📅 On This Day in Military History
4 events across history
Wolfe's army had besieged Quebec for three months without success. Then a small cove was discovered — the Anse au Foulon — where the cliffs were climbable. In the darkness before dawn, 4,500 British troops scaled the cliff and formed up on the Plains of Abraham above the city. Montcalm came out to fight rather than wait behind Quebec's walls. In a 15-minute exchange of volleys, both commanders were mortally wounded. Quebec fell five days later.
The most decisive battle in North American history. Both commanding generals died — Wolfe on the field, Montcalm the next morning. Quebec's fall doomed New France; Montreal fell in 1760. The Seven Years' War in North America was effectively over. The entire continent east of the Mississippi became British. Without this battle, the United States as we know it might not exist.
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Following their triumph at Washington, the British turned their attention to Baltimore, a wealthy port city and privateering hub. The fleet bombarded Fort McHenry continuously for 25 hours, firing some 1,800 shells and rockets. The fort's garrison under Major George Armistead held firm throughout the night. An American lawyer named Francis Scott Key, held aboard a British truce ship while negotiating a prisoner release, watched the bombardment through the night. At dawn, he saw the American flag — a massive 30 by 42 foot garrison flag — still flying over the fort. The sight moved him to write the poem that became 'The Star-Spangled Banner.'
Fort McHenry's successful defense saved Baltimore and shattered British momentum in the Chesapeake. The battle inspired one of the most famous poems in American history, which was eventually set to music and adopted as the national anthem in 1931. The image of the flag still flying became an enduring symbol of American defiance.
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Chapultepec Castle, sitting atop a rocky hill and serving as Mexico's national military academy, was the last major fortification before Mexico City. Scott's assault combined artillery bombardment with simultaneous infantry scaling-ladder assaults from multiple directions. The cadets of the military college — the Niños Héroes — fought alongside regular troops and several died rather than surrender. The castle fell in bitter fighting, and two American officers — including young Lt. Ulysses S. Grant — took initiative to haul artillery pieces into church towers, accelerating the Mexican collapse.
The storming of Chapultepec is remembered as the decisive battle of the war and one of the most celebrated actions in U.S. Marine Corps history ('the Halls of Montezuma'). The fall of the castle opened the causeways into Mexico City. The Niños Héroes became enduring heroes of Mexican national memory. Within hours, Scott's army entered the capital.
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Following the fall of Chapultepec, American columns advanced along the causeways into Mexico City through the night of September 13–14. Street fighting continued through the early morning hours as Mexican soldiers and armed civilians resisted the advance. Santa Anna evacuated the city rather than allow it to become a charnel house. On the morning of September 14, 1847, General Scott rode into the Grand Plaza and the Stars and Stripes were raised over the National Palace — the Hall of Montezuma.
The occupation of Mexico City effectively ended the war. With their capital fallen and their army shattered, Mexican political leaders had no choice but to negotiate. The occupation lasted until June 1848, when the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was ratified and American forces withdrew. The campaign from Veracruz to Mexico City over 260 miles against superior numbers is studied at military academies worldwide.
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