1.
Battle of Chapultepec
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The castle, sitting atop a 200-foot tall hill, was an important position for the defense of the city. Its capture paved the way for the fall of Mexico City. On September 8,1847, in the costly Battle of Molino del Rey, however, Army engineers were still interested in the southern causeways to the city. General Winfield Scott held a council of war with his generals, Scott was in favor of attacking Chapultepec and only General David E. Twiggs agreed. Most of Scotts officers favored the attack through the southern gates, a young lieutenant, P. G. T. Beauregard, gave a textbook speech that persuaded General Franklin Pierce to change his vote in favor of the western attack. Antonio López de Santa Anna was in command of the army at Mexico City and he understood that Chapultepec Castle was an important position for the defense of the city. The castle sat atop a 200-foot tall hill which in recent years was being used as the Mexican Military Academy, a gradual slope from the castle down to the Molino del Rey made an inviting attack point. The additional Mexican troops were used in external walled redoubts of the castle to protect a large piece of ground in front of the castle itself. This area was protected by walls and was about three-quarters of a mile long by one-quarter mile deep. Also the source of water for the castle was located within this area, the first party consisted of Captain Samuel Mackenzies 256 men and Gideon Pillows division, who would advance from the Molino east up the hill. The second storming party consisted of Captain Silas Caseys men and John A. Quitmans division, however, Casey was replaced by Major Levi Twiggs. Only Twiggs division and Bennett Rileys brigade were left on the American right flank, the Americans began an artillery barrage against Chapultepec at dawn on September 12. It was halted at dark and resumed at first light on September 13, at 8 AM, the bombardment was halted and General Scott ordered the infantry attack. Pillow was quickly hit in the foot and called for reinforcements, andrewss column cleared the grove of Mexican troops and linked up with Johnston. Yet, the attack by the 9th and 15th Infantry stalled waiting for scaling ladders, Quitman sent Persifor Smiths brigade to his right and brought in James Shields, plus the New York and 2d Pennsylvania Regiments into the assault. At the same time, Newman S. Clarkes brigade arrived on the western slope, the Voltigeurs soon planted their flag on the parapet. By 9 AM, General Bravo surrendered to the New York Regiment, Santa Anna watched the Americans take Chapultepec while an aide exclaimed let the Mexican flag never be touched by a foreign enemy. He also exclaimed, I believe if we were to plant our batteries in Hell the damned Yankees would take them from us
2.
Battle of Fort Donelson
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The Battle of Fort Donelson was fought from February 12–16,1862, in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. The Union capture of the Confederate fort near the Tennessee–Kentucky border opened the Cumberland River, an important avenue for the invasion of the South. The Unions success also elevated Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant from an obscure and largely unproven leader to the rank of major general, the battle followed the Union capture of Fort Henry on February 6. Grant moved his army 12 miles overland to Fort Donelson on February 12 and 13, on February 15, with the fort surrounded, the Confederates, commanded by Brig. Gen. John B. Floyd, launched an attack against the right flank of Grants army in an attempt to open an escape route to Nashville. Grant, who was away from the battlefield at the start of the attack, arrived to rally his men, despite achieving partial success and opening the way for a retreat, Floyd lost his nerve and ordered his men back to the fort. The battle of Fort Donelson, which began on February 12, took place shortly after the surrender of Fort Henry, Tennessee, on February 6,1862. Fort Henry had been a key position in the center of a line defending Tennessee, about 2,500 of Fort Henrys Confederate defenders escaped before its surrender by marching the 12 miles east to Fort Donelson. With the surrender of Fort Henry, the Confederates faced some difficult choices, Grants army now divided Confederate Gen. Albert Sidney Johnstons two main forces, P. G. T. Beauregard at Columbus, Kentucky, with 12,000 men, Fort Donelson had only about 5,000 men. Johnston was apprehensive about the ease with which Union gunboats defeated Fort Henry and he was more concerned about the threat from Buell than he was from Grant, and suspected the river operations might simply be a diversion. Johnston decided upon a course of action that forfeited the initiative across most of his defensive line, Johnston wanted to give command of Fort Donelson to Beauregard, who had performed ably at Bull Run, but the latter declined because of a throat ailment. Instead, the responsibility went to Brig. Gen. John B, Floyd, who had just arrived following an unsuccessful assignment under Robert E. Lee in western Virginia. Floyd was a man in the North for alleged graft. Floyds background was political, not military, but he was nevertheless the senior general on the Cumberland River. On the Union side, Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck, Halleck had authorized Grant to capture Fort Henry, but now he felt that continuing to Fort Donelson was risky. Despite Grants success to date, Halleck had little confidence in him, Halleck attempted to convince his own rival, Don Carlos Buell, to take command of the campaign to get his additional forces engaged. Despite Johnstons high regard for Buell, the Union general was as passive as Grant was aggressive
3.
Battle of Shiloh
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The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, was a major battle in the Western Theater of the American Civil War, fought April 6–7,1862, in southwestern Tennessee. A Union force known as the Army of the Tennessee under Major General Ulysses S. T. Beauregard, launched an attack on Grants army from its base in Corinth. Johnston was killed in action during the fighting, Beauregard, who succeeded to command of the army. Overnight Grant was reinforced by one of his own divisions stationed further north and was joined by three divisions from another Union army under Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell. This allowed them to launch a counterattack the next morning which completely reversed the Confederate gains of the previous day. On April 6, the first day of the battle, the Confederates struck with the intention of driving the Union defenders away from the river, Johnston hoped to defeat Grants army before the anticipated arrival of General Buells Army of the Ohio. The Confederate battle lines became confused during the fighting, and Grants men instead fell back to the northeast. A Union position on a sunken road, nicknamed the Hornets Nest. Benjamin Prentisss and William H. L. Wallaces divisions, provided critical time for the remainder of the Union line to stabilize under the protection of artillery batteries. Wallace was mortally wounded when the position collapsed, while several regiments from the two divisions were surrounded and surrendered. General Johnston was shot in the leg and bled to death while leading an attack. Beauregard, his second in command, acknowledged how tired the army was from the days exertions, Confederate forces were forced to retreat from the area, ending their hopes of blocking the Union advance into northern Mississippi. Smiths orders were to lead raids intended to capture or damage the railroads in southwestern Tennessee, Brig. Gen. William T. Shermans troops arrived from Paducah, Kentucky, to conduct a similar mission to break the railroads near Eastport, Mississippi. Halleck also ordered Grant to advance his Army of West Tennessee on an invasion up the Tennessee River, Grant left Fort Henry and headed upriver, arriving at Savannah, Tennessee, on March 14, and established his headquarters on the east bank of the river. Grants troops set up camp farther upriver, five divisions at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, meanwhile, Hallecks command was enlarged through consolidation of Grants and Buells armies and renamed the Department of the Mississippi. With Buells Army of the Ohio under his command, Halleck ordered Buell to concentrate with Grant at Savannah, Buell began a march with much of his army from Nashville, Tennessee, and headed southwest toward Savannah. The railroad was a supply line connecting the Mississippi River at Memphis, Tennessee to Richmond. Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant developed a reputation during the war for being concerned with his own plans than with those of the enemy
4.
Siege of Vicksburg
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The Siege of Vicksburg was the final major military action in the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. In a series of maneuvers, Union Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Tennessee crossed the Mississippi River and drove the Confederate Army of Mississippi, Pemberton, into the defensive lines surrounding the fortress city of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Vicksburg was the last major Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River, therefore, capturing it completed the part of the Northern strategy. When two major assaults against the Confederate fortifications were repulsed with casualties, Grant decided to besiege the city beginning on May 25. With no reinforcement, supplies nearly gone, and after holding out for more than forty days, the successful ending of the Vicksburg Campaign significantly degraded the ability of the Confederacy to maintain its war effort, as described in the Aftermath section of the campaign article. Ballard, p. 308—suggest that the battle in the campaign was actually the Battle of Champion Hill. This action yielded command of the Mississippi River to the Union forces, attempts to stop the Union advance at Champion Hill and Big Black River Bridge were unsuccessful. Pemberton knew that the corps under Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman was preparing to flank him from the north, he had no choice but to withdraw or be outflanked. Pemberton burned the bridges over the Big Black River and took everything edible in his path, both animal and plant, as he retreated to the city of Vicksburg. Grant could now receive supplies more directly than by the previous route, large masses of Union troops were on the march to invest the city, repairing the burnt bridges over the Big Black River, which Grants forces crossed on May 18. Johnston sent a note to his general, Pemberton, asking him to sacrifice the city and save his troops, Washburn, XVII Corps, under Maj. Gen. James B. Pembertons Confederate Army of Mississippi inside the Vicksburg line consisted of four divisions, carter L. Stevenson, John H. Forney, Martin L. Smith, John S. Bowen. As the Confederate forces approached Vicksburg, Pemberton could put only 18,500 troops in his lines, Grant had over 35,000, with more on the way. However, Pemberton had the advantage of terrain and fortifications that made his defense nearly impregnable, the defensive line around Vicksburg ran approximately 6.5 miles, based on terrain of varying elevations that included hills and knobs with steep angles for an attacker to ascend under fire. The perimeter included many gun pits, forts, trenches, redoubts, Grant wanted to overwhelm the Confederates before they could fully organize their defenses and ordered an immediate assault against Stockade Redan for May 19. This first attempt was easily repulsed, the assault collapsed in a melee of rifle fire and hand grenades lobbing back and forth. The failed Federal assaults of May 19 damaged Union morale, deflating the confidence the soldiers felt after their string of victories across Mississippi. They were also costly, with casualties of 157 killed,777 wounded, the Confederates, assumed to be demoralized, had regained their fighting edge
5.
Chattanooga Campaign
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The Chattanooga Campaign was a series of maneuvers and battles in October and November 1863, during the American Civil War. Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was given command of Union forces in the West, significant reinforcements also began to arrive with him in Chattanooga from Mississippi and the Eastern Theater. On October 19th, Grant removed Rosecrans from command of the Army of the Cumberland, after opening a supply line to feed his starving men and animals, Grants army fought off a Confederate counterattack at the Battle of Wauhatchie on October 28–29,1863. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman maneuvered to launch an attack against Braggs right flank on Missionary Ridge. On November 24, Shermans men crossed the Tennessee River in the morning, the same day, Eastern Theater troops under Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker defeated the Confederates in the Battle of Lookout Mountain. The next day began a movement toward Braggs left flank at Rossville. On November 25, Shermans attack on Braggs right flank made little progress, hoping to distract Braggs attention, Grant ordered Thomass army to advance in the center of his line to the base of Missionary Ridge. Braggs defeat eliminated the last significant Confederate control of Tennessee and opened the door to an invasion of the Deep South, Chattanooga was a vital rail hub, and an important manufacturing center for the production of iron and coke, located on the navigable Tennessee River. Rosecrans pursued Bragg and the two collided at the Battle of Chickamauga on September 19–20. Bragg did not cut off the routes to Chattanooga and did not organize a pursuit that might have seriously damaged the Union army before it could regroup. The Union forces took advantage of previous Confederate works to erect defensive positions in a tight. Bragg had three courses of action and he could outflank Rosecrans by crossing the Tennessee either below or above the city, assault the Union force directly in their fortifications, or starve the Federals by establishing a siege line. A direct assault was too costly against a well-fortified enemy, receiving intelligence that Rosecranss men had only six days of rations, Bragg chose the siege option, while attempting to accumulate sufficient logistical capability to cross the Tennessee. Braggs army besieged the city, threatening to starve the Union forces into surrender, Bragg also had little inclination to take offensive action against the Federal army because he was occupied in leadership quarrels within his army. On September 29, Bragg relieved from command two of his subordinates who had disappointed him in the Chickamauga Campaign, Maj. Gen. Thomas C, hindman and Lt. Gen. Leonidas Polk. On October 4, twelve of his most senior generals sent a petition to Confederate President Jefferson Davis, Davis personally visited Chattanooga to hear the complaints. After he decided to retain Bragg in command, Bragg retaliated against some of those generals by relieving Lt. Gen. D. H. Hill and Maj. Gen. Simon B. In Chattanooga, Rosecrans was stunned by the defeat of his army, President Abraham Lincoln remarked that Rosecrans seemed confused and stunned like a duck hit on the head
6.
Robert E. Lee
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Robert Edward Lee was an American general known for commanding the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War from 1862 until his surrender in 1865. During this time, he served throughout the United States, distinguished himself during the Mexican–American War, during the first year of the Civil War, Lee served as a senior military adviser to President Jefferson Davis. Once he took command of the field army in 1862 he soon emerged as a shrewd tactician and battlefield commander, winning most of his battles. Lees strategic foresight was more questionable, and both of his major offensives into Union territory ended in defeat, Lees aggressive tactics, which resulted in high casualties at a time when the Confederacy had a shortage of manpower, have come under criticism in recent years. Lee surrendered his army to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9,1865. By this time, Lee had assumed command of the remaining Southern armies. Lee rejected the proposal of an insurgency against the Union. He urged them to rethink their position between the North and the South, and the reintegration of former Confederates into the political life. Lee became the great Southern hero of the War, an icon of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy to some. But his popularity even in the North, especially after his death in 1870. Barracks at West Point built in 1962 are named after him, Robert Edward Lee was born at Stratford Hall Plantation in Westmoreland County, Virginia, to Major General Henry Lee III, Governor of Virginia, and his second wife, Anne Hill Carter. His birth date has traditionally been recorded as January 19,1807, one of Lees great grandparents, Henry Lee I, was a prominent Virginian colonist of English descent. Lees family is one of Virginias first families, descended from Richard Lee I, Esq. the Immigrant, Lees mother grew up at Shirley Plantation, one of the most elegant homes in Virginia. Lees father, a planter, suffered severe financial reverses from failed investments. Little is known of Lee as a child, he spoke of his boyhood as an adult. Nothing is known of his relationship with his father who, after leaving his family, mentioned Robert only once in a letter. In 1811, the family, including the newly born child, Mildred, moved to a house on Oronoco Street, still close to the center of town. In 1812, Harry Lee was badly injured in a riot in Baltimore
7.
Appomattox Court House National Historical Park
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The Appomattox Court House National Historical Park is a National Historical Park of original and reconstructed 19th century buildings in Appomattox County, Virginia. The McLean House was the site of the conference. The park was established August 3,1935, the village was made a national monument in 1940 and a national historical park in 1954. It is located three miles east of Appomattox, Virginia, the location of the Appomattox Station and the new Appomattox Court House. It is in the center of the state about 25 miles east of Lynchburg, the antebellum village started out as Clover Hill named after its oldest existing structure, the Clover Hill Tavern. The village was a stop along the Richmond-Lynchburg stage road. The activity in Clover Hill centered around Clover Hill Tavern, the tavern provided lodging to travelers. Fresh horses for the line were also provided at the stop. It was also the site of meetings and so when Appomattox County was established by an Act on February 8,1845. It was parts of Buckingham, Prince Edward, Charlotte, the jurisdiction took its name from the headwaters that emanate there, the Appomattox River. Early Virginians believe the name Appomattox came from an Indian tribe called Apumetec, from about 1842, Hugh Raine basically owned most of the Clover Hill area. He obtained it from his brother John Raine who defaulted on his loans, later, he sold the property to a Colonel Samuel D. McDearmon. Since his acquisition, it became the county seat and he surveyed 30 acres of the hamlet and he designated 2 acres to be used by the new county to build a courthouse and other government buildings. The courthouse was to be built across the Stage Road from the Clover Hill Tavern, the jail was to be built behind the courthouse. McDearmon divided the land surrounding the courthouse into 1-acre lots. He felt that with Clover Hills new status as a county seat he would find professional people ready and his hopes were later dashed in 1854 as the train depot stopped three miles west in Appomattox, Virginia. The American Civil War put the nails in the coffin. The district once known as Clover Hill and later renamed to Appomattox Court House continued to decline as businesses moved to the area of the Appomattox Station, the village contained 30 acres of the original Pattesons Clover Hill Tavern property of some 200 acres
8.
Allan Quatermain
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Allan Quatermain is the protagonist of H. Rider Haggards 1885 novel King Solomons Mines and its sequels. Allan Quatermain was also the title of a book in this sequence, an outdoorsman who finds English cities and climate unbearable, he prefers to spend most of his life in Africa, where he grew up under the care of his widower father, a Christian missionary. In the earliest-written novels, native Africans refer to Quatermain as Macumazahn, meaning Watcher-by-Night, in later-written novels, Macumazahn is said to be a short form of Macumazana, meaning One who stands out. Quatermain is frequently accompanied by his servant, the Hottentot Hans. His sarcastic comments offer a critique of European conventions. In his final adventures, Quatermain is joined by two British companions, Sir Henry Curtis and Captain John Good of the Royal Navy, and by his African friend Umslopogaas. The series spans 50 years of Quatermains life, from 18 to 68, at the start of the foundation novel King Solomons Mines, physically, he is small, wiry, and unattractive, with a beard and short hair that sticks up. His one skill is his marksmanship, where he has no equal, Quatermain is aware that as a professional hunter, he has helped to destroy his beloved wild free places of Africa. In old age he hunts without pleasure, having no means of making a living. About Quatermains family, little is written and he lives at Durban, in Natal, South Africa. He marries twice, but is quickly widowed both times and he entrusts the printing of memoirs in the series to his son Harry, whose death he mourns in the opening of the novel Allan Quatermain. Harry Quatermain is a student who dies of smallpox while working in a hospital. Haggard did not write the Quatermain novels in order. Quatermains birth, age at the time of his marriages, and age at the time of his death cannot be reconciled to the apparent date of Harrys birth, although some of Haggards Quatermain novels stand alone, there are two important series. Zikali plots and finally achieves the overthrow of the Zulu royal House of Senzangakona, founded by Shaka, dates of events in Allan Quatermains life are shown on the left, dates of publication in book form are shown on the right. Quatermain was placed by science fiction writer Philip José Farmer as a member of the Wold Newton family. In The Judex Codex, Dennis E. Power says that Quatermain had a daughter by Ayesha, in the Haggard canon, Harry Quatermain is an only child. After the younger Quatermains death, his father laments that he is an old man without a chick or child to comfort me, but the expansion of Allan Quatermains lineage by Castelli, Mengel, and Power, and of his longevity by Alan Moore were studiously researched
9.
Harper's Magazine
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Harpers Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in June 1850, it is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U. S, the current editor is James Marcus, who replaced Christopher Cox in March 2016. Harpers Magazine has won twenty National Magazine Awards, Harpers Magazine was launched as Harpers New Monthly Magazine in June 1850, by the New York City publisher Harper & Brothers. The company also founded the magazines Harpers Weekly and Harpers Bazaar, the first press run of Harpers Magazine—7,500 copies—sold out almost immediately. Circulation was some 50,000 issues six months later, the early issues reprinted material pirated from English authors such as Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, and the Brontë sisters. The magazine soon was publishing the work of American artists and writers, portions of Herman Melvilles novel Moby Dick were first published in the October 1851 issue of Harpers under the title, The Town-Hos Story. In 1962, Harper & Brothers merged with Row, Peterson & Company, in 1965, the magazine was separately incorporated, and became a division of the Minneapolis Star and Tribune Company, owned by the Cowles Media Company. In the 1970s, Harpers Magazine published Seymour Hershs reporting of the My Lai Massacre by United States forces in Vietnam, robert Shnayerson, a senior editor at Time magazine, was hired to replace Morris as Harpers ninth editor, serving in that position from 1971 until 1976. Lewis H. Lapham served as managing editor from 1976 until 1981, on June 17,1980, the Star Tribune announced it would cease publishing Harpers Magazine after the August 1980 issue. As of the March 2011 issue, contributing editor Zadie Smith, under the Lapham-MacArthur leadership, Harpers Magazine continued publishing literary fiction by John Updike, George Saunders, and others. Politically, Harpers was a vocal critic of U. S. domestic. Editor Laphams monthly Notebook columns have lambasted the Clinton and the George W. Bush administrations. Since 2003, the magazine has concentrated on reportage about U. S. war in Iraq, with articles about the battle for Fallujah. Other reporting has covered abortion issues, cloning, and global warming, in 2007, Harpers added the No Comment blog, by attorney Scott Horton, about legal controversies, Central Asian politics, and German studies. Since that time these two blogs have ceased publication, Lapham left shortly thereafter and launched Laphams Quarterly. The August 2004 issue contained an essay by noted photojournalist Peter Turnley. The eight-page spread in August 2004 showed images of death, grieving, on the U. S. side, Turnley visited the funeral of an Oklahoma National Guard member, Spc. Kyle Brinlee,21, who was killed when his vehicle ran over an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan, during his funeral, Turnley shot the open casket as it lay in the back of the auditorium and this photo was used in the photo essay
