re: 150 years ago this day...

Tuesday, 27 October 1863

Confederate Colonel Leon Smith, commanding the Marine Department of Texas, reported the status of the small gunboats in the area. The CSS Clifton, Sachem, and Jacob A. Bell were at Sabine Pass; the CSS Bayou City, Diana, and Harriet Lane were at Galveston Bay; the CSS Mary Hill was at Velasco, and the CSS John F. Carr was at Saluria on the eastern end of Matagorda Island. Both the CSS Bayou City and Harriet Lane were without guns and the remainder mounted a total of only 15 cannon.

A Union expedition to capture Brazos Santiago, and the mouth of the Rio Grande River departed New Orleans, Louisiana, convoyed by the USS Monongahela, under Commander Strong; the USS Owasco, Lieutenant Commander Edmund W. Henry in charge; and the USS Virginia, Acting Lieutenant C.H. Brown piloting. This was the beginning of yet another Union move not only to wrest Texas from Confederate control but to preclude the possibility of a movement into the State by French troops in Mexico.

The USS Granite City, commanded by Acting Master C. W. Lamson, captured the schooner Anita off Pass Cavallo, Texas, with a large cargo of cotton.
By 0300 the full moon had set, leaving the Tennessee River veiled in darkened fog. General William Hazen and his men had boarded over crowded pontoon boats and were floating with the current to Brown’s Ferry. There, a bridge would be hastily built to cross even more Federal troops. Before the dawn, two brigades of infantry would storm the Southern held shore. The Union Army of the Cumberland had been besieged in Chattanooga by General Braxton Bragg’s Army of Tennessee. Supplies were low and the roads on the Union held side of the river were impassible. The only option was to open a route on the Confederate side. Smith had devised it, and both army commander, George Thomas, and department commander, Hiram Ulysses Grant, approved it. Originally, Joesph Hooker was to dive into the thick of things from Bridgeport, farther down the river. But after too many excuses, Grant cared little whether or not he made an appearance. Smith’s two brigades along with a brigade of engineers, were to drive away the Rebel skirmishers and secure the road downriver and around Lookout Mountain to Kelley’s Ferry, opening the so-called Cracker Line.

Through the shroud, the point of Lookout Mountain directed Hazen and his boats to the Confederate banks. Their landing was in the gorge cut by Lookout Creek between its namesake eminence and Raccoon Mountain, rising directly west. Well before they landed, the Rebel pickets spotted them and fired. From the boats, Hazen’s men fired into the gloom, accented only by the watchfires built by Rebel pickets. And soon they were ashore, spilling out and clamoring up the banks. The fighting, if it could be called such, lasted no more than ten minutes. As the Confederates fell back to their main camp, the Union troops began to build the pontoon bridge. Colonel William Oates had been placed in command of two Alabama regiments and told to guard Brown’s Ferry. He was the extreme left of the Union line. Oates was of Evander Law’s Brigade of Micah Jenkin’s Division within James Longstreet’s Corps. Jenkins had taken the place of the wounded John Bell Hood. Oates had expected an attack, but could do little with the small number of troops at his disposal. Late the previous night, he sent a message to General Longstreet, but it went unnoticed, or at least unheeded. A frantic courier roused Oates from his short slumber. When Oates asked him how many Yankees were across the river, the courier, who had only seen the first detachment, replied, “Some seventy-five or one hundred.” This, thought Oates, was manageable. “I had the long roll beaten,” wrote Oates after the war, “and gave orders for the men to leave their knapsacks in camp and their little tent flies standing.” A couple sick men were left to guard the camp as Oates rode off to battle with his regiment. Oates and his men marched through the gorge and nearly right into the enemy held rifle-pits so recently held by his own troops.

He halted his men and quietly they counter marched, taking up a position about 100 yards distant. He detailed two companies as skirmishers, sending them forward with instructions “...to walk right up to the foe, and for every man to place the muzzle of his rifle against the body of a Yankee when he fired.” Through the darkness and gloom they faded, and Oates waited for the firing to begin. The Confederate skirmishers may have fired, or perhaps the Federals caught glimpses of their forms nearing their lines through the coming gray dawn. Either way, the Union troops, which, as a forward vanguard, numbered only 100 or so, took flight. The Confederate skirmishers followed, as several Yankees surrendered. They were soon inside the enemy breastworks when they discovered the true force before them. From their right, a volley split the air. No matter how many companies Oates maneuvered into action, he was always outflanked. But at least they had cover. A bullet pierced Oates’ jacket, and another felled his horse. On his feet, he rushed forward with his men, but was quickly shot through his left hip. “It struck a blow as though a brick had been hurled against me, and hurt so badly that I started to curse as I fell, and said ‘God d-,’” Oates recalled, “when thinking it possible I was killed, and that it would not seem well for a man to die with an oath in his mouth, I cut it off at that d- and did not finish the sentence.” Amid the confusion, Oates was borne to a small house and directed his second to save the artillery, which was booming only 100 yards away. Before the Yankees advanced and captured him, he was somehow able to mount a horse and ride south to the mouth of Lookout Creek, a mile or so upriver from Brown’s Ferry. The rest of his men fell back, folding themselves into Lookout Mountain as the Federals established a force two brigades strong near the landing. Only the reports of a few Confederate guns marked the rest of the morning and afternoon. By 1630, the pontoon bridge was completed.

Throughout the day, James Longstreet watched from high atop Lookout Mountain. To Braxton Bragg, army commander, he mused that the enemy was creating a diversion by sending a landing party to Brown’s Ferry. The true attack, he believed, would come from Bridgeport and fall upon the left flank and rear of the army, held by Longstreet’s own troops. Longstreet, of course, had more than enough men at hand to launch some sort of counterattack. However, he believed that the Federal assault would soon come from an opposite direction. As if to justify this thought, a message arrived in the late afternoon telling of a large Federal force that had crossed the river at Bridgeport. To Longstreet, his prophecy was about to be fulfilled. Bragg, on the other hand, did not believe for a second that the Federals were about to nip at their rear. But he ordered Longstreet only to stop the enemy’s “designs.” Longstreet did not take that to mean that he was to attack Brown’s Ferry, and sent a brigade south, hoping to slow the coming Bridgeport Federals. Later, a furious Bragg directly ordered Longstreet to launch a counterattack upon the ferry at dawn. Meanwhile, Joe Hooker with more than a corps of infantry, was marching ever closer from Bridgeport. His troops had turned away from the river at Rankin’s Ferry, and arrived at Whiteside by dark. They were ten miles or so from uniting with Baldy Smith’s men at Brown’s Ferry

At Charleston, South Carolina, four monitors again opened fire upon Fort Sumter, at a distance of around one mile, and continued the bombardment until late in the afternoon. At eleven o'clock in the morning solid shot were thrown into the city of Charleston, one of which struck the building occupied by the Union Bank.

Wednesday, 28 October 1863

The "Cracker Line" was the name for the supply line cut through to the Union army bottled up in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It had barely been established, and in fact was still under threat by Confederate forces on Raccoon Mountain overlooking vital Brown's Ferry. The threat was obvious to both sides, and on this night in the war, Gen. James Longstreet's men came to try to knock it out. Brig. Gen. John W. Geary's troops in the Lookout Valley and Wauhatchie were the defenders in this action, and despite intense action and being outnumbered, the Federal lines held. It was one of the rare nighttime actions of the war. Most combat was over by 4 a.m. The Cracker Line was not threatened again. The battle of Lookout Mountain took place this day.

The CSS Georgia, an 1150-ton iron screw steam cruiser commanded by Lieutenant W. L. Maury, anchored at Cherbourg, France, She just concluded a seven-month cruise against Union commerce with her round stern, iron frame, fiddle-bow figurehead, as well as a short, thick funnel and full poop. During this period the raider destroyed a number of prizes and bonded the remainder for a total of $200,000. A short time later, Flag Officer Samuel Barton, CSN, advised Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory that the ship had been laid up: "The Georgia, Commander W.L. Maury, arrived in Cherbourg a few days ago almost broken down; she has lost her speed, not now going under a full head of steam over 6 knots an hour, and is good for nothing as a cruiser under sail."

Major General Benjamin F. "Spoons" Butler, by direction of the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, was appointed to the command of the Eighteenth Army Corps, and of the Department of Virginia and North Carolina.

A heavy fire was kept up on the sea face of Fort Sumter during the whole of last night, by the monitors and two guns at Battery Gregg, and this morning the bombardment of the Confederate works was renewed with great vigor.

Heavy correspondence in relation to the successful expeditions of Confederate privateers upon the commerce of the United States, passed between the merchants of New York and Federal Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles.

Chat

None taken, but am not sure I understand. Why wouldn't reading about history on a day-by-day basis exactly 150 years later not provide some insight into events, either directly or indirectly related, that are unfolding in the present?

Friday, 30 October 1863

Arkansas, although firmly a member of the Confederacy, was nevertheless a border state on two sides, Missouri lies to the north and the Indian Territory (which would later become Oklahoma) sits on the west. This meant that it suffered some of the same embarrassing problems of other border states. Specifically, a group of unreconstructed Union sympathizers held a meeting in Fort Smith today. By means unspecified in history, they not only managed to meet and then get out of town without death, maiming or even serious insult, they even elected a member of their group as their representative to Congress, in Washington, DC, not Richmond. They were "Unconditional Unionists", representing twenty counties of Western Arkansas, and the convention they held at Fort Smith-at which patriotic speeches were made and resolutions adopted-saw Colonel Johnson of the First Arkansas Infantry, nominated to represent that district in the Congress of the United States.

The USS Vanderbilt, under Commander Baldwin, captured the bark Saxon, suspected of having rendezvoused with and taken cargo from the CSS Tuscaloosa at Angra Pequena, Africa.

The USS Annie, Acting Ensign Williams in charge, seized the blockade running British schooner Meteor off of Bayport, in Hernando County, Florida.

The Federal forces which occupied Loudon, Tennessee, retired to the north bank of the river, and established themselves upon the heights commanding the town.

The Richmond Whig contained the following this morning: Beef ought to be selling now at sixty-five to seventy cents a pound, in accordance with the proposed arrangements between the butchers and the government. It is quoted in yesterday morning's report of the markets at a dollar to a dollar and a half a pound. The butchers say they are unable to get cattle, and may be compelled to close their stalls for want of meat to sell.

LINK

Sunday, 1 November 1863

Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor, had seen the very beginning of the war, when it suffered shelling from the Southern forces for 34 hours over three days. It had endured one major round of shelling since then, when the first massive Federal assault had taken place. Now, it was undergoing yet another one. Since the bombardment had begun, from mortars and from rifled batteries, hundreds and then thousands of shells had been hurled at the installation. Yesterday morning, a portion of the outer wall fell in, burying beneath the ruins some men of the Twelfth Georgia and Twenty-fifth South Carolina. Thirteen were buried by the falling in of the barracks on the sea face of the Fort. Over one thousand two hundred shots were fired in twenty-four hours; the shots averaged four per minute. The firing was from two monitors--two heavy and two light rifled guns at Fort Gregg, four ten-inch mortars at the middle battery, and four rifled guns at Fort Wagner. Today, yet another 786 rounds were fired, with the net effect of inflicting injury on precisely one defender. That reflected the physical injuries anyway. The psychological toll was vastly greater, as the impact of the explosions continued to wear away on the men in their bombproof shelters. The onslaught would continue without cessation.

A plot to liberate the Rebel prisoners in Ohio was discovered, and several parties to it were arrested. It was concerted that on a given night, which had not been definitely fixed, a sufficient number of the conspirators were to assemble in the vicinity of Camp Chase, and at a known signal were to overpower the guard, (which was far from being a strong one,) and at the same time the prisoners, who were to be apprised of what was going on, and who numbered about four thousand, were to make a rush from the inside, and thus secure their freedom. Having armed themselves with the weapons of the guard, they were then to march on Columbus, and seize the arsenal, arming themselves completely with the United States arms stored there. From thence, their next attack was to be on the Penitentiary for the release of John Morgan and his men, by whom the newly formed Confederate army in Ohio was to be officer led. Then the Rebel campaign in Ohio was to be commenced, and the first proceeding on the part of the traitors was to be the cutting of the telegraph wires and the burning of the railroad-bridges, in order to prevent the arrival of Federal troops. The parties involved in the matter were very numerous, and were to be found in almost every part of the State, some of them occupying positions under the United States and State government, which rendered it a somewhat easier task for the detectives to gain access to the nest of traitors. The leading man in the conspiracy was Charles W. H. Cathcart.

A party of partisan guerrillas, under Campbell, entered Charleston, Missouri, night before last, and after robbing the stores and private houses, retreated, carrying away with them Colonel Deal.

Charles R. Ellet, commanding the Mississippi Marine Brigade, died, at Bunker Hill, Illinois, on Thursday last, October twenty-nine.

Jay Cooke, the subscription agent of the United States Government, reported the sales of over thirty-six millions of five-twenty bonds during the previous week. The following official communication from Provost-Marshal General James B. Fry, to Colonel Robert Nugent, Assistant Provost-Marshal of New York, was made public: The representations made by Dean Richmond and Peter Cagger, in a printed circular, dated October twenty-seventh, 1863, in respect to the action of the Provost-Marshal General, are untrue. It is not true that the State of New York is charged as with a deficiency for every citizen who has paid the three hundred dollars commutation money, receiving no credit therefor. On the contrary, the State receives the same credit for a man who has paid commutation as if the drafted citizen had gone in person or furnished a substitute; and in like manner towns which had raised the money to pay their quotas receive the same credit as if actual substitutes had been furnished. And the President has ordered, that every citizen who has paid the three hundred dollars commutation shall receive the same credit therefor, as if he had furnished a substitute, and is exonerated from military service for the time for which he was drafted, to wit, for three years. As the misrepresentations of Dean Richmond and Peter Cagger have been published and circulated for electioneering purposes, it is proper that you give them immediate correction.

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Tuesday, 3 November 1863

To the thousands of mortar, cannon and artillery shells which had already been flung at the battered hulk of Fort Sumter were added another 661 which were shot off today. The problem, from the point of view of the Union attackers, was that as long as the bombproof shelters provided cover for the Confederate defenders, any further damage to the shell of the fort itself was more or less unimportant. The essential point was summed up in a report by Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren after inspecting the fort through a telescope from his flagship in Charleston Harbor. He could, he wrote “...could plainly observe the further effects of the firing; still, this mass of ruin [Sumter] is capable of harboring a number of the enemy, who may retain their hold until expelled by the bayonet...” The air war was not working and ground forces would eventually have to be used.

Naval forces under Commander Strong, including the USS Monongahela, Owasco, and Virginia, convoyed and supported troops commanded by General Nathaniel Banks at Brazos Santiago, Texas. The landing began on the 2nd and continued the next day without opposition. On the 4th Brownsville, Texas, was evacuated, and the Union foothold on the Mexican border was secured. Major General Dana wrote Commander Strong thanking him for the "...many services you have rendered this expedition, particularly for the gallant service rendered by Captain Henry and the crew of the Owasco in saving the steam transport Zephyr from wreck during the late storm [encountered enroute on 30 October] and towing her to the rendezvous, and to you and your crew for assisting the steam transport Bagley in distress; also especially for the signal gallantry of your brave tars in landing our soldiers through the dangerous surf yesterday at the mouth of the Rio Grande" The naval force also quickly effected the capture of several blockade runners in the vicinity.

The USS Kenwood, under Acting Master Swaney, captured the steamer Black Flank off Port Hudson, Louisiana, with a cargo of cotton.

Colonel Fitzgibbon, of the Thirteenth Michigan infantry, overtook the combined forces of Cooper, Kirk, Williams, and Scott, numbering four hundred men, this morning, at Lawrenceburgh, thirty-five miles south of Columbia, Tenn. After a severe hand-to-hand fight, he defeated them with a loss on his part of three men wounded, and eight horses killed. The rebel loss was eight killed, seven wounded, and twenty-four prisoners, among them one captain and two lieutenants. General Bragg's forage-train, sent up Lookout Valley, in front of his position, was captured. The train was sent to camp. The train-guard was also captured.

Official Report: General Saxton issued a circular to the freedmen of South Carolina, authorizing them to locate in the lands in that department which were about to be sold by the Tax Commissioners, not exceeding twenty acres for each head of a family. The description of the land, when located, to be accompanied by the deposit of the Government price, about one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre.

Major General Granger reported, from Nashville, Tennessee, that he sent a detachment of cavalry from that place, under Colonel Shelby, to pursue Hawkins and other partisan guerrillas. He overtook Hawkins near Piney Factory, and routed and pursued him to Centreville, where he made a stand; routed him again, and pursued him until his forces dispersed. The Confederate loss was fifteen or twenty killed, and sixty-six prisoners. The Union loss was reported as "slight..."

The battle of Bayou Grand Coteau, Louisiana, also known as the battle of Bayou Bourbeaux, was fought this day.

Colliersville, Tennessee, was attacked by a body of Confederates, belonging to the command of General Chalmers, who was repulsed with some loss, by the Federals, under the command of Colonel Hatch.

Chat

Thursday, 5 November 1863

For more than a week now Federal forces had been shelling Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. Scene of the first shots of the war, it was enduring a bombardment now that was almost unprecedented in warfare. On some days, the incoming rounds had been hitting at the rate of two per minute, hour after hour after hour. Although the Confederates manning the installation were in little physical danger due to the existence of bombproof shelters inside the walls of the fort, the mental and psychological suffering was intense. Today the Atlantic Blockading Squadron joined its guns into the project to give the men of the shore batteries some rest. Admiral John A. Dahlgren, commanding, was examining the place through his telescope. "The only original feature left is the northeast face," he wrote. "The rest is a pile of rubbish."

The USS Virginia, under Acting Lieutenant C.H. Brown, seized the blockade running British bark Science, and, in company with USS Owasco, Lieutenant Commander Henry in charge, captured the blockade running British brigs Volante and Dashing Wave at the mouth of the Rio Grande River.

Rear Admiral David D. Porter wrote Major General Nathaniel P. Banks in response to the General's long expressed request for gunboats near and below New Orleans. The Admiral advised him that a dozen gunboats were being fitted out, and added "This will give you 22 gunboats in your department, with those now there, and I may be able to do more after we drive the Rebels back from the Tennessee River." Banks wrote in mid-December that this assistance would "...render it impossible for the enemy to annoy us, as they have heretofore done, by using against us the wonderful network of navigable waters west of the Mississippi River."

The Blockade runner Margaret and Jessie was captured at sea east of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, after a prolonged chase by the Army transport Fulton and the USS Nansemond, commanded by Lieutenant R. H. Lamson. The chase had been started the preceding evening by USS Howquah, under Acting Lieutenant John MacDiarmid, which kept the steamer in sight throughout the night. The USS Keystone State, Commander Edward Donaldson in charge, joined the chase in the morning and was at hand when the capture was effected, putting an end to the career of a ship that had run the blockade some 15 times. Another report: The United States transport Fulton captured the Rebel blockade steamer Margaret and Jessie, this morning, at seven o'clock, when off Wilmington, North Carolina. The look-out at the foretop masthead made out a suspicious steamer painted entirely white, and burning soft coal, three points on the port bow; immediately gave chase, which resulted in her altering her course several times; following her, after a short time it was discovered that she was throwing cargo overboard, which confirmed our first suspicions that she was a blockade runner. There was also in sight a fore-and-aft-rigged gunboat, five points on our port-bow. She remained in sight for a short time, when we lost sight of her astern. At ten A. M., made a side-wheel gunboat on the port beam, (afterward ascertained to be the Keystone State.) About this time we fired three shots at the chase from a twenty-pound Parrott gun, falling short of the mark. At eleven A. M., made a side-wheel gunboat, (afterward ascertained to be the Nansemond,) three points on the port-bow, also in pursuit. From this time until four P. M., continued in pursuit, gradually widening the space between us and the gunboats, and nearing the chase,when, after having fired fifteen shots, some of which passed entirely over the object, and others striking quite near, and after leaving our competitors far astern, the prize hove to. At this time the Keystone State was about ten miles astern, and the Nansemond about five miles. When the prize hove to, a prize crew, in charge of our first officer and the purser, was immediately sent on board, and a hawser from our stern attached to the prize ? now ascertained to be the steamer Margaret and Jessie, of Charleston, from Nassau, in the Bahamas, for a Confederate port. The gunboat Nansemond arrived alongside the prize about half an hour, and the Keystone State about one hour after our hawser was made fast to the prize. This steamer is a valuable vessel, of about eight hundred tons burden, and has on board an unusually valuable cargo.

The USS Beauregard, Acting Master Burgess commanding, seized the blockade running British schooner Volante off Cape Canaveral, Florida, with a cargo including salt and dry goods.

General Sanders, in command of a large Union cavalry force, overtook a Confederate regiment at Metley's Ford, on the Little Tennessee River, charged and drove them across the river, capturing forty, including four commissioned officers. Between forty and fifty were killed or drowned, and the entire regiment lost their arms. Colonel Adams, who led the charge, reported he lost no man or material.

The ship Amanda was captured and burned, when about two hundred miles from Java Head, by the Confederate steamer Alabama, under the command of Captain Raphael Semmes.

Brownsville, Texas, was occupied by the Federal troops, under the command of Major General Nathaniel Banks, the Rebels having evacuated the place, after destroying the barracks and other buildings.

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Saturday, 7 November 1863

It came as something of a surprise to nearly everyone, but hostile action was not in fact over for the winter in Virginia quite yet. General George Meade ordered his Army of the Potomac across the Rappahannock River one more time, crossing at Rappahannock Station and Kelly's Ford. The passage, although unexpected, was not unopposed, and there were sharp fights at both sites. In response, General Robert E. Lee began shifting his men to a line at the Rapidan River in interpose. Having the army closer to the capital was probably a relief to the citizenry of Richmond. Rumors were sweeping the city that a major escape plot was in the works which would free 13,000 Federal prisoners-of-war from the prison at Belle Isle. Some cannon were brought in to surround the the site.

The USS Potomska, under Acting Lieutenant W. Budd, escorted the Army transport Darlington up the Sapelo River, Georgia. Potomska being unable to proceed very far up river because of her draft, Budd transferred to the Army vessel, which was engaged by Confederates at Spaulding's. The Darlington, undamaged, continued up the Sapelo to Fairhope, where a landing party destroyed salt works "...and other things that might be of use to the enemy." Taken under attack once again upon returning past Spaulding's, the Darlington put forces ashore and destroyed public property and captured arms. 'We were greatly aided here by the Potomska," reported Lieutenant Colonel Oliver T. Beard, "which, from a bend below, shelled the woods. Under the guns of the Potomska we landed . . . I am greatly indebted to Lieutenant Budd for the success of this day."

The USS Kinsman, Acting Master George Wiggin in charge, and the steamer Seger burned the steamers Osprey and J.P. Smith in Bayou Cheval, Louisiana.

Major General George H. Thomas issued an order complimenting the troops composing Generals Turchin's and Hazen's brigades for their skill and cool gallantry at Brown's Ferry, Georgia, and the column under Major General Joseph Hooker, which took possession of the line from Bridgeport to the foot of Lookout Mountain, for their brilliant success in driving the enemy from every position which they attacked. “The bayonet-charge made by the troops of General Howard, up a steep and difficult hill, over two hundred feet high, completely routing the enemy, and driving him from his barricades on its top, and the repulse by General Geary's command of greatly superior numbers, who attempted to surprise him, will rank among the most distinguished feats of arms of this war.”

A sharp fight occurred at Stevensburg, Virginia, between General Kilpatrick's cavalry and a small party of Confederate cavalry, who later retreated.

General Duffie, in command of the Federal forces, occupied Lewisburg, Virginia, this morning; the Rebels had passed through in their retreat from General Averill, just previous to his arrival. General Duffie captured the Confederate camp, tents, provisions, and one cannon, many prisoners and one hundred head of cattle.

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Monday, 9 November 1863

Union President Abraham Lincoln was not, if truth be told, a great enthusiast for the theater arts. If he did have to attend a performance to make his wife happy, he much preferred a comedy. Tonight’s offering, alas, was more of a melodrama, of which the already pressured and depressed Lincoln certainly did not need more, but the tickets were already bought. The play was one called “Marble Heart”, and it was greatly enlivened by one of the premier and already famous performer of the American stage--a popular, handsome man named John Wilkes Booth, from the Booth family of actors. The two men were not at this point acquainted.

The USS James Adger, under Commander Patterson, captured the blockade runner Robert E. Lee off Cape Lookout Shoals, North Carolina. The steamer had left Bermuda two days before with a cargo including shoes, blankets, rifles, saltpeter, and lead. She had been one of the most famous and successful blockade runners. Her former captain, Lieutenant John Wilkinson, CSN, later wrote: "She had run the blockade twenty-one times while under my command, and had carried abroad between six thousand and seven thousand bales of cotton, worth at that time about two millions of dollars in gold, and had carried into the Confederacy equally valuable cargoes."

Intelligence data on the Confederate naval capability in Georgia waters reached Union Army and Navy commanders. The CSS Savannah, Commander Robert F. Pinkney in charge, had two 7-inch and two 6-inch Brooke rifled guns and a torpedo mounted on her bow as armament. She carried two other torpedoes in her hold. Her sides were plated with 4 inches of rolled iron and her speed was about seven knots "...in smooth water." The CSS Isondiga, a wooden steamer, was reported to have old boilers and "unreliable" machinery. The frames for two more rams were said to be on the stocks at Savannah, but no iron could be obtained to complete them. The CSS Resolute, thought by the Union commanders to be awaiting an opportunity to run the blockade, had been converted to a tender, and all the cotton at Savannah was being transferred to Wilmington for shipment through the blockade. The CSS Georgia, a floating battery commanded by Lieutenant Washington Gwathmey, CSN, was at anchor near Fort Jackson and was reported to be "a failure." Such information as this enabled Union commanders to revise their thinking and adjust their tactics to the new conditions in order to maintain the blockade and move against the coast with ever increasing effectiveness.

Rear Admiral David D. Porter wrote Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles suggesting that the Coast Survey make careful maps of the area adjacent to the Mississippi River "...where navigation is made up of innumerable lakes and bayous not known to any but the most experienced pilots." The existence of these water-ways, he added, "would certainly never be known by examining modern charts." A fortnight later, the Secretary recommended to the Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase that surveys similar to those completed by the Coast Survey for Rear Admiral S.P. Lee along the North Carolina coast be made in accordance with Porter's request. Welles noted that the operations of the Mississippi Squadron and the transport fleet would be "greatly facilitated" and volunteered naval assistance for such an effort.

Admiral Buchanan ordered Acting Midshipman Edward A. Swain to report to Fort Morgan to take "...command of the CSS Gunnison and proceed off the harbor of Mobile and destroy, if possible, the USS Colorado or any other vessel of the blockading squadron..." The Gunnison was a torpedo boat.

The USS Niphon, under Acting Master Breck, captured the blockade runner Ella and Annie, while attempting to run the blockade into Wilmington, off Masonboro lnlet, North Carolina, with a cargo of arms and provisions. In an effort to escape,the Ella and Annie rammed the Niphon, but, when the two ships swung broadside, the runner was taken by boarding.

A snowstorm prevailed in Virginia all of this day.

A fight between a small band of partisan guerrillas and Federal cavalry occurred on the Little River, in which the Rebels were repulsed with a loss of fifty killed and forty captured.

Robert Toombs delivered a speech in the Hall of the House of Representatives of Georgia, in which he denounced the officials of the Confederate government, though he adhered firmly to the causes of the South. He especially deprecated the depreciation of the Rebel government's currency system and impressment policy, the latter of which he affirmed “...had sown the seeds of discontent broadcast over the land, and was generating hostility to the government itself.”