Today in U.S. military history: the Mayaguez incident, and the Civil War's "Bloody Angle"

Unto the Breach ^ | 12 May 2017 | Chris Carter

[fugazi]

1780: Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, commanding American forces at Charleston, S.C., surrenders to Gen. Sir Henry Clinton after a six-week siege. Although the fall of Charleston and capture of thousands of Continental Army soldiers is the largest setback of the war for the Americans, British operations in the Southern colonies will quickly prove to be the undoing of the king’s men in North America.

1864: Gen. Ulysses S. Grant orders his forces to assault the Confederate salient known as the “Mule Shoe” during the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House. 15,000 Union soldiers break through, but Gen. Robert E. Lee quickly plugs the gaps and the Confederates counterattack. Over the next 20 hours, the two sides engage in intense close combat – much of it hand-to-hand. The carnage at “Bloody Angle” is some of the most brutal fighting of the Civil War with 9,000 Union and 8,000 Confederate casualties in just one day.

1865: Although President Andrew Johnson proclaimed an end to the Civil War three days ago, a Union force led by Col. John S. Ford attacks Confederate...

[fugazi]

Although the Mayaguez was empty, it is the first hostile boarding of a vessel by the Marine Corps since 1826.

[circlecity]

The mule shoe at Spotsylvania Court House was one of the most gruesome battles of the Civil War. A real meat grinder.

[MCF]

The U-507 patrol in the Caribbean was in 1942 not 1941.

[DIRTYSECRET]

I was at Utapao airbase in Thailand where the rescue operation was launched. 23 of the 39 troops lost were lost in a helicopter crash delivering Air Force security policemen to Utapao from an inland base. The island they attacked did not hold the merchant seamen. Last, communication in Cambodia was bad. The Cambodians agreed to release the seamen before the attack. 39 lives were lost to save 39.

[Billthedrill]

Brian Williams was present at both. Amazing guy. BTT