Oswald Herbert Ernst

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Born in 1842 in Ohio, Major General Ernst graduated from Harvard and West Point before entering the Army's Corps of Engineers. He worked as an engineer in the U.S. and Mexico before the war, and was a consultant on the building of the Panama Canal afterwards. During the war with Spain, his brigade formed part of General Wilson's expedition that was sent from Virginia to Puerto Rico. General Ernst's actions contributed significantly to the success of the 16th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry in the battle of Coamo. For his service in that fight, he was promoted to the rank of Major General.

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1865: Confederate General Joseph Johnston officially surrenders his army to General William T. Sherman at Durham Station, North Carolina.

1865: John Wilkes Booth is killed when Union soldiers track him down to a Virginia farm 12 days after he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.

1865: Joseph E. Johnston surrenders the Army of Tennessee to Sherman.

1937: The ancient Basque town of Guernica in northern Spain is bombed by German planes.

1952: Armistice negotiations are resumed.

1971: The U.S. command in Saigon announces that the U.S. force level in Vietnam is 281,400 men, the lowest since July 1966.

1972: President Nixon, despite the ongoing communist offensive, announces that another 20,000 U.S. troops will be withdrawn from Vietnam in May and June, reducing authorized troop strength to 49,000.

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Oswald Herbert Ernst

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