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re: 150 years ago this day...
Posted on 11/30/13 at 5:27 am to BadLeroyDawg
Posted on 11/30/13 at 5:27 am to BadLeroyDawg
Monday, 30 November 1863
General Braxton Bragg had been commander of the Army of Tennessee almost since its inception, and the Army of Mississippi prior to that. His major triumph had been at the bloody battle of Chickamauga, which had bottled up General William Rosecrans' Army of the Cumberland in Chattanooga for a good long time. The breakthrough had finally come, though, and a few days ago the disaster at Missionary Ridge had been the final straw. He had submitted a letter to Confederate President Jefferson Davis asking to be relived of command. His friendship with Davis was of many years standing, though, and perhaps he thought the request would be denied, as similar requests from General Robert E. Lee had been. It was, however, accepted today, and Bragg was directed to turn over command to General William Joseph Hardee.
Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory emphasized the necessity for the proper training of naval officers in his annual report on the Confederate States Navy. It was, he wrote, "...a subject of the greatest importance." He observed: "The naval powers of the earth are bestowing peculiar care upon the education of their officers, now more than ever demanded by the changes in all the elements of naval warfare. Appointed from civil life and possessing generally but little knowledge of the duties of an officer and rarely even the vocabulary of their profession they have heretofore been sent to vessels or batteries where it is impossible for them to obtain a knowledge of its most important branches, which can be best, if not only, acquired by methodical study." Mallory noted that there were 693 officers and 2,250 enlisted men in the Confederate Navy. He reported that while Union victories at Little Rock and on the Yazoo River had terminated the Department's attempts to construct ships in that area, construction was "...making good progress at Richmond , Wilmington, Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, on the Roanoke, Peedee, Chattahoochee, and Alabama Rivers..." Two immense problems Mallory enumerated troubled the Confederacy throughout the conflict; the lack of skilled labor to build ships and the inability to obtain adequate iron to protect them. In the industrial North, neither was a difficulty. This was a major factor which helped decide the course of the war.
Confederate naval officers and men played vital roles in Southern shore defenses throughout the war. This morning, Secretary Mallory praised the naval command at Drewry's Bluff which guarded the James River approach to Richmond. The battery, he reported, "...composed of seamen and marines, is in a high state of efficiency and the river obstructions are believed to be sufficient, in connection with the shore and submarine batteries, to prevent the passage of the enemy's ships. An active force is employed on submarine batteries and torpedoes."
This afternoon, a Union foraging party along the Mississippi River captured detailed plans of a Triton Company submarine. Confederate General Jeremy Francis Gilmer's evaluation of the boat six weeks earlier suggests the company had built other submarines as well.
General Braxton Bragg had been commander of the Army of Tennessee almost since its inception, and the Army of Mississippi prior to that. His major triumph had been at the bloody battle of Chickamauga, which had bottled up General William Rosecrans' Army of the Cumberland in Chattanooga for a good long time. The breakthrough had finally come, though, and a few days ago the disaster at Missionary Ridge had been the final straw. He had submitted a letter to Confederate President Jefferson Davis asking to be relived of command. His friendship with Davis was of many years standing, though, and perhaps he thought the request would be denied, as similar requests from General Robert E. Lee had been. It was, however, accepted today, and Bragg was directed to turn over command to General William Joseph Hardee.
Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory emphasized the necessity for the proper training of naval officers in his annual report on the Confederate States Navy. It was, he wrote, "...a subject of the greatest importance." He observed: "The naval powers of the earth are bestowing peculiar care upon the education of their officers, now more than ever demanded by the changes in all the elements of naval warfare. Appointed from civil life and possessing generally but little knowledge of the duties of an officer and rarely even the vocabulary of their profession they have heretofore been sent to vessels or batteries where it is impossible for them to obtain a knowledge of its most important branches, which can be best, if not only, acquired by methodical study." Mallory noted that there were 693 officers and 2,250 enlisted men in the Confederate Navy. He reported that while Union victories at Little Rock and on the Yazoo River had terminated the Department's attempts to construct ships in that area, construction was "...making good progress at Richmond , Wilmington, Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, on the Roanoke, Peedee, Chattahoochee, and Alabama Rivers..." Two immense problems Mallory enumerated troubled the Confederacy throughout the conflict; the lack of skilled labor to build ships and the inability to obtain adequate iron to protect them. In the industrial North, neither was a difficulty. This was a major factor which helped decide the course of the war.
Confederate naval officers and men played vital roles in Southern shore defenses throughout the war. This morning, Secretary Mallory praised the naval command at Drewry's Bluff which guarded the James River approach to Richmond. The battery, he reported, "...composed of seamen and marines, is in a high state of efficiency and the river obstructions are believed to be sufficient, in connection with the shore and submarine batteries, to prevent the passage of the enemy's ships. An active force is employed on submarine batteries and torpedoes."
This afternoon, a Union foraging party along the Mississippi River captured detailed plans of a Triton Company submarine. Confederate General Jeremy Francis Gilmer's evaluation of the boat six weeks earlier suggests the company had built other submarines as well.
1
Posted on 12/1/13 at 5:28 am to BadLeroyDawg
Tuesday, 1 December 1863
The problem of gathering vital supplies was becoming increasingly difficult for all Southern armies, and the commanding generals were constantly pleading with Confederate President Jefferson Davis for assistance for the men now mostly in winter camp. General Joe Wheeler, however, commanded a cavalry unit, and he took the approach that God helps a force which helps itself. The difficulty was, his men were helping themselves to the property of their fellow Confederate citizens of North Carolina. Fed up, Govenor Zebulon B. Vance sent a letter of his own to Davis today, complaining severely about the depredations. "If God Almighty had yet in store another plague for the Egyptians worse than all others, I am sure it must have been a regiment or so of half-armed, half-disciplined Confederate cavalry!" Vance thundered.
The Army of the Potomac withdrew from before the works of the Confederates of the Army of Northern Virginia on Mine Run, General Meade being convinced that they could not be taken without a great sacrifice of life. A soldier, writing from Kelleysville, now in West Virginia on December fourth, gives the following account of the retrograde movement: "Since joining the regiment I have had very tough work, marching great distances in a short space of time, besides living on short rations. We crossed the Rapidan at Ely's Ford, marching through the battlefield of Chancellorsville and the Wilderness, to within six miles of Orange Court House, where we halted. Our impressions were, that we would reach Gordonsville before any serious opposition would be shown, but were mightily mistaken. The army skirmished with the Rebels from the time we crossed the Rapidan until we halted, and through such a perfect wilderness as to be almost indescribable ? the road, the only place where man or beast could walk, with both sides covered with dense woods, overrun with underbrush. So you can readily imagine what a place for troops to advance in line of battle, and manoeuvre for instant action. Yet it was done, and with a hearty good will, for the impression animated the whole army we would give the rebels a sound whipping, as we were on their flank; but alas! they got wind of it, and formed a line of battle on the high ridge of hills on the opposite side of Mine Run. We would have cleared them out from there, but the whole of our army did not arrive in time. Night came on, and they improved the time by fortifying. When morning came, they had one of the most formidable works in view I ever saw. The creek, or run, was crammed with felled trees, to break our ranks when advancing in line, and then came immense breastworks with abattis in front, making it an impossibility to make a charge over. Yet that morning the whole line had orders to take off knapsacks and overcoats, and make the attack, or rather attempt it. When all was ready, and going on the advance, the order was countermanded, and with it came many light hearts, as we knew it was impossible to make any impression on what we saw before us, although we were willing to attempt it. We lay all that day, and the next until evening, when we picked up our traps, and made a splendid retrograde movement. To be sure, the army suffered a little in killed and wounded, but nothing in comparison to what it would have been if we had fought them. One of the men in my company was shot in the breast while skirmishing. We are now near Kelly's Ford, and have arrived at the conclusion that General Meade acted wisely in not giving battle, for he would have been repulsed, and that would not do, when things looked so bright in the West."
The problem of gathering vital supplies was becoming increasingly difficult for all Southern armies, and the commanding generals were constantly pleading with Confederate President Jefferson Davis for assistance for the men now mostly in winter camp. General Joe Wheeler, however, commanded a cavalry unit, and he took the approach that God helps a force which helps itself. The difficulty was, his men were helping themselves to the property of their fellow Confederate citizens of North Carolina. Fed up, Govenor Zebulon B. Vance sent a letter of his own to Davis today, complaining severely about the depredations. "If God Almighty had yet in store another plague for the Egyptians worse than all others, I am sure it must have been a regiment or so of half-armed, half-disciplined Confederate cavalry!" Vance thundered.
The Army of the Potomac withdrew from before the works of the Confederates of the Army of Northern Virginia on Mine Run, General Meade being convinced that they could not be taken without a great sacrifice of life. A soldier, writing from Kelleysville, now in West Virginia on December fourth, gives the following account of the retrograde movement: "Since joining the regiment I have had very tough work, marching great distances in a short space of time, besides living on short rations. We crossed the Rapidan at Ely's Ford, marching through the battlefield of Chancellorsville and the Wilderness, to within six miles of Orange Court House, where we halted. Our impressions were, that we would reach Gordonsville before any serious opposition would be shown, but were mightily mistaken. The army skirmished with the Rebels from the time we crossed the Rapidan until we halted, and through such a perfect wilderness as to be almost indescribable ? the road, the only place where man or beast could walk, with both sides covered with dense woods, overrun with underbrush. So you can readily imagine what a place for troops to advance in line of battle, and manoeuvre for instant action. Yet it was done, and with a hearty good will, for the impression animated the whole army we would give the rebels a sound whipping, as we were on their flank; but alas! they got wind of it, and formed a line of battle on the high ridge of hills on the opposite side of Mine Run. We would have cleared them out from there, but the whole of our army did not arrive in time. Night came on, and they improved the time by fortifying. When morning came, they had one of the most formidable works in view I ever saw. The creek, or run, was crammed with felled trees, to break our ranks when advancing in line, and then came immense breastworks with abattis in front, making it an impossibility to make a charge over. Yet that morning the whole line had orders to take off knapsacks and overcoats, and make the attack, or rather attempt it. When all was ready, and going on the advance, the order was countermanded, and with it came many light hearts, as we knew it was impossible to make any impression on what we saw before us, although we were willing to attempt it. We lay all that day, and the next until evening, when we picked up our traps, and made a splendid retrograde movement. To be sure, the army suffered a little in killed and wounded, but nothing in comparison to what it would have been if we had fought them. One of the men in my company was shot in the breast while skirmishing. We are now near Kelly's Ford, and have arrived at the conclusion that General Meade acted wisely in not giving battle, for he would have been repulsed, and that would not do, when things looked so bright in the West."
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