Posted on 05/11/2017 7:48:30 AM PDT by fugazi
1846: Three days after Gen. Zachary Taylor’s forces defeat the Mexican Army in the Battle of Palo Alto, Pres. James K. Polk tells Congress: “Mexico has passed the boundary of the United States, has invaded our territory and shed American blood upon American soil.”
The Mexican-American War – already underway – is formally declared within two days.
1863: During the Battle of Yellow Tavern, Condederate Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart is shot by a dismounted Union cavalry trooper north of Richmond, Va. “The greatest cavalry officer ever foaled in America” is mortally wounded and will die the next day.
1943: 3,000 soldiers of the 7th Infantry Division land at Attu Island in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands to repel Japanese troops that landed in June of 1942. After a month of fighting under harsh arctic conditions...
(Excerpt) Read more at victoryinstitute.net ...
It took me a moment to sort that title out. At first I thought it must be humor or alternate history - J.E.B. Stuart invaded Alaska?
My uncle was a participant
Good point. Too bad you can’t edit after posting.
I imagine you might get an argument on that from the Nathan Bedford Forrest supporters.
The battle of yellow tavern was not in 1863, but in may 1864.
I must have missed that episode of The Civil War........................
The Mother of all misleading headlines.
I believe J.E.B Stuarts mortal wound occurred in 1864.
That distinction goes to Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Yeah, he’d have had a hard time at Gettysburg if he’d been killed in May of 1863.
Good argument... but those are the words of Union Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick - who two days prior to Gen. Stuart being mortally wounded, became the highest-ranking officer to die in the Civil War. While Sedgwick and his officers were being targeted by Confederate sharpshooters some 1,000 yards away, Sedgwick ironically told his men “Why are you dodging like this? They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance.” Famous last words - Sedgwick is shot in the head moments later.
Which makes his commanding troops in Alaska in WWII all the more remarkable...
Gettysburg may not have happen if he was killed in May. Another cavalry commander might have remembered his mission instead of swanning around in Pennsylvania on an ego rebuilding raid.
I’ve always struggled with the description of Stuart as the greatest cavalry officer ever. My reasoning is I feel his actions at Gettysburg left Lee blind and that decisions would have been significantly different otherwise.
I realize it was only one battle, but the impact is such that I can’t see him as the greatest ever.
Confederate cavalry was a victim of their own success. So dominate over their Union counter part for the first 3 years of the war, they did tend to go off and “do their own thing” because they could. OTH Union cavalry was so bad in the beginning they were the butt of jokes on both sides of the war.
Which explains how Stuart died after Gettysburg and not before.
Thanks
I thought John Wayne was in “She Wore A Yellow Ribbon”.
Alaska was a territory (from 1912) during World War II. Wake Island was a territory in World War II. So was Guam. (The Philippines were a territory as well, but with the legal status of Commonwealth, I'll give you that one.)
General Sir Harry Paget Flashman wrote in his memoirs that he believed that the Sioux leader Gall was the greatest light cavalry leader in history.
I know ... I know ... Flashman is fictional, but George McDonald Fraser lays out a fair argument for it in "Flashman and the Redskins".
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