The Other December 7th - The Confederacy's Last Hurrah to Retake Missouri

To every American December 7th will always live in infamy as the day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.  But until 1941, the history books told another story for that day.  Despite the strategic importance of the fight, and the intense combat that occured there, Battle of Prairie Grove is little remembered now, except for those folks who study the American Civil War west of the Mississippi River.  The battle ensured that Missouri and North West Arkansas were remained firmly in Union Control for the remainder of the War.

This is the Story of the Battle of Prairie Grove, fought 150 years ago today.

Winter in the Ozarks is harsh. The soldiers and citizens in the northwestern Arkansas Ozarks suffered mightily through the early winter of 1862, and their plight was exacerbated in the Battle of Prairie Grove, December 7, 1862.

The Union Army had secured the bulk of the state of Missouri against the Rebels by mid 1862. In St. Louis, General Samuel Curtis had relocated from Helena, Arkansas, to take overall command of the Federal Department of the Missouri. He oversaw General James Blunt’s Department of Kansas and Brigadier General John M. Schofield, who had given up command of the District of Missouri to take charge of Union field operations in the Ozarks of Missouri and Arkansas. The primary charge to Blunt and Schofield was to eliminate rebel activity from the Ozarks.

BG James Blunt

This was a complicated order. Rebel activity came by way of night raids on Union encampments, bushwhacked homesteads, supply depot plundering and telegraph line cutting. Bushwhacking was a veritable hydra of hostility. It was not for lack of vision that the triumvirate of Union military leaders in the Ozarks set out to achieve peace through rebel suppression. The secessionist tactics were simply too clandestine and too persistent for long term, measureable success.

Blunt was the man for the job. His regard for guerrillas and anti-Union activities would become notorious. Believing any campaigns unnecessary through the winter, Schofield returned to St. Louis to recover from illness. Two divisions were ordered to winter camp in Springfield, Missouri, leaving Blunt and his one division in northwestern Arkansas.

The Confederates, for their part, were scrambling to send troops across the Mississippi to secure Vicksburg in that ongoing siege. Major General Thomas C. Hindman, commanding the Army of the West, was convinced that his men could take out Blunt before moving troops east. His plan centered on attacking Blunt, encamped near Cane Hill, before Federal reinforcements could arrive from Springfield.



MG Thomas C. Hindman

Brigadier General John S. Marmaduke commanded a federal force of nearly 2,500 men, and his initial orders from Hindman were to gather subsistence for the larger army, by way of procured flour and meal from regional mills, and fruits and vegetables from area farms. The presence of his adept cavalry, too, was believed to divert Blunt until Hindman could bring his full force in.

Blunt and his 5000 men attacked Marmaduke on November 28. Retreat and counterattack followed, with a truce finally being called by Marmaduke to collect their dead and wounded. The Confederates returned to Hindman’s camp at Dripping Springs, near Van Buren. Blunt remained at Cane Hill, and only briefly savored his victory.



MG Francis Herron

On December 3, he received word that Hindman, with over 11,000 men and 22 cannons, was en route to attack him again. Now outnumbered by more than two to one, Blunt sent word to Curtis for reinforcements. Curtis then telegraphed Major General Francis J. Herron in Springfield to hurry his two divisions toward Blunt. Herron’s 6000 men covered over 100 miles in three days, arriving in Fayetteville, on December 6. Hindman was now nearly matched, if not outnumbered, and he was forced to form a new plan.

Instead of a frontal attack on Blunt, Hindman decided to take out the Union reinforcements. He would defeat Herron’s men before they could reach Blunt, and then turn his massive force on Blunt’s rear. He told his men to keep their campfires burning, and left an Arkansas cavalry regiment in the hills opposite Blunt’s front line, to keep the Yankees in place with diversionary skirmishing. Herron learned of the Confederate assault in the early hours of December 7. His men moved to repel the Rebel surge on a horseshoe shaped wooded hill on the Illinois River, known as Prairie Grove.


 

After crossing the Illinois River under artillery fire, Herron positioned his artillery and exchanged fire with the Confederate cannon. The superior range and number of Union cannon soon silenced the Southern guns, allowing the Union infantry to prepare to attack the ridge. Before the infantry advanced, the Union artillery pounded the Southern position on the ridge for about two hours.

The Twentieth Wisconsin and Nineteenth Iowa Infantry regiments crossed the open corn and wheat fields in the valley before surging forward up the slope, capturing the Confederate cannon of Captain William Blocher’s Arkansas Battery near the home of Archibald Borden. The Union soldiers continued their advance until suddenly the woods erupted with cannon and small-arms fire. The Confederates surrounded the Federal troops on three sides and quickly forced them to retreat to the Union cannon in the valley. A Southern counterattack went down the slope into the open valley, where it was met with case shot composed of small lead balls inside exploding projectiles. Herron’s artillery also used canister shot, consisting of tin cylinders filled with iron balls packed in sawdust which, when fired, turned a cannon into a giant shotgun blast, leaving gaping holes in the Confederate ranks and forcing a retreat to the cover of the woods on the ridge.

“…The Bayonet or Retreat” by Andy Thomas.  Union Troops Fighting at the Bordan House

Seeing Confederate movement on his flank, Herron decided to attack again. The Thirty-seventh Illinois and Twenty-sixth Indiana Infantry regiments went up the hill into the Borden apple orchard. Lieutenant Colonel John Charles Black of the Thirty-seventh Illinois led the way with his right arm in a sling because of a wound he had sustained at Pea Ridge nine months earlier. Outnumbered, the Federal soldiers fell back to a fence line in the valley, where they stopped another Confederate counterattack using Colt revolving rifles carried by the men of Companies A and K of the Thirty-seventh Illinois. Black sustained a serious wound to his left arm but remained with his command until it was out of danger. Black received the only Medal of Honor awarded for this battle.

With only two fresh infantry regiments left, Herron’s command was in peril even as Confederate troops began massing to attack the Twentieth Iowa Infantry, which served as the Federal right flank. Before the attack, two cannon shots rang out from the northwest at about 2:30 p.m., signaling the arrival of Blunt’s command; he quickly deployed and attacked the Confederate left flank. Blunt’s division was at Cane Hill the morning of December 7 expecting to be attacked by the Confederates. Hindman left Colonel James Monroe’s Arkansas cavalry on Reed’s Mountain to skirmish with Blunt’s Federal troops while the rest of the Confederate army marched past the Union position. The ruse worked, as Blunt’s command remained in a defensive position at Cane Hill until it heard the roar of battle at Prairie Grove. Marching to the battlefield, the Union soldiers under Blunt arrived in time to save Herron’s divisions.



The Bordan House as it appears today.
From: http://www.menaar.com/Arkansas_State_%20Parks/prairie_grove_battlefield_state_park_in_arkansas_picture_gallery.htm

The Confederates responded to the Union advance on their left flank by skirmishing in the woods with the Federal troops until Blunt gave the command to fall back to his cannon line in the valley. Believing this was an opportunity to win the day, Brigadier General Mosby M. Parsons, in command of the Confederate Missouri Infantry brigade, launched an attack across the William Morton hayfield at about 4:00 p.m. As the Southern soldiers advanced, a devastating fire from all forty-four cannon in the Union army tore into the Confederate ranks, which fell back to the cover of the wooded ridge as darkness fell.

Captain H.C. Palmer of the 11^th Kansas Infantry wrote “The rebels…came sweeping out of the timber in solid column … lifting their guns with fixed bayonets above their heads. They came on with a yell, like 7,000 demons as they were, and were within 300 yards of us when the command "Fire!" was given and twelve guns, double shotted with grape and canister swept great holes through their column”.





"They Came Like Demons" by Andy Thomas

By mid morning, the full brunt of fighting had commenced. Blunt finally received word of the battle and arrived to support Herron at nearly 2 p.m. Hindman’s extended line, weary and stretched thin, barely held out against the converging Union fronts. Back and forth, each side surged and fell back, and the fighting continued without any measureable gain for either side, unless casualties were considered.5 After twelve hours of unproductive fighting, Hindman finally retired.

Yet again, he deceived Blunt. Leaving campfires lit and Marmaduke’s cavalry in position, as if to resume fighting at daybreak, Hindman sent his army south during the night, wrapping the wheels of the artillery pieces in blankets to muffle the sound.6 Though Blunt was decidedly irritated, he met with Hindman the next morning to arrange for the care of the Confederate wounded that the Rebel Army could not transport.

BG John S. Marmaduke

Blunt’s men remained to bury the Confederate dead, and the Union Army provided rations for the Confederate wounded that were transported by Union ambulance to their field hospitals. Hindman’s army nearly disintegrated on their march south, arriving at their camps near Van Buren and Fort Smith with fewer than 5000 men. Casualties, sickness and desertion claimed the bulk of the Rebel Army after Prairie Grove; the men that remained to face Blunt later that month at Dripping Springs were ill, half-starved, shoeless and without warm clothing or blankets for the Ozark winter.

The losses at Prairie Grove were about even for both armies, with roughly 1300 casualties each. The nature of war is such that orders and plans, on paper or in theory, don’t develop in predictable ways. Leaving the wounded on the battlefield, even in hotly contested ground, is a sacrosanct practice. At Prairie Grove, with both sides gaining and losing ground, the dead and wounded were a present, tangible reminder of the perils of war.





This website offeres several animated videos of various stages of the Battle of Prairie Grove.
http://vimeo.com/29728216


The text for this article were taken directly from two sources:

The Encyclopediea of Arkansas - The Battle of Praire Grove by Don Montgomery
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=513

Comunity in Conflict - The Impact of the Civil War in the Ozarks
http://www.ozarkscivilwar.org/archives/342

Power Ball Jackpot - Roman Style!

Bath, England uses the moniker "Roman City of Bath" for its tourist marketing.  My wife Phyllis and I, and friends Tod and Laurie Jordan, had the pleasure of visiting Bath in 2008.  The city is known mostly for its restored Roman baths, although its Georgian architecture and Regency era association with author Jane Austin also draw visitors.
 
 The town was in its heyday as a resort, spa and meeting place for the rich and famous during the late Georgian and Regency period. The amazing thing is they had no idea what lay beneath their feet in those days. One of the most famous gathering places for the social elite in Regency era Bath was the "Pump House," an meeting hall and tea room. The hot mineral water spring that still flows from a fountain at the Pump House, comes from a vast Roman era bath and spa that was discovered beneath it in the mid 19th Century.



A Fountain in the Pump Room still provides hot mineral water just as it did in Jane Austin's time.
Photo by author

 



Ruins of a Roman bath house displayed beneath the Pump Room. 
Photo by author

Since that find, other Roman bath houses, villas and wells have been unearthed far below the modern level of the city.  Even as I and my wife visited Bath, another more spectacular find was being uncovered.  During excavations of a new building site on Beau Street, a scant 450 feet from the Roman Baths, a hoard of 22,000 silver coins was discovered under the tiles of a Roman bath house.  That find has been kept secret till June 2012 as the coins were being analyzed at the British Museum in London.

One of the 22,000 Silver Coins of the Beau Street Hoard
From: http://blog.britishmuseum.org/2012/06/07/the-beau-street-hoard-excavation-progress/



The excavation on Beau Street
From: http://blog.britishmuseum.org/2012/06/07/the-beau-street-hoard-excavation-progress/

 This is the fifth largest treasure hoard found in the UK and the largest Roman hoard of its kind.  It also has the distinction of being the largest hoard ever found by a professional archaeologist during a planned excavation.  The find was recovered with the utmost care using the latest scientific methods.


Six leather sacks of coins made up the hoard.  Conservators at the British Museum are slowly removing each coin from the encrusted block for conservation.
From: http://blog.britishmuseum.org/2012/06/07/the-beau-street-hoard-excavation-progress/

Dates on the coins range from about 30 BC to about 270 AD.  The encrusted coins are arraigned to indicate that six separate sacks of coins were deposited together.  Traces on some coins suggest the sacks were made of leather.  The estimated date of the hoard fits nicely with a time of extreme upheaval known as the "Crisis of the Third Century," in which the Roman Empire nearly collapsed as Britain and Gaul broke away to form the short-lived Gallic Empire.  Perhaps someone hid the treasure planning to return for it.  Who knows why they did not return?

The Roman Baths is raising £150,000 to acquire, conserve and display the hoard. If you would like to help with a donation please phone the Roman Baths Administrator on +44 (0)1225 477773 with your credit card details, or send a cheque made payable to ‘Bath & North East Somerset Council’ to:

The Roman Baths

Pump Room

Stall Street

BATH

 BA1 1LZ

From: http://www.romanbaths.co.uk/whats_on/beau_street_hoard.aspx

 

Abraham Lincoln and Thanksgiving

Even during the most intense year of fighting during the American Civil War, Preseident Lincoln took time to proclaim a national day of thanksgiving.  Days of thanksgiving had been celebrated at various times in northern states since early colonial times.  Lincoln's proclamation estblished, for the first time, a national holiday set on a specific day in November.

Happy Thanksgiving Day to all my readers.  I hope that the Lord will bless you on this day that we have set aside to show our thanks to Him that provides all.

A Proclamation Establishing Thanksgiving

October 3, 1863

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.

A. Lincoln

Ancient Bones in an Ancient Well

The Israel Antiquities Authority has announced a very significant find, with a mystery, in the Jezreel Valley. 

Surviving water wells from the stone age era are extremely rare.  This was a time when humans were first relying on agriculture and domestic animals to make a living.  As they settled down to farm, they could no longer rely completely on springs and streams to provide the water they needed to survive.

Yotam Tepper, of the Israel Antiquities Authority explained, "This was a period after permanent settlements and already been established and after the agricultural revolution and domestication of sheep, goats, cattle and wheat.  Now it became necessary to 'domesicate' water, too."

An Antiquities Authority archaeologist exploring the recent find.
Photo by Gil Eliahu

Wells from this period are a tangible evidence of a giant step forward in terms of human culture.  The well in the Jezreel Valley has been dated as one of the oldest in the world, to about 6500 BC or 8,500 years old. 

The well, which was discovered during road construction, was built with stacked stones at the top and the bottom was hewn into limestone - hewn by hand with stone tools.  The well is approximately 25 feet deep and 4 feet in diameter.  Capstones  covering the well recall Genesis 29:2, "stone upon the well's mouth."



8,500 year old bones recovered from the ancient well in the
Jezreel Valley.  Photo from Israeli Antiquities Authority.

The well was silted in at some point early in its use and has become an unintentional time capsule.  Arrow heads, animal bones and flint tools associated with harvesting crops all helped in dating the well.  Other signs in the region confirm that this part of Israel may have been one of the first places in the area where people settled down and turned from hunting and gathering to agriculture for subsistence.

The biggest surprise was what was found with the lost tools under the layer of silt.  The skeleton of a young woman and a man aged 30-40 were found tossed into the well.   Did they die in some tragic accident, or were they murdered and thrown into the shaft?  Were the deaths from a domestic dispute or the result of waring tribes?

 "There is no evidence that they were buried in a regular fashion.  There is a story here, but we don't have answers," Tepper said.  "What is clear is that after these unknown individuals fell into the well, it was no longer used for the simple reason that the well water was contaminated and was no longer potable." 

The well was abandoned when the bodies were thrown in.  It was later covered and its location lost.  That is why it has been left unused for over 8,000 years.
 

The full story can be found here:

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/ancient-well-reveals-secrets-of-first-jezreel-valley-farmers.premium-1.476288

How the Guillotine Helped to Create the Modern Restaurant

The next time you’re at your favorite cafe, raise a glass to the aristocrats who lost their heads so that you could enjoy your foie gras.

France gave birth to what we call today a  restaurant.  But it was no civilized affair. In fact, today’s restaurant business is actually a byproduct of the class warfare that arose during the French Revolution. 

Back in the Middle Ages, fine dining was a privilege enjoyed exclusively by feudal lords who had their own grand kitchens and personal chefs. The only commercial eateries for the masses were seedy roadside inns, where strangers crowded around mediocre buffets of tepid roasts, stews and over-sauced legumes. But sometime in the 1760s, the merchant class of Paris developed a taste for healthy light broths known as restoratives, or restaurants. By the 1780s, this new Parisian “health food” craze led to a handful of reputable dining halls, where customers could sit at individual tables and choose from a wide range of dishes.

Ironically, the popularity of these restaurants grew at a time when the bulk of the French population couldn’t afford bread. Decades of harsh winters and oppressive taxation had taken their toll on kitchen tables. Worse still, the greater part of the nation’s tax dollars had gone to pay for the excesses of the aristocracy and monarchy, including helping to finance the American War of Independence. By 1789, the starving French masses could no longer be controlled. Looting and riots erupted throughout Paris, ushering in the French Revolution.

Aristocrats fled to the countryside, leaving behind their highly skilled chefs and the fine wines from their cellars. Suddenly, unemployed cooks and abandoned bottles found their way to the city’s eateries, and within a year, nearly 50 elegant restaurants had popped up in Paris. These epicurean temples catered to the new class of French deputies and businessmen and were featured in travelogues throughout Europe. As word of their deliciousness spread, Parisian restaurants became tourist attractions on par with Notre Dame.

Admittedly, fine dining hit a rocky period during the Reign of Terror of 1793-94, when anyone suspected of ties to the aristocracy risked facing the guillotine. One unfortunate proprietor hung a sign over his door that read, “We welcome people of the best sort.” The elitist sentiment quickly landed him in prison. Still, he was the exception. Most Parisian restaurants kept up a lively trade, their tables replete with fine hams and pates. And most patrons felt safe enough within their walls to joke about Robespierre, the grandmaster of the Reign of Terror, and how he couldn’t afford to send his spies there.

The restaurant business truly came into its own during the early 1800s, after the upstart general Napoleon Bonaparte seized control of the country and granted “freedom of pleasure” to all citizens. Napoleon reasoned that people who were focused on Champagne and sauce reductions probably wouldn’t conspire against him. A few years later, when Napoleon’s military conquests brought fantastic wealth to Paris, restaurants began to compete for customers with marble décor and salacious entertainment. One establishment featured bare-breasted women dressed as Amazon warriors, who were lowered from the ceiling in golden chariots.

In the end, many more Frenchmen dined out than could actually afford the experience. Oddly, it became almost commonplace for customers to steal knives and spoons. One waiter at the upscale restaurant Naudet’s spotted a patron pocketing the flatware and politely handed him a bill that included “Cutlery, 54 francs.” The customer paid up cheerfully, tut-tutting, “How dear things are getting these days…” But this only goes to show how far restaurants had come. In less than a century, fine dining went from being the exclusive privilege of people born with silver spoons in their mouths to a must-have for people who stole them.

This is a re-blogged adaption of a story by Tony Perrottet you can read here: http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/28851#ixzz2BaYSAxcF
--brought to you by mental_floss!

World War II Skeleton Still Carries Secret Code

Skeleton of a carrier pigeon, that is!

Reblogged from:  http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/11/wwii-carrier-pigeon-finally-delivers-secret-message/

WWII Carrier Pigeon Finally Delivers Secret Message

Secrets from World War II may have been found in a coded message attached to the skeleton of a carrier pigeon found in an English chimney.

The bird was found when David Martin in Bletchingly, Surrey, was renovating his fireplace.

Martin told the BBC that he began “pulling it down, pulling it down…then the pigeon bones began appearing one by one by one. Down came the leg with the red capsule on with a message inside.”

Martin called the discovery unbelievable and his wife was so delighted with the 70-year-old surprise she said it was like “Christmas.”

Theories suggest the bird was making its way from behind enemy lines, perhaps from Nazi occupied France during the D Day invasions heading toward Bletchley Park which was Britain’s main decryption establishment during World War II.

Others say the bird likely got lost, disorientated in bad weather or was simply exhausted after its trip across the English Channel and landed in the Martin’s chimney.

More than 250,000 carrier pigeons were used in World War II. They were called the National Pigeon Service and were relied on heavily to transport secret messages.

During the war the Dickin Medal, which is the highest possible animal’s decoration for valor, was awarded to 32 pigeons, including the United States Army Pigeon Service’s G.I. Joe and the Irish pigeon Paddy.

Government code breakers are working to read the message found in Martin’s chimney.

Colin Hill from the Bletchley Park pigeon exhibition told BBC, ”I thought no way on earth can I work this one out.”

They have determined so far that the message is from a Sgt. W. Stott and that it was written 70 years ago.

 

A more detailed version of the story can be found here: http://swns.com/news/wwii-carrier-pigeon-secret-code-defeating-nazis-70-years-later-chimney-26984/

With the Black Scarves at Bong Trang - Part 2

“The First Infantry Division Headquarters named it the Battle of Bong Trang, but those American soldiers who made war there will always call it 25 August.  That is the day in 1966 that my unit fought the Phu Loi Battalion. . .” William J. Mullen III

Captain William Mullen’s Charlie Company of the ½ Infantry was not technically surrounded, although fire was coming from all directions.  But Mullen was not in a defensive frame of mind.  He continued to press the attack in areas of his line and asked his Battalion Commander, Major Richard Clark, to hold off on the reinforcements so that close air support and artillery plaster the enemy.  Major Clark, who could see more of the fight unfolding from a helicopter, declined Mullen’s suggestion and hurried his A Company and B Company to the rescue.  Clark remained in the air where he could see and control the entire fight.  Troop C of the ¼ Cavalry also linked up with B Company for the race to the sound of the guns. 

C Troop of the 1/4 Cav move out on the morning of August 25
From: http://quarterhorsecav.org/pg4g1.htm

Charlie Company had been fighting for almost four hours before Captain Johannsen and B Company found their way through the tangled jungle and into the clearing.  Only the sound of firing and circling helicopters allowed Johannsen to find his way to the beleaguered Mullen.   Heavy automatic weapons fire and mortars pinned them down almost immediately.  Captain Johannsen was wounded by grenade fragments and his intelligence officer, Captain George Downs, took command.  B Company made three unsuccessful attempts to break through to Charlie Company.  Only fourteen men made that last charge.  By then, Captain Downs was wounded and the battalion communications officer, who accompanied B Company, was in command.

Eventually the C Troop of the ¼ Cavalry broke through in their tanks and APCs.  Captain Slattery of the Cavalry found dead and wounded littering the ground and that men had become separated from their platoons and squads.  Hank Stewart of the 1/4 Cav recalled, "2 tracks from C Troop had been knocked out by RPG and 57 recoilless. The crews were all dead. We took up forward positions and our one tank began firing canister into the base camp. We returned fire with .50 cal and M60s. The platoon leaders TC, Sammy Larkin was killed. Lt. Klippen shouted over the radio to "burn the piss out of those treetops".  He was killed right after that."



The 1/2 Infantry Black Scarf worn by PFC John Johnston in Vietnam

An Air Force medivac helicopter had already been shot down in the clearing, blocking the small landing space.  Slattery suggested to Mullen that the wounded be evacuated to a landing zone 400 meters to the east of the clearing.  The Cav’s APC were put into service as ambulances and began shuttling the wounded to the new landing zone.  More medivac helicopters, still landing under sporadic fire, transported them out of the fight to safety. 

Harry Guenterberg rode into the clearing with B Company about noon on August 25.  He was one of only 14 men still standing after his Company made three assaults trying to break into to assist C Company. Harry was also present at the genesis of the black scarf.   He watched Ltc Prillman tear a square of  black cloth from a table in a VC hut to make a sweat rag to go around his neck. That gave the commander the idea for making a scarf for each of his soldiers from a stockpile of captured VC black cotton.   Photo courtesy Harry Guenterberg

 Five hours into the fight and still a cohesive perimeter had not been carved out of the chaos.  The Phu Loi Battalion was tenacious.  The smaller American force was just as determined, but the pressure was too great to consolidate their position.  COL Sydney Berry, the Brigade Commander was impatient.  He ordered Major Clark, the ½ Battalion Commander to take charge on the ground.  Clark and Berry’s UH-1s arrived at the landing zone almost at the same time, and they headed on foot to the clearing together.  As they huddled together to discuss their plans a blast of machine gun fire sent them sprawling.  Berry was unhurt, but Major Clark was dead with a bullet through the skull. 

Although it was a battalion level fight at that time, the Brigade Commander felt he had no other choice but to take command on the ground.  Colonel Berry later recalled that he “ran around like a crazy man getting things moving.”  Because he could no longer see the big picture, he had his Operations Officer who was orbiting in a helicopter, coordinate fire support and move reinforcements to the fight. 

The fight intensified as Berry’s other battalions arrived on the scene and entered the battle.  The 1/26 overwhelmed enemy positions on the east flank; 1/16 Infantry attacked from the west and 2/28 Infantry set up a blocking position to the north of the clearing.  As the 1/26 and the 1/16 made initial gains, Colonel Berry ordered them to shift their axis of attack to link in with Captain Mullen’s ½ Infantry who were still being “chewed to pieces.”  Mullen recalled “Captain Jim Madden, commanding B Company of the 26^th, one of the first units to fight its way into our location, received a serious wound almost as soon as he reached us.  He nevertheless broke away from the medics in order to apologize to me for having to leave the fight.”

From: http://quarterhorsecav.org/pg4g1.htm

The 1/16 turned north and immediately encountered a well camouflaged bunker system with interlocking fire.  Viet Cong Heavy machine guns, recoilless rifles, mortars and small arms raked A Company.  Within minutes the commander, Captain Peter Knight, was killed and all of his platoon leaders wounded.  1/16’s attack ground to a halt, but as they reorganized the enemy in their immediate front fled from their positions.

As the 1/16 Infantry’s attack wound down, Ltc Paul Gorman commander of 1/26 Infantry, arrived in the clearing with the last of the American reinforcements.  Berry’s entire brigade was now in contact with the enemy.  As Gorman made a triumphant entry on a M48 tank, Berry climbed aboard to shake his hand.  “A machine gun opened up on us, and we unceremoniously scrambled off the tank, dashed across the clearing, and jumped into a VC trench I was using for my CP,” Berry recalled.  Berry left Gorman in command on the ground and returned to resume control of his brigade. 

Night falls quickly in the jungle.  As darkness enveloped the Americans they hunkered down and allowed artillery and a flare ship to keep the battlefield illuminated throughout the night.  The Phu Loi Battalion made no further coordinated attacks.  They were satisfied to wait for an attack in their underground bunkers and send sporadic harassing fire into the American lines.

The early morning of August 26^th found Colonel Berry back on the ground at the clearing.  The enemy was still hunkered down in their bunkers.  He wanted them out of the ground where he could kill them, but did not want to send his battered troops in a frontal assault to root them out.  Too many good men had been lost the day before.  Berry and Ltc Gorman decided to call a napalm strike in the bunker system sandwiched between his 1/16 and 1/26 Infantry battalions.  The eleventh canister struck a tree and sent jellied flames across Gorman’s CP, burning a map from the scrambling commander’s hands.  "My map and radio were literally burned up," Gorman remembered, "and I got singed a bit.  I asked that they keep laying the napalm on, and they did."  Gorman watched helplessly as a later canister fell short, into the American lines.  Two Americans died and fourteen were injured in the flames. 

John Johnston recalled the incident.  "Our Air Force dropped napalm on us because some dumbass threw a red smoke grenade out when we marked our position with smoke.  When they dropped the napalm, the gooks left."  Gorman halted the air attacks.  Despite the horror of the American casualties, the napalm had done what was intended.  The Phu Loi Battalion was retreating and leaving their base camp to the 1^st Brigade. 

The 1^st Brigade spent the remainder of the day mopping up VC stragglers as they scoured the jungle north and east of the clearing.  Early in the day, nine men from the original lost patrol limped into the landing zone.  They had survived by hiding deep in VC bunkers with the  enemy all around them.

John Johnston lived through the twenty four hours of hell that was August 25.  Like many of the men who survived this fight, it is still burned into his psyche.  John later became the "RTO" and carried the platoon sergeant's radio.  He performed the same service for his platoon leader before he was offered a job in the Brigade mail room for his last month in country.  He turned it down ". . .because I was too proud to quit.  I told them about another guy who needed it worse than I did."  John received a Bronze Star for valor for his actions on August 25th.  His citation reads in part: 

Private First Class Johnston noticed a claymore mine set up in the path of his advancing comrades.  Realizing the imminent danger, he courageously rushed forward into a heavy barrage of mortar and automatic weapons fire and deftly disarmed the mine.  Later in the same afternoon, PFC Johnston personally led several members of his platoon in a grenade assault of Viet Cong occupied trenches and bunkers.  They were successful in routing the enemy.

John told me many years ago that "deftly disarmed the mine" meant that he laid the electrical wire across the butt of his M16 and hacked it with his bayonet!  It worked. 

18 year old PFC John Johnston (left) wears his newly won Bronze star with other veterans of Bong Trang. 
Photo Courtesy of the John Johnston

 Johnston was one of many men who were decorated for actions at Bong Trang.  Captain William Mullen and Ltc Paul Gorman were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.  Mullen, Gorman, and Berry all became general officers later in their careers.

Captain William J. Mullen III receives his Distinguished Service Cross from General William Westmoreland
during a ceremony after the battle of Bong Trang.  Probably one of the few times were a 1/2 Infantry
 black scarf was cleaned and pressed!  Photo from:  http://www.legionofvalor.com/citation_parse.php?uid=994197960

All battles come with a human cost.  For Vietnam War standards, August 25 was a murderous day.  The 1st Brigade of the First Infantry Division lost 43 killed and 248 wounded.  C and B Company of 1/2 Infantry sustained the lion's share of these losses.  Captured documents later revealed that the Phu Loi Battalion lost 171 killed at Bong Trang and their wounded filled VC medical facilities in the region.

AUTHORS NOTE:  I have one other connection to this story.  When I served with the First Infantry Division in the early 1980s, Colonel William J. Mullen III was my Brigade Commander.  Colonel Mullen was well liked and respected by his officers.  His part as a young captain in this battle so many years before, and the fact that he was a recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross (second only to the Medal of Honor in precedence) was unknown to us.  He was a level headed and humble commander, who expected the best from his men.