[Featured image: U.S. Army soldiers during the Mexican-American War (Source: U.S. Army’s Center for Military History]
1848: Representatives of the United States and Mexico sign the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, officially ending the Mexican-American War. According to the Library of Congress, the treaty “[extends] the boundaries of the United States by over 525,000 square miles. In addition to establishing the Rio Grande as the border between the two countries, the territory acquired by the U.S. included what will become the states of Texas, California, Nevada, Utah, most of New Mexico and Arizona, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming.”
1901: Congress authorizes the establishment of the Army Nurse Corps under the Army Medical Department.
1943: The last remnants of Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus’ encircled Sixth German Army surrender to the Soviets. Of the army’s 250,000 men at the beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad, 147,000 are killed and 91,000 captured.
Only 5,000 will survive their brutal captivity and return to Germany.
“Marsmen” (the MARS Task Force) on Burma’s Loi-Kang Ridge. Source: National Archives
1945: As the 124th Cavalry Regiment (incidentally, the U.S. Army’s last remaining horse cavalry unit) battles to recapture the Burma Road, the troopers assault a 400-foot hill near Loi-Kang, Burma, that is heavily defended by Japanese soldiers. 1st Lt. Jack L. Knight spearheads the advance, singlehandedly taking out two machine gun nests and multiple bunkers. Knight was blinded, exhausted, and mortally wounded by a grenade, but still continued the charge as his men inflicted heavy casualties on the Japanese. For his charge at “Knight’s Hill,” he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
