20 January
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
GOWAN, WILLIAM HENRY Rank and organization: Boatswain's Mate, U.S. Navy. Born: 2 June 1884, Rye, New York. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 18, 19 March 1909. Citation: For bravery and extraordinary heroism displayed by him during a conflagration in Coquimbo, Chile, 20 January 1909.
WHEELER, GEORGE HUBER Rank and organization: Shipfitter First Class, U.S. Navy. Born: 26 September 1881, Charleston, S.C. Accredited to: South Carolina. G.O. No.: 18, 19 March 1909. Citation: For bravery and extraordinary heroism displayed by him during a conflagration in Coquimbo, Chile, 20 January 1909.
20 January 1862
Confederate General Earl Van Dorn thwarts Union General Ulysses S. Grant's first attempt to capture Vicksburg, Mississippi, when Van Dorn attacks Grant's supplies at Holly Springs, Mississippi. Grant planned a two-pronged attack on the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River. He would take a force from western Tennessee to approach Vicksburg from the interior of Mississippi. Meanwhile, General William T. Sherman would lead an army down the Mississippi River for an attack from the north.
Grant said, "We can go as far as supplies can go." The plan started on a good note--Grant's army pushed aside Confederates in northern Mississippi. In response, Confederate cavalry colonel John Griffith suggested attacking Grant's supply line at Holly Springs, and he recommended Van Dorn for the mission. To that point, Van Dorn had done little to build his reputation. He lost the Battle of Pea Ridge and the Battle of Corinth earlier in 1862, and he was known for his drunkenness and tendency to cavort with prostitutes. Van Dorn gathered three cavalry brigades and left Grenada, Mississippi, on December 17.
On December 20, Van Dorn fell on the Union supply depot at Holly Springs, driving the Yankee defenders away and capturing materials. What could not be carried was destroyed. Van Dorn remained in the area a few more days, cutting rail and telegraph lines, before fleeing in the face of pursuing Union cavalry. The Confederates rode 500 miles in two weeks, returning on December 28 after successfully disrupting Grant's campaign. The raid was the highlight of Van Dorn's military career. He was murdered five months later by the husband of a woman with whom he was having an affair.
20 January 1942
Top Nazis met at Grossen-Wannsee, outside Berlin, and there formulated the infamous "Final Solution" to the Jewish question. Chaired by SS General Reinhard Heydrich, the one-day conference was designed to address the Nazi efforts at removing the Jews. The 15 top-ranking men of the German Reich agreed upon a blueprint for the extermination of Europe's Jews. Their "final solution" called for exterminating Europe's Jews. Until this time, the plan had been to deport all Jews to the island of Madagascar off Africa, but by 1942 this plan was rejected in favor of transporting Jews to the east where the able-bodied would become slave laborers for the Reich. SS chief Heinrich Himmler would be in charge. Those unfit to work would be, the conference minutes noted, "appropriately dealt with." This phrase was left unexplained, but there was no doubt of its sinister meaning. After approving genocide as Nazi policy, the conference attendees adjourned for lunch. The minutes were taken by Adolf Eichmann.
20 January 1863
Union GEN Ambrose Burnside's Army of the Potomac begins an offensive against GEN Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia that quickly bogs down as several days of heavy rain turn the roads of Virginia into a muddy quagmire. The campaign was abandoned three days later. The Union army was still reeling from the disastrous Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862. Burnside's force suffered more than 13,000 casualties as it assaulted Lee's troops along hills above Fredericksburg. Lee suffered only 5,000 casualties, making Fredericksburg one of the most one-sided engagements in the eastern theater of operations.
Morale was very low among the Yankees that winter. Now, Burnside sought to raise morale and seize the initiative from Lee. His plan was to swing around Lee's left flank and draw the Confederates away from their defenses and into the open. Speed was essential to the operation. January had been a dry month to that point, but as soon as the Federals began to move, a drizzle turned into a downpour that last for four days. Logistical problems delayed the laying of a pontoon bridge across the Rappahannock River, and a huge traffic jam snarled the army's progress.
In one day, the 5th New York moved only a mile and a half. The roads became unnavigable, and conflicting orders caused two corps to march across each others' paths. Horses, wagons, and cannon were stuck in mud, and the element of surprise was lost. Jeering Confederates taunted the Yankees with shouts and signs that read "Burnside's Army Stuck in the Mud." Burnside tried to lift spirits by issuing liquor to the soldiers on January 22, but this only compounded the problems. Drunken troops began brawling, and entire regiments fought one another. The operation was a complete fiasco, and on January 23 Burnside gave up his attempt to, in his words, "strike a great and mortal blow to the rebellion."
The campaign was considered so disastrous that Burnside was removed as commander of the army on January 25. This is the man who gave us the word sideburns. He is also considered one of historys worst generals.
TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
20 January
◆1613 Peace of Knared ends Danish-Swedish War of Kalmar (1611-1613).
◆1615 Naval Battle off Swally, India: Portuguese defeated by the English.
◆1667 Treaty of Andrussovo: 13 years of war between Poland and Russia end.
◆1781 In Pompton , New Jersey, troops mutiny. They are suppressed on January 27 by General Robert Howe’s 600-man force sent by Washington. Two leaders of the mutiny are executed.
◆1783 The fighting of the Revolutionary War ended. Britain signed peace agreements with France and Spain, who allied against it in the American War of Independence. The peace agreement between the US and England will not go into effect until England and France reach a settlement.
◆1795 Battle of the Texel: French cavalry captures the icebound Dutch fleet.
◆1799 Three Days of Naples begin: Populace fights French invaders.
◆1839 Battle of Yungay: Chileans defeat Peruvians & Bolivians.
◆1861 Fort on Ship Island, Mississippi, seized by Confederates; Ship Island was a key base for operations in the Gulf of Mexico and at the mouth of the Mississippi River.
◆1862 Confederate General Earl Van Dorn thwarts Union General Ulysses S. Grant's first attempt to capture Vicksburg, Mississippi.★
◆1863 Union General Ambrose Burnside's Army of the Potomac begins an offensive against General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia that quickly bogs down as several days of heavy rain turn the roads of Virginia into a muddy quagmire. ★
◆1884 Charles W. Whittlesey was born today, who earned a Medal of Honor commanding the "Lost Battalion" in 1918, died of suicide in 1921.
◆1887 The U.S. Senate approved an agreement to lease Pearl Harbor in Hawaii as a naval base.
◆1903 Theordore Roosevelt issues Executive Order placing Midway Islands under jurisdiction of the Navy Department.
◆1914 School for naval air training opens in Pensacola, FL.
◆1940 The USA protests to Britain over the detention of its ships in Gibraltar.
◆1942 Top Nazis met at Grossen-Wannsee, outside Berlin, and there formulated the infamous "Final Solution" to the Jewish question.★
◆1942 Japanese aircraft from four carries make major attacks on Rabaul.
◆1943 Japanese resistance on Mount Austen, Guadalcanal weakens. The garrison at the Gifu strongpoint has taken heavy losses from artillery.
◆1944 Allied forces in Italy begin unsuccessful operations to cross the Rapido River and seize Cassino. At 20:00 36th US Division attempts to cross the Rapido river with two Infantry Regiments after an artillery barrage program. However, because of heavy German retaliatory fire only about 2 companies get across the river on the 141st Regiment's front. On the other (143rd) Regiment's front no troops get across at all.
◆1945 The Allies signed a truce with the Hungarians.
◆1946 By Executive Order, President Truman creates the Central Intelligence Group, the precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency.
◆1951 After weeks of almost unbroken absence, MiGs appeared again over Korea, resulting on this date in the first encounter between USAF F-84s and CCF MiG-15s.
◆1952 The 40th Infantry Division, California Army National Guard, arrived in Korea.
◆1954 The CIA built a tunnel from west Berlin to East Berlin to tap Soviet and East German communications.
◆1972 In continued efforts to disrupt an anticipated communist offensive, a contingent of more than 10,000 South Vietnamese troops begin a sweep 45 miles northwest of Saigon to find and destroy enemy forces.
◆1981 Ronald Reagan was sworn in as president as 52 American hostages boarded a plane in Tehran and headed toward freedom. Iran released 52 Americans held hostage for 444 days, minutes after the presidency had passed from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan.
◆1991 During the Gulf War, Iraqi missiles were shot down by U-S Patriot rockets as they approached Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Iraqi television showed interviews with seven downed allied pilots, three of them Americans.
◆1994 Shannon Faulkner became the first woman to attend classes at The Citadel in South Carolina. She joined the cadet corps in August 1995, under court order, but soon dropped out, citing isolation and stress.