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re: 150 years ago this day...
Posted on 4/16/15 at 10:07 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Posted on 4/16/15 at 10:07 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Monday, 17 April 1865
Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston and Union Major General William T. Sherman met at the Bennett House near Durham Station, North Carolina. A short time before, Sherman had received the news of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Johnston told Sherman that it was a great calamity in the South. Their talks did not just include the surrender of Johnston’s army but terms for an armistice for all the remaining Confederate armies. They agreed to follow up their meeting the next day.
Another account: William T. Sherman met with Joseph E. Johnston at the Bennett House near Durham Station, North Carolina. Sherman informed Johnston of Lincoln’s assassination; Federal commanders threatened their troops with death to keep them from destroying Raleigh in retaliation for Lincoln.
The entourage of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his Cabinet were now in Salisbury, North Carolina, en route to Charlotte.
In Maryland, John Wilkes Booth and David Herold were hiding in a cluster of trees while attempting to obtain transportation across the Potomac River in the area of Port Tobacco, Maryland.
This evening, the body of President Abraham Lincoln was taken from the guest chamber of the White House to the East Room, where it lay in state until the funeral which is scheduled two days hence.
The Confederate ironclad Jackson (previously the Muscogee) was destroyed at Columbus, Georgia, after Union Army forces overran Southern defenses at the city in an attack that began the preceding night. Major General George H. Thomas reported: "The Rebel ram Jackson, nearly ready for sea, and carrying six 7-inch [rifled] guns, fell into our hands and was destroyed, as well as the navy yard, founderies, the arsenal and armory, sword and pistol factory...all of which were burned." Twelve miles below the city the Union troops found the burned hulk of CSS Chattahoochee which the Confederates themselves had destroyed. The navy yard at Columbus had been a key facility in the building of the machinery for Southern ironclads.
Sunken obstructions placed in the channel of the Blakely River, Mobile Bay, Alabama, were removed by blasting directed by Master Adrian C. Starrett, of the USS Maria A. Wood, thus clearing navigational hazards from Mobile Bay.
Acting Master J. H. Eldridge, of the USS Delaware, reported that information had been received that the murderer of the President Lincoln was in the vicinity of Point Lookout, Maryland. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles promptly ordered the Commanding Officer of Naval Force, Hampton Roads, to send all available vessels to assist in the blockade of the eastern shore of Virginia and Maryland from Point Lookout to Baltimore.
Lieutenant William Harwar Parker--brother of Union naval officer Commodore Alexander Parker Foxhall, Jr.--commanding the naval escort entrusted with the Confederate archives, treasury, and President Jefferson Davis' wife, Varina, successfully evaded Federal patrols en route southward from Charlotte and arrived at Washington, Georgia, on the 17th. Parker, still without orders as to the disposition of his precious trust and unable to learn of the whereabouts of President Davis and his party (including Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory), decided to push on through to Augusta, Georgia, where he hoped to find ranking civilian and military officials. The escort commander recorded: "We left the ladies behind at the tavern in Washington for we expected now a fight at any time." The escort again, however, managed to elude Federal patrols and arrived without incident at Augusta, where Parker placed his entrusted cargo in bank vaults and posted a guard around the building. Having learned upon arrival that armistice negotiations between Generals Sherman and Johnston were in progress, the escort commander decided to remain in the city and await the outcome of the conference.
Four of the five Lincoln assassination suspects arrested on the this morning were imprisoned on the monitors USS Montauk and Saugus (which had been prepared for this purpose on the 15th) and were anchored off the Washington Navy Yard in the Anacostia River. Mrs. Mary E. Surratt was taken into custody at the boarding house she operated after it was learned that her son was a close friend of John Wilkes Booth and that the actor was a frequent visitor at the boarding house. Mrs. Surratt was jailed in the Carroll Annex of Old Capitol Prison. Lewis Paine was also taken into custody when he came to Mrs. Surratt's house during her arrest. Edward Spangler, stagehand at the Ford Theater and Booth's aide, along with Michael O'Laughlin and Samuel B. Arnold, close associates of Booth during the months leading up to the assassination, were also caught up in the dragnet. O'Laughlin and Paine, after overnight imprisonment in the Old Capitol Prison, were transferred to the monitors at the Navy Yard. They were joined by Arnold on the 19th and Spangler on the 24th. George A. Atzerodt, the would-be assassin of Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Ernest Hartman Richter, at whose home Atzerodt was captured, were brought on board the ships on the 20th. Joao Celestino, Portuguese sea captain who had been heard to say on the 14th that Seward ought to be assassinated, was transferred from Old Capitol Prison to Montauk on the 25th The last of the eight conspiracy suspects to be incarcerated on board the monitors was David E. Herold. The prisoners were kept below decks under heavy guard and were manacled with both wrist and leg irons. In addition, their heads were covered with canvas hoods the interior of which were fitted with cotton pads that tightly covered the prisoners' eyes and ears. The hoods contained two small openings to permit breathing and the consumption of food. An added security measure was taken with Paine by attaching a ball and chain to each ankle.
President Andrew Johnson addressed an Illinois delegation with a stenographer at his side. Afterward, he was given a copy of his remarks. When intimate friend Preston King suggested that all references to former President Lincoln be omitted, Johnson agreed. This encouraged the Radical Republicans even more.
Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston and Union Major General William T. Sherman met at the Bennett House near Durham Station, North Carolina. A short time before, Sherman had received the news of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Johnston told Sherman that it was a great calamity in the South. Their talks did not just include the surrender of Johnston’s army but terms for an armistice for all the remaining Confederate armies. They agreed to follow up their meeting the next day.
Another account: William T. Sherman met with Joseph E. Johnston at the Bennett House near Durham Station, North Carolina. Sherman informed Johnston of Lincoln’s assassination; Federal commanders threatened their troops with death to keep them from destroying Raleigh in retaliation for Lincoln.
The entourage of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his Cabinet were now in Salisbury, North Carolina, en route to Charlotte.
In Maryland, John Wilkes Booth and David Herold were hiding in a cluster of trees while attempting to obtain transportation across the Potomac River in the area of Port Tobacco, Maryland.
This evening, the body of President Abraham Lincoln was taken from the guest chamber of the White House to the East Room, where it lay in state until the funeral which is scheduled two days hence.
The Confederate ironclad Jackson (previously the Muscogee) was destroyed at Columbus, Georgia, after Union Army forces overran Southern defenses at the city in an attack that began the preceding night. Major General George H. Thomas reported: "The Rebel ram Jackson, nearly ready for sea, and carrying six 7-inch [rifled] guns, fell into our hands and was destroyed, as well as the navy yard, founderies, the arsenal and armory, sword and pistol factory...all of which were burned." Twelve miles below the city the Union troops found the burned hulk of CSS Chattahoochee which the Confederates themselves had destroyed. The navy yard at Columbus had been a key facility in the building of the machinery for Southern ironclads.
Sunken obstructions placed in the channel of the Blakely River, Mobile Bay, Alabama, were removed by blasting directed by Master Adrian C. Starrett, of the USS Maria A. Wood, thus clearing navigational hazards from Mobile Bay.
Acting Master J. H. Eldridge, of the USS Delaware, reported that information had been received that the murderer of the President Lincoln was in the vicinity of Point Lookout, Maryland. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles promptly ordered the Commanding Officer of Naval Force, Hampton Roads, to send all available vessels to assist in the blockade of the eastern shore of Virginia and Maryland from Point Lookout to Baltimore.
Lieutenant William Harwar Parker--brother of Union naval officer Commodore Alexander Parker Foxhall, Jr.--commanding the naval escort entrusted with the Confederate archives, treasury, and President Jefferson Davis' wife, Varina, successfully evaded Federal patrols en route southward from Charlotte and arrived at Washington, Georgia, on the 17th. Parker, still without orders as to the disposition of his precious trust and unable to learn of the whereabouts of President Davis and his party (including Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory), decided to push on through to Augusta, Georgia, where he hoped to find ranking civilian and military officials. The escort commander recorded: "We left the ladies behind at the tavern in Washington for we expected now a fight at any time." The escort again, however, managed to elude Federal patrols and arrived without incident at Augusta, where Parker placed his entrusted cargo in bank vaults and posted a guard around the building. Having learned upon arrival that armistice negotiations between Generals Sherman and Johnston were in progress, the escort commander decided to remain in the city and await the outcome of the conference.
Four of the five Lincoln assassination suspects arrested on the this morning were imprisoned on the monitors USS Montauk and Saugus (which had been prepared for this purpose on the 15th) and were anchored off the Washington Navy Yard in the Anacostia River. Mrs. Mary E. Surratt was taken into custody at the boarding house she operated after it was learned that her son was a close friend of John Wilkes Booth and that the actor was a frequent visitor at the boarding house. Mrs. Surratt was jailed in the Carroll Annex of Old Capitol Prison. Lewis Paine was also taken into custody when he came to Mrs. Surratt's house during her arrest. Edward Spangler, stagehand at the Ford Theater and Booth's aide, along with Michael O'Laughlin and Samuel B. Arnold, close associates of Booth during the months leading up to the assassination, were also caught up in the dragnet. O'Laughlin and Paine, after overnight imprisonment in the Old Capitol Prison, were transferred to the monitors at the Navy Yard. They were joined by Arnold on the 19th and Spangler on the 24th. George A. Atzerodt, the would-be assassin of Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Ernest Hartman Richter, at whose home Atzerodt was captured, were brought on board the ships on the 20th. Joao Celestino, Portuguese sea captain who had been heard to say on the 14th that Seward ought to be assassinated, was transferred from Old Capitol Prison to Montauk on the 25th The last of the eight conspiracy suspects to be incarcerated on board the monitors was David E. Herold. The prisoners were kept below decks under heavy guard and were manacled with both wrist and leg irons. In addition, their heads were covered with canvas hoods the interior of which were fitted with cotton pads that tightly covered the prisoners' eyes and ears. The hoods contained two small openings to permit breathing and the consumption of food. An added security measure was taken with Paine by attaching a ball and chain to each ankle.
President Andrew Johnson addressed an Illinois delegation with a stenographer at his side. Afterward, he was given a copy of his remarks. When intimate friend Preston King suggested that all references to former President Lincoln be omitted, Johnson agreed. This encouraged the Radical Republicans even more.
1
Posted on 4/17/15 at 10:00 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Tuesday, 18 April 1865
After more talk near Durham Station, North Carolina, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston and Federal Major General William T. Sherman signed a "Memorandum, or Basis of Agreement" which called for an armistice by all armies in the field; Confederate forces are to be disbanded and to deposit their arms in the state arsenals; each man was to agree to cease from war and to abide by state and Federal authority; the President of the United States was to recognize the existing state governments when their officials took oaths to the United States; reestablishment of Federal courts would take place; people were to be guaranteed rights of person and property; the United States would not disturb the people of the South as long as they lived in peace; and a general amnesty was granted for Confederates.
The generals recognized that they were not fully empowered to carry out such far-reaching measures and that the necessary authority must be obtained. It was clear, however, that Sherman was going far beyond what Union Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant did at Appomattox Court House by actually entering into a reconstruction policy. He sent the terms to Grant and Major General Henry Halleck, asking for approval by President Andrew Johnson. Sherman also offered to take charge of actually carrying out these terms.
Second report: Generals Joseph E. Johnston and William T. Sherman signed a "Memorandum, or Basis of Agreement" calling for an armistice among all armies. This attempted to answer political questions as well as military ones, and was ultimately deemed unacceptable by new President Andrew Johnson and his cabinet.
Hostilities between the armies of Generals Sherman and of Johnston are suspended, in North Carolina, as a broad agreement is reached that attempts to cross military boundaries and borders on a political plan that will have to be approved by the United States Government.
A nasty skirmish develops at the Double Bridges, over the Flint River, in Georgia, as well as at Pleasant Hill, as Brigadier General James H. Wilson and his Union Cavalry press on.
Skirmishes break out near Taylorsville, Kentucky.
Skirmishing occurs 6 miles from Germantown, Tennessee.
Vice Admiral David Glasgow Farragut, in whom President Lincoln had placed great confidence, wrote to his wife: "All the people in the city are going to see the President in state. I go tomorrow as one of the pall bearers." Meanwhile, the Navy was carrying out Secretary Welles instructions to search "...all vessels going out of the [Potomac] river for the assassins. Detain all suspicious persons. Guard against all crossing of the river and touching of vessels or boats on the Virginia shore."
This evening, President Lincoln’s body was taken from the guest-chamber of the White House to the crepe-decorated East Room for tomorrow’s funeral services. Some 25,000 people gathered on the White House lawn to mourn the President, a record number.
Union General Benjamin F. "Spoons" Butler criticized Lincoln’s plan to reconstruct Virginia, stating, "...the time has not come for holding any relations with her (Virginia) but that of the conqueror to the conquered." The New York World attacked Butler for denouncing one "...of the noblest acts of the late President..." and "...inflaming excited crowds into senseless cheers for the policy which that Magistrate ever refused to approve..." by "...an unscrupulous general whose cowardice and incapacity always left his enemies unharmed upon the field."
The entourage of carriages and horses of President Jefferson Davis and the remnants of the fleeing Confederate government slowly moved southward to finally arrive at Concord, North Carolina, this evening.
After more talk near Durham Station, North Carolina, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston and Federal Major General William T. Sherman signed a "Memorandum, or Basis of Agreement" which called for an armistice by all armies in the field; Confederate forces are to be disbanded and to deposit their arms in the state arsenals; each man was to agree to cease from war and to abide by state and Federal authority; the President of the United States was to recognize the existing state governments when their officials took oaths to the United States; reestablishment of Federal courts would take place; people were to be guaranteed rights of person and property; the United States would not disturb the people of the South as long as they lived in peace; and a general amnesty was granted for Confederates.
The generals recognized that they were not fully empowered to carry out such far-reaching measures and that the necessary authority must be obtained. It was clear, however, that Sherman was going far beyond what Union Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant did at Appomattox Court House by actually entering into a reconstruction policy. He sent the terms to Grant and Major General Henry Halleck, asking for approval by President Andrew Johnson. Sherman also offered to take charge of actually carrying out these terms.
Second report: Generals Joseph E. Johnston and William T. Sherman signed a "Memorandum, or Basis of Agreement" calling for an armistice among all armies. This attempted to answer political questions as well as military ones, and was ultimately deemed unacceptable by new President Andrew Johnson and his cabinet.
Hostilities between the armies of Generals Sherman and of Johnston are suspended, in North Carolina, as a broad agreement is reached that attempts to cross military boundaries and borders on a political plan that will have to be approved by the United States Government.
A nasty skirmish develops at the Double Bridges, over the Flint River, in Georgia, as well as at Pleasant Hill, as Brigadier General James H. Wilson and his Union Cavalry press on.
Skirmishes break out near Taylorsville, Kentucky.
Skirmishing occurs 6 miles from Germantown, Tennessee.
Vice Admiral David Glasgow Farragut, in whom President Lincoln had placed great confidence, wrote to his wife: "All the people in the city are going to see the President in state. I go tomorrow as one of the pall bearers." Meanwhile, the Navy was carrying out Secretary Welles instructions to search "...all vessels going out of the [Potomac] river for the assassins. Detain all suspicious persons. Guard against all crossing of the river and touching of vessels or boats on the Virginia shore."
This evening, President Lincoln’s body was taken from the guest-chamber of the White House to the crepe-decorated East Room for tomorrow’s funeral services. Some 25,000 people gathered on the White House lawn to mourn the President, a record number.
Union General Benjamin F. "Spoons" Butler criticized Lincoln’s plan to reconstruct Virginia, stating, "...the time has not come for holding any relations with her (Virginia) but that of the conqueror to the conquered." The New York World attacked Butler for denouncing one "...of the noblest acts of the late President..." and "...inflaming excited crowds into senseless cheers for the policy which that Magistrate ever refused to approve..." by "...an unscrupulous general whose cowardice and incapacity always left his enemies unharmed upon the field."
The entourage of carriages and horses of President Jefferson Davis and the remnants of the fleeing Confederate government slowly moved southward to finally arrive at Concord, North Carolina, this evening.
Posted on 4/18/15 at 10:30 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Wednesday, 19 April 1865
The Confederate Districts of Arkansas and West Louisiana are consolidated to form the District of Arkansas and West Louisiana, and Lieutenant General Simon B. Buckner, CSA, is assigned to its command.
Skirmishing occurs near Barnesville, Georgia, with Brigadier General James H. Wilson and his Union Cavalry.
A Federal expedition travels from Terre Bonne to Pelton's Plantation and Grand Cailou, Louisiana, in search of Confederates.
Major General John Pope, commander of the Federal Military Division of the Missouri, wrote to Lieutenant General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department, requesting that Smith surrender to him based on the same terms that Hiram U. Grant had given to Robert E. Lee.
The negotiations for the surrender of the Confederate forces in the Trans-Mississippi Department, that are commanded by General Edmund Kirby Smith, CSA, are presented by Major General John Pope, USA, commanding the Military Division of the Missouri.
A Federal expedition with the 3rd US Colored Infantry, from Memphis, Tennessee, aboard the steamers, USS Sallie List, Dove, and Pocahontas, sails to Brownsville, Mississippi. The area is heavily infested with insects as 8 horses die from buffalo gnats.
Union Major General Lewis Wallace resumes the command of the Middle Department in Virginia.
The Military Division of the James is organized, to consist of the Department of Virginia and such parts of North Carolina not occupied by the command of Major General William T. Sherman. Major General Henry W. Halleck is assigned to its command.
A funeral service is held for President Abraham Lincoln at the White House. Later, a funeral procession removes Lincoln's remains to be shown at the Rotunda of the Capitol. Thousands of Americans line the streets to watch the procession.
President Johnson, the cabinet, members of Congress, Supreme Court justices, military leaders, and diplomats attended funeral services for President Lincoln in the East Room of the White House. Lieutenant Hiram U. Grant stood at the head of the catafalque. First Lady Mary Lincoln was too grief-stricken to attend. General
Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his fleeing entourage reached Charlotte, where Davis received a wire from Secretary of War John C. Breckinridge: “President Lincoln was assassinated in the theatre in Washington on the night of April 14. Seward’s house was entered on the same night and he was repeatedly stabbed and is probably mortally wounded.”
Confederate General Wade Hampton suggested that the Confederate forces withdraw across the Mississippi River and continue resisting. Davis considered the proposal.
The USS Massachusetts, under Acting Lieutenant William H. West, struck a torpedo in Charleston Harbor; "...fortunately," West reported, "it did not explode." The incident took place only two days after the Coast Survey steamer Bibb had been damaged by a torpedo in the harbor and occurred within 50 yards of the wreck of the USS Patapsco, which had been sunk by a torpedo two months before. The danger to those attempting to clear torpedoes from the waters previously controlled by the South was constant, as was the risk to ships that were simply operating in these waters.
The Confederate Districts of Arkansas and West Louisiana are consolidated to form the District of Arkansas and West Louisiana, and Lieutenant General Simon B. Buckner, CSA, is assigned to its command.
Skirmishing occurs near Barnesville, Georgia, with Brigadier General James H. Wilson and his Union Cavalry.
A Federal expedition travels from Terre Bonne to Pelton's Plantation and Grand Cailou, Louisiana, in search of Confederates.
Major General John Pope, commander of the Federal Military Division of the Missouri, wrote to Lieutenant General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department, requesting that Smith surrender to him based on the same terms that Hiram U. Grant had given to Robert E. Lee.
The negotiations for the surrender of the Confederate forces in the Trans-Mississippi Department, that are commanded by General Edmund Kirby Smith, CSA, are presented by Major General John Pope, USA, commanding the Military Division of the Missouri.
A Federal expedition with the 3rd US Colored Infantry, from Memphis, Tennessee, aboard the steamers, USS Sallie List, Dove, and Pocahontas, sails to Brownsville, Mississippi. The area is heavily infested with insects as 8 horses die from buffalo gnats.
Union Major General Lewis Wallace resumes the command of the Middle Department in Virginia.
The Military Division of the James is organized, to consist of the Department of Virginia and such parts of North Carolina not occupied by the command of Major General William T. Sherman. Major General Henry W. Halleck is assigned to its command.
A funeral service is held for President Abraham Lincoln at the White House. Later, a funeral procession removes Lincoln's remains to be shown at the Rotunda of the Capitol. Thousands of Americans line the streets to watch the procession.
President Johnson, the cabinet, members of Congress, Supreme Court justices, military leaders, and diplomats attended funeral services for President Lincoln in the East Room of the White House. Lieutenant Hiram U. Grant stood at the head of the catafalque. First Lady Mary Lincoln was too grief-stricken to attend. General
Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his fleeing entourage reached Charlotte, where Davis received a wire from Secretary of War John C. Breckinridge: “President Lincoln was assassinated in the theatre in Washington on the night of April 14. Seward’s house was entered on the same night and he was repeatedly stabbed and is probably mortally wounded.”
Confederate General Wade Hampton suggested that the Confederate forces withdraw across the Mississippi River and continue resisting. Davis considered the proposal.
The USS Massachusetts, under Acting Lieutenant William H. West, struck a torpedo in Charleston Harbor; "...fortunately," West reported, "it did not explode." The incident took place only two days after the Coast Survey steamer Bibb had been damaged by a torpedo in the harbor and occurred within 50 yards of the wreck of the USS Patapsco, which had been sunk by a torpedo two months before. The danger to those attempting to clear torpedoes from the waters previously controlled by the South was constant, as was the risk to ships that were simply operating in these waters.
This post was edited on 4/19/15 at 5:46 am
Posted on 4/19/15 at 8:40 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Thursday, 20 April 1865
The Union troops under Brigadier General James H. Wilson occupy Macon, Georgia, as well as skirmish at the following places: near Montpelier Springs and at Rocky Creek Bridge, Alabama; at Mimm's Mills, on the Tobesofkee Creek, and near Spring Hill, both in Georgia.
Union controlled Arkansas becomes the 19th state to ratify the 13th amendment, attempting to abolish slavery.
Brevetted Brigadier General Guy V. Henry, of the 40th Massachusetts Infantry, assumes the command of the South Sub-District of the Plains.
General Robert E. Lee writes to Confederate President Jefferson Davis of his opposition to Davis' idea of transforming the struggle for Southern Independence into guerrilla warfare and recommends a complete surrender to restore peace and order.
President Abraham Lincoln’s coffin lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda; an estimated 40,000 people filed past over two days.
Federal authorities capture George Atzerodt at Germantown, Maryland, for his role in the Lincoln assassination conspiracy. Five days after Lincoln’s death, Booth and Herold still remain at large. Edwin Stanton offers a $100,000 reward for the fugitives' capture.
Still hiding in the pine thicket, Booth has been given newspapers and is shocked at the nation’s response to his crime. He had been expecting to be revered as a great liberator. Around 10:30 p.m. tonight, Booth and Herold attempt to row across the Potomac to Virginia, but in the dark they lose their way and find they are still in Maryland come morning.
Four years prior on this day, Robert E. Lee resigns from the United States Army only two days after he was offered command of the Union army and three days after his native state, Virginia, had seceded from the Union.
The Union troops under Brigadier General James H. Wilson occupy Macon, Georgia, as well as skirmish at the following places: near Montpelier Springs and at Rocky Creek Bridge, Alabama; at Mimm's Mills, on the Tobesofkee Creek, and near Spring Hill, both in Georgia.
Union controlled Arkansas becomes the 19th state to ratify the 13th amendment, attempting to abolish slavery.
Brevetted Brigadier General Guy V. Henry, of the 40th Massachusetts Infantry, assumes the command of the South Sub-District of the Plains.
General Robert E. Lee writes to Confederate President Jefferson Davis of his opposition to Davis' idea of transforming the struggle for Southern Independence into guerrilla warfare and recommends a complete surrender to restore peace and order.
President Abraham Lincoln’s coffin lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda; an estimated 40,000 people filed past over two days.
Federal authorities capture George Atzerodt at Germantown, Maryland, for his role in the Lincoln assassination conspiracy. Five days after Lincoln’s death, Booth and Herold still remain at large. Edwin Stanton offers a $100,000 reward for the fugitives' capture.
Still hiding in the pine thicket, Booth has been given newspapers and is shocked at the nation’s response to his crime. He had been expecting to be revered as a great liberator. Around 10:30 p.m. tonight, Booth and Herold attempt to row across the Potomac to Virginia, but in the dark they lose their way and find they are still in Maryland come morning.
Four years prior on this day, Robert E. Lee resigns from the United States Army only two days after he was offered command of the Union army and three days after his native state, Virginia, had seceded from the Union.
Posted on 4/20/15 at 9:49 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Friday, 21 April 1865
A Federal expedition moves against partisan guerrillas from Donaldsonville to Bayou Goula, Louisiana.
Pro-Union soldiers scout from Rolla toward Thomasville, Missouri, and skirmish with Southern guerrillas at Spring Valley, 30 miles south of Licking, Missouri.
Colonel John Singleton Mosby, constantly feared as the "Gray Ghost" of the Confederacy, and refusing to surrender to the Yankees, disbands the 43rd Virginia Cavalry Battalion and his Virginia Partisan Rangers at Millwood, Virginia. The majority of Mosby's command, however, now under Lieutenant Colonel William Henry Chapman ride to Winchester, Virginia, where they surrender and are eventually paroled.
President Abraham Lincoln's funeral railroad train leaves Washington, DC, for Springfield, Illinois. Lincoln’s body was placed aboard a special train bound for its final resting place in Springfield. Also on the train were the disinterred remains of his son William Wallace "Willie" Lincoln, who had died at the age of 11 in 1862, likely of typhoid fever.
President Andrew Johnson rejected the surrender document signed by Generals William T. Sherman and Joseph E. Johnston on 18 April because it addressed political issues as well as military ones. Johnson’s cabinet also unanimously rejected the document, with Secretary of War Edwin Stanton even intimating that Sherman had committed treason by blatantly overstepping his authority. Hiram U. Grant, Sherman’s close friend, angrily denied the charge.
Major General Quincy Adams Gillmore wrote Rear Admiral John A. B. Dahlgren that he had received dispatches from Major General Sherman that a convention had been entered into with General Johnston on the 18th whereby all Confederate armies were to be disbanded and a general suspension of hostilities would prevail until terms of surrender were agreed upon in Washington.
The USS Cornubia, commanded by Acting Lieutenant John A. Johnstone, captured the blockade running British schooner Chaos off Galveston, Texas, with a cargo of cotton.
A Federal expedition moves against partisan guerrillas from Donaldsonville to Bayou Goula, Louisiana.
Pro-Union soldiers scout from Rolla toward Thomasville, Missouri, and skirmish with Southern guerrillas at Spring Valley, 30 miles south of Licking, Missouri.
Colonel John Singleton Mosby, constantly feared as the "Gray Ghost" of the Confederacy, and refusing to surrender to the Yankees, disbands the 43rd Virginia Cavalry Battalion and his Virginia Partisan Rangers at Millwood, Virginia. The majority of Mosby's command, however, now under Lieutenant Colonel William Henry Chapman ride to Winchester, Virginia, where they surrender and are eventually paroled.
President Abraham Lincoln's funeral railroad train leaves Washington, DC, for Springfield, Illinois. Lincoln’s body was placed aboard a special train bound for its final resting place in Springfield. Also on the train were the disinterred remains of his son William Wallace "Willie" Lincoln, who had died at the age of 11 in 1862, likely of typhoid fever.
President Andrew Johnson rejected the surrender document signed by Generals William T. Sherman and Joseph E. Johnston on 18 April because it addressed political issues as well as military ones. Johnson’s cabinet also unanimously rejected the document, with Secretary of War Edwin Stanton even intimating that Sherman had committed treason by blatantly overstepping his authority. Hiram U. Grant, Sherman’s close friend, angrily denied the charge.
Major General Quincy Adams Gillmore wrote Rear Admiral John A. B. Dahlgren that he had received dispatches from Major General Sherman that a convention had been entered into with General Johnston on the 18th whereby all Confederate armies were to be disbanded and a general suspension of hostilities would prevail until terms of surrender were agreed upon in Washington.
The USS Cornubia, commanded by Acting Lieutenant John A. Johnstone, captured the blockade running British schooner Chaos off Galveston, Texas, with a cargo of cotton.
Posted on 4/21/15 at 11:50 am to BadLeroyDawg
Saturday, 22 April 1865
Union troops under the command of Brigadier General James H. Wilson occupy Talladega, Alabama.
Federal soldiers scout from Deer Creek to Sage Creek, in the Dakota Territory, and skirmish with Indian camps on the Sage Creek with an encounter with Cheyenne and Sioux Indians. The Indians, attacking at night, are driven off; losses can't be determined as the Indians carry off all dead and wounded.
Federals scout against Indians from Dakota City, in the Nebraska Territory, to Middle Bow River.
Most of the military action was now almost insignificant, with only the Federal cavalry of James Harrison Wilson active in Georgia and Alabama. Skirmishing took place at Buzzard Roost, Georgia, with Wilson and his cavalry; Howard’s Gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains, North Carolina with Major General George Stoneman; near Linn Creek where the Yankee Red Legs kill several partisan guerrillas and a skirmish with guerrillas at the mouth of the Big Gravois River--near the Osage--both in Missouri.
Federal Major General Henry Halleck assumes command of the Military Division of the James, and Major General Nathaniel P. Banks resumes command of the Department of the Gulf.
John Wilkes Booth and David Herold, after nearly a week out in the open, finally got across the Potomac River in a fishing skiff, to Gumbo Creek on the Virginia shore. Plans were now to continue southward. Meanwhile, the search had heavily intensified north of the Potomac River.
The Lincoln Funeral Train travels from Harrisburg to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where it will remain for two days.
Union Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles warns the Potomac Flotilla that "...John Wilkes Booth was near Bryantown last Saturday [15 April], where Dr. Mudd set his ankle, which was broken by a fall from his horse [sic.]. The utmost vigilance is necessary in the Potomac and Patuxent to prevent his escape. All boats should be searched..." The condition of alert remained in effect until word of the assassin actor's death on 26 April was received.
Thomas Kirkpatrick, United States Consul at Nassau, New Providence, reported to Rear Admiral Cornelius Kincheloe Stribling of the East Gulf Blockading Squadron that the schooner St. Mary's had arrived in Nassau. The Baltimore schooner had been seized in Chesapeake Bay during a daring raid on 31 March by ten Confederates led by Master John C. Braine, CSN. Kirkpatrick pressed British authorities to seize the vessel and apprehend her crew for piracy. St. Mary's was permitted to put to sea, however, after being adjudged a legitimate prize.
Union troops under the command of Brigadier General James H. Wilson occupy Talladega, Alabama.
Federal soldiers scout from Deer Creek to Sage Creek, in the Dakota Territory, and skirmish with Indian camps on the Sage Creek with an encounter with Cheyenne and Sioux Indians. The Indians, attacking at night, are driven off; losses can't be determined as the Indians carry off all dead and wounded.
Federals scout against Indians from Dakota City, in the Nebraska Territory, to Middle Bow River.
Most of the military action was now almost insignificant, with only the Federal cavalry of James Harrison Wilson active in Georgia and Alabama. Skirmishing took place at Buzzard Roost, Georgia, with Wilson and his cavalry; Howard’s Gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains, North Carolina with Major General George Stoneman; near Linn Creek where the Yankee Red Legs kill several partisan guerrillas and a skirmish with guerrillas at the mouth of the Big Gravois River--near the Osage--both in Missouri.
Federal Major General Henry Halleck assumes command of the Military Division of the James, and Major General Nathaniel P. Banks resumes command of the Department of the Gulf.
John Wilkes Booth and David Herold, after nearly a week out in the open, finally got across the Potomac River in a fishing skiff, to Gumbo Creek on the Virginia shore. Plans were now to continue southward. Meanwhile, the search had heavily intensified north of the Potomac River.
The Lincoln Funeral Train travels from Harrisburg to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where it will remain for two days.
Union Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles warns the Potomac Flotilla that "...John Wilkes Booth was near Bryantown last Saturday [15 April], where Dr. Mudd set his ankle, which was broken by a fall from his horse [sic.]. The utmost vigilance is necessary in the Potomac and Patuxent to prevent his escape. All boats should be searched..." The condition of alert remained in effect until word of the assassin actor's death on 26 April was received.
Thomas Kirkpatrick, United States Consul at Nassau, New Providence, reported to Rear Admiral Cornelius Kincheloe Stribling of the East Gulf Blockading Squadron that the schooner St. Mary's had arrived in Nassau. The Baltimore schooner had been seized in Chesapeake Bay during a daring raid on 31 March by ten Confederates led by Master John C. Braine, CSN. Kirkpatrick pressed British authorities to seize the vessel and apprehend her crew for piracy. St. Mary's was permitted to put to sea, however, after being adjudged a legitimate prize.
This post was edited on 4/21/15 at 11:55 am
Posted on 4/22/15 at 10:08 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Sunday, 23 April 1865
Skirmishing occurred at Munford’s Station, Alabama, with Major General James H. Wilson; Hendersonville, North Carolina, with Major General George Stoneman, and his Union Cavalry; and near Fort Zarah, Kansas.
President Abraham Lincoln’s Funeral Train was still in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where the deceased president lay in state at Independence Hall for mourners to pay their respects.
Confederate President Jefferson Davis meets with his cabinet, who advise him to accept the surrender document signed by Generals Joseph E. Johnston and William T. Sherman, reserving the option to continue resistance if the Johnson administration rejects the document.
In response to a telegram from Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles urging the utmost vigilance to prevent the escape of Jefferson Davis and his cabinet across the Mississippi, Rear Admiral Samuel P. Lee, commanding the Mississippi Squadron, directed: "The immediate engrossing and important duty is to capture Jeff. Davis and his Cabinet and plunder. To accomplish this, all available means and every effort must be made to the exclusion of all interfering calls."
As the Navy vigorously sought to apprehend the assassin of President Lincoln, Secretary Welles directed Rear Admiral David D. Porter: "Booth is endeavoring to escape by water. Send a gunboat or some tugs to examine the shore of Virginia and all vessels in that direction, and arrest and seize all suspicious parties. If you have any tugs to spare, send them into the Potomac."
The CSS Webb, commanded by Lieutenant Charles W. Read, dashes from the Red River under forced draft and enters the Mississippi at 8:30 at night in a heroic last-ditch effort to escape to sea. Before departing Alexandria, Louisiana, for his bold attempt, Read wrote Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory: "I will have to stake everything upon speed and time." The sudden appearance of the white-painted Webb in the Mississippi caught the Union blockaders (a monitor and two ironclads) at the mouth of the Red River by surprise. She was initially identified as a Federal ship; this mistake in identification gave Read a lead in the dash downstream. A running battle ensued in which Webb shook off the three Union pursuers. As Read proceeded down the Mississippi, other blockading ships took up the chase but were outdistanced by the fast moving Webb, which some observers claimed was making 25 knots. While churning with the current toward New Orleans, Read paused at one point to cut the telegraph wires along the bank. This proved futile as word of his escape and approach passed southward where it generated considerable excitement and a flurry of messages between the Army and Navy commanders who alerted shore batteries and ships to intercept him. About 10 miles above New Orleans Read hoisted the United States flag at half mast in mourning for Lincoln's death and brought Webb's steam pressure up to maximum. He passed the city at about midnight, 24 April, going full speed. Federal gunboats opened on him, whereupon Read broke the Confederate flag. Three hits were scored, the spar torpedo rigged at the steamer's bow was damaged and had to be jettisoned, but the Webb continued on course toward the sea. Twenty-five miles below New Orleans Read's luck ran out, for here Webb encountered the USS Richmond. Thus trapped between Richmond and pursuing gunboats, Read's audacious and well-executed plan came to an end. Webb was run aground and set on fire before her officers and men took to the swamps in an effort to escape. Read and his crew were apprehended within a few hours and taken under guard to New Orleans. They there suffered the indignity of being placed on public display but were subsequently paroled and ordered to their respective homes. Following the restoration of peace, Read became a pilot of the Southwest Pass, one of the mouths of the Mississippi River, and pursued that occupation until his death in 1890. He had earned his nickname the "Seawolf of the Confederacy" for his exploits and daring.
Brigadier General James Dearing is the last of the Confederate General to die from wounds received in action, from a pistol duel with Union Brevetted Brigadier General Theodore Read at the Battle of High Bridge on 6 April, dying in a hospital at Lynchburg, Virginia late this afternoon. Read had been mortally wounded and died on 6 April.
Skirmishing occurs with partisan guerrillas on the Snake Creek, in the Arizona Territory.
An affair is reported near Fort Zarah, Kansas, as the Yankees come across 5 Mexicans murdered by hostile Indians, with 4 having been scalped.
Federal soldiers scout from Pulaski,Tennessee, to Rogersville, Alabama.
A Union expedition travels from Burkeville and Petersburg to Danville and South Boston, Virginia, as Major General Horatio G. Wright, USA, commanding the 6th US Army Corps and his cavalry under Brevetted Major General Wesley Merritt, USA, capture 500 prisoners, the few remaining Confederate railroad locomotives, cannons, and other military stores.
The Headquarters of the Middle Military Division is transferred from Winchester, Virginia, to Washington, DC, closing the events taking place in the Shenandoah Valley.
Confederate President Jefferson Davis writes to his wife, Varina, of the desperate situating facing the Confederates.
"Panic has seized the country," he wrote to his wife in Georgia. Davis was in Charlotte, North Carolina, on his flight away from Yankee troops. It was three weeks since Davis had fled the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, as Union troops were overrunning the trenches nearby. Davis and his government headed west to Danville, Virginia, in hopes of reestablishing offices there. When Confederate General Robert E. Lee was forced to surrender his army at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on 9 April, Davis and his officials traveled south in hopes of connecting with the last major Confederate army, the force of General Joseph Johnston. Johnston, then in North Carolina, was himself in dire straits, as General William T. Sherman’s massive force was bearing down.
Davis continued to his wife, "The issue is one which it is very painful for me to meet. On one hand is the long night of oppression which will follow the return of our people to the ‘Union'; on the other, the suffering of the women and children, and carnage among the few brave patriots who would still oppose the invader." The Davis’ were reunited a few days later as the President continued to flee and continue the fight. Two weeks later, Union troops finally captured the Confederate president in northern Georgia. Davis was charged with treason, which was nearly impossible to prove, but never tried. In 1889, he died at age 81.
Skirmishing occurred at Munford’s Station, Alabama, with Major General James H. Wilson; Hendersonville, North Carolina, with Major General George Stoneman, and his Union Cavalry; and near Fort Zarah, Kansas.
President Abraham Lincoln’s Funeral Train was still in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where the deceased president lay in state at Independence Hall for mourners to pay their respects.
Confederate President Jefferson Davis meets with his cabinet, who advise him to accept the surrender document signed by Generals Joseph E. Johnston and William T. Sherman, reserving the option to continue resistance if the Johnson administration rejects the document.
In response to a telegram from Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles urging the utmost vigilance to prevent the escape of Jefferson Davis and his cabinet across the Mississippi, Rear Admiral Samuel P. Lee, commanding the Mississippi Squadron, directed: "The immediate engrossing and important duty is to capture Jeff. Davis and his Cabinet and plunder. To accomplish this, all available means and every effort must be made to the exclusion of all interfering calls."
As the Navy vigorously sought to apprehend the assassin of President Lincoln, Secretary Welles directed Rear Admiral David D. Porter: "Booth is endeavoring to escape by water. Send a gunboat or some tugs to examine the shore of Virginia and all vessels in that direction, and arrest and seize all suspicious parties. If you have any tugs to spare, send them into the Potomac."
The CSS Webb, commanded by Lieutenant Charles W. Read, dashes from the Red River under forced draft and enters the Mississippi at 8:30 at night in a heroic last-ditch effort to escape to sea. Before departing Alexandria, Louisiana, for his bold attempt, Read wrote Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory: "I will have to stake everything upon speed and time." The sudden appearance of the white-painted Webb in the Mississippi caught the Union blockaders (a monitor and two ironclads) at the mouth of the Red River by surprise. She was initially identified as a Federal ship; this mistake in identification gave Read a lead in the dash downstream. A running battle ensued in which Webb shook off the three Union pursuers. As Read proceeded down the Mississippi, other blockading ships took up the chase but were outdistanced by the fast moving Webb, which some observers claimed was making 25 knots. While churning with the current toward New Orleans, Read paused at one point to cut the telegraph wires along the bank. This proved futile as word of his escape and approach passed southward where it generated considerable excitement and a flurry of messages between the Army and Navy commanders who alerted shore batteries and ships to intercept him. About 10 miles above New Orleans Read hoisted the United States flag at half mast in mourning for Lincoln's death and brought Webb's steam pressure up to maximum. He passed the city at about midnight, 24 April, going full speed. Federal gunboats opened on him, whereupon Read broke the Confederate flag. Three hits were scored, the spar torpedo rigged at the steamer's bow was damaged and had to be jettisoned, but the Webb continued on course toward the sea. Twenty-five miles below New Orleans Read's luck ran out, for here Webb encountered the USS Richmond. Thus trapped between Richmond and pursuing gunboats, Read's audacious and well-executed plan came to an end. Webb was run aground and set on fire before her officers and men took to the swamps in an effort to escape. Read and his crew were apprehended within a few hours and taken under guard to New Orleans. They there suffered the indignity of being placed on public display but were subsequently paroled and ordered to their respective homes. Following the restoration of peace, Read became a pilot of the Southwest Pass, one of the mouths of the Mississippi River, and pursued that occupation until his death in 1890. He had earned his nickname the "Seawolf of the Confederacy" for his exploits and daring.
Brigadier General James Dearing is the last of the Confederate General to die from wounds received in action, from a pistol duel with Union Brevetted Brigadier General Theodore Read at the Battle of High Bridge on 6 April, dying in a hospital at Lynchburg, Virginia late this afternoon. Read had been mortally wounded and died on 6 April.
Skirmishing occurs with partisan guerrillas on the Snake Creek, in the Arizona Territory.
An affair is reported near Fort Zarah, Kansas, as the Yankees come across 5 Mexicans murdered by hostile Indians, with 4 having been scalped.
Federal soldiers scout from Pulaski,Tennessee, to Rogersville, Alabama.
A Union expedition travels from Burkeville and Petersburg to Danville and South Boston, Virginia, as Major General Horatio G. Wright, USA, commanding the 6th US Army Corps and his cavalry under Brevetted Major General Wesley Merritt, USA, capture 500 prisoners, the few remaining Confederate railroad locomotives, cannons, and other military stores.
The Headquarters of the Middle Military Division is transferred from Winchester, Virginia, to Washington, DC, closing the events taking place in the Shenandoah Valley.
Confederate President Jefferson Davis writes to his wife, Varina, of the desperate situating facing the Confederates.
"Panic has seized the country," he wrote to his wife in Georgia. Davis was in Charlotte, North Carolina, on his flight away from Yankee troops. It was three weeks since Davis had fled the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, as Union troops were overrunning the trenches nearby. Davis and his government headed west to Danville, Virginia, in hopes of reestablishing offices there. When Confederate General Robert E. Lee was forced to surrender his army at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on 9 April, Davis and his officials traveled south in hopes of connecting with the last major Confederate army, the force of General Joseph Johnston. Johnston, then in North Carolina, was himself in dire straits, as General William T. Sherman’s massive force was bearing down.
Davis continued to his wife, "The issue is one which it is very painful for me to meet. On one hand is the long night of oppression which will follow the return of our people to the ‘Union'; on the other, the suffering of the women and children, and carnage among the few brave patriots who would still oppose the invader." The Davis’ were reunited a few days later as the President continued to flee and continue the fight. Two weeks later, Union troops finally captured the Confederate president in northern Georgia. Davis was charged with treason, which was nearly impossible to prove, but never tried. In 1889, he died at age 81.
Posted on 4/23/15 at 9:31 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Monday, 24 April 1865
Union Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant arrives at the headquarters of Major General William T. Sherman in Raleigh, North Carolina, to inform him that President Andrew Johnson's administration had rejected Sherman’s agreement with Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston, believing Sherman went beyond his authority to negotiate such terms, but not telling Sherman they had hinted at treason. Sherman was ordered to give 48 hours-notice to agree to revised peace terms, and then resume hostilities if there was no surrender. Johnston was promptly sent a message regarding the truce’s suspension. He later requested another meeting with his old friend, Sherman, for 26 April.
At Charlotte, North Carolina, Confederate President Jefferson Davis approved Johnston’s agreement with Sherman, not aware that it had already been rejected by President Andrew Johnson.
John Wilkes Booth and David Herold crossed the Rappahannock River at Port Conway, Virginia, in their efforts to escape Federal pursuers, who drew closer. Farmer Richard H. Garnett allowed Booth and Herold to sleep in his barn in Bowling Green.
At 4 a.m., President Lincoln’s Funeral Train departed Philadelphia and arrived in New York City at 10:50 a.m. where he laid in state at City Hall until the next day. A ferry had transported the train across the Hudson River from New Jersey.
While in Augusta, Georgia, with the Confederate archives and treasury, Lieutenant William Harwar Parker learned that the Federal Government had rejected the convention of surrender drawn up by Generals Sherman and Johnston. Parker withdrew his valuable cargo from the bank vaults, reformed his naval escort (consisting of Naval Academy midshipmen and sailors from the Charlotte Navy Yard) and on the 24th would set out for Abbeville, South Carolina, which he had previously concluded to be the most likely city through which the Davis party would pass en-route to a crossing of the Savannah River. Near Washington, Georgia, Parker met Mrs. Jefferson Davis, her daughter and Burton Harrison, the President's private secretary, proceeding independently to Florida with a small escort. Gaining no information on the President's whereabouts, Parker continued to press toward Abbeville, while Mrs. Davis' party resumed its journey southward. On the 29th he would arrive in Abbeville, where he stored his cargo in guarded rail cars and ordered a full head of steam be kept on the locomotive in case of emergency. Parker's calculations as to the probable movements of President Davis' entourage proved correct; the chief executive will enter Abbeville three days after Parker's arrival.
Skirmishes break out near Boggy Depot, in the Indian Territory, with retreating Confederate partisans.
The destruction of the Confederate steamer, CSS Webb, occurs 25 miles below New Orleans, on the Mississippi River, Louisiana, after being pursued by the Union gunboats USS Hollyhock and Richmond.
Colonel Chester Harding, Jr, 43rd Missouri Infantry, assumes the command of the District of Central Missouri.
Skirmishing occurs near Miami, Missouri, with partisan guerrillas; the Yankees report killing 7 of the 13 they encountered.
Union Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant arrives at the headquarters of Major General William T. Sherman in Raleigh, North Carolina, to inform him that President Andrew Johnson's administration had rejected Sherman’s agreement with Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston, believing Sherman went beyond his authority to negotiate such terms, but not telling Sherman they had hinted at treason. Sherman was ordered to give 48 hours-notice to agree to revised peace terms, and then resume hostilities if there was no surrender. Johnston was promptly sent a message regarding the truce’s suspension. He later requested another meeting with his old friend, Sherman, for 26 April.
At Charlotte, North Carolina, Confederate President Jefferson Davis approved Johnston’s agreement with Sherman, not aware that it had already been rejected by President Andrew Johnson.
John Wilkes Booth and David Herold crossed the Rappahannock River at Port Conway, Virginia, in their efforts to escape Federal pursuers, who drew closer. Farmer Richard H. Garnett allowed Booth and Herold to sleep in his barn in Bowling Green.
At 4 a.m., President Lincoln’s Funeral Train departed Philadelphia and arrived in New York City at 10:50 a.m. where he laid in state at City Hall until the next day. A ferry had transported the train across the Hudson River from New Jersey.
While in Augusta, Georgia, with the Confederate archives and treasury, Lieutenant William Harwar Parker learned that the Federal Government had rejected the convention of surrender drawn up by Generals Sherman and Johnston. Parker withdrew his valuable cargo from the bank vaults, reformed his naval escort (consisting of Naval Academy midshipmen and sailors from the Charlotte Navy Yard) and on the 24th would set out for Abbeville, South Carolina, which he had previously concluded to be the most likely city through which the Davis party would pass en-route to a crossing of the Savannah River. Near Washington, Georgia, Parker met Mrs. Jefferson Davis, her daughter and Burton Harrison, the President's private secretary, proceeding independently to Florida with a small escort. Gaining no information on the President's whereabouts, Parker continued to press toward Abbeville, while Mrs. Davis' party resumed its journey southward. On the 29th he would arrive in Abbeville, where he stored his cargo in guarded rail cars and ordered a full head of steam be kept on the locomotive in case of emergency. Parker's calculations as to the probable movements of President Davis' entourage proved correct; the chief executive will enter Abbeville three days after Parker's arrival.
Skirmishes break out near Boggy Depot, in the Indian Territory, with retreating Confederate partisans.
The destruction of the Confederate steamer, CSS Webb, occurs 25 miles below New Orleans, on the Mississippi River, Louisiana, after being pursued by the Union gunboats USS Hollyhock and Richmond.
Colonel Chester Harding, Jr, 43rd Missouri Infantry, assumes the command of the District of Central Missouri.
Skirmishing occurs near Miami, Missouri, with partisan guerrillas; the Yankees report killing 7 of the 13 they encountered.
Posted on 4/24/15 at 9:13 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Tuesday, 25 April 1865
Federal cavalry closed in on John Wilkes Booth and David Herold who were staying inside of a tobacco barn owned by Richard H. Garrett, south of the Rappahannock River in Virginia.
Confederate troops in North Carolina were preparing to move after President Andrew Johnson rejected the peace terms that Union Major General William T. Sherman had negotiated. General Joseph E. Johnston, however, requested that Sherman re-open negotiations. They agreed to a meeting the next day.
Confederate President Jefferson Davis ordered Johnston to disperse his men, then reassemble somewhere farther south and continue the war if the Johnson administration rejected the surrender document. The Army of Tennessee was already disbanding, however, and Johnston had judiciously, and unilaterally, decided to surrender to Sherman under revised terms.
The search for President Abraham Lincoln's assassins followed rumors in all directions, and warships in the large Union Navy were available to speed the investigation. The Navy Department ordered Commodore William Radford at Hampton Roads: "Send a gunboat to the mouth of the Delaware for one week to examine and arrest all suspicious characters and vessels."
President Lincoln’s Funeral Train departed New York City at 4:15 p.m. and arrived at the Old Capitol in Albany, New York, at 10:55 p.m. The body was placed in a cortege and marched up Broadway by some 160,000 people. Negroes were required to march in the rear. An estimated one million people watched the procession.
Federal soldiers scout from Pine Bluff to Rodgers' Plantation, Arkansas, with a skirmish at Rodgers' Plantation. Skirmishing also broke out at Linn Creek, Missouri.
Federal cavalry closed in on John Wilkes Booth and David Herold who were staying inside of a tobacco barn owned by Richard H. Garrett, south of the Rappahannock River in Virginia.
Confederate troops in North Carolina were preparing to move after President Andrew Johnson rejected the peace terms that Union Major General William T. Sherman had negotiated. General Joseph E. Johnston, however, requested that Sherman re-open negotiations. They agreed to a meeting the next day.
Confederate President Jefferson Davis ordered Johnston to disperse his men, then reassemble somewhere farther south and continue the war if the Johnson administration rejected the surrender document. The Army of Tennessee was already disbanding, however, and Johnston had judiciously, and unilaterally, decided to surrender to Sherman under revised terms.
The search for President Abraham Lincoln's assassins followed rumors in all directions, and warships in the large Union Navy were available to speed the investigation. The Navy Department ordered Commodore William Radford at Hampton Roads: "Send a gunboat to the mouth of the Delaware for one week to examine and arrest all suspicious characters and vessels."
President Lincoln’s Funeral Train departed New York City at 4:15 p.m. and arrived at the Old Capitol in Albany, New York, at 10:55 p.m. The body was placed in a cortege and marched up Broadway by some 160,000 people. Negroes were required to march in the rear. An estimated one million people watched the procession.
Federal soldiers scout from Pine Bluff to Rodgers' Plantation, Arkansas, with a skirmish at Rodgers' Plantation. Skirmishing also broke out at Linn Creek, Missouri.
Posted on 4/25/15 at 9:55 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Wednesday, 26 April 1865
President Jefferson Davis holds a cabinet meeting at Charlotte, North Carolina, and he and his cabinet pledge to move west across Mississippi to continue the fight. The entourage sets out headed to the Mississippi River to carry on the struggle for Southern Independence. Secretary of the Treasury, George Alfred Trenholm, resigns due to poor health and will be replaced by Postmaster General John Henninger Reagan. Attorney General George Davis disagrees with Davis’ decision and resigns.
Joseph E. Johnston surrenders the Army of Tennessee to William T. Sherman near Durham Station, North Carolina. The surrender terms were the same that Hiram U. Grant had given to Robert E. Lee on 9 April. This marked the surrender of the Confederacy’s second largest army; Johnston also surrendered all forces in his department covering the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida, or a total of about 89,000 men. This ends the war east of the Alleghenies.
Final Terms of Surrender, April 26, 1865
Terms of a Military Convention, entered into this 26th day of April, 1865, at Bennitt's House, near Durham Station, North Carolina, between General Joseph E. Johnston, commanding the Confederate Army, and Major-General W.T. Sherman, commanding the United States Army in North Carolina:
1. All acts of war on the part of the troops under General Johnston's command to cease from this date.
2. All arms and public property to be deposited at Greensboro, and delivered to an ordinance-officer of the United States Army.
3. Rolls of all the officers and men to be made in duplicate; one copy to be given to an officer to be designated by General Sherman. Each officer and man to give individual obligation in writing not to take up arms against the Government of the United States, until properly released from this obligation.
4. The side-arms of officers, and their private horses and baggage, to be retained by them.
5. This being done, all the officers and men will be permitted to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by the United States authorities, so long as they observe their obligation and the laws in force where they may reside.
W. T. Sherman, Major-General
Commanding United States Forces in North Carolina
J. E. Johnston, General
Commanding Confederate States Forces in North Carolina
Approved: U. S. Grant, Lieutenant-General
Lafayette Curry Baker, USA, is appointed Brigadier General. Baker had taken charge of the Union Intelligence Service from the Scottish-American detective, Allan Pinkerton
Federal soldiers scout from Little Rock to the Saline River, a tributary of the Ouachita River in the south central portion of Arkansas.
An engagement occurs near Fort Rice, in the Dakota Territory, with either Cheyenne or Platte Indians, as the Indians attack and kill some of the Yankees herding horses toward Fort Rice.
Union operations continue in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, including shots fired by a small band of partisan guerrillas at the Federals and the refusal of Colonel William P. Thompson, CSA, and his Jackson's Confederate Cavalry--the 19th Regiment, Virginia Cavalry--command of about 100 to accept terms of surrender. They disband into the hills around the Shenandoah Valley.
John Wilkes Booth and David E. Herold are captured at Richard H. Garrett's Farm, near Port Royal, and north of Bowling Green, Virginia, where Booth is mortally wounded.
Full report: Early this morning, Union cavalry track John Wilkes Booth and David Herold to the Garrett farm in Bowling Green, Virginia, 12 days after he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. Federals surround the barn housing Booth and Herold; Herold quickly surrenders, but Booth refuses and is shot in the back. Booth dies a few hours later.
The twenty-six-year-old Booth was one of the most famous actors in the country when he shot Lincoln during a performance at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C., on the night of 14 April. Booth was a Maryland native and a strong supporter of the Confederacy. As the war entered its final stages, Booth hatched a conspiracy to kidnap the president. He enlisted the aid of several associates, but the opportunity never presented itself. After the surrender of Robert E. Lee’s Confederate army at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on April 9, Booth changed the plan to a simultaneous assassination of Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William Seward. Only Lincoln was actually killed, however. Seward was stabbed by Lewis Paine but survived, while the man assigned to kill Johnson did not carry out his assignment.
After shooting Lincoln, Booth jumped to the stage below Lincoln’s box seat. He landed hard, breaking his leg, before escaping to a waiting horse behind the theater. Many in the audience recognized Booth, so the army was soon hot on his trail. Booth and his accomplice, David Herold, made their way across the Anacostia River and headed toward southern Maryland. The pair stopped at Dr. Samuel Mudd’s home, and Mudd treated Booth’s leg. This earned Mudd a life sentence in prison when he was implicated as part of the conspiracy, but the sentence was later commuted. Booth found refuge for several days at the home of Thomas A. Jones, a Confederate agent, before securing a boat to row across the Potomac to Virginia.
After receiving aid from several Confederate sympathizers, Booth’s luck finally ran out. The countryside was swarming with military units looking for Booth, although few shared information since there was a $20,000 reward. While staying at the farm of Richard Garrett, Federal troops arrived on their search but soon rode on. The unsuspecting Garrett allowed his suspicious guests to sleep in his barn, but he instructed his son to lock the barn from the outside to prevent the strangers from stealing his horses. A tip led the Union soldiers back to the Garrett farm, where they discovered Booth and Herold in the barn. Herold came out, but Booth refused. The building was set on fire to flush Booth, but he was shot while still inside. He lived for three hours before gazing at his hands, muttering "Useless, useless..." as he died.
President Jefferson Davis holds a cabinet meeting at Charlotte, North Carolina, and he and his cabinet pledge to move west across Mississippi to continue the fight. The entourage sets out headed to the Mississippi River to carry on the struggle for Southern Independence. Secretary of the Treasury, George Alfred Trenholm, resigns due to poor health and will be replaced by Postmaster General John Henninger Reagan. Attorney General George Davis disagrees with Davis’ decision and resigns.
Joseph E. Johnston surrenders the Army of Tennessee to William T. Sherman near Durham Station, North Carolina. The surrender terms were the same that Hiram U. Grant had given to Robert E. Lee on 9 April. This marked the surrender of the Confederacy’s second largest army; Johnston also surrendered all forces in his department covering the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida, or a total of about 89,000 men. This ends the war east of the Alleghenies.
Final Terms of Surrender, April 26, 1865
Terms of a Military Convention, entered into this 26th day of April, 1865, at Bennitt's House, near Durham Station, North Carolina, between General Joseph E. Johnston, commanding the Confederate Army, and Major-General W.T. Sherman, commanding the United States Army in North Carolina:
1. All acts of war on the part of the troops under General Johnston's command to cease from this date.
2. All arms and public property to be deposited at Greensboro, and delivered to an ordinance-officer of the United States Army.
3. Rolls of all the officers and men to be made in duplicate; one copy to be given to an officer to be designated by General Sherman. Each officer and man to give individual obligation in writing not to take up arms against the Government of the United States, until properly released from this obligation.
4. The side-arms of officers, and their private horses and baggage, to be retained by them.
5. This being done, all the officers and men will be permitted to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by the United States authorities, so long as they observe their obligation and the laws in force where they may reside.
W. T. Sherman, Major-General
Commanding United States Forces in North Carolina
J. E. Johnston, General
Commanding Confederate States Forces in North Carolina
Approved: U. S. Grant, Lieutenant-General
Lafayette Curry Baker, USA, is appointed Brigadier General. Baker had taken charge of the Union Intelligence Service from the Scottish-American detective, Allan Pinkerton
Federal soldiers scout from Little Rock to the Saline River, a tributary of the Ouachita River in the south central portion of Arkansas.
An engagement occurs near Fort Rice, in the Dakota Territory, with either Cheyenne or Platte Indians, as the Indians attack and kill some of the Yankees herding horses toward Fort Rice.
Union operations continue in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, including shots fired by a small band of partisan guerrillas at the Federals and the refusal of Colonel William P. Thompson, CSA, and his Jackson's Confederate Cavalry--the 19th Regiment, Virginia Cavalry--command of about 100 to accept terms of surrender. They disband into the hills around the Shenandoah Valley.
John Wilkes Booth and David E. Herold are captured at Richard H. Garrett's Farm, near Port Royal, and north of Bowling Green, Virginia, where Booth is mortally wounded.
Full report: Early this morning, Union cavalry track John Wilkes Booth and David Herold to the Garrett farm in Bowling Green, Virginia, 12 days after he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. Federals surround the barn housing Booth and Herold; Herold quickly surrenders, but Booth refuses and is shot in the back. Booth dies a few hours later.
The twenty-six-year-old Booth was one of the most famous actors in the country when he shot Lincoln during a performance at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C., on the night of 14 April. Booth was a Maryland native and a strong supporter of the Confederacy. As the war entered its final stages, Booth hatched a conspiracy to kidnap the president. He enlisted the aid of several associates, but the opportunity never presented itself. After the surrender of Robert E. Lee’s Confederate army at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on April 9, Booth changed the plan to a simultaneous assassination of Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William Seward. Only Lincoln was actually killed, however. Seward was stabbed by Lewis Paine but survived, while the man assigned to kill Johnson did not carry out his assignment.
After shooting Lincoln, Booth jumped to the stage below Lincoln’s box seat. He landed hard, breaking his leg, before escaping to a waiting horse behind the theater. Many in the audience recognized Booth, so the army was soon hot on his trail. Booth and his accomplice, David Herold, made their way across the Anacostia River and headed toward southern Maryland. The pair stopped at Dr. Samuel Mudd’s home, and Mudd treated Booth’s leg. This earned Mudd a life sentence in prison when he was implicated as part of the conspiracy, but the sentence was later commuted. Booth found refuge for several days at the home of Thomas A. Jones, a Confederate agent, before securing a boat to row across the Potomac to Virginia.
After receiving aid from several Confederate sympathizers, Booth’s luck finally ran out. The countryside was swarming with military units looking for Booth, although few shared information since there was a $20,000 reward. While staying at the farm of Richard Garrett, Federal troops arrived on their search but soon rode on. The unsuspecting Garrett allowed his suspicious guests to sleep in his barn, but he instructed his son to lock the barn from the outside to prevent the strangers from stealing his horses. A tip led the Union soldiers back to the Garrett farm, where they discovered Booth and Herold in the barn. Herold came out, but Booth refused. The building was set on fire to flush Booth, but he was shot while still inside. He lived for three hours before gazing at his hands, muttering "Useless, useless..." as he died.
Posted on 4/26/15 at 6:52 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Thursday, 27 April 1865
The steamship Sultana suffers a boiler explosion tonight, eight miles north of Memphis on the Mississippi River, killing more than 1,800 of her estimated 2,427 souls aboard. The explosion collapsed the superstructure and almost immediately engulfed the boat in flames. Most passengers were discharged Union soldiers and repatriated POW's returning from Confederate prison camps. The boat’s capacity was 376. This was the worst maritime disaster in U.S. history.
The Sultana was launched from Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1863. The boat was 260 feet long and had an authorized capacity of 376 passengers and crew. It was soon employed to carry troops and supplies along the lower Mississippi River.
On April 21, starting what looked like a regular run, the Sultana had left New Orleans with from 75 to 100 cabin passengers, and a cargo which included a hundred hogsheads of sugar and a hundred head of assorted livestock. It stopped at Vicksburg, Mississippi, for repair of a leaky boiler. R. G. Taylor, the boilermaker on the ship, advised Captain J. Cass Mason that two sheets on the boiler had to be replaced, but Mason ordered Taylor to simply patch the plates until the ship reached St. Louis. Mason was part owner of the riverboat, and he and the other owners were anxious to pick up discharged Union prisoners at Vicksburg. The federal government promised to pay $5 for each enlisted man and $10 for each officer delivered to the North. Such a contract could pay huge dividends, and Mason convinced local military authorities to pick up the entire contingent despite the presence of two other steamboats at Vicksburg.
When the Sultana left Vicksburg, it carried over 2,100 troops and 200 civilians plus crew, more than six times its capacity. Last evening, the ship stopped at Memphis before cruising across the river to pick up coal in Arkansas. As it steamed up the river above Memphis, a thunderous explosion tore through the boat. Metal and steam from the boilers killed hundreds, and hundreds more were thrown from the boat into the chilly waters of the river. The Mississippi was already at flood stage, and the Sultana had only one lifeboat and a few life preservers. Only 600 people survived the explosion. A board of inquiry later determined the cause to be insufficient water in the boiler--overcrowding was not listed as a cause. The Sultana accident is still the greatest maritime disaster in United States history.
Naval report: The river steamer Sultana blew up in the Mississippi River above Memphis, Tennessee, killing 1,450 out of 2,000 passengers--all but 50 of whom were former prisoners of war. She was en route to Cairo, Illinois, when a violent explosion ripped her apart and turned her into a sheet of flame. The cause of the explosion was never determined, but one of the theories advanced was that a coal torpedo--such as the one that was suspected of having destroyed Army steamer Greyhound had been slipped into the steamer's coal bin.
Brigadier General James C. Veatch, USA, is assigned to command the Post and the District of Mobile, Alabama.
Colonel William H. Dickey, commander of the 65th, 67th, 84th and 92nd US Colored Troops, as well as the 14th New York Cavalry (six companies) and 1st Indiana Heavy Artillery, assumes the command of the District of Morganza, Louisiana.
A brief affair occurs near James Creek, in the vicinity of Mount Vernon, Missouri, as two partisan guerrillas are confronted by Yankees, killed immediately and laid to rest.
President Abraham Lincoln's funeral train passes through Rochester and pauses at Buffalo, New York. Former President Millard Fillmore and future President Grover Cleveland attend the funeral service in Buffalo.
Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his party reached South Carolina. Treasury Secretary George A. Trenholm had resigned, too ill to continue. Postmaster General John Reagan replaced Trenholm.
The body of John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln's assassin, and David E. Herold, who had accompanied Booth in the escape from Washington and was with the actor when he was shot, were delivered on board USS Montauk, anchored in the Anacostia River off the Washington Navy Yard. Booth had been slain and Herold captured at John M. Garrett's farm three miles outside Port Royal, Virginia, in the early morning hours of the previous day. While the body was on board the monitor, an autopsy was performed and an inquiry conducted to establish identity. Booth's corpse was then taken by boat to the Washington Arsenal (now Fort McNair) where it was buried in a gun box the following day. Herold was incarcerated in the hold of Montauk which, along with USS Saugus, was being utilized for the maximum security imprisonment of eight of the suspected assassination conspirators.
Union Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles informed Commander F. A. Parker of the Potomac Flotilla that the "...special restrictions relative to retaining vessels are removed." He advised the Flotilla commander that "...Booth was killed and captured with Herold yesterday, 3 miles southwest of Port Royal, Va." With the search for President Lincoln's assassin ended, further south the Navy focused its attention to another end. This date, Rear Admiral John A. B. Dahlgren ordered nine ships of his South Atlantic Blockading Squadron to patrol along the Southern coast to prevent the escape of President Jefferson Davis and his cabinet.
Commodore William Radford, commanding the James River Flotilla, stationed the USS Tristram Shandy, under Acting Lieutenant Francis M. Green, at Cape Henry to watch for the CSS Stonewall. The next day Union Secretary Welles warned Radford that the Stonewall had sailed from Teneriffe, in the Canary Islands, on 1 April and had steamed rapidly to the south. "...Every precaution should be taken to guard against surprise and to prevent her inflicting serious injury should she make her appearance anywhere within the limits of your command..." Welles sent the same directive to Commander F. A. Parker of the Potomac Flotilla.
The steamship Sultana suffers a boiler explosion tonight, eight miles north of Memphis on the Mississippi River, killing more than 1,800 of her estimated 2,427 souls aboard. The explosion collapsed the superstructure and almost immediately engulfed the boat in flames. Most passengers were discharged Union soldiers and repatriated POW's returning from Confederate prison camps. The boat’s capacity was 376. This was the worst maritime disaster in U.S. history.
The Sultana was launched from Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1863. The boat was 260 feet long and had an authorized capacity of 376 passengers and crew. It was soon employed to carry troops and supplies along the lower Mississippi River.
On April 21, starting what looked like a regular run, the Sultana had left New Orleans with from 75 to 100 cabin passengers, and a cargo which included a hundred hogsheads of sugar and a hundred head of assorted livestock. It stopped at Vicksburg, Mississippi, for repair of a leaky boiler. R. G. Taylor, the boilermaker on the ship, advised Captain J. Cass Mason that two sheets on the boiler had to be replaced, but Mason ordered Taylor to simply patch the plates until the ship reached St. Louis. Mason was part owner of the riverboat, and he and the other owners were anxious to pick up discharged Union prisoners at Vicksburg. The federal government promised to pay $5 for each enlisted man and $10 for each officer delivered to the North. Such a contract could pay huge dividends, and Mason convinced local military authorities to pick up the entire contingent despite the presence of two other steamboats at Vicksburg.
When the Sultana left Vicksburg, it carried over 2,100 troops and 200 civilians plus crew, more than six times its capacity. Last evening, the ship stopped at Memphis before cruising across the river to pick up coal in Arkansas. As it steamed up the river above Memphis, a thunderous explosion tore through the boat. Metal and steam from the boilers killed hundreds, and hundreds more were thrown from the boat into the chilly waters of the river. The Mississippi was already at flood stage, and the Sultana had only one lifeboat and a few life preservers. Only 600 people survived the explosion. A board of inquiry later determined the cause to be insufficient water in the boiler--overcrowding was not listed as a cause. The Sultana accident is still the greatest maritime disaster in United States history.
Naval report: The river steamer Sultana blew up in the Mississippi River above Memphis, Tennessee, killing 1,450 out of 2,000 passengers--all but 50 of whom were former prisoners of war. She was en route to Cairo, Illinois, when a violent explosion ripped her apart and turned her into a sheet of flame. The cause of the explosion was never determined, but one of the theories advanced was that a coal torpedo--such as the one that was suspected of having destroyed Army steamer Greyhound had been slipped into the steamer's coal bin.
Brigadier General James C. Veatch, USA, is assigned to command the Post and the District of Mobile, Alabama.
Colonel William H. Dickey, commander of the 65th, 67th, 84th and 92nd US Colored Troops, as well as the 14th New York Cavalry (six companies) and 1st Indiana Heavy Artillery, assumes the command of the District of Morganza, Louisiana.
A brief affair occurs near James Creek, in the vicinity of Mount Vernon, Missouri, as two partisan guerrillas are confronted by Yankees, killed immediately and laid to rest.
President Abraham Lincoln's funeral train passes through Rochester and pauses at Buffalo, New York. Former President Millard Fillmore and future President Grover Cleveland attend the funeral service in Buffalo.
Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his party reached South Carolina. Treasury Secretary George A. Trenholm had resigned, too ill to continue. Postmaster General John Reagan replaced Trenholm.
The body of John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln's assassin, and David E. Herold, who had accompanied Booth in the escape from Washington and was with the actor when he was shot, were delivered on board USS Montauk, anchored in the Anacostia River off the Washington Navy Yard. Booth had been slain and Herold captured at John M. Garrett's farm three miles outside Port Royal, Virginia, in the early morning hours of the previous day. While the body was on board the monitor, an autopsy was performed and an inquiry conducted to establish identity. Booth's corpse was then taken by boat to the Washington Arsenal (now Fort McNair) where it was buried in a gun box the following day. Herold was incarcerated in the hold of Montauk which, along with USS Saugus, was being utilized for the maximum security imprisonment of eight of the suspected assassination conspirators.
Union Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles informed Commander F. A. Parker of the Potomac Flotilla that the "...special restrictions relative to retaining vessels are removed." He advised the Flotilla commander that "...Booth was killed and captured with Herold yesterday, 3 miles southwest of Port Royal, Va." With the search for President Lincoln's assassin ended, further south the Navy focused its attention to another end. This date, Rear Admiral John A. B. Dahlgren ordered nine ships of his South Atlantic Blockading Squadron to patrol along the Southern coast to prevent the escape of President Jefferson Davis and his cabinet.
Commodore William Radford, commanding the James River Flotilla, stationed the USS Tristram Shandy, under Acting Lieutenant Francis M. Green, at Cape Henry to watch for the CSS Stonewall. The next day Union Secretary Welles warned Radford that the Stonewall had sailed from Teneriffe, in the Canary Islands, on 1 April and had steamed rapidly to the south. "...Every precaution should be taken to guard against surprise and to prevent her inflicting serious injury should she make her appearance anywhere within the limits of your command..." Welles sent the same directive to Commander F. A. Parker of the Potomac Flotilla.
Posted on 4/27/15 at 8:34 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Friday, 28 April 1865
President Abraham Lincoln's funeral train arrived in Cleveland, Ohio, this morning at 6:50 a.m. An estimated 50,000 people filed past the coffin throughout the day in pouring rain to pay their respects to the fallen leader. The body lay under a canopy in Monument Square because no public building could hold such a large crowd. The train would finally depart at midnight.
Federal troops from Fort Cummings scout against Indians in the New Mexico Territory.
Major General William T. Sherman left his officers to handle the disbandment of Joseph E. Johnston’s army and make the preparations for taking his troops north. He then departed for Savannah to take care of affairs in Georgia.
Small groups of Confederate soldiers surrendered throughout the South. Confederate President Jefferson Davis accepted the resignation of Treasury Secretary George Alfred Trenholm, who was left behind as the entourage moved further south, due to ill health.
Union Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles directed Rear Admiral Henry K. Thatcher of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron: "Lieutenant General Grant telegraphs to the War Department under date of the 26th instant, from Raleigh, N.C., that Jeff Davis, with his Cabinet, passed into South Carolina, with the intentions, no doubt, of getting out of the country, either via Cuba or across the Mississippi. All the vigilance and available means at your command should be brought to bear to prevent the escape of those leaders of the rebellion."
Rear Admiral Thatcher reported to Secretary Welles that the USS Octorara, Sebago, and Winnebago were up the Tombigbee River, Alabama, blockading the CSS Nashville and Morgan. The Confederate ships had steamed upriver when Mobile fell. The Admiral concluded: "They must soon fall into our hands or destroy themselves."
President Abraham Lincoln's funeral train arrived in Cleveland, Ohio, this morning at 6:50 a.m. An estimated 50,000 people filed past the coffin throughout the day in pouring rain to pay their respects to the fallen leader. The body lay under a canopy in Monument Square because no public building could hold such a large crowd. The train would finally depart at midnight.
Federal troops from Fort Cummings scout against Indians in the New Mexico Territory.
Major General William T. Sherman left his officers to handle the disbandment of Joseph E. Johnston’s army and make the preparations for taking his troops north. He then departed for Savannah to take care of affairs in Georgia.
Small groups of Confederate soldiers surrendered throughout the South. Confederate President Jefferson Davis accepted the resignation of Treasury Secretary George Alfred Trenholm, who was left behind as the entourage moved further south, due to ill health.
Union Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles directed Rear Admiral Henry K. Thatcher of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron: "Lieutenant General Grant telegraphs to the War Department under date of the 26th instant, from Raleigh, N.C., that Jeff Davis, with his Cabinet, passed into South Carolina, with the intentions, no doubt, of getting out of the country, either via Cuba or across the Mississippi. All the vigilance and available means at your command should be brought to bear to prevent the escape of those leaders of the rebellion."
Rear Admiral Thatcher reported to Secretary Welles that the USS Octorara, Sebago, and Winnebago were up the Tombigbee River, Alabama, blockading the CSS Nashville and Morgan. The Confederate ships had steamed upriver when Mobile fell. The Admiral concluded: "They must soon fall into our hands or destroy themselves."
Posted on 4/28/15 at 9:21 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Saturday, 29 April 1865
Union President Andrew Johnson removes commercial restrictions on trade in the former Confederate territory east of the Mississippi River within military lines. All of Texas is excluded.
Confederate President Jefferson Davis and the remnants of his Cabinet arrive at Unionville, South Carolina, then move on to Yorkville, continuing their flight.
President Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train arrives around 7 a.m. at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio, where the mourning masses pay their last respects. It departs at 8 p.m. for Indiana.
A Federal expedition travels from Saint Louis, Missouri, to receive the surrender of Confederate Brevetted Brigadier General M. Jeff Thompson.
Union Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles congratulates Rear Admiral Henry K. Thatcher and his men on their part in bringing about the fall of Mobile, Alabama: "Although no bloody strife preceded the capture the result was none the less creditable. Much has been expended to render it invulnerable, and nothing but the well-conducted preparations for its capture, which pointed to success, could have induced the Rebel commander to abandon it with its formidable defenses, mounting nearly 400 guns, many of them of the newest pattern and heaviest caliber, its abundant supply of ammunition and ordnance stores, and its torpedo-planted roads and waters, without serious conflict."
The USS Donegal, Acting Lieutenant George D. Upham, is ordered to cruise from Bulls Bay, South Carolina, to the Savannah River in search of the CSS Stonewall.
Acting Master W. C. Coulson, commanding the USS Moose on the Cumberland River, leads a surprise attack on a Confederate raiding party, numbering about 200 troops from Brigadier General Abraham Buford's command. The raiders under the command of a Major Hopkins, were crossing the Cumberland River to sack and burn Eddyville, in Lyon County, Kentucky. Coulson sank two troop laden boats with battery gunfire and then put a landing party ashore which engaged the remaining Confederates. The landing force dispersed the detachment after killing or wounding 20 men, taking 6 captives, and capturing 22 horses.
Union President Andrew Johnson removes commercial restrictions on trade in the former Confederate territory east of the Mississippi River within military lines. All of Texas is excluded.
Confederate President Jefferson Davis and the remnants of his Cabinet arrive at Unionville, South Carolina, then move on to Yorkville, continuing their flight.
President Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train arrives around 7 a.m. at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio, where the mourning masses pay their last respects. It departs at 8 p.m. for Indiana.
A Federal expedition travels from Saint Louis, Missouri, to receive the surrender of Confederate Brevetted Brigadier General M. Jeff Thompson.
Union Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles congratulates Rear Admiral Henry K. Thatcher and his men on their part in bringing about the fall of Mobile, Alabama: "Although no bloody strife preceded the capture the result was none the less creditable. Much has been expended to render it invulnerable, and nothing but the well-conducted preparations for its capture, which pointed to success, could have induced the Rebel commander to abandon it with its formidable defenses, mounting nearly 400 guns, many of them of the newest pattern and heaviest caliber, its abundant supply of ammunition and ordnance stores, and its torpedo-planted roads and waters, without serious conflict."
The USS Donegal, Acting Lieutenant George D. Upham, is ordered to cruise from Bulls Bay, South Carolina, to the Savannah River in search of the CSS Stonewall.
Acting Master W. C. Coulson, commanding the USS Moose on the Cumberland River, leads a surprise attack on a Confederate raiding party, numbering about 200 troops from Brigadier General Abraham Buford's command. The raiders under the command of a Major Hopkins, were crossing the Cumberland River to sack and burn Eddyville, in Lyon County, Kentucky. Coulson sank two troop laden boats with battery gunfire and then put a landing party ashore which engaged the remaining Confederates. The landing force dispersed the detachment after killing or wounding 20 men, taking 6 captives, and capturing 22 horses.
Posted on 4/29/15 at 9:32 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Sunday, 30 April 1865
A few miles north of Mobile, Alabama, Federal Major General Edward Richard Sprigg Canby and Confederate Lieutenant General Richard Taylor--the sixth and youngest child of President Zachary Taylor--meet and agree upon a truce to end to hostilities, as well as surrender the remaining Confederate forces in Alabama and Mississippi.
President Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train arrives at Indianapolis, Indiana, this morning at 7 a.m. Mourners gather at the Indiana Statehouse to pay their respects. The train will depart at midnight.
Federal operations continue in the vicinity of Brashear City, Louisiana, with (upcoming) skirmishes occurring at:
Chacahoula
Bayou Black
Bayou Goula
Brown's Plantation
The eight suspects in the Lincoln assassination plot, so eerily similar to the botched Dahlgren-Kilpatrick Raid of March 1864, who had been imprisoned on the monitors USS Montauk and Saugus were transferred to the Arsenal Penitentiary today, located in the compound of what is today Fort McNair. This was also the site of their trial by a military tribunal which returned its verdict on 30 June 1865.
Three of the eight, along with Mrs. Mary E. Surratt, would be hanged in the prison yard of the penitentiary on 7 July--Lewis Paine, who made the unsuccessful assassination attempt on Secretary of State Seward; George A. Atzerodt, who had been designated by Booth to murder Vice President Johnson; and David E. Herold, who had accompanied Booth in his escape from the city.
Michael O'Laughlin and Samuel B. Arnold, boyhood friends of Booth and conspirators in the actor's earlier plans to abduct President Lincoln and in his later plans to assassinate the government's top officials, were sentenced to life in prison. Another accomplice, Edward Spangler, stagehand at the Ford Theater was sentenced to six years in prison. The remaining two of the eight who had been incarcerated on the monitors--Ernest Hartman Richter, a cousin of Atzerodt, and Joao Celestino, a Portuguese sea captain were released without being brought to trial. The military commission found Dr. Samuel A. Mudd guilty of aiding and conspiring in the murder, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment, escaping the death penalty by a single vote.
A few miles north of Mobile, Alabama, Federal Major General Edward Richard Sprigg Canby and Confederate Lieutenant General Richard Taylor--the sixth and youngest child of President Zachary Taylor--meet and agree upon a truce to end to hostilities, as well as surrender the remaining Confederate forces in Alabama and Mississippi.
President Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train arrives at Indianapolis, Indiana, this morning at 7 a.m. Mourners gather at the Indiana Statehouse to pay their respects. The train will depart at midnight.
Federal operations continue in the vicinity of Brashear City, Louisiana, with (upcoming) skirmishes occurring at:
Chacahoula
Bayou Black
Bayou Goula
Brown's Plantation
The eight suspects in the Lincoln assassination plot, so eerily similar to the botched Dahlgren-Kilpatrick Raid of March 1864, who had been imprisoned on the monitors USS Montauk and Saugus were transferred to the Arsenal Penitentiary today, located in the compound of what is today Fort McNair. This was also the site of their trial by a military tribunal which returned its verdict on 30 June 1865.
Three of the eight, along with Mrs. Mary E. Surratt, would be hanged in the prison yard of the penitentiary on 7 July--Lewis Paine, who made the unsuccessful assassination attempt on Secretary of State Seward; George A. Atzerodt, who had been designated by Booth to murder Vice President Johnson; and David E. Herold, who had accompanied Booth in his escape from the city.
Michael O'Laughlin and Samuel B. Arnold, boyhood friends of Booth and conspirators in the actor's earlier plans to abduct President Lincoln and in his later plans to assassinate the government's top officials, were sentenced to life in prison. Another accomplice, Edward Spangler, stagehand at the Ford Theater was sentenced to six years in prison. The remaining two of the eight who had been incarcerated on the monitors--Ernest Hartman Richter, a cousin of Atzerodt, and Joao Celestino, a Portuguese sea captain were released without being brought to trial. The military commission found Dr. Samuel A. Mudd guilty of aiding and conspiring in the murder, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment, escaping the death penalty by a single vote.
This post was edited on 4/30/15 at 2:57 am
Posted on 4/30/15 at 10:12 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Monday, 1 May 1865
Union President Andrew Johnson appoints nine army officers to a military commission to try the eight people accused of conspiring with John Wilkes Booth to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln, Secretary of State William H. Seward, and then-Vice President Johnson. It had been ruled by Federal authorities that they were subject to trial before a military delegation instead of in civil court. Those accused and held in prison were David E. Herold, George A. Atzerodt, Samuel Arnold, Lewis Paine, Michael O’Laughlin, Edman "Ned" Spangler, Mary E. Surratt, and Samuel A. Mudd.
Johnson formed the commission based on Attorney General James Speed’s controversial opinion that the president had power to try the accused by a military tribunal and not in a constitutionally guaranteed civil court. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton supervised the appointments, all of which were Republicans. The commission could form its own rules on how to conduct the trial and to convict by a two-thirds majority rather than a unanimous decision.
The following are appointed Union Brigadier Generals:James Sanks Brisbin, Thomas Odgen Osborn, Joseph Haydn Potter.
Major General Gouverneur Kemble Warren is ordered to relieve Major General Napoleon Jackson Tecumseh Dana in the command of the Department of Mississippi. Dana was in overall command of the area where the steamboat Sultana exploded on the Mississippi River near Memphis, Tennessee on 27 April. The paddle-wheeler had been contracted by the U.S. Government to return home recently released Union prisoners of war, and when it docked in Vicksburg for repairs to leaky boilers it became grossly overcrowded with soldiers wanting to get home. An April 27, 2007, article in the Washington Times explained what Dana had been told about the ship before it departed Vicksburg:
Capts. Frederick Speed and George A. Williams were responsible for the proper boarding of soldiers. Speed advised Maj. Gen. Napoleon J.T. Dana that the number would not exceed 1,400 men. Speed and Williams both assured Dana that the load was not too large for the boat and that the men appeared comfortable and not overcrowded
Federal soldiers scout against Indians from Ojo de Anaya, in the New Mexico Territory.
Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase begins a tour the South with journalists on a political mission for the Radical Republicans. By this time, Union Leagues in New York and Philadelphia had already begun organizing blacks into a group clamoring for the right to vote. Chase will go to the South not as the chief justice, but as a politician aspiring to the presidency in 1868. At Charleston, he delivers a speech assuring blacks they would be granted suffrage. Many northerners will not be pleased. The New York Herald, which had charged Chase with going on an electioneering tour, denounces the speech as "incendiary talk" and finds "the whole tenor of the speech that of a firebrand thrown into a complicated and difficult situation." The New York World also objects, but Chase continues.
President Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train arrives at Michigan City, Indiana, for a 35-minute stop while waiting for 100 important men of Chicago to arrive to escort the fallen president into the city. Meanwhile, the citizens of Michigan City hold an impromptu funeral and 16 young women are allowed to enter the funeral car to place flowers on the casket. The train arrives in Chicago at 11 a.m. and stays the entire day. A procession of some 50,000 people walk with former President Abraham Lincoln’s coffin to Chicago’s Cook County courthouse. The funeral hearse was attended by pallbearers, an honor guard, and 36 schoolgirls in white representing the 36 states. A sign over the courthouse read, "Illinois Clasps to Her Bosom Her Slain, but Glorified Son."
Confederate President Jefferson Davis continues moving southwest with his remaining fleeing cabinet and cavalry escort in what was becoming a more and more desperate flight. The travelers spend the night at Cokesbury, South Carolina, while ultimately heading for the Florida coast.
At the Missouri constitutional convention, delegates vote 43 to 5 to replace all significant state government officials with appointees of Governor Thomas Fletcher until the next election. Some 800 government workers will lose their jobs, including all state supreme court justices.
Union President Andrew Johnson appoints nine army officers to a military commission to try the eight people accused of conspiring with John Wilkes Booth to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln, Secretary of State William H. Seward, and then-Vice President Johnson. It had been ruled by Federal authorities that they were subject to trial before a military delegation instead of in civil court. Those accused and held in prison were David E. Herold, George A. Atzerodt, Samuel Arnold, Lewis Paine, Michael O’Laughlin, Edman "Ned" Spangler, Mary E. Surratt, and Samuel A. Mudd.
Johnson formed the commission based on Attorney General James Speed’s controversial opinion that the president had power to try the accused by a military tribunal and not in a constitutionally guaranteed civil court. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton supervised the appointments, all of which were Republicans. The commission could form its own rules on how to conduct the trial and to convict by a two-thirds majority rather than a unanimous decision.
The following are appointed Union Brigadier Generals:James Sanks Brisbin, Thomas Odgen Osborn, Joseph Haydn Potter.
Major General Gouverneur Kemble Warren is ordered to relieve Major General Napoleon Jackson Tecumseh Dana in the command of the Department of Mississippi. Dana was in overall command of the area where the steamboat Sultana exploded on the Mississippi River near Memphis, Tennessee on 27 April. The paddle-wheeler had been contracted by the U.S. Government to return home recently released Union prisoners of war, and when it docked in Vicksburg for repairs to leaky boilers it became grossly overcrowded with soldiers wanting to get home. An April 27, 2007, article in the Washington Times explained what Dana had been told about the ship before it departed Vicksburg:
Capts. Frederick Speed and George A. Williams were responsible for the proper boarding of soldiers. Speed advised Maj. Gen. Napoleon J.T. Dana that the number would not exceed 1,400 men. Speed and Williams both assured Dana that the load was not too large for the boat and that the men appeared comfortable and not overcrowded
Federal soldiers scout against Indians from Ojo de Anaya, in the New Mexico Territory.
Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase begins a tour the South with journalists on a political mission for the Radical Republicans. By this time, Union Leagues in New York and Philadelphia had already begun organizing blacks into a group clamoring for the right to vote. Chase will go to the South not as the chief justice, but as a politician aspiring to the presidency in 1868. At Charleston, he delivers a speech assuring blacks they would be granted suffrage. Many northerners will not be pleased. The New York Herald, which had charged Chase with going on an electioneering tour, denounces the speech as "incendiary talk" and finds "the whole tenor of the speech that of a firebrand thrown into a complicated and difficult situation." The New York World also objects, but Chase continues.
President Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train arrives at Michigan City, Indiana, for a 35-minute stop while waiting for 100 important men of Chicago to arrive to escort the fallen president into the city. Meanwhile, the citizens of Michigan City hold an impromptu funeral and 16 young women are allowed to enter the funeral car to place flowers on the casket. The train arrives in Chicago at 11 a.m. and stays the entire day. A procession of some 50,000 people walk with former President Abraham Lincoln’s coffin to Chicago’s Cook County courthouse. The funeral hearse was attended by pallbearers, an honor guard, and 36 schoolgirls in white representing the 36 states. A sign over the courthouse read, "Illinois Clasps to Her Bosom Her Slain, but Glorified Son."
Confederate President Jefferson Davis continues moving southwest with his remaining fleeing cabinet and cavalry escort in what was becoming a more and more desperate flight. The travelers spend the night at Cokesbury, South Carolina, while ultimately heading for the Florida coast.
At the Missouri constitutional convention, delegates vote 43 to 5 to replace all significant state government officials with appointees of Governor Thomas Fletcher until the next election. Some 800 government workers will lose their jobs, including all state supreme court justices.
Posted on 5/1/15 at 9:39 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Tuesday, 2 May 1865
Union Major General Edward R.S. Canby telegraphs Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant with the news that Confederate Lieutenant General Richard Taylor had accepted the terms of surrender of his forces in Alabama and Mississippi, based on the Appomattox Court House terms given to General Robert E. Lee.
United States President Andrew Johnson issues a proclamation accusing Confederate President Jefferson Davis and others of inciting the murder of President Abraham Lincoln and procuring the actual perpetrators. A $100,000 reward is offered for the arrest of Davis. This accusation is often ascribed to the hysteria resulting from the assassination. No reliable historian has ever connected Davis with the assassination, even though the Confederate President himself was the target of the assassination plot in the botched Union Dahlgren-Kilpatrick Raid.
Davis was now in Abbeville, South Carolina, where the Confederate navy turns over their cargo of bullion and archives to Davis' escort commander, Brigadier General Basil Duke, and disbands. Confederate Secretary of the Navy, Stephen Russell Mallory, officially resigns and leaves for La Grange, Georgia. They were now headed headed for Washington, Georgia. In a council, Davis expressed a wish to try to continue the war, but the others did not agree with him. He met with five brigade commanders who unanimously rejected Davis’ proposal to wage a guerrilla war to sustain the government-in-exile. Davis said, "All is lost indeed." The commanders resolved to help Davis reach Mexico but nothing more. They left Abbeville around midnight. Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory officially resigned.
An affair is reported on the Blue Earth River, Minnesota, where a party of Sioux Indians massacres a family of white settlers, consisting of 4 or 5 grown persons, and wounded a child.
Union Brevetted Brigadier General John E. Smith is assigned to the command the District of West Tennessee, as vice Major General Stephen Gano "Butcher" Burbridge is immediately relieved of command.
Abraham Lincoln’s coffin lay in state in Chicago’s Cook County courthouse. Some 125,000 mourners paid last respects before the coffin was placed back on the Alton Railroad train for the ride to Springfield, Illinois. Some 12,000 people held torches and watched the train pass through Joliet around midnight.
Union Major General Edward R.S. Canby telegraphs Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant with the news that Confederate Lieutenant General Richard Taylor had accepted the terms of surrender of his forces in Alabama and Mississippi, based on the Appomattox Court House terms given to General Robert E. Lee.
United States President Andrew Johnson issues a proclamation accusing Confederate President Jefferson Davis and others of inciting the murder of President Abraham Lincoln and procuring the actual perpetrators. A $100,000 reward is offered for the arrest of Davis. This accusation is often ascribed to the hysteria resulting from the assassination. No reliable historian has ever connected Davis with the assassination, even though the Confederate President himself was the target of the assassination plot in the botched Union Dahlgren-Kilpatrick Raid.
Davis was now in Abbeville, South Carolina, where the Confederate navy turns over their cargo of bullion and archives to Davis' escort commander, Brigadier General Basil Duke, and disbands. Confederate Secretary of the Navy, Stephen Russell Mallory, officially resigns and leaves for La Grange, Georgia. They were now headed headed for Washington, Georgia. In a council, Davis expressed a wish to try to continue the war, but the others did not agree with him. He met with five brigade commanders who unanimously rejected Davis’ proposal to wage a guerrilla war to sustain the government-in-exile. Davis said, "All is lost indeed." The commanders resolved to help Davis reach Mexico but nothing more. They left Abbeville around midnight. Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory officially resigned.
An affair is reported on the Blue Earth River, Minnesota, where a party of Sioux Indians massacres a family of white settlers, consisting of 4 or 5 grown persons, and wounded a child.
Union Brevetted Brigadier General John E. Smith is assigned to the command the District of West Tennessee, as vice Major General Stephen Gano "Butcher" Burbridge is immediately relieved of command.
Abraham Lincoln’s coffin lay in state in Chicago’s Cook County courthouse. Some 125,000 mourners paid last respects before the coffin was placed back on the Alton Railroad train for the ride to Springfield, Illinois. Some 12,000 people held torches and watched the train pass through Joliet around midnight.
Posted on 5/2/15 at 9:26 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Wednesday, 3 May 1865
This morning, President Jefferson Davis and his party cross the Savannah River and enter Georgia. The entourage continues to dwindle as Confederate Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin resigns and begins heading for Florida in the hopes to getting to Europe to obtain foreign recognition for the government-in-exile. He eventually reaches England.
President Johnson meets with a Pennsylvania delegation headed by Thaddeus Stevens and Simon Cameron at the White House. Johnson pledges to punish Confederate leaders but to offer leniency to soldiers forced to fight by Confederate draft laws.
President Abraham Lincoln’s Lincoln's funeral train reaches its final destination of Springfield, Illinois. The coffin will lay in state in the Illinois Statehouse, as some 75,000 mourners pay their last respects. Others gather in front of the Lincolns' former home on the corner of 8th and Jackson Streets.
A Federal expedition strikes out against Cheyenne Indians from Fort Laramie to Wind River, in the Dakota Territory.
Federal operations commence about Fort Adams, Mississippi, with the assistance of the steamer, Magnet, and the gunboat, Chillicothe. Rumor has it Davis, with a small escort, has crossed the river at Quitman. News is arriving of the surrender of Lieutenant General Richard Taylor's Confederate forces.
A Federal expedition maneuvers from Rodney to Port Gibson, Mississippi, with skirmishes breaking out along the way.
Skirmishes continue on the Missouri River about 15 miles south of Boonville, Missouri, as the Federal troops surprise numerous partisan guerrillas attempting to ford the Missouri River.
An engagement occurs with attacking guerrillas near Pleasant Hill, Missouri. Eventually the outlaws escape towards the Snibar Hills.
Federal expeditions travel from Fort Churchill to Carson Lake and the Truckee and Humboldt Rivers, Nevada, against a threatened Indian uprising.
This morning, President Jefferson Davis and his party cross the Savannah River and enter Georgia. The entourage continues to dwindle as Confederate Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin resigns and begins heading for Florida in the hopes to getting to Europe to obtain foreign recognition for the government-in-exile. He eventually reaches England.
President Johnson meets with a Pennsylvania delegation headed by Thaddeus Stevens and Simon Cameron at the White House. Johnson pledges to punish Confederate leaders but to offer leniency to soldiers forced to fight by Confederate draft laws.
President Abraham Lincoln’s Lincoln's funeral train reaches its final destination of Springfield, Illinois. The coffin will lay in state in the Illinois Statehouse, as some 75,000 mourners pay their last respects. Others gather in front of the Lincolns' former home on the corner of 8th and Jackson Streets.
A Federal expedition strikes out against Cheyenne Indians from Fort Laramie to Wind River, in the Dakota Territory.
Federal operations commence about Fort Adams, Mississippi, with the assistance of the steamer, Magnet, and the gunboat, Chillicothe. Rumor has it Davis, with a small escort, has crossed the river at Quitman. News is arriving of the surrender of Lieutenant General Richard Taylor's Confederate forces.
A Federal expedition maneuvers from Rodney to Port Gibson, Mississippi, with skirmishes breaking out along the way.
Skirmishes continue on the Missouri River about 15 miles south of Boonville, Missouri, as the Federal troops surprise numerous partisan guerrillas attempting to ford the Missouri River.
An engagement occurs with attacking guerrillas near Pleasant Hill, Missouri. Eventually the outlaws escape towards the Snibar Hills.
Federal expeditions travel from Fort Churchill to Carson Lake and the Truckee and Humboldt Rivers, Nevada, against a threatened Indian uprising.
Posted on 5/3/15 at 9:06 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Thursday, 4 May 1865
At Washington, Georgia, Confederate President Jefferson Davis holds his last cabinet meeting. Davis is reluctant, and actually unable, to disband the government because he has no power to do so under the Confederate Constitution. Southern officials continued leaving to join their families, however, and Davis and his dwindling entourage again move further south toward Eatonton, Georgia.
Skirmishing breaks out at Wetumpka, Alabama, in the Mobile Campaign.
Federal troops scout from Pine Bluff to Noble's Farm, Arkansas, against Southern partisans, a reported "...lawless band of robbers..."
Skirmishing occurs with partisan guerrillas at the Star House, 2 miles from Lexington, Missouri. The outnumbered attacking Southerners are finally forced to retreat.
Approximately 40 miles north of Mobile, Alabama, Confederate Lieutenant General Richard Scott Taylor, youngest child of former United States President Zachary Taylor, surrenders to Union Major General Edward Richard Sprigg Canby to formally end the Mobile Campaign. As Taylor surrenders his Confederate forces to Canby at Citronelle, this ends all organized Confederate resistance east of the Mississippi River.
President Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States of America is finally laid to rest, after returning to his hometown of Springfield. Illinois. Lincoln was buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield. As many as seven million people had witnessed some part of Lincoln’s funeral procession from Washington, DC, to Springfield.
During this period, the CSS Shenandoah "made northings" towards the Bering Sea whaling ground through pleasant seas that would soon change in the high parallels. After departing Lea Harbor, Ponape, in the Caroline Islands, on 13 April, the lone raider had experienced fine cruising-except for lack of prizes. Commander James Iredell Waddell wrote:
"Never in our various experience of sea life had any of us seen such or more charming weather than we now enjoyed. The sun shone with a peculiar brilliancy and the moon shed that clear, soft light which is found in this locality, in which the heavens seem so distant and so darkly blue, while the vast expanse of ocean was like a great reflecting mirror. The track for vessels bound from San Francisco and many of the ports, on the west coast of America to Hong Kong lies between the parallels in north latitude of 17º and 20º Here the winds are better than are found in a more northerly route, while the track to San Francisco and other ports along the west coast of America from China lies between the parallels of 35º and 45º, because here west winds prevail..."
"After the vessel had reached the parallel of 43º north the weather became cold and foggy and the winds were variable and unsteady, and that ever reliable friend of the sailor, the barometer, indicated atmospheric changes."
"The ship was prepared for the change of weather which was rapidly approaching. Soon the ocean was boiling with agitation, and if the barometer had been silent, I would have called it only a furious tide but a dark, then a black cloud, was hurrying towards us from the N. E. and so close did it rest upon the surface of the water that is seemed determined to overwhelm the. ship, and there came in it so terrible and violent a wind that the Shenandoah was thrown on her side..."
"Squall after squall struck her, flash after flash surrounded her, and the thunder rolled in her wake. It was the typhoon. The ocean was as white as the snow and foamed with rage. A new close-reefed main topsail was blown into shreds, and the voice of man was inaudible amid this awful convolution of nature..."
The CSS Ajax, commanded by Lieutenant John Low--born in Aberdeen, Scotland--entered St. George's, Bermuda, from Nassau. The Confederate captain had not yet learned that his government had collapsed that Generals Lee and Johnston had surrendered the preceding month. He attempted to obtain guns for delivery to Havana but Governor W. G. Hamley refused to permit it. He advised Low: "The Ajax has been a suspected vessel ever since she was launched. She has the appearance of a gunboat; she has never carried merchant cargo; she changed owners at Nassau; she is now commanded by an officer in the service of the Confederate States; in short, she wants nothing but armament to be in a position to take the seas as a privateer."
Union Rear Admiral Henry Knox Thatcher accepted an offer this morning from Commodore Ebenezer Farrand, CSN, to "...surrender all Confederate naval forces, officers, men, and public property yet afloat under his command and now blockaded by a portion of our naval forces in the Tombigbee River [Alabama]." The formal capitulation will take place on the 10th and include the CSS Nashville, Morgan, Baltic, and Black Diamond.
At Washington, Georgia, Confederate President Jefferson Davis holds his last cabinet meeting. Davis is reluctant, and actually unable, to disband the government because he has no power to do so under the Confederate Constitution. Southern officials continued leaving to join their families, however, and Davis and his dwindling entourage again move further south toward Eatonton, Georgia.
Skirmishing breaks out at Wetumpka, Alabama, in the Mobile Campaign.
Federal troops scout from Pine Bluff to Noble's Farm, Arkansas, against Southern partisans, a reported "...lawless band of robbers..."
Skirmishing occurs with partisan guerrillas at the Star House, 2 miles from Lexington, Missouri. The outnumbered attacking Southerners are finally forced to retreat.
Approximately 40 miles north of Mobile, Alabama, Confederate Lieutenant General Richard Scott Taylor, youngest child of former United States President Zachary Taylor, surrenders to Union Major General Edward Richard Sprigg Canby to formally end the Mobile Campaign. As Taylor surrenders his Confederate forces to Canby at Citronelle, this ends all organized Confederate resistance east of the Mississippi River.
President Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States of America is finally laid to rest, after returning to his hometown of Springfield. Illinois. Lincoln was buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield. As many as seven million people had witnessed some part of Lincoln’s funeral procession from Washington, DC, to Springfield.
During this period, the CSS Shenandoah "made northings" towards the Bering Sea whaling ground through pleasant seas that would soon change in the high parallels. After departing Lea Harbor, Ponape, in the Caroline Islands, on 13 April, the lone raider had experienced fine cruising-except for lack of prizes. Commander James Iredell Waddell wrote:
"Never in our various experience of sea life had any of us seen such or more charming weather than we now enjoyed. The sun shone with a peculiar brilliancy and the moon shed that clear, soft light which is found in this locality, in which the heavens seem so distant and so darkly blue, while the vast expanse of ocean was like a great reflecting mirror. The track for vessels bound from San Francisco and many of the ports, on the west coast of America to Hong Kong lies between the parallels in north latitude of 17º and 20º Here the winds are better than are found in a more northerly route, while the track to San Francisco and other ports along the west coast of America from China lies between the parallels of 35º and 45º, because here west winds prevail..."
"After the vessel had reached the parallel of 43º north the weather became cold and foggy and the winds were variable and unsteady, and that ever reliable friend of the sailor, the barometer, indicated atmospheric changes."
"The ship was prepared for the change of weather which was rapidly approaching. Soon the ocean was boiling with agitation, and if the barometer had been silent, I would have called it only a furious tide but a dark, then a black cloud, was hurrying towards us from the N. E. and so close did it rest upon the surface of the water that is seemed determined to overwhelm the. ship, and there came in it so terrible and violent a wind that the Shenandoah was thrown on her side..."
"Squall after squall struck her, flash after flash surrounded her, and the thunder rolled in her wake. It was the typhoon. The ocean was as white as the snow and foamed with rage. A new close-reefed main topsail was blown into shreds, and the voice of man was inaudible amid this awful convolution of nature..."
The CSS Ajax, commanded by Lieutenant John Low--born in Aberdeen, Scotland--entered St. George's, Bermuda, from Nassau. The Confederate captain had not yet learned that his government had collapsed that Generals Lee and Johnston had surrendered the preceding month. He attempted to obtain guns for delivery to Havana but Governor W. G. Hamley refused to permit it. He advised Low: "The Ajax has been a suspected vessel ever since she was launched. She has the appearance of a gunboat; she has never carried merchant cargo; she changed owners at Nassau; she is now commanded by an officer in the service of the Confederate States; in short, she wants nothing but armament to be in a position to take the seas as a privateer."
Union Rear Admiral Henry Knox Thatcher accepted an offer this morning from Commodore Ebenezer Farrand, CSN, to "...surrender all Confederate naval forces, officers, men, and public property yet afloat under his command and now blockaded by a portion of our naval forces in the Tombigbee River [Alabama]." The formal capitulation will take place on the 10th and include the CSS Nashville, Morgan, Baltic, and Black Diamond.
Posted on 5/4/15 at 9:13 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Friday, 5 May 1865
The once gallant and feared Confederate army this morning only numbered the troops of General Edmund Kirby Smith in the Trans-Mississippi as its remaining standing regular major force.
Confederate President Jefferson Davis and the last few remnants of Southern political authority arrive at Sandersville, Georgia. With much of Georgia now under Federal occupation, Union cavalry units relentlessly pursue him.
Skirmishing occurs at the Perche Hills, Missouri, involving a detachment of Missouri’s Ninth State Militia Cavalry with former Vernon County sheriff, turned Guerrilla Chief, Henry Taylor's Southern partisans, and at Summerville, Georgia, the county seat of Chattooga County, near where Union Cavalry had clashed with Confederates two weeks before the Yankees' bloody loss and retreat at the Battle of Chickamauga during September 1863.
Connecticut becomes the 20th state to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment which will attempt to abolish slavery.
Colonel Charles Everett, Second Louisiana Infantry, is assigned to the command of the District of Bonnet Carre, Louisiana.
The Indian attack on the wagon train is reported near Mullahla's Station, in the Nebraska Territory, distant fifteen miles west from Plum Creek.
A Federal expedition travels from Pulaski, Tennessee, to New Market, Alabama.
The once gallant and feared Confederate army this morning only numbered the troops of General Edmund Kirby Smith in the Trans-Mississippi as its remaining standing regular major force.
Confederate President Jefferson Davis and the last few remnants of Southern political authority arrive at Sandersville, Georgia. With much of Georgia now under Federal occupation, Union cavalry units relentlessly pursue him.
Skirmishing occurs at the Perche Hills, Missouri, involving a detachment of Missouri’s Ninth State Militia Cavalry with former Vernon County sheriff, turned Guerrilla Chief, Henry Taylor's Southern partisans, and at Summerville, Georgia, the county seat of Chattooga County, near where Union Cavalry had clashed with Confederates two weeks before the Yankees' bloody loss and retreat at the Battle of Chickamauga during September 1863.
Connecticut becomes the 20th state to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment which will attempt to abolish slavery.
Colonel Charles Everett, Second Louisiana Infantry, is assigned to the command of the District of Bonnet Carre, Louisiana.
The Indian attack on the wagon train is reported near Mullahla's Station, in the Nebraska Territory, distant fifteen miles west from Plum Creek.
A Federal expedition travels from Pulaski, Tennessee, to New Market, Alabama.
Posted on 5/5/15 at 9:09 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Saturday, 6 May 1865
The Union War Department issues orders from Washington, DC, setting up the military commission which will try the eight alleged conspirators accused of assassinating United States President Abraham Lincoln. The commission is to be led by Major General David "Black Dave" Hunter, with Brigadier General Joseph Holt serving as judge advocate.
Confederate President Jefferson Davis, near Sandersville, Georgia, was attempting to get south of points occupied by Union troops. Various Federal cavalry units, now actively pursuing the Confederate leader, scour the countryside day and night.
Union soldiers scout with the 79th US Colored Infantry, from Little Rock--aboard the steamer, Rose Hamilton--to Bayou Meto and Little Bayou, Arkansas.
A Federal expedition travels from Richmond to Staunton and Charlottesville, Virginia, including accepting the surrender of Confederate Major General Thomas L. Rosser's Cavalry at Lexington.
James Harrison Wilson, former aide to Major General George Brinton McClellan during the Maryland Campaign, is appointed to Major General in the Union army.
The Union War Department issues orders from Washington, DC, setting up the military commission which will try the eight alleged conspirators accused of assassinating United States President Abraham Lincoln. The commission is to be led by Major General David "Black Dave" Hunter, with Brigadier General Joseph Holt serving as judge advocate.
Confederate President Jefferson Davis, near Sandersville, Georgia, was attempting to get south of points occupied by Union troops. Various Federal cavalry units, now actively pursuing the Confederate leader, scour the countryside day and night.
Union soldiers scout with the 79th US Colored Infantry, from Little Rock--aboard the steamer, Rose Hamilton--to Bayou Meto and Little Bayou, Arkansas.
A Federal expedition travels from Richmond to Staunton and Charlottesville, Virginia, including accepting the surrender of Confederate Major General Thomas L. Rosser's Cavalry at Lexington.
James Harrison Wilson, former aide to Major General George Brinton McClellan during the Maryland Campaign, is appointed to Major General in the Union army.
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