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The first phase of the 1806-07 British invasions of the River Plate was initiated by Admiral Home Popham. It was not officially a British military operation and Popham had to first ask permission from his superiors in Cape Town, notably General David Baird (the mastermind of the successful British operation in Cape Town at the time), before carrying it out in mid-1806. (At the end of 1806, because of Napoleon's blockade of British ships on the Continent, Britain made attacking the River Plate and other parts of South America more of a priority, and the second phase of these British invasions was officially sanctioned.) The British operations in the River Plate ended up being utterly disastrous.
I'm wondering: Has it ever happened that an unofficial and/or un(der)authorized military operation has been successful? If so, all the time or rather rarely? Plus, tell me examples of unofficial and/or un(der)authorized military operations through history, other than the British invasions of the River Plate in 1806-07.
My favorite was the spontaneous, and thus "unauthorized" assault on Missionary Ridge by the four divisions of the Gen. Thomas's Army of Cumberland. On 25 Nov, 1863 Grant was in the midst of the battle to dislodge the rebel army of Braxton Bragg from a high and commanding ridge that rose 600 ft above the town of Chattanooga, TN. To do so, Grant had ordered a flanking assault by Sherman on the left and Hooker on the right while using Thomas's Army of the Cumberland to hold the center.
By mid-afternoon both flanking attacks had failed to achieve any meaningful results so Grant ordered Gen Thomas Wood and Maj Gen Phillip Sheridan to take a series of rifle pits dug in at the base of the ridge, no more and no less.
The overwhelming force of 23,000 troops quickly overran the confederate position but in doing so exposed themselves to withering fire from the ridge above them, so deciding, no one to this day know who, that staying put didn't feel like the logical or safe thing to do, spontaneously began assaulting the ridge itself, despite receiving orders to fall back.
Grant was shocked, angered, peeved, astonished or something depending on who you read that the attack on the center was underway demanded to know who had ordered the attack, and of course no one knew. Either way, it would be these four divisions that would defeat Hooker, throwing the rebel army off of the ridge and ending once and for all the encirclement of Chattanooga.
I trust that GS will be around shortly to clean up my mess of the details.
I trust that GS will be around shortly to clean up my mess of the details.
It all seems good to me.
The US government had negotiated a treaty with the non hostile Northern Cheyenne in Colorado and Kansas. Conflict with the non treaty Cheyenne, or Dog Soldiers, continued. To combat them Colorado raised a militia, the First Regiment of Colorado Volunteers under Methodist preacher and former US army Colonel John Chivington.
The Cheyenne chief, Black Kettle, after signing the peace accord at Fort Laramie, took his followers and camped on Sand Creek, 40 miles south of the fort. Chivington, who was only authorized to combat the Dog Soldier Cheyenne, instead took it upon himself to teach the Indians a lesson, any Indians he could find. The Dog Soldiers were elusive, so Chivington decided to target Black Kettle's camp. On November 29th, 1864, the 700 members of the Colorado Volunteers surprised Black Kettles's camp which was composed of 800 peaceful tribe members, all of whom understood themselves to be under the protection of the US government as long as they conformed to the terms of the treaty, which they did. Chivington not only had no authority for attacking Black Kettle's people, he was doing it in violation of US law.
The result was what has come to be called the Sand Creek Massacre, somewhere between 70 to 150 tribe members cut down and the rest scattered. Despite a US government investigation, no charges of any kind were brought against Chivington or any of the Colorado volunteers.
Jacksons invasion of Florida, Teddy Roosevelt's order to invade the Philippines
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