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re: 150 years ago this day...
Posted on 10/17/14 at 9:07 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Posted on 10/17/14 at 9:07 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Tuesday, 18 October 1864
For awhile now, it had seemed that General Jubal Early’s Confederate cavalry force was doomed. Pursued relentlessly by Generals Phil Sheridan, George Armstrong Custer, and a large number of lesser-known Union cavalrymen, Early had been losing far too many of his command to wounds, death or capture. This afternoon, Early and his staff went personally clambering around the edge of Massanutten Mountain, just east of Strasburg in Shenandoah County, Virginia, to peer down on the Federals camped in the creek valley below. Having concluded that retreat was getting them nowhere, Early planned out an alternative strategy: full-bore attack, come what may. It was scheduled for tomorrow morning.
Another report: Federal Major General Philip Sheridan was summoned from Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley to Washington to discuss future operations. Meanwhile, Confederates scouted Federal positions at Cedar Creek; the Federals were unaware that Confederate General Jubal Early was planning one last, desperate attack to destroy Sheridan’s army.
Major General George Thomas, commanding Union forces in Tennessee, wired Major General William Sherman concerning his plans for opposing General Hood's thrust into Tennessee: I have arranged with Lieutenant [Commander] Greer, commanding gunboat fleet on lower Tennessee, to patrol the river as far up as Eastport [Mississippi]. Lieutenant Glassford, commanding between Bridgeport and Decatur [Alabama] patrols that portion on the river daily, and cooperates with me very cordially." As Hood approached Tuscumbia and his rendezvous with General Forrest's cavalry, Union commanders became increasingly concerned with measures to keep the Confederates from crossing the Tennessee River in Alabama, and relied heavily on the gunboats of the Mississippi Squadron for this duty as well as for intelligence. During the climactic campaign between the forces of Thomas and those of Hood, the close cooperation and support of naval forces would play a key role.
In Liverpool, England, women supporting the Southern Cause held a benefit for Confederate soldiers at St. George’s Hall.
Union Major General David Bell Birney dies at his home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from camp fever (malaria) contracted in the summer of 1864 during Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant's Overland Campaign through Virginia.
Skirmishes form near Huntsville, Alabama, as Lieutenant General John Bell Hood, CSA, moves his Army of Tennessee towards Gadsden, Alabama, away from Major General William T. Sherman's, USA, railroad line on the Chattanooga to Atlanta Railroad.
A brief fight occurs near Milton, Florida, as the Confederates attack the US steamer, Planter, which is busy gathering logs in Blackwater Bay, at Battledonge. Later the Planter enters Escambia Bay and carries away 15,000 new brick and a lot of doors and window sashes.
Skirmishes take place near Summerville, Georgia, in Barry County, Missouri, and at Clinch Mountain, Tennessee.
Confederate partisans commence raids on the Nashville and Northwestern Railroad, in Tennessee, as the Rebels burn nearly all the dwellings along the railroad for two miles.
For awhile now, it had seemed that General Jubal Early’s Confederate cavalry force was doomed. Pursued relentlessly by Generals Phil Sheridan, George Armstrong Custer, and a large number of lesser-known Union cavalrymen, Early had been losing far too many of his command to wounds, death or capture. This afternoon, Early and his staff went personally clambering around the edge of Massanutten Mountain, just east of Strasburg in Shenandoah County, Virginia, to peer down on the Federals camped in the creek valley below. Having concluded that retreat was getting them nowhere, Early planned out an alternative strategy: full-bore attack, come what may. It was scheduled for tomorrow morning.
Another report: Federal Major General Philip Sheridan was summoned from Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley to Washington to discuss future operations. Meanwhile, Confederates scouted Federal positions at Cedar Creek; the Federals were unaware that Confederate General Jubal Early was planning one last, desperate attack to destroy Sheridan’s army.
Major General George Thomas, commanding Union forces in Tennessee, wired Major General William Sherman concerning his plans for opposing General Hood's thrust into Tennessee: I have arranged with Lieutenant [Commander] Greer, commanding gunboat fleet on lower Tennessee, to patrol the river as far up as Eastport [Mississippi]. Lieutenant Glassford, commanding between Bridgeport and Decatur [Alabama] patrols that portion on the river daily, and cooperates with me very cordially." As Hood approached Tuscumbia and his rendezvous with General Forrest's cavalry, Union commanders became increasingly concerned with measures to keep the Confederates from crossing the Tennessee River in Alabama, and relied heavily on the gunboats of the Mississippi Squadron for this duty as well as for intelligence. During the climactic campaign between the forces of Thomas and those of Hood, the close cooperation and support of naval forces would play a key role.
In Liverpool, England, women supporting the Southern Cause held a benefit for Confederate soldiers at St. George’s Hall.
Union Major General David Bell Birney dies at his home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from camp fever (malaria) contracted in the summer of 1864 during Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant's Overland Campaign through Virginia.
Skirmishes form near Huntsville, Alabama, as Lieutenant General John Bell Hood, CSA, moves his Army of Tennessee towards Gadsden, Alabama, away from Major General William T. Sherman's, USA, railroad line on the Chattanooga to Atlanta Railroad.
A brief fight occurs near Milton, Florida, as the Confederates attack the US steamer, Planter, which is busy gathering logs in Blackwater Bay, at Battledonge. Later the Planter enters Escambia Bay and carries away 15,000 new brick and a lot of doors and window sashes.
Skirmishes take place near Summerville, Georgia, in Barry County, Missouri, and at Clinch Mountain, Tennessee.
Confederate partisans commence raids on the Nashville and Northwestern Railroad, in Tennessee, as the Rebels burn nearly all the dwellings along the railroad for two miles.
1
Posted on 10/19/14 at 7:54 am to BadLeroyDawg
Wednesday, 19 October 1864
As the pursuit continued in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, things had gone pretty much all Phillip Sheridan’s way. He had chased the Confederate cavalry of Jubal Early around the landscape, whittling down his numbers with each encounter. Early did what seemed logical today: he attacked the encamped Federals so early in the morning that many were overrun and captured still in their tents and underwear. Unfortunately after initial successes, some of the Confederate men stopped to loot the deserted camps. In the afternoon Sheridan, who had been in Washington, DC, returned, reorganized, and counterattacked, driving the Southerners back to Fisher’s Hill with heavy losses.
Full report: The Battle of Cedar Creek erupted at 5 a.m. when Confederates attacked the Federal right and left simultaneously; many Federals were still asleep when the attack began. The Federals slowly withdrew as Confederates wasted time looting camps. Philip Sheridan returned from Washington and urged his men to counterattack. When the men cheered him, Sheridan yelled, “God damn you! Don’t cheer me, fight!” The Federals rallied near Middletown.
By 4 p.m., the Federals drove off the much smaller force of tired Confederates, as Jubal Early’s entire line virtually crumbled. The retreat soon became a rout. Federals suffered 5,665 casualties while Confederates lost 2,910, including Major General Stephen Dodson Ramseur, CSA, who is mortally wounded at the Battle of Cedar Creek being shot through both of his lungs and captured. The Union loses Brigadier General Daniel Davidson Bidwell, and Brigadier General Charles Russell Lowell. Sheridan would become a northern hero. Jubal Early wrote to General Robert E. Lee, “I found it impossible to rally the troops...The rout was as thorough and disgraceful as ever happened to our army...If you think that the interests of the service would be promoted by a change of commanders, I beg you will have no hesitation.” Early withdrew to New Market, where his army gradually dispersed.
Sterling Price’s Confederates pushed James G. Blunt’s Federals at Lexington back to the Little Blue River in Missouri.
Sea King, the sleek, fast ship Commander James Dunwoody Bulloch had obtained for the Confederate cause in England, rendezvoused with the tender Laurel north of the island of Las Desertas in the Madeiras. Sea King was sold to the Confederate States and renamed the CSS Shenandoah, after which guns, powder, supplies, and crewmembers from Laurel were loaded. Lieutenant James Iredell Waddell, who had sailed from England in the Laurel, assumed command of the cruiser and remarked: "Each of us asked himself instinctively, what great adventures shall we meet in her? What will be her ultimate fate?" Shenandoah, one of Bulloch's greatest successes, was destined to become one of the most effective commerce raiders of the war and the last warship to sail under the Confederate flag, the only Confederate cruiser to circumnavigate the globe and ultimately the last to surrender on 6 November, 1865.
The following are appointed Union Brigadier Generals this morning: Alfred Gibbs, Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Charles Russell Lowell, and William Henry Powell.
A skirmish took place in Crawford County, Arkansas, with partisan guerrillas attacking local Union militia men, causing many casualties.
The USS Mobile, under Acting Lieutenant Giraud, captured the schooner Emily off San Luis Pass, Texas, with a cargo of 150 bales of cotton.
Lieutenant Bennett H. Young and 21 Confederate raiders attacked St. Albans, Vermont, about 20 miles from the Canadian border. The group robbed the town’s three banks of a total of $208,000. They rounded up the town residents, killing one and wounding another before fleeing back into Canada. Canadian authorities arrested Young and 12 raiders but refused to extradite them to the U.S. because of Canada’s neutrality. About $75,000 was recovered. Nobody stood trial for the raid, which was the northernmost land action of the war.
Second report: In the northernmost land event that could be considered part of the War Between the States, a group of some 25 Confederate sympathizers slipped across the border from Canada into St. Albans, Vermont, planning to burn several towns and rob banks for funds for the cause. They got away with some $200,000 before townsfolk organized resistance and chased them back to Canada where they were arrested. Only $75,000 of the stolen money, however, was recovered.
Marylanders in Washington orchestrated a serenade to President Abraham Lincoln in support of their new state constitution. Lincoln addressed both the news and rumors that Democrats planned to immediately seize control of the Federal government if they won the upcoming elections: “Most heartily do I congratulate you, and Maryland, and the nation, and the world, upon the event...I am struggling to maintain government, not to overthrow it. I am struggling especially to prevent others from overthrowing it.”
General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s Confederates left Corinth, Mississippi, in an attempt to cooperate with John Bell Hood’s move to Alabama and Tennessee.
As the pursuit continued in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, things had gone pretty much all Phillip Sheridan’s way. He had chased the Confederate cavalry of Jubal Early around the landscape, whittling down his numbers with each encounter. Early did what seemed logical today: he attacked the encamped Federals so early in the morning that many were overrun and captured still in their tents and underwear. Unfortunately after initial successes, some of the Confederate men stopped to loot the deserted camps. In the afternoon Sheridan, who had been in Washington, DC, returned, reorganized, and counterattacked, driving the Southerners back to Fisher’s Hill with heavy losses.
Full report: The Battle of Cedar Creek erupted at 5 a.m. when Confederates attacked the Federal right and left simultaneously; many Federals were still asleep when the attack began. The Federals slowly withdrew as Confederates wasted time looting camps. Philip Sheridan returned from Washington and urged his men to counterattack. When the men cheered him, Sheridan yelled, “God damn you! Don’t cheer me, fight!” The Federals rallied near Middletown.
By 4 p.m., the Federals drove off the much smaller force of tired Confederates, as Jubal Early’s entire line virtually crumbled. The retreat soon became a rout. Federals suffered 5,665 casualties while Confederates lost 2,910, including Major General Stephen Dodson Ramseur, CSA, who is mortally wounded at the Battle of Cedar Creek being shot through both of his lungs and captured. The Union loses Brigadier General Daniel Davidson Bidwell, and Brigadier General Charles Russell Lowell. Sheridan would become a northern hero. Jubal Early wrote to General Robert E. Lee, “I found it impossible to rally the troops...The rout was as thorough and disgraceful as ever happened to our army...If you think that the interests of the service would be promoted by a change of commanders, I beg you will have no hesitation.” Early withdrew to New Market, where his army gradually dispersed.
Sterling Price’s Confederates pushed James G. Blunt’s Federals at Lexington back to the Little Blue River in Missouri.
Sea King, the sleek, fast ship Commander James Dunwoody Bulloch had obtained for the Confederate cause in England, rendezvoused with the tender Laurel north of the island of Las Desertas in the Madeiras. Sea King was sold to the Confederate States and renamed the CSS Shenandoah, after which guns, powder, supplies, and crewmembers from Laurel were loaded. Lieutenant James Iredell Waddell, who had sailed from England in the Laurel, assumed command of the cruiser and remarked: "Each of us asked himself instinctively, what great adventures shall we meet in her? What will be her ultimate fate?" Shenandoah, one of Bulloch's greatest successes, was destined to become one of the most effective commerce raiders of the war and the last warship to sail under the Confederate flag, the only Confederate cruiser to circumnavigate the globe and ultimately the last to surrender on 6 November, 1865.
The following are appointed Union Brigadier Generals this morning: Alfred Gibbs, Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Charles Russell Lowell, and William Henry Powell.
A skirmish took place in Crawford County, Arkansas, with partisan guerrillas attacking local Union militia men, causing many casualties.
The USS Mobile, under Acting Lieutenant Giraud, captured the schooner Emily off San Luis Pass, Texas, with a cargo of 150 bales of cotton.
Lieutenant Bennett H. Young and 21 Confederate raiders attacked St. Albans, Vermont, about 20 miles from the Canadian border. The group robbed the town’s three banks of a total of $208,000. They rounded up the town residents, killing one and wounding another before fleeing back into Canada. Canadian authorities arrested Young and 12 raiders but refused to extradite them to the U.S. because of Canada’s neutrality. About $75,000 was recovered. Nobody stood trial for the raid, which was the northernmost land action of the war.
Second report: In the northernmost land event that could be considered part of the War Between the States, a group of some 25 Confederate sympathizers slipped across the border from Canada into St. Albans, Vermont, planning to burn several towns and rob banks for funds for the cause. They got away with some $200,000 before townsfolk organized resistance and chased them back to Canada where they were arrested. Only $75,000 of the stolen money, however, was recovered.
Marylanders in Washington orchestrated a serenade to President Abraham Lincoln in support of their new state constitution. Lincoln addressed both the news and rumors that Democrats planned to immediately seize control of the Federal government if they won the upcoming elections: “Most heartily do I congratulate you, and Maryland, and the nation, and the world, upon the event...I am struggling to maintain government, not to overthrow it. I am struggling especially to prevent others from overthrowing it.”
General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s Confederates left Corinth, Mississippi, in an attempt to cooperate with John Bell Hood’s move to Alabama and Tennessee.
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