Today in military history:

1755 - General Edward Braddock and his army was decisively defeated at the Battle of the Monongahela and he was mortally wounded.  Rather than allowing his body to be found and desecrated by the Indian allies of the French, it was buried in the middle of the roadway and the English and American retreating army marched over the site.  It was only discovered decades after.  23 year old George Washington led the British force to safety.

1890 - John C. Frémont, the "Pathfinder" of American history died.  He was the first presidential nominee of the Republican Party (1856) and later served as an ineffectual general in our civil war.  Lincoln was eventually forced to sideline him.

1821- Nathan Bedford Forrest was born.  He was one of the most effective cavalry leaders of the American Civil War whose maxim "Get there first with the most men" is often quoted.  A controversial figure his troops were responsible for the massacre of USCT at the Battle of Fort Pillow, and after the war was influential in the early days of the Ku Klux Klan.  However, when he discovered the violence they committed he attempted to disband the group.  

1881 - John Clifford Pemberton died in Philadelphia.  A northern born career army officer, he resigned his commission to take up arms for the Confederacy.  In this he was probably influenced by his southern wife.  After surrendering Vicksburg to U.S. Grant in 1863, he lost his status with the rebels with many feeling he had purposely lost the city.  Following the war, he farmed and taught in Warrenton, Virginia, fearing that he would be considered a traitor should he return home.