March 13 in Military History

The U.S. Congress passed a new Article of War forbidding Union Army officers from returning escaped slaves to their owners, effectively nullifying the Fugitive Slave Act within the military. The law was a critical step toward emancipation, nine months before the Emancipation Proclamation, and signaled the Union's evolution from fighting to preserve the Union to fighting against slavery.

In a desperate act born of impending defeat, the Confederate Congress authorized the enlistment of enslaved Black men as soldiers. President Jefferson Davis signed the legislation. The measure was the ultimate paradox, the Confederacy was willing to arm the very people it existed to keep enslaved in order to survive. The war ended five weeks later before any significant number could be mustered.

Tsar Alexander II was mortally wounded when a bomb thrown by a member of the revolutionary group Narodnaya Volya exploded beneath his carriage in St. Petersburg. Alexander had abolished serfdom, modernized the Russian military after the Crimean War humiliation, and led Russia to victory in the Russo-Turkish War. His assassination triggered a reactionary crackdown that set the stage for the 1917 revolution.

Mahdist forces surrounded Khartoum, trapping British General Charles "Chinese" Gordon and the garrison inside the city. Gordon had been sent to evacuate Egyptian forces from Sudan but instead chose to defend the city against the Mahdi's army. The siege lasted 317 days, ending with the fall of the city and Gordon's death on January 26, 1885, two days before a British relief force arrived.

Italian Corpo Truppe Volontarie forces, approximately 35,000 troops sent by Mussolini to support Franco, launched an offensive toward Guadalajara during the Spanish Civil War. Republican forces, including the International Brigades, counterattacked and routed the Italians in one of the first major defeats of fascist forces in Europe, humiliating Mussolini and demonstrating that fascism could be beaten on the battlefield.

The Austrian government, now under Nazi control, formally proclaimed the union of Austria with the German Reich, completing the Anschluss that had begun with the military occupation the previous day. The annexation was ratified by a heavily manipulated plebiscite in April. The merger gave Germany control of central Europe and access to Austrian industrial and military resources.

The U.S. Army formally established its War Dog Program (K-9 Corps), designating dogs as part of the military force structure for sentry duty, scout patrols, messenger service, and mine detection. Over 10,000 dogs served in World War II. The program's descendants continue today, military working dogs have served in every subsequent conflict, including the Belgian Malinois that accompanied SEAL Team Six on the bin Laden raid.

SS Panzer Corps divisions launched their assault into Kharkov as part of Field Marshal Erich von Manstein's brilliant counteroffensive following the catastrophe at Stalingrad. The battle for the Soviet Union's fourth-largest city raged for days of savage street fighting as German forces fought to reverse the momentum of the Soviet winter offensive, widely considered one of the finest defensive counteroffensives in military history.

Viet Minh forces under General Vo Nguyen Giap launched the opening assault on the French fortified camp at Dien Bien Phu, bombarding Strongpoint Beatrice with artillery the French believed could never be hauled through the surrounding mountains. Beatrice fell in a single night, and the battle raged for 56 days until the French garrison surrendered, ending a century of French colonial rule in Indochina and setting in motion American involvement in Vietnam.

The New Jewel Movement, a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary group led by Maurice Bishop, overthrew the government of Prime Minister Eric Gairy in a nearly bloodless coup on the Caribbean island of Grenada. The revolution established a People's Revolutionary Government aligned with Cuba and the Soviet Union, setting the stage for the U.S. invasion of Grenada four years later.