Apr. 22 in US Military History

1863: Union Col. Benjamin Grierson begins a two-week raid through Mississippi cutting the state’s telegraph lines, destroying two trainloads of Confederate ammunition, destroying 50 miles of railroad, killing 100 and capturing 500 Confederates – at the cost of three wounded, seven wounded, and 14 missing.

1898: President William McKinley orders a naval blockade of Cuba.

1915: German forces introduce poison gas when they fire over 150 tons of chlorine gas, devastating the French line at Ypres, Belgium.

1944: American soldiers land in New Guinea for Operations RECKLESS and PERSECUTION, beginning a three month battle that would claim the lives of 12,811 of the original 15,000 Japanese troops, compared to only 527 Americans.

1945: Adolf Hitler confides to his aides in his underground bunker that the war is lost and suicide is his only option. He will kill himself in eight days.

1987: The U.S. Navy is ordered to provide assistance to neutral vessels under Iranian attack.

2004: Pat Tillman, who left a multi-million dollar career in professional football to join the Army Rangers, is killed while on patrol in eastern Afghanistan.

Adapted (and abridged) in part from “This Week in US Military History” by W. Thomas Smith Jr. at Human Events.