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18641776 Club

Mahone hits the gap; Barlow's division collapses in minutes near Petersburg

A ravine hides Mahone's men from both Union corps, and the Weldon Railroad stays Confederate as Grant's siege enters its first week.

Grant's siege of Petersburg was only days old when he ordered two Union corps to sever the Weldon Railroad — the supply line keeping Petersburg and Richmond alive. On June 21–23, 1864, the II Corps under Maj. Gen. David B. Birney and the VI Corps under Maj. Gen. Horatio G. Wright pushed southwest toward the tracks near Petersburg, Virginia. Swamps and thickets split the two corps apart, and Brig. Gen. William Mahone — a former railroad engineer who knew exactly how to use a ravine — hit the gap at 3 p.m. on June 22 and collapsed Brig. Gen. Francis C. Barlow's division in minutes. The railroad stayed Confederate for now, though Grant simply extended his siege lines west and kept reaching…

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More from June 21
1768

Otis stands before the General Court and charges King and Parliament with tyranny

The Boston lawyer who called taxation without representation unlawful delivers his sharpest attack yet; word is already moving toward London.
1788

New Hampshire ratifies; the Constitution crosses the nine-state threshold

Eight states had approved it and it meant nothing; the Granite State's vote today makes the Philadelphia document the law of a real nation.
1942

Japanese submarine shells Fort Stevens; Doney orders blackout, holds his guns

Commander Tagami surfaces I-25 at the Columbia River mouth after dark, fires seventeen rounds, and slips away undamaged, leaving cut telephone lines on the Oregon coast.
20041776 Club
SpaceShipOne, built by Burt Rutan for roughly $25 million of Paul Allen's money, breaks a 43-year government monopoly on crewed spaceflight.
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More from Civil War & Reconstruction
1861

Union guns open on Hatteras Inlet; the forts guarding it cannot answer

Two days of naval bombardment give the Union its first foothold on Confederate soil.
1864

Atlanta falls: Mayor Calhoun rides out under a flag of truce and gives up the city

Mayor James Calhoun hands over the city hours after Confederate forces torch what they cannot carry away.
1862

Lee marches north; Confederate columns wade the Potomac into Maryland

The Army of Northern Virginia carries the war onto Union soil for the first time.
1870

A 69-year-old grandmother votes in Laramie; no American woman has voted legally in 63 years

Louisa Ann Swain stopped for yeast on her way to the polls, then voted half an hour ahead of the next woman in line.
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