During the rally, a caravan of cars containing Klansmen and members of the American Nazi Party drove by the housing projects. After being heckled by Klansmen, several marchers began to attack the Klansmens' cars with sticks. A standoff ended in a scuffle, whereupon Klansmen and Nazis left their cars and wildly fired into the crowd with shotguns, rifles and pistols. Cauce, Waller, and Sampson were killed at the scene. Smith was shot between the eyes when she peeked from her hiding place. Eleven others were wounded. One of them, Dr. Nathan, later died from his wounds.[3] Much of the armed confrontation was filmed by four local news camera crews.

A witness identified Robert Chambliss, a member of the Ku Klux Klan, as the man who placed the bomb under the steps of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. He was arrested and charged with murder and possessing a box of 122 sticks of dynamite without a permit. On 8 October, 1963, Chambliss was found not guilty of murder and received a hundred-dollar fine and a six-month jail sentence for having the dynamite. The case was unsolved until Bill Baxley was elected attorney general of Alabama. He requested the original Federal Bureau of Investigation files on the case and discovered that the organization had accumulated a great deal of evidence against Chambliss that had not been used in the original trial.

In November, 1977 Chambliss was tried once again for the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing. Now aged 73, Chambliss was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. Chambliss died in an Alabama prison on 29 October, 1985.

After the murder of civil rights worker Viola Liuzzo, Johnson went on television to announce the arrest of four Ku Klux Klansmen implicated in her death. He angrily denounced the Klan as a "hooded society of bigots," and warned them to "return to a decent society before it's too late." Johnson was the first President to arrest and prosecute[citation needed] members of the Klan since Ulysses S. Grant about 93 years earlier. He turned the themes of Christian redemption to push for civil rights, thereby mobilizing support from churches North and South.

West Point was first occupied by the Continental Army on 27 January 1778,[7] making it the longest continually occupied post in the United States.[8] Between 1778 and 1780, Polish engineer and military hero Tadeusz Kościuszko oversaw the construction of the garrison defenses.[9] The Great Chain and high ground above the narrow "S" curve in the Hudson River enabled the Continental Army to prevent British ships from sailing up river and dividing the Colonies.[10][11] It was as commander of the fortifications at West Point that Benedict Arnold committed his infamous act of treason when he attempted to sell the fort to the British.[12][13] The main fort at West Point had originally been named after Arnold, but was changed to Fort Clinton after Arnold's betrayal.

A musket ball was an early form of ammunition used for loading muskets. Musket balls were generally made from lead (though at times stone musket balls were used), and were muzzle-loaded into the barrel of the musket, wrapped in a loosely-fitting paper patch and backed with gunpowder.

Bundling, or Tarrying, was the traditional practice of wrapping one person in a bed accompanied by another, usually as a part of courting behavior. The tradition is thought to have originated either in the Netherlands or in the British Isles and later became common in Colonial America[1], especially in Pennsylvania Dutch Country. When used for courtship, the aim was to allow intimacy without sexual intercourse.

Lee is most notorious for his actions during the Battle of Monmouth. Washington needed a secondary commander to lead the frontal assault. He unwillingly chose to put Lee in charge as he was the most senior of his generals. Washington ordered him to attack the retreating enemy, but instead, Lee ordered a retreat. He retreated directly into Washington and his troops, who were advancing, and Washington dressed him down publicly. Lee responded with "inappropriate language" (insubordination), was arrested, and shortly thereafter court-martialed. Lee was found guilty, and he was relieved of command for a period of one year.

The carronade was adopted by the Royal Navy in 1779; the lower muzzle velocity of the round shot when fired from this cannon was intended to create more wooden splinters when hitting the structure of an enemy vessel, as they were believed to be deadly.[68] The carronade was much shorter, and weighed between a third to a quarter of the equivalent long gun; for example, a 32 pounder carronade weighed less than a ton, compared with a 32 pounder long gun, which weighed over 3 tons. The guns were, therefore, easier to handle, and also required less than half as much gunpowder, allowing fewer men to crew them.[69] Carronades were manufactured in the usual naval gun calibers,[70] but were not counted in a ship of the line's rated number of guns. As a result, the classification of Royal Navy vessels in this period can be misleading, as they often carried more cannon than were listed.

When the word of the revolution reached Gates in late May 1775, he rushed to Mount Vernon and offered his services to George Washington. In June, the Congress began organizing the Continental Army. In accepting command, Washington urged the appointment of Gates as adjutant of the army. On June 17, 1775, Congress commissioned Gates as a Brigadier General and Adjutant General of the Continental Army. He is considered the first Adjutant General of the American Army.

he Battle of Monmouth (pronounced /ˈmɒnməθ/) was an American Revolutionary War battle fought on June 28, 1778 in Monmouth County, New Jersey. The Continental Army under General George Washington attacked the rear of the British Army column commanded by Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton as they left Monmouth Court House (modern Freehold Borough). Unsteady handling of lead Continental elements by Major General Charles Lee had allowed British rearguard commander Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis to seize the initiative but Washington's timely arrival on the battlefield rallied the Americans along a hilltop hedgerow. Sensing the opportunity to smash the Continentals, Cornwallis pressed his attack and captured the hedgerow in stifling heat. Washington consolidated his troops in a new line on heights behind marshy ground, used his artillery to fix the British in their positions, then brought up a four gun battery under Major General Nathanael Greene on nearby Combs Hill to enfilade the British line, requiring Cornwallis to withdraw. Finally, Washington tried to hit the exhausted British rear guard on both flanks, but darkness forced the end of the engagement. Both armies held the field, but the British commanding General Clinton withdrew undetected at midnight to resume his army's march to New York City.

When the American Revolutionary War began at the Battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775, the colonial revolutionaries did not have an army. Previously, each colony had relied upon the militia, made up of part time citizen-soldiers, for local defense, or the raising of temporary "provincial regiments" during specific crises such as the French and Indian War. As tensions with Great Britain increased in the years leading up to the war, colonists began to reform their militia in preparation for the potential conflict. Training of militiamen increased after the passage of the Intolerable Acts in 1774. Colonists such as Richard Henry Lee proposed creating a national militia force, but the First Continental Congress rejected the idea.[1] The minutemen were completely outnumbered. After Lexington and Concord, thousands of militiamen from New England gathered to oppose the British troops who had been bottled up in Boston.

With winter almost completely setting in, and the prospects for campaigning greatly diminishing, General George Washington sought quarters for his men. Washington and his troops had just fought what was to be the last major engagement of 1777 at the Battle of White Marsh (or Edge Hill). He devised to pull his troops from their present encampment in the White Marsh area (now Fort Washington State Park) and move to a more secure location for the coming winter. Though several locations were proposed, he selected Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, 18 miles (29 km) northwest of Philadelphia.

On December 19, 1777, when Washington's poorly fed, ill-equipped army, weary from long marches, struggled into Valley Forge, winds blew as the 12,000 Continentals prepared for winter's fury. Grounds for brigade encampments were selected, and defense lines were planned and begun. Though construction of more than a thousand huts provided shelter, it did little to offset the critical shortages that continually plagued the army.

Soon word of the British departure from Philadelphia brought a frenzied activity to the ranks of the Continental Army. On June 19, 1778, six months after its arrival, the army marched away from Valley Forge in pursuit of the British, who were moving toward New York. The ordeal had ended. The war would last for another five years, but for Washington, his men, and the nation to which they sought to give birth, a decisive victory had been won — a victory not of weapons but of will

n the American Revolution, Lafayette served in the Continental Army under George Washington.

In 1775, Lafayette took part in his unit's annual training in Metz, where he met Charles-François, comte de Broglie, the Army of the East's commander and a superior. When the Duke of Gloucester, King George III's brother and colonial policy critic, travelled through the region, he was invited to dinner with de Broglie and his men.[4] Lafayette wrote in his memoirs that at this dinner when he ...first learned of that quarrel, my heart was enlisted and I thought only of joining the colors..

On the night of January 2, 1777 Washington, Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, repulsed a British attack at the Battle of the Assunpink Creek in Trenton. That night, he evacuated his position, circled around General Lord Cornwallis' army, and went to attack the British garrison at Princeton.

On Christmas Day, Washington ordered his army to prepare three days' food, and issued orders that every soldier be outfitted with fresh flints for their muskets.[24] He was also somewhat worried by intelligence reports that the British were planning their own crossing once the Delaware was frozen over. At 4 pm Washington's army turned out for its evening parade, where the troops were issued ammunition, and even the officers and musicians were ordered to carry muskets. They were told that they were departing on a secret mission.[25] Marching eight abreast in close formations, and ordered to be as quiet as possible, the left the camp for McKonkey's Ferry.[26] Washington's plan required the crossing to begin as soon as it was dark enough to conceal their movements on the river, but most of the troops did not reach the crossing point until about 6 pm, about ninety minutes after sunset.[27] The weather got progressively worse, turn from drizzle to rain to sleet and snow. "It blew a hurricane" recalled one soldier.[28]