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Rodgers storms the Ganghwa forts; Korea still refuses to talk

Tilton's Marines and 500 sailors take the citadel at Gwangseong in fifteen minutes, leaving 243 Koreans dead and three Americans with them, and Seoul sends no negotiator.

Korea in 1871 was a deliberately closed kingdom — its officials had repeatedly warned foreign ships out of their territorial waters, and the Joseon dynasty intended to keep it that way. When Rear Admiral John Rodgers led five American warships into the Ganghwa Straits in June, the Korean forts opened fire. Ten days after demanding an apology that never came, Rodgers ordered Captain McLane Tilton's 109 Marines and more than 500 sailors ashore to take the forts by force. The citadel at Gwangseong fell in fifteen minutes — 243 Koreans killed, three Americans dead — and Korea still refused to negotiate…

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More from June 10
1692

Bridget Bishop is hanged at Salem; the first life taken in the witchcraft trials

The English-born woman, convicted of bewitching five young women, goes to the gallows eight days after the jury returned its verdict.
1935

Dr. Bob Smith takes his last drink, then walks into surgery

The Akron surgeon, sober after hours of talk with New York businessman Bill Wilson, steps into the operating room following a final relapse at an Atlantic City convention.
1964

Senate breaks the longest filibuster in its history; civil rights vote is cleared

Robert Byrd's 14-hour, 13-minute speech closes 72 days of Southern obstruction, and cloture passes 71 to 29.
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The U.S. pays $60,000 for its prisoners, a sum Jefferson's men are careful to call ransom, not tribute.
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More from Civil War & Reconstruction
1863

Lee turns south; 12,500 men sent across an open mile are thrown back, and the Army of Northern Virginia retreats

The assault on Cemetery Ridge collapsed under Union artillery and rifle fire before it reached the line; survivors streamed back across the same field.
1863

Gardner surrenders Port Hudson; the Union holds the Mississippi from source to sea

After 48 days on the bluff, half his men sick and the food gone, the Confederate general yields the last rebel stronghold on the river.
1868

Seward proclaims it law: the Fourteenth Amendment is part of the Constitution

The amendment settles in the document what Dred Scott left open, granting citizenship and equal protection to anyone born on American soil.
1862

Lincoln signs a Medal of Honor into law; the Army has no decoration for valor until today

Congress authorizes the medal for enlisted men who show gallantry in action; the War Department will contract for 2,000 to be struck.
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