The United States Department of Homeland Security is a cabinet department of the U. S. federal government with responsibilities in public security comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-terrorism, border security and customs, cyber security, disaster prevention and management, it was created in November 2002 in response to 9/11 and is the youngest U. S. cabinet department. In fiscal year 2018, it was allocated a net discretionary budget of $47.716 billion. With more than 240,000 employees, DHS is the third largest Cabinet department, after the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. Homeland security policy is coordinated at the White House by the Homeland Security Council. Other agencies with significant homeland security responsibilities include the Departments of Health and Human Services and Energy. Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigned on April 7, 2019, effective April 10. By law, Undersecretary for Management Claire Grady was to become the acting Secretary of Homeland Security.

On April 7, President Donald J. Trump designated the current U. S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan as acting Secretary. McAleenan named David Pekoske, who also serves as the TSA Administrator, as the acting Deputy Secretary. On November 13, 2019, Chad Wolf became the Acting Secretary and named Ken Cuccinelli as the Acting Deputy Secretary. In response to the September 11 attacks, President George W. Bush announced the establishment of the Office of Homeland Security to coordinate "homeland security" efforts; the office was headed by former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, who assumed the title of Assistant to the President for Homeland Security. The official announcement stated: The mission of the Office will be to develop and coordinate the implementation of a comprehensive national strategy to secure the United States from terrorist threats or attacks; the Office will coordinate the executive branch's efforts to detect, prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from terrorist attacks within the United States.

Ridge began his duties as OHS director on October 8, 2001. According to border theorist Peter Andreas, the creation of DHS constituted the most significant government reorganization since the Cold War, the most substantial reorganization of federal agencies since the National Security Act of 1947, which placed the different military departments under a secretary of defense and created the National Security Council and Central Intelligence Agency. DHS constitutes the most diverse merger of federal functions and responsibilities, incorporating 22 government agencies into a single organization; the Department of Homeland Security was established by the Homeland Security Act of 2002 on November 25, 2002. It was intended to consolidate U. S. executive branch organizations related to "homeland security" into a single Cabinet agency. The Gilmore Commission supported by much of congress and John Bolton helped further solidify need for the department; the following 22 agencies were incorporated into the new department: Prior to the signing of the bill, controversy about its adoption centered on whether the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency should be incorporated in part or in whole.

The bill was controversial for the presence of unrelated "riders", as well as for eliminating certain union-friendly civil service and labor protections for department employees. Without these protections, employees could be expeditiously reassigned or dismissed on grounds of security, incompetence or insubordination, DHS would not be required to notify their union representatives; the plan stripped 180,000 government employees of their union rights. In 2002, Bush officials argued that the September 11 attacks made the proposed elimination of employee protections imperative. Congress passed the Homeland Security Act of 2002 without the union-friendly measures, President Bush signed the bill into law on November 25, 2002, it was the largest U. S. government reorganization in the 50 years since the United States Department of Defense was created. Tom Ridge was named secretary on January 24, 2003, began naming his chief deputies. DHS began operations on January 24, 2003, but most of the department's component agencies were not transferred into the new Department until March 1.

After establishing the basic structure of DHS and working to integrate its components and get the department functioning, Ridge announced his resignation on November 30, 2004, following the re-election of President Bush. Bush nominated former New York City Police Department commissioner Bernard Kerik as his successor, but on December 10, Kerik withdrew his nomination, citing personal reasons and saying it "would not be in the best interests" of the country for him to pursue the post. On January 11, 2005, President Bush nominated federal judge Michael Chertoff to succeed Ridge. Chertoff was confirmed on February 15, 2005, by a vote of 98–0 in the U. S. Senate, was sworn in the same day. In February 2005, DHS and the Office of Personnel Management issued rules relating to employee pay and discipline for a new personnel system named MaxHR; the Washington Post said that the rules would allow DHS "to override any provision in a union contract by issuing a department-wide directive" and would make it "difficult, if not impossible, for unions to negotiate over arrangements for staffing, deployments and other workplace matters".

In August 2005, U. S. District Judge Rosemary M. Collyer blocked the plan on the grounds that it did not ensure collective-bargaining rights

The First Battle of Chattanooga was a minor artillery battle in the American Civil War, fought on June 7–8, 1862. In late spring 1862, the Confederacy split its forces in Chattanooga, Tennessee into several small commands in an attempt to complicate Federal operations. Maj. Gen. Ormsby M. Mitchel received orders to take his division to Huntsville, Alabama, to repair railroads in the area. Soon, he occupied more than 100 miles along the Nashville & Chattanooga and Memphis & Charleston railroads. In May and his men sparred with Maj. Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith's men. After Mitchel received command of all Federal troops between Nashville and Huntsville on May 29, he ordered Brig. Gen. James Negley with a small division to lead an expedition to capture Chattanooga; this force arrived before Chattanooga on June 7. Negley ordered the 79th Pennsylvania Infantry out to reconnoiter, it found the Confederates entrenched on the opposite side of the river along the banks and atop Cameron Hill. Negley brought up two artillery batteries to open fire on the Rebel troops and the town and sent infantry to the river bank to act as sharpshooters.

The Union bombardment of Chattanooga continued throughout June 7 and until noon on June 8. The Confederates replied, but it was uncoordinated since the undisciplined gunners were allowed to do as they wished. On June 10, who had arrived on June 8, reported that Negley had withdrawn and the Confederate loss was minor; this attack on Chattanooga was a warning. The attack prompted Edmund Kirby Smith to withdraw Confederate troops from other areas to defend Chattanooga; this redeployment of troops allowed George W. Morgan to capture the Cumberland Gap on June 18, 1862; the Civil War Trust and its partners have preserved 106 acres of the battlefield. Second Battle of Chattanooga Chattanooga Campaign National Park Service battle description CWSAC Report

The Indiana Rail Road is a United States Class II railroad operating over former Illinois Central Railroad trackage from Newton, Illinois, to Indianapolis, Indiana, a distance of 155 miles. This line, now known as the Indiana Rail Road's Indianapolis Subdivision, comprises most of the former IC line from Indianapolis to Effingham, Illinois. INRD owns a former Milwaukee Road line from Terre Haute, Indiana, to Burns City, with trackage rights extending to Chicago, Illinois. INRD serves Louisville and the Port of Indiana on the Ohio River at Jeffersonville, through a haulage agreement with the Louisville & Indiana Railroad. In May 2006, INRD completed the purchase of the Canadian Pacific Railway line from Terre Haute to Bedford, the former Milwaukee Road/Soo Line Railroad Latta Subdivision, now known as INRD's Chicago Subdivision, which crosses the Indianapolis Subdivision at grade at Linton, Indiana; the former Latta Sub was isolated from the rest of the CPR, was reached from Chicago via trackage rights over CSX Transportation's former Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad line.

These trackage rights were transferred to the Indiana Rail Road as part of the sale, bringing INRD's total route structure to 500 miles. The company operates the remnants of the Monon Railroad in and around Bloomington and has trackage rights over other lines in and around Indianapolis; the INRD hauls coal from Indiana mines to electric generating plants along the line. Appliances, plastics and food products are the other major freight hauled. Major customers include Indianapolis Power & Light, Hoosier Energy, Duke Energy, Lincoland AgriEnergy, Marathon Oil, Hershey Foods, General Electric, Mont Eagle Mills, PolyOne Corporation, Bemis Plastics and others; the company's executive and administrative offices are located in downtown Indianapolis, with a classification yard and main transloading facility located on the city's near south side at the Senate Avenue Terminal. Long abandoned and now removed was a connection to Union Station, which once ran between Senate Avenue and Missouri Street north from this terminal's location through the present-day site of Lucas Oil Stadium.

A remnant of this connection can still be noted today in the unusual height of I-70's overpass above West and Missouri streets, which when the freeway was built in the early 1970s had to pass over the once active rail line. Additional INRD classification yards are located at Palestine and Jasonville, Indiana; the latter facility, known as Hiawatha is home to the main locomotive servicing facility. The company was formed in 1986 by entrepreneur Thomas Hoback, who remains president and chief executive officer. CSX Transportation now owns a majority interest in the parent company. On March 18, 2009, the railroad announced that it would build a new 5.2 mile rail spur in Sullivan County, for the new Bear Run coal mine. Bear Run is being developed by Peabody Coal and is expected to produce more than 8 million tons annually; the Soo Line Railroad abandoned a section of the line between Bedford and Seymour, Indiana, as soon as they took over the Milwaukee Road in 1986. The Canadian Pacific Railway operated on the Chicago-Bedford line from their acquisition of the Soo Line until 2006, when they spun it off to the Indiana Rail Road company.

On December 18, 2009, it was decided to cut the southern part of that line more, as they are abandoning between Bedford and Crane, a total distance of 21.15 miles. Https://web.archive.org/web/20110711113716/http://inrd.gotdns.com/inrdros.htm Indiana Rail Road – Official Website Indiana Rail Road Railfan Page – Unofficial Informational Website