December 9, 2024

No gift compares to the connection to their alma mater and their classmates your Cadet will receive with a gift of Life Membership in The Citadel Alumni Association. A Life Membership in The Citadel Alumni Association would make a great Christmas gift for your current cadet, available at the discounted price of $400.00 until your cadet's commencement day. The membership must be paid in full by that day. To purchase visit https://citadelalumni.org/product/life-membership-current-student-paid-in-full.

On December 8, 1941, the United States declared war on Japan and, the following spring, the Class of 1944 was called to serve in World War II. They are known as The Class That Never Was. https://today.citadel.edu/remembering-the-class-that-never-was

1LT Frank Monroe (Skip) Murphy, USA, '65, was killed in action on December 7, 1966, in South Vietnam by a land mine while rescuing members of his platoon who were in a firefight after being jumped from behind by the Vietcong. Murphy is memorialized along with 2ndLt Joseph C. Missar, USMC, '65, with a bronze statue, located in Johnson Hagood Stadium, in the photograph here. Missar was killed in action by a mine in the Quan Nam Province of Vietnam on May 6, 1966. The statue honors all Citadel Alumni who died in the Vietnam War.

The only enrolled cadet to be killed in action during the Civil War was W.J.B. Patterson, Class of 1865, who died on December 7, 1864 as a result of injuries at the Battle of Tulifinny. He was buried in his family’s plot in an unmarked grave in Magnolia Cemetery on December 17, 1864. The Fort Sumter Civil War Round Table obtained a marker from the Veterans Administration, dedicated on November 14, 2021. The engagement at Tulifinny Creek is of historic importance because it involved the deployment of the entire Battalion of State Cadets from The Citadel and Arsenal Academies as an independent military unit engaged in armed combat with Union forces. In December of 1864, the Governor of South Carolina ordered the Battalion of State Cadets from The Citadel and Arsenal to deploy to Tulifinny Creek south of Charleston to reinforce Confederate troops defending a key railroad bridge against a much larger advancing Union force. On December 7, the Battalion of State Cadets, along with Confederate militia units from North and South Carolina and Georgia, engaged a much larger Union force in pitched battle for several hours, advancing against rifle and cannon fire and forcing the federal troops back to their entrenchments. On December 9, the battalion of cadets successfully repulsed a Union counter-attack on their defensive position by the railroad trestle with their disciplined rifle fire. The Battalion of State Cadets suffered eight casualties in the engagement, including one killed, and were commended by Major General Samuel Jones, CSA, Commanding General of South Carolina and Georgia Departments, for their gallantry under fire. A mural depicting the December 9th engagement at the Tulifinny Creek railroad trestle is on display in the Daniel Library.

On the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, we share The Citadel Memorial in Europe's post, A Day That Will Live in Infamy. thecitadelmemorialeurope.org/a-day-that-will-live-in-infamy Thank you to Roger Long, '89, for his work remembering our alumni! Photo by U.S. Navy, Office of Public Relations – This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID fsa.8e00810.

Our next Citadel holiday gift suggestion is Sword and Sash Bourbon from Ironclad Distillery in Newport News, Va. Distilled for The Citadel from Virginia corn, wheat, rye, and malted barley. Aged over two summers in new, charred oak barrels. You’ll find them at https://www.ironcladdistillery.com/store/sword-sash-small-batch-bourbon-whiskey?fbclid=IwY2xjawGQg5pleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHc0FLLxmIWrntPoGSJYD_NrtGTpVSRcm7OF6YXSRtCUu-6pYCRNhWW8ZKg_aem_KPrI9IMIC3pVS0heKZjwHw

Carolina Flag and Banner (now Bob’s Flags) is a licensed manufacturer of Big Red Flags. Visit bobsflags.com and search The Citadel.

Johnson Hagood Stadium was officially dedicated on Dec. 4, 1948, when the Bulldogs played host to Clemson in front of a then-stadium record estimated crowd of 16,000.