The FReeper Foxhole Revisits the Battle of Shiloh - March 20th, 2004

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Acres/1257/shiloh.html ^

[snippy_about_it]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.


...................................................................................... ...........................................

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The FReeper Foxhole Revisits

A Very Bloody Affair

The First Day
April 6, 1862

With the loss of Forts Henry and Donelson in February, General Johnston withdrew his disheartened Confederate forces into west Tennessee, northern Mississippi and Alabama to reorganize. In early March, General Halleck responded by ordering General Grant to advance his Union Army of West Tennessee on an invasion up the Tennessee River.

Occupying Pittsburg Landing, Grant entertained no thought of a Confederate attack. Halleck's instructions were that following the arrival of General Buell's Army of the Ohio from Nashville, Grant would advance south in a joint offensive to seize the Memphis & Charleston Railroad, the Confederacy's only east-west all weather supply route that linked the lower Mississippi Valley to cities on the Confederacy's east coast.

Assisted by his second-in-command, General Beauregard, Johnston shifted his scattered forces and concentrated almost 55,000 men around Corinth. Strategically located where the Memphis & Charleston crossed the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, Corinth was the western Confederacy's most important rail junction.

On April 3, realizing Buell would soon reinforce Grant, Johnston launched an offensive with his newly christened Army of the Mississippi. Advancing upon Pittsburg Landing with 43,938 men, Johnston planned to surprise Grant, cut his army off from retreat to the Tennessee River, and drive the Federals west into the swamps of Owl Creek.



In the gray light of dawn, April 6, a small Federal reconnaissance discovered Johnston's army deployed for battle astride the Corinth road, just a mile beyond the forward Federal camps. Storming forward, the Confederates found the Federal position unfortified. Johnston had achieved almost total surprise. By mid-morning, the Confederates seemed within easy reach of victory, overrunning one frontline Union division and capturing its camp. However, stiff resistance on the Federal right entangled Johnston's brigades in a savage fight around Shiloh Church. Throughout the day, Johnston's army hammered the Federal right, which gave ground but did not break. Casualties upon this brutal killing ground were immense.



Meanwhile, Johnston's flanking attack stalled in front of Sarah Bell's peach orchard and the dense oak thicket labeled the "hornet's nest" by the Confederates. Grant's left flank withstood Confederate assaults for seven crucial hours before being forced to yield ground in the late afternoon. Despite inflicting heavy casualties and seizing ground, the Confederates only drove Grant towards the river, instead of away from it. The Federal survivors established a solid front before Pittsburg Landing and repulsed the last Confederate charge as dusk ended the first day of fighting.

The Second Day
April 7, 1862

Shiloh's first day of slaughter also witnessed the death of the Confederate leader, General Johnston, who fell at mid-afternoon, struck down by a stray bullet while directing the action on the Confederate right. At dusk, the advance division of General Buell's Federal Army of the Ohio reached Pittsburg Landing, and crossed the river to file into line on the Union left during the night. Buell's arrival, plus the timely appearance of a reserve division from Grant's army, led by Major General Lewis Wallace, fed over 22,500 reinforcements into the Union lines. On April 7, Grant renewed the fighting with an aggressive counterattack.



Taken by surprise, General Beauregard managed to rally 30,000 of his badly disorganized Confederates, and mounted a tenacious defense. Inflicting heavy casualties on the Federals, Beauregard's troops temporarily halted the determined Union advance. However, strength in numbers provided Grant with a decisive advantage. By midafternoon, as waves of fresh Federal troops swept forward, pressing the exhausted Confederates back to Shiloh Church, Beauregard realized his armies' peril and ordered a retreat. During the night, the Confederates withdrew, greatly disorganized, to their fortified stronghold at Corinth. Possession of the grisly battlefield passed to the victorious Federal's, who were satisfied to simply reclaim Grant's camps and make an exhausted bivouac among the dead.

General Johnston's massive and rapid concentration at Corinth, and surprise attack on Grant at Pittsburg Landing, had presented the Confederacy with an opportunity to reverse the course of the war. The aftermath, however, left the invading Union forces still poised to carry out the capture of the Corinth rail junction. Shiloh's awesome toll of 23,746 men killed, wounded, or missing brought a shocking realization to both sides that the war would not end quickly.

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FReeper Foxhole Armed Services Links

[snippy_about_it]

On the morning of April 6, 1862, the sun rose over the Union encampment at Pittsburg Landing. Neither Ulysses S. Grant, the Union commander, nor Albert S. Johnston, the Confederate commander, could possibly know what this day would hold. It would bring advances in military tactics. It would bring innovations in the medical field. It would change all preconceived notions that the Civil War would be short-lived. For Johnston and thousands of other brave soldiers on the Union and Confederate sides, it would bring death.

During the winter of 1861-62 Federal forces pushing southward from St. Louis captured Forts Henry and Donelson on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. This action forced Gen. Johnston to abandon southern Kentucky and much of West and Middle Tennessee. After withdrawing further south, he established a new line covering the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, the only all-weather link between Richmond and Memphis. Realizing that he could not wait for another Federal advance, Johnston began concentrating forces at Corinth, Mississippi, where he hoped to take the offensive and destroy General Grant's Army of the Tennessee before it could be joined by General Don Carlos Buell's Army of the Ohio.


U.S. Grant

On April 2, 1862, Johnston began his march from Corinth. "The roads were meandering cow paths," one confederate soldier said. Because of the lack of marching experience, the march took much longer than expected.

Meanwhile, at the Union camp at Shiloh, the Federals troops spent a day drilling and merry-making. Hundreds went for a swim in Owl Creek. Others rested. There was also a good deal of diarrhea, which the boys labelled the "Tennessee quick step".

Grant wired his superior General H.W. Halleck. "I have scarecely the faintest idea of attack." Halleck told Grant to "sit tight at Shiloh and wait for Buell to arrive." William Tecumseh Sherman, division commander, was quoted saying to reporters, "Take your regiment to Ohio. No enemy is nearer than Corinth." Little did he know that the night of April 5, the huge and powerful Army of the Mississippi was poised to strike just out of sight of the Union camp. P.G.T. Beaureguard, second in command of the Confederates, felt they had lost the element of suprise because of some shots fired by the men in front. Beaureguard pleaded with Johnston to postpone the attack. "I would fight them if they were a million," Johnston said.

On the morning of April 6, Johnston told his fellow officers "Tonight we will water our horses in the Tennessee." When Johnston's powerful Army of the Mississippi hit the federal camps, they had achived complete suprise. The attack pushed most Union divisions back to reform elsewhere. Others fought doggedly to hold their line.

Once the attack started, there was mass confusion on both sides. Most of the boys had never been in battle before, and did not know there orders. "It was a murderous fist fight."



The Rebels rolled over one Union position after another. Then, amongst the confusion along a sunken road, the federals finally established and held a line that stopped the southern advance. The division consisted of Illinois and Iowa farm boys mostly, under the command of General Prentiss. Grant's orders were to "Hold the sunken road at all costs." Prentiss greatly understood the seriousness of Grant's orders. Bullets buzzed through the saplings around the area, and it appeared and sounded like a hornet's nest. The Confederate infantry launched eleven attacks on the Hornet's nest. The Union line wavered and bent, but would not break. The Confederate artillery lined up sixty-two cannons at point blank range and fired on the sunken road. It was the largest number of cannons ever used at that time in a war effort. Under protection of the cannons the Rebel troops were able to move in and take the sunken road. The Union troops were forced to surrender. They had fought well holding the Confederates for six hours. For years to come Union veterans were proud to say, " I fought with Prentiss at the Hornet's Nest."



There was also a great deal of fighting at a peach orchard, just yards away from the Hornet's Nest. The peach trees were in full bloom. Many soldiers lay dead. Peach blossoms covered the dead like a fresh-fallen snow. Gen. Johnston led the last raid on the peach orchard. He came out with his clothes tattered from bullets that had grazed him, and his boot sole was shot. A Confederate officer saw him wobbling in his saddle and ask if he were hurt. "Yes," he replied. "And I feel seriously." His aid took him to a nearby tree. He was shot in the back of the leg. He bled to death. He could have easily been saved with a touniquet, but he had sent his surgeon off to care for Union prisoners.

A farm pond near the peach orchard was covered with soldiers from both armies. Many men went to bathe their wounds and drink from the water. For many it was their last drink. The water was stained red with blood.



That night dead lay everywhere. Neither army had developed a system for gathering the dead. General Grant said a peson can walk in any given direction without stepping on ground." In a Confederate camp that night one soldier said, "You can hear the screams of the injured. They screamed for water, God heard them for the heavens opened and the rain fell." Flashes of lightening showed vultures feeding on the ungathered dead.

On the night of April 6, the long-awaited arrival of Don Carlos Buell's reinforcements arrived. Through the cover of gunboat fire, his troops came in on steamboats. The gun boats fired on fifteen minute intervals, allowing Buell's forces to come aground, and robbing the Confederates of their greatly needed rest.

That morning the Confederates were pushed back on the ground that they had fought so hard to win the day before. With the fresh troops, the weary Rebels had little chance to win a complete victory. The Southerners were forced to march back to Corinth.


A.S. Johnston

The final number of dead or missing was 13,000 on the Union side and 10,500 on the Confederate side. There were as many people killed at Shiloh as there were at Wateloo. The difference between that Napoleanic war and the Civil War is that there weren't twenty more Waterloos to come.



Shiloh was a decisive battle in the war. The South needed a win to make up for land lost in Kentucky and Ohio. It also needed to save the Mississippi Valley. Memphis and Vicksburg were now vulnerable to Union attack, and after Corinth there is now doubt that those cities would be the next targets.

However, Grant and his men had been rid of their over-confidence by the battle of Shiloh. They now knew that hopes for and easy victory over the south were ill-founded. Grant knew then that this war was going to be, in the words of a Union Soldier, "A very bloody affair."

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[snippy_about_it]

Shiloh is a Hebrew word meaning place of peace.


Shiloh Church

Isn't it strange that a battle as bloody as the battle at Shiloh would begin on a Sunday morning and be named for a country church near the battlefield? Maybe the soldiers didn't even see the irony. Then again, maybe someone did.

The Union soldiers weren't prepared for the charge of their Confederate brothers. Many of the Union troops were untrained and undisciplined, but as in so many battles of war, mundane events served to alter the future.

General Albert S. Johnston, CSA, had given his commanding generals orders to attack the Union troops led by General Ulysses S. Grant at 0300 on April 5th. Storms, bad roads, and delayed orders combined to change the outcome. General Pierre Beauregard, commander of Confederate troops at the Battle of First Bull Run and second-in-command during the Battle of Shiloh, commented that the enemy was given "...the most surprising surprise" but the delays allowed Union reinforcements to take their place on the battlefield beside their comrades and drive the rebels back after two days of fighting.

No ground was gained, no strategic town was taken, no supply depot was sacked, but the Union victory did force the evacuation of Confederate troops from much of Tennessee and split the rebel forces along the lines formed by the Mississippi River.

  Confederate Losses                  Union Losses 

Killed           1,723          Killed              1,754 

Wounded          8,012          Wounded             8,408 

Captured/Missing   959          Captured/Missing    2,885 

[snippy_about_it]

'There will be no fighting at Pittsburgh Landing; we will have to go to Corinth'

-- Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant, USA

[snippy_about_it]

Shiloh National Park contains a series of trenches were the Confederates were buried in mass graves.



Because of the warm weather, General Grant ordered the Federal troops to bury the dead immediately. Many were buried in large trenches. Union and Confederate separately.



In the mass grave above (top photograph) more than 700 Confederates soldiers were stacked in layers seven deep.

[snippy_about_it]

A NEW FEATURE ~ The Foxhole Revisits...

The Foxhole will be updating some of our earlier threads with new graphics and some new content for our Saturday threads in this, our second year of the Foxhole. We lost many of our graphic links and this is our way of restoring them along with revising the thread content where needed with new and additional information not available in the original threads.

A Link to the Original Thread;

The FReeper Foxhole Remembers the Battle of Shiloh - Feb. 7th, 2003

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[snippy_about_it]

Veterans for Constitution Restoration is a non-profit, non-partisan educational and grassroots activist organization.

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Tribute to a Generation - The memorial will be dedicated on Saturday, May 29, 2004.

Thanks to CholeraJoe for providing this link.

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Actively seeking volunteers to provide this valuable service to Veterans and their families.

Thanks to quietolong for providing this link.

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Iraq Homecoming Tips

~ Thanks to our Veterans still serving, at home and abroad. ~ Freepmail to Ragtime Cowgirl | 2/09/04 | FRiend in the USAF

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The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul

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"The FReeper Foxhole Compiled List of Daily Threads"

[snippy_about_it]

FALL IN to the FReeper Foxhole!



Good Saturday Morning Everyone

If you would like added to our ping list let us know.

[E.G.C.]

Good morning, Snippy and everyone at the Freeper Foxhole.

OU women take on Maris in the first round of the ladies NCAA tonight at 8 PM CST. Good luck OU women.

[Aeronaut]

Burnelli RB-1 (1920)

[GailA]

Good Morning, it promises to be beautiful here in Memphis...mid to upper 70's if the weather guy got it right.

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning everyone in the FOXHOLE!

[AnAmericanMother]

My gg grandfather Cain Glover was wounded at Shiloh. His brother in law John T. Stewart was killed. They never found his body.

[weldgophardline]

It is a beautiful day to have some fun with our local lefisits. We will be FReeping their little peace march in Ft. Collins, Colorado today. We are pumped up to have some fun. We hope everyone has the chance to show support for our troops today against the pro-terrorist supporters. We will have postings latter with photos.

[Valin]

I'm Valin and I DON'T approve of Jacques Kerrey.
I DO approve of...
On this Day In History


Birthdates which occurred on March 20:
1634 Balthasar Bekker Frisian theologist
1725 Abdül-Hamid I 27th sultan of Turkey (1774-89)
1770 Johann Friedrich Hölderlin Tübingen Germany, lyric poet (Der Rhein, Andenken)
1804 Neal Dow Brigadier General (Union volunteers), died in 1897
1811 George Caleb Bingham US, politician/painter (Country Election)
1811 Napoleon Bonaparte II Napoleon's son/King of Rome
1812 George Bibb Crittenden Major General (Confederate Army), died in 1880
1823 John Echols Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1896
1825 William Nelson Rector Beall Brigadier General (Confederate Army)
1828 Henrik Ibsen Norway, dramatist (Peer Gynt, Hedda Gabler)
1830 Eugene Asa Carr Brevet Major General (Union Army), died in 1910
1834 Charles William Elliot Boston MA, President of Harvard (1869-1909)
1856 Frederick Winslow Taylor father of scientific management
1870 Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck Prussian General/politician (East Africa)
1882 René Coty Le Havre France, President of France (1953-58)
1902 Edgar Buchanan Humansville MO, actor (Uncle Joe-Petticoat Junction)
1904 B(urrhus) F(rederic) Skinner Susquehanna PA, Behaviorism pioneer (Skinner box)
1906 Abraham Beame (Mayor-Democrat-NYC), NYC's 1st Jewish mayor
1906 Ozzie Nelson Jersey City NJ, actor (Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet)
1908 Frank Stanton Muskegon MI, broadcasting executive (CBS)
1908 Sir Michael Redgrave Bristol England, actor (Browning Version, The Lady Vanishes)
1914 Wendell Corey Dracut MA, actor (11th Hour, Peck's Bad Girl)
1918 Bernd-Alois Zimmermann German composer (Soldiers)
1918 Jack Barry Lindenhurst NY, game show emcee (Joker's Wild)
1920 Marian McPartland jazz pianist (Bill Mayer, Jimmy McPartland)
1920 Werner Klemperer Cologne Germany, actor (Colonel Klink-Hogan's Heroes)
1922 Carl Reiner Bronx NY, comedian/actor (2000 Year Old Man, Dick Van Dyke Show)
1922 Ray Goulding Lowell MA, comedian (Bob & Ray)
1925 John D Erlichman Politician (Nixon aide, Watergate conspirator)
1928 Hans Küng Swiss religious theologist
1928 Mr [Fred McFeely] Rogers Latrobe PA, children's television host (Mr Roger's Neighborhood)
1931 Hal Linden [Harold Lipshitz] Bronx NY, actor (Barney Miller, Blacke's Magic, Rothchild)
1937 Helmut Recknagel Germany, 90 meter ski jump (Olympics-gold-1960)
1937 Jerry Reed Atlanta GA, singer/actor ('Gator, Bat 21, Smokey & the Bandit)
1939 Brian Mulroney (P-C) 18th Prime Minister of Canada (1984-93)
1945 Pat Riley Schenectady NY, NBA star/coach (San Diego Rockets, Los Angeles Lakers, New York Knicks, Miami Heat)
1946 Ranger Doug [Douglas Green], Illinois, singer (Riders in Sky-Cowboy Way)
1947 Carl Palmer drummer (Asia-Heat of the Moment, Emerson Lake & Palmer)
1948 Bobby Orr Parry Sound Ontario, Hall of Fame NHL defenseman (Boston Bruins)
1948 John de Lancie actor (Q-Star Trek Next Generation, Eugene Bradford-Days of our Lives)
1950 William Hurt Washington DC, actor (Big Chill, Children of a Lesser God)
1951 Jimmie Vaughan guitarist (Fabulous Thunderbirds)
1951 John Wetton rocker (Asia, UK, King Crimson)
1954 Jim Seales Hamilton AL, singer(Shenandoah-Sunday in the South)
1957 Spike Lee Atlanta GA, director (Mo Better Blues, Jungle Fever,Malcolm X)
1958 Holly Hunter Conyers GA, actress (The Piano, Broadcast News, Roe vs Wade)
1961 Slim Jim Phantom [Jim Mcdonnell] rock drummer (Stray Cats-Stray Cat Strut)
1967 Dana Rinehart Dalton Orlando FL, Miss Florida-America (1990)
1969 Thang Thanh Nguyen Soc Trang Vietnam, murderer (FBI Most Wanted)

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Deaths which occurred on March 20:
0842 Alfonso II the Chaste king of Asturia (791-842), dies
1191 Clement III [Paolo Scolari], Pope (1187-91, 3rd crusades), dies
1351 Mohammed ibn-Tughluq sultan of Delhi India, dies
1393 Johannes Nepomucenus [Jan Nepomucky], Czechoslovakian saint, killed
1415 Henry IV Bolingbroke King of England (1399-1413), dies at 45
1549 Thomas Seymour of Sudely English Lord Admiral, beheaded
1619 Matthias II Holy Roman Catholic emperor (1611-19), dies

1727 Sir Issac Newton English physicist/astronomer, dies in London at 84

1899 Martha M Place of Brooklyn NY, becomes 1st woman to die by electrocution
1920 Venustiano Carranza President of Mexico (1915-20), murdered at 60
1925 George N Curzon British Foreign minister (1919-22), dies at 66
1929 Ferdinand Foch Marshal of France (WWI), dies at 77
1933 Giuseppe [Joe] Zangara electrocuted for assassination attempt on FDR
1941 D A van den Bosch anti-Nazi clergyman (Amersfoort Camp), dies
1962 C Wright Mills US sociologist (Power Elite), dies at 45
1962 Dr Andrew E Douglass Dendrochronologer (Study of Tree Rings) dies
1964 Brendan Behan Irish writer/poet, dies at 41
1967 A J F Moody 1st US Army General to die in Vietnam
1972 Marilyn Maxwell actress (Grace-Bus Stop), dies at 50
1974 Chet Huntley newscaster (NBC Huntley-Brinkley Report), dies at 62
1974 Edward Platt actor (Chief-Get Smart), dies at 58
1988 Gil Evans Canadian/US jazz composer (Out of the Cool), dies at 75
1995 Rachida Hammadi Algerian TV journalist, murdered at 32

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Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1966 BEACH ARTHUR J.---ORANGE COVE CA.
1966 MULLIGAN JAMES A.---LAWRENCE MA.
[02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1966 RATZLAFF RICHARD R.---ABERDEEN SD.
[02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV, DIED 2/28/81]
1968 FELLOWS ALLEN E.---MINNEAPOLIS MN.
1968 SAYRE LESLIE B.---FAIRBORN OH.
1968 THOMPSON FRED---COLUMBUS NC.
[08/04/68 RELEASED HANOI]
1968 TAYLOR WILLIAM B.---HAMILTON NC.
[05/06/68 ESCAPED, ALIVE IN 96]
1969 DAVIS RICARDO G.---CARLSBAD NM.
1970 BUTLER JAMES E.---BUIES CREEK NC.
[REMAINS ID 10/4/97]
1970 COZART ROBERT G. JR.---HAMMOND LA.
[REMAINS RETURNED 07/25/89]
1971 BARKER JACK L.---WAYCROSS GA.
["EXPLODED, FIRE, NO SEARCH"]
1971 CHUBB JOHN J.---GARDENA CA.
["EXPLODED, FIRE, NO SEARCH"]
1971 DILLENDER WILLIAM E.---NAPLES FL.
["EXPLODED, FIRE, NO SEARCH"]
1971 DUGAN JOHN F.---ROSELLE NJ.
["EXPLODED, FIRE, NO SEARCH"]

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

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On this day...
0141 6th predicted perihelion passage of Halley's Comet
1345 Saturn/Jupiter/Mars-conjunction; thought "cause of plague epidemic"
1602 United Dutch East Indian Company (VOC) forms
1616 Walter Raleigh released from Tower of London to seek gold in Guyana
1627 France & Spain signs accord for fighting protestantism
1760 Great Fire of Boston destroys 349 buildings
1800 French army defeats Turks at Helipolis Turkey, & advance to Cairo
1815 Napoleon enters Paris after escape from Elba, begins 100-day rule
1816 US Supreme Court affirms its right to review state court decisions
1833 US & Siam conclude commercial treaty
1848 King Louis I of Bayern abdicates to marry dancer Lola Montez
1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" published (Boston)
1863 Battle of Pensacola FL: evacuated by Federals
1865 2nd day of Battle of Bentonville NC
1868 Jesse James Gang robs bank in Russelville KY of $14,000
1885 John Matzeliger of Suriname patents shoe lacing machine
1885 Yiddish theater opens in New York with Golldfaden operetta
1886 1st AC power plant in US begins commercial operation, Massachusetts
1888 Start of the Sherlock Holmes Adventure, "A Scandal in Bohemia"
1890 German emperor Wilhelm II fires republic chancellor Otto Von Bismarck
1896 Marines land in Nicaragua to protect US citizens
1897 1st known intercollegiate basketball game, Yale beats University of Pennsylvania 32-10
1897 1st US orthodox Jewish Rabbinical seminary (RIETS) incorporates in New York
1914 1st international figure-skating tournament held in US, New Haven
1916 Allies attack Zeebrugge Belgium
1920 1st flight from London to South Africa lands (1½ months)
1922 USS Langley is commissioned, Navy's 1st aircraft Carrier
1930 Clessie Cummins sets diesel engine speed record of 129.39 kph
1931 Bishop Schreiber warns against national-socialism in Berlin
1933 Dachau, 1st concentration camp, completed
1934 Female Babe Didrickson pitches hitless inning for Philadelphia A's in exhibition game against Brooklyn Dodgers
1935 "Your Hit Parade" made its debut on radio
1937 Franco-offensive at Guadalajara Spain
1939 7,000 Jews flee German occupied Memel Lithuania
1940 Paul Reynoud becomes French premier
1941 Nazi-German/Yugoslav pact drawn
1942 Convoy PQ13 departs Reykjavik Iceland to Russia
1942 General MacArthur vows, "I shall return"
1942 Major German assault on Malta
1944 Mount Vesuvius, Italy explodes
1945 US 70th Infantry division/7th Armour division attack Saar
1947 180-metric ton blue whale (record) caught in South Atlantic
1948 1st live televised musical Eugene Ormandy on CBS followed in 90 minutes by 2nd live televised musical Arturo Toscanini on NBC
1952 US Senate's final ratification of peace treaty restoring sovereignty to Japan
1953 Senator Edwin C Johnson offers a bill to give clubs the sole right to ban radio-TV broadcasts of major league games in their own territory
1954 1st newspaper vending machine used (Columbia Pennsylvania)
1955 KXTV TV channel 10 in Sacramento CA (CBS) begins broadcasting
1956 Mount Bezymianny on Kamchatka Peninsula (USSR) explodes
1956 Tunisia gains independence from France
1956 Union workers ended a 156-day strike at Westinghouse Electric Corp
1963 1st "Pop Art" exhibition (New York NY)
1963 Sikkim crown prince Paldan Thondup Namgyal marries Hope Cooke
1967 Supremes release "The Happening"
1968 President Lyndon Johnson signs a bill removing gold backing from US paper money
1969 Beatle John Lennon marries Yoko Ono in Gibraltar
1969 US President Nixon proclaims he will end Vietnam war in 1970
1972 19 mountain climbers killed on Japan's Mount Fuji during an avalanche
1973 Roberto Clemente elected to hall of fame, 11 weeks after his death
1976 Patricia Hearst convicted of armed robbery
1977 Parisians elect former Prime Minister Jacques Chirac as 1st mayor in a century
1980 The Mi Amigo ship containing England's pirate Radio Caroline sinks
1980 US appeals to International Court on hostages in Iran
1981 Argentine ex-President Isabel Perón sentenced to 8 years
1981 Jean Harris sentenced 15-to-life for slaying of Scarsdale Diet Doctor
1982 Joan Jett & Blackhearts' "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" goes #1 for 7 weeks
1984 Senate rejects amendment to permit spoken prayer in public schools
1985 Libby Riddles is 1st woman to win Iditarod Trail Dog Sled Race
1986 228 KPH gust of wind strikes Cairngorm (UK record)
1986 Jacques Chirac become Prime Minister of French government
1987 FDA approves sale of AZT (AIDS treatment)
1987 Soviet filmmakers arrive in Hollywood for an entertainment summit (Big fat hairy deal)
1988 Mike Tyson KOs Tony Tubbs in 2 for heavyweight boxing title
1989 Baseball announces Reds manager Pete Rose is under investigation
1989 Richard J Kerr replaces Robert M Gates as deputy director of CIA
1990 Los Angeles Lakers retire Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's #33
1990 Singer Gloria Estefan breaks her collarbone in a bus accident
1991 Court awards Peggy Lee $3 million in contract violation suit against Disney
1991 Michael Jackson signs $65M six album deal with Sony records
1991 Supreme Court rules unanimously employers can't exclude women from jobs where exposure to toxic chemicals could potentially damage fetus
1991 US forgives $2 billion in loans to Poland
1992 Janice Pennington is awarded $1.3M for accident on Price is Right set
1992 Noriega's wife Felicidad arrested for stealing buttons from dresses
1993 IRA-bomb kills 3 year old in Warrington England
1994 14th Golden Raspberry Awards: Indecent Proposal wins
1994 El Salvador's 1st Presidential election following 12-year-old civil war
1994 Zulu-king Goodwill Zwelithini founds realm in South Africa
1995 Dow-Jones hits 4083.68 (record)
1995 Poison Gas released in Tokyo subway 12 killed, 4,700 injured
1996 Erik & Lyle Menendez found guilty of killing their parents
1996 UK admits humans can catch CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease aka Mad Cow Disease)
1997 Liggett admits cigarettes are addictive (SHOCK!!)
1999 Bertrand Piccard of Switzerland and Brian Jones of Britain became the first aviators to fly a hot air balloon around the world without stopping.
2000 Pope John Paul II embarked on a strenuous and spiritual tour of the Holy Land, beginning with a stop in Jordan.
2000 President Clinton arrived in Bangladesh on the first such visit by an American president.
2000 Former Black Panther Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, once known as H. Rap Brown, was captured in Alabama; he was wanted in the fatal shooting of a sheriff's deputy. Al-Amin maintains his innocence.
2001 The skipper of the USS Greeneville took the stand in a Navy court and accepted sole responsibility for the Feb. 9 collision of his submarine with a Japanese trawler off Hawaii that killed nine Japanese.
2001 New York native Lori Berenson, accused of aiding guerrillas in Peru, received a retrial in civilian court (she was later convicted of "terrorist collaboration").
2001 Power-strapped California saw a second day of rolling blackouts.
2001 Five days after explosions destroyed one of its support beams, the largest oilrig in the world collapsed and sank off the coast of Brazil.

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Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Iran : Oil Nationalization Day
Tunisia : Independence Day (1956)
US : Daffodil Days Ends
Indiana : Pigeons Day
UN : Earth Day
Festival Of Extraterrestrial Abductions Day
International Hamburger & Pickle Month

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Religious Observances
Anglican : Commemoration of Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne

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Religious History
1739 English founder of Methodism John Wesley wrote in a letter: 'I look upon all the world as my parish.'
1747 American missionary David Brainerd, 28, ended two_andÂone_half years of labor among the colonial Indians of New England, after having been continually plagued with ill health. (Brainerd died of tuberculosis seven months later.)
1840 Scottish clergyman Robert Murray McCheyne wrote in a letter: 'The more God opens your eyes, the more you will feel that you are lost in yourself.'
1852 American abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe, 41, published her classic antislavery novel, "Uncle Tom's Cabin." The controversy it kindled helped lead to the American Civil War, nine years later.
1928 Birth of Fred Rogers, American Presbyterian clergyman and since its premiere in 1965 host of public television's longest running children's program: "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood."

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

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Thought for the day :
"It's frustrating when you know all the answers, but nobody bothers to ask you the questions."

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Hallmark cards that never made it...
You are such a good friend
If we were on a sinking ship
And there was only one life jacket ...
(inside card)
I'd miss you terribly
And think of you often.

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New State Slogans...
Nevada: Whores and Poker!

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Male Language Patterns...
"You know how bad my memory is," REALLY MEANS,
"I remember the words to the theme song of "F Troop",
the address of the first girl I kissed,
the Vehicle Identification Number of every car I've ever owned,
but I forgot your birthday."

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Female Language Patterns...
"That's Okay"
This is one of the most dangerous statements that a woman
can say to a man. "That's Okay" means that she wants to think long and hard before deciding what the penalty will be for whatever you have done.
"That's Okay" is often used with the word "Fine" and in conjunction with a raised eyebrow "Go Ahead."
Once she has had time to plan it out, you are in for
some mighty big trouble.

[The Mayor]

Have you never read, "Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise"? —Matthew 21:16

Big lessons can be learned from little children.

[Darksheare]

Shot in the back of the leg.. friendly fire.
Some klutz behind Gen Johnston fired too quickly and missed what he thought he was shooting at.
If teh General hadn't died, Shiloh would have been a Confederate victory.

[CholeraJoe]

Great thread, snippy. Love the Saturday reruns.

[stand watie]

HI,snippy!

free dixie,sw

[Victoria Delsoul]

Howdy Snippy and wherever you are, Sam. Have a great weekend, all.

[GailA]

hanoi john hot foots to DC to vote on $1.8 BILLION Tax HIKE March 10, 2004.