May 21, 1864---To The North Anna River; The Circassian Genocide

MAY 21, 1864: 

In Virginia, Union troops moving southward toward the North Anna River run headlong into Confederate troops engaged in a reconnaissance in force. The resulting skirmish, though not very large, alerts Robert E. Lee to the exact position of The Army of The Potomac. He maneuvers in order to block their access to the River. 

Elsewhere in the world, after decades of localized warfare, the Tsarist Empire of Russia defeats the Circassians, a Muslim ethnic group famed since antiquity as warriors. The traditional home of the Circassians is along the Black Sea coast between the Crimea and the Caucasus. Upon the signing of the formal surrender on this day, Russian forces immediately begin a brutal campaign of expulsion / genocide against Circassian civilians, who are brutally tortured, raped, murdered and mutilated in the tens of thousands within only a few weeks. There is an international outcry. Survivors flee to the Ottoman Empire, where they are treated as enemy aliens. The Tsarist government later admits to killing 400,000 Circassians and exiling 400,000 to Turkey; however, Ottoman records show that only 75,000 Circassians entered their realm. Some modern sources estimate that only 150,000 of 1.5 million Circassians survived the genocide.