Show when war came to the united states I 1 by ELMO 1510 SCOTT WATSON IT T WAS on a sunday sunday morning three years ago g borni th that war came again to the united states the story of that day of infamy when japan made her sneak attack on pearl harbor is too fresh in the minds of all americans to need retelling here but how many of us know of those other tragic days when were made the fateful decisions which meant that more american lives were to be sacrificed on an the altar of mars this article is a page from the past which tells how war came to america in other years before 1941 the first war which we as a nation waged was an undeclared war that Is to say there was never any formal declaration ot of war As a matter of fact we even a nation when it started the american revolution began as a rebellion the revolt of the english colonies in america against their mother country england it continued as a rebellion a and nd as a civil war patriots against the loyalists and the regularly constituted authorities tor for nearly a year before we became a nation lon for the united states of america did not come into existence until july 4 1776 when the declaration of independence pen dence was adopted in the meantime there had been fighting and bloodshed at lexington on april 19 1775 at concord where was fired the shot heard round the world on the same day at bunker hill on june 17 and at quebec in december for six years this undeclared war dragged on an until at last the surrender of cornwallis Cornwall ls at yorktown on october 18 19 1781 meant that the independence declared five years eq earlier rIler was an accomplished fact however this mean the end of the war which was destined to last for nearly two years more it until november 30 1782 that the preliminary articles of peace between great britain and the united states were signed in paris two more months were to elapse before articles proclaiming the cessation of hostilities between the two nations were signed on january 20 1783 and it until september 3 1783 that the definitive treaty of peace was wa signed in paris thus this undeclared war had lasted for eight years tour four months and fifteen days making it the longest in our history during the next 20 years we were involved in two more undeclared wars both of which brought fighting and bloodshed the first was with our former ally france and was the result of the humiliation and insults which our envoys in paris had suffered at the hands of the directory and the attempt of talleyrand to blackmail us into buying frances friendship although there was no formal declaration of war pres pre S john adams ordered commerce with france stopped in 1798 and our treaties with her abrogated then our eur infant navy put to sea se to prey upon french shipping and for or the next 18 months there was vas con tid erable naval warfare marked by the victories of the frigate constellation stel lation over french men of war when napoleon bonaparte came to power he immediately took steps to stop the conflict and in september 1800 a convention was signed in paris which ended this war meanwhile american shipping like that of other nations had been suffering fro from rn the raids of the barbary pirates in the mediterranean and despite tribute paid to the bey of algiers the pasha of tripoli and the bey of tunis american vessels were being seized and american seamen held prisoners until ransomed rans omed when thomas jefferson became president in 1801 he resolved to put an end to this early day racket tha th first two naval expeditions against the pirates failed but in 1803 when commodore edward preble sailed against the cor corsair it was a different story his expedition against Tan danglers tangiers Tang giers lers the daring attack of stephen decatur on tripoli the next year and the combined naval and military expedition the latter led by gen william eaton baton which captured derna in 1803 1805 broke the power of the barbary states and resulted in treaties which guaranteed the future safety of american amerin c a n shipping in the mediterranean the remainder of Jeffirs jeffersons ons administration r n ini was peaceful but by the time james madison entered the white ho house se the second war with england was brewing for the first time in our history there was a formal declaration of war on june 18 1112 1812 for the first time too our naff on irtis alti bm M of anin M av be MJ 4 amt ku d C acty if waw fada tk dw iw rf julur IM BM uj artym JOINT resolution i ii fir al lirt awn IW W jn mill alir lh hiah tw bj king 1 I P W 16 tk mw w wl iuliu th clr f aps Us ku kufs W kit 0 8 r 1 ria ri A ta 0 GW t wl A it ik W 1 tb RI alf f arks A I 1 tuf kt III it r jnue mt 4 A A 1 W 4 cr C r J til IM mg mir t f rr d ian r out mij d hu ifrid goan w r JP J jipp P hah hu ahw th s b ann tard q ion at ui okd am facin 1 ti ha amk I ily axt 4 k Is haiby al A I 1 la 4 air mi 1 MI I ad ud arm of ab iba uita adm id clr f till lo 10 arry oa mr DM imperial f JP apa I 1 ind vid 1 lo 10 0 clr dict to la a ful t enst an all of ur if of t 16 cowry in an heraas to ky it hit 1 clr ch cited att bruk ya batic tIc frijo M 34 3 4 CL LL L y d Y A att rsm s fact lC aca A u shores were invaded by a hostile force and on august 24 1814 americans suffered the humiliation of seeing the capital of their nation in the hands of the enemy and the home of their president in flames despite this disaster which came as the climax of other defeats on an land offset however by many a brilliant victory at sea america continued the struggle which ended on december 24 of that year when the treaty of peace was signed in ghent belgium by representatives of the two belligerents this war had lasted two years six months and six days the next war with a foreign power was even shorter than the war of 1812 when the united states annexed texas in 1845 mexico from whom texas had won her independence nine years earlier regarded this as a hostile act there was a series of incidents down on the rio klo grande and pres james K tj 1 1 4 r APRIL 2 1917 pres woodrow wilson reads his bis war message to congress polk asked congress tor for a declaration la of war it came on may 13 1846 and 10 days later mexico declared war on the united states hostilities began soon afterwards our armies under general taylor and general scott invaded mexico and within a little more than a year yea r september 14 1847 they had captured the mexican capital the war ended with the signing of at a treaty of peace on february 2 1848 one year eight months month and twenty days after it began the next war in which we engaged was another undeclared war tor for like its predecessor it was a rebellion and a civil war just when the war between the states began Is a matter of deone tion the usual view is that mat it was april when confederate batteries in Ch charleston aleston S C fired on fort sumter and the union troops te in that fortification fired back at any rate it was this act which prompted president lincoln three dys days later to call tor for volunteers to suppress the insurrection and which resulted in tour four years of the hardest hrast and bloodiest fighting the world had ever known up to that time just as this war had no official beginning so it had no official ending but the surrender of lee on april 9 1865 sounded the death knell of the confederacy and organized resistance by the men in gray ended prom from sumter to appa mattox it was lour four years minus three days shortest of all our wars with a foreign power was the days war with spain in 1888 1898 it had its tyli A ws yil miff ua Sisa THE BATTLE OF LEXINGTON APRIL after an engraving by two continental at i militiamen im aln who were in the battle origin in american americ a n a sympathy fo tor r the cuban patri patriots ot who tor for several iwho years had been t trying ing to throw off spanish rule but it is doubtful it if there would have been a war had it not been for or the event which took p place 1 ace in havana harbor on february 15 1898 that event was the explosion and sinking of the U S S maine the excitement over ever this resulted in diplomatic relations between spain and the united states being broken on april 21 and the declaration of a blockade of cuba the next day her national honor thus assailed spain declared war on an april 24 and our declaration followed the next day the overwhelming victories won by our navy at manila and at santiago and by our army in the land fighting in cuba soon demonstrated what the inevitable outcome of the war would be so on august 12 a peace protocol was signed and hostilities ceased after days of fighting the war however did not end officially until december 10 when the peace treaty was signed in parisi paris although the period of actual combat by our fighting men was relatively short one year and IS 15 days world war I 1 was our second longest war with a foreign power here is the sequence of events to validate that statement on february 1 1917 germany began unrestricted submarine war tare ar e and as a result we broke diplomatic relations with her two days later on april P 6 congress declared war on germany and on june 26 the first american troops landed in france however it was not until october 27 1917 that american soldiers fired their first shots at the enemy hostilities ended on november 11 II 1918 one year and fifteen days dagg after they had bad begun on october 27 of the previous year the ile cessation of 0 hostilities on armistice day did not mean the official end of the war the treaty at versailles was signed on june 28 1919 but when it came up for ratification by the senate on november 19 it was rejected that meant that officially we were still at war with germany it was not dot until july 2 1921 that president harding signed a joint resolution reeo lution ot of congress passed by the house on june so 30 and by the senate sen ateon on july 1 declaring peace vath with germany on august 25 a peace treaty was signed in berlin by representatives of the united states and germany this was ratified by the german national council on september 17 and by the united states senate on an october 18 then and not until then was the war between these two countries officially fici ally ended tour four years six months and twelve days after the american declaration of war back in 1917 As tor for world war il II it began officially tor for the united states on december 7 1941 when japan de dared blared war against the united states and great britain and before the th declaration reached wellington washington by air or cable made in ah attack on hawaii the philippines and other american possessions in the pac pacific our declaration of war followed the next day four days later germany and italy declared war on the united milled states and on the same day congress in joint session issuer our declaration of war against those two nations on that fateful spring morning when the advance guard of t british soldiers seit cent by general gage to destroy the stores which the americans had collected at concord reached lexington they found nearly 20 armed provincials drawn up io in battle array en an the be village green disperse ye rebels cried major pitcairn but the embattled minute men blen stood fast then a shot was bred by british soldier or minute ran man Is still un elect lect ed and the fight which opened the revolution Kevol ullon began |