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From: "Sally Rolls Pavia" <>
Subject: Today in History .. June 13
Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2006 19:31:10 -0700


1777 ~~ LAFAYETTE ARRIVES IN SOUTH CAROLINA
On this day in 1777, a 19-year-old French aristocrat, Marie-Joseph Paul Roch
Yves Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, arrives in South Carolina with
the intent to serve as General George Washington's second-in-command. Silas
Deane, during his service as the Continental Congress' envoy to France, had,
on December 7, 1776, struck an agreement with Johann de Kalb and Lafayette
to offer their military expertise to the American cause. However, Deane was
replaced with Benjamin Franklin and Arthur Lee, who were unenthused by the
proposal. Meanwhile, King Louis XVI feared angering Britain and prohibited
Lafayette's departure. The British ambassador to the French court at
Versailles demanded the seizure of Lafayette's ship, which resulted in
Lafayette's arrest. Lafayette, though, managed to escape, set sail and elude
two British ships dispatched to recapture him. Following his safe arrival in
South Carolina, Lafayette traveled to Philadelphia. Although Lafayette's
youth made Congress reluctant to promote him over more experienced colonial
officers, the young Frenchman's willingness to volunteer his services
without pay won their respect and Lafayette a commission as major-general on
July 31, 1777. Lafayette served at Brandywine in 1777, as well as Barren
Hill, Monmouth and Rhode Island in 1778. Following the formal treaty of
alliance with Lafayette's native France in February 1778 and Britain's
subsequent declaration of war, Lafayette asked to return to Paris and
consult the king as to his future service. Washington was willing to spare
Lafayette, who departed in January 1779. By March, Franklin reported from
Paris that Lafayette had become an excellent advocate for the American cause
at the French court. Following his six-month respite in France, Lafayette
returned to aid the American war effort in Virginia, where he participated
in the successful siege of Yorktown in 1781, before returning to France and
the further service of his own country.



1864 ~~ GRANT SWINGS TOWARD PETERSBURG
On this day, the bulk of the Army of the Potomac begins moving towards
Petersburg, Virginia, precipitating a siege that lasted for more than nine
months. From early May, the Union army hounded Robert E. Lee's Army of
Northern Virginia as it tried to destroy the Confederates in the eastern
theater. Commanded officially by George Meade but effectively directed by
Ulysses S. Grant, the Army of the Potomac sustained enormous casualties as
it fought through the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor. After the
disaster at Cold Harbor, where Union troops suffered horrendous losses when
they attacked fortified Rebels just east of Richmond, Grant paused for more
than a week before ordering another move. The army began to pull out of camp
on June 12, and on June 13 the bulk of Grant's force was on the move south
to the James River. As they had done for six weeks, the Confederates stayed
between Richmond and the Yankees. Lee blocked the road to Richmond, but
Grant was after a different target now. After the experience of Cold Harbor,
Grant decided to take the rail center at Petersburg, 23 miles south of
Richmond. By late afternoon, Union General Winfield Hancock's Second Corps
arrived at the James. Northern engineers were still constructing a pontoon
bridge, but a fleet of small boats began to ferry the soldiers across. By
the next day, skirmishing flared around Petersburg and the last great battle
of war in Virginia began. This phase of the war would be much different, as
the two great armies settled into trenches for a war of attrition.



1944 ~~ GERMANS LAUNCH V-1 ROCKET STTACK AGAINST BRITAIN
On this day in 1944, Germany launches 10 of its new V1 rockets against
Britain from a position near the Channel coast. They prove to be less than
devastating. Mired in the planning stages for a year, the V1 was a pilotless
Jet-propelled plane that flew by air-driven gyroscope and magnetic compass,
capable of unleashing a ton of cruise missile explosives. Unfortunately for
the Germans, the detonation process was rather clumsy and imprecise,
depending on the impact of the plane as the engine quit and the craft
crash-landed. They often missed their targets. This was certainly the case
against Britain. Of the 10 V1, or Reprisal 1, "flying bombs" shot at England
Five crashed near the launch site, and one was lost altogether-just four
landed inside the target country. Only one managed to take any lives: Six
people were killed in London. The Germans had hoped to also mount a more
conventional bombing raid against Britain at the same time the V1s were
hitting their targets-in the interest of heightening the "terror" effect.
This too blew up in their faces, as the Brits destroyed the German bombers
on the ground the day before as part of a raid on German airfields.


Sally Rolls Pavia

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