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re: 150 years ago this day...
Posted on 4/2/15 at 4:42 am to BadLeroyDawg
Posted on 4/2/15 at 4:42 am to BadLeroyDawg
Sunday, 2 April 1865
At 0430, Union troops advanced under a heavy fog along the Petersburg, Virginia, lines. By 0700, the drive was fully under way and was successful everywhere. The Federal Sixth Corps captured the South Side Railroad near Sutherland's Station, and the Confederate lines melted along Hatcher’s Run. West of the Boydton Plank Road, while attempting to rally his men and reach his own lines, Confederate Lieutenant General Ambrose Powell Hill is mortally wounded by a Federal straggler. Only two forts, Gregg and Baldwin, still hold out at noon on the western part of the lines, making retreat possible only by crossing the Appomattox River.
Confederate General Robert E. Lee was determined to hold the inner fortifications until night enabled him to withdraw. In a few places, the Confederates stiffened their resistance in the afternoon until it was obvious that they had to pull out. Orders to evacuate Petersburg and for the defenders north of the James River to retreat through Richmond and join the remainder of the Army of Northern Virginia with Amelia Court House, forty miles west, as the rally point. Federal losses sustained amounted to 3,189 wounded, 625 killed and 326 missing for a total loss of 4,140 out of 63,000 engaged. Confederates engaged approximately 18,500 with unknown losses.
In Richmond, Virginia, a messenger entered St. Paul’s Church while the minister gave the prayer for Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Davis left quietly and went to his office to learn of the disaster that occurred at Petersburg. By 11 tonight, Davis and most of his Cabinet departed by train for Danville, Virginia. Rail stations were jammed and the streets filled with many of the local citizens and refugees crowding the city. Inmates broke from the state prison and the Local Defense Brigade was unable to keep order. Confederate government records were either sent away or burned. Cotton, tobacco and military stores were set on fire, which soon raged out of control. Richmond was falling at last. The Confederate government, however, still existed even though it was in transit. The War resumed.
Actions occur at Scott's Cross Roads, Virginia, the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign.
In Mobile, Alabama, the siege of Fort Blakely began while the siege of Spanish Fort continued led by Major General Edward R. S. Canby.
Skirmishing breaks out near Goldsboro, North Carolina, as Union Major General William T. Sherman presses forward; also at Van Buren and Hickory Station, Arkansas.
President Abraham Lincoln went to the front at Petersburg and saw some of the fighting from a distance while keeping Washington informed to the progress of Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant’s armies.
Union Charles Griffin is appointed Major General.
Skirmishing occurs near Centerville, Alabama, with Union Brigadier General James H. Wilson's forces near Scottsville.
An engagement happens at Selma, Alabama, where Lieutenant Generals Nathan Bedford Forrest and Richard Taylor retreat from the Union onslaught under Major General James H. Wilson with Wilson capturing over 2,700 prisoners. The Yankee troops occupy Selma.
Skirmishing occurs at Summerfield, Alabama.
A skirmish breaks out 4 miles form Hickory Station, Arkansas, on the Little Rock and Devall's Railroad, where the Confederates derail part of the train but are driven off by the Federal troops aboard. While the attack was progressing, most of the passengers flee into the prairie, only returning when the coast is clear. Included was a Yankee from the 12th Michigan Infantry who threw his saber away in the brush, retrieving it after danger had passed. The men got the train back on the rails and proceed forward.
Skirmishing commences 2 miles from Van Buren, Arkansas, as the Yankees kill 2 Confederates who just recently robbed several local citizens. Papers found on the bodies indicate they were from Fulton, Texas, enroute to Missouri.
A Federal expedition travels from the Hermitage, across the Amite, to the French Settlement, Louisiana, in pursuit of partisan guerrillas.
Union Major General Joseph A. Mower assumes the command of the 20th US Army Corps, North Carolina.
Naval report: As spring blossomed in Virginia, General Grant's powerful army, outnumbering Lee's by several times, unleashed its final attack. On 1 April he had outflanked Lee's thin lines southwest of Petersburg in the battle of Five Forks. He ordered an all-out assault on Petersburg along the entire front for the 2nd. Union batteries fired all night preparing for the attack and Fort Sedgwick's heavy fire again earned it the nickname "Fort Hell." Porter's fleet made a feint attack. The Confederates fought fiercely in Petersburg throughout the 2nd, but one by one the strong points fell. That night Lee withdrew.
Mrs. Lincoln had returned to Washington on the River Queen on 1 April. The President embarked in Malvern with Porter. His "...bunk was too short for his length, and he was compelled to fold his legs the first night..." but Porter's carpenters remodeled the cabin on the sly, and the second morning Lincoln appeared at breakfast with the story that he had shrunk "...six inches in length and about a foot sideways." During the evening of the 2nd the two sat on the upper deck of the ship listening to the artillery and musket fire ashore as General Grant's troops, having rendered Richmond untenable with a crushing victory in the day long battle at Petersburg, closed in on the Confederate capital. Lincoln asked the Admiral: "Can't the Navy do something at this particular moment to make history?" Porter's reply was a tribute to the officers and men throughout the Navy who all during the war made history through vital if often unheralded deeds: "The Navy is doing its best just now, holding the enemy's four [three heavy ironclads in utter uselessness. If those vessels could reach City Point they would commit great havoc...Grant's position on the Petersburg Richmond front had long depended on holding City Point where water borne supplies could be brought. The Federal fleet maintained this vital base.
At 0430, Union troops advanced under a heavy fog along the Petersburg, Virginia, lines. By 0700, the drive was fully under way and was successful everywhere. The Federal Sixth Corps captured the South Side Railroad near Sutherland's Station, and the Confederate lines melted along Hatcher’s Run. West of the Boydton Plank Road, while attempting to rally his men and reach his own lines, Confederate Lieutenant General Ambrose Powell Hill is mortally wounded by a Federal straggler. Only two forts, Gregg and Baldwin, still hold out at noon on the western part of the lines, making retreat possible only by crossing the Appomattox River.
Confederate General Robert E. Lee was determined to hold the inner fortifications until night enabled him to withdraw. In a few places, the Confederates stiffened their resistance in the afternoon until it was obvious that they had to pull out. Orders to evacuate Petersburg and for the defenders north of the James River to retreat through Richmond and join the remainder of the Army of Northern Virginia with Amelia Court House, forty miles west, as the rally point. Federal losses sustained amounted to 3,189 wounded, 625 killed and 326 missing for a total loss of 4,140 out of 63,000 engaged. Confederates engaged approximately 18,500 with unknown losses.
In Richmond, Virginia, a messenger entered St. Paul’s Church while the minister gave the prayer for Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Davis left quietly and went to his office to learn of the disaster that occurred at Petersburg. By 11 tonight, Davis and most of his Cabinet departed by train for Danville, Virginia. Rail stations were jammed and the streets filled with many of the local citizens and refugees crowding the city. Inmates broke from the state prison and the Local Defense Brigade was unable to keep order. Confederate government records were either sent away or burned. Cotton, tobacco and military stores were set on fire, which soon raged out of control. Richmond was falling at last. The Confederate government, however, still existed even though it was in transit. The War resumed.
Actions occur at Scott's Cross Roads, Virginia, the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign.
In Mobile, Alabama, the siege of Fort Blakely began while the siege of Spanish Fort continued led by Major General Edward R. S. Canby.
Skirmishing breaks out near Goldsboro, North Carolina, as Union Major General William T. Sherman presses forward; also at Van Buren and Hickory Station, Arkansas.
President Abraham Lincoln went to the front at Petersburg and saw some of the fighting from a distance while keeping Washington informed to the progress of Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant’s armies.
Union Charles Griffin is appointed Major General.
Skirmishing occurs near Centerville, Alabama, with Union Brigadier General James H. Wilson's forces near Scottsville.
An engagement happens at Selma, Alabama, where Lieutenant Generals Nathan Bedford Forrest and Richard Taylor retreat from the Union onslaught under Major General James H. Wilson with Wilson capturing over 2,700 prisoners. The Yankee troops occupy Selma.
Skirmishing occurs at Summerfield, Alabama.
A skirmish breaks out 4 miles form Hickory Station, Arkansas, on the Little Rock and Devall's Railroad, where the Confederates derail part of the train but are driven off by the Federal troops aboard. While the attack was progressing, most of the passengers flee into the prairie, only returning when the coast is clear. Included was a Yankee from the 12th Michigan Infantry who threw his saber away in the brush, retrieving it after danger had passed. The men got the train back on the rails and proceed forward.
Skirmishing commences 2 miles from Van Buren, Arkansas, as the Yankees kill 2 Confederates who just recently robbed several local citizens. Papers found on the bodies indicate they were from Fulton, Texas, enroute to Missouri.
A Federal expedition travels from the Hermitage, across the Amite, to the French Settlement, Louisiana, in pursuit of partisan guerrillas.
Union Major General Joseph A. Mower assumes the command of the 20th US Army Corps, North Carolina.
Naval report: As spring blossomed in Virginia, General Grant's powerful army, outnumbering Lee's by several times, unleashed its final attack. On 1 April he had outflanked Lee's thin lines southwest of Petersburg in the battle of Five Forks. He ordered an all-out assault on Petersburg along the entire front for the 2nd. Union batteries fired all night preparing for the attack and Fort Sedgwick's heavy fire again earned it the nickname "Fort Hell." Porter's fleet made a feint attack. The Confederates fought fiercely in Petersburg throughout the 2nd, but one by one the strong points fell. That night Lee withdrew.
Mrs. Lincoln had returned to Washington on the River Queen on 1 April. The President embarked in Malvern with Porter. His "...bunk was too short for his length, and he was compelled to fold his legs the first night..." but Porter's carpenters remodeled the cabin on the sly, and the second morning Lincoln appeared at breakfast with the story that he had shrunk "...six inches in length and about a foot sideways." During the evening of the 2nd the two sat on the upper deck of the ship listening to the artillery and musket fire ashore as General Grant's troops, having rendered Richmond untenable with a crushing victory in the day long battle at Petersburg, closed in on the Confederate capital. Lincoln asked the Admiral: "Can't the Navy do something at this particular moment to make history?" Porter's reply was a tribute to the officers and men throughout the Navy who all during the war made history through vital if often unheralded deeds: "The Navy is doing its best just now, holding the enemy's four [three heavy ironclads in utter uselessness. If those vessels could reach City Point they would commit great havoc...Grant's position on the Petersburg Richmond front had long depended on holding City Point where water borne supplies could be brought. The Federal fleet maintained this vital base.
2
Posted on 4/2/15 at 4:42 am to BadLeroyDawg
Sunday, 2 April 1865 (continued)
Supporting General Sherman in North Carolina, Commander Macomb reported to Porter: "In obedience to directions contained in your letter of the 28th ultimo, I started yesterday evening from Plymouth with the Shamrock, Wyoming, Hunchback, Valley City, and Whitehead and proceeded up this river as far as the Stumpy Reach (about 10 miles from the mouth), where we came to anchor for the night. We had proceeded this far without dragging for torpedoes, in order to make quicker time (the river being broad and not suitable for torpedoes), but on starting this morning we dragged the channel ahead of us, in which manner we advanced all day, and reached this place about 5 p.m. without having encountered any resistance or finding any torpedoes...I have brought up with me three large flats, with which I can ferry the regiment over. I left orders at New Berne for the Commodore Hull and Shokokon to join me as soon as possible.
"On our way up the river this morning we were overtaken by three canal boats loaded with troops (which had come from Norfolk, I believe), which followed us up and are now lying along the western shore, the troops having debarked on that side." He concluded with a request for coal for the warships. Happily, two coal schooners from Philadelphia arrived at New Bern that same day and were soon enroute to him. Coal was a problem all during the war. Without bases for supply on the Confederate coast the Union Navy could not have carried out its ceaseless attacks and blockade.
Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory ordered the destruction of the Confederate James River Squadron and directed its officers and men to join General Lee's troops then in the process of evacuating Richmond and retreating westward toward Danville. As Mallory left Richmond with Davis and his cabinet late at night on the 2nd, the train passed over the James River. Later, as a prisoner of war at Fort Lafayette, the Secretary reflected on his thoughts at that time: "The James River squadron, with its ironclads, which had lain like chained bulldogs under the command of Rear Admiral Raphael Semmes to prevent the ascent of the enemy's ships, would, in the classic flash of the times, 'go up' before morning...; and the naval operations of the Confederacy east of the Mississippi would cease."
Mallory's orders to destroy the squadron were carried out by Semmes. After outfitting his men with arms and field equipment, the admiral burned and scuttled the three formidable ironclads, CSS Virginia No. 2, Fredericksburg, and Richmond near Drewry's Bluff. By 0300 on 3 April the ironclads were well afire, and Semmes placed his 400 men on the wooden gunboats. Semmes later wrote: "My little squadron of wooden boats now moved off up the river [to Richmond], by the glare of the burning ironclads. They had not proceeded far before an explosion, like the shock of an earthquake, took place, and the air was filled with missiles. It was the blowing up of the Virginia [No. 2], my late flagship The spectacle was grand beyond description Her shell-rooms had been full of loaded shells. The explosion of the magazine threw all these shells, with their fuses lighted, into the air. The fuses were of different lengths, and as the shells exploded by twos and threes, and by the dozen, the pyrotechnic effect was very fine. The explosion shook the houses in Richmond, and must have waked the echoes of the night for forty miles around."
Semmes disembarked his men at Richmond, then put the torch to the gunboats and set them adrift. The naval detachment, seeking transportation westward out of the evacuated Confederate capital, was forced to provide its own. The sailors found and fired up a locomotive, assembled and attached a number of railroad cars, and proceeded to Danville, arriving on the 4th. Semmes was commissioned a Brigadier General and placed in command of the defenses that had been thrown up around Danville. These defenses were manned by sailors who had been organized into an artillery brigade and by two battalions of infantry This command was retained by Semmes until Lee's surrender at Appomattox.
Supporting General Sherman in North Carolina, Commander Macomb reported to Porter: "In obedience to directions contained in your letter of the 28th ultimo, I started yesterday evening from Plymouth with the Shamrock, Wyoming, Hunchback, Valley City, and Whitehead and proceeded up this river as far as the Stumpy Reach (about 10 miles from the mouth), where we came to anchor for the night. We had proceeded this far without dragging for torpedoes, in order to make quicker time (the river being broad and not suitable for torpedoes), but on starting this morning we dragged the channel ahead of us, in which manner we advanced all day, and reached this place about 5 p.m. without having encountered any resistance or finding any torpedoes...I have brought up with me three large flats, with which I can ferry the regiment over. I left orders at New Berne for the Commodore Hull and Shokokon to join me as soon as possible.
"On our way up the river this morning we were overtaken by three canal boats loaded with troops (which had come from Norfolk, I believe), which followed us up and are now lying along the western shore, the troops having debarked on that side." He concluded with a request for coal for the warships. Happily, two coal schooners from Philadelphia arrived at New Bern that same day and were soon enroute to him. Coal was a problem all during the war. Without bases for supply on the Confederate coast the Union Navy could not have carried out its ceaseless attacks and blockade.
Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory ordered the destruction of the Confederate James River Squadron and directed its officers and men to join General Lee's troops then in the process of evacuating Richmond and retreating westward toward Danville. As Mallory left Richmond with Davis and his cabinet late at night on the 2nd, the train passed over the James River. Later, as a prisoner of war at Fort Lafayette, the Secretary reflected on his thoughts at that time: "The James River squadron, with its ironclads, which had lain like chained bulldogs under the command of Rear Admiral Raphael Semmes to prevent the ascent of the enemy's ships, would, in the classic flash of the times, 'go up' before morning...; and the naval operations of the Confederacy east of the Mississippi would cease."
Mallory's orders to destroy the squadron were carried out by Semmes. After outfitting his men with arms and field equipment, the admiral burned and scuttled the three formidable ironclads, CSS Virginia No. 2, Fredericksburg, and Richmond near Drewry's Bluff. By 0300 on 3 April the ironclads were well afire, and Semmes placed his 400 men on the wooden gunboats. Semmes later wrote: "My little squadron of wooden boats now moved off up the river [to Richmond], by the glare of the burning ironclads. They had not proceeded far before an explosion, like the shock of an earthquake, took place, and the air was filled with missiles. It was the blowing up of the Virginia [No. 2], my late flagship The spectacle was grand beyond description Her shell-rooms had been full of loaded shells. The explosion of the magazine threw all these shells, with their fuses lighted, into the air. The fuses were of different lengths, and as the shells exploded by twos and threes, and by the dozen, the pyrotechnic effect was very fine. The explosion shook the houses in Richmond, and must have waked the echoes of the night for forty miles around."
Semmes disembarked his men at Richmond, then put the torch to the gunboats and set them adrift. The naval detachment, seeking transportation westward out of the evacuated Confederate capital, was forced to provide its own. The sailors found and fired up a locomotive, assembled and attached a number of railroad cars, and proceeded to Danville, arriving on the 4th. Semmes was commissioned a Brigadier General and placed in command of the defenses that had been thrown up around Danville. These defenses were manned by sailors who had been organized into an artillery brigade and by two battalions of infantry This command was retained by Semmes until Lee's surrender at Appomattox.
Posted on 4/2/15 at 8:24 pm to BadLeroyDawg
quote:vagina.
President Abraham Lincoln went to the front at Petersburg and saw some of the fighting from a distance
This post was edited on 1/17/17 at 10:14 pm
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