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re: 150 years ago this day...
Posted on 10/4/13 at 4:06 am to BadLeroyDawg
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
1
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
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