The Battle of Marais des Cygnes took place on October 25, 1864, in Linn
County, Kansas, during Price's Missouri Raid in the American Civil War.
A large Confederate cavalry incursion into Missouri in late 1864
attempted to draw Union troops away from the fighting further east.
After several victories the Confederates were defeated at the Battle of
Westport and withdrew into Kansas. They camped along the banks of the
Marais des Cygnes River on the night of October 24 while Union cavalry
pursuers skirmished with their rear guard. The battle began early the
next morning as 3,500 Union troops drove this force from its position,
capturing cannons, prisoners, and wagons. An attempted stand at the
river crossing was outflanked by a Union cavalry regiment, forcing the
Confederates to abandon it. A rear guard action by a 1,200-man
Confederate brigade bought time to disengage and retreat. After two
further defeats on the same day and another on October 28, the
Confederates retreated to Texas.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Marais_des_Cygnes>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1854:
Crimean War: Lord Cardigan led his cavalry on a disastrous
assault in the Battle of Balaclava.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Balaclava>
1927:
The Italian cruise liner SS Principessa Mafalda sank when a
propeller shaft broke and fractured the hull, resulting in 314 deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Principessa_Mafalda>
1944:
Heinrich Himmler ordered a crackdown on the Edelweiss Pirates,
a nonconformist youth group that assisted army deserters and others
hiding from the Nazis.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edelweiss_Pirates>
2001:
Windows XP, one of the most popular and widely used versions of
the Microsoft Windows operating system, was released for retail sale.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_XP>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
croft:
An enclosed piece of land, usually small and arable and used for small-
scale food production, and often with a dwelling next to it; in
particular, such a piece of land rented to a farmer (a crofter),
especially in Scotland, together with a right to use separate
pastureland shared by other crofters.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/croft>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Neither is there figurative and non-figurative art. All things
appear to us in the shape of forms. Even in metaphysics ideas are
expressed by forms, well then think how absurd it would be to think of
painting without the imagery of forms. A figure, an object, a circle,
are forms; they affect us more or less intensely.
--Pablo Picasso
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pablo_Picasso>
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