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re: 150 years ago today...August 20th, 1863...
Posted on 5/30/13 at 3:46 pm to dallasga6
Posted on 5/30/13 at 3:46 pm to dallasga6
May 30, 1863
The operation and organization of huge mid-19th century armies--raising, training, feeding, transporting, arming, sheltering, medicating, and even occasionally fighting them--was not a skill taught at West Point. Both sides went through several experiments with devising a workable system. Following the loss of General Thomas J. Jackson earlier in the month, General Robert E. Lee announced his new arrangement this morning. The Army of Northern Virginia would henceforth consist of three corps, to be under the commands of Lieutenant General Richard S. Ewell, Lieutenant General James Longstreet, and Lieutenant General A. P. Hill.
The USS Forest Rose, Acting Lieutenant G. W. Brown commanding, and the USS Linden, under Acting Lieutenant T. E. Smith, reconnoitered the Quiver River, Mississippi. A boat expedition from the two ships captured and burned the Dew Drop and Emma Bett.
The USS Rhode Island, Commander Stephen D. Trenchard in charge, gave chase to the blockade runner Margaret and Jessie off Eleuthera Island. Taking a shot in the boiler, the fleeing steamer with a large cargo of cotton, was run ashore to keep from sinking.
A boat expedition under Lieutenant Commander Chester Hatfield captured the schooner Star and sloop Victoria at Brazos Santiago, Texas; the latter was burned as she grounded in the attempt to bring her out into the Gulf.
The blockade runner A. D. Vance sailed from Great Britain to Wilmington; this was the first of eleven successful runs through the blockade for the vessel.
This morning, at about half-past 10, the Rebels attacked a train of sixteen cars from Alexandria, loaded with forage, about a mile and a half from Kettle Run, toward Warrenton Junction, Virginia. The Third brigade, under Colonel De Forrest, was stationed at Kettle Run, and the pickets were first notified of the enemy's presence by hearing heavy firing. A force was immediately sent in the direction of the firing, but too late to save the train, which was utterly demolished, the locomotive being pierced by two six-pound cannonballs.
Great excitement existed at Harper's Ferry, Maryland, and its vicinity, on account of the reported approach of the Army of Northern Virginia under General Lee, with a view of entering Maryland.
The Thirtieth regiment of New York volunteers, under the command of Colonel William M. Searing, returned to Albany from the seat of war.
A Rebel camp near Carthage, Tennessee, was surprised by a large party of the Twenty-sixth Ohio regiment, who captured twenty-two prisoners, and thirty-five horses, besides destroying all the camp equipage.
A large meeting was held at Newark, New Jersey, "....by the Democracy of that city, to express their opposition to the recent arrest and banishment of Mr. Vallandigham. There were six thousand persons present, and the sentiments uttered by the various speakers were heartily applauded." Speeches were made by A. J. Rogers, Eli P. Norton, Judge A. R. Speer, and General Theodore Runyon.
The operation and organization of huge mid-19th century armies--raising, training, feeding, transporting, arming, sheltering, medicating, and even occasionally fighting them--was not a skill taught at West Point. Both sides went through several experiments with devising a workable system. Following the loss of General Thomas J. Jackson earlier in the month, General Robert E. Lee announced his new arrangement this morning. The Army of Northern Virginia would henceforth consist of three corps, to be under the commands of Lieutenant General Richard S. Ewell, Lieutenant General James Longstreet, and Lieutenant General A. P. Hill.
The USS Forest Rose, Acting Lieutenant G. W. Brown commanding, and the USS Linden, under Acting Lieutenant T. E. Smith, reconnoitered the Quiver River, Mississippi. A boat expedition from the two ships captured and burned the Dew Drop and Emma Bett.
The USS Rhode Island, Commander Stephen D. Trenchard in charge, gave chase to the blockade runner Margaret and Jessie off Eleuthera Island. Taking a shot in the boiler, the fleeing steamer with a large cargo of cotton, was run ashore to keep from sinking.
A boat expedition under Lieutenant Commander Chester Hatfield captured the schooner Star and sloop Victoria at Brazos Santiago, Texas; the latter was burned as she grounded in the attempt to bring her out into the Gulf.
The blockade runner A. D. Vance sailed from Great Britain to Wilmington; this was the first of eleven successful runs through the blockade for the vessel.
This morning, at about half-past 10, the Rebels attacked a train of sixteen cars from Alexandria, loaded with forage, about a mile and a half from Kettle Run, toward Warrenton Junction, Virginia. The Third brigade, under Colonel De Forrest, was stationed at Kettle Run, and the pickets were first notified of the enemy's presence by hearing heavy firing. A force was immediately sent in the direction of the firing, but too late to save the train, which was utterly demolished, the locomotive being pierced by two six-pound cannonballs.
Great excitement existed at Harper's Ferry, Maryland, and its vicinity, on account of the reported approach of the Army of Northern Virginia under General Lee, with a view of entering Maryland.
The Thirtieth regiment of New York volunteers, under the command of Colonel William M. Searing, returned to Albany from the seat of war.
A Rebel camp near Carthage, Tennessee, was surprised by a large party of the Twenty-sixth Ohio regiment, who captured twenty-two prisoners, and thirty-five horses, besides destroying all the camp equipage.
A large meeting was held at Newark, New Jersey, "....by the Democracy of that city, to express their opposition to the recent arrest and banishment of Mr. Vallandigham. There were six thousand persons present, and the sentiments uttered by the various speakers were heartily applauded." Speeches were made by A. J. Rogers, Eli P. Norton, Judge A. R. Speer, and General Theodore Runyon.
2
Posted on 5/31/13 at 2:52 pm to dallasga6
May 31, 1863
Perkins Landing, Louisiana, was no place for Union troops to be having breakfast today; they were up against the river, cut off from help as well as the Union headquarters, and surrounded by Confederates. To their relief and rescue, the USS Carondelet, Lieutenant John McLeod Murphy at the helm, came steaming up, guns firing in an attempt to drive off the attackers. Murphy reported he "...shelled the woods and thus prevented the enemy from advancing and throwing an enfilading fire on the troops ashore," while awaiting the arrival of a transport which could rescue the soldiers. As the Forest Queen arrived and the Union troops began to board her, a large force of Confederates pressed another attack. Carondelet's guns laid down a heavy fire, saving the troops and forcing the Southerners eventually to break off the assault. Carondelet remained at Perkins' Landing after Forest Queen departed, secured those stores and material which it was possible to take on board, and destroyed the rest to prevent its capture by the Confederates.
Rear Admiral David D. Porter, accompanied by some of the fleet officers, went ashore, mounted horses and rode to Major General W. T. Sherman's headquarters before Vicksburg. Sherman reported that the Admiral, referring to the loss of USS Cincinnati on 27 May, was "willing to lose all the boats if he could do any good." Porter also volunteered to place a battery ashore. To that end, Lieutenant Commander Selfridge visited Sherman on the first of June and reported that he was prepared to land two 8-inch howitzers and to man and work them if the Army would haul the guns in to position and build a parapet for them. On 5 June, Selfridge told Porter that one gun was in position and "I shall have the other gun mounted tonight..." Frequent joint efforts of this nature hastened the fall of Vicksburg.
The USS Pawnee, Commander George B. Balch in charge, and the USS E.B. Hale, under Acting Lieutenant Edgar Brodhead, supported an Army reconnaissance to James Island, South Carolina, and covered the troop landing. Balch reported: ''The landing was successfully accomplished and the reconnaissance made, or forces meeting with no opposition, and they were embarked at 9 a.m. and returned to their camps without a casualty of any kind." Colonel Charles H. Simonton, CSA, commanding at James Island, warned: ''This expedition of the enemy removes all [their] fear of our supposed batteries on the Stono, and no doubt we will have visits from them often."
The USS Sunflower, Acting Master Edward Van Sice commanding, seized the schooner Echo off the Marquesas Keys with a cargo of cotton.
A battle occurred in Lincoln County, Missouri, between a body of partisan guerrillas, and the enrolled Union militia of the county, resulting in the resounding defeat of the Yankees, with a loss of over ten men.
The Union gunboat Alert, lying at the navy yard at Norfolk, Virginia, took fire this morning. The fire soon reaching her magazine, a shell exploded, which went through her bottom, and she sank immediately.
A cavalry reconnaissance was made from Somerset, Kentucky, to within four miles of Monticello, during which, sixteen Rebels, with their arms and horses, were captured.
A large force of Union cavalry, under the command of Colonel F. M. Cornyn, Tenth Missouri cavalry, returned to Corinth, Mississippi, after a successful raid into Alabama. They were absent five days, during which time, they had a fight (27 May) with a smaller body of partisan guerrillas, under Colonel Roddy, at Florence, Alabama, forcing them to retreat; they destroyed seven cotton factories, with all their contents, valued at one million five hundred thousand dollars; a number of steam flour mills and sawmills, a number of blacksmiths' shops, a large number of wagons, an immense quantity of powder, and other ammunition, and a large quantity of English-manufactured arms. The bridge at Florence, and a number of houses were burned, and the Federals returned with six hundred head of horses, mules, and oxen, one hundred prisoners, as well as a large number of freed slaves.
Perkins Landing, Louisiana, was no place for Union troops to be having breakfast today; they were up against the river, cut off from help as well as the Union headquarters, and surrounded by Confederates. To their relief and rescue, the USS Carondelet, Lieutenant John McLeod Murphy at the helm, came steaming up, guns firing in an attempt to drive off the attackers. Murphy reported he "...shelled the woods and thus prevented the enemy from advancing and throwing an enfilading fire on the troops ashore," while awaiting the arrival of a transport which could rescue the soldiers. As the Forest Queen arrived and the Union troops began to board her, a large force of Confederates pressed another attack. Carondelet's guns laid down a heavy fire, saving the troops and forcing the Southerners eventually to break off the assault. Carondelet remained at Perkins' Landing after Forest Queen departed, secured those stores and material which it was possible to take on board, and destroyed the rest to prevent its capture by the Confederates.
Rear Admiral David D. Porter, accompanied by some of the fleet officers, went ashore, mounted horses and rode to Major General W. T. Sherman's headquarters before Vicksburg. Sherman reported that the Admiral, referring to the loss of USS Cincinnati on 27 May, was "willing to lose all the boats if he could do any good." Porter also volunteered to place a battery ashore. To that end, Lieutenant Commander Selfridge visited Sherman on the first of June and reported that he was prepared to land two 8-inch howitzers and to man and work them if the Army would haul the guns in to position and build a parapet for them. On 5 June, Selfridge told Porter that one gun was in position and "I shall have the other gun mounted tonight..." Frequent joint efforts of this nature hastened the fall of Vicksburg.
The USS Pawnee, Commander George B. Balch in charge, and the USS E.B. Hale, under Acting Lieutenant Edgar Brodhead, supported an Army reconnaissance to James Island, South Carolina, and covered the troop landing. Balch reported: ''The landing was successfully accomplished and the reconnaissance made, or forces meeting with no opposition, and they were embarked at 9 a.m. and returned to their camps without a casualty of any kind." Colonel Charles H. Simonton, CSA, commanding at James Island, warned: ''This expedition of the enemy removes all [their] fear of our supposed batteries on the Stono, and no doubt we will have visits from them often."
The USS Sunflower, Acting Master Edward Van Sice commanding, seized the schooner Echo off the Marquesas Keys with a cargo of cotton.
A battle occurred in Lincoln County, Missouri, between a body of partisan guerrillas, and the enrolled Union militia of the county, resulting in the resounding defeat of the Yankees, with a loss of over ten men.
The Union gunboat Alert, lying at the navy yard at Norfolk, Virginia, took fire this morning. The fire soon reaching her magazine, a shell exploded, which went through her bottom, and she sank immediately.
A cavalry reconnaissance was made from Somerset, Kentucky, to within four miles of Monticello, during which, sixteen Rebels, with their arms and horses, were captured.
A large force of Union cavalry, under the command of Colonel F. M. Cornyn, Tenth Missouri cavalry, returned to Corinth, Mississippi, after a successful raid into Alabama. They were absent five days, during which time, they had a fight (27 May) with a smaller body of partisan guerrillas, under Colonel Roddy, at Florence, Alabama, forcing them to retreat; they destroyed seven cotton factories, with all their contents, valued at one million five hundred thousand dollars; a number of steam flour mills and sawmills, a number of blacksmiths' shops, a large number of wagons, an immense quantity of powder, and other ammunition, and a large quantity of English-manufactured arms. The bridge at Florence, and a number of houses were burned, and the Federals returned with six hundred head of horses, mules, and oxen, one hundred prisoners, as well as a large number of freed slaves.
Posted on 5/31/13 at 6:03 pm to dallasga6
Posted on 6/1/13 at 4:02 pm to goldenbadger08
June 1, 1863
Lord knows, the Constitution of the United States had been dishonored more during the first two years of this long and awful war than in all of the previous administrations combined. President Abraham Lincoln suspended the right of habeas corpus in several instances over most of the country, then done great damage to the concept of judicial review and separation of powers by ignoring orders from the Supreme Court to discontinue this aberrant behavior. And once again today, as in many days prior, it was the First Amendment taking the lumps, as General Ambrose E. Burnside closed the Chicago Times for allegedly publishing statements of dubious loyalty in regards to the constitutionality of the Southern Invasion.
The U.S. Consul at Nassau Seth C. Hawley wrote Assistant Secretary of State Frederick W. Seward, commenting on the continued attempts to run the blockade despite the danger of capture or destruction. Naming 28 ships that had run or attempted to run the blockade since 10 March, Hawley observed that 13 had not been successful. "This proportion of loss seems too large to allow the business to be profitable, but this view is deceptive. The number of successful and unsuccessful voyages must be compared to make a sound conclusion. . . . To arrive at the probable profit of the business, I made an estimate in the case of the Ella and Annie. She came into the business in April, has made two successful voyages and is now absent on the third venture.
"One voyage outward cargo, say $100,000
"One voyage expense, etc. $ 15,000
[Total] $115,000
She returns with 1,300 bales of cotton, weighing an average of 400 pounds pet bale, equal to 45 cents per pound, or $234,000
From which deduct the cost $115,000
Leaves profit $119,000
"Assume that she makes the average four voyages and is lost on the fifth with her cargo, the account would stand thus: Four voyages, profit at $119,000 each, is $476,000; deduct cost of steamer, $100,000, and cargo, $100,000, equal $200,000, leaves as profit on four voyages, $276,000. This estimate of profits is far less; it is not half as great as the figures made by those engaged in the business." Thus patriotism and the great profit realized from a successful run through the blockade combined to induce adventurous Southerners to risk the perils posed by the Union fleet.
In seeking to stop the activities of Confederate blockade runners, vigorous naval officers were not always confined to the water. On hearing that four men engaged in blockade running were ashore near Lawson's Bay on the Rappahannock River, Acting Master Street of the USS Primrose took a landing party 4 miles inland and surrounded the house the men had been reported to be in. "On searching the house," Street wrote, " we found four men secreted under the bedding. We also obtained $10,635 in notes and bonds belonging to the prisoners."
The Confederate Navy Department assumed complete control of the Selma, Alabama, Iron Works. Under the command of Commander Catesby ap R. Jones, the iron works became a naval ordnance works where naval guns were cast. Between June 1863 and April 1864, nearly 200 guns were cast there, most of them 6.4-inch and 7-inch Brooke rifles.
Major General Nathaniel Banks, at Port Hudson, Louisiana, issued an order forbidding the passage of steamers from New York past the quarantine at New Orleans, without a special order, unless they should be mail steamers or others transporting stores for the Government. This regulation was made necessary by the continued "...refusal to transport the soldiers' mails, except upon inadmissible conditions." The provost-marshal was charged with the execution of the order.--an expedition into Tappahannock, Virginia, was made by a party of Union soldiers, who succeeded in destroying a large quantity of stores belonging to the rebels, besides carrying off a number of Negroes.
At Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a meeting was held to protest against the arrest of C. L. Vallandigham. Judge Ellis Lewis was appointed chairman, and speeches were made by Messrs. Bigler, Biddle, and Charles J. Ingersoll. The latter counseled obedience to the laws and the constitutional authorities, but resistance to any attempt to control the elections.
Governor David Tod, of Ohio, appeared before the Court of Common Pleas of Fairfield County, in obedience to his recognizance, to answer the charges filed against him by Dr. Edson B. Olds, when the case was continued to the next term of the court.
A good deal of publicity has been given to a rumor that General Robert E. Lee is preparing for a forward movement, from which the newspapers in the United States infer that it is only a ruse to cover a demonstration in some other quarter, since they affect to believe that we would be more reticent if an advance were really in contemplation. The month of June, upon which we have this day entered, will unravel the mystery. In the mean time, the Confederate army and people can well afford to possess their souls in patience, and to leave their cause in the hands of that kind Providence which has guided us thus far through this bloody wilderness.
An expedition, under the command of Colonel James Montgomery, ascended the Combahee River, South Carolina, and succeeded in destroying a large quantity of Rebel stores and other property.
The bombardment of Vicksburg continued. All the guns in position opened fire at midnight, and continued their fire until daylight this morning. After a short cessation the firing was renewed, and kept up all day.
A large meeting, to procure funds to send supplies to the wounded at Vicksburg, was held at Chicago, Illinois, at which nearly six thousand dollars were raised.
The schooner Echo was captured yesterday, in the Gulf of Mexico, by the United States steamer Sunflower.
A fight took place at Clinton, Louisiana, between the Union forces under the command of Colonel Grierson, and the Rebel forces stationed in that town, resulting in the loss of twenty-one killed and wounded of the Southerners, and an even larger number of the Federals.
Lord knows, the Constitution of the United States had been dishonored more during the first two years of this long and awful war than in all of the previous administrations combined. President Abraham Lincoln suspended the right of habeas corpus in several instances over most of the country, then done great damage to the concept of judicial review and separation of powers by ignoring orders from the Supreme Court to discontinue this aberrant behavior. And once again today, as in many days prior, it was the First Amendment taking the lumps, as General Ambrose E. Burnside closed the Chicago Times for allegedly publishing statements of dubious loyalty in regards to the constitutionality of the Southern Invasion.
The U.S. Consul at Nassau Seth C. Hawley wrote Assistant Secretary of State Frederick W. Seward, commenting on the continued attempts to run the blockade despite the danger of capture or destruction. Naming 28 ships that had run or attempted to run the blockade since 10 March, Hawley observed that 13 had not been successful. "This proportion of loss seems too large to allow the business to be profitable, but this view is deceptive. The number of successful and unsuccessful voyages must be compared to make a sound conclusion. . . . To arrive at the probable profit of the business, I made an estimate in the case of the Ella and Annie. She came into the business in April, has made two successful voyages and is now absent on the third venture.
"One voyage outward cargo, say $100,000
"One voyage expense, etc. $ 15,000
[Total] $115,000
She returns with 1,300 bales of cotton, weighing an average of 400 pounds pet bale, equal to 45 cents per pound, or $234,000
From which deduct the cost $115,000
Leaves profit $119,000
"Assume that she makes the average four voyages and is lost on the fifth with her cargo, the account would stand thus: Four voyages, profit at $119,000 each, is $476,000; deduct cost of steamer, $100,000, and cargo, $100,000, equal $200,000, leaves as profit on four voyages, $276,000. This estimate of profits is far less; it is not half as great as the figures made by those engaged in the business." Thus patriotism and the great profit realized from a successful run through the blockade combined to induce adventurous Southerners to risk the perils posed by the Union fleet.
In seeking to stop the activities of Confederate blockade runners, vigorous naval officers were not always confined to the water. On hearing that four men engaged in blockade running were ashore near Lawson's Bay on the Rappahannock River, Acting Master Street of the USS Primrose took a landing party 4 miles inland and surrounded the house the men had been reported to be in. "On searching the house," Street wrote, " we found four men secreted under the bedding. We also obtained $10,635 in notes and bonds belonging to the prisoners."
The Confederate Navy Department assumed complete control of the Selma, Alabama, Iron Works. Under the command of Commander Catesby ap R. Jones, the iron works became a naval ordnance works where naval guns were cast. Between June 1863 and April 1864, nearly 200 guns were cast there, most of them 6.4-inch and 7-inch Brooke rifles.
Major General Nathaniel Banks, at Port Hudson, Louisiana, issued an order forbidding the passage of steamers from New York past the quarantine at New Orleans, without a special order, unless they should be mail steamers or others transporting stores for the Government. This regulation was made necessary by the continued "...refusal to transport the soldiers' mails, except upon inadmissible conditions." The provost-marshal was charged with the execution of the order.--an expedition into Tappahannock, Virginia, was made by a party of Union soldiers, who succeeded in destroying a large quantity of stores belonging to the rebels, besides carrying off a number of Negroes.
At Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a meeting was held to protest against the arrest of C. L. Vallandigham. Judge Ellis Lewis was appointed chairman, and speeches were made by Messrs. Bigler, Biddle, and Charles J. Ingersoll. The latter counseled obedience to the laws and the constitutional authorities, but resistance to any attempt to control the elections.
Governor David Tod, of Ohio, appeared before the Court of Common Pleas of Fairfield County, in obedience to his recognizance, to answer the charges filed against him by Dr. Edson B. Olds, when the case was continued to the next term of the court.
A good deal of publicity has been given to a rumor that General Robert E. Lee is preparing for a forward movement, from which the newspapers in the United States infer that it is only a ruse to cover a demonstration in some other quarter, since they affect to believe that we would be more reticent if an advance were really in contemplation. The month of June, upon which we have this day entered, will unravel the mystery. In the mean time, the Confederate army and people can well afford to possess their souls in patience, and to leave their cause in the hands of that kind Providence which has guided us thus far through this bloody wilderness.
An expedition, under the command of Colonel James Montgomery, ascended the Combahee River, South Carolina, and succeeded in destroying a large quantity of Rebel stores and other property.
The bombardment of Vicksburg continued. All the guns in position opened fire at midnight, and continued their fire until daylight this morning. After a short cessation the firing was renewed, and kept up all day.
A large meeting, to procure funds to send supplies to the wounded at Vicksburg, was held at Chicago, Illinois, at which nearly six thousand dollars were raised.
The schooner Echo was captured yesterday, in the Gulf of Mexico, by the United States steamer Sunflower.
A fight took place at Clinton, Louisiana, between the Union forces under the command of Colonel Grierson, and the Rebel forces stationed in that town, resulting in the loss of twenty-one killed and wounded of the Southerners, and an even larger number of the Federals.
Posted on 6/2/13 at 2:09 pm to dallasga6
June 2, 1863
Charles Vallandigham, formerly a member of the House of Representatives and a Democrat from Ohio, had been arrested for treason when his anti-war sentiments had become too annoying for Union authorities in the Midwest to surreptitiously handle. He had been sent to prison and would have a much lengthier sentence, but President Abraham Lincoln intervened-much like a medieval King-to send him into exile to the South. There was just one problem; this morning President Jefferson Davis ordered him sent to Wilmington, North Carolina, and confined as an "enemy alien" there.
The CSS Alabama, commanded by Captain Raphael Semmes, captured and burned the bark Amazonian, after a chase of over 8 hours in the South Atlantic near latitude 11degrees 15mins, longitude 34degrees 30mins. She was bound from New York to Montevideo with a massive mercantile cargo including commercial mail.
The USS Anacostia, under Acting Master Provost, and the USS Primrose, Acting Master Street in charge, took the sloop Flying Cloud at Tapp's Creek, Virginia.
The circulation of two more newspapers, the Chicago Times and New York World, was prohibited in the Department of the Ohio, by a general order from Major General Ambrose E. Burnside, their "...repeated expressions of disloyal and incendiary sentiments being calculated to exert a pernicious and treasonable influence."
The chief of police of Nashville, Tennessee, arrested C. F. Jones of the Nashville Dispatch, and turned him over to Union authorities for writing and mailing alleged "treasonable" correspondence to the Freeman's Journal of New York.
In response to the Lincoln Administration's continued suppression of the First Amendment, at a meeting of the New York Republican Central Committee, resolutions in favor of protecting free speech were overwhelming passed.
Francis Harrison Pierpont, Union "Governor" of Virginia, issued a proclamation, calling upon the commandants of the State militia to hold their regiments in readiness for the field at an hour's warning, as "the enemies of their liberty and prosperity were again threatening their homes."
West Point, Virginia, was hastily evacuated by the Union troops upon hearing of the supposed movement of Confederate cavalry near there.
Charles Vallandigham, formerly a member of the House of Representatives and a Democrat from Ohio, had been arrested for treason when his anti-war sentiments had become too annoying for Union authorities in the Midwest to surreptitiously handle. He had been sent to prison and would have a much lengthier sentence, but President Abraham Lincoln intervened-much like a medieval King-to send him into exile to the South. There was just one problem; this morning President Jefferson Davis ordered him sent to Wilmington, North Carolina, and confined as an "enemy alien" there.
The CSS Alabama, commanded by Captain Raphael Semmes, captured and burned the bark Amazonian, after a chase of over 8 hours in the South Atlantic near latitude 11degrees 15mins, longitude 34degrees 30mins. She was bound from New York to Montevideo with a massive mercantile cargo including commercial mail.
The USS Anacostia, under Acting Master Provost, and the USS Primrose, Acting Master Street in charge, took the sloop Flying Cloud at Tapp's Creek, Virginia.
The circulation of two more newspapers, the Chicago Times and New York World, was prohibited in the Department of the Ohio, by a general order from Major General Ambrose E. Burnside, their "...repeated expressions of disloyal and incendiary sentiments being calculated to exert a pernicious and treasonable influence."
The chief of police of Nashville, Tennessee, arrested C. F. Jones of the Nashville Dispatch, and turned him over to Union authorities for writing and mailing alleged "treasonable" correspondence to the Freeman's Journal of New York.
In response to the Lincoln Administration's continued suppression of the First Amendment, at a meeting of the New York Republican Central Committee, resolutions in favor of protecting free speech were overwhelming passed.
Francis Harrison Pierpont, Union "Governor" of Virginia, issued a proclamation, calling upon the commandants of the State militia to hold their regiments in readiness for the field at an hour's warning, as "the enemies of their liberty and prosperity were again threatening their homes."
West Point, Virginia, was hastily evacuated by the Union troops upon hearing of the supposed movement of Confederate cavalry near there.
Posted on 6/3/13 at 2:07 pm to dallasga6
June 3, 1863
The Army of Northern Virginia began pulling out from the vicinity of Fredericksburg today, with the corps of General James Longstreet leading the way into the Shenandoah Valley behind a long ridge known somewhat confusingly as South Mountain. The first Confederate invasion of the North had gone no further than abiut a dozen miles south of Hagerstown, Maryland, resulting in the Battle of Sharpsburg at Antietam Creek. General Robert E, Lee's motives for this summer's drive North have been endlessly debated, but high on the list were taking the war out of beleaguered Virginia, feeding his Army and perhaps alarming the Union into suing for peace.
Rear Admiral David D. Porter, writing from his flagship,the USS Black Hawk, informed General Hiram U. Grant that he had sent six 8-inch guns up the Yazoo River, "to be placed where required," and two 9-inch guns to Warrenton as well. The Admiral also wrote to Lieutenant Commander Greer piloting the USS Benton, urging a continual fire from the gunboats into the Vicksburg positions. "The town," he noted, "will soon fall now, and we can affort to expend a little more ammunition."
The USS Stars and Stripes, under Acting Master Charles L. Willcomb, captured the sloop Florida at St. Marks Bay, Florida, with a cargo of cotton and tar.
The Ram USS Switzerland, Lieutenant Colonel J. Ellet commanding, reconnoitered the Atchafalaya River as far as Simmesport, Louisiana, upon hearing reports that Confederate General Kirby Smith might be advancing to engage the Union position above Port Hudson. Half a mile above Simmesport, heavy rifle fire was opened on the ram. "Strongly posted behind the levee and heavy earthworks, within 100 yards of the channel of the river," Ellet reported, "they poured a perfect storm of Minie balls upon us as we passed in front of the town." The fire of the artillery was also very severe. After a vigorous exchange in which Switzerland sustained seven hits, the ram withdrew. Next day, the USS Lafayette and Pittsburg "...proceeded to Simmesport and shelled the rebels away from their breastworks, fired their camp and the houses which had been occupied as their quarters." The gunboats then returned to their positions at the mouth of the Red River.
Colonel Kilpatrick returned from an expedition through the country situated between the Rappahannock and York Rivers, in Virginia, having been entirely successful.
A meeting was held at Sheffield, England, under the presidency of Mr. Alderman Saunders, at which the following resolution was adopted: That this meeting has heard with profound regret of the death of Lieutenant General Thomas Jefferson Jackson, of the Confederate States of North America; a man of pure and upright mind, devoted as a citizen to his duty, cool and brave as a soldier, able and energetic as a leader, of whom his opponents say he was 'sincere and true and valiant.' This meeting resolves to transmit to his widow its deep and sincere condolence with her in her grief at the sad bereavement, and with the great and irreparable loss the army of the Confederate States of America have sustained by the death of their gallant comrade and general. It was decided to request Mr. Mason to transmit the resolution to Mrs. Jackson and the troops lately commanded by the deceased General.
Ashepoo, South Carolina, was destroyed by the Federal forces, under the command of Colonel Montgomery, of the Second South Carolina colored volunteers.
Rear Admiral Samuel F. Du Pont ordered Lieutenant Commander George B. Bacon to proceed with the Commodore McDonough on an expedition against Bluffton, on the May River, South Carolina, a stream emptying into the Calibogue. The army forces were landed near Bluffton, by the gunboat Mayflower and an army transport, under the protection of the Commodore McDonough, and took possession of the town, the Confederates having retreated. By the order of Colonel Barton, the town was destroyed by fire, the church only being spared; and though the Rebel troops made several charges, they were driven back by the troops, and the shells and shrapnel of the Commodore McDonough. Bluffton being destroyed, the soldiers reembarked without casualties, and returned to Hilton Head.
The Army of Northern Virginia began pulling out from the vicinity of Fredericksburg today, with the corps of General James Longstreet leading the way into the Shenandoah Valley behind a long ridge known somewhat confusingly as South Mountain. The first Confederate invasion of the North had gone no further than abiut a dozen miles south of Hagerstown, Maryland, resulting in the Battle of Sharpsburg at Antietam Creek. General Robert E, Lee's motives for this summer's drive North have been endlessly debated, but high on the list were taking the war out of beleaguered Virginia, feeding his Army and perhaps alarming the Union into suing for peace.
Rear Admiral David D. Porter, writing from his flagship,the USS Black Hawk, informed General Hiram U. Grant that he had sent six 8-inch guns up the Yazoo River, "to be placed where required," and two 9-inch guns to Warrenton as well. The Admiral also wrote to Lieutenant Commander Greer piloting the USS Benton, urging a continual fire from the gunboats into the Vicksburg positions. "The town," he noted, "will soon fall now, and we can affort to expend a little more ammunition."
The USS Stars and Stripes, under Acting Master Charles L. Willcomb, captured the sloop Florida at St. Marks Bay, Florida, with a cargo of cotton and tar.
The Ram USS Switzerland, Lieutenant Colonel J. Ellet commanding, reconnoitered the Atchafalaya River as far as Simmesport, Louisiana, upon hearing reports that Confederate General Kirby Smith might be advancing to engage the Union position above Port Hudson. Half a mile above Simmesport, heavy rifle fire was opened on the ram. "Strongly posted behind the levee and heavy earthworks, within 100 yards of the channel of the river," Ellet reported, "they poured a perfect storm of Minie balls upon us as we passed in front of the town." The fire of the artillery was also very severe. After a vigorous exchange in which Switzerland sustained seven hits, the ram withdrew. Next day, the USS Lafayette and Pittsburg "...proceeded to Simmesport and shelled the rebels away from their breastworks, fired their camp and the houses which had been occupied as their quarters." The gunboats then returned to their positions at the mouth of the Red River.
Colonel Kilpatrick returned from an expedition through the country situated between the Rappahannock and York Rivers, in Virginia, having been entirely successful.
A meeting was held at Sheffield, England, under the presidency of Mr. Alderman Saunders, at which the following resolution was adopted: That this meeting has heard with profound regret of the death of Lieutenant General Thomas Jefferson Jackson, of the Confederate States of North America; a man of pure and upright mind, devoted as a citizen to his duty, cool and brave as a soldier, able and energetic as a leader, of whom his opponents say he was 'sincere and true and valiant.' This meeting resolves to transmit to his widow its deep and sincere condolence with her in her grief at the sad bereavement, and with the great and irreparable loss the army of the Confederate States of America have sustained by the death of their gallant comrade and general. It was decided to request Mr. Mason to transmit the resolution to Mrs. Jackson and the troops lately commanded by the deceased General.
Ashepoo, South Carolina, was destroyed by the Federal forces, under the command of Colonel Montgomery, of the Second South Carolina colored volunteers.
Rear Admiral Samuel F. Du Pont ordered Lieutenant Commander George B. Bacon to proceed with the Commodore McDonough on an expedition against Bluffton, on the May River, South Carolina, a stream emptying into the Calibogue. The army forces were landed near Bluffton, by the gunboat Mayflower and an army transport, under the protection of the Commodore McDonough, and took possession of the town, the Confederates having retreated. By the order of Colonel Barton, the town was destroyed by fire, the church only being spared; and though the Rebel troops made several charges, they were driven back by the troops, and the shells and shrapnel of the Commodore McDonough. Bluffton being destroyed, the soldiers reembarked without casualties, and returned to Hilton Head.
Posted on 6/4/13 at 4:18 pm to dallasga6
June 4, 1863
General Joseph "Fighting Joe" Hooker, commander of the Army of the Potomac, was becoming more puzzled by the day. He was still patching his army back together after the wholesale slaughter at Chancellorsville and opposing a portion of the Army of Northern Virginia across the Rappahannock. The Confederates were not all still facing him, however, as General James Longstreet's corps had pulled out yesterday, and General Richard Ewell's followed this morning. Only General A.P. Hill's corps remained on the riverbank. Hooker's problem was he had little idea of where the other two corps had gone, and even less idea of why. Was this just a movement of camps or the start of another major campaign?
The USS Commodore McDonough, Lieutenant Commander Bacon in charge, with the steamer Island City, transport Cossack, and Army gunboat Mayflower in company, transported and supported an Army action at Bluffton, South Carolina. The troops disembarked without incident under 'the protection of the gunboat, and proceeded to Bluffton where they met strong Confederate resistance. With naval gunfire support, the town was destroyed and the troops were enabled to reembark with the mission successfully completed.
Colonel Angamar's rocket propelled ship is supposedly ready for the open sea.
An expedition left Yorktown, Virginia, proceeding to West Point, and thence to Walkertown, by way of the Mattaponi River. The joint Union Army-Navy mission including the USS Commodore Morris, under Lieutenant Commander Gillis; the USS Commodore Jones, Lieutenant Commander John G. Mitchell piloting; the Army gunboat Smith Briggs, and transport Winnissimet with 400 troops embarked, ascended the Mattaponi for the purpose of destroying a foundry above Walkerton, Virginia, where Confederate ordnance was being manufactured. The troops were landed at Walkerton and marched to the Ayletts area, about ten miles from the point of landing, where the machinery, a flour mill, and a large quantity of grain were destroyed. Reembarking the troops and captured livestock, the force fell down river as the gunboats "...dropped shells into many...houses and completely scoured the banks, and sweeping all the points on the river." Rear Admiral S. P. Lee reported that: "The vigilant dispositions of Lieutenant Commander Gillis kept the river below clear, and the Rebels, attempting demonstrations at several points on the banks, were dispersed by the gunboats." Brigadier General Henry A. Wise, CSA, called the joint expedition a ''...daring and destructive raid.'' Constant destruction along the coasts and up the rivers seriously hampered the already industrially deficient South.
Joseph A. Gilmore was inaugurated Governor of New Hampshire. In his message he stated that over eighteen thousand troops had been furnished for the war, and continued: "In such a contest as that in which we are now involved, I am unable to discriminate between the support of the Government and the support of the National Administration. It is no time now to speculate upon the causes of the rebellion. The only facts which we need are that it exists, and that it is our duty to put it down. It was a remark made to me, by a former Governor of this State, the late venerable Isaac Hill, in which I fully concur, that 'a man who will not stand by his Government is a coward and a traitor.' "
Prince Gortchakoff, in a dispatch to Mr. Clay, the American Minister at St. Petersburg, after expressing the satisfaction of the Emperor at the reply of Secretary Seward to the proposal of France to join the diplomatic intervention in favor of Poland, remarks: "Such facts draw closer the bonds of sympathy between Russia and America. The Emperor knows how to appreciate the firmness with which Mr. Seward maintains the principle of non-intervention."
Major General Stahl sent the following dispatch to the War Department, from his head quarters at Fairfax Court House, Virginia : "All is quiet along our lines and in front, on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad. This morning, when the relief passed, our pickets were attacked on Sawyer's road by guerrillas. Colonel Gray at once started, with about one hundred and twenty men, in pursuit of them, but could find nothing of them in the woods. He then went on to scout the whole country, and when he passed Frying-Pan, his rear guard was attacked by about one hundred rebels, who were hidden in a thick wood. Colonel Gray turned his column, and charged the rebels, who fled in great haste through the woods. He followed them up to Aldie, and from there returned, via Drainesville. Our entire loss is three, and some horses wounded. We captured their surgeon, Dr. Alexander."
A large and enthusiastic Union meeting was held at Chicago, Illinois, this evening, at which speeches were made by Senators Lyman Trumbull and James Doolittle and others.
Colonel A. Baird, in command of the garrison at Franklin, Tennessee, was attacked by a force of Rebels under General Nathan Bedford Forrest, and driven into his entrenchments, but being reinforced by a brigade of infantry sent by General Granger, he finally succeeded in repulsing the enemy with a heavy loss. At the same time an attack was made on Triune, but the rebels were driven off with a loss of two hundred men, four hundred horses, and a large quantity of camp and garrison equipage.
General Ambrose E. Burnside's order suppressing the circulation of the Chicago Times was revoked this afternoon.
A fight took place at Sartartia, Mississippi, between a brigade of over four thousand Federal troops, under General Nathan Kimball, and almost two thousand Confederates commanded by General Wirt Adams, resulting in the defeat of the latter after a contest of half an hour. The Union loss was one killed and seventeen wounded, while the Rebels lost over one hundred taken prisoner.
Simmesport, on the Atchafalaya River, in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana was destroyed by the Union ram Switzerland, under the command of Lieutrnant Colonel John A. Ellet.
Confederate General Joseph Wheeler, with a body of cavalry, made an attack upon the Federal troops on the Shelbyville road, near Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and skirmishing was kept up the whole day.
General Joseph "Fighting Joe" Hooker, commander of the Army of the Potomac, was becoming more puzzled by the day. He was still patching his army back together after the wholesale slaughter at Chancellorsville and opposing a portion of the Army of Northern Virginia across the Rappahannock. The Confederates were not all still facing him, however, as General James Longstreet's corps had pulled out yesterday, and General Richard Ewell's followed this morning. Only General A.P. Hill's corps remained on the riverbank. Hooker's problem was he had little idea of where the other two corps had gone, and even less idea of why. Was this just a movement of camps or the start of another major campaign?
The USS Commodore McDonough, Lieutenant Commander Bacon in charge, with the steamer Island City, transport Cossack, and Army gunboat Mayflower in company, transported and supported an Army action at Bluffton, South Carolina. The troops disembarked without incident under 'the protection of the gunboat, and proceeded to Bluffton where they met strong Confederate resistance. With naval gunfire support, the town was destroyed and the troops were enabled to reembark with the mission successfully completed.
Colonel Angamar's rocket propelled ship is supposedly ready for the open sea.
An expedition left Yorktown, Virginia, proceeding to West Point, and thence to Walkertown, by way of the Mattaponi River. The joint Union Army-Navy mission including the USS Commodore Morris, under Lieutenant Commander Gillis; the USS Commodore Jones, Lieutenant Commander John G. Mitchell piloting; the Army gunboat Smith Briggs, and transport Winnissimet with 400 troops embarked, ascended the Mattaponi for the purpose of destroying a foundry above Walkerton, Virginia, where Confederate ordnance was being manufactured. The troops were landed at Walkerton and marched to the Ayletts area, about ten miles from the point of landing, where the machinery, a flour mill, and a large quantity of grain were destroyed. Reembarking the troops and captured livestock, the force fell down river as the gunboats "...dropped shells into many...houses and completely scoured the banks, and sweeping all the points on the river." Rear Admiral S. P. Lee reported that: "The vigilant dispositions of Lieutenant Commander Gillis kept the river below clear, and the Rebels, attempting demonstrations at several points on the banks, were dispersed by the gunboats." Brigadier General Henry A. Wise, CSA, called the joint expedition a ''...daring and destructive raid.'' Constant destruction along the coasts and up the rivers seriously hampered the already industrially deficient South.
Joseph A. Gilmore was inaugurated Governor of New Hampshire. In his message he stated that over eighteen thousand troops had been furnished for the war, and continued: "In such a contest as that in which we are now involved, I am unable to discriminate between the support of the Government and the support of the National Administration. It is no time now to speculate upon the causes of the rebellion. The only facts which we need are that it exists, and that it is our duty to put it down. It was a remark made to me, by a former Governor of this State, the late venerable Isaac Hill, in which I fully concur, that 'a man who will not stand by his Government is a coward and a traitor.' "
Prince Gortchakoff, in a dispatch to Mr. Clay, the American Minister at St. Petersburg, after expressing the satisfaction of the Emperor at the reply of Secretary Seward to the proposal of France to join the diplomatic intervention in favor of Poland, remarks: "Such facts draw closer the bonds of sympathy between Russia and America. The Emperor knows how to appreciate the firmness with which Mr. Seward maintains the principle of non-intervention."
Major General Stahl sent the following dispatch to the War Department, from his head quarters at Fairfax Court House, Virginia : "All is quiet along our lines and in front, on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad. This morning, when the relief passed, our pickets were attacked on Sawyer's road by guerrillas. Colonel Gray at once started, with about one hundred and twenty men, in pursuit of them, but could find nothing of them in the woods. He then went on to scout the whole country, and when he passed Frying-Pan, his rear guard was attacked by about one hundred rebels, who were hidden in a thick wood. Colonel Gray turned his column, and charged the rebels, who fled in great haste through the woods. He followed them up to Aldie, and from there returned, via Drainesville. Our entire loss is three, and some horses wounded. We captured their surgeon, Dr. Alexander."
A large and enthusiastic Union meeting was held at Chicago, Illinois, this evening, at which speeches were made by Senators Lyman Trumbull and James Doolittle and others.
Colonel A. Baird, in command of the garrison at Franklin, Tennessee, was attacked by a force of Rebels under General Nathan Bedford Forrest, and driven into his entrenchments, but being reinforced by a brigade of infantry sent by General Granger, he finally succeeded in repulsing the enemy with a heavy loss. At the same time an attack was made on Triune, but the rebels were driven off with a loss of two hundred men, four hundred horses, and a large quantity of camp and garrison equipage.
General Ambrose E. Burnside's order suppressing the circulation of the Chicago Times was revoked this afternoon.
A fight took place at Sartartia, Mississippi, between a brigade of over four thousand Federal troops, under General Nathan Kimball, and almost two thousand Confederates commanded by General Wirt Adams, resulting in the defeat of the latter after a contest of half an hour. The Union loss was one killed and seventeen wounded, while the Rebels lost over one hundred taken prisoner.
Simmesport, on the Atchafalaya River, in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana was destroyed by the Union ram Switzerland, under the command of Lieutrnant Colonel John A. Ellet.
Confederate General Joseph Wheeler, with a body of cavalry, made an attack upon the Federal troops on the Shelbyville road, near Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and skirmishing was kept up the whole day.
Posted on 6/5/13 at 3:59 pm to dallasga6
June 5, 1863
First, General James Longstreet's corps had moved out of the Fredericksburg area. The next day, General Richard Ewell's followed suit. This morning, it was the last Confederate corps, that of General A. P. Hill, who packed up and pulled out. Union General Joseph Hooker tried to dispatch scouts across the Rappahannock River at Deep Run, to find out to where everybody had departed, but they were quickly turned back by Southern pickets left by Hill. Hooker's commander-in-chief suggested, none too gently, that he get a move on and find out where they were headed, and, if he felt like it, actually attack them. Hooker once again stalled until it was too late; then they were gone. As usual, Lincoln was not amused.
The CSS Alabama, commanded by Captain Raphael Semmes, captured and destroyed the ship Talisman in the mid-Atlantic at latitude 14 degrees S., longitude 34 degrees W., en route to Shanghai. Semmes wrote in his log: "Received on board from this ship during the day some beef and pork and bread, etc., and a couple of brass 12-pounders, mounted on ship carriages. There were four of these pieces on board, and a quantity of powder and shot, two steam boilers, etc., for fitting up a steam gunboat. . . . at nightfall set fire to the ship, a beautiful craft of 1,100 tons."
The USS Wissahickon, under Lieutenant Commander John L. Davis, attacked and sank the steamer Isaac Smith, which was captured by the Rebels on the first of February last, attempting to run the blockade out of Charleston harbor.
Negro "contrabands" in the vicinity of Suffolk, Virginia, having signified their intention of serving the United States as armed soldiers, orders were issued by Major General John J. Peck to Captain John Wilder, "...to recruit a company of colored troops, subject to no molestation in removing those so recruited to the place of rendezvous, at Craney Island."
A squadron of the Sixth New York Cavalry, commanded by Major William P. Hall, on an expedition from Yorktown, Virginia, to Warwick River, reportedly succeeded in destroying twenty-three boats and one schooner belonging to the Rebels.
Brigadier General Alexander P. Stewart, of the Confederate army, having been promoted to the rank of Major General, took leave of his brigade, and assumed command in the corps of General William J. Hardee, at Wartrace, Tennessee.
First, General James Longstreet's corps had moved out of the Fredericksburg area. The next day, General Richard Ewell's followed suit. This morning, it was the last Confederate corps, that of General A. P. Hill, who packed up and pulled out. Union General Joseph Hooker tried to dispatch scouts across the Rappahannock River at Deep Run, to find out to where everybody had departed, but they were quickly turned back by Southern pickets left by Hill. Hooker's commander-in-chief suggested, none too gently, that he get a move on and find out where they were headed, and, if he felt like it, actually attack them. Hooker once again stalled until it was too late; then they were gone. As usual, Lincoln was not amused.
The CSS Alabama, commanded by Captain Raphael Semmes, captured and destroyed the ship Talisman in the mid-Atlantic at latitude 14 degrees S., longitude 34 degrees W., en route to Shanghai. Semmes wrote in his log: "Received on board from this ship during the day some beef and pork and bread, etc., and a couple of brass 12-pounders, mounted on ship carriages. There were four of these pieces on board, and a quantity of powder and shot, two steam boilers, etc., for fitting up a steam gunboat. . . . at nightfall set fire to the ship, a beautiful craft of 1,100 tons."
The USS Wissahickon, under Lieutenant Commander John L. Davis, attacked and sank the steamer Isaac Smith, which was captured by the Rebels on the first of February last, attempting to run the blockade out of Charleston harbor.
Negro "contrabands" in the vicinity of Suffolk, Virginia, having signified their intention of serving the United States as armed soldiers, orders were issued by Major General John J. Peck to Captain John Wilder, "...to recruit a company of colored troops, subject to no molestation in removing those so recruited to the place of rendezvous, at Craney Island."
A squadron of the Sixth New York Cavalry, commanded by Major William P. Hall, on an expedition from Yorktown, Virginia, to Warwick River, reportedly succeeded in destroying twenty-three boats and one schooner belonging to the Rebels.
Brigadier General Alexander P. Stewart, of the Confederate army, having been promoted to the rank of Major General, took leave of his brigade, and assumed command in the corps of General William J. Hardee, at Wartrace, Tennessee.
Posted on 6/6/13 at 4:23 pm to dallasga6
Today is also D-Day.....
June 6, 1863
One of the great cavalry reviews of all time took place today at Brandy Station, near Culpeper and the Rappahannock River in northern Virginia. The 8000 assembled cavalrymen of General James Ewell Brown Stuart put on a full display. It was designed to show their talents to General Robert E. Lee, preparatory to his advance into Maryland and Pennsylvania, but he was delayed so the show was staged for local citizens, dignitaries, and ladies, who had come in on a special railroad train to see the show.
Rear Admiral Samuel Phillips Lee reported to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles regarding the urgent need of additional vessels on the blockade: "The two entrances to Cape Fear River make the blockade of Wilmington very difficult. The vessels on one side cannot support those on the other, and each side, particularly the New Inlet side, requires a large blockading force. Two vessels like the New Ironsides are required to protect this blockade against the enemy's ironclads. . . . swift and suitably armed schooners are needed to capture the blockade runners. The fact that these last now go together adds to the difficulty of capturing them, and requires additional strength for this purpose. The blockade requires more and better vessels and must eventually fail without them.'' The North's industrial strength and free access to the world's markets, assured by control of the seas, made the necessary naval buildup possible. The exact opposite was true of the Confederacy. Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory, writing Commander James Dunwoody Bulloch in Liverpool on 8 June, lamented: "We need ironclads, ironclads, ironclads."
The CSS Clarence (a former prize of the CSS Florida), commanded by Lieutenant Charles W. Read, launched a brief but highly successful cruise against Union commerce by capturing and burning bark Whistling Wind with a cargo of coal in the Atlantic east of Cape Romain, South Carolina. Read reported: "She was insured by the U.S. Government for the sum of $14,000."
The CSS Florida, Lieutenant John N. Maffitt in charge, captured and burned the ship Southern Cross, in latitude 1 degree, 34 minutes south, longitude 86 degrees west, bound from Mexico to New York with a cargo of fine wood.
The USS Tahoma, under Lieutenant Commander A. A. Semmes, seized the schooner Statesman, aground at Gadsen's Point, Florida, loaded with a cargo of cotton.
The steamer Lady Walton surrendered to the USS Tyler, piloted by Lieutenant Commander Prichett, at the mouth of White River, Arkansas.
Near Nicholasville, Kentucky, a locomotive exploded, killing six and wounding three soldiers belonging to the Thirty-fifth Massachusetts, Seventh Rhode Island, Fifty-first New York, and Ninth New Hampshire regiments.
Shawneetown, in Johnson County, Kansas, was sacked and burned by a force of Rebel guerrillas, under Cy Gordon and Dick Yeager. They arrested a number of Union men, and killed four, who resisted. When they had obtained all the plunder possible, they fired the village in several places, and left by the light of the flames.
Partisan guerrillas destroyed portions of the railroad track, near Germantown, Tennessee.
General Sibley's command left St. Paul, Minn., for an expedition against the Sioux. There were two columns employed in this expedition. One started from Sioux City, Iowa, and consisted of three thousand cavalry, one battery of artillery, and a proportionate amount of infantry, under command of Brigadier General Sully. The other column was under command of Brigadier General H. H. Sibley, and numbered three full infantry regiments, one battery mountain howitzers, and one thousand two hundred mounted rangers. The two divisions will meet at a given rendezvous in Dacotah. The object in sending a part of the force up the Missouri is to cut off the retreat in that direction of the Indians.
Major General John C. Fremont addressed a letter to the Secretary of War, on the subject of the ranking officers in the army of the United States.
A skirmish took place near Berryville, Virginia.
The battle of Milliken's Bend commenced this morning.
General Foster, in command of the Union forces at Newbern, North Carolina, received instructions from the authorities at Washington, to place in close confinement all Rebel officers captured by him.
The Confederate steamer Lady Walton, was surrendered by her crew. She was engaged in the carrying trade for the Confederacy up Arkansas River, and left Little Rock under orders to proceed through the cut-off into White River, thence up that river for a load of corn. On reaching White River, her Captain, Moses Pennington, a native of Illinois, and W. H. Caldwell, another of the crew, put in execution, with the concurrence of the rest of those on board, being three white men and six negroes, a scheme they had long meditated, and, instead of going up White River, turned her head downstream, and coming into the Mississippi, under a flag of truce, delivered her over to the officers of the first gunboat they met, which was near Island No.82.
June 6, 1863
One of the great cavalry reviews of all time took place today at Brandy Station, near Culpeper and the Rappahannock River in northern Virginia. The 8000 assembled cavalrymen of General James Ewell Brown Stuart put on a full display. It was designed to show their talents to General Robert E. Lee, preparatory to his advance into Maryland and Pennsylvania, but he was delayed so the show was staged for local citizens, dignitaries, and ladies, who had come in on a special railroad train to see the show.
Rear Admiral Samuel Phillips Lee reported to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles regarding the urgent need of additional vessels on the blockade: "The two entrances to Cape Fear River make the blockade of Wilmington very difficult. The vessels on one side cannot support those on the other, and each side, particularly the New Inlet side, requires a large blockading force. Two vessels like the New Ironsides are required to protect this blockade against the enemy's ironclads. . . . swift and suitably armed schooners are needed to capture the blockade runners. The fact that these last now go together adds to the difficulty of capturing them, and requires additional strength for this purpose. The blockade requires more and better vessels and must eventually fail without them.'' The North's industrial strength and free access to the world's markets, assured by control of the seas, made the necessary naval buildup possible. The exact opposite was true of the Confederacy. Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory, writing Commander James Dunwoody Bulloch in Liverpool on 8 June, lamented: "We need ironclads, ironclads, ironclads."
The CSS Clarence (a former prize of the CSS Florida), commanded by Lieutenant Charles W. Read, launched a brief but highly successful cruise against Union commerce by capturing and burning bark Whistling Wind with a cargo of coal in the Atlantic east of Cape Romain, South Carolina. Read reported: "She was insured by the U.S. Government for the sum of $14,000."
The CSS Florida, Lieutenant John N. Maffitt in charge, captured and burned the ship Southern Cross, in latitude 1 degree, 34 minutes south, longitude 86 degrees west, bound from Mexico to New York with a cargo of fine wood.
The USS Tahoma, under Lieutenant Commander A. A. Semmes, seized the schooner Statesman, aground at Gadsen's Point, Florida, loaded with a cargo of cotton.
The steamer Lady Walton surrendered to the USS Tyler, piloted by Lieutenant Commander Prichett, at the mouth of White River, Arkansas.
Near Nicholasville, Kentucky, a locomotive exploded, killing six and wounding three soldiers belonging to the Thirty-fifth Massachusetts, Seventh Rhode Island, Fifty-first New York, and Ninth New Hampshire regiments.
Shawneetown, in Johnson County, Kansas, was sacked and burned by a force of Rebel guerrillas, under Cy Gordon and Dick Yeager. They arrested a number of Union men, and killed four, who resisted. When they had obtained all the plunder possible, they fired the village in several places, and left by the light of the flames.
Partisan guerrillas destroyed portions of the railroad track, near Germantown, Tennessee.
General Sibley's command left St. Paul, Minn., for an expedition against the Sioux. There were two columns employed in this expedition. One started from Sioux City, Iowa, and consisted of three thousand cavalry, one battery of artillery, and a proportionate amount of infantry, under command of Brigadier General Sully. The other column was under command of Brigadier General H. H. Sibley, and numbered three full infantry regiments, one battery mountain howitzers, and one thousand two hundred mounted rangers. The two divisions will meet at a given rendezvous in Dacotah. The object in sending a part of the force up the Missouri is to cut off the retreat in that direction of the Indians.
Major General John C. Fremont addressed a letter to the Secretary of War, on the subject of the ranking officers in the army of the United States.
A skirmish took place near Berryville, Virginia.
The battle of Milliken's Bend commenced this morning.
General Foster, in command of the Union forces at Newbern, North Carolina, received instructions from the authorities at Washington, to place in close confinement all Rebel officers captured by him.
The Confederate steamer Lady Walton, was surrendered by her crew. She was engaged in the carrying trade for the Confederacy up Arkansas River, and left Little Rock under orders to proceed through the cut-off into White River, thence up that river for a load of corn. On reaching White River, her Captain, Moses Pennington, a native of Illinois, and W. H. Caldwell, another of the crew, put in execution, with the concurrence of the rest of those on board, being three white men and six negroes, a scheme they had long meditated, and, instead of going up White River, turned her head downstream, and coming into the Mississippi, under a flag of truce, delivered her over to the officers of the first gunboat they met, which was near Island No.82.
This post was edited on 6/6/13 at 4:26 pm
Posted on 6/7/13 at 4:54 pm to dallasga6
June 7, 1863
Not too far from Vicksburg, Mississippi, stood a Federal garrison at a place called Milliken's Bend, Louisiana. This early morning, they were fiercely attacked by Confederates and driven out of their camp. They fell back precipitously until they reached the banks of the Mississippi River, where they would have been completely destroyed had not the gunboats USS Lexington and Choctaw happened to be present. The ships fired over their comrade's heads into the advancing Confederates and finally forced them to disengage. Federal casualties outnumbered Southern ones by almost six to one.
On the second day of fighting at Milliken's Bend around 3:00 a.m., the Confederates appeared in force and drove in the pickets. They continued their movement towards the Union left flank. The Federal forces fired some volleys that caused the Rebel line to pause momentarily, but the Texans soon pushed on to the levee where they received orders to charge. In spite of receiving more volleys, the Rebels came on, and hand-to-hand combat ensued. In this intense fighting, the Confederates succeeded in flanking the Union force and caused tremendous casualties with enfilade fire. The Union force retreated, almost collapsed and fell back to the river's bank. About that time, the Union gunboats Choctaw, under Lieutenant Commander Ramsay, and Lexington, Lieutenant Commander Bache in charge, appeared and opened heavy artillery on the Rebels. The Confederates continued firing at the Yankees and began extending to their right to envelop the Federals but, because of the ongoing shelling, failed in their objective. "There," Rear Admiral David D. Porter noted, "the gunboats opened on the Rebels with shell, grape, and canister...and compelled the Confederates to fall back. Confederate Major General John G. Walker wrote: "...it must be remembered that the enemy behind a Mississippi levee, protected on the flanks by gunboats, is as securely posted as it is possible to be outside a regular fortification.'' Fighting continued until noon when the Confederates withdrew. The Union pursued, firing many volleys, and the gunboats pounded the Confederates as they retreated to Walnut Bayou. After a most desperate fight, the Rebels retired, leaving almost 185 dead and injured on the field. The Union loss was 652 killed and wounded.
The CSS Clarence, commanded by Lieutenant Charles W. Read, seized the schooner Alfred H. Partridge, belonging to Gloucester, Massachusetts, bound from New York to Matamoras with a full cargo of arms and clothing. "I took the captain's bond for the sum of $5,000 for the delivery of the cargo to loyal citizens of the Confederate states..." Read wrote.
The expedition under General Francis Preston Blair, sent out from Haines's Bluff to the Big Black River, on the twenty-seventh of May last, returned this evening. The captures made during the expedition amount to five hundred head of cattle, five hundred horses and mules, one hundred bales of cotton, and ten thousand pounds of bacon, together with a number of small articles, taken by the soldiers and never accounted for. All bridges were either burned or demolished and the forage destroyed.
Southern partisan guerrillas burned the railroad bridge over the Little Harpeth River, at Brentwood, Tennessee.
The plantation of Confederate President Jefferson Davis was visited by a party of Union troops, who "...rifled it completely, destroying every implement of husbandry, all his household and kitchen furniture, defacing the premises, and carrying off every negro on the place. The plantation of Joe Davis, brother of the President, was treated in the same way, if we except four or five domestic servants which the robbers left."
Not too far from Vicksburg, Mississippi, stood a Federal garrison at a place called Milliken's Bend, Louisiana. This early morning, they were fiercely attacked by Confederates and driven out of their camp. They fell back precipitously until they reached the banks of the Mississippi River, where they would have been completely destroyed had not the gunboats USS Lexington and Choctaw happened to be present. The ships fired over their comrade's heads into the advancing Confederates and finally forced them to disengage. Federal casualties outnumbered Southern ones by almost six to one.
On the second day of fighting at Milliken's Bend around 3:00 a.m., the Confederates appeared in force and drove in the pickets. They continued their movement towards the Union left flank. The Federal forces fired some volleys that caused the Rebel line to pause momentarily, but the Texans soon pushed on to the levee where they received orders to charge. In spite of receiving more volleys, the Rebels came on, and hand-to-hand combat ensued. In this intense fighting, the Confederates succeeded in flanking the Union force and caused tremendous casualties with enfilade fire. The Union force retreated, almost collapsed and fell back to the river's bank. About that time, the Union gunboats Choctaw, under Lieutenant Commander Ramsay, and Lexington, Lieutenant Commander Bache in charge, appeared and opened heavy artillery on the Rebels. The Confederates continued firing at the Yankees and began extending to their right to envelop the Federals but, because of the ongoing shelling, failed in their objective. "There," Rear Admiral David D. Porter noted, "the gunboats opened on the Rebels with shell, grape, and canister...and compelled the Confederates to fall back. Confederate Major General John G. Walker wrote: "...it must be remembered that the enemy behind a Mississippi levee, protected on the flanks by gunboats, is as securely posted as it is possible to be outside a regular fortification.'' Fighting continued until noon when the Confederates withdrew. The Union pursued, firing many volleys, and the gunboats pounded the Confederates as they retreated to Walnut Bayou. After a most desperate fight, the Rebels retired, leaving almost 185 dead and injured on the field. The Union loss was 652 killed and wounded.
The CSS Clarence, commanded by Lieutenant Charles W. Read, seized the schooner Alfred H. Partridge, belonging to Gloucester, Massachusetts, bound from New York to Matamoras with a full cargo of arms and clothing. "I took the captain's bond for the sum of $5,000 for the delivery of the cargo to loyal citizens of the Confederate states..." Read wrote.
The expedition under General Francis Preston Blair, sent out from Haines's Bluff to the Big Black River, on the twenty-seventh of May last, returned this evening. The captures made during the expedition amount to five hundred head of cattle, five hundred horses and mules, one hundred bales of cotton, and ten thousand pounds of bacon, together with a number of small articles, taken by the soldiers and never accounted for. All bridges were either burned or demolished and the forage destroyed.
Southern partisan guerrillas burned the railroad bridge over the Little Harpeth River, at Brentwood, Tennessee.
The plantation of Confederate President Jefferson Davis was visited by a party of Union troops, who "...rifled it completely, destroying every implement of husbandry, all his household and kitchen furniture, defacing the premises, and carrying off every negro on the place. The plantation of Joe Davis, brother of the President, was treated in the same way, if we except four or five domestic servants which the robbers left."
Posted on 6/8/13 at 2:42 pm to dallasga6
June 8, 1863
Yet another cavalry review was held today near Brandy Station, Virginia, now that General Robert E. Lee had arrived to witness it. Not just Lee, either; nearly the entire Army of Northern Virginia was encamped near Culpepper Court House, almost on the northern border of Virginia, and the Confederacy. General James Longstreet and General John Bell Hood had their divisions view the cavalry display as well, the second in three days that General J.E.B. Stuart had ordered. Although spectacular, it was very tiring to both man and beast.
A crew from a Confederate launch commanded by Master James Duke, CSN, boarded and captured the steam tug Boston at Pass a L'Outre, Mississippi River, and put to sea, then seized and burned the Union barks Lenox and Texana. Duke carried the Boston safely into Mobile on 11 June. This bold action caused Rear Admiral David Farragut considerable concern. Recalling a similar event on 12 April, he wrote the blockade commander off Mobile: "She is the second vessel that has been captured off the mouth of the Mississippi and carried through our blockading squadron into Mobile. I cannot understand how the blockade is run with such ease when you have so strong a numerical force."
The CSS Georgia, commanded by Lieutenant W.L. Maury, captured the ship George Griswold with a cargo of coal off Rio de Janeiro. Maury released the prize on bond.
Governor Richard Yates, of Illinois, adjourned the Legislature of that State, fully believing "...that the interests of the State will be best sub-served by a speedy adjournment, the past history of the present Assembly, holding out no reasonable hope of beneficent results to the citizens of the State, or the army in the field, from its further continuance."
A Convention of Editors was held at New York, to consult upon the rights and duties of the public press in the present war crisis. After an interchange of opinions, the general sentiment was expressed in a series of resolutions affirming the duty of fidelity to the Constitution, the Government, and the laws; that treason and rebellion are crimes nowhere so culpable as in a republic, where every man has a voice in the administration; that while journalists have no right to incite or aid rebellion or treason, they have the right to criticize freely and fearlessly the acts of public officers; that "any limitation of this right created by the necessities of war should be confined to localities wherein hostilities actually exist or are imminently threatened, and we deny the right of any military officer to suppress the issue or forbid the general circulation of journals printed far away from the seat of war."
Colonel Montgomery, with four companies of the Second South Carolina colored regiment, on board the Harriet A. Weed and the John Adams, ascended the Turtle River to within a short distance of Brunswick, Georgia, and after throwing a few shells into the place, discovered that it was entirely deserted. The Harriet A. Weed getting aground, and the John Adams drawing too much water, it was deemed advisable not to occupy the city, or proceed further up the river. Captains Apthorp and Adams, desiring not to return without accomplishing something, took a skiff with six men, rowed up to the bridge of the Savannah and Brunswick Railroad, fired it in four different places, and had the satisfaction of seeing it totally destroyed before they returned. On their return to the steamer, they were fired upon from a thicket by some fifteen or twenty rebels, but with the exception of Sergeant Leonard, who received a slight flesh wound in the arm, not a man was hit. After shelling the woods by the John Adams, the party returned to St. Simon's Island.
Yet another cavalry review was held today near Brandy Station, Virginia, now that General Robert E. Lee had arrived to witness it. Not just Lee, either; nearly the entire Army of Northern Virginia was encamped near Culpepper Court House, almost on the northern border of Virginia, and the Confederacy. General James Longstreet and General John Bell Hood had their divisions view the cavalry display as well, the second in three days that General J.E.B. Stuart had ordered. Although spectacular, it was very tiring to both man and beast.
A crew from a Confederate launch commanded by Master James Duke, CSN, boarded and captured the steam tug Boston at Pass a L'Outre, Mississippi River, and put to sea, then seized and burned the Union barks Lenox and Texana. Duke carried the Boston safely into Mobile on 11 June. This bold action caused Rear Admiral David Farragut considerable concern. Recalling a similar event on 12 April, he wrote the blockade commander off Mobile: "She is the second vessel that has been captured off the mouth of the Mississippi and carried through our blockading squadron into Mobile. I cannot understand how the blockade is run with such ease when you have so strong a numerical force."
The CSS Georgia, commanded by Lieutenant W.L. Maury, captured the ship George Griswold with a cargo of coal off Rio de Janeiro. Maury released the prize on bond.
Governor Richard Yates, of Illinois, adjourned the Legislature of that State, fully believing "...that the interests of the State will be best sub-served by a speedy adjournment, the past history of the present Assembly, holding out no reasonable hope of beneficent results to the citizens of the State, or the army in the field, from its further continuance."
A Convention of Editors was held at New York, to consult upon the rights and duties of the public press in the present war crisis. After an interchange of opinions, the general sentiment was expressed in a series of resolutions affirming the duty of fidelity to the Constitution, the Government, and the laws; that treason and rebellion are crimes nowhere so culpable as in a republic, where every man has a voice in the administration; that while journalists have no right to incite or aid rebellion or treason, they have the right to criticize freely and fearlessly the acts of public officers; that "any limitation of this right created by the necessities of war should be confined to localities wherein hostilities actually exist or are imminently threatened, and we deny the right of any military officer to suppress the issue or forbid the general circulation of journals printed far away from the seat of war."
Colonel Montgomery, with four companies of the Second South Carolina colored regiment, on board the Harriet A. Weed and the John Adams, ascended the Turtle River to within a short distance of Brunswick, Georgia, and after throwing a few shells into the place, discovered that it was entirely deserted. The Harriet A. Weed getting aground, and the John Adams drawing too much water, it was deemed advisable not to occupy the city, or proceed further up the river. Captains Apthorp and Adams, desiring not to return without accomplishing something, took a skiff with six men, rowed up to the bridge of the Savannah and Brunswick Railroad, fired it in four different places, and had the satisfaction of seeing it totally destroyed before they returned. On their return to the steamer, they were fired upon from a thicket by some fifteen or twenty rebels, but with the exception of Sergeant Leonard, who received a slight flesh wound in the arm, not a man was hit. After shelling the woods by the John Adams, the party returned to St. Simon's Island.
Posted on 6/9/13 at 12:55 pm to dallasga6
June 9, 1863
For two years of war and more it had been a truism: the Confederate cavalry was so much better than the Union mounted forces that any conflict would result in a Rebel victory. Behind the scenes improvements had been underway and changes were coming. Early this morning, the Federal cavalry, under cover of darkness, crossed the fords of the Rappahannock River and launched the biggest cavalry battle ever fought, before or since, in North America. The Southerners may have been weary from several straight days of Grand Reviews that had been held in the past week. The actual mission Union General Alfred Pleasanton was given was to find out what General Robert E. Lee's army was up to and whether a Northern invasion was on. He never did find that out, but the U.S. Cavalry gave the first respectable account of themselves, fighting the Confederates to a virtual draw until quickly retreating at dusk.
Union mortar boats continued to bombard Vicksburg. From dawn until nearly noon, they poured 175 shells into the city as the Confederate position, cut off from supplies and relief, grew steadily more desperate. Heavy rains curtailed the mortar activity the next day, only some 75 shells being fired, but on the 11th the attack was stepped up once again and Ordnance Gunner Eugene Mack reported that 193 mortar shells fell on the river stronghold. Rear Admiral David D. Porter wrote Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles: "The mortars keep constantly playing on the city and works, and the gunboats throw in their shell whenever they see any work going on at the batteries, or new batteries being put up. Not a soul is to be seen moving in the city, the soldiers lying in their trenches or pits, and the inhabitants being stowed in caves or holes dug out in the cliffs. If the city is not relieved by a much superior force from the outside, Vicksburg must fall without anything more being done to it. I only wonder it has held out so long. . ."
The CSS Clarence, Lieutenant Charles W. Read, captured and the burned brig Mary Alvina, bound from Boston to New Orleans with a fully loaded cargo of commissary stores. Read, upon interrogating prisoners, concluded that it would not be possible to carry out his intention to harass Union shipping in Hampton Roads. "No vessels," he wrote, were allowed to go into Hampton Roads unless they had supplies for the U.S. Government, and then they were closely watched. . . . I determined to cruise along the coast and try to intercept a transport for Fortress Monroe and with her endeavor to carry out the orders of Commander Maffitt and in the meantime do all possible injury to the enemy's commerce."
The towboat Boston was captured by a party of Rebels under the command of Captain James Duke, while towing the ship Jenny Lind up the Mississippi River. The capture took place at a point about three miles from the Pass a L'outre lighthouse.
A Federal magazine at Fort Lyon, near Alexandria, Virginia, exploded, killing twenty and wounding fourteen men belonging to the Third New York artillery.
The Union cavalry, under General Mitchell, at Triune, Tennessee, were attacked this morning by Rebel cavalry under General Nathan Bedford Forrest. After the skirmish, the Southerners took a large herd of beef cattle from the Yankees.
A petition to foreign secretary Earl Russell, concerning the departure from English ports of vessels intending to commit depredations upon the commerce of the United States, prepared and signed by a number of shipping merchants of Liverpool, was made public.
General Foster, in command at Newbern, North Carolina, issued the following order: The Commanding General orders that all white male citizens between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five, within the lines of this Department, shall be at once enrolled, and the rolls forwarded to these headquarters. Commanders of districts will appoint enrolling officers, and take such steps as may be necessary to fully and promptly carry out this order.
A right took place near Monticello, Kentucky, between the Federal cavalry under Colonels Carter and Kautz, and the Confederates under John Pegram, resulting in the retreat of the latter, and the occupation of Monticello by the Union troops.
The Savannah Republican, of this date, says: "The movements of Rosecrans still continue clouded in mystery, and it is not known whether he has sent off any of his force or not. It is very difficult to obtain any information of his movements, as he has established a chain of patrols, and it is well nigh impossible for scouts and spies to penetrate his lines. Rosecrans appears better informed of our movements. Late Yankee papers publish a list of forces which Bragg has sent to Mississippi."
The Military Departments of the Monongahela and the Susquehanna were created; Major General William T. H. Brooks being assigned to the former, and Major General Darius N. Couch to the latter.
The Military Districts "of the Frontier," and "of the Border," were created by order of Major General Schofield; the former under the command of General J. G. Blunt, headquarters at Fort Scott, Indian Territory; and the latter under Brigadier General Thomas Ewing, Jr., headquarters at Kansas City.
Colonel Lawrence Williams Orton, formerly Lawrence Williams, of the Second United States cavalry, one time on General Winfield Scott's staff, and late General Bragg's Chief of Artillery, and Lieutenant Dunlop, of the Confederate army, were arrested and hanged as alleged spies at Franklin, Tennessee.
For two years of war and more it had been a truism: the Confederate cavalry was so much better than the Union mounted forces that any conflict would result in a Rebel victory. Behind the scenes improvements had been underway and changes were coming. Early this morning, the Federal cavalry, under cover of darkness, crossed the fords of the Rappahannock River and launched the biggest cavalry battle ever fought, before or since, in North America. The Southerners may have been weary from several straight days of Grand Reviews that had been held in the past week. The actual mission Union General Alfred Pleasanton was given was to find out what General Robert E. Lee's army was up to and whether a Northern invasion was on. He never did find that out, but the U.S. Cavalry gave the first respectable account of themselves, fighting the Confederates to a virtual draw until quickly retreating at dusk.
Union mortar boats continued to bombard Vicksburg. From dawn until nearly noon, they poured 175 shells into the city as the Confederate position, cut off from supplies and relief, grew steadily more desperate. Heavy rains curtailed the mortar activity the next day, only some 75 shells being fired, but on the 11th the attack was stepped up once again and Ordnance Gunner Eugene Mack reported that 193 mortar shells fell on the river stronghold. Rear Admiral David D. Porter wrote Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles: "The mortars keep constantly playing on the city and works, and the gunboats throw in their shell whenever they see any work going on at the batteries, or new batteries being put up. Not a soul is to be seen moving in the city, the soldiers lying in their trenches or pits, and the inhabitants being stowed in caves or holes dug out in the cliffs. If the city is not relieved by a much superior force from the outside, Vicksburg must fall without anything more being done to it. I only wonder it has held out so long. . ."
The CSS Clarence, Lieutenant Charles W. Read, captured and the burned brig Mary Alvina, bound from Boston to New Orleans with a fully loaded cargo of commissary stores. Read, upon interrogating prisoners, concluded that it would not be possible to carry out his intention to harass Union shipping in Hampton Roads. "No vessels," he wrote, were allowed to go into Hampton Roads unless they had supplies for the U.S. Government, and then they were closely watched. . . . I determined to cruise along the coast and try to intercept a transport for Fortress Monroe and with her endeavor to carry out the orders of Commander Maffitt and in the meantime do all possible injury to the enemy's commerce."
The towboat Boston was captured by a party of Rebels under the command of Captain James Duke, while towing the ship Jenny Lind up the Mississippi River. The capture took place at a point about three miles from the Pass a L'outre lighthouse.
A Federal magazine at Fort Lyon, near Alexandria, Virginia, exploded, killing twenty and wounding fourteen men belonging to the Third New York artillery.
The Union cavalry, under General Mitchell, at Triune, Tennessee, were attacked this morning by Rebel cavalry under General Nathan Bedford Forrest. After the skirmish, the Southerners took a large herd of beef cattle from the Yankees.
A petition to foreign secretary Earl Russell, concerning the departure from English ports of vessels intending to commit depredations upon the commerce of the United States, prepared and signed by a number of shipping merchants of Liverpool, was made public.
General Foster, in command at Newbern, North Carolina, issued the following order: The Commanding General orders that all white male citizens between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five, within the lines of this Department, shall be at once enrolled, and the rolls forwarded to these headquarters. Commanders of districts will appoint enrolling officers, and take such steps as may be necessary to fully and promptly carry out this order.
A right took place near Monticello, Kentucky, between the Federal cavalry under Colonels Carter and Kautz, and the Confederates under John Pegram, resulting in the retreat of the latter, and the occupation of Monticello by the Union troops.
The Savannah Republican, of this date, says: "The movements of Rosecrans still continue clouded in mystery, and it is not known whether he has sent off any of his force or not. It is very difficult to obtain any information of his movements, as he has established a chain of patrols, and it is well nigh impossible for scouts and spies to penetrate his lines. Rosecrans appears better informed of our movements. Late Yankee papers publish a list of forces which Bragg has sent to Mississippi."
The Military Departments of the Monongahela and the Susquehanna were created; Major General William T. H. Brooks being assigned to the former, and Major General Darius N. Couch to the latter.
The Military Districts "of the Frontier," and "of the Border," were created by order of Major General Schofield; the former under the command of General J. G. Blunt, headquarters at Fort Scott, Indian Territory; and the latter under Brigadier General Thomas Ewing, Jr., headquarters at Kansas City.
Colonel Lawrence Williams Orton, formerly Lawrence Williams, of the Second United States cavalry, one time on General Winfield Scott's staff, and late General Bragg's Chief of Artillery, and Lieutenant Dunlop, of the Confederate army, were arrested and hanged as alleged spies at Franklin, Tennessee.
Posted on 6/10/13 at 4:37 pm to dallasga6
June 10, 1863
In the aftermath of the spectacular cavalry battle of Brandy Station, the Federal cavalry counted its casualties (81 killed, 403 wounded, and 382 captured) but consoled themselves that they had retired from the field, not been driven from it. General Richard Ewell's Confederate corps led the way as Lee's infantrymen pulled out of Culpepper Court House and headed for the fords of the Potomac. The Army of Northern Virginia was headed north. General Joseph Hooker thought this was a great chance to take Richmond. President Abraham Lincoln suggested he take General Robert E. Lee instead.
Major General Nathaniel Banks, besieging Port Hudson, signaled Rear Admiral David Farragut: "Please send to Springfield Landing 500 blank cartridges, 50 shrapnel, 500 shell, and 50 solid shot for the IX-inch navy guns. Please let me know when they will be there." The return signal read: "The ammunition that you asked for will be at Springfield Landing at 5 p.m."
Rear Admiral Samuel Du Pont ordered the USS Weehawken, under Captain J. Rodgers, and the USS Nahant, Commander Downes in charge, to Wassaw Sound, Georgia, where it was reported that the powerful ram CSS Atlanta, piloted by Commander Webb, was preparing to attack the wooden blockader USS Cimarron. A week later Du Pont's wise foresight would save the day for the Union blockade there.
Confederate officer prisoners of war being transported from Fortress Monroe to Fort Delaware on board the steamer Maple Leaf overpowered the guard, took possession of the steamer about eight miles from Cape Henry Lighthouse, and ran it ashore below Cape Henry, Virginia where the prisoners landed and escaped.
Governor Bradford, of Maryland, issued a proclamation, calling upon the citizens of Baltimore and the people of the State to rally for defense against the Confederates under General Lee.
A Convention took place at the Cooper Institute in New York, at which an address and resolutions, urging peace in the strongest manner, and denouncing the administration of President Lincoln, were adopted. Speeches were made by Fernando Wood, Judge J. H. McCunn, and others.
General Braxton Bragg, of the rebel army, was confirmed at Chattanooga by Bishop Elliot of the Episcopal Church.
This morning, the Democratic Convention of Ohio, by acclamation, nominated Clement Laird Vallandigham for Governor of that State; the same time refugees reported that Mr. Vallandigham had been imprisoned by the Rebels.
Deputy Provost Marshal Stevens and a Mr. Clayfield, and an enrolling Federal officer who accompanied them, were fired upon near Manville, Rush County, Indiana, when the former was instantly killed. Mr. Clayfield was mortally wounded, and soon after died. The outrage was committed by persons opposed to the draft.
The Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Gustavus Vasa Fox, stated that the whole number of vessels captured or destroyed by the Federal blockading fleet up to June first, was eight hundred and fifty-five.
The Federal draft met with resistance in Fulton County, Pennsylvania. Officers of the Government were shot at by parties concealed in the woods, and the houses of the enrolling agents burned.
Thirty mounted Indians attacked a coach at a point thirty miles west of Salt Lake, and killed and scalped the driver and another employee of the route. After opening the mail-bags and committing other depredations, the savages retired, taking with them the horses belonging to the stage.
The bark Lennox was captured and destroyed by the Confederate sailors on board the tow-boat Boston, captured yesterday near Pass a la Loutre, Louisiana, on the Mississippi River.
Clark's (Confederate) Diary of the War for Separation has the following estimate of killed, wounded, and missing, from the commencement of the war to the first of January, 1863: Federals--Killed, 43,874; wounded, 97,027; prisoners, 68,218--total, 209,115. Died from disease and wounds, 250,000. Confederates--Killed, 20,893; wounded, 69, 615; prisoners, 22,169--total, 102,677. Died from disease and wounds, 136,000.
In the aftermath of the spectacular cavalry battle of Brandy Station, the Federal cavalry counted its casualties (81 killed, 403 wounded, and 382 captured) but consoled themselves that they had retired from the field, not been driven from it. General Richard Ewell's Confederate corps led the way as Lee's infantrymen pulled out of Culpepper Court House and headed for the fords of the Potomac. The Army of Northern Virginia was headed north. General Joseph Hooker thought this was a great chance to take Richmond. President Abraham Lincoln suggested he take General Robert E. Lee instead.
Major General Nathaniel Banks, besieging Port Hudson, signaled Rear Admiral David Farragut: "Please send to Springfield Landing 500 blank cartridges, 50 shrapnel, 500 shell, and 50 solid shot for the IX-inch navy guns. Please let me know when they will be there." The return signal read: "The ammunition that you asked for will be at Springfield Landing at 5 p.m."
Rear Admiral Samuel Du Pont ordered the USS Weehawken, under Captain J. Rodgers, and the USS Nahant, Commander Downes in charge, to Wassaw Sound, Georgia, where it was reported that the powerful ram CSS Atlanta, piloted by Commander Webb, was preparing to attack the wooden blockader USS Cimarron. A week later Du Pont's wise foresight would save the day for the Union blockade there.
Confederate officer prisoners of war being transported from Fortress Monroe to Fort Delaware on board the steamer Maple Leaf overpowered the guard, took possession of the steamer about eight miles from Cape Henry Lighthouse, and ran it ashore below Cape Henry, Virginia where the prisoners landed and escaped.
Governor Bradford, of Maryland, issued a proclamation, calling upon the citizens of Baltimore and the people of the State to rally for defense against the Confederates under General Lee.
A Convention took place at the Cooper Institute in New York, at which an address and resolutions, urging peace in the strongest manner, and denouncing the administration of President Lincoln, were adopted. Speeches were made by Fernando Wood, Judge J. H. McCunn, and others.
General Braxton Bragg, of the rebel army, was confirmed at Chattanooga by Bishop Elliot of the Episcopal Church.
This morning, the Democratic Convention of Ohio, by acclamation, nominated Clement Laird Vallandigham for Governor of that State; the same time refugees reported that Mr. Vallandigham had been imprisoned by the Rebels.
Deputy Provost Marshal Stevens and a Mr. Clayfield, and an enrolling Federal officer who accompanied them, were fired upon near Manville, Rush County, Indiana, when the former was instantly killed. Mr. Clayfield was mortally wounded, and soon after died. The outrage was committed by persons opposed to the draft.
The Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Gustavus Vasa Fox, stated that the whole number of vessels captured or destroyed by the Federal blockading fleet up to June first, was eight hundred and fifty-five.
The Federal draft met with resistance in Fulton County, Pennsylvania. Officers of the Government were shot at by parties concealed in the woods, and the houses of the enrolling agents burned.
Thirty mounted Indians attacked a coach at a point thirty miles west of Salt Lake, and killed and scalped the driver and another employee of the route. After opening the mail-bags and committing other depredations, the savages retired, taking with them the horses belonging to the stage.
The bark Lennox was captured and destroyed by the Confederate sailors on board the tow-boat Boston, captured yesterday near Pass a la Loutre, Louisiana, on the Mississippi River.
Clark's (Confederate) Diary of the War for Separation has the following estimate of killed, wounded, and missing, from the commencement of the war to the first of January, 1863: Federals--Killed, 43,874; wounded, 97,027; prisoners, 68,218--total, 209,115. Died from disease and wounds, 250,000. Confederates--Killed, 20,893; wounded, 69, 615; prisoners, 22,169--total, 102,677. Died from disease and wounds, 136,000.
Posted on 6/11/13 at 3:23 pm to dallasga6
June 11, 1863
Clement Laird Vallandigham had been a duly elected member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio. He was so dedicated to peace, and opposed to a war of reunification that President Abraham Lincoln had ordered him exiled to the Confederacy. They didn't want him either and sent him to Canada. Today he was nominated for President by the Peace Democratic Party at their convention in Ohio. The fact that he was liable to arrest if he stepped foot back in America seemed to bother no one.
Rear Admiral David Farragut wrote Major General Nathaniel Banks regarding the continuous bombardment of Port Hudson: "You must remember that we have been bombarding this place five weeks, and we are now upon our last 500 shells, so that it will not be in my power to bombard more than three or four hours each night, at intervals of five minutes. . . . I was under the impression that our shelling only served two purposes to break their rest and silence their guns, when they opened in our sight; the last he has ceased to do, and they have now become indifferent to the former. After the people have been harassed to a certain extent they become indifferent to danger, I think, but we will do all in our power to aid you."
The steamer Havelock ran past the USS Memphis, Stettin, and Ottawa at Charleston but was so severely battered by the blockaders' fire that she was found at daybreak aground on Folly Island and ablaze. Captain Turner, commanding the USS New Ironsides, reported that she was ''...a total wreck."
The USS Florida, under Commander Bankhead, captured blockade running steamer Calypso attempting to dash into Wilmington with cargo including drugs, provisions, and plating for ironclads.
A boat crew from the USS Coeur de Lion, Acting Master W. G. Morris in charge, seized and burned the schooners Odd Fellow and Sarah Margaret on the Coan River, Virginia.
Peter M. Everett, with a body of three hundred Confederates, attacked a portion of the Fourteenth Kentucky cavalry at Slate Creek, near Mount Sterling, Kentucky. A severe engagement, lasting three hours, ensued, when the Federals were routed, barely escaping destruction.
Triune, Tennessee, was again attacked by the Confederate cavalry, under General Nathan Bedford Forrest, who was repulsed with a loss of twenty-one killed, sixty prisoners, and ten wounded. The Union loss was six killed, among them Lieutenant N. C. Blair, of the Fourth Indiana cavalry.
A debate occurred in the British House of Commons on the slave trade, and the independence of the Rebels.
Five companies of the Fourteenth New York cavalry, Colonel Thaddeus B. Mott, doing outpost duty near Port Hudson, were captured by a cavalry raid of Confederates, under the command of Colonel Logan, of General Braxton Bragg's command, while encamped within three miles of General Nathaniel Banks' headquarters. The capture was owing to the negligence of the officer, who should have posted and attended to the picket guard. It seems that the guard were either never posted, or were at the time fast asleep, for in the middle of the night the Rebels rode into the Union camp, surrounded the Unionists, roughly awakened them, ordered them to saddle up, and run off five companies of the cavalry, with all their horses, arms, and equipments. The rebels made them ride at speed for eighty-three miles, making but one stop in that distance. When a horse gave out, they entered a farmer's premises and impressed another. At the journey's end, the soldiers were thrown into a black hole, where they were under close confinement. The companies were: company G, under command of General George Stoneman, of Captain Porter; company A, under Lieutenant Nolan; company C, under Lieutenant Leroy Smith; company F, under Captain Thayer, who himself alone escaped, and the greater part of company E, under Captain Ayers. Lieutenant Vigel was also captured with Lieutenant Smith's men. These five companies were under command of Major Mulvey, who was taken with his little boy, twelve years old.
Darien, Georgia, was visited and burned by a body of Federal troops under the command of Colonel Montgomery, of the Second South Carolina colored volunteers. At the same time the schooner Pet, loaded with a cargo of cotton, was captured.
The steamer Calypso was captured off Frying Pan Shoals, thirty miles southeast of Wilmington, North Carolina, by the Union gunboat Florida.
A New army corps, denominated the reserve corps, was created in the Department of Cumberland, and placed under the command of Major General Gordon W. Granger, with its headquarters at Triune, to be composed of three divisions, commanded by Brigadier Generals J. D. Morgan, R. S. Granger, and A. Baird.
A party of Confederate cavalry, numbering about two hundred and fifty, crossed the Potomac River this morning and attacked a company of the Sixth Michigan cavalry stationed at Seneca, Maryland. The Federals gradually fell back, fighting, to within three miles of Poolesville, when the enemy retired across the river, after burning the camp at Seneca. The Unionists lost four men killed and one wounded. The Rebels left a lieutenant and one man dead on the field.
Clement Laird Vallandigham had been a duly elected member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio. He was so dedicated to peace, and opposed to a war of reunification that President Abraham Lincoln had ordered him exiled to the Confederacy. They didn't want him either and sent him to Canada. Today he was nominated for President by the Peace Democratic Party at their convention in Ohio. The fact that he was liable to arrest if he stepped foot back in America seemed to bother no one.
Rear Admiral David Farragut wrote Major General Nathaniel Banks regarding the continuous bombardment of Port Hudson: "You must remember that we have been bombarding this place five weeks, and we are now upon our last 500 shells, so that it will not be in my power to bombard more than three or four hours each night, at intervals of five minutes. . . . I was under the impression that our shelling only served two purposes to break their rest and silence their guns, when they opened in our sight; the last he has ceased to do, and they have now become indifferent to the former. After the people have been harassed to a certain extent they become indifferent to danger, I think, but we will do all in our power to aid you."
The steamer Havelock ran past the USS Memphis, Stettin, and Ottawa at Charleston but was so severely battered by the blockaders' fire that she was found at daybreak aground on Folly Island and ablaze. Captain Turner, commanding the USS New Ironsides, reported that she was ''...a total wreck."
The USS Florida, under Commander Bankhead, captured blockade running steamer Calypso attempting to dash into Wilmington with cargo including drugs, provisions, and plating for ironclads.
A boat crew from the USS Coeur de Lion, Acting Master W. G. Morris in charge, seized and burned the schooners Odd Fellow and Sarah Margaret on the Coan River, Virginia.
Peter M. Everett, with a body of three hundred Confederates, attacked a portion of the Fourteenth Kentucky cavalry at Slate Creek, near Mount Sterling, Kentucky. A severe engagement, lasting three hours, ensued, when the Federals were routed, barely escaping destruction.
Triune, Tennessee, was again attacked by the Confederate cavalry, under General Nathan Bedford Forrest, who was repulsed with a loss of twenty-one killed, sixty prisoners, and ten wounded. The Union loss was six killed, among them Lieutenant N. C. Blair, of the Fourth Indiana cavalry.
A debate occurred in the British House of Commons on the slave trade, and the independence of the Rebels.
Five companies of the Fourteenth New York cavalry, Colonel Thaddeus B. Mott, doing outpost duty near Port Hudson, were captured by a cavalry raid of Confederates, under the command of Colonel Logan, of General Braxton Bragg's command, while encamped within three miles of General Nathaniel Banks' headquarters. The capture was owing to the negligence of the officer, who should have posted and attended to the picket guard. It seems that the guard were either never posted, or were at the time fast asleep, for in the middle of the night the Rebels rode into the Union camp, surrounded the Unionists, roughly awakened them, ordered them to saddle up, and run off five companies of the cavalry, with all their horses, arms, and equipments. The rebels made them ride at speed for eighty-three miles, making but one stop in that distance. When a horse gave out, they entered a farmer's premises and impressed another. At the journey's end, the soldiers were thrown into a black hole, where they were under close confinement. The companies were: company G, under command of General George Stoneman, of Captain Porter; company A, under Lieutenant Nolan; company C, under Lieutenant Leroy Smith; company F, under Captain Thayer, who himself alone escaped, and the greater part of company E, under Captain Ayers. Lieutenant Vigel was also captured with Lieutenant Smith's men. These five companies were under command of Major Mulvey, who was taken with his little boy, twelve years old.
Darien, Georgia, was visited and burned by a body of Federal troops under the command of Colonel Montgomery, of the Second South Carolina colored volunteers. At the same time the schooner Pet, loaded with a cargo of cotton, was captured.
The steamer Calypso was captured off Frying Pan Shoals, thirty miles southeast of Wilmington, North Carolina, by the Union gunboat Florida.
A New army corps, denominated the reserve corps, was created in the Department of Cumberland, and placed under the command of Major General Gordon W. Granger, with its headquarters at Triune, to be composed of three divisions, commanded by Brigadier Generals J. D. Morgan, R. S. Granger, and A. Baird.
A party of Confederate cavalry, numbering about two hundred and fifty, crossed the Potomac River this morning and attacked a company of the Sixth Michigan cavalry stationed at Seneca, Maryland. The Federals gradually fell back, fighting, to within three miles of Poolesville, when the enemy retired across the river, after burning the camp at Seneca. The Unionists lost four men killed and one wounded. The Rebels left a lieutenant and one man dead on the field.
Posted on 6/12/13 at 12:31 am to dallasga6
One of the best History lessons.
Posted on 6/12/13 at 3:15 pm to dallasga6
June 12, 1863
With the corps of General James Ewell still in the lead, the entire Army of Northern Virginia was on the move, northwards. They were passing behind the Blue Ridge Mountains, and approaching the fords and bridges of the Potomac River. Minor skirmishing occurred in Cedarville, Middletown and Newtown. Larger fighting did not occur because, incredibly, Army of the Potomac commander General Joseph Hooker had not yet bestirred his men to pursue.
The CSS Clarence, commanded by Lieutenant Charles W. Read, captured the bark Tacony of Cape Hatteras in latitude 37 degrees 18 minutes, longitude 75 degrees, 4 minutes and shortly thereafter took the schooner M. A. Shindler from Port Royal to Philadelphia in ballast. Read determined to transfer his command to the Tacony, she ''being a better sailor than the Clarence," and was in the process of transferring the howitzer when another schooner, the Kate Stewart, from Key West to Philadelphia, was sighted. "Passing near the Clarence," Read reported, "a wooden gun was pointed at her and she was commanded to heave to, which she did immediately. . . . As we were now rather short of provisions and had over fifty prisoners, I determined to bond the schooner Kate Stewart and make a cartel of her." Read then destroyed both the Clarence and M. A. Shindler and stood in chase of another brig, the Arabella, which he soon overhauled. She had a neutral cargo, and Read "bonded her for $30,000, payable thirty days after peace." Thus the career of CSS Clarence was at an end. In a week's time she had made six prizes, three of which had been destroyed, two bonded, and her successor, the CSS Tacony, sailed against Union shipping under the same daring skipper and his crew.
Captain Munday of the Tacony gave the following account of the capture: On the twelfth of June, at six o'clock A. M., when about forty miles off Cape Virginia, I was spoken by the brig Clarence, of Baltimore, who said she was short of water, and wished for a day's allowance. Of course I hauled to on this appeal to humanity, and their boat, with an officer and six men, immediately came aboard. They told me they were fifty-five days from Rio Janeiro, were bound to Baltimore, and were entirely out of water, and would assist me in passing it to the boat. While taking the after-hatch off, I was confronted by the officer of the boat, who presented a pistol at my head, and stated that my vessel was his prize and my gift to the Confederate States, and ordered me to leave for New York. Immediately after, or while transferring my crew, the schooner M. A. Shindler came up, and was hauled to and captured. While transferring the crew of the latter, the schooner Kate Stewart came along, but she having several lady passengers on board, and being an old vessel, was ransomed on giving bonds in the sum of seven thousand dollars. We were then all transferred on board the Kate Stewart. The pirates then transferred their guns, ammunition, supplies, etc., from the brig Clarence to the bark Tacony, and set fire to the former vessel, as well as to the schooner M. A. Shindler. We were then released, the pirate standing off to the southeast.
Major General Darius N. Couch assumed command of the Department of the Susquehanna, and established his headquarters at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.
Governor Andrew G. Curtin issued a proclamation calling upon the people of Pennsylvania to rally for their defense against the Confederates who were approaching under General Robert E. Lee.
General Michael Corcoran, with twelve thousand men, left Suffolk, Virginia, on a reconnaissance to the Blackwater.
The reply of President Abraham Lincoln to the resolutions adopted by the Democrats at Albany, New York, on the sixteenth of May, relative to the arrest and exile of Mr. Clement Vallandigham, and the vindication of free speech, was made public.
Major General David Hunter, who last year had issued two (Lincoln overturned) Emancipation Proclamations in the area under his control in Georgia, South Carolina and Florida, was relieved of the command of the Department of the South, and Brigadier General Quincy A. Gillmore assigned to the same.
Governor Oliver P. Morton issued a proclamation to the people of Indiana, warning all persons against resistance to the Government in any form, or hindering the Federal officers in the enforcement of the enrollment or draft laws of the United States.
A skirmish occurred near Middletown, Virginia, between a large body of Union troops, including the Thirteenth Pennsylvania cavalry and Eighty-seventh infantry, with one section of artillery, and a force of less than four hundred Confederate cavalry. The Southern horsemen fought valiantly before eventually retiring.
With the corps of General James Ewell still in the lead, the entire Army of Northern Virginia was on the move, northwards. They were passing behind the Blue Ridge Mountains, and approaching the fords and bridges of the Potomac River. Minor skirmishing occurred in Cedarville, Middletown and Newtown. Larger fighting did not occur because, incredibly, Army of the Potomac commander General Joseph Hooker had not yet bestirred his men to pursue.
The CSS Clarence, commanded by Lieutenant Charles W. Read, captured the bark Tacony of Cape Hatteras in latitude 37 degrees 18 minutes, longitude 75 degrees, 4 minutes and shortly thereafter took the schooner M. A. Shindler from Port Royal to Philadelphia in ballast. Read determined to transfer his command to the Tacony, she ''being a better sailor than the Clarence," and was in the process of transferring the howitzer when another schooner, the Kate Stewart, from Key West to Philadelphia, was sighted. "Passing near the Clarence," Read reported, "a wooden gun was pointed at her and she was commanded to heave to, which she did immediately. . . . As we were now rather short of provisions and had over fifty prisoners, I determined to bond the schooner Kate Stewart and make a cartel of her." Read then destroyed both the Clarence and M. A. Shindler and stood in chase of another brig, the Arabella, which he soon overhauled. She had a neutral cargo, and Read "bonded her for $30,000, payable thirty days after peace." Thus the career of CSS Clarence was at an end. In a week's time she had made six prizes, three of which had been destroyed, two bonded, and her successor, the CSS Tacony, sailed against Union shipping under the same daring skipper and his crew.
Captain Munday of the Tacony gave the following account of the capture: On the twelfth of June, at six o'clock A. M., when about forty miles off Cape Virginia, I was spoken by the brig Clarence, of Baltimore, who said she was short of water, and wished for a day's allowance. Of course I hauled to on this appeal to humanity, and their boat, with an officer and six men, immediately came aboard. They told me they were fifty-five days from Rio Janeiro, were bound to Baltimore, and were entirely out of water, and would assist me in passing it to the boat. While taking the after-hatch off, I was confronted by the officer of the boat, who presented a pistol at my head, and stated that my vessel was his prize and my gift to the Confederate States, and ordered me to leave for New York. Immediately after, or while transferring my crew, the schooner M. A. Shindler came up, and was hauled to and captured. While transferring the crew of the latter, the schooner Kate Stewart came along, but she having several lady passengers on board, and being an old vessel, was ransomed on giving bonds in the sum of seven thousand dollars. We were then all transferred on board the Kate Stewart. The pirates then transferred their guns, ammunition, supplies, etc., from the brig Clarence to the bark Tacony, and set fire to the former vessel, as well as to the schooner M. A. Shindler. We were then released, the pirate standing off to the southeast.
Major General Darius N. Couch assumed command of the Department of the Susquehanna, and established his headquarters at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.
Governor Andrew G. Curtin issued a proclamation calling upon the people of Pennsylvania to rally for their defense against the Confederates who were approaching under General Robert E. Lee.
General Michael Corcoran, with twelve thousand men, left Suffolk, Virginia, on a reconnaissance to the Blackwater.
The reply of President Abraham Lincoln to the resolutions adopted by the Democrats at Albany, New York, on the sixteenth of May, relative to the arrest and exile of Mr. Clement Vallandigham, and the vindication of free speech, was made public.
Major General David Hunter, who last year had issued two (Lincoln overturned) Emancipation Proclamations in the area under his control in Georgia, South Carolina and Florida, was relieved of the command of the Department of the South, and Brigadier General Quincy A. Gillmore assigned to the same.
Governor Oliver P. Morton issued a proclamation to the people of Indiana, warning all persons against resistance to the Government in any form, or hindering the Federal officers in the enforcement of the enrollment or draft laws of the United States.
A skirmish occurred near Middletown, Virginia, between a large body of Union troops, including the Thirteenth Pennsylvania cavalry and Eighty-seventh infantry, with one section of artillery, and a force of less than four hundred Confederate cavalry. The Southern horsemen fought valiantly before eventually retiring.
Posted on 6/13/13 at 2:50 pm to dallasga6
June 13, 1863
After days of scouting, General Joseph Hooker acknowledged that most of General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia had departed from the banks of the Rappahannock at Fredericksburg and were heading north. After days of prodding by his Commander-in-Chief, Hooker agreed that perhaps he should do something about this, and he uprooted the Army of the Potomac from the site where they had been camped for months. Seeing Hooker leave, Confederate General A. P. Hill, who had remained at Fredericksburg to fool Hooker into thinking the whole army was still there. concluded that he was now free to follow Lee as well.
The CSS Georgia, commanded by Lieutenant W. L. Maury, captured the bark Good Hope bound from Boston to the Cape of Good Hope; the prize was burned at sea on 14 June after her provisions and stores were removed.
The USS Juniata, Commander John M. B. Clitz in charge, captured the blockade running schooner Fashion off the coast of Cuba with a cargo of salt and soda.
The USS Sunflower, piloted by Acting Master Van Sice, captured the schooner Pushmataha off Tortugas.
Confederate guerrillas fired into the USS Marmora, under Acting Lieutenant Robert H. Getty, near Eunice, Arkansas, and on the morning of the 14th, took the transport Nebraska under fire. In retaliation, Getty sent a landing party ashore and destroyed the town, "...including the railroad depot, with locomotive and car inside, also the large warehouse..." The next day, 15 June, landing parties from the Marmora and USS Prairie Bird, Acting Lieutenant Edward E. Brennand in charge, destroyed the town of Gaines Landing in retaliation for the partisans attempt to burn the Union coal barge there and for firing on Marmora.
The battle of Winchester, Virginia, between the Federal forces under Major General Robert H. Milroy, and the Confederate troops led by Lieutenant General Richard S. Ewell, began in earnest this morning. During this time, Winchester was in Union hands. The city was literally at the crossroads of the war, so it changed hands continually. Milroy, the commander of the Yankees in Winchester, was unaware that the vanguard of General Robert E. Lee's army was heading his way. He had received some warnings from Washington earlier, but an order to evacuate Winchester did not reach him because the Confederates had cut the telegraph lines. As late as June 11, Milroy foolishly bragged that "...he could hold the town against any Confederate force." His assertion was rendered ridiculous when Richard Ewell's Rebel corps moved down the Shenandoah Valley in the direction of Pennsylvania and crashed head first into his garrison. Ewell's force quickly surrounded the Yankees. After a sharp battle, Ewell captured about 4,000 Federals, while Milroy and 2,700 soldiers escaped to safety. Ewell lost just 270 men while capturing 300 wagons, hundreds of horses, and 23 artillery pieces. Milroy was relieved of his command and later arrested, although a court of inquiry eventually found that he was not culpable in the disaster.
A party of Confederate cavalry intercepted railroad cars at Elizabethtown, Kentucky, capturing sixty horses and other provisions.
A public meeting was held in Montgomery County, Indiana, at which a resolution was passed, declaring that "...no enrollment of militia in that county should take place," and a committee was appointed, who waited on the Commissioner and read the resolution, and notified him that an attempt to enroll would be at his peril.
Berryville, Virginia, was hurriedly evacuated by the Union troops under Colonel Andrew T. McReynolds, it having been ascertained that Major General Robert E. Rodes' division of General Ewell's corps of Rebels was advancing upon that place.
After days of scouting, General Joseph Hooker acknowledged that most of General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia had departed from the banks of the Rappahannock at Fredericksburg and were heading north. After days of prodding by his Commander-in-Chief, Hooker agreed that perhaps he should do something about this, and he uprooted the Army of the Potomac from the site where they had been camped for months. Seeing Hooker leave, Confederate General A. P. Hill, who had remained at Fredericksburg to fool Hooker into thinking the whole army was still there. concluded that he was now free to follow Lee as well.
The CSS Georgia, commanded by Lieutenant W. L. Maury, captured the bark Good Hope bound from Boston to the Cape of Good Hope; the prize was burned at sea on 14 June after her provisions and stores were removed.
The USS Juniata, Commander John M. B. Clitz in charge, captured the blockade running schooner Fashion off the coast of Cuba with a cargo of salt and soda.
The USS Sunflower, piloted by Acting Master Van Sice, captured the schooner Pushmataha off Tortugas.
Confederate guerrillas fired into the USS Marmora, under Acting Lieutenant Robert H. Getty, near Eunice, Arkansas, and on the morning of the 14th, took the transport Nebraska under fire. In retaliation, Getty sent a landing party ashore and destroyed the town, "...including the railroad depot, with locomotive and car inside, also the large warehouse..." The next day, 15 June, landing parties from the Marmora and USS Prairie Bird, Acting Lieutenant Edward E. Brennand in charge, destroyed the town of Gaines Landing in retaliation for the partisans attempt to burn the Union coal barge there and for firing on Marmora.
The battle of Winchester, Virginia, between the Federal forces under Major General Robert H. Milroy, and the Confederate troops led by Lieutenant General Richard S. Ewell, began in earnest this morning. During this time, Winchester was in Union hands. The city was literally at the crossroads of the war, so it changed hands continually. Milroy, the commander of the Yankees in Winchester, was unaware that the vanguard of General Robert E. Lee's army was heading his way. He had received some warnings from Washington earlier, but an order to evacuate Winchester did not reach him because the Confederates had cut the telegraph lines. As late as June 11, Milroy foolishly bragged that "...he could hold the town against any Confederate force." His assertion was rendered ridiculous when Richard Ewell's Rebel corps moved down the Shenandoah Valley in the direction of Pennsylvania and crashed head first into his garrison. Ewell's force quickly surrounded the Yankees. After a sharp battle, Ewell captured about 4,000 Federals, while Milroy and 2,700 soldiers escaped to safety. Ewell lost just 270 men while capturing 300 wagons, hundreds of horses, and 23 artillery pieces. Milroy was relieved of his command and later arrested, although a court of inquiry eventually found that he was not culpable in the disaster.
A party of Confederate cavalry intercepted railroad cars at Elizabethtown, Kentucky, capturing sixty horses and other provisions.
A public meeting was held in Montgomery County, Indiana, at which a resolution was passed, declaring that "...no enrollment of militia in that county should take place," and a committee was appointed, who waited on the Commissioner and read the resolution, and notified him that an attempt to enroll would be at his peril.
Berryville, Virginia, was hurriedly evacuated by the Union troops under Colonel Andrew T. McReynolds, it having been ascertained that Major General Robert E. Rodes' division of General Ewell's corps of Rebels was advancing upon that place.
Posted on 6/14/13 at 1:33 pm to dallasga6
June 14, 1863
General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia were on the move. Unfortunately for Major General Robert H. Milroy and his 7000 Union troops at Winchester, Lee was on the move directly towards him. Not really believing the threat, he was slow to withdraw to Harpers Ferry. President Abraham Lincoln, in one of his classic dispatches to General Joseph Hooker, asked: "If the head of Lee's army is at Martinsburg and the tail of it on the Plank Road between Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, the animal must be very slim somewhere. Could you not break him?"
President Lincoln authorized his Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase to "...cooperate by the revenue cutters under your direction with the Navy in arresting rebel depredations on American commerce and transportation and in capturing Rebels engaged therein." The directive was largely the result of Lieutenant Read's continued raid on Union commerce near Northern shores.
Rear Admiral David Porter wired Secretary Gideon Welles: "The situation of affairs here has altered very little. We are still closing on the enemy. General Grant's position is a safe one, though he should have all the troops that can possibly be sent to him. We have mounted six heavy navy guns in the rear of Vicksburg and can give the army as many as they want. I think the town can't hold out longer than the 22d of June. The gunboats and mortars keep up a continual fire." The intrepid defenders of Vicksburg held out against the crushing water and land siege for two weeks beyond Admiral Porter's estimate.
The CSS Florida, commanded by Lieutenant John Newland Maffitt, captured the ship Red Gauntlet in West Indian waters near latitude 7 degrees 35 mins north, longitude 35 degrees 40 mins. She was of and from Boston bound for Hong Kong, with a cargo of ice. The Florida put a prize crew on board and kept in company, taking a large amount of provisions and a supply of coal.
The CSS Georgia, Lieutenant W. L. Maury piloting, captured at sea and bonded the bark J.W. Seaver with a cargo of machinery for Russia.
The USS Lackawanna, Captain John B. Marchand in charge, captured the blockade running English steamer Neptune, bound from Havana to Mobile.
Martinsburg, Virginia, was occupied by Confederate General Robert Emmett Rodes, who succeeded in capturing one hundred and fifty men, several cannon and a quantity of stores. The Rebels' loss was one killed and two wounded.
The brig Umpire, in lat. 37 degrees 37 mins, long. 69 degrees 57 mins, was captured and burned by the CSS Tacony.
General Nathaniel Banks, having established his batteries within three hundred yards of the Confederate works at Port Hudson, after a vigorous cannonade, summoned General Frank Gardner, in command, to surrender. On his refusal, an assault was made, which ended in the repulse of the Yankees with heavy losses in killed and wounded.
Hagerstown, Maryland, was occupied by the Confederate troops advancing into Pennsylvania.
General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia were on the move. Unfortunately for Major General Robert H. Milroy and his 7000 Union troops at Winchester, Lee was on the move directly towards him. Not really believing the threat, he was slow to withdraw to Harpers Ferry. President Abraham Lincoln, in one of his classic dispatches to General Joseph Hooker, asked: "If the head of Lee's army is at Martinsburg and the tail of it on the Plank Road between Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, the animal must be very slim somewhere. Could you not break him?"
President Lincoln authorized his Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase to "...cooperate by the revenue cutters under your direction with the Navy in arresting rebel depredations on American commerce and transportation and in capturing Rebels engaged therein." The directive was largely the result of Lieutenant Read's continued raid on Union commerce near Northern shores.
Rear Admiral David Porter wired Secretary Gideon Welles: "The situation of affairs here has altered very little. We are still closing on the enemy. General Grant's position is a safe one, though he should have all the troops that can possibly be sent to him. We have mounted six heavy navy guns in the rear of Vicksburg and can give the army as many as they want. I think the town can't hold out longer than the 22d of June. The gunboats and mortars keep up a continual fire." The intrepid defenders of Vicksburg held out against the crushing water and land siege for two weeks beyond Admiral Porter's estimate.
The CSS Florida, commanded by Lieutenant John Newland Maffitt, captured the ship Red Gauntlet in West Indian waters near latitude 7 degrees 35 mins north, longitude 35 degrees 40 mins. She was of and from Boston bound for Hong Kong, with a cargo of ice. The Florida put a prize crew on board and kept in company, taking a large amount of provisions and a supply of coal.
The CSS Georgia, Lieutenant W. L. Maury piloting, captured at sea and bonded the bark J.W. Seaver with a cargo of machinery for Russia.
The USS Lackawanna, Captain John B. Marchand in charge, captured the blockade running English steamer Neptune, bound from Havana to Mobile.
Martinsburg, Virginia, was occupied by Confederate General Robert Emmett Rodes, who succeeded in capturing one hundred and fifty men, several cannon and a quantity of stores. The Rebels' loss was one killed and two wounded.
The brig Umpire, in lat. 37 degrees 37 mins, long. 69 degrees 57 mins, was captured and burned by the CSS Tacony.
General Nathaniel Banks, having established his batteries within three hundred yards of the Confederate works at Port Hudson, after a vigorous cannonade, summoned General Frank Gardner, in command, to surrender. On his refusal, an assault was made, which ended in the repulse of the Yankees with heavy losses in killed and wounded.
Hagerstown, Maryland, was occupied by the Confederate troops advancing into Pennsylvania.
Posted on 6/15/13 at 3:12 pm to dallasga6
June 15, 1863
General Robert H. Milroy had been warned that Confederate forces were nearing his position at Winchester, Virginia. He had even been informed that there could be quite a lot of them. He did not seem to realize that it was almost the entire Army of Northern Virginia. By the time he decided to pull out, about 1 a.m., it was too late--part of General Richard Ewell's corps, under General Edward '"Allegheny"Johnson, was behind him at Stephenson's Depot. Milroy lost over 4000 men, mostly taken prisoner, and many tons of supplies.
The CSS Atlanta, Commander William A. Webb in charge, got underway in the early evening and passed over the lower obstructions in the Wilmington River, preparatory to an anticipated attack on the Union forces in Wassaw Sound, Georgia. Webb dropped anchor at 8 p.m. and spent the remainder of the night coaling. The next evening, "about dark," the daring Confederate pilot later reported, "I proceeded down the river to a point of land which would place me in 5 or 6 miles of the monitors, at the same time concealing the ship from their view, ready to move on them at early dawn the next morning."
The CSS Tacony, Lieutenant Charles W. Read, captured and burned the brig Empire with a cargo of sugar and molasses off the Virginia coast. Read's exploits created much concern and a large force was sent to search for him. Federal Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles noted in his diary: ''None of our vessels have succeeded in capturing the Rebel pirate Tacony which has committed great ravages along the coast."
The USS Juliet, under Acting Lieutenant Shaw, seized the steamer Fred Nolte on the White River, Arkansas.
The USS Lackawanna, Captain Marchand in charge, captured steamer the Planter with a cargo of cotton in the Gulf of Mexico.
Great excitement and anticipation existed in Baltimore, Maryland, on account of the invasion of the State by the Confederate Army.
General Nathaniel Banks from his headquarters before Port Hudson, issued the following order: The Commanding General congratulates the troops before Port Hudson upon the steady advance made upon the enemy's works, and is confident of an immediate and triumphant issue of the contest. We are at all points upon the threshold of his fortifications. One more advance, and they are ours. For the last duty that victory imposes, the Commanding General summons the bold men of the corps to the organization of a storming column of a thousand men, to vindicate the flag of the Union and the memory of its defenders who have fallen. Let them come forward. Officers who lead the column of victory in this last assault may be assured of a just recognition of their services by promotion; and every officer and soldier who shares its perils and its glory shall receive a medal fit to commemorate the first grand success of the campaign of eighteen hundred and sixty-three for the freedom of the Mississippi. His name shall be placed in General Orders upon the roll of honor. Division commanders will at once report the names of the officers and men who may volunteer for this service, in order that the organization of the column may be completed without delay.
By order of Major General Hiram U. Grant, Major General John A. McClernand was relieved of the command of the Thirteenth army corps, and Major General Edward Otho Cresap Ord was appointed thereto.
A debate was held in the House of Lords on the seizures of British ships by the cruisers of the United States, in which the Marquis of Clanricarde and Earl Russell took part, the latter defending the action of the American Government.
General Erasmus D. Keyes, in command of a force of Union troops, occupied New Kent Court House, within fifteen miles of Richmond, Virginia, creating considerable excitement in that vicinity.
The United States enrolling officer in Boone County, Indiana, was captured by a party of men and held while the women pelted him with rotten eggs.
Governor A. G. Curtin, of Pennsylvania, issued a proclamation calling on all people of the State capable of bearing arms to enroll themselves for the public defense; state records and other public archives were removed from Harrisburg.
Greencastle, Pennsylvania, was occupied by a small body of Confederate troops belonging to the forces of General Richard Ewell.
In the Missouri State Convention Charles D. Drake offered the following: Resolved, That it is expedient that an ordinance be passed by the Convention, providing first for the emancipation of all slaves in the State on the first of January next; second, for the perpetual prohibition of slavery in the State after that date; and third, for a system of apprenticeship for slaves so emancipated for such period as may be sufficient to avoid any serious inconvenience to the interest connected with the State labor, and to prepare the emancipated blacks for complete freedom; fourth, for submitting said ordinance to a vote of the people on the first Monday of next August.
Great excitement existed at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on account of the rumored approach of the Rebels under General Robert E. Lee. The merchants and mechanics organized themselves into military companies for the defense of the city; business was suspended, all "the bars, restaurants, and drinking-saloons were closed, and the sale or giving away of liquors stopped."
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, was entered by one thousand eight hundred Confederate cavalry under General Albert Gallatin Jenkins, who occupied the town and its vicinity.
General Robert H. Milroy had been warned that Confederate forces were nearing his position at Winchester, Virginia. He had even been informed that there could be quite a lot of them. He did not seem to realize that it was almost the entire Army of Northern Virginia. By the time he decided to pull out, about 1 a.m., it was too late--part of General Richard Ewell's corps, under General Edward '"Allegheny"Johnson, was behind him at Stephenson's Depot. Milroy lost over 4000 men, mostly taken prisoner, and many tons of supplies.
The CSS Atlanta, Commander William A. Webb in charge, got underway in the early evening and passed over the lower obstructions in the Wilmington River, preparatory to an anticipated attack on the Union forces in Wassaw Sound, Georgia. Webb dropped anchor at 8 p.m. and spent the remainder of the night coaling. The next evening, "about dark," the daring Confederate pilot later reported, "I proceeded down the river to a point of land which would place me in 5 or 6 miles of the monitors, at the same time concealing the ship from their view, ready to move on them at early dawn the next morning."
The CSS Tacony, Lieutenant Charles W. Read, captured and burned the brig Empire with a cargo of sugar and molasses off the Virginia coast. Read's exploits created much concern and a large force was sent to search for him. Federal Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles noted in his diary: ''None of our vessels have succeeded in capturing the Rebel pirate Tacony which has committed great ravages along the coast."
The USS Juliet, under Acting Lieutenant Shaw, seized the steamer Fred Nolte on the White River, Arkansas.
The USS Lackawanna, Captain Marchand in charge, captured steamer the Planter with a cargo of cotton in the Gulf of Mexico.
Great excitement and anticipation existed in Baltimore, Maryland, on account of the invasion of the State by the Confederate Army.
General Nathaniel Banks from his headquarters before Port Hudson, issued the following order: The Commanding General congratulates the troops before Port Hudson upon the steady advance made upon the enemy's works, and is confident of an immediate and triumphant issue of the contest. We are at all points upon the threshold of his fortifications. One more advance, and they are ours. For the last duty that victory imposes, the Commanding General summons the bold men of the corps to the organization of a storming column of a thousand men, to vindicate the flag of the Union and the memory of its defenders who have fallen. Let them come forward. Officers who lead the column of victory in this last assault may be assured of a just recognition of their services by promotion; and every officer and soldier who shares its perils and its glory shall receive a medal fit to commemorate the first grand success of the campaign of eighteen hundred and sixty-three for the freedom of the Mississippi. His name shall be placed in General Orders upon the roll of honor. Division commanders will at once report the names of the officers and men who may volunteer for this service, in order that the organization of the column may be completed without delay.
By order of Major General Hiram U. Grant, Major General John A. McClernand was relieved of the command of the Thirteenth army corps, and Major General Edward Otho Cresap Ord was appointed thereto.
A debate was held in the House of Lords on the seizures of British ships by the cruisers of the United States, in which the Marquis of Clanricarde and Earl Russell took part, the latter defending the action of the American Government.
General Erasmus D. Keyes, in command of a force of Union troops, occupied New Kent Court House, within fifteen miles of Richmond, Virginia, creating considerable excitement in that vicinity.
The United States enrolling officer in Boone County, Indiana, was captured by a party of men and held while the women pelted him with rotten eggs.
Governor A. G. Curtin, of Pennsylvania, issued a proclamation calling on all people of the State capable of bearing arms to enroll themselves for the public defense; state records and other public archives were removed from Harrisburg.
Greencastle, Pennsylvania, was occupied by a small body of Confederate troops belonging to the forces of General Richard Ewell.
In the Missouri State Convention Charles D. Drake offered the following: Resolved, That it is expedient that an ordinance be passed by the Convention, providing first for the emancipation of all slaves in the State on the first of January next; second, for the perpetual prohibition of slavery in the State after that date; and third, for a system of apprenticeship for slaves so emancipated for such period as may be sufficient to avoid any serious inconvenience to the interest connected with the State labor, and to prepare the emancipated blacks for complete freedom; fourth, for submitting said ordinance to a vote of the people on the first Monday of next August.
Great excitement existed at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on account of the rumored approach of the Rebels under General Robert E. Lee. The merchants and mechanics organized themselves into military companies for the defense of the city; business was suspended, all "the bars, restaurants, and drinking-saloons were closed, and the sale or giving away of liquors stopped."
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, was entered by one thousand eight hundred Confederate cavalry under General Albert Gallatin Jenkins, who occupied the town and its vicinity.
Posted on 6/15/13 at 6:35 pm to dallasga6
Hope yall dont mind me posting in this thread, but I just had to say that I stumbled on this a while ago and try to come back about every day and read it. I have really enjoyed reading it and look forward to the future updates.
Thank you, sir. You do a hell of a job with this.
quote:
dallasga6
Thank you, sir. You do a hell of a job with this.
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