Born: 1833, Boston, Mass. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: Served as master_at_arms on board the U.S. Ironclad Chickasaw, Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Although his enlistment was up, Seanor volunteered for the battle of Mobile Bay, going on board the Chickasaw from the Vincennes where he carried out his duties gallantly throughout the engagement which resulted in the capture of the rebel ram Tennessee.

SHARP, HENDRICK
Rank and organization: Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1815, Spain. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: As captain of a 100_pounder rifle gun on topgallant forecastle on board the U.S.S. Richmond during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks, Sharp fought his gun with skill and courage throughout a furious 2_hour battle which resulted in the surrender of the rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of the batteries at Fort Morgan.

SHERIDAN, JAMES
Rank and organization: Quartermaster, U.S. Navy. Born: 1831, Newark, N.J. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: Served as quartermaster on board the U.S.S. Oneida in the engagement at Mobile Bay 5 August 1864. Acting as captain of the after 11_inch gun, and wounded in several places, Sheridan remained at his gun until the firing had ceased and then took the place of the signal quartermaster who had been injured by a fall. Recommended for his gallantry and intelligence, Sheridan served courageously throughout this battle which resulted in the capture of the rebel ram Tennessee and the damaging of Fort Morgan.

SIMKINS, LEBBEUS
Rank and organization: Coxswain, U.S. Navy. Born: 1836, Utica N.Y. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Richmond during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks, Simkins performed his duties with skill and courage throughout a furious 2_hour battle which resulted in the surrender of the rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.

SMITH, JAMES
Rank and organization: Captain of the Forecastle, U.S. Navy. Born: 1826, Albany, N.Y. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: As captain of a gun on board the U.S.S: Richmond during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee, in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks, Smith fought his gun with skill and courage throughout the prolonged battle which resulted in the surrender of the rebel ram Tennessee and in the successful attacks carried out on Fort Morgan.

SMITH, JOHN
Rank and organization: Captain of Forecastle, U.S. Navy. Born: 1831, Boston, Mass. Accredited to: Massachusetts. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Lackawanna during the successful attacks against Fort Morgan, rebel gunboats and the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Serving as a gun captain and finding he could not depress his gun when alongside the rebel ironclad Tennessee, Smith threw a hand holystone into one of the ports at a rebel using abusive language against the crew of the ship. He continued his daring action throughout the engagement which resulted in the capture of the prize ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of Fort Morgan.

SMITH, JOHN
Rank and organization: Second Captain of the Top, U.S. Navy. Born 1826, Albany, N.Y. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: As captain of a gun on board the U.S.S. Richmond during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks, Smith fought his gun with skill and courage throughout a furious 2_hour battle which resulted in the surrender of the rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.

SMITH, OLOFF
Rank and organization. Coxswain, U.S. Navy. Born: 1833, Sweden. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Richmond during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864 Despite damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks, Smith performed his duties with skill and courage throughout the furious 2_hour battle which resulted in the surrender of the rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.

SMITH, WALTER B.
Rank and organization: Ordinary Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1827, New York. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Richmond during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Cool and courageous at his station throughout the prolonged action, Smith rendered outstanding service at the 100_pounder rifle on the topgallant forecastle and while firing his musket into the gun ports of the rebel Tennessee.

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[SHOOTER13]

SMITH, WILLARD M.
Rank and organization: Corporal, U.S. Marine Corps. Born: 1840, Alleghany, N.Y. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Brooklyn during action against rebel forts and gunboats, and with the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite severe damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire continued to fall, Cpl. Smith fought his gun with skill and courage throughout the furious 2_hour battle which resulted in the surrender of the rebel ram Tennessee.

SPROWLE, DAVID
Rank and organization: Orderly Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps. Born: 1811, Lisbon, N.Y. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Richmond during action against rebel forts and gunboats, and with the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks, Orderly Sgt. Sprowle inspired the men of the marine guard and directed a division of great guns throughout the furious battle which resulted in the surrender of the rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.

STANLEY, WILLIAM A.
Rank and organization: Shell Man, U.S. Navy. Born: 1831, Massachusetts. Accredited to: Massachusetts. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: Shell man on No. 8 on board the U.S.S. Hartford during successful actions against Fort Morgan, rebel gunboats and the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, on 5 August 1864. Although severely wounded when his ship sustained numerous hits under the enemy’s terrific shellfire, Stanley continued to pass shell until forced by the loss of blood to go below.

STERLING, JAMES E.
Rank and organization. Coal Heaver, U.S. Navy. Born: 1838, Maine. Accredited to: Maine. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Brooklyn during successful attacks against Fort Morgan, rebel gunboats and the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, on 5 August 1864. Although wounded when heavy enemy return fire raked the decks of his ship, Sterling courageously remained at his post and continued passing shell until struck down a second time and completely disabled.

TAYLOR, GEORGE
Rank and organization: Armorer, U.S. Navy. Born: 1830, Watertown, N.Y. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Lackawanna during successful attacks against Fort Morgan, rebel gunboats and the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, on 5 August 1864. When an enemy shell exploded in the shellroom, Taylor although wounded went into the room and, with his hand, extinguished the fire from the explosion. He then carried out his duties during the remainder of the prolonged action which resulted in the capture of the prize rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of Fort Morgan.

TAYLOR, THOMAS
Rank an_! organization: Coxswain, U.S. Navy. Born: 1834, Bangor, Maine. Accredited to: Maine. G.O. No.: 59, 22 June 1865. Citation: Served on board the U.S.S. Metacomet during the action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the rebel ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks, Taylor encouraged the men of the forward pivot gun when the officer in command displayed cowardice, doing honor to the occasion.

TODD, SAMUEL
Rank and organization. Quartermaster, U.S. Navy. Born: 1815, Portsmouth, N.H. Accredited to: New Hampshire. G. O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: Stationed at the conn on board the U.S.S. Brooklyn during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite severe damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks from stem to stern, Todd performed his duties with outstanding skill and courage throughout the furious battle which resulted in the surrender of the prize rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.

TRUETT, ALEXANDER H.
Rank and organization: Coxswain, U.S. Navy. Born: 1834, Baltimore, Md. Accredited to: Maryland. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Richmond during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks, Truett performed his duties with skill and courage throughout a furious 2_hour battle which resulted in the surrender of the rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.

WARD, JAMES
Rank and organization: Quarter Gunner, U.S. Navy. Born: 1833, New York, N.Y. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: Serving as gunner on board the U.S.S. Lackawanna during successful attacks against Fort Morgan, rebel gunboats and the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Although wounded and ordered below, Ward refused to go, but rendered aid at one of the guns when the crew was disabled. He subsequently remained in the chains, heaving the lead, until nearly caught in the collision with the ram Tennessee. He continued to serve bravely throughout the action which resulted in the capture of the prize ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of Fort Morgan.

WELLS, WILLIAM
Rank and organization: Quartermaster, U.S. Navy. Born: 1832, Germany. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: As landsman and lookout on board the U.S.S. Richmond during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Despite damage to his ship the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks, Wells performed his duties with skill and courage throughout a furious 2_hour battle which resulted in the surrender of the rebel ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan.

WHITFIELD, DANIEL
Rank and organization: Quartermaster, U.S. Navy. Born: 1821, Newark, N.J. Accredited to: New Jersey. G.O. No.: 45, 31 December 1864. Citation: Serving as quartermaster on board the U.S.S. Lackawanna during successful attacks against Fort Morgan, rebel gunboats and the rebel ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864. Acting as captain of a gun, Whitfield coolly stood by his gun, holding on to the lock string and waited alongside the rebel ram Tennessee until able to fire the shot that entered her port. Whitfield courageously carried out his duties during the prolonged action which resulted in the capture of the prize ram Tennessee and in the damaging and destruction of Fort Morgan.


*REESE, JAMES W.
Rank and organization. Private, U.S. Army, 26th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division. Place and date. At Mt. Vassillio, Sicily, 5 August 1943. Entered service at: Chester, Pa. Birth: Chester, Pa. G.O. No.: 85, 17 December 1943. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life. above and beyond the call of duty in action involving actual conflict with the enemy. When the enemy launched a counterattack which threatened the position of his company, Pvt. Reese, as the acting squad leader of a 60-mm. mortar squad, displaying superior leadership on his own initiative, maneuvered his squad forward to a favorable position, from which, by skillfully directing the fire of his weapon, he caused many casualties in the enemy ranks, and aided materially in repulsing the counterattack. When the enemy fire became so severe as to make his position untenable, he ordered the other members of his squad to withdraw to a safer position, but declined to seek safety for himself. So as to bring more effective fire upon the enemy, Pvt. Reese, without assistance, moved his mortar to a new position and attacked an enemy machinegun nest. He had only 3 rounds of ammunition but secured a direct hit with his last round, completely destroying the nest and killing the occupants. Ammunition being exhausted, he abandoned the mortar. seized a rifle and continued to advance, moving into an exposed position overlooking the enemy. Despite a heavy concentration of machinegun, mortar, and artillery fire, the heaviest experienced by his unit throughout the entire Sicilian campaign, he remained at this position and continued to inflict casualties upon the enemy until he was killed. His bravery, coupled with his gallant and unswerving determination to close with the enemy, regardless of consequences and obstacles which he faced, are a priceless inspiration to our armed forces.

*SEBILLE, LOUIS J.
Rank and organization: Major, U.S. Air Force, 67th Fighter-Bomber Squadron, 18th Fighter-Bomber Group, 5th Air Force. Place and date: Near Hanchang, Korea, 5 August 1950. Entered service at: Chicago, Ill. Born: 21 November 1915, Harbor Beach. Mich. Citation: Maj. Sebille, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. During an attack on a camouflaged area containing a concentration of enemy troops, artillery, and armored vehicles, Maj. Sebille’s F-51 aircraft was severely damaged by antiaircraft fire. Although fully cognizant of the short period he could remain airborne, he deliberately ignored the possibility of survival by abandoning the aircraft or by crash landing, and continued his attack against the enemy forces threatening the security of friendly ground troops. In his determination to inflict maximum damage upon the enemy, Maj. Sebille again exposed himself to the intense fire of enemy gun batteries and dived on the target to his death. The superior leadership, daring, and selfless devotion to duty which he displayed in the execution of an extremely dangerous mission were an inspiration to both his subordinates and superiors and reflect the highest credit upon himself, the U.S. Air Force, and the armed forces of the United Nations.

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6 August

1777 – The Battle of Oriskany was one of the bloodiest battles in the North American theater of the American Revolutionary War and a significant engagement of the Saratoga campaign. An American party trying to relieve the siege of Fort Stanwix was ambushed by a party of Loyalists and allies of several Native American tribes. This was one the few battles in the war in which almost all of the participants were North American: Loyalists and allied Indians fought against Patriots and allied Oneida in the absence of British soldiers. Early in the siege of Fort Stanwix, an American relief force from the Mohawk Valley under General Nicholas Herkimer, numbering around 800 men of the Tryon County militia, and a party of Oneida warriors, approached in an attempt to raise the siege. British commander Barry St. Leger authorized an intercept force consisting of a Hanau Jäger (light infantry) detachment, Sir John Johnson’s King’s Royal Regiment of New York, Indian allies from the Six Nations, particularly Mohawk and Seneca; and other tribes to the north and west, and Indian Department Rangers, totaling at least 450 men. The Loyalist and Indian force ambushed Herkimer’s force in a small valley about six miles (10 km) east of Fort Stanwix, near the present-day village of Oriskany, New York. During the battle, Herkimer was mortally wounded. The battle cost the Patriots approximately 450 casualties, while the Loyalists and Indians lost approximately 150 dead and wounded. The result of the battle remains ambiguous because the apparent Loyalist victory was significantly affected by a sortie from Fort Stanwix in which the Loyalist camps were sacked, spoiling morale among the allied Indians. For the Iroquois nations, the battle marked the beginning of a civil war, as Oneida warriors under Colonel Louis and Han Yerry allied with the American cause and fought against members of other Iroquois nations. There were also internal divisions among the Oneida, some of whom went to Canada as allies of the British. The site is known in oral histories of the Iroquois nations as “A Place of Great Sadness.” The site has been designated as a National Historic Landmark and is marked by a battle monument.

1787 – In Philadelphia, delegates to the Constitutional Convention begin debating the first complete draft of the proposed Constitution of the United States. Sixty proof sheets have been delivered to the Constitutional Convention for this purpose. The Articles of Confederation, ratified several months before the British surrender at Yorktown in 1781, provided for a loose confederation of U.S. states, which were sovereign in most of their affairs. On paper, Congress–the central authority–had the power to govern foreign affairs, conduct war, and regulate currency, but in practice these powers were sharply limited because Congress was given no authority to enforce its requests to the states for money or troops. By 1786, it was apparent that the Union would soon break up if the Articles of Confederation were not amended or replaced. Five states met in Annapolis, Maryland, to discuss the issue, and all the states were invited to send delegates to a new constitutional convention to be held in Philadelphia. On May 25, 1787, delegates representing every state except Rhode Island convened at Philadelphia’s Pennsylvania State House for the Constitutional Convention. The building, which is now known as Independence Hall, had earlier seen the drafting of the Declaration of Independence and the signing of the Articles of Confederation. The assembly immediately discarded the idea of amending the Articles of Confederation and set about drawing up a new scheme of government. Revolutionary War hero George Washington, a delegate from Virginia, was elected convention president. During an intensive debate, the delegates devised a brilliant federal system characterized by an intricate system of checks and balances. The convention was divided over the issue of state representation in Congress, as more-populated states sought proportional legislation, and smaller states wanted equal representation. The problem was resolved by the Connecticut Compromise, which proposed a bicameral legislature with proportional representation in the lower house (House of Representatives) and equal representation of the states in the upper house (Senate). On September 17, 1787, the Constitution of the United States of America was signed by 38 of the 41 delegates present at the conclusion of the convention. As dictated by Article VII, the document would not become binding until it was ratified by nine of the 13 states.

Beginning on December 7, five states–Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut–ratified it in quick succession. However, other states, especially Massachusetts, opposed the document, as it failed to reserve undelegated powers to the states and lacked constitutional protection of basic political rights, such as freedom of speech, religion, and the press. In February 1788, a compromise was reached under which Massachusetts and other states would agree to ratify the document with the assurance that amendments would be immediately proposed. The Constitution was thus narrowly ratified in Massachusetts, followed by Maryland and South Carolina. On June 21, 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the document, and it was subsequently agreed that government under the U.S. Constitution would begin on March 4, 1789. In June, Virginia ratified the Constitution, followed by New York in July. On September 25, 1789, the first Congress of the United States adopted 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution–the Bill of Rights–and sent them to the states for ratification. Ten of these amendments were ratified in 1791. In November 1789, North Carolina became the 12th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. Rhode Island, which opposed federal control of currency and was critical of compromise on the issue of slavery, resisted ratifying the Constitution until the U.S. government threatened to sever commercial relations with the state. On May 29, 1790, Rhode Island voted by two votes to ratify the document, and the last of the original 13 colonies joined the United States. Today, the U.S. Constitution is the oldest written constitution in operation in the world.

1819 – Norwich University, the first private military school in the United States, is founded in Vermont as the American Literary, Scientific and Military Academy. It is the oldest of six senior military colleges, and is recognized by the United States Department of Defense as the “Birthplace of ROTC” (Reserve Officers’ Training Corps).

1847 – LtCol S. E. Watson’s Marines commenced their march on the “Halls of Montezuma” in Mexico.

1862 – C.S.S. Arkansas, Lieutenant Henry Stevens temporarily in command, having become unmanageable due to engine failure while advancing to support a Confederate attack on Baton Rouge, was engaged by U.S.S. Essex, Commander W. D. Porter. Lieutenant Stevens recognized his helpless condition, shot his guns, and ordered Arkansas destroyed to prevent her capture. He reported: “It was beautiful to see her, when abandoned by Commander and crew, and dedicated to sacrifice, fighting the battle on her own hook.” Without naval support and under fire from U.S.S. Sumter, Cayuga, Kineo, and Katahdin, the Confederate thrust was repelled. When the wounded and ill Commander Brown had departed Arkansas on a brief leave, he had realized that critical repairs were necessary and that his ship was not ready for combat. He ordered Stevens not to move her until his return. Nevertheless, General Van Dorn, to ensure the success of his expedition, ordered Arkansas into the fatal Baton Rouge action. Had Arkansas been fit for battle, the Confederates might have taken Baton Rouge and reopened the important Red River supply line then under Union blockade.

1864 – Rebels evacuated Ft. Powell, Mobile Bay.

1878 – The last sailing cutter built for the Revenue Service, USRC Chase, was completed.

1889 – Major General George Kenney, commander of the U.S. Fifth Air Force in New Guinea and the Solomons during World War II, was born.

1901 – Kiowa land in Oklahoma is opened for white settlement, effectively dissolving the contiguous reservation.

1914 – Austria-Hungary declared war against Russia and Serbia declared war against Germany.

1918 – The Second Battle of the Marne ends In disaster for the Germans who sustain losses of 168,000 men and have been pushed back to the line of the Aisne and Vesle Rivers. Following a series of offensives since March, the Germans no longer have the resources to launch attacks. They have suffered huge casualties among their best-trained troops–the storm trooper units– and those who have survived are suffering from increasingly poor morale.

1918 – The first American lightship to be sunk by enemy action, Lightship No. 71, was lost on her Diamond Shoals station. LS 71 had reported by radio the presence of a German submarine which had sunk a passing freighter. That message was intercepted by the submarine U-104, which then located the lightship and, after giving the crew opportunity to abandon ship in the boats, LS 71 was sunk by surface gunfire. The lightship’s crew took to their lifeboats and reached shore without injury.

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1940 – Estonia was illegally annexed by the Soviet Union.

1941 – Konoye’s government presents proposals involving some concessions in China and Indochina to the US, asking in return for the end of the freeze on Japanese assets. The proposals are not acceptable to the US and when the rejection is made known to the Japanese they propose that Konoye and Roosevelt meet to the discuss the issues at stake.

1943 – In Vela Gulf there is an encounter engagement between 6 American destroyers and 4 Japanese destoyers carrying troops and supplies to Kolombangara. Three of the Japanese vessels are sunk.

1943 – The US 1st Division takes Troina, Sicily after several days of heavy fighting.

1944 – Elements of US 12th Army Group continue advancing. The US 3rd Army advances in Brittany. The US 4th Armored Division (part of US 8th Corps) approaches Loreint. Forces of US 15th Corps capture Laval and advance toward Le Mans. Elements of US 1st Army capture Vire.

1944 – On Guam, a regiment of US 77th Division suffers heavy casualties during a Japanese counterattack.

1945 – Hiroshima, Japan, was struck with the uranium bomb, Little Boy, from the B-29 airplane, Enola Gay, piloted by Col. Paul Tibbets of the US Air Force along with 11 other men. The atom bomb killed an estimated 140,000 people in the first use of a nuclear weapon in warfare. Major Thomas Wilson Ferebee (d.2000 at 81) was the bombardier. Richard Nelson (d.2003) was the radio operator. Navy weaponeer, Captain W.S. Parsons, USN, armed the atomic bomb. The bomb is a uranium fission weapon and the yield is in the region of 20,000 tons on TNT. Sixty percent of the city is destroyed in the blast and the firestorm that follows. About 80,000 Japanese are killed. Many more are severely burned and others become ill later, from exposure to radiation. It is not the most devastating bombing attack of the war but the economy of the effort involved in sending only one plane on a mission to destroy a city shows only too well the complete change in military and political thinking which has begun. Meanwhile, other American aircraft raid Tarmuizu, Kagoshima and Miyakonoju.

1945 – On Guam, British Admiral Fraser, commanding the British Pacific Fleet, invests American Admiral Nimitz with the Order of Bath.

1945 – The American aircraft carrier Intrepid attacks Japanese positions on Wake Island.

1945 – Major Richard I. Bong, the top-scoring American fighter ace of World War II (with 40 victories), dies while fight testing an experimental jet fighter at age 24.

1950 – Marine Squadron VMF-323 flew its first air mission of the Korean War.

1964 – Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara and Secretary of State Dean Rusk appear before a joint Congressional committee on foreign affairs to present the Johnson administration’s arguments for a resolution authorizing the president “to take all necessary measures.” The New York Stock Exchange, reacting to the news of the crisis in Vietnam, experienced its sharpest decline since the death of President Kennedy. There were various rallies and peace vigils held across the United States protesting the bombing raids. Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater said he supported President Johnson’s ordering of the retaliatory raids, but that he intended to make the whole question of Vietnam a campaign issue.

1966 – Operation Colorado started by 5th Marines in Vietnam.

1969 – The U.S. Army announces that Colonel Robert B. Rheault, Commander of the Fifth Special Forces Group in Vietnam, and seven other Green Berets have been charged with premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the summary execution of a Vietnamese national, Thai Khac Chuyen, who had served as an agent for Detachment B-57. Chuyen was reportedly summarily executed for being a double agent who had compromised a secret mission. The case against the Green Berets was ultimately dismissed for reasons of national security when the Central Intelligence Agency refused to release highly classified information about the operations in which Detachment B-57 had been involved. Colonel Rheault subsequently retired from the Army.

1971 – The last remaining troops of the Fourth Battalion, 503rd Infantry of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, (the first U.S. Army ground combat unit to arrive in Vietnam in May 1965), cease combat operations and begin preparations to leave Vietnam. The first U.S. ground combat unit of any branch to reach Vietnam was the Third Marine Regiment, Third Marine Division, which began arriving on March 8, 1965. The initial U.S. combat forces were followed by a vast array of combat, combat support, and logistics units that together with U.S. Navy and Air Force personnel in-country reached a peak of 543,400 in April 1969. In June 1969, President Richard Nixon gave the order, as part of his “Vietnamization” policy, which began the process of reducing American troop strength; the troop withdrawals began the following fall and continued until the Paris Peace Accords were signed in January 1973.

1984 – CGC Point Divide seized the HMAV Bounty, a replica of the HMS Bounty that was used in the 1984 motion picture “The Bounty,” for customs violations.

1990 – The U.N. Security Council unanimously approves Resolution 661 imposing a mandatory and complete embargo of all investment and trade, including oil, with Iraq and occupied Kuwait. This results in a reduction of over 4 million bbl/d in oil supplies to world markets (over the next several months, Saudi Arabia increases its production to make up the loss). President Bush orders the deployment of U.S. armed forces to defend Saudi Arabia in an operation named “Operation Desert Shield.”

1991 – Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing his idea for the World Wide Web. WWW debuts as a publicly available service on the Internet.

1992 – President Bush granted full diplomatic recognition to the former Yugoslav republics of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovenia and Croatia, the same day Britain’s Independent Television News showed videotape of emaciated detainees at a pair of Serb prison camps.

1996 – The US Naval Academy at Annapolis expelled 15 midshipmen, 12 men and 3 women, for drug use that included LSD and marijuana.

1998 – NATO set exercises in Albania for Aug 17-22 to show force against the Serb offensive in Kosovo.

2000 – In San Juan, Puerto Rico, thousands rallied to protest new US military exercises on Vieques.

2001 – US intelligence told Pres. Bush that al Qaeda might try to hijack American planes. The document “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US” was presented to Bush while he was on vacation in Crawford, Texas.

2002 – U.S. diplomats said the United States was considering moving consular offices out of traditionally Arab east Jerusalem due to security concerns.

2002 – Iraq’s foreign minister Naji Sabri says that U.N. arms inspectors would be readmitted only as part of a wider plan involving the end of economic sanctions, and warns that Saddam Hussein’s regime would not be pressurised by ” the agenda of the Pentagon or the CIA”.

2004 – There was intense fighting in Najaf. The U.S. military said 300 militants were killed in the past two days. Assailants in Iraq killed 3 US servicemen, one in the capital and two in the south.

2004 – Computer expert Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan, arrested secretly in July, was working under cover to help the authorities track down al Qaeda militants in Britain and the United States.

2004 – Saudi officials reported the capture of Faris Ahmed Jamaan al-Showeel al Zahrani, No. 12 on their list of 26 most wanted terrorism suspects.

2004 – Yemeni warplanes and artillery pounded mountain hideouts of an anti-U.S. leader and his followers in a major offensive aimed at ending a six-week conflict that has killed at least 500 people.

2011 – A US Chinook was shot down by the Taliban, resulting in 38 deaths (30 Americans and 8 Afghans), no survivors. Among the U.S. deaths were 17 Navy Seals who had been part of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU). It was the same unit who killed Osama Bin Laden, although none of the deceased partook in the operation.

2012 – NASA’s Curiosity rover lands on the surface of Mars.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

GRIMSHAW, SAMUEL
Rank and organization: Private, Company B, 52d Ohio Infantry. Place and date: At Atlanta. Ga., 6 August 1864. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Jefferson County, Ohio. Date of issue: 5 April 1894. Citation: Saved the lives of some of his comrades, and greatly imperiled his own by picking up and throwing away a lighted shell which had fallen in the midst of the company.

WILSON, JOHN M.
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Engineers. Place and date: At Malvern Hill, Va., 6 August 1862. Entered service at: Washington Territory. Birth: Olympia, Washington Territory. Date of issue: 3 July 1897. Citation: Remained on duty, while suffering from an acute illness and very weak, and participated in the action of that date. A few days previous he had been transferred to a staff corps, but preferred to remain until the close of the campaign, taking part in several actions.

*THOMPSON, WILLIAM.
Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Army, 24th Company M, 24th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Haman, Korea, 6 August 1950. Entered service at: Bronx, N.Y. Birth: New York, N.Y. G.O. No.: 63, 2 August 1951. Citation: Pfc. Thompson, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. While his platoon was reorganizing under cover of darkness, fanatical enemy forces in overwhelming strength launched a surprise attack on the unit. Pfc. Thompson set up his machine gun in the path of the onslaught and swept the enemy with withering fire, pinning them down momentarily thus permitting the remainder of his platoon to withdraw to a more tenable position. Although hit repeatedly by grenade fragments and small-arms fire, he resisted all efforts of his comrades to induce him to withdraw, steadfastly remained at his machine gun and continued to deliver deadly, accurate fire until mortally wounded by an enemy grenade. Pfc. Thompson’s dauntless courage and gallant self-sacrifice reflect the highest credit on himself and uphold the esteemed traditions of military service.

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7 August

1742 – Nathanael Greene, American Revolutionary War General, was born.

1760 – Ft. Loudon, Tennessee, surrendered to Cherokee Indians.

1782 – At his headquarters in Newburgh, New York, General George Washington, the commander in chief of the Continental Army, creates the “Badge for Military Merit,” a decoration consisting of a purple, heart-shaped piece of silk, edged with a narrow binding of silver, with the word Merit stitched across the face in silver. The badge was to be presented to soldiers for “any singularly meritorious action” and permitted its wearer to pass guards and sentinels without challenge. The honoree’s name and regiment were also to be inscribed in a “Book of Merit.” Washington’s “Purple Heart” was awarded to only three known soldiers during the Revolutionary War: Elijah Churchill, William Brown, and Daniel Bissell, Jr. The “Book of Merit” was lost, and the decoration was largely forgotten until 1927, when General Charles P. Summerall, the U.S. Army chief of staff, sent an unsuccessful draft bill to Congress to “revive the Badge of Military Merit.” In 1931, Summerall’s successor, General Douglas MacArthur, took up the cause, hoping to reinstate the medal in time for the bicentennial of George Washington’s birth. On February 22, 1932, Washington’s 200th birthday, the U.S. War Department announced the creation of the “Order of the Purple Heart.” In addition to aspects of Washington’s original design, the new Purple Heart also displays a bust of Washington and his coat of arms. The Order of the Purple Heart, the oldest American military decoration for military merit, is awarded to members of the U.S. armed forces who have been killed or wounded in action against an enemy. It is also awarded to soldiers who have suffered maltreatment as prisoners of war.

1789 – The U.S. War Department was established by Congress. The United States Department of War, also called the War Department (and occasionally War Office in the early years), was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army. The War Department also bore responsibility for naval affairs until the establishment of the Navy Department in 1798 and for most land-based air forces until the creation of the Department of the Air Force in 1947. The Secretary of War headed the war department throughout its existence. The War Department existed until September 18, 1947, when it split into Department of the Army and Department of the Air Force and joined the Department of the Navy as part of the new joint National Military Establishment (NME), renamed the United States Department of Defense in 1949. The Secretary of War, a civilian with such responsibilities as finance and purchases and a minor role in directing military affairs, headed the War Department.

1791 – The Battle of Kenapacomaqua, also called the Battle of Old Town, was a raid by United States forces under the command of Lieutenant Colonel (later Brigadier General) James Wilkinson on the Miami (Wea) town of Kenapacomaqua on the Eel River approximately six miles upstream from present-day Logansport, Indiana. Under the overall command of Brigadier General Charles Scott, Wilkinson led a force of more than 500 Kentucky militia. They attacked Kenapacomaqua. Two Kentuckians and nine Miami died in the encounter. By Wilkinson’s own account, the Miami dead included only six warriors. Two of the dead were women. One was a child. Thirty-four Miami prisoners were taken and one U.S. captive was released.

1794 – In the summer of 1794, irate farmers in the Monoghaela Valley of Pennsylvania rose up against the federal tax on liquor and stills. During the so-called Whiskey Rebellion, the farmers extracted their revenge by torching tax collector’s homes, as well as “tarring and feathering revenue officers.” The government moved quickly to quell the rebellion: President Washington called in 12,900 Federal troops from to surrounding states to forcefully usher the farmers back to their homes.

1833 – Powell Clayton, Brig. General (Union volunteers), (Gov-R-Ark), was born in Pennsylvania.

1836 – Confederate General Evander Law is born in Darlington, South Carolina. Law had a distinguished career in the Confederate army and earned a reputation as a brave and effective field commander. Law, who attended the Citadel and studied law after his graduation, built a prewar career as a military instructor. After teaching briefly at the Citadel, Law instructed at King’s Mountain Military Academy in South Carolina. He then moved to Tuskeegee, Alabama, to open a new military school. When the war broke out, Law became a lieutenant colonel in the Fourth Alabama Infantry. Law’s unit saw immediate action at the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861. He was wounded, but was promoted to colonel shortly afterward, and fought at the Seven Days’ Battles, Second Bull Run, and Antietam. His leadership at Antietam earned him a promotion to brigadier general in October 1862. He was also cited for bravery at Fredericksburg, where he led his troops on foot after his horse was shot out from under him. Although he advanced quickly in the army, he also feuded with his corps commander, James Longstreet. Law served in General John Bell Hood’s division, and led the attack on Little Round Top at Gettysburg. He assumed command of the division when Hood was seriously wounded. Law and his troops, along with the rest of Longstreet’s corps, were sent to assist fighting in the west. At Chickamauga, he took over after Hood was again wounded in battle. He then returned to Virginia, and fought in the campaign of 1864 before suffering a serious wound himself at the Battle of Cold Harbor. He spent most of 1864 recovering, and at the end of the war was in General Joseph Johnston’s army, which surrendered to General William T. Sherman in North Carolina. After the war, Law returned to his career as a military instructor, primarily at a school he founded in Bartow, Florida. He was the last surviving Confederate general before his death in 1920.

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1861 – Two floating torpedoes (mines) in the Potomac River were picked up by U. S. S. Resolute, Acting Master W. Budd- the earliest known use of torpedoes by the Confederates. During the course of the war a variety of ingenious torpedoes destroyed or damaged some 40 Union ships, forecasting the vast growth to come in this aspect of underwater naval warfare.

1862 – President Lincoln, with Secretaries Seward and Stanton, visited Captain Dahlgren at the Washington Navy Yard for a two hour demonstration of the “Rafael” repeating cannon. Later Dahlgren took the party on board a steamer to cool off and rest.

1864 – Union troops captured part of Confederate General Jubal Early’s army at Moorefield, West Virginia.

1864 – Colonel Charles D. Anderson, CSA, commanding Fort Gaines at Mobile Bay, proposed the surrender of his command to Rear Admiral Farragut. U.S.S. Chickasaw, Lieutenant Commander Perkins, had bombarded the fort the day before, and Anderson wrote: “Feeling my inability to maintain my present position longer than you may see fit to open upon me with your fleet, and feeling also the uselessness of entailing upon ourselves further destruction of life, I have the honor to propose the surrender of Fort Gaines, its garrison, stores, etc.” Before 10 a.m., 8 August, the Stars and Stripes were flying over the works.

1927 – Horace Alderman, a rumrunner, murdered two Coast Guardsmen and a Secret Service agent after his vessel was stopped by patrol boat CG-249 off the coast of Florida. Alderman was eventually subdued by the remaining crew of CG-249 and arrested. He was later tried, convicted, and hung at the Coast Guard station at Bahia Mar, Florida.

1936 – The United States declared non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War.

1941 – The Senate passes an extension of the draft period from one year to thirty months (and a similar increase for service in the National Guard) after considerable debate.

1942 – An American task force bombards the Japanese-held island of Kiska.

1942 – The U.S. 1st Marine Division begins Operation Watchtower, the first U.S. offensive of the war, by landing on Guadalcanal, one of the Solomon Islands. On July 6, 1942, the Japanese landed on Guadalcanal Island and began constructing an airfield there. Operation Watchtower was the codename for the U.S. plan to invade Guadalcanal and the surrounding islands. During the attack, American troops landed on five islands within the Solomon chain. Although the invasion came as a complete surprise to the Japanese (bad weather had grounded their scouting aircraft), the landings on Florida, Tulagi, Gavutu, and Tananbogo met much initial opposition from the Japanese defenders. But the Americans who landed on Guadalcanal met little resistance-at least at first. More than 11,000 Marines had landed, and 24 hours had passed, before the Japanese manning the garrison there knew of the attack.

The U.S. forces quickly took their main objective, the airfield, and the outnumbered Japanese troops retreated, but not for long. Reinforcements were brought in, and fierce hand-to-hand jungle fighting ensued. “I have never heard or read of this kind of fighting,” wrote one American major general on the scene. “These people refuse to surrender.” The Americans were at a particular disadvantage, being assaulted from both the sea and air. But the U.S. Navy was able to reinforce its troops to a greater extent, and by February 1943, the Japanese had retreated on secret orders of their emperor (so secret, the Americans did not even know it had taken place until they began happening upon abandoned positions, empty boats, and discarded supplies). In total, the Japanese had lost more than 25,000 men, compared with a loss of 1,600 by the Americans. Each side lost 24 warships. The first Medal of Honor given to a Marine was awarded to Sgt. John Basilone for his fighting during Operation Watchtower. According to the recommendation for his medal, he “contributed materially to the defeat and virtually the annihilation of a Japanese regiment.”

1942 – Landings at Tulagi and Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands commenced. This first Allied invasion in the Pacific proved to be a critical battle. Coast Guard manned transports, including the USS Hunter Liggett, participated in the invasion. Many of the landing craft were crewed by Coast Guardsmen. A Coast Guard officer, LCDR Dwight H. Dexter, and 25 Coast Guardsmen went ashore from the Liggett with their landing craft to set up a naval operating base on Lunga Point. Signalman 1/c Douglas Munro, later killed at Guadalcanal, was a member of Dexter’s command. The Liggett rescued 686 survivors of the Navy cruisers USS Vincennes, Astoria, and Quincy and the Australian cruiser HMAS Canberra that had been sunk in the Battle of Savo Island on the night of 9 August 1942.

1944 – German forces begin a significant counterattack from east of Mortain, opposite US 1st Army (between US 7th and 14th Corps). Elements of German 2nd and 116th Panzer Divisions spearhead the offensive. Mortain is recaptured. Heavy Allied air attacks prevent more significant advances by the German forces. Meanwhile, in Brittany, the US 8th Corps (part of US 1st Army) attacks the German garrisoned ports of Brest, St. Malo and Lorient.

1944 – On Guam there is heavy fighting along the entire front as US forces attack Japanese positions.

1944 – The IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC), began computations for the U.S. Navy Bureau of Ships in May and was officially presented to the university. It was called Mark I by Harvard University’s staff, and was a general purpose electro-mechanical computer that was used in the war effort during the last part of World War II. One of the first programs to run on the Mark I was initiated on 29 March 1944 by John von Neumann, who worked on the Manhattan project at the time, and needed to determine whether implosion was a viable choice to detonate the atomic bomb that would be used a year later. The Mark I also computed and printed mathematical tables, which was Charles Babbage’s initial goal for his analytical engine. The Mark I was officially retired, after 15 years of service, in 1959.

1945 – The first flight of the Nakajima Kikka (Orange Blossom) jet bomber takes place. The plane is based on the German Me262.

1945 – More than 200 B-29 Superfortress bombers raid Yahata, Tokyo and Kukuyama.

1945 – On Luzon, officers from the headquarters of the US 1st Army meet in readiness for the coming invasion of Japan.

1945 – The secret of radio direction finding (RDF), now called radar, is made public.

1950 – Lieutenant General Walton Walker launched Task Force Kean against the North Korean 6th Division to seize the Chinju Pass and establish a new line along the Nam River. Three regiments, the Army’s 35th Infantry and 5th Regimental Combat Team and the 5th Marines, attacked abreast against a estimated 7,500 enemy troops. Unknown to the Eight Army planners was the presence of the North Korean 83rd Motorized Regiment of the 105th Armored Division supporting the 6th Division with T-34 tanks.

1953 – SSgt Barbara Barnwell was the first woman Marine awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism. She was from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and a member of the Marine Reserve, saved a soldier from drowning in 1952.

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1959 – From the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral, Florida, the U.S. unmanned spacecraft Explorer 6 is launched into an orbit around the earth. The spacecraft, commonly known as the “Paddlewheel” satellite, featured a photocell scanner that transmitted a crude picture of the earth’s surface and cloud cover from a distance of 17,000 miles. The photo, received in Hawaii, took nearly 40 minutes to transmit. Released by NASA in September, the first photograph ever taken of the earth by a U.S. satellite depicted a crescent shape of part of the planet in sunlight. It was Mexico, captured by Explorer 6 as it raced westward over the earth at speeds in excess of 20,000 miles an hour.

1961 – Soviet premier Khrushchev predicted that the USSR economy would surpass that of the US.

1964 – The United States Congress overwhelming approves the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving President Lyndon B. Johnson nearly unlimited powers to oppose “communist aggression” in Southeast Asia. The resolution marked the beginning of an expanded military role for the United States in the Cold War battlefields of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. By 1964, America’s ally, South Vietnam, was in serious danger of falling to a communist insurgency. The insurgents, aided by communist North Vietnam, controlled large areas of South Vietnam, and no amount of U.S. military aid and training seemed able to save the southern regime. During the presidencies of Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy, hundreds-and then thousands-of U.S. military advisers had been sent to South Vietnam to train that nation’s military forces. In addition, hundreds of millions of dollars in military and economic assistance had been given to South Vietnam. The administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson made the decision that only direct U.S. military intervention in the conflict could turn the tide. However, Johnson was campaigning in the presidential election of 1964 as the “responsible” candidate who would not send American troops to fight and die in Asia. In early August, a series of events occurred that allowed Johnson to appear statesmanlike while simultaneously expanding the U.S. role in Vietnam.

On August 2, North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked an American destroyer in the Gulf of Tonkin. Johnson responded by sending in another destroyer. On August 4, the two destroyers reported that they were under attack. This time, Johnson authorized retaliatory air attacks against North Vietnam. He also asked Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. This resolution declared, “The United States regards as vital to its national interest and to world peace the maintenance of international peace and security in Southeast Asia.” It also gave Johnson the right to “take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.” The House passed the resolution by a unanimous vote; the vote in the Senate was 88 to 2. Johnson’s popularity soared in response to his “restrained” handling of the crisis.

The Johnson administration went on to use the resolution as a pretext to begin heavy bombing of North Vietnam in early 1965 and to introduce U.S. combat troops in March 1965. Thus began a nearly eight-year war in which over 58,000 U.S. troops died. In a wider sense, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution can be considered America’s Cold War policy toward all of Southeast Asia at the time. The resolution was also another example of the American government’s less than candid discussion of “national security” matters during the Cold War. Unspoken during the Congressional debate over the resolution was the fact that the commanders of the U.S. destroyers could not state with absolute accuracy that their ships had actually been attacked on the night of August 4, nor was any mention made of the fact that the U.S. destroyers had been assisting South Vietnamese commandos in their attacks on North Vietnamese military installations. By the late 1960s, the tangle of government deceptions and lies began to unravel as public confidence in both Johnson and the American military effort in Vietnam began to erode.

1966 – The United States lost seven planes over North Vietnam, the most in the war up to this point.

1970 – At a hearing for the “Soledad Brothers,” Jonathon P. Jackson (17), the younger brother of George L. Jackson, attempted an armed rescue attempt at the Marin Civic Center. A shootout in the parking lot followed and 4 people were killed and 5 injured. Among the dead were Jackson, Judge Harold Haley, Black Panther James McClain, and convict William A. Christmas. Angela Davis was charged with murder, kidnapping and conspiracy, but was acquitted in 1972 after spending a year in jail. An attempt by black militant James David McClain to escape his trial in Marin County, California, ended in a shootout with police that claimed the lives of McClain, two of three cohorts, and Judge Harold J. Daley, one of several hostages.

1976 – Scientists in Pasadena, Calif., announced that the Viking 1 spacecraft had found the strongest indications to date of possible life on Mars.

1990 – President Bush ordered U.S. troops and warplanes to Saudi Arabia to guard the oil-rich desert kingdom against a possible invasion by Iraq. The US Persian Gulf War began. Operation Desert Shield ended Feb 28, 1991. It cost $8.1 billion and left 383 US casualties with 458 wounded.

1991 – The five permanent members of the UN Security Council agreed to authorize Iraq to sell as much as $1.6 billion in oil over six months to pay for food, humanitarian supplies and war reparations; however, Baghdad rejected the resolution.

1993 – US convoy is attacked and 5 Somalis are killed in an hour-long battle near village of Afgoy. US helicopters assist.

1996 – NASA researchers formally presented their case for the existence of life long ago on Mars.

1997 – The space shuttle Discovery was launched with a crew of six. A satellite was dropped off to study the Earth’s ozone layer.

1997 – The US State Dept. expressed concern over reports of Chinese nuclear-capable M-11 missiles sold to Pakistan.

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1998 – At 10:30 a.m. local time, a massive truck bomb explodes outside the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. Minutes later, another truck bomb detonated outside the U.S. embassy in Dar es Salaam, the capital of neighboring Tanzania. The dual terrorist attacks killed 224 people, including 12 Americans, and wounded more than 4,500. The United States accused Saudi exile Osama bin Laden, a proponent of international terrorism against America, of masterminding the bombings. On August 20, President Bill Clinton ordered cruise missiles launched against bin Laden’s terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and against a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan, where bin Laden allegedly made or distributed chemical weapons.

Osama bin Laden was born in 1957 into one of Saudi Arabia’s wealthiest and most prominent families. His father, an immigrant from South Yemen, had built a small construction business into a multibillion-dollar company. When his father died in 1968, bin Laden inherited an estimated $30 million but for the next decade drifted without focus and lived a jet-setting lifestyle. In 1979, however, everything changed when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Like tens of thousands of other Arabs, bin Laden volunteered to aid Afghanistan in repulsing what he saw as the godless communist invaders of the Muslim country.

For the first few years of the Afghan War, he traveled around Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf raising money for the anti-Soviet Afghan fighters. In 1982, he traveled to the front lines of the war for the first time, where he donated construction equipment for the war effort. Bin Laden directly participated in a handful of battles, but his primary role in the anti-Soviet jihad was as financier. During the war, he made contact with numerous Islamic militants, many of whom who were as anti-Western as they were anti-Soviet. In 1989, the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan, and bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia. He grew increasingly critical of the ruling Saudi family, especially after hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops were welcomed onto Saudi soil during the Persian Gulf War. Although his passport was taken away, he slipped out of Saudi Arabia in 1991 and settled in the Sudan. From there, he spoke out against the Saudi government and the continuing U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia, which he likened to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

After the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York, the United States began to suspect that bin Laden was involved in international terrorism against the United States. The military organization he built during the Afghan War–al Qaeda, or “the Base”–was still in existence, and U.S. intelligence believed he was transforming it into an anti-U.S. terrorist network. In 1995, bin Laden called for guerrilla attacks against U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia, and three months later a terrorist attack against a U.S. military installation killed five Americans. Under U.S. and Saudi pressure he was expelled from the Sudan in May 1996. One month later, a truck bomb killed 19 U.S. servicemen in Saudi Arabia. Whether or not bin Laden was involved in planning these attacks has not been established. With 200 of his followers, bin Laden returned to Afghanistan, which was then falling under the control of the Taliban, a faction of extreme Islamic fundamentalists. Bin Laden provided funding for the Taliban military campaign against the city of Kabul, which fell to the militia in September 1996. Soon after his arrival in Afghanistan, bin Laden issued a fatwah, or religious decree, calling for war on Americans in the Persian Gulf and the overthrow of the Saudi government. In February 1998, he issued another fatwah stating that Muslims should kill Americans, including civilians, anywhere in the world.

On August 7, 1998–the eighth anniversary of the deployment of U.S. troops to Saudi Arabia–two U.S. embassies in East Africa were bombed almost simultaneously. The attack at the Nairobi embassy, which was located in a busy downtown area, caused the greater devastation and loss of life. There, a truck loaded with 2,000 pounds of TNT forced its way to the back entrance of the embassy and was detonated, shattering the embassy, demolishing the nearby Ufundi Coop House, and gutting the 17-story Cooperative Bank. By the time rescue operations came to an end, 213 people were dead, including 12 Americans. Thousands of people were wounded, and hundreds were maimed or blinded. The attack against the U.S. embassy in Dar es Saalam killed 11 and injured 85. By 1997, American intelligence officers knew that bin Laden operatives were active in East Africa but were unable to break up the terrorist cell before the embassies were attacked. They had even heard of a possible plot to bomb the U.S. embassy in Nairobi but failed to recommend an increase in security before the attack. Meanwhile, Prudence Bushnell, the U.S. ambassador to Kenya, independently asked the State Department to move the Nairobi embassy because of its exposed location, but the request was not granted. Revelations of these pre-bombing security issues provoked much controversy and concern about the United States’ vulnerability abroad. Few, however, voiced concern that the proliferation of terrorists eager to kill innocent civilians and themselves in order to strike a blow against the U.S. would soon shatter America’s sense of invulnerability at home. Within days of the August 7 bombings, two bin Laden associates were arrested and charged with the attacks. However, with bin Laden and other key suspects still at large, President Clinton ordered a retaliatory military strike on August 20. In Afghanistan, some 70 American cruise missiles hit three alleged bin Laden training camps. An estimated 24 people were killed, but bin Laden was not present. Thirteen cruise missiles hit a pharmaceutical plant in the Sudan, and the night watchman was killed. The United States later backed away from its contention that the pharmaceutical plant was making or distributing chemical weapons for al Qaeda.

In November 1998, the United States indicted bin Laden and 21 others, charging them with bombing the two U.S. embassies and conspiring to commit other acts of terrorism against Americans abroad. To date, nine of the al Qaeda members named in the indictments have been captured; six are in the United States, and three are in Britain fighting extradition to the United States. In February 2001, four of the suspects went on trial in New York on 302 criminal counts stemming from the embassy attacks. On May 29, all four were convicted on all counts. Saudi citizen Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-‘Owhali and Tanzanian Khalfan Khamis Mohamed admitted to directly taking part in the terrorist attacks but claimed they did not knowingly engage in a conspiracy against the United States. Lebanese-born U.S. citizen Wadih El-Hage and Jordanian Mohammed Saddiq Odeh admitted ties to bin Laden but denied involvement in any terrorist acts. All four were sentenced to life in prison without parole. On September 11, 2001, the world learned that the U.S. embassy attacks were merely a prelude to a far more devastating strike against the United States. On that day, 19 al Qaeda terrorists deftly exploited weaknesses in U.S. domestic security and hijacked four U.S. airliners that they flew into the World Trade Center towers in New York; the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia; and a rural field in western Pennsylvania. Four thousand people were killed in the almost simultaneous attacks and 10,000 were wounded. On October 7, America struck back with Operation Enduring Freedom, the U.S.-led international effort to oust the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, destroy the al Qaeda network based there, and capture bin Laden dead or alive.

1998 – In 2000 Ali Mohamed, a former US Army sergeant, pleaded guilty for his role in the bombing under the direction of Osama bin Laden.

1998 – In Pakistan Sadik Howaida (34), later named as Mohammed Saddiq Odeh, was detained at the Karachi airport. He reportedly confessed to participating in the bombing in Nairobi. He said that he and 2 coconspirators had left Nairobi and planned to enter Afghanistan a few days before the bombing. He acknowledged that the team was recruited and financed by Osama bin Laden who was ensconced in a fortress-style hideout in Kandahar. Odeh later refused to admit responsibility to American officials.

2002 – A U.S. Air Force cargo plane crashed on a Puerto Rican mountaintop with at least 10 military personnel on board, and all were feared dead.

2002 – Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Saud said his country had made it clear to Washington, publicly and privately, that the U.S. military will not be allowed to use the kingdom’s soil in any way for an attack on Iraq. Saud said the longtime U.S. ally does not plan to expel American forces from an air base used for flights to monitor Iraq.

2004 – Clashes between US-led forces and fighters loyal to al-Sadr continued for a 3rd day in Najaf and Sadr City. 23 civilians were killed and 121 wounded in the day’s fighting.

2014 – IS fighters took control of the town of Qaraqosh in the province of Nineveh in northern Iraq, which forced its large Christian population to flee.

2014 – President Obama authorized targeted airstrikes in Iraq against ISIS, along with airdrops of aid. The UK offered the US assistance with surveillance and refueling, and planned humanitarian airdrops to Iraqi refugees.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

KERR, THOMAS R.
Rank and organization: Captain, Company C, 14th Pennsylvania Cavalry. Place and date: At Moorfield, W. Va., 7 August 1864. Entered service at: Pittsburgh, Pa. Born: 24 April 1843, Ireland. Date of issue: 13 June 1894. Citation: After being most desperately wounded, he captured the colors of the 8th Virginia Cavalry (C.S.A.).

BENDER, STANLEY
Rank and organization: Staff Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company E, 7th Infantry, 3d Infantry Division. Place and date: Near La Lande, France, 17 August 1944. Entered service at: Chicago, 111. Born: 31 October 1909, Carlisle, W. Va. G.O. No.: 7, 1 February 1945. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of life above and beyond the call of duty. On 17 August 1944, near La Lande, France, he climbed on top of a knocked-out tank, in the face of withering machinegun fire which had halted the advance of his company, in an effort to locate the source of this fire. Although bullets ricocheted off the turret at his feet, he nevertheless remained standing upright in full view of the enemy for over 2 minutes. Locating the enemy machineguns on a knoll 200 yards away, he ordered 2 squads to cover him and led his men down an irrigation ditch, running a gauntlet of intense machinegun fire, which completely blanketed 50 yards of his advance and wounded 4 of his men. While the Germans hurled hand grenades at the ditch, he stood his ground until his squad caught up with him, then advanced alone, in a wide flanking approach, to the rear of the knoll. He walked deliberately a distance of 40 yards, without cover, in full view of the Germans and under a hail of both enemy and friendly fire, to the first machinegun and knocked it out with a single short burst. Then he made his way through the strong point, despite bursting hand grenades, toward the second machinegun, 25 yards distant, whose 2-man crew swung the machinegun around and fired two bursts at him, but he walked calmly through the fire and, reaching the edge of the emplacement, dispatched the crew. Signaling his men to rush the rifle pits, he then walked 35 yards further to kill an enemy rifleman and returned to lead his squad in the destruction of the 8 remaining Germans in the strong point. His audacity so inspired the remainder of the assault company that the men charged out of their positions, shouting and yelling, to overpower the enemy roadblock and sweep into town, knocking out 2 antitank guns, killing 37 Germans and capturing 26 others. He had sparked and led the assault company in an attack which overwhelmed the enemy, destroying a roadblock, taking a town, seizing intact 3 bridges over the Maravenne River, and capturing commanding terrain which dominated the area.

*PEASE, HARL, JR. (Air Mission)
Rank and organization: Captain, U.S. Army Air Corps, Heavy Bombardment Squadron. Place and date: Near Rabaul, New Britain, 6-7 August 1942. Entered service at: Plymouth, N.H. Birth: Plymouth, N.H. G.O. No.: 59, 4 November 1942. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action with the enemy on 6-7 August 1942. When 1 engine of the bombardment airplane of which he was pilot failed during a bombing mission over New Guinea, Capt. Pease was forced to return to a base in Australia. Knowing that all available airplanes of his group were to participate the next day in an attack on an enemy-held airdrome near Rabaul, New Britain, although he was not scheduled to take part in this mission, Capt. Pease selected the most serviceable airplane at this base and prepared it for combat, knowing that it had been found and declared unserviceable for combat missions. With the members of his combat crew, who volunteered to accompany him, he rejoined his squadron at Port Moresby, New Guinea, at 1 a.m. on 7 August, after having flown almost continuously since early the preceding morning. With only 3 hours’ rest, he took off with his squadron for the attack. Throughout the long flight to Rabaul, New Britain, he managed by skillful flying of his unserviceable airplane to maintain his position in the group. When the formation was intercepted by about 30 enemy fighter airplanes before reaching the target, Capt. Pease, on the wing which bore the brunt of the hostile attack, by gallant action and the accurate shooting by his crew, succeeded in destroying several Zeros before dropping his bombs on the hostile base as planned, this in spite of continuous enemy attacks. The fight with the enemy pursuit lasted 25 minutes until the group dived into cloud cover. After leaving the target, Capt. Pease’s aircraft fell behind the balance of the group due to unknown difficulties as a result of the combat, and was unable to reach this cover before the enemy pursuit succeeded in igniting 1 of his bomb bay tanks. He was seen to drop the flaming tank. It is believed that Capt. Pease’s airplane and crew were subsequently shot down in flames, as they did not return to their base. In voluntarily performing this mission Capt. Pease contributed materially to the success of the group, and displayed high devotion to duty, valor, and complete contempt for personal danger. His undaunted bravery has been a great inspiration to the officers and men of his unit.

*CARTER, BRUCE W.
Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Marine Corps, Company H, 2d Battalion, 3d Marines, 3d Marine Division (Rein), FMF. Place and date: Quang Tri Province, Republic of Vietnam, 7 August 1969. Entered service at: Jacksonville, Fla. Born: 7 May 1950, Schenectady, N.Y. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as grenadier with Company H in connection with combat operations against the enemy. Pfc. Carter’s unit was maneuvering against the enemy during Operation Idaho Canyon and came under a heavy volume of fire from a numerically superior hostile force. The lead element soon became separated from the main body of the squad by a brush fire. Pfc. Carter and his fellow marines were pinned down by vicious crossfire when, with complete disregard for his safety, he stood in full view of the North Vietnamese Army soldiers to deliver a devastating volume of fire at their positions. The accuracy and aggressiveness of his attack caused several enemy casualties and forced the remainder of the soldiers to retreat from the immediate area. Shouting directions to the marines around him, Pfc. Carter then commenced leading them from the path of the rapidly approaching brush fire when he observed a hostile grenade land between him and his companions. Fully aware of the probable consequences of his action but determined to protect the men following him, he unhesitatingly threw himself over the grenade, absorbing the full effects of its detonation with his body. Pfc. Carter’s indomitable courage, inspiring initiative, and selfless devotion to duty upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life in the service of his country .

*HAGEN, LOREN D.
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Army, Infantry, U.S. Army Training Advisory Group. Place and date: Republic of Vietnam, 7 August 1971. Entered service at: Fargo, N. Dak. Born: 25 February 1946, Fargo, N. Dak. Citation: 1st Lt. Hagen distinguished himself in action while serving as the team leader of a small reconnaissance team operating deep within enemy-held territory. At approximately 0630 hours on the morning of 7 August 1971 the small team came under a fierce assault by a superior-sized enemy force using heavy small arms, automatic weapons, mortar, and rocket fire. 1st Lt. Hagen immediately began returning small-arms fire upon the attackers and successfully led this team in repelling the first enemy onslaught. He then quickly deployed his men into more strategic defense locations before the enemy struck again in an attempt to overrun and annihilate the beleaguered team’s members. 1st Lt. Hagen repeatedly exposed himself to- the enemy fire directed at him as he constantly moved about the team’s perimeter, directing fire, rallying the members, and resupplying the team with ammunition, while courageously returning small arms and hand grenade fire in a valorous attempt to repel the advancing enemy force. The courageous actions and expert leadership abilities of 1st Lt. Hagen were a great source of inspiration and instilled confidence in the team members. After observing an enemy rocket make a direct hit on and destroy 1 of the team’s bunkers, 1st Lt. Hagen moved toward the wrecked bunker in search for team members despite the fact that the enemy force now controlled the bunker area. With total disregard for his own personal safety, he crawled through the enemy fire while returning small-arms fire upon the enemy force. Undaunted by the enemy rockets and grenades impacting all around him, 1st Lt. Hagen desperately advanced upon the destroyed bunker until he was fatally wounded by enemy small arms and automatic weapons fire. With complete disregard for his personal safety, 1st Lt. Hagen’s courageous gallantry, extraordinary heroism, and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty, at the cost of his own life, were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon him and the U.S. Army.

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[SHOOTER13]

8 August

1776 – John Paul Jones was commissioned as a captain and appointed to command the ship Alfred. His orders were to harass enemy merchant ships and defend the American coast.

1786 – The US Congress adopted the silver dollar and decimal system of money.

1813 – US Schooners Hamilton and Scourge founder in storm on Lake Ontario.

1839 – Nelson Miles, one of the most successful but controversial officers in the Plains Indian Wars, is born on a farm in Massachusetts. Unlike many of his future colleagues in the army officer corps, Miles was not born into a life of privilege. As a teen, Miles worked as a clerk, spending his few moments of leisure pursuing a disciplined program of self-improvement through lectures, night school, and reading. When a war between the states seemed imminent in 1860, he concentrated his efforts on studying military tactics. He joined the Union Army as soon as the conflict erupted, and his gift for making effective tactical use of terrain won him rapid advances in rank. In 1869, Miles assumed command of the 5th Infantry at Fort Hays, Kansas, and began his career as an Indian fighter. Miles was a courageous and bold officer, with an outstanding ability to organize and supply a large army. He was also arrogant and pompous, and he shamelessly maneuvered to advance his own career at the expense of his fellow officers. He considered many of his colleagues incompetent fools-especially those who had graduated from West Point-and was equally disliked in return.

Following the disastrous defeat of Custer’s 7th Cavalry at the Little Big Horn in late June 1876, Miles was given the task of running down the offending Sioux and Cheyenne Indians. Miles proved a highly effective opponent, craftily mixing threats of force with offers of good treatment if the hostile Indians agreed to surrender. Eventually, Miles succeeded in winning the surrender of thousands of Plains Indians. Miles most celebrated victory came in 1886, when he secured the peaceful surrender of Geronimo and a small band of renegade Apache warriors. Although many other officers had played a role in encouraging Geronimo’s surrender, Miles characteristically accepted full credit for winning the surrender of the last hostile Indian in the U.S. He was less eager to accept blame for the massacre of at least 200 Indians at Wounded Knee four years later.

Although Miles was not at Wounded Knee and regarded the massacre as an unforgivable blunder, the soldiers who participated had been under his command. After 1895, Miles left the West and was appointed to a variety of prestigious posts in Washington, D.C. He eventually achieved the rank of lieutenant general before retiring. When the United States entered World War I, he volunteered to resume active duty. The war department tactfully declined to give the 77-year-old retired warrior a position. He died on May 15, 1925, at the age of 85 and was buried with full honors in Arlington National Cemetery.

1854 – Smith and Wesson patented metal bullet cartridges.

1862 – Minnesota’s 5th Infantry fought the Sioux Indians in Redwood, Minn., and 24 soldiers were killed.

1863 – In the aftermath of his defeat at Gettysburg, Confederate General Robert E. Lee sends a letter of resignation as commander of the Army of Northern Virginia to Confederate President Jefferson Davis. The letter came more than a month after Lee’s retreat from Pennsylvania. At first, many people in the South wondered if in fact Lee had lost the battle. Lee’s intent had been to drive the Union army from Virginia, which he did. The Army of the Potomac suffered over 28,000 casualties, and the Union army’s offensive capabilities were temporarily disabled. But the Army of Northern Virginia absorbed 23,000 casualties, nearly one-third of its total. As the weeks rolled by and the Union army reentered Virginia, it became clear that the Confederacy had suffered a serious defeat at Gettysburg. As the press began to openly speculate about Lee’s leadership, the great general reflected on the campaign at his headquarters in Orange Courthouse, Virginia. The modest Lee took the failure at Gettysburg very personally.

In his letter to Davis, he wrote, “I have been prompted by these reflections more than once since my return from Pennsylvania to propose to Your Excellency the propriety of selecting another commander for this army…. No one is more aware than myself of my inability for the duties of my position. I cannot even accomplish what I myself desire…. I, therefore, in all sincerity, request your Excellency to take measure to supply my place.” Lee not only seriously questioned his ability to lead his army, he was also experiencing significant physical fatigue. He might also have sensed that Gettysburg was his last chance to win the war. Regardless, President Davis refused the request. He wrote, “To ask me to substitute you by someone … more fit to command, or who would possess more of the confidence of the army … is to demand an impossibility.”

1864 – Though the Union fleet under Rear Admiral Farragut controlled Mobile Bay and Forts Powell and Gaines were in Northern hands, Brigadier General Richard L. Page, formerly a U.S. naval officer and until recently a Commander in the Confederate Navy, gallantly refused to surrender Fort Morgan to the overwhelming forces opposing him. Federal naval forces took station in the Bay while troops began the land investment of Fort Morgan. After a brief bombardment, Farragut and Union Army commander Major General Gordon Granger advised page: “To prevent the unnecessary sacrifice of human life which must follow the opening of our batteries, we demand the unconditional surrender of Fort Morgan and its dependencies.” Undaunted, the Confederate officer replied: “I am prepared to sacrifice life, and will only surrender when I have no means of defense.” He was fighting his fort as he would have his ship. Ram Tennessee, whose big guns had so valiantly sought to defend Confederate possession of Mobile Bay on 5 August, now in Union hands, bombarded Fort Morgan. Her log recorded: “At 10 a.m. having no steam up on this vessel, the U.S. gunboat Port Royal took us in tow down towards the Fort Morgan. Anchored between the Middle Ground and the fort and opened our battery upon the fort.” At 10 p.m. Winnebago towed Tennessee back up to her anchorage.

1864 – Two resourceful members of the Confederate Torpedo Corps, John Maxwell and R. K. Dillard, planted a clockwork torpedo containing twelve pounds of powder on a Union transport at City Point, Virginia, causing a huge explosion which rocked the entire area. Maxwell and Dillard succeeded in getting through Union lines to the wharf area, where Maxwell convinced the trusting wharf sentry that he had been ordered by the captain of the ammunition barge to deliver a box on board. The box was accepted and the two Confederates hastily started back for Richmond. When the torpedo exploded an hour later, it set in motion a devastating chain reaction which spread the holocaust from the barges to storage buildings on shore and even to General Grant’s headquarters. Grant hurried off a message to General Halleck in Washington: “Five minutes ago an ordnance boat exploded, carrying lumber, grape, canister, and all kinds of shot over this point. Every part of the yard used as my headquarters is filled with splinters and fragments of shell.”

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[SHOOTER13]

1864 – The 1st Geneva Convention was issued on protecting the war wounded.

1876 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for his mimeograph.

1885 – More than 1.5 million people attend the funeral of Ulysses S. Grant in New York City.

1890 – Daughters of American Revolution (DAR) organized.

1899 – Marines of “U.S.S. Yosemite” start to form garrison at Agana, Cuba.

1908 – Wilbur Wright makes his first flight at a racecourse at Le Mans, France. It is the Wright Brothers’ first public flight.

1942 – The invasion of Guadalcanal continues as the remainder of the first wave of American troops come ashore. Advancing rapidly inland, they capture the Japanese airstrip intact, renaming it Henderson Field. The missions on Tulagi and Gavutu are completed and the islands captured. Due to Japanese air and submarine attacks, Admiral Fletcher decides to withdraw his carriers, leaving the cruisers and transports near the island. This action is probably a mistake.

1942 – US President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill approve the appointment of American General Eisenhower to command Operation Torch , the proposed Allied invasion of North Africa.

1942 – During World War II, six German saboteurs who secretly entered the United States on a mission to attack its civil infrastructure are executed by the United States for spying. Two other saboteurs who disclosed the plot to the FBI and aided U.S. authorities in their manhunt for their collaborators were imprisoned. In 1942, under Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s orders, the defense branch of the German Military Intelligence Corps initiated a program to infiltrate the United States and destroy industrial plants, bridges, railroads, waterworks, and Jewish-owned department stores. The Nazis hoped that sabotage teams would be able to slip into America at the rate of one or two every six weeks. The first two teams, made up of eight Germans who had all lived in the United States before the war, departed the German submarine base at Lorient, France, in late May.

Just before midnight on June 12, in a heavy fog, a German submarine reached the American coast off Amagansett, Long Island, and deployed a team who rowed ashore in an inflatable boat. Just as the Germans finished burying their explosives in the sand, John C. Cullen, a young U.S. Coast Guardsman, came upon them during his regular patrol of the beach. The leader of the team, George Dasch, bribed the suspicious Cullen, and he accepted the money, promising to keep quiet. However, as soon as he passed safely back into the fog, he sprinted the two miles back to the Coast Guard station and informed his superiors of his discovery. After retrieving the German supplies from the beach, the Coast Guard called the FBI, which launched a massive manhunt for the saboteurs, who had fled to New York City. Although unaware that the FBI was looking for them, Dasch and another saboteur, Ernest Burger, decided to turn themselves in and betray their colleagues, perhaps because they feared capture was inevitable after the botched landing.

On July 15, Dasch called the FBI in New York, but they failed to take his claims seriously, so he decided to travel to FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. On July 18, the same day that a second four-man team successfully landed at Ponte Verdra Beach, Florida, Dasch turned himself in. He agreed to help the FBI capture the rest of the saboteurs. Burger and the rest of the Long Island team were picked up by June 22, and by June 27 the whole of the Florida team was arrested. To preserve wartime secrecy, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered a special military tribunal consisting of seven generals to try the saboteurs. At the end of July, Dasch was sentenced to 30 years in prison, Burger was sentenced to hard labor for life, and the other six Germans were sentenced to die. The six condemned saboteurs were executed by electric chair in Washington, D.C., on August 8. In 1944, two other German spies were caught after a landing in Maine. No other instances of German sabotage within wartime America has come to light. In 1948, Dasch and Burger were freed by order of President Harry Truman, and they both returned to Germany.

1943 – The US 180th Regiment, of the 45th Division (OKARNG) land a small force east of Sant Agata in an amphibious operation supported by 1 cruiser and 3 destroyers. The Germans withdraw and US forces take Sant Agata and Cesaro.

1943 – On New Georgia fighting continues. US forces are attempting to prevent further Japanese evacuations to Kolombangara.

1944 – The German offensive toward Arromanches continues with heavy fighting around Mortain. Despite the threat posed by the German attack, US 3rd Army continues attacking south and southwest. Elements of US 15th Corps penetrate Le Mans while the new US 20th Corps advances toward Nantes and Angers. In Brittany, US 8th Corps continues attacks on the German-held ports.

1944 – Following the American break out from Normandy in July, 1944, the Germans decided that the only way to stop the Allied advance and push them back to the sea was to launch a massive attack in the Avranches region, about 150 miles west of Paris. To do this they moved tanks and men of the XLVII Panzer Corps into place and opened their operation on August 7th. Their main thrust, lead by the 2nd SS Panzer Division, was to cut the American line between Normandy and Brittany, forcing the two groups to fall back on different beach areas, possibly compelling at least one group to withdraw. But almost immediately the Germans were blocked by determined resistance.

On Hill 317, near the village of Mortain, their advance was stopped by 700 men of North Carolina’s 2nd Battalion, 120th Infantry, 30th Infantry Division (which also included Guard units from SC and TN). Firing at almost point-blank range their one anti-tank gun and numerous anti-tank rockets (fired from ‘bazooka’s’) the Guardsmen destroyed 40 vehicles including several heavy battle tanks. The Germans bypassed the hill leaving it surrounded. They launched repeated assaults to capture it but these were beaten back with artillery support from the Guard’s 35th Infantry Division (KS, MO, NE) and RAF air strikes on the German positions. After five days of being cut off and with the loss of nearly 300 men the 2nd Battalion was rescued by elements of the 35th Division. For it’s determined and stubborn resistance in blocking the enemy advance the 2/120th Infantry was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation.

1944 – On Guam, American troops overrun Mount Santa Rosa. The remaining Japanese garrison is compelled to withdraw to the north end of the island.

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1945 – President Harry S. Truman signs the United Nations Charter and the United States becomes the first nation to complete the ratification process and join the new international organization. Although hopes were high at the time that the United Nations would serve as an arbiter of international disputes, the organization also served as the scene for some memorable Cold War clashes. August 8, 1945, was a busy day in the history of World War II. The United States dropped a second atomic bomb on Japan, devastating the city of Nagasaki. The Soviet Union, following through with an agreement made earlier in the war, declared war on Japan. All observers agreed that the combination of these two actions would bring a speedy end to Japanese resistance. At the same time, in Washington, D.C., President Truman took a step that many Americans hoped would mean continued peace in the post-World War II world. The president signed the United Nations Charter, thus completing American ratification of the document. Secretary of State James F. Byrnes also signed. In so doing, the United States became the first nation to complete the ratification process.

The charter would come into full force when China, Russia, Great Britain, France, and a majority of the other nations that had constructed the document also completed ratification. The signing was accomplished with little pomp and ceremony. Indeed, President Truman did not even use one of the ceremonial pens to sign, instead opting for a cheap 10-cent desk pen. Nonetheless, the event was marked by hope and optimism. Having gone through the horrors of two world wars in three decades, most Americans–and people around the world–were hopeful that the new international organization would serve as a forum for settling international disagreements and a means for maintaining global peace. Over the next decades, the United Nations did serve as the scene for some of the more notable events in the Cold War: the decision by the Security Council to send troops to Korea in 1950; Khrushchev pounding the table with his shoe during a U.N. debate; and continuous and divisive discussion over admission of communist China to membership in the UN.

As for its role as a peacekeeping institution, the record of the U.N. was not one of great success during the Cold War. The Soviet veto in the Security Council stymied some efforts, while the U.S. desire to steer an independent course in terms of military involvement after the unpopular Korean War meant less and less recourse to the U.N. to solve world conflicts. In the years since the end of the Cold War, however, the United States and Russia have sometimes cooperated to send United Nations forces on peacekeeping missions, such as the effort in Bosnia.

1945 – The Soviet Union declares itself to be at war with Japan as of midnight (August 9th), citing the Japanese failure to respond to the Potsdam Declaration. Commissar Molotov says that the USSR has declared war because Japan is the only great power preventing peace. He indicates that it was in the interests of shortening the war and bring peace to the world that the Soviet Union has agreed to the Allied request made at Potsdam to join the war. Furthermore, Molotov states that the Soviets had been asked to mediate by Japan, but that proposal had lost all basis when Japan refused to surrender unconditionally.

1945 – The Japanese Supreme War Council agrees, late that night, that they should accept the Potsdam Declaration if the monarchy is preserved. Some of the objections from the military are overruled by the Emperor himself.

1945 – President Truman makes a public radio broadcast in which he threatens Japan with destruction by atomic bombs.

1945 – The survivors of the USS Indianapolis are rescued. Only 316 of the 1196 men onboard the ship have survived.

1946 – First flight of the Convair B-36, the world’s first mass-produced nuclear weapon delivery vehicle, the heaviest mass-produced piston-engined aircraft, with the longest wingspan of any military aircraft, and the first bomber with intercontinental range.

1950 – As part of Task Force Kean in the first American counterattack of the war, the leading 35th Infantry Regiment of the 25th Infantry Division had advanced to its initial objective, the high ground just north of Munchon-ni. The regiment was then ordered to hold until the 5th Regimental Combat Team could come up on the left.

1950 – The Coast Guard commenced screening merchant seaman signing on American vessels on the East and Gulf Coasts where the vessels were foreign bound. Those seamen designated as poor security risks were not permitted to sign on.

1953 – The United States and South Korea initialed a mutual security pact.

1953 – In Russia Georgi Malenkov reported the possession of hydrogen bomb.

1959 – Announcement of Project Teepee, electronic system to monitor 95 percent of earth’s atmosphere for missile launchings or nuclear explosions. System developed by William Thaler, Office of Naval Research physicist.

1965 – The U.S. conducts major air strikes against the Viet Cong.

1967 – Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand meet to form the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

1968 – There was a race riot in Miami, Florida.

1968 – Nixon and Agnew receive the Republican Party nomination. At the Republican National Convention in Miami, Richard M. Nixon and Spiro T. Agnew are chosen as the presidential and vice-presidential nominees for the upcoming election. In his speech accepting the nomination, Nixon promised to “bring an honorable end to the war in Vietnam” and to inaugurate “an era of negotiations” with leading Communist powers, while restoring “the strength of America so that we shall always negotiate from strength and never from weakness.” The party subsequently adopted a platform on the war that called for “progressive de-Americanization” of the war. Nixon was successful in his campaign bid and once in office, he instituted a program of “Vietnamization” (the turning over of the war to the South Vietnamese) and began implementing his promised U.S. troop withdrawals.

1972 – Navy women authorized for sea duty as regular ship’s company.

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1974 – In an evening televised address, President Richard M. Nixon announces his intention to become the first president in American history to resign. With impeachment proceedings underway against him for his involvement in the Watergate affair, Nixon was finally bowing to pressure from the public and Congress to leave the White House. “By taking this action,” he said in a solemn address from the Oval Office, “I hope that I will have hastened the start of the process of healing which is so desperately needed in America.” Just before noon the next day, Nixon officially ended his term as the 37th president of the United States. Before departing with his family in a helicopter from the White House lawn, he smiled farewell and enigmatically raised his arms in a victory or peace salute. The helicopter door was then closed, and the Nixon family began their journey home to San Clemente, California. Minutes later, Vice President Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as the 38th president of the United States in the East Room of the White House.

After taking the oath of office, President Ford spoke to the nation in a television address, declaring, “My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.” He later pardoned Nixon for any crimes he may have committed while in office, explaining that he wanted to end the national divisions created by the Watergate scandal. On June 17, 1972, five men, including a salaried security coordinator for President Nixon’s reelection committee, were arrested for breaking into and illegally wiretapping the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Washington, D.C., Watergate complex. Soon after, two other former White House aides were implicated in the break-in, but the Nixon administration denied any involvement. Later that year, reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward of The Washington Post discovered a higher-echelon conspiracy surrounding the incident, and a political scandal of unprecedented magnitude erupted.

In May 1973, the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, headed by Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina, began televised proceedings on the rapidly escalating Watergate affair. One week later, Harvard law professor Archibald Cox was sworn in as special Watergate prosecutor. During the Senate hearings, former White House legal counsel John Dean testified that the Watergate break-in had been approved by former Attorney General John Mitchell with the knowledge of White House advisers John Ehrlichman and H.R. Haldeman, and that President Nixon had been aware of the cover-up. Meanwhile, Watergate prosecutor Cox and his staff began to uncover widespread evidence of political espionage by the Nixon reelection committee, illegal wiretapping of thousands of citizens by the administration, and contributions to the Republican Party in return for political favors.

In July, the existence of what were to be called the Watergate tapes–official recordings of White House conversations between Nixon and his staff–was revealed during the Senate hearings. Cox subpoenaed these tapes, and after three months of delay President Nixon agreed to send summaries of the recordings. Cox rejected the summaries, and Nixon fired him. His successor as special prosecutor, Leon Jaworski, leveled indictments against several high-ranking administration officials, including Mitchell and Dean, who were duly convicted. Public confidence in the president rapidly waned, and by the end of July 1974 the House Judiciary Committee had adopted three articles of impeachment against President Nixon: obstruction of justice, abuse of presidential powers, and hindrance of the impeachment process. On July 30, under coercion from the Supreme Court, Nixon finally released the Watergate tapes. On August 5, transcripts of the recordings were released, including a segment in which the president was heard instructing Haldeman to order the FBI to halt the Watergate investigation. Three days later, Nixon announced his resignation.

1976 – John Roselli, hired by CIA to kill Castro, was found murdered.

1978 – The United States launched Pioneer Venus II, which carried scientific probes to study the atmosphere of Venus.

1985 – The Coast Guard awarded a contract to build the 110-foot Island-Class patrol boats to Bollinger Machine Shop and Shipyard in Lockport, Louisiana after a drawn-out legal battle.

1987 – In the Persian Gulf, a Navy F-14 “Tomcat” fighter fired two missiles at an Iranian jet approaching an unarmed U.S. scout plane. Both missiles missed their target and the Iranian plane flew off.

1989 – The space shuttle Columbia blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a secret, five-day military mission to deploy a new Pentagon spy satellite.

1990 – As the Persian Gulf crisis deepened, American forces began taking up positions in Saudi Arabia; Iraq announced it had annexed Kuwait as its 19th province; President Bush warned Iraqi President Saddam Hussein that “a line has been drawn in the sand.”

1991 – James B. Irwin, pilot of the Lunar Roving Vehicle, died on this day. Irwin visited the surface of the moon during the Apollo 15 mission in 1971, during which he spent almost three days on the moon’s surface investigating the Hadley-Apennine site, 462 miles north of the lunar equator. The Lunar Rover was a specially designed vehicle used to transport Irwin and David Scott around the moon’s surface while collecting rocks and core samples. Irwin died at the age of 61.

1992 – The space shuttle Atlantis returned from a problem-plagued mission.

1993 – In Somalia, four U.S. soldiers were killed when a land mine was detonated underneath their vehicle. This prompted President Clinton to order Army Rangers to try to capture Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid.

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1995 – Jordan grants asylum to two sons-in-law of Saddam Hussein – Lt. Gen. Hussein Kamel Hassan al-Majid, who had supervised Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction development programs since 1987, and his brother, Lt. Col. Saddam Kamel Hassan al-Majid, who formerly headed the presidential security forces. The two men were married to the two eldest daughters of Saddam Hussein.

1996 – The United States withdraws its opposition to United Nations Security Council Resolution 986. The United States had been the only nation on the 15-member U.N. Security Council to oppose the plan, ostensibly to ensure proper monitoring procedures were in place to allow for the equitable distribution of humanitarian supplies to civilians.

1997 – General Eric Shinseki, the American in charge of NATO forces in Bosnia, announced a plan to force all paramilitary troops to disband or face arrest.

1997 – The United Nations approves a sale-price formula for Iraqi crude oil sales under the oil-for-food plan. The approval cleares the way for Iraq to resume limited oil exports immediately through the Turkish port of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean Sea and Iraq’s Gulf port of Mina al-Bakr. The United Nations will also begin reviewing contracts for Iraqi crude oil purchases. Iraq has until September 5 to raise the $1.07 billion allowed under the existing 90 day oil-for-food plan window. Iraqi officials state they will boost exports to 2 million barrels per day to meet the sales target. However, industry experts say that Iraq’s export capacity is untested beyond1.4 million barrel per day.

1998 – President Clinton, in his Saturday radio address, vowed the bombers of two U.S. embassies in Africa would be brought to justice, “no matter how long it takes or where it takes us.”

1998 – A group called the Liberation Arm of the Islamic Sanctuaries claimed responsibility for the bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and threatened more attacks. Israeli troops began to arrive to assist in rescue efforts.

1998 – In Serbia Slobodan Milijkovic, a Serb wanted by the Int’l. War Crimes Tribunal, was shot and killed by a policeman along with 2 others following insults at an outdoor cafe in Belgrade. Milijkovic, a suspected member of the Chetnicks ultra-nationalist paramilitary unit, had rejected responsibility and said politicians were to blame for the war.

2000 – Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley is raised to the surface after 136 years on the ocean floor and 30 years after its discovery by undersea explorer E. Lee Spence.

2001 – Four American Senators met with Pres. Jiang Zemin in China and warned him that the continued sales of sensitive missile technology would trigger an arms race and boost internal US support for a missile defense system.

2002 – Saddam Hussein organized a big military parade and then warned “the forces of evil” not to attack Iraq as he sought once more to shift the debate away from world demands that he live up to agreements that ended the Gulf War.

2003 – A US federal judge ruled that some 264,000 square miles of submerged lands in the Northern Mariana Islands, a US commonwealth, belong to the United States.

2003 – Mahmud Dhiyab Al-Ahmad, Saddam Hussein’s former interior minister, (No. 29 on the list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis) surrendered to coalition forces.

2004 – Iraq reinstated capital punishment for people guilty of murder, endangering national security and distributing drugs.

2004 – Militants in Iraq said they had taken a top Iranian diplomat hostage. Faridoun Jihani was identified as the “consul for the Islamic Republic of Iran in Karbala.”

2004 – Pakistan confirmed that Qari Saifullah Akhtar, a senior bin Laden operative, had been captured in the UAR and transferred to Lahore.

2007 – Taliban fighters launched a direct assault on a US and Afghan coalition firebase codenamed Firebase Anaconda. The Taliban assault was repulsed, with at least two dozen Taliban fighters killed.

2014 – The US asserted that the systematic destruction of the Yazidi people by the Islamic State was genocide. The US military launched indefinite airstrikes targeting Islamic State fighters, equipment and installations, with humanitarian aid support from the UK and France, in order to protect civilians in northern Iraq. The Islamic State had advanced to within 30 km of Erbil in northern Iraq.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

GROBERG, FLORENT A.
Rank and Organization: Captain, U.S. Army, Company: 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Division: 4th Infantry Division, Born: 8 May 1983, Poissy, France, Departed: No, Entered Service At: Bethesda, Maryland July, 2008, G.O. Number: , Date of Issue: 11/12/2015, Accredited To: , Place and Date: Asadabad, Kunar Province, Afghanistan, 8 August 2012. Citation: Captain Florent A. Groberg distinguished himself by acts of gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a Personal Security Detachment Commander for Task Force Mountain Warrior, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, during combat operations against an armed enemy in Asadbad, Kunar Province, Afghanistan on August 8, 2012. On that day, Captain Groberg was leading a dismounted movement consisting of several senior leaders to include two brigade commanders, two battalion commanders, two command sergeants major, and an Afghanistan National Army brigade commander. As they approached the Provincial Governor’s compound, Captain Groberg observed an individual walking close to the formation. When the individual made an abrupt turn towards the formation, he noticed an abnormal bulge underneath the individual’s clothing. Selflessly placing himself in front of one of the brigade commanders, Captain Groberg rushed forward, using his body to push the suspect away from the formation. Simultaneously, he ordered another member of the security detail to assist with removing the suspect.

At this time, Captain Groberg confirmed the bulge was a suicide vest and with complete disregard for his life, Captain Groberg again with the assistance of the other member of the security detail, physically pushed the suicide bomber away from the formation. Upon falling, the suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest outside the perimeter of the formation, killing four members of the formation and wounding numerous others. The blast from the first suicide bomber caused the suicide vest of a previously unnoticed second suicide bomber to detonate prematurely with minimal impact on the formation. Captain Groberg’s immediate actions to push the first suicide bomber away from the formation significantly minimized the impact of the coordinated suicide bombers’ attack on the formation, saving the lives of his comrades and several senior leaders. Captain Groberg’s extraordinary heroism and selflessness above and beyond the call of duty at the risk of life are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect credit upon himself, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division and the United States Army.

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9 August

1610 – The First Anglo–Powhatan War, between the Powhatan and the English colonists, and lasted from 1610 to 1614, begins. Tired of waiting for a response from Powhattan to an untimatum regarding a series of belligerent incidents on both sides, De la Warr sent George Percy with 70 men to attack the Paspahegh capital, burning the houses and cutting down their cornfields. They killed 65 to 75, and captured one of Wowinchopunk’s wives and her children. Returning downstream, the English threw the children overboard, and shot out “their Braynes in the water”. The queen was put to the sword in Jamestown. The Paspahegh never recovered from this attack, and abandoned their town. Another small force sent with Samuel Argall against the Warraskoyaks found that they had already fled, but he destroyed their abandoned village and cornfields as well. Following these attacks, and the offense of killing royal women and children, both sides now found themselves at war.

1638 – Jonas Bronck of Holland became the 1st European settler in the Bronx.

1645 – Settlers in New Amsterdam gained peace with the Indians after conducting talks with the Mohawks.

1673 – The Dutch recapture New York from English. It was regained by the English in 1674.

1757 – English Ft. William Henry, NY, surrendered to French and Indian troops.

1790 – The Columbia returned to Boston Harbor after a three-year voyage, becoming the first ship to carry the American flag around the world.

1813 – After reports that British naval vessels were nearing St. Michaels, Md., to attack the shipbuilding town that night, the county militia placed lanterns on the tops of the tallest trees and on the masts of vessels in the harbor; and had all other lights extinguished. When the British attacked, they directed their fire too high and overshot the town.

1814 – Andrew Jackson and the Creek Indians signed the Treaty of Fort Jackson, giving the whites 23 million acres of Creek territory.

1815 – Captain Stephen Decatur concludes treaty for U.S. with Tripoli.

1842 – The United States and Canada signed the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, resolving a border dispute between Maine and Canada’s New Brunswick and U.S. and Great Britain agreed to cooperate in suppressing the slave trade.

1862 – Confederate General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson narrowly defeats a Union force led by General John Pope at Cedar Mountain, Virginia. Jackson had moved north in July 1862 after it became clear that the primary Union force in the east, General George McClellan’s Army of the Potomac, was not going to attack Richmond. McClellan was camped on the James Peninsula southeast of Richmond, where General Robert E. Lee stopped him at the Seven Days’ Battles in late June. Frustrated with McClellan’s lack of action, President Lincoln began shifting troops from the peninsula to Pope’s newly formed Army of Virginia, which was operating near Washington. Jackson, who was sent north by Lee to counter the growing Yankee presence in northern Virginia, fell on part of Pope’s force at Cedar Mountain on August 9th.

Despite being severely outnumbered, Pope’s army dealt Jackson a near-humiliating defeat. Jackson attacked in the afternoon, but a fierce Union counterattack, led by General Nathaniel Banks, almost broke Jackson’s line. The arrival of Confederate General Ambrose P. Hill provided Jackson with enough troops to launch another assault that evening. That attack drove the Federals from the field, and only nightfall prevented a complete rout of the Yankees.Union losses totaled 2,300 out of 8,000. The Confederates suffered 1,300 casualties out of 18,000. But the battle was nearly a disaster; Jackson miscalculated, and the Confederates almost lost to an army half their size.

1865 – Return of Naval Academy to Annapolis, New York after 4 years at Newport, Rhode Island.

1877 – Having refused government demands that they move to a reservation, a small band of Nez Perce Indians clash with the U.S. Army near the Big Hole River in Montana. The conflict between the U.S. government and the Nez Perce was one of the most tragic of the many Indian wars of the 19th century. Beginning with the tribe’s first contact with the explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, the peaceful Nez Perce had befriended and cooperated with the Americans. Even when hordes of white settlers began to flood into their homelands along the Snake River (around the present-day intersection of the Oregon, Washington, and Idaho state borders), most of the Nez Perce peacefully moved to a reservation. However, about a quarter of the Nez Perce, most of them stockmen and buffalo hunters, refused to accept internment on a reservation. Government pressure to force these last resisters to comply finally led to the outbreak of the Nez Perce War of 1877. A small band of warriors-never more than 145 men, though burdened with about 500 noncombatants-fought U.S. soldiers at four major battles.

The third battle of the Nez Perce War occurred on this day in 1877. Fleeing eastward with hopes of escaping to Canada, the Nez Perce made camp in the Big Hole Basin in present-day western Montana. At 3:30 a.m., Colonel John Gibbon attacked the sleeping Indians with a force of 183 men. Raking the Indian lodges with withering rifle fire, the soldiers initially seemed to be victorious. The Nez Perce, however, soon counterattacked from concealed positions in the surrounding hills. After four days of sporadic fighting, the Nez Perce withdrew. Both sides suffered serious casualties. The soldiers lost 29 men with 40 wounded. The army body count found 89 Nez Perce dead, mostly women and children. The battle dealt the Nez Perce a grave, though not fatal, blow. The remaining Indians were able to escape, and they headed northeast towards Canada. Two months later, on October 5, Colonel Nelson Miles decisively defeated the Nez Perce at the Battle of the Bear Paw Mountains. Those who were not killed surrendered and reluctantly agreed to return to the reservation. The Nez Perce were only 40 miles short of the Canadian border.

1892 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for a two-way telegraph.

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1918 – Following the lead of countries all over the world, the U. S. government ordered automobile production to halt by January 1, 1919, and convert to military production. Factories instead manufactured shells, and the engineering lessons of motor racing produced light, powerful engines for planes. Manufacturers turned out staff cars and ambulances by the hundreds. In fact, World War I has often been described as the war of the machines.

1919 – Construction of rigid airship ZR-1 (Shenandoah) authorized.

1921 – Congress creates the Veterans Bureau to administer assistance to World War I veterans. It quickly devolves into corruption, and is abolished nine years later under a cloud of scandal.

1929 – It was hardly a tell-tale sign of trouble, but on August 9, 1929 Wall Street got an inkling of the upcoming crash as the New York Bank raised the rediscount rate on loans to brokers a full point to 6 percent. The hike was precipitated by the unsettling news that brokers had racked up a record $6 million debt, the fourth time during August 1929 that their loans had swelled to record levels. Still, bankers assured the business community that the move, which was the biggest raise to the rate since the close of World War I, wasn’t cause for alarm. Soothing words aside, reports from the day note that the new rate did indeed catch Wall Street by surprise. The following day the DOW dropped 14.11 points to close at a month-long low of 337.99. Until that point, investors had been reveling in “Big Bull Market,” a record-setting run which was well over a year old. As the DOW hit new highs, the stock market became a national past time; the craze for playing the stocks spread from being the sole province of the big-city elite to a part of the daily life of small-town America. However, as the Reserve Bank’s move to advance the interest rate oh-so-subtly suggested, the good times were based on speculation rather than solid financial practices. By November 1929, this quiet hint at a downturn in the market would look more like a prophetic warning call.

1935 – Fleet Marine Force Headquarters moved from Quantico to San Diego.

1941 – President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill met at Placentia Bay, Newfoundland. Their meeting produced the Atlantic Charter, an agreement between the two countries on war aims, even though the United States was still a neutral country.

1942 – After the removal of the American aircraft carriers, a Japanese cruiser force, commanded by Admiral Mikawa enters the Sealark Channel south of Savo Island. The remaining American naval defenses, lead by Admiral Crutchley, have little experience of, or the equipment needed for, night fighting. The Americans lose four cruisers and sink none of the Japanese ships. Sealark Channel is later renamed Ironbottom Sound. The American transports unloading at Lunga Point are not attacked, however they are ordered to withdraw due to the threat and the 1st Marine Division is left short of heavy equipment and with only one half of their supplies. The Coast Guard-manned transport USS Hunter Liggett rescued the survivors of three U. S. Navy and one Australian cruisers that had been sunk the preceding night by Imperial Japanese Navy during the Battle of Savo Island. The night battle, also known as the First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, was one of the worst defeats ever suffered by the Navy.

1942 – With the Guadalcanal airstrip secure after heavy fighting with the Japanese, the 1st Engineer Battalion commenced work on the runway using captured equipment. Three days later, on 12 August, the first plane landed on Henderson Field, a Navy PBY which evacuated two wounded Marines. Nearly 3,000 wounded Marines would be evacuated from Henderson Field during the battle.

1944 – The German attacks around Mortain continue to be held by forces of US 1st Army. Meanwhile, the US 15th Corps (part of US 3rd Army) turns north from Le Mans, aiming for Argentan and eventually a junction with the Canadians advance southward between Argentan and Falaise. Allied fight-bombers are active throughout the day.

1944 – The United States Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising Council release posters featuring Smokey Bear for the first time.



1945 – A second atom bomb is dropped on Japan by the United States, at Nagasaki, resulting finally in Japan’s unconditional surrender. The devastation wrought at Hiroshima was not sufficient to convince the Japanese War Council to accept the Potsdam Conference’s demand for unconditional surrender. The United States had already planned to drop their second atom bomb, nicknamed “Fat Man,” on August 11 in the event of such recalcitrance, but bad weather expected for that day pushed the date up to August 9th. So at 1:56 a.m., a specially adapted B-29 bomber, called “Bock’s Car,” after its usual commander, Frederick Bock, took off from Tinian Island under the command of Maj. Charles W. Sweeney. Nagasaki was a shipbuilding center, the very industry intended for destruction. The bomb was dropped at 11:02 a.m., 1,650 feet above the city. The explosion unleashed the equivalent force of 22,000 tons of TNT. The hills that surrounded the city did a better job of containing the destructive force, but the number killed is estimated at anywhere between 60,000 and 80,000 (exact figures are impossible, the blast having obliterated bodies and disintegrated records).

General Leslie R. Groves, the man responsible for organizing the Manhattan Project, which solved the problem of producing and delivering the nuclear explosion, estimated that another atom bomb would be ready to use against Japan by August 17 or 18th...but it was not necessary. Even though the War Council still remained divided (“It is far too early to say that the war is lost,” opined the Minister of War), Emperor Hirohito, by request of two War Council members eager to end the war, met with the Council and declared that “continuing the war can only result in the annihilation of the Japanese people….” The Emperor of Japan gave his permission for unconditional surrender. Major Sweeney, the pilot, would in 1956, at age 37, become the youngest brigadier general in the entire peacetime Air Force when he was appointed by the governor of Massachusetts to command the 102nd Tactical Fighter Wing, Massachusetts Air National Guard.

1949 – First use of pilot-ejection seat for emergency escape in U.S. made by LT Jack I. Fruin of VF-171 near Walterboro, South Carolina.

1950 – Congress enacted Public Law 679, which charged the Coast Guard with the function of port security.

1951 – The 1st Marine Air Wing was awarded the Army Distinguished Unit Citation for outstanding performance of duty and extraordinary heroism during the period from Nov. 22 to Dec. 14, 1950 The award was for actions in support of X Corps in the Chosin/Changjin Reservoir campaign and the evacuation from northeast Korea.

1952 – The 1st Marine Division defended against a Chinese attack in the vicinity of Bunker Hill. This was the first significant U.S. Marine ground action in western Korea since the Inchon-Seoul campaign. The Marine position on Hill 58 changed hands five times during the next two days. Eventually the Chinese managed to gain control of this outpost.

1960 – There was a race riot in Jacksonville, Florida.

1967 – First Marine Division launches Operation Cochise in the Que Son valley. Meanwhile, the First Cavalry Division continued with Operation Pershing, a major clearing operation in the Binh Dinh province designed to improve the security situation in support of the ongoing pacification effort.

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1974 – In accordance with his statement of resignation the previous evening, Richard M. Nixon officially ends his term as the 37th president of the United States at noon. Before departing with his family in a helicopter from the White House lawn, he smiled farewell and enigmatically raised his arms in a victory or peace salute. The helicopter door was then closed, and the Nixon family began their journey home to San Clemente, California. Richard Nixon was the first U.S. president to resign from office. Minutes later, Vice President Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as the 38th president of the United States in the East Room of the White House. After taking the oath of office, President Ford spoke to the nation in a television address, declaring, “My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.” Ford, the first president who came to the office through appointment rather than election, had replaced Spiro Agnew as vice president only eight months before. In a political scandal independent of the Nixon administration’s wrongdoings in the Watergate affair, Agnew had been forced to resign in disgrace after he was charged with income tax evasion and political corruption. In September 1974, Ford pardoned Nixon for any crimes he may have committed while in office, explaining that he wanted to end the national divisions created by the Watergate scandal.

1982 – Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger approved the use of Coast Guard law enforcement detachments on board Navy vessels during peace-time. The teams conducted law enforcement boardings from Navy vessels for the first time in history. The first CG TACLET was assigned to the USS Sampson on 11 August 1982.

1985 – Arthur Walker, a retired U.S. Navy officer, is found guilty of espionage for passing top-secret documents to his brother, who then passed them to Soviet agents. Walker was part of one of the most significant Cold War spy rings in the United States. The arrest of Arthur Walker on May 29, 1985, came just one day after the arrest of his brother, John, and John’s son, Michael. All three were charged with conducting espionage for the Soviet Union. John Walker, also a Navy veteran, was the ringleader, and government officials charged that he had been involved in spying for the Soviets since 1968. He recruited his son, who was serving in the U.S. Navy, a short time later. Arthur Walker was drawn into the scheme in 1980 when, at his brother’s suggestion, he took a job with VSE, a Virginia defense contractor.

Over the next two years, the government charged, Arthur Walker provided John with a number of highly classified documents dealing with the construction of naval vessels. For his services, Arthur Walker received about $12,000. A nasty divorce between John Walker and his wife eventually brought the spy ring to light when his wife, angry after their separation, went to the FBI to inform on her husband. It was revealed at their trials that the motivation of all the Walker men was the repayment of large debts they had accrued. Arthur Walker was found guilty of seven counts of espionage on August 9, 1985. He was sentenced to life in prison and fined $250,000. John and Michael Walker later pled guilty to espionage charges, with John receiving two life sentences and Michael receiving 25 years in prison. A fourth conspirator, Jerry Whitworth, a friend of John Walker’s, was convicted in 1986 on 12 counts of espionage and sentenced to 365 years in prison. With the arrests and convictions, the U.S. government claimed that it had broken one of the most destructive spy rings in the United States in the history of the Cold War.

1987 – Independent Counsel Lawrence E. Walsh, vowing to investigate the Iran-Contra affair “vigorously but fairly,” told a meeting of the American Bar Association in San Francisco that he would not be deterred by the “popularity of persons involved.”

1990 – A week after Iraq invaded Kuwait, Western European diplomats and Arab witnesses reported that Iraq had virtually sealed its borders, preventing thousands of foreigners from leaving Iraq or Kuwait.

1990 – Walking off of the first American C-141 transport to bring in the first elements what would eventually be more than 527,000 American troops were two Guardsmen from Headquarters Company, 228th Signal Brigade, South Carolina Army National Guard. They immediately set up and began operating their single channel tactical satellite radio link keeping the Saudi Defense Ministry in communication with the U.S. Army’s Third Army Headquarters, Fort McPherson, GA. These two men were the first of 37,848 Army Guard personnel to serve in Saudi Arabia during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Strom which finally forced the Iraqi army to evacuate Kuwait.

1998 – In South Korea flooding over the last 7 days claimed 165 lives that included 3 US soldiers.

2001 – It was reported that the US had decided to pay China $34,567 to cover the costs of the spy plane that was detained on Hainan island. China had asked for $1 million and rejected the offer.

2002 – In eastern Afghanistan a powerful explosion ripped through an Afghan construction firm’s building in the city of Jalalabad, killing 21 people and injuring 85 others.

2003 – The US Army began burning chemical weapons at the Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Anniston, Alabama.

2004 – In McAlester, Oklahoma, District Judge Steven Taylor sentenced Terry Nichols to 161 consecutive life sentences for the 1995 Oklahoma City federal building bombing.

2004 – Al Sadr, whose loyalists battled U.S. troops for a fifth straight day, vowed to fight to the death. A suicide attacker detonated a car bomb northeast of Baghdad, killing six people and wounding the deputy governor who was the intended target.

2004 – Four masked, black-clad men who said they belong to a group that has claimed responsibility for kidnappings and killings in Iraq beheaded a man identified only as a Bulgarian in a video posted on the Internet.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

CORLISS, GEORGE W.
Rank and organization: Captain, Company C, 5th Connecticut Infantry. Place and date: At Cedar Mountain, Va., 9 August 1862. Entered service at: New Haven, Conn. Birth: ——. Date •S issue: 10 September 1897. Citation: Seized a fallen flag of the regiment, the color bearer having been killed, carried it forward in the face of a severe fire, and though himself shot down and permanently disabled, planted the staff in the earth and kept the flag flying.

YOUNKER, JOHN L.
Rank and organization: Private, Company A, 12th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Cedar Mountain, Va., 9 August 1862. Entered service at: —–. Birth: Germany. Date of issue: 1 November 1893. Citation: voluntarily carried an order, at great risk of life in the face of a fire of grape and canister; in doing this he was wounded.

BROWN, LORENZO D.
Rank and organization: Private, Company A, 7th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Big Hole, Mont. 9 August 1877. Entered service at: Indianapolis, Ind. Birth: Davidson County, N.C. Date of issue: 8 May 1878. Citation: After having been severely wounded in right shoulder, continued to do duty in a most courageous manner.

EDWARDS, WILLIAM D.
Rank and organization: First Sergeant, Company F, 7th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Big Hole, Mont., 9 August 1877. Entered service at:——. Birth: Brooklyn, N.Y. Date of issue: 2 December 1878. Citatlon: Bravery in action.

McLENNON, JOHN
Rank and organization: Musician, Company A, 7th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Big Hole, Mont., 9 August 1877. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Fort Belknap, Tex. Date of issue: 2 December 1878. Citation: Gallantry in action.

ROGAN, PATRICK
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company A, 7th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Big Hole, Mont., 9 August 1877. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 2 December 1878. Citation: Verified and reported the company while subjected to a galling fire from the enemy.

WILSON, MILDEN H.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company I, 7th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Big Hole, Mont., 9 August 1877. Entered service at: Newark, Ohio. Birth: Huron County, Ohio. Date of issue: 2 December 1878. Citation: Gallantry in forming company from line of skirmishers and deploying again under a galling fire, and in carrying dispatches at the imminent risk of his life.

JONES, CLAUD ASHTON
Rank and organization: Commander, U.S. Navy. Born: 7 October 1885, Fire Creek, W.Va. Accredited to: West Virginia. (1 August 1932.) Citation: For extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession as a senior engineer officer on board the U.S.S. Memphis, at a time when the vessel was suffering total destruction from a hurricane while anchored off Santo Domingo City, 29 August 1916. Lt. Jones did everything possible to get the engines and boilers ready, and if the elements that burst upon the vessel had delayed for a few minutes, the engines would have saved the vessel. With boilers and steampipes bursting about him in clouds of scalding steam, with thousands of tons of water coming down upon him and in almost complete darkness, Lt. Jones nobly remained at his post as long as the engines would turn over, exhibiting the most supreme unselfish heroism which inspired the officers and men who were with him. When the boilers exploded, Lt. Jones, accompanied by 2 of his shipmates, rushed into the firerooms and drove the men there out, dragging some, carrying others to the engineroom, where there was air to be breathed instead of steam. Lt. Jones’ action on this occasion was above and beyond the call of duty.

ALLEX, JAKE
Rank and organization: Corporal, U.S. Army, Company H, 131st Infantry, 33d Division. Place and date: At Chipilly Ridge, France, 9 August 1918. Entered service at: Chicago, Ill. Born: 13 July 1887, Prizren, Serbia. G.O. No.: 44, W.D., 1919. Citation: At a critical point in the action, when all the officers with his platoon had become casualties, Cpl. Allex took command of the platoon and led it forward until the advance was stopped by fire from a machinegun nest. He then advanced alone for about 30 yards in the face of intense fire and attacked the nest. With his bayonet he killed 5 of the enemy, and when it was broken, used the butt of his rifle, capturing 15 prisoners.

*LINDSEY, DARRELL R. (Air Mission)
Rank and organization: Captain, U.S. Army Air Corps. Place and date: L’Isle Adam railroad bridge over the Seine in occupied France, 9 August 1944. Entered service at: Storm Lake, lowa. Birth: Jefferson, lowa. G.O. No.: 43, 30 May 1945. Citation: On 9 August 1944, Capt. Lindsey led a formation of 30 B-26 medium bombers in a hazardous mission to destroy the strategic enemy held L’lsle Adam railroad bridge over the Seine in occupied France. With most of the bridges over the Seine destroyed, the heavily fortified L’Isle Adam bridge was of inestimable value to the enemy in moving troops, supplies, and equipment to Paris. Capt. Lindsey was fully aware of the fierce resistance that would be encountered. Shortly after reaching enemy territory the formation was buffeted with heavy and accurate antiaircraft fire. By skillful evasive action, Capt. Lindsey was able to elude much of the enemy flak, but just before entering the bombing run his B-26 was peppered with holes. During the bombing run the enemy fire was even more intense, and Capt. Lindsey’s right engine received a direct hit and burst into flames. Despite the fact that his ship was hurled out of formation by the violence of the concussion, Capt. Lindsey brilliantly maneuvered back into the lead position without disrupting the flight. Fully aware that the gasoline tanks might explode at any moment, Capt. Lindsey gallantly elected to continue the perilous bombing run. With fire streaming from his right engine and his right wing half enveloped in flames, he led his formation over the target upon which the bombs were dropped with telling effect. Immediately after the objective was attacked, Capt. Lindsey gave the order for the crew to parachute from the doomed aircraft. With magnificent coolness and superb pilotage, and without regard for his own life, he held the swiftly descending airplane in a steady glide until the members of the crew could jump to safety. With the right wing completely enveloped in flames and an explosion of the gasoline tank imminent, Capt. Lindsey still remained unperturbed. The last man to leave the stricken plane was the bombardier, who offered to lower the wheels so that Capt. Lindsey might escape from the nose. Realizing that this might throw the aircraft into an uncontrollable spin and jeopardize the bombardier’s chances to escape, Capt. Lindsey refused the offer. Immediately after the bombardier had bailed out, and before Capt. Lindsey was able to follow, the right gasoline tank exploded. The aircraft sheathed in fire, went into a steep dive and was seen to explode as it crashed. All who are living today from this plane owe their lives to the fact that Capt. Lindsey remained cool and showed supreme courage in this emergency.

LEE, HOWARD V.
Rank and organization: Major, U.S. Marine Corps, Company E, 2d Battalion, 4th Marines, 3d Marine Division (Rein). place and date: Near Cam Lo, Republic of Vietnam, 8 and 9 August 1966. Entered service at: Dumfries, Va. Born: 1 August 1933, New York, N.Y. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. A platoon of Maj. (then Capt.) Lee’s company, while on an operation deep in enemy territory, was attacked and surrounded by a large Vietnamese force. Realizing that the unit had suffered numerous casualties, depriving it of effective leadership, and fully aware that the platoon was even then under heavy attack by the enemy, Maj Lee took 7 men and proceeded by helicopter to reinforce the beleaguered platoon. Maj. Lee disembarked from the helicopter with 2 of his men and, braving withering enemy fire, led them into the perimeter, where he fearlessly moved from position to position, directing and encouraging the overtaxed troops. The enemy then launched a massive attack with the full might of their forces. Although painfully wounded by fragments from an enemy grenade in several areas of his body, including his eye, Maj. Lee continued undauntedly throughout the night to direct the valiant defense, coordinate supporting fire, and apprise higher headquarters of the plight of the platoon. The next morning he collapsed from his wounds and was forced to relinquish command. However the small band of marines had held their position and repeatedly fought off many vicious enemy attacks for a grueling 6 hours until their evacuation was effected the following morning. Maj. Lee’s actions saved his men from capture, minimized the loss of lives, and dealt the enemy a severe defeat. His indomitable fighting spirit, superb leadership, and great personal valor in the face of tremendous odds, reflect great credit upon himself and are in keeping with the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the U.S. Naval Service.

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10 August

1680 – The Pueblo Revolt, an uprising of most of the Pueblo Indians against the Spanish colonizers in the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México, present day New Mexico, begins. The Pueblo killed 400 Spanish and drove the remaining 2,000 settlers out of the province. Twelve years later the Spanish returned and were able to reoccupy New Mexico with little opposition.

1755 – Under the orders of Charles Lawrence, the British Army begins to forcibly deport the Acadians from Nova Scotia to the Thirteen Colonies.

1814 – John Clifford Pemberton (d.1881), Lt Gen (Confederate Army), was born.

1776 – American Revolutionary War: word of the United States Declaration of Independence reaches London.

1821 – Missouri enters the Union as the 24th state–and the first located entirely west of the Mississippi River. Named for one of the Native American groups that once lived in the territory, Missouri became a U.S. possession as part of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. In 1817, Missouri Territory applied for statehood, but the question of whether it would be slave or free delayed approval by Congress. In 1820, the Missouri Compromise was reached, admitting Missouri as a slave state but excluding slavery from the other Louisiana Purchase lands north of Missouri’s southern border. Missouri’s August 1821 entrance into the Union as a slave state was met with disapproval by many of its citizens. In 1861, when other slave states succeeded from the Union, Missouri chose to remain; although a provincial government was established in the next year by Confederate sympathizers. During the war, Missourians were split in their allegiances, supplying both Union and Confederate forces with troops. Lawlessness persisted during this period, and Missouri-born Confederate guerrillas such as Jesse James continued this lawlessness after the South’s defeat. With the ratification of Missouri’s new constitution by the citizens of the state in 1875, the old divisions were finally put to rest.

1831 – William Driver of Salem, Massachusetts, was the first to use the term “Old Glory” in connection with the American flag, when he gave that name to a large flag aboard his ship, the Charles Daggett.

1846 – After a decade of debate about how best to spend a bequest left to America from an obscure English scientist, President James K. Polk signs the Smithsonian Institution Act into law. In 1829, James Smithson died in Italy, leaving behind a will with a peculiar footnote. In the event that his only nephew died without any heirs, Smithson decreed that the whole of his estate would go to “the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an Establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge.” Smithson’s curious bequest to a country that he had never visited aroused significant attention on both sides of the Atlantic. Smithson had been a fellow of the venerable Royal Society of London from the age of 22, publishing numerous scientific papers on mineral composition, geology, and chemistry. In 1802, he overturned popular scientific opinion by proving that zinc carbonates were true carbonate minerals, and one type of zinc carbonate was later named smithsonite in his honor. Six years after his death, his nephew, Henry James Hungerford, indeed died without children, and on July 1, 1836, the U.S. Congress authorized acceptance of Smithson’s gift. President Andrew Jackson sent diplomat Richard Rush to England to negotiate for transfer of the funds, and two years later Rush set sail for home with 11 boxes containing a total of 104,960 gold sovereigns, 8 shillings, and 7 pence, as well as Smithson’s mineral collection, library, scientific notes, and personal effects. After the gold was melted down, it amounted to a fortune worth well over $500,000.

After considering a series of recommendations, including the creation of a national university, a public library, or an astronomical observatory, Congress agreed that the bequest would support the creation of a museum, a library, and a program of research, publication, and collection in the sciences, arts, and history. On August 10, 1846, the act establishing the Smithsonian Institution was signed into law by President James K. Polk. Today, the Smithsonian is composed of 18 museums and galleries and many research facilities throughout the United States and the world. Besides the original Smithsonian Institution Building, popularly known as the “Castle,” visitors to Washington, D.C., tour the National Museum of Natural History, which houses the natural science collections, the National Zoological Park, and the National Portrait Gallery. The National Museum of American History houses the original Star-Spangled Banner and other artifacts of U.S. history. The National Air and Space Museum has the distinction of being the most visited museum in the world, exhibiting such marvels of aviation and space history as the Wright brothers’ plane and Freedom 7, the space capsule that took the first American into space. John Smithson, the Smithsonian Institution’s great benefactor, is interred in a tomb in the Smithsonian Building.

1861 – The struggle for Missouri erupts with the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, where a motley band of raw Confederates defeat a Union force in the southwestern section of the state. Union General Nathaniel Lyon, who commanded a Union force of 6,400 soldiers near Springfield, Missouri, was up against two Rebel forces commanded by Generals Sterling Price and Ben McCulloch. Although the Confederates were poorly equipped and trained at this early stage of the war, Price and McCulloch had a combined force nearly twice the size of Lyon’s. But the impetuous Union commander did not want to cede the region without a fight, and so he planned an attack on August 10. Lyon sent General Franz Sigel with 1,200 men to attack the rear while he struck the surprised Confederates just after dawn. At first, the artillery barrage sent the Rebel camp into a panic, and the day seemed to belong to the Yankees. But Sigel mistook a force emerging from the smoke for an Iowa regiment, when it was actually a Louisiana regiment clad in similar uniforms since many of the Rebel units were dressed in colors of their own choosing. The Confederates pushed Sigel back, and the tide turned against Lyon’s force as well. In intense heat and humidity, the armies battled throughout the morning. Lyon was killed during one of the Confederate assaults, but the Union line managed to hold their ground. Although the Rebels withdrew from the field, the Union army was disorganized and running low on ammunition. Losses were heavy, with both sides suffering about 1,200 casualties. The Federals soon retreated to Springfield and then back to the railhead at Rolla, Missouri, 100 miles to the northeast. Southwestern Missouri was secured for the Confederates.

1862 – Rear Admiral Farragut reported to Secretary of the Navy Welles that he had partially destroyed Donaldsonville, Louisiana, in reprisal for the firing by guerrilla forces on steamers ”passing up and down the river.” Farragut wrote that he had ”sent a message to the inhabitants that if they did not discontinue this practice, I would destroy their town. The last time I passed up to Baton Rouge to the support of the army, I. . . heard them firing upon the vessels coming up, first upon the Sallie Robinson and next upon the Brooklyn. In the latter case they made a mistake, and it was so quickly returned that they ran away. The next night they fired again upon the St. Charles. I therefore ordered them to send their women and children out of the town, as I cer-tainly intended to destroy it on my way down the river, and I fulfilled my promise to a certain extent. I burned down the hotels and wharf buildings, also the dwelling houses and other buildings of a Mr. Phillippe Landry, who is said to be a captain of guerrillas.” Though Farragut had no taste for devastating private property, he felt justified in doing so if private citizens endangered the lives of his men.

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1864 – Confederate Commander John Bell Hood sent his cavalry north of Atlanta to cut off Union General William Sherman’s supply lines.

1864 – Rear Admiral Farragut continued steady day and night bombardment, battering down the walls of Fort Morgan resolutely defended by his former shipmate, General Page.

1874 – Herbert Clark Hoover, the 31st president of the United States (1929-1933), was born in West Branch, Iowa.

1914 – France declares war on Austria-Hungary.

1916 – First Naval aircraft production contract, for N-9's.

1920 – Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI’s representatives sign the Treaty of Sèvres that divides up the Ottoman Empire between the European Allies. The treaty is never ratified.

1921 – Franklin D. Roosevelt (39) was stricken with polio at his summer home on the Canadian island of Campobello, New Brunswick. Mrs. Roosevelt acted as her partially paralyzed husband’s eyes and ears by traveling, observing and reporting her observations to him. As First Lady, an author and newspaper columnist and, later, a delegate to the United Nations, Eleanor Roosevelt labored tirelessly for the poor and disadvantaged. In the words of historian John Kenneth Galbraith, she showed “more than any other person of her time, that an American could truly be a world citizen.”

1921 – General Order establishes the Bureau of Aeronautics under RADM William Moffett.

1942 – An American submarine sinks the Japanese heavy cruiser Kako while it was returning to Rabual after the battle at Savo Island.

1943 – Another Allied amphibious operation is carried out on the north coast. Forces land at Brolo, east of Cape Orlando. The Germans again fall back.

1944 – On Guam, American forces have secured the island. Insignificant groups of Japanese continue their resistance. American casualties amount to 7000, including 1300 killed. Only 100 Japanese prisoners have been taken, out of a garrison estimated at over 10,000 men.

1944 – US 3rd Army continues attacking. The US 8th Corps, in Brittany, has cleared St. Malo and Dinard of their German garrisons. The US 20th Corps captures Nantes and reaches the Loire River near Nantes. The US 15th Corps advances toward Alencon from Le Mans. German forces around Mortain pull back because of pressure from US 1st Army and the growing threat of encirclement from the converging Canadian and American armies.

1945 – US and British battleships bombard the city of Kimaishi, cocentrating on the steel mills.

1945 – US aircraft strike strategic targets on Honshu. In an effort to destroy Japanese aircraft moved to northern Honshu Island, US and British carrier aircraft attack airfields in continuous waves. A total of 34 Allied aircraft are lost, while 397 Japanese aircraft are claimed destroyed and 320 damaged.

1945 – Just a day after the bombing of Nagasaki, Japan submits its acquiescence to the Potsdam Conference terms of unconditional surrender, as President Harry S. Truman orders a halt to atomic bombing. Emperor Hirohito, having remained aloof from the daily decisions of prosecuting the war, rubber-stamping the decisions of his War Council, including the decision to bomb Pearl Harbor, finally felt compelled to do more. At the behest of two Cabinet members, the emperor summoned and presided over a special meeting of the Council and implored them to consider accepting the terms of the Potsdam Conference, which meant unconditional surrender. “It seems obvious that the nation is no longer able to wage war, and its ability to defend its own shores is doubtful.” The Council had been split over the surrender terms; half the members wanted assurances that the emperor would maintain his hereditary and traditional role in a postwar Japan before surrender could be considered.

But in light of the bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, Nagasaki on August 9, and the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, as well as the emperor’s own request that the Council “bear the unbearable,” it was agreed: Japan would surrender. Tokyo released a message to its ambassadors in Switzerland and Sweden, which was then passed on to the Allies. The message formally accepted the Potsdam Declaration but included the proviso that “said Declaration does not comprise any demand which prejudices the prerogatives of His Majesty as sovereign ruler.” When the message reached Washington, President Truman, unwilling to inflict any more suffering on the Japanese people, especially on “all those kids,” ordered a halt to atomic bombing, He also wanted to know whether the stipulation regarding “His Majesty” was a deal breaker. Negotiations between Washington and Tokyo ensued. Meanwhile, savage fighting continued between Japan and the Soviet Union in Manchuria.

1949 – President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Bill, which establishes the Department of Defense. As the Cold War heated up, the Department of Defense became the cornerstone of America’s military effort to contain the expansion of communism. In 1947, the National Security Act established the Cabinet-level position of secretary of defense, which oversaw a rather unwieldy umbrella military-defense agency known as the National Military Establishment. The secretary of defense, however, was just one of a number of military-related cabinet positions, including the pre-existing secretaries for the Army, Navy, and Air Force. The growing complexity of the Cold War, a war in which the mishandled application of military force could lead to a world war of cataclysmic proportions, convinced U.S. officials that the 1947 act needed to be revised. In 1949, the National Security Bill streamlined the defense agencies of the U.S. government. The 1949 bill replaced the National Military Establishment with the Department of Defense. The bill also removed the cabinet-level status of the secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, who would henceforth be subordinate to the Secretary of Defense. The first person to hold this position was Louis Johnson. Finally, the bill provided for the office of chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in an effort to bring to end to the inter-service bickering that had characterized the Joint Chiefs in recent years. World War II hero General Omar Bradley was appointed the first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The National Security Bill of 1949 was the result of the realization that more coordination and efficiency were needed for America’s military-defense bureaucracy, which had experienced tremendous growth during and after World War II. The Cold War was a new and dangerous kind of war for America, and the 1949 reorganization was recognition of the need for a different approach to U.S. defense.

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1950 – The Air Force Reserve’s 452nd Light Bombardment Wing and 437th Troop Carrier Wing was recalled to active duty.

1950 – U.S. and Australian warplanes conducted large-scale bombing missions on transportation and communications targets in North Korea.

1950 – The U.S. Army activated the IX Corps at Fort Sheridan, Ill., and ordered it to Korea. President Truman raised the authorized strength of the Army to 1,081,000. Due to an inadequate response to the request for volunteers, the Army involuntarily recalled 7,862 captains and lieutenants to report in September and October.

1950 – The first Marine Corps helicopter rescue of a downed pilot was successfully made by VMO-6.

1953 – The French Union withdraws its forces from Operation Camargue against the Viet Minh in central Vietnam.

1955 – Declaring that South Vietnam is ‘the only legal state,’ Diem rejects talks with North Vietnam, reaffirming the policy he laid out in his 6 July broadcast.

1961 – First use in Vietnam War of the Agent Orange by the U.S. Army.

1966 – Troops of the First Battalion, Fifth Marines fight a bitter battle against NVA forces in Quang Tin province, 60 miles west of Tam Ky. In Thailand, a U.S.-built air base is opened in Sattahib. Ultimately, there would be five major airbases and over 49,000 U.S. military personnel in Thailand. The bases would be turned over to the Thais and the U.S. troops withdrawn in 1973.

1972 – North Vietnamese forces block Routes 1, 4, and 13, all major South Vietnamese ground supply routes to Saigon. For the next two months, Communist forces repeatedly interdicted these and other key supply routes critical to Saigon’s survival in an attempt to strangle the city. This was all part of the Nguyen Hue Offensive, which had been launched in late March. In an invasion by more than 120,000 communist troops, the North Vietnamese had taken Quang Tri and lay siege to An Loc and Kontum. Despite desperate fighting on a level heretofore unseen in the war, the South Vietnamese forces, with American advisors and U.S. tactical air support, had withstood the invasion and were preparing to retake Quang Tri. At one point, the North Vietnamese forces had been less than 60 miles from Saigon, but were stopped by the South Vietnamese forces at An Loc, on Highway 13 north of the city.

1977 – US and Panama signed a Panama Canal Zone accord.

1988 – President Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act, a measure providing $20,000 payments to Japanese-Americans interned by the U.S. government during World War II.

1990 – US’s Magellan spacecraft landed on Venus.

1990 – The Military Sealift Command began loading equipment and supplies from the Garden City Port in Savannah, Georgia, to support Allied operations during Operation Desert Shield. Coast Guard units, including reservists called-up specifically for this operation, maintained security zones and ensured the safe loading of the vessels.

1991 – The Revolutionary Justice Organization, one of the groups holding hostages in Lebanon, announced it would release an American within 72 hours. The next day, Edward Tracy was freed.

1995 – Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were charged with eleven counts in the Oklahoma City bombing. McVeigh was later convicted of murder and was executed on June 11, 2001, at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana; Nichols was convicted of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter.

1997 – U.S. envoy Dennis Ross met separately with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in an attempt to restart the Mideast peace process.

2000 – A US Navy helicopter crashed in the Gulf of Mexico. 2 crew members were rescued, 2 were killed and 2 were missing.

2000 – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez meets with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in Baghdad as part of a tour of members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). He is the first head of state to visit Saddam Hussein since the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
2001 – Space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral with supplies and a fresh crew for the Int’l Space Station.

2001 – About 20 US and British jets bombed air-defense installation south of Baghdad in retaliation for increased anti-aircraft activity.

2001 – The United States and Great Britain reject a proposal by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan to permit the Iraqi government to use $1billion per year to fund infrastructure improvements and to increase oil production capacity. It has been suggested that without infrastructure investment, Iraq’s production could fall significantly over the next few years.

2002 – It was reported that the Bush administration had begun warning foreign diplomats that they could lose US military assistance if they join the Int’l. Criminal Court without pledging to protect Americans from its reach. Article 98 allowed nations to negotiate immunity on a bilateral basis.

2003 – Saudi police arrested 10 suspected Muslim militants following a gunfight after police tried to stop their cars outside Riyadh.

2004 – Libya agreed to pay $35 million to the non-US victims of the 1986 Berlin disco bombing. Libya’s Kadhafi Foundation, which negotiated the terms of a compensation deal for victims of the bombing, demanded compensation from the United States for subsequent air strikes against the North African country.


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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

BOQUET, NICHOLAS
Rank and organization: Private, Company D, 1st lowa Infantry. Place and date: At Wilsons Creek, Mo., 10 August 1861. Entered service at: Burlington, lowa. Born: 14 November 1842, Germany. Date of issue: 16 February 1897. Citation: Voluntarily left the line of battle, and, exposing himself to imminent danger from a heavy fire of the enemy, assisted in capturing a riderless horse at large between the lines and hitching him to a disabled gun, saved the gun from capture.

IMMELL, LORENZO D.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company F, 2d U.S. Artillery. Place and date: At Wilsons Creek, Mo., 10 August 1861. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Ross, Ohio. Date of issue: 19 July 1890. Citation: Bravery in action.

SCHOFIELD, JOHN M.
Rank and organization: Major, 1st Missouri Infantry. Place and date: At Wilsons Creek, Mo., 10 August 1861. Entered service at: St. Louis, Mo. Born: 29 September 1831, Gerry, N.Y. Date of issue: 2 July 1892. Citation: Was conspicuously gallant in leading a regiment in a successful charge against the enemy.

WHERRY, WILLIAM M.
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, Company D, 3d U.S. Reserve Missouri Infantry. Place and date: At Wilsons Creek, Mo., 10 August 1861. Entered service at: St. Louis, Mo. Born: 13 September 1836, St. Louis, Mo. Date of issue: 30 October 1895. Citation: Displayed conspicuous coolness and heroism in rallying troops that were recoiling under heavy fire.

WOOD, H. CLAY
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, 11th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Wilsons Creek, Mo., 10 August 1861. Entered service at: Winthrop, Maine. Birth: Winthrop, Maine. Date of issue: 28 October 1893. Citation: Distinguished gallantry.

*MESTROVITCH, JAMES 1.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company C, 111th Infantry, 28th Division. Place and date: At Fismette, France, 10 August 1918. Entered service at: Pittsburgh, Pa. Birth: Montenegro. G.O. No.: 20, W.D., 1919. Citation: Seeing his company commander Iying wounded 30 yards in front of the line after his company had withdrawn to a sheltered position behind a stone wall, Sgt. Mestrovitch voluntarily left cover and crawled through heavy machinegun and shell fire to where the officer lay. He took the officer upon his back and crawled to a place of safety, where he administered first-aid treatment, his exceptional heroism saving the officer’s life.

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11 August

1806 – While hunting for elk along the Missouri River, Meriwether Lewis is shot in the hip, probably by one of his own men. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark had embarked on their epic journey to the Pacific two years earlier. The 33 members of the Corps of Discovery had experienced many adventures and narrowly escaped disaster on several occasions, but they had lost only one man (Sergeant Floyd, a probable victim of appendicitis) and suffered relatively few serious injuries. Now, at last, they were returning home; St. Louis was scarcely a month away. A few weeks earlier, Lewis and Clark had divided the party in order to explore additional new territory. The two groups were supposed to reunite at the junction of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers. Lewis, traveling with nine men, hurried down the Missouri, eager to be reunited with Clark and the main body of the expedition. However, he periodically had to take time to stop and hunt for game to feed the hardworking men.

On the morning of this day in 1806, Lewis spotted some elk on a bar in the river thickly overgrown with willows. He put to shore and set out to hunt accompanied by Private Cruzatte. Spotting an elk, Lewis was just about to fire his rifle when he was hit in the buttocks by a bullet. The blow spun him around and slashed a three-inch gash in his hip. Knowing that Cruzatte was blind in one eye and nearsighted in the other, Lewis immediately assumed the private had mistaken him for an elk. “Damn you,” Lewis cried. “You have shot me.” When Cruzatte did not respond, Lewis feared Indians might have attacked him. Rushing back to the boat, he rallied the men and sent them off to save Cruzatte. Twenty minutes later, the men returned with Cruzatte. They had seen no Indians, and Cruzatte denied having shot Lewis and claimed he had not heard his shouts. For the rest of his days, Cruzatte insisted he had not shot his captain. Lewis, however, had the offending bullet: A .54 caliber slug from a modern U.S. Army rifle. Lewis was shot by a gun identical to the one carried by Cruzatte, and one unlikely to be in the hands of any Indian. The near-sighted Cruzatte probably mistook the leather-clad Lewis for an elk, though it is unlikely the private’s guilt will ever be proven with absolute certainty. His wound was not serious, but Lewis spent the next several days lying faced down in the bottom of a canoe as the party proceeded down river. The following day, they caught up with Clark. By the time they reached St. Louis on September 23, Lewis’ wound had healed and the excitement of homecoming overshadowed the event.

1807 – David Atchison, legislator, was born. He was president pro tempore of the U.S. Senate, and president of U.S. for one day [March 4, 1849], the Sunday before Zachary Taylor was sworn in.

1812 – USS Constitution captures and destroys British brig Lady Warren.

1817 – The ship Margaret, which sailed on Sunday, August 10, 1817, for Amelia Island with a number of persons on board, supposed to be going out for the purpose of joining the pirates, was brought back by the RC Active, under the command of Revenue Captain John Cahoone, and anchored 11 August in the Bay. The cutter fired several shots at the Margaret before she hove to. Is is said that she has also munitions of war on board.

1856 – A band of rampaging settlers in California killed four Yokut Indians. The settlers had heard unproven rumors of Yokut atrocities.

1860 – The first US successful silver mill began operation near Virginia City, Nevada.

1862 – President Abraham Lincoln appointed Union General Henry Halleck to the position of general in chief of the Union Army.

1864 – Confederate General Jubal Early pulls out of Winchester, Virginia, as Union General Philip Sheridan approaches the city. Wary of his new foe, Early moved away to avoid an immediate conflict. Since June, Early and his 14,000 troops had been campaigning in the Shenandoah Valley and the surrounding area. He had been sent there by General Robert E. Lee, whose Army of Northern Virginia was pinned near Richmond by the army of Union General Ulysses S. Grant. Early’s expedition was intended to distract Grant, and he carried out his mission well. In July, Early moved down the Shenandoah Valley to the Potomac River, brushing aside two Federal forces before arriving on the outskirts of Washington. Grant dispatched troops from his army to drive Early away, but Early simply returned to the Shenandoah and continued to operate with impunity. Now Grant sent General Philip Sheridan to deal with Early. Sheridan had been appointed on August 1 to command the Army of the Shenandoah, and he was quick to take action when he arrived on the scene.

On August 10, he marched his force toward Winchester. Early was alarmed, and pulled out of the city on August 11 to a more defensible position 20 miles south of Winchester. Sheridan followed with his force, settling his troops along Cedar Creek—just north of Strasburg, Virginia. As ordered by Grant, Sheridan stopped to await reinforcements. His army, consisting of both infantry and cavalry, would eventually total about 37,000 troops. Sheridan waited for a few days, but Confederate raider John Mosby and his Rangers burned a large store of Sheridan’s supplies. Alarmed and nearly out of food, Sheridan pulled back on August 16. This retreat was reminiscent of many Union operations in Virginia during the war. Early and others thought Sheridan was as timid and uncertain as other Federal commanders. That opinion changed little in the next month as Sheridan continued to wait and gather his force. However, Sheridan would later prove he was very different from previous Yankee leaders. In September, he began a campaign that drove the Confederates from the valley and then rendered the area useless to the Southern cause by destroying all the crops and supplies.

1864 – Small steamers U.S.S. Romeo, Acting Master Thomas Baldwin, and U.S.S. Prairie Bird, Acting Master Thomas Burns, and transport steamer Empress engaged battery at Gaines Landing, Arkan-sas, on the Mississippi River which the Confederates had secretly wheeled into place. On 10 August, Empress had been attacked by the batteries, enduring a withering fire which disabled her and killed Captain John Molloy. Romeo closed, fired upon the Confederate guns, and towed Empress to safety. Next day, however, the Southerner’s artillery again opened heavily on Prairie Bird which was passing the same point near Gaines Landing. Hearing the firing from upstream, Romeo came down and joined in the brisk engagement; the Confederates ultimately broke off the action and withdrew. All three ships were severely damaged in the two-day exchange, Empress alone taking some sixty-three hits.

1877 – Professor Asaph Hall of Naval Observatory discovers first of two satellites of Mars. He found the second one within a week.

1898 – In the Spanish–American War, American troops enter the city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.

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