U.S. Army Center of Military History

21 JUNE 1860 – SIGNAL CORPS BRANCH BIRTHDAY

Although officially constituted in 1863, the U.S. Army Signal Corps’ lineage began in 1860, with the appointment of the Army’s first dedicated Signal Officer. Upon its creation, the Signal Corps was the world’s first service branch dedicated to the communications systems and infrastructure.

In 1856, Assistant Surgeon Captain Albert J. Myer, a medical officer stationed in Texas, proposed that the Army adopt the visual communications system he developed and named "aerial telegraphy," but more commonly called "Wigwag."

Captain Meyer's "Wigwag" idea worked by using flags in daylight and torches at night to transmit visual signals (elements reflected on the Signal Corps branch insignia). After successful demonstration and application, the Army approved Meyer's proposal on 21 June 1860 and named him the first signal officer, with the grade of major.

Meyer was ordered to recruit and train personnel from within the Army, who were then detailed to the Signal Corps, and gave him a modest budget for the procurement of equipment. While Meyer had recommended the establishment of a separate, trained professional military service, the Signal Corps did not constitute an official organization until 3 March 1863, along with Meyers' promotion to the rank of colonel. By the end of the Civil War, approximately 2,900 officers and men had served in the Signal Corps.

The end of the Civil War did not bring an end to Signal Corps missions and responsibilities. Signal Corps soldiers continued to play a vital role in the Army's history, and introduced numerous innovations in military communications including aeronautics, aviation, radar, radio-telephone equipment, as well as land, wireless and satellite communication, to name a few.

The Army Signal Corps continues to develop, test, provide, and manage communications and information systems support for the command and control of combined arms forces.

U.S. Army US ARMY Signal Corps Signal Corps Regimental Association

20 JUNE 1941 – U.S. ARMY AIR FORCES FOUNDED

The formation of the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) as an independent Army component on 20 June 1941 was the culmination of a continuous process of evolution in the U.S. Army’s approach to military aviation reflecting the ever-increasing importance of aircraft in military affairs.

On 2 July 1926, the U.S. Army Air Service became the U.S. Army Air Corps, in recognition of the expanded role of military aviation during and after World War I. The change gave the Air Corps permanence and the status of a combat arms branch, although its position in the War Department remained unchanged since flying units remained under the operational control of ground forces.

The Air Corps was responsible for procurement and maintenance of aircraft, supply of units, and training of personnel. Anticipating the importance of air power in the next war, it explored innovations in strategic bombing, air transport, and tactical support of ground forces.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Major General Henry H. "Hap" Arnold as Chief of the Air Corps on 29 September 1938; under his leadership, the Corps’ autonomy grew and was aviation elements were consolidated under centralized control with the formation of the U.S. Army Air Forces in June 1941.

The USAAF administered all facets of military aviation within the Army, including controlling its own installations and support units, and the "Air Staff" status became equal to the General Staff. In December, Arnold was made a Lieutenant General and appointed Chief of the Army Air Forces, placing him on par with the commanding generals of the Army's other components. This title was changed to Commanding General of U.S. Army Air Forces in 1942.

The USAAF became a quasi-independent service under the War Department with control of all aspects of the air war and operations in every theater, determining policy, and issuing orders. The U.S. Army Air Corps continued as a branch of the Army under the U.S. Army Air Forces until the establishment of the U.S. Air Force as separate armed force in 1947.

U.S. Army United States Air Force National Museum of the U.S. Air Force

19 JUNE 1865 - JUNETEENTH

Also called Freedom Day, Juneteenth celebrates the emancipation of the enslaved people in America two and a half years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

Major General Gordon Granger and a contingent of U.S. Army soldiers, arrived in Galveston, TX with news that the and slavery had ended. Roughly 250,000 slaves gained their freedom.

Granger’s mission was to occupy the formerly Confederate state of Texas in the aftermath of the Confederacy’s surrender. On 19 June, Granger read out a general order to the Black and White people of Galveston that...

“The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free . . . this involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves.”

U.S. Army

18 JUNE 1864 – SIEGE OF PETERSBURG BEGINS

In early June 1864, U.S. Army forces in Virginia besieged the Confederate capital at Richmond and the rebel Army of Northern Virginia’s main logistical base at Petersburg, beginning the longest campaign in the Civil War’s Eastern Theater (4 June 1864 – 2 April 1865).

Since the start of the Overland Campaign in the spring of 1864, Confederate General Robert E. Lee had blocked the advancing Union Army commanded by Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant as they attempted to outflank the rebels. Grant once again slipped around Lee's entrenched right flank and attempted to pry the rebels out of their trenches by striking at Petersburg, about thirty miles south of Richmond.

Petersburg formed the junction of all the railways and main roads connecting the rebel capital with the rest of the South and was the key to Lee’s position. In a move that took Lee by surprise, elements of Grant's army suddenly crossed the James River below Richmond with about 64,000 troops on 14 June.

The next day his lead units reached Petersburg. The city was lightly defended, but the U.S. forces unaccountably delayed their attack, enabling Lee to send in substantial reinforcements. A U.S. assault on 18 June failed to pierce the Confederate defenses and cost Grant’s force 8,150 casualties.

At the end of July, U.S. sappers tunneled a great mine under the Confederate works and detonated it. The follow-up infantry assault at "The Crater" failed to exploit the huge but temporary breach in the Confederate line, and U.S. forces suffered another 4,000 casualties. Grant thereupon undertook siege operations which lasted until April 1865.

U.S. Army

18 JUNE 1812 – CONGRESS DECLARES WAR ON UNITED KINGDOM, WAR OF 1812 BEGINS

After years of escalating provocations by its former colonial overlords, the United States declared war on the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on 18 June 1812. This was the first declaration of war by Congress under the Constitution and signaled the official beginning of the War of 1812, often called “America’s Second War of Independence.”

Tensions between the United States and Britain began to rise in the 1790’s, as American neutrality in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars brought the fledgling nation into diplomatic conflict with both Britain and France over maritime trade issues.

Britain leveraged their dominance over the seas during the Napoleonic Wars to escalate their infringements on American sovereignty, primarily through the illegal stoppage of U.S. vessels and seizure of American sailors under allegations of desertion from the Royal Navy (a tactic called “impressment”).

These issues surrounding maritime trade became the core of the American case for war and were further buttressed by American frustration at continued British support for Native Nations on the American frontier.

On 1 June 1812, President James Madison addressed a message to Congress outlining these grievances with British policy towards the United States and requesting that Congress declare war against the United Kingdom.

Congress passed a declaration of war by a narrow margin, with significant opposition by northeastern business interests. The war continued for just over two and a half years, ending in early 1815 with an effective return to the status quo antebellum.

U.S. Army

17 JUNE 1775 – BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL - REVOLUTIONARY WAR

Unaware that the Second Continental Congress had adopted them as the nucleus of the Continental Army, the New England Army of Observation fought the first pitched battle of the Revolutionary War on 17 June 1775 at Breed’s Hill, across the Charles River from Boston.

On the night of 16 – 17 June, about 1,200 soldiers of the New England Army of Observation arrived on the peninsula between the Charles and Mystic Rivers to fortify Bunker Hill. Working at night, they quickly built entrenchments on nearby Breed’s Hill instead, constructing fortifications six feet high.

The next morning, 17 June, the British saw the fortifications overlooking Boston from across the river. The British commander, Lieutenant General Thomas Gage, ordered the Royal Navy to ferry 2,200 troops under the command of Major General William Howe across the Charles River to clear the Patriot force off the peninsula.

Patriot forces led by Massachusetts militia Major General Israel Putnam prepared to resist the British effort to dislodge them from Breed’s Hill, and Major General Putnam issued his famous order: “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes.”

Major General Howe's infantry staged two frontal assaults which were repulsed by withering musket fire. In their third effort to storm the Patriot redoubt, the Redcoats converged on the American forces in a three-column attack. The Patriot soldiers, running low on ammunition, began using their muskets as clubs as the British swarmed their defenses and forced the Patriots into retreat.

The British paid dearly for their victory at Breed’s Hill, suffering over a thousand casualties while inflicting fewer than five hundred on the Patriots. Their failure to destroy the nascent rebel army allowed General George Washington, newly commissioned as the “general and commander in chief” of the Continental Army, to formally assume command on 3 July 1775 and besiege the British in Boston.

U.S. Army

16 JUNE 1775 – FOUR ARMY BRANCH BIRTHDAYS

On 16 June 1775, two days after resolving to raise the Continental Army, the Second Continental Congress set about the business of laying the foundation for "the American army,” creating the organizational predecessors to the modern U.S. Army’s Adjutant General’s Corps, Finance Corps, Quartermaster Corps, and Corps of Engineers.

The structure included providing for the appointment and pay of key officers, with two major generals, eight "brigadiers general," one adjutant general, one commissary general of stores and provisions, and one quartermaster general for the "grand army," with a deputy under him for the separate army.

The delegates also voted to appoint a paymaster general, also with a deputy under him, for the army in a separate department, one chief engineer at the grand army, with two assistants under him, as well as a chief engineer for the army in a separate department, also with two assistants.

In keeping with the principal officers appointed, 16 June represents the birthdays of four of the Army’s branches: the Adjutant General’s Corps, Finance Corps, Quartermaster Corps, and the Corps of Engineers.

During the Revolutionary War, eight Army basic branches were "Born" and an additional four Special Branches.

U.S. Army

15 JUNE 1944 – BATTLE OF SAIPAN BEGINS

In the opening engagement of the Western Pacific Campaign, a joint Army-Marine Corps force invaded Saipan in the Mariana Islands on 15 June 1944. The invasion, the first part of Operation FORAGER, proved more difficult than expected, and was complicated by significant friction between Army and Marine Corps components.

The landings on Saipan fell to Lieutenant General Holland M. “Howlin’ Mad” Smith’s V Marine Amphibious Corps, including the 2d Marine Division, the 4th Marine Division, and the Army 27th Infantry Division, commanded by Major General Ralph Smith.

The 27th Infantry Division, in reserve during the initial assault, came ashore on D+1 (16 June), and took responsibility for clearing the southern part of the island before advancing alongside the marines for the final push northward.

In addition to fanatical Japanese defenders, the terrain proved a formidable obstacle, with cane fields, marshes, and mountainous topography that slowed dismounted troops and canalized vehicles onto the few, poorly constructed roads, forcing them into enemy kill-zones.

On 24 June, Lieutenant General Smith relieved Major General Smith of command due to the 27th Division's slow progress, but without consideration for the nature of terrain the soldiers faced compared to that encountered by the marines.

The soldiers had to advance through “Death Valley,” an open-air shooting gallery surrounded by enemy-controlled hills and cliffs. The 27th took heavy casualties but overcame resistance by implementing their relieved commander's plan under his replacement.

On the night of 6 July, the remnants of the Japanese defense force launched a final desperate banzai attack which overran much of the Army's 105th Infantry and inflicted over a thousand casualties before being repulsed. Within a few days, the island was declared secure. It took twenty-five days for the three divisions to secure the island and a further month to mop up remaining resistance. Total Army casualties during the operation numbered 3,674 killed, wounded, and missing.

U.S. Army