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re: 150 years ago this day...

Posted on 5/26/15 at 8:15 pm to
Posted by BadLeroyDawg
Member since Aug 2013
848 posts
Posted on 5/26/15 at 8:15 pm to
Saturday, 27 May 1865

President Andrew Johnson orders most of the people imprisoned by military authorities to be discharged. This, of course, did not include the Lincoln Assassination conspirators who were still going through their trial or members of the Confederate Government. It did include Northerners incarcerated by Abraham Lincoln who were considered "Anti-War" and "Copperheads" as well as journalists who campaigned against the Southern Invasion.

Executive Order

May 27, 1865

WAR DEPARTMENT

Ordered , That in all cases of sentences by military tribunals of imprisonment during the war the sentence be remitted and that the prisoners be discharged. The Adjutant-General will issue immediately the necessary instructions to carry. this order into effect.

By order of the President of the United States:

EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

Minor skirmishing is reported with partisan guerrillas in Chariton County, Missouri, particularly at Switzer’s Mill.

Benjamin Henry Grierson, USA, is appointed to Major General.

Major General Peter J. Osterhaus, USA, is assigned to the command of the Federal Department of Mississippi, relieving Major General Gouverneur K. Warren.

Reporting to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles that he had visited the C.S.S. Stonewall in Havana, Rear Admiral Cornelius Kinchiloe Stribling wrote: "I...do not consider her so formidable a vessel as had been represented. In a seaway she would be powerless, and unless her speed was greater than that of her opponent her ram could do no harm."

The U.S.S. Pontiac, commanded by Lieutenant Commander Stephen Bleecker Luce, delivered several relics of Confederate warfare to the United States Naval Academy. These were sent from Charleston by Rear Admiral John A. B. Dahlgren and included a torpedo boat similar to the one "...that exploded a torpedo under the Ironsides on the night of October 10, 1863, and afterwards menaced our vessels constantly." He also sent two torpedoes similar to those which had sunk U.S.S. Patapsco and Harvest Moon. He credited Confederate torpedo warfare as "most troublesome" to the Union naval forces. Secretary Welles reported that "...torpedoes have been more destructive of our naval vessels than all other means combined."

Rear Admiral Stribling, commanding the East Gulf Squadron, reports to Secretary Welles the surrender to his forces of the C.S.S. Spray. The gunboat had been stationed in the St. Marks River guarding the water approaches to Tallahassee, Florida. Spray's commanding officer, Lieutenant Henry H. Lewis, surrendered the vessel upon learning that the troops at Tallahassee had capitulated.

The C.S.S. Shenandoah, commanded by Lieutenant James Iredell Waddell, captures the whaling bark Abigail near Shantarski Island in the northwestern reaches of the Sea of Okhotsk. Abigail's master, Ebenezer Nye, had been captured earlier in the war by Captain Raphael Semmes with the C.S.S. Alabama. One of Nye's mates turned to him and said, "You are more fortunate in picking up Confederate cruisers than whales. I will never again go with you, for if there is a cruiser out, you will find her." The following day, after taking on a stove from Abigail to warm Waddell's cabin, a large quantity of liquor found on board the prize to warm the men, and winter clothing essential to continued operations in these northern waters, the whaler was burned. Waddell proceeded southward along the Siberian Coast and Sakhalin.

General Israel Vogdes reports that he has "...caused Mr. (David Levy} Yulee to be arrested and brought to Jacksonville. He is now confined under guard according to your orders. Is it the intention of the General Commanding to have him confined, or may I admit him to parole? If the former, how strictly should he be confined? I do not think that there need be any apprehension of his attempting to escape, unless the General Commanding desires otherwise he might safely be admitted to parole pending appearance of the charges against him. I shall not take any steps in so admitting him until I receive the instructions from the Commanding General."
Posted by BadLeroyDawg
Member since Aug 2013
848 posts
Posted on 5/27/15 at 7:48 pm to
Sunday, 28 May 1865

The 8th Ohio Cavalry is ordered to seize and secure all Confederate arms known to exist in the interior of West Virginia, and to capture those who fail to surrender.

Seven Confederate soldiers--George R. Smith, Michael S. Barnhart, Hugh McGee, Nick Taylor, Jonas Myers, Rufus Holmes and Thomas Raney--arrive unarmed at Federal headquarters in the St. Charles Hotel in Pocahontas, Arkansas, in order to receive their paroles and go home to their families after four long years of hard warfare. Instead, they are bound, blindfolded and then shot on Bettis Street in front of the hotel. Two additional unnamed Confederates are wounded but live and three additional men are able to escape unharmed. A detachment of the 7th Kansas Cavalry, Company C--known as "Jennison's Jayhawkers"--approximately 45 in number, is responsible for the massacre.

Their gravestone at Cowan Cemetery reads: In Memory of Our Fallen Brothers, Murdered May 28, 1865. Tied, Blindfolded and Shot by U.S. Troops After They Had Surrendered.

Brevet Brigadier General George Spalding, 12th Tennessee Cavalry, USA, assumes command of the Federal District of North Missouri.

At 1400 hours the lookout on the CSS Shenandoah, commanded by Lieutenant James Iredell Waddell, cries..."Sail ho!" Waddell orders the Russian ensign hoisted and the chase begins. The whaling bark Abigail is separated from the Shenandoah by an ice floe that keeps both vessels on a parallel course. Upon reaching open water, the Shenandoah strikes her Russian colors, raises the Confederate flag, and fires a blank cartridge. After boarding the Abigail, a Confederate officer informs Captain Ebenezer Nye that the CSN has crafted a treaty with the whales to dispose of their mortal enemies. The Shenandoah takes 36 prisoners, some of whom shipped, and cargo needed for an Arctic cruise. The Abigail is burned.

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