The Battle of Poison Spring was fought on April 18, 1864, as part of the Camden Expedition during the American Civil War. In support of the Red River campaign in Louisiana, a Union force commanded by Frederick Steele had moved from Little Rock, Arkansas, and occupied Camden. Short on supplies, Steele sent a detachment commanded by James M. Williams to forage for corn that was reported to be in the area. Confederate cavalry commanded by John S. Marmaduke and Samuel B. Maxey attacked the foraging party. Marmaduke's men formed a roadblock to the east, while Maxey's men attacked from the south. The first two Confederate attacks were unsuccessful, but the third broke the Union line. Williams's command was routed, losing its wagon train. African-American soldiers from the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry Regiment were massacred during and after the battle. The defeat at Poison Spring and another defeat at the Battle of Marks' Mills led Steele to retreat to Little Rock.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Poison_Spring> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 1881: The painted ceilings of the Natural History Museum, London, were unveiled when the building opened its doors to the public. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceilings_of_the_Natural_History_Museum,_London> 1915: World War I: Hit by ground fire, French aviation pioneer Roland Garros landed his aircraft behind enemy lines and was taken prisoner by German forces. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_Garros_%28aviator%29> 1949: The Republic of Ireland Act 1948 came into force, describing Ireland as a republic and ending its membership in the Commonwealth of Nations. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Ireland> 1975: Aryabhata, India's first satellite, was launched from Kapustin Yar in the Soviet Union. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryabhata_%28satellite%29> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: simplex: 1. (dated) Having a single structure; not composite or complex; undivided, unitary. 2. (anatomy, historical) Of an eye: (supposedly) having pigment on only the posterior surface of the iris and not the anterior surface, and thus appearing blue; this was later found to be inaccurate, as eye colour is due to the amount of pigment in the anterior surface of the iris; also, of eye pigmentation: present only on the posterior surface of the iris; and of a person: having eyes with this form of pigmentation. 3. (computing, telecommunications) Of a circuit or device: involving signals which travel in one direction at a time; unidirectional. 4. (genetics) 5. Of a polyploid organism: having one dominant allele at a given locus on all homologous chromosomes. Coordinate terms: duplex, nulliplex, triplex 6. (archaic or obsolete) Synonym of heterozygous (“of an organism: having two different alleles in a given gene”) 7. (linguistics) Of a word: having no (derivational) affixes; simple, monomorphemic, uncompounded. 8. (originally and chiefly US) Of an apartment (or, sometimes, another type of property): having only one floor or storey; single-storey. 9. (algebraic topology, geometry) A generalization of a triangle or tetrahedron to an arbitrary dimension, the generalization being the simplest possible convex polytope for a given dimension; more accurately, the convex hull of n + 1 {\displaystyle n+1} linearly independent points in n {\displaystyle n} -dimensional space. 10. (linguistics) 11. A word which is not compound and contains no derivational affixes (inflectional affixes are usually disregarded); a monomorphemic word. 12. (grammar, archaic) In full simplex sentence: in transformational grammar: a simple sentence which is the product of a few transformations; a kernel sentence. 13. (originally and chiefly US) An apartment (or, sometimes, another type of property) having only one floor or storey; a single-storey property. <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/simplex> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day: The futures of both peace and Civilization depend upon understanding and cooperation among the political, spiritual, and intellectual leaders of the world’s major civilizations. … In the emerging era, clashes of civilization are the greatest threat to world peace, and an international order based on civilizations is the surest safeguard against world war. --Samuel P. Huntington <https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Samuel_P._Huntington> _______________________________________________ Wikipedia Daily Article mailing list. To unsubscribe write to: [email protected] Questions or comments? Contact [email protected]
