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Posted on 3/23/15 at 10:30 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Posted on 3/23/15 at 10:30 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Friday, 24 March 1865
The heavily armed Confederate ironclad Stonewall, commanded by Captain Thomas Jefferson Page, put to sea from Ferrol, Spain, after two previous attempts had been frustrated by foul weather. Page cleared the harbor at mid-morning and attempted to bring on an engagement with the wooden frigate, USS Niagara and sloop-of-war Sacramento, under Commodore Thomas Tingey Craven. The Sacramento was commanded by Captain Henry Walke, who had gained fame as captain of the Eads gunboat USS Carondelet in the Mississippi River campaigns. Craven kept his ships at anchor in nearby Coruna, Spain, and refused to accept the Stonewall's challenge. Page wrote Commander James Dunwoody Bulloch in Liverpool: "To suppose that these two heavily armed men-of-war were afraid of the Stonewall is to me incredible..." However, as Craven explained to Union Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles: "At this time the odds in her favor were too great and too certain, in my humble judgment, to admit of the slightest hope of being able to inflict upon her even the most trifling injury, whereas, if we had gone out, the Niagara would most undoubtedly have been easily and promptly destroyed. So thoroughly a one-sided combat! did not consider myself called upon to engage in." Craven was subsequently courtmartialed and found remiss in his duties for failing to engage Stonewall. Serving as President of this court was Vice Admiral David Glasgow Farragut and sitting as a member was Commodore John Ancrum Winslow who had sunk the wounded Confederate raider Alabama. The court sentenced Craven to two years suspension on leave pay. Secretary Welles refused to approve what he regarded as a "paid vacation" for an officer who had been found guilty and so, instead, he restored Craven to duty.
Published by the New York Times, December 18, 1865
NAVY DEPARTMENT, Dec. 6, 1865.
GENERAL ORDERS No. 68. -- At a Naval General Court-Martial, convened at the Navy Department, in the City of Washington Nov. 7, 1865, Commodore THOMAS T. CRAVEN, of the navy, was tried on the following charge and specification, viz:
Charge -- Failing to do his utmost to overtake and capture or destroy a vessel which it was his duty to encounter.
Specification -- In this: That on or about the 24th day of March, 1865, the said Commodore THOMAS T. CRAVEN, commanding the United States steamer Niagara, and having under his control the United States steamer Sacramento, then lying off Corunna, on the coast of Spain, and a vessel of the enemy, known as the Stonewall, being at that time on its way out of the Bay of Corunna, as was plainly seen by and well known to him, did fail to use any exertions or make any effort whatever to overtake and capture, or destroy the said vessel of the enemy, as it was his duty to have done, but did remain quietly at anchor for more than twenty-four hours after having seen said vessel on its way out of the Bay of Corunna, his pretext for this failure in duty being that "the odds in her (the Stonewall's) favor were too great and too certain to admit of the slightest hope of being able to inflict upon her even the most trifling injury;" and that, had he gone into an engagement, "the Niagara would most undoubtedly have been easily and promptly destroyed;" and, as subsequently stated by him in an official letter addressed "to the Hon. H.J. PERRY, Charge d'Affaires, Madrid," and dated March 25, 1865, "with feelings that no one can appreciate, I was obliged to undergo the deep humiliation of knowing that she (the Stonewall) was there -- steaming back and forth -- flaunting her flags and waiting for me to go out to the attack. I dared not do it! The condition of the sea was such that it would have been perfect madness for me to go out. We could not possibly have inflicted the slightest injury upon her, and should have exposed ourselves to almost instant destruction; a one-sided combat, which I do not consider myself called upon to engage in." GIDEON WELLES.
Secretary of the Navy.
NAVY DEPARTMENT, Oct. 20, 1865.
A skirmish occurs near Dannelly's Mills, as well as Evergreen, Alabama, in the Mobile Campaign.
Federal troops scout in search of Confederates, through the swamps, from Bayou Boeuf to Bayou Chemise, Louisiana.
An affair begins about 7 miles west of Rolla, Missouri, on the Springfield Road, where partisan guerrillas dressed in Union garb surprise and capture a band of Yankees taking a breather along the road. The Union officers are attacked in the nearby house they went into to get a drink of water, firing through the window and killing a mounted guerrilla; the rest take off with their Yankee prisoners.
A skirmish breaks out near Moccasin Creek, North Carolina.
The CSS Stonewall embarks from the port of Ferrol, Spain, as the two wooden US frigates, USS Niagara and USS Sacramento fail to challenge her. The commanding Union Naval officer, Commodore T. T. Craven will later be court martialed for his lack of action.
Troops from the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia prepared to break out of the siege lines at Petersburg, Virginia. They had chosen Fort Stedman as the best breakout site because it could cut Grant’s supply line at City Point and enable to Confederates to join General Joseph E. Johnston in Virginia.
Major General William T. Sherman wrote to Grant, “I think I see pretty clearly how, in one more move, we can checkmate Lee, forcing him to unite Johnston with him in defense of Richmond, or, by leaving Richmond, to abandon the cause. I feel certain if he leaves Richmond, Virginia leaves the Confederacy.”
President Abraham Lincoln's party arrived at City Point late this evening. The Lincolns’ son Robert, serving on Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant’s staff, reported his family’s arrival to Grant.
Full report: President Lincoln visited General Grant at City Point, Virginia, arriving at this all important water-supported supply base at 9 p.m. on board the steamer River Queen. Accompanied by Mrs. Lincoln and his son Tad, he was escorted up the James River by the USS Bat, Lieutenant Commander John S. Barnes in charge. Two days later Barnes accompanied Grant and the President on a review of part of the Army of the James. General Horace Porter, serving on Grant's staff, later recalled: "Captain Barnes, who commanded the vessel which had escorted the President's steamer, was to be one of the party, and I loaned him my horse. This was a favor which was usually accorded with some reluctance to naval officers when they came ashore; for these men of the ocean at times tried to board the animal on the starboard side, and often rolled in the saddle as if there was a heavy sea on; and if the horse, in his anxiety to rid himself of a sea-monster, tried to scrape his rider off by rubbing against a tree, the officer attributed the unseaman-like conduct of the animal entirely to the fact that his steering-gear had become unshipped...Navy officers were about as reluctant to lend their boats to army people, for fear they would knock holes in the bottom when jumping in, break the oars in catching crabs, and stave in the bows through an excess of modesty which manifested itself in a reluctance to give the command 'Way enough!' in time when approaching a wharf."
The heavily armed Confederate ironclad Stonewall, commanded by Captain Thomas Jefferson Page, put to sea from Ferrol, Spain, after two previous attempts had been frustrated by foul weather. Page cleared the harbor at mid-morning and attempted to bring on an engagement with the wooden frigate, USS Niagara and sloop-of-war Sacramento, under Commodore Thomas Tingey Craven. The Sacramento was commanded by Captain Henry Walke, who had gained fame as captain of the Eads gunboat USS Carondelet in the Mississippi River campaigns. Craven kept his ships at anchor in nearby Coruna, Spain, and refused to accept the Stonewall's challenge. Page wrote Commander James Dunwoody Bulloch in Liverpool: "To suppose that these two heavily armed men-of-war were afraid of the Stonewall is to me incredible..." However, as Craven explained to Union Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles: "At this time the odds in her favor were too great and too certain, in my humble judgment, to admit of the slightest hope of being able to inflict upon her even the most trifling injury, whereas, if we had gone out, the Niagara would most undoubtedly have been easily and promptly destroyed. So thoroughly a one-sided combat! did not consider myself called upon to engage in." Craven was subsequently courtmartialed and found remiss in his duties for failing to engage Stonewall. Serving as President of this court was Vice Admiral David Glasgow Farragut and sitting as a member was Commodore John Ancrum Winslow who had sunk the wounded Confederate raider Alabama. The court sentenced Craven to two years suspension on leave pay. Secretary Welles refused to approve what he regarded as a "paid vacation" for an officer who had been found guilty and so, instead, he restored Craven to duty.
Published by the New York Times, December 18, 1865
NAVY DEPARTMENT, Dec. 6, 1865.
GENERAL ORDERS No. 68. -- At a Naval General Court-Martial, convened at the Navy Department, in the City of Washington Nov. 7, 1865, Commodore THOMAS T. CRAVEN, of the navy, was tried on the following charge and specification, viz:
Charge -- Failing to do his utmost to overtake and capture or destroy a vessel which it was his duty to encounter.
Specification -- In this: That on or about the 24th day of March, 1865, the said Commodore THOMAS T. CRAVEN, commanding the United States steamer Niagara, and having under his control the United States steamer Sacramento, then lying off Corunna, on the coast of Spain, and a vessel of the enemy, known as the Stonewall, being at that time on its way out of the Bay of Corunna, as was plainly seen by and well known to him, did fail to use any exertions or make any effort whatever to overtake and capture, or destroy the said vessel of the enemy, as it was his duty to have done, but did remain quietly at anchor for more than twenty-four hours after having seen said vessel on its way out of the Bay of Corunna, his pretext for this failure in duty being that "the odds in her (the Stonewall's) favor were too great and too certain to admit of the slightest hope of being able to inflict upon her even the most trifling injury;" and that, had he gone into an engagement, "the Niagara would most undoubtedly have been easily and promptly destroyed;" and, as subsequently stated by him in an official letter addressed "to the Hon. H.J. PERRY, Charge d'Affaires, Madrid," and dated March 25, 1865, "with feelings that no one can appreciate, I was obliged to undergo the deep humiliation of knowing that she (the Stonewall) was there -- steaming back and forth -- flaunting her flags and waiting for me to go out to the attack. I dared not do it! The condition of the sea was such that it would have been perfect madness for me to go out. We could not possibly have inflicted the slightest injury upon her, and should have exposed ourselves to almost instant destruction; a one-sided combat, which I do not consider myself called upon to engage in." GIDEON WELLES.
Secretary of the Navy.
NAVY DEPARTMENT, Oct. 20, 1865.
A skirmish occurs near Dannelly's Mills, as well as Evergreen, Alabama, in the Mobile Campaign.
Federal troops scout in search of Confederates, through the swamps, from Bayou Boeuf to Bayou Chemise, Louisiana.
An affair begins about 7 miles west of Rolla, Missouri, on the Springfield Road, where partisan guerrillas dressed in Union garb surprise and capture a band of Yankees taking a breather along the road. The Union officers are attacked in the nearby house they went into to get a drink of water, firing through the window and killing a mounted guerrilla; the rest take off with their Yankee prisoners.
A skirmish breaks out near Moccasin Creek, North Carolina.
The CSS Stonewall embarks from the port of Ferrol, Spain, as the two wooden US frigates, USS Niagara and USS Sacramento fail to challenge her. The commanding Union Naval officer, Commodore T. T. Craven will later be court martialed for his lack of action.
Troops from the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia prepared to break out of the siege lines at Petersburg, Virginia. They had chosen Fort Stedman as the best breakout site because it could cut Grant’s supply line at City Point and enable to Confederates to join General Joseph E. Johnston in Virginia.
Major General William T. Sherman wrote to Grant, “I think I see pretty clearly how, in one more move, we can checkmate Lee, forcing him to unite Johnston with him in defense of Richmond, or, by leaving Richmond, to abandon the cause. I feel certain if he leaves Richmond, Virginia leaves the Confederacy.”
President Abraham Lincoln's party arrived at City Point late this evening. The Lincolns’ son Robert, serving on Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant’s staff, reported his family’s arrival to Grant.
Full report: President Lincoln visited General Grant at City Point, Virginia, arriving at this all important water-supported supply base at 9 p.m. on board the steamer River Queen. Accompanied by Mrs. Lincoln and his son Tad, he was escorted up the James River by the USS Bat, Lieutenant Commander John S. Barnes in charge. Two days later Barnes accompanied Grant and the President on a review of part of the Army of the James. General Horace Porter, serving on Grant's staff, later recalled: "Captain Barnes, who commanded the vessel which had escorted the President's steamer, was to be one of the party, and I loaned him my horse. This was a favor which was usually accorded with some reluctance to naval officers when they came ashore; for these men of the ocean at times tried to board the animal on the starboard side, and often rolled in the saddle as if there was a heavy sea on; and if the horse, in his anxiety to rid himself of a sea-monster, tried to scrape his rider off by rubbing against a tree, the officer attributed the unseaman-like conduct of the animal entirely to the fact that his steering-gear had become unshipped...Navy officers were about as reluctant to lend their boats to army people, for fear they would knock holes in the bottom when jumping in, break the oars in catching crabs, and stave in the bows through an excess of modesty which manifested itself in a reluctance to give the command 'Way enough!' in time when approaching a wharf."
1
Posted on 3/23/15 at 10:31 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Friday, 24 March 1865 (continued)
The USS Republic, under Acting Ensign John W. Bennett, was dispatched up the Cape Fear River from Wilmington to check reports that detachments of General Wheeler's cavalry were operating in the area. About six miles up the river a cavalry squad was driven away with gunfire. Bennett then landed a reconnoitering party. It was learned that the mounted Confederates had broken into small squads and were plundering the country. The reconnaissance party also made contact with a rear guard detachment of General Sherman's army en route to Fayetteville .
The USS Quaker City, Commander William F. Spicer in charge, captured the blockade runner Cora with a cargo of lumber off Brazos Santiago, Texas.
The USS Republic, under Acting Ensign John W. Bennett, was dispatched up the Cape Fear River from Wilmington to check reports that detachments of General Wheeler's cavalry were operating in the area. About six miles up the river a cavalry squad was driven away with gunfire. Bennett then landed a reconnoitering party. It was learned that the mounted Confederates had broken into small squads and were plundering the country. The reconnaissance party also made contact with a rear guard detachment of General Sherman's army en route to Fayetteville .
The USS Quaker City, Commander William F. Spicer in charge, captured the blockade runner Cora with a cargo of lumber off Brazos Santiago, Texas.
Posted on 3/24/15 at 9:50 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Saturday, 25 March 1865
Southerners claiming to be deserters arrived at the Union lines near Fort Stedman at 3 a.m. on the east side of the Petersburg, Virginia, siege fortifications. They were, however, advance men aiming at sabotage when, an hour later, Confederate Major General John B. Gordon launched his surprise attack at Fort Stedman and surrounding entrenchments. The Confederates quickly overwhelmed the opposition and rushed into the fort, completely surprising the Federal garrison. Several batteries and other trenches were taken until nearly a mile of Federal lines was in Southern hands. Like other Confederate late-war attacks, with their shortage of manpower, it lost momentum which allowed Federal troops to rally, change position and push the attackers back to Fort Stedman. By 7:30 a.m., a Federal division assaulted the fort, forcing Gordon to withdraw. Fifteen minutes later, the entire attack was defeated and the Federal lines were restored. Confederates lost approximately 4,000 irreplaceable troops to the Federal casualties that numbered around 1,500.
Full report: Early this morning, Confederate General Robert E. Lee makes Fort Stedman his last offensive of the war in a desperate attempt to break out of Petersburg, Virginia. The attack failed, and within a week Lee was evacuating his positions around Petersburg.
For nine months, Petersburg was under siege by the Army of the Potomac and the overall Union commander, General Hiram U. Grant. The two great armies had fought a bloody campaign in the spring of 1864, and then settled into trenches that eventually stretched for 50 miles around Petersburg and the Confederate capital of Richmond. Lee could not win this war of attrition, but his men held out through the winter of 1864 to the spring of 1865. Now, Lee realized the growing Yankee army could overwhelm his ever diminishing force when the spring brought better weather for an assault. He ordered General John B. Gordon to find a weak point in the Federal defenses and attack.
Gordon selected Fort Stedman, an earthen redoubt with a moat and 9-foot walls. Although imposing, Gordon believed it offered the greatest chance for success since it was located just 150 yards from the Confederate lines–the narrowest gap along the entire front. Early in the morning of 25 March, some 11,000 Rebels hurled themselves at the Union lines. They overwhelmed the surprised Yankees at Fort Stedman and captured 1,000 yards of trenches. After daylight, however, the Confederate momentum waned. Gordon’s men took up defensive positions, and Union reinforcements arrived to turn the tide. The Rebels were unable to hold the captured ground, and were driven back to their original position.
The Union lost around 1,000 men killed, wounded, and captured, while Lee lost probably three times that number, including some 1,500 captured during the retreat. Already outnumbered, these loses were more than Lee’s army could bear. Lee wrote to Confederate President Jefferson Davis that it would be impossible to maintain the Petersburg line much longer. On 29 March, Grant began his offensive, and Petersburg fell on 3 April. Two weeks after the Battle of Fort Stedman, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia.
Confederate President Jefferson Davis received a warning from Lee that Richmond may have to be abandoned after the defeat at Fort Stedman. Davis told his wife Varina: "My headquarters for the future may be in the field, and your presence would embarrass and grieve me instead of giving comfort." Mrs. Davis pleaded to stay with her husband, but Davis said: "You can do this in but one way: by going yourself and taking the children to a place of safety. If I live, you can come to me when the struggle is ended..." but he did not "...expect to survive the destruction of constitutional liberty." Davis prohibited her from taking any food with her because "...the people need it."
General Grant wired Rear Admiral David D. Porter that General Lee's soldiers had broken through the right of the Union's line and that he thought they would strike toward the essential James River supply base at City Point a few miles from the breakthrough. "I would suggest putting one or two gunboats on the Appomattox up as high as the pontoon bridge..." he told the Admiral. Porter immediately ordered gunboats up the Appomattox River to guard the pontoon bridge "...at all times." Simultaneously, USS Wilderness, Acting Master Henry Arey, was ordered up the Chickahominy River to communicate with General Sheridan, carry intelligence about any Confederate activity along the river, and bring back dispatches from Sheridan for Grant.
Lee's attack was his last bold gamble for great stakes. Never one to submit tamely to even the most formidable odds, he sought in the surprise assault to cripple Grant's army so that the overwhelming spring attack the Federals were building up could not be launched. Lee hoped that then he could speed to North Carolina with part of his veterans, join General Johnston and crush Sherman while still holding the Richmond-Petersburg front. Had the attack gone as well in its later stages as it did in the first onslaught, he would have been within range of City Point, only some ten miles away. The wholesale destruction of the host of supply ships, mountains of stores, and vast arsenal would have ended Grant's plant for seizing Richmond that spring.
President Abraham Lincoln visited Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant at City Point, Virginia, and then took the military railroad to the Petersburg lines where he rode horseback over part of the Fort Stedman battlefield, the site of the morning engagement.
Union troops under Major General Edward Richard Sprigg Canby reached Spanish Fort, nine miles east of the fortifications Mobile, Alabama, after a trying march because of drenching rains. Confederate Brigadier General Randall Lee Gibson tries desperately to organize his nearly 2,800 Southerners to oppose the Federal force that numbered well over 32,000 men. Despite strong earthworks around the city, it was impossible for the Rebels to hold out long without assistance. Despite Mobile’s formidable defenses, the simple truth was the Confederates were hopelessly outnumbered.
Major General William T. Sherman left his Federal army at Goldsboro under John M. Schofield’s command and headed to City Point to confer with Grant. Meanwhile, Federals repaired the railroad from Goldsboro to New Bern, allowing troops to begin receiving food, supplies, and mail from the North.
Two Union expeditions began from Brashear City, Louisiana. One was with the 93rd US Colored Infantry, from Brashear City, aboard the gunboat, No. 43, to Indian Bend, for the purpose of destroying or capturing a barge said to have been used by the Rebels for transporting a number of horses over Grand Lake and into their lines.
The other expedition from Brashear City, aboard the steamer, Cornie, was down the Atchafalaya River, to near Oyster Bayou, Louisiana, for the purpose of taking possession of a large oyster boat which lay stranded on the beach at a point 6 miles west of Oyster Bayou.
Southerners claiming to be deserters arrived at the Union lines near Fort Stedman at 3 a.m. on the east side of the Petersburg, Virginia, siege fortifications. They were, however, advance men aiming at sabotage when, an hour later, Confederate Major General John B. Gordon launched his surprise attack at Fort Stedman and surrounding entrenchments. The Confederates quickly overwhelmed the opposition and rushed into the fort, completely surprising the Federal garrison. Several batteries and other trenches were taken until nearly a mile of Federal lines was in Southern hands. Like other Confederate late-war attacks, with their shortage of manpower, it lost momentum which allowed Federal troops to rally, change position and push the attackers back to Fort Stedman. By 7:30 a.m., a Federal division assaulted the fort, forcing Gordon to withdraw. Fifteen minutes later, the entire attack was defeated and the Federal lines were restored. Confederates lost approximately 4,000 irreplaceable troops to the Federal casualties that numbered around 1,500.
Full report: Early this morning, Confederate General Robert E. Lee makes Fort Stedman his last offensive of the war in a desperate attempt to break out of Petersburg, Virginia. The attack failed, and within a week Lee was evacuating his positions around Petersburg.
For nine months, Petersburg was under siege by the Army of the Potomac and the overall Union commander, General Hiram U. Grant. The two great armies had fought a bloody campaign in the spring of 1864, and then settled into trenches that eventually stretched for 50 miles around Petersburg and the Confederate capital of Richmond. Lee could not win this war of attrition, but his men held out through the winter of 1864 to the spring of 1865. Now, Lee realized the growing Yankee army could overwhelm his ever diminishing force when the spring brought better weather for an assault. He ordered General John B. Gordon to find a weak point in the Federal defenses and attack.
Gordon selected Fort Stedman, an earthen redoubt with a moat and 9-foot walls. Although imposing, Gordon believed it offered the greatest chance for success since it was located just 150 yards from the Confederate lines–the narrowest gap along the entire front. Early in the morning of 25 March, some 11,000 Rebels hurled themselves at the Union lines. They overwhelmed the surprised Yankees at Fort Stedman and captured 1,000 yards of trenches. After daylight, however, the Confederate momentum waned. Gordon’s men took up defensive positions, and Union reinforcements arrived to turn the tide. The Rebels were unable to hold the captured ground, and were driven back to their original position.
The Union lost around 1,000 men killed, wounded, and captured, while Lee lost probably three times that number, including some 1,500 captured during the retreat. Already outnumbered, these loses were more than Lee’s army could bear. Lee wrote to Confederate President Jefferson Davis that it would be impossible to maintain the Petersburg line much longer. On 29 March, Grant began his offensive, and Petersburg fell on 3 April. Two weeks after the Battle of Fort Stedman, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia.
Confederate President Jefferson Davis received a warning from Lee that Richmond may have to be abandoned after the defeat at Fort Stedman. Davis told his wife Varina: "My headquarters for the future may be in the field, and your presence would embarrass and grieve me instead of giving comfort." Mrs. Davis pleaded to stay with her husband, but Davis said: "You can do this in but one way: by going yourself and taking the children to a place of safety. If I live, you can come to me when the struggle is ended..." but he did not "...expect to survive the destruction of constitutional liberty." Davis prohibited her from taking any food with her because "...the people need it."
General Grant wired Rear Admiral David D. Porter that General Lee's soldiers had broken through the right of the Union's line and that he thought they would strike toward the essential James River supply base at City Point a few miles from the breakthrough. "I would suggest putting one or two gunboats on the Appomattox up as high as the pontoon bridge..." he told the Admiral. Porter immediately ordered gunboats up the Appomattox River to guard the pontoon bridge "...at all times." Simultaneously, USS Wilderness, Acting Master Henry Arey, was ordered up the Chickahominy River to communicate with General Sheridan, carry intelligence about any Confederate activity along the river, and bring back dispatches from Sheridan for Grant.
Lee's attack was his last bold gamble for great stakes. Never one to submit tamely to even the most formidable odds, he sought in the surprise assault to cripple Grant's army so that the overwhelming spring attack the Federals were building up could not be launched. Lee hoped that then he could speed to North Carolina with part of his veterans, join General Johnston and crush Sherman while still holding the Richmond-Petersburg front. Had the attack gone as well in its later stages as it did in the first onslaught, he would have been within range of City Point, only some ten miles away. The wholesale destruction of the host of supply ships, mountains of stores, and vast arsenal would have ended Grant's plant for seizing Richmond that spring.
President Abraham Lincoln visited Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant at City Point, Virginia, and then took the military railroad to the Petersburg lines where he rode horseback over part of the Fort Stedman battlefield, the site of the morning engagement.
Union troops under Major General Edward Richard Sprigg Canby reached Spanish Fort, nine miles east of the fortifications Mobile, Alabama, after a trying march because of drenching rains. Confederate Brigadier General Randall Lee Gibson tries desperately to organize his nearly 2,800 Southerners to oppose the Federal force that numbered well over 32,000 men. Despite strong earthworks around the city, it was impossible for the Rebels to hold out long without assistance. Despite Mobile’s formidable defenses, the simple truth was the Confederates were hopelessly outnumbered.
Major General William T. Sherman left his Federal army at Goldsboro under John M. Schofield’s command and headed to City Point to confer with Grant. Meanwhile, Federals repaired the railroad from Goldsboro to New Bern, allowing troops to begin receiving food, supplies, and mail from the North.
Two Union expeditions began from Brashear City, Louisiana. One was with the 93rd US Colored Infantry, from Brashear City, aboard the gunboat, No. 43, to Indian Bend, for the purpose of destroying or capturing a barge said to have been used by the Rebels for transporting a number of horses over Grand Lake and into their lines.
The other expedition from Brashear City, aboard the steamer, Cornie, was down the Atchafalaya River, to near Oyster Bayou, Louisiana, for the purpose of taking possession of a large oyster boat which lay stranded on the beach at a point 6 miles west of Oyster Bayou.
Posted on 3/25/15 at 9:22 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Sunday, 26 March 1865
The cavalry command of Union Major General Phillip H. Sheridan crossed the James River and headed towards Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant’s lines at Petersburg, Virginia, which would give Grant an even larger force and thin out Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s already numerically inadequate defenders. Lee was preparing to give up Petersburg and Richmond so as to pull back westward to attempt a reunion with General Joseph E. Johnston in North Carolina. As Grant laid low and continued to apply pressure on the Army of Northern Virginia, he allowed the other Union armies to one by one dissect the other armies of the Confederacy.
President Abraham Lincoln reviewed troops and watched Sheridan’s men cross the James River while on his visit to the main fighting front at Petersburg. Grant and Sheridan later conferred, and prepared instructions for the beginning of the forthcoming campaign. An incident occurred in which Mrs. Lincoln became enraged upon seeing the wife of a Federal general sitting horseback beside the president during the troop review. The first lady vented her wrath on both the general’s wife and the wife of General Grant.
General Robert E. Lee wrote to President Davis: “I fear now it will be impossible to prevent a junction between Grant and Sherman, nor do I deem it prudent that this army should maintain its position until the latter shall approach too near.” Lee prepared to abandon Petersburg and Richmond and move west to join Johnston in North Carolina.
Grant issued false orders for Sheridan’s Federals to join William T. Sherman in North Carolina. Sheridan’s true orders, issued in secret, were to lead the upcoming Union drive to destroy Lee’s army.
On the Gulf Coast front, skirmishing erupted as Union troops led by Major General Edward Richard Sprigg Canby pushed in nearer to Spanish Fort and began firing on Spanish Fort outside Mobile, Alabama.
Other skirmishing occurred at Muddy Creek, Alabama.
Union forces enter Pollard, Alabama, in the Mobile Campaign.
Skirmishing broke out in Bath County, beyond Owingsville, Kentucky.
A Federal expedition moved from Bonnet Carre to the Amite River, Louisiana, in search of the Confederate guerrillas who captured the local provost-marshal of this parish, meeting with no success, as they reportedly searched everywhere.
A detachment of sailors led by Acting Ensign Peyton H. Randolph of the USS Benton joined troops under the command of Brigadier General Bernard G. Farrar in a combined expedition to Trinity, Louisiana, where they captured a small number of Confederate soldiers as well as horses, arms and stores.
Sherman boarded the steamer Russia this morning en route to City Point. He said: "I’m going up to see Grant for five minutes and have it all chalked out for me, and then come back and pitch in."
Confederate envoy James Mason conferred with the Earl of Donoughmore about the Confederacy’s offer to free the slaves in exchange for British recognition. The earl stated that had the proposal been made before the Battle of Gettysburg, it would have been accepted. But now, Mason said: "He replied that the time had gone by."
The cavalry command of Union Major General Phillip H. Sheridan crossed the James River and headed towards Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant’s lines at Petersburg, Virginia, which would give Grant an even larger force and thin out Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s already numerically inadequate defenders. Lee was preparing to give up Petersburg and Richmond so as to pull back westward to attempt a reunion with General Joseph E. Johnston in North Carolina. As Grant laid low and continued to apply pressure on the Army of Northern Virginia, he allowed the other Union armies to one by one dissect the other armies of the Confederacy.
President Abraham Lincoln reviewed troops and watched Sheridan’s men cross the James River while on his visit to the main fighting front at Petersburg. Grant and Sheridan later conferred, and prepared instructions for the beginning of the forthcoming campaign. An incident occurred in which Mrs. Lincoln became enraged upon seeing the wife of a Federal general sitting horseback beside the president during the troop review. The first lady vented her wrath on both the general’s wife and the wife of General Grant.
General Robert E. Lee wrote to President Davis: “I fear now it will be impossible to prevent a junction between Grant and Sherman, nor do I deem it prudent that this army should maintain its position until the latter shall approach too near.” Lee prepared to abandon Petersburg and Richmond and move west to join Johnston in North Carolina.
Grant issued false orders for Sheridan’s Federals to join William T. Sherman in North Carolina. Sheridan’s true orders, issued in secret, were to lead the upcoming Union drive to destroy Lee’s army.
On the Gulf Coast front, skirmishing erupted as Union troops led by Major General Edward Richard Sprigg Canby pushed in nearer to Spanish Fort and began firing on Spanish Fort outside Mobile, Alabama.
Other skirmishing occurred at Muddy Creek, Alabama.
Union forces enter Pollard, Alabama, in the Mobile Campaign.
Skirmishing broke out in Bath County, beyond Owingsville, Kentucky.
A Federal expedition moved from Bonnet Carre to the Amite River, Louisiana, in search of the Confederate guerrillas who captured the local provost-marshal of this parish, meeting with no success, as they reportedly searched everywhere.
A detachment of sailors led by Acting Ensign Peyton H. Randolph of the USS Benton joined troops under the command of Brigadier General Bernard G. Farrar in a combined expedition to Trinity, Louisiana, where they captured a small number of Confederate soldiers as well as horses, arms and stores.
Sherman boarded the steamer Russia this morning en route to City Point. He said: "I’m going up to see Grant for five minutes and have it all chalked out for me, and then come back and pitch in."
Confederate envoy James Mason conferred with the Earl of Donoughmore about the Confederacy’s offer to free the slaves in exchange for British recognition. The earl stated that had the proposal been made before the Battle of Gettysburg, it would have been accepted. But now, Mason said: "He replied that the time had gone by."
Posted on 3/26/15 at 9:33 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Monday, 27 March 1865
Aboard the steamer River Queen at City Point, Virginia, President Abraham Lincoln, Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant, Major General William T. Sherman and Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter conferred about the state of the respective campaigns. The first day’s talk, largely social, included an account of Sherman’s campaign, since Sherman came up from Goldsboro, North Carolina, where his army was located. Sherman shared stories from the Carolinas Campaign. The commanders agreed that "...one more bloody battle was likely to occur before the close of the War." Lincoln also brought up a discussion concerning his policy on Confederate surrender and reconstruction.
Full report: On this day in 1865, President Abraham Lincoln meets with Union Generals Hiram U. Grant and William T. Sherman at City Point, Virginia, to plot the last stages of the Civil War.
Lincoln went to Virginia just as Grant was preparing to attack Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s lines around Petersburg and Richmond, an assault that promised to end the siege that had dragged on for 10 months. Meanwhile, Sherman’s force was steamrolling northward through the Carolinas. The three architects of Union victory convened for the first time as a group–Lincoln and Sherman had never met—at Grant’s City Point headquarters at the general-in-chief’s request.
As part of the trip, Lincoln went to the Petersburg lines and witnessed a Union bombardment and a small skirmish. Prior to meeting with his generals, the president also reviewed troops and visited wounded soldiers. Once he sat down with Grant and Sherman, Lincoln expressed concern that Lee might escape Petersburg and flee to North Carolina, where he could join forces with Joseph Johnston to forge a new Confederate army that could continue the war for months. Grant and Sherman assured the president the end was in sight. Lincoln emphasized to his generals that any surrender terms must preserve the Union war aims of emancipation and a pledge of equality for the freed slaves.
After meeting with Admiral David Dixon Porter on 28 March, the president and his two generals went their separate ways. Less than four weeks later, Grant and Sherman had secured the surrender of the Confederacy.
Major General Frederick Steele's Union column reaches Canoe Station, Alabama, in the Mobile Campaign.
Major General Edward Richard Sprigg Canby’s 32,000 Federals began laying siege to Spanish Fort outside Mobile, Alabama. Ironclads in the Gulf of Mexico backed the Federal siege.
Major General Philip Sheridan’s Federals finished crossing the James and joined the Army of the Potomac. Sheridan had hurried out of fear that Sherman would persuade Grant to send him to North Carolina instead of joining the final drive against General Robert E. Lee.
The Tenth US Army Corps is reorganized and Major General Alfred H. Terry, USA, is assigned to its command in North Carolina.
Brigadier General Elkanah Greer, CSA, is assigned to the command of the Reserve Corps in the State of Texas. Vice-Brigadier General Jerome B. Robertson, CSA, is relieved, and assigned to the command of a brigade.
Federal troops scout from Winchester to Woodstock, Virginia.
Captain Henry S. Stellwagen, the senior naval officer at Georgetown, South Carolina, reported to Rear Admiral John A. B. Dahlgren "...the return of another expedition of four days' duration up the Waccamaw River some 50 miles, to Conwayboro." Detailing the nature of one of the ceaseless naval expeditions in coastal and inland waters that facilitated the land campaign, Stellwagen continued: "Having heard that threats of a visit in force had been made by the guerrillas against the plantations and settlements, in view of which great alarm was felt on the whole route by blacks and whites, I dispatched the Mingoe, having in tow some ten armed boats, to proceed as high as Buck's Mills, and leaving it discretionary with Lieutenant-Commanders G. U. Morris and William H. Dana to proceed the remaining distance by boats or land. The arrival of the steam launch and two large row launches from the Santee [River] enabled me to follow with them, and the steam tug Catalpa determined to ascend as far as the water would permit. I found the Mingoe ashore near her destination, towed her off, and caused her to drop to a point where she could anchor. The shore expedition had gone on, and I took the remainder of boats in tow as far as practicable, then causing them to row. After incredible labor and difficulty, succeeded in getting to Conwayboro at nightfall, just after the Marching division. No enemies were encountered, but it was reported many small parties fled in various directions on our approach by river and land.
"The people of the town were glad to see us; even those having relatives in the army professed their joy at being saved from the raiding deserters. They assure us that the penetration of our parties into such distances, supposed to be inaccessible to our vessels, has spread a salutary dread, and that our large force of Catalpa, 4 large launches, and 10 boats, with about 300 men in all, at the highest point, presented such a formidable display, with 7 howitzers, that they thought they would be completely prevented [from] returning to that neighborhood."
Union Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles ordered the USS Wyoming, Commander John P. Bankhead in charge, then at Baltimore, to sail in search of the CSS Shenandoah. So delayed were communications between the Pacific and Washington that although Wyoming was ordered to cruise from Melbourne, Australia, to China, the Shenandoah had departed Australia more than five weeks before and was now nearing Ascension Island. The Wyoming would join USS Wachusett and Iroquois on independent service in an effort to track down the elusive commerce raider.
Captain Thomas Jefferson Page, commanding the CSS Stonewall, wrote Commander James Dunwoody Bulloch in England that he would sail from Lisbon, Portugal, to Teneriffe and then to Nassau where his subsequent movements "...must depend upon the intelligence I may receive..." That evening, USS Niagara and Sacramento, which had followed the Stonewall from Coruna, Spain, entered Lisbon. The Confederate ram, however, was able to put to sea the next day without interference because international law required the two Union ships to remain in port for 24 hours after the Stonewall had departed.
Combined Army-Navy operations, the latter commanded by Rear Admiral Thatcher, aimed at capturing the city of Mobile commenced. The objective was Spanish Fort, located near the mouth of the Blakely River and was the key to the city's defenses. Six tinclads and supporting gunboats steamed up the Blakely River to cut the fort's communications with Mobile while the army began to move against the fort's outworks. The river had been thickly sown with torpedoes which necessitated sweeping operations ahead of the advancing ironclads. These efforts, directed by Commander Peirce Crosby of USS Metacomet, netted 150 torpedoes. Nevertheless, a number of the Confederate weapons eluded the Union with telling results. In the next five days three Northern warships would be sunk in the Blakely.
Aboard the steamer River Queen at City Point, Virginia, President Abraham Lincoln, Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant, Major General William T. Sherman and Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter conferred about the state of the respective campaigns. The first day’s talk, largely social, included an account of Sherman’s campaign, since Sherman came up from Goldsboro, North Carolina, where his army was located. Sherman shared stories from the Carolinas Campaign. The commanders agreed that "...one more bloody battle was likely to occur before the close of the War." Lincoln also brought up a discussion concerning his policy on Confederate surrender and reconstruction.
Full report: On this day in 1865, President Abraham Lincoln meets with Union Generals Hiram U. Grant and William T. Sherman at City Point, Virginia, to plot the last stages of the Civil War.
Lincoln went to Virginia just as Grant was preparing to attack Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s lines around Petersburg and Richmond, an assault that promised to end the siege that had dragged on for 10 months. Meanwhile, Sherman’s force was steamrolling northward through the Carolinas. The three architects of Union victory convened for the first time as a group–Lincoln and Sherman had never met—at Grant’s City Point headquarters at the general-in-chief’s request.
As part of the trip, Lincoln went to the Petersburg lines and witnessed a Union bombardment and a small skirmish. Prior to meeting with his generals, the president also reviewed troops and visited wounded soldiers. Once he sat down with Grant and Sherman, Lincoln expressed concern that Lee might escape Petersburg and flee to North Carolina, where he could join forces with Joseph Johnston to forge a new Confederate army that could continue the war for months. Grant and Sherman assured the president the end was in sight. Lincoln emphasized to his generals that any surrender terms must preserve the Union war aims of emancipation and a pledge of equality for the freed slaves.
After meeting with Admiral David Dixon Porter on 28 March, the president and his two generals went their separate ways. Less than four weeks later, Grant and Sherman had secured the surrender of the Confederacy.
Major General Frederick Steele's Union column reaches Canoe Station, Alabama, in the Mobile Campaign.
Major General Edward Richard Sprigg Canby’s 32,000 Federals began laying siege to Spanish Fort outside Mobile, Alabama. Ironclads in the Gulf of Mexico backed the Federal siege.
Major General Philip Sheridan’s Federals finished crossing the James and joined the Army of the Potomac. Sheridan had hurried out of fear that Sherman would persuade Grant to send him to North Carolina instead of joining the final drive against General Robert E. Lee.
The Tenth US Army Corps is reorganized and Major General Alfred H. Terry, USA, is assigned to its command in North Carolina.
Brigadier General Elkanah Greer, CSA, is assigned to the command of the Reserve Corps in the State of Texas. Vice-Brigadier General Jerome B. Robertson, CSA, is relieved, and assigned to the command of a brigade.
Federal troops scout from Winchester to Woodstock, Virginia.
Captain Henry S. Stellwagen, the senior naval officer at Georgetown, South Carolina, reported to Rear Admiral John A. B. Dahlgren "...the return of another expedition of four days' duration up the Waccamaw River some 50 miles, to Conwayboro." Detailing the nature of one of the ceaseless naval expeditions in coastal and inland waters that facilitated the land campaign, Stellwagen continued: "Having heard that threats of a visit in force had been made by the guerrillas against the plantations and settlements, in view of which great alarm was felt on the whole route by blacks and whites, I dispatched the Mingoe, having in tow some ten armed boats, to proceed as high as Buck's Mills, and leaving it discretionary with Lieutenant-Commanders G. U. Morris and William H. Dana to proceed the remaining distance by boats or land. The arrival of the steam launch and two large row launches from the Santee [River] enabled me to follow with them, and the steam tug Catalpa determined to ascend as far as the water would permit. I found the Mingoe ashore near her destination, towed her off, and caused her to drop to a point where she could anchor. The shore expedition had gone on, and I took the remainder of boats in tow as far as practicable, then causing them to row. After incredible labor and difficulty, succeeded in getting to Conwayboro at nightfall, just after the Marching division. No enemies were encountered, but it was reported many small parties fled in various directions on our approach by river and land.
"The people of the town were glad to see us; even those having relatives in the army professed their joy at being saved from the raiding deserters. They assure us that the penetration of our parties into such distances, supposed to be inaccessible to our vessels, has spread a salutary dread, and that our large force of Catalpa, 4 large launches, and 10 boats, with about 300 men in all, at the highest point, presented such a formidable display, with 7 howitzers, that they thought they would be completely prevented [from] returning to that neighborhood."
Union Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles ordered the USS Wyoming, Commander John P. Bankhead in charge, then at Baltimore, to sail in search of the CSS Shenandoah. So delayed were communications between the Pacific and Washington that although Wyoming was ordered to cruise from Melbourne, Australia, to China, the Shenandoah had departed Australia more than five weeks before and was now nearing Ascension Island. The Wyoming would join USS Wachusett and Iroquois on independent service in an effort to track down the elusive commerce raider.
Captain Thomas Jefferson Page, commanding the CSS Stonewall, wrote Commander James Dunwoody Bulloch in England that he would sail from Lisbon, Portugal, to Teneriffe and then to Nassau where his subsequent movements "...must depend upon the intelligence I may receive..." That evening, USS Niagara and Sacramento, which had followed the Stonewall from Coruna, Spain, entered Lisbon. The Confederate ram, however, was able to put to sea the next day without interference because international law required the two Union ships to remain in port for 24 hours after the Stonewall had departed.
Combined Army-Navy operations, the latter commanded by Rear Admiral Thatcher, aimed at capturing the city of Mobile commenced. The objective was Spanish Fort, located near the mouth of the Blakely River and was the key to the city's defenses. Six tinclads and supporting gunboats steamed up the Blakely River to cut the fort's communications with Mobile while the army began to move against the fort's outworks. The river had been thickly sown with torpedoes which necessitated sweeping operations ahead of the advancing ironclads. These efforts, directed by Commander Peirce Crosby of USS Metacomet, netted 150 torpedoes. Nevertheless, a number of the Confederate weapons eluded the Union with telling results. In the next five days three Northern warships would be sunk in the Blakely.
Posted on 3/27/15 at 9:26 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Tuesday, 28 March 1865
President Abraham Lincoln, Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant, Major General William T. Sherman and Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter continue their discussions aboard the steamer River Queen off of City Point, Virginia. The generals detailed their plans and pointed out that one more major campaign would be needed to force an end to the War. Lincoln expressed hope that high-ranking Confederates, including President Jefferson Davis, would flee the country. Regarding surrender, Lincoln said: "Let them once surrender and reach their homes, they won’t take up arms again. Let them go, officers and all. I want submission and no more bloodshed." When the fighting stopped, Southerners "...would at once be guaranteed all their rights as citizens of a common country." Lincoln said, "I want no one punished, treat them liberally all around. We want those people to return to their allegiance to the Union and submit to the laws."
The City Point conference set the tone for how the Union commanders would handle the Confederates in upcoming engagements. Following the talks, Sherman returned to Goldsboro.
Naval report: Rear Admiral Porter visited President Lincoln with Generals Grant and Sherman on board the steamer River Queen, the President's headquarters during his stay at City Point. The four men informally discussed the war during the famous conference, and Lincoln stressed his desire to bring the war to a close as quickly as possible with as little bloodshed as possible. He added that he was inclined to follow a lenient policy with regard to the course to be pursued at the conclusion of the war. After the conference Sherman returned to New Bern, North Carolina, on board USS Bat, a swifter ship than the steamer on which he had arrived at City Point. Porter had ordered Lieutenant Commander Barnes: "You will wait the pleasure of Major General W. T. Sherman, and when ready will convey him, with staff, either to New Berne, Beaufort, or such place as he may indicate. Return here as soon as possible." Sherman's troops at Goldsboro were little more than 125 miles in a direct line from the front south of Petersburg.
Following the Presidential conference on board River Queen, Rear Admiral Porter ordered Commander William Henry Alexander Macomb, commanding in the North Carolina Sounds, "...to cooperate with General Sherman to the fullest extent" during operations soon to be opened in the area. "They will want all your tugs, particularly, to tow vessels or canal boats up to Kinston, North Carolina."
It will be absolutely necessary to supply General Sherman by the way of Kinston." Porter continued: "There will be a movement made from Winton after a while. It is necessary for us to get possession of everything up the Chowan River, so that Sherman can obtain his forage up there...I trust to Captain Rhind to remove the obstructions at New Berne and to tow up rapidly all the provisions, and General Sherman can supply his army for daily use by the railroad, and you can get up the stuff required for the March."
Commander Macomb received the Admiral's orders via the swift steamer USS Bat on 30 March, and the following day replied from Roanoke Island: "I immediately had an interview with the general and arranged that Captain Rhind would attend to everything relating to the Navy in the Neuse. I am on my way to Plymouth to carry out your orders as regards sending vessels to Winton, on the Chowan, and holding the same. The Shokokon and Commodore Hull are on their way up from New Berne. As soon as possible after my arrival at Plymouth I shall proceed up the Chowan, dragging ahead for torpedoes." Control of the sea and rivers continued to be as invaluable to the North in operations at the end of the war as it had from the start.
Skirmishes commence near Elyton, Alabama, with Union Brigadier General James H. Wilson's troops.
A Federal expedition sails from Fort Pike, Louisiana, aboard the sloop, Rosetta, to Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi, in an unsuccessful attempt to capture some of Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest's Confederate Cavalry troops.
A skirmish occurs at Bull Creek, in Christian County, Missouri.
Brigadier General Robert E. Mitchell, USA, is relieved from the command of the District of Nebraska, and is assigned to the command of the District of North Kansas.
A skirmish breaks out near Snow Hill, North Carolina, with Major General George Stoneman's USA, Cavalry approaching from the west.
Skirmishing occurs at Germantown, Tennessee, with the Union pickets there.
The District of the Plains is formed, to consist of the Districts of Utah, Colorado, and Nebraska. Brigadier General Patrick E. Connor, USA, is assigned to its command.
A Union expedition moves from Deep Bottom, Virginia, with the assistance of transports, ferries, and gunboats, to near Weldon, North Carolina, where the Yankees meet little resistance, and with minor skirmishes, capturing some prisoners and Confederate supplies, cotton, and equipment.
Shifting of troops by the Federals in front of Petersburg marks the preparations for a forthcoming advance, which Confederate General Robert E. Lee noted in a letter to his daughter. Lee wrote, “Genl Grant is evidently preparing for something & is marshaling & preparing his troops from some movement, which is not yet disclosed..."
The USS Milwaukee, Lieutenant Commander James H. Gillis in charge, struck a torpedo in the Blakely River, Alabama, while dropping downstream after shelling a Southern transport which was attempting to supply Spanish Fort. Just as Gillis returned to the area that had been swept for torpedoes and supposed the danger from torpedoes was past, "...he felt a shock and saw at once that a torpedo had exploded on the port side of the vessel..." Milwaukee's stern went under within three minutes but the forward compartments did not fill for almost an hour, enabling the sailors to save most of their belongings. Although the twin turreted monitor sank, no lives were lost.
The USS Niagara, under Commodore Thomas T. Craven, was fired upon by one of the forts in the harbor of Lisbon, Portugal. In a report to James E. Harvey, U.S. Minister Resident in Lisbon, Craven stated: "With view of shifting her berth farther up the river, so as to be nearer the usual landing stairs, at about 3:15 p.m. the Niagara was got underway and was about being turned head upstream when three shots were fired in rapid succession directly at her from Castle Belem." Portugal later apologized for the incident.
Union Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles advised Commodore Sylvanus W. Godon that he had been appointed an acting Rear Admiral and was to command the Brazil Squadron. Welles' letter was a significant commentary on the progress of the war afloat: "It is proposed to reestablish the Brazil Squadron, as circumstances now admit of the withdrawal of many of the vessels that have been engaged in the blockade and in active naval operations and sending them on foreign service..."
President Abraham Lincoln, Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant, Major General William T. Sherman and Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter continue their discussions aboard the steamer River Queen off of City Point, Virginia. The generals detailed their plans and pointed out that one more major campaign would be needed to force an end to the War. Lincoln expressed hope that high-ranking Confederates, including President Jefferson Davis, would flee the country. Regarding surrender, Lincoln said: "Let them once surrender and reach their homes, they won’t take up arms again. Let them go, officers and all. I want submission and no more bloodshed." When the fighting stopped, Southerners "...would at once be guaranteed all their rights as citizens of a common country." Lincoln said, "I want no one punished, treat them liberally all around. We want those people to return to their allegiance to the Union and submit to the laws."
The City Point conference set the tone for how the Union commanders would handle the Confederates in upcoming engagements. Following the talks, Sherman returned to Goldsboro.
Naval report: Rear Admiral Porter visited President Lincoln with Generals Grant and Sherman on board the steamer River Queen, the President's headquarters during his stay at City Point. The four men informally discussed the war during the famous conference, and Lincoln stressed his desire to bring the war to a close as quickly as possible with as little bloodshed as possible. He added that he was inclined to follow a lenient policy with regard to the course to be pursued at the conclusion of the war. After the conference Sherman returned to New Bern, North Carolina, on board USS Bat, a swifter ship than the steamer on which he had arrived at City Point. Porter had ordered Lieutenant Commander Barnes: "You will wait the pleasure of Major General W. T. Sherman, and when ready will convey him, with staff, either to New Berne, Beaufort, or such place as he may indicate. Return here as soon as possible." Sherman's troops at Goldsboro were little more than 125 miles in a direct line from the front south of Petersburg.
Following the Presidential conference on board River Queen, Rear Admiral Porter ordered Commander William Henry Alexander Macomb, commanding in the North Carolina Sounds, "...to cooperate with General Sherman to the fullest extent" during operations soon to be opened in the area. "They will want all your tugs, particularly, to tow vessels or canal boats up to Kinston, North Carolina."
It will be absolutely necessary to supply General Sherman by the way of Kinston." Porter continued: "There will be a movement made from Winton after a while. It is necessary for us to get possession of everything up the Chowan River, so that Sherman can obtain his forage up there...I trust to Captain Rhind to remove the obstructions at New Berne and to tow up rapidly all the provisions, and General Sherman can supply his army for daily use by the railroad, and you can get up the stuff required for the March."
Commander Macomb received the Admiral's orders via the swift steamer USS Bat on 30 March, and the following day replied from Roanoke Island: "I immediately had an interview with the general and arranged that Captain Rhind would attend to everything relating to the Navy in the Neuse. I am on my way to Plymouth to carry out your orders as regards sending vessels to Winton, on the Chowan, and holding the same. The Shokokon and Commodore Hull are on their way up from New Berne. As soon as possible after my arrival at Plymouth I shall proceed up the Chowan, dragging ahead for torpedoes." Control of the sea and rivers continued to be as invaluable to the North in operations at the end of the war as it had from the start.
Skirmishes commence near Elyton, Alabama, with Union Brigadier General James H. Wilson's troops.
A Federal expedition sails from Fort Pike, Louisiana, aboard the sloop, Rosetta, to Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi, in an unsuccessful attempt to capture some of Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest's Confederate Cavalry troops.
A skirmish occurs at Bull Creek, in Christian County, Missouri.
Brigadier General Robert E. Mitchell, USA, is relieved from the command of the District of Nebraska, and is assigned to the command of the District of North Kansas.
A skirmish breaks out near Snow Hill, North Carolina, with Major General George Stoneman's USA, Cavalry approaching from the west.
Skirmishing occurs at Germantown, Tennessee, with the Union pickets there.
The District of the Plains is formed, to consist of the Districts of Utah, Colorado, and Nebraska. Brigadier General Patrick E. Connor, USA, is assigned to its command.
A Union expedition moves from Deep Bottom, Virginia, with the assistance of transports, ferries, and gunboats, to near Weldon, North Carolina, where the Yankees meet little resistance, and with minor skirmishes, capturing some prisoners and Confederate supplies, cotton, and equipment.
Shifting of troops by the Federals in front of Petersburg marks the preparations for a forthcoming advance, which Confederate General Robert E. Lee noted in a letter to his daughter. Lee wrote, “Genl Grant is evidently preparing for something & is marshaling & preparing his troops from some movement, which is not yet disclosed..."
The USS Milwaukee, Lieutenant Commander James H. Gillis in charge, struck a torpedo in the Blakely River, Alabama, while dropping downstream after shelling a Southern transport which was attempting to supply Spanish Fort. Just as Gillis returned to the area that had been swept for torpedoes and supposed the danger from torpedoes was past, "...he felt a shock and saw at once that a torpedo had exploded on the port side of the vessel..." Milwaukee's stern went under within three minutes but the forward compartments did not fill for almost an hour, enabling the sailors to save most of their belongings. Although the twin turreted monitor sank, no lives were lost.
The USS Niagara, under Commodore Thomas T. Craven, was fired upon by one of the forts in the harbor of Lisbon, Portugal. In a report to James E. Harvey, U.S. Minister Resident in Lisbon, Craven stated: "With view of shifting her berth farther up the river, so as to be nearer the usual landing stairs, at about 3:15 p.m. the Niagara was got underway and was about being turned head upstream when three shots were fired in rapid succession directly at her from Castle Belem." Portugal later apologized for the incident.
Union Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles advised Commodore Sylvanus W. Godon that he had been appointed an acting Rear Admiral and was to command the Brazil Squadron. Welles' letter was a significant commentary on the progress of the war afloat: "It is proposed to reestablish the Brazil Squadron, as circumstances now admit of the withdrawal of many of the vessels that have been engaged in the blockade and in active naval operations and sending them on foreign service..."
Posted on 3/29/15 at 5:12 am to BadLeroyDawg
Wednesday, 29 March 1865
General Robert E. Lee shifts Confederate forces to the right of his Petersburg line to counter the ever growing Federal threat to the Five Forks area. Major General Philip H. Sheridan begins moving forces in that direction to cut the two railroads supplying Confederates in Petersburg and Richmond. Sheridan reaches Dinwiddie Court House this afternoon in a movement toward the Southside Railroad.
In a downpour, Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant, after conferring with the President, begins the final assault on the Confederate lines at Petersburg, Virginia. Grant launches his wide swinging move to the southwest of Petersburg in an attempt to roll up Lee's flank. Ever concerned about his lifeline on the James River, he wrote Rear Admiral David D. Porter: "In view of the possibility of the enemy attempting to come to City Point, or by crossing the Appomattox at Broadway Landing, getting to Bermuda Hundred during the absence of the greater part of the army, I would respectfully request that you direct one or two gunboats to lay in the Appomattox, near the pontoon bridge, and two in the James River, near the mouth of Bailey's Creek, the first stream below City Point emptying into the James." Porter complied with double measure, sending not one or two but several ships to Grant's assistance.
An engagement commences at Lewis Farm near Gravelly Run, Virginia, and skirmishing occurs at the junction of the Quaker and Boydton Roads, as well as on the Vaughan Road, when Lee sends Major Generals Fitzhugh Lee and George Pickett to repel the Federal attack.
Full report: On this day in 1865, the final campaign of the Civil War begins in Virginia when Union troops under General Ulysses S. Grant move against the Confederate trenches around Petersburg. General Robert E. Lee’s outnumbered Rebels were soon forced to evacuate the city and begin a desperate race west.
Eleven months earlier, Grant had moved his army across the Rapidan River in northern Virginia and began his Overland Campaign--the bloodiest campaign of the War, costing the Union over 55,000 casualties in a little over 40 days. For almost six weeks, Lee and Grant fought along an arc that swung east of the Confederate capital at Richmond. They engaged in some of the conflict’s bloodiest battles at Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor before settling into trenches for a siege of Petersburg, 25 miles south of Richmond. The trenches eventually stretched all the wayto Richmond, and during the ensuing months the armies glowered at each other across a no man’s land. Periodically, Grant launched attacks against sections of the Rebel defenses, but Lee’s men managed to fend them off.
Time, however, was running out for Lee. His army was dwindling in size to about 35,000 able bodies, while Grant’s continued to grow–the Army of the Potomac now had more than 125,000 men ready for service. On 25 March, Lee attempted to split the Union lines when he attacked Fort Stedman, a stronghold along the Yankee trenches. His army was beaten back, and he lost nearly 5,000 men. On March 29, Grant seized the initiative, sending 12,000 men past the Confederates’ left flank and threatening to cut Lee’s escape route from Petersburg. Fighting broke out there, several miles southwest of the city. Lee’s men could not arrest the Federal advance. On 1 April, the Yankees struck at Five Forks, soundly defeating the Rebels under General George Pickett and leaving Lee no alternative. He pulled his forces from their trenches and raced west, followed by Grant. It was a race that even the great Lee could not win. He surrendered his army on 9 April, 1865, at Appomattox Court House.
Thomas Maley Harris, USA, is appointed Brigadier General.
Major General Frederick Steele's Union column reaches Weatherford, Alabama, in the Mobile, Campaign.
Skirmishing occurs at Blackwater River, Kentucky.
Colonel William H. Dickey, of the 84th US Colored Troops, assumes the command of the US Forces at Morganza, Louisiana.
Skirmishes continue daily in Southwest Missouri.
Federal scout from Waynesville, Missouri, to Rolla, camping at Jackson's Mills, and Coppage's Mill, on Spring Creek, to the Big Piney, with one reported partisan guerrilla shot to death today.
Skirmishing breaks out near Moseley Hall, and at Wilkesboro, North Carolina, with Union Major General George Stoneman's Cavalry.
Federal troops scout from Stephenson's Depot, Virginia, through the Shenandoah Valley, to Smithfield, West Virginia.
The USS Osage, under Lieutenant Commander William M. Gamble, upped anchor and got underway inside the bar at the Blakely River, Alabama. Gamble was trying to avoid colliding with the USS Winnebago, which was drifting alongside in a strong breeze Suddenly a torpedo exploded under the monitor's bow, and, Gamble reported, "...the vessel immediately commenced sinking." The Osage lost four men and had eight wounded in the explosion. She was the third ship to be sunk in the Blakely during March and the second in two days as torpedo warfare cost the North dearly even though its ships controlled waters near Mobile.
General Robert E. Lee shifts Confederate forces to the right of his Petersburg line to counter the ever growing Federal threat to the Five Forks area. Major General Philip H. Sheridan begins moving forces in that direction to cut the two railroads supplying Confederates in Petersburg and Richmond. Sheridan reaches Dinwiddie Court House this afternoon in a movement toward the Southside Railroad.
In a downpour, Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant, after conferring with the President, begins the final assault on the Confederate lines at Petersburg, Virginia. Grant launches his wide swinging move to the southwest of Petersburg in an attempt to roll up Lee's flank. Ever concerned about his lifeline on the James River, he wrote Rear Admiral David D. Porter: "In view of the possibility of the enemy attempting to come to City Point, or by crossing the Appomattox at Broadway Landing, getting to Bermuda Hundred during the absence of the greater part of the army, I would respectfully request that you direct one or two gunboats to lay in the Appomattox, near the pontoon bridge, and two in the James River, near the mouth of Bailey's Creek, the first stream below City Point emptying into the James." Porter complied with double measure, sending not one or two but several ships to Grant's assistance.
An engagement commences at Lewis Farm near Gravelly Run, Virginia, and skirmishing occurs at the junction of the Quaker and Boydton Roads, as well as on the Vaughan Road, when Lee sends Major Generals Fitzhugh Lee and George Pickett to repel the Federal attack.
Full report: On this day in 1865, the final campaign of the Civil War begins in Virginia when Union troops under General Ulysses S. Grant move against the Confederate trenches around Petersburg. General Robert E. Lee’s outnumbered Rebels were soon forced to evacuate the city and begin a desperate race west.
Eleven months earlier, Grant had moved his army across the Rapidan River in northern Virginia and began his Overland Campaign--the bloodiest campaign of the War, costing the Union over 55,000 casualties in a little over 40 days. For almost six weeks, Lee and Grant fought along an arc that swung east of the Confederate capital at Richmond. They engaged in some of the conflict’s bloodiest battles at Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor before settling into trenches for a siege of Petersburg, 25 miles south of Richmond. The trenches eventually stretched all the wayto Richmond, and during the ensuing months the armies glowered at each other across a no man’s land. Periodically, Grant launched attacks against sections of the Rebel defenses, but Lee’s men managed to fend them off.
Time, however, was running out for Lee. His army was dwindling in size to about 35,000 able bodies, while Grant’s continued to grow–the Army of the Potomac now had more than 125,000 men ready for service. On 25 March, Lee attempted to split the Union lines when he attacked Fort Stedman, a stronghold along the Yankee trenches. His army was beaten back, and he lost nearly 5,000 men. On March 29, Grant seized the initiative, sending 12,000 men past the Confederates’ left flank and threatening to cut Lee’s escape route from Petersburg. Fighting broke out there, several miles southwest of the city. Lee’s men could not arrest the Federal advance. On 1 April, the Yankees struck at Five Forks, soundly defeating the Rebels under General George Pickett and leaving Lee no alternative. He pulled his forces from their trenches and raced west, followed by Grant. It was a race that even the great Lee could not win. He surrendered his army on 9 April, 1865, at Appomattox Court House.
Thomas Maley Harris, USA, is appointed Brigadier General.
Major General Frederick Steele's Union column reaches Weatherford, Alabama, in the Mobile, Campaign.
Skirmishing occurs at Blackwater River, Kentucky.
Colonel William H. Dickey, of the 84th US Colored Troops, assumes the command of the US Forces at Morganza, Louisiana.
Skirmishes continue daily in Southwest Missouri.
Federal scout from Waynesville, Missouri, to Rolla, camping at Jackson's Mills, and Coppage's Mill, on Spring Creek, to the Big Piney, with one reported partisan guerrilla shot to death today.
Skirmishing breaks out near Moseley Hall, and at Wilkesboro, North Carolina, with Union Major General George Stoneman's Cavalry.
Federal troops scout from Stephenson's Depot, Virginia, through the Shenandoah Valley, to Smithfield, West Virginia.
The USS Osage, under Lieutenant Commander William M. Gamble, upped anchor and got underway inside the bar at the Blakely River, Alabama. Gamble was trying to avoid colliding with the USS Winnebago, which was drifting alongside in a strong breeze Suddenly a torpedo exploded under the monitor's bow, and, Gamble reported, "...the vessel immediately commenced sinking." The Osage lost four men and had eight wounded in the explosion. She was the third ship to be sunk in the Blakely during March and the second in two days as torpedo warfare cost the North dearly even though its ships controlled waters near Mobile.
Posted on 3/29/15 at 9:25 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Thursday, 30 March 1865
Confederate Lieutenant Charles W. Read takes command of the ram CSS William H. Webb on the Red River, in Louisiana. Read reported to Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory that he found the ship "...without a single gun on board, little or no crew, no fuel, and no small arms, save a few cutlasses." Characteristically, the enterprising officer obtained a 30 Pound Parrott rifle from General Kirby Smith and readied Webb for her bold dash out of the Red River, intended to take her down the Mississippi some 300 miles, past New Orleans, and out to sea.
Skirmishing breaks out at Montevallo, Alabama, with Confederate Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest's troops contesting the advance of Brigadier General James H. Wilson's forces.
Federal expeditions maneuver from Baton Rouge to Clinton and the Comite River, Louisiana, including the capture of two Confederate soldiers who had slept in the woods and were enjoying a hot breakfast at the home of a Mrs. Simms. One of the suspected Rebels' grey horse indicates these are likely Confederate Cavalrymen.
Union Brigadier General Patrick E. Connor assumes the command of the District of the Plains, in the Nebraska Territory.
Skirmishes erupt near Five Forks, Virginia, as well as on the line of Hatcher's Run and Gravelly Run in the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign.
A skirmish occurs near Patterson's Creek, West Virginia, about 10 miles east of Cumberland, Maryland, where a band of partisan guerrillas attacked, captured and robbed a passenger train on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. The railroad refuses to accept Federal soldiers aboard for protection without receiving any compensation from the Union government.
Confederate Lieutenant Charles W. Read takes command of the ram CSS William H. Webb on the Red River, in Louisiana. Read reported to Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory that he found the ship "...without a single gun on board, little or no crew, no fuel, and no small arms, save a few cutlasses." Characteristically, the enterprising officer obtained a 30 Pound Parrott rifle from General Kirby Smith and readied Webb for her bold dash out of the Red River, intended to take her down the Mississippi some 300 miles, past New Orleans, and out to sea.
Skirmishing breaks out at Montevallo, Alabama, with Confederate Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest's troops contesting the advance of Brigadier General James H. Wilson's forces.
Federal expeditions maneuver from Baton Rouge to Clinton and the Comite River, Louisiana, including the capture of two Confederate soldiers who had slept in the woods and were enjoying a hot breakfast at the home of a Mrs. Simms. One of the suspected Rebels' grey horse indicates these are likely Confederate Cavalrymen.
Union Brigadier General Patrick E. Connor assumes the command of the District of the Plains, in the Nebraska Territory.
Skirmishes erupt near Five Forks, Virginia, as well as on the line of Hatcher's Run and Gravelly Run in the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign.
A skirmish occurs near Patterson's Creek, West Virginia, about 10 miles east of Cumberland, Maryland, where a band of partisan guerrillas attacked, captured and robbed a passenger train on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. The railroad refuses to accept Federal soldiers aboard for protection without receiving any compensation from the Union government.
Posted on 3/31/15 at 5:29 am to BadLeroyDawg
Friday, 31 March 1865
This morning, the final offensive of the Army of the Potomac gathers steam when Union Major General Philip H. Sheridan moves against the left flank of Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia near Dinwiddie Court House. The limited action set the stage for the Battle of Five Forks, Virginia, on 1 April.
This engagement took place at the end of the Petersburg, Virginia, line. For 10 months, the ever growing Union army had laid siege to Lee’s army at Petersburg, but the trenches stretched all the way to Richmond, some 25 miles to the north. Lee’s thinning army attacked Fort Stedman on 25 March in a futile attempt to break the siege, but the Union line, initially badly broken, regrouped with reserves and eventually held. On 29 March, Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant, General-in-Chief of the Union Army and the field commander around Petersburg, had begun moving his men past the western end of Lee’s line.
Torrential rains almost delayed the move. Grant had planned to send Sheridan against the Confederates early on 31 March, but then called off the operation. Sheridan, however, would not be denied a chance to fight with his superior numbers. "I am ready to strike out tomorrow and go to smashing things!" he told his officers. They encouraged him to meet with Grant, who consented to begin the move today. Near Dinwiddie Court House, Sheridan's large force, along with Major General Gouverneur Kemble Warren's V Corps, advanced but was driven back by General George Pickett’s small division. Pickett, being alerted to the Union advance, decided during tonight's council to pull his men back to Five Forks. This set the stage for a major strike by Sheridan on 1 April, when the Yankees finally overwhelmed and crushed the Rebel flank and finally forced Lee to evacuate Richmond and Petersburg.
Actions commence near Montevallo, Alabama, where Union Brigadier General James Harrison Wilson and his Cavalry force destroys iron furnaces and equipment while combating Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest's Confederate troops.
Union troops under General Wilson occupy Asbyville, Alabama, and also see action at Six-Mile Creek.
Union Major General Frederick Steele's column reaches Stockton, Alabama, the Mobile Campaign.
Federal operations begin around Aquia Eria, in the New Mexico Territory, as the Yankees respond to a scared rancher reporting that Indians had crossed his ranch last night. Upon further scouting, the Yankees determine the horse tracks had been made by either peaceful Navajo or Pueblo Indians. The tracks were so close to his house that the nervous rancher referred to, might have been his own.
Skirmish at Galley's, and at Hookerton, North Carolina.
Union Major General Jacob D. Cox resumes the command of the 23rd US Army Corps, North Carolina.
Skirmishing breaks out at Magnolia, Tennessee.
Confederate Major General John Bankhead Magruder is assigned to the command of the District of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, and vice Major General John G. Walker is relieved of command.
Actions occur at the White Oak Road, or White Oak Ride, at Crow's House, and at Hatcher's Run, or Boydton Road, Virginia, in the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign.
The St. Mary's, a 115 ton schooner out of St. Mary's, Maryland, loaded with an assorted cargo valued at over $20,000, was boarded and captured off the Patuxent River in Chesapeake Bay by a Confederate raiding Party led by Master John C. Braine, CSN. The disguised Southerners were in a yawl and had come alongside the schooner on the pretext that their craft was sinking. Braine took St. Mary's to sea where they captured a New York bound schooner, the J. B. Spafford. The latter prize was released after the raiders had placed St. Mary's crew on board her and had taken the crew members' personal effects. The Confederates indicated to their captives that their intention was to take St. Mary's to St. Marks, Florida, attempting to run the blockade but they put into Nassau in April.
The USS Iuka, Lieutenant William C. Rogers in charge, captures the blockade running British schooner Comus off the coast of Florida with a cargo of cotton.
This morning, the final offensive of the Army of the Potomac gathers steam when Union Major General Philip H. Sheridan moves against the left flank of Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia near Dinwiddie Court House. The limited action set the stage for the Battle of Five Forks, Virginia, on 1 April.
This engagement took place at the end of the Petersburg, Virginia, line. For 10 months, the ever growing Union army had laid siege to Lee’s army at Petersburg, but the trenches stretched all the way to Richmond, some 25 miles to the north. Lee’s thinning army attacked Fort Stedman on 25 March in a futile attempt to break the siege, but the Union line, initially badly broken, regrouped with reserves and eventually held. On 29 March, Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant, General-in-Chief of the Union Army and the field commander around Petersburg, had begun moving his men past the western end of Lee’s line.
Torrential rains almost delayed the move. Grant had planned to send Sheridan against the Confederates early on 31 March, but then called off the operation. Sheridan, however, would not be denied a chance to fight with his superior numbers. "I am ready to strike out tomorrow and go to smashing things!" he told his officers. They encouraged him to meet with Grant, who consented to begin the move today. Near Dinwiddie Court House, Sheridan's large force, along with Major General Gouverneur Kemble Warren's V Corps, advanced but was driven back by General George Pickett’s small division. Pickett, being alerted to the Union advance, decided during tonight's council to pull his men back to Five Forks. This set the stage for a major strike by Sheridan on 1 April, when the Yankees finally overwhelmed and crushed the Rebel flank and finally forced Lee to evacuate Richmond and Petersburg.
Actions commence near Montevallo, Alabama, where Union Brigadier General James Harrison Wilson and his Cavalry force destroys iron furnaces and equipment while combating Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest's Confederate troops.
Union troops under General Wilson occupy Asbyville, Alabama, and also see action at Six-Mile Creek.
Union Major General Frederick Steele's column reaches Stockton, Alabama, the Mobile Campaign.
Federal operations begin around Aquia Eria, in the New Mexico Territory, as the Yankees respond to a scared rancher reporting that Indians had crossed his ranch last night. Upon further scouting, the Yankees determine the horse tracks had been made by either peaceful Navajo or Pueblo Indians. The tracks were so close to his house that the nervous rancher referred to, might have been his own.
Skirmish at Galley's, and at Hookerton, North Carolina.
Union Major General Jacob D. Cox resumes the command of the 23rd US Army Corps, North Carolina.
Skirmishing breaks out at Magnolia, Tennessee.
Confederate Major General John Bankhead Magruder is assigned to the command of the District of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, and vice Major General John G. Walker is relieved of command.
Actions occur at the White Oak Road, or White Oak Ride, at Crow's House, and at Hatcher's Run, or Boydton Road, Virginia, in the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign.
The St. Mary's, a 115 ton schooner out of St. Mary's, Maryland, loaded with an assorted cargo valued at over $20,000, was boarded and captured off the Patuxent River in Chesapeake Bay by a Confederate raiding Party led by Master John C. Braine, CSN. The disguised Southerners were in a yawl and had come alongside the schooner on the pretext that their craft was sinking. Braine took St. Mary's to sea where they captured a New York bound schooner, the J. B. Spafford. The latter prize was released after the raiders had placed St. Mary's crew on board her and had taken the crew members' personal effects. The Confederates indicated to their captives that their intention was to take St. Mary's to St. Marks, Florida, attempting to run the blockade but they put into Nassau in April.
The USS Iuka, Lieutenant William C. Rogers in charge, captures the blockade running British schooner Comus off the coast of Florida with a cargo of cotton.
Posted on 3/31/15 at 10:09 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Saturday, 1 April 1865
Late this afternoon, Federal Major General Phil Sheridan’s cavalry and the Federal Fifth Corps attacked Confederate Major General George Pickett’s dug in troops at Five Forks. As Sheridan’s dismounted cavalry attacked in front, the Fifth Corps of Major General Gouverneur K. Warren got in on the Confederate defender’s left flank and crushed them. Pickett’s forces were now separated from the rest of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. The Federals sustained losses numbering around 1,000 and captured at least 4,500 Confederates. almost completely surrounding Petersburg, VA, in the process.
Brevetted Major General Charles Griffin relieves Warren of the command of the 5th US Army Corps, VA, as Sheridan removes Warren from command during the height of the Battle of Five Forks for allegedly being slow is reacting to Sheridan's orders.
In North Carolina, Federal Major General William T. Sherman takes the time to reorganize his army as a skirmish breaks out at Snow Hill.
Skirmishing occurs with Union Brigadier General James H. Wilson's forces at Randolph, Maplesville, Plantersville, Ebenezer Church, Centerville and Trion, Alabama, forcing Confederate Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest to concentrate his troops at Selma. Skirmishing also occurred at White Oak Creek, Tennessee.
President Abraham Lincoln was serving as an observer at City Point, Virginia, and forwarding messages to Washington on the progress of the fighting at Petersburg. Confederate President Jefferson Davis, meanwhile, reported to General Robert E. Lee that he was struggling to advance the raising of Negro troops, noting that “...distrust is increasing and embarrasses in many ways.”
William Babcock Hazen and Wesley Merritt, U.S.A., are appointed Major General.
Skirmishing breaks out near Blakely, Alabama, as Major General Edward R. S. Canby, with 45,000 soldiers brought and supplied by transports, moves on the gates of the crumbling defenses of Mobile manned by fewer than 10,000 Confederates under General Dabney Maury.
Federals scout from Pine Bluff to Bayou Bartholomew, Arkansas.
An affair starts 15 miles northwest of Fort Garland, in the Colorado Territory, as 5 hostile Ute Indians attack a Mexican ranch and kill 1 Mexican and some beeves. As most Utes are friendly, the local Federal officer will await further instructions before declaring a regular war against the entire Ute Indian Nation tribe.
Federal operations commence against Indians west of Fort Laramie, in the Dakota Territory, with a skirmish at Deer Creek Station, as a white man, supposed to be Bill Comstock, formerly of Fort Laramie, seems to have command of the Indians, who have attacked the station.
A Union expedition travels from Dalton to Spring Place and the Coosawattee River, Georgia, with several skirmishes.
Federal scouts move against guerrillas from Licking, Missouri, to places such as Piney Fork of the Gasconade River and Hog Creek where the Yankees are successful in killing more guerrillas, seizing provisions, and destroying anything of value.
Skirmishing starts at the White Oak Road, near Petersburg, Virginia, with Major General Andrew A. Humphreys, USA, and his 2nd US Army Corps under Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant in the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign.
The positions of the opposing forces on this date demonstrated vividly what superiority afloat had meant to the North in this giant struggle that decided the future of the nation. From his over-flowing advance bases on the James at City Point, only a few miles from General Lee's lines, General Grant was on the move for the final battle of the long saga in Virginia.
To the south in North Carolina backed by his seaport bases at New Bern and Wilmington, General Sherman's massive armies were joined to strike General Johnston at the capital city, Raleigh. In South Carolina and Georgia, Charleston and Savannah, key ports from colonial times, were Union bases fed from the sea.
Although constantly under attack by guerrillas along the Mississippi and its eastern tributaries, Federal gunboats kept the river lifeline open to the occupying armies. Trans-Mississippi, still largely held from invasion by the Confederates, was tightly blockaded by the Union Navy. Without control of the water, to paraphrase John Paul Jones, alas! united America. Fortunate indeed was the nation to have men ashore like Lincoln and Grant who made wide use of the irreplaceable advantages to the total national power that strength at sea imparted.
The CSS Shenandoah, Lieutenant James Iredell Waddell, put into Lea Harbor, Ascension Island, (Ponape Island, Eastern Carolines). A number of sail had been sighted from the cruiser's decks as she approached the island, and, Waddell reported,"...we began to think if they were not whale ships it would be a very good April fool." The Confederates had sighted only one vessel between 20 February, shortly after departing Melbourne, and this date. They were not disappointed. Waddell found the whalers Pearl, Hector, Harvest and Edward Carey in the harbor and seized them. The Confederates obtained vital charts from the four ships showing the location of the whaling grounds most frequented by American whalers. "With such charts in my possession," Waddell wrote, "I not only held a key to the navigation of all the Pacific Islands, the Okhotsk and Bering Seas, and the Arctic Ocean, but the most probable localities for finding the great Arctic whaling fleet of New England, without a tiresome search." In addition to obtaining this intelligence and the charts essential to future operations, Waddell stocked Shenandoah's depleted storerooms with provisions and supplies from the four prizes. The ships were then drawn upon a reef where the natives were permitted to strip them from truck halyards to copper sheathing on the keels. Of the 130 prisoners, 8 were shipped on board Shenandoah; the remainder were set ashore to be picked up by a passing whaler. The four stripped vessels, totaling $116,000 in value, were then put to the torch.
Fighting gamely on all fronts, the South also inflicted maritime losses elsewhere. The USS Rodolph, temporarily commanded by her executive officer, Acting Ensign James F. Thompson, struck a torpedo in the Blakely River, Alabama, and "...rapidly sank in 12 feet of water." The tinclad was towing a barge containing apparatus for the raising of USS Milwaukee, a torpedo victim on 28 March. Acting Master N. Mayo Dyer, Rodolph's commanding officer, reported that "from the effects of the explosion that can be seen, I should judge there was a hole through the bow at least 10 feet in diameter..." Four men were killed as a result of the sinking and eleven others were wounded. Rodolph, the third warship in five days to be lost in the same vicinity due to effective Confederate torpedo warfare, had played an important role in the continuing combined operations after the fall of Mobile Bay to Admiral Farragut on 5 August 1864. Arriving in the Bay, from New Orleans on 14 August, she had participated in forcing the surrender of Fort Morgan on 23 August. Acting Master's Mate Nathaniel B. Hinckley, serving on board Rodolph, told his son many years after the war that he had carried the Confederate flag from the captured fort and turned it over to a patrol boat. Rodolph had remained in the Bay and its tributaries as Union seapower projected General Canby's powerful army against the final defenses of the city of Mobile. Hinckley was stationed in the tinclad's forecastle when she struck the torpedo that sank her, but he escaped injury.
Late this afternoon, Federal Major General Phil Sheridan’s cavalry and the Federal Fifth Corps attacked Confederate Major General George Pickett’s dug in troops at Five Forks. As Sheridan’s dismounted cavalry attacked in front, the Fifth Corps of Major General Gouverneur K. Warren got in on the Confederate defender’s left flank and crushed them. Pickett’s forces were now separated from the rest of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. The Federals sustained losses numbering around 1,000 and captured at least 4,500 Confederates. almost completely surrounding Petersburg, VA, in the process.
Brevetted Major General Charles Griffin relieves Warren of the command of the 5th US Army Corps, VA, as Sheridan removes Warren from command during the height of the Battle of Five Forks for allegedly being slow is reacting to Sheridan's orders.
In North Carolina, Federal Major General William T. Sherman takes the time to reorganize his army as a skirmish breaks out at Snow Hill.
Skirmishing occurs with Union Brigadier General James H. Wilson's forces at Randolph, Maplesville, Plantersville, Ebenezer Church, Centerville and Trion, Alabama, forcing Confederate Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest to concentrate his troops at Selma. Skirmishing also occurred at White Oak Creek, Tennessee.
President Abraham Lincoln was serving as an observer at City Point, Virginia, and forwarding messages to Washington on the progress of the fighting at Petersburg. Confederate President Jefferson Davis, meanwhile, reported to General Robert E. Lee that he was struggling to advance the raising of Negro troops, noting that “...distrust is increasing and embarrasses in many ways.”
William Babcock Hazen and Wesley Merritt, U.S.A., are appointed Major General.
Skirmishing breaks out near Blakely, Alabama, as Major General Edward R. S. Canby, with 45,000 soldiers brought and supplied by transports, moves on the gates of the crumbling defenses of Mobile manned by fewer than 10,000 Confederates under General Dabney Maury.
Federals scout from Pine Bluff to Bayou Bartholomew, Arkansas.
An affair starts 15 miles northwest of Fort Garland, in the Colorado Territory, as 5 hostile Ute Indians attack a Mexican ranch and kill 1 Mexican and some beeves. As most Utes are friendly, the local Federal officer will await further instructions before declaring a regular war against the entire Ute Indian Nation tribe.
Federal operations commence against Indians west of Fort Laramie, in the Dakota Territory, with a skirmish at Deer Creek Station, as a white man, supposed to be Bill Comstock, formerly of Fort Laramie, seems to have command of the Indians, who have attacked the station.
A Union expedition travels from Dalton to Spring Place and the Coosawattee River, Georgia, with several skirmishes.
Federal scouts move against guerrillas from Licking, Missouri, to places such as Piney Fork of the Gasconade River and Hog Creek where the Yankees are successful in killing more guerrillas, seizing provisions, and destroying anything of value.
Skirmishing starts at the White Oak Road, near Petersburg, Virginia, with Major General Andrew A. Humphreys, USA, and his 2nd US Army Corps under Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant in the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign.
The positions of the opposing forces on this date demonstrated vividly what superiority afloat had meant to the North in this giant struggle that decided the future of the nation. From his over-flowing advance bases on the James at City Point, only a few miles from General Lee's lines, General Grant was on the move for the final battle of the long saga in Virginia.
To the south in North Carolina backed by his seaport bases at New Bern and Wilmington, General Sherman's massive armies were joined to strike General Johnston at the capital city, Raleigh. In South Carolina and Georgia, Charleston and Savannah, key ports from colonial times, were Union bases fed from the sea.
Although constantly under attack by guerrillas along the Mississippi and its eastern tributaries, Federal gunboats kept the river lifeline open to the occupying armies. Trans-Mississippi, still largely held from invasion by the Confederates, was tightly blockaded by the Union Navy. Without control of the water, to paraphrase John Paul Jones, alas! united America. Fortunate indeed was the nation to have men ashore like Lincoln and Grant who made wide use of the irreplaceable advantages to the total national power that strength at sea imparted.
The CSS Shenandoah, Lieutenant James Iredell Waddell, put into Lea Harbor, Ascension Island, (Ponape Island, Eastern Carolines). A number of sail had been sighted from the cruiser's decks as she approached the island, and, Waddell reported,"...we began to think if they were not whale ships it would be a very good April fool." The Confederates had sighted only one vessel between 20 February, shortly after departing Melbourne, and this date. They were not disappointed. Waddell found the whalers Pearl, Hector, Harvest and Edward Carey in the harbor and seized them. The Confederates obtained vital charts from the four ships showing the location of the whaling grounds most frequented by American whalers. "With such charts in my possession," Waddell wrote, "I not only held a key to the navigation of all the Pacific Islands, the Okhotsk and Bering Seas, and the Arctic Ocean, but the most probable localities for finding the great Arctic whaling fleet of New England, without a tiresome search." In addition to obtaining this intelligence and the charts essential to future operations, Waddell stocked Shenandoah's depleted storerooms with provisions and supplies from the four prizes. The ships were then drawn upon a reef where the natives were permitted to strip them from truck halyards to copper sheathing on the keels. Of the 130 prisoners, 8 were shipped on board Shenandoah; the remainder were set ashore to be picked up by a passing whaler. The four stripped vessels, totaling $116,000 in value, were then put to the torch.
Fighting gamely on all fronts, the South also inflicted maritime losses elsewhere. The USS Rodolph, temporarily commanded by her executive officer, Acting Ensign James F. Thompson, struck a torpedo in the Blakely River, Alabama, and "...rapidly sank in 12 feet of water." The tinclad was towing a barge containing apparatus for the raising of USS Milwaukee, a torpedo victim on 28 March. Acting Master N. Mayo Dyer, Rodolph's commanding officer, reported that "from the effects of the explosion that can be seen, I should judge there was a hole through the bow at least 10 feet in diameter..." Four men were killed as a result of the sinking and eleven others were wounded. Rodolph, the third warship in five days to be lost in the same vicinity due to effective Confederate torpedo warfare, had played an important role in the continuing combined operations after the fall of Mobile Bay to Admiral Farragut on 5 August 1864. Arriving in the Bay, from New Orleans on 14 August, she had participated in forcing the surrender of Fort Morgan on 23 August. Acting Master's Mate Nathaniel B. Hinckley, serving on board Rodolph, told his son many years after the war that he had carried the Confederate flag from the captured fort and turned it over to a patrol boat. Rodolph had remained in the Bay and its tributaries as Union seapower projected General Canby's powerful army against the final defenses of the city of Mobile. Hinckley was stationed in the tinclad's forecastle when she struck the torpedo that sank her, but he escaped injury.
Posted on 3/31/15 at 10:11 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Saturday, 1 April 1865 (continued)
The development of torpedoes had been encouraged by Matthew Fontaine Maury, John Mercer Brooke and others early in the war. Had the Confederate government at this time perceived the all-embracing influence of the Union Navy in combined operations, it would have vigorously developed this strange new weapon. The early use of torpedoes could have greatly, perhaps decisively, delayed the devastating joint operations. Successive Confederate disasters at Hatteras Inlet and at Port Royal, in the sounds of North Carolina and in the Mississippi Valley, and at New Orleans, shocked Richmond into action. Losses eventually became severe for the Union Navy, but they were too late to affect the outcome.
A Federal naval officer writing soon after the war summarized this development: "With a vast extent of coast peculiarly open to attack from sea; with a great territory traversed in every part by navigable streams...the South had no navy to oppose to that of the Union-a condition which, from the very commencement of the struggle, stood in the way of their success, and neutralized their prodigious efforts on land. Their seaports were wrested from them, or blockaded, fleets of gunboats, mostly clad with iron, covered their bays and ascended their rivers, carrying dismay to their hearts, and success to the Union cause...Under such a pressure, the pressure of dire distress and great necessity, the Rebels turned their attention to torpedoes as a means of defense against such terrible odds, hoping by their use to render such few harbors and streams as yet remained to them inaccessible, or in some degree dangerous to the victorious gunboats."
The development of torpedoes had been encouraged by Matthew Fontaine Maury, John Mercer Brooke and others early in the war. Had the Confederate government at this time perceived the all-embracing influence of the Union Navy in combined operations, it would have vigorously developed this strange new weapon. The early use of torpedoes could have greatly, perhaps decisively, delayed the devastating joint operations. Successive Confederate disasters at Hatteras Inlet and at Port Royal, in the sounds of North Carolina and in the Mississippi Valley, and at New Orleans, shocked Richmond into action. Losses eventually became severe for the Union Navy, but they were too late to affect the outcome.
A Federal naval officer writing soon after the war summarized this development: "With a vast extent of coast peculiarly open to attack from sea; with a great territory traversed in every part by navigable streams...the South had no navy to oppose to that of the Union-a condition which, from the very commencement of the struggle, stood in the way of their success, and neutralized their prodigious efforts on land. Their seaports were wrested from them, or blockaded, fleets of gunboats, mostly clad with iron, covered their bays and ascended their rivers, carrying dismay to their hearts, and success to the Union cause...Under such a pressure, the pressure of dire distress and great necessity, the Rebels turned their attention to torpedoes as a means of defense against such terrible odds, hoping by their use to render such few harbors and streams as yet remained to them inaccessible, or in some degree dangerous to the victorious gunboats."
Posted on 4/2/15 at 4:42 am to BadLeroyDawg
Sunday, 2 April 1865
At 0430, Union troops advanced under a heavy fog along the Petersburg, Virginia, lines. By 0700, the drive was fully under way and was successful everywhere. The Federal Sixth Corps captured the South Side Railroad near Sutherland's Station, and the Confederate lines melted along Hatcher’s Run. West of the Boydton Plank Road, while attempting to rally his men and reach his own lines, Confederate Lieutenant General Ambrose Powell Hill is mortally wounded by a Federal straggler. Only two forts, Gregg and Baldwin, still hold out at noon on the western part of the lines, making retreat possible only by crossing the Appomattox River.
Confederate General Robert E. Lee was determined to hold the inner fortifications until night enabled him to withdraw. In a few places, the Confederates stiffened their resistance in the afternoon until it was obvious that they had to pull out. Orders to evacuate Petersburg and for the defenders north of the James River to retreat through Richmond and join the remainder of the Army of Northern Virginia with Amelia Court House, forty miles west, as the rally point. Federal losses sustained amounted to 3,189 wounded, 625 killed and 326 missing for a total loss of 4,140 out of 63,000 engaged. Confederates engaged approximately 18,500 with unknown losses.
In Richmond, Virginia, a messenger entered St. Paul’s Church while the minister gave the prayer for Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Davis left quietly and went to his office to learn of the disaster that occurred at Petersburg. By 11 tonight, Davis and most of his Cabinet departed by train for Danville, Virginia. Rail stations were jammed and the streets filled with many of the local citizens and refugees crowding the city. Inmates broke from the state prison and the Local Defense Brigade was unable to keep order. Confederate government records were either sent away or burned. Cotton, tobacco and military stores were set on fire, which soon raged out of control. Richmond was falling at last. The Confederate government, however, still existed even though it was in transit. The War resumed.
Actions occur at Scott's Cross Roads, Virginia, the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign.
In Mobile, Alabama, the siege of Fort Blakely began while the siege of Spanish Fort continued led by Major General Edward R. S. Canby.
Skirmishing breaks out near Goldsboro, North Carolina, as Union Major General William T. Sherman presses forward; also at Van Buren and Hickory Station, Arkansas.
President Abraham Lincoln went to the front at Petersburg and saw some of the fighting from a distance while keeping Washington informed to the progress of Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant’s armies.
Union Charles Griffin is appointed Major General.
Skirmishing occurs near Centerville, Alabama, with Union Brigadier General James H. Wilson's forces near Scottsville.
An engagement happens at Selma, Alabama, where Lieutenant Generals Nathan Bedford Forrest and Richard Taylor retreat from the Union onslaught under Major General James H. Wilson with Wilson capturing over 2,700 prisoners. The Yankee troops occupy Selma.
Skirmishing occurs at Summerfield, Alabama.
A skirmish breaks out 4 miles form Hickory Station, Arkansas, on the Little Rock and Devall's Railroad, where the Confederates derail part of the train but are driven off by the Federal troops aboard. While the attack was progressing, most of the passengers flee into the prairie, only returning when the coast is clear. Included was a Yankee from the 12th Michigan Infantry who threw his saber away in the brush, retrieving it after danger had passed. The men got the train back on the rails and proceed forward.
Skirmishing commences 2 miles from Van Buren, Arkansas, as the Yankees kill 2 Confederates who just recently robbed several local citizens. Papers found on the bodies indicate they were from Fulton, Texas, enroute to Missouri.
A Federal expedition travels from the Hermitage, across the Amite, to the French Settlement, Louisiana, in pursuit of partisan guerrillas.
Union Major General Joseph A. Mower assumes the command of the 20th US Army Corps, North Carolina.
Naval report: As spring blossomed in Virginia, General Grant's powerful army, outnumbering Lee's by several times, unleashed its final attack. On 1 April he had outflanked Lee's thin lines southwest of Petersburg in the battle of Five Forks. He ordered an all-out assault on Petersburg along the entire front for the 2nd. Union batteries fired all night preparing for the attack and Fort Sedgwick's heavy fire again earned it the nickname "Fort Hell." Porter's fleet made a feint attack. The Confederates fought fiercely in Petersburg throughout the 2nd, but one by one the strong points fell. That night Lee withdrew.
Mrs. Lincoln had returned to Washington on the River Queen on 1 April. The President embarked in Malvern with Porter. His "...bunk was too short for his length, and he was compelled to fold his legs the first night..." but Porter's carpenters remodeled the cabin on the sly, and the second morning Lincoln appeared at breakfast with the story that he had shrunk "...six inches in length and about a foot sideways." During the evening of the 2nd the two sat on the upper deck of the ship listening to the artillery and musket fire ashore as General Grant's troops, having rendered Richmond untenable with a crushing victory in the day long battle at Petersburg, closed in on the Confederate capital. Lincoln asked the Admiral: "Can't the Navy do something at this particular moment to make history?" Porter's reply was a tribute to the officers and men throughout the Navy who all during the war made history through vital if often unheralded deeds: "The Navy is doing its best just now, holding the enemy's four [three heavy ironclads in utter uselessness. If those vessels could reach City Point they would commit great havoc...Grant's position on the Petersburg Richmond front had long depended on holding City Point where water borne supplies could be brought. The Federal fleet maintained this vital base.
At 0430, Union troops advanced under a heavy fog along the Petersburg, Virginia, lines. By 0700, the drive was fully under way and was successful everywhere. The Federal Sixth Corps captured the South Side Railroad near Sutherland's Station, and the Confederate lines melted along Hatcher’s Run. West of the Boydton Plank Road, while attempting to rally his men and reach his own lines, Confederate Lieutenant General Ambrose Powell Hill is mortally wounded by a Federal straggler. Only two forts, Gregg and Baldwin, still hold out at noon on the western part of the lines, making retreat possible only by crossing the Appomattox River.
Confederate General Robert E. Lee was determined to hold the inner fortifications until night enabled him to withdraw. In a few places, the Confederates stiffened their resistance in the afternoon until it was obvious that they had to pull out. Orders to evacuate Petersburg and for the defenders north of the James River to retreat through Richmond and join the remainder of the Army of Northern Virginia with Amelia Court House, forty miles west, as the rally point. Federal losses sustained amounted to 3,189 wounded, 625 killed and 326 missing for a total loss of 4,140 out of 63,000 engaged. Confederates engaged approximately 18,500 with unknown losses.
In Richmond, Virginia, a messenger entered St. Paul’s Church while the minister gave the prayer for Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Davis left quietly and went to his office to learn of the disaster that occurred at Petersburg. By 11 tonight, Davis and most of his Cabinet departed by train for Danville, Virginia. Rail stations were jammed and the streets filled with many of the local citizens and refugees crowding the city. Inmates broke from the state prison and the Local Defense Brigade was unable to keep order. Confederate government records were either sent away or burned. Cotton, tobacco and military stores were set on fire, which soon raged out of control. Richmond was falling at last. The Confederate government, however, still existed even though it was in transit. The War resumed.
Actions occur at Scott's Cross Roads, Virginia, the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign.
In Mobile, Alabama, the siege of Fort Blakely began while the siege of Spanish Fort continued led by Major General Edward R. S. Canby.
Skirmishing breaks out near Goldsboro, North Carolina, as Union Major General William T. Sherman presses forward; also at Van Buren and Hickory Station, Arkansas.
President Abraham Lincoln went to the front at Petersburg and saw some of the fighting from a distance while keeping Washington informed to the progress of Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant’s armies.
Union Charles Griffin is appointed Major General.
Skirmishing occurs near Centerville, Alabama, with Union Brigadier General James H. Wilson's forces near Scottsville.
An engagement happens at Selma, Alabama, where Lieutenant Generals Nathan Bedford Forrest and Richard Taylor retreat from the Union onslaught under Major General James H. Wilson with Wilson capturing over 2,700 prisoners. The Yankee troops occupy Selma.
Skirmishing occurs at Summerfield, Alabama.
A skirmish breaks out 4 miles form Hickory Station, Arkansas, on the Little Rock and Devall's Railroad, where the Confederates derail part of the train but are driven off by the Federal troops aboard. While the attack was progressing, most of the passengers flee into the prairie, only returning when the coast is clear. Included was a Yankee from the 12th Michigan Infantry who threw his saber away in the brush, retrieving it after danger had passed. The men got the train back on the rails and proceed forward.
Skirmishing commences 2 miles from Van Buren, Arkansas, as the Yankees kill 2 Confederates who just recently robbed several local citizens. Papers found on the bodies indicate they were from Fulton, Texas, enroute to Missouri.
A Federal expedition travels from the Hermitage, across the Amite, to the French Settlement, Louisiana, in pursuit of partisan guerrillas.
Union Major General Joseph A. Mower assumes the command of the 20th US Army Corps, North Carolina.
Naval report: As spring blossomed in Virginia, General Grant's powerful army, outnumbering Lee's by several times, unleashed its final attack. On 1 April he had outflanked Lee's thin lines southwest of Petersburg in the battle of Five Forks. He ordered an all-out assault on Petersburg along the entire front for the 2nd. Union batteries fired all night preparing for the attack and Fort Sedgwick's heavy fire again earned it the nickname "Fort Hell." Porter's fleet made a feint attack. The Confederates fought fiercely in Petersburg throughout the 2nd, but one by one the strong points fell. That night Lee withdrew.
Mrs. Lincoln had returned to Washington on the River Queen on 1 April. The President embarked in Malvern with Porter. His "...bunk was too short for his length, and he was compelled to fold his legs the first night..." but Porter's carpenters remodeled the cabin on the sly, and the second morning Lincoln appeared at breakfast with the story that he had shrunk "...six inches in length and about a foot sideways." During the evening of the 2nd the two sat on the upper deck of the ship listening to the artillery and musket fire ashore as General Grant's troops, having rendered Richmond untenable with a crushing victory in the day long battle at Petersburg, closed in on the Confederate capital. Lincoln asked the Admiral: "Can't the Navy do something at this particular moment to make history?" Porter's reply was a tribute to the officers and men throughout the Navy who all during the war made history through vital if often unheralded deeds: "The Navy is doing its best just now, holding the enemy's four [three heavy ironclads in utter uselessness. If those vessels could reach City Point they would commit great havoc...Grant's position on the Petersburg Richmond front had long depended on holding City Point where water borne supplies could be brought. The Federal fleet maintained this vital base.
Posted on 4/2/15 at 4:42 am to BadLeroyDawg
Sunday, 2 April 1865 (continued)
Supporting General Sherman in North Carolina, Commander Macomb reported to Porter: "In obedience to directions contained in your letter of the 28th ultimo, I started yesterday evening from Plymouth with the Shamrock, Wyoming, Hunchback, Valley City, and Whitehead and proceeded up this river as far as the Stumpy Reach (about 10 miles from the mouth), where we came to anchor for the night. We had proceeded this far without dragging for torpedoes, in order to make quicker time (the river being broad and not suitable for torpedoes), but on starting this morning we dragged the channel ahead of us, in which manner we advanced all day, and reached this place about 5 p.m. without having encountered any resistance or finding any torpedoes...I have brought up with me three large flats, with which I can ferry the regiment over. I left orders at New Berne for the Commodore Hull and Shokokon to join me as soon as possible.
"On our way up the river this morning we were overtaken by three canal boats loaded with troops (which had come from Norfolk, I believe), which followed us up and are now lying along the western shore, the troops having debarked on that side." He concluded with a request for coal for the warships. Happily, two coal schooners from Philadelphia arrived at New Bern that same day and were soon enroute to him. Coal was a problem all during the war. Without bases for supply on the Confederate coast the Union Navy could not have carried out its ceaseless attacks and blockade.
Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory ordered the destruction of the Confederate James River Squadron and directed its officers and men to join General Lee's troops then in the process of evacuating Richmond and retreating westward toward Danville. As Mallory left Richmond with Davis and his cabinet late at night on the 2nd, the train passed over the James River. Later, as a prisoner of war at Fort Lafayette, the Secretary reflected on his thoughts at that time: "The James River squadron, with its ironclads, which had lain like chained bulldogs under the command of Rear Admiral Raphael Semmes to prevent the ascent of the enemy's ships, would, in the classic flash of the times, 'go up' before morning...; and the naval operations of the Confederacy east of the Mississippi would cease."
Mallory's orders to destroy the squadron were carried out by Semmes. After outfitting his men with arms and field equipment, the admiral burned and scuttled the three formidable ironclads, CSS Virginia No. 2, Fredericksburg, and Richmond near Drewry's Bluff. By 0300 on 3 April the ironclads were well afire, and Semmes placed his 400 men on the wooden gunboats. Semmes later wrote: "My little squadron of wooden boats now moved off up the river [to Richmond], by the glare of the burning ironclads. They had not proceeded far before an explosion, like the shock of an earthquake, took place, and the air was filled with missiles. It was the blowing up of the Virginia [No. 2], my late flagship The spectacle was grand beyond description Her shell-rooms had been full of loaded shells. The explosion of the magazine threw all these shells, with their fuses lighted, into the air. The fuses were of different lengths, and as the shells exploded by twos and threes, and by the dozen, the pyrotechnic effect was very fine. The explosion shook the houses in Richmond, and must have waked the echoes of the night for forty miles around."
Semmes disembarked his men at Richmond, then put the torch to the gunboats and set them adrift. The naval detachment, seeking transportation westward out of the evacuated Confederate capital, was forced to provide its own. The sailors found and fired up a locomotive, assembled and attached a number of railroad cars, and proceeded to Danville, arriving on the 4th. Semmes was commissioned a Brigadier General and placed in command of the defenses that had been thrown up around Danville. These defenses were manned by sailors who had been organized into an artillery brigade and by two battalions of infantry This command was retained by Semmes until Lee's surrender at Appomattox.
Supporting General Sherman in North Carolina, Commander Macomb reported to Porter: "In obedience to directions contained in your letter of the 28th ultimo, I started yesterday evening from Plymouth with the Shamrock, Wyoming, Hunchback, Valley City, and Whitehead and proceeded up this river as far as the Stumpy Reach (about 10 miles from the mouth), where we came to anchor for the night. We had proceeded this far without dragging for torpedoes, in order to make quicker time (the river being broad and not suitable for torpedoes), but on starting this morning we dragged the channel ahead of us, in which manner we advanced all day, and reached this place about 5 p.m. without having encountered any resistance or finding any torpedoes...I have brought up with me three large flats, with which I can ferry the regiment over. I left orders at New Berne for the Commodore Hull and Shokokon to join me as soon as possible.
"On our way up the river this morning we were overtaken by three canal boats loaded with troops (which had come from Norfolk, I believe), which followed us up and are now lying along the western shore, the troops having debarked on that side." He concluded with a request for coal for the warships. Happily, two coal schooners from Philadelphia arrived at New Bern that same day and were soon enroute to him. Coal was a problem all during the war. Without bases for supply on the Confederate coast the Union Navy could not have carried out its ceaseless attacks and blockade.
Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory ordered the destruction of the Confederate James River Squadron and directed its officers and men to join General Lee's troops then in the process of evacuating Richmond and retreating westward toward Danville. As Mallory left Richmond with Davis and his cabinet late at night on the 2nd, the train passed over the James River. Later, as a prisoner of war at Fort Lafayette, the Secretary reflected on his thoughts at that time: "The James River squadron, with its ironclads, which had lain like chained bulldogs under the command of Rear Admiral Raphael Semmes to prevent the ascent of the enemy's ships, would, in the classic flash of the times, 'go up' before morning...; and the naval operations of the Confederacy east of the Mississippi would cease."
Mallory's orders to destroy the squadron were carried out by Semmes. After outfitting his men with arms and field equipment, the admiral burned and scuttled the three formidable ironclads, CSS Virginia No. 2, Fredericksburg, and Richmond near Drewry's Bluff. By 0300 on 3 April the ironclads were well afire, and Semmes placed his 400 men on the wooden gunboats. Semmes later wrote: "My little squadron of wooden boats now moved off up the river [to Richmond], by the glare of the burning ironclads. They had not proceeded far before an explosion, like the shock of an earthquake, took place, and the air was filled with missiles. It was the blowing up of the Virginia [No. 2], my late flagship The spectacle was grand beyond description Her shell-rooms had been full of loaded shells. The explosion of the magazine threw all these shells, with their fuses lighted, into the air. The fuses were of different lengths, and as the shells exploded by twos and threes, and by the dozen, the pyrotechnic effect was very fine. The explosion shook the houses in Richmond, and must have waked the echoes of the night for forty miles around."
Semmes disembarked his men at Richmond, then put the torch to the gunboats and set them adrift. The naval detachment, seeking transportation westward out of the evacuated Confederate capital, was forced to provide its own. The sailors found and fired up a locomotive, assembled and attached a number of railroad cars, and proceeded to Danville, arriving on the 4th. Semmes was commissioned a Brigadier General and placed in command of the defenses that had been thrown up around Danville. These defenses were manned by sailors who had been organized into an artillery brigade and by two battalions of infantry This command was retained by Semmes until Lee's surrender at Appomattox.
Posted on 4/2/15 at 8:19 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Monday, 3 April 1865
Petersburg, Virginia is now occupied by Federal troops. Union President Abraham Lincoln and Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant confer at a private home in the town and review the troops passing through the city, which has undergone more than nine months of siege warfare.
The first flag flying over Richmond, Virginia, was a small guidon raised by Major Atherton H. Stevens Jr., of Massachusetts over the former Capitol of the Confederacy building. More Federal troops arrived as more people, many of whom were jubilant Negroes, swarmed into the streets of the city that was still in flames. Federal infantry playing “The Girl I Left Behind Me” soon arrived. The Union occupation of Richmond was commanded by Major General Godrey Weitzel, who received the surrender in the City Hall at 8:15 a.m. Federal troops immediately attempted to restore order and put out the fires.
Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia slowly moved westward towards Amelia Court House, shadowed by Grant’s Army of the Potomac who ran parallel to keep Lee from intersecting General Joseph E. Johnston’s army in North Carolina. Union Major General Phil Sheridan’s cavalry skirmished with the retiring Confederates on the Namozine Church Road.
The train from Richmond to Danville moved slowly due to roadbed difficulties but by midafternoon, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his Cabinet had arrived in Danville, where citizens hurriedly prepared to receive their guests. Headquarters for Davis was at the home of Major William Thomas Sutherlin. Davis admitted that he was not abandoning the cause.
Federal troops scout from Huntsville to near Vienna, Alabama.
A large sale action breaks out at Northport, near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, between the forces of Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest and Major General James H. Wilson.
The unsuccessful Union pursuit of partisan guerrillas commences near Farmington, Missouri, as they take no prisoners in their way, appropriating their teams of horses to escape the pursuing Yankees.
A Federal expedition to Asheville, North Carolina, by Major General David S. Stanley commanding the 4th US Army Corps begins.
Skirmishing occurs at Mount Pleasant, Tennessee.
A skirmish erupts near Hillsville, Virginia, with Major General George Stoneman's troops.
Fifty of the sixty Midshipmen at the Confederate Naval Academy, under the command of Lieutenant William H. Parker, escorted the archives of the government and the specie and bullion of the treasury from Richmond to Danville. There, Midshipman Raphael Semmes, Junior, was detached from the escort corps and detailed to the staff of his father. The Midshipmen Corps continued to be entrusted with this select guard duty during subsequent moves of the archives and treasury to Charlotte, North Carolina; Washington, Georgia; Augusta, Georgia; and finally to Abbeville, South Carolina. The ten Midshipmen who remained in Richmond under the command of Lieutenant James W. Billups, CSN, fired and scuttled the CSS Patrick Henry, schoolship of the Naval Academy.
As General Lee withdrew from the lines he had so long and brilliantly held against an army 3 to 4 times larger than his own, the Federal fleet sought to move on with the Army into Richmond; many hazards, however, lay in the course. Rear Admiral David D. Porter had ordered: "Remove all torpedoes carefully and such of the obstructions as may prevent the free navigation of the river, using our torpedoes for this purpose if necessary. Be careful and thorough in dragging the river for torpedoes and send men along the banks to cut the wires."
Sweeping for the torpedoes (mines) was conducted by some 20 boats from 10 ships in the flotilla. Lieutenant Commander Ralph Chandler, directing the sweeping operations, gave detailed orders: "Each boat's bow laps the port quarter of the boat just ahead and will lap within the 2 or 3 feet of her. Each vessel will send an officer to take charge of the two boats. Lieutenant Gillett of the Sangamon , and Lieutenant Reed, of the Lehigh, will have charge of shore parties to keep ahead of the boats and cut all torpedo wires. The wires should he cut in two places. Lieutenant Gillett will take the right bank going up and Lieutenant Reed the left. Twenty men from the Monadnock will be detailed for this service and will be armed as skirmishers with at least twenty rounds of ammunition. Two pairs of shears should be furnished the shore parties. The officer in charge will throw out the pickets, leaving two men to follow the beach to cut the wires." With the upper river cleared of torpedoes and obstructions, Union ships steamed up to Richmond.
General Lee, in his hard-pressed, harried and hurried evacuation of Richmond, neglected to apprise Commodore John R. Tucker, commanding the Confederate Naval Brigade at Drewry's Bluff on the James River, of the projected evacuation of the capital. Tucker maintained his station until the 3rd when he saw the smoke from the burning ironclads and learned that Confederate troops were streaming out of Richmond. Tucker then joined the Naval Brigade to Major General Custis Lee's division of Lieutenant General Richard S. Ewell's corps. The brigade participated in Ewell's rear guard stand at Sailor's Creek on 6 April which was intended to cover the westward retreat. The Naval Brigade was captured along with Ewell's entire corps but was the last unit in the corps to surrender. Tucker tendered his sword to Lieutenant General J. Warren Keifer. Some years after the war, when Keifer had become a prominent member of Congress, he returned the sword to the ex-Confederate naval officer.
Petersburg, Virginia is now occupied by Federal troops. Union President Abraham Lincoln and Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant confer at a private home in the town and review the troops passing through the city, which has undergone more than nine months of siege warfare.
The first flag flying over Richmond, Virginia, was a small guidon raised by Major Atherton H. Stevens Jr., of Massachusetts over the former Capitol of the Confederacy building. More Federal troops arrived as more people, many of whom were jubilant Negroes, swarmed into the streets of the city that was still in flames. Federal infantry playing “The Girl I Left Behind Me” soon arrived. The Union occupation of Richmond was commanded by Major General Godrey Weitzel, who received the surrender in the City Hall at 8:15 a.m. Federal troops immediately attempted to restore order and put out the fires.
Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia slowly moved westward towards Amelia Court House, shadowed by Grant’s Army of the Potomac who ran parallel to keep Lee from intersecting General Joseph E. Johnston’s army in North Carolina. Union Major General Phil Sheridan’s cavalry skirmished with the retiring Confederates on the Namozine Church Road.
The train from Richmond to Danville moved slowly due to roadbed difficulties but by midafternoon, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his Cabinet had arrived in Danville, where citizens hurriedly prepared to receive their guests. Headquarters for Davis was at the home of Major William Thomas Sutherlin. Davis admitted that he was not abandoning the cause.
Federal troops scout from Huntsville to near Vienna, Alabama.
A large sale action breaks out at Northport, near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, between the forces of Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest and Major General James H. Wilson.
The unsuccessful Union pursuit of partisan guerrillas commences near Farmington, Missouri, as they take no prisoners in their way, appropriating their teams of horses to escape the pursuing Yankees.
A Federal expedition to Asheville, North Carolina, by Major General David S. Stanley commanding the 4th US Army Corps begins.
Skirmishing occurs at Mount Pleasant, Tennessee.
A skirmish erupts near Hillsville, Virginia, with Major General George Stoneman's troops.
Fifty of the sixty Midshipmen at the Confederate Naval Academy, under the command of Lieutenant William H. Parker, escorted the archives of the government and the specie and bullion of the treasury from Richmond to Danville. There, Midshipman Raphael Semmes, Junior, was detached from the escort corps and detailed to the staff of his father. The Midshipmen Corps continued to be entrusted with this select guard duty during subsequent moves of the archives and treasury to Charlotte, North Carolina; Washington, Georgia; Augusta, Georgia; and finally to Abbeville, South Carolina. The ten Midshipmen who remained in Richmond under the command of Lieutenant James W. Billups, CSN, fired and scuttled the CSS Patrick Henry, schoolship of the Naval Academy.
As General Lee withdrew from the lines he had so long and brilliantly held against an army 3 to 4 times larger than his own, the Federal fleet sought to move on with the Army into Richmond; many hazards, however, lay in the course. Rear Admiral David D. Porter had ordered: "Remove all torpedoes carefully and such of the obstructions as may prevent the free navigation of the river, using our torpedoes for this purpose if necessary. Be careful and thorough in dragging the river for torpedoes and send men along the banks to cut the wires."
Sweeping for the torpedoes (mines) was conducted by some 20 boats from 10 ships in the flotilla. Lieutenant Commander Ralph Chandler, directing the sweeping operations, gave detailed orders: "Each boat's bow laps the port quarter of the boat just ahead and will lap within the 2 or 3 feet of her. Each vessel will send an officer to take charge of the two boats. Lieutenant Gillett of the Sangamon , and Lieutenant Reed, of the Lehigh, will have charge of shore parties to keep ahead of the boats and cut all torpedo wires. The wires should he cut in two places. Lieutenant Gillett will take the right bank going up and Lieutenant Reed the left. Twenty men from the Monadnock will be detailed for this service and will be armed as skirmishers with at least twenty rounds of ammunition. Two pairs of shears should be furnished the shore parties. The officer in charge will throw out the pickets, leaving two men to follow the beach to cut the wires." With the upper river cleared of torpedoes and obstructions, Union ships steamed up to Richmond.
General Lee, in his hard-pressed, harried and hurried evacuation of Richmond, neglected to apprise Commodore John R. Tucker, commanding the Confederate Naval Brigade at Drewry's Bluff on the James River, of the projected evacuation of the capital. Tucker maintained his station until the 3rd when he saw the smoke from the burning ironclads and learned that Confederate troops were streaming out of Richmond. Tucker then joined the Naval Brigade to Major General Custis Lee's division of Lieutenant General Richard S. Ewell's corps. The brigade participated in Ewell's rear guard stand at Sailor's Creek on 6 April which was intended to cover the westward retreat. The Naval Brigade was captured along with Ewell's entire corps but was the last unit in the corps to surrender. Tucker tendered his sword to Lieutenant General J. Warren Keifer. Some years after the war, when Keifer had become a prominent member of Congress, he returned the sword to the ex-Confederate naval officer.
Posted on 4/2/15 at 8:24 pm to BadLeroyDawg
quote:vagina.
President Abraham Lincoln went to the front at Petersburg and saw some of the fighting from a distance
This post was edited on 1/17/17 at 10:14 pm
Posted on 4/3/15 at 10:49 pm to genro
Tuesday, 4 April 1865
President Abraham Lincoln travelled up the James River on the River Queen, transferred to the USS Malvern, and then arrived in Richmond on a smaller landing vessel not far from Libby Prison. Admiral David Dixon Porter, three other officers and ten sailors armed with carbines served as Lincoln’s escort as he walked to the White House of the Confederacy and took time to sit in Jefferson Davis' chair. Crowds, mostly cheering Negroes, surrounded Lincoln as he toured the home that Confederate President Jefferson Davis recently vacated. Lincoln drove through the city under escort in the late afternoon. Before leaving Richmond, Lincoln talked with John A. Campbell, former U.S. Supreme Court justice as well as former Assistant Secretary of War for the Confederacy. Campbell admitted that the War was over and urged Lincoln to consult with public men of Virginia regarding restoration of peace and order. Lincoln returned to the Malvern for the night.
The previous day, one Richmond resident, Mary Fontaine, had written, “I saw them unfurl a tiny flag, and I sank on my knees, and the bitter, bitter tears came in a torrent.” Another observer wrote that as the Yankees rode in, the city’s black residents were “...completely crazed, they danced and shouted, men hugged each other, and women kissed.” For the citizens of Richmond, these were symbols of a world turned upside down. It was, one reporter noted, “…too awful to remember, if it were possible to be erased, but that cannot be.”
Skirmishing occurred at Tabernacle Church, also known as Beaver Pond Creek, and at Amelia Court House, Virginia. Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s decimated army lacked supplies to feed his army which brought on much post-war discussion. There was an unfounded charge the Davis administration was using the needed and necessary railroad and communications, though Federal Major General Phil Sheridan arrived at Jetersville, southwest of Amelia Court-House, on the Danville Railroad southwest of Amelia Court House, blocking Lee’s further use of that route towards North Carolina.
At Danville, Virginia, the new capital of the Confederacy, Confederate President Jefferson Davis issued a proclamation to the remaining people of the crumbling nation while admitting that there was now a new phase of the conflict, and that he had vowed to maintain the struggle.
The Union Cavalry troops, under Brigadier General James Harrison Wilson occupy Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Skirmishes break out at East River Bridge, Florida.
The capture of the steamer, Harriet De Ford, near Fair Haven, Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, takes place as General Robert E. Lee, CSA, earlier sent Captain Thaddeus Fitzhugh, of the 5th Virginia Cavalry and some of his men with Company F, in hopes of capturing one of Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant's supply vessels, using Major John S. Mosby's partisan rangers to transport the badly needed supplies to Lee's men in the trenches around Petersburg and Richmond. Unable to capture the Eolus, Titan, or the Highland Light, Fitzhugh captures the Harriet De Ford, boarding the vessel disguised as wood choppers. Upon moving up the Chesapeake Bay, he hears the guns blasting around Petersburg, which are celebrating the Union victory there. Fitzhugh desperately attempts to get the supplies to Lee, but is pursued by Union gunboats, he runs the vessel aground, taking what supplies he could.
Major General John Bankhead Magruder, CSA, assumes the command of the Confederate District of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.
Naval report: Rear Admiral Porter accompanied President Lincoln up the James River to Richmond on board flagship Malvern. When obstructions blocked the flagship's way, the two embarked in Porter's barge, with three aides and boat crew of twelve. Thus, in a single small boat under oars, significantly by water, the President reached the Southern capital that for four years had been so near for conquest by the Union armies, yet had so long been held safe by the remarkable Lee and his hard fighting armies.
"It was a mild spring day. Birds were singing in the orchards on either side of the river, and the trees were in bloom. As the party pulled up the river they saw a wide curtain of smoke rise the horizon ahead. Richmond was on fire. On evacuating the city the Confederates had fired their magazines and warehouses of cotton and tobacco; and bursting projectiles had dropped over the town, setting fire to a wide swath of dwellings and buildings in the business district."
"The party landed about one block above Libby Prison. Porter formed ten of the sailors into a guard. They were armed with carbines. Six Marched in front and four in rear, and in the middle with the President and the Admiral walked Captain Penrose, Lincoln's military aide, Captain Adams of the Navy, and Lieutenant Clemens of the Signal Corps. Lincoln with his tall hat towered more than a foot above the thick-set Admiral, whose flat seaman's cap emphasized his five feet seven inches. The President "...was received with the strongest demonstrations of joy." In his report to Secretary Welles, Porter wrote: "We found that the Rebel rams and gunboats had all been blown up, with the exception of an unfinished ram, the Texas, and a small tug gun-boat, the Beaufort, mounting one gun."
The ships destroyed included the 4 gun ironclads Virginia No. 2, Richmond, and Fredericksburg; wooden ships Nansemond, 2 guns; Hampton, 2 guns; Roanoke, 1 gun; Torpedo, Shrapnel, and school-ship Patrick Henry. "Some of them are in sight above water, and may be raised," Porter wrote. "They partly obstruct the channel where they are now, and will either have to be raised or blown up. He added: "Tredegar Works and the naval depot remain untouched." With its James River Squadron destroyed and its capital evacuated, the Confederacy was certain to fall soon. As Vice Admiral David Glasgow Farragut, who had preceded the President and Porter to Richmond, said: "Thank God, it is about over.
General Canby requested Rear Admiral Thatcher to provide assistance in the form of ''eight or ten boats...and fifty or sixty sailors to row them..." for the purpose of moving troops to assault Batteries Tracy and Huger, part of Mobile 's defenses. The Admiral agreed to supply the boats but noted: "To send sixty men in these boats to row them will be nearly a load for them, at least they will be nearly filled with their own crews, so that an assaulting party would find but little room in them, particularly as our vessels are all small and their boats proportionally so. I would therefore respectfully suggest that your assaulting party be drilled at the oars."
A naval battery of three 30-pounder Parrott rifles, seamen manned and commanded by Lieutenant Commander Gillis, the former captain of the torpedoed monitor Milwaukee, was landed on the banks of the Blakely River to join in the bombardment of Spanish Fort, the Confederate strong point in the defense of Mobile. General Canby reported that the "...battery behaved admirably."
Overview: President Abraham Lincoln visits the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, a day after Union forces capture it. Lincoln had been in the area for nearly two weeks. He left Washington, D.C., at the invitation of general-in-chief Hiram U. Grant to visit Grant’s headquarters at City Point, near the lines at Petersburg south of Richmond. The trip was exhilarating for the exhausted president. Worn out by four years of war and stifled by the pressures of Washington, Lincoln enjoyed himself immensely. He conferred with Grant and General William T. Sherman, who took a break from his campaign in North Carolina. He visited soldiers, and even picked up an ax to chop logs in front of the troops.
President Abraham Lincoln travelled up the James River on the River Queen, transferred to the USS Malvern, and then arrived in Richmond on a smaller landing vessel not far from Libby Prison. Admiral David Dixon Porter, three other officers and ten sailors armed with carbines served as Lincoln’s escort as he walked to the White House of the Confederacy and took time to sit in Jefferson Davis' chair. Crowds, mostly cheering Negroes, surrounded Lincoln as he toured the home that Confederate President Jefferson Davis recently vacated. Lincoln drove through the city under escort in the late afternoon. Before leaving Richmond, Lincoln talked with John A. Campbell, former U.S. Supreme Court justice as well as former Assistant Secretary of War for the Confederacy. Campbell admitted that the War was over and urged Lincoln to consult with public men of Virginia regarding restoration of peace and order. Lincoln returned to the Malvern for the night.
The previous day, one Richmond resident, Mary Fontaine, had written, “I saw them unfurl a tiny flag, and I sank on my knees, and the bitter, bitter tears came in a torrent.” Another observer wrote that as the Yankees rode in, the city’s black residents were “...completely crazed, they danced and shouted, men hugged each other, and women kissed.” For the citizens of Richmond, these were symbols of a world turned upside down. It was, one reporter noted, “…too awful to remember, if it were possible to be erased, but that cannot be.”
Skirmishing occurred at Tabernacle Church, also known as Beaver Pond Creek, and at Amelia Court House, Virginia. Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s decimated army lacked supplies to feed his army which brought on much post-war discussion. There was an unfounded charge the Davis administration was using the needed and necessary railroad and communications, though Federal Major General Phil Sheridan arrived at Jetersville, southwest of Amelia Court-House, on the Danville Railroad southwest of Amelia Court House, blocking Lee’s further use of that route towards North Carolina.
At Danville, Virginia, the new capital of the Confederacy, Confederate President Jefferson Davis issued a proclamation to the remaining people of the crumbling nation while admitting that there was now a new phase of the conflict, and that he had vowed to maintain the struggle.
The Union Cavalry troops, under Brigadier General James Harrison Wilson occupy Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Skirmishes break out at East River Bridge, Florida.
The capture of the steamer, Harriet De Ford, near Fair Haven, Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, takes place as General Robert E. Lee, CSA, earlier sent Captain Thaddeus Fitzhugh, of the 5th Virginia Cavalry and some of his men with Company F, in hopes of capturing one of Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant's supply vessels, using Major John S. Mosby's partisan rangers to transport the badly needed supplies to Lee's men in the trenches around Petersburg and Richmond. Unable to capture the Eolus, Titan, or the Highland Light, Fitzhugh captures the Harriet De Ford, boarding the vessel disguised as wood choppers. Upon moving up the Chesapeake Bay, he hears the guns blasting around Petersburg, which are celebrating the Union victory there. Fitzhugh desperately attempts to get the supplies to Lee, but is pursued by Union gunboats, he runs the vessel aground, taking what supplies he could.
Major General John Bankhead Magruder, CSA, assumes the command of the Confederate District of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.
Naval report: Rear Admiral Porter accompanied President Lincoln up the James River to Richmond on board flagship Malvern. When obstructions blocked the flagship's way, the two embarked in Porter's barge, with three aides and boat crew of twelve. Thus, in a single small boat under oars, significantly by water, the President reached the Southern capital that for four years had been so near for conquest by the Union armies, yet had so long been held safe by the remarkable Lee and his hard fighting armies.
"It was a mild spring day. Birds were singing in the orchards on either side of the river, and the trees were in bloom. As the party pulled up the river they saw a wide curtain of smoke rise the horizon ahead. Richmond was on fire. On evacuating the city the Confederates had fired their magazines and warehouses of cotton and tobacco; and bursting projectiles had dropped over the town, setting fire to a wide swath of dwellings and buildings in the business district."
"The party landed about one block above Libby Prison. Porter formed ten of the sailors into a guard. They were armed with carbines. Six Marched in front and four in rear, and in the middle with the President and the Admiral walked Captain Penrose, Lincoln's military aide, Captain Adams of the Navy, and Lieutenant Clemens of the Signal Corps. Lincoln with his tall hat towered more than a foot above the thick-set Admiral, whose flat seaman's cap emphasized his five feet seven inches. The President "...was received with the strongest demonstrations of joy." In his report to Secretary Welles, Porter wrote: "We found that the Rebel rams and gunboats had all been blown up, with the exception of an unfinished ram, the Texas, and a small tug gun-boat, the Beaufort, mounting one gun."
The ships destroyed included the 4 gun ironclads Virginia No. 2, Richmond, and Fredericksburg; wooden ships Nansemond, 2 guns; Hampton, 2 guns; Roanoke, 1 gun; Torpedo, Shrapnel, and school-ship Patrick Henry. "Some of them are in sight above water, and may be raised," Porter wrote. "They partly obstruct the channel where they are now, and will either have to be raised or blown up. He added: "Tredegar Works and the naval depot remain untouched." With its James River Squadron destroyed and its capital evacuated, the Confederacy was certain to fall soon. As Vice Admiral David Glasgow Farragut, who had preceded the President and Porter to Richmond, said: "Thank God, it is about over.
General Canby requested Rear Admiral Thatcher to provide assistance in the form of ''eight or ten boats...and fifty or sixty sailors to row them..." for the purpose of moving troops to assault Batteries Tracy and Huger, part of Mobile 's defenses. The Admiral agreed to supply the boats but noted: "To send sixty men in these boats to row them will be nearly a load for them, at least they will be nearly filled with their own crews, so that an assaulting party would find but little room in them, particularly as our vessels are all small and their boats proportionally so. I would therefore respectfully suggest that your assaulting party be drilled at the oars."
A naval battery of three 30-pounder Parrott rifles, seamen manned and commanded by Lieutenant Commander Gillis, the former captain of the torpedoed monitor Milwaukee, was landed on the banks of the Blakely River to join in the bombardment of Spanish Fort, the Confederate strong point in the defense of Mobile. General Canby reported that the "...battery behaved admirably."
Overview: President Abraham Lincoln visits the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, a day after Union forces capture it. Lincoln had been in the area for nearly two weeks. He left Washington, D.C., at the invitation of general-in-chief Hiram U. Grant to visit Grant’s headquarters at City Point, near the lines at Petersburg south of Richmond. The trip was exhilarating for the exhausted president. Worn out by four years of war and stifled by the pressures of Washington, Lincoln enjoyed himself immensely. He conferred with Grant and General William T. Sherman, who took a break from his campaign in North Carolina. He visited soldiers, and even picked up an ax to chop logs in front of the troops.
This post was edited on 4/3/15 at 10:56 pm
Posted on 4/3/15 at 10:50 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Tuesday, 4 April 1865 (continued)
He stayed at City Point, sensing that the final push was near. Grant’s forces overran the Petersburg line on April 2, and the Confederate government fled the capital later that day. Union forces occupied Richmond on 3 April, and Lincoln sailed up the James River to see the spoils of war. His ship could not pass some obstructions that had been placed in the river by the Confederates so 12 soldiers rowed him to shore. He landed without fanfare but was soon recognized by some black workmen who ran to him and bowed. The modest Lincoln told them to “…kneel to God only, and thank him for the liberty you will hereafter enjoy.”
Lincoln, accompanied by a small group of soldiers and a growing entourage of freed slaves, walked to the Confederate White House and sat in President Jefferson Davis chair. He walked to the Virginia statehouse and saw the chambers of the Confederate Congress. Lincoln even visited Libby Prison, where thousands of Union officers were held during the War. Lincoln remained in Richmond a few more days in hopes that Robert E. Lee’s army would surrender, but on 9 April he headed back to Washington. Six days later, Lincoln would be shot as he watched a play, Our American Cousin, at Ford’s Theater.
He stayed at City Point, sensing that the final push was near. Grant’s forces overran the Petersburg line on April 2, and the Confederate government fled the capital later that day. Union forces occupied Richmond on 3 April, and Lincoln sailed up the James River to see the spoils of war. His ship could not pass some obstructions that had been placed in the river by the Confederates so 12 soldiers rowed him to shore. He landed without fanfare but was soon recognized by some black workmen who ran to him and bowed. The modest Lincoln told them to “…kneel to God only, and thank him for the liberty you will hereafter enjoy.”
Lincoln, accompanied by a small group of soldiers and a growing entourage of freed slaves, walked to the Confederate White House and sat in President Jefferson Davis chair. He walked to the Virginia statehouse and saw the chambers of the Confederate Congress. Lincoln even visited Libby Prison, where thousands of Union officers were held during the War. Lincoln remained in Richmond a few more days in hopes that Robert E. Lee’s army would surrender, but on 9 April he headed back to Washington. Six days later, Lincoln would be shot as he watched a play, Our American Cousin, at Ford’s Theater.
Posted on 4/4/15 at 10:51 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Wednesday, 5 April 1865
Commander William Henry Alexander Macomb steadily pushed up the narrowing Chowan River and its tributaries preparing for General William Tecumseh Sherman's move north. This date he reported from "Meherrin River, near Murfreesboro, N.C." near the Virginia border and fat inland: "The steamer Shokokon arrived at Winton yesterday, and I have stationed her a short distance below here near an ugly bluff some 60 or 80 feet high, on which I thought the Rebels might give us some trouble on our return. There were some rifle pits on the brow of this bluff, but I sent a party down there and had them filled up. There is also an old earthwork, made to mount six guns, a short distance below here, which I have had partially destroyed. The river is rather narrower than the Roanoke, but not quite so crooked. I got 50 men (soldiers) from Winton to hold the bluff till we have passed, the river being very crooked and narrow at this point, so much so that we are unable to steam by, but will have to warp the ship round."
Frederick Tracy Dent, USA, is appointed Brigadier General.
Union troops scout from Huntsville to New Market, Maysville, in Alabama.
A Federal expedition travels from Camp Bidwell to Antelope Creek, California.
Skirmishes erupt at Newport Bridge, Florida.
The destruction of Union transports commences on the Neuse River, North Carolina.
A Federal expedition travels from Georgetown to Camden, South Carolina, and skirmishes at Dingle's Mill, near Sumterville, near Statesburg, at Boykins' Mill, at Bradford Springs, at Beech Creek, near Statesburg and at Denkins' Mill. Another Federal expedition moves from Charleston to the Santee River, South Carolina.
The engagement at Amelia Springs, Virginia, occurs as General Robert E. Lee unable to feed his troops, orders food be sent by rail from Lynchburg, and turns his army toward Farmville. Major General George G. Meade refrains Major General Philip H. Sheridan from attacking until more Union reinforcements arrive, in the Appomattox Campaign.
Skirmishing takes place at Paine's Cross Roads, Virginia, in the Appomattox Campaign.
The steamer Harriet DeFord was boarded and seized in the Chesapeake Bay, 30 miles below Annapolis, Maryland, by a party of 27 Confederate guerrillas led by Captain Thaddeus Fitzhugh. A naval detachment under Lieutenant Commander Edward Hooker was sent in pursuit and found the Harriet DeFord trapped in Dimer's Creek, Virginia, burned to the water's edge. A captive reported that a pilot had taken the steamer into the creek and that she went aground several times. Some of the cargo was thrown overboard to lighten the ship and the remainder was unloaded with the help of local farmers before the torch was put to the steamer.
Commander William Henry Alexander Macomb steadily pushed up the narrowing Chowan River and its tributaries preparing for General William Tecumseh Sherman's move north. This date he reported from "Meherrin River, near Murfreesboro, N.C." near the Virginia border and fat inland: "The steamer Shokokon arrived at Winton yesterday, and I have stationed her a short distance below here near an ugly bluff some 60 or 80 feet high, on which I thought the Rebels might give us some trouble on our return. There were some rifle pits on the brow of this bluff, but I sent a party down there and had them filled up. There is also an old earthwork, made to mount six guns, a short distance below here, which I have had partially destroyed. The river is rather narrower than the Roanoke, but not quite so crooked. I got 50 men (soldiers) from Winton to hold the bluff till we have passed, the river being very crooked and narrow at this point, so much so that we are unable to steam by, but will have to warp the ship round."
Frederick Tracy Dent, USA, is appointed Brigadier General.
Union troops scout from Huntsville to New Market, Maysville, in Alabama.
A Federal expedition travels from Camp Bidwell to Antelope Creek, California.
Skirmishes erupt at Newport Bridge, Florida.
The destruction of Union transports commences on the Neuse River, North Carolina.
A Federal expedition travels from Georgetown to Camden, South Carolina, and skirmishes at Dingle's Mill, near Sumterville, near Statesburg, at Boykins' Mill, at Bradford Springs, at Beech Creek, near Statesburg and at Denkins' Mill. Another Federal expedition moves from Charleston to the Santee River, South Carolina.
The engagement at Amelia Springs, Virginia, occurs as General Robert E. Lee unable to feed his troops, orders food be sent by rail from Lynchburg, and turns his army toward Farmville. Major General George G. Meade refrains Major General Philip H. Sheridan from attacking until more Union reinforcements arrive, in the Appomattox Campaign.
Skirmishing takes place at Paine's Cross Roads, Virginia, in the Appomattox Campaign.
The steamer Harriet DeFord was boarded and seized in the Chesapeake Bay, 30 miles below Annapolis, Maryland, by a party of 27 Confederate guerrillas led by Captain Thaddeus Fitzhugh. A naval detachment under Lieutenant Commander Edward Hooker was sent in pursuit and found the Harriet DeFord trapped in Dimer's Creek, Virginia, burned to the water's edge. A captive reported that a pilot had taken the steamer into the creek and that she went aground several times. Some of the cargo was thrown overboard to lighten the ship and the remainder was unloaded with the help of local farmers before the torch was put to the steamer.
Posted on 4/5/15 at 9:40 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Thursday, 6 April 1865
The last major engagement between the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and Union Army of the Potomac occurred at Sayler’s Creek, near the Farmville and High Bridge crossings of the Appomattox River. Crossing the stream was imperative for safety and the army attempted to keep together, which was impossible. In the bottom land of Sayler’s Creek, the retreating column split and the Federals moved in forcing a gap in the Confederate line. Confederate General Robert E. Lee, Lieutenant General James Longstreet and Major General William Mahone continued on while Lieutenant General Richard S. Ewell and Lieutenant General Richard H. Anderson followed behind the gap. The wagons were ordered on a detour to cross the river. Anderson and Ewell were quickly pressed back, but mounted a counter-charge which failed in the face of strong artillery fire. Federal flanks closed in towards the middle and Ewell was forced to surrender. Some 8,000 Confederates surrendered while Federals suffered approximately 1,180 sustained casualties. It is estimated that the Confederates lost about a third of the men that departed Amelia Court House that morning. As Lee witnessed the engagement, he exclaimed, “My God! Has the army been dissolved?” It was clear that the numbers of the once proud Army of Northern Virginia were diminishing rapidly.
Acting Lieutenant John Rogers, commanding both the USS Carondelet and Eastport, Mississippi, station, wrote Brigadier General Edward Hatcher about joint operations in the area and expressed a desire to cooperate to the extent of his ability: "...if you are in danger of being attacked by the Enemy...send timely notice to us, that everything connected with the Army and Navy may work harmoniously together." From the early moments of the War, such as the Battle of Belmont, 7 November 1861, to the last days of conflict, the usual close coordination of the Army and Navy enabled the Union to strike quickly and effectively in the West--first against Confederate positions and later against Confederate threats.
Lieutenant Commander Francis M. Ramsay indicated the extent of the Confederate underwater defenses of the James River as he reported to Rear Admiral David D. Porter on an expedition aimed at clearing out the torpedoes: "All galvanic batteries were carried off or destroyed. At Chaffin's Bluff there was a torpedo containing 1,700 pounds of powder. At Battery Semmes there were two, containing 850 pounds each, and at Howlett's one containing 1,400 pounds. I cut the wires of them all close down, so that they are now perfectly harmless."
Confederate Major General John Austin Wharton is mortally wounded, shot by Colonel George W. Baylor, of the Second Confederate Texas Cavalry, after arguing over general military affairs in General Wharton's Houston, Texas, hotel room.
More skirmishing erupts at King's Store, and near Lanier's Mill, on Sipsey Creek, Alabama, with Brigadier General James H. Wilson and Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Actions take place at Natural Bridge, Florida.
Skirmishes commence at Flat Creek, near Amelia Springs, and near High Bridge, Virginia, in the Appomattox Campaign.
Confederate Brigadier General James Dearing is mortally wounded during the action at High Bridge from a pistol duel with Union Brevetted Brigadier General Theodore Read who died.
Skirmishing breaks out at Rice's Station, Virginia, as the other Confederate column under Lieutenant General James Longstreet encounters the Federals under Major General Edward O.C. Ord in the Appomattox Campaign.
Actions continue at Wytheville, Virginia, with Major General George Stoneman's Union forces.
An engagement occurs near Charlestown, West Virginia, where Confederate Lieutenant Colonel John Singleton Mosby and his Virginia Partisan Rangers surprise the camp of the Union Loudoun County Rangers, capturing a number of men and nearly all of their horses. This is to be Mosby's final escapade against the Federal military forces.
Yesterday, President Abraham Lincoln conferred with John A. Campbell again and issued a statement about restoring Virginia to the Union. At 6 p.m., Lincoln received news that Secretary of State William H. Seward had been critically injured in a carriage accident in Washington that afternoon.
The last major engagement between the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and Union Army of the Potomac occurred at Sayler’s Creek, near the Farmville and High Bridge crossings of the Appomattox River. Crossing the stream was imperative for safety and the army attempted to keep together, which was impossible. In the bottom land of Sayler’s Creek, the retreating column split and the Federals moved in forcing a gap in the Confederate line. Confederate General Robert E. Lee, Lieutenant General James Longstreet and Major General William Mahone continued on while Lieutenant General Richard S. Ewell and Lieutenant General Richard H. Anderson followed behind the gap. The wagons were ordered on a detour to cross the river. Anderson and Ewell were quickly pressed back, but mounted a counter-charge which failed in the face of strong artillery fire. Federal flanks closed in towards the middle and Ewell was forced to surrender. Some 8,000 Confederates surrendered while Federals suffered approximately 1,180 sustained casualties. It is estimated that the Confederates lost about a third of the men that departed Amelia Court House that morning. As Lee witnessed the engagement, he exclaimed, “My God! Has the army been dissolved?” It was clear that the numbers of the once proud Army of Northern Virginia were diminishing rapidly.
Acting Lieutenant John Rogers, commanding both the USS Carondelet and Eastport, Mississippi, station, wrote Brigadier General Edward Hatcher about joint operations in the area and expressed a desire to cooperate to the extent of his ability: "...if you are in danger of being attacked by the Enemy...send timely notice to us, that everything connected with the Army and Navy may work harmoniously together." From the early moments of the War, such as the Battle of Belmont, 7 November 1861, to the last days of conflict, the usual close coordination of the Army and Navy enabled the Union to strike quickly and effectively in the West--first against Confederate positions and later against Confederate threats.
Lieutenant Commander Francis M. Ramsay indicated the extent of the Confederate underwater defenses of the James River as he reported to Rear Admiral David D. Porter on an expedition aimed at clearing out the torpedoes: "All galvanic batteries were carried off or destroyed. At Chaffin's Bluff there was a torpedo containing 1,700 pounds of powder. At Battery Semmes there were two, containing 850 pounds each, and at Howlett's one containing 1,400 pounds. I cut the wires of them all close down, so that they are now perfectly harmless."
Confederate Major General John Austin Wharton is mortally wounded, shot by Colonel George W. Baylor, of the Second Confederate Texas Cavalry, after arguing over general military affairs in General Wharton's Houston, Texas, hotel room.
More skirmishing erupts at King's Store, and near Lanier's Mill, on Sipsey Creek, Alabama, with Brigadier General James H. Wilson and Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Actions take place at Natural Bridge, Florida.
Skirmishes commence at Flat Creek, near Amelia Springs, and near High Bridge, Virginia, in the Appomattox Campaign.
Confederate Brigadier General James Dearing is mortally wounded during the action at High Bridge from a pistol duel with Union Brevetted Brigadier General Theodore Read who died.
Skirmishing breaks out at Rice's Station, Virginia, as the other Confederate column under Lieutenant General James Longstreet encounters the Federals under Major General Edward O.C. Ord in the Appomattox Campaign.
Actions continue at Wytheville, Virginia, with Major General George Stoneman's Union forces.
An engagement occurs near Charlestown, West Virginia, where Confederate Lieutenant Colonel John Singleton Mosby and his Virginia Partisan Rangers surprise the camp of the Union Loudoun County Rangers, capturing a number of men and nearly all of their horses. This is to be Mosby's final escapade against the Federal military forces.
Yesterday, President Abraham Lincoln conferred with John A. Campbell again and issued a statement about restoring Virginia to the Union. At 6 p.m., Lincoln received news that Secretary of State William H. Seward had been critically injured in a carriage accident in Washington that afternoon.
This post was edited on 4/6/15 at 5:02 am
Posted on 4/6/15 at 7:29 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Friday, 7 April 1865
Union Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant, in an effort to end the conflict in Virginia and avoid further bloodshed, sends a message to Confederate General Robert E. Lee asking for the surrender of his Army of Northern Virginia.
The Confederate Army, meanwhile, receives more punishment even though the much smaller force repulses the Federals in an engagement near Farmville, Virginia, and crosses the Appomattox River to continue their retreat on the north side. Although the Confederates attempted to burn the bridges behind them, Federal troop movements blocked Lee at Appomattox Station and Appomattox Court House, squeezing Lee between Union forces on the east and west flanks.
Second account: Union Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant confers with Confederate General Robert E. Lee through messages about the potential surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia under Lee, near Appomattox Court House, Virginia, as the starving and worn remnants of Lee's Southern Army cross the Appomattox River and receive much needed rations at Farmville, while the Union forces continue to surround them.
Another report: The Battle at Farmville, Virginia, erupts as the Union forces continue to press General Robert E. Lee's beleaguered troops during the Appomattox Campaign. Federal Major General Thomas Alfred Smyth is mortally wounded during the engagement at Farmville while riding his horse and encouraging him men on the firing line, receiving his death wound from the rifle of a Confederate sharpshooter, shot through the mouth.
Skirmishing also occurs at High Bridge, and at Prince Edward Court House, Virginia, in the Appomattox Campaign.
Union controlled Tennessee becomes the 18th state to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment and inaugurates avowed abolitionist and staunch unionist William Gannaway “Parson” Brownlow as the state’s governor, who would soon become known as ‘The Terror of Tennessee’. Brownlow’s attitude on the issue of slavery evolved over the years; he had apparently supported abolition, then backed a proposal to repatriate slaves to Liberia, and later became a supporter of slavery. Brownlow’s backing for slavery seemed to become more rabid during the 1850's and he once invited prominent Northerners to debate the issue with him, a challenge which was accepted by Frederick Douglass. Brownlow indignantly refused Douglass’s offer to debate slavery due to his race. Brownlow was also violently anti-Catholic, denouncing what he referred to as “Romanism.” He assumed the same policies and attitudes held by the Radical Republicans, who dominated the Congress. They saw former Confederates as absolute traitors who deserved the harshest kind of punishment. The Republicans rejected the more forgiving policies formulated by President Abraham Lincoln, which were also basically the policies advocated by Lincoln’s successor, Andrew Johnson. The Radical Republicans were far less interested in healing the wounds of the Civil War than extracting a pound of flesh from Southerners.
At City Point, Virginia, President Abraham Lincoln sent a wire to Grant stating: “Gen. Sheridan says ‘If the thing is pressed I think that Lee will surrender.’ Let the thing be pressed.”
Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his Cabinet were in Danville, Virginia, attempting to do what they could, though their efforts had little effect.
Commander William Henry Alexander Macomb reports to Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter on developments in North Carolina near the Virginia border: "We arrived here [Winton] from Murfreesboro last night without accident. The army force has returned and we are going back to Suffolk. They found Weldon too strong for them, but succeeded in cutting the Seaboard Railroad near Seaboard for about a mile. I shall lie here some time longer in order to be ready for any more troops that may wish to cross."
Federal troops scout from near Blakely toward Stockton, Alabama, in the Mobile Campaign.
Skirmishing breaks out at Pike's Ferry, on the Catawba River, Alabama, as Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest's Confederates and Brigadier General James H. Wilson's Federals continue to spar with their cavalry commands.
Brigadier General George D. Wagner, USA, is assigned to the command of the Saint Louis, Missouri, District.
Union Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant, in an effort to end the conflict in Virginia and avoid further bloodshed, sends a message to Confederate General Robert E. Lee asking for the surrender of his Army of Northern Virginia.
The Confederate Army, meanwhile, receives more punishment even though the much smaller force repulses the Federals in an engagement near Farmville, Virginia, and crosses the Appomattox River to continue their retreat on the north side. Although the Confederates attempted to burn the bridges behind them, Federal troop movements blocked Lee at Appomattox Station and Appomattox Court House, squeezing Lee between Union forces on the east and west flanks.
Second account: Union Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant confers with Confederate General Robert E. Lee through messages about the potential surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia under Lee, near Appomattox Court House, Virginia, as the starving and worn remnants of Lee's Southern Army cross the Appomattox River and receive much needed rations at Farmville, while the Union forces continue to surround them.
Another report: The Battle at Farmville, Virginia, erupts as the Union forces continue to press General Robert E. Lee's beleaguered troops during the Appomattox Campaign. Federal Major General Thomas Alfred Smyth is mortally wounded during the engagement at Farmville while riding his horse and encouraging him men on the firing line, receiving his death wound from the rifle of a Confederate sharpshooter, shot through the mouth.
Skirmishing also occurs at High Bridge, and at Prince Edward Court House, Virginia, in the Appomattox Campaign.
Union controlled Tennessee becomes the 18th state to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment and inaugurates avowed abolitionist and staunch unionist William Gannaway “Parson” Brownlow as the state’s governor, who would soon become known as ‘The Terror of Tennessee’. Brownlow’s attitude on the issue of slavery evolved over the years; he had apparently supported abolition, then backed a proposal to repatriate slaves to Liberia, and later became a supporter of slavery. Brownlow’s backing for slavery seemed to become more rabid during the 1850's and he once invited prominent Northerners to debate the issue with him, a challenge which was accepted by Frederick Douglass. Brownlow indignantly refused Douglass’s offer to debate slavery due to his race. Brownlow was also violently anti-Catholic, denouncing what he referred to as “Romanism.” He assumed the same policies and attitudes held by the Radical Republicans, who dominated the Congress. They saw former Confederates as absolute traitors who deserved the harshest kind of punishment. The Republicans rejected the more forgiving policies formulated by President Abraham Lincoln, which were also basically the policies advocated by Lincoln’s successor, Andrew Johnson. The Radical Republicans were far less interested in healing the wounds of the Civil War than extracting a pound of flesh from Southerners.
At City Point, Virginia, President Abraham Lincoln sent a wire to Grant stating: “Gen. Sheridan says ‘If the thing is pressed I think that Lee will surrender.’ Let the thing be pressed.”
Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his Cabinet were in Danville, Virginia, attempting to do what they could, though their efforts had little effect.
Commander William Henry Alexander Macomb reports to Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter on developments in North Carolina near the Virginia border: "We arrived here [Winton] from Murfreesboro last night without accident. The army force has returned and we are going back to Suffolk. They found Weldon too strong for them, but succeeded in cutting the Seaboard Railroad near Seaboard for about a mile. I shall lie here some time longer in order to be ready for any more troops that may wish to cross."
Federal troops scout from near Blakely toward Stockton, Alabama, in the Mobile Campaign.
Skirmishing breaks out at Pike's Ferry, on the Catawba River, Alabama, as Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest's Confederates and Brigadier General James H. Wilson's Federals continue to spar with their cavalry commands.
Brigadier General George D. Wagner, USA, is assigned to the command of the Saint Louis, Missouri, District.
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