Sgt Z's Page Round 3

Two U.S. Marines from Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, take cover and prepare to return fire during the start of Operation Khanjar in July 2009 in Main Poshteh, Afghanistan.

U.S. Marines with 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment observe the movement of enemy forces during an attack at Patrol Base Bracha in the Garmsir district of Helmand province, Afghanistan, on Oct. 9, 2009.

The Marines were deployed with Regimental Combat Team 3, whose mission was to conduct counterinsurgency operations in partnership with Afghan security forces in southern Afghanistan.

"Give Them the Cold Steel Boys, July 3, 1863"

Confederate General Lewis B. Armistead, with his cap on the tip of his sword, leads his men across the stone wall during Pickett’s Charge on the 3rd and final day of the battle of Gettysburg.

Approximately 12,500 Confederate troops, in nine infantry brigades, advanced over open fields for three-quarters of a mile under heavy Union artillery and rifle fire. Although some Confederate troops were able to breach the low stone wall that shielded many of the Union defenders, they could not maintain their hold and were repelled.

While the Union suffered about 1,500 killed and wounded, during the attack, the Confederate casualty rate was over 50%. Total Confederate losses during Pickett's Charge were 6,555, of which at least 1,123 Confederates were killed on the battlefield, 4,019 were wounded, and a good number of the injured were also captured. Confederate prisoner totals are difficult to estimate from their reports; Union reports indicated that 3,750 men were captured.

"Saving the Flag, July 2, 1863"

While Colonel Jeffords was back in Michigan on a recruiting trip, the ladies of Monroe, Michigan, presented him with a new national flag to replace the regiment's original flag, which had been badly damaged in recent battles. Jeffords stated that he would defend the flag with his life.

During the second day at Gettysburg, the color-bearer of the 4th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment dropped this flag, and as Colonel Jeffords advanced to retrieve it, he fought with the Confederate soldier who had seized the flag. In the ensuing melee, Jeffords received a gunshot wound to the thigh and was bayoneted by a Confederate soldier in the left abdomen, a mortal wound for the 26-year-old officer. He died at 4 am the next day, on July 3, 1863.

His final words were said to be "Mother, mother, mother." Jeffords became the highest commissioned officer in the Civil War to die of a bayonet wound. His body was sent home to Dexter, Michigan, after the battle, where approximately 2,000 people attended the funeral of its beloved hero. He is buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Dexter.