This Day in US Military History

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6 May

1856 - U.S. Army troops from Fort Tejon and Fort Miller prepared to ride out to protect Keyesville, California, from Yokut Indian attack.
1861 - Confederate Congress passed act recognizing state of war with the United States and authorized the issuing of Letters of Marque to private vessels. President Davis issued instructions to private armed vessels, in which he defined operational limits, directed "strictest regard to the rights of neutral powers." ordered privateers to proceed "With all ... justice and humanity" toward Union vessels and crews, out-lined procedure for bringing in a prize, directed that all property on board neutral ships be exempt from seizure "unless it be contraband," and defined contraband.
1861 - Arkansas and Tennessee becomes 9th & 10th state to secede from US.
1861 - Members of the 5th Louisiana Volunteer Infantry, take up garrison duties in this fort protecting the entrance to Pensacola Bay. In the early days of the Civil War, men in some southern units objected to being stationed outside of their home states (recall for most of the South the war was mostly over “state rights,” not slavery). Some of the men in this regiment questioned why they had to protect a part of Florida when areas of Louisiana remained vulnerable to Union Navy attack. However, it soon became apparent that if the Confederacy was to have any chance to survive as a separate nation it needed a unified army, regardless of state affiliation. The unit remained here until May 1862 when Union forces captured Pensacola Bay. The 5th Louisiana later joined the Army of Northern Virginia and fought at Antietam in September 1862 and in the Shenandoah Valley campaign of 1864. A few members (“less than 80”) were among the men surrendered at Appomattox in April 1865.
1862 - Union forces occupy Williamsburg, Virginia, during the Peninsular campaign
1864 - Union and Confederate troops continue their desperate struggle in the Wilderness, which was the opening battle in the biggest campaign of the war. General Ulysses S. Grant, commander of the Union forces, had joined George Meade's Army of the Potomac to encounter Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia in the tangled Wilderness forest near Chancellorsville, the site of Lee's brilliant victory the year before. The fighting was intense, and raging fires that consumed the dead and wounded magnified the horror of battle. But little was gained in the confused attacks by either side. On May 6, the second day of battle in the Wilderness, Grant sought to break the stalemate by sending Winfield Hancock's corps against the Confederate right flank at the southern end of the battle line. The Federals were on the verge of breaking through the troops of James Longstreet when they stumbled in the dense undergrowth. Lee entered the fray to rally the Confederate troops, but his devoted solders urged him away from the action. Later in the morning, Longstreet's men attacked Hancock's forces and seemed poised to turn the Union flank. But, like the Union troops earlier, they became disoriented as they drove Hancock's troops back. In the confusion, Longstreet was wounded by his own men, just four miles from the spot where Stonewall Jackson was mortally wounded by his own men the year before. The Confederate attack halted when Hancock's men found refuge behind hastily constructed breastworks. In the evening, Lee attacked the Union flank at the northern end of the battlefield and nearly turned the Federal line. Grant's men, however, held their ground, leaving the exhausted armies in nearly the same positions as when the battle began. In two days, the Union lost 17,000 men to the Confederates' 11,000. This was nearly one-fifth of each army. Unfortunately, the worst was yet to come. Grant pulled his men out of the Wilderness on May 7, but, unlike the commanders before him in the eastern theater, he did not go back. He moved further south towards Spotsylvania Court House and closer to Richmond. At Spotsylvania, the armies staged some of the fiercest fighting of the war.
1864 - General Sherman began to advance on Atlanta.
1864 - U.S.S. Dawn, Acting Lieutenant John W. Simmons, transported soldiers to capture a signal station at Wilson's Wharf, Virginia. After landing the troops two miles above the station, Simmons proceeded to Sandy Point to cover the attack. When the soldiers were momentarily halted, a boat crew from Dawn spearheaded the successful assault.
1864 - U.S.S. Eutaw, Osceola, Pequot, Shokokon, and General Putnam, side-wheelers of Rear Admiral Lee's North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, supported the landing of troops at Bermuda Hundred, Virginia.
1877 - Chief Crazy Horse surrendered to U.S. troops in Nebraska. Crazy Horse brought General Custer to his end.
1916 - First ship-to-shore radio telephone voice conversation from USS New Hampshire off Virginia Capes to SECNAV Josephus Daniels in Washington, DC
1935 - The Works Progress Administration (WPA), threw open its doors and began the monumental task of sending scores of unemployed Americans back to work. Perhaps the key program developed during the New Deal, President Franklin Roosevelt's "alphabet soup" of government agencies aimed at alleviating the damage wrought by the Great Depression, the WPA handed Americans decent-paying jobs on a myriad of public works projects. But, WPA jobs were hardly sinecures; workers employed via the agency constructed a head-spinning array of public structures, including parks, playgrounds, schools, post-offices and National Guard armories. And, through its creatively inclined arms (the Federal Art Project and Federal Theater Project), the WPA set painters, actors, musicians and writers to work on public arts projects that depicted the lives of America's workers. All told, the WPA (which was renamed the Works Projects Administration in 1939) was responsible for employing 8.5 million Americans during its eight-year tenure. Despite these considerable fruits, the WPA was an expensive program--the agency spent roughly $11 billion during its lifetime--which prompted attacks from more penurious voices in the nation. By the summer of 1943, World War II had almost entirely usurped the efforts of America's work force, and the WPA was permanently closed.
1937 - The airship Hindenburg, the largest dirigible ever built and the pride of Nazi Germany, bursts into flames upon touching its mooring mast in Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 36 passengers and crewmembers. Frenchman Henri Giffard constructed the first successful airship in 1852. His hydrogen-filled blimp carried a three-horsepower steam engine that turned a large propeller and flew at a speed of six miles per hour. The rigid airship, often known as the "zeppelin" after the last name of its innovator, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, was developed by the Germans in the late 19th century. Unlike French airships, the German ships had a light framework of metal girders that protected a gas-filled interior. However, like Giffard's airship, they were lifted by highly flammable hydrogen gas and vulnerable to explosion. Large enough to carry substantial numbers of passengers, one of the most famous rigid airships was the Graf Zeppelin, a dirigible that traveled around the world in 1929. In the 1930s, the Graf Zeppelin pioneered the first transatlantic air service, leading to the construction of the Hindenburg, a larger passenger airship. On May 3, 1937, the Hindenburg left Frankfurt, Germany, for the first of 10 scheduled journey's across the Atlantic to Lakehurst's Navy Air Base. On its maiden voyage, the Hindenburg, stretching 804 feet from stern to bow, carried 36 passengers and crew of 61. While attempting to moor at Lakehurst, the airship suddenly burst into flames, probably after a spark ignited its hydrogen core. Rapidly falling 200 feet to the ground, the hull of the airship incinerated within seconds. Thirteen passengers, 21 crewmen, and 1 civilian member of the ground crew lost their lives, and most of the survivors suffered substantial injuries. Radio announcer Herb Morrison, who came to Lakehurst to record a routine voice-over for an NBC newsreel, immortalized the Hindenberg disaster in a famous on-the-scene description in which he emotionally declared, "Oh, the humanity!" The recording of Morrison's commentary was immediately flown to New York, where it was aired as part of America's first coast-to-coast radio news broadcast. Lighter-than-air passenger travel rapidly fell out of favor after the Hindenberg disaster, and no rigid airships survived World War II.
1941 - Bob Hope (b. May 29, 1903) began broadcasting his first USO radio show from March Field at Riverside, Ca. The United Service Organizations (USO) began operations this year and provided free coffee, donuts, and entertainment to US military forces. The organization is supported entirely by private citizens and corporations.
1942 - U.S. Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright surrenders all U.S. troops in the Philippines to the Japanese. The island of Corregidor remained the last Allied stronghold in the Philippines after the Japanese victory at Bataan (from which General Wainwright had managed to flee, to Corregidor). Constant artillery shelling and aerial bombardment attacks ate away at the American and Filipino defenders. Although still managing to sink many Japanese barges as they approached the northern shores of the island, the Allied troops could hold the invader off no longer. General Wainwright, only recently promoted to the rank of lieutenant general and commander of the U.S. armed forces in the Philippines, offered to surrender Corregidor to Japanese General Homma, but Homma wanted the complete, unconditional capitulation of all American forces throughout the Philippines. Wainwright had little choice given the odds against him and the poor physical condition of his troops (he had already lost 800 men). He surrendered at midnight. All 11,500 surviving Allied troops were evacuated to a prison stockade in Manila. General Wainwright remained a POW until 1945. As a sort of consolation for the massive defeat he suffered, he was present on the USS Missouri for the formal Japanese surrender ceremony on September 2, 1945. He would also be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor by President Harry Truman. Wainwright died in 1953-exactly eight years to the day of the Japanese surrender ceremony.
1942 - CAPT Milton Miles arrives in Chungking, China, to begin building an intelligence and guerilla training organization, Naval Group China.
1943 – In Tunisia, US forces advance on three axes toward Bizerta, Ferryville and Protville.
1944 - A Japanese troopship convoy is destroyed by the American submarine Gurnard.
1944 - The first flight of the Mitsubishi A7M fighter (designed to replace the Zero) takes place. Technical problems and Allied bombing raids prevent mass production.
1945 - The US 97th Division, part of US 5th Corps of the US 3rd Army, occupies Pilsen in Czechoslovakia. The US 12th Corps advances toward Prague but the army is ordered to halt the advance and allow Soviets to occupy the rest of the country as has been arranged.
1945 - On Luzon, elements of the US 25th Division, part of US 1st Corps, capture the Kembu plateau. On Mindanao, the US 24th and 31st Divisions overrun Japanese positions north of Davao, where the Japanese 35th Army (General Morozumi) is concentrated.
1945 - On Okinawa, the Japanese offensive loses momentum. Japanese forces have sustain losses of at least 5000 killed. Even while it has been going on, American forces have made gains near Machinto airfield and Maeda Ridge.
1945 - Axis Sally made her final propaganda broadcast to Allied troops.
1945 - The Coast Guard-manned frigate USS Moberly (PF-63), in concert with USS Atherton, sank the U-853 in the Atlantic off Block Island. There were no survivors.
1945 - Naval landing force evacuates 500 Marshallese from Jaluit Atoll, Marshall Islands.
1953 - Planes from the carriers Princeton and Valley Forge blasted a mining area northwest of Songjin, causing numerous secondary explosions and destroying buildings and a main transformer station. The heavy cruiser Saint Paul and the destroyer Nicholas fired on coastal supply routes and storage areas.
1955 - West Germany joined NATO.
1962 - In the first test of its kind, the submerged submarine USS Ethan Allen fired a Polaris missile armed with a nuclear warhead that detonated above the Pacific Ocean.
1962 - Pathet Lao broke cease fire and conquered Nam Tha Laos.
1972 - The remnants of South Vietnam's 5th Division at An Loc continue to receive daily artillery battering from the communist forces surrounding the city as reinforcements fight their way from the south up Highway 13. The South Vietnamese had been under heavy attack since the North Vietnamese had launched their Nguyen Hue Offensive on March 30. The communists had mounted a massive invasion of South Vietnam with 14 infantry divisions and 26 separate regiments, more than 120,000 troops and approximately 1,200 tanks and other armored vehicles. The main North Vietnamese objectives, in addition to An Loc in the south, were Quang Tri in the north, and Kontum in the Central Highlands. In Binh Long Province, the North Vietnamese forces had crossed into South Vietnam from Cambodia on April 5 to strike first at Loc Ninh. After taking Loc Ninh, the North Vietnamese forces then quickly encircled An Loc, the capital of Binh Long Province, which was only 65 miles from Saigon. The North Vietnamese held An Loc under siege for almost three months while they made repeated attempts to take the city, bombarding it around the clock. The defenders suffered heavy casualties, including 2,300 dead or missing, but with the aid of U.S. advisers and American airpower, they managed to hold out against vastly superior odds until the siege was lifted on June 18. Fighting continued all over South Vietnam into the summer months, but eventually the South Vietnamese forces prevailed against the invaders and they retook Quang Tri in September. With the communist invasion blunted, President Nixon declared that the South Vietnamese victory proved the viability of his Vietnamization program, which he had instituted in 1969 to increase the combat capability of the South Vietnamese armed forces.
1968 - Astronaut Neil Armstrong was nearly killed in a lunar module trainer accident.
1981 - Yale architecture student Maya Ying Lin was named winner of a competition to design the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
1981 - US expelled Libyan diplomats.
1990 - Freed American hostage Frank Reed said at a news conference in Arlington, Va., that he had been savagely beaten by his captors in Lebanon after two unsuccessful escape attempts.
1993 - The space shuttle "Columbia" landed safely in California after a 10-day mission.
1993 - The Bosnian Serb parliament, for the third time, rejected a U.N. peace plan for Bosnia-Herzegovina. The president of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic, ordered a blockade of all supplies, except food and medicine, to the Bosnian Serbs.
1994 - The last HH-3F Pelican helicopter in Coast Guard service was retired. This ended the Coast Guard's "amphibious era," as no aviation asset left in service was capable of making water landings.
1995 - In London, thousands of World War II veterans celebrated the 50th anniversary of V-E Day.
1997 - Sergeant Delmar Simpson received a 25 year sentence for raping 6 female trainees at the Aberdeen, Md., Proving Ground Army base.
1999 - Russia joined NATO to back a framework for ending the conflict in Kosovo that included an international security presence to enforce peace.
1999 - Electricity was restored in Belgrade as NATO air strikes continued in Yugoslavia. A main railroad bridge was destroyed near the Romanian border and oil depots in Nis were hit.
2002 - Two mailbox pipe bombs were found in Colorado and another one in Nebraska.
2002 - In Afghanistan the CIA fired a missile from a Predator in an attempt to kill Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, head of Hezb-e-Islami, and his top aides outside Kabul.
2004 - Pres. Bush told King Abdullah II of Jordan that he was sorry for the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by US guards.
2004 - An audio recording attributed to Osama bin Laden offered rewards in gold for the killing of top U.S. and U.N. officials in Iraq or of the citizens of any nation fighting there.
2004 - U.S. soldiers backed by tanks and armored fighting vehicles seized control of the governor's office from Shiite militiamen in the city of Najaf.

Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

BINGHAM, HENRY H.
Rank and organization: Captain, Company G, 140th Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Wilderness, Va., 6 May 1864. Entered service at: Cannonsburg, Pa. Born: 4 December 1841, Philadelphia, Pa. Date of issue: 31 August 1893. Citation: Rallied and led into action a portion of the troops who had given way under the fierce assaults of the enemy.

BROWN, HENRI LE FEVRE
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company B, 72d New York Infantry. Place and date: At Wilderness, Va., 6 May 1864. Entered service at: Ellicott, N.Y. Birth: Jamestown, N.Y. Date of issue: 23 June 1896. Citation: Voluntarily and under a heavy fire from the enemy, 3 times crossed the field of battle with a load of ammunition in a blanket on his back, thus supplying the Federal forces, whose ammunition had nearly all been expended, and enabling them to hold their position until reinforcement arrived, when the enemy were driven from their position.

BURK, THOMAS
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company H, 97th New York Infantry. Place and date. At Wilderness, Va., 6 May 1864. Entered service at: Harrisburgh, Lewis County, N.Y. Born: 1842, Lewis County, N.Y. Date of Issue: 24 August 1896. Citation: At the risk of his own life went back while the rebels were still firing and, finding Col. Wheelock unable to move, alone and unaided, carried him off the field of battle.

COHN, ABRAHAM
Rank and organization: Sergeant Major, 6th New Hampshire Infantry. Place and date: At Wilderness, Va., 6 May 1864; At the mine, Petersburg, Va., 30 July 1864. Entered service at: Campton, N.H. Birth: Guttentag, Silesia, Prussia. Date of issue: 24 August 1865. Citation: During Battle of the Wilderness rallied and formed, under heavy fire, disorganized and fleeing troops of different regiments. At Petersburg, Va., 30 July 1864, bravely and coolly carried orders to the advanced line under severe fire.

DE LACEY, PATRICK
Rank and organization: First Sergeant, Company A, 143d Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Wilderness, Va., 6 May 1864. Entered service at: Scranton, Pa. Born: 25 November 1834, Carbondale, Lackawanna County, Pa. Date of issue: 24 April 1894. Citation: Running ahead of the line, under a concentrated fire, he shot the color bearer of a Confederate regiment on the works, thus contributing to the success of the attack.

DRAKE, JAMES M.
Rank and organization: 2d Lieutenant, Company D, 9th New Jersey Infantry. Place and date: At Bermuda Hundred, Va., 6 May 1864. Entered service at: Elizabeth, N.J. Birth: Union County, N.J. Date of issue: 3 March 1873. Citation: Commanded the skirmish line in the advance and held his position all day and during the night.

ENGLISH, EDMUND
Rank and organization: First Sergeant, Company C, 2d New Jersey Infantry. Place and date: At Wilderness, Va., 6 May 1864. Entered service at: Newark, N.J. Born: 16 November 1841, Ireland. Date of issue: 13 February 1891. Citation: During a rout and while under orders to retreat seized the colors, rallied the men, and drove the enemy back.

HILL, HENRY
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company C, 50th Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Wilderness, Va., 6 May 1864. Entered service at: -----. Birth: Schuylkill County, Pa. Date of issue: 23 September 1897. Citation: This soldier, with one companion, would not retire when his regiment fell back in confusion after an unsuccessful charge, but instead advanced and continued firing upon the enemy until the regiment re-formed and regained its position.

KARPELES, LEOPOLD
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company E, 57th Massachusetts Infantry. Place and date: At Wilderness, Va., 6 May 1864. Entered service at: Springfield, Mass. Birth: Hungary. Date of issue: 30 April 1870. Citation: While color bearer, rallied the retreating troops and induced them to check the enemy's advance.

KEMP, JOSEPH
Rank and organization: First Sergeant, Company D, 5th Michigan Infantry. Place and date: At Wilderness, Va., 6 May 1864. Entered service at: Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. Birth: Lima, Ohio. Date of issue: 1 December 1864. Citation: Capture of flag of 31st North Carolina (C.S.A.) in a personal encounter.

ROUGHT, STEPHEN
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company A, 141st Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Wilderness, Va., 6 May 1864. Entered service at: Crampton, Pa. Birth: Bradford County, Pa. Date of issue: 1 December 1864. Citation: Capture of flag of 13th North Carolina Infantry (C.S.A.).

THOMPSON, WILLIAM P.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company G, 20th Indiana Infantry. Place and date: At Wilderness, Va., 6 May 1864. Entered service at: Tippecanoe County, Ind. Birth: Brooklyn, N.Y. Date of issue: 1 December 1864. Citation: Capture of flag of 55th Virginia Infantry (C.S.A.).

TRACY, BENJAMIN F.
Rank and organization: Colonel, 109th New York Infantry. Place and date: At Wilderness, Va., 6 May 1864. Entered service at: Owego, N.Y. Born: 26 April 1830, Owego, N.Y. Date of issue: 21 June 1895. Citation: Seized the colors and led the regiment when other regiments had retired and then reformed his line and held it.

YOUNG, JAMES M.
Rank and organization: Private, Company B, 72d New York Infantry. Place and date: At Wilderness. Va., 6 May 1864. Entered service at Chautauqua County, N.Y. Birth: Chautauqua County, N.Y. Date of issue: 2 April 1898. Citation: With 2 companions, voluntarily went forward in the forest to reconnoiter the enemy's position, was fired upon and one of his companions disabled. Pvt. Young took the wounded man upon his back and, under fire, carried him within the Union lines.

HOOVER, SAMUEL
Rank and organization: Bugler, Company A, 1st U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Santa Maria Mountains, Ariz., 6 May 1873. Entered service at: ------. Birth: Dauphin County, Pa. Date of issue: 12 August 1875. Citation: Gallantry in action, also services as trailer in May 1872.

MACLAY, WILLIAM P.
Rank and organization: Private, Company A, 43d Infantry, U.S. Volunteers. Place and date: At Hilongas, Leyte, Philippine Islands, 6 May 1900. Entered service at: Altoona, Pa. Birth: Spruce Creek, Pa. Date of issue: 11 March 1902. Citation: Charged an occupied bastion, saving the life of an officer in a hand-to-hand combat and destroying the enemy.

THORDSEN, WILLIAM GEORGE
Rank and organization: Coxswain, U.S. Navy. Born: 2 April 1879, Fredericstadt, Germany. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 6, 15 August 1900. Citation. For heroism and gallantry under fire of the enemy at Hilongas, Philippine Islands, 6 May 1900.

*HOWE, JAMES D.
Rank and organization: Lance Corporal, U.S. Marine Corps, Company I, 3d Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division. Place and date: Republic of Vietnam, 6 May 1970. Entered service at: Fort Jackson, S.C. Born: 17 December 1948, Six Mile, Pickens, S.C. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a rifleman with Company I, during operations against enemy forces. In the early morning hours L/Cpl. Howe and 2 other marines were occupying a defensive position in a sandy beach area fronted by bamboo thickets. Enemy sappers suddenly launched a grenade attack against the position, utilizing the cover of darkness to carry out their assault. Following the initial explosions of the grenades, L/Cpl. Howe and his 2 comrades moved to a more advantageous position in order to return suppressive fire. When an enemy grenade landed in their midst, L/Cpl. Howe immediately shouted a warning and then threw himself upon the deadly missile, thereby protecting the lives of the fellow marines. His heroic and selfless action was in keeping with the finest traditions of the Marine Corps and of the U.S. Naval Service. He valiantly gave his life in the service of his country.

PATTERSON, ROBERT MARTIN
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Army, Troop B, 2d Squadron. 17th Cavalry. Place and date: Near La Chu, Republic of Vietnam, 6 May 1968. Entered service at: Raleigh, N.C. Born: 16 April 1948, Durham, N.C. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Sgt. Patterson (then Sp4c.) distinguished himself while serving as a fire team leader of the 3d Platoon, Troop B, during an assault against a North Vietnamese Army battalion which was entrenched in a heavily fortified position. When the leading squad of the 3d Platoon was pinned down by heavy interlocking automatic weapon and rocket propelled grenade fire from 2 enemy bunkers, Sgt. Patterson and the 2 other members of his assault team moved forward under a hail of enemy fire to destroy the bunkers with grenade and machinegun fire. Observing that his comrades were being fired on from a third enemy bunker covered by enemy gunners in l-man spider holes, Sgt. Patterson, with complete disregard for his safety and ignoring the warning of his comrades that he was moving into a bunker complex, assaulted and destroyed the position. Although exposed to intensive small arm and grenade fire from the bunkers and their mutually supporting emplacements. Sgt. Patterson continued his assault upon the bunkers which were impeding the advance of his unit. Sgt. Patterson single-handedly destroyed by rifle and grenade fire 5 enemy bunkers, killed 8 enemy soldiers and captured 7 weapons. His dauntless courage and heroism inspired his platoon to resume the attack and to penetrate the enemy defensive position. Sgt. Patterson's action at the risk of his life has reflected great credit upon himself, his unit, and the U.S. Army.