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Anybody who does not have fear is an idiot. It is just that you must make the fear work for you. When somebody shot at me, it made me madder than hell, and all I wanted to do was shoot back. -- General Robin Olds |
Defeat of HMS Guerriere11029 Reads
![]() ![]() I have the honour to inform you, that on the 19th instant, at 2 PM being in latitude 41, 42, longitude 55, 48, with the CONSTITUTION under my command, a sail was discovered from the mast-head bearing E. by S. or E.S.E. but at such a distance we could not tell what she was. All sail was instantly made in chase, and soon found we came up with her. At 3 PM could plainly see that she was a ship on the starboard tack, under easy sail, close on a wind; at half past 3 PM made her out to be a frigate; continued the chase until we were within about three miles, when I ordered the light sails taken in, the courses hauled up, and the ship cleared for action. At this time the chase had backed his main top-sail, waiting for us to come down. As soon as the CONSTITUTION was ready for action, I bore down with an intention to bring him to close action immediately; but on our coming within gun-shot she gave us a broadside and filled away, and were, giving us a broadside on the other tack, but without effect; her shot falling short. She continued wearing and manoeuvreing for about three quarters of an hour, to get a raking position, but finding she could not, she bore up, and run under top-sails and gib, with the wind on the quarter. Immediately made sail to bring the ship up with her, and 5 minutes before 6 PM being along side within half pistol shot, we commenced a heavy fire from all our guns, double shotted with round and grape, and so well directed were they, and so warmly kept up, that in 15 minutes his mizen-mast went by the board, and his main-yard in the slings, and the hull, rigging and sails very much torn to pieces. The fire was kept up with equal warmth for 15 minutes longer, when his main-mast and fore-mast went, taking with them every spar, excepting the bowsprit; on seeing this we ceased firing, so that in 30 minutes after we got fairly along side the enemy she surrendered, and had not a spar standing, and her hull below and above water so shattered, that a few more broadsides must have carried her down. Note: by Captain Isaac Hull, USN
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1862:
President Lincoln issues General War Order No. 1, ordering all land and sea forces to advance on February 22, 1862.
1905: Russian General Kuropatkin takes the offensive in Manchuria. The Japanese under General Oyama suffer heavy casualties. 1939: President Franklin D. Roosevelt approves the sale of U.S. war planes to France. 1941: The United States and Great Britain begin high-level military talks in Washington. 1943: 8th Air Force bombers, dispatched from their bases in England, fly the first American bombing raid against the Germans, targeting the Wilhelmshaven port. 1944: Soviet forces permanently break the Leningrad siege line, ending the almost 900-day German-enforced containment of the city. 1951: From this period onward, the major strategic concern of the Chinese was to provide its armies with replacements and supplies. 1951: Forcefully marking the continued importance of the West in the development of nuclear weaponry, the government detonates the first of a series of nuclear bombs at its new Nevada test site. 1953: The Combat Cargo Command of the U.S. Air Force transported its 2,000,000th passenger to Korea after two years of operations as the Far Easts military airline. 1953: The Combat Cargo Command of the U.S. Air Force transported its 2,000,000th passenger to Korea after two years of operations as the Far Easts military airline. |
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