Hey there!
When Columbia re-entered the Earth, the hot gases in the atmosphere (atmospheric gases), they destroyed the wings and it ultimately was destroyed. That technically means that the spacecraft wasn't shielded correctly, and led to a tragedy as well as major rethinking and reform for NASA.
That's why today, you see that all spacecraft are carefully tested and monitored before put into orbit.
Hope this helps!
Many of washingtons men would no longer be obligated to fight due to the provisional enlistments that typically lasted for no longer than a year. Many of them had already decided they had done their part and since moral was low at this time, it was expected a lot of men would stop fighting on January 1st. Because of this, he wanted to attack while he still had the men to have more power and also boost morale among the men who would potentially be leaving
