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07/31/2026

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30 JULY 1864 – BATTLE OF THE CRATER “It was the saddest affair I have witnessed in this war.”– Lieutenant General Ulysse...
07/30/2026

30 JULY 1864 – BATTLE OF THE CRATER

“It was the saddest affair I have witnessed in this war.”
– Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant

In an attempt to break the stalemated Siege of Petersburg, U.S. Army troops detonated powerful explosives under an enemy strongpoint, blowing a massive hole in Confederate defenses. The subsequent assault was poorly executed and ultimately repulsed, earning infamy as one of the most tragic tactical failures in U.S. Army history.

On 25 June, two weeks after the Siege of Petersburg began, the 48th Pennsylvania Infantry (a regiment led by a mining engineer and largely composed of coal miners) began tunneling towards Confederate lines with the objective of detonating a massive quantity of gunpowder under an enemy bastion called Elliott’s Salient, creating a rupture in the Confederate line which Union troops could theoretically exploit.

The 511-foot-long tunnel was excavated over the course of a month, and four tons of black powder were placed below Elliott’s Salient. The explosive charge was detonated at approximately 0445 on 30 July and obliterated the fort, killing over 350 Confederate soldiers and creating a massive crater 25 to 30 feet deep, 150 feet wide, and 200 feet long.

Although the detonation was a resounding success, Union efforts to capitalize on their tactical coup rapidly deteriorated. Troops from IX Corps assaulted into and around the crater, but the attack was poorly coordinated, and units piled up in and around the crater instead of moving forward.

The Confederates recovered from the shock and responded with artillery fire into the closely packed U.S. soldiers as the rebels counterattacked and retook the position, slaughtering many of the trapped Black U.S. soldiers indiscriminately even after they surrendered.

At 0945 the attack was called off and all U.S. units withdrew to their own lines by 1400, having sustained about 3,800 casualties compared with roughly 1,500 Confederate losses. The Petersburg Campaign ground on for another eight months.

29 JULY 1775 – CHAPLAIN CORPS BRANCH BIRTHDAY The U.S. Army Chaplain Corps was established by a resolution of the Contin...
07/29/2026

29 JULY 1775 – CHAPLAIN CORPS BRANCH BIRTHDAY

The U.S. Army Chaplain Corps was established by a resolution of the Continental Congress, adopted on 29 July 1775, which provided for the pay of chaplains in the Continental Army. The Office of the Chief of Chaplains was created by the National Defense Act of 1920.

According to the Department of Defense, the purpose of the chaplaincy is to “accommodate religious needs, to provide religious and pastoral care, and to advise commanders on the complexities of religion with regard to its personnel and mission, as appropriate. As military members, chaplains are uniquely positioned to assist service members, their families, and other authorized personnel with the challenges of military service as advocates of religious, moral, and spiritual well-being and resiliency.”

A total of seven members from the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps have been awarded the Medal of Honor: four from the Civil War; one from the Korean War; and two from the Vietnam War.

The Chaplain Corps' Latin motto "Pro Deo Et Patria" translates to "For God and Country."

The Chaplain Corps includes duly ordained clergy from Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu faiths who serve as commissioned officers.

28 JULY – NATIONAL BUFFALO SOLDIERS DAYOn 28 July 1866, Congress authorized the establishment of the first regular Army ...
07/28/2026

28 JULY – NATIONAL BUFFALO SOLDIERS DAY

On 28 July 1866, Congress authorized the establishment of the first regular Army regiments open to and composed of Black soldiers. These men became the famed Buffalo Soldiers and proved their mettle time and time again as they fought for their nation on the field of battle.

The original act that provided for the creation of the Buffalo Soldier regiments authorized six regiments (two cavalry and four infantry) although this was eventually downsized to two cavalry and two infantry regiments, the 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 24th and 25th Infantry.

The designation “Buffalo Soldier” is of disputed origin but was coined sometime during the Indian Wars of the 1870’s by the Native Nations they fought in the American West. It was originally given to the 10th Cavalry, and eventually came to describe all four regiments of Black soldiers.

The Buffalo Soldiers fought in the Indian Wars, during the War with Spain (when they played a pivotal role during the Battle of San Juan Hill), and the Punitive Expedition; they also contributed to the birth of America’s National Parks, serving as rangers when the parks were under Army administration.

On 24 July 1992, President George H.W. Bush proclaimed 28 July to be “Buffalo Soldier Day” the annual date of recognition for the Buffalo Soldiers and their accomplishments in paving the way for Black soldiers in the U.S. Army.

27 JULY 1953 – KOREAN WAR ENDS After more than three years of war on the Korean Peninsula, military representatives of ...
07/27/2026

27 JULY 1953 – KOREAN WAR ENDS

After more than three years of war on the Korean Peninsula, military representatives of the United Nations, North Korea, and China signed the Korean Armistice Agreement at 10 o’clock on the morning of 27 July.

The Armistice was the result of negotiations which had proceeded in fits and starts from as early as December 1950, and were held at the village of P’anmunjom beginning in 1951. The negotiators reached an overall agreement on 19 July 1953.

All fighting stopped twelve hours after the signing of the armistice. The cease-fire demarcation line approximated the final front. It ranged from forty miles above the 38th Parallel on the east coast to twenty miles below the parallel on the west coast.

The armistice was a great achievement, but it was not a job that, once done, could stand by itself. For while the armistice of 27 July 1953 ended the fighting in Korea, it had not truly ended the war. The armistice was a temporary cease-fire and not a treaty of peace. It reflected the realization by all parties that neither side had either the will or the means to compel the other to bow to its political agenda.

Hence the warring parties had agreed to stop the shooting and to transfer the war from the battlefield to the diplomatic field. There the conflict has remained, despite sporadic incidents and border clashes, for more than half a century.

The inability of the two sides to resolve their differences has meant that the two Koreas and their allies have had to remain on a war footing along the inter-Korean border ever since. Communist and United Nations soldiers still glare at each other across the demilitarized zone established in July 1953. Together with the South Koreans, U.S. Army troops continue to make up the bulk of the UN contingent in Korea.

27 JULY 1775 – ARMY MEDICAL DEPARTMENT (AMEDD) BIRTHDAYThe Army Medical Department (AMEDD) is among the Army’s oldest or...
07/27/2026

27 JULY 1775 – ARMY MEDICAL DEPARTMENT (AMEDD) BIRTHDAY

The Army Medical Department (AMEDD) is among the Army’s oldest organizations and was established on 27 July 1775 by order of the Continental Congress, which mandated the appointment of a Director-General who would manage the organization, staffing, and logistics of the Continental Army’s medical elements.

After the Revolutionary War, the formal medical organizations within the Army were only assembled on an as-needed basis; the first peacetime, permanent Medical Department was established in 1818, with a hierarchy which was for the first time headed by a “Surgeon-General.”

The Army Organization Act of 1950 renamed the Medical Department as the Army Medical Service. On 4 June 1968, the Army Medical Service was re-designated the Army Medical Department.

AMEDD consists of the Surgeon General, Assistant Surgeons General, and six separate corps: Medical Corps, Army Nurse Corps, Dental Corps, Veterinary Corps, Medical Service Corps, and Army Medical Specialist Corps.

07/26/2026

26 JULY 1948 – EXECUTIVE ORDER 9981 (DESEGREGATION OF THE U.S. ARMED FORCES)

This video provides details about Executive Order 9981 which ended segregation in the United States Armed Forces.

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26 JULY 1948 – EXECUTIVE ORDER 9981 (DESEGREGATION OF THE U.S. ARMED FORCES)"There shall be equality of treatment and op...
07/26/2026

26 JULY 1948 – EXECUTIVE ORDER 9981 (DESEGREGATION OF THE U.S. ARMED FORCES)

"There shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion or national origin."

– President Harry S. Truman, EXECUTIVE ORDER 9981

On this date in 1948, President Harry S. Truman issued EXECUTIVE ORDER (EO) 9981, which ended segregation in the United States Armed Forces.

The EO read in part, "It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion or national origin. This policy shall be put into effect as rapidly as possible, having due regard to the time required to effectuate any necessary changes without impairing efficiency or morale."

The integration of the U.S. Army began proceeding slowly after EO 9981’s issuance in 1948. The manpower requirements of the Korean War forced the Army to dramatically accelerate its integration efforts beginning in 1950, and by 1953 the force was completely desegregated.

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25 JULY 1944 - NORMANDY BREAKOUT (OPERATION COBRA) - WWIISeven weeks after the D-Day invasion of Normandy, U.S. forces b...
07/25/2026

25 JULY 1944 - NORMANDY BREAKOUT (OPERATION COBRA) - WWII

Seven weeks after the D-Day invasion of Normandy, U.S. forces broke the stalemate at the Allied beachhead’s western end by staging an offensive dubbed Operation COBRA. The success of COBRA allowed the Allies to break German opposition and liberate Paris by the end of August 1944.

After St. Lo was firmly in U.S. control, the U.S. Army Lieutenant General Omar N. Bradley’s First Army initiated Operation COBRA on 25 July, attempting to break out of the bocage - or hedgerow - country that had slowed the American advance since the D-Day landings.

Despite slow-going at first, with support from a massive aerial bombardment by the Eighth Air Force the First Army achieved a distinct pe*******on of German lines that set the stage for the next phase of Allied operations. Bradley then assumed command of the newly established 12th Army Group, which was comprised of the U.S. First and Third Armies, the latter of which had just arrived in France.

Under the command of Lieutenant General George S. Patton Jr., the Third Army exploited and poured through the breach created by First Army in Operation COBRA, and other U.S. units advanced into Brittany to secure the vital ports needed to maintain the flow of supplies and reinforcements to Allied forces.

The Allies then advanced across France to the Seine River and liberated Paris from the N***s. Conducted with concurrent offensives by the British Second Army and the Canadian First Army, Operation COBRA was decisive in securing an Allied victory in the Normandy Campaign and destroying almost all of two defending German field armies in the process.

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25 JULY 1814 - BATTLE OF LUNDY'S LANE - WAR OF 1812Just weeks after leading U.S. forces to victory at the Battle of Chip...
07/25/2026

25 JULY 1814 - BATTLE OF LUNDY'S LANE - WAR OF 1812

Just weeks after leading U.S. forces to victory at the Battle of Chippewa, Brigadier General Winfield Scott grappled with the British again in a meeting engagement at Lundy’s Lane. Although inconclusive, the ensuing battle saw an outnumbered American force hold its own against some of the finest troops in British North America.

After Scott’s victory at Chippewa, Major General Jacob Brown advanced to Queenston in an abortive attempt to besiege Forts George and Niagara. On 24-25 July, Brown returned to the Chippewa before beginning a march to the west end of Lake Ontario, unaware that British Lieutenant Governor Gordon Drummond had concentrated troops on a highly defensible piece of elevated terrain anchored by the river called Lundy’s Lane.

When Scott's brigade moved towards Queenston to draw British forces threatening the American line of communication away from their position on 25 July, they unexpectedly engaged enemy forces at the junction of Queenston Road and Lundy's Lane. The ensuing battle was one of the bloodiest of the War of 1812.

Although the Americans held the field at the end of the fighting, they withdrew to their previous positions after dark, negating the advantage they had gained. The British reoccupied their original line the next day, ending the battle in a tactical draw.

When the Americans retired to the Chippewa, it signaled the end of Brown's invasion of Canada and a British strategic victory. Both sides suffered heavy casualties, with the British losing 878 and the Americans 854 killed and wounded. Both Brown and Scott were wounded.

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