March 1, 1943 - Monday - 80 years ago today

Status - John Skinner - USS Fullam: 

John was on duty at his new destroyer, the USS Fullam, at the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston. Activity would be picking up onboard ship as the Fullam neared it commissioning date of March 2nd.

South Pacific

The Navy has begun to get more ships into the theater, including newer battleships, and more cruisers and destroyers.  More fleet carriers will not be coming soon; but 3 slower, smaller escort carriers have arrived to supplement Saratoga and Enterprise.

Having advanced to the Russell Islands, the next target will be New Georgia and the surrounding group of islands.  The Navy is planning to send two cruiser-destroyer task forces to shell Japanese bases on these islands.

More Information:

• Official Navy Chronology, pp. 314-315.
• Breaking the Bismarcks Barrier, Samuel Eliot Morison, pp. 1-106.
  

 

NEXT POST:  MARCH 5TH

 

March 1, 1863 - Sunday - 160 years ago today

Status - John Baer - 40th Indiana Regiment - Crittenden's Corps - Wood's Division - Wagner's Brigade 

For a little while General Wood had assumed command of the 21st Corps in place of General Crittenden, and Colonel Wagner commands Wood's division.  These arrangements are temporary and Crittenden will return before the army advances.  The division (1st Division, 21st Corps) now had about 5500 men present for duty.

More Information:

• Link: War Operations, see Volume XXIII, Chapter XXXV, Part II, Correspondence,  pp. 87-98.
• The Civil War Day by Day, John S. Bowman, Ed. pp. 98-99.
• The Civil War, A Narrative, Vol 1I, Fredericksburg to Meridian, Shelby Foote, pp. 166-174. 
• This Terrible Sound, The Battle of Chickamauga,  Peter Cozzens, pp. 1-22.
  

NEXT POST:  MARCH 5TH