Army Almanac – Spring 2024

Major General Benedict Arnold, bitter at the delay of a court-martial for charges of profiteering, sends a letter to the British offering his services. A series of letters is exchanged in which Arnold negotiates his price.

George Washington is inaugurated as the first President and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy.

William Clark of the Corps of Discovery receives a lieutenant’s commission with captain’s pay. Clark accepts it, and Captain Meriwether Lewis assures him they will continue as “captains and co-commanders.” Clark is promoted to captain by Congress in 2000, 196 years after his commission.

The Army Corps of Engineers begins surveying the route of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. The canal is completed in 1850.

Colonel William W. Loring departs Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, for Oregon Territory with the Regiment of Riflemen to establish posts along the Oregon Trail to protect settlers moving west.

Major General George G. Meade’s Army of the Potomac and General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia clash in an area called The Wilderness near the Chancellorsville battlefield, with inconclusive results. Casualties are heavy: the Union losses number approximately 18,000 killed, wounded, and missing; Confederate casualties total 10,800.

The 332d Infantry returns to the United States after eight months in Italy. It is the only U.S. combat unit to serve in Italy during World War I.

Major General Joseph Green is named Chief of Coast Artillery and will be the last officer to service in this assignment. This position is eliminated soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

A treaty establishing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is signed, committing the signatories to the mutual defense of Western Europe. The U.S. Senate ratifies the treaty 83-12, marking the first time the United States has entered a military alliance in peacetime.

In the Vietnam War’s heaviest fighting to date, Viet Cong forces kill four American advisors and 250 South Vietnamese soldiers and local militia in the Mekong Delta.

Second Lieutenant Sally W. Murphy graduates from Army flight school, becoming the Army’s first female helicopter pilot.

Colonel James N. Rowe, chief of the Army branch of the Joint United States Military Advisory Group providing counterinsurgency training to the Philippine military, is assassinated by Marxist guerillas in Quezon City.

Specialist Michelle Witmer of the 32d Military Police Company is killed by an improvised explosive device. She is the first female National Guard soldier to be killed in action, and the first Wisconsin National Guard soldier to die in combat since World War II.

President Barack Obama announces a timetable for withdrawing most U.S. forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2016. U.S. forces will not fully withdraw until 2021.