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re: 150 years ago this day...

Posted on 9/22/13 at 6:46 am to
Posted by BadLeroyDawg
Member since Aug 2013
848 posts
Posted on 9/22/13 at 6:46 am to
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.

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This post was edited on 9/22/13 at 6:50 am
Posted by BadLeroyDawg
Member since Aug 2013
848 posts
Posted on 9/23/13 at 4:03 am to
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.

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