The 21st Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was an infantry
regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It was
organized in Worcester, Massachusetts, and mustered into service on
August 23, 1861. After fighting in the Battle of Roanoke Island and the
Battle of New Bern, the 21st Massachusetts was attached to the Army of
the Potomac and participated in several of the largest battles of the
Civil War, including the Second Battle of Bull Run, the Battle of
Antietam and the Battle of Fredericksburg. The most devastating
engagement of the war for the 21st was the Battle of Chantilly, fought
on September 1, 1862, during which the unit suffered 35 percent
casualties. From March 1863 to January 1864, the 21st served with
Burnside in the Department of the Ohio, seeing action in Kentucky and
eastern Tennessee. In May 1864, the regiment rejoined the Army of the
Potomac, participating in Lt. Gen. Ulysses Grant's Overland Campaign
and the Siege of Petersburg. The regiment was a favorite of Clara
Barton, the famed battlefield nurse, who was also from Worcester
County, Massachusetts. By the end of its three years of service, the
21st Massachusetts had been reduced from 1,000 men to fewer than 100.
Those of the 21st who chose to re-enlist at the end of their initial
three-year commitment were eventually consolidated with the 36th
Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry on October 21, 1864.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/21st_Regiment_Massachusetts_Volunteer_Infantry>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
356 BC:
The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the
Ancient World, was destroyed in an act of arson by a man named
Herostratus.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Artemis>
1831:
In Brussels, Leopold I was inaugurated as the first King of the
Belgians.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_I_of_Belgium>
1861:
In the First Battle of Bull Run, the first major land battle in the
American Civil War, the Confederate Army under Joseph E. Johnston and
P. G. T. Beauregard routed Union Army troops under Irvin McDowell.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Bull_Run>
1925:
Creation–evolution controversy: High school biology teacher John T.
Scopes was found guilty of violating Tennessee's Butler Act by teaching
evolution in class.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopes_Trial>
1964:
Race riots began in Padang, Singapore, then part of Malaysia, during a
Malay procession marking Muhammad's birthday, leaving 23 people killed,
450 people injured, significant damage to property and vehicles, and a
government imposed 11-day curfew.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_race_riots_in_Singapore>
1995:
The Chinese People's Liberation Army began firing missiles into the
waters north of Taiwan, starting the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Taiwan_Strait_Crisis>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
cacuminous (adj):
(rare) Having a pyramidal top
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cacuminous>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Now I've been happy lately
Thinking about the good things to come
And I believe it could be
Something good has begun.
Oh, I've been smiling lately
Dreaming about the world as one
And
I believe it could be
Someday it's going to come.
--Cat Stevens
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cat_Stevens>