1863:The battles of the Chattanooga campaign begin between newly appointed commander of the Western armies, Union Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, and Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg. Within days, Union Army forces will attack and capture Orchard Knob, Lookout Mountain, and the Confederate works on Missionary Ridge. The “Gateway to the Lower South” will open, and within a year, Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman will pass through the “gateway” enroute to Atlanta. 1943: Japanese-held Tarawa falls to American forces despite the boast of its defending commander, Rear Adm. Keiji Shibasaki, that “a million men could not take Tarawa in a hundred years.” It takes several thousand Marines and about 76 hours to seize Tarawa. Makin Atoll, 100 miles north of Tarawa, is also declared secure. 1944: The Seventh Army, commanded by Gen. Alexander Patch, captures Strasbourg, France. 1972: Peace talks between the US and North Vietnam secretly resume in Paris, but quickly reach an impasse. Medal of Honor: On this date in 1944, near Moyenmoutier, France, 1st Lt. Edward A. Silk single-handedly silenced a German machine-gun position that had halted his battalion. This series is adapted in part from W. Thomas Smith Jr.'s "This Week in US Military History" series published at Human Events.
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Nov 23 2011, 05:03 AM
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