Started By
Message
re: 150 years ago this day...
Posted on 11/19/13 at 5:41 am to BadLeroyDawg
Posted on 11/19/13 at 5:41 am to BadLeroyDawg
Wednesday, 18 November 1863
As a part of the continuing operations along the Louisiana coast, Union gunboats were frequently under fire from Confederate artillery batteries ashore. One such back-and-forth battle took place at Hog Point, along the Mississippi-Louisiana border, today. Combatants were Captain Thomas A. Faries, Confederate States Army, on land, and the officers and men of the USS Choctaw out to sea. Sailing passed the redoubt the Choctaw fired her bow (front), stern (rear) and side guns, enfilading the shore battery. The extent of damage inflicted was not known, as landing parties were not sent ashore. While all this was going on the Choctaw's sister ships, the USS Franklin and Carondelet, simply stood by and observed.
Another report: Captain Thomas A. Faries, CSA, commanding a
battery near Hog Point, Louisiana, mounted to interdict the movement
of the Union shipping on the Mississippi River, reported an engagement
with the USS Choctaw, Franklin, and Carondelet. "The Choctaw,
left her position above, and, passing down, delivered a very heavy fire
from her bow, side, and stern guns, enfilading for a short time the
four rifle guns in the redoubt."
The merchant schooner Joseph L. Garrity, 2 days out of Matamoras bound for New York , was seized by five Southern sympathizers under Thomas E. Hogg, later a Master in the Confederate Navy. They had boarded the ship as passengers. Hogg landed Joseph L. Garrity's crew "without injury to life or limb" on the coast of Yucatan on 26 November, and sailed her to British Honduras where he entered her as blockade runner Eureka and sold her cargo of cotton. Three of the crew were eventually captured in Liverpool, England, and charged with piracy, but on 1 June 1864, Confederate Commissioner James Mason informed Secretary of State Benjamin that they had been acquitted of the charge. In the meantime, Garrity was turned over to the custody of the U.S. commercial agent at Belize, British Honduras, and ultimately returned to her owners.
Acting Master C. W. Lamson, USS Granite City, reported the capture of the schooners Amelia Ann and Spanish bark Teresita, with a cargo of cotton, both attempting to run the blockade at Aransas Pass, Texas.
The firing on Fort Sumter from the Federal batteries continued. A Confederate mortar battery on Sullivan's Island shelled Gregg and the Cummings Point defenses all day.
General Longstreet made an attack upon the Union outposts, on the Kingston road, near Knoxville, Tennessee, and compelled General Sanders, in command of the forces there, to fall back to the town.
General Averill arrived at New Creek, Virginia. At or near Covington he encountered and dispersed a portion of Imboden's command on their way to reinforce Echols, and captured twenty-five prisoners in the skirmish.
The cavalry belonging to the Union forces under the command of Brigadier General J. C. Sullivan, sent out from Harper's Ferry, Virginia, returned this day, having been up the Valley to near New Market, fighting Gilmore's and White's commands at Mount Jackson, bringing in twenty-seven prisoners, two commissioned officers, ninety head of cattle, three four-horse teams, besides thirty tents and all the horses and equipage of the prisoners; the party was under the command of Colonel Bayard, of the Thirty-first Pennsylvania cavalry. He destroyed a number of tents and a quantity of salt. The men helped themselves to a wagon-load of tobacco, weighing about five hundred pounds. The Union loss was two men killed, three wounded and three missing.
Corpus Christi and Aranzas Pass, Texas, were captured by the National forces under the command of Major General Banks. Yesterday afternoon at about three o'clock, the gunboat Monongahela, with a fleet of nine vessels, transports, etc., arrived at the bar and commenced landing troops through the surf on the south point of Mustang Island. This morning at sunrise, the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Maine regiments, Thirty-fourth Iowa, Eighth Indiana, and company F, First Missouri artillery, with a part of the Twentieth Iowa volunteers, were ashore and in column en route up the beach toward Aranzas Pass. About eleven o'clock the Monongahela opened her two hundred-pound Parrott on the enemy's battery, which was planted behind the sand-hills so as to completely cover the channel and southern point of St. Joseph's Island. In the mean time the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Maine, the two advance regiments, succeeded in getting in the rear of the works within two miles, without being discovered. The armed transport McClellan, Captain Gray, drawing less water than the Monongahela, worked up close on to the battery, soon making it untenable. They abandoned the battery, sought shelter from the sand-hills, until their flag of truce was discovered, when they were permitted to surrender without terms. Their battery consisted of three twenty-four-pounders and one eight-inch sea-howitzer. The force of the garrison consisted of one company of regular artillery and two companies of drafted Texan militia, in all, about one hundred and fifty men
As a part of the continuing operations along the Louisiana coast, Union gunboats were frequently under fire from Confederate artillery batteries ashore. One such back-and-forth battle took place at Hog Point, along the Mississippi-Louisiana border, today. Combatants were Captain Thomas A. Faries, Confederate States Army, on land, and the officers and men of the USS Choctaw out to sea. Sailing passed the redoubt the Choctaw fired her bow (front), stern (rear) and side guns, enfilading the shore battery. The extent of damage inflicted was not known, as landing parties were not sent ashore. While all this was going on the Choctaw's sister ships, the USS Franklin and Carondelet, simply stood by and observed.
Another report: Captain Thomas A. Faries, CSA, commanding a
battery near Hog Point, Louisiana, mounted to interdict the movement
of the Union shipping on the Mississippi River, reported an engagement
with the USS Choctaw, Franklin, and Carondelet. "The Choctaw,
left her position above, and, passing down, delivered a very heavy fire
from her bow, side, and stern guns, enfilading for a short time the
four rifle guns in the redoubt."
The merchant schooner Joseph L. Garrity, 2 days out of Matamoras bound for New York , was seized by five Southern sympathizers under Thomas E. Hogg, later a Master in the Confederate Navy. They had boarded the ship as passengers. Hogg landed Joseph L. Garrity's crew "without injury to life or limb" on the coast of Yucatan on 26 November, and sailed her to British Honduras where he entered her as blockade runner Eureka and sold her cargo of cotton. Three of the crew were eventually captured in Liverpool, England, and charged with piracy, but on 1 June 1864, Confederate Commissioner James Mason informed Secretary of State Benjamin that they had been acquitted of the charge. In the meantime, Garrity was turned over to the custody of the U.S. commercial agent at Belize, British Honduras, and ultimately returned to her owners.
Acting Master C. W. Lamson, USS Granite City, reported the capture of the schooners Amelia Ann and Spanish bark Teresita, with a cargo of cotton, both attempting to run the blockade at Aransas Pass, Texas.
The firing on Fort Sumter from the Federal batteries continued. A Confederate mortar battery on Sullivan's Island shelled Gregg and the Cummings Point defenses all day.
General Longstreet made an attack upon the Union outposts, on the Kingston road, near Knoxville, Tennessee, and compelled General Sanders, in command of the forces there, to fall back to the town.
General Averill arrived at New Creek, Virginia. At or near Covington he encountered and dispersed a portion of Imboden's command on their way to reinforce Echols, and captured twenty-five prisoners in the skirmish.
The cavalry belonging to the Union forces under the command of Brigadier General J. C. Sullivan, sent out from Harper's Ferry, Virginia, returned this day, having been up the Valley to near New Market, fighting Gilmore's and White's commands at Mount Jackson, bringing in twenty-seven prisoners, two commissioned officers, ninety head of cattle, three four-horse teams, besides thirty tents and all the horses and equipage of the prisoners; the party was under the command of Colonel Bayard, of the Thirty-first Pennsylvania cavalry. He destroyed a number of tents and a quantity of salt. The men helped themselves to a wagon-load of tobacco, weighing about five hundred pounds. The Union loss was two men killed, three wounded and three missing.
Corpus Christi and Aranzas Pass, Texas, were captured by the National forces under the command of Major General Banks. Yesterday afternoon at about three o'clock, the gunboat Monongahela, with a fleet of nine vessels, transports, etc., arrived at the bar and commenced landing troops through the surf on the south point of Mustang Island. This morning at sunrise, the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Maine regiments, Thirty-fourth Iowa, Eighth Indiana, and company F, First Missouri artillery, with a part of the Twentieth Iowa volunteers, were ashore and in column en route up the beach toward Aranzas Pass. About eleven o'clock the Monongahela opened her two hundred-pound Parrott on the enemy's battery, which was planted behind the sand-hills so as to completely cover the channel and southern point of St. Joseph's Island. In the mean time the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Maine, the two advance regiments, succeeded in getting in the rear of the works within two miles, without being discovered. The armed transport McClellan, Captain Gray, drawing less water than the Monongahela, worked up close on to the battery, soon making it untenable. They abandoned the battery, sought shelter from the sand-hills, until their flag of truce was discovered, when they were permitted to surrender without terms. Their battery consisted of three twenty-four-pounders and one eight-inch sea-howitzer. The force of the garrison consisted of one company of regular artillery and two companies of drafted Texan militia, in all, about one hundred and fifty men
1
Posted on 11/19/13 at 5:45 am to BadLeroyDawg
Wednesday, 19 November 1863
It was the day of dedication for the new National Military Cemetery at Gettysburg. As was expected on such a solemn occasion, the greatest orator of the day, Edward Everett, was engaged to speak. He delivered a brilliant performance, declaiming for two hours on the history of war from ancient times to now. After he was done, the President of the United States rose to the podium. His voice, often described as thin and reedy, was not a match for Everett's. Some in the crowd, unable to hear, pushed forward, or complained that he should speak louder. About the time they got within earshot, President Lincoln sat down again. Newspaper reviews the next day were very mixed. Lincoln-who had left a gravely ill child and very nervous wife back in Washington-and who was not feeling very well himself, headed at once for the train station and home. Below is one version of the speech, read today by many who think it is more dedicated toward the "freedom" of the struggling Southern states at the time, than the despotic Northern invaders bent on forever banishing states' rights from the Constitution.
"The Bliss Copy"- Ever since Lincoln wrote it in 1864, this version has been the most often reproduced,
notably on the walls of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. It is named after Colonel
Alexander Bliss, stepson of historian George Bancroft. Bancroft asked President
Lincoln for a copy to use as a fundraiser for soldiers (see "Bancroft Copy" below).
However, because Lincoln wrote on both sides of the paper, the speech could
not be reprinted, so Lincoln made another copy at Bliss's request. It is the last
known copy written by Lincoln and the only one signed and dated by him. Today it
is on display at the Lincoln Room of the White House.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a
new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men
are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any
nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great
battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a
final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might
live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not
hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have
consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will
little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what
they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the
unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It
is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us --
that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for
which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve
that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall
have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people,
for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Abraham Lincoln November 19, 1863
General Hampton and General Thomas L. Rosser returned to Fredericksburg, Virginia, from an expedition into Culpeper County. On Tuesday night last they crossed the Rapidan with detachments from Rosser's, Gordon's, and Young's brigades, all under the immediate command of General Rosser, for the purpose of ascertaining the position of the enemy on the other side. After marching all night over a desperate road, they succeeded, about daylight on Wednesday morning, in locating the pickets of the enemy. That being accomplished, General Rosser immediately ordered a charge, which was executed by his brigade in the most gallant style, driving the advance back upon the main body, which was encamped a short distance in the rear. Here the enemy had formed a line of defense; but, in defiance of a heavy fire poured into his command, General Rosser pressed forward, and soon drove the entire force (the Eighteenth Pennsylvania cavalry) through their encampment, and pursued them some miles beyond, in the direction of Stevensburg.
The result of this exploit was the capture of sixty prisoners, among them an adjutant and one lieutenant, two flags, one hundred horses and mules, a number of tents, all the wagons, baggage, etc., of the encampment. The enemy fled through the woods in every direction, many of them without having completed their toilet for the day. Having located the enemy, (the original object of the expedition,) and obtained other valuable information, the command was withdrawn, by the way of Germanna Ford, to the other side of the river, where the prisoners and other captures had been previously forwarded.
A detachment, composed of companies G, H, I, and K, of the Fifty-eighth regiment of Illinois infantry, with a portion of the Second Illinois cavalry, under the command of Captain Franklin B. Moore, pursued Faulkner's Rebel partisans to a point on Obion River, four miles from Union City, Tennessee, where, in attempting to cross the river, the Southerners were fired on, and eleven of their number killed. The Federals captured fifty-three prisoners, a wagon load of small arms, thirty-three horses, and four mules. Their casualties were one man wounded and five horses shot.
Large and spirited meetings were held in all the wards in Boston, Massachusetts, last night, to encourage volunteering. Committees were appointed, and the work was pursued with energy. A similar movement was made in cities and towns throughout the State.
It was the day of dedication for the new National Military Cemetery at Gettysburg. As was expected on such a solemn occasion, the greatest orator of the day, Edward Everett, was engaged to speak. He delivered a brilliant performance, declaiming for two hours on the history of war from ancient times to now. After he was done, the President of the United States rose to the podium. His voice, often described as thin and reedy, was not a match for Everett's. Some in the crowd, unable to hear, pushed forward, or complained that he should speak louder. About the time they got within earshot, President Lincoln sat down again. Newspaper reviews the next day were very mixed. Lincoln-who had left a gravely ill child and very nervous wife back in Washington-and who was not feeling very well himself, headed at once for the train station and home. Below is one version of the speech, read today by many who think it is more dedicated toward the "freedom" of the struggling Southern states at the time, than the despotic Northern invaders bent on forever banishing states' rights from the Constitution.
"The Bliss Copy"- Ever since Lincoln wrote it in 1864, this version has been the most often reproduced,
notably on the walls of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. It is named after Colonel
Alexander Bliss, stepson of historian George Bancroft. Bancroft asked President
Lincoln for a copy to use as a fundraiser for soldiers (see "Bancroft Copy" below).
However, because Lincoln wrote on both sides of the paper, the speech could
not be reprinted, so Lincoln made another copy at Bliss's request. It is the last
known copy written by Lincoln and the only one signed and dated by him. Today it
is on display at the Lincoln Room of the White House.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a
new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men
are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any
nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great
battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a
final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might
live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not
hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have
consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will
little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what
they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the
unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It
is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us --
that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for
which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve
that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall
have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people,
for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Abraham Lincoln November 19, 1863
General Hampton and General Thomas L. Rosser returned to Fredericksburg, Virginia, from an expedition into Culpeper County. On Tuesday night last they crossed the Rapidan with detachments from Rosser's, Gordon's, and Young's brigades, all under the immediate command of General Rosser, for the purpose of ascertaining the position of the enemy on the other side. After marching all night over a desperate road, they succeeded, about daylight on Wednesday morning, in locating the pickets of the enemy. That being accomplished, General Rosser immediately ordered a charge, which was executed by his brigade in the most gallant style, driving the advance back upon the main body, which was encamped a short distance in the rear. Here the enemy had formed a line of defense; but, in defiance of a heavy fire poured into his command, General Rosser pressed forward, and soon drove the entire force (the Eighteenth Pennsylvania cavalry) through their encampment, and pursued them some miles beyond, in the direction of Stevensburg.
The result of this exploit was the capture of sixty prisoners, among them an adjutant and one lieutenant, two flags, one hundred horses and mules, a number of tents, all the wagons, baggage, etc., of the encampment. The enemy fled through the woods in every direction, many of them without having completed their toilet for the day. Having located the enemy, (the original object of the expedition,) and obtained other valuable information, the command was withdrawn, by the way of Germanna Ford, to the other side of the river, where the prisoners and other captures had been previously forwarded.
A detachment, composed of companies G, H, I, and K, of the Fifty-eighth regiment of Illinois infantry, with a portion of the Second Illinois cavalry, under the command of Captain Franklin B. Moore, pursued Faulkner's Rebel partisans to a point on Obion River, four miles from Union City, Tennessee, where, in attempting to cross the river, the Southerners were fired on, and eleven of their number killed. The Federals captured fifty-three prisoners, a wagon load of small arms, thirty-three horses, and four mules. Their casualties were one man wounded and five horses shot.
Large and spirited meetings were held in all the wards in Boston, Massachusetts, last night, to encourage volunteering. Committees were appointed, and the work was pursued with energy. A similar movement was made in cities and towns throughout the State.
Page 1 of 1
Popular
Back to top
Follow SECRant for SEC Football News