February 12

1944:

At 2:00 A.M., at the Anzio beachhead, the 1st Battalion, 179th Infantry once again assailed the Factory. However, when the sun was beginning to show, the Germans counterattack, pushing them back. "The Germans," wrote a GI, "just beat the holy hell out of us."

1863:

On February 5, General Joseph Hooker, the new commander of the Army of the Potomac, abolished the grand divisions in his general orders. This meant that Franz Sigel was out of a job, and he was not happy about. "The reduction of my command," he wrote to Hooker on the 12th, "makes it exceedingly unpleasant and dispiriting for me to remain longer in my present command..."