If there is a forgotten theater where American troops fought in World War II, it is most definitely the Aleutians. The Japanese took Attu and Kiska, islands in the Aleutian chain, in June of 1942, to forestall the Aleutians being used as a base for a move on the Japanese Home Islands from the Aleutians. Due to the rugged weather conditions, the US had never seriously entertained using the Aleutians as a staging area for future offensives. However, Attu and Kiska were American territory, and national pride, as well as alarm from the Alaskan territorial government, made inevitable an American campaign to take back the strategically worthless islands.
Large reinforcements of planes, ships and men were part of a huge buildup which culminated in the retaking of Attu, after a very hard fight, in May of 1943 which resulted in 3900 American casualties and the death of all but 29 of the 2900 Japanese garrison. Kiska was taken on August 15, 1943, the invasion force learning after landing that the Japanese had vacated the island. (more…)
After the battle of Second Winchester cleared Union troops from the Shenandoah Valley, Hooker was ignorant of the movements of Lee west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was imperative that Union cavalry break through Jeb Stuart’s cavalry cordon along the Blue Ridge passes that concealed Lee’s drive north. The battle of Aldie set off a series of battles and skirmishes as Major General Alfred Pleasanton unsuccessfully attempted from June 17-21, to break through Stuart’s cavalry screen. Go here to see a video that gives a good overview of these engagements.
Here is the official report of General Stuart on the battle: (more…)
In 1957 comedian Red Skelton was on top of the world. His weekly comedy show on CBS was doing well. He had curtailed the drinking which had almost derailed his career. Not too shabby for a man who had started out as a circus and rodeo clown and who was now often called the clown prince of American comedy. He and his wife Georgia had two beautiful kids: Richard and Valentina Maria. Then the worst thing in the world for any parent entered into the lives of Red and Georgia Skelton: Richard was diagnosed with leukemia. Unlike today, a diagnosis of leukemia in a child in 1957 was tantamount to saying that Richard was going to die soon. Red immediately took a leave of absence from his show. CBS was very understanding and a series of guest hosts, including a very young Johnny Carson, filled in for Skelton during the 1957-1958 season.
Red and his wife made two decisions. First, they decided not to reveal to their son how ill he was; if worse came to worst they wanted him to enjoy the time he had left. The boy’s leukemia was temporarily in remission and outwardly he appeared healthy. When the boy saw “The Last Days of Pompeii” on TV and was fascinated by it, his mom and dad made their second decision. They were going to take him and his sister to Europe so the boy could see Pompeii and other parts of Europe and the world, and to allow the parents to consult with foreign physicians and also to conduct a pilgrimage for their son. The Skeltons were Protestants, indeed, Red was an active Mason, but they had chosen to educate their kids at a Catholic school and Richard was very religious, his room filled with religious pictures and statues. Like many Christians of whatever denomination, in their hour of utmost need the Skeltons decided to seek aid of the Catholic Church. (more…)
Something for the weekend. Yesterday being Flag Day I thought our first, unofficial, national anthem would be appropriate: Hail Columbia. Composed in 1789 by Philip Phile for Washington’s first inaugural, and originally entitled The President’s March, lyrics were supplied by Joseph Hopkinson in 1798. Hail Columbia functioned as the unofficial national anthem of the United States up until the 1890s. From 1947 here is Bing Crosby narrating a radio dramatization of Edward Everett Hale’s, a great nephew of Nathan Hale, classic story of love of country, The Man Without a Country: (more…)
“Resolved, That the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation.”
June 14, 1777-Marine Committee, Second Continental Congress (more…)
In order for Lee to invade the North it was necessary for the Shenandoah Valley to be cleared of Union troops that would otherwise could pose a threat to Richmond in the absence of Lee’s army. Lee assigned the Second Corps, Jackson’s old veterans who were quite familiar with the Shenandoah to accomplish this.
The Shenandoah was defended by a Union division of approximately 7,000 men under General Robert H. Milroy who concentrated his troops in forts around Winchester, a town well know to the men of the Second Corps who had fought and won the First Battle of Winchester in September of the previous year. Not realizing that he face approximately 12,000 men of the Second Corps, Milroy ignored suggestions from General in Chief Halleck that Milroy abandon Winchester and retreat to Harper’s Ferry.
June 13 consisted of skirmishing as the troops of the Second Corps marched and deployed, following a battle plan of General Jubal Early to outflank both the left and right flanks of Milroy’s force. Milroy retreated into the fortifications around Winchester.
On June 14 the Confederate outflanking attacks forced Milroy to retreat down the valley overnight to Stephenson’s Depot.
On June 15 Milroy’s force was routed and effectively destroyed as it attempted to reach Stephenson’s Depot. The casualties were lopsided in favor of the Confederates: 4,443 Union casualties, 4000 of them prisoners or missing, to 269 Confederate losses. Immense amounts of supply were captured by the Confederates along with 23 cannon. Confederate morale was heartened by this victory, while the Union morale was shaken. With the valley now cleared of Union troops the Army of Northern Virginia was free to commence the invasion of the North. Here is Ewell’s report on the battle: (more…)
Fame is a fickle thing, and it often does not coincide with merit. That certainly is the case of Confederate Major General Franklin Gardner, who commanded the garrison of Port Hudson on the Mississippi during a siege that lasted from May 22, 1863 to July 9, 1863. Gardner conducted the defense with great skill against a Union army of 40,000, supported by a powerful fleet, against his garrison of 7500. Gardner and his men inflicted 5,000 casualties against the Union force in exchange for 1,000 killed and wounded. Another 5,000 Union troops perished from disease. Gardner was helped in his defense by the military ineptitude of the Union commander, Major General Nathaniel P. Banks, one of the more useless of the Union political generals. When Gardner surrendered it was after he heard of the fall of Vicksburg and realized that overwhelming Union force would be arrayed against him, in addition to the fact that his men were starving before his eyes. (more…)
An interesting character in his own right, a Confederate senator from Georgia during the Civil War and a powerhouse in Georgia politics his entire life, Benjamin H. Hill in a speech in 1874 uttered this statement on Robert E. Lee that captures that very great man perfectly:
“When the future historian shall come to survey the character of Lee he will find it rising like a huge mountain above the undulating plane of humanity, and he must lift his eyes high toward heaven to catch its summit. He possessed every virtue of other great commanders without their vices. He was a foe without hate; a friend without treachery; a soldier without cruelty; a victor without oppression; and a victim without murmuring. He was a public officer without vices; a private citizen without wrong; a neighbor without reproach; a Christian without hypocrisy and a man without guile. He was a Caesar without his ambition; Frederick without his tyranny; Napoleon without his selfishness; and Washington without his reward. He was obedient to authority as a servant, and royal in authority as a true king. He was gentle as a woman in life; modest and pure as a virgin in thought; watchful as a Roman vestal in duty; submissive to law as Socrates; and grand in battle as Achilles.”
The video clip above from the movie Glory depicts the raid on Darien, Georgia. Commanded by an old Jayhawker, Colonel James Montgomery, the commander of the 2nd South Carolina, go here to read about him, with the participation of the 54th Massachusetts, the raid degenerated into the looting and burning of Darien, much to the disgust of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, commander of the 54th. Here is letter to his newly wed wife in which he details his opinion of the raid:
St. Simons Island, Ga. [RGS] Tuesday, June 9, 1863
My Dearest Annie,
We arrived at the southern point of this island at six this morning. I went ashore to report to Colonel [James] Montgomery, and was ordered to proceed with my regiment to a place called “Pike’s Bluff,” on the inner coast of the island, and encamp. We came up here in another steamer, the “Sentinel,” as the “De Molay” is too large for the inner waters,—and took possession to-day of a plantation formerly owned by Mr. Gould. We have a very nice camping-ground for the regiment, and I have my quarters in “the house”; very pleasantly situated, and surrounded by fine large trees. The island is beautiful, as far as I have seen it. You would be enchanted with the scenery here; the foliage is wonderfully thick, and the trees covered with hanging moss, making beautiful avenues wherever there is a road or path; it is more like the tropics than anything I have seen. Mr. Butler King’s plantation, where I first went ashore, must have been a beautiful place, and well kept. It is entirely neglected now, of course; and as the growth is very rapid, two years’ neglect almost covers all traces of former care.
June 12th—If I could have gone on describing to you the beauties of this region, who knows but I might have made a fine addition to the literature of our age? But since I wrote the above, I have been looking at something very different.
On Wednesday, a steamboat appeared off our wharf, and Colonel Montgomery hailed me from the deck with, “How soon can you get ready to start on an expedition?” I said, “In half an hour,” and it was not long before we were on board with eight companies, leaving two for camp-guard.
We steamed down by his camp, where two other steamers with five companies from his regiment, and two sections of Rhode Island artillery, joined us. A little below there we ran aground, and had to wait until midnight for flood-tide, when we got away once more.
At 8 A.M., we were at the mouth of the Altamaha River, and immediately made for Darien. We wound in and out through the creeks, twisting and turning continually, often heading in directly the opposite direction from that which we intended to go, and often running aground, thereby losing much time. Besides our three vessels, we were followed by the gunboat “Paul Jones.”
On the way up, Montgomery threw several shells among the plantation buildings, in what seemed to me a very brutal way; for he didn’t know how many women and children there might be.
About noon we came in sight of Darien, a beautiful little town. Our artillery peppered it a little, as we came up, and then our three boats made fast to the wharves, and we landed the troops. The town was deserted, with the exception of two white women and two negroes.
Montgomery ordered all the furniture and movable property to be taken on board the boats. This occupied some time; and after the town was pretty thoroughly disembowelled, he said to me, “I shall burn this town.” He speaks always in a very low tone, and has quite a sweet smile when addressing you. I told him, “I did not want the responsibility of it,” and he was only too happy to take it all on his shoulders; so the pretty little place was burnt to the ground, and not a shed remains standing; Montgomery firing the last buildings with his own hand. One of my companies assisted in it, because he ordered them out, and I had to obey. You must bear in mind, that not a shot had been fired at us from this place, and that there were evidently very few men left in it. All the inhabitants (principally women and children) had fled on our approach, and were no doubt watching the scene from a distance. Some of our grape-shot tore the skirt of one of the women whom I saw. Montgomery told her that her house and property should be spared; but it went down with the rest.
The reasons he gave me for destroying Darien were, that the Southerners must be made to feel that this was a real war, and that they were to be swept away by the hand of God, like the Jews of old. In theory it may seem all right to some, but when it comes to being made the instrument of the Lord’s vengeance, I myself don’t like it. Then he says, “We are outlawed, and therefore not bound by the rules of regular warfare” but that makes it none the less revolting to wreak our vengeance on the innocent and defenceless. (more…)
After the failure of the two assaults in May, Grant’s Army of the Tennessee set about the business of taking Vicksburg by siege. With control of the Mississippi, the Union army was well supplied, and by June 14 the Army of Tennessee would swell with reinforcements to 77,000 troops. Long odds for the 33,000 Confederate troops, grimly holding on to Vicksburg while trying to sustain themselves on rations that could at best barely hold starvation at bay. Confederate morale plummeted as Union morale soared.
This letter by Captain Richard W. Burt of the 76th Ohio written to an Ohio newspaper indicates the high morale of the Union forces and their faith that Vicksburg would inevitably fall: (more…)
Donald R. McClarey
Paul Zummo
