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re: 150 years ago this day...
Posted on 9/10/14 at 7:59 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Posted on 9/10/14 at 7:59 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Sunday, 11 September 1864
The wooden, side-wheel steamer USS Stockdale--Acting Lieutenant George Wiggen commanding--which had joined the West Gulf Blockading Squadron at New Orleans, 3 January 1864, set forth up the Fish River to Mobile Bay today, leading the tinclad USS Rodolph and the Army troop transport ship Planter, which was also towing a barge. Their destination: a sawmill up on the bay. The expedition arrived without incident, landed troops, and proceeded to confiscate Confederate equipment including 60,000 board feet of sawn lumber, the engine used to saw the logs, and some livestock. The problem came when the now heavily-loaded ships tried to get back down the river. Confederate troops lined the river as it began to grow dark. Shots were fired and trees were even felled into the water in an attempt to snag and stop the vessels. The military ships returned fire with the ship’s guns, the troops fired muskets, and the reinforced Rodolph smashed its way through the log blockades. All the boats returned safely.
Another report: Acting Lieutenant Wiggin led an expedition up Fish River at Mobile Bay to seize an engine used by Confederates in a sawmill and to assist Union soldiers in obtaining lumber. Tinclad USS Rodolph, Acting Lieutenant George D. Upham, and wooden side-wheeler USS Stockdale, Acting Master Spiro V. Bennis, with Wiggin embarked, convoyed Army transport Planter to Smith's mill, where they took the engine, 60,000 feet of lumber, and some livestock. Loading the lumber on board a barge in tow of Planter took almost until nightfall, and in the dusk of the return down-stream, Confederate riflemen took the ships under fire and felled trees ahead of them. The gun-boats returned the fire rapidly and Rodolph broke through the obstructions, enabling the remaining ships to pass downriver.
The USS Augusta Dinsmore, Acting Lieutenant Miner B. Crowell in charge, captured the schooner John off Velasco, Texas, with a cargo of cotton.
Union expeditions began at various points in Missouri. Another Federal undertaking began from Fort Rice in the Dakota Territory to relieve a settlers’ train.
The wooden, side-wheel steamer USS Stockdale--Acting Lieutenant George Wiggen commanding--which had joined the West Gulf Blockading Squadron at New Orleans, 3 January 1864, set forth up the Fish River to Mobile Bay today, leading the tinclad USS Rodolph and the Army troop transport ship Planter, which was also towing a barge. Their destination: a sawmill up on the bay. The expedition arrived without incident, landed troops, and proceeded to confiscate Confederate equipment including 60,000 board feet of sawn lumber, the engine used to saw the logs, and some livestock. The problem came when the now heavily-loaded ships tried to get back down the river. Confederate troops lined the river as it began to grow dark. Shots were fired and trees were even felled into the water in an attempt to snag and stop the vessels. The military ships returned fire with the ship’s guns, the troops fired muskets, and the reinforced Rodolph smashed its way through the log blockades. All the boats returned safely.
Another report: Acting Lieutenant Wiggin led an expedition up Fish River at Mobile Bay to seize an engine used by Confederates in a sawmill and to assist Union soldiers in obtaining lumber. Tinclad USS Rodolph, Acting Lieutenant George D. Upham, and wooden side-wheeler USS Stockdale, Acting Master Spiro V. Bennis, with Wiggin embarked, convoyed Army transport Planter to Smith's mill, where they took the engine, 60,000 feet of lumber, and some livestock. Loading the lumber on board a barge in tow of Planter took almost until nightfall, and in the dusk of the return down-stream, Confederate riflemen took the ships under fire and felled trees ahead of them. The gun-boats returned the fire rapidly and Rodolph broke through the obstructions, enabling the remaining ships to pass downriver.
The USS Augusta Dinsmore, Acting Lieutenant Miner B. Crowell in charge, captured the schooner John off Velasco, Texas, with a cargo of cotton.
Union expeditions began at various points in Missouri. Another Federal undertaking began from Fort Rice in the Dakota Territory to relieve a settlers’ train.
1
Posted on 9/11/14 at 9:05 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Monday, 12 September 1864
President Abraham Lincoln and General Hiram U. Grant had a common worry today: General Phillip Henry Sheridan in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. It wasn’t that he was doing anything wrong; the problem was that he didn’t seem to be doing much of anything at all. To Lincoln this was a worry--he called it a “dead lock” in the Valley--because Sheridan was supposed to be catching up with General Jubal Early’s Confederate forces, which had been raiding and rampaging as far north as Pennsylvania for most of the summer.
Grant was heavily concerned about the situation too, with the additional personal complication that Sheridan was an old friend from the “western theater” who had been brought East and given an army at Grant’s personal recommendation. One factor neither seems to have allowed for was that Sheridan was a cavalryman, and had never actually commanded large numbers of foot soldiers before. Neither Sheridan's Union troops nor the Confederates under Early seemed to be making progress against each other around Winchester.
Early this morning, a Federal expedition began from Fayetteville, Arkansas.
President Abraham Lincoln and General Hiram U. Grant had a common worry today: General Phillip Henry Sheridan in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. It wasn’t that he was doing anything wrong; the problem was that he didn’t seem to be doing much of anything at all. To Lincoln this was a worry--he called it a “dead lock” in the Valley--because Sheridan was supposed to be catching up with General Jubal Early’s Confederate forces, which had been raiding and rampaging as far north as Pennsylvania for most of the summer.
Grant was heavily concerned about the situation too, with the additional personal complication that Sheridan was an old friend from the “western theater” who had been brought East and given an army at Grant’s personal recommendation. One factor neither seems to have allowed for was that Sheridan was a cavalryman, and had never actually commanded large numbers of foot soldiers before. Neither Sheridan's Union troops nor the Confederates under Early seemed to be making progress against each other around Winchester.
Early this morning, a Federal expedition began from Fayetteville, Arkansas.
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