On December 13, 1862, Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army
of Northern Virginia repulsed a series of attacks by General
Ambrose Burnside’s Army of the Potomac at Fredericksburg,
Virginia.
The defeat was one of the most decisive loses for the Union army,
and it dealt a serious blow to Northern morale in the winter of 1862-
63.
General Ambrose Burnside General Robert E. Lee
The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, a multi-day battle that would
see more than 1,700 Americans killed, began on this day in
history, Nov. 12, 1942.
Guadalcanal is the largest island in the Solomon Islands, a
country located in the Pacific Ocean northeast of Australia
and east of Papua New Guinea.
The Siege of Yorktown, Virginia, the decisive battle in
America’s shocking triumph over the mighty British
Empire in its War of Independence, began on this day
in history, Sept. 28, 1781.
The siege ended three weeks later, on Oct. 19, with the
surrender of the British garrison led by Lord Charles
Cornwallis.
Painting depicts the surrender of the British at Yorktown.
ED DONAHUE
James Abram Garfield
(November 19, 1831 – September 19, 1881)
President James A. Garfield, who had been in
office just under four months, succumbed to
wounds inflicted by an assassin 80 days
earlier, on July 2.
On August 5, 1914, the German army launches its assault on
the city of Liege in Belgium, violating the latter country’s
neutrality and beginning the first battle of World War I.
German troops exploring the ruins of Liege after the city fell
to them in early August 1914.
