April is an important month in history

I was looking at my calendar the other day, checking on things like doctor and dentist appointments as well as taxes, you know — all the fun stuff, when I began to notice all the events in U.S. history that took place during the month of April. Some research I was doing for other stories served to reinforce the notion that April could be one of the more important months in our nation's history. So, submitted here is a sample of some of the things I found so you can judge for yourself. April 1-3, 1865, Richmond falls — It might be said that the beginning of the end of the Civil War started with the Battle of Five Forks, Virginia. On April 1, Union forces, under the command of Gen. Philip Sheridan, surprised and defeated a section of the Confederate Army under the command of Gen. George Pickett, inflicting more than 1,000 casualties and taking 4,000 prisoners while threatening to turn the Rebel flank, cut off key supply lines and roads. Sheridan's victory convinced Gen. Ulysses S. Grant that Robert E. Lee's lines were badly overextended and vulnerable, so the next day, April 2, he launched a massive assault on the Confederate lines in Petersburg. Union Gen. George Meade's forces broke through the Rebel lines, forcing Lee to withdraw. On April 3, Federal forces marched into the Confederate capital of Richmond. April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. killed — It was on this day that James Early Ray shot the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. Ray, an escaped convict from the Missouri State Penitentiary, would flee the scene and later be arrested in London, England, in June 1968. I have personal memories of this event because my Uncle Bob was in the Tennessee National Guard at the time and was called up to go to Memphis to deal with the riots taking place there. He said they had to sleep on a concrete floor, and the food they were given was so bad it made many of them sick. April 6, 1917, U.S. enters World War I — President Woodrow Wilson had campaigned for office in 1916 on a platform of keeping the U.S. out of the European war. But changing circumstances, such as the sinking of the Lusitania, which killed 128 Americans, and the uncovering of negotiations between Germany and Mexico in which the Germans promised Mexico that if they joined with them, they would return territories lost to the United States, prompted Wilson to action. Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war to "make the world safe for democracy." The Senate approved the resolution on April 3, and the House of Representatives on April 6, formally bringing the nation into the war. April 6-7, 1862, Battle of Shiloh — On April 6, Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston surprised Gen. Ulysses S. Grant near Pittsburg Landing on the banks of the Tennessee River. Johnston's forces drove Grant all the way back to the river, but Johnston was killed in the fighting. The battle paused while Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard assumed command of Confederate forces, giving Grant time to regroup and dig in. The next day, April 7, Grant, now reinforced, launched a counterattack and drove Beauregard and the Rebels back toward Corinth, Mississippi, giving the Union a victory in one of the 10 bloodiest battles of the Civil War. This battle is important locally due to the large number of men from Washington, Sullivan and Hawkins counties who fought and died there. April 9, 1865, Lee surrenders to Grant — After Richmond fell, Lee took what was left of his Confederate Army west in the hopes of escaping Grant and joining with Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's army then in North Carolina. Union Gen. Sheridan managed to catch up with and then get in front of Lee's army, stalling its retreat. Grant came from Richmond with the rest of the army, joining Sheridan and trapping Lee at a place called Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, where Lee surrendered. April 9, 1959, Mercury Seven astronauts — On this date, NASA announced the names of the seven astronauts that were to be the first Americans in space. Among those named were Alan Shepard, first American to fly into space although it was only a short ballistic flight, and John Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth. April 11-17, 1970, Apollo 13 — "Houston, we've had a problem." Designed to be the third mission to land on the moon, Apollo 13's mission was aborted after an explosion in an oxygen tank. Astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise, with the help of ground teams at NASA, had to overcome many problems to stay alive. The mission was later called a "successful failure" because while they didn't land on the moon, they returned to earth safely. April 12, 1861, First shots of the Civil War — After South Carolina's secession from the Union, it was demanded that all Federal installations in Charleston Harbor be handed over. Union Major Robert Anderson consolidated his forces at Fort Sumter, refusing to surrender. Finally, on April 12, with President Abraham Lincoln sending supplies to the troops, Confederate Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard ordered batteries around the island fort to open fire, thus firing the first shots of the Civil War. The fort surrendered the next day. April 13, 1743, Thomas Jefferson — The third president of the United States, a founding father and the primary author of the Declaration of Independence was born in Virginia on this date. April 14-15, 1865, Abraham Lincoln shot, killed — On April 14, President Lincoln was shot at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., by John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln was taken to the Petersen House across the street, where he died the next day. On April 15, Tennessee's Andrew Johnson was sworn in as president. Lincoln's funeral was held on April 19. On April 26, Booth was tracked to a tobacco farm, where he was fatally shot. April 19, 1775, Battle of Lexington and Concord — It was on this date that the first major military actions between the British and the Thirteen Colonies took place. British Regulars marched out of Boston the day before, heading to Concord to seize guns and powder belonging to the local militias. The militias were alerted by riders such as Paul Revere, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott and began gathering, with the first shots of the battle fired early in the morning in Lexington, Massachusetts, but the British regulars drove off the few militia gathered there and pushed on to Concord. Later that morning, the British encountered about 400 militiamen guarding the Old North Bridge in Concord, and this time the militia were successful in driving them back. The fight then turned into a running battle as the militia harassed the British regulars all the way back to Boston. The militias then started the siege of Boston, and the American Revolution was underway. April 26, 1865, Confederate Army of Tennessee surrenders — It was on this date the Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston met with Union Gen. William T. Sherman at the James Bennett farmhouse near Durham, North Carolina, and reached a final agreement on the surrender and disbandment of all forces under Gen. Johnston's command, which included what was left of the Confederate Army of Tennessee. The surrender totaled 89,270 soldiers, making it the largest surrender of the Civil War. This agreement effectively ended the Civil War east of the Mississippi River. I could keep going, but I fear that the powers that be will not be too happy if this column goes on much longer. So, do you have a favorite historical event in April that I missed? Ned Jilton II is a photographer, history lover and columnist. You can contact him at ndjphoto@aol.com.