THIS DAY IN U.S. MILITARY HISTORY • OCTOBER 28 1776 Continental Army American Revolutionary War

Continental Forces Clash at the Battle of White Plains

General George Washington mounts a fighting defense at Chatterton Hill against advancing British and Hessian regiments.

General George Washington deployed thirteen thousand Continental soldiers across the rolling ridges of White Plains to block British forces advancing through Westchester County. General William Howe directed fourteen thousand British regulars and Hessian mercenaries north in two columns to crush the American army after weeks of maneuvers across Manhattan. Continental outposts took up position on Chatterton Hill, a critical elevation rising above the Bronx River on the American right flank. Brigadier General Alexander McDougall commanded the hill with sixteen hundred troops, supported by Colonel John Haslet's Delaware regiment and Captain Alexander Hamilton's artillery battery.

British and Hessian columns slammed into the American defensive lines around mid-morning after crossing the Bronx River under intense canister fire. Captain Hamilton directed his fieldpieces with deadly precision from the crest of Chatterton Hill, repeatedly breaking up enemy attempts to ford the swollen stream. Hessian grenadiers under Colonel Johann Rall eventually secured a crossing downstream, flanking the American position while British light dragoons charged the slope. Militia units on the American right broke under the combined cavalry and bayonet assault, exposing the veteran Continental regulars to intense enfilading musketry.

Colonel Haslet conducted an orderly fighting retreat with his Delaware and Maryland Continentals, preventing the collapse of the entire flank into a rout. General Washington utilized this fighting withdrawal to reposition his main forces into fortified entrenchments on the commanding heights of North Castle. General Howe halted his advance instead of launching an immediate assault against the primary American entrenchments, awaiting reinforcements while torrential autumn rains soaked the battlefield. American casualties totaled roughly one hundred and seventy-five men killed and wounded, while British and Hessian casualties exceeded two hundred and thirty. Continental forces safely evacuated the area on November 1, preserving the army intact for the subsequent New Jersey campaign.

CHRONOLOGICAL RECORD

October 28 Across U.S. Military History

8 Verified Events

1778 Continental Army • American Revolutionary War

Major Silas Talbot Captures British Galley Pigot

Major Silas Talbot steered the armed American sloop Hawke through the Sakonnet River under cover of darkness to strike the British galley Pigot. American soldiers rammed through the defensive netting, boarded the deck without taking a casualty, and captured the eight-gun warship. Talbot sailed the captured vessel to Connecticut, breaking the British naval blockade around Narragansett Bay.

1863 U.S. Army Landmark Event • American Civil War

Battle of Wauhatchie Defends the Cracker Line

Brigadier General John W. Geary positioned his Union division at Wauhatchie Station in Lookout Valley to protect the new supply route into Chattanooga. Confederate forces under Brigadier General Micah Jenkins launched a midnight assault to sever the road, but Geary's men held a rigid defensive line. Union reinforcements drove off the attackers, securing the vital Cracker Line for besieged Federal troops.

1864 U.S. Army • American Civil War

Union Cavalry Routs Confederates at Morristown

Brigadier General Alvan C. Gillem led three Union cavalry regiments against entrenched Confederate troops commanded by Brigadier General John C. Vaughn outside Morristown, Tennessee. Union troopers smashed through Vaughn's frontline positions, outflanked the second line, and scattered the defenders in full retreat. Gillem captured hundreds of prisoners and valuable supplies, consolidating Federal control over the upper East Tennessee corridor.

1942 U.S. Army Landmark Event • World War II

Army Engineers Complete the Alaska Highway Linkup

Engineers from the United States Army completed the initial 1,700-mile military pioneer route of the Alaska Highway at Beaver Creek in the Yukon. Soldiers from segregated African American engineer regiments and white units carved the road through dense subarctic wilderness in less than eight months. Construction crews established a direct overland logistics corridor connecting Alaska to the continental American road network.

1944 U.S. Army Air Forces Landmark Event • World War II

First Marianas B-29 Combat Sortie Strikes Truk

Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers from the 73rd Bombardment Wing launched from newly completed Isley Field on Saipan to bomb Japanese positions on Truk Atoll. Fourteen aircraft executed the long-range strike to test operational procedures and high-altitude bombing tactics over enemy territory. Missions proved that Mariana bases could support full-scale strategic bombing campaigns against the Japanese mainland.

Read Archive Article: VR11 Strategic Airlift Breakdown in the Marianas 1944

1944 U.S. Army • World War II

Staff Sergeant Lucian Adams Clears German Strongpoint

Staff Sergeant Lucian Adams advanced alone through the Mortagne Forest near Saint-Die, France, after intense German machine-gun fire pinned down his company. Adams charged forward firing a Browning Automatic Rifle from his hip, eliminating three hostile machine guns and killing nine German defenders. Gallantry during the assault reopened the severed supply line to his battalion and earned Adams the Medal of Honor.

1952 U.S. Navy • Cold War

Douglas XA3D-1 Skywarrior Makes First Flight

Pilot George Jansen flew the prototype Douglas XA3D-1 Skywarrior on its maiden flight at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Douglas designed the twin-jet heavy bomber to provide the Navy with a carrier-based platform capable of carrying nuclear weapons. Airframes served the fleet for nearly four decades across Vietnam and the Cold War as tankers, electronic warfare aircraft, and reconnaissance planes.

1962 U.S. Navy Landmark Event • Cold War

Naval Quarantine Forces Soviet Missile Withdrawal

Premier Nikita Khrushchev announced the withdrawal and dismantling of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba, concluding the tense standoff with the United States. President John F. Kennedy maintained a strict naval quarantine around the island, utilizing destroyers and carrier battle groups to compel the retreat. American naval vessels conducted reconnaissance to verify the loading and departure of missile components back to the Soviet Union.

MEDAL OF HONOR ACTION 1923

Submariner Henry Breault Trapped to Save a Shipmate

Torpedoman Second Class Henry Breault stood inside the torpedo room of USS O-5 as the submarine crossed Limon Bay near the Panama Canal. Steamer Abangarez struck the vessel at 06:24, tearing open the hull and forcing the submarine beneath the waves within a minute. Breault reached the open deck hatch but realized that machinist Lawrence Brown remained trapped below. Breault voluntarily climbed back into the rapidly flooding compartments to rescue his shipmate instead of leaping into the water.

Breault located Brown and latched the watertight door to the forward torpedo room just before water flooded the neighboring compartments. Both men waited thirty-one hours in cold darkness with dwindling air while Navy salvage cranes Hercules and Ajax hoisted the submarine bow to the surface. Salvage crews opened the hatch on October 29 and pulled both men out unharmed. President Calvin Coolidge presented Breault with the Medal of Honor, establishing him as the first submariner to earn the nation's highest award for valor.

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