Friday, 23 September 1864

The Blair family name runs through the history of the War Between the States on the Union side. Some of their efforts were military--Frank Blair Jr., was one of the best of those who achieved general’s rank without benefit of military training--but far more important was the family’s political activities. High on the list was the name of Montgomery Blair, wheeler-dealer, consummate behind-the-scenes politician and staunch ally of President Abraham Lincoln. His only official title was Postmaster General, a job he had filled well during a time when so much mail was in motion that a nationwide paper shortage occurred. But he was also a leader of the moderate faction of the Democratic Party, which made him anathema to the the Radical Republicans of the, present and only election, National Union Party. To pacify them, Lincoln was forced today to ask for Blair’s resignation. He gave it, gracefully.

Another account: President Lincoln dismissed Postmaster General Montgomery Blair from his cabinet. Blair was a War Democrat who opposed many Radical Republican policies, and Senator Zachariah Chandler of Michigan had informed Lincoln that if Blair was dismissed, Radical presidential candidate John C. Fremont would withdraw his candidacy and the Radicals would back Lincoln. Blair had offered to resign when Lincoln deemed it necessary, and Lincoln said, “...the time has come.”

The small side-wheeler USS Antelope, under Acting Master John Ross, struck a snag and sank in the Mississippi River below New Orleans.

Last evening, Federal General-in-Chief Hiram U. Grant ordered a 100-gun salute fired into the Confederate lines under siege at Petersburg, Virginia. Grant wired Sheridan, “Keep on, and your good work will cause the fall of Richmond.”

Confederate President Jefferson Davis unexpectedly arrived in Macon, Georgia on a trip to assess the military situation there. Davis also sought to assure Southerners that they were not yet defeated. Addressing a refugee relief meeting, Davis said, “Friends are drawn together in adversity...Our cause is not lost. Sherman cannot keep up his long line of communication, and retreat, sooner or later, he must.” Davis said he would confer with Confederate General John Bell Hood about recovering Georgia, he called for army absentees to return to duty, and concluded, “Let no one despond.”

General Sterling Price’s Confederates continued their invasion of Missouri, fighting yesterday at Patterson and Sikeston, then today at Rocheport--a city in Boone County, Missouri.

In the Shenandoah, Jubal Early’s Confederates withdrew toward New Market as the cavalry fought rearguard action against Union pursuers at various points. Philip Sheridan did not order a full prosecution, believing his victories at Winchester and Fisher’s Hill had broken Confederate morale.

Major General Stephen A. Hurlbut assumed command of the Federal Department of the Gulf, headquartered in New Orleans.

General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s Confederates continued raiding Federal supply lines in northern Alabama and southern Tennessee, fighting at Athens, Alabama.

This morning, William Thomas Overby and four other soldiers of Lieutenant Colonel John Singleton Mosby’s 43rd Virginia Cavalry were captured by Union cavalrymen a few miles south of Front Royal, Virginia, along with a 17-year-old boy, Henry Rhodes, who wanted to join the Confederates. Rhodes was not a soldier, but a local Front Royal citizen who after capture was taken near his home and shot down in sight of his mother. Overby was offered his freedom if he would reveal the headquarters of Mosby's Rangers. Refusing this, he was hanged without a trial within four hours of his capture. He was later posthumously awarded the Confederate Medal of Honor.

"Mosby will hang ten of you for every one of us" were Overby’s last words to his executioners before the rope tightened around his neck on Richardson’s Hill. Mosby blamed General George A. Custer and promised vengeance on Custer’s men. Near Berryville a month and a half later, on November 7, Mosby ordered the execution of seven captured Federals, most of them from Custer’s command, in retribution.

Summary: Offered his life in exchange for betraying his comrades. Refused and was hanged as a spy September 1864~ Born in Newnan, Georgia, Overby was one of the six Mosby's Men executed at Front Royal by orders of General George Custer on Friday, September 23rd, 1864. Overby and Love, were hung to a tree in sight of the town of Front Royal, and a paper pinned on the breast of one read: "Such is the fate of all of Mosby's gang." The remains of the Mosby's Ranger often called the "Nathan Hale of the Confederacy" lie once again in the soil of his native Georgia. William Thomas Overby was given a hero's reburial January 5, 1997, in Oakhill Cemetery in Newnan, Georgia.