#u.s troops

[lonestarbattleship]

USS LEVIATHAN (ID-1326) arrives with 8,000 U.S. troops, as she pulled into her dock at New York City. She was the largest transport in American service at the time.

Photographed by Kadel & Herbert.

Date: February 8, 1919

NARA: 26433439

[jdsquared]

[todaysdocument]

War Department General Order 143 ordering the creation of the U.S. Colored Troops during the Civil War, May 22, 1863. 

Approximately 178,000 Black men would serve in the Union Army. 

Record Group 94: Records of the Adjutant General's Office

Series: Orders and Circulars

Transcription: 

GENERAL ORDERS, 

No. 143 

}

WAR DEPARTMENT, 

ADJUTANT GENERAL’S OFFICE, 

Washington, May 22, 1863. 

I.. A Bureau is established in the Adjutant General’s Office for the record of all matters relating to the organization of Colored Troops. An officer will be assigned to the charge of the Bureau, with such number of clerks as may be designated by the Adjutant General. 

II.. Three of more field officers will be detailed as Inspectors to supervise the organization of colored troops at such points as may be indicated by the War Department in the Northern and Western States. 

III.. Boards will be convened at such posts as may be decided upon by the War Department to examine applicants for commissions to command colored troops, who, on application to the Adjutant General, may receive authority to present themselves to the board for examination. 

IV.. No persons shall be allowed to recruit for colored troops except specially authorized by the War Department; and no such authority will be given to persons who have not been examined and passed by a board; nor will such authority be given any one person to raise more than one regiment. 

V.. The reports of Boards will specify the grade of commission for which each candidate is fit, and authority to recruit will be given in accordance. Commissions will be issued from the Adjutant General’s Office when the prescribed number of men is ready for muster into service. 

VI.. Colored troops may be accepted by companies, to be afterwards consolidated in battalions and regiments by the Adjutant General. The regiments will be numbered [italic] seriatim [end italic], in the order in which they are raised, the numbers to be determined by the Adjutant General. They will be designated: “__ Regiment of U.S. Colored Troops.” 

VII. Recruiting stations and depôts will be established by the Adjutant General as circumstances shall require, and officers will be detailed to muster and inspect the troops. 

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VIII.. The non-commissioned officers of colored troops may be selected and appointed from the best men of their number in the usual mode of appointing non-commissioned officers. Meritorious commissioned officers will be entitled to promotion to higher rank if they prove themselves equal to it. 

IX.. All personal applications for appointments in colored regiments, or for information concerning them, must be made to Chief of the Bureau; all written communications should be addressed to the Chief of the Bureau, to the care of the Adjutant General. 

BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: 

E.D. TOWNSEND, 

Assistant Adjutant General. 

[gotankgo]

On this date in 1973.

…and then two years later

[secondworldwarremembrancedays]

Remember the D-Day invasion: June 1944.

The largest amphibious operation in history involved more than 5,000 ships landing Allied troops on a heavily-defended 50-mile stretch of Normandy coastline, while thousands more took part in an airborne assault.

A major deception operation fooled the Germans into thinking that the landings were a feint, and resistance was light at four out of five landing sites. On the fifth, Omaha Beach, U.S. forces came under heavy fire and 2,000 died as they fought to break out of the beachhead. The Germans failed to organize rapidly to meet the threat. Within a week, the Allies had landed more than 300,000 troops in Normandy.

[paulinedorchester]

Hanukkah, 1944: Anglo-American relations on both sides of the Atlantic

From the Chicago Tribune, December 17th, 1944:

More about Alexander Easterman here.

And meanwhile, from The Jewish Chronicle, January 5th, 1945:

Captain Morton C. Fierman was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1914. He graduated from what is now Case Western Reserve University in 1935 and received his ordination in 1941 from Hebrew Union College. He briefly served as assistant rabbi at the Washington Hebrew Congregation, in Washington, D.C., before joining up at the end of 1942. He was discharged in 1946. He moved around quite a bit during the immediate post-war years, serving congregations in Missouri, Oklahoma, Arizona, and California before leaving the pulpit for higher education: from 1963 until he retired in 1981 he was a professor of religious studies at California State University Fullerton. He died in 1995.

I haven't been able to learn much about Captain Hirsch E. L. Freund. He was born in Poland in 1898 and came to the U.S. in 1911. He graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1927 and received his ordination from Hebrew Union College the following year. Prior to his induction in 1942 he served Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and he apparently spent some time in Indiana before that. He was still in the Army in 1946. During the late 1940s and early 1950s he worked for the Synagogue Council of America, and at some point was a chaplain at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, but that's all I know.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Tucked away in an amendment to the FY2023 U.S. defense authorization bill is a rare instance of congressional bipartisanship and a tribute to U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant.

If approved, the measure would posthumously promote Grant to the rank of General of the Armies of the U.S., making him only the third person – along with John J. Pershing and George Washington – to be awarded the nation’s highest military honor.

As Executive Director of the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library, I believe that the promotion would be much more than a symbolic nod to a great military general. Rather, it would highlight the overlooked legacy of a man who fought to end the last vestiges of slavery.

OUTBREAK OF CIVIL WAR

During the Civil War, Grant rose to fame as a decisive leader who was willing to doggedly pursue Confederate armies and avoid retreat at all costs. He first gained his reputation for tenacity with Union victories at Shiloh, the Battles for Chattanooga and the Siege of Vicksburg.

Like most white Northerners, Grant signed up to fight for the Union – not for emancipation.

But by 1862, the freedom of enslaved African Americans had become vital to the Union war strategy, if not yet its cause.

A year before President Abraham Lincoln signed in 1863 the Emancipation Proclamation that freed enslaved people in the Confederate states, Grant oversaw the establishment of refugee, or contraband camps, throughout the Mississippi Valley. Those camps provided basic housing, food and work for Black men and women who had fled from slavery.

Grant also administered the enlistment of African American men into United States Colored Troops units during the Vicksburg campaign.

In March 1864, Lincoln appointed Grant to the rank of lieutenant general and ordered him to take on the Confederate Army in Virginia, a task at which numerous other Union leaders had failed.

At this point during the war, Grant assumed the role of chief strategist for the entire Union war effort. It took the next 13 months of fighting during the Overland campaign before Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox on April 9, 1865.

In this illustration, Gen. Ulysses S, Grant, left, accepts the surrender of Gen. Robert E. Lee. (Getty Images)

After the Federal victory, many Americans hailed Grant as the man who saved the Union.

But Grant was magnanimous in victory.

Multiple times during the war he honored the dignity of his defeated adversaries, most famously at Appomattox, where he did not require Lee to hand over his sword, as usually required. Grant also allowed Confederate officers to keep their sidearms and horses.

Lee appreciated Grant’s actions, remarking: “This will have the best possible effect upon the men … it will be very gratifying, and will do much toward conciliating our people.”

IMPACT OF THE ‘LOST CAUSE’

But after the war, the conciliatory feelings vanished.

Southern partisans constructed the narrative of the “Lost Cause.” It held that the root of the Civil War was not slavery, but the rights of states to control their own destinies. It further held that the Union victory had nothing to do with Confederate character or leadership, but rather the Union’s sheer numbers and superior resources.

In this Lost Cause narrative, Grant was seen as a bumbling butcher devoid of any meaningful strategic vision, who succeeded only by mercilessly throwing more soldiers at his enemy. It also revived the old rumors of his excessive drinking.

In this storyline, Grant’s foil was always the courtly gentleman, Robert E. Lee. The hagiography of Lee demanded Grant’s inferiority.

By the early 20th century, the Lost Cause was no longer isolated in the South and had spread across America. Crowds flocked to see the racist anti-Reconstruction “Birth of a Nation” in movie theaters, and during the World War I rush to build military bases, the Army named 10 of them after Confederate generals.

PRESIDENT GRANT’S FIGHT FOR EQUALITY

Grant served as President from 1869 to 1877 during a time when white Southerners proved hostile toward federal Reconstruction measures that sought equal rights for recently freed enslaved people.

Grant saw his role of enforcing these policies as an extension of his wartime duty and necessary to protect the gains of the Union victory, especially the newly established rights for African Americans.

He used the resources of the federal government to crush the Ku Klux Klan, established the Department of Justice to investigate civil rights abuses and signed the Civil Rights Act of 1875.

GRANT’S LATEST CAUSE

In recent years, the American public has questioned the Lost Cause and taken steps to mitigate its pervasiveness throughout the U.S.

Southerners themselves have chosen to remove Confederate leaders from town squares and state flags. The U.S. Army has established a Naming Commission to rebrand Confederate-named bases.

It is telling, too, that Grant’s Presidential Library is now located in Mississippi, a Deep South state he once conquered.

It remains to be seen whether the request made to elevate Grant’s rank by U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown of Ohio, a Democrat, and Roy Blunt of Missouri, a Republican – along with GOP U.S Rep. Ann Wagner – will be finally approved by Congress as part of the FY2023 National Defense Authorization Act.

Either way, in my view, a thoughtful reconsideration of Grant’s wartime and post-war contributions is long overdue.

[trendynewsnow]

U.S. Airstrikes Against ISIS Camps in Syria and Rising Threats

U.S. Airstrikes Target Islamic State Camps in Syria On Monday, the United States conducted airstrikes against several Islamic State (ISIS) camps located in the Syrian desert, resulting in the deaths of up to 35 operatives affiliated with the group, according to a statement released by the United States Central Command on Wednesday. The strikes, which were aimed at multiple senior leaders of ISIS,…

[jose96853]

100 U.S. TROOPS TO GO TO ISRAEL TO OPERATE THAAD SYSTEM

In response to escalating tensions between Israel and Iran, the U.S. is deploying about 100 troops to Israel to operate a sophisticated anti-missile defense system. The system is designed to protect Israel from missile threats, particularly from Iran and Iran-backed groups like Hezbollah, which have ramped up activities in the region. This move highlights the deep security partnership between the…

[jdsquared]

[renegadetalk-fm]

American Journal Pentagon Sends MORE U.S. Troops To Middle East As Israel Declares ‘State Of Emergency’ & Strikes Lebanon

[dutchmn007]

Stealing a Heavyweight Champions Girlfriend & a Party with "Ol' Blue Eyes!"