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re: 150 years ago today...August 20th, 1863...
Posted on 6/16/13 at 2:06 pm to dallasga6
Posted on 6/16/13 at 2:06 pm to dallasga6
June 16, 1863
Commanding General of the Army of the Potomac Joseph Hooker seemed to have no end of trouble figuring out where General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia was. It was no mystery, however, to the citizens of the capital of Pennsylvania. Lee was clearly headed north, and Harrisburg decided to clear out en masse. Every train was packed, citizens loaded possessions into wagons and followed. Even the state government began packing state papers, books, paintings and other valuables to be evacuated.
Acting Master John C. Bunner, on board the USS New Era, obtained a report that Confederate troops "...meditated an attack on either Columbus, Hickman, Island 10, or New Madrid..." Bunner at once proceeded above Island No. 10, found and destroyed nine boats and flats. He reported: "I do not think the enemy can procure transportation enough to attack the island with any hope of success, but am careful that none at all shall remain at his service in this vicinity.''
The USS Circassian, Acting Lieutenant William B. Eaton, captured the blockade running sloop John Wesley off St. Marks, Florida, bound for Havana with a cargo of cotton.
The CSS Florida, commanded by Lieutenant John Newland Maffitt, captured the ship B. F. Hoxie, of Mystic, Connecticut, bound from Mazatlan for Falmouth, England, with a cargo of log-wood, silver bars and thirty tons of silver ore, in West Indian waters at latitude twelve degrees north, longitude thirty degrees. After removing the silver bars valued at $500,000, Maffitt burned the prize; the ore and log-wood were sunk in the ship this afternoon.
The troops to operate against the Sioux moved from their rendezvous at Camp Pope, under command of General Sibley. The force numbered fully three thousand men, all recruited in Minnesota, and more or less accustomed to frontier life. A pontoon train accompanied it; also three hundred wagons and several hundred head of beef cattle.
Francis Harrison Pierpont, territorial Governor of western Virginia, in view of the approach of the Confederate Army, issued a proclamation, calling upon the commandants of the militia, to convene their regiments and companies to be held in readiness to go to the field at a moment's warning.
Governor Joel Parker, of New Jersey, issued a proclamation, calling upon the citizens of the State to rally for the defense of Pennsylvania.
Governor Curtin, of Pennsylvania, made the following appeal. To the People of Philadelphia: "For nearly a week past it has been publicly known that the rebels in force were about to enter Pennsylvania. On the twelfth instant an urgent call was made on the people to raise a departmental army corps for the defense of the State. Yesterday, under the proclamation of the President, the militia were called out. Today, a new and pressing exhortation has been given to furnish men to repel the invasion. Philadelphia has not responded ? meanwhile the enemy is six miles this side of Chambersburg , and advancing rapidly. Our capital is threatened, and we may be disgraced by its fall, while the men who should be driving the outlaws from our soil are quibbling about the possible term of service for six months. It never was intended to keep them beyond the continuance of the emergency. You all know this by what happened when the militia were called out last autumn. You then trusted your Government and were not deceived. Trust it again now. I will accept men without reference to the six months term. If you do not wish to bear the ignominy of shirking from the defense of your State, come forward at once. Close your places of business and apply your hearts to the work. Come in such organizations as you can form. General Couch has appointed Lieutenant-Colonel Ruff to superintend your organizations. Report to him immediately."
The Rebels under General Lee, in the invasion of Pennsylvania, reached Scotland, a few miles east of Chambersburg. At Harrisburg, the excitement was intense. A correspondent at that place, describing the scene, says: It is difficult to convey an exact idea of the state of affairs here to-night, not only on account of the confusion existing, but in consequence of the danger of trenching on what may be contraband ground. During the morning a perfect panic prevailed, extending to all classes of people, and resulting in the grandest demand for railroad tickets ever witnessed in this city. The enemy were supposed to be just over the river, or, at any rate, at Carlisle, and every woman in the place seemed anxious to leave for safer regions. Trunks were piled up at the depots six feet in height, for nearly a square, and hundreds if not thousands of people eagerly waited the hour of the departure of the various trains. In the mean while, the State Capitol had been completely denuded of every thing of value, from the portraits of the governors to the books in the library. The books, papers, paintings, and other valuables were packed in freight-cars, and made ready for instant departure in case of decided signs of danger to the city. Measures were taken yesterday to rouse the people to the danger at hand, and during to-day about one thousand persons were earnestly at work on the other side of the Susquehanna, throwing up a bastion-ed redoubt, for the protection of Harrisburg. The work was kept up all day, and far into the evening, and late tonight we saw files of laborers returning from their unwonted toil. There were but few regular soldiers in town today, the principal display being made by three companies of invalids from the military hospitals at York. They arrived during the afternoon, and when drawn up on Third street, they looked as if there was considerable fight in them yet. During the entire afternoon, Market street was occupied with army wagons from Milroy's division, which rumbled across the old bridge, and from thence past the railroad depot and out to a camp ground on the other side of the canal. These wagons were mostly drawn by four horses, though there were some mule teams among them. Dust was the prevailing feature of the vehicles, from the ears of the horses to the hat rims of the teamsters. Some of the wagons were filled with hay and some with tents, while from many peeped the black faces, grinning mouths and white teeth of contrabands, large and small, of both sexes. For several hours this wagon-train completely filled Market street, giving the spectators a far better idea of the dust, turmoil, and fatigue of war than they could get in any other way.
President Jefferson Davis, at Richmond, Virginia, called upon the States of the Confederacy to furnish troops for home defense, in order to replace those who were then under the command of General Lee, invading the North.
Littlestown, eleven miles from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, was occupied by Rebel cavalry.
Rebel salt works, in Princess Ann County, Virginia, were destroyed by Major Murray, having under his command over one hundred men, belonging to the One Hundred and Forty-eighth regiment of New York volunteers.
Governor Augustus Williamson Bradford, of Maryland, issued a proclamation calling upon the citizens of Baltimore and people of Maryland to rally to defend their soil from invasion. As there was no organized militia force in the State, he announced that he would fall back upon the recent enrollment for the draft; but he hoped there is patriotism sufficient among the people to raise the force needed from voluntary enlistments.
Harper's Ferry, Virginia, was invested by the Confederates, while the Federal troops held Maryland Heights in large force.
The Councils of Baltimore, Maryland, appropriated four hundred thousand dollars for enlistment bounties.
Commanding General of the Army of the Potomac Joseph Hooker seemed to have no end of trouble figuring out where General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia was. It was no mystery, however, to the citizens of the capital of Pennsylvania. Lee was clearly headed north, and Harrisburg decided to clear out en masse. Every train was packed, citizens loaded possessions into wagons and followed. Even the state government began packing state papers, books, paintings and other valuables to be evacuated.
Acting Master John C. Bunner, on board the USS New Era, obtained a report that Confederate troops "...meditated an attack on either Columbus, Hickman, Island 10, or New Madrid..." Bunner at once proceeded above Island No. 10, found and destroyed nine boats and flats. He reported: "I do not think the enemy can procure transportation enough to attack the island with any hope of success, but am careful that none at all shall remain at his service in this vicinity.''
The USS Circassian, Acting Lieutenant William B. Eaton, captured the blockade running sloop John Wesley off St. Marks, Florida, bound for Havana with a cargo of cotton.
The CSS Florida, commanded by Lieutenant John Newland Maffitt, captured the ship B. F. Hoxie, of Mystic, Connecticut, bound from Mazatlan for Falmouth, England, with a cargo of log-wood, silver bars and thirty tons of silver ore, in West Indian waters at latitude twelve degrees north, longitude thirty degrees. After removing the silver bars valued at $500,000, Maffitt burned the prize; the ore and log-wood were sunk in the ship this afternoon.
The troops to operate against the Sioux moved from their rendezvous at Camp Pope, under command of General Sibley. The force numbered fully three thousand men, all recruited in Minnesota, and more or less accustomed to frontier life. A pontoon train accompanied it; also three hundred wagons and several hundred head of beef cattle.
Francis Harrison Pierpont, territorial Governor of western Virginia, in view of the approach of the Confederate Army, issued a proclamation, calling upon the commandants of the militia, to convene their regiments and companies to be held in readiness to go to the field at a moment's warning.
Governor Joel Parker, of New Jersey, issued a proclamation, calling upon the citizens of the State to rally for the defense of Pennsylvania.
Governor Curtin, of Pennsylvania, made the following appeal. To the People of Philadelphia: "For nearly a week past it has been publicly known that the rebels in force were about to enter Pennsylvania. On the twelfth instant an urgent call was made on the people to raise a departmental army corps for the defense of the State. Yesterday, under the proclamation of the President, the militia were called out. Today, a new and pressing exhortation has been given to furnish men to repel the invasion. Philadelphia has not responded ? meanwhile the enemy is six miles this side of Chambersburg , and advancing rapidly. Our capital is threatened, and we may be disgraced by its fall, while the men who should be driving the outlaws from our soil are quibbling about the possible term of service for six months. It never was intended to keep them beyond the continuance of the emergency. You all know this by what happened when the militia were called out last autumn. You then trusted your Government and were not deceived. Trust it again now. I will accept men without reference to the six months term. If you do not wish to bear the ignominy of shirking from the defense of your State, come forward at once. Close your places of business and apply your hearts to the work. Come in such organizations as you can form. General Couch has appointed Lieutenant-Colonel Ruff to superintend your organizations. Report to him immediately."
The Rebels under General Lee, in the invasion of Pennsylvania, reached Scotland, a few miles east of Chambersburg. At Harrisburg, the excitement was intense. A correspondent at that place, describing the scene, says: It is difficult to convey an exact idea of the state of affairs here to-night, not only on account of the confusion existing, but in consequence of the danger of trenching on what may be contraband ground. During the morning a perfect panic prevailed, extending to all classes of people, and resulting in the grandest demand for railroad tickets ever witnessed in this city. The enemy were supposed to be just over the river, or, at any rate, at Carlisle, and every woman in the place seemed anxious to leave for safer regions. Trunks were piled up at the depots six feet in height, for nearly a square, and hundreds if not thousands of people eagerly waited the hour of the departure of the various trains. In the mean while, the State Capitol had been completely denuded of every thing of value, from the portraits of the governors to the books in the library. The books, papers, paintings, and other valuables were packed in freight-cars, and made ready for instant departure in case of decided signs of danger to the city. Measures were taken yesterday to rouse the people to the danger at hand, and during to-day about one thousand persons were earnestly at work on the other side of the Susquehanna, throwing up a bastion-ed redoubt, for the protection of Harrisburg. The work was kept up all day, and far into the evening, and late tonight we saw files of laborers returning from their unwonted toil. There were but few regular soldiers in town today, the principal display being made by three companies of invalids from the military hospitals at York. They arrived during the afternoon, and when drawn up on Third street, they looked as if there was considerable fight in them yet. During the entire afternoon, Market street was occupied with army wagons from Milroy's division, which rumbled across the old bridge, and from thence past the railroad depot and out to a camp ground on the other side of the canal. These wagons were mostly drawn by four horses, though there were some mule teams among them. Dust was the prevailing feature of the vehicles, from the ears of the horses to the hat rims of the teamsters. Some of the wagons were filled with hay and some with tents, while from many peeped the black faces, grinning mouths and white teeth of contrabands, large and small, of both sexes. For several hours this wagon-train completely filled Market street, giving the spectators a far better idea of the dust, turmoil, and fatigue of war than they could get in any other way.
President Jefferson Davis, at Richmond, Virginia, called upon the States of the Confederacy to furnish troops for home defense, in order to replace those who were then under the command of General Lee, invading the North.
Littlestown, eleven miles from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, was occupied by Rebel cavalry.
Rebel salt works, in Princess Ann County, Virginia, were destroyed by Major Murray, having under his command over one hundred men, belonging to the One Hundred and Forty-eighth regiment of New York volunteers.
Governor Augustus Williamson Bradford, of Maryland, issued a proclamation calling upon the citizens of Baltimore and people of Maryland to rally to defend their soil from invasion. As there was no organized militia force in the State, he announced that he would fall back upon the recent enrollment for the draft; but he hoped there is patriotism sufficient among the people to raise the force needed from voluntary enlistments.
Harper's Ferry, Virginia, was invested by the Confederates, while the Federal troops held Maryland Heights in large force.
The Councils of Baltimore, Maryland, appropriated four hundred thousand dollars for enlistment bounties.
This post was edited on 6/23/13 at 2:01 pm
1
Posted on 6/17/13 at 4:23 pm to dallasga6
Two parts today... Busy day...part 1...
June 17, 1863
The CSS Atlanta, Commander William A. Webb in charge, with the old wooden steamers Isondiga and Resolute, engaged the USS Weehawken, Captain John Rodgers, and USS Nahant, Commander Downes, in Wassaw Sound. A percussion torpedo was fitted to the ram's bow, "which," Webb wrote, "I knew would do its work to my entire satisfaction, should I but be able to touch the Weehauken..." The Atlanta ran aground coming into the channel, was re-floated and gotten off, but with a damaged rudder repeatedly failed to obey her helm. Weehawken poured five shots from her heavy guns into the Confederate ram, and Nahant moved into attacking Position. With two of his gun crews out of action, with two of three Pilots severely injured, and with his ship helpless and hard aground, Webb was compelled to surrender. His two wooden escorts had returned upriver without engaging.
Captain Rodgers reported: "The Atlanta was found to have mounted two 6-inch and two 7-inch rifles, the 6-inch broadside, the 7-inch working on a Pivot either as broadside or bow and stern guns. There is a large supply of ammunition for these guns and other stores, said to be of great value by some of the officers of the vessel. There were on board at the time of capture, as per muster roll, 21 officers and 124 men, including 28 marines."
In a message of congratulations to Rodgers, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles wrote: ''Every contest in which the ironclads have been engaged against ironclads has been instructive, and affords food for reflection. The lessons to be drawn are momentous. . . . Your early connection with the Mississippi Flotilla and your participation in the projection and construction of the first ironclads on the Western waters, your heroic conduct in the attack on Drewry's Bluff, the high moral courage that led you to put to sea in the Weehawken upon the approach of a violent storm in order to test the seagoing qualities of these new craft at a time when a safe anchorage was close under your lee, the brave and daring manner in which you, with your associates, pressed the ironclads under the concentrated fire of the batteries in Charleston harbor and there tested and proved the endurance and resisting power of these vessels, and your crowning successful achievement in the capture of the Fingal, alias Atlanta, are all proofs of a skill and courage and devotion to the country and the cause of the Union, regardless of self, that can not he permitted to pass unrewarded. . . . For these heroic and serviceable acts I have presented your name to the President, requesting him to recommend that Congress give you a vote of thanks in order that you may he advanced to the grade of commodore in the American Navy."
A boat expedition under Acting Master Sylvanus Nickerson from the USS Itasca captured the blockade runner Miriam at Brazos Santiago, Texas, with a cargo of cotton.
A Union mass meeting was held at Concord, New Hampshire, probably not less than twenty thousand people being present. A procession composed of military and civic organizations and the citizens of the State generally, with numerous bands of music, marched through the principal streets to State House Square, where the meeting organized by choosing Ira Perley, President, with twenty Vice-Presidents. A series of resolutions were adopted, pledging support to the Government in putting down the rebellion. The fourth resolve was as follows: That the men of the loyal States, who, by word or deed, directly or indirectly, under whatever pretence or disguise, discourage the recruiting and maintaining of our army and navy, or in any other way lend their aid to schemes calculated to embarrass the Government in this crisis of the national life, ally themselves with the rebellion and are traitors at heart. Eloquent addresses were made by Major General Benjamin "Spoons" Butler, Montgomery Blair, General Hamilton, Ira Perley and others.
The Seventh, Eighth, and Seventy-first regiments of New York State militia, left New York for the seat of war in Maryland and Pennsylvania.
Robert Toombs delivered a speech at Sparta, Georgia, on "The state of the country."
Union General Blunt issued an order forbidding the circulation of the Caucasian, Chicago Times, Columbus Crisis, Cincinnati Enquirer and New York World in his department.
June 17, 1863
The CSS Atlanta, Commander William A. Webb in charge, with the old wooden steamers Isondiga and Resolute, engaged the USS Weehawken, Captain John Rodgers, and USS Nahant, Commander Downes, in Wassaw Sound. A percussion torpedo was fitted to the ram's bow, "which," Webb wrote, "I knew would do its work to my entire satisfaction, should I but be able to touch the Weehauken..." The Atlanta ran aground coming into the channel, was re-floated and gotten off, but with a damaged rudder repeatedly failed to obey her helm. Weehawken poured five shots from her heavy guns into the Confederate ram, and Nahant moved into attacking Position. With two of his gun crews out of action, with two of three Pilots severely injured, and with his ship helpless and hard aground, Webb was compelled to surrender. His two wooden escorts had returned upriver without engaging.
Captain Rodgers reported: "The Atlanta was found to have mounted two 6-inch and two 7-inch rifles, the 6-inch broadside, the 7-inch working on a Pivot either as broadside or bow and stern guns. There is a large supply of ammunition for these guns and other stores, said to be of great value by some of the officers of the vessel. There were on board at the time of capture, as per muster roll, 21 officers and 124 men, including 28 marines."
In a message of congratulations to Rodgers, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles wrote: ''Every contest in which the ironclads have been engaged against ironclads has been instructive, and affords food for reflection. The lessons to be drawn are momentous. . . . Your early connection with the Mississippi Flotilla and your participation in the projection and construction of the first ironclads on the Western waters, your heroic conduct in the attack on Drewry's Bluff, the high moral courage that led you to put to sea in the Weehawken upon the approach of a violent storm in order to test the seagoing qualities of these new craft at a time when a safe anchorage was close under your lee, the brave and daring manner in which you, with your associates, pressed the ironclads under the concentrated fire of the batteries in Charleston harbor and there tested and proved the endurance and resisting power of these vessels, and your crowning successful achievement in the capture of the Fingal, alias Atlanta, are all proofs of a skill and courage and devotion to the country and the cause of the Union, regardless of self, that can not he permitted to pass unrewarded. . . . For these heroic and serviceable acts I have presented your name to the President, requesting him to recommend that Congress give you a vote of thanks in order that you may he advanced to the grade of commodore in the American Navy."
A boat expedition under Acting Master Sylvanus Nickerson from the USS Itasca captured the blockade runner Miriam at Brazos Santiago, Texas, with a cargo of cotton.
A Union mass meeting was held at Concord, New Hampshire, probably not less than twenty thousand people being present. A procession composed of military and civic organizations and the citizens of the State generally, with numerous bands of music, marched through the principal streets to State House Square, where the meeting organized by choosing Ira Perley, President, with twenty Vice-Presidents. A series of resolutions were adopted, pledging support to the Government in putting down the rebellion. The fourth resolve was as follows: That the men of the loyal States, who, by word or deed, directly or indirectly, under whatever pretence or disguise, discourage the recruiting and maintaining of our army and navy, or in any other way lend their aid to schemes calculated to embarrass the Government in this crisis of the national life, ally themselves with the rebellion and are traitors at heart. Eloquent addresses were made by Major General Benjamin "Spoons" Butler, Montgomery Blair, General Hamilton, Ira Perley and others.
The Seventh, Eighth, and Seventy-first regiments of New York State militia, left New York for the seat of war in Maryland and Pennsylvania.
Robert Toombs delivered a speech at Sparta, Georgia, on "The state of the country."
Union General Blunt issued an order forbidding the circulation of the Caucasian, Chicago Times, Columbus Crisis, Cincinnati Enquirer and New York World in his department.
This post was edited on 6/17/13 at 4:24 pm
Posted on 6/17/13 at 4:24 pm to dallasga6
part 2...
June 17, 1863...
A fight took place at Aldie, Virginia, between the Federal cavalry under Brigadier General David McMurtrie Gregg's division and the Confederate cavalry under Major General J. E. B. Stuart, as Stuart's cavalry screened General Robert E. Lee's infantry while it marched north in the Shenandoah Valley behind the sheltering Blue Ridge Mountains. The pursuing Union cavalry of Brigadier General Judson Kilpatrick's brigade, in the advance of Gregg, encountered Colonel Thomas T. Munford's troopers near the village of Aldie, resulting in four hours of stubborn fighting. Both sides made mounted assaults by regiments and squadrons. Kilpatrick was reinforced in the afternoon, and Munford finally withdrew toward Middleburg. Munford did not consider Aldie as a defeat as his withdrawal coincided with an order from Stuart to retire, as many more Federal cavalry had been sighted at Middleburg. Union casualties were 305 dead and wounded, with the Confederates losing about 110 troops. Aldie was the first in a series of small battles along the Ashby's Gap Turnpike in which Stuart's forces successfully delayed Major General Alfred Pleasonton's thrust across the Loudoun Valley, depriving him of the opportunity to locate Lee's army.
A small body of Rebel cavalry crossed the Potomac near the Point of Rocks, and moved upon that place, at which there was no force of defense, except Captain Means' irregular local cavalry. All these were captured, including the Captain himself. Simultaneously another body of the Confederates, mounted, crossed the river higher up, and attacked Major Coles's cavalry at Catoctin Station, about seven or eight miles east of Harper's Ferry. About the same time a part of the Southerner's cavalry charged upon a military train, and succeeded in its capture. It consisted of one first class locomotive and about twenty-three cars, returning from Harper's Ferry to Baltimore, after having carried provisions to supply the garrison during the day. Fortunately, this was the last train of a convoy of five, the others having just preceded it in safety, and all reached Baltimore. Of the captured train were several cars loaded with produce that was being rescued from danger from the vicinity of Harper's Ferry, also some fifteen passengers who took advantage of the train either to escape, or else business connected with the army required them to come down the road.
The ironclad gunboat Chattahoochee, belonging to the Rebels, was destroyed at Chattahoochee, Florida, by the bursting of her boiler. A correspondent of the Charleston Courier gives the following account of the affair: The schooner Fashion, at anchor in the Chattahoochee River, twenty-five miles above Apalachicola, was loading with cotton, and intended to run the blockade. She had received sixty bales of Sea Island cotton, and was awaiting for another arrival, when a spy or some traitorous person conveyed the fact to the enemy's fleet blockading. The result was, that the enemy sent nine launches with armed men, captured the schooner with the cotton on board, and took her to the fleet. When the news reached Chattahoochee, Lieutenant Guthrie, commanding the Confederate States ironclad gunboat Chattahoochee, ordered steam to be raised, and was determined to pass the obstructions in the river, if possible, with a view of attacking the United States steamer, and endeavor to relieve the Fashion. Just as the steamer was leaving her anchorage, her boilers exploded, and twelve persons were killed, while several others were badly scalded.
A portion of two companies of the Ninth regiment of Kansas volunteers, numbering seventy men, while on the march from Paola to Kansas City, were fired on at a point about four miles southwest of Westport, Missouri, by a party of partisans in ambush, and suffered a loss of ten killed and seventeen wounded and missing. The Union troops who were under the command of Captain Fletcher, were obliged to rapidly retreat to Olathe.
H. Pinkney Walker, Her Britannic Majesty's Vice Consul, at Charleston, South Carolina, having submitted to the Secretary of State satisfactory evidence of his appointment as Acting Consul for the States of North and South Carolina, is recognized as such by the government of the Confederate States.
Cumberland, Maryland, was occupied during a portion of the day by a party of Brigadier General John Daniel Imboden's Confederate cavalry, who visited the various stores in town, and made large purchases of boots, shoes, and clothing, paying for the same in Rebel scrip, at a heavy discount. Several young men belonging to the town joined the Southerners and left with them on their departure, which took place at an early hour in the forenoon.
June 17, 1863...
A fight took place at Aldie, Virginia, between the Federal cavalry under Brigadier General David McMurtrie Gregg's division and the Confederate cavalry under Major General J. E. B. Stuart, as Stuart's cavalry screened General Robert E. Lee's infantry while it marched north in the Shenandoah Valley behind the sheltering Blue Ridge Mountains. The pursuing Union cavalry of Brigadier General Judson Kilpatrick's brigade, in the advance of Gregg, encountered Colonel Thomas T. Munford's troopers near the village of Aldie, resulting in four hours of stubborn fighting. Both sides made mounted assaults by regiments and squadrons. Kilpatrick was reinforced in the afternoon, and Munford finally withdrew toward Middleburg. Munford did not consider Aldie as a defeat as his withdrawal coincided with an order from Stuart to retire, as many more Federal cavalry had been sighted at Middleburg. Union casualties were 305 dead and wounded, with the Confederates losing about 110 troops. Aldie was the first in a series of small battles along the Ashby's Gap Turnpike in which Stuart's forces successfully delayed Major General Alfred Pleasonton's thrust across the Loudoun Valley, depriving him of the opportunity to locate Lee's army.
A small body of Rebel cavalry crossed the Potomac near the Point of Rocks, and moved upon that place, at which there was no force of defense, except Captain Means' irregular local cavalry. All these were captured, including the Captain himself. Simultaneously another body of the Confederates, mounted, crossed the river higher up, and attacked Major Coles's cavalry at Catoctin Station, about seven or eight miles east of Harper's Ferry. About the same time a part of the Southerner's cavalry charged upon a military train, and succeeded in its capture. It consisted of one first class locomotive and about twenty-three cars, returning from Harper's Ferry to Baltimore, after having carried provisions to supply the garrison during the day. Fortunately, this was the last train of a convoy of five, the others having just preceded it in safety, and all reached Baltimore. Of the captured train were several cars loaded with produce that was being rescued from danger from the vicinity of Harper's Ferry, also some fifteen passengers who took advantage of the train either to escape, or else business connected with the army required them to come down the road.
The ironclad gunboat Chattahoochee, belonging to the Rebels, was destroyed at Chattahoochee, Florida, by the bursting of her boiler. A correspondent of the Charleston Courier gives the following account of the affair: The schooner Fashion, at anchor in the Chattahoochee River, twenty-five miles above Apalachicola, was loading with cotton, and intended to run the blockade. She had received sixty bales of Sea Island cotton, and was awaiting for another arrival, when a spy or some traitorous person conveyed the fact to the enemy's fleet blockading. The result was, that the enemy sent nine launches with armed men, captured the schooner with the cotton on board, and took her to the fleet. When the news reached Chattahoochee, Lieutenant Guthrie, commanding the Confederate States ironclad gunboat Chattahoochee, ordered steam to be raised, and was determined to pass the obstructions in the river, if possible, with a view of attacking the United States steamer, and endeavor to relieve the Fashion. Just as the steamer was leaving her anchorage, her boilers exploded, and twelve persons were killed, while several others were badly scalded.
A portion of two companies of the Ninth regiment of Kansas volunteers, numbering seventy men, while on the march from Paola to Kansas City, were fired on at a point about four miles southwest of Westport, Missouri, by a party of partisans in ambush, and suffered a loss of ten killed and seventeen wounded and missing. The Union troops who were under the command of Captain Fletcher, were obliged to rapidly retreat to Olathe.
H. Pinkney Walker, Her Britannic Majesty's Vice Consul, at Charleston, South Carolina, having submitted to the Secretary of State satisfactory evidence of his appointment as Acting Consul for the States of North and South Carolina, is recognized as such by the government of the Confederate States.
Cumberland, Maryland, was occupied during a portion of the day by a party of Brigadier General John Daniel Imboden's Confederate cavalry, who visited the various stores in town, and made large purchases of boots, shoes, and clothing, paying for the same in Rebel scrip, at a heavy discount. Several young men belonging to the town joined the Southerners and left with them on their departure, which took place at an early hour in the forenoon.
Posted on 6/18/13 at 2:21 pm to dallasga6
June 18, 1863
Major General John McClernand was a politician from Illinois who was commanding the US 13th Corps. He had at one point been promised command of the assault on Vicksburg, and was more than a little miffed that some upstart named Hiram Grant had been awarded the job. Grant in return detested him and wanted him gone. He found his excuse today when McClernand sent a message to his troops that made it sound like they were the only soldiers in the attack, and all the other Union men were cowards and incompetents. He was relieved of command and sent back to politic at home.
Rear Admiral David Farragut in the USS Monongahela steamed down river from Port Hudson to Plaquemine, Louisiana, where a raid by a company of Confederate cavalry had burned two Army transports. It was feared that the Confederate intent was to capture Donaldsonville, Louisiana, cutting off the flow of supplies between New Orleans and General Nathaniel Banks before Port Hudson. The USS Winona, piloted by Lieutenant Commander Aaron V. Weaver, shelled the Confederate cavalrymen from the town. The Admiral reported: "The moral effect of our force gathering about them so quickly was very good both against the enemy and in favor of the soldiers and ourselves..." Farragut concentrated three or four gunboats at Donaldsonville, and General Banks wrote several days later: "The result at Donaldsonville was very gratifying, and I feel greatly indebted to the officers of the Navy for the assistance they gave, and the distinguished part they played in this most creditable affair."
The USS General Sterling Price, under Commander Woodworth, and the USS Mound City, Lieutenant Wilson in charge, returned to their positions below Vicksburg after a three day reconnaissance down the Mississippi River as far as Cole's Creek. During the expedition, some 60 to 70 barges, skiffs, and boats were destroyed which could have been used to transport Confederate troops. Meanwhile, the USS Benton, Lieutenant Commander Greer piloting, supplied Major General Francis J. Herron with two 32-pounders, complete with ammunition and equipment and a crew to man them. Of this battery, General Herron later wrote: "The battery, under the command of Acting Master j. Frank Reed, of the Benton, did excellent service, and I can not speak too highly of the bravery and energy of this young officer. Indeed, during the whole of my operations, I received valuable assistance and a hearty cooperation from the Navy."
The USS Tahoma, under Lieutenant Commander A. A. Semmes, captured the British schooner blockade runner Harriet near Anclote Keys, Florida; the Tahoma chased the British blockade runner Mary Jane ashore and destroyed her at Clearwater.
The USS James S. Chambers, Acting Master L. Nickerson, captured the schooner Rebekah off Tampa Bay, Florida.
It having been ascertained that a heavy force of the Rebels was about to advance through Northern Mississippi upon the railroad, for the purpose of destroying the bridges near Pocahontas, Lieutenant Colonel Phillips, of the Ninth Illinois, was dispatched to meet, and, if possible, check their movement. He had with him his own regiment, the third battalion of the Fifth Ohio cavalry, Major Smith, and a part of the Eighteenth Missouri, all mounted. When near Ripley he found the Confederates in force, and began to fall back, drawing them north toward Pocahontas. After a little feint of this kind, Colonel Phillips turned and went toward the enemy. At Rocky Crossing, of the Tallahatchie, he came up with General Ruggles, with a force of infantry, one battery, and cavalry. Colonel Phillips offered battle, and fought the enemy with such determination as to check his intended movement northward to the railroad. The Federals suffered a loss of seven killed and twenty-eight wounded. The loss of the enemy was thirty-five killed and one hundred wounded. Lieutenant Colonel Phillips returned to Pocahontas, bringing with him thirty prisoners, taken in the battle, including one lieutenant colonel.
The steamer Platte Valley was fired into at Bradford's Landing on the Mississippi, and two persons were killed and a number wounded.
A large detachment of the First Missouri and Fifth Ohio cavalry under Major Henry, of the Fifth Ohio, while on a reconnaissance, was surrounded near Fernando, Mississippi, by General Chambers, with two thousand Confederates. The Federals were routed and most of them captured or killed. Major Henry was taken prisoner.
Fletcher Freeman, the Federal enrolling officer of Sullivan County, Indiana, was shot and instantly killed, while riding along a country road.
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, was evacuated by the Rebels under General Albert G. Jenkins, who took up his line of march to Hagerstown.
Confederate cavalry under the command of Colonel Phillips, made a descent on Plaquemine, Louisiana, and destroyed four steamers and a large quantity of cotton.
Major General John McClernand was a politician from Illinois who was commanding the US 13th Corps. He had at one point been promised command of the assault on Vicksburg, and was more than a little miffed that some upstart named Hiram Grant had been awarded the job. Grant in return detested him and wanted him gone. He found his excuse today when McClernand sent a message to his troops that made it sound like they were the only soldiers in the attack, and all the other Union men were cowards and incompetents. He was relieved of command and sent back to politic at home.
Rear Admiral David Farragut in the USS Monongahela steamed down river from Port Hudson to Plaquemine, Louisiana, where a raid by a company of Confederate cavalry had burned two Army transports. It was feared that the Confederate intent was to capture Donaldsonville, Louisiana, cutting off the flow of supplies between New Orleans and General Nathaniel Banks before Port Hudson. The USS Winona, piloted by Lieutenant Commander Aaron V. Weaver, shelled the Confederate cavalrymen from the town. The Admiral reported: "The moral effect of our force gathering about them so quickly was very good both against the enemy and in favor of the soldiers and ourselves..." Farragut concentrated three or four gunboats at Donaldsonville, and General Banks wrote several days later: "The result at Donaldsonville was very gratifying, and I feel greatly indebted to the officers of the Navy for the assistance they gave, and the distinguished part they played in this most creditable affair."
The USS General Sterling Price, under Commander Woodworth, and the USS Mound City, Lieutenant Wilson in charge, returned to their positions below Vicksburg after a three day reconnaissance down the Mississippi River as far as Cole's Creek. During the expedition, some 60 to 70 barges, skiffs, and boats were destroyed which could have been used to transport Confederate troops. Meanwhile, the USS Benton, Lieutenant Commander Greer piloting, supplied Major General Francis J. Herron with two 32-pounders, complete with ammunition and equipment and a crew to man them. Of this battery, General Herron later wrote: "The battery, under the command of Acting Master j. Frank Reed, of the Benton, did excellent service, and I can not speak too highly of the bravery and energy of this young officer. Indeed, during the whole of my operations, I received valuable assistance and a hearty cooperation from the Navy."
The USS Tahoma, under Lieutenant Commander A. A. Semmes, captured the British schooner blockade runner Harriet near Anclote Keys, Florida; the Tahoma chased the British blockade runner Mary Jane ashore and destroyed her at Clearwater.
The USS James S. Chambers, Acting Master L. Nickerson, captured the schooner Rebekah off Tampa Bay, Florida.
It having been ascertained that a heavy force of the Rebels was about to advance through Northern Mississippi upon the railroad, for the purpose of destroying the bridges near Pocahontas, Lieutenant Colonel Phillips, of the Ninth Illinois, was dispatched to meet, and, if possible, check their movement. He had with him his own regiment, the third battalion of the Fifth Ohio cavalry, Major Smith, and a part of the Eighteenth Missouri, all mounted. When near Ripley he found the Confederates in force, and began to fall back, drawing them north toward Pocahontas. After a little feint of this kind, Colonel Phillips turned and went toward the enemy. At Rocky Crossing, of the Tallahatchie, he came up with General Ruggles, with a force of infantry, one battery, and cavalry. Colonel Phillips offered battle, and fought the enemy with such determination as to check his intended movement northward to the railroad. The Federals suffered a loss of seven killed and twenty-eight wounded. The loss of the enemy was thirty-five killed and one hundred wounded. Lieutenant Colonel Phillips returned to Pocahontas, bringing with him thirty prisoners, taken in the battle, including one lieutenant colonel.
The steamer Platte Valley was fired into at Bradford's Landing on the Mississippi, and two persons were killed and a number wounded.
A large detachment of the First Missouri and Fifth Ohio cavalry under Major Henry, of the Fifth Ohio, while on a reconnaissance, was surrounded near Fernando, Mississippi, by General Chambers, with two thousand Confederates. The Federals were routed and most of them captured or killed. Major Henry was taken prisoner.
Fletcher Freeman, the Federal enrolling officer of Sullivan County, Indiana, was shot and instantly killed, while riding along a country road.
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, was evacuated by the Rebels under General Albert G. Jenkins, who took up his line of march to Hagerstown.
Confederate cavalry under the command of Colonel Phillips, made a descent on Plaquemine, Louisiana, and destroyed four steamers and a large quantity of cotton.
Posted on 6/19/13 at 2:07 pm to dallasga6
June 19, 1863
Secretary Stephen Mallory wrote to Commander James Bulloch in Liverpool: "I have heretofore requested you to purchase upon the best terms you can make a very fast steamer suitable for blockade running between Nassau, Bermuda, Charleston, and Wilmington. A capacity for stowing from 600 to 1,000 bales of cotton upon not over 10 feet draft would be desirable. With such a vessel I can place exchange for our use in England every month."
A naval battery mounted to fire across the river at Cerro Gordo, Tennessee, manned by crew from the USS Robb, Acting Ensign Hanford in charge, was hotly engaged by Confederate troops. Hanford reported: "They [the Confederates] charged four abreast (dismounted) and came to within 20 yards of the cannon's mouth, while canister was being fired into them like rain."
The mortar schooner USS Para, under Acting Master Edward G. Furber, captured the blockade running schooner Emma off Mosquito Inlet, Florida.
A committee from the planters of Louisiana, made a formal application to the President of the United States, for re-admission into the Union.
General Gregg, with his cavalry, met the Confederate line of skirmishers in a piece of woods a short distance west of Middleburg, Virginia, and forced them back about five miles on the road leading to Ashby's Gap, where the enemy had two brigades of infantry. Artillery was used occasionally on both sides, but most of the time the fight was more of an Indian warfare than any thing else. Nearly all the charges made were in woods where the enemy fought from behind trees, stone walls and natural rifle pits. A large number of the Federals were dismounted, and they proved themselves to be quite as great adept in the Indian style of warfare as the enemy. As the latter were driven out of one piece of timber, they would retreat into another, and thus the contest was kept up, from early morning until four o'clock P. M., almost without intermission. During the early portion of the day the brigade commanded by Gregg was alone engaged. During the day, General Kilpatrick's command came up, and, at a late hour, the regular cavalry, which had been sent up the Snicker's Gap road, made a sudden dash upon the left flank of the rebels, creating quite a panic. As the regulars passed up the Snicker's Gap pike, a squadron of the First cavalry was placed to guard the bridge across Goose Creek, The main column had been gone only a short time, when the guard was counter-attacked, and driven away, when the bridge was set on fire. The First Maine, Tenth, Second, and Fourth New York, Fourth and Sixteenth Pennsylvania did most of the skirmishing. The Union loss in killed and wounded, yesterday and today, was probably more than fifty, and of the whole number there were another half a dozen wounds of a serious character. On the other hand, at the close of the day, there were thirty of the enemy's dead and wounded at the hospital, a majority of the wounds being of a serious character. Some forty prisoners were captured, including six officers, a lieutenant colonel, a major, a captain and three lieutenants. When the Tenth New York entered Middleburg yesterday, they found five of the missing First Rhode Island troopers locked up in a store, their captors not having an opportunity even to parole or carry them off, so sudden was the charge into the town made.
The Rebels at Williamsport carried all their stores to the north side of the Potomac River, with the purpose of making that their base of operations for forays into Pennsylvania.
Boonesboro, Maryland, was evacuated by the Confederates, who carried off a number of horses and some other property.
Two members of the staff of General Hooker, Major Sterling and Captain Fisher, as well as their orderlies, were captured by John Singleton Mosby and three companion Rangers in front of the home of Almond Birch, a known Union sympathizer, near Fairfax, Virginia.
Horatio Seymour, Governor of New York, issued an order organizing the National Guard of the State.
This morning the CSS Alabama, commanded by Captain Raphael Semmes, captured the ship Conrad out of Philadelpia.
A detachment of General Albert G. Jenkins' Rebel force on their movement from Chambersburg, entered McConnellsburg, Pennsylvania, surprising the citizens and capturing a large number of horses and cattle, besides helping themselves to such provisions and wearing apparel as they could find in the stores. After thoroughly rifling the town, they left, taking the road to Hancock, Maryland.
The brig Isabella Thompson, having on board a cargo of turpentine and cotton, was captured by the Union gunboat United States, commanded by R. W. Mead, Jr.
The British schooner Glenn, of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, from Matamoras bound for Nassau, being six hundred miles out of her course, was overhauled by the Federal steamer Cumbria, and her papers not being satisfactory, a prize crew was put on board, and she was ordered to New York.
Secretary Stephen Mallory wrote to Commander James Bulloch in Liverpool: "I have heretofore requested you to purchase upon the best terms you can make a very fast steamer suitable for blockade running between Nassau, Bermuda, Charleston, and Wilmington. A capacity for stowing from 600 to 1,000 bales of cotton upon not over 10 feet draft would be desirable. With such a vessel I can place exchange for our use in England every month."
A naval battery mounted to fire across the river at Cerro Gordo, Tennessee, manned by crew from the USS Robb, Acting Ensign Hanford in charge, was hotly engaged by Confederate troops. Hanford reported: "They [the Confederates] charged four abreast (dismounted) and came to within 20 yards of the cannon's mouth, while canister was being fired into them like rain."
The mortar schooner USS Para, under Acting Master Edward G. Furber, captured the blockade running schooner Emma off Mosquito Inlet, Florida.
A committee from the planters of Louisiana, made a formal application to the President of the United States, for re-admission into the Union.
General Gregg, with his cavalry, met the Confederate line of skirmishers in a piece of woods a short distance west of Middleburg, Virginia, and forced them back about five miles on the road leading to Ashby's Gap, where the enemy had two brigades of infantry. Artillery was used occasionally on both sides, but most of the time the fight was more of an Indian warfare than any thing else. Nearly all the charges made were in woods where the enemy fought from behind trees, stone walls and natural rifle pits. A large number of the Federals were dismounted, and they proved themselves to be quite as great adept in the Indian style of warfare as the enemy. As the latter were driven out of one piece of timber, they would retreat into another, and thus the contest was kept up, from early morning until four o'clock P. M., almost without intermission. During the early portion of the day the brigade commanded by Gregg was alone engaged. During the day, General Kilpatrick's command came up, and, at a late hour, the regular cavalry, which had been sent up the Snicker's Gap road, made a sudden dash upon the left flank of the rebels, creating quite a panic. As the regulars passed up the Snicker's Gap pike, a squadron of the First cavalry was placed to guard the bridge across Goose Creek, The main column had been gone only a short time, when the guard was counter-attacked, and driven away, when the bridge was set on fire. The First Maine, Tenth, Second, and Fourth New York, Fourth and Sixteenth Pennsylvania did most of the skirmishing. The Union loss in killed and wounded, yesterday and today, was probably more than fifty, and of the whole number there were another half a dozen wounds of a serious character. On the other hand, at the close of the day, there were thirty of the enemy's dead and wounded at the hospital, a majority of the wounds being of a serious character. Some forty prisoners were captured, including six officers, a lieutenant colonel, a major, a captain and three lieutenants. When the Tenth New York entered Middleburg yesterday, they found five of the missing First Rhode Island troopers locked up in a store, their captors not having an opportunity even to parole or carry them off, so sudden was the charge into the town made.
The Rebels at Williamsport carried all their stores to the north side of the Potomac River, with the purpose of making that their base of operations for forays into Pennsylvania.
Boonesboro, Maryland, was evacuated by the Confederates, who carried off a number of horses and some other property.
Two members of the staff of General Hooker, Major Sterling and Captain Fisher, as well as their orderlies, were captured by John Singleton Mosby and three companion Rangers in front of the home of Almond Birch, a known Union sympathizer, near Fairfax, Virginia.
Horatio Seymour, Governor of New York, issued an order organizing the National Guard of the State.
This morning the CSS Alabama, commanded by Captain Raphael Semmes, captured the ship Conrad out of Philadelpia.
A detachment of General Albert G. Jenkins' Rebel force on their movement from Chambersburg, entered McConnellsburg, Pennsylvania, surprising the citizens and capturing a large number of horses and cattle, besides helping themselves to such provisions and wearing apparel as they could find in the stores. After thoroughly rifling the town, they left, taking the road to Hancock, Maryland.
The brig Isabella Thompson, having on board a cargo of turpentine and cotton, was captured by the Union gunboat United States, commanded by R. W. Mead, Jr.
The British schooner Glenn, of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, from Matamoras bound for Nassau, being six hundred miles out of her course, was overhauled by the Federal steamer Cumbria, and her papers not being satisfactory, a prize crew was put on board, and she was ordered to New York.
This post was edited on 6/19/13 at 3:00 pm
Posted on 6/19/13 at 2:15 pm to dallasga6
you are really dedicated to this thread 
Posted on 6/20/13 at 1:40 pm to UMRealist
June 20, 1863
This was proving to be another day of fierce action but in many widely separated areas, rather than one big battle in one place. Activities occurred in such diverse locations as Middletown, Maryland; Diascund Bridge, Virginia; Government Springs, Utah; Waynesville Missouri; Vicksburg, Mississippi, which was subjected to heavier-than-usual bombardment from both land and river; and LaFourche Crossing, Louisiana, where a Confederate cavalry attack went on and off for two days before finally being repulsed.
A heavy combined Army-Navy bombardment of Vicksburg, lasting 6 hours, hammered Confederate positions. Supporting the Army, Rear Admiral David Porter pressed mortars, gunboats, and scows into action from 4 a.m. until 10. The naval force met with no opposition, and the Admiral noted: "The only demonstration made by the rebels from the water front was a brisk fire of heavy guns from the upper batteries on two 12-pounder rifled howitzers that were planted n the Louisiana side by General Ellet's Marine Brigade, which has much annoyed the enemy for two or three days, and prevented them from getting water." After this extensive bombardment, reports reached Porter that the Southerners were readying boats with which to make a river borne evacuation of the city. Emphasizing the need for continued vigilance, the Admiral informed his gunboat commanders: "If the rebels start down in their skiffs, the current will drift them to about abreast of the houses where the mortars are laid up, and they will land there. In that case the vessels must push up amidst them, run over them, fire grape and canister and destroy all they can, looking out that they are not boarded."
The CSS Alabama, commanded by Captain Rapharl Semmes, captured bark the Conrad from Buenos Aires for New York with a cargo of wool. Semmes commissioned her as a cruiser under the name CSS Tuscaloosa and wrote: "Never perhaps was a ship of war fitted out so promptly before. The Conrad was a commissioned ship, with armament, crew, and provisions on board, flying her pennant, and with sailing orders signed, sealed, and delivered, before sunset on the day of her capture.''
The CSS Tacony, Lieutenant Charles W. Read, captured the ship Isaac Webb, bound from Liverpool to New York. The prize had some 759 passengers on board and, being unable "...to dispose of the passengers, I bonded her for $40,000." The same day, the Tacony captured and burned the fishing schooner L. A. Macomber, of Noank, Connecticut, while anchoring at a point twenty-two miles southeast of the South Shoal lighthouse off the New England coast.
The USS Primrose, under Acting Master Street, captured the sloop Richard Vaux off Blakistone Island, Potomac River.
The First regiment of New York cavalry encountered a small portion of General Albert Gallatin Jenkins' Confederate force near Greencastle, Pennsylvania, and after a short skirmish defeated them, capturing twenty prisoners.
Extracts from the World, Express, and Caucasian, published in New York, the Cincinnati Enquirer and Chicago Times, were suppressed within the limits of the Eighth Army corps, by order of General Schenck.
The Confederate schooner Hattie was captured while attempting to run the blockade of Wilmington, North Carolina, by the Federal gunboat Florida.
From the Richmond Sentinel: A part of General Lee's army is already in the valley of Virginia, and a part probably in Maryland. The rest will probably follow on. At all events, Richmond is about to be uncovered of the defense afforded by the proximity of his troops. They will be removed to some more distant point, whence they cannot be brought instantly and readily to our assistance, if assistance we should need. This summer's campaign cannot be conducted efficiently, if large numbers of our regular troops are detailed to guard and protect our cities, and other assailable points. In country and in town we must protect ourselves against raiding parties by means of the militia and of volunteer associations for home defense. We learn from the United States papers that it is proposed in Pennsylvania to call out the militia up to sixty years of age, to repel apprehended invasion. Shall we do less to repel actual invasion? If she be ready to make such sacrifices to subjugate us, should we not be willing to make greater sacrifices to defend ourselves? Boys, from twelve to eighteen, are excellent marksmen, and although it might demoralize their principles, injure their characters, and endanger their health, to enlist them regularly in the army and expose them to the hardships of the camp, of long marches, and of indifferent diet, yet they may be drilled more readily than old men, and made efficient soldiers in a sudden emergency to aid in the defense of the city and its environs.
The citizens of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, held a mass meeting, at which martial law was called for and skulkers denounced. A general suspension of business and the raising of volunteer companies for defense were strenuously advocated.
A. J. Borman was inaugurated as the first Governor of the new State of West Virginia.
The resistance to the Draft in Holmes County, Ohio, ended.
A spirited engagement continued at LaFourche Crossing, Louisiana, this afternoon. Nearly two thousand rebels attacked the Federal forces who were guarding the bridge and were repulsed.
Frederick, Maryland, was occupied by the rebels under General J. E. B. Stuart.
This was proving to be another day of fierce action but in many widely separated areas, rather than one big battle in one place. Activities occurred in such diverse locations as Middletown, Maryland; Diascund Bridge, Virginia; Government Springs, Utah; Waynesville Missouri; Vicksburg, Mississippi, which was subjected to heavier-than-usual bombardment from both land and river; and LaFourche Crossing, Louisiana, where a Confederate cavalry attack went on and off for two days before finally being repulsed.
A heavy combined Army-Navy bombardment of Vicksburg, lasting 6 hours, hammered Confederate positions. Supporting the Army, Rear Admiral David Porter pressed mortars, gunboats, and scows into action from 4 a.m. until 10. The naval force met with no opposition, and the Admiral noted: "The only demonstration made by the rebels from the water front was a brisk fire of heavy guns from the upper batteries on two 12-pounder rifled howitzers that were planted n the Louisiana side by General Ellet's Marine Brigade, which has much annoyed the enemy for two or three days, and prevented them from getting water." After this extensive bombardment, reports reached Porter that the Southerners were readying boats with which to make a river borne evacuation of the city. Emphasizing the need for continued vigilance, the Admiral informed his gunboat commanders: "If the rebels start down in their skiffs, the current will drift them to about abreast of the houses where the mortars are laid up, and they will land there. In that case the vessels must push up amidst them, run over them, fire grape and canister and destroy all they can, looking out that they are not boarded."
The CSS Alabama, commanded by Captain Rapharl Semmes, captured bark the Conrad from Buenos Aires for New York with a cargo of wool. Semmes commissioned her as a cruiser under the name CSS Tuscaloosa and wrote: "Never perhaps was a ship of war fitted out so promptly before. The Conrad was a commissioned ship, with armament, crew, and provisions on board, flying her pennant, and with sailing orders signed, sealed, and delivered, before sunset on the day of her capture.''
The CSS Tacony, Lieutenant Charles W. Read, captured the ship Isaac Webb, bound from Liverpool to New York. The prize had some 759 passengers on board and, being unable "...to dispose of the passengers, I bonded her for $40,000." The same day, the Tacony captured and burned the fishing schooner L. A. Macomber, of Noank, Connecticut, while anchoring at a point twenty-two miles southeast of the South Shoal lighthouse off the New England coast.
The USS Primrose, under Acting Master Street, captured the sloop Richard Vaux off Blakistone Island, Potomac River.
The First regiment of New York cavalry encountered a small portion of General Albert Gallatin Jenkins' Confederate force near Greencastle, Pennsylvania, and after a short skirmish defeated them, capturing twenty prisoners.
Extracts from the World, Express, and Caucasian, published in New York, the Cincinnati Enquirer and Chicago Times, were suppressed within the limits of the Eighth Army corps, by order of General Schenck.
The Confederate schooner Hattie was captured while attempting to run the blockade of Wilmington, North Carolina, by the Federal gunboat Florida.
From the Richmond Sentinel: A part of General Lee's army is already in the valley of Virginia, and a part probably in Maryland. The rest will probably follow on. At all events, Richmond is about to be uncovered of the defense afforded by the proximity of his troops. They will be removed to some more distant point, whence they cannot be brought instantly and readily to our assistance, if assistance we should need. This summer's campaign cannot be conducted efficiently, if large numbers of our regular troops are detailed to guard and protect our cities, and other assailable points. In country and in town we must protect ourselves against raiding parties by means of the militia and of volunteer associations for home defense. We learn from the United States papers that it is proposed in Pennsylvania to call out the militia up to sixty years of age, to repel apprehended invasion. Shall we do less to repel actual invasion? If she be ready to make such sacrifices to subjugate us, should we not be willing to make greater sacrifices to defend ourselves? Boys, from twelve to eighteen, are excellent marksmen, and although it might demoralize their principles, injure their characters, and endanger their health, to enlist them regularly in the army and expose them to the hardships of the camp, of long marches, and of indifferent diet, yet they may be drilled more readily than old men, and made efficient soldiers in a sudden emergency to aid in the defense of the city and its environs.
The citizens of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, held a mass meeting, at which martial law was called for and skulkers denounced. A general suspension of business and the raising of volunteer companies for defense were strenuously advocated.
A. J. Borman was inaugurated as the first Governor of the new State of West Virginia.
The resistance to the Draft in Holmes County, Ohio, ended.
A spirited engagement continued at LaFourche Crossing, Louisiana, this afternoon. Nearly two thousand rebels attacked the Federal forces who were guarding the bridge and were repulsed.
Frederick, Maryland, was occupied by the rebels under General J. E. B. Stuart.
Posted on 6/21/13 at 3:57 pm to dallasga6
June 21, 1863
The siege of Vicksburg was beginning to feel, to those on both sides, as though it had gone on forever, and might easily continue for all time. "One day is like another in a besieged city," wrote one Confederate major today. "All you can hear are the crack of the Enemy's guns, with the sharp crack of the rifles of their sharp-shooters going from early dawn to dark and then at night the roaring of the terrible mortars is kept up sometimes all this time." People's minds were beginning to be affected.
The CSS Tacony, commanded by Lieutenant Charles W. Read, captured and burned the ship Byzantium, with a cargo of coal, and the bark Goodspeed, in ballast, off the coast of New England.
The USS Owasco, under Lieutenant Commander Madigan, and USS Cayuga, Lieutenant Commander William H. Dana piloting, took the sloop Active attempting to run the Union blockade out of Sabine Pass, Texas, with a cargo of cotton.
The USS Santiago de Cuba, Commander Robert H. Wyman in charge, seized the blockade running British steamer Victory off Palmetto Point, Eleuthera Island, after a long chase; the Victory was from Wilmington and carried a cargo of cotton, tobacco, and turpentine.
The USS Florida, piloted by Commander Bankhead, captured the schooner Hattie off Frying Pan Shoals, North Carolina, with cargo of cotton and naval stores.
At Baltimore, Maryland, as a matter of precaution against Rebel demonstrations, earthworks were erected around the north and west sides of the city. The Council appropriated a large sum of money, and a very large force of laborers-slave and contraband-were pressed into the service. A line of barricades, composed of tobacco hogsheads and empty sugar and molasses hogsheads, filled with brick and sand, was erected within the city, extending from the high ground on the east to the south-western extremity. "These, if the rebels should come," said a participant, "will be defended by the Union League men, who are being armed by General Schenck, and should a cavalry force manage to dash past the batteries, they would here meet a formidable resistance. The Union men are entirely confident that should the rebels be so rash as to attempt a raid in this direction, they will be able to effectually defeat them."
The Aeronautic Corps of the Army of the Potomac was dispensed with, and the balloons and inflating apparatus were sent to Washington.
The fight at Lafourche Crossing, Louisiana, was renewed this morning, and ended in the defeat of the Confederates with a loss of sixty killed, two hundred and forty wounded, and seventy prisoners. The Union loss was eight killed and sixteen wounded.
Around four o'clock this afternoon there was a battle of the whole regular brigade of Major General Alfred Pleasanton-never one to shy away from the practice of self-promotion-consisting of the Second, Fifth and Sixth Cavalry in column of squadrons. attacked the stretched out Confederates, under General J.E.B. Stuart-whose five brigades were extended from Middleburg to Union as a screen to Lee's movements-at Middleburg, Virginia, where after repeated charges on both sides the Southerners were driven to Ashby's Gap, which was occupied that night by a portion of Longstreet's corps. Pleasanton fell back to Aldie on 22 June.
On the approach of the Rebels toward Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, the proprietor of the Union Hotel in that town hastily blurred his sign over with brown paint.
The siege of Vicksburg was beginning to feel, to those on both sides, as though it had gone on forever, and might easily continue for all time. "One day is like another in a besieged city," wrote one Confederate major today. "All you can hear are the crack of the Enemy's guns, with the sharp crack of the rifles of their sharp-shooters going from early dawn to dark and then at night the roaring of the terrible mortars is kept up sometimes all this time." People's minds were beginning to be affected.
The CSS Tacony, commanded by Lieutenant Charles W. Read, captured and burned the ship Byzantium, with a cargo of coal, and the bark Goodspeed, in ballast, off the coast of New England.
The USS Owasco, under Lieutenant Commander Madigan, and USS Cayuga, Lieutenant Commander William H. Dana piloting, took the sloop Active attempting to run the Union blockade out of Sabine Pass, Texas, with a cargo of cotton.
The USS Santiago de Cuba, Commander Robert H. Wyman in charge, seized the blockade running British steamer Victory off Palmetto Point, Eleuthera Island, after a long chase; the Victory was from Wilmington and carried a cargo of cotton, tobacco, and turpentine.
The USS Florida, piloted by Commander Bankhead, captured the schooner Hattie off Frying Pan Shoals, North Carolina, with cargo of cotton and naval stores.
At Baltimore, Maryland, as a matter of precaution against Rebel demonstrations, earthworks were erected around the north and west sides of the city. The Council appropriated a large sum of money, and a very large force of laborers-slave and contraband-were pressed into the service. A line of barricades, composed of tobacco hogsheads and empty sugar and molasses hogsheads, filled with brick and sand, was erected within the city, extending from the high ground on the east to the south-western extremity. "These, if the rebels should come," said a participant, "will be defended by the Union League men, who are being armed by General Schenck, and should a cavalry force manage to dash past the batteries, they would here meet a formidable resistance. The Union men are entirely confident that should the rebels be so rash as to attempt a raid in this direction, they will be able to effectually defeat them."
The Aeronautic Corps of the Army of the Potomac was dispensed with, and the balloons and inflating apparatus were sent to Washington.
The fight at Lafourche Crossing, Louisiana, was renewed this morning, and ended in the defeat of the Confederates with a loss of sixty killed, two hundred and forty wounded, and seventy prisoners. The Union loss was eight killed and sixteen wounded.
Around four o'clock this afternoon there was a battle of the whole regular brigade of Major General Alfred Pleasanton-never one to shy away from the practice of self-promotion-consisting of the Second, Fifth and Sixth Cavalry in column of squadrons. attacked the stretched out Confederates, under General J.E.B. Stuart-whose five brigades were extended from Middleburg to Union as a screen to Lee's movements-at Middleburg, Virginia, where after repeated charges on both sides the Southerners were driven to Ashby's Gap, which was occupied that night by a portion of Longstreet's corps. Pleasanton fell back to Aldie on 22 June.
On the approach of the Rebels toward Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, the proprietor of the Union Hotel in that town hastily blurred his sign over with brown paint.
Posted on 6/22/13 at 3:02 pm to dallasga6
June 22, 1863
One would think that the people least affected by the War of the Southern Invasion would be the salt-soaked fishermen of New England. Their sons and fathers and cousins may have gone off to fill the regiments of Connecticut and Maine, but there was still the same need for cod and whale oil as there ever was. Alas, the War came to them today, in the person of Lieutenant Charles William Read-born in either Hinds or Yazoo County, Mississippi-an 1860 United States Naval Academy graduate. Not as famous as Captain Raphael Semmes and the famed CSS Alabama, Read and his ship, the CSS Tacony, added to his record of disrupting Federal maritime activities by seizing five fishing schooners off New England in one day. The Tacony and Read captured the vessels Florence, Marengo, Elizabeth Ann, Rafus Choate, and Ripple off the New England coast. Read reported: "The Florence being an old vessel I bonded her and placed seventy-five prisoners on her. The other schooners were burned."
The USS Shawsheen, under Acting Master Henry A. Phelon, while on a reconnaissance in Bay River, North Carolina, captured the schooner Henry Clay up Spring Creek. An armed boat went up Dimbargon Creek and captured a small schooner carrying turpentine before the Shawsheen returned to New Bern.
The USS Itasca, Lieutenant Commander Robert F. R. Lewis in charge, seized the British blockade runner Sea Drift near Matagorda Island, Texas, with a cargo including gunpowder, lead, and drugs.
Three steamers laden with military stores, and convoyed by two Union gunboats, were fired into by the Rebels at Cypress Bend, on the Mississippi River, and a number of persons were killed and wounded. The Southerners were finally driven off by the gunboats.
All of the correspondence between James M. Mason, the Confederate commissioner at London, and Moncure Daniel Conway, was made public. Conway had been previously asked by American abolitionists to convince the United Kingdom that the American Civil War was actually a war of abolition. Under English influence, Conway eventually contacted the Confederate States of America "on behalf of the leading antislavery men of America," offering the preservation of the Confederacy after the war's end in exchange for emancipation of the slaves.
At Acquia Creek, Virginia, the quartermaster's buildings, left standing by the Union troops on the hasty evacuation of that place, were burned by the Southerners.
Clement Laird Vallandigham, who was exiled by President Lincoln to the Confederate States for publicly questioning the Southern Invasion, arrived at Bermuda in the Confederate steamer Lady Davis, from Wilmington. It was reported that Mr. Vallandigham was on his way to Canada, and there to await coming events.
The case of the seizure of the suspected gunboat Alexandra, at Liverpool, England, was announced in the Court of the Queen's Bench at London, before Chief Baron Pollock.
One would think that the people least affected by the War of the Southern Invasion would be the salt-soaked fishermen of New England. Their sons and fathers and cousins may have gone off to fill the regiments of Connecticut and Maine, but there was still the same need for cod and whale oil as there ever was. Alas, the War came to them today, in the person of Lieutenant Charles William Read-born in either Hinds or Yazoo County, Mississippi-an 1860 United States Naval Academy graduate. Not as famous as Captain Raphael Semmes and the famed CSS Alabama, Read and his ship, the CSS Tacony, added to his record of disrupting Federal maritime activities by seizing five fishing schooners off New England in one day. The Tacony and Read captured the vessels Florence, Marengo, Elizabeth Ann, Rafus Choate, and Ripple off the New England coast. Read reported: "The Florence being an old vessel I bonded her and placed seventy-five prisoners on her. The other schooners were burned."
The USS Shawsheen, under Acting Master Henry A. Phelon, while on a reconnaissance in Bay River, North Carolina, captured the schooner Henry Clay up Spring Creek. An armed boat went up Dimbargon Creek and captured a small schooner carrying turpentine before the Shawsheen returned to New Bern.
The USS Itasca, Lieutenant Commander Robert F. R. Lewis in charge, seized the British blockade runner Sea Drift near Matagorda Island, Texas, with a cargo including gunpowder, lead, and drugs.
Three steamers laden with military stores, and convoyed by two Union gunboats, were fired into by the Rebels at Cypress Bend, on the Mississippi River, and a number of persons were killed and wounded. The Southerners were finally driven off by the gunboats.
All of the correspondence between James M. Mason, the Confederate commissioner at London, and Moncure Daniel Conway, was made public. Conway had been previously asked by American abolitionists to convince the United Kingdom that the American Civil War was actually a war of abolition. Under English influence, Conway eventually contacted the Confederate States of America "on behalf of the leading antislavery men of America," offering the preservation of the Confederacy after the war's end in exchange for emancipation of the slaves.
At Acquia Creek, Virginia, the quartermaster's buildings, left standing by the Union troops on the hasty evacuation of that place, were burned by the Southerners.
Clement Laird Vallandigham, who was exiled by President Lincoln to the Confederate States for publicly questioning the Southern Invasion, arrived at Bermuda in the Confederate steamer Lady Davis, from Wilmington. It was reported that Mr. Vallandigham was on his way to Canada, and there to await coming events.
The case of the seizure of the suspected gunboat Alexandra, at Liverpool, England, was announced in the Court of the Queen's Bench at London, before Chief Baron Pollock.
Posted on 6/23/13 at 2:01 pm to dallasga6
June 23, 1863
Union General William S. Rosecrans was not a hasty commander. He and his forces had been loitering in the vicinity of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, for quite some time while increasingly desperate telegrams from headquarters implored him to move. Today he did so, moving towards Confederate General Braxton Bragg's army at Tullahoma. The objective was to completely tie up Bragg's men so they could not threaten General Hiram U. Grant into lifting the siege of Vicksburg. This operation would take some time.
The USS Cambridge, Commander William A. Parker in charge, captured the schooner Time off Cape Fear, North Carolina, with a cargo of salt, matches, and shoes.
The State of New York responded nobly to the call for troops to drive the Rebels from the soil of Pennsylvania and Maryland. Twenty regiments at this time had been armed, equipped, and supplied with subsistence and transportation, and had gone to Harrisburg and Baltimore. Sixteen of these regiments moved from New York City, two from Brooklyn, and two from Buffalo. The following is a list of the regiments that had left: The Seventh, Eleventh, Twelfth, Thirteenth, Twenty-second, Twenty-third, Twenty-eighth, Thirty-seventh, Forty-seventh, Fifty-second, Sixty-ninth, Sixth, Seventy-fourth, Seventy-first, Sixty-fifth, Fifty-sixth, Fifth, Thirty-second, Fifty-fifth, Fourth artillery, and a consolidated regiment from Staten Island.
The Raleigh (N. C.) Standard of this date favored a convention of all the States, to procure peace, either by reconstruction of the Union or by peaceable separation.
Reverend R. I. Graves, of Hillsborough, North Carolina, who was committed on the fourth of February last, on the charge of treason to the Confederate government, was discharged today, mainly through the efforts of W. A. Graham.
This morning the London Times published an elaborate article against the employment of Negroes, as soldiers, in the army of the United States.
In the Missouri State Convention, Governor Hamilton Rowan Gamble, Chairman of the Committee on Emancipation, presented the following ordinance from the majority of the committee: First. That the first and second clauses of the Twenty-sixth Section of the Third Article of the Constitution be abrogated. Second. That slavery, or involuntary servitude, except for the punishment of crime, shall cease to exist in Missouri on the fourth of July, 1876; and that all the slaves within this State on that day be hereby declared free. Third. That all slaves hereafter brought into the State, not now belonging to citizens of the State, shall thereupon be free. Fourth. That all slaves, removed by the consent of their owners to any seceded State, after the passage of the ordinance of secession, and hereafter brought into this State by their owners, shall thereupon be free. Fifth. The General Assembly shall have no power to pass laws to emancipate slaves without the consent of their owners. A minority report was also submitted, abrogating some clauses of the Constitution as above, declaring slavery abolished on the first of January, 1864, provided they and their issue be apprenticed to their former owners until the fourth of July, 1876; requiring the Legislature to pass laws regulating the relation between said apprentices and their masters, to secure them humane treatment, necessary education, and providing against importation or emigration of any negro or mulatto in the State. No future assessment of slave property shall be collected, nor shall the right to the services of apprentices be subject to taxation. Provisions were also made to submit the ordinance to a vote of the people.
Colonel S. H. Saunders returned to Boston, Kentucky, from the expedition sent by General Ambrose E. Burnside, into East Tennessee, and reported as follows: I arrived here with my command at eleven o'clock this morning. I struck the railroad at Lenoir, destroyed the road up to Knoxville, made demonstrations against Knoxville, so as to have the troops drawn from above, destroyed the track, and started for Strawberry Plains; burnt Slate Creek Bridge, three hundred and twelve feet long, and the Strawberry Plain Bridge, one thousand six hundred feet long, and also Mossy Creek Bridge, three hundred and twenty-five feet long. I captured three pieces of artillery, some two hundred boxes artillery ammunition, over five hundred prisoners, ten thousand stand of arms, destroyed a large amount of salt, sugar, flour, meal, saltpeter, and one saltpeter works, and other stores. My command is much fatigued. We have had but two nights' sleep since leaving Williamsburg. The force in East Tennessee was larger than I had supposed. I did not attack Loudon Bridge, for reasons that I will explain. At Mossy Creek I determined to return. In the mountains I had very great difficulties that were unexpected. I found the gaps, through which I intended to return, strongly guarded with artillery and infantry, and blockaded with fallen timber. A force was also following in our rear. I determined to cross at Smith's Gap, which I did.
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, was totally reoccupied by the Confederates, under General Robert E. Rodes; the Federal troops, commanded by General Joseph Farmer Knipe, hastily retreated to the main body.
The Confederate sloop, John Wesley, which had sucessfully evaded the blockade of St. Mark's, Florida, on the thirteenth of this month, was captured by the Union steamer Circassian.
The Union gunboat Sumter was sunk off Cape Henry, Virginia.
Several wagons, with ammunition, forage, and other supplies belonging to the Federal troops, were destroyed by a party from John Singleton Mosby's 43rd Confederate Cavalry, on the Chantilly Road, near Manassas, Virginia.
The sloop Kate, from Nassau, N. P., was captured in Indian River Florida, by the Union bark, Pursuit.
Union General William S. Rosecrans was not a hasty commander. He and his forces had been loitering in the vicinity of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, for quite some time while increasingly desperate telegrams from headquarters implored him to move. Today he did so, moving towards Confederate General Braxton Bragg's army at Tullahoma. The objective was to completely tie up Bragg's men so they could not threaten General Hiram U. Grant into lifting the siege of Vicksburg. This operation would take some time.
The USS Cambridge, Commander William A. Parker in charge, captured the schooner Time off Cape Fear, North Carolina, with a cargo of salt, matches, and shoes.
The State of New York responded nobly to the call for troops to drive the Rebels from the soil of Pennsylvania and Maryland. Twenty regiments at this time had been armed, equipped, and supplied with subsistence and transportation, and had gone to Harrisburg and Baltimore. Sixteen of these regiments moved from New York City, two from Brooklyn, and two from Buffalo. The following is a list of the regiments that had left: The Seventh, Eleventh, Twelfth, Thirteenth, Twenty-second, Twenty-third, Twenty-eighth, Thirty-seventh, Forty-seventh, Fifty-second, Sixty-ninth, Sixth, Seventy-fourth, Seventy-first, Sixty-fifth, Fifty-sixth, Fifth, Thirty-second, Fifty-fifth, Fourth artillery, and a consolidated regiment from Staten Island.
The Raleigh (N. C.) Standard of this date favored a convention of all the States, to procure peace, either by reconstruction of the Union or by peaceable separation.
Reverend R. I. Graves, of Hillsborough, North Carolina, who was committed on the fourth of February last, on the charge of treason to the Confederate government, was discharged today, mainly through the efforts of W. A. Graham.
This morning the London Times published an elaborate article against the employment of Negroes, as soldiers, in the army of the United States.
In the Missouri State Convention, Governor Hamilton Rowan Gamble, Chairman of the Committee on Emancipation, presented the following ordinance from the majority of the committee: First. That the first and second clauses of the Twenty-sixth Section of the Third Article of the Constitution be abrogated. Second. That slavery, or involuntary servitude, except for the punishment of crime, shall cease to exist in Missouri on the fourth of July, 1876; and that all the slaves within this State on that day be hereby declared free. Third. That all slaves hereafter brought into the State, not now belonging to citizens of the State, shall thereupon be free. Fourth. That all slaves, removed by the consent of their owners to any seceded State, after the passage of the ordinance of secession, and hereafter brought into this State by their owners, shall thereupon be free. Fifth. The General Assembly shall have no power to pass laws to emancipate slaves without the consent of their owners. A minority report was also submitted, abrogating some clauses of the Constitution as above, declaring slavery abolished on the first of January, 1864, provided they and their issue be apprenticed to their former owners until the fourth of July, 1876; requiring the Legislature to pass laws regulating the relation between said apprentices and their masters, to secure them humane treatment, necessary education, and providing against importation or emigration of any negro or mulatto in the State. No future assessment of slave property shall be collected, nor shall the right to the services of apprentices be subject to taxation. Provisions were also made to submit the ordinance to a vote of the people.
Colonel S. H. Saunders returned to Boston, Kentucky, from the expedition sent by General Ambrose E. Burnside, into East Tennessee, and reported as follows: I arrived here with my command at eleven o'clock this morning. I struck the railroad at Lenoir, destroyed the road up to Knoxville, made demonstrations against Knoxville, so as to have the troops drawn from above, destroyed the track, and started for Strawberry Plains; burnt Slate Creek Bridge, three hundred and twelve feet long, and the Strawberry Plain Bridge, one thousand six hundred feet long, and also Mossy Creek Bridge, three hundred and twenty-five feet long. I captured three pieces of artillery, some two hundred boxes artillery ammunition, over five hundred prisoners, ten thousand stand of arms, destroyed a large amount of salt, sugar, flour, meal, saltpeter, and one saltpeter works, and other stores. My command is much fatigued. We have had but two nights' sleep since leaving Williamsburg. The force in East Tennessee was larger than I had supposed. I did not attack Loudon Bridge, for reasons that I will explain. At Mossy Creek I determined to return. In the mountains I had very great difficulties that were unexpected. I found the gaps, through which I intended to return, strongly guarded with artillery and infantry, and blockaded with fallen timber. A force was also following in our rear. I determined to cross at Smith's Gap, which I did.
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, was totally reoccupied by the Confederates, under General Robert E. Rodes; the Federal troops, commanded by General Joseph Farmer Knipe, hastily retreated to the main body.
The Confederate sloop, John Wesley, which had sucessfully evaded the blockade of St. Mark's, Florida, on the thirteenth of this month, was captured by the Union steamer Circassian.
The Union gunboat Sumter was sunk off Cape Henry, Virginia.
Several wagons, with ammunition, forage, and other supplies belonging to the Federal troops, were destroyed by a party from John Singleton Mosby's 43rd Confederate Cavalry, on the Chantilly Road, near Manassas, Virginia.
The sloop Kate, from Nassau, N. P., was captured in Indian River Florida, by the Union bark, Pursuit.
Posted on 6/24/13 at 1:32 pm to dallasga6
June 24, 1863
Last year's September invasion of Maryland by the Army of Northern Virginia had culminated in a major battle in Sharpsburg, Maryland, on the banks of Antietam Creek. It would become, and still remains, the single bloodiest day in American history. The forces of General Robert E. Lee were on the move again now, and the logic of geography dictated that they pass that way again, this time on their way to Pennsylvania. "Take Harrisburg if it comes within your grasp..." were the orders to the lead forces. Generals James Longstreet and A.P. Hill had passed not far from Harpers Ferry, and today they neared Antietam Creek again. A sharp, but short skirmish broke out, and the number of ghosts increased.
Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren was detached from duty at the Washington Navy Yard and as Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance was ordered to relieve Rear Admiral Samuel F. DuPont at Port Royal in command of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. Originally, the Navy Department ordered Rear Admiral Andrew Hull Foote to the Blockading Squadron, but the hero of the western waters suffered a relapse from his long illness occasioned by the wound sustained at Fort Donelson and was unable to accept the command.
Brigadier General Alfred Washington Ellet, commanding the Marine Brigade, reported to Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter on his observations of the continued naval bombardment of Vicksburg: "Your mortars are doing good work this morning. Every shell is thrown into the city, or bursts immediately over it."
The CSS Tacony, commanded by Lieutenant Charles W. Read, captured the ship Shatemuc, headed from Liverpool to Boston with a large number of emigrants on board. Read bonded her for $150,000. The Tacony later captured the fishing schooner Archer. "As there were now a number of the enemy's gunboats in search of the Tacony," Read wrote, "and our howitzer ammunition being all expended, I concluded to destroy the Tacony, and with the schooner Archer to proceed along the coast with the view of burning the shipping in some exposed harbor, or of cutting out a steamer." Therefore, the next morning Read applied the torch to the Tacony and stood in for the New England coast with the Archer.
The USS Sumter, under Acting Lieutenant Peter Hays, collided with the transport steamer General Meigs in heavy mist near Hampton Roads and sank.
McConnellsburg, Pennsylvania, was occupied by the Confederate cavalry this evening, after a short resistance by the Twelfth Pennsylvania cavalry.
Great excitement existed at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on the approach of the Confederates, who were "slowly advancing on Carlisle ;" many merchants packed up their goods ready for shipment, and martial law was proposed, "to prevent all the able bodied men from leaving the city." The Mayor issued an order, calling upon the people to stand firm, and prohibiting the sale of all liquors.
Shippensburgh, Pennsylvania, was evacuated by the Union troops, and immediately occupied by Confederate cavalry.
At Shelbyville, Tennessee, a small Confederate force was defeated by Federal troops under General Mitchell.
The following General Orders were issued from the War Department at Washington: I. By direction of the President, that part of the Middle Department west of Hancock, including the adjacent counties of Ohio, will constitute the Department of West Virginia. Brigadier General B. F. Kelley is placed in command of the Department of West Virginia. II. Major-General W. S. Hancock, U. S. volunteers, is, by direction of the President, assigned to the command of the Second army corps, in place of Major General D. N. Couch, transferred to another command.
Confederate General Richard S. Ewell, at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, issued the following order: First. The sale of intoxicating liquors to this command, without written permission from a major-general, is strictly prohibited. Second. Persons having liquor in their possession are required to report the fact to the provost marshal, or the nearest general officer, stating the amount and kind, that a guard may be placed over it, and the men prevented from getting it. Third. Any violation of Part I. of these Orders, or failure to comply with Part II., will be punished by the immediate confiscation of all liquors in the possession of the offending parties, besides rendering their other property liable to seizure. Fourth. Citizens of the country, through which the army may pass, who are not in the military service, are admonished to abstain from all acts of hostility upon pain of being dealt with in a summary manner. A ready acquiescence to the demands of the military authorities will serve to lessen the rigors of war.
The Army of the Cumberland, excepting the division under General Van Cleve, commenced a forward movement from Murfreesboro, marching by the Shelbyville and Manchester Roads, and skirmishes took place at Guy's, Liberty, and Hanover Gaps, Tennessee.
Colonel J. K. Mizener returned to La Grange, Tennessee, from an extensive cavalry expedition south, from the same point, and reported as follows: He broke up the command under General George, at Panola; destroyed the railroad bridge at the Yockaway, and the trestle work just beyond, and a portion of the road from there north. He then crossed the Tallahatchie, coming north, and pursued Chalmers beyond Coldwater, on the Helena Road. He made for the Tallahatchie to cross, and at the mouth of the Coldwater he killed fifteen or twenty of Chalmers's men, and took forty prisoners. He paroled all the sick at Panola, brought away and destroyed all the army supplies, workshops, mills, tanneries, and depots. He passed within three miles of Austin and Commerce, destroying an immense amount of forage and subsistence, took from six to eight hundred horses and mules, and five hundred head of cattle. He sent detachments north and northeast, from Panola, to destroy or bring away all subsistence, forage, horses, and mules. He passed through five counties, traveled two hundred miles, and crossed three streams. Chalmers had with him Stokes's, Slemmer's, and Blythe's men, nine hundred, with three pieces of artillery. The remainder of his force, nine hundred, fled south, via Charleston, under General George. He destroyed all the ferries at Panola and Coldwater, and lost one man killed and five wounded.
Colonel Wilder, with his mounted infantry, had a sharp skirmish at Beech Grove, Tennessee, with a body of Confederate infantry, reported he had succeeded in killing and disabling "a large number" of them, with a loss of over forty of his own men.
Last year's September invasion of Maryland by the Army of Northern Virginia had culminated in a major battle in Sharpsburg, Maryland, on the banks of Antietam Creek. It would become, and still remains, the single bloodiest day in American history. The forces of General Robert E. Lee were on the move again now, and the logic of geography dictated that they pass that way again, this time on their way to Pennsylvania. "Take Harrisburg if it comes within your grasp..." were the orders to the lead forces. Generals James Longstreet and A.P. Hill had passed not far from Harpers Ferry, and today they neared Antietam Creek again. A sharp, but short skirmish broke out, and the number of ghosts increased.
Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren was detached from duty at the Washington Navy Yard and as Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance was ordered to relieve Rear Admiral Samuel F. DuPont at Port Royal in command of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. Originally, the Navy Department ordered Rear Admiral Andrew Hull Foote to the Blockading Squadron, but the hero of the western waters suffered a relapse from his long illness occasioned by the wound sustained at Fort Donelson and was unable to accept the command.
Brigadier General Alfred Washington Ellet, commanding the Marine Brigade, reported to Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter on his observations of the continued naval bombardment of Vicksburg: "Your mortars are doing good work this morning. Every shell is thrown into the city, or bursts immediately over it."
The CSS Tacony, commanded by Lieutenant Charles W. Read, captured the ship Shatemuc, headed from Liverpool to Boston with a large number of emigrants on board. Read bonded her for $150,000. The Tacony later captured the fishing schooner Archer. "As there were now a number of the enemy's gunboats in search of the Tacony," Read wrote, "and our howitzer ammunition being all expended, I concluded to destroy the Tacony, and with the schooner Archer to proceed along the coast with the view of burning the shipping in some exposed harbor, or of cutting out a steamer." Therefore, the next morning Read applied the torch to the Tacony and stood in for the New England coast with the Archer.
The USS Sumter, under Acting Lieutenant Peter Hays, collided with the transport steamer General Meigs in heavy mist near Hampton Roads and sank.
McConnellsburg, Pennsylvania, was occupied by the Confederate cavalry this evening, after a short resistance by the Twelfth Pennsylvania cavalry.
Great excitement existed at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on the approach of the Confederates, who were "slowly advancing on Carlisle ;" many merchants packed up their goods ready for shipment, and martial law was proposed, "to prevent all the able bodied men from leaving the city." The Mayor issued an order, calling upon the people to stand firm, and prohibiting the sale of all liquors.
Shippensburgh, Pennsylvania, was evacuated by the Union troops, and immediately occupied by Confederate cavalry.
At Shelbyville, Tennessee, a small Confederate force was defeated by Federal troops under General Mitchell.
The following General Orders were issued from the War Department at Washington: I. By direction of the President, that part of the Middle Department west of Hancock, including the adjacent counties of Ohio, will constitute the Department of West Virginia. Brigadier General B. F. Kelley is placed in command of the Department of West Virginia. II. Major-General W. S. Hancock, U. S. volunteers, is, by direction of the President, assigned to the command of the Second army corps, in place of Major General D. N. Couch, transferred to another command.
Confederate General Richard S. Ewell, at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, issued the following order: First. The sale of intoxicating liquors to this command, without written permission from a major-general, is strictly prohibited. Second. Persons having liquor in their possession are required to report the fact to the provost marshal, or the nearest general officer, stating the amount and kind, that a guard may be placed over it, and the men prevented from getting it. Third. Any violation of Part I. of these Orders, or failure to comply with Part II., will be punished by the immediate confiscation of all liquors in the possession of the offending parties, besides rendering their other property liable to seizure. Fourth. Citizens of the country, through which the army may pass, who are not in the military service, are admonished to abstain from all acts of hostility upon pain of being dealt with in a summary manner. A ready acquiescence to the demands of the military authorities will serve to lessen the rigors of war.
The Army of the Cumberland, excepting the division under General Van Cleve, commenced a forward movement from Murfreesboro, marching by the Shelbyville and Manchester Roads, and skirmishes took place at Guy's, Liberty, and Hanover Gaps, Tennessee.
Colonel J. K. Mizener returned to La Grange, Tennessee, from an extensive cavalry expedition south, from the same point, and reported as follows: He broke up the command under General George, at Panola; destroyed the railroad bridge at the Yockaway, and the trestle work just beyond, and a portion of the road from there north. He then crossed the Tallahatchie, coming north, and pursued Chalmers beyond Coldwater, on the Helena Road. He made for the Tallahatchie to cross, and at the mouth of the Coldwater he killed fifteen or twenty of Chalmers's men, and took forty prisoners. He paroled all the sick at Panola, brought away and destroyed all the army supplies, workshops, mills, tanneries, and depots. He passed within three miles of Austin and Commerce, destroying an immense amount of forage and subsistence, took from six to eight hundred horses and mules, and five hundred head of cattle. He sent detachments north and northeast, from Panola, to destroy or bring away all subsistence, forage, horses, and mules. He passed through five counties, traveled two hundred miles, and crossed three streams. Chalmers had with him Stokes's, Slemmer's, and Blythe's men, nine hundred, with three pieces of artillery. The remainder of his force, nine hundred, fled south, via Charleston, under General George. He destroyed all the ferries at Panola and Coldwater, and lost one man killed and five wounded.
Colonel Wilder, with his mounted infantry, had a sharp skirmish at Beech Grove, Tennessee, with a body of Confederate infantry, reported he had succeeded in killing and disabling "a large number" of them, with a loss of over forty of his own men.
Posted on 6/25/13 at 1:47 pm to dallasga6
June 25th, 1863
It seemed like such a logical plan at the time: as the Army of Northern Virginia was moving north on the summer's great invasion, they knew where they were going. It did not seem that important to have the crack cavalry of General J.E. B. Stuart available to scout ahead; if cavalry were needed, there were other units with the various corps that could do the job. Stuart therefore was given permission to detach his force for another "ride-around" intended to loop entirely around the Army of the Potomac, harassing, alarming and confusing them along the way, while picking up any supplies they came across. It would prove to be a terrible mistake, because the Army of the Potomac was on the move as well.
Rear Admiral Samuel F. DuPont, unaware that Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren had been ordered to relieve him in command of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, wrote in these terms of Rear Admiral Andrew Hull Foote: "I infer he is very ill, and could hardly be fit to come for some time to this situation even if he recovers. I trust God he will, for I think he can ill be spared. I always thought he represented the best traits of the New England character with its best shade of Puritanism a sort of Northern Stonewall Jackson, without quite his intellect and judgment, but equal pluck and devotion."
The CSS Georgia, commanded by Lieutenant W. L. Maury, captured the ship Constitution, in sight of the Island of Trinidad, bound from Philadelphia to Shanghai with a cargo of coal.
Boats from USS Crusader, Acting Master Roland F. Coffin, on a reconnaissance of Pepper Creek, near New Point Comfort, Virginia, to determine if an armed boat was being outfitted for " preying on the commerce of Chesapeake Bay'' was fired on by a Confederate party. In retaliation Coffin burned several houses in the area, including one allegedly belonging to "a noted rebel and blockade runner named Kerwan."
Lieutenant Commander English of the USS Sagamore reported the capture of the blockade running British schooner Frolic off Crystal River, Florida, with a cargo of cotton and turpentine, bound for Havana.
The USS Santiago de Cuba, under Commander Wyman, took the English steamer Britannia off Palmetto Point, Eleuthera Island, with a cargo of cotton having run the blockade of Charleston, South Carolina.
This afternoon, a fight occurred at Liberty Gap, Tennessee, between a single Confederate division under General Patrick Cleburn, and the multiple Federal divisions, commanded by Generals Willich, Wilder, and Carter, resulting in the ultimate retreat of the Rebels, who left their dead and wounded in the hands of the Yankees. The loss of the Unionists was forty killed and over one hundred wounded.
Fairfax Court House, Virginia, having been evacuated by the Federal troops, was occupied by a small group of Rebel partisans during the evening,
An assault was made on the Confederate works at Vicksburg, by General McPherson's corps, which ended in the capture of one of the forts.
It seemed like such a logical plan at the time: as the Army of Northern Virginia was moving north on the summer's great invasion, they knew where they were going. It did not seem that important to have the crack cavalry of General J.E. B. Stuart available to scout ahead; if cavalry were needed, there were other units with the various corps that could do the job. Stuart therefore was given permission to detach his force for another "ride-around" intended to loop entirely around the Army of the Potomac, harassing, alarming and confusing them along the way, while picking up any supplies they came across. It would prove to be a terrible mistake, because the Army of the Potomac was on the move as well.
Rear Admiral Samuel F. DuPont, unaware that Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren had been ordered to relieve him in command of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, wrote in these terms of Rear Admiral Andrew Hull Foote: "I infer he is very ill, and could hardly be fit to come for some time to this situation even if he recovers. I trust God he will, for I think he can ill be spared. I always thought he represented the best traits of the New England character with its best shade of Puritanism a sort of Northern Stonewall Jackson, without quite his intellect and judgment, but equal pluck and devotion."
The CSS Georgia, commanded by Lieutenant W. L. Maury, captured the ship Constitution, in sight of the Island of Trinidad, bound from Philadelphia to Shanghai with a cargo of coal.
Boats from USS Crusader, Acting Master Roland F. Coffin, on a reconnaissance of Pepper Creek, near New Point Comfort, Virginia, to determine if an armed boat was being outfitted for " preying on the commerce of Chesapeake Bay'' was fired on by a Confederate party. In retaliation Coffin burned several houses in the area, including one allegedly belonging to "a noted rebel and blockade runner named Kerwan."
Lieutenant Commander English of the USS Sagamore reported the capture of the blockade running British schooner Frolic off Crystal River, Florida, with a cargo of cotton and turpentine, bound for Havana.
The USS Santiago de Cuba, under Commander Wyman, took the English steamer Britannia off Palmetto Point, Eleuthera Island, with a cargo of cotton having run the blockade of Charleston, South Carolina.
This afternoon, a fight occurred at Liberty Gap, Tennessee, between a single Confederate division under General Patrick Cleburn, and the multiple Federal divisions, commanded by Generals Willich, Wilder, and Carter, resulting in the ultimate retreat of the Rebels, who left their dead and wounded in the hands of the Yankees. The loss of the Unionists was forty killed and over one hundred wounded.
Fairfax Court House, Virginia, having been evacuated by the Federal troops, was occupied by a small group of Rebel partisans during the evening,
An assault was made on the Confederate works at Vicksburg, by General McPherson's corps, which ended in the capture of one of the forts.
Posted on 6/26/13 at 3:35 pm to dallasga6
June 26, 1863
General Jubal Early and his corps marched into Gettysburg today, but no battle broke out as there were no Union troops to speak of anywhere around. A militia unit put up a brief and feeble attempt at a fight but were hopelessly outnumbered and forced to make tracks out of town, with several of their number captured. Pennsylvania had contributed a great many men to the war, but now that their own state was invaded, they could do nothing. The man who could, Army of the Potomac commander Joseph "Fighting Joe" Hooker, was only as far as Frederick, Maryland, where he counseled the evacuation of parts of Harpers Ferry. Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin ordered the raising of 60,000 state militia to repel the invasion themselves, but it was impossible to accomplish such a thing in time. Early's men camped in town overnight before heading toward York.
Rear Admiral Andrew Hull Foote died in New York City of the wound received while brilliantly leading the naval forces on the Western rivers. The next day the Navy Department announced: "A gallant and distinguished naval officer is lost to the country. The hero of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, the daring and inimitable spirit that created and led to successive victories the Mississippi Flotilla, the heroic Christian sailor, who in the China Seas and on the coast of Africa, as well as the great interior rivers of our country, sustained with unfaltering fidelity and devotion the honor of our flag and the causes of the Union. Rear Admiral Andrew Hull Foote is no more....Appreciating his virtues and his services, a grateful country had rendered him while living its willing honors, and will mourn his death."
Ships, rifled cannon, mortar boats, and Army guns laid down a heavy bombardment barrage which was answered bravely by the Confederate gunners at Port Hudson. Captain James Alden in the USS Richmond reported to Rear Admiral David Farragut: ''The Genesee's firing was as fine as usual. The Essex stood up manfully and did her work handsomely. She was the only vessel hit, and, strange to say, although the enemy's fire was for the most part of the engagement which lasted some four hours-concentrated upon her, was struck only three times, but one of those was near proving fatal to her. The shot passed through her starboard smoke pipe, down through the deck, through the coal bunker, grazing the starboard boiler, down through the machinery and steam pipes, over the galley, and through the wheelhouse into the water....They all seem to be very much pleased with the operation of the naval battery on shore....It had done, as you know, splendid service under the command of our gallant executive officer, Lieutenant Commander [Edward] Terry, before you were called away, and is still, I am happy to say, earning new laurels."
Rear Admiral David Porter wrote Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles of the operations at Vicksburg: ''I was in hopes ere this to have announced the fall of Vicksburg, but the rebels hold out persistently, and will no doubt do so while there is a thing left to eat. In the meantime, they are hoping for relief from General Johnston a vain hope, for even if he succeeded in getting the better of General Sherman....his forces would be so cut up that he could take no advantage of any victory that he might gain. General Sherman has only to fall back to our entrenchments at Vicksburg, and he could defy twice his own force. The rebels have been making every effort to bring relief to Vicksburg through Louisiana, but without avail. With the few men we have at Young's Point and the gunboats, we keep them in check. They have lined the river bank and are annoying the transports a little, but the gunboats are so vigilant and give them so little rest that they have done no damage worth mentioning. I have lined the river from Cairo to Vicksburg with a good force....I am having the Cincinnati's guns removed, and Colonel Woods, of the army, is erecting a battery on shore with them. I have now ten heavy naval guns landed from the gunboats, in the rear of Vicksburg, some of them manned by sailors. They have kept up a heavy fire for some days, doing great execution."
The CSS Archer, under the command of Lieutenant Charles W. Read, made the Portland, Maine, lighthouse. Read picked up two fishermen, "who," he reported, "taking us for a pleasure party, willingly consented to pilot us into Portland." From the fishermen Read learned that revenue cutter Caleb Cushing and a passenger steamer, Chesapeake, a staunch, swift propeller,'' were at Portland and would remain there over night. Steamer Forest City was so in Portland and two gunboats were building there. At once Read made a daring plan: he would enter the harbor and at night quietly seize the cutter and steamer. At sunset he boldly sailed in, anchoring in full view of the shipping." Read discussed the plan with his crew and admitted there were difficulties in the scheme. Engineer Eugene H. Brown was doubtful that he could get the engines of the steamer started without the assistance of another engineer, and Read pointed out "...that as the nights were very short it was evident that if we failed to get the steamer underway, after waiting to get up steam, we could not get clear of the forts before we were discovered." Read decided to concentrate on capturing the revenue cutter. At 1:30 in the morning, 27 June, Read's crew boarded and took Caleb Cushing, without noise or resistance. Luck and time were running out on Read's courageous band, however, for, with a light breeze and the tide running in, the cutter was still under the fort's guns at daybreak. By mid-morning, when Caleb Cushing was but 20 miles off the harbor, Read saw "...two large steamers and three tugs....coming out of Portland." He cleared for action and fired on the leading steamer, Forest City, as soon as she was in range. After firing five shells from the pivot gun, Read "...was mortified to find that all the projectiles for that gun were expended." About to be caught in a crossfire from the steamers and in a defenseless position, Read ordered the cutter destroyed and the men into the lifeboats. ''At 11:30 I surrendered myself and crew to the steamer Forest City [First Lieutenant James H Merryman, USRS].'' Read had yet another moment of success at noon Caleb Cushing blew up. So ended an exploit of gallant dash and daring by Read and his small crew. From the date of their first capture to the destruction of the revenue cutter off Portland, the doughty Confederate seamen had taken 22 prizes.
Andrew G. Curtin, Governor of Pennsylvania, issued a proclamation, calling for sixty thousand men to serve for three months, or the period of the Confederate invasion.
Brashear City, Louisiana, was captured by the Confederate forces under Generals Green and Mouton.
The Twenty-first regiment of New York militia, under the command of Colonel Nugent, left Poughkeepsie for Baltimore, Maryland.
By direction of President Abraham Lincoln, Major General N. J. T. Dana was assigned to the organization and command of the militia and volunteer forces and defenses of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
General Jubal Early and his corps marched into Gettysburg today, but no battle broke out as there were no Union troops to speak of anywhere around. A militia unit put up a brief and feeble attempt at a fight but were hopelessly outnumbered and forced to make tracks out of town, with several of their number captured. Pennsylvania had contributed a great many men to the war, but now that their own state was invaded, they could do nothing. The man who could, Army of the Potomac commander Joseph "Fighting Joe" Hooker, was only as far as Frederick, Maryland, where he counseled the evacuation of parts of Harpers Ferry. Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin ordered the raising of 60,000 state militia to repel the invasion themselves, but it was impossible to accomplish such a thing in time. Early's men camped in town overnight before heading toward York.
Rear Admiral Andrew Hull Foote died in New York City of the wound received while brilliantly leading the naval forces on the Western rivers. The next day the Navy Department announced: "A gallant and distinguished naval officer is lost to the country. The hero of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, the daring and inimitable spirit that created and led to successive victories the Mississippi Flotilla, the heroic Christian sailor, who in the China Seas and on the coast of Africa, as well as the great interior rivers of our country, sustained with unfaltering fidelity and devotion the honor of our flag and the causes of the Union. Rear Admiral Andrew Hull Foote is no more....Appreciating his virtues and his services, a grateful country had rendered him while living its willing honors, and will mourn his death."
Ships, rifled cannon, mortar boats, and Army guns laid down a heavy bombardment barrage which was answered bravely by the Confederate gunners at Port Hudson. Captain James Alden in the USS Richmond reported to Rear Admiral David Farragut: ''The Genesee's firing was as fine as usual. The Essex stood up manfully and did her work handsomely. She was the only vessel hit, and, strange to say, although the enemy's fire was for the most part of the engagement which lasted some four hours-concentrated upon her, was struck only three times, but one of those was near proving fatal to her. The shot passed through her starboard smoke pipe, down through the deck, through the coal bunker, grazing the starboard boiler, down through the machinery and steam pipes, over the galley, and through the wheelhouse into the water....They all seem to be very much pleased with the operation of the naval battery on shore....It had done, as you know, splendid service under the command of our gallant executive officer, Lieutenant Commander [Edward] Terry, before you were called away, and is still, I am happy to say, earning new laurels."
Rear Admiral David Porter wrote Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles of the operations at Vicksburg: ''I was in hopes ere this to have announced the fall of Vicksburg, but the rebels hold out persistently, and will no doubt do so while there is a thing left to eat. In the meantime, they are hoping for relief from General Johnston a vain hope, for even if he succeeded in getting the better of General Sherman....his forces would be so cut up that he could take no advantage of any victory that he might gain. General Sherman has only to fall back to our entrenchments at Vicksburg, and he could defy twice his own force. The rebels have been making every effort to bring relief to Vicksburg through Louisiana, but without avail. With the few men we have at Young's Point and the gunboats, we keep them in check. They have lined the river bank and are annoying the transports a little, but the gunboats are so vigilant and give them so little rest that they have done no damage worth mentioning. I have lined the river from Cairo to Vicksburg with a good force....I am having the Cincinnati's guns removed, and Colonel Woods, of the army, is erecting a battery on shore with them. I have now ten heavy naval guns landed from the gunboats, in the rear of Vicksburg, some of them manned by sailors. They have kept up a heavy fire for some days, doing great execution."
The CSS Archer, under the command of Lieutenant Charles W. Read, made the Portland, Maine, lighthouse. Read picked up two fishermen, "who," he reported, "taking us for a pleasure party, willingly consented to pilot us into Portland." From the fishermen Read learned that revenue cutter Caleb Cushing and a passenger steamer, Chesapeake, a staunch, swift propeller,'' were at Portland and would remain there over night. Steamer Forest City was so in Portland and two gunboats were building there. At once Read made a daring plan: he would enter the harbor and at night quietly seize the cutter and steamer. At sunset he boldly sailed in, anchoring in full view of the shipping." Read discussed the plan with his crew and admitted there were difficulties in the scheme. Engineer Eugene H. Brown was doubtful that he could get the engines of the steamer started without the assistance of another engineer, and Read pointed out "...that as the nights were very short it was evident that if we failed to get the steamer underway, after waiting to get up steam, we could not get clear of the forts before we were discovered." Read decided to concentrate on capturing the revenue cutter. At 1:30 in the morning, 27 June, Read's crew boarded and took Caleb Cushing, without noise or resistance. Luck and time were running out on Read's courageous band, however, for, with a light breeze and the tide running in, the cutter was still under the fort's guns at daybreak. By mid-morning, when Caleb Cushing was but 20 miles off the harbor, Read saw "...two large steamers and three tugs....coming out of Portland." He cleared for action and fired on the leading steamer, Forest City, as soon as she was in range. After firing five shells from the pivot gun, Read "...was mortified to find that all the projectiles for that gun were expended." About to be caught in a crossfire from the steamers and in a defenseless position, Read ordered the cutter destroyed and the men into the lifeboats. ''At 11:30 I surrendered myself and crew to the steamer Forest City [First Lieutenant James H Merryman, USRS].'' Read had yet another moment of success at noon Caleb Cushing blew up. So ended an exploit of gallant dash and daring by Read and his small crew. From the date of their first capture to the destruction of the revenue cutter off Portland, the doughty Confederate seamen had taken 22 prizes.
Andrew G. Curtin, Governor of Pennsylvania, issued a proclamation, calling for sixty thousand men to serve for three months, or the period of the Confederate invasion.
Brashear City, Louisiana, was captured by the Confederate forces under Generals Green and Mouton.
The Twenty-first regiment of New York militia, under the command of Colonel Nugent, left Poughkeepsie for Baltimore, Maryland.
By direction of President Abraham Lincoln, Major General N. J. T. Dana was assigned to the organization and command of the militia and volunteer forces and defenses of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Posted on 6/27/13 at 1:53 pm to dallasga6
June 27, 1863
It did not seem like a great bit of timing at the moment. A massive Rebel army was headed deeper into US territory. One Yankee army was slightly preoccupied with a siege, and was in Vicksburg, Mississippi, besides. The other army, that massive one of the Potomac, was much closer but not famous for fast moving. So was this the best time to change commanders of this Army of the Potomac? That was precisely what President Abraham Lincoln did this morning, ignominiously sacking General Joseph Hooker and replacing him with the dour, uncommunicative and little known commander of the army's Fifth Corps, George Gordon Meade. Already on the march, Meade had to be awakened in his tent to be told of the change of command. While Meade had to cope with this, the Confederates roamed the interior of Pennsylvania almost at will.
The CSS Florida, under the command of Lieutenant John Newland Maffitt, seized and bonded the whaling schooner V. H. Hill en route to Bermuda.
Commander A. G. Clary, piloting the USS Tioga, reported the capture of the blockade running British schooner Julia off the Bahamas with a cargo of cotton.
In a storefront along Chambersburg Street in Gettysburg, John T. McIlhenny busily pulled together his newspaper, The Star and Banner. Laying out his sorts in their trays and setting the type, the editor told the tale of the Rebels pouring through Gettysburg's streets..."Our citizens have now had a sight of the Rebel army," the tiny lead letters spelled out in the frame, "upon the whole a more ragged, dirty, lousy looking crowd we've never beheld."
It did not seem like a great bit of timing at the moment. A massive Rebel army was headed deeper into US territory. One Yankee army was slightly preoccupied with a siege, and was in Vicksburg, Mississippi, besides. The other army, that massive one of the Potomac, was much closer but not famous for fast moving. So was this the best time to change commanders of this Army of the Potomac? That was precisely what President Abraham Lincoln did this morning, ignominiously sacking General Joseph Hooker and replacing him with the dour, uncommunicative and little known commander of the army's Fifth Corps, George Gordon Meade. Already on the march, Meade had to be awakened in his tent to be told of the change of command. While Meade had to cope with this, the Confederates roamed the interior of Pennsylvania almost at will.
The CSS Florida, under the command of Lieutenant John Newland Maffitt, seized and bonded the whaling schooner V. H. Hill en route to Bermuda.
Commander A. G. Clary, piloting the USS Tioga, reported the capture of the blockade running British schooner Julia off the Bahamas with a cargo of cotton.
In a storefront along Chambersburg Street in Gettysburg, John T. McIlhenny busily pulled together his newspaper, The Star and Banner. Laying out his sorts in their trays and setting the type, the editor told the tale of the Rebels pouring through Gettysburg's streets..."Our citizens have now had a sight of the Rebel army," the tiny lead letters spelled out in the frame, "upon the whole a more ragged, dirty, lousy looking crowd we've never beheld."
Posted on 6/28/13 at 3:07 pm to dallasga6
June 28, 1863
There are good ways to start a day, and less than good ways. General George Gordon Meade was having one of the latter sort when utterly unexpected, and frankly unwelcome orders reached his tent at 7 o'clock this morning. General Joseph Hooker's "Request for reassignment" had been accepted, and Meade was henceforth commander of the Army of the Potomac. Unlike his predecessor, Meade had never plotted or maneuvered for such a command, and he was obliged to wire Secretary of War Henry Halleck that he "...was in ignorance of the exact condition of the troops"--his own--or "the position of the enemy." This latter Halleck was able to supply, as reports were pouring in from military and civilian sources alike as to the whereabouts and activities of the Confederates invading Pennsylvania.
Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren noted in his private journal: "The French Admiral called yesterday. He said he thought there were torpedoes near Sumter, and that fifteen monitors might take it if they fired faster. He said we fired once in eleven or twelve minutes for each turret."
The CSS Georgia, commanded by Lieutenant W. L. Maury, captured the ship City of Bath off the Brazil coast near the Island of Trinidad at latitude 20 degrees 30 minutes south, longitude 29 degrees 30 minutes west.
Armed boats from the USS Fort Henry, under Lieutenant Commander McCauley, captured the schooner Anna Maria in Steinhatchee River, Florida, with a cargo of cotton.
As the advance of General Robert E. Lee's armies into Maryland (culminating in the Battle of Gettysburg) threatened Washington, Baltimore, and Annapolis, the U.S. Navy Department ordered Rear Admiral S.P. Lee to send ships immediately for the defense of the Capital and other cities. This was a move reminiscent of the opening days of the war when naval protection was vital to the holding of the area surrounding the seat of government.
A skirmish occurred at Oyster Point, about four miles from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, between the Confederates and the Seventy-first regiment of New York militia and E. Spencer Miller's Philadelphia battery, resulting in the quick retreat of the Union troops to the entrenchments around Harrisburg.
The manufacturers of Morristown, Pennsylvania, resolved to close their works until the Confederates were driven from the State, and raised ten thousand dollars to pay the wages of all who volunteer during their absence.
Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, was given up to the Confederates this morning. On their arrival they pulled down the National flag, which was flying in the square, and raised the Stars and Bars in its stead.
A fight took place between a regiment of Pennsylvanians, under the command of Colonel Frick, and a force of Confederates who were advancing or Wrightsville, opposite Columbia, Pennsylvania. After a sharp contest, Colonel Frick was obliged to hastily retreat.
Major General Dix, at Fortress Monroe, sent the following dispatch to the War Department at Washington: Colonel Spear, of the Eleventh Pennsylvania cavalry, whom I sent out two days ago, completely destroyed the bridge over the South-Anna, captured General W. F. Lee, Colonel Hearsable, four captains, five lieutenants, and one hundred privates, and brought them in. He has also brought in thirty-five wagons, with six mules each, and one hundred and fifty mules in addition, and from seventy-five to one hundred horses. He took fifteen thousand dollars in confederate bonds, just issued, from an agent of the authorities at Richmond. This is all public property. No private property has been touched. Colonel Spear's loss is three killed and eight wounded.
Donaldsonville, Louisiana, was attacked by the Confederate forces under General Green, who succeeded in gaining possession of the Union entrenchments. Soon after, the gunboats, commanded by Rear Admiral David Farragut, opened a flanking fire above and below the works, and driving back the supporting party of the Rebels, captured the Southerners who had entered them.
General Mitchell's division of the army of the Cumberland left Triune, Tennessee, this day. When about eight miles out on the Eagleville road, the Confederate pickets were met and pursued five miles to Rover, when they made a stand with infantry, cavalry, and artillery, and a sharp fight ensued, continuing over two hours, and resulting in a stalemate.
There are good ways to start a day, and less than good ways. General George Gordon Meade was having one of the latter sort when utterly unexpected, and frankly unwelcome orders reached his tent at 7 o'clock this morning. General Joseph Hooker's "Request for reassignment" had been accepted, and Meade was henceforth commander of the Army of the Potomac. Unlike his predecessor, Meade had never plotted or maneuvered for such a command, and he was obliged to wire Secretary of War Henry Halleck that he "...was in ignorance of the exact condition of the troops"--his own--or "the position of the enemy." This latter Halleck was able to supply, as reports were pouring in from military and civilian sources alike as to the whereabouts and activities of the Confederates invading Pennsylvania.
Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren noted in his private journal: "The French Admiral called yesterday. He said he thought there were torpedoes near Sumter, and that fifteen monitors might take it if they fired faster. He said we fired once in eleven or twelve minutes for each turret."
The CSS Georgia, commanded by Lieutenant W. L. Maury, captured the ship City of Bath off the Brazil coast near the Island of Trinidad at latitude 20 degrees 30 minutes south, longitude 29 degrees 30 minutes west.
Armed boats from the USS Fort Henry, under Lieutenant Commander McCauley, captured the schooner Anna Maria in Steinhatchee River, Florida, with a cargo of cotton.
As the advance of General Robert E. Lee's armies into Maryland (culminating in the Battle of Gettysburg) threatened Washington, Baltimore, and Annapolis, the U.S. Navy Department ordered Rear Admiral S.P. Lee to send ships immediately for the defense of the Capital and other cities. This was a move reminiscent of the opening days of the war when naval protection was vital to the holding of the area surrounding the seat of government.
A skirmish occurred at Oyster Point, about four miles from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, between the Confederates and the Seventy-first regiment of New York militia and E. Spencer Miller's Philadelphia battery, resulting in the quick retreat of the Union troops to the entrenchments around Harrisburg.
The manufacturers of Morristown, Pennsylvania, resolved to close their works until the Confederates were driven from the State, and raised ten thousand dollars to pay the wages of all who volunteer during their absence.
Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, was given up to the Confederates this morning. On their arrival they pulled down the National flag, which was flying in the square, and raised the Stars and Bars in its stead.
A fight took place between a regiment of Pennsylvanians, under the command of Colonel Frick, and a force of Confederates who were advancing or Wrightsville, opposite Columbia, Pennsylvania. After a sharp contest, Colonel Frick was obliged to hastily retreat.
Major General Dix, at Fortress Monroe, sent the following dispatch to the War Department at Washington: Colonel Spear, of the Eleventh Pennsylvania cavalry, whom I sent out two days ago, completely destroyed the bridge over the South-Anna, captured General W. F. Lee, Colonel Hearsable, four captains, five lieutenants, and one hundred privates, and brought them in. He has also brought in thirty-five wagons, with six mules each, and one hundred and fifty mules in addition, and from seventy-five to one hundred horses. He took fifteen thousand dollars in confederate bonds, just issued, from an agent of the authorities at Richmond. This is all public property. No private property has been touched. Colonel Spear's loss is three killed and eight wounded.
Donaldsonville, Louisiana, was attacked by the Confederate forces under General Green, who succeeded in gaining possession of the Union entrenchments. Soon after, the gunboats, commanded by Rear Admiral David Farragut, opened a flanking fire above and below the works, and driving back the supporting party of the Rebels, captured the Southerners who had entered them.
General Mitchell's division of the army of the Cumberland left Triune, Tennessee, this day. When about eight miles out on the Eagleville road, the Confederate pickets were met and pursued five miles to Rover, when they made a stand with infantry, cavalry, and artillery, and a sharp fight ensued, continuing over two hours, and resulting in a stalemate.
Posted on 6/29/13 at 1:56 pm to dallasga6
June 29, 1863
General George Meade had received a promotion at 7 a.m. yesterday when he was named commander of the Army of the Potomac. This job had defeated generals who had had months of preparation--and Meade was faced with an invader on Pennsylvania soil. General Robert E. Lee sent orders to General Jubal Early in York, telling him and the other outlying commanders to begin to concentrate near a little crossroads town called Gettysburg, where the Hanover, Taneytown, Fairfield, Mummasburg, Table Rock, Old Harrisburg, and Emmitsburg Roads all intersect, as well as the Baltimore Pike.. Facing him was a Union cavalry unit with a seasoned commander--John Buford. Meade was coming as fast as he could. The supposedly lethargic Union troops were sometimes marching 20 miles in a day.
Lieutenant Commander Shirk reported the interception of a letter from Confederate General Martin L. Smith at Vicksburg to his wife. "He says," Shirk wrote, "everything looks like taking a trip North. All seem to think that Saturday or Sunday will tell the fall of Vicksburg. The Confederates were being realistic rather than pessimistic, for, though they had long and bravely resisted against tremendous odds with supply lines severed, the fall of the fortress on the Mississippi was at hand."
At Philadelphia, there was much excitement on account of the approach of the Confederates toward Gettysburg. Business was suspended, and the people prepared themselves for defense or departure.
Columbia, Pennsylvania, was placed under martial law, and Captain Samuel J. Randall, of the Philadelphia City Troop, was appointed Provost Marshal; the citizens of the town were forcibly seized and sent to work on the entrenchments.
Federal troops enforced the draft enrollment, and arrested deserters, in Sullivan and Green counties, Indiana.
Captain Abram Jones, with a detachment of the First New York cavalry, had a sharp engagement with a party of Confederate horsemen belonging to the command of General John D. Imboden, at McConnellsburg, Pennsylvania, ultimately resulting in the retreat of the Yankees..
General Braxton Bragg abandoned his fortifications on the north side of Duck River, Tennessee, and retreated toward Tullahoma.
The Confederates approached to a point on the Reisterstown Road seven miles from Baltimore, Maryland, creating a great excitement in that city.
A resolution calling on President Abraham Lincoln to restore General George McClellan to command, passed the Common Council of Philadelphia.
At Westminster, Maryland, a fight took place between a portion of the First regiment of Delaware cavalry and the Confederate cavalry belonging to General J.E.B. Stuart's division. About half-past 3 o'clock in the afternoon, a citizen informed the Federals that the Rebels were approaching, and the men were rapidly put in position. Lieutenant Clark, with twelve men, advanced to reconnoiter; he found about three hundred Confederates coming down the Washington road, and heard that as many more had crossed from said road toward the rear of the Delaware encampment. The reconnoitering party then fell back to the main body and formed in front of the first platoon. Major Knight, who was in command of the Federal force, gave the order to charge, which was obeyed in gallant style. The Rebels were driven back on the Washington road about two hundred yards. The fight lasted some fifteen or twenty minutes, sabres and pistols being freely used, when the Federals, overpowered by superior numbers, were in turn forced back. Just then it was discovered that a large force was coming up from the rear, and the order was given to retreat. The retreat then became a rout. Major Knight, Lieutenant Clark, and Adjutant Lobdell remained behind to the last, attempting to cover and direct the skedaddle. Clark had a ball pass through the rim of his hat, and one of his arms was very much bruised by the side-stroke of a sabre. These officers, with a number of men, reached Baltimore shortly after midnight. There were about ninety-five men engaged on the Union side, consisting of Captain Corbett's and Lieutenant Churchman's companies. Captain Corbett had his horse shot, was wounded and taken prisoner. Lieutenant Churchman and Surgeon Shields were also captured. The Federals had two killed, seven wounded, and thirty-eight missing.
General George Foster Shepley, Military Governor of Louisiana, issued an order calling upon the citizens of New Orleans for a brigade of volunteers to serve for sixty days in defense of the city.
Earlier in the day Rear Admiral David D. Porter, being informed by General Dennis, commanding the post at Young's Point, on the Mississippi River, that the National Negro troops at Goodrich's Landing had been attacked by the Rebels, directed General Ellet to proceed with the Marine Brigade to the scene of action, and remain there until everything was quiet. The hindmost vessel of the brigade, the John Haines, arrived there as the Confederates were setting fire to the recently seized Government plantations, and supposing her to be an ordinary transport, they opened fire on her with field pieces, but were much surprised to have the fire returned with shrapnel, which fell in among them, killing and wounding a number. The result was a retreat on the part of the Rebels, and the escape of a number of Negroes whom they had imprisoned. The gunboat Romeo also came up the river about this time, and hearing the firing, hurried to the scene of action. The commander also soon discovered the Southerners setting fire to the plantations, and commenced shelling them. This he kept up for a distance of fifteen miles, chasing them along ? the Confederates setting fire to every thing as they advanced. The result was an almost total destruction of houses and property along the river front in that vicinity, leaving the Yankees there with no stores for support. The Rebels carried off about one thousand two hundred Negroes, who were employed in working upon the Government plantations. General Ellet landed his forces, and in company with a black brigade, proceeded to chase the Rebels, who were deliberately falling back. The General found the road strewn with broken carts and furniture, which the Rebels left in their haste to get away from his forces. He pursued them as far as Tensas River, where they had crossed. They burned the bridges, and entrenched themselves for a battle. This was soon offered them. The Union artillery opened on them and put them to flight. General Ellet, not knowing the country very well, and having only a small force with him, deemed it proper not to pursue them much further. He sent two hundred infantry across the bayou, and found they were retreating to Delhi, leaving some of their plunder strewn along the road.
General George Meade had received a promotion at 7 a.m. yesterday when he was named commander of the Army of the Potomac. This job had defeated generals who had had months of preparation--and Meade was faced with an invader on Pennsylvania soil. General Robert E. Lee sent orders to General Jubal Early in York, telling him and the other outlying commanders to begin to concentrate near a little crossroads town called Gettysburg, where the Hanover, Taneytown, Fairfield, Mummasburg, Table Rock, Old Harrisburg, and Emmitsburg Roads all intersect, as well as the Baltimore Pike.. Facing him was a Union cavalry unit with a seasoned commander--John Buford. Meade was coming as fast as he could. The supposedly lethargic Union troops were sometimes marching 20 miles in a day.
Lieutenant Commander Shirk reported the interception of a letter from Confederate General Martin L. Smith at Vicksburg to his wife. "He says," Shirk wrote, "everything looks like taking a trip North. All seem to think that Saturday or Sunday will tell the fall of Vicksburg. The Confederates were being realistic rather than pessimistic, for, though they had long and bravely resisted against tremendous odds with supply lines severed, the fall of the fortress on the Mississippi was at hand."
At Philadelphia, there was much excitement on account of the approach of the Confederates toward Gettysburg. Business was suspended, and the people prepared themselves for defense or departure.
Columbia, Pennsylvania, was placed under martial law, and Captain Samuel J. Randall, of the Philadelphia City Troop, was appointed Provost Marshal; the citizens of the town were forcibly seized and sent to work on the entrenchments.
Federal troops enforced the draft enrollment, and arrested deserters, in Sullivan and Green counties, Indiana.
Captain Abram Jones, with a detachment of the First New York cavalry, had a sharp engagement with a party of Confederate horsemen belonging to the command of General John D. Imboden, at McConnellsburg, Pennsylvania, ultimately resulting in the retreat of the Yankees..
General Braxton Bragg abandoned his fortifications on the north side of Duck River, Tennessee, and retreated toward Tullahoma.
The Confederates approached to a point on the Reisterstown Road seven miles from Baltimore, Maryland, creating a great excitement in that city.
A resolution calling on President Abraham Lincoln to restore General George McClellan to command, passed the Common Council of Philadelphia.
At Westminster, Maryland, a fight took place between a portion of the First regiment of Delaware cavalry and the Confederate cavalry belonging to General J.E.B. Stuart's division. About half-past 3 o'clock in the afternoon, a citizen informed the Federals that the Rebels were approaching, and the men were rapidly put in position. Lieutenant Clark, with twelve men, advanced to reconnoiter; he found about three hundred Confederates coming down the Washington road, and heard that as many more had crossed from said road toward the rear of the Delaware encampment. The reconnoitering party then fell back to the main body and formed in front of the first platoon. Major Knight, who was in command of the Federal force, gave the order to charge, which was obeyed in gallant style. The Rebels were driven back on the Washington road about two hundred yards. The fight lasted some fifteen or twenty minutes, sabres and pistols being freely used, when the Federals, overpowered by superior numbers, were in turn forced back. Just then it was discovered that a large force was coming up from the rear, and the order was given to retreat. The retreat then became a rout. Major Knight, Lieutenant Clark, and Adjutant Lobdell remained behind to the last, attempting to cover and direct the skedaddle. Clark had a ball pass through the rim of his hat, and one of his arms was very much bruised by the side-stroke of a sabre. These officers, with a number of men, reached Baltimore shortly after midnight. There were about ninety-five men engaged on the Union side, consisting of Captain Corbett's and Lieutenant Churchman's companies. Captain Corbett had his horse shot, was wounded and taken prisoner. Lieutenant Churchman and Surgeon Shields were also captured. The Federals had two killed, seven wounded, and thirty-eight missing.
General George Foster Shepley, Military Governor of Louisiana, issued an order calling upon the citizens of New Orleans for a brigade of volunteers to serve for sixty days in defense of the city.
Earlier in the day Rear Admiral David D. Porter, being informed by General Dennis, commanding the post at Young's Point, on the Mississippi River, that the National Negro troops at Goodrich's Landing had been attacked by the Rebels, directed General Ellet to proceed with the Marine Brigade to the scene of action, and remain there until everything was quiet. The hindmost vessel of the brigade, the John Haines, arrived there as the Confederates were setting fire to the recently seized Government plantations, and supposing her to be an ordinary transport, they opened fire on her with field pieces, but were much surprised to have the fire returned with shrapnel, which fell in among them, killing and wounding a number. The result was a retreat on the part of the Rebels, and the escape of a number of Negroes whom they had imprisoned. The gunboat Romeo also came up the river about this time, and hearing the firing, hurried to the scene of action. The commander also soon discovered the Southerners setting fire to the plantations, and commenced shelling them. This he kept up for a distance of fifteen miles, chasing them along ? the Confederates setting fire to every thing as they advanced. The result was an almost total destruction of houses and property along the river front in that vicinity, leaving the Yankees there with no stores for support. The Rebels carried off about one thousand two hundred Negroes, who were employed in working upon the Government plantations. General Ellet landed his forces, and in company with a black brigade, proceeded to chase the Rebels, who were deliberately falling back. The General found the road strewn with broken carts and furniture, which the Rebels left in their haste to get away from his forces. He pursued them as far as Tensas River, where they had crossed. They burned the bridges, and entrenched themselves for a battle. This was soon offered them. The Union artillery opened on them and put them to flight. General Ellet, not knowing the country very well, and having only a small force with him, deemed it proper not to pursue them much further. He sent two hundred infantry across the bayou, and found they were retreating to Delhi, leaving some of their plunder strewn along the road.
Posted on 6/30/13 at 2:01 pm to dallasga6
Things are heating up...2 parts today, a lot happening..
Part 1
June 30, 1863
The massive armies in the East gathered towards southern central Pennsylvania today. General Richard Ewell, currently in York, was ordered to pull out before all of the demanded ransom was delivered, but refrained from burning the town. Other Confederate armies converged from Carlisle, Chambersburg and Hanover, where skirmishing took place. The Union armies were stretched from Westminster, Maryland, to almost Gettysburg itself, where General John F. Reynolds' forces were heading. General J.E.B. Stuart's Confederate cavalry was still further out of position than General Robert E. Lee had hoped to able to help with scouting, due to an unexpected skirmish with Union forces under General Judson Kilpatrick at Hanover, while a column of 2,900 Union calvary of Brigadier General John Buford were arriving in the town itself around 9 a.m.
The sharp point of the Army of Northern Virginia at daybreak, currently hoofing it all over southern Pennsylvania in an effort to reunite as quickly as possible, was Major General Henry Heth's division at Cashtown. Heth's was one of the three divisions in the army's newly formed 3rd Corps commanded by Lieutenant General A.P. Hill. Heth chose to use his time by sending a raiding party to Gettysburg eight miles further east. There was rumored to be a stock of some 2,000 shoes there and he was determined to commandeer them for his soldiers, some of whom were barefoot. He assigned the task to one of his four brigades led by Brigadier General Johnston Pettigrew. Although only local militia was believed to be in the area, Pettigrew was under strict instructions by Heth, as per General Lee's orders, to withdraw without a fight if he encountered any resistance. At first light, Pettigrew set off with three of his four regiments, roughly 1,800 men, on his trek to Gettysburg with a compliment of empty wagons for hauling away the spoils. At about mid-morning, in Gettysburg town itself a column of 2,900 Union horsemen of Brigadier General John Buford's cavalry division rode noisily through the streets to the relieved cheers of the residents who were noticeably agitated. Buford soon found out why. There was a force of Rebels bearing down on them from the direction of Cashtown along the Chambersburg Pike. Buford had been sent to scout ahead of the Union Army heading this way and he immediately ordered his men to fan out into the surrounding countryside to size up the incoming enemy. As Pettigrew's column approached Gettysburg, Buford's men were clearly visible as the cavalrymen aggressively probed along the ridges west of town. Following his orders not to start a fight, the Southern Brigadier dutifully turned his brigade around and marched the eight miles back to base, his wagons still empty. Tonight, back at the Confederate camp in Cashtown, Heth and Hill listened to Pettigrew's report with incredulity. They doubted that what his expedition ran into was anything but local militia. Pettigrew was not a professional soldier, but he was highly intelligent and continued to insist he knew the well-trained Army of the Potomac when he saw it. Regardless, Heth asked for permission to try again for the shoes in the morning. Corps commander Hill gave his blessing. And so, it would begin.
Captain Raphael Semmes of the CSS Alabama wrote in his journal: "It is two years today since we ran the blockade of the Mississippi in the Sumter. . . . Two years of almost constant excitement and anxiety, the usual excitement of battling with the sea and the weather and avoiding dangerous shoals and coasts, added to the excitement of the chase, the capture, the escape from the enemy, and the battle. And then there has been the government of my officers and crew, not always a pleasant task, for I have had some senseless and unruly spirits to deal with; and last, though not least, the bother and vexation of being hurried out of port when I have gone into one by scrupulous and timid officials, to say nothing of offensive espionage. All these things have produced a constant tension of the nervous system, and the wear and tear of body in these two years would, no doubt, be quite obvious to my friends at home, could they see me on this 30th day of June, 1863."
Part 1
June 30, 1863
The massive armies in the East gathered towards southern central Pennsylvania today. General Richard Ewell, currently in York, was ordered to pull out before all of the demanded ransom was delivered, but refrained from burning the town. Other Confederate armies converged from Carlisle, Chambersburg and Hanover, where skirmishing took place. The Union armies were stretched from Westminster, Maryland, to almost Gettysburg itself, where General John F. Reynolds' forces were heading. General J.E.B. Stuart's Confederate cavalry was still further out of position than General Robert E. Lee had hoped to able to help with scouting, due to an unexpected skirmish with Union forces under General Judson Kilpatrick at Hanover, while a column of 2,900 Union calvary of Brigadier General John Buford were arriving in the town itself around 9 a.m.
The sharp point of the Army of Northern Virginia at daybreak, currently hoofing it all over southern Pennsylvania in an effort to reunite as quickly as possible, was Major General Henry Heth's division at Cashtown. Heth's was one of the three divisions in the army's newly formed 3rd Corps commanded by Lieutenant General A.P. Hill. Heth chose to use his time by sending a raiding party to Gettysburg eight miles further east. There was rumored to be a stock of some 2,000 shoes there and he was determined to commandeer them for his soldiers, some of whom were barefoot. He assigned the task to one of his four brigades led by Brigadier General Johnston Pettigrew. Although only local militia was believed to be in the area, Pettigrew was under strict instructions by Heth, as per General Lee's orders, to withdraw without a fight if he encountered any resistance. At first light, Pettigrew set off with three of his four regiments, roughly 1,800 men, on his trek to Gettysburg with a compliment of empty wagons for hauling away the spoils. At about mid-morning, in Gettysburg town itself a column of 2,900 Union horsemen of Brigadier General John Buford's cavalry division rode noisily through the streets to the relieved cheers of the residents who were noticeably agitated. Buford soon found out why. There was a force of Rebels bearing down on them from the direction of Cashtown along the Chambersburg Pike. Buford had been sent to scout ahead of the Union Army heading this way and he immediately ordered his men to fan out into the surrounding countryside to size up the incoming enemy. As Pettigrew's column approached Gettysburg, Buford's men were clearly visible as the cavalrymen aggressively probed along the ridges west of town. Following his orders not to start a fight, the Southern Brigadier dutifully turned his brigade around and marched the eight miles back to base, his wagons still empty. Tonight, back at the Confederate camp in Cashtown, Heth and Hill listened to Pettigrew's report with incredulity. They doubted that what his expedition ran into was anything but local militia. Pettigrew was not a professional soldier, but he was highly intelligent and continued to insist he knew the well-trained Army of the Potomac when he saw it. Regardless, Heth asked for permission to try again for the shoes in the morning. Corps commander Hill gave his blessing. And so, it would begin.
Captain Raphael Semmes of the CSS Alabama wrote in his journal: "It is two years today since we ran the blockade of the Mississippi in the Sumter. . . . Two years of almost constant excitement and anxiety, the usual excitement of battling with the sea and the weather and avoiding dangerous shoals and coasts, added to the excitement of the chase, the capture, the escape from the enemy, and the battle. And then there has been the government of my officers and crew, not always a pleasant task, for I have had some senseless and unruly spirits to deal with; and last, though not least, the bother and vexation of being hurried out of port when I have gone into one by scrupulous and timid officials, to say nothing of offensive espionage. All these things have produced a constant tension of the nervous system, and the wear and tear of body in these two years would, no doubt, be quite obvious to my friends at home, could they see me on this 30th day of June, 1863."
This post was edited on 6/30/13 at 2:07 pm
Posted on 6/30/13 at 2:02 pm to dallasga6
Part 2...
June 30, 1863
Captain Josiah Tattnall wrote Commander William W. Hunter: "The ironclad steamer Savannah being completed in all respects and ready for service with the exception of her officers in which she is deficient, I have the pleasure to transfer her to your command.''
The USS Ossipee, under Captain John P. Gillis, captured the schooner Helena off Mobile.
Maryland Heights was evacuated by the Federal troops, after the removal of the Government property and the demolition of the fortifications.
At Cincinnati, Ohio, a meeting to devise means for the defense of the city was held, Major General Ambrose E. Burnside presiding.
General O. B. Wilcox issued a general order against secret political societies and other organizations in Indiana and Michigan.
The Twenty-second and Thirty-seventh regiments of New York militia, left camp, opposite Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, taking only their arms and canteens, and started out to reconnoiter for a few hours. After scouring the country for ten miles they met the Rebels, drawn up in line of battle at Sporting Hill, awaiting their approach. Colonel Roome, of the Thirty-seventh, being senior officer, took the right, and Colonel Aspinwall the left. They then advanced on the Confederates, and were forcing them back, when the latter opened on the militia with two pieces of artillery; but a section of an independent Philadelphia battery coming up, soon silenced their guns, when they retreated with a loss of thirteen killed and twenty wounded.
Major General George Meade, from his headquarters, army of the Potomac, issued the following circular: The Commanding General requests that previous to the engagement soon expected with the enemy, corps and all other commanding officers address their troops, explaining to them the immense issues involved in the struggle. The enemy is now on our soil. The whole country looks anxiously to this army to deliver it from the presence of the foe. Our failure to do so will leave us no such welcome as the swelling of millions of hearts with pride and joy at our success would give to every soldier of the army. Homes, firesides, and domestic altars are involved The army has fought well heretofore. It is believed that it will fight more desperately and bravely than ever if it is addressed in fitting terms. Corps and other commanders are authorized to order the instant death of any soldier who fails to do his duty at this hour.
Colonel Wilder's cavalry expedition to the rear of General Braxton Bragg's army at Tullahoma, returned to Manchester, Tennessee. With his brigade of mounted infantry he started on Sunday, the twenty-eighth instant, went to Hillsboro, thence to Decherd, swam Elk River, and crossed with his howitzers on a raft, making fifty miles the same day. He tore up the track, burned the cars, and the depot full of stores, and destroyed the trestle work. At daylight on Monday he started up to the Southern University, where he divided his force. One portion was sent to strike the railroad at Tantalon, while Wilder went to strike it at Anderson. There he found Buckner's whole division and a train of cars going up from Knoxville to Tullahoma, and fell back, in the mean while tearing up the railroad from Cowan to Jersey City. The Confederates, meanwhile, having sent a powerful force to intercept him, he struck through the mountain and returned to Manchester, which he reached this afternoon. He took and paroled a number of prisoners and captured a lot of mules. The damage done to the railroad is very serious, but would have been more so if the rivers had not been so high. The expedition made one hundred and twenty-six miles in two days and a half.
In the British House of Commons an animated debate was held on the subject of the recognition of the Confederate government.
Baltimore, Maryland, was placed under martial law by General Robert Cumming Schenck.
June 30, 1863
Captain Josiah Tattnall wrote Commander William W. Hunter: "The ironclad steamer Savannah being completed in all respects and ready for service with the exception of her officers in which she is deficient, I have the pleasure to transfer her to your command.''
The USS Ossipee, under Captain John P. Gillis, captured the schooner Helena off Mobile.
Maryland Heights was evacuated by the Federal troops, after the removal of the Government property and the demolition of the fortifications.
At Cincinnati, Ohio, a meeting to devise means for the defense of the city was held, Major General Ambrose E. Burnside presiding.
General O. B. Wilcox issued a general order against secret political societies and other organizations in Indiana and Michigan.
The Twenty-second and Thirty-seventh regiments of New York militia, left camp, opposite Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, taking only their arms and canteens, and started out to reconnoiter for a few hours. After scouring the country for ten miles they met the Rebels, drawn up in line of battle at Sporting Hill, awaiting their approach. Colonel Roome, of the Thirty-seventh, being senior officer, took the right, and Colonel Aspinwall the left. They then advanced on the Confederates, and were forcing them back, when the latter opened on the militia with two pieces of artillery; but a section of an independent Philadelphia battery coming up, soon silenced their guns, when they retreated with a loss of thirteen killed and twenty wounded.
Major General George Meade, from his headquarters, army of the Potomac, issued the following circular: The Commanding General requests that previous to the engagement soon expected with the enemy, corps and all other commanding officers address their troops, explaining to them the immense issues involved in the struggle. The enemy is now on our soil. The whole country looks anxiously to this army to deliver it from the presence of the foe. Our failure to do so will leave us no such welcome as the swelling of millions of hearts with pride and joy at our success would give to every soldier of the army. Homes, firesides, and domestic altars are involved The army has fought well heretofore. It is believed that it will fight more desperately and bravely than ever if it is addressed in fitting terms. Corps and other commanders are authorized to order the instant death of any soldier who fails to do his duty at this hour.
Colonel Wilder's cavalry expedition to the rear of General Braxton Bragg's army at Tullahoma, returned to Manchester, Tennessee. With his brigade of mounted infantry he started on Sunday, the twenty-eighth instant, went to Hillsboro, thence to Decherd, swam Elk River, and crossed with his howitzers on a raft, making fifty miles the same day. He tore up the track, burned the cars, and the depot full of stores, and destroyed the trestle work. At daylight on Monday he started up to the Southern University, where he divided his force. One portion was sent to strike the railroad at Tantalon, while Wilder went to strike it at Anderson. There he found Buckner's whole division and a train of cars going up from Knoxville to Tullahoma, and fell back, in the mean while tearing up the railroad from Cowan to Jersey City. The Confederates, meanwhile, having sent a powerful force to intercept him, he struck through the mountain and returned to Manchester, which he reached this afternoon. He took and paroled a number of prisoners and captured a lot of mules. The damage done to the railroad is very serious, but would have been more so if the rivers had not been so high. The expedition made one hundred and twenty-six miles in two days and a half.
In the British House of Commons an animated debate was held on the subject of the recognition of the Confederate government.
Baltimore, Maryland, was placed under martial law by General Robert Cumming Schenck.
This post was edited on 6/30/13 at 2:10 pm
Posted on 7/1/13 at 2:21 pm to dallasga6
July 1, 1863
Part 1...
Was it random chance, overconfidence, or just a good road network that brought the two great armies of the Eastern Theater together in Pennsylvania this morning? Whatever the reason, skirmishers from General A. P. Hill's Confederate corps encountered what they first took to be Pennsylvania militia on the Chambersburg Pike west of Gettysburg. The "militia" was in fact the crack cavalry of General John Buford, fighting dismounted . As one group after another was unable to dislodge these "militia", eventually Buford's Co. E of the 9th New York Cavalry was standing off two brigades in one of the classic fighting withdrawals of this or any war. The delay was just long enough for General John Reynold's 1st Corps to get up to carry on the fight, although without Reynolds who was killed early on. Major General Oliver O. Howard's 11th Corps was right behind. The early efforts to fight north of town were quickly swamped, and chaos followed fleeing Union men and pursuing Confederates alike as they headed for the high ground of Cemetery Ridge and Culp's Hills. That "lovely ground" was in Union hands at the end of this day.
After the discovery yesterday that Gettysburg was occupied by Brigadier General John Buford's division of Federal cavalry, the Confederates very early this morning sent the divisions of Major General Henry Heth and Major General William Pender of Hill's Corps, down the Chambersburg Road to drive Buford away and occupy Gettysburg.
The battle began at 5.30 a.m., when shots were exchanged over Marsh Creek. In the face of Buford's stiff resistance-whose cavalry troopers, armed with their repeating Spencer carbines, would repel wave after wave of Confederate infantry-Heth pushed on slowly until he reached a point about two miles west of Gettysburg. Here he deployed two brigades in line, and pressed ahead. By then, it was nearly 10 a.m. Federal General John F. Reynolds, commanding I Corps, arrived on the field at this point, and determined to engage Herb. He ordered I Corps and Howard's XI Corps to march to Gettysburg. Soon after 10.30 a.m., I Corps arrived and engaged Heth along McPherson's Ridge.
By 11.30 a.m., Heth had been badly bloodied and forced to withdraw to Herr Ridge. Early in the action, Reynolds was killed, and field command devolved upon Howard. A lull now settled over the field as both sides brought up reinforcements. The Federal I Corps deployed to defend the western approaches to Gettysburg, while XI Corps formed up north of the town. Buford's cavalry covered the flanks. Howard left one division in reserve on Cemetery Hill. His strategy was simple: delay the Confederates long enough to enable the rest of the Federal army to concentrate.
General Robert E. Lee, having been very ill lately, arrived on the field after noon. He had initially hoped to avoid a general engagement since the strength of the enemy was unknown, and the terrain in the Gettysburg area unfamiliar. But, soon after noon, Robert E. Rodes's division of Richard Ewell's Corps arrived on Oak Hill and attacked the right of I Corps.
At 2 p.m. Heth's division joined the attack on I Corps. At 3 p.m., the battle spread north of the town when Jubal Early's division of Ewell's Corps attacked down the Harrisburg Road and crushed the flank of XI Corps. At about the same time, west of Gettysburg, William Dorsey Pender's division relieved Heth and assaulted I Corps' position along Seminary Ridge.
By 4 p.m., both Federal corps were in full retreat through Gettysburg to Cemetery Hill. Only their superior firepower from the Spencer rifles kept it from being a completer rout. Federal losses numbered slightly over 9,000, including some 3,000 captured, compared with Confederate losses of about 6,500. The day's action had resulted in a major Confederate victory, but Federal forces held onto the high ground south of Gettysburg, where their position would soon be strengthened by reinforcements.
Major General Rosecrans asked Captain Pennock in Cairo for gunboat assistance in operations on the Tennessee River. The Confederates repeatedly attempted to establish bases along this waterway, but the Union Navy had several gunboats stationed on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers to frustrate such moves. These unheralded, but nonetheless eventful actions by the forces afloat, as Admiral Mahan later wrote, showed "...the unending and essential work performed by the navy in keeping the communications open, aiding isolated garrisons, and checking the growth of the guerilla war."
Commander Caldwell, upon being detached from command of USS Essex and the mortar flotilla at Port Hudson, reported to Rear Admiral Farragut: "From the 23 of May to the 26 of June there followed a constant succession of bombardments and artillery fights between the Essex and mortar vessels on one side and the rebel batteries on the other. We have fired from this vessel 738 shells and from the mortar vessels an aggregate of 2,800 XIII-inch shells." The continued bombardment of the strong Southern works was instrumental in forcing its surrender after the fall of Vicksburg .
Part 1...
Was it random chance, overconfidence, or just a good road network that brought the two great armies of the Eastern Theater together in Pennsylvania this morning? Whatever the reason, skirmishers from General A. P. Hill's Confederate corps encountered what they first took to be Pennsylvania militia on the Chambersburg Pike west of Gettysburg. The "militia" was in fact the crack cavalry of General John Buford, fighting dismounted . As one group after another was unable to dislodge these "militia", eventually Buford's Co. E of the 9th New York Cavalry was standing off two brigades in one of the classic fighting withdrawals of this or any war. The delay was just long enough for General John Reynold's 1st Corps to get up to carry on the fight, although without Reynolds who was killed early on. Major General Oliver O. Howard's 11th Corps was right behind. The early efforts to fight north of town were quickly swamped, and chaos followed fleeing Union men and pursuing Confederates alike as they headed for the high ground of Cemetery Ridge and Culp's Hills. That "lovely ground" was in Union hands at the end of this day.
After the discovery yesterday that Gettysburg was occupied by Brigadier General John Buford's division of Federal cavalry, the Confederates very early this morning sent the divisions of Major General Henry Heth and Major General William Pender of Hill's Corps, down the Chambersburg Road to drive Buford away and occupy Gettysburg.
The battle began at 5.30 a.m., when shots were exchanged over Marsh Creek. In the face of Buford's stiff resistance-whose cavalry troopers, armed with their repeating Spencer carbines, would repel wave after wave of Confederate infantry-Heth pushed on slowly until he reached a point about two miles west of Gettysburg. Here he deployed two brigades in line, and pressed ahead. By then, it was nearly 10 a.m. Federal General John F. Reynolds, commanding I Corps, arrived on the field at this point, and determined to engage Herb. He ordered I Corps and Howard's XI Corps to march to Gettysburg. Soon after 10.30 a.m., I Corps arrived and engaged Heth along McPherson's Ridge.
By 11.30 a.m., Heth had been badly bloodied and forced to withdraw to Herr Ridge. Early in the action, Reynolds was killed, and field command devolved upon Howard. A lull now settled over the field as both sides brought up reinforcements. The Federal I Corps deployed to defend the western approaches to Gettysburg, while XI Corps formed up north of the town. Buford's cavalry covered the flanks. Howard left one division in reserve on Cemetery Hill. His strategy was simple: delay the Confederates long enough to enable the rest of the Federal army to concentrate.
General Robert E. Lee, having been very ill lately, arrived on the field after noon. He had initially hoped to avoid a general engagement since the strength of the enemy was unknown, and the terrain in the Gettysburg area unfamiliar. But, soon after noon, Robert E. Rodes's division of Richard Ewell's Corps arrived on Oak Hill and attacked the right of I Corps.
At 2 p.m. Heth's division joined the attack on I Corps. At 3 p.m., the battle spread north of the town when Jubal Early's division of Ewell's Corps attacked down the Harrisburg Road and crushed the flank of XI Corps. At about the same time, west of Gettysburg, William Dorsey Pender's division relieved Heth and assaulted I Corps' position along Seminary Ridge.
By 4 p.m., both Federal corps were in full retreat through Gettysburg to Cemetery Hill. Only their superior firepower from the Spencer rifles kept it from being a completer rout. Federal losses numbered slightly over 9,000, including some 3,000 captured, compared with Confederate losses of about 6,500. The day's action had resulted in a major Confederate victory, but Federal forces held onto the high ground south of Gettysburg, where their position would soon be strengthened by reinforcements.
Major General Rosecrans asked Captain Pennock in Cairo for gunboat assistance in operations on the Tennessee River. The Confederates repeatedly attempted to establish bases along this waterway, but the Union Navy had several gunboats stationed on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers to frustrate such moves. These unheralded, but nonetheless eventful actions by the forces afloat, as Admiral Mahan later wrote, showed "...the unending and essential work performed by the navy in keeping the communications open, aiding isolated garrisons, and checking the growth of the guerilla war."
Commander Caldwell, upon being detached from command of USS Essex and the mortar flotilla at Port Hudson, reported to Rear Admiral Farragut: "From the 23 of May to the 26 of June there followed a constant succession of bombardments and artillery fights between the Essex and mortar vessels on one side and the rebel batteries on the other. We have fired from this vessel 738 shells and from the mortar vessels an aggregate of 2,800 XIII-inch shells." The continued bombardment of the strong Southern works was instrumental in forcing its surrender after the fall of Vicksburg .
Posted on 7/1/13 at 2:23 pm to dallasga6
July 1, 1863
Part 2...
James M. Tindel wrote Confederate Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin from Mobile, proposing the capture of Pacific Mail Steamers, Union ships carrying on an active trade along the west coast. The expedition, Tindel wrote, would proceed first to Matamoras. There the expedition would be divided, one portion to proceed overland to San Francisco to make an attempt to capture one of the steamers plying between that port and the Isthmus, the other to sail as a neutral from some port near Aspinwall [Panama], to make a similar attempt on the steamer sailing from that port. The Confederates recognized that the success of such a mission would cause considerable excitement and greatly disrupt shipping in the area, but the Union moved to strengthen its Pacific Squadron in the last 6 months of the year and Confederate plans bore no fruit.
J.B. Jones, a clerk in the Confederate War Department, noted in his diary that President Davis had "...decided that the obstructions below the city (Richmond) shall not be opened for the steam ironclad Richmond to go out until another ironclad be in readiness to accompany her."
Colonel E. H. Angamar claims to have made an attack upon the Union blockaders off Mobile on this date with his rocket propelled submarine. There is no record of this from the Union side.
Carlisle, Pennsylvania, was occupied by the Union troops under the command of General W. F. Smith. Soon after the occupation, the Confederates returned and demanded a surrender of the town, which was refused, when a bombardment by the Southerners was commenced, and the United States arsenal was set on fire, and other buildings were destroyed.
A body of cavalry belonging to the command of General Thomas Leonidas Crittenden, in pursuit of General Braxton Bragg from Tullahoma, Tennessee, fell in with the Confederate cavalry on the road between Pelham and Winchester, and had a fight which resulted in the retreat of the Rebels, and the wounding, mortally, of Lieutenant Colonel Webb, of the Fifty-first regiment of Alabama mounted infantry.
Captain Dahlgren, with twenty men, and Captain Kline, of the Third Indiana cavalry, visited Greencastle, and captured the orderly of General Lee and his entire escort, who had very important dispatches from Jefferson Davis to General Lee, together with orders to the various generals of Lee's army, muster and payrolls, and other military matter.
The Missouri ordinance of freedom passed the State Convention, in session at Jefferson City, by a vote of eighty yeas against thirty nays.
A train of cars on the road between Louisville and Frankfort, Kentucky, was thrown off the track, the rails having been removed by the Confederate guerrillas.
Tullahoma, Tennessee, was occupied by the advance of General Rosecrans's army, the Confederates having left, taking the road toward Winchester. Strong fortifications, a quantity of stores, and three siege guns were captured by the Federals.
The new gunboat Virginia was launched from Rocket's shipyard at Richmond, Virginia.
The question of rank between the major generals of the United States army was decided by the board of officers convened for that purpose at Washington, D. C.
General Getty with his brigade, left White House, Virginia, for the purpose of destroying the bridges over the South Anna River, that were not burned by Colonel S. P. Spear, in his late raid. At Baltimore Cross Roads he met a force of Confederates, and after a brisk engagement retreated, having lost two killed and five wounded. He did considerable damage, destroying some miles of railroad track and a depot.
The following notice was published by the Confederate Bureau of Conscription at Richmond: To answer numerous inquiries, and to correct errors not uncommon, the following notice is published to all concerned: 1. Under the recent call of the President, extending the conscript age, all substitutions have ceased to be valid if the substitute be less than forty-five years old, and is not otherwise exempt by law. 2. Membership, whether as officer or private, of local organization for home defense or special service, confers no claim to exemption from Confederate service; neither does service in the militia, unless in the case of officers actually in commission who have duly qualified. 3. Hereafter any one furnishing a substitute will become liable in his own person whenever the services of the substitute are lost to the government from any cause other than the casualties of war. 4. Applications for exemption, on any ground whatever, must first be addressed to the local enrolling officer, who, if he has not power to act, or is in doubt, will refer them to higher authority, with report of the facts. All such addressed direct to higher authority will necessarily and invariably be referred back for local examination and report; and the applicants will thus have uselessly lost time and prolonged suspense.
The public debt of the United States, as of this date, amounted to $1,097,274,403.
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