Black man hanged by Union soldiers for "insulting a white woman".
The field of public relations being very much in its infancy, the upshot of this salutary demonstration seems not to have been conveyed to its target audience; so, when a defending Confederate battery caught sight of the gallows being thrown up in brazen view of its own lines, it jumped to the not-unreasonable conclusion that the Yanks were about to make an example of a southern spy. Rebel guns promptly made the Union detachment their “target audience.” An artillery shot struck one Sgt. Maj. G. F. Polley (or Polly) and “tore him all to pieces” before
[a] flag of truce was sent out to inform the enemy that a negro was to be hung who had insulted a white woman the day before; they stopped firing. We then marched back and saw the negro hung.
The return on investment for the souls of Johnson and the misfortunate NCO was altogether unsatisfactory:
The incident was cleverly turned to advantage by the Confederates, who had been losing hundreds of Negro laborers by desertion. The Rebels marched Negroes past the spot, pointing out to them the perils of fleeing their lines, saying that the Yankees hanged all ‘Contrabands.’ For weeks nocturnal escapes of Negroes ceased on that front.
Confederate infantrymen, members of the Army of Northern Virginia, pause at the corner of Market and Patrick streets (an intersection known as the Square Corner) in Frederick, Maryland. This candid image was probably taken on September 12, 1862, two days prior to the Battle of South Mountain, by an unknown photographer who was perched on the second floor above Jacob Rosenstock's Dry Good & Clothing Store. This is believed to be the only extant photograph of Confederate soldiers marching in columns.
Photographer J. D. Edwards of New Orleans took this photo of a group of the 9th Mississippi Infantry at Pensacola, Florida, early in the war. From the left the men are James Pegues, Kinloch Falconer, John Fennel, James Cunningham, Thomas W. Falconer, James Simms, and John T. Smith. Kinloch Falconer went on during the war to become Assistant Adjutant General of the Army of Tennessee.
Photo of the Port Gibson Riflemen, Company K, 10th Mississippi Infantry, at Pensacola, Florida, in 1861. The image was taken by New Orleans photographer J. E. Edwards.
Hitler youth honor an unknown soldier by forming a swastika symbol on Aug. 27, 1933 in Germany.
America's Jesse Owens, center, salutes during the presentation of his gold medal for the long jump on August 11, 1936, after defeating Nazi Germany's Lutz Long, right, during the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. Naoto Tajima of Japan, left, placed third. Owens triumphed in the track and field competition by winning four gold medals in the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes, long jump and 400-meter relay. He was the first athlete to win four gold medals at a single Olympic Games.
Jimmy Stewart, former movie star, is sworn in as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Corps by Lt. E.L. Reid, personnel officer of the west coast training center at Moffett Field, California, on January 1, 1941. Stewart was one of Hollywood's most popular actors before he was inducted into the Army in 1941.
Captured Japanese photograph taken during the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. In the distance, the smoke rises from Hickam Field.
In this photo provided by the U.S. Navy, eight miles from Pearl Harbor, shrapnel from a Japanese bomb riddled this car and killed three civilians in the attack of December 7, 1941. Two of the victims can be seen in the front seat. The Navy reported there was no nearby military target.
The terrible damage done to Tokyo by American bombers can be seen in what was once a residential district in the Japanese capital, viewed months later, on September 10, 1945. Only large well constructed buildings remain intact.
Across the Channel, Britain was being struck by continual bombardment by thousands of V-1 and V-2 bombs launched from German-controlled territory. This photo, taken from a fleet street roof-top, shows a V-1 flying bomb "buzzbomb" plunging toward central London. The distinctive sky-line of London's law-courts clearly locates the scene of the incident. Falling on a side road off Drury Lane, this bomb blasted several buildings, including the office of the Daily Herald. The last enemy action of British soil was a V-1 attack that struck Datchworth in Hertfordshire, on March 29 1945.