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siphotos:

Dodgers hurler Sandy Koufax unleashes a pitch during the 1966 World Series against the Orioles in the 1966 World Series. (Herb Scharfman/SI)  

historical-nonfiction:

So this guy is Captain America in real life. When war broke out after Pearl Harbor in 1942, Audie Murphy saw the armed forces as a way to help support his family and serve his country.  He tried to enlist, but was still to young for the service.  As soon as he turned 18 he went to the Marine Corps recruiter begging to join up.  The Marines took one look at little Audie - he was five feet five inches tall and one hundred ten pounds - and determined that he was too small for the service.  The Navy guys told him the same thing.  The Army had no qualms about throwing Murphy into the meat grinder however, and shipped him off to North Africa as part of the US 3rd Infantry Division.

He played around in the desert in North Africa, then helped invade Sicily, then got medals for bravery on D-Day and in the subsequent liberation of France. His actions also got him promoted to Second Lieutenant. While fighting in the Holzwihr forest in January 1945, he was told to defend a critical pocket from the Germans with 19 men, all that was left of his 128-man company. Against two Nazi companies and six tiger tanks. And he did it, because he is Captain America. When Audie returned home, he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

He served some time in the Texas National Guard, retiring at the rank of Major.  After his military service, Audie Murphy went on to be a badass movie action hero, starring in a number of Westerns and even playing himself in the autobiographical To Hell and Back.  He was eventually given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

greatestgeneration:

Take a look inside the YMCA Wartime log of POW, Walter Boychuk.

(via evawomans)

(via evawomans)

(via evawomans)

thecivilwarparlor:

Women of the Civil War Titled “Lady”

Women did more during the Civil War than just sit at home waiting for their husbands, brothers and sons to come home. Some helped out behind the scenes and sometimes on the battlefields. Some of these women became famous for their efforts, while others intentionally tried to keep their work secret. Women in the 1860’s were not recognized for their abilities outside the home. Even today history books skip over the important contributions of women.  Many unnamed women put their own health at risk to volunteer in military hospitals. Other women kept journals and diaries that recorded the day-to-day life during the war years and provided us with a first hand view of history. Women worked in the camps, and fought on the battlefields and on the home front. Some, like Pauline Cushman, even risked their lives as spies for the North. They are all unsung heroines in the greatest battle ever fought on American soil.

U.S. National Archives’ Local Identifier: 111-B-1686

From:: Series: Mathew Brady Photographs of Civil War-Era Personalities and Scenes, (Record Group 111)

thecivilwarparlor:

Minie Balls: Small but Lethal

The hollow base of the cone-shaped minie ball (named for French inventor Claude Minié) expanded when the gunpowder ignited, thereby catching its grooves in the interior rifling of the gun and increasing the velocity and accuracy of the bullet. The longer, effective firing range of minie balls also turned mass infantry assaults into mass slaughter until military tactics caught up with the destructive power of the new technology. The ubiquitous minie balls have been collected as battlefield souvenirs ever since.

Information from Library of Congress

Private J. Luman’s Skull…

“Wounded at the battle of Mine Run, Virginia, on November 27th, 1863, when a minie ball passed through his skull. He was treated in the field hospital for several days before being evacuated to the 3rd division hospital in Alexandria. By December 8th, Private Luman was comatose and Surgeon E. Bentley applied a trephine and removed the splinters of bone associated with the wound. His condition failed to improve and he died five days later.”

-The National Museum Of Health And Medicine
Washington, D.C.

(via your-orgasms)