re: 150 years ago this day...

Tuesday, 29 December 1863

Skirmishing picked up today, for no detectable reason. Aside from a few battles in Arkansas and Texas, most of them were at various points in Tennessee--Mossy Creek, Talbott’s Station, Cleveland and La Vergne being the primary points of disputation. Most actions involved small skirmish parties attempting to break Federal supply lines, with the added benefit of taking the supplies for the skirmishers.

Under Captain Green, the USS Nipsic, Sanford, Geranium, Daffodil, and Ethan Allen all departed Morris Island for Murrells Inlet to destroy a schooner readying to run the blockade and disperse Confederate troops that had been harassing Union gunboats. The force arrived at an anchorage some 15 miles from Murrells Inlet the following day, rendezvousing with the USS George Mangham.

Preparations for landing commenced immediately, but debarkation was delayed by heavy seas. With surprise lost, part of the purpose of the landing was frustrated. However, on 1 January, the USS Nipsic, under Commander James H. Spotts, would land sailors and Marines at Murrells Inlet and succeeded in destroying the blockade runner with a fully loaded cargo of turpentine. The ships then returned to Charleston.

Boat crews from the USS Stars and Stripes, Acting Master Willcomb in charge, destroyed the blockade running schooner Caroline Gertrude aground on a bar at the mouth of Ochlockonee River, Florida. Attempting to salvage the schooner's cargo of cotton, the Union sailors were taken under heavy fire by Confederate cavalry ashore and returned to their ship after setting the blockade runner ablaze.

The Ninety-third New York, First Delaware, and Fifth Michigan regiments, left the Army of the Potomac for home to recruit, under the general orders lately issued.

The gas company at Norfolk, Virginia, having sealed up their works and refused, for several months, to light the city, General Benjamin "Spoons" Butler ordered the establishment to be seized and "...carried on efficiently and economically, so that the city of Norfolk will be fully lighted, and its peace and quiet in the darkness of the night be assured, until it is made certain, that in case of an attack upon the city of Norfolk, the Rebel proclivities of the owners will not leave the city in darkness, as a means of impairing the defense made by the United States forces, and when the owners have, by their works and not by their lips, convinced the military authorities that they can rely upon their loyalty for aiding in repelling an invasion of the Rebels, and a keeping up of the works to aid us in that behalf; then, and not until then, will the works be returned to their custody. In the meantime, accurate accounts will be kept of the receipts and expenditures, and the excess of profits, which no doubt will be considerable, will be paid to those who are loyal in the sense of the word as understood by loyal men."

The engagement at Mossy Creek resulted from a Federal advance of over six thousand soldiers from Strawberry Plains on December 18, 1863, to pressure the Confederate army of Lieut. Gen. James Longstreet following its repulse at Knoxville. On December 22, the Southern army settled into winter quarters around Russellville, about thirty miles from Strawberry Plains. Longstreet’s cavalry, commanded by William Martin, patrolled a twenty-five-mile arc running from Rutledge to Dandridge centered on Mossy Creek (today’s Jefferson City). Martin kept Longstreet apprised of any Federal movements that might threaten the main Confederate army.

Brigadier General Samuel Sturgis and his Federal army arrived in New Market on December 23, and the next day he ordered two brigades of cavalry and an artillery battery to move to Dandridge and flank Confederate forces to the south of his main position. At the same time, he ordered an infantry division forward to Mossy Creek, leaving one infantry division behind in New Market as a reserve. The southern prong of the offensive met a Confederate brigade, commanded by Col. A. A. Russell, near Hay’s Ferry. During the ensuing engagement, the Federal brigades of Archibald Campbell and Israel Garrard received orders to retreat back to New Market. Garrard’s men rode out without serious opposition, while Campbell’s Brigade was almost encircled and captured. Campbell extricated the brigade with difficulty, but both he and Garrard successfully returned to New Market as directed.

On December 29, General Sturgis again divided his force and sent Colonel LaGrange down toward Dandridge to engage remaining rebel forces there. At 11 a.m., General Martin attacked the Federal line east of Mossy Creek with over two thousand men and two batteries of artillery. The Confederate army began to bend back the flanks of the Union position while the center, anchored by Captain Eli Lilly’s artillery battery, held back the rebel onslaught. At about 2 p.m., Lilly’s battery, low on ammunition and receiving accurate musket fire, retired to another hill behind A. P. Campbell’s brigade. At this point, a Southern victory seemed assured. As the Confederates under Brig. Gen. Frank Armstrong attempted to roll up the Federal line from north to south, Campbell ordered one of his cavalry regiments to attack Armstrong’s men. The Federals charged headlong into the southern line, wreaking havoc and stopping the Confederate advance. Over on the Union right, Colonel LaGrange’s men entered the fight after a hasty summons had brought them back from Dandridge. The cavalry charge and arrival of Federal reinforcements convinced General Martin that the time for retreat had come, and he made an orderly withdrawal to his position held before the start of battle. His army was also low on ammunition. During the evening, the Confederate army fell back to Morristown.

Thursday, 31 December 1863

There was not much in the way of champagne-drinking, horn-tooting or other midnight revelry on New Year's Eve in the Confederate capital this night. What had seemed like a great idea at the time of the firing on Fort Sumter-the plan to follow in the footsteps of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson-was now looking more like a flawed decision. Even the Richmond Examiner was opining: "Today closes the gloomiest year of our struggle. No sanguine hope of intervention buoys up the spirits of the Confederate public as at the end of 1861. No brilliant victory like that of Fredericksburg encourages us to look forward to a speedy and successful termination of the war, as in the last weeks of 1862. Meade has been foiled, and Longstreet has had a partial success in Tennessee; but Meade's advance was hardly meant in earnest, and Bean's Station is a poor set-off to the loss of the gallant men who fell in the murderous assault on Knoxville. Another daring Yankee raid has been carried out with comparative impunity to the invaders, and timorous capitalists may well pause before they nibble at eligible investments in real estate situated far in the interior. That interior has been fearfully narrowed by the Federal march through Tennessee, and owing to the deficiencies of our cavalry service, Lincoln's squadrons of horse threaten to be as universal a terror, as pervasive a nuisance, as his squadrons of gunboats were some months since. The advantages gained at Chancellorsville and Chickamauga have had heavy counterpoises. The one victory led to the fall of Jackson and the deposition of Hooker, the other led first to nothing and then to the indelible disgrace of Lookout Mountain. The Confederacy has been cut in twain along the line of the Mississippi, and our enemies are steadily pushing forward their plans for bisecting the eastern moiety. No wonder, then, that the annual advent of the reign of mud is hailed by all classes with a sense of relief-by those who think and feel aright, as a precious season to prepare for trying another fall with our potent adversary.

Meanwhile the financial chaos is becoming wilder and wilder. Hoarders keep a more resolute grasp than ever on the necessaries of life. Non-producers, who are at the same time non-speculators, are suffering more and more. What was once competence has become poverty, poverty has become penury, penury is lapsing into pauperism. Any mechanical occupation is more profitable than the most intellectual profession; the most accomplished scholars in the Confederacy would be glad to barter their services for food and raiment; and in the complete upturning of our social relations, the only happy people are those who have black hearts or black skins. The cry of scarcity resounds through the land, raised by the producers in their greed for gain, reechoed by consumers in their premature dread of starvation and nakedness. We are all in the dark, and men are more or less cowards in the dark. We do not know what our resources are, and no one can tell us whether we shall have a pound of beef to eat at the end of 1864, or a square inch of leather to patch the last shoe in the Confederacy. Unreasoning confidence has been succeeded by depression as unreasoning, and the Yankees are congratulating themselves on the result, which they hawk about as the “beginning of the end.”

Theologians will tell us that the disasters of the closing year are the punishment of our sins. This is true enough; but a cheap penitence will not save us from the evil consequences. There is no forgiveness for political sins, and the results will as certainly follow as if there had been no repentance. As all sins are, in a higher sense, intellectual blunders, we must strain every fibre of the brain and every sinew of the will if we wish to repair the mischief which our folly and our corruption have wrought. The universal recognition of this imperative duty is a more certain earnest of our success than the high spirits of our men in the field, or the indomitable patriotism of our women at home, from which newspaper correspondents derive so much comfort. The incompetence and unfaithfulness of government officials have had much to do with the present sad state of affairs, but the responsibility does not end there; the guilt does not rest there alone. Every man who has suffered himself to be tainted with the scab of speculation has done something to injure the credit of confederate securities; every man who has withheld any necessary of life has done his worst to ruin the country; every one, man or woman, who has yielded to the solicitations of vanity or appetite, and refused to submit to any privation, however slight, which an expenditure, however great, could prevent, has contributed to the general demoralization. It may be said that, with the present plethora of paper money, such virtue as we demand is not to be expected of any people made up of merely human beings. But some such virtue is necessary for any people whose duty it has become to wage such a contest as ours; and if the virtue is not spontaneous, it must be engrafted by the painful process through which we are now passing. We cannot go through this fiery furnace without the smell of fire on our garments. We can no more avoid the loss of property than we can the shedding of blood. There is no family in the Confederacy that has not to mourn the fall of some member or some connection, and there is no family in the Confederacy which ought to expect to escape scathless in estate. The attempt is as useless, in most cases, as it is ignoble in all. A few, and but few, in comparison with the whole number, may come out richer than when they went in; but even they must make up their minds to sacrifice a part, and a large part, in order to preserve the whole. The saying of the stoic philosopher, “You can't have something for nothing,” though it sounds like a truism, in fact, conveys a moral lesson of great significance. Men must pay for privileges. If they do not pay voluntarily, their neighbors will make them pay, and that heavily. Had those who employed substitutes to take their places in the army refrained as a class from speculation and extortion, they would not now be lamenting the prospect of a speedy furtherance to the camp of instruction. However just their cause, the manner in which too many of them abused the immunity acquired by money has deprived them of all active sympathy.

We all have a heavy score to pay, and we know it. This may depress us, but our enemies need not be jubilant at our depression, for we are determined to meet our liabilities. Whatever number of men, or whatever amount of money shall be really wanting will be forthcoming. Whatever economy the straightening of our resources may require, we shall learn to exercise. We could only wish that Congress was not in such a feverish mood, and that the government would do something toward the establishment of a statistical bureau, or some other agency, by which we could approximately ascertain what we have to contribute, and to what extent we must husband our resources. Wise, cool, decided, prompt action would put us in good condition for the spring campaign of 1864, and the close of next year would furnish a more agreeable retrospect than the annus mirabilis of blunders which we now consign to the dead past." After Gettysburg, after the loss of the Mississippi, after the fall of Chattanooga, few saw much hope for improvement.

Friday, 1 January 1864

A cold air mass out of Canada had swept across the land and brought temperatures well below freezing into the south as well as the north. It was in fact below zero as far south as Memphis, Tennessee, and just about everybody was too busy trying to assemble coal, firewood or other means of producing warmth to worry about conducting hostilities. The civilian population, particularly in areas where fighting had been going back and forth for years, were equally affected and had little or nothing left over to share with the military.

As the thermometer stood at ten degrees below zero in Memphis, and at sixteen degrees below near Cairo, Illinois, a number of Confederate prisoners were frozen to death at Island Number 10.

As the New Year opened, the Union once more focused its attention on Wilmington, North Carolina. Since 1862 the Navy had pressed for a combined assault on this major east coast port, ideally located for blockade running less than 600 miles from Nassau and only some 675 from Bermuda. Despite the efforts of the fleet, the runners had continued to ply their trade successfully. In the fall of 1863, a British observer reported that thirteen steamers ran into Wilmington between 10 and 29 September and that fourteen ships put to sea between 2 and 19 September. In fact, James Randall, an employee of a Wilmington shipping firm, reported that 397 ships visited Wilmington during the first two and a half to three years of the war. On 2 January, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles again proposed an attack on the fortifications protecting Wilmington, the only port by which any supplies whatever reach the Rebels...He suggested to the Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, that a joint operation be undertaken to seize Fort Caswell: "The result of such operation is to enable the vessels to lie inside, as is the case at Charleston, thus closing the port effectually." However, Major General Henry W. Halleck advised Stanton that campaigns to which the Army was committed in Louisiana and Texas would not permit the men for the suggested assault to be spared. Thus, although the Navy increasingly felt the need to close Wilmington, the port remained a haven for blockade runners for another year.

The USS Huron, under Lieutenant Commander Francis H. Baker, sank the blockade running British schooner Sylvanus in Doboy Sound, Georgia, with a cargo of salt, liquor, and cordage.

A detachment of seventy-five men, composed of a proportionate number from each of four companies constituting Major Henry A. Cole's Maryland cavalry battalion, on a scout in the vicinity of Harper's Ferry, Maryland, were suddenly encountered, at a point near Rectortown, by a force of Confederate cavalry, belonging to the brigade under the command of General Rosser. After fighting gallantly and until fifty-seven out of their number (seventy-five) were either killed or captured, the remaining eighteen made their way in safety to camp. Several of those who escaped found their feet frozen when they reached camp.

Colonel William S. Hawkins, of the “Hawkins scouts,” a leader in the scouting service of the Confederate forces under General Braxton Bragg, was captured at the house of a Mr. Mayberry, on Lick Creek, Kentucky, by Sergeant Brewer, of Major Breathitt's battalion of Kentucky cavalry.

The Richmond Whig, in an article setting forth the condition of military and naval affairs at the South, concluded its remarks as follows: “Thus we find we have an army poorly clad, scantily fed, indifferently equipped, badly mounted, with insufficient trains, and with barely enough ammunition. To remedy the evil, we are going to double, and if possible, quadruple the number of men and horses, take away every efficient master from the agricultural districts, and leave the laborers, on whom both men and horses depend for existence, a prey to natural idleness, and with every inducement to revolt. If this be not judicial madness, the history of desperate measures adopted by feeble and affrighted councils does not present an example.”

Andrew J. Hamilton, Military Governor of Texas, issued an able address to the citizens of that State, setting forth their duties to themselves and their government.

YW, Litigator. Foote was a great recorder of history as well as historical fiction writer. I like most of the Burns' series, but it didn't give a very even view of servitude, both north and south of the Mason-Dixon line duing the mid-19th century, IMHO. We will have a small group gathering at the 150th anniversary of Kennesaw next June and I will try to attend the Cold Harbor battlefield that month as well. Keep me posted on any events you might make.

When I travelled in Mississippi, used to stay at the "Battlefield" Ramada Inn there in Vicksburg. Hallowed ground, IMVHO.

Monday, 4 January 1864

The brutal cold front that had started the year continued, and was causing miseries across the Southern States, which were not used to such conditions even in good times of peace and prosperity. After the depredations of almost three years of war and destruction, the suffering was intense. Even in the Army of Northern Virginia, the troops were situated in a bad way. Besides the freezing cold, for which they lacked sufficient blankets and other clothing, they were suffering a severe shortage of food. General Robert E. Lee had been sending increasingly plaintive telegrams to Confederate President Jefferson Davis, pleading for additional rations to be sent. Davis, who was genuinely distraught that he had none to send, became so upset about the situation this morning that he replied with a suggestion that the general simply take it from the countryside. This was appealing to neither man, but the “...emergency justifies impression...” Davis wrote.

Estimating the situation west of the Mississippi, Lieutenant General E. Kirby Smith, CSA, wrote to Major General Richard Taylor, CSA: "I still think Red and Washita [Ouachita] Rivers, especially the former, are the true lines of operation for an invading column, and that we may expect an attempt to be made by the enemy in force before the rivers fall...Within eight weeks Rear Admiral David D. Porter was leading such a joint expedition aimed at the penetration of Texas, which would not only further weaken Confederate logistic support from the West, but also would counter the threat of Texas posed by the French ascendancy in Mexico.

The USS Tioga, under Lieutenant Commander Edward Y. McCauley, seized an unnamed schooner near the Bahamas, bound from Nassau to Havana with cargo including salt, coffee, arms, shoes, and liquors.

General David McMurtrie Gregg's Cavalry Division, under the command of Colonel John P. Taylor, of the First Pennsylvania Regiment, left the headquarters of the Army of the Potomac, on the first instant, for the purpose of making a reconnaissance to Front Royal, taking on their horses three days rations and forage. Owing to the condition of the roads the artillery attached to the division could proceed no farther than Warrenton. The command returned today, having travelled ninety miles during the three days absence, and encountered severe deprivations in consequence of the intensely cold weather; but no enemy was discovered. Owing to the depth of the Shenandoah River, no attempt was made to cross it.

A fight occurred near Fort Sumner, New Mexico, in which the Union troops belonging to General Carlton's command, routed the Navajo Indians, killing forty and wounding twenty-five. Forty Sioux Indians surrendered themselves to the Union forces, at Pembina, Dakota Territory.

Rear Admiral David D. Farragut sailed from the navy yard at Brooklyn, New York, in the flagship Hartford to assume command of the East Gulf squadron.

There were joint congressional resolutions of thanks delivered to General Robert E. Lee and the officers and soldiers under his command, by the Confederate Congress.

Wednesday, 6 January 1864

Little known history even to serious students of the War Between the States were actions which took place in the very-far-western theater, territories neither in the Confederate, nor yet the United, States of America. We note this day a campaign which took place over the course of most of January in New Mexico Territory. The participants were Federal troops under commander Kit Carson on one side, and the Navajo Nation on the other. Skirmishes and raids had begun yesterday near Fort Sumner, New Mexico, and today continued. Action raged from Fort Canby to the Canon de Chelly region. Perhaps these conflicts are better described as "early Indian Wars" actions than as Civil War fights anyway.

Major General John Gray Foster, from his headquarters at Knoxville, issued the following order: “All able-bodied colored men, between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, within our lines, except those employed in the several staff departments, officers' servants, and those servants of loyal citizens who prefer remaining with their masters, will be sent forthwith to Knoxville, Loudon, or Kingston, Tennessee, to be enrolled under the direction of Brigadier General Davis Tillson, Chief of Artillery, with a view to the formation of a regiment of artillery, to be composed of troops of African descent.”

By orders from General Foster, Brigadier General Orlando Bolivar Wilcox was assigned to the command of the district of Clinch, including the region between the Cumberland and Clinch Mountains, and extending from Big Creek Gap on the west, to the eastern line of the State of Tennessee, on the east.

Friday, 8 January 1864

While there were many changes and innovations in warfare during the War for Southern Independence, one item remained as it has always been: there was little to no mercy given to captured spies. One such, a purported Confederate agent named David O. Dodd, paid the ultimate price for his activities today, after a trial which caused considerable uproar in the Western area, although it was little covered in the Eastern press, even though he was only 17 years of age at the time. Captured in Little Rock, Arkansas, and also tried there, he was this afternoon hanged there, in front of St. John's College. All over the western area changes were coming rapidly. A meeting was held in New Orleans of Union sympathizers, to organize reconstruction efforts.

Captain Raphael Semmes, commanding the CSS Alabama, noted in his journal that he had identified himself to an English bark as the USS Dacotah in search of the raider Alabama. The bark's master replied: "It won't do; the Alabama is a bigger ship than you, and they say she is iron plated besides." Had Semmes' ship been armored in fact, the outcome of his battle with USS Kearsarge six months later might have been different.

The USS Kennebec, Lieutenant Commander William P. McCann, chased the blockade runner John Scott off Mobile for some eight hours and captured her with a cargo of cotton and turpentine. John Scott's pilot, William Norval, well known for his professional skill and for aiding the blockade runners, was sent by Commodore Henry K. Thatcher to New Orleans, where he was imprisoned.

General John Hunt Morgan held a reception at Richmond, Virginia. Judge Moore, of Kentucky, in a speech on the occasion, spoke of the worth of General Morgan, and the great credit with which he had served his country. He was now receiving the grateful testimony of the Mother of States. He said that "...Morgan and other Kentuckians who were battling for the liberties of the South, would not sheathe their swords until her liberty was achieved. Despite the thraldom in which Kentucky was held, the muster rolls of the army showed that forty-nine thousand of her sons had joined their fortunes with ours, and this, despite the fact that the heel of the tyrant was on her neck. He knew the sentiment of the people there — they would be found with the South. The Yankees have desolated her homes and murdered her people. Kentucky never will join her fortunes with the Northern Government.”

The Confederate blockade-runner Dare, while attempting to slip into the harbor of Wilmington, North Carolina, was chased ashore and destroyed.

Thanks Litigator, great LINK. Shared that for my post on the DawgChat with credit to you. Hard to believe with all this "Climate Change" the Feds are taxing us on that the weather is almost identical to what it was exactly 150 years ago, huh?