The Patriot Files :: Dedicated to the preservation of military history

Sir,
I have the honour to inform you, for the information of the Lords commissioners of the Admiralty, that on the 3rd instant, I sailed with his Majesty`s squadron under my command, from this port. to co-operate with our army at the head of the Lake, and annoy the enemy by intercepting all supplies going to the army, and thereby oblige his squadron to come out for its protection.

Note: H.M.S Wolfe, at Kingston, Upper Canada, 29 June, 1813. 8225 Reads

Night Laager Position

A couple of hours before sunset, any commander worth his salt got very serious about first, selecting and second, preparing a place for his outfit to spend the night. Nobody from higher headquarters was going to do this for you; battalion staffs and commanders were in fire bases, protected by other companies out of prepared bunkers, complete with wire, mines, defensive artillery fires already plotted, ready access to armed helicopters should the need arise, and so on.

Note: by Richard Guthrie, 1st Battalion (Mechanized), 50th Infantry 11165 Reads

June 28th 1967 The Arrival

At the very end of June 1967 we arrived at Tan Son Nhut Air Base, Vietnam. From there we took a bus ride to Camp Alpha. The bus ride was a bit odd. There was barbed wire on the opened windows. Someone asked the driver, “Why the barbed wire?” We were told that sometimes the V.C. liked to throw hand grenades into any American bus and the wire was a preventative measure.

Note: by Thomas Andrzejczyk, Co. "C" 4th/23 Mech Infantry, 25th Division 11141 Reads

807th MASH, Mar. 1991 - Jun. 1991

POST-WAR Support of the 3rd Armor Division
7 March 1991
Today we moved again, transferred to the control of the 3rd Armored Division. The 26 mile trip back to the Iraqi/Kuwait border took less than three hours. We put our tents up in record time.

Note: by Brian Ginn 12737 Reads

General John Sullivan's Expediton against the Iroquois, October, 1779

Friday, Oct. 1st. - This morning the horses belonging to the officers of the brigade were forwarded to Wyoming. We also sent our cow which we had along with us the whole expedition, and to whom we are under infinite obligations for the great quantity of milk she afforded us, which rendered our situation very comfortable, and was no small addition to our half allowance.

Note: Journal written by Lt. Col. Adam Hubley. 9433 Reads

It Was a Different Life

I got a very low draft number, so I was sure to be called. Instead of waiting to be called and being put into whatever anybody decided to do for me, I decided to try to guide my own destiny a bit. I enlisted in the Navy out of Floyd Bennet Naval Air Station, which was a reserve air station in Brooklyn, New York....I didn't want to be in the Army because I remembered all the stories and the movies about World War I were about people living in trenches.

Note: by Arnold Spring 8021 Reads

Rescue of Dustoff 65

It seems like yesterday that I was graduating from the Infantry Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, Georgia. Just a year earlier my friend Don and I were walking down the street checking out girls and cars like we did everyday after junior college classes.

Note: by Tim Lickness 8589 Reads

Iron Brigade

May 3, 1864 Passed off quietly with nothing to disturb the monotony of camp life until after dark when we received orders to pack up and to be ready to march at a moment's notice. We had been expecting marching orders for the last two weeks so that we were not surprised to hear the orders to pack up sung out.

Note: by Clinton Hogue, Company G of the Iron Brigade's Indiana 19th Regiment 12537 Reads

The Rough Riders

During the year preceding the outbreak of the Spanish War I was Assistant Secretary of the Navy. While my party was in opposition, I had preached, with all the fervor and zeal I possessed, our duty to intervene in Cuba, and to take this opportunity of driving the Spaniard from the Western World.

Note: by Lt. Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, 1st Volunteer Cavalry 20285 Reads

Opening of the German Offensive, March 1918

Turmoil and confusion are everywhere. Troops, baggage, and all the litter of war, lumbers up every available space. R.T. Officers are here, there, and everywhere. They sort us out, guide, and lead us to our trains. We file in. Where are we going? No one knows. Where's the 8th? Where's the 7th? Where's the 6th? Where is any regiment?

Note: by Private Alfred Grosch, 8th London 9242 Reads

The Fort Dearborn Massacre

Pittsburg, 23 October 1812 On the 9th of August last, I received orders from General Hull to evacuate the post and proceed with my command to Detroit by land, leaving it at my discretion to dispose of the public property as I thought proper. The neighbouring Indians got the information as early as I did, and came in from all quarters in order to receive the goods in the factory store, which they understood were to be given them.

Note: by Captain Heald, letter to The Secretary of War 15154 Reads

WWII Memories

I was a medic attached to 2nd platoon, C Battery, of the 225th during my entire tour of duty in Europe. When we were in the field, there was half of C Battery (117 men) that I would visit in their positions on a daily basis. I was their primary health-care provider. I would travel on a three-quarter-ton truck that carried rations and water to each searchlight/radar section every day to make my rounds. From June 1944 to December 1945 we moved from Omaha beach in France to Neubiberg in Germany. During this entire time, I never treated someone who was wounded by the enemy. This was a good thing.

Note: by Robert J. King 9762 Reads

A Day in the Ville

I was lucky enough to be stationed at a field hospital in Qui Nhon for a couple of months. QN was known by many to be an unofficial in-country R&R center. The town was pretty large, had quite a few GI's, and set right on the beach. Inland was a rather large mountain range that was the home of one of the many ROK divisions that were in-country at that time. In other words, a pretty nice place to be.

Note: By Jim Calbreath 7748 Reads

USS KRISHNA (ARL-38), July 5, 1970

We have been stationed about 5-6 miles off the coast of Vietnam. Our job is to repair the river patrol boats. They would tow, push, shove or sometimes just putt their way out to us for repair. We keep seeing the same patrol boats and repair them, send them back, repair them, send them back.

Note: by Raymond Bruder 9401 Reads

Notes of a Confederate Staff Officer at Shiloh

After ten o'clock at night, on the 2nd of April, 1862, while in my office as adjutant-general of the Confederate army assembled at Corinth, a telegram was brought to me from General Cheatham, commanding an outpost on our left flank at Bethel, on the Mobile and Ohio railway, some twenty odd miles northward of Corinth. General Cheatham had addressed it to General Polk, his corps commander, informing him that a Federal division, under General Lew Wallace, had been manoeuvring in his proximity during the day.

Note: by Thomas Jordan 10878 Reads

Which branch of the armed forces did you serve?