March 4 in Military History

Washington's troops built a fortress overnight on Dorchester Heights using prefabricated fortifications and cannons from Fort Ticonderoga. The position made British-held Boston indefensible, forcing General Howe to evacuate on March 17, the first major American strategic victory of the Revolution.

Thomas Jefferson was inaugurated as the third President of the United States. Within days, he ordered a naval squadron to North Africa to confront the Barbary States demanding tribute from American merchant ships, establishing the precedent of projecting American military power overseas and leading directly to the "shores of Tripoli" campaign.

Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office under unprecedented military security, General Winfield Scott deployed riflemen on rooftops and cavalry along the route, as seven states had already seceded. Lincoln pledged to "hold, occupy, and possess" federal property while promising not to be the aggressor, setting the framework for the coming conflict.

As the Civil War entered its final weeks, Lincoln delivered one of the greatest speeches in American history, just 700 words that identified slavery as the war's cause and called for national reconciliation. His phrase "to care for him who shall have borne the battle" became the motto of the Department of Veterans Affairs. He was assassinated 41 days later.

Private Albert Gitchell, an Army cook at Camp Funston in Fort Riley, Kansas, reported to the base hospital with a sore throat, fever, and headache, conventionally recognized as the first recorded case of the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. Within weeks, thousands of soldiers were ill. The pandemic would kill 50-100 million people worldwide, far more than the war itself.

The Navy collier USS Cyclops, carrying 306 crew and passengers and 11,000 tons of manganese ore, made an unscheduled stop at Barbados. It was the last time anyone saw the ship. The Cyclops vanished without a trace on its voyage to Baltimore, no distress call, no debris, no survivors, the single largest loss of life in U.S. Navy history not involving combat.

Franklin Roosevelt delivered his famous First Inaugural Address, using explicitly military language: he asked Congress for "broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe." His presidency would see the largest military mobilization in American history.

Five hundred British commandos raided the Lofoten Islands in northern Norway, destroying fish oil factories vital to the German war economy, capturing 228 German prisoners and 314 Norwegian volunteers, and, most critically, seizing components of an Enigma machine and codebooks that aided the codebreaking effort at Bletchley Park.

The U.S. Eighth Air Force launched its first daylight bombing mission against Berlin, the most heavily defended target in Europe. Though only about 30 B-17s penetrated to the city through deteriorating weather, the raid demonstrated that no target in the Reich was beyond reach. Three massive follow-up raids on March 6 and 8 forced the Luftwaffe into a battle of attrition it could not win.

In the early hours of March 4, a Navy SEAL fell from a damaged helicopter onto a 10,000-foot mountain peak held by al-Qaeda fighters, sparking one of the fiercest small-unit engagements of the War in Afghanistan. Seven Americans were killed in 17 hours of desperate fighting. Two Medals of Honor were awarded, one to Air Force Combat Controller John Chapman, the first airman so honored since Vietnam.