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re: 150 years ago this day...
Posted on 9/21/13 at 5:51 am to BadLeroyDawg
Posted on 9/21/13 at 5:51 am to BadLeroyDawg
Monday, 21 September 1863
General George Thomas, the “Rock of Chickamauga” as he would come to be known as soon as the newspaper stories were written up, continued in that role today. Having held the core of the Union army together yesterday on Snodgrass Hill, he had retired towards Chattanooga after nightfall. Today he again held the defenses of the city with the remnants of the Army of the Cumberland. His commanding officer, Rosecrans, was frantically preparing the city for siege. General Braxton Bragg, commanding the Confederates, issued orders for a pursuit before the defenses could be completed, then cancelled the order. Yet another chance to annihilate the Union forces was lost.
Twenty-one persons, exiled for various degrees and offenses of disloyalty, accompanied by nine ladies, who went by permission of the War Department to rejoin their families, permanently residing at the South, left St. Louis, Missouri, in charge of Captain Edward Lawler, of the First Missouri infantry. They were sent within the Southern lines in accordance with orders of the National War Department, of 24 April, 1863.
James Murray Mason, Confederate envoy to England and along with John Slidell the Southern half of the Trent Affair, informed Earl Russell, at the Court of St. James's, that his commission was at an end, and that he had been ordered by President Jefferson Davis to remove himself from the country. While traveling with Slidell to their posts as Confederate commissioners to Britain and France on the British mail steamer RMS Trent, the ship was stopped by the USS San Jacinto on November 8, 1861. Mason and they were confined by the Lincoln Administration in Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, until threatened with a second war by Great Britain.
The British schooner Martha Jane, was captured by the Union gunboat, sidewheel steamer Fort Henry's tender USS Annie, off Bayport, Florida.
The revenue steamer Hercules, while lying off the Virginia shore, was attacked by a large party of Confederate partisan guerrillas, but they were driven off after a fight of about twenty minutes, without inflicting any serious damage to the steamer or her crew.
Chat Discussion
General George Thomas, the “Rock of Chickamauga” as he would come to be known as soon as the newspaper stories were written up, continued in that role today. Having held the core of the Union army together yesterday on Snodgrass Hill, he had retired towards Chattanooga after nightfall. Today he again held the defenses of the city with the remnants of the Army of the Cumberland. His commanding officer, Rosecrans, was frantically preparing the city for siege. General Braxton Bragg, commanding the Confederates, issued orders for a pursuit before the defenses could be completed, then cancelled the order. Yet another chance to annihilate the Union forces was lost.
Twenty-one persons, exiled for various degrees and offenses of disloyalty, accompanied by nine ladies, who went by permission of the War Department to rejoin their families, permanently residing at the South, left St. Louis, Missouri, in charge of Captain Edward Lawler, of the First Missouri infantry. They were sent within the Southern lines in accordance with orders of the National War Department, of 24 April, 1863.
James Murray Mason, Confederate envoy to England and along with John Slidell the Southern half of the Trent Affair, informed Earl Russell, at the Court of St. James's, that his commission was at an end, and that he had been ordered by President Jefferson Davis to remove himself from the country. While traveling with Slidell to their posts as Confederate commissioners to Britain and France on the British mail steamer RMS Trent, the ship was stopped by the USS San Jacinto on November 8, 1861. Mason and they were confined by the Lincoln Administration in Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, until threatened with a second war by Great Britain.
The British schooner Martha Jane, was captured by the Union gunboat, sidewheel steamer Fort Henry's tender USS Annie, off Bayport, Florida.
The revenue steamer Hercules, while lying off the Virginia shore, was attacked by a large party of Confederate partisan guerrillas, but they were driven off after a fight of about twenty minutes, without inflicting any serious damage to the steamer or her crew.
Chat Discussion
1
Posted on 9/21/13 at 1:52 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Really enjoy reading this thread. Great work!
Posted on 9/21/13 at 8:29 pm to tigers32
Thanks 32! Lived in Louisiana for several years. Always enjoyed visiting the historic sights. Red River campaign will begin in 6 months.
Posted on 9/22/13 at 6:46 am to BadLeroyDawg
Tuesday, 22 September 1863
President Abraham Lincoln mourns the death of his brother-in-law this morning in Washington, DC-killed at Chickamauga-Confederate General Ben Hardin Helm.
General Braxton Bragg orders an attack on Federal positions below Missionary Ridge in Chattanooga; the troops reach the area only to find the enemy ready to "...receive and entertain us...we expected to be flung against the forts to certain destruction." Realizing the Federals have now firmly dug in, Bragg cancels the attack. By failing to pursue the Union retreat before it can organize, Bragg has missed his second great opportunity to destroy the Army of the Cumberland. Now, as his forces occupy the commanding heights of Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain, his third and final opportunity materializes into shape. A few days after having thought they were chasing the Confederates to Atlanta, the Yankees find themselves defeated, besieged and confused.
While the cleanup continued after the bloody Union defeat at Chickamauga, this Rant historian's attention turns to a lesser-known nautical incident. It seems a few days ago, Acting Master David Nicols of the Confederate States Navy set out on his small cutter Teaser from Mobile, Alabama, and sailed to the Southwest Pass, one of the channels at the mouth of the Mississippi River. There, Nichols and his 19 crewmen worked their way through the marshlands to a Federal coal depot, where rested the recently refueled and restocked USS Leviathan, a tugboat. Nichols and his men pulled the cutter into the marshes and made their way on foot to the coal wharf where they simply stole the tugboat, described by Captain Walker as "...a new and very fast screw steamer, amply supplied with coal and provisions for a cruise..." before dawn and headed back to Mobile. Awe at his creativity did not prevent the depot supervisors from giving the alarm. Shortly thereafter, Commodore Bell ordered Navy ships in pursuit.and 40 miles offshore the USS De Soto, under Captain W. M. Walker, intercepted the vessels, repossessing one and capturing the other. Nichols and his crew were likewise taken into custody.
Flag Officer Tucker assigned Lieutenant William T. Glassell, CSN, to command CSS David, "with a view of destroying as many of the enemy's vessels as possible Glassell, who had arrived in Charleston on 8 September from Wilmington on "special service," would take the torpedo boat against USS New Ironsides two weeks later.
An expedition under Acting Master George W. Ewer from the USS Seneca destroyed the Hudson Place Salt Works near Darien, Georgia. Ewer reported that the works, producing some 10 or 15 bushels of salt a day, were now "completely useless."
The USS Connecticut, Commander Almy in charge, seized the blockade running British steamer Juno off Wilmington with a large cargo of cotton and tobacco.
The Battle of Blountville, sometimes called the Battle of Blountsville, was fought this morning in Sullivan County, Tennessee. The fight occurred during a Union expedition into East Tennessee led by Major General Ambrose Burnside, commander of the Department of the Ohio, with the objective of clearing the roads and gaps to Virginia and securing the salt-works in southwestern Virginia. On September 22, Union Colonel John W. Foster, with his cavalry and artillery, engaged Colonel James E. Carter and his troops at Blountville. Foster attacked at noon and in the four-hour battle shelled the town and initiated a flanking movement, compelling the Confederates to withdraw. Blountsville was the initial step in the Union’s attempt to force Confederate Major General Sam Jones and his command to retire from East Tennessee. The Sullivan County courthouse in Blountville was gutted by a fire that broke out during the shelling.
A small body of Confederate cavalry crossed into Upper Maryland, a few miles from Rockville, but had not proceeded far before they were met by a portion of Scott's “Nine hundred” cavalry and an infantry force. A fight ensued, and thirty-four Rebels were killed and wounded. Among their killed was Captain Frank Kilgore, (of Maryland,) the commander of the enemy's forces. The Southerners, finding they were contending with superior numbers, retreated.
Chat Discussion
President Abraham Lincoln mourns the death of his brother-in-law this morning in Washington, DC-killed at Chickamauga-Confederate General Ben Hardin Helm.
General Braxton Bragg orders an attack on Federal positions below Missionary Ridge in Chattanooga; the troops reach the area only to find the enemy ready to "...receive and entertain us...we expected to be flung against the forts to certain destruction." Realizing the Federals have now firmly dug in, Bragg cancels the attack. By failing to pursue the Union retreat before it can organize, Bragg has missed his second great opportunity to destroy the Army of the Cumberland. Now, as his forces occupy the commanding heights of Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain, his third and final opportunity materializes into shape. A few days after having thought they were chasing the Confederates to Atlanta, the Yankees find themselves defeated, besieged and confused.
While the cleanup continued after the bloody Union defeat at Chickamauga, this Rant historian's attention turns to a lesser-known nautical incident. It seems a few days ago, Acting Master David Nicols of the Confederate States Navy set out on his small cutter Teaser from Mobile, Alabama, and sailed to the Southwest Pass, one of the channels at the mouth of the Mississippi River. There, Nichols and his 19 crewmen worked their way through the marshlands to a Federal coal depot, where rested the recently refueled and restocked USS Leviathan, a tugboat. Nichols and his men pulled the cutter into the marshes and made their way on foot to the coal wharf where they simply stole the tugboat, described by Captain Walker as "...a new and very fast screw steamer, amply supplied with coal and provisions for a cruise..." before dawn and headed back to Mobile. Awe at his creativity did not prevent the depot supervisors from giving the alarm. Shortly thereafter, Commodore Bell ordered Navy ships in pursuit.and 40 miles offshore the USS De Soto, under Captain W. M. Walker, intercepted the vessels, repossessing one and capturing the other. Nichols and his crew were likewise taken into custody.
Flag Officer Tucker assigned Lieutenant William T. Glassell, CSN, to command CSS David, "with a view of destroying as many of the enemy's vessels as possible Glassell, who had arrived in Charleston on 8 September from Wilmington on "special service," would take the torpedo boat against USS New Ironsides two weeks later.
An expedition under Acting Master George W. Ewer from the USS Seneca destroyed the Hudson Place Salt Works near Darien, Georgia. Ewer reported that the works, producing some 10 or 15 bushels of salt a day, were now "completely useless."
The USS Connecticut, Commander Almy in charge, seized the blockade running British steamer Juno off Wilmington with a large cargo of cotton and tobacco.
The Battle of Blountville, sometimes called the Battle of Blountsville, was fought this morning in Sullivan County, Tennessee. The fight occurred during a Union expedition into East Tennessee led by Major General Ambrose Burnside, commander of the Department of the Ohio, with the objective of clearing the roads and gaps to Virginia and securing the salt-works in southwestern Virginia. On September 22, Union Colonel John W. Foster, with his cavalry and artillery, engaged Colonel James E. Carter and his troops at Blountville. Foster attacked at noon and in the four-hour battle shelled the town and initiated a flanking movement, compelling the Confederates to withdraw. Blountsville was the initial step in the Union’s attempt to force Confederate Major General Sam Jones and his command to retire from East Tennessee. The Sullivan County courthouse in Blountville was gutted by a fire that broke out during the shelling.
A small body of Confederate cavalry crossed into Upper Maryland, a few miles from Rockville, but had not proceeded far before they were met by a portion of Scott's “Nine hundred” cavalry and an infantry force. A fight ensued, and thirty-four Rebels were killed and wounded. Among their killed was Captain Frank Kilgore, (of Maryland,) the commander of the enemy's forces. The Southerners, finding they were contending with superior numbers, retreated.
Chat Discussion
This post was edited on 9/22/13 at 6:50 am
Posted on 9/23/13 at 4:03 am to BadLeroyDawg
Wednesday, 23 September 1863
General William Starke Rosecrans was down in Chattanooga, but he was not out. His army, although badly and bloodily defeated at Chickamauga Creek, had still managed to retreat and establish strong enough fortifications that he was in no immediate danger--he just couldn’t leave. Today in Washington it was decided to detach the 11th and 12th Corps from the Army of the Potomac and send them to Rosecrans’ relief. The 11th in particular had been battered and demoralized first at Chancellorsville with an overwhelming defeat and then at Gettysburg during a costly victory, so a change of scenery seemed in order. In just two days, both corps were completely loaded-men, artillery, horses and supplies and all-into every railroad vehicle that could be borrowed, begged or commandeered, and southwest they went.
The blockade running steamer Phantom was chased ashore near Rich Inlet, North Carolina, by the Union gunboat Connecticut, and afterward deserted by her crew, who set her on fire before leaving; in the afternoon, men were sent on shore from the Connecticut, to destroy the boats of the steamer that had been drawn up on the beach. While in the act of destroying them, the men were attacked by a party of concealed Confederates, who succeeded in driving them back to the gunboat with a loss of one killed and one wounded.
Lieutenant General James Longstreet issued General Orders to his troops, congratulating them on the brilliant victory which had crowned their heroic and daring efforts at Chickamauga. As follows:
I. The Lieutenant General commanding expresses his congratulation to the brave troops of this command on the brilliant victory which has crowned their heroic efforts. The enemy, late so defiant and exulting, has been driven from his chosen positions with slaughter, and the loss of artillery, prisoners, arms, and colors. To this glorious result you have contributed no mean share. The gallant troops of the Army of Tennessee have once more exhibited that prowess that has ever illustrated the bloody battle holds of the West, and have fulfilled the high expectations that were entertained for them. Side by side with their brave comrades from Virginia they have breasted the wave of invasion and rolled it back. Soldiers! Much has been done, but not all. The fruits of your splendid victory are to be enjoyed. Tennessee and Kentucky, with their rolling fields and smiling valleys, are to be reclaimed to freedom and independence. You are to be the agent of their deliverance, and your task requires the same heroic fortitude, patience, and courage, always shown by you in the trying past. Your General looks to you for renewed exertions.
II. The Commanding General takes pleasure in publishing to his command the following names of soldiers who have distinguished themselves by the capture, each, of a stand of the enemy's colors: Private W. H. Barnett, Co. A, 21st Mississippi regiment, Humphries's brigade. Corp'l R. Conrad, Co. F, 21st Miss. regiment, Humphries's brigade. Corp'l J. F. M. Skinner, Co. G, 13th Miss. regiment, Humphries's brigade. Serg't L. E. Timmons, Co. I, 7th Florida regiment, Triggs's brigade. Private Oscar F. Honaker, Co. F, 54th Va. regiment, Triggs's brigade. Private W. F. Harris, Co. F, 54th Va. regiment, Triggs's brigade. Private W. W. Harris, Co. F, 54th Va. regiment, Triggs's brigade. Private Henderson Hylton, Co. F, 54th Va. regiment, Triggs's brigade.
At around one o'clock this morning, a raid was made upon a telegraph office opposite Donaldsonville, Louisiana, by a band of Confederate partisan guerrillas, who captured and carried off fourteen men of the Fourteenth regiment of New York cavalry and the telegraph operator.
The English steamer Diamond, while attempting to run the blockade, was captured by the United States steamer Stettin, off St. Simon's Sound, Georgia.
A secret expedition from Beaufort, South Carolina, to the mainland, under Captain J. E. Bryant, of the Eighth Maine volunteers, and consisting of two companies of colored troops, the chaplain of Colonel Higginson's regiment, a telegraph operator, and a lieutenant of the Fourth South Carolina volunteers, returned with only partial success. The expedition started by order of General Gillmore, with the view, not of cutting the Confederate telegraph between Charleston and Savannah, but of attaching a wire and receiving their dispatches. Owing to the carelessness of the operator, the wire, instead of being hid behind the pole, was allowed to hang in plain sight, and was discovered by the passengers in the first passing train; not, however, until some very important messages had been received, and among others a telegram to the commander of the Southern troops in Savannah from General P.G.T. Beauregard, ordering all his forces to Charleston, to engage in an attack on Folly Island.
Chat Discussion
General William Starke Rosecrans was down in Chattanooga, but he was not out. His army, although badly and bloodily defeated at Chickamauga Creek, had still managed to retreat and establish strong enough fortifications that he was in no immediate danger--he just couldn’t leave. Today in Washington it was decided to detach the 11th and 12th Corps from the Army of the Potomac and send them to Rosecrans’ relief. The 11th in particular had been battered and demoralized first at Chancellorsville with an overwhelming defeat and then at Gettysburg during a costly victory, so a change of scenery seemed in order. In just two days, both corps were completely loaded-men, artillery, horses and supplies and all-into every railroad vehicle that could be borrowed, begged or commandeered, and southwest they went.
The blockade running steamer Phantom was chased ashore near Rich Inlet, North Carolina, by the Union gunboat Connecticut, and afterward deserted by her crew, who set her on fire before leaving; in the afternoon, men were sent on shore from the Connecticut, to destroy the boats of the steamer that had been drawn up on the beach. While in the act of destroying them, the men were attacked by a party of concealed Confederates, who succeeded in driving them back to the gunboat with a loss of one killed and one wounded.
Lieutenant General James Longstreet issued General Orders to his troops, congratulating them on the brilliant victory which had crowned their heroic and daring efforts at Chickamauga. As follows:
I. The Lieutenant General commanding expresses his congratulation to the brave troops of this command on the brilliant victory which has crowned their heroic efforts. The enemy, late so defiant and exulting, has been driven from his chosen positions with slaughter, and the loss of artillery, prisoners, arms, and colors. To this glorious result you have contributed no mean share. The gallant troops of the Army of Tennessee have once more exhibited that prowess that has ever illustrated the bloody battle holds of the West, and have fulfilled the high expectations that were entertained for them. Side by side with their brave comrades from Virginia they have breasted the wave of invasion and rolled it back. Soldiers! Much has been done, but not all. The fruits of your splendid victory are to be enjoyed. Tennessee and Kentucky, with their rolling fields and smiling valleys, are to be reclaimed to freedom and independence. You are to be the agent of their deliverance, and your task requires the same heroic fortitude, patience, and courage, always shown by you in the trying past. Your General looks to you for renewed exertions.
II. The Commanding General takes pleasure in publishing to his command the following names of soldiers who have distinguished themselves by the capture, each, of a stand of the enemy's colors: Private W. H. Barnett, Co. A, 21st Mississippi regiment, Humphries's brigade. Corp'l R. Conrad, Co. F, 21st Miss. regiment, Humphries's brigade. Corp'l J. F. M. Skinner, Co. G, 13th Miss. regiment, Humphries's brigade. Serg't L. E. Timmons, Co. I, 7th Florida regiment, Triggs's brigade. Private Oscar F. Honaker, Co. F, 54th Va. regiment, Triggs's brigade. Private W. F. Harris, Co. F, 54th Va. regiment, Triggs's brigade. Private W. W. Harris, Co. F, 54th Va. regiment, Triggs's brigade. Private Henderson Hylton, Co. F, 54th Va. regiment, Triggs's brigade.
At around one o'clock this morning, a raid was made upon a telegraph office opposite Donaldsonville, Louisiana, by a band of Confederate partisan guerrillas, who captured and carried off fourteen men of the Fourteenth regiment of New York cavalry and the telegraph operator.
The English steamer Diamond, while attempting to run the blockade, was captured by the United States steamer Stettin, off St. Simon's Sound, Georgia.
A secret expedition from Beaufort, South Carolina, to the mainland, under Captain J. E. Bryant, of the Eighth Maine volunteers, and consisting of two companies of colored troops, the chaplain of Colonel Higginson's regiment, a telegraph operator, and a lieutenant of the Fourth South Carolina volunteers, returned with only partial success. The expedition started by order of General Gillmore, with the view, not of cutting the Confederate telegraph between Charleston and Savannah, but of attaching a wire and receiving their dispatches. Owing to the carelessness of the operator, the wire, instead of being hid behind the pole, was allowed to hang in plain sight, and was discovered by the passengers in the first passing train; not, however, until some very important messages had been received, and among others a telegram to the commander of the Southern troops in Savannah from General P.G.T. Beauregard, ordering all his forces to Charleston, to engage in an attack on Folly Island.
Chat Discussion
Posted on 9/24/13 at 4:41 am to BadLeroyDawg
Thursday, 24 September 1863
The ambitious effort to rescue General William Starke Rosecrans and the men of his Army of the Cumberland got into high gear today. The plan was to send the 11th and 12th Corps of the Army of the Potomac to assist him. The impediment to it was, of course, that the Army of the Potomac was in northern Virginia, and Rosecrans and his men were essentially under siege in Chattanooga, Tennessee. To march the route would have been a bit time-consuming, so the plan was to send them by train. Today saw an unprecedented massing of rolling stock on the railroads of the North. The Federal possession of Nashville, a great rail center of the state, would make considerable difference in this effort.
General Robert E. Lee issued an order announcing to the Confederate army in Virginia, "...with profound gratitude to Almighty God, the victory achieved at Chickamauga by the army of Braxton Bragg," and calling upon his soldiers to "...emulate the heroic example of our brethren in the South, until the enemy shall be expelled from our borders, and peace and independence be secured."
Between eight and nine o'clock this morning a squad of twenty-one Southern partisan guerrillas made a raid at Wood Station Number Thirteen, on the line of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, Virginia, about twelve miles from the latter place, commandeering nine mules. Sergeant Highland, of Pennsylvania, who started off in the direction of the plunderers, was taken prisoner.
President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation raising the blockade of the port of Alexandria, Virginia.
Chat Discussion
The ambitious effort to rescue General William Starke Rosecrans and the men of his Army of the Cumberland got into high gear today. The plan was to send the 11th and 12th Corps of the Army of the Potomac to assist him. The impediment to it was, of course, that the Army of the Potomac was in northern Virginia, and Rosecrans and his men were essentially under siege in Chattanooga, Tennessee. To march the route would have been a bit time-consuming, so the plan was to send them by train. Today saw an unprecedented massing of rolling stock on the railroads of the North. The Federal possession of Nashville, a great rail center of the state, would make considerable difference in this effort.
General Robert E. Lee issued an order announcing to the Confederate army in Virginia, "...with profound gratitude to Almighty God, the victory achieved at Chickamauga by the army of Braxton Bragg," and calling upon his soldiers to "...emulate the heroic example of our brethren in the South, until the enemy shall be expelled from our borders, and peace and independence be secured."
Between eight and nine o'clock this morning a squad of twenty-one Southern partisan guerrillas made a raid at Wood Station Number Thirteen, on the line of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, Virginia, about twelve miles from the latter place, commandeering nine mules. Sergeant Highland, of Pennsylvania, who started off in the direction of the plunderers, was taken prisoner.
President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation raising the blockade of the port of Alexandria, Virginia.
Chat Discussion
Posted on 9/25/13 at 5:14 am to BadLeroyDawg
Friday, 25 September 1863
President Abraham Lincoln had run through quite a number of generals at this point in the War of the Southern Invasion, and as one after the other failed to defeat General Robert Edward Lee, new jobs had to be found for them. General Ambrose Everett Burnside had had his turn, and was then reassigned to command the massive Department of Ohio. This meant that he was directly responsible for helping General William Starke Rosecrans, currently pinned down in Chattanooga. Lincoln wrote a disgusted letter today, noting "...you have repeatedly declared you would do it [assist Rosecrans], and yet you steadily move the contrary way." As usual with irate letters, Lincoln never mailed this one. The White House was in a peculiar form of mourning for Mary Lincoln's brother, Brigadier General Benjamin Hardin Helm. He had died during the battle of Chickamauga, fighting for the right of the Confederacy to determine its own politn course.
Epidemic sickness was one of the persistent hazards of extended blockade duty in warm climate. This date, to illustrate, Commodore H. H. Bell reported to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles from New Orleans: "I regret to inform the Department that a pernicious fever has appeared on board the United States steamers repairing at this port from which some deaths have ensued. Some of the cases have been well-defined yellow fever, and others are recognized here by the names of pernicious and congestive fever."
The USS Tioga, under Commander Albert G. Clary, seized the English steamer William Penn, which was captured near the Rio Grande, then apprehended the steamer Herald near the Bahamas with a cargo of cotton, turpentine, and pitch.after an arrival at New Orleans.
Spencer Kellogg Brown, condemned by the Confederates as a spy, was hanged at Richmond, Virginia.
A fight took place near Upperville, Virginia, between Major Henry A. Cole's regimental command of nearly one thousand Federal cavalry, and about one hundred and fifty partisan rangers belonging to Colonel John Singleton Mosby's Forty-third Virginia Battalion of Cavalry, in which the latter were defeated and put to flight. Cole recaptured seventy-five horses and mules, and one man belonging to the Nineteenth New York cavalry, besides killing one of the Southerners and capturing nine.
A party of southern partisan guerrillas attacked the Union garrison at Donaldsonville, Louisiana, but were repulsed, and compelled to retire with slight loss.
Chat Discussion
President Abraham Lincoln had run through quite a number of generals at this point in the War of the Southern Invasion, and as one after the other failed to defeat General Robert Edward Lee, new jobs had to be found for them. General Ambrose Everett Burnside had had his turn, and was then reassigned to command the massive Department of Ohio. This meant that he was directly responsible for helping General William Starke Rosecrans, currently pinned down in Chattanooga. Lincoln wrote a disgusted letter today, noting "...you have repeatedly declared you would do it [assist Rosecrans], and yet you steadily move the contrary way." As usual with irate letters, Lincoln never mailed this one. The White House was in a peculiar form of mourning for Mary Lincoln's brother, Brigadier General Benjamin Hardin Helm. He had died during the battle of Chickamauga, fighting for the right of the Confederacy to determine its own politn course.
Epidemic sickness was one of the persistent hazards of extended blockade duty in warm climate. This date, to illustrate, Commodore H. H. Bell reported to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles from New Orleans: "I regret to inform the Department that a pernicious fever has appeared on board the United States steamers repairing at this port from which some deaths have ensued. Some of the cases have been well-defined yellow fever, and others are recognized here by the names of pernicious and congestive fever."
The USS Tioga, under Commander Albert G. Clary, seized the English steamer William Penn, which was captured near the Rio Grande, then apprehended the steamer Herald near the Bahamas with a cargo of cotton, turpentine, and pitch.after an arrival at New Orleans.
Spencer Kellogg Brown, condemned by the Confederates as a spy, was hanged at Richmond, Virginia.
A fight took place near Upperville, Virginia, between Major Henry A. Cole's regimental command of nearly one thousand Federal cavalry, and about one hundred and fifty partisan rangers belonging to Colonel John Singleton Mosby's Forty-third Virginia Battalion of Cavalry, in which the latter were defeated and put to flight. Cole recaptured seventy-five horses and mules, and one man belonging to the Nineteenth New York cavalry, besides killing one of the Southerners and capturing nine.
A party of southern partisan guerrillas attacked the Union garrison at Donaldsonville, Louisiana, but were repulsed, and compelled to retire with slight loss.
Chat Discussion
Posted on 9/26/13 at 4:55 am to BadLeroyDawg
Saturday, 26 September 1863
The governors, not to mention the generals, of the Confederate States on the west side of the Mississippi River had long felt they were being treated like unwanted stepchildren by the government in Richmond. When they requested guns, supplies, or manpower, they were more likely to be asked to send these items East for the defense of the capital, rather than have them sent out for the defense of the hinterlands. Now that Vicksburg had fallen and the Mississippi River was in Union hands the situation was becoming grim in the extreme. Lieutenant General Edmund Kirby Smith tried his hand at firebrand speech writing this morning when he issued the following to the populace of the Trans-Mississippi; the people of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas: Your homes are in peril. Vigorous efforts on your part can alone save portions of your State from invasion. You should contest the advance of the enemy, thicket, gully, and stream; harass his rear and cut off his supplies. Thus you will prove important auxiliaries in any. attempt to reach him in front, and drive him, routed, from our soil. Determination and energy only can prevent his destruction of your homes. By a vigorous and united effort you preserve your property, you secure independence for yourselves and children — all that renders life desirable. Time is our best friend. Endure awhile longer; victory and peace must crown our efforts. The amended regulations governing the formation of corps for local defense are published for your information, and I call upon you to organize promptly under its provisions. “Your homes are in peril...You should contest the advance of the enemy, thicket, gully and stream; harass his rear and cut off his supplies.”
The inclination, not to mention the ability, of civilian farmers to follow this advice was questionable.
Chat Discussion
The governors, not to mention the generals, of the Confederate States on the west side of the Mississippi River had long felt they were being treated like unwanted stepchildren by the government in Richmond. When they requested guns, supplies, or manpower, they were more likely to be asked to send these items East for the defense of the capital, rather than have them sent out for the defense of the hinterlands. Now that Vicksburg had fallen and the Mississippi River was in Union hands the situation was becoming grim in the extreme. Lieutenant General Edmund Kirby Smith tried his hand at firebrand speech writing this morning when he issued the following to the populace of the Trans-Mississippi; the people of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas: Your homes are in peril. Vigorous efforts on your part can alone save portions of your State from invasion. You should contest the advance of the enemy, thicket, gully, and stream; harass his rear and cut off his supplies. Thus you will prove important auxiliaries in any. attempt to reach him in front, and drive him, routed, from our soil. Determination and energy only can prevent his destruction of your homes. By a vigorous and united effort you preserve your property, you secure independence for yourselves and children — all that renders life desirable. Time is our best friend. Endure awhile longer; victory and peace must crown our efforts. The amended regulations governing the formation of corps for local defense are published for your information, and I call upon you to organize promptly under its provisions. “Your homes are in peril...You should contest the advance of the enemy, thicket, gully and stream; harass his rear and cut off his supplies.”
The inclination, not to mention the ability, of civilian farmers to follow this advice was questionable.
Chat Discussion
Posted on 9/27/13 at 4:01 am to BadLeroyDawg
Sunday, 27 September 1863
There existed in the Confederate military a class of operators for whom no good descriptive term exists. They were classified as cavalrymen, but they did not always perform the usual functions of cavalry in the military sense of the day--scouting ahead, and screening the movements, for an army of infantry. These men were usually referred to as "raiders" or "rangers" and their role was to move quickly to harass, cut lines of communication, pick off stragglers from Union marches, and gather supplies. One of these raiders, Jo Shelby, worked mainly in the Trans-Mississippi, so he is even less known than some like John Hunt Morgan, John Singleton Mosby and Nathan Bedford Forrest. This morning, Shelby attacked Moffat's Station in Franklin County, Arkansas, defended by Captain Parker and the First Arkansas infantry. The Federal losses were two killed, two wounded, and fifteen soldiers taken prisoners.
The USS Clyde, under Acting Volunteer Lieutenant Quincy A. Hooper, seized the schooner Amaranth near the Florida Keys with a cargo including cigars and sugar.
The mortar schooner USS Para, under Acting Master Edward G. Furber, arrived this afternoon in Fernandina to repair damage done to her masts while on patrol duty off Mosquito Inlet, South Carolina. Mosquito Inlet was the scene of a Union naval attack just a few days earlier. The settlement there was destroyed and several sloops and schooners were burned.
[link=(Sunday, 27 September 1863 There existed in the Confederate military a class of operators for)]Chat Discussion[/link]
There existed in the Confederate military a class of operators for whom no good descriptive term exists. They were classified as cavalrymen, but they did not always perform the usual functions of cavalry in the military sense of the day--scouting ahead, and screening the movements, for an army of infantry. These men were usually referred to as "raiders" or "rangers" and their role was to move quickly to harass, cut lines of communication, pick off stragglers from Union marches, and gather supplies. One of these raiders, Jo Shelby, worked mainly in the Trans-Mississippi, so he is even less known than some like John Hunt Morgan, John Singleton Mosby and Nathan Bedford Forrest. This morning, Shelby attacked Moffat's Station in Franklin County, Arkansas, defended by Captain Parker and the First Arkansas infantry. The Federal losses were two killed, two wounded, and fifteen soldiers taken prisoners.
The USS Clyde, under Acting Volunteer Lieutenant Quincy A. Hooper, seized the schooner Amaranth near the Florida Keys with a cargo including cigars and sugar.
The mortar schooner USS Para, under Acting Master Edward G. Furber, arrived this afternoon in Fernandina to repair damage done to her masts while on patrol duty off Mosquito Inlet, South Carolina. Mosquito Inlet was the scene of a Union naval attack just a few days earlier. The settlement there was destroyed and several sloops and schooners were burned.
[link=(Sunday, 27 September 1863 There existed in the Confederate military a class of operators for)]Chat Discussion[/link]
This post was edited on 9/27/13 at 4:25 am
Posted on 9/28/13 at 5:48 am to BadLeroyDawg
Monday, 28 September 1863
It had been decided to send the 11th and 12 Corps from the Army of the Potomac to reinforce General William Rosecrans, who was safe but somewhat besieged in Chattanooga following the Battle of Chickamauga. There was no way to do this big a move in secrecy, even considering that they were traveling by rail rather than foot. Word of the move reached the ear of the besieger, General Braxton Bragg, in the form of a telegram from President Jefferson Davis. The only assistance Bragg was receiving was from the Federal side, as two Union generals (McCook and Crittenden) were relieved of their commands and sent back to Indianapolis to face courts of inquiry for their conduct in the battle.
U.S. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles noted in his diary that the chances of European intervention in the war on behalf of the Confederacy were dimming. He wrote: "The last arrivals indicate a better tone and temper in England , and I think in France also. From the articles in their papers . . . I think our monitors and heavy ordnance have had a peaceful tendency, a tranquilizing effect. The guns of the Weehawken have knocked the breath out of the British statesmen as well as the crew of the Atlanta."
President Abraham Lincoln directed that the Twentieth and Twenty-first army corps be consolidated and called the Fourth Army Corps, and that Major General Gordon Granger be the commander of this consolidated corps. He also directed that a Court of Inquiry be convened to inquire into and report upon the conduct of Major Generals Alexander McDowell McCook and Thomas Leonidas Crittenden in the battles of the nineteenth and twentieth instant at Chickamauga. These officers were relieved from duty in the Army of the Cumberland, and were ordered to repair to Indianapolis, Indiana, reporting their arrival by letter to the Adjutant General of the Army.
Lieutenant Earl and thirty men, belonging to the Fourth Wisconsin cavalry, captured a party of Confederate guerrillas and cavalrymen, in the neighborhood of the junction of the Amite and Comite Rivers, Louisiana, and safely conducted them into Baton Rouge. Among the prisoners were Colonel Hunter (Ten-Mile Bob as he was dubbed by his opponents in the campaign for State Treasurer in 1857) and Captain Penny, the leaders in the raids and attacks on the river steamboats in that vicinity.
Fort Sumter, South Carolina, was bombarded by the Federal batteries on Morris Island.
Mr. James Spence, of London, England, and the author of The American Union, ceased to be the financial agent of the Confederate government.
An engagement took place at McMinnville, Tennessee, in which the Confederates were repulsed with a loss of a large number of prisoners.
The Confederate steamer Herald was captured off the Bahamas near the Florida Keys by the "double-ender” side-wheel steamer USS Tioga, commanded by Commander Albert G. Clary, and carried into Key West, Florida. The Herald's cargo included cigars and sugar.
Major General Hiram U. Grant, from his headquarters at Vicksburg, issued Special Orders authorizing the issuing of rations to such families only, as should “...take an oath to support the Government of the United States, and to withdraw all support and countenance from the so-called Confederate government.”
The entire cotton crop in South Carolina was seized by order of Brigadier General Rufus Saxton, by virtue of authority vested in him as Military Governor of the Department of the South.
General Orders were issued by Major General Nathaniel Banks, at New Orleans, Louisiana, authorizing the Commanding General of the Corps d'Afrique “...to detail from the line an additional staff officer, with the rank and pay of captain, to be designated ‘Corps Instructor,’ whose duty it shall be to superintend in garrison, and, as far as may be consistent with military duty, in the field, the education of men engaged in the Corps d'Afrique.”
Chat Discussion
It had been decided to send the 11th and 12 Corps from the Army of the Potomac to reinforce General William Rosecrans, who was safe but somewhat besieged in Chattanooga following the Battle of Chickamauga. There was no way to do this big a move in secrecy, even considering that they were traveling by rail rather than foot. Word of the move reached the ear of the besieger, General Braxton Bragg, in the form of a telegram from President Jefferson Davis. The only assistance Bragg was receiving was from the Federal side, as two Union generals (McCook and Crittenden) were relieved of their commands and sent back to Indianapolis to face courts of inquiry for their conduct in the battle.
U.S. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles noted in his diary that the chances of European intervention in the war on behalf of the Confederacy were dimming. He wrote: "The last arrivals indicate a better tone and temper in England , and I think in France also. From the articles in their papers . . . I think our monitors and heavy ordnance have had a peaceful tendency, a tranquilizing effect. The guns of the Weehawken have knocked the breath out of the British statesmen as well as the crew of the Atlanta."
President Abraham Lincoln directed that the Twentieth and Twenty-first army corps be consolidated and called the Fourth Army Corps, and that Major General Gordon Granger be the commander of this consolidated corps. He also directed that a Court of Inquiry be convened to inquire into and report upon the conduct of Major Generals Alexander McDowell McCook and Thomas Leonidas Crittenden in the battles of the nineteenth and twentieth instant at Chickamauga. These officers were relieved from duty in the Army of the Cumberland, and were ordered to repair to Indianapolis, Indiana, reporting their arrival by letter to the Adjutant General of the Army.
Lieutenant Earl and thirty men, belonging to the Fourth Wisconsin cavalry, captured a party of Confederate guerrillas and cavalrymen, in the neighborhood of the junction of the Amite and Comite Rivers, Louisiana, and safely conducted them into Baton Rouge. Among the prisoners were Colonel Hunter (Ten-Mile Bob as he was dubbed by his opponents in the campaign for State Treasurer in 1857) and Captain Penny, the leaders in the raids and attacks on the river steamboats in that vicinity.
Fort Sumter, South Carolina, was bombarded by the Federal batteries on Morris Island.
Mr. James Spence, of London, England, and the author of The American Union, ceased to be the financial agent of the Confederate government.
An engagement took place at McMinnville, Tennessee, in which the Confederates were repulsed with a loss of a large number of prisoners.
The Confederate steamer Herald was captured off the Bahamas near the Florida Keys by the "double-ender” side-wheel steamer USS Tioga, commanded by Commander Albert G. Clary, and carried into Key West, Florida. The Herald's cargo included cigars and sugar.
Major General Hiram U. Grant, from his headquarters at Vicksburg, issued Special Orders authorizing the issuing of rations to such families only, as should “...take an oath to support the Government of the United States, and to withdraw all support and countenance from the so-called Confederate government.”
The entire cotton crop in South Carolina was seized by order of Brigadier General Rufus Saxton, by virtue of authority vested in him as Military Governor of the Department of the South.
General Orders were issued by Major General Nathaniel Banks, at New Orleans, Louisiana, authorizing the Commanding General of the Corps d'Afrique “...to detail from the line an additional staff officer, with the rank and pay of captain, to be designated ‘Corps Instructor,’ whose duty it shall be to superintend in garrison, and, as far as may be consistent with military duty, in the field, the education of men engaged in the Corps d'Afrique.”
Chat Discussion
Posted on 9/29/13 at 5:26 am to BadLeroyDawg
Tuesday, 29 September 1863
Proving that the inspirational campaign speech is not a modern invention, President Abraham Lincoln took time out of micro-managing the War Between the States to give a talk to a convention today. This was a meeting of an organization known as the Sons of Temperance, one of the outgrowths of a religious revival which had been spreading through America well before the war. Along with its allies in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and similar groups, the Sons of Temperance lobbied for legal restrictions on alcohol as well as voluntary abstinence. Lincoln told the group that “...intemperance is one of the greatest, if not the very greatest of all the evils of mankind.” Lincoln himself never drank alcohol although he showed no inclinations to force prohibition on others.
The USS Lafayette, Lieutenant Commander J.P. Foster in charge, and the USS Kenwood, under Acting Master John Swaney, arrived at Morganza, Louisiana, on Bayou Fordoche to support troops under Major General Napoleon J. T. Dana. More than 400 Union troops had been captured in an engagement with Confederates under Brigadier General Thomas Green. Foster noted, "the arrival of the gunboats was hailed . . . with perfect delight." Next day, the presence of the ships, he added, "no doubt deterred [the Confederates] from attacking General Dana in his position at Morganza as they had about four brigades to do it with, while our forces did not amount to more than 1,500." Foster ordered the gunboats to cover the Army and prevent a renewal of the action.
The USS St. Louis, Commander George H. Preble, returned to Lisbon, Portugal, after an unsuccessful cruise of almost a hundred days in search of Confederate commerce raiders. Preble reported significantly to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles that although the St. Louis had "...repeatedly crossed and recrossed the sea routes (to and from) between the United States and the Mediterranean and Europe, we have in all this cruise met with but one American merchant vessel at sea. This fact, on a sea poetically supposed to be whitened by our commerce, illustrates the difficulties attendant upon a search after the two or three rebel cruisers afloat." In addition, the scarcity of American flag merchant sail testified to the effectiveness of the few Southern raiders.
The Cincinnati Enquirer of this day contained the following: It is now stated that a bill has been prepared and will be placed before the next Congress, declaring Lincoln President while the war lasts. Thus the mad fanatics are plotting against our liberties, and if we do not speak right soon through the ballot-box, the last vestige of our republican government will have been swept away.
The gunboat Bombshell, under Captain Brinkerhoff, left Newbern a few days ago, under sealed orders, and made a reconnaissance of Pasquotank River, which empties into Albemarle Sound. Landing a boat's crew near Elizabeth City, the men were captured by the Confederates, when for revenge, Captain Brinckerhoff opened a vigorous fire on the town, doing considerable damage.
A slight skirmish took place at Moore's Bluff on the Big Black River, Mississippi, resulting in the rout and retreat of the Union forces.
Chat Discussion
Proving that the inspirational campaign speech is not a modern invention, President Abraham Lincoln took time out of micro-managing the War Between the States to give a talk to a convention today. This was a meeting of an organization known as the Sons of Temperance, one of the outgrowths of a religious revival which had been spreading through America well before the war. Along with its allies in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and similar groups, the Sons of Temperance lobbied for legal restrictions on alcohol as well as voluntary abstinence. Lincoln told the group that “...intemperance is one of the greatest, if not the very greatest of all the evils of mankind.” Lincoln himself never drank alcohol although he showed no inclinations to force prohibition on others.
The USS Lafayette, Lieutenant Commander J.P. Foster in charge, and the USS Kenwood, under Acting Master John Swaney, arrived at Morganza, Louisiana, on Bayou Fordoche to support troops under Major General Napoleon J. T. Dana. More than 400 Union troops had been captured in an engagement with Confederates under Brigadier General Thomas Green. Foster noted, "the arrival of the gunboats was hailed . . . with perfect delight." Next day, the presence of the ships, he added, "no doubt deterred [the Confederates] from attacking General Dana in his position at Morganza as they had about four brigades to do it with, while our forces did not amount to more than 1,500." Foster ordered the gunboats to cover the Army and prevent a renewal of the action.
The USS St. Louis, Commander George H. Preble, returned to Lisbon, Portugal, after an unsuccessful cruise of almost a hundred days in search of Confederate commerce raiders. Preble reported significantly to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles that although the St. Louis had "...repeatedly crossed and recrossed the sea routes (to and from) between the United States and the Mediterranean and Europe, we have in all this cruise met with but one American merchant vessel at sea. This fact, on a sea poetically supposed to be whitened by our commerce, illustrates the difficulties attendant upon a search after the two or three rebel cruisers afloat." In addition, the scarcity of American flag merchant sail testified to the effectiveness of the few Southern raiders.
The Cincinnati Enquirer of this day contained the following: It is now stated that a bill has been prepared and will be placed before the next Congress, declaring Lincoln President while the war lasts. Thus the mad fanatics are plotting against our liberties, and if we do not speak right soon through the ballot-box, the last vestige of our republican government will have been swept away.
The gunboat Bombshell, under Captain Brinkerhoff, left Newbern a few days ago, under sealed orders, and made a reconnaissance of Pasquotank River, which empties into Albemarle Sound. Landing a boat's crew near Elizabeth City, the men were captured by the Confederates, when for revenge, Captain Brinckerhoff opened a vigorous fire on the town, doing considerable damage.
A slight skirmish took place at Moore's Bluff on the Big Black River, Mississippi, resulting in the rout and retreat of the Union forces.
Chat Discussion
Posted on 9/30/13 at 4:43 am to BadLeroyDawg
Wednesday, 30 September 1863
The Battle of Chickamauga was long over, nine days in fact, and the Confederates had won by forcing back the Federal army into a full blown retreat to points north. Major General William Starke Rosecrans' Army of the Cumberland was driven in disorder and confusion from the field into the sheltering streets of nearby Chattanooga. They were still there, though, and the conquering hero General Braxton Bragg was still sitting outside of town. His accomplishment of today was to detach most of his cavalry, under General Joseph Wheeler, and send it on an expedition to cut the Federal communications lines. Bragg had no idea that two Corps of the Union Army of the Potomac were only two days away. He knew they were coming, but not how fast.
The USS Rosalie, Acting Master Peter F. Coffin, seized the British schooner Director attempting to run the blockade at Sanibel River, Florida, with a full cargo of salt and rum.
Colonel Rowett, with the Seventh Illinois and Seventh Kansas Regiments of cavalry, had a fight with a small band of partisan guerrillas under Newsome, at Swallow's Bluff, on the Tennessee River. Colonel Rowett came upon the Rebels while they were crossing the river. About one hundred had already crossed with their horses and baggage, leaving a major and twenty men on this side. The Southerners were partly sheltered by the bluff, and defended by their comrades on the other side, who were in supporting distance, but the Unionists surrounded and captured the twenty plus group with the loss of one killed and two wounded.
The bombardment of Forts Sumter, Johnson, and Simpkins, in Charleston harbor, was continued all day, Forts Moultrie and Simpkins alone replying.
Leonidas Polk, a Lieutenant General in the Confederate service, being relieved from his command “...in consequence of an unfortunate disagreement between himself and the Commander-in-Chief of the Rebel department of the Mississippi...” issued his farewell order.
Chat
The Battle of Chickamauga was long over, nine days in fact, and the Confederates had won by forcing back the Federal army into a full blown retreat to points north. Major General William Starke Rosecrans' Army of the Cumberland was driven in disorder and confusion from the field into the sheltering streets of nearby Chattanooga. They were still there, though, and the conquering hero General Braxton Bragg was still sitting outside of town. His accomplishment of today was to detach most of his cavalry, under General Joseph Wheeler, and send it on an expedition to cut the Federal communications lines. Bragg had no idea that two Corps of the Union Army of the Potomac were only two days away. He knew they were coming, but not how fast.
The USS Rosalie, Acting Master Peter F. Coffin, seized the British schooner Director attempting to run the blockade at Sanibel River, Florida, with a full cargo of salt and rum.
Colonel Rowett, with the Seventh Illinois and Seventh Kansas Regiments of cavalry, had a fight with a small band of partisan guerrillas under Newsome, at Swallow's Bluff, on the Tennessee River. Colonel Rowett came upon the Rebels while they were crossing the river. About one hundred had already crossed with their horses and baggage, leaving a major and twenty men on this side. The Southerners were partly sheltered by the bluff, and defended by their comrades on the other side, who were in supporting distance, but the Unionists surrounded and captured the twenty plus group with the loss of one killed and two wounded.
The bombardment of Forts Sumter, Johnson, and Simpkins, in Charleston harbor, was continued all day, Forts Moultrie and Simpkins alone replying.
Leonidas Polk, a Lieutenant General in the Confederate service, being relieved from his command “...in consequence of an unfortunate disagreement between himself and the Commander-in-Chief of the Rebel department of the Mississippi...” issued his farewell order.
Chat
Posted on 10/1/13 at 4:15 am to BadLeroyDawg
Thursday, 1 October 1863
General William Rosecrans sat in Chattanooga, his Army of the Cumberland still intact but unable to move without running into General Braxton Bragg’s Army of Tennessee. Although immobile, they had been reasonably well fed and supplied throughout their ordeal. This situation took a turn for the worse today as the Confederate cavalry of Major General Joseph Wheeler, an Augusta, Georgia native, was wreaking havoc in the Union rear. Communications lines, both telegraphic and messenger, were disrupted by cutting or capture. Worse, every supply train sent out was now going to feed the Southerners instead of the Federals as they fell into Wheeler’s hands and were diverted.
Wheeler then conducted a massive raid through central Tennessee. On 3 October, Wheeler's Cavalry would destroy at least 500 (Union estimate) of Rosecrans' supply wagons. Some calculated the number destroyed to be as high as 1800, leaving a smoking corridor of destruction. Later, Wheeler encamped near Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and at nearby Courtland met and courted his future wife, the recently widowed, Mrs. Daniella Jones Sherrod, the daughter of Colonel Richard Jones.
Late this afternoon, the 11th Corps of the Army of the Potomac, along with parts of the 12th Corps, had already passed through Nashville, traveling by train to relieve Rosecrans.
The U.S. Navy Long Island project develops a one-man submarine.
The rebel General Wheeler, with a large body of mounted men, crossed the Tennessee River at Washington, at a point thirteen miles above Chattanooga, and passed down the Sequatchie Valley. He captured fifty wagons belonging to one of General Rosecrans's trains, at the foot of the mountain, near Anderson's Cross-Roads, burning a number of them, and killing burning a number of them, and killing about three hundred horses and mules. The train was laden with ammunition, clothing, and rations. Forty wagons carrying medical and sanitary stores, and about fifty sutlers' teams were also lost.
The loyal men and women of DeKalb County, Illinois, and adjoining counties, met in mass meeting at DeKalb, to renew to each other their solemn pledges to stand by the Government in the vigorous prosecution of the war, “...till this accursed rebellion and its cause shall be buried in one common grave.”
Chat
General William Rosecrans sat in Chattanooga, his Army of the Cumberland still intact but unable to move without running into General Braxton Bragg’s Army of Tennessee. Although immobile, they had been reasonably well fed and supplied throughout their ordeal. This situation took a turn for the worse today as the Confederate cavalry of Major General Joseph Wheeler, an Augusta, Georgia native, was wreaking havoc in the Union rear. Communications lines, both telegraphic and messenger, were disrupted by cutting or capture. Worse, every supply train sent out was now going to feed the Southerners instead of the Federals as they fell into Wheeler’s hands and were diverted.
Wheeler then conducted a massive raid through central Tennessee. On 3 October, Wheeler's Cavalry would destroy at least 500 (Union estimate) of Rosecrans' supply wagons. Some calculated the number destroyed to be as high as 1800, leaving a smoking corridor of destruction. Later, Wheeler encamped near Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and at nearby Courtland met and courted his future wife, the recently widowed, Mrs. Daniella Jones Sherrod, the daughter of Colonel Richard Jones.
Late this afternoon, the 11th Corps of the Army of the Potomac, along with parts of the 12th Corps, had already passed through Nashville, traveling by train to relieve Rosecrans.
The U.S. Navy Long Island project develops a one-man submarine.
The rebel General Wheeler, with a large body of mounted men, crossed the Tennessee River at Washington, at a point thirteen miles above Chattanooga, and passed down the Sequatchie Valley. He captured fifty wagons belonging to one of General Rosecrans's trains, at the foot of the mountain, near Anderson's Cross-Roads, burning a number of them, and killing burning a number of them, and killing about three hundred horses and mules. The train was laden with ammunition, clothing, and rations. Forty wagons carrying medical and sanitary stores, and about fifty sutlers' teams were also lost.
The loyal men and women of DeKalb County, Illinois, and adjoining counties, met in mass meeting at DeKalb, to renew to each other their solemn pledges to stand by the Government in the vigorous prosecution of the war, “...till this accursed rebellion and its cause shall be buried in one common grave.”
Chat
Posted on 10/2/13 at 3:56 am to BadLeroyDawg
Friday, 2 October 1863
It was bad enough for General William S. Rosecrans and his army penned up in Chattanooga. General Braxton Bragg’s Confederate forces controlled all the roads to the south, the road to Bridgeport to the north, and the Tennessee River besides. General Joseph Wheeler’s cavalry troops were rampaging in the rear, cutting off most of what few supplies were getting through over the rough trail through Walden’s Ridge and the Sequatchie Valley. Encounters with Wheeler’s men led to skirmishes in Anderson’s Cross Roads, Valley Road around Jasper, and over by Dunlap, Tennessee. What Bragg did not know, however, was that down the road from Bridgeport was about to come marching 20,000 men and 3,000 horses led by General Joseph Hooker. The 11th and 12th Corps of the Army of the Potomac had made the almost 1200 mile journey in just over a week.
The USS Bermuda, under Acting Master J.W. Smith, seized the blockade running British schooner Florrie nearly six miles from Matagorda, Texas, with a large cargo including medicine, wine, and saddles and other stores.
The Natchez Courier of this morning contained the subjoined editorial: The following communication appears in the Columbia (S. C.) Guardian: to his Excellency Governor Bonham: The stream of negro emigration from Mississippi has commenced flowing into this State, having been prohibited in Georgia and Alabama. The heavy rains of the summer have so damaged the corn crops that the question of subsistence for another year may be of great importance, and it becomes doubly so from the influx of consumers. Would it not be well for this State also to adopt some precautionary measures before it is too late? This suggestion is only thrown out to catch the attention of the proper authorities, the writer having every confidence that if any thing ought to be done in the premises, it will not be overlooked. Very respectfully, citizen.
To this the Augusta Constitutionalist replies: It is untrue that either Georgia or Alabama have refused refuge and domicile to the unfortunate fugitives from Mississippi. Our people are incapable of so outrageous a breach of hospitality. We have before alluded to this matter of emigration, and we do so again more in sorrow than anger. Although the people of Alabama and Georgia perhaps have not formally protested against Mississippians flying to those States, several of the press have spoken out against it. At the time we alluded to this matter, it was done with the view of presenting to the Mississippi citizen his true position in the present crisis. If he emigrates with his family and Negroes, he is denounced by some of the journals as a coward, for surrendering his home. Where he stays at home, endeavoring to pursue the even tenor of his way in raising crops for the support of his family, he is by other prints stigmatized as a submissionist; and cavalry squads are sent out by the Confederates to subsist on his already diminished supplies, and with a view to make him miserable and poor indeed, his little crop of cotton is burnt to cap the climax of trouble. This is no fancy sketch — it is a reality, as almost any planter on the Mississippi River can testify. When the planter is thus made poor and even destitute, does the confederate government come to his relief? Never! Instead of this, the confederate force gradually falls back toward the Alabama River, leaving the property of Mississippians almost a total wreck. How shall the resident of Mississippi act under this state of things? If he takes refuge further East, he is censured for leaving home; and if he remains home to raise another crop in the confederate lines, as soon as the Union army again presses forward, his supplies will once more be taken by the confederate cavalry, and his cotton committed to the flames again! Mississippians! by staying on your places and cultivating the soil, in our humble opinion, you are doing much good for yourselves and those around you. Though given the “cold shoulder” occasionally of those who appear to think themselves entirely safe from the ravages of war in the mountains of Alabama and Georgia, by remaining at home you will have the consolation of knowing that you have been tried in the fire and have done the best for your country. Unto the new order of things instituted by the military authority of the United States, it be hooves as all to assimilate; and as its lines extend, if we have not realized all our hopeful visions, we can have the blessed consolation of knowing that we have been discreet, law-abiding citizens. For our part, we look forward with daily renewed hope to that time when our internal strife shall end, when brother shall cease to be arrayed against brother, and when the Constitution and Union of our fathers shall be reversed by every one on American soil.
General Rosecrans issued an order, thanking his soldiers for their patience, perseverance, and courage, displayed in the campaign against General Bragg.
Greek fire-shells were thrown into Charleston, South Carolina, from the batteries of General Gillmore, on Morris Island.
A cavalry skirmish occurred near Franklin, Louisiana, between a large force of Union troops with artillery under Colonel Davis, and a group of Confederates commanded by Captain Squires. The Rebels were repulsed at the first fire, Squires being mortally wounded.
Chat
It was bad enough for General William S. Rosecrans and his army penned up in Chattanooga. General Braxton Bragg’s Confederate forces controlled all the roads to the south, the road to Bridgeport to the north, and the Tennessee River besides. General Joseph Wheeler’s cavalry troops were rampaging in the rear, cutting off most of what few supplies were getting through over the rough trail through Walden’s Ridge and the Sequatchie Valley. Encounters with Wheeler’s men led to skirmishes in Anderson’s Cross Roads, Valley Road around Jasper, and over by Dunlap, Tennessee. What Bragg did not know, however, was that down the road from Bridgeport was about to come marching 20,000 men and 3,000 horses led by General Joseph Hooker. The 11th and 12th Corps of the Army of the Potomac had made the almost 1200 mile journey in just over a week.
The USS Bermuda, under Acting Master J.W. Smith, seized the blockade running British schooner Florrie nearly six miles from Matagorda, Texas, with a large cargo including medicine, wine, and saddles and other stores.
The Natchez Courier of this morning contained the subjoined editorial: The following communication appears in the Columbia (S. C.) Guardian: to his Excellency Governor Bonham: The stream of negro emigration from Mississippi has commenced flowing into this State, having been prohibited in Georgia and Alabama. The heavy rains of the summer have so damaged the corn crops that the question of subsistence for another year may be of great importance, and it becomes doubly so from the influx of consumers. Would it not be well for this State also to adopt some precautionary measures before it is too late? This suggestion is only thrown out to catch the attention of the proper authorities, the writer having every confidence that if any thing ought to be done in the premises, it will not be overlooked. Very respectfully, citizen.
To this the Augusta Constitutionalist replies: It is untrue that either Georgia or Alabama have refused refuge and domicile to the unfortunate fugitives from Mississippi. Our people are incapable of so outrageous a breach of hospitality. We have before alluded to this matter of emigration, and we do so again more in sorrow than anger. Although the people of Alabama and Georgia perhaps have not formally protested against Mississippians flying to those States, several of the press have spoken out against it. At the time we alluded to this matter, it was done with the view of presenting to the Mississippi citizen his true position in the present crisis. If he emigrates with his family and Negroes, he is denounced by some of the journals as a coward, for surrendering his home. Where he stays at home, endeavoring to pursue the even tenor of his way in raising crops for the support of his family, he is by other prints stigmatized as a submissionist; and cavalry squads are sent out by the Confederates to subsist on his already diminished supplies, and with a view to make him miserable and poor indeed, his little crop of cotton is burnt to cap the climax of trouble. This is no fancy sketch — it is a reality, as almost any planter on the Mississippi River can testify. When the planter is thus made poor and even destitute, does the confederate government come to his relief? Never! Instead of this, the confederate force gradually falls back toward the Alabama River, leaving the property of Mississippians almost a total wreck. How shall the resident of Mississippi act under this state of things? If he takes refuge further East, he is censured for leaving home; and if he remains home to raise another crop in the confederate lines, as soon as the Union army again presses forward, his supplies will once more be taken by the confederate cavalry, and his cotton committed to the flames again! Mississippians! by staying on your places and cultivating the soil, in our humble opinion, you are doing much good for yourselves and those around you. Though given the “cold shoulder” occasionally of those who appear to think themselves entirely safe from the ravages of war in the mountains of Alabama and Georgia, by remaining at home you will have the consolation of knowing that you have been tried in the fire and have done the best for your country. Unto the new order of things instituted by the military authority of the United States, it be hooves as all to assimilate; and as its lines extend, if we have not realized all our hopeful visions, we can have the blessed consolation of knowing that we have been discreet, law-abiding citizens. For our part, we look forward with daily renewed hope to that time when our internal strife shall end, when brother shall cease to be arrayed against brother, and when the Constitution and Union of our fathers shall be reversed by every one on American soil.
General Rosecrans issued an order, thanking his soldiers for their patience, perseverance, and courage, displayed in the campaign against General Bragg.
Greek fire-shells were thrown into Charleston, South Carolina, from the batteries of General Gillmore, on Morris Island.
A cavalry skirmish occurred near Franklin, Louisiana, between a large force of Union troops with artillery under Colonel Davis, and a group of Confederates commanded by Captain Squires. The Rebels were repulsed at the first fire, Squires being mortally wounded.
Chat
Posted on 10/3/13 at 4:48 am to BadLeroyDawg
Saturday, 3 October 1863
General Nathaniel P. Banks set off today on yet another attempt to secure Texas for the Union once and for all. As he was leaving from the vicinity of New Orleans, and as he had already tried once and failed at going through Sabine Pass, he decided on a different route this time. Orders were issued to the men of Major General William B. Franklin to move westward, and today they departed from their bases at Berwick Bay and New Iberia, both in Louisiana. Their target was a waterway known as Bayou Teche. The ultimate goal, again, was to reach the Sabine. The campaign would last for more than a month.
McMinnville, Tennessee, was captured by the Confederates under General Joseph Wheeler. Major M. L. Patterson, who was taken prisoner with a portion of the Fourth Tennessee Infantry, relates the following history of the capture: He had with him seven companies, mostly fragments. On the second instant he sent out scouts, who returned and reported no enemy. On the next day he sent Lieutenant Farnsworth with twenty scouts, who were cut off. He then sent out Lieutenant Allen, who passed the pickets a quarter of a mile and returned, reporting the Rebels in force. Major Patterson drew up his command, four hundred and four in all, and fifty convalescents from the hospital. Skirmishing followed for an hour and a quarter, during which the rebels were repulsed in three charges. Wheeler then sent in a flag of truce, with a verbal demand for a surrender, which Major Patterson refused, saying he would not surrender until he was compelled to do so. In half an hour Colonel Hodge of the Kentucky brigade brought a demand for surrender in writing. Major Patterson, after consulting with his officers, deeming it useless to contend against an enemy so greatly superior in numbers, surrendered. Wheeler had four divisions of cavalry, artillery, and ten brigades, and said he had ten thousand men. The Union loss was seven killed and thirty-one wounded and missing. The Rebels admitted a loss of twenty-three killed and wounded. After the surrender Major Patterson's trunk was broken open, and one hundred and fifty dollars stolen out of it, while his men were generally robbed of their money, watches, knives, and other valuables. The prisoners were all paroled. While two of them were going on the Carthage road they were halted by Dr. Fain, a local partisan, who drew his pistol on them, and cocking it, ordered one of them to pull off his boots and give them up. Protestation and pleas of sore feet and a long journey were of no avail, and the valiant highway robber rode off with the boots which he had taken from a defenseless paroled prisoner.
The actual surrender demand:
FORCES OF CAVALRY AND ARTILLERY, October 3, 1863.
Maj. M. L. PATTERSON, Comdg., McMinnville: Maj.: I have the honor of stating to you that we are here in force, with four divisions of cavalry and artillery, and demand the immediate and unconditional surrender of the post of McMinnville, with the entire garrison.
Respectfully, yours, &c., JOS. WHEELER, Maj.-Gen., C. S. Army
President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation designating the twenty-sixth of November as a day of general thanksgiving.
Chat
General Nathaniel P. Banks set off today on yet another attempt to secure Texas for the Union once and for all. As he was leaving from the vicinity of New Orleans, and as he had already tried once and failed at going through Sabine Pass, he decided on a different route this time. Orders were issued to the men of Major General William B. Franklin to move westward, and today they departed from their bases at Berwick Bay and New Iberia, both in Louisiana. Their target was a waterway known as Bayou Teche. The ultimate goal, again, was to reach the Sabine. The campaign would last for more than a month.
McMinnville, Tennessee, was captured by the Confederates under General Joseph Wheeler. Major M. L. Patterson, who was taken prisoner with a portion of the Fourth Tennessee Infantry, relates the following history of the capture: He had with him seven companies, mostly fragments. On the second instant he sent out scouts, who returned and reported no enemy. On the next day he sent Lieutenant Farnsworth with twenty scouts, who were cut off. He then sent out Lieutenant Allen, who passed the pickets a quarter of a mile and returned, reporting the Rebels in force. Major Patterson drew up his command, four hundred and four in all, and fifty convalescents from the hospital. Skirmishing followed for an hour and a quarter, during which the rebels were repulsed in three charges. Wheeler then sent in a flag of truce, with a verbal demand for a surrender, which Major Patterson refused, saying he would not surrender until he was compelled to do so. In half an hour Colonel Hodge of the Kentucky brigade brought a demand for surrender in writing. Major Patterson, after consulting with his officers, deeming it useless to contend against an enemy so greatly superior in numbers, surrendered. Wheeler had four divisions of cavalry, artillery, and ten brigades, and said he had ten thousand men. The Union loss was seven killed and thirty-one wounded and missing. The Rebels admitted a loss of twenty-three killed and wounded. After the surrender Major Patterson's trunk was broken open, and one hundred and fifty dollars stolen out of it, while his men were generally robbed of their money, watches, knives, and other valuables. The prisoners were all paroled. While two of them were going on the Carthage road they were halted by Dr. Fain, a local partisan, who drew his pistol on them, and cocking it, ordered one of them to pull off his boots and give them up. Protestation and pleas of sore feet and a long journey were of no avail, and the valiant highway robber rode off with the boots which he had taken from a defenseless paroled prisoner.
The actual surrender demand:
FORCES OF CAVALRY AND ARTILLERY, October 3, 1863.
Maj. M. L. PATTERSON, Comdg., McMinnville: Maj.: I have the honor of stating to you that we are here in force, with four divisions of cavalry and artillery, and demand the immediate and unconditional surrender of the post of McMinnville, with the entire garrison.
Respectfully, yours, &c., JOS. WHEELER, Maj.-Gen., C. S. Army
President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation designating the twenty-sixth of November as a day of general thanksgiving.
Chat
Posted on 10/4/13 at 4:06 am to BadLeroyDawg
Sunday, 4 October 1863
After the battle of Gettysburg, as after all battles, parties were detailed to bury the dead, usually where they fell. As the dead were many and the burial parties few, these efforts were often sketchy and the armies had barely moved out of town before the “resurrections” began. Some of these body removals were done by grieving relatives wishing to take their kinfolk home for proper funerals. Other reappearances resulted from weather washing the dirt off the crudely dug graves. The organized effort to disinter all the corpses for relocation to the National Cemetery, then in the planning stages, did not begin until much later. A problem promptly arose from the fact that the July heat had not been kind to the corpses. It was decided today that due to the advanced state of decomposition, reburials could not be done until after the first frost stabilized the ground. The first frost did not come to Gettysburg in 1863 until October 25.
Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren off the Charleston coast reportedly accepts delivery of at least two small submarines. Earlier this afternoon, Confederate observers spot a small submarine being towed over the bar in Charleston Harbor, but no official mention is made of them in Union records. A Confederate report of 8 October mentions three additional USN submarines sighted.
The steamers Chancellor, Forest Queen, and Catahoula, were destroyed by Confederate incendiaries at St. Louis, Missouri.
Such information having reached Colonel William L. Utley, commanding the Union forces at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, that that post would soon be attacked by the Southerners, the following order was issued: Non-combatants, women, and children will, immediately on the approach of the enemy, repair to the fortifications or elsewhere for safety. All that portion of the city lying adjacent to the railroad will be shelled immediately upon the occupation of the city by the rebels. The remainder of the city will be shelled at the expiration of five (5) hours after the entrance of the enemy. Every possible facility will be afforded the citizens to get to a place of safety. It is to be hoped that there will be no unnecessary alarm, as every precaution will be taken against false rumors, and the citizens will be warned in time.
A slight skirmish took place near Newtown, Louisiana, between a party belonging to the Union forces under General Nathaniel Banks, and a small body of partisan Rebels, who had attacked guerrilla style until they had all fired at least one volley upon the Union advance; they then fell back, before being pursued. The Federal loss was one killed and four wounded.
General Joseph Wheeler received the following reply this morning from Major M. L. Patterson concerning the surrender of McMinnville, Tennessee. His answer after, and Patterson's recollections of the humility of surrender...
McMINNVILLE, TENN., October 4, 1863. I hereby unconditionally surrender all the garrison at this post to Maj.-Gen. Wheeler, C. S. Army. It is agreed between us that the entire force shall be paraded and marched out of the garrison by their ow n officers, they being protected in their private property as they have about their persons, side-arms to be excepted. M. L. PATTERSON, Maj., Comdg. Fourth Tennessee Infantry and Comdg. Post.
Approved: JOS. WHEELER, Maj.-Gen., C. S. Army.
Agreeable to the terms of surrender, the arms [were] stacked and the garrison paraded, and everything [put] in readiness to be surrendered. From 1 until 8 p. m. the men stood in line and were compelled to submit to the most brutal outrages on the part of the rebels ever known to any civilized war in America or elsewhere. The rebel troops or soldiers, and sometimes the officers, would call upon an officer or soldier standing in the line, when surrendered, for his overcoat, dress-coat, blouse, hat, shoes, boots, watch, pocket-book, money, and even to finger- rings, or, in fact, anything that happened to please their fancy, and with a pistol cocked in one hand, in the attitude of shooting, demand the article they wanted. In this way the men of the Fourth Tennessee Infantry were stripped of their blankets, oil-cloths, overcoats a large number of dress-coats, blouses, boots and shoes, jewelry, hats, knapsacks, and haversacks. When the officers tried to save the records of their companies (the assistant quartermaster, acting commissary of subsistence, and commanding officers their records) the papers were pulled out of their pockets, torn to pieces, and thrown away. All, or about all, of th e officers' clothing was taken—valises and contents. While all this was going on, Maj.-Gen. Wheeler was sitting on his horse and around the streets of McMinnville, witnessing and, we think, encouraging the same infernal outrages, seeming to not want or desire to comply with his agreement. The attention of Maj.-Gen. Wheeler, Maj.-Gen. Wharton, Gen. Martin, Gen. Davidson, and Gen. [Col.] Gillespie, and Brig.-Gen. Hodge was called to the same several times by Maj. M. L. Patterson, to gain his officers and men protection according to promise and agreement, and they would send some subordinate officer, who had no control over the men, or would reply that he (Wheeler) could not control his men; that they would do as they pleased, &c. Several of the officers of the Fourth Tennessee Infantry called on Gen. Wheeler for protection. He would pay no attention to them, saying that he had no control over his men, &c. Maj.-Gen. Wheeler then ordered the comm and outside of his immediate lines, on the Sparta road, a section of country infested with guerrillas, where there was robbing and plundering the paroled prisoners all of the way, even compelling captains to sit down in the middle of the road and pull off their boots. Yours, respectfully, M. L. PATTERSON, Maj. Fourth Tennessee Infantry
Chat
After the battle of Gettysburg, as after all battles, parties were detailed to bury the dead, usually where they fell. As the dead were many and the burial parties few, these efforts were often sketchy and the armies had barely moved out of town before the “resurrections” began. Some of these body removals were done by grieving relatives wishing to take their kinfolk home for proper funerals. Other reappearances resulted from weather washing the dirt off the crudely dug graves. The organized effort to disinter all the corpses for relocation to the National Cemetery, then in the planning stages, did not begin until much later. A problem promptly arose from the fact that the July heat had not been kind to the corpses. It was decided today that due to the advanced state of decomposition, reburials could not be done until after the first frost stabilized the ground. The first frost did not come to Gettysburg in 1863 until October 25.
Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren off the Charleston coast reportedly accepts delivery of at least two small submarines. Earlier this afternoon, Confederate observers spot a small submarine being towed over the bar in Charleston Harbor, but no official mention is made of them in Union records. A Confederate report of 8 October mentions three additional USN submarines sighted.
The steamers Chancellor, Forest Queen, and Catahoula, were destroyed by Confederate incendiaries at St. Louis, Missouri.
Such information having reached Colonel William L. Utley, commanding the Union forces at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, that that post would soon be attacked by the Southerners, the following order was issued: Non-combatants, women, and children will, immediately on the approach of the enemy, repair to the fortifications or elsewhere for safety. All that portion of the city lying adjacent to the railroad will be shelled immediately upon the occupation of the city by the rebels. The remainder of the city will be shelled at the expiration of five (5) hours after the entrance of the enemy. Every possible facility will be afforded the citizens to get to a place of safety. It is to be hoped that there will be no unnecessary alarm, as every precaution will be taken against false rumors, and the citizens will be warned in time.
A slight skirmish took place near Newtown, Louisiana, between a party belonging to the Union forces under General Nathaniel Banks, and a small body of partisan Rebels, who had attacked guerrilla style until they had all fired at least one volley upon the Union advance; they then fell back, before being pursued. The Federal loss was one killed and four wounded.
General Joseph Wheeler received the following reply this morning from Major M. L. Patterson concerning the surrender of McMinnville, Tennessee. His answer after, and Patterson's recollections of the humility of surrender...
McMINNVILLE, TENN., October 4, 1863. I hereby unconditionally surrender all the garrison at this post to Maj.-Gen. Wheeler, C. S. Army. It is agreed between us that the entire force shall be paraded and marched out of the garrison by their ow n officers, they being protected in their private property as they have about their persons, side-arms to be excepted. M. L. PATTERSON, Maj., Comdg. Fourth Tennessee Infantry and Comdg. Post.
Approved: JOS. WHEELER, Maj.-Gen., C. S. Army.
Agreeable to the terms of surrender, the arms [were] stacked and the garrison paraded, and everything [put] in readiness to be surrendered. From 1 until 8 p. m. the men stood in line and were compelled to submit to the most brutal outrages on the part of the rebels ever known to any civilized war in America or elsewhere. The rebel troops or soldiers, and sometimes the officers, would call upon an officer or soldier standing in the line, when surrendered, for his overcoat, dress-coat, blouse, hat, shoes, boots, watch, pocket-book, money, and even to finger- rings, or, in fact, anything that happened to please their fancy, and with a pistol cocked in one hand, in the attitude of shooting, demand the article they wanted. In this way the men of the Fourth Tennessee Infantry were stripped of their blankets, oil-cloths, overcoats a large number of dress-coats, blouses, boots and shoes, jewelry, hats, knapsacks, and haversacks. When the officers tried to save the records of their companies (the assistant quartermaster, acting commissary of subsistence, and commanding officers their records) the papers were pulled out of their pockets, torn to pieces, and thrown away. All, or about all, of th e officers' clothing was taken—valises and contents. While all this was going on, Maj.-Gen. Wheeler was sitting on his horse and around the streets of McMinnville, witnessing and, we think, encouraging the same infernal outrages, seeming to not want or desire to comply with his agreement. The attention of Maj.-Gen. Wheeler, Maj.-Gen. Wharton, Gen. Martin, Gen. Davidson, and Gen. [Col.] Gillespie, and Brig.-Gen. Hodge was called to the same several times by Maj. M. L. Patterson, to gain his officers and men protection according to promise and agreement, and they would send some subordinate officer, who had no control over the men, or would reply that he (Wheeler) could not control his men; that they would do as they pleased, &c. Several of the officers of the Fourth Tennessee Infantry called on Gen. Wheeler for protection. He would pay no attention to them, saying that he had no control over his men, &c. Maj.-Gen. Wheeler then ordered the comm and outside of his immediate lines, on the Sparta road, a section of country infested with guerrillas, where there was robbing and plundering the paroled prisoners all of the way, even compelling captains to sit down in the middle of the road and pull off their boots. Yours, respectfully, M. L. PATTERSON, Maj. Fourth Tennessee Infantry
Chat
Posted on 10/5/13 at 6:34 am to BadLeroyDawg
Monday, 5 October 1863
The blockade was strangling the Confederacy, and nowhere was worse than Charleston Harbor. Almost any plan or device that promised even a hope of breaking the blockade would be tried, and one of the odder vessels of the War sailed today. Not exactly a submarine, but very low in the water rode the CSS David. She had a 10 foot spar on her bow, to which was attached a 60-pound bomb. Sailing in the evening twilight she headed for the USS New Ironsides, getting very close before being spotted. She rammed, the bomb exploded, and a huge column of water jumped out of the harbor, falling directly back down on the David, extinguishing her boiler and nearly swamping the boat. The captain and most of the crew, assuming the ship was doomed, leaped overboard and were picked up by Union ships. The engineer, named Tomb, stayed aboard because he could not swim. In all the excitement he got the boiler relighted and sailed the David back to safety. The New Ironsides was damaged badly enough to have to leave the blockade for repairs.''
Another report:
The CSS David, commanded by Lieutenant Glassell, exploded a torpedo against the USS New Ironsides, under Captain Rowan, in Charleston Harbor but did not destroy the heavy warship. Mounting a torpedo containing some 60 pounds of powder on a 10-foot spar fixed to her bow, the 50-foot David stood out from Charleston early in the evening. Riding low in the water, the torpedo boat made her way down the main ship channel and was close aboard her quarry before being sighted and hailed. Almost at once a tremendous volley of small arms fire was centered on her as she steamed at full speed toward the New Ironsides, plunging the torpedo against the Union ship's starboard quarter and "...shaking the vessel and throwing up an immense column of water." As the water fell, it put out the fires in the David's boilers and nearly swamped her; the torpedo boat came to rest alongside New Ironsides. Believing the torpedo boat doomed, Lieutenant Glassell and Seaman James Sullivan abandoned ship and were subsequently picked up by the blockading fleet. However, Engineer Tomb at length succeeded in relighting the David's fires and, with pilot Walker Cannon, who had remained on board because he could not swim, took her back to Charleston. Though the David did not succeed in sinking the New Ironsides, the explosion was a "severe blow" which eventually forced the Union ship to leave the blockade for repairs. "It seems to me," Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren wrote, noting the tactical implications of the attack, "that nothing could have been more successful as a first effort, and it will place the torpedo among certain offensive means." Writing of the attack's "unsurpassed daring," Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory noted: "The annals of naval warfare record few enterprises which exhibit more strikingly than this of Lieutenant Glassell the highest qualities of a sea officer." The near success of the David's torpedo attack on the New Ironsides prompted Dahlgren to emphasize further the need for developing defensive measures against them. "How far the enemy may seem encouraged," he wrote Welles , "I do not know, but I think it will be well to be prepared against a considerable issue of these small craft. It is certainly the best form of the torpedo which has come to my notice, and a large quantity of powder may as well be exploded as 60 pounds. . . .The vessels themselves should be protected by outriggers, and the harbor itself well strewn with a similar class of craft. . . . The subject merits serious attention, for it will receive a greater development." He added to Assistant Secretary Fox: "By all means let us have a quantity of these torpedoes, and thus turn them against the enemy. We," Dahlgren said, paying tribute to the industrial strength that weighed so heavily in the Union 's favor, "can make them faster than they can."
The British blockade runner Concordia was destroyed by her crew at Calcasieu Pass, Louisiana, to prevent her capture by boats from the USS Granite City, under Acting Master Lamson.
Great excitement prevailed at Nashville, Tennessee, in consequence of the rebel General Nathan Bedford Forrest, with a force of over three thousand mounted men, having made a descent upon the railroad between that place and Bridgeport. Skirmishing occurred in the neighborhood of Murfreesboro, a railroad bridge at a point south of that place being destroyed by the Confederates.
A band of partisan guerrillas, under Chief White, of Loudon County, Virginia, made a raid into Langley, six miles above Georgetown, D. C., driving in the pickets, without any casualty.
Colonel Cloud, in a message to General Blunt, dated at Fort Smith, Arkansas, said he had just returned from a raid in the Arkansas Valley. Near Dardanelles he was joined by three hundred “mounted Feds,” as the Union Arkansians are called, and with them and his own force routed the a party of Rebels.. They fled in confusion leaving tents, cooking utensils, wheat, flour, salt, sugar, and two hundred head of beef cattle behind. They reported as they ran that “Old Blunt, with his whole army, was after them.” Several hundred Union men offered their services as a home guard regiment. Colonel Cloud authorized them to enroll and offer their services to the Military Governor, when appointed. He left garrisons there and at Clarksville.
The batteries on Lookout Mountain, and at points all along the Confederate lines, opened fire upon Chattanooga. The Unionists under General William Rosecrans, replied from their works on Moccasin Point, the Star Fort, and other works. The Tennessee River rose rapidly during the day.
A party of Captain Bean's cavalry on a scouting expedition near Harper's Ferry, Virginia, encountered a number of Confederate cavalry belonging to the command of Colonel Imboden. A skirmish ensued, when the Union forces were repulsed, with a loss of one killed, three wounded, and ten captured. Two of the Federals cut their way out and returned to camp, although severely wounded.
Chat
The blockade was strangling the Confederacy, and nowhere was worse than Charleston Harbor. Almost any plan or device that promised even a hope of breaking the blockade would be tried, and one of the odder vessels of the War sailed today. Not exactly a submarine, but very low in the water rode the CSS David. She had a 10 foot spar on her bow, to which was attached a 60-pound bomb. Sailing in the evening twilight she headed for the USS New Ironsides, getting very close before being spotted. She rammed, the bomb exploded, and a huge column of water jumped out of the harbor, falling directly back down on the David, extinguishing her boiler and nearly swamping the boat. The captain and most of the crew, assuming the ship was doomed, leaped overboard and were picked up by Union ships. The engineer, named Tomb, stayed aboard because he could not swim. In all the excitement he got the boiler relighted and sailed the David back to safety. The New Ironsides was damaged badly enough to have to leave the blockade for repairs.''
Another report:
The CSS David, commanded by Lieutenant Glassell, exploded a torpedo against the USS New Ironsides, under Captain Rowan, in Charleston Harbor but did not destroy the heavy warship. Mounting a torpedo containing some 60 pounds of powder on a 10-foot spar fixed to her bow, the 50-foot David stood out from Charleston early in the evening. Riding low in the water, the torpedo boat made her way down the main ship channel and was close aboard her quarry before being sighted and hailed. Almost at once a tremendous volley of small arms fire was centered on her as she steamed at full speed toward the New Ironsides, plunging the torpedo against the Union ship's starboard quarter and "...shaking the vessel and throwing up an immense column of water." As the water fell, it put out the fires in the David's boilers and nearly swamped her; the torpedo boat came to rest alongside New Ironsides. Believing the torpedo boat doomed, Lieutenant Glassell and Seaman James Sullivan abandoned ship and were subsequently picked up by the blockading fleet. However, Engineer Tomb at length succeeded in relighting the David's fires and, with pilot Walker Cannon, who had remained on board because he could not swim, took her back to Charleston. Though the David did not succeed in sinking the New Ironsides, the explosion was a "severe blow" which eventually forced the Union ship to leave the blockade for repairs. "It seems to me," Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren wrote, noting the tactical implications of the attack, "that nothing could have been more successful as a first effort, and it will place the torpedo among certain offensive means." Writing of the attack's "unsurpassed daring," Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory noted: "The annals of naval warfare record few enterprises which exhibit more strikingly than this of Lieutenant Glassell the highest qualities of a sea officer." The near success of the David's torpedo attack on the New Ironsides prompted Dahlgren to emphasize further the need for developing defensive measures against them. "How far the enemy may seem encouraged," he wrote Welles , "I do not know, but I think it will be well to be prepared against a considerable issue of these small craft. It is certainly the best form of the torpedo which has come to my notice, and a large quantity of powder may as well be exploded as 60 pounds. . . .The vessels themselves should be protected by outriggers, and the harbor itself well strewn with a similar class of craft. . . . The subject merits serious attention, for it will receive a greater development." He added to Assistant Secretary Fox: "By all means let us have a quantity of these torpedoes, and thus turn them against the enemy. We," Dahlgren said, paying tribute to the industrial strength that weighed so heavily in the Union 's favor, "can make them faster than they can."
The British blockade runner Concordia was destroyed by her crew at Calcasieu Pass, Louisiana, to prevent her capture by boats from the USS Granite City, under Acting Master Lamson.
Great excitement prevailed at Nashville, Tennessee, in consequence of the rebel General Nathan Bedford Forrest, with a force of over three thousand mounted men, having made a descent upon the railroad between that place and Bridgeport. Skirmishing occurred in the neighborhood of Murfreesboro, a railroad bridge at a point south of that place being destroyed by the Confederates.
A band of partisan guerrillas, under Chief White, of Loudon County, Virginia, made a raid into Langley, six miles above Georgetown, D. C., driving in the pickets, without any casualty.
Colonel Cloud, in a message to General Blunt, dated at Fort Smith, Arkansas, said he had just returned from a raid in the Arkansas Valley. Near Dardanelles he was joined by three hundred “mounted Feds,” as the Union Arkansians are called, and with them and his own force routed the a party of Rebels.. They fled in confusion leaving tents, cooking utensils, wheat, flour, salt, sugar, and two hundred head of beef cattle behind. They reported as they ran that “Old Blunt, with his whole army, was after them.” Several hundred Union men offered their services as a home guard regiment. Colonel Cloud authorized them to enroll and offer their services to the Military Governor, when appointed. He left garrisons there and at Clarksville.
The batteries on Lookout Mountain, and at points all along the Confederate lines, opened fire upon Chattanooga. The Unionists under General William Rosecrans, replied from their works on Moccasin Point, the Star Fort, and other works. The Tennessee River rose rapidly during the day.
A party of Captain Bean's cavalry on a scouting expedition near Harper's Ferry, Virginia, encountered a number of Confederate cavalry belonging to the command of Colonel Imboden. A skirmish ensued, when the Union forces were repulsed, with a loss of one killed, three wounded, and ten captured. Two of the Federals cut their way out and returned to camp, although severely wounded.
Chat
Posted on 10/6/13 at 6:04 am to BadLeroyDawg
Tuesday, 6 October 1863
The USS Cayuga, on blockade duty off the Calcasieu River in Louisiana had a busy day today. First prey was the steamer Pushmataha. When Lt. Commander Dana ordered her to heave to, she attempted to flee instead, and Dana chased her until she ran up on shore. The crew fled after setting her afire. When a party from Cayuga went aboard they put out the fire and started inspecting the cargo, which consisted of rum, red wine and gunpowder. A keg of the latter turned out to have a burning fuse set in it, which Ordinary Seaman Thomas Morton yanked out and threw overboard, along with the keg. After relieving the Pushmataha of the liquid part of her cargo the rest of the powder was used to blow the ship up. Another catch, a schooner, was also chased ashore but her crew succeeded in destroying her before the Dana’s men could capture her.
The USS Beauregard, under Acting Master Burgess, captured the sloop Last Trial at Key West, Florida, with a cargo of salt.
The USS Virginia, Lieutenant C. H. Brown in charhe, seized the British blockade runner Jenny off the coast of Texas a with cargo of cotton.
General Blunt and his escort were attacked at Baxter's Springs, near Fort Scott, Missouri, and nearly all of them were left dead upon the field.
General Mitchell, with a body of Federal troops, overtook a small group of partisan Rebels below Shelbyville, Tennessee, and attacked them with great spirit, putting them to a complete rout. They did not stop for their wounded, and left over one hundred dead upon the field.
An attempt was made yesterday to blow up the United States iron-plated frigate Ironsides in Charleston Harbor, by means of a torpedo. The instrument of destruction was suspended from the bow of a small cigar-shaped steamer, the CSS David, which was driven against the Ironsides at full speed. A tremendous explosion followed, which blew a hole in the Ironsides. Lieutenant William T. Glassell, the commander of the Confederate steamer, was taken prisoner, having been thrown overboard by the force of the explosion. On board the Ironsides, Ensign Charles Howard was wounded by a musket-shot fired by Glassett, as his steamer was approaching the frigate, and died this morning.
Chat
The USS Cayuga, on blockade duty off the Calcasieu River in Louisiana had a busy day today. First prey was the steamer Pushmataha. When Lt. Commander Dana ordered her to heave to, she attempted to flee instead, and Dana chased her until she ran up on shore. The crew fled after setting her afire. When a party from Cayuga went aboard they put out the fire and started inspecting the cargo, which consisted of rum, red wine and gunpowder. A keg of the latter turned out to have a burning fuse set in it, which Ordinary Seaman Thomas Morton yanked out and threw overboard, along with the keg. After relieving the Pushmataha of the liquid part of her cargo the rest of the powder was used to blow the ship up. Another catch, a schooner, was also chased ashore but her crew succeeded in destroying her before the Dana’s men could capture her.
The USS Beauregard, under Acting Master Burgess, captured the sloop Last Trial at Key West, Florida, with a cargo of salt.
The USS Virginia, Lieutenant C. H. Brown in charhe, seized the British blockade runner Jenny off the coast of Texas a with cargo of cotton.
General Blunt and his escort were attacked at Baxter's Springs, near Fort Scott, Missouri, and nearly all of them were left dead upon the field.
General Mitchell, with a body of Federal troops, overtook a small group of partisan Rebels below Shelbyville, Tennessee, and attacked them with great spirit, putting them to a complete rout. They did not stop for their wounded, and left over one hundred dead upon the field.
An attempt was made yesterday to blow up the United States iron-plated frigate Ironsides in Charleston Harbor, by means of a torpedo. The instrument of destruction was suspended from the bow of a small cigar-shaped steamer, the CSS David, which was driven against the Ironsides at full speed. A tremendous explosion followed, which blew a hole in the Ironsides. Lieutenant William T. Glassell, the commander of the Confederate steamer, was taken prisoner, having been thrown overboard by the force of the explosion. On board the Ironsides, Ensign Charles Howard was wounded by a musket-shot fired by Glassett, as his steamer was approaching the frigate, and died this morning.
Chat
Posted on 10/7/13 at 4:15 am to BadLeroyDawg
Wednesday, 7 October 1863
Acting Chief Engineer Thomas Doughty engaged in a curious naval action today. His ship, the USS Osage, docked on the west bank of the Mississippi River. From there, Doughty led a landing party through the brush and vines and swamps overland to the Red River, a hotbed of Confederate shipping both military and civilian. They got to their destination, the steamer Argus, tied up to the bank of the river. Her crew not looking for a naval attack from the landward side, they were promptly captured along with their boat. It was the Union sea-men’s turn to be surprised when another Confederate ship, the steamer Robert Fulton came chugging down the stream. Doughty calmly ordered the vessel to “come to,” andb having no reason not to, she did and was just as promptly captured. The Argus was burned on the spot. They tried to sail the Fulton to rejoin the Union fleet on the Mississippi, but she got stuck on a bar and was also burned. Doughty, his men and their nine prisoners returned to the Osage without a casualty.
Another report: An expedition under Acting Chief Engineer Thomas Doughty from USS Osage captured and burned the steamers Robert Fulton and Argus in the Red River. Acting Lieutenant Couthouy, commanding the Osage, had ordered the operation upon learning that a Confederate steamer was tied up to the river bank. The naval force travelled overland from the Mississippi to the Red "after great labor in getting through entanglements of the bushes and other undergrowth . . . ." Doughty succeeded in capturing Argus shortly before Robert Fulton was sighted steaming downriver. He ordered her to come to. "She did so," he reported, "and I found myself in possession of 9 prisoners and two steamboats." Doughty burned Argus immediately and then destroyed Robert Fulton when he was unable to get her over the bar at the mouth of the Red River. "This is a great loss to the rebels at this moment," Rear Admiral Porter wrote, "as it cuts off their means of operating across that part of Atchafalaya where they lately came over to attack Morganza. This capture will deter others from coming down the Red River." One of the prisoners was an aid to the Confederate General Taylor, who had been sent up expressly for the last steamer.
A boat crew from USS Cayuga, Lieutenant Commander Dana, boarded and destroyed blockade runner Pushmataha which had been chased ashore and abandoned off Calcasieu River, Louisiana. Pushmataha carried a cargo of a ram, claret, and gunpowder, and had been set on fire by her crew. "One of a number of kegs of powder had been opened," reported Dana, "and a match, which was inserted in the hole, was on fire; this was taken out and, with the keg, thrown overboard by Thomas Morton, ordinary seaman..." an unsung act of heroism. Dana chased ashore another schooner carrying gunpowder which was blown up before she could be boarded.
Colonel Harrison's force of West Tennessee cavalry were attacked at Como, Mississippi, by Confederate partisan guerrillas, under Colonels Faulkner and Wilson, and was forced to hastily retreat after an engagement of two hours, with a loss of thirty-seven men. The Confederates reported great loss as well, Colonel Wilson being among the killed.
A fight took place at Farmington, Tenn., between the Union forces under General Crook and the Rebels commanded by General Wharton.
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Acting Chief Engineer Thomas Doughty engaged in a curious naval action today. His ship, the USS Osage, docked on the west bank of the Mississippi River. From there, Doughty led a landing party through the brush and vines and swamps overland to the Red River, a hotbed of Confederate shipping both military and civilian. They got to their destination, the steamer Argus, tied up to the bank of the river. Her crew not looking for a naval attack from the landward side, they were promptly captured along with their boat. It was the Union sea-men’s turn to be surprised when another Confederate ship, the steamer Robert Fulton came chugging down the stream. Doughty calmly ordered the vessel to “come to,” andb having no reason not to, she did and was just as promptly captured. The Argus was burned on the spot. They tried to sail the Fulton to rejoin the Union fleet on the Mississippi, but she got stuck on a bar and was also burned. Doughty, his men and their nine prisoners returned to the Osage without a casualty.
Another report: An expedition under Acting Chief Engineer Thomas Doughty from USS Osage captured and burned the steamers Robert Fulton and Argus in the Red River. Acting Lieutenant Couthouy, commanding the Osage, had ordered the operation upon learning that a Confederate steamer was tied up to the river bank. The naval force travelled overland from the Mississippi to the Red "after great labor in getting through entanglements of the bushes and other undergrowth . . . ." Doughty succeeded in capturing Argus shortly before Robert Fulton was sighted steaming downriver. He ordered her to come to. "She did so," he reported, "and I found myself in possession of 9 prisoners and two steamboats." Doughty burned Argus immediately and then destroyed Robert Fulton when he was unable to get her over the bar at the mouth of the Red River. "This is a great loss to the rebels at this moment," Rear Admiral Porter wrote, "as it cuts off their means of operating across that part of Atchafalaya where they lately came over to attack Morganza. This capture will deter others from coming down the Red River." One of the prisoners was an aid to the Confederate General Taylor, who had been sent up expressly for the last steamer.
A boat crew from USS Cayuga, Lieutenant Commander Dana, boarded and destroyed blockade runner Pushmataha which had been chased ashore and abandoned off Calcasieu River, Louisiana. Pushmataha carried a cargo of a ram, claret, and gunpowder, and had been set on fire by her crew. "One of a number of kegs of powder had been opened," reported Dana, "and a match, which was inserted in the hole, was on fire; this was taken out and, with the keg, thrown overboard by Thomas Morton, ordinary seaman..." an unsung act of heroism. Dana chased ashore another schooner carrying gunpowder which was blown up before she could be boarded.
Colonel Harrison's force of West Tennessee cavalry were attacked at Como, Mississippi, by Confederate partisan guerrillas, under Colonels Faulkner and Wilson, and was forced to hastily retreat after an engagement of two hours, with a loss of thirty-seven men. The Confederates reported great loss as well, Colonel Wilson being among the killed.
A fight took place at Farmington, Tenn., between the Union forces under General Crook and the Rebels commanded by General Wharton.
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Posted on 10/8/13 at 5:56 am to BadLeroyDawg
Thursday, 8 October 1863
President Jefferson Davis speaks in Atlanta making a short address from the train platform expressing his gratitude "...at the stand Georgia had always occupied..." and complimenting the state for "...her soldiers having done their duty on every field." He also thanked Governor Joseph Brown for having received "...his earnest promise of co-operation."
Confederate Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin writes to President Jefferson Davis that the Cabinet was of "...opinion that as soon as such an offensive encroachment on the sovereignty of the Confederacy had been made public..." because of Great Britain's unwillingness to announce recognition of the new American country that "...the British consular agents should be expelled from the Confederacy..."
Stephen D. Yancey wrote to Henry E. McCulloch..."A staff officer for the Confederate District of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona writes to the commander of the Northern Sub-District of Texas at Bonham that, according to intelligence received, 30,000 Union troops have embarked from Berwick Bay. Based on the fact that they have not shown up on the Texas coast, General Magruder believes they have headed eastward. If so, he will send reinforcements to northern Texas."
Last night the garrison at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, were alarmed by an attack, and the cavalry and two regiments of infantry started out to meet the enemy. Near Charlestown, a force of over three hundred cavalry, commanded by Imboden, were posted. The Confederates had a large portion of their force dismounted and in ambuscade. Captain Somers, with his company of cavalry, had advanced to hunt up the enemy. He met a company of Rebel cavalry, who charged upon him and were repulsed. They purposely retreated, Captain Somers and his company pursuing until they entered the fatal ambuscade. At the first fire Captain Somers and ten men were killed, as many more wounded, and nearly all the others captured. The few who escaped carried the information into camp, and the rest of the cavalry started back out in pursuit, but were unable to come up with the Southerners.
The following order was issued at Richmond, Virginia, by the Confederate Adjutant General Cooper: “The Chief of the Nitre and Mining Bureau is directed, through the officers of his bureau, to impress copper, coal, and such other minerals as may be needed for the use of the government.”
A fight occurred near Salem, Mississippi, between almost four thousand Confederates, under General S. D. Lee, and over five thousand Federals, under McCullis and Phillips, resulting in the defeat of the Rebels with a loss of fifteen killed and wounded.
Another Draft Riot occurred as a mob at Jackson, New Hampshire, surrounded and burned the hotel where the Deputy Provost-Marshal was stopping while serving notices on drafted men.
Carthage, Missouri, was burned by the Confederate partisan troops.
A party of about one hundred partisan Confederate guerrillas, under command of Captain Richardson, at two o'clock this afternoon, placed obstructions on the track of the Lebanon Branch Railroad, at New Hope, Kentucky, twenty miles from the junction, threw the train off the track, and fired into it, but did no damage to the passengers. They then captured the train, burned two passenger cars, baggage and express cars, destroyed the locomotive, robbed the passengers of money and clothing, and decamped.
Chat
President Jefferson Davis speaks in Atlanta making a short address from the train platform expressing his gratitude "...at the stand Georgia had always occupied..." and complimenting the state for "...her soldiers having done their duty on every field." He also thanked Governor Joseph Brown for having received "...his earnest promise of co-operation."
Confederate Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin writes to President Jefferson Davis that the Cabinet was of "...opinion that as soon as such an offensive encroachment on the sovereignty of the Confederacy had been made public..." because of Great Britain's unwillingness to announce recognition of the new American country that "...the British consular agents should be expelled from the Confederacy..."
Stephen D. Yancey wrote to Henry E. McCulloch..."A staff officer for the Confederate District of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona writes to the commander of the Northern Sub-District of Texas at Bonham that, according to intelligence received, 30,000 Union troops have embarked from Berwick Bay. Based on the fact that they have not shown up on the Texas coast, General Magruder believes they have headed eastward. If so, he will send reinforcements to northern Texas."
Last night the garrison at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, were alarmed by an attack, and the cavalry and two regiments of infantry started out to meet the enemy. Near Charlestown, a force of over three hundred cavalry, commanded by Imboden, were posted. The Confederates had a large portion of their force dismounted and in ambuscade. Captain Somers, with his company of cavalry, had advanced to hunt up the enemy. He met a company of Rebel cavalry, who charged upon him and were repulsed. They purposely retreated, Captain Somers and his company pursuing until they entered the fatal ambuscade. At the first fire Captain Somers and ten men were killed, as many more wounded, and nearly all the others captured. The few who escaped carried the information into camp, and the rest of the cavalry started back out in pursuit, but were unable to come up with the Southerners.
The following order was issued at Richmond, Virginia, by the Confederate Adjutant General Cooper: “The Chief of the Nitre and Mining Bureau is directed, through the officers of his bureau, to impress copper, coal, and such other minerals as may be needed for the use of the government.”
A fight occurred near Salem, Mississippi, between almost four thousand Confederates, under General S. D. Lee, and over five thousand Federals, under McCullis and Phillips, resulting in the defeat of the Rebels with a loss of fifteen killed and wounded.
Another Draft Riot occurred as a mob at Jackson, New Hampshire, surrounded and burned the hotel where the Deputy Provost-Marshal was stopping while serving notices on drafted men.
Carthage, Missouri, was burned by the Confederate partisan troops.
A party of about one hundred partisan Confederate guerrillas, under command of Captain Richardson, at two o'clock this afternoon, placed obstructions on the track of the Lebanon Branch Railroad, at New Hope, Kentucky, twenty miles from the junction, threw the train off the track, and fired into it, but did no damage to the passengers. They then captured the train, burned two passenger cars, baggage and express cars, destroyed the locomotive, robbed the passengers of money and clothing, and decamped.
Chat
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