21-22 January 1863
BURNSIDE'S MUD MARCH:
In an attempt to outflank Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, General Ambrose Burnside leads his army on a march to north Fredericksburg, but foul weather bogs his army down in what will become known as “Mud March.” “The auspicious moment seems to have arrived to strike a great and mortal blow to the rebellion, and to gain that decisive victory which is due to the country,” so announced Gen. Ambrose Burnside to his Union Army of the Potomac on the morning of January 20, 1863, as he started out on another great drive to beat Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and capture the Rebel capitol of Richmond, VA.
Burnside’s battered soldiers had had but five weeks to recover from their disastrous defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg, but the government demanded action. The Union and Confederate armies still faced each other across the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg, and Burnside’s plan was to quickly cross the river above Lee’s left and assail that flank of the Confederate position. The Union soldiers and their great wagon trains of pontoon boats, artillery, and supplies made a good start clearing their camp and moving up the river.
Then the sky started clouding, and by mid-afternoon a slow drizzle had begun. By nightfall a steady, relentless rain was falling, not to stop for days. The next morning the great mule-drawn wagons carrying the pontoons churned the road into a quagmire. The wagons sank to their hubs; the artillery sank until only the muzzles were out of the mud. The exhausted horses floundered, as did the men, as each slippery step through the ooze sucked at their shoes and weighed them down.
“The whole country was a river of mud,” wrote one soldier. “The roads were rivers of deep mire, and the heavy rain had made the ground a vast mortar bed.” Whole regiments and triple teams of mules hitched to the wagons and guns failed to move them. Still the rain came down in torrents.
By noon the next day, Burnside’s plans to maneuver past Lee’s Rebel army were hopelessly stalled, and his own army was exhausted, wet, and cold. Burnside had no choice but to abandon the movement and order his soldiers back to their camps across from Fredericksburg. Across the river, the Confederate pickets watched the struggling Union army with amusement. Some put up a large sign on the riverbank that said “Burnside’s Army Stuck in the Mud” and another that said “This way to Richmond.”
22 January
TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
22 January
1690 At Onandaga, New York, the Iroquois Nation renews its allegiance to the English crown.
1807 President Thomas Jefferson exposed a plot by Aaron Burr to form a new republic in the Southwest.
1813 During the War of 1812, British forces under Henry Proctor defeat a U.S. contingent planning an attack on Fort Detroit.
1814 In the Creek Indian War, Tennessee militia forces are repulsed at Emuckfaw. The militia will also suffer defeats at Enotachopo Creek on 24 January and at Calibee Creek on 27 January.
1863 In an attempt to outflank Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, General Ambrose Burnside leads his army on a march to north Fredericksburg, but foul weather bogs his army down in what will become known as “Mud March.”
1879 American soldiers badly beat Cheyenne Chief Dull Knife and his people as they make a desperate bid for freedom.
1925 2nd Expeditionary Force organized at Cavite, Philippine Islands, for duty at Shanghai, China to protect American lives.
1939 A Nazi order erases the old officer caste, tying the army directly to the Party.
1943 Axis forces pull out of Tripoli for Tunisia, destroying port facilities as they leave.
1943 US attacks on Guadalcanal are renewed and begin to make progress, especially toward Kokumbona. The Japanese fight well, but US air, artillery and naval bombardment make it futile.
1943 The last Japanese are cleared from Papua, New Guinea by Allied forces. The Japanese have lost about 7000 killed in this campaign, the Allies, half that.
1944 U.S. troops under Major General John P. Lucas make an amphibious landing behind German lines at Anzio, Italy, just south of Rome.
1951 I and IX Corps launched a limited attack to probe the communist positions in preparation for Operation THUNDERBOLT, a reconnaissance-in-force intended to provide Lt. Gen. Matthew Ridgway with more intelligence about enemy capabilities to assist the United Nation’s drive back to the 38th Parallel. Another goal of Thunderbolt was to destroy as many enemy troops as feasible. To meet the second objective Ridgway employed the “meat grinder” strategy for the first time. That consisted of using the Eighth Army’s large artillery resources to lay down a huge barrage ahead of advancing units. The technique required controlling the advance from phase point to phase point, and maneuver commanders had little room for initiative. However, the goal was to kill more enemy soldiers while minimizing casualties among Americans and other U.N. allies. It was also intended to speed up the attrition of Chinese forces in South Korea.
1953 The 18th FBW withdrew its remaining F-51 Mustangs from combat and prepared to transition to Sabres, thus ending the use of USAF single engine, propeller-driven aircraft in offensive combat in the Korean War. Peking radio announced the capture of Colonel Arnold and his surviving crewmembers, three having perished when the B-29 went down on January 13. The communists did not release Colonel Arnold until 1956.
1964 U.S. Joint Chiefs foresee larger U.S. commitment: The U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff inform Defense Secretary Robert McNamara that they “are wholly in favor of executing the covert actions against North Vietnam.”President Johnson had recently approved Oplan 34A, provocative operations to be conducted by South Vietnamese forces (supported by the United States) to gather intelligence and conduct sabotage to destabilize the North Vietnamese regime. Actual operations would begin in February and involve raids by South Vietnamese commandos operating under American orders against North Vietnamese coastal and island installations. Although American forces were not directly involved in the actual raids, U.S. Navy ships were on station to conduct electronic surveillance and monitor North Vietnamese defense responses under another program called Operation De Soto. Although the Joint Chiefs agreed with the president’s decision on these operations, they further advocated even stronger measures, advising McNamara: “… We believe, however, that it would be idle to conclude that these efforts will have a decisive effect on the communist determination to support the insurgency, and it is our view that we must therefore be prepared fully to undertake a much higher level of activity.” Among their recommendations were “aerial bombing of key North Vietnamese targets,” and “commit[ment of] additional U.S. forces, as necessary, in support of the combat actions within South Vietnam.” President Johnson at first resisted this advice, but in less than a year, U.S. airplanes were bombing North Vietnam, and shortly thereafter the first U.S. combat troops began arriving in South Vietnam.
1968 Operating in the two northernmost military regions, the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) launches two major operations. In the first operation, conducted by the 1st Cavalry Division in Quang Tri and Thua Thien provinces, south of the Demilitarized Zone, “First Team” units launched Operation Jeb Stuart. This operation was a large-scale reinforcement of the Marines in the area and focused on clearing enemy Base Areas 101 and 114. Jeb Stuart was terminated on March 31 with enemy casualties listed at 3,268; U.S. casualties were 291 killed in action and 1,735 wounded. On the same day that Jeb Stuart was launched, other 1st Cavalry units launched Operation Pershing II in the coastal lowlands in Binh Dinh Province. This operation, designed to clear enemy forces from the area, lasted until February 29.
1969 Operation Dewey Canyon, perhaps the most successful high-mobility regimental-size action of the Vietnam War, began in the A Shau/Da Krong Valleys when the 9th Marines, commanded by Colonel Robert H. Barrow, and supporting artillery were lifted from Quang Tri. By 18 March the enemy’s base area had been cleared out, 1617 enemy dead had been counted, and more than 500 tons of weapons and ammunition unearthed.
1971 Communist forces shell Phnom Penh, Cambodia, for the first time.
1982 In a revival of the diplomacy “linkages” that were made famous by Henry Kissinger during the Nixon years, the administration of President Ronald Reagan announces that further progress on arms talks will be linked to a reduction of Soviet oppression in Poland.
1991 Iraq fired six Scud missiles into Saudi Arabia; all were either intercepted, or fell into unpopulated areas. However, in Tel Aviv, a Scud eluded the Patriot missile defense system and struck the city, resulting in three deaths.
2003 Bill Maudlin (b.1921), WW-II era cartoonist, died in Newport Beach, Ca. In 1945 he won a Pulitzer Prize for his war cartoons and later authored “Up Front,” a collection of cartoons and an essay on war.
2003 France and Germany joined forces to prevent any U.S.-led war on Iraq. Countering blunt talk of war by the Bush administration, France and Germany defiantly stated they were committed to a peaceful solution to the Iraq crisis.
2004 NASA said it lost contact with the Mars spirit rover.
2012 A U.S. drone strike occurred near Mogadishu killing British al-Qaeda operative Bilal el-Berjawi.