December 11-15, 1862
President Lincoln had fired Gen. George McClellan after the battle of Antietam, replacing him with Ambrose Burnside. Gen. Burnside hoped to outflank the Confederate forces of Gen. Robert E. Lee and move aggressively on Richmond.
Things got tricky at Fredericksburg, where Burnside was forced to wait for construction of a pontoon bridge across the Rappahannock River. The wait gave Lee time to recover.
Confederate infantrymen fired on the unarmed pontooneers, and they fled.
The Michigan 7th Infantry led the attempt to cross the river without the pontoon bridge, using their rifle butts to paddle while under fire, the first successful amphibious attack in US Army history. Their commanding general said if they could do it, it would be one of the greatest feats of the war. They successfully established a foothold and helped build a pontoon bridge to bring the rest of the army over and into the city. They got the nickname the “forlorn hope regiment” for the willingness to take the toughest tasks.
Gen. Henry Baxter of Jonesville commanded the Michigan 7th Infantry at Fredericksburg. He was seriously wounded during the battle.
The Union forces took big losses over the next several days, with three casualties for every Confederate casualty.
Sources:
Michigan in the Civil War : Fredericksburg, WKAR, December 11, 2012.
Robert Henry Hendershot was twelve years old when he joined the 8th Michigan Infantry on August 19, 1862. However it was at the Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia, on December 11, 1862 that he became famous. Robert answered a call for volunteers and ran to help push the boats. He had just crossed the river when a shell fragment hit his drum and broke it into pieces. He quickly picked up a musket and began to fight. When he encountered a Confederate soldier, Robert was able to capture the man as a prisoner.
He soon became known as “the Drummer Boy of the Rappahannock” and a poem and a play were later written about his exploits. His status as a hero in the North allowed him to tour widely, putting on drumming performances and telling of his experiences.
For another account, see Donald C. Pfanz, Drummer Boy of the Rappahannock, The Free Lance-Star Publishing Co. of Fredericksburg, Virginia, USA.
Wikipedia entry, with bibliography or additional readings.
Richard Bak, “Michigan’s Little Drummer Boys of the Civil War”, Hour Detroit, December 2011.
On Dec. 11, 1929, Stout Airlines became the nation’s first airline to carry 100,000 passengers. The company served the upper Great Lakes region, relying heavily on the Ford Trimotor “Tin Goose” airplanes. Here is some copy from a 1929 Stout timetable: “There is no monotony of travel on the Stout Airlines. The country over which you travel has been carefully studied and a route has been selected which is most entertaining. The countryside does not rush by at a furious pace but unrolls under your eyes calmly and splendidly. Constantly your attention is drawn from one unique view to another – a picturesque village, a glistening lake, a highway with tiny creeping automobiles, a passing plane or a great stretch of colorful woodlands.” Stout was later absorbed by United Airlines.
Source : Joe Grimm, This Week in Michigan History, December 10, 2006, B.4,
Early on the morning of December 11, 1934, the Kerns Hotel in Lansing caught on fire. Seven Michigan legislators died in the fire, along with 25 other guests. The fire was the worst in Lansing’s history, and one of 6 worst in USA history.
Source : Michigan Every Day.
Kerns Hotel Fire feature from the Capital Area District Library.
Excerpts from the New York Times, December 12, 1934.
Kerns Hotel Fire on YouTube.
A crowd estimated at 6,000 students jammed areas around the Union on December 11, 1948 to celebrate State’s admission to the Big 10.
Source : “A Century of Athletics at State”, Michigan State University Magazine, September 1960, p.7.
Also see David A. Thomas, “How MSU Became A Member of the Big Ten Conference“, MSU Alumni Association Magazine, Fall 2007.
David J. Young, “Arrogance and Scheming in the Big Ten: Michigan State’s Quest for Membership and Michigan’s Powerful Opposition“, DJY Pub., [2011]
Note: Also take a look at the December 11, 1998 issue of State News on microfilm which reprints articles from the lost December 12, 1948 issue.
On Dec. 11, 1971, a shotgun-like blast claimed the lives of 22 men working on a water intake tunnel beneath the bed of Lake Huron. A pocket of methane trapped within a layer of Antrim shale fueled the explosion. An exhaustive inquiry determined that drilling for a vertical ventilation shaft from the lake’s surface had released the trapped gas. A drill bit that fell ignited the gas. The blast created a shock wave with a speed of 4,000 miles an hour and a force of 15,000 pounds per square inch. Witnesses reported seeing debris fly 200 feet in the air from the tunnel’s entrance. This tragedy resulted in stronger mine safety regulations and enforcement. It was one of the deadliest industrial accidents in Michigan history.
Sources :
Lake Huron Water Supply Project – Tunnel Explosion, Michigan Historical Markers website.
The Michigan salutes the student section at Michigan Stadium following the Wolverines’ 5-0 win over Michigan State at Saturday’s Big Chill at the Big House.
It really wasn’t much of a game by hockey standards. The Wolverines mopped the ice with the Spartans—5-0. But in terms of the record books, the December 11, 2010 Michigan/Michigan State hockey game at the Big House was the biggest of big games: at the time, the biggest crowd ever at Michigan Stadium; the biggest crowd ever for any NCAA event; and a still-standing world record for attendance at a hockey game. The late-arriving crowd didn’t make it easy on U of M athletic director Dave Brandon, and even once Guinness announced an initial count of about 85,000—8,000 more than was needed to break the previous record—he wasn’t satisfied. That’s because the university had announced a much more epic attendance of 113, 411 at the game itself. So what explains the discrepancy? Well, it turned out Guinness has a different method for calculating attendance at big sporting events: It relies on the number of tickets scanned at the gate, while Michigan Stadium officials had been counting the number of tickets sold. After a few months, the controversy was put to bed when Guinness released a final tally of 104,173—much closer to U of M’s original estimate. But it’s still a figure that leaves the door open for future shots at the record.
For the full article, see “The World’s Longest Turd and Other Michigan Record Breakers”, Found Michigan, October 4, 2012.
Kyle Austin, From the Cold War to the Big Chill, Michigan has set the precedent and standard for outdoor hockey, MLive, December 30, 2013.
Rich Rezler, “The Big Chill at the Big House: A comprehensive guide to Saturday’s coverage“, Ann Arbor News, December 11, 2010.
A different kind of legislative proposal has been reached on the floor of the state House.
Rep. Klint Kesto of Commerce Township got down on one knee to propose to his girlfriend, Delena Kajy, at the end of session Tuesday afternoon. He read a framed proclamation of love before pulling an engagement ring from his pocket and asking for her hand in marriage.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisles cheered when Kajy said yes.
As he looked on from the dais, House Speaker-elect Kevin Cotter of Mount Pleasant offered congratulations to the couple on behalf of the House.
Kesto says he was able to convince his new fiancee to join him on the floor without spoiling the surprise. He says Kajy thought he was just getting ready to read a proclamation and introduce her.
House clerk Gary Randall, a former lawmaker, tells The Detroit News ( http://bit.ly/1GdRKk2 ) this is the first marriage proposal he’s known to happen on the House floor.
Kesto received praise for his inventive way of using an honorary proclamation as his marriage proposal. Rep. Vicki Barnett of Farmington Hills told Kesto it was the best thing the lawmakers have passed all session.
Chad Livengood, “Oakland Lawmaker Proposes To Girlfriend on House Floor”, Detroit News, December 9, 2014.
On December 3, 1867 Kalamazoo County Sheriff Benjamin F. Orcutt was shot trying to prevent a jail break. He died a few days later on December 12th. The residents of Kalamazoo County admired the sheriff enough to hire detectives to track down the escapees. One was caught in Chicago and sentenced to the Southern Michigan Prison in Jackson, where he died. The other was caught in New York City, but served his remaining years in a New York prison because of his convictions in New York.
In 1882, Kalamazoo’s Civil War veterans also honored Orcutt by naming their Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) post Orcutt Post #79. At the Orcutt Post’s peak in 1886, it had 174 members. By the end of the 1920s, there were only 19 surviving Civil War veterans in the entire county. Seven were members of the Post. The last surviving member was Smith H. Carlton. He died in 1943 after being hit by a car.
Today, the Orcutt drum is on permanent display in the Museum’s Time Pieces exhibit—and is an important reminder of the service and sacrifices of those men and their families during a tumultuous time in our history.
Sources :
Michigan Every Day.
Benjamin F. Orcutt entry on the FindaGrave website.
Samuel W. Durant, History of Kalamazoo County, Michigan. 1880
A Drumming Cadence of Brotherhood posted by the Kalamazoo Valley Museum.
On December 12, 1919, University of Michigan coeds ended a dance strike, which started a week earlier because females were not permitted to use the Michigan Union taproom, when the men announced they would continue the dances with outside girls as their guests.
Source: Mich-Again’s Day