The Battle of the Chernaya was a battle by the Chornaya River fought during the Crimean War on August 16, 1855. The battle was fought between Russian troops and a coalition of French and Ottoman troops; the Chornaya River is on the outskirts of Sevastopol. The battle ended in a Russian retreat and a victory for the French and Turks; the battle was planned as an offensive by the Russians with the aim of forcing the Allied forces to retreat and abandon their siege of Sevastopol. Czar Alexander II had ordered his commander in chief in the Crimea, Prince Michael Gorchakov to attack the besieging forces before they were reinforced further; the Czar hoped that by gaining a victory, he could force a more favorable resolution to the conflict. Gorchakov didn’t think that an attack would be successful but believed the greatest chance of success to be near the French and Sardinian positions on the Chornaya River; the Czar ordered the hesitating Gorchakov to hold a war council to plan the attack. The attack was planned for the morning of August 16 in the hope to surprise the French and Sardinians as they had just celebrated the Feast day of the Emperor and Assumption Day.

The Russians hoped that because of these feasts the enemy would be tired and less attentive to the Russians. 58,000 Russian troops in two army corps under Prince Michael Gorchakov fought against 28,000 French and Sardinian troops under French General Aimable Pélissier and Italian General Alfonso Ferrero La Marmora. Although the British correspondents were amazed at the courageousness and impetuosity of their attack, the assault of the Russian army was handicapped by poor organization and lack of experienced soldiers which, due to Sevastopol, forced their corps to consist of militia. In the cover of the morning fog, the Russians advanced on Traktirburg with 47,000 infantry, 10,000 cavalry and 270 cannon under command of General Pavel Liprandi on the left and General N. A. Read on the right; the two generals had been ordered by Gorchakov not to cross the river until given explicit orders. Annoyed that things weren’t happening fast enough, Gorchakov sent a note to his generals with the words "Let's start it."

By this, Gorchakov only meant. His generals interpreted his words as his order to attack and they acted accordingly, although reserve forces were still en route to the battlefield; the attacking Russians met stiff resistance from the French and Sardinians. Read's forces crossed the river near Traktirburg but without cavalry and artillery support, they were stopped by the French on the Fedyukhin Heights. Read ordered his reserve formation, the 5th Infantry Division, to attack the Heights but instead of launching a coordinated assault, he fed them piecemeal in to the fray. Going in regiment by regiment, the assaulting reserve troops accomplished nothing. Seeing this Gorchakov ordered Read to deploy the entire division against the French; this forced the French back up the hill but the Russians could not capture the Heights. In the following retreat General Read was killed. Upon the death of Read, Gorchakov took personal command of the right and ordered 8 battalions of Liprandi's left wing to reinforce the right wing.

These forces were driven back. At 10 o’clock in the morning, Gorchakov concluded that the situation was hopeless and ordered a general retreat; the bravery of Sardinian troops and the French soldiers of the 50th, 82nd, 95th, 97th of the line. The Italian troops' valiant effort at the battle was a contributing factor to their inclusion at the negotiation tables at the end of the war. Russian Count Leo Tolstoy was a participant in the Battle of the Chernaya River, he witnessed as the Russians started up the hillside in the morning sunlight. Tolstoy saw Russian soldiers being killed in clusters. Before the morning was over, the Russians were forced to retreat, they left thousands of their dead comrades behind. Tolstoy was angered by the slaughter, he believed much of it was due to staff. Tolstoy vented his anger by composing a satiric stanza, an approximate translation of which reads: The toppest brass Sat down to meet And pondered long; this humorous song soon gained widespread popularity among the Russian soldiers, is the only piece of verse Tolstoy is known to have written.

The stanza from Tolstoy's song "Гладко вписано в бумаге, Да забыли про овраги" entered as a catch phrase, in a modified form "Гладко было на бумаге... ". Schneid, Frederick C.. The Second War of Italian Unification 1859-61. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84908-787-2

Lorna M. Mahlock is the first Black woman to be nominated as a Brigadier general in the United States Marine Corps, which occurred in 2018; the signoff of the nomination, by President Donald Trump, was announced in a press release by U. S. Secretary of Defense General James Mattis; as of March 2019, BGen Mahlock is the Director, Control and Computers and the Deputy Department of the Navy Chief Information Officer of the Marine Corps. She served as the Deputy Director of Operations, Plans and Operation Directorate at Headquarters, U. S. Marine Corps, Washington, D. C. Born in Kingston, she immigrated to Brooklyn, New York and enlisted in the Marine Corps, she was selected for the Marine Corps Enlisted Commissioning Education Program, graduated from Marquette University and was commissioned in December 1991. Designated as an Air Traffic Control Officer, she earned certifications as a Federal Aviation Administration Tower Local Controller and a Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Instructor, she has commanded and led at various levels globally and in combat including but not limited to: Air Traffic Control Detachment Commander.

She holds a master's degree in Higher Education from the University of Oklahoma at Norman. She is a graduate of the United Kingdom Defense College Higher Command and Staff. Brigadier General Mahlock's personal awards include Legion of Merit; this article incorporates public domain material from the United States Marine Corps document "Director HQMC C4"

Mendocino is an unincorporated community in Mendocino County, United States. Mendocino is located 9.5 miles south at an elevation of 154 feet. The population of the census-designated place was 894 at the 2010 census, up from 824 at the 2000 census; the town's name comes from Cape Mendocino, named by early Spanish navigators in honor of Antonio de Mendoza, Viceroy of New Spain. In turn, the etymology of Mendoza is "cold mountain." Despite its small size, the town's scenic location on a headland surrounded by the Pacific Ocean has made it popular as an artist colony and with vacationers. Prior to 1850, a Pomo settlement named Buldam was located near Mendocino on the north bank of the Big River. In 1850, the ship Frolic was wrecked a few miles north of Mendocino, at Point Cabrillo, the investigation of the wreck by agents of Henry Meiggs sparked the development of the timber industry in the area. Mendocino itself was founded in 1852 as a logging community for what became the Mendocino Lumber Company, was named Meiggsville after Meiggs.

The first post office opened in 1858. Many of the town's early settlers were New Englanders, as was true with many older Northern California logging towns. Portuguese fishermen from the Azores settled in the area, as did immigrants from Canton Province in China, who built the Taoist Temple of Kwan Tai in town. Mendocino's economy declined after 1940, it became a somewhat isolated village with a shrinking population; the revitalization of the town began in the late 1950s with the founding of the Mendocino Art Center by artist Bill Zacha. Most of the town was added to the National Register of Historic Places listings in Mendocino County, California in 1971 as the Mendocino and Headlands Historic District. Mendocino Presbyterian Church on Main Street, dedicated on July 5, 1868, is one of the oldest continuously used Protestant churches in California, is designated as California Historical Landmark #714. In addition, the Temple of Kwan Tai on Albion Street, California Historical Landmark #927, may be as old as 1854 and is one of the oldest Chinese houses of worship in California.

Since 1987, Mendocino has been the site of the Mendocino Music Festival, a classically based but musically diverse series of concerts, held annually in a huge circus-type performance tent on the town's Main Street in the Mendocino Headlands State Park. The Kelley House Museum has a cannon from the Frolic. Mendocino is located at 39°18′28″N 123°47′58″W. According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 7.4 square miles, of which, 2.3 square miles of it is land and 5.2 square miles of it is water. Mendocino has a cool summer Maritime Mediterranean climate. Summers are characterized by frequent fog and highs in the upper sixties and lows in the fifties. Winters if see frost or snow, due to close proximity to the Pacific Ocean. Mendocino averages about 43 inches inches of rain per year concentrated in fall, winter and early summer; this region experiences warm and dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above 71.6 °F. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Mendocino has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, abbreviated "Csb" on climate maps.

The 2010 United States Census reported that Mendocino had a population of 894. The population density was 120.5 people per square mile. The racial makeup of Mendocino was 834 White, 5 African American, 8 Native American, 13 Asian, 1 Pacific Islander, 6 from other races, 27 from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 42 persons; the Census reported that 830 people lived in households, 64 lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, 0 were institutionalized. There were 447 households, out of which 62 had children under the age of 18 living in them, 177 were opposite-sex married couples living together, 22 had a female householder with no husband present, 15 had a male householder with no wife present. There were 29 unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, 6 same-sex married couples or partnerships. 178 households were made up of individuals and 83 had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.86. There were 214 families; the population was spread out with 93 people under the age of 18, 58 people aged 18 to 24, 166 people aged 25 to 44, 333 people aged 45 to 64, 244 people who were 65 years of age or older.

The median age was 56.1 years. For every 100 females, there were 89.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 83.7 males. There were 617 housing units at an average density of 83.1 per square mile, of which 271 were owner-occupied, 176 were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 3.9%. 520 people lived in owner-occupied housing units and 310 people lived in rental housing units. As of the census of 2000, there were 824 people, 424 households, 220 families residing in the CDP; the population density was 363.8 people per square mile. There were 549 housing units at an average density of 242.4 per square mile. The racial makeup of the CDP was 95.51% White, 0.36% Native American, 1.09% Asian, 0.73% from other races, 2.31% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.79% of the population. There were 424 households out of which 18.4% had childr