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re: 150 years ago this day...
Posted on 4/3/15 at 10:49 pm to genro
Posted on 4/3/15 at 10:49 pm to genro
Tuesday, 4 April 1865
President Abraham Lincoln travelled up the James River on the River Queen, transferred to the USS Malvern, and then arrived in Richmond on a smaller landing vessel not far from Libby Prison. Admiral David Dixon Porter, three other officers and ten sailors armed with carbines served as Lincoln’s escort as he walked to the White House of the Confederacy and took time to sit in Jefferson Davis' chair. Crowds, mostly cheering Negroes, surrounded Lincoln as he toured the home that Confederate President Jefferson Davis recently vacated. Lincoln drove through the city under escort in the late afternoon. Before leaving Richmond, Lincoln talked with John A. Campbell, former U.S. Supreme Court justice as well as former Assistant Secretary of War for the Confederacy. Campbell admitted that the War was over and urged Lincoln to consult with public men of Virginia regarding restoration of peace and order. Lincoln returned to the Malvern for the night.
The previous day, one Richmond resident, Mary Fontaine, had written, “I saw them unfurl a tiny flag, and I sank on my knees, and the bitter, bitter tears came in a torrent.” Another observer wrote that as the Yankees rode in, the city’s black residents were “...completely crazed, they danced and shouted, men hugged each other, and women kissed.” For the citizens of Richmond, these were symbols of a world turned upside down. It was, one reporter noted, “…too awful to remember, if it were possible to be erased, but that cannot be.”
Skirmishing occurred at Tabernacle Church, also known as Beaver Pond Creek, and at Amelia Court House, Virginia. Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s decimated army lacked supplies to feed his army which brought on much post-war discussion. There was an unfounded charge the Davis administration was using the needed and necessary railroad and communications, though Federal Major General Phil Sheridan arrived at Jetersville, southwest of Amelia Court-House, on the Danville Railroad southwest of Amelia Court House, blocking Lee’s further use of that route towards North Carolina.
At Danville, Virginia, the new capital of the Confederacy, Confederate President Jefferson Davis issued a proclamation to the remaining people of the crumbling nation while admitting that there was now a new phase of the conflict, and that he had vowed to maintain the struggle.
The Union Cavalry troops, under Brigadier General James Harrison Wilson occupy Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Skirmishes break out at East River Bridge, Florida.
The capture of the steamer, Harriet De Ford, near Fair Haven, Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, takes place as General Robert E. Lee, CSA, earlier sent Captain Thaddeus Fitzhugh, of the 5th Virginia Cavalry and some of his men with Company F, in hopes of capturing one of Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant's supply vessels, using Major John S. Mosby's partisan rangers to transport the badly needed supplies to Lee's men in the trenches around Petersburg and Richmond. Unable to capture the Eolus, Titan, or the Highland Light, Fitzhugh captures the Harriet De Ford, boarding the vessel disguised as wood choppers. Upon moving up the Chesapeake Bay, he hears the guns blasting around Petersburg, which are celebrating the Union victory there. Fitzhugh desperately attempts to get the supplies to Lee, but is pursued by Union gunboats, he runs the vessel aground, taking what supplies he could.
Major General John Bankhead Magruder, CSA, assumes the command of the Confederate District of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.
Naval report: Rear Admiral Porter accompanied President Lincoln up the James River to Richmond on board flagship Malvern. When obstructions blocked the flagship's way, the two embarked in Porter's barge, with three aides and boat crew of twelve. Thus, in a single small boat under oars, significantly by water, the President reached the Southern capital that for four years had been so near for conquest by the Union armies, yet had so long been held safe by the remarkable Lee and his hard fighting armies.
"It was a mild spring day. Birds were singing in the orchards on either side of the river, and the trees were in bloom. As the party pulled up the river they saw a wide curtain of smoke rise the horizon ahead. Richmond was on fire. On evacuating the city the Confederates had fired their magazines and warehouses of cotton and tobacco; and bursting projectiles had dropped over the town, setting fire to a wide swath of dwellings and buildings in the business district."
"The party landed about one block above Libby Prison. Porter formed ten of the sailors into a guard. They were armed with carbines. Six Marched in front and four in rear, and in the middle with the President and the Admiral walked Captain Penrose, Lincoln's military aide, Captain Adams of the Navy, and Lieutenant Clemens of the Signal Corps. Lincoln with his tall hat towered more than a foot above the thick-set Admiral, whose flat seaman's cap emphasized his five feet seven inches. The President "...was received with the strongest demonstrations of joy." In his report to Secretary Welles, Porter wrote: "We found that the Rebel rams and gunboats had all been blown up, with the exception of an unfinished ram, the Texas, and a small tug gun-boat, the Beaufort, mounting one gun."
The ships destroyed included the 4 gun ironclads Virginia No. 2, Richmond, and Fredericksburg; wooden ships Nansemond, 2 guns; Hampton, 2 guns; Roanoke, 1 gun; Torpedo, Shrapnel, and school-ship Patrick Henry. "Some of them are in sight above water, and may be raised," Porter wrote. "They partly obstruct the channel where they are now, and will either have to be raised or blown up. He added: "Tredegar Works and the naval depot remain untouched." With its James River Squadron destroyed and its capital evacuated, the Confederacy was certain to fall soon. As Vice Admiral David Glasgow Farragut, who had preceded the President and Porter to Richmond, said: "Thank God, it is about over.
General Canby requested Rear Admiral Thatcher to provide assistance in the form of ''eight or ten boats...and fifty or sixty sailors to row them..." for the purpose of moving troops to assault Batteries Tracy and Huger, part of Mobile 's defenses. The Admiral agreed to supply the boats but noted: "To send sixty men in these boats to row them will be nearly a load for them, at least they will be nearly filled with their own crews, so that an assaulting party would find but little room in them, particularly as our vessels are all small and their boats proportionally so. I would therefore respectfully suggest that your assaulting party be drilled at the oars."
A naval battery of three 30-pounder Parrott rifles, seamen manned and commanded by Lieutenant Commander Gillis, the former captain of the torpedoed monitor Milwaukee, was landed on the banks of the Blakely River to join in the bombardment of Spanish Fort, the Confederate strong point in the defense of Mobile. General Canby reported that the "...battery behaved admirably."
Overview: President Abraham Lincoln visits the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, a day after Union forces capture it. Lincoln had been in the area for nearly two weeks. He left Washington, D.C., at the invitation of general-in-chief Hiram U. Grant to visit Grant’s headquarters at City Point, near the lines at Petersburg south of Richmond. The trip was exhilarating for the exhausted president. Worn out by four years of war and stifled by the pressures of Washington, Lincoln enjoyed himself immensely. He conferred with Grant and General William T. Sherman, who took a break from his campaign in North Carolina. He visited soldiers, and even picked up an ax to chop logs in front of the troops.
President Abraham Lincoln travelled up the James River on the River Queen, transferred to the USS Malvern, and then arrived in Richmond on a smaller landing vessel not far from Libby Prison. Admiral David Dixon Porter, three other officers and ten sailors armed with carbines served as Lincoln’s escort as he walked to the White House of the Confederacy and took time to sit in Jefferson Davis' chair. Crowds, mostly cheering Negroes, surrounded Lincoln as he toured the home that Confederate President Jefferson Davis recently vacated. Lincoln drove through the city under escort in the late afternoon. Before leaving Richmond, Lincoln talked with John A. Campbell, former U.S. Supreme Court justice as well as former Assistant Secretary of War for the Confederacy. Campbell admitted that the War was over and urged Lincoln to consult with public men of Virginia regarding restoration of peace and order. Lincoln returned to the Malvern for the night.
The previous day, one Richmond resident, Mary Fontaine, had written, “I saw them unfurl a tiny flag, and I sank on my knees, and the bitter, bitter tears came in a torrent.” Another observer wrote that as the Yankees rode in, the city’s black residents were “...completely crazed, they danced and shouted, men hugged each other, and women kissed.” For the citizens of Richmond, these were symbols of a world turned upside down. It was, one reporter noted, “…too awful to remember, if it were possible to be erased, but that cannot be.”
Skirmishing occurred at Tabernacle Church, also known as Beaver Pond Creek, and at Amelia Court House, Virginia. Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s decimated army lacked supplies to feed his army which brought on much post-war discussion. There was an unfounded charge the Davis administration was using the needed and necessary railroad and communications, though Federal Major General Phil Sheridan arrived at Jetersville, southwest of Amelia Court-House, on the Danville Railroad southwest of Amelia Court House, blocking Lee’s further use of that route towards North Carolina.
At Danville, Virginia, the new capital of the Confederacy, Confederate President Jefferson Davis issued a proclamation to the remaining people of the crumbling nation while admitting that there was now a new phase of the conflict, and that he had vowed to maintain the struggle.
The Union Cavalry troops, under Brigadier General James Harrison Wilson occupy Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Skirmishes break out at East River Bridge, Florida.
The capture of the steamer, Harriet De Ford, near Fair Haven, Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, takes place as General Robert E. Lee, CSA, earlier sent Captain Thaddeus Fitzhugh, of the 5th Virginia Cavalry and some of his men with Company F, in hopes of capturing one of Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant's supply vessels, using Major John S. Mosby's partisan rangers to transport the badly needed supplies to Lee's men in the trenches around Petersburg and Richmond. Unable to capture the Eolus, Titan, or the Highland Light, Fitzhugh captures the Harriet De Ford, boarding the vessel disguised as wood choppers. Upon moving up the Chesapeake Bay, he hears the guns blasting around Petersburg, which are celebrating the Union victory there. Fitzhugh desperately attempts to get the supplies to Lee, but is pursued by Union gunboats, he runs the vessel aground, taking what supplies he could.
Major General John Bankhead Magruder, CSA, assumes the command of the Confederate District of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.
Naval report: Rear Admiral Porter accompanied President Lincoln up the James River to Richmond on board flagship Malvern. When obstructions blocked the flagship's way, the two embarked in Porter's barge, with three aides and boat crew of twelve. Thus, in a single small boat under oars, significantly by water, the President reached the Southern capital that for four years had been so near for conquest by the Union armies, yet had so long been held safe by the remarkable Lee and his hard fighting armies.
"It was a mild spring day. Birds were singing in the orchards on either side of the river, and the trees were in bloom. As the party pulled up the river they saw a wide curtain of smoke rise the horizon ahead. Richmond was on fire. On evacuating the city the Confederates had fired their magazines and warehouses of cotton and tobacco; and bursting projectiles had dropped over the town, setting fire to a wide swath of dwellings and buildings in the business district."
"The party landed about one block above Libby Prison. Porter formed ten of the sailors into a guard. They were armed with carbines. Six Marched in front and four in rear, and in the middle with the President and the Admiral walked Captain Penrose, Lincoln's military aide, Captain Adams of the Navy, and Lieutenant Clemens of the Signal Corps. Lincoln with his tall hat towered more than a foot above the thick-set Admiral, whose flat seaman's cap emphasized his five feet seven inches. The President "...was received with the strongest demonstrations of joy." In his report to Secretary Welles, Porter wrote: "We found that the Rebel rams and gunboats had all been blown up, with the exception of an unfinished ram, the Texas, and a small tug gun-boat, the Beaufort, mounting one gun."
The ships destroyed included the 4 gun ironclads Virginia No. 2, Richmond, and Fredericksburg; wooden ships Nansemond, 2 guns; Hampton, 2 guns; Roanoke, 1 gun; Torpedo, Shrapnel, and school-ship Patrick Henry. "Some of them are in sight above water, and may be raised," Porter wrote. "They partly obstruct the channel where they are now, and will either have to be raised or blown up. He added: "Tredegar Works and the naval depot remain untouched." With its James River Squadron destroyed and its capital evacuated, the Confederacy was certain to fall soon. As Vice Admiral David Glasgow Farragut, who had preceded the President and Porter to Richmond, said: "Thank God, it is about over.
General Canby requested Rear Admiral Thatcher to provide assistance in the form of ''eight or ten boats...and fifty or sixty sailors to row them..." for the purpose of moving troops to assault Batteries Tracy and Huger, part of Mobile 's defenses. The Admiral agreed to supply the boats but noted: "To send sixty men in these boats to row them will be nearly a load for them, at least they will be nearly filled with their own crews, so that an assaulting party would find but little room in them, particularly as our vessels are all small and their boats proportionally so. I would therefore respectfully suggest that your assaulting party be drilled at the oars."
A naval battery of three 30-pounder Parrott rifles, seamen manned and commanded by Lieutenant Commander Gillis, the former captain of the torpedoed monitor Milwaukee, was landed on the banks of the Blakely River to join in the bombardment of Spanish Fort, the Confederate strong point in the defense of Mobile. General Canby reported that the "...battery behaved admirably."
Overview: President Abraham Lincoln visits the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, a day after Union forces capture it. Lincoln had been in the area for nearly two weeks. He left Washington, D.C., at the invitation of general-in-chief Hiram U. Grant to visit Grant’s headquarters at City Point, near the lines at Petersburg south of Richmond. The trip was exhilarating for the exhausted president. Worn out by four years of war and stifled by the pressures of Washington, Lincoln enjoyed himself immensely. He conferred with Grant and General William T. Sherman, who took a break from his campaign in North Carolina. He visited soldiers, and even picked up an ax to chop logs in front of the troops.
This post was edited on 4/3/15 at 10:56 pm
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Posted on 4/3/15 at 10:50 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Tuesday, 4 April 1865 (continued)
He stayed at City Point, sensing that the final push was near. Grant’s forces overran the Petersburg line on April 2, and the Confederate government fled the capital later that day. Union forces occupied Richmond on 3 April, and Lincoln sailed up the James River to see the spoils of war. His ship could not pass some obstructions that had been placed in the river by the Confederates so 12 soldiers rowed him to shore. He landed without fanfare but was soon recognized by some black workmen who ran to him and bowed. The modest Lincoln told them to “…kneel to God only, and thank him for the liberty you will hereafter enjoy.”
Lincoln, accompanied by a small group of soldiers and a growing entourage of freed slaves, walked to the Confederate White House and sat in President Jefferson Davis chair. He walked to the Virginia statehouse and saw the chambers of the Confederate Congress. Lincoln even visited Libby Prison, where thousands of Union officers were held during the War. Lincoln remained in Richmond a few more days in hopes that Robert E. Lee’s army would surrender, but on 9 April he headed back to Washington. Six days later, Lincoln would be shot as he watched a play, Our American Cousin, at Ford’s Theater.
He stayed at City Point, sensing that the final push was near. Grant’s forces overran the Petersburg line on April 2, and the Confederate government fled the capital later that day. Union forces occupied Richmond on 3 April, and Lincoln sailed up the James River to see the spoils of war. His ship could not pass some obstructions that had been placed in the river by the Confederates so 12 soldiers rowed him to shore. He landed without fanfare but was soon recognized by some black workmen who ran to him and bowed. The modest Lincoln told them to “…kneel to God only, and thank him for the liberty you will hereafter enjoy.”
Lincoln, accompanied by a small group of soldiers and a growing entourage of freed slaves, walked to the Confederate White House and sat in President Jefferson Davis chair. He walked to the Virginia statehouse and saw the chambers of the Confederate Congress. Lincoln even visited Libby Prison, where thousands of Union officers were held during the War. Lincoln remained in Richmond a few more days in hopes that Robert E. Lee’s army would surrender, but on 9 April he headed back to Washington. Six days later, Lincoln would be shot as he watched a play, Our American Cousin, at Ford’s Theater.
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