Good Morning & God Bless To Every One !
Today is June 10, the 161st day of 2014 and there are 204 days left this year where it is another Blessed Day in the pleasure of our service for our Lord here at:
For God’s Glory Alone Ministries !!!
Just Thinkin –
“It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.”
– Corollary to “Murphy’s Law”
So, What Happened Today In 1864?
Confederate forces score a victory at the Battle of Brice’s Crossroads
In the American Civil War, Nathan Bedford Forrest’s legend grows substantially when his Confederate cavalry routs a much larger Union force in Mississippi at the Battle of Brice’s Crossroads.
When Union General William T. Sherman inched toward Atlanta, Georgia in the summer of 1864, he left behind a vulnerable supply line through Tennessee. Of utmost concern to Sherman was the Rebel cavalry under the command of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a daring leader who gave Union commanders in the west difficulty throughout the war. Sherman insisted that Forrest be neutralized and ordered a force from Memphis to hunt down Forrest’s command, which at that time was in northern Alabama.
On June 1, some 5,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry troopers under the command of General Samuel D. Sturgis trudged out of Memphis in search of the elusive Forrest. But rain and poor roads slowed them, and a week’s travel found the Yankees only 50 miles from Memphis.
Forrest had been preparing for an assault on central Tennessee, but Sturgis’s expedition forced him back to northern Mississippi. The Confederates spread out along a railroad between Tupelo and Corinth and awaited the Union advance. On June 8, Forrest learned that Sturgis was moving on Tupelo. He carefully selected Brice’s Crossroads for its muddy roads and dense woods to mitigate the Union’s numerical advantage and called for his men to attack the leading Yankee cavalry, which would force the trailing infantry to hurry to the battle and fight before recovering from the march.
The plan worked to perfection. Around 10 a.m. on June 10, the cavalry forces began fighting, and the Union infantry made a five-mile dash in intense heat and humidity to aid their fellow soldiers. In the afternoon, Forrest orchestrated a series of attacks all along the Union front, which broke the Yankee lines and sent the Federals from the field in disarray with the Confederates in hot pursuit. The chase continued into the next day.
Sturgis’s command suffered over 600 killed and wounded and over 1,600 captured—more than a quarter of the entire force. Forrest’s force suffered less than 600 killed and wounded, and the Confederates captured 16 cannons and 176 supply wagons. Forrest was never able to disrupt Sherman’s supply lines. However, the Battle of Brice’s Crossroads stands as his greatest military victory.
Other Memorable Or Interesting Events Occurring On June 10 In History:
1190 – During the ‘Third Crusade’, Frederick I Barbarossa drowns in the Sally River while leading an army to Jerusalem;
1610 – The first Dutch settlers arrive from New Jersey to colonize the Manhattan Island;
1692 – In Salem Village in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Bridget Bishop, the first colonist to be tried in the Salem witch trials, is hanged after being found guilty of the practice of witchcraft;
1752 – Benjamin Franklin flies a kite during a thunderstorm and collects a charge in a Leyden jar when the kite is struck by lightning, enabling him to demonstrate the electrical nature of lightning. Franklin became interested in electricity in the mid-1740s, a time when much was still unknown on the topic, and spent almost a decade conducting electrical experiments. He coined a number of terms used today, including battery, conductor and electrician. He also invented the lightning rod, used to protect buildings and ships. In Philadelphia he became a successful businessman, whose publishing ventures included the Pennsylvania Gazette and Poor Richard’s Almanack, a collection of homespun proverbs advocating hard work and honesty in order to get ahead. The almanac, which Franklin first published in 1733 under the pen name Richard Saunders, included such wisdom as: “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” In addition to his accomplishments in business and science, he is noted for his numerous civic contributions. Among other things, he developed a library, insurance company, city hospital and academy in Philadelphia that would later become the University of Pennsylvania. Most significantly, Franklin was one of the founding fathers of the United States and had a career as a statesman that spanned four decades. He is the only politician to have signed all four documents fundamental to the creation of the U.S., the Declaration of Independence (1776), the Treaty of Alliance with France (1778), the Treaty of Paris (1783), which established peace with Great Britain, and the U.S. Constitution (1787). Franklin died at age 84 on April 17, 1790, in Philadelphia. He remains one of the leading figures in U.S. history;
1775 – In the American Revolution, John Adams proposes to Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, that the men laying siege to Boston should be considered a Continental Army led by a general. The men who had armed themselves and rushed to surround British forces in Boston following the Battle of Lexington and Concord were overwhelmingly from New England. However, John Adams, representing Massachusetts, realized that the military effort would only succeed if the British thought the colonies were united. To this end, Adams suggested the appointment of a Virginian, George Washington, to command the Continental forces, despite the fact that New Englanders were used to fighting in local militias under officers elected from among their own ranks. On June 15, Adams formally nominated George Washington as commander in chief of the Continental Army; Washington accepted the post the next day. On June 17, the newly named army fought the Battle of Bunker Hill as John Adam’s wife, Abigail, and son, John Quincy, watched from their hometown of Braintree;
1801 – Tripoli declares war on the United States starting the Barbary War as conflict between the United States and Tripoli, (now in Libya), incited by American refusal to continue payment of tribute to the piratical rulers of the North African Barbary States of Algiers, Tunis, Morocco and Tripoli. This practice had been customary among European nations and the United States in exchange for immunity from attack on merchant vessels in the Mediterranean;
1854 – The United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, holds its first graduation;
1861 – Dorothea Lynde Dix is appointed superintendent of female nurses for the Union army in the American Civil War;
1898 – United States Marines land in Cuba during the Spanish-American War;
1909 – An SOS signal is transmitted for the first time in an emergency when the Cunard liner SS Slavonia is wrecked off the Azores;
1917 – In World War I, Italian troops launch a renewed assault on Austro-Hungarian positions in the mountains of the Trentino region in northern Italy, on the border with Austria. The formidable nature of the northern Italian terrain—four-fifths of the 600-kilometer-long border with Austria was lined with mountains, with several peaks rising above 3,000 meters—made the Italian, of all the fronts during the war, the least well-suited for battle. Nevertheless, upon their entrance into the war in May 1915 on the side of the Allies, the Italians immediately took the offensive against Austria in the Trentino, with little success. By the end of 1915, after four battles fought on the Isonzo River, in the eastern section of the Italian front, Italy had made no substantial progress and had suffered 235,000 casualties, including 54,000 killed. By the end of June, after three weeks of heated battle on the mountain peaks and passes, the lines of territory had barely changed in this renewed assault, at the cost of 23,000 Italian and nearly 9,500 Austrian casualties;
1920 – The Republican convention which was held in Chicago, endorses woman suffrage;
1921 – President Warren G. Harding signed into law the Budget and Accounting Act, which created the Bureau of the Budget and the General Accounting Office;
1935 – In New York City, two recovering alcoholics, one a New York broker and the other an Ohio physician, found Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.), a 12-step rehabilitation program that eventually helps countless people cope with alcoholism. Based on psychological techniques that have long been used in suppressing dangerous personality traits, members of the strictly anonymous organization control their addictions through guided group discussion and confession, reliance on a “higher power,” and a gradual return to sobriety. The organization functions through local groups that have no formal rules besides anonymity, no officers, and no dues. Anyone with a drinking problem qualifies for membership. Today, there are more than 80,000 local groups in the United States with an estimated membership of almost two million people. Other addiction support groups patterned on A.A. include Narcotics Anonymous and Gamblers Anonymous;
1940 – During World War II, after two months of desperate resistance, the last surviving Norwegian and British defenders of Norway are overwhelmed by the Germans, and the country is forced to capitulate to the Nazis. Two months earlier, on April 9, Nazi Germany launched its invasion of Norway, capturing several strategic points along the Norwegian coast. During the preliminary phase of the invasion, Norwegian fascist forces under Vidkun Quisling acted as a so-called “fifth column” for the German invaders, seizing Norway’s nerve centers, spreading false rumors, and occupying military bases and other locations. Although Quisling was the head of the only political party permitted by the Nazis, opposition to him in Norway was so great that it was not until February 1942 that he was able to formally establish his puppet government in Oslo. Under the authority of his Nazi commissioner, Josef Terboven, Quisling set up a repressive regime that was merciless toward those who defied it. However, Norway’s resistance movement soon became the most effective in all Nazi-occupied Europe, and Quisling’s authority rapidly waned. After the German surrender in May 1945, Quisling was arrested, convicted of high treason, and shot. From his name comes the word quisling, meaning “traitor” in several languages;
1940 – During the 2nd World War, after withholding formal allegiance to either side in the battle between Germany and the Allies, Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy, declares war on France and Great Britain. What caused Il Duce’s change of heart? Perhaps the German occupation of Paris did it. “First they were too cowardly to take part. Now they are in a hurry so that they can share in the spoils,” reflected Hitler. (However, Mussolini claimed that he wanted in before complete French capitulation only because fascism “did not believe in hitting a man when he is down.”) Italy’s lack of raw materials had made Mussolini wary of waging all-out war previously. Despite Italy’s declaration of war on the 10th, it wasn’t until the 20th that Italian troops were mobilized in France, in the southwest-and easily held at bay by French forces. The reaction by the Allies to the declaration of war was swift: In London, all Italians who had lived in Britain less than 20 years and who were between the ages of 16 and 70 were immediately interned. In America, President Roosevelt broadcast on radio the promise of support for Britain and France with “the material resources of this nation”;
1944 – During World War II, 218 men, women and children are massacred by German troops in Distomo, Boeotia Prefecture, Greece;
1944 – In World War II, German forces massacred 642 residents of the French village of Oradour-sur-Glane;
1948 – The news that the sound barrier has been broken is finally released to the public by the U.S. Air Force. Chuck Yeager, while piloting the rocket airplane X-1, exceeded the speed of sound on October 14, 1947;
1953 – During the (first) Cold War, in a forceful speech, President Dwight D. Eisenhower strikes back at critics of his foreign policy. He insisted that the United States was committed to the worldwide battle against communism and that he would maintain a strong U.S. defense. Just a few months into his presidency, and with the Korean War still raging, Eisenhower staked out his basic approach to foreign policy with this speech. With this speech, Eisenhower thus enunciated two major points of what came to be known at the time as his “New Look” foreign policy. First was his advocacy of multi-nation responses to communist aggression in preference to unilateral action by the United States. Second was the idea that came to be known as the “bigger bang for the buck” defense strategy. This postulated that a cheaper and more efficient defense could be built around the nation’s nuclear arsenal rather than a massive increase in conventional land, air, and sea forces;
1965 – During the Vietnam War, some 1,500 Viet Cong start a mortar attack on the district capital of Dong Xoai, about 60 miles northeast of Saigon, and then quickly overrun the town’s military headquarters and an adjoining militia compound. Other Viet Cong forces conducted a raid on a U.S. Special Forces camp about a mile away. U.S. helicopters flew in South Vietnamese reinforcements, but the Viet Cong isolated and cut down the troops. Heavy U.S. air strikes eventually helped to drive off the Viet Cong, but not before the South Vietnamese had suffered between 800 and 900 casualties and the United States had 7 killed, 12 missing and presumed dead, and 15 wounded. The Viet Cong were estimated to have lost 350 in the ground combat and perhaps several hundred more in air attacks. Two Americans later received the Medal of Honor for their actions during this battle;
1968 – In the Vietnam War, at a Saigon news conference on the day he is to turn over command of U.S. forces in Vietnam to General Creighton Abrams, General William Westmoreland offers his assessment of past and current trends in the war. In defense of his attrition policy, Westmoreland declared that it would ultimately make continued fighting “intolerable to the enemy.” He also explained that, because it was impossible to “cut a surface line of communication with other than ground operations,” Washington’s ban on ground attacks to interdict communist infiltration through Laos precluded the achievement of military victory. Westmoreland denied, however, that the military situation was stalemated. Westmoreland’s approach to the war had all but been discredited by the communist Tet Offensive, which was launched in January 30, 1968. In the wake of the widespread Viet Cong and North Vietnamese attacks, there was a review of U.S. policy by the Johnson administration. When it was decided to de-escalate the war, halt the bombing of North Vietnam, and go to the negotiating table, Westmoreland was reassigned to become the Army Chief of Staff, a post he held until his retirement from the service in 1972;
1970 – During the Vietnam War, special forces troops begin training for Operation Kingpin, a first of its kind prisoner of war camp rescue mission in North Vietnam which would be conducted later in November;
1971 – During the (first) Cold War, President Richard M. Nixon lifted a two-decades-old trade embargo on China;
1980 – In South Africa, the African National Congress (ANC) makes public a statement by Nelson Mandela, the long imprisoned leader of the anti-apartheid movement. The message, smuggled out of Robben Island prison under great risk, read, “UNITE! MOBILISE! FIGHT ON! BETWEEN THE ANVIL OF UNITED MASS ACTION AND THE HAMMER OF THE ARMED STRUGGLE WE SHALL CRUSH APARTHEID!” In 1989, F.W. de Klerk became South African president and set about dismantling apartheid. De Klerk lifted the ban on the ANC, suspended executions, and on February 11, 1990, ordered the release of Nelson Mandela after 27 years as a political prisoner. Mandela subsequently led the ANC in its negotiations with the minority government for an end to apartheid and the establishment of a multiracial government. In 1993, Mandela and de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. On April 26, 1994, more than 22 million South Africans turned out to cast ballots in the country’s first-ever multiracial parliamentary elections. An overwhelming majority chose Mandela and the ANC to lead the country, and a “national unity” coalition was formed with de Klerk’s National Party and the Zulus’ Inkatha Freedom Party. On May 10, Mandela was sworn in as the first black president of South Africa. Mandela retired from politics in June 1999 at the age of 80. He was succeeded as president by Thabo Mbeki of the ANC. Mandela, admired by people around the world, continued to advocate for human rights and peace until his death in December 2013;
1985 – The Israeli army pulls out of Lebanon after 1,099 days of occupation;
1991 – At Clark Air Base in the Philippines, 14,500 personnel are evacuated in anticipation of the eruption of Mount Pinatubo. Over the next several days, the eruptions killed hundreds of people and sent tons of ash and sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere. Eruptions began on June 12. The final eruption took place on the morning of June 15 spewing 20 million tons of sulfur dioxide into the air. Approximately 350 people were killed by the toxic emissions but the early warning and preparations saved thousands of lives. The mountain lost nearly 1,000 feet in the eruptions;
2002 – Clint Messina, 21, of Lacombe, Louisiana, is arrested and charged in the attempted murder of a police officer after driving into a patrol car while attempting to flee from sheriff’s deputies. Soon after, police discovered that he was already a wanted man. At about 3:30 a.m. on March 27, Messina and an associate, Rose Houk, 31, stole a Krispy Kreme doughnuts delivery truck in Slidell, Louisiana. The Krispy Kreme deliveryman had left the engine of the truck running and its rear doors open while he went into a convenience store to make a delivery. Upon returning to find the truck and the hundreds of doughnuts inside missing, the deliveryman called police, who pursued and caught up to the vehicle. Messina and Houk then led police on a 15-mile chase, leaving a trail of doughnuts behind them as they fled. The incident was the subject of nationwide media attention and, as it involved cops and doughnuts, kept late-night comedians busy for several days;
2004 – Singer-musician Ray Charles, known for such hits as “What’d I Say,” ”Georgia on My Mind” and “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” died in Beverly Hills, California, at age 73. You can listen to ‘Loving You’ here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_7iRVtxui8;
2010 – Russia announces its plan to sell Iran S-300 ground-to-air missiles, claiming that new U.N. sanctions do not cover stationary air defense weaponry. (Wonder what happened to that infamous ‘Hillary’ RESET BUTTON?!?);
2011 – A report submitted to the United Nations states Iran has been caught attempting to transfer weaponry to terrorists including Hamas and the Taliban 10 times;
2013 – Jury selection began in Sanford, Florida, in the trial of neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, charged with second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman was eventually acquitted;
2013 – German authorities are forced to evacuate 10 villages as heavy rains swell the Elbe River, breaching its banks;
2013 – It was one year ago TODAY!!!
Another reason I still enjoy reading the newspaper!
Ya Think?!?
Number 35 of 50 beautiful pictures from 50 beautiful states:
Ash Cave, Hocking Hills State Park, Ohio
As I
A thought
How can I not forgive a brother or sister for whom Christ died, when I know what God paid to forgive me?
Leads to a verse
Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
– Colossians 3:13
Brings a prayer
Holy Father, I commit today to release any grudge or bitterness that I have against one of your children. I am sorry for not reflecting your grace and mercy which you lavished on me. Father, I need the help of your Holy Spirit to relinquish my claim on the wrongs committed against me and to treat those who have hurt me as full siblings in your family. Please empower me as I commit to follow your example in forgiving, even when it is hard. Through Jesus I pray. Amen
Until the next time – America, Bless GOD!!!
