1778: British troops, commanded by Lt. Col. Archibald Campbell, assault a force of militia and Continental Army soldiers defending Savannah, Ga. The King’s Men easily defeat Maj. Gen. Robert Howe’s army, killing, capturing or wounding over 500. When the British gain control of the colony the following year, Campbell writes that he is “the first British officer to [take] a star and stripe from the flag of Congress.”
1812: The USS Constitution defeats the British frigate HMS Java – the second of Old Ironsides’ five victories – in a three-hour battle off the coast of Brazil. After Java is burned, the British admiralty orders their frigates never to engage American frigates in a one-on-one confrontation.
1862: Plans to capture Vicksburg, Tenn. – the last remaining Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River – are thwarted when Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s frontal assault across open ground against entrenched Confederate forces fails in the Battle of Chickasaw Bluffs.
1. Maj. Gen. O. O. Howard; 2. Maj. Gen. J. A. Logan; 3. Maj. Gen. William B. Hazen; 4. Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman; 5. Maj. Gen. Jeff C. Davis; 6. Maj. Gen. H. W. Slocum; 7. Maj. Gen. J. A. Mower; 8. Maj. Gen. F. P. Blair.
1890: 7th Cavalry troops surround a Sioux encampment at Wounded Knee Creek (present-day South Dakota), attempting to disarm the Indians under Chief Big Foot. The soldiers attack when a shot is fired (it is not known who fired) and massacre over 150 Sioux, including many women and children. The Massacre at Wounded Knee is the last major engagement in the Plains Wars.
Sioux encampment at Wounded Knee Creek
1943: The submarine USS Silversides (SS-236) sinks three Japanese cargo ships and damages a fourth off the Palau Islands.
USS Silversides (SS-236)
1972: (Featured Image) In what very well could be the last mass bomber formation in history, 60 B-52 bombers target the North Vietnamese capital of Hanoi. While the “Stratofortresses” are still in the air, the communists inform the White House that they are ready to return to the peace talks.
Over the 11 days of the Operation “Linebacker II” bombing campaign, over 20,000 tons of ordinance hammered Hanoi and Haiphong, crippling their war production and supply chain, and the communists had shot most of their surface-to-air missiles. The signing of the Paris Peace Accords in January will effectively end U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.
B-52 Strike on Viet Cong encampments
B-52 strike
