The 68th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The men were recruited mostly from Manhattan, but some came from New Jersey, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Most were German immigrants, and many of the officers had served in the armies of Austria, Prussia, and other German states. Organized in July 1861, three months after the outbreak of war, they were initially assigned to the defense of Washington, D.C., with the Army of the Potomac, and later fought at the Battle of Cross Keys in the Shenandoah Valley. They found themselves in the thick of the fighting at Second Bull Run, and were routed by Confederate forces at Chancellorsville. At Gettysburg, they saw battle on two of the three days and took heavy losses. The regiment was then transferred to the west and participated in the Chattanooga campaign. They assisted in the Union victories at Wauhatchie and Missionary Ridge, and marched to relieve the siege of Knoxville. They spent the last year of the war on occupation duty in Tennessee and Georgia, before being disbanded in November 1865.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/68th_New_York_Volunteer_Infantry_Regiment

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1793:

Two days after becoming the first recorded person to complete a transcontinental crossing of North America north of Mexico, Scottish explorer Alexander Mackenzie reached the westernmost point of his journey and inscribed his name on a rock (pictured). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Mackenzie_(explorer)

1802:

Gia Long conquered Hanoi and unified modern-day Vietnam, which had experienced centuries of feudal warfare. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gia_Long

1944:

In opposition to the Polish government-in-exile, the Polish Committee of National Liberation published its manifesto, calling for radical reforms, a continuation of fighting in World War II against Nazi Germany, nationalisation of industry, and a "decent border in the West". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Committee_of_National_Liberation

1975:

Stanley Forman took the photo Fire Escape Collapse, which would receive the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography and the title of World Press Photo of the Year. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Escape_Collapse

2005:

London metropolitan police killed Jean Charles de Menezes, a Brazilian immigrant, after misidentifying him as being involved in the previous day's failed bombing attempts on the city. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Jean_Charles_de_Menezes

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

roundelay: (music) A poem or song having a line or phrase repeated at regular intervals. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/roundelay

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

He brings man's freedom in his hands, Not as a coin that may be spent or lost But as a living fire within the heart, Never quite quenched — because he brings to all, The thought, the wish, the dream of brotherhood, Never and never to be wholly lost, The water and the bread of the oppressed, The stay and succor of the resolute, The harness of the valiant and the brave, The new word that has changed the shaken world. And, though he die, his word shall grow like wheat And every time a child is born, In pain and love and freedom hardly won, Born and gone forth to help and aid mankind, There will be women with a right to say "Gloria, gloria in excelsis deo! A child is born!"   --Stephen Vincent Benét https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_Vincent_Ben%C3%A9t