15 December: Today in U.S. military history

Unto the Breach ^ | 15 December 2019 | Chris Carter

[fugazi]

Today's post is in honor of Gunnery Sgt. Justin E. Schmalstieg who was killed while defusing a roadside bomb he in Afghanistan's Helmand province on this day in 2010. The 28-year-old Pittsburgh native had served three tours in Iraq and was on his first deployment to Afghanistan. He was assigned to 1st Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company, 7th Engineer Support Battalion, 1st Marine Logistics Group, I Marine Expeditionary Force in Camp Pendleton, Calif.

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1791: The Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States, become law.

1862: Union Army Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside ends his disastrous series of frontal attacks against Gen. Robert E. Lee’s well-entrenched Confederate forces along Marye’s Heights during the Battle of Fredericksburg. It is during the battle that Lee – emotionally moved by the valor of the Federal Army, which, despite terrible losses, attacks his impregnable position time-and-again – says, “It is well that war is so terrible, lest we grow too fond of it.”

1864: Gen. John Bell Hood's Confederate Army of Tennessee is routed in the Battle of Nashville by a Union army under command of Gen. George Thomas. After the battle, Hood's once-formidable army would no longer be an effective fighting force.

1944: A plane carrying Maj. Glenn Miller, leader of the world-famous "Glenn Miller Orchestra" prior to World War II, disappears in bad weather over the English Channel. Miller volunteered for service and led the Army Air Force Band from 1942 until his disappearance.

Meanwhile, Lt. Gen. Alexander Patch's Seventh Army crosses the Rhine River into

[BTerclinger]

Great post, thank you.

Just an FYI, yesterday 12/14/2019 was the 220th anniversary of the passing of General George Washington, our first President.

A brief but fascinating account of his passing can be found here:

The Tobias Lear Journal: An Account of the Death of George Washington.

[polymuser]

Thank you.

And in radio history from 1941 about the 150th celebration of our Bill of Rights: https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/3800923/posts?page=16#16

[Calvin Cooledge]

Much has been made of the incredibly brave, but suicidal charge by Pickett’s division at Gettysburg, into the face of slaughtering fire. Union troops made the same fruitless assault against Rebel defenses at Fredericksburg. Ten times.