The date normally accepted as the start of the American Civil War is April 12th, 1861 when the State of South Carolina fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. This coastal defensive fort was garrisoned by US Army troops.

While this is the 'accepted' start date, important events crucial to this event happened earlier, some many years earlier. Here listed are some of those events:

1776-The Declaration of Independence first draft denounced the slave trade but this was deleted by the final draft-Colonists were aware of the issue

1793-Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin turning cotton farming into a large-scale profitable industry

1807-William Wilberforce succeeded in getting the British House of Commons to abolish slave trade in England

1820-The Missouri Compromise allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state and Maine to join as a free state

1822-Wilberforce urged British Colonies and other countries to suppress slavery with great success but no move in the US

1832-The New England Antislavery Society was formed (William Lloyd Garrison)

1852-Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and inflamed the Northern States over the cruelty of slavery

1854-The Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed those territories and any future ones to decide for themselves if they wanted slavery

1857-The US Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case decided that a slave was not a citizen so had no right to sue

1859-John Brown and 21 other men attack the Armory in Harper's Ferry hoping to encourage a slave uprising

February 27,1860- Abraham Lincoln states in a speech at New York's Cooper Union that the Constitution provides the power to control slavery in the territories

April 30,1860-Delegates of 8 slave states walk out of the Democratic National Convention saying Stephen Douglas does not support slavery enough

May 3,1860-The Democratic National Convention ends without naming a candidate (Charleston, SC)

May 18-23,1860-The Republican National Convention nominates Abraham Lincoln in Chicago

June 18-23,1860-The Democratic National Convention nominates Senator Stephen Douglas (Baltimore, MD) with no slave states represented

June 28,1860-Slave state Democrats meet (in Baltimore) and nominate John C. Breckenridge for President

November 6,1860-Lincoln is elected: Hannibal Hamlin as Vice President

December 3,1860-President James Buchanan tells Congress that no state has the right to secede but the Federal Government has no power to stop it

December 24,1860-Major Robert Anderson shifts his garrison from Ft. Moultrie to Ft. Sumter - South Carolina troops occupy Ft. Moultrie

January 9,1861-South Carolina fires on the supply ship 'Star of the West' carrying supplies to Ft. Sumter

January 9,1861- Missouri secedes from the Union
January 10,1861- Florida Secedes;
January 11,1861-Alabama Secedes;
January 19,1861-Georgia Secedes;
January 26,1861-Louisiana Secedes; W.T. Sherman resigns from the Louisiana Military Academy
February 1, 1861-Texas Secedes;

February 4, 1861- Provisional Government meets for the first time in Montgomery, Al

February 8-9,1861- The name 'Confederate States of America' is chosen and Jefferson Davis is elected President

March 4,1861- Lincoln Inaugurated as President of the United States

March 6,1861- The Confederate States establish the "Provisional Army of the Confederate State"

April 6,1861- Pres. Lincoln informs South Carolina that he will provision Ft. Sumter but will reinforce only if attack

April 11,1861-Confederate General P.T.G. Beauregard demands the surrender of Ft. Sumter. Major Anderson refuses

April 12,1861- At 4:30 AM CONFEDERATE TROOPS BOMBARD FORT SUMTER

Civil War-150 years ago this week (April 13-20,1861)
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

In the list of some of the events that lead up to the American Civil War, the last entry was the bombardment of Ft Sumter early on Friday, April 12, 1861 by shore batteries. These four batteries consisted of 7000 troops on Sullivan Island, at Ft. Pulaski and Ft Moultrie and on the area known as the Charleston Battery. This shelling continued throughout Friday, overnight, and all day Saturday, April 13th. The 70 US Army troops in Major Anderson's command returned artillery Friday, stopped overnight to conserve shells, and resumed reduced shelling Saturday. Late Saturday afternoon, Major Anderson surrendered.

April 13,1861-Major Anderson surrenders Ft Sumter with the stipulation that, after a 100-gun salute, all US property, including the flag could be removed from the fort. Ironically, no troops were severely injured or killed during the shelling but an accident during the 100-gun salute killed one soldier.

April 13,1861- The USS Sabine arrives at Pensacola, Fl with a blockading force

April 14,1861- Major Anderson evacuates Ft Sumter by embarking on a transport supplied by the Confederates, transferring to the 'Baltic' and sailing to New York City

April 14-15,1861- Several Southern newspapers call for a march on Washington D.C. and an attack on the capitol

April 15,1861- President Lincoln calls for 75,000 volunteers with a three-month enlistment to protect Washington

April 16,1861-Slavery is abolished in Washington, DC and Pres. Lincoln suspends all trade with states that secede

April 16,1861-Union troops set fire to the arsenal and armory at Harper's Ferry destroying 17,000 muskets. They then abandon the site

April 17,1861-Jefferson Davis invites private armed vessels to attack US ships on the high seas

April 18,1861-Pres. Lincoln offers command of the US Army to Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee - Lee declines

April 18,1861-Virginia Troops occupy Harper's Ferry Armory

April 18,1861-The first of the 75,000 troops, the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment, reaches New York City on their way to Washington

April 19,1861-Pres. Lincoln orders a blockade of all ports from Charleston, SC to Texas

April 19,1861-As the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment changes trains in Baltimore, a mob stones the soldiers with four soldiers killed and 12 civilian casualties

April 19,1861-The New York 7th Regiment sets out to defend Washington

April 20,1861-To avoid further street battles, the Baltimore mayor asks that no further troops travel through Baltimore

April 20,1861-Norfolk Navy Yard is partially destroyed, then abandoned by Union Forces

April 20,1861-Saying "I cannot raise my hand against my birthplace, my home, my children", Robert E. Lee resigns his US Army Commission

April 20,1861-The US Government seizes telegraph copies saved from the past year to locate messages from people hostile to the government

April 20,1861-Washington defensive forces fail to arrive from Boston, New York, and Baltimore. Investigation reveals that mobs intend to destroy rail lines between Annapolis and Philadelphia. Pres. Lincoln threatens to suspend 'Habeas Corpus' and arrest the mob leaders for safety of the public. NOTE (Habeas Corpus means that anyone arrested must be released from detention OR brought
before a court or judge to decide the legality of detention)

April 20,1861- Pres. Lincoln authorized General Scott to arrest and hold, without trial, anyone dangerous to the public safety, i.e. the mob slowing the arrival of troops to Washington, D.C.

Civil War-150 years ago this week (April 21-30, 1861)
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

April 21,1861-Professor Thomas Jackson, formerly a US Army Major, brought his Virginia Military Academy (VMI) Cadets to Richmond to train and drill recruits

April 21,1861-Union forces under General Benjamin Butler occupy Annapolis, MD

April 21,1861-Maryland Governor Thomas Hicks demands he removal of 'Northern Troops' from his State

April 22,1861-Robert E. Lee leaves his home, Arlington House to go to Richmond. He never returns

April 22,1861-US Army Lt. Joseph Wheeler resigns his US Army Commission

April 23,1861-Robert E. Lee is placed in charge of all Virginia Military forces as a Major General

April 24,1861-The "USS Niagara", just returned from Japan, is sent to Charleston Harbor as part of the blockade

April 24,1861-Robert E. Lee agrees to a Virginia Militia alliance with the Confederate States

April 26,1861-Confederate Troops seize Ft. Smith, Arkansas

April 27,1861-The port blockade is extended to North Carolina and Virginia ports (see April 19,1861 entry)

April 27,1861-Professor Thomas Jackson is named a Colonial in the Confederate Army & occupies Harper's Ferry, relieving the Virginia Militia

April 29,1861-Maryland's Government votes to remain in the Union

April 29,1861-In Montgomery, Alabama the Confederate Provisional Government meets to organize what they later called The Confederate States of America. This conference lasted until May 21,1861. At this point, eight southern states had seceded.

The Civil War era now enters a relatively slow period with few note-worthy events. The next installment of "This Week in the Civil War" will take up on May 3,1861 and may cover more than one week. Mostly military and government positioning as the first battle isn't until July (Manassas or First Bull Run on July 16,1861)

Civil War-150 years ago this week (May 1-May 16,1861)
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

May 3,1861-To add 22,700 men to the regular Army and 18,000 seamen to the Navy, President Lincoln calls for 42,000 volunteers for three year enlistment.

May 3, 1861- Missouri Governor Claiborne Jackson declared that Mr. Lincoln, by calling out troops for the purpose of subduing the secession movement, had committed an unconstitutional and illegal act. He defended the right of states to withdraw, that the interests of the State of Missouri were identical with other slaveholding states, and that Missouri would, at the proper time, follow the example of the seceding states. He concluded by insisting that Missouri would resist any attempt of the Federal Government to enforce Federal Law. This message caused the long series of desperate and bloody events in Missouri that were known at that time as the Southern Rebellion. The term "Southern Rebellion" later became simply the "Rebellion" and was attached to many other events.

May 3,1861-Chicago Zouaves organize a force in answer to Pres. Lincoln's 42,000 volunteer call

May 6,1861-Arkansas secedes (the ninth state to do so)

May 7,1861-Tennessee forms a Military Alliance with the Confederate States (does not secede until June 8)

May 9,1861-US forces in Texas are surrendered to the Texas Rangers along with supplies and weapons by US General David Twiggs, He later becomes a Confederate General

May 10,1861-Maryland resolves to protest any war against the Confederacy and to 'remain neutral' which resulted in the imprisonment of State Officials

May 10-11,1861-In St. Louis, MO, Union Captain Lyons demands the surrender of encamped State Militia forces causing a riot with 20 civilians killed

May 11,1861-Gen George B. McClellan becomes Commander of the US Army Department of the Ohio (Ohio, Indiana, Western Pa and Western Virginia troops)

May 13,1961-US Gen Benjamin Butler occupies Baltimore, MD

May 13,1861-Britian maintains neutrality and Queen Victoria withholds official recognition of the Confederate States of America

May 14,1861-William Tecumseh Sherman accepts appointment as a colonial in the 13th Infantry of the US Army. He refused earlier offers of a position as 'Officer' of Volunteers

May 14,1861-Gen Butler's troops occupy Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor

May 16,1861-An enlistment bounty of $10.00 offered by Confederate Congress

Civil War-150 years ago this week (May 19 - 31, 1861)
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

May 19,1861- The Confederate garrison at Harpers Ferry is strengthened by additional troops

May 20,1861- North Carolina secedes-the tenth state to do so

May 21,1861- Richmond is chosen the new capital of the Confederacy

May 21,1861- The Kentucky State Legislature votes to remain neutral in the upcoming struggle

May 21,1861- Lt. Fitzhugh Lee (Robert E. Lee's nephew) resigns as instructor at West Point to join the Confederacy

May 21,1861- Gen. William S. Harney, commanding in Missouri, agrees with Missouri State Guard commander Gen. Sterling Price to NOT introduce Union Troops into the state if peace was maintained. Congressman Francis Blair and General Nathaniel Lyon condemn the agreement; even call it treason

May 22,1861- Gen. Butler's Union forces occupy Ft. Monroe, VA

May 23,1861- Three runaway slaves appear at Ft. Monroe. Gen. Butler declares them "contraband of war" setting an important precedent for allowing more slaves to escape to Union lines

May 24,1861- Union troops under Gen. Samuel Heintzelman occupy Alexandria and Arlington, a to help defend Washington

May 24,1861- Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth of the 11th New York (Fire Zouaves) removes a Confederate flag from an Alexandria hotel roof and is shot by the owner

May 25,1861- Pres. Lincoln attends the funeral of Col. Elmer Ellsworth. Ellsworth read law in Lincoln's office in Springfield and was a family friend

May 26,1861- The Confederate Army of the Peninsula is formed with Gen. J.B. Macgruder commanding

May 26,1861- Chief Justice Roger B. Tandy rules that the President cannot suspend the writ of habeas corpus - Pres. Lincoln ignores the ruling


May 26,1861- Union Gen. George McClellan moves troops to Grafton, in western Virginia and secures the B&O Railroad

May 27,1861- The New York Tribune used "ON TO RICHMOND" for the first time

May 27,1861- Gen. Benjamin F. Butler occupies Newport News, eight miles from Ft. Monroe, VA

May 28,1861- Union Gen. Irvin McDowell is appointed commander of the Department of Northeastern Virginia with responsibility for the defense of Washington, DC

May 29,1861- Dorothea Dix approaches Sec. of War Simon Cameron offering to organize a hospital for Federal forces

May 29,1861- The Confederacy has its first session in Richmond. Albert Sidney Johnston is appointed Full General in the Confederate Army

May 30,1861- Secretary Cameron instructs Gen. Benjamin Butler to feed and house fugitive slaves and assign them to work at Ft. Monroe

May 30,1861- Gen. Thomas A. Morris seizes Philippi in Western Virginia strengthening Union hold on the region

May 31,1861- Gen. John C. Fremont supersedes Gen. William Harney in Missouri and abrogates Harney's agreement with Sterling Price (see May 21)

Civil War - 150 Years ago this week - June 1 - 9,1861
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

June 1,1861- The Confederacy suffers it's first officer fatality. Captain John Q. Marr is killed in skirmishing around Fairfax County Courthouse, Virginia.

June 1,1861- Great Britain forbids Union and Confederate armed vessel from bringing prizes (captured ships) into British ports. Britain did continue clandestine shipbuilding for the Confederate Navy.

June 1,1861- General P. T. G. Beauregard charges the Union with abandonment of civilized warfare and states that the Union Army will now "seek your honor and that of your wives and daughters."

June 2,1861- Confederate General Beauregard takes command of the Potomac Department and changes the name to the Army of the Potomac.

June 2,1861- The Confederate gunboat CSS Savannah escapes from the blockade of Charleston Harbor.

June 3,1861- The CSS Savannah captures the U.S. brig 'Joseph' carrying sugar from Cuba.

June 3,1861- In a battle later called "Philippi Race," Indiana Troops commanded by Gen. Thomas A. Morris defeats Confederate Gen. George A. Porterfield at Philippi in Western Virginia. The Kanawha Valley is now cleared and moves the region toward breaking from the Confederacy. This is the first direct contact between the two armies.

June 4,1861- The USS Perry captures the CSS Savannah and releases the 'Joseph' captured one day earlier.

June 5,1861- Federal authorities seize powder works in Connecticut and Delaware to prevent shipment to the Confederacy.

June 6,1861- Gen. George B. McClellan sees Missouri added to the responsibility of his Department of the Ohio.

June 8,1861- Tennessee becomes the eleventh and last state to secede.

June 8,1861- Kentucky declares neutrality.

June 9,1861- The U.S. Sanitary Commission is founded and Mary Ann "Mother" Bickerdyke begins work as a nurse in Union hospitals.

June 9,1861- Gen. George Butler orders a march on Big Bethel, Virginia to dislodge entrenched Confederate troops. He plans four converging columns, the march is at night, many units become lost, and New York Zouaves are fired on when uniforms are not recognized. Inexperienced troops could not properly execute this overly complicated move.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - June 11-18,1861
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

June 11 - At Wheeling, VA Pro-Union delegates form an alternate government for the westernmost parts of the state.

June 11 - The 11th Indiana start toward Romney, VA with intent to occupy; Colonel Lew Wallace commanding.

June 13 - Lew Wallace occupies Romney in western Virginia.

June 14 - John Letcher, Governor of Virginia states that western Virginians should join the Confederate Army and that the majority of the state should rule the entire state.

June 14 - General George B. McClellan forces Gen. Joseph E. Johnston to evacuate Harper's Ferry.

June 14 - Robert E. Lee is promoted to Full General, C.S.A.

June 15 - Confederate troops led by Governor Claiborne Jackson are forced to leave Jefferson City, Mo and camp near Booneville.

June 17 - Ulysses S. Grant is appointed Colonel of the 21st Illinois Volunteer Infantry.

June 17 - Confederate Col. Thomas Jackson is promoted to Brigadier General.

June 17 - Unionist meeting in Wheeling, Virginia unanimously declare their independence from the Confederacy.

June 17 - Greenville, Tenn Pro-Union residents rally to keep east Tennessee out of the Confederacy.

June 17 - 1st South Carolina Infantry and Col. Maxcy Gregg captures a Union locomotive near Vienna, Virginia. Ohio Troops repair the tracks.

June 17 - Pres. Lincoln attends a balloon demonstration by Professor Thaddeus S.C. Lowe.

June 17 - Gen. Nathaniel Lyon pursues Claiborne F. Jackson up the Missouri River and gains control of the Missouri for the Union.

June 19 - Francis H. Pierpoint is elected as Governor and two senators are elected to office in Western Virginia.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - June 20-27,1861
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

June 20 - The Missouri-Kansas border ruffians were active. The Kansas governor calls on citizens to resist any pro-secession attacks from Missouri.

June 22 - At Ft. Pickens, FL Col. Harvey Brown tells the War Department that he will not return fugitive slaves to their owners unless ordered to do so.

June 22 - At Greenville, TN pro-Union sympathizers declare their allegiance to the Federal Government (see June 17).

June 23 - At Falls Church, VA Professor Thaddeus S.C. Lowe rises in his balloon to observe Confederate troop deployment - the first ever use of a balloon for observation.

June 23 - The ex-USS Merrimac (scuttled as U.S. Troops abandon Norfolk on April 20,1861) begins to be converted to the new ironclad CSS Virginia at Norfolk now held by Confederate troops.

June 24 - At Washington, DC Pres. Lincoln views a demonstration of the "coffee mill," a new experimental rapid-fire weapon.

June 24 - Confederate Batteries at Mathias Point, VA, are engaged by the USS Pawnee and the Thomas Freeborn.

June 25 - Leonidas Polk is appointed Major General, C.S.A.

June 26 - Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks is directed to "discreetly" arrest George P. Jane, Baltimore, MD marshal, for secessionist activity.

June 26 - Col. Lew Wallace meets Confederate resistance at Patterson Creek in western Virginia and defeats the Confederates in a skirmish.

June 27 - The newly created "Blockade Strategy Board" made up of Captain Samuel F. DuPont, Commander Charles H. Davis, and other later Army, Navy, and Coast Guard notables, met in Washington, DC to plan blockade strategy that remained in effect to the end of the war.

June 27 - Confederate forces at Mathias Point, VA repel a landing force from the USS Pawnee (see June 26) and Commander James H. Ward, formerly Superintendent of the US Naval Academy is killed, becoming the first U.S. Navy Officer fatality.

June 27 - A landing party from the USS Resolute burns a supply depot along the Potomac.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - June 28 - July 5,1861
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

June 28,1861 - The Blockade Strategy Board plans to seize ports in South Carolina and Georgia as coaling stations for the blockading fleet.

June 28,1861 - In spite of the blockade of Charleston Harbor, the privateer Jefferson Davis slips out of port and commences a successful career raiding Union commerce.

June 29,1861 - Pres. Lincoln in a meeting with Generals Winfield Scott and Irvin McDowell is briefed on military strategy. Scott argues (unsuccessfully) against seeking victory in a single, decisive battle considering the poor training level of troops and leaders.

June 29,1861 - The 11th Massachusetts and 12th New York reach Washington, DC and encamp around the White House.

June 30,1861 - Off New Orleans, Louisiana, Captain Raphael Semmes, commanding the CSS Sumter, evades the USS Brooklyn and goes on to a celebrated career as a commerce raider.

July 1,1861 - The U.S. Navy reports it has 82 ships in commission and carries 1100 guns plus 13,000 men including officers.

July 1,1861 - A total of 259 U.S. Navy Officers have resigned or been dismissed since March 1,1861, most to join the Confederacy.

July 1,1861 - In spite of Kentucky's claim of neutrality, the War Dept. in Washington, D.C. begins recruitment of volunteers in the state. Volunteers are also recruited with some success from Tennessee even after that state seceded.

July 2,1861 - President Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus for special cases.

July 2,1861 - Generals Robert Patterson (Union) and Joseph E. Johnston (Confederate) begin to maneuver near Washington, D.C. Patterson tries to pin Confederate forces at Williamsport, MD and Johnston shifts his forces west of Washington, near Fairfax, VA.

July 3,1861 - Gen. Patterson advances down the Shenandoah Valley and occupies Martinsburg, VA. Gen. Johnston falls back to Winchester, VA.

July 3,1861 - Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, New Mexico, and the Indian Territory are named the "Western Department" by the War Department.

July 4,1861 - An additional 400,000 to 500,000 troops are called for by Pres. Lincoln in a special session of Congress. He also pleads for $4 million to conduct the coming war.

July 4,1861 - Joseph E. Johnston becomes a Full General in the CSA.

July 5,1861 - Near Newport News, VA forces under Generals Benjamin Butler (Union) and John B. Magruder (Confederate) skirmish at the Curtis Farm. They had a previous encounter at Big Bethel, VA. See June 9,1861

July 4,1861 - Simon Cameron, Secretary of War announces that 260,000 men are in active service. That includes 165,000 volunteers signed up for three years.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - July 6 - 13,1861
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

July 6, 1861 - Gen. George B. McClellan begins to move three brigades of his Dept. of the Ohio Army to Rich Mountain, near Beverly, VA.

July 6, 1861 - McClellan orders Gen. Thomas A. Morris to move from Philippi in western Virginia to Laurel Hill.

July 7, 1861 - Colonel Robert L. McCook, with two regiments of General Morris's forces, arrives at Laurel Hill and encounters heavy skirmishing with Confederate forces commanded by General Robert S. Garnett.

July 7, 1861 - General Nathaniel Lyon, Union Commander of forces near Springfield, Missouri, now has over 7,000 troops with the addition of Major Samuel D. Sturgis's troops but is still outnumbered by the Confederates at least 2-to-1.

July 8, 1861 - In a drive to force Union Troops out of New Mexico, Confederate General Henry H. Sibley is ordered to march from Texas into New Mexico.

July 9, 1861 - The U.S. House of Representatives allows Union soldiers to house and not return fugitive slaves.

July 9, 1861 - General McClellan is angered by attacks on his Allegheny Mountain area supply lines in western Virginia so gathers four additional brigades of Union troops and marched to Rich Mountain.

July 10, 1861 - Pres. Lincoln assures General Simon B. Buckner, head of the Kentucky Militia, that Union forces will not violate his state's neutrality.

July 10, 1861 - Gen. McClellan sends Gen. William S. Rosecrans against Confederate troops at Rich Mountain and Colonel Thomas A. Morris against troops at Laurel Hill.

July 11, 1861 - Union troops drive Confederates from Rich Mountain by defeating Colonel John Pegram's 1300 troops.

July 11, 1861 - The U.S. Senate expels absent members from Arkansas, North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia. Also, the Senator from western Tennessee is expelled but Andrew Johnson from eastern Tennessee (a loyalist) keeps his seat.

July 12, 1861 - Col. John Pegram surrenders 555 men to Gen. Rosecrans at Beverly, VA and Gen. McClellan's Army occupies the area. Union Gen. Jacob D. Cox advances to engage Gen. Henry A. Wise and his Confederate forces in the Kanawha Valley.

July 13, 1861 - The House of Representatives votes 94 to 45 to expel John Clark of Missouri.

July 13,1861 - At Corrick's Ford, Virginia (frequently misspelled as Carrick's Ford or Corrick's Fort), Gen. Thomas A. Morris's Indiana Brigade defeats the 23rd Virginia. Confederate Gen. Robert S. Garnett is killed, the first general officer lost on either side. Gen. McClellan is elevated to national hero and vows to march on Romney, VA.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - July 14 - 21,1861
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

July 14, 1861 - General Robert Patterson and his Union troops stall south of Harper's Ferry when facing Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. Patterson shows reluctance to give battle and is nicknamed "granny" by his troops.

July 14, 1861 - In the wake of General Garnett's death, General Henry R. Jackson is named to command Confederate troops in western Virginia (see July 13 note).

July 15, 1861 - All Confederate forces retreat from Harper's Ferry, Virginia.

July 16, 1861 - Union forces numbering about 32,000 under Gen. Irvin McDowell move from camps near Washington, D.C. toward Manassas, Virginia.

July 16, 1861 - Confederate General P. G. T. Beauregard musters about 22,000 troops and positions them behind Bull Run Creek while awaiting reinforcements from the Shenandoah.

July 16, 1861 - General in Chief Winfield Scott and Gen. McDowell express reservation about committing raw troops to battle but the political cry is "On to Richmond.

July 16, 1861 - The Union Blockade Strategy Board suggests using "stone fleets" (scuttled vessels) to block Southern waterways and ports.

July 17, 1861 - Pres. Jefferson Davis instructs Gen Joseph E. Johnston to reinforce Gen. P. T. G. Beauregard. This is the first time in military history that large numbers of troops are shuttled from one battlefront to another by rail. Confederate forces are now about equal in number to Union Forces near Manassas Junction/Bull Run Creek.

July 17, 1861 - Light encounters between forces under Union Gen. Jacob D. Cox and Confederate Gen. Henry A. Wise continue around Barboursville and Scary Town in western Virginia. 



July 18, 1861 - In the initial engagement at Blackburn's Ford on Bull Run Creek, Gen. Irvin McDowell directs General Daniel Tyler to conduct a reconnaissance in force but to avoid a general engagement. The contact comes at the extreme right of Beauregard's lines and heavy fighting ensues. Union losses include - 19 killed and 38 wounded, and Confederate losses include - 15 killed and 53 wounded. This minor affair bolsters Southern morale for the impending fight at Bull Run.

July 19 & 20, 1861 - General Irvin McDowell further compounds northern problems by wasting two days gathering supplies and conducting more reconnaissance around Bull Run.

July 19, 1861 - Confederate Secretary of State Robert Toombs resigns to become a Brig. General of a Georgia brigade. Robert Hunter is the new Secretary of State.

July 19, 1861 - In an address to his troops, Gen. George McClellan tells his soldiers that Union men "are more than a match for our misguided and eering [erroring] brothers.

July 20, 1861 - The New York Tribune uses the term Copperhead (a poisonous snake) for any Northern politician opposing the war effort.

July 20, 1861 - The Confederate Provisional Congress meets in Richmond for their third congressional session and it lasts until August 31.

July 20,1861 - Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston arrive at Manassas Junction and technically succeeds Gen. Beauregard as senior commander.

July 21,1861 - The war's first major battle, First Battle of Bull Run, is won by Confederates. Union casualties included - killed 460, wounded 1124; and Confederate losses included - killed 387,wounded 1132. 
Additional missing troops and losses of cannons, ammunition, and nine Regimental Colors plus the near rout of Union Troops fleeing back toward Washington, D.C. made this a defeat for the Union even with similar casualty numbers.

July 21,1861 - Mathew Brady takes the war's first photographs at Bull Run.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - July 22 - 29,1861
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

July 22, 1861 - With the tactical victory by the Confederate forces at First Bull Run (Manassas), General PTG Beauregard is regarded a hero and promoted to full general; Jubal A. Early becomes a brigadier.

July 22, 1861 - President Lincoln appoints Gen. George B. McClellan to replace Gen. Irvin McDowell. McDowell is disgraced at Bull Run.

July 22, 1861 - In western Virginia, Union General Robert Patterson is replaced by Gen. Nathaniel Banks. Patterson is blamed for failure to hold Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's Confederate troops in western Virginia (away from Manassas).
 

July 22, 1861 - CSA Gen. Barnard Bee dies of wounds suffered at Bull Run. Bee is best remembered as the officer that named "Stonewall" Jackson when he said "there stands Jackson as a stone wall," when he saw Gen. Jackson near the Henry House at Manassas.

July 22, 1861 - Gen. William J. Hardee takes command of Confederate forces in Arkansas.

July 22, 1861 - The U.S. House endorses the "Crittenden Resolution" voting to preserve the Union, govern under the Constitution, and keep a "hands off" policy toward slavery.

July 22, 1861 - Missouri State Convention delegates vote to move the capitol from Jefferson City to St. Louis and to continue to support the Union. Governor Claiborne F. Jackson, a secessionist, declares himself the only legitimate political authority in Missouri and remains at Jefferson City.

July 23, 1861 - Gen. McClellan's replacement as commander of the Department of the Ohio is Gen. William S. Rosecrans.

July 24, 1861 - Charleston and the Kanawha Valley are free of Confederate forces after Union General Jacob B. Cox defeats Gen. Harry A. Wise at Tyler Mountain in western Virginia.

July 25, 1861 - Congress endorses Pres. Lincoln's call for one million new troops to counter the end of the enlistment of the 90-day troops. A $100.00 enlistment bonus is offered for two-year enlistees.

July 25, 1861 - The U.S. Senate passes the so-called Crittenden Resolution on a 30 to 5 vote (see entry for July 22).

July 25, 1861 - At Fortress Monroe, Virginia, an observation balloon is tested for the first time by Confederate officials.

July 25, 1861 - Skirmishing is reported at Harrisville and Dug Springs, Missouri; near the Eel River in California; and at Ft. Fillmore near Mesilla in New Mexico Territory.

July 26, 1861 - Major Isaac Lynde surrenders about 500 Union troops to Confederate Captain John Baylor at Fort Fillmore, NM Territory. Lynde is drummed out of the service in disgrace.

July 26, 1861 - Confederate forces in east Tennessee are placed under command of Gen. Felix K. Zollicoffer.

July 27, 1861 - General George B. McClellan meets with Pres. Lincoln in Washington. Lincoln describes an offensive sweep from Virginia into Tennessee. McClellan shows resistance to the plan and reluctance to move as quickly as Pres. Lincoln indicates.

July 28, 1861 - After Gen. Robert Garnett's death (see July 13 entry) and the deterioration of Confederate Armies in western Virginia, Gen. Robert E. Lee takes temporary command in the area.

July 28, 1861 - New Madrid, Missouri, a Mississippi River town near the Kentucky/Tennessee border is occupied by Confederates.

July 29, 1861 - Horace Greeley, New York Tribune editor, suggests a peaceful negotiation to the end of fighting. He promoted the "On to Richmond" cry just weeks earlier.

July 29, 1861 - Union General John Pope takes command in northern Missouri after Gen. John C. Fremont is promoted to Western Department command headquarters in St. Louis.

******CORRECTION********
Last week the entry for July 25, 1861 - "At Fortress Monroe, Virginia, an observation balloon is tested for the first time by Confederate officials," is in error. Fortress Monroe was in Union hands throughout the Civil War. Union Major General John E. Wool (the oldest Union General in the war - born in 1794) reinforced Fortress Monroe just days after Fort Sumter was bombarded. There was a balloon test at Fortress Monroe by John LaMountain but it was the Union's second experiment. *********************

July 30, 1861 - Union Gen. Benjamin Butler sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of War, Simon Cameron, in an attempt to justify his refusal to release fleeing slaves on the grounds that they were "contraband of War."

July 30, 1861 - The Missouri State Convention declares the gubernatorial seat open. Former Governor Claiborne F. Jackson no longer has any power. (See July 22 entry).

July 31, 1861 - In Missouri, pro-Union forces rally with the news that Hamilton R. Gamble is appointed Governor.

July 31, 1861 - Pres. Lincoln appoints Former Army Officer Ulysses S. Grant General of Volunteers in Illinois.

July 31, 1861 - Newly appointed General John Pope, commanding in Missouri, issues order #3 restricting activity by Confederate sympathizers in northern Missouri, restoring order.

July 31, 1861 - The Missouri State Guard under Gen. Sterling Price unites with Texas troops (Gen. Ben McCulloch) and Arkansas troops (Gen. Nicholas B. Price) near Cassville, Missouri. The combined force of 12,000 now outnumbers U.S. Gen. Nathaniel Lyons' forces about two to one.

August 1, 1861 - Gen. Joseph E. Johnston is urged, by Jefferson Davis, to pursue offensive action against Union forces in Virginia. This comes with the strategic initiative gained at Bull Run.

August 1, 1861 - Generals Sterling Price and Ben McCulloch move their 12,000 combined troops toward Springfield from Cassville, Missouri.

August 1, 1861 - Gen. Robert E. Lee replaces Gen. William W. Loring as commander of Confederate troops in western Virginia.

August 1, 1861 - In New Mexico Territory, Captain John Baylor declares the entire region for the South. Skirmishing continues.

August 2, 1861 - Union Gen. Nathaniel Lyons and CSA Gen. Ben McCulloch clash at Dug Creek, Missouri. Lyons, badly outnumbered, calls for General John C. Fremont to march to his aid.

August 2, 1861 - Union forces abandon Fort Stanton, New Mexico Territory.

August 2, 1861 - An income tax is proposed for the first time in the U.S. The tax is 3% on income above $800.00. Higher tariffs and bonds are also to be issued to finance the war.

August 3, 1861 - An "Ironclad Board" is appointed and they soon authorize the construction of three ironclad ship prototypes.

August 3, 1861 - Union Col. William Tecumseh Sherman is promoted to Brigadier General of Volunteers.

August 5, 1861 - Congress passes the new income tax, tariffs, and bond sale proposed by Pres. Lincoln and ends their 34-day special session. 

August 5, 1861 - General Nathaniel Lyons and his force falls back toward Springfield, Missouri.

August 6, 1861 - The 'First Confiscation Act' is signed by Pres. Lincoln. This emancipates all slaves found to be in use by Confederate forces.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - August 7 - August 14,1861
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

August 7, 1861 - Hampton, Virginia is burned by Confederate troops under General John B. Magruder to keep it from Union occupation. Hampton was the location of Fortress Monroe where Union General Benjamin Butler was quartering runaway slaves.

August 7, 1861 - The U.S. Government authorizes construction of seven ironclad ships at
St. Louis. These became the fleet Grant used in western river operations.

August 8, 1861 - The Fugitive Slave Act is still in effect per Secretary of War Cameron but he orders Gen. Benjamin F. Butler not to return any escaped slaves to their former "owners" in Confederate held States. The Confederacy responds by recognizing Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, and Delaware as part of the Confederacy.

August 9, 1861 - Southwest of Springfield, Missouri near Wilson Creek, Confederate troops numbering about 11,000 men stop prior to a planned attack on Springfield the next day. Union Gen. Nathaniel Lyons decides to attack with his 4,200 troops plus Colonel Fritz Sigel's 1,200 men.

August 10, 1861 - The Battle of Wilson Creek begins when Gen. Lyons attacks at 5:30 AM. The Confederate troops are driven back to high ground now known as "Bloody Ridge" (Bloody Hill in some histories) but quickly recover and, due to a series of miss-communications and Union blunders, take the initiative. Lyons is killed and becomes the first Union hero of the war. The South wins the second pitched battle of the war. The Federals lose 1,317 men; and the Confederates 1,230 men. Major Samuel Sturgis moves the Union troops to Rolla, Missouri.

August 10, 1861 - At Potosi, Missouri, General Ulysses S. Grant skirmishes with Confederate Forces.

August 11, 1861 - Confederate forces in the Kanawha Valley of western Virginia are placed under the command of General John B. Floyd.

August 11, 1861 - Confederate leaning Missouri State Guard troops come under the Command of Gen. Jeff Thompson. The unit suffered considerable losses at Wilson Creek and must re-group.

August 12, 1861 - At the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers at Cairo, Illinois, the wooden gunboats U.S.S. Tyler, Conestoga, and Lexington are positioned to restrict Confederate boat traffic while the new Federal ironclads are being built (see August 7th entry). Complete success was recorded as all southern traffic ceased.

August 13, 1861 - Lieutenant David D. Porter aboard the U.S.S. Powhatan recaptures the Union schooner Abby Bradford at the mouth of the Mississippi.

August 14, 1861 - General John C. Fremont declares martial law in St. Louis, Missouri. Confederate property is confiscated and newspapers closed.

August 14, 1861 - Volunteers from the New York 79th Regiment stage a mutiny near Washington, D. C. but are quickly suppressed. The mutiny was prompted by denied furloughs and the huge losses suffered by the 79th Highlander Brigade at Bull Run, including Col. James Cameron, brother of War Secretary Simon Cameron.
 

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - August 15 - August 24,1861
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

August 15, 1861 - All Northerners are to leave Confederate territory within 40 days by order of President Jefferson Davis.

August 15, 1861 - Brigadier General Robert Anderson (formerly in command at Fort Sumter) is named new commander of the Dept. of the Cumberland, consisting of Kentucky and Tennessee. He continues to suffer from nervous exhaustion and retires shortly after this promotion.

August 15, 1861 - The 2nd Maine Volunteers mutiny. Sixty men are re-assigned to Dry Tortugas, a remote outpost, near Key West, Florida.

August 15, 1861 - President Lincoln authorizes transfer of troops to Missouri in response to General Fremont's request and recent Confederate success.

August 16, 1861 - Several newspapers in the Union, including the NY Daily News, NY Journal of Commerce, and the Brooklyn Eagle are in court for alleged pro-Confederate leanings.

August 16, 1861 - President Lincoln declares the southern states are in rebellion (also calling it an insurrection), and prohibits all commerce with them.

August 17, 1861 - The Department of the Potomac grows with the combining of the Departments of Northeastern Virginia, Washington, and the Shenandoah. This new army will carry the brunt of fighting in the East.

August 17, 1861 - Henry W. Halleck is promoted to Major General, U.S. Army.

August 17, 1861 - General John E. Wool replaces General Benjamin Butler as commander of the Dept. of Virginia and remains at Fortress Monroe.

August 18, 1861 - Three New York newspapers (see August 16 entry) are banned from publishing for alleged disloyalty.

August 18, 1861 - The heretofore successful Confederate Privateer Jefferson Davis is destroyed when it runs aground off St. Augustine, Florida.

August 19, 1861 - General Henry W. Halleck is ordered to Washington from California with the expectation that he will head the Army.

August 19, 1861- Union loyalists attack newspaper offices in Easton and West Chester, Pennsylvania. The Essex County Democrat editor is tarred and feathered for his Southern sympathies.

August 19, 1861 - George H. Thomas is promoted to Brigadier General by President Lincoln.

August 20, 1861 - The newly augmented Army of the Potomac comes under command of Major General George Brinton McClellan.

August 20, 1861 - Unionist leaders hold meetings in Wheeling, Western Virginia to consider separation of the western counties from the rest of Virginia.

August 20, 1861 - President Jefferson Davis writes to General Joseph E. Johnston about complaints of poor hospital care and lack of food.

***Nothing found for the next three days.***

August 24, 1861 - The Army of the Potomac is further strengthened by the inclusion of the Department of Pennsylvania.

August 24, 1861 - President Lincoln informs Kentucky Governor Beriah Magoffin that he will not remove pro-Union forces from this neutral state.

August 24, 1861 - At Richmond, the Confederacy appoints three new commissioners to Europe: John Slidell to France, James Mason to Britain, and Pierre Rost to Spain. They are to gain recognition for the Confederacy and act as purchasing agents for arms, materials, and supplies.

August 24, 1861 - Mrs. Rose Greenhow and Mrs. Philip Phillips are arrested in Washington on charges of corresponding with Confederates.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - August 25 - September 2,1861
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

August 25, 1861 - The Union issues orders to also provide nurses with one ration per day. Forty cents pay per day started August 17th.

August 25, 1861 - General Henry A. Wise's Confederate forces suffer from an outbreak of measles. They skirmish with Federal troops near Piggot's Mill in western Virginia.

August 25, 1861 - Union troops commanded by Lieutenant John R. Pulliam encounter hostile Indians near Fort Stanton, New Mexico Territory. Confederate troops battle Apaches near Fort Bliss, Texas

August 26, 1861 - Skirmishing breaks out in western Virginia at both Wayne County House and Blue's House.

August 26, 1861 - Union Navy Captain Andrew Foote assumes command of the Western River forces, replacing John Rogers.

August 27, 1861 - The Union lands troops under fire at Cape Hatteras, NC. Confederate forces abandon Fort Clark and fall back to Fort Hatteras. With control of the Hatteras Inlet, blockade runners are effectually crushed in the area.

August 28, 1861 - Union forces take Fort Hatteras, NC. Confederate losses are light.

August 28, 1861 - General Nathaniel Lyon, killed at Wilson Creek, is buried at St. Louis, Missouri.

August 29, 1861 - Washington Navy Yard Commander Dahlgren sends 400 seamen to Fort
Ellsworth in Alexandria, Virginia to increase city defenses.

August 30, 1861 - In Missouri, General Charles Fremont declares martial law allowing confiscation of property belonging to "those who shall take up arms against the United States" and proclaims the emancipation of slaves of pro-Southerners.
President Lincoln terms the action "dictatorial."

August 31, 1861 - The third session of the Provisional Confederate Congress adjourns.

Sept 1, 1861 - News of the successful Cape Hatteras operation reaches Washington, boosting Union morale.

Sept 1, 1861 - Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant assumes command of forces around
Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

Sept 2, 1861 - President Lincoln instructs General Charles C. Fremont to "modify" his emancipation declaration (see August 30 entry). In effect he countermands the order.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - September 3 - 10,1861
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

September 3, 1861 - Oliver O. Howard, Daniel E. Sickles, and Lew Wallace become brigadier generals in the Union Army.

September 3, 1861 - General Gideon Pillow and Colonel H. L. Wallace exchange prisoners in Missouri.

September 3, 1861 - General Leonidas Polk orders Confederate forces to violate Kentucky neutrality by establishing defensive positions at Hickman, Chalk Cliffs, and Columbus along the Kentucky border with Tennessee. This completes a continuous line from the Atlantic to Kansas. The Confederate Secretary of War tells Polk to withdraw but President Jefferson Davis overrules.

September 4, 1861 - Union forces under U. S. Grant occupy Paducah, Kentucky.

September 5, 1861 - President Lincoln and his cabinet discuss General Fremont's future with General Winfield Scott. (See September 2 entry.)

September 5, 1861 - The Western Sanitary Commission is established in St. Louis to help soldiers hospitalized in the West.

September 6, 1861 - The U. S. Consul in London, England is made aware of the purchase of the Bermuda, Adelaide, and Victoria by Confederate Agents.

September 6, 1861 - Union General U. S. Grant appoints General Charles F. Smith to command forces at Paducah in western Kentucky and returns to Cairo, Illinois. The move to Paducah yields strategic consequences as the north end of the Tennessee and the Cumberland Rivers are now in Union control.

September 6, 1861 - Commander John Rogers moves the Tyler and the Lexington gunboats in support of General Smith at Paducah.

September 7, 1861 - Reports of lavish spending by General Fremont in St. Louis reach President Lincoln. Lincoln sends General David Hunter to "assist" Fremont.

September 7, 1861 - Confederate General Sterling Price refits his Missouri Militia with arms collected at Wilson Creek battlefield and moves to Lexington, Missouri.

September 8, 1861 - General U. S. Grant prepares for an attack at Lucas Bend, Missouri and is supported by the USS Conestoga and Lexington.

September 9, 1861 - President Lincoln is urged by his cabinet to relieve General Charles C. Fremont of command in Missouri. The President relents and sends reinforcing troops to Fremont.

September 9, 1861 - General William S. Rosecrans advances to Carnifax Ferry in western Virginia.

September 10, 1861 - Rosecrans and 6,000 Union troops strike 2,000 Confederates at Carnifax Ferry, western Virginia. Confederates withdraw.

September 10, 1861 - General Robert E. Lee formulates a plan to move on the offensive and storm a Union outpost on Cheat Mountain, western Virginia. Possession of the strategic high ground would give the Confederates communication along the line from Staunton, Virginia to Parkersburg and sever Union communication.

September 10, 1861 - General William W. Loring, who formerly outranked Lee in the Regular Army, hampers Lee's efforts. General Lee is ultimately unsuccessful at Cheat Mountain.

September 10, 1861 - Mrs. Fremont visits President Lincoln to defend her husband. Lincoln shows his displeasure and Mrs. Fremont returns to St. Louis in a huff.

September 10, 1861 - Union Brigadier General George H. Thomas assumes command at Camp Dick Robinson in Kentucky.

September 10, 1861 - General Albert Sidney Johnston is appointed to head the Confederate Armies in Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas, and Kentucky.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - September 11 - 18,1861
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

Sept. 11, 1861 - The Kentucky neutrality violation by Confederates angers the Kentucky legislature and they demand the removal of all Southern troops. A legislative vote to demand the removal of all Northern troops is narrowly defeated by pro-Unionists. 



Sept. 11, 1861 - President Lincoln orders the emancipation declaration put forth in Missouri by General Fremont be modified to conform to the Acts of Congress. (Note: Various histories list General Fremont as John C. Fremont or Charles C. Fremont. The more reputable histories use John Charles Fremont as the Pathfinder's actual name.) 



Sept. 11, 1861 - General Robert E. Lee leads 15,000 Confederates in an overly intricate and unsuccessful attack on 2,000 Union troops at Cheat Mountain Summit near Elkwater, western Virginia. Heavy rainfall and rough terrain result in loss of the surprise attack Lee planned. 



Sept. 12, 1861 - President Lincoln dispatches an envoy to St. Louis to instruct General John C. Fremont to modify his emancipation directive. Lincoln considers Fremont's order a threat to the continuing neutrality of Kentucky and other border states. 



Sept. 12, 1861 - General Sterling Price leads 7,000 Confederate troops into Lexington, Missouri. This begins a weeklong siege. 



Sept. 13, 1861 - President Jefferson Davis and General Joseph E. Johnston argue heatedly about seniority of Confederate Generals. The two men remain estranged throughout the war. 



Sept. 13, 1861 - Colonel John A. Washington, Aide-de-camp to General Lee is killed at Cheat Mountain during a reconnaissance mission.

Sept. 13, 1861 - General Price continues the siege at Lexington, Missouri where his Missouri State Guardsmen skirmish with 23rd Illinois troops under Colonel James A. Mulligan. Mulligan requests reinforcements from General John C. Fremont in nearby St. Louis.

Sept. 14, 1861 - Simon B. Buckner becomes Brigadier General, C.S.A.



Sept. 15, 1861 - President Lincoln again confers with his cabinet about removing General Fremont from his post in St. Louis.

Sept. 15, 1861 - General Lee evacuates his Confederate troops from Cheat Mountain. His troops nickname General Lee, "Granny," and he is transferred to a quiet sector in South Carolina.

Sept. 16, 1861 - General Sterling Price is reinforced and tightens his grip at Lexington, Missouri. Expected Union reinforcements are never sent by Gen. Fremont. 



Sept. 16, 1861 - The Ironclad Board authorizes three new ironclad warships. These are to have a new turret designed by Swedish Engineer John Ericsson. They will be named Monitor, Galena, and New Ironsides. 



Sept. 17, 1861 - Confederate forces evacuate Ship Island, Mississippi as armed boats launched from the U.S.S. Massachusetts arrive. This is the first federal navy base of what will become the Gulf Blockade Squadron. Ship Island is midway between New Orleans and Mobile. 



Sept. 17, 1861 - Judah Benjamin becomes Secretary of War for the Confederate Government, replacing Leroy Walker. 



Sept. 18, 1861 - Kentucky legislature authorizes force to expel Confederate troops from the state. 



Sept. 18, 1861 - Confederate troops under newly appointed Gen. Simon Buckner occupy Bowling Green, KY in defiance of the Kentucky State Legislature's expulsion orders.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - September 19 - 26,1861
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

Sept. 19, 1861 - C.S.A. General Sterling Price is reinforced by artillery units near Lexington, Missouri. The Confederate forces continue their siege while Union forces under Colonel James A. Mulligan resist, unaware that a relief column of 3,000 men led by Gen. Samuel D. Sturgis has been turned back. (See Sept. 13th entry.)

Sept. 19, 1861 - Earl Van Dorn is promoted to major general, C.S.A.

Sept. 19, 1861 - At Barbourville, Kentucky, Union forces are driven off by forces under Gen. Felix K. Zollicoffer allowing Confederates to continue erecting strong defensive positions across Cumberland Gap, Bowling Green, and Columbus. (See Sept. 3rd entry.)

Sept. 20, 1861 - Colonel Mulligan, 23rd Illinois Regiment, surrenders 3,600 Union troops to Gen. Sterling Price at Lexington after a 9-day siege. Price seizes 3,000 rifles and seven cannons. The competence of General John C. Fremont again comes under question in Washington due to his failure to reinforce.

Sept. 20, 1861 - General Robert Anderson is instructed to establish his headquarters at Louisville as Confederates abandon Mayfield, Kentucky.

Sept. 21, 1861 - The Department of the Ohio is now commanded by General Ormsby M. Mitchel.

Sept. 21, 1861 - C.S.A. General Albert Sidney Johnston calls for 30,000 new volunteers from Tennessee for service in the West.

Sept. 21, 1861 - General Leonidas Polk is appointed to command Western Division Department #2 (Tennessee) for the Confederates.

Sept. 22, 1861 - C.S.A. General Joseph E. Johnston calls for 10,000 volunteers from Arkansas and Missouri to serve in Department #2.

Sept. 22, 1861 - At Mayfield Creek, Kentucky, General U.S. Grant encounters skirmishers as he moves toward Columbus, KY.

Sept. 23, 1861 - Winfield S. Hancock becomes a brigadier general, U.S. Army.

Sept. 23, 1861 - General Fremont closes a St. Louis newspaper that blamed him for the surrender of Lexington, Missouri.

Sept. 24, 1861 - James Ewell Brown (J.E.B.) Stewart becomes brigadier general of Confederate cavalry.

Sept. 25, 1861 - Joseph Johnston and Jefferson Davis have another heated encounter, this time over staffing levels and strategy.

Sept. 25, 1861 - General Rosecrans advances into the Kenawha Valley, western Virginia, intent on eliminating Confederate forces in the area.

Sept. 25, 1861 - The U.S. Navy Department authorizes employment of "contrabands" on board vessels. They will draw pay at the rank of "boy" - one ration per day and $10.00 per month.

Sept. 26, 1861 - Confederate troops capture salt works in Clay County, Kentucky and destroy locks at the mouth of Muddy River, Kentucky. This involves Generals Zollicoffer and Simon Buckner with troops in the defensive line across southern Kentucky near the Tennessee border.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - September 27 - October 4,1861
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

Sept. 27, 1861 - President Lincoln and General George B. McClellan discuss a new offensive in Virginia. The discussion becomes heated with Lincoln criticizing the general's inactivity and McClellan insisting that the Army of the Potomac is not ready for combat. 



Sept. 28, 1861 - The 71st Pennsylvania under Colonel Edward D. Baker successfully defends their small force in a skirmish near Vanderburgh's House, Virginia. 



Sept. 28, 1861 - Confederate schooner San Juan is captured by the USS Susquehanna near Elizabeth City, North Carolina. 


Sept. 28, 1861 - Thomas C. Hindman is promoted to brigadier general, C.S.A.

Sept. 29, 1861 - The 71st Pennsylvania is accidentally fired on by the 69th Pennsylvania near Munson's Hill, Virginia. Fatalities result. The Pennsylvania 71st, formerly the California Regiment also known as The Fire Zouaves Regiment, still wore gray uniforms. 


Sept. 29, 1861 - Union activity is anticipated in North Carolina resulting in C.S.A. General Daniel H. Hill being ordered from Virginia into North Carolina. Hill was a West Point graduate, had resigned from the Army in 1849, and was Superintendent of the North Carolina Military Institute from 1859 until the war began. 



Sept. 29, 1861 - The USS Susquehanna has continued success when it overtakes the Confederate schooner Baltimore off Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina. 


Sept. 29, 1861 - Skirmishes continue along the Confederate defensive line across southern Kentucky. The 12th Kentucky under Colonel William A. Hoskins engages the Confederates at Albany, Kentucky and Travisville, Tennessee. 



Sept. 30, 1861 - Confederate scout Captain R. Hardeman leads action against hostile Native Americans near Camp Robledo, New Mexico Territory. 



Sept. 30, 1861 - The USS Niagara, operating on the Mississippi River, captures the Confederate pilot boat Frolic near South West Pass. South West Pass is in the Delta Region south of New Orleans. The same day the USS Dart captures the Confederate schooner Zavalla off Vermillion Bay, south of New Iberia, Louisiana.

October 1, 1861 - At Centerville, Virginia, Generals Joseph E. Johnston, Pierre G. T. Beauregard, and Gustavus W. Smith meet with Confederate President Jefferson Davis. They continue to discuss strategy and ultimately agree to consolidate their position and delay a planned offensive operation into Northern held territory until at least next spring. Pres. Davis also turns down a request from the generals to issue a call for 20,000 more troops.

October 1, 1861 - General Benjamin Butler is reassigned to the Dept. of New England, recently created to raise and train new troops.  October 1, 1861 - Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles opposes letters of reprisal or complaint against the South, as this would imply recognition of the South's national sovereignty. 



October 1, 1861 - Confederate navel vessels capture the USS Fanny off Plimlico Sound, North Carolina and rename it the CSS Fanny. 



October 2, 1861 - U.S. Senator John C. Breckinridge, about to be expelled from Congress, flees Kentucky to avoid arrest as a traitor. He joins the Confederate Army. 



October 2, 1861 - Pro-Union forces from Cairo, Illinois attack a camp at Charleston, Missouri. Intermittent strife continues in southeast Missouri. 



October 3, 1861 - Governor Thomas Moore of Louisiana bans cotton exports in an attempt to force England and France to recognize the independence of the Confederate States of America. 



October 3, 1861 - The New York 26th and the New York 31st move into Confederate territory. General Henry W. Slocum dispatches the 26th to Pohick Church, Virginia while the 31st marches to Springfield Station, Virginia as directed by General William B. Franklin. Skirmishes erupt at both sites. 



October 3, 1861 - General Joseph Reynolds leads 5,000 Union troops from Cheat Mountain toward Camp Barrow, a Confederate position along the Greenbrier River in western Virginia. After two determined attacks, Reynolds withdraws back to Cheat Mountain and an impasse settles over the region.

October 4, 1861 - The Confederacy reaches accord with the Shawnee, Seneca, and Cherokee in Indian Territory. An agreement with the Osage was settled a few days earlier. 



October 4, 1861 - President Lincoln approves one ironclad to be built as proposed after John Ericsson's new design. The first of the Union's ironclads, the Monitor, is planned.

October 4, 1861 - The USS South Carolina captures the Confederate schooners Ezilda and Joseph H. Toone at South West Pass on the Mississippi. 


Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week -  October 5 - 12 ,1861
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

October 5, 1861 - The Union garrison at Hatteras Inlet is now commanded by General Joseph K. F. Mansfield.

October 5, 1861 - Heavy fire from the USS Monticello helps to repulse a Confederate attack by troops carried to Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina by steamer.

October 6, 1861 - The blockade running Confederate schooner Alert is captured off Charleston, South Carolina by the USS Flag.

October 7, 1861 - Pres. Lincoln sends Secretary of War Simon Cameron, carrying a letter from the President, to meet with General Samuel R. Curtis. The fate of General John C. Fremont in Missouri is the point of discussion.

October 7, 1861 - The C.S.A. promotes William J. Hardee, Thomas J. Jackson, James Longstreet, and John B. Magruder to major generals.

October 7, 1861 - In a show of his leadership, General John C. Fremont leads 40,000 troops from St. Louis toward Lexington, Missouri. Confederate General Sterling Price abandons Lexington, withdrawing south.

October 7, 1861 - The new CSS Virginia, constructed from the scuttled USS Merrimack and now armored, makes its first appearance off Hampton Roads, Virginia.

October 7, 1861 - U. S. Grant uses the USS Tyler and the USS Lexington on a reconnaissance near Lucas Bend, Missouri.

October 8, 1861 - General Robert Anderson (of Fort Sumter fame) is replaced by General William Tecumseh Sherman at Louisville, Kentucky. Anderson is ill and eventually resigns from the Army.

October 9, 1861 - In a relatively major battle, Gen. Richard H. Anderson leads 1,000 Confederate troops across Pensacola Bay and attacks Fort Pickens, driving the 6th New York from their camp. Union Colonel Harvey Brown brings several companies of regulars from the fort and, assisted by artillery, drives the Confederate force back. Brown's reported loss is 13 killed, 27 wounded, and 21 missing. Anderson lost 18 dead, 39 wounded and 30 captured.

October 10, 1861 - President Jefferson Davis ponders the use of slaves as laborers for the Confederacy in a letter to General Gustavus W. Smith.

October 11, 1861 - Edmund Kirby Smith becomes a Major General, C.S.A.

October 12, 1861 - General Fremont continues his advances and encounters heavy skirmishing at Clinton and Cameron, Missouri.

October 12, 1861 - Confederate rammer CSS Manassas is launched from New Orleans and, accompanied by the steamers CSS Ivy and CSS James L. Day, ventures south on the Mississippi. The Manassas successfully rams the USS Richmond and USS Vincennes, running them aground before steaming back upstream. The Union vessels are refloated and the blockade resumes.

October 12, 1861 - The USS St. Louis, the first Union Ironclad, is launched at Carondelet, Missouri.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week -  October 13 - 28 ,1861
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

Please Note: The daily activity of the Civil War is slowing down for the winter months. While there are many officer promotions and reassignments, not many troop movements or battles take place for the next three months or so. I am changing the posting to cover up to two weeks of activity. - Jim Hachtel

October 13, 1861 - Confederate troops commanded by General Turner Ashby make a raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Shelling of the village causes mills and storehouses to burn.

October 13, 1861 - General Thomas Williams succeeds General James K. F. Mansfield as commander of Union forces at Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina. (See two entries of Oct. 5,1861.)

October 14, 1861 - President Abraham Lincoln orders General Winfield Scott to suspend writs of habeas corpus from Maine to Washington, D.C. This is done to discourage treasonable activity in the region.

October 14, 1861 - At Port Royal, South Carolina, General Thomas W. Sherman is ordered to organize and arm fugitive slaves into military squads. This order came from Secretary of War Simon Cameron.

October 14, 1861 - C.S.A. General Braxton Bragg becomes commander of the newly created Department of Alabama, which includes western Florida.

October 15, 1861 - Confederate raiders based in southeastern Missouri and organized by former Virginia attorney Jeff Thompson, attack a Union outpost in Potosi, Missouri. They burn the Big River Bridge and take 33 prisoners, members of the Illinois 38th.

October 16, 1861 - Confederate soldiers request to return home and join state militias. Jefferson Davis denies the request.

October 16, 1861 - Union forces reoccupy Lexington, Missouri.

October 17, 1861 - Commodore Samuel F. Du Pont informs U. S. Navy Secretary Gideon Wells that Port Royal, South Carolina would be an important asset to the blockade effort.

October 18, 1861 - President Lincoln requests troops from the armies of General McClellan and General W. T. Sherman for an upcoming coastal expedition. Both Generals refuse stating that they are already under manned. Lincoln also meets with his cabinet to discuss the upcoming retirement of General Winfield Scott and his possible replacement.

October 18, 1861 - Confederate raider Jeff Thompson continues raids near Warrensburg in southern Missouri. This time he hits the 11th Missouri Regiment commanded by Colonel Joseph B. Plummer.

October 20, 1861 - General McClellan, pressured by Radical Republicans to assume the offensive, sends Colonel Charles P. Stone from his Maryland base to "demonstrate" near the Confederate lines near Leesburg, Virginia. Stone sends a single brigade of 1,700 men under political appointee and Lincoln friend, Colonel Edward D. Baker to make a "slight demonstration" to test Confederate reaction. Confederate Colonel Nathan G. Evans gets word of the advance of the Union force and prepares his defense.

October 21, 1861 - Colonel Edward Baker ferries his 1,700 men across the Potomac River at Ball's Bluff, Virginia and encounters a 100-foot high bluff on the landing shore. Confederate forces in the woods above the bluff take advantage of their superior position and 49 Union men are killed including Colonel Baker, 158 wounded and 714 captured. President Lincoln is shaken when he is informed of the death of his friend.

October 21, 1861 - Colonel Nathan G. Evans is promoted to brigadier general, C.S.A. to reward his Ball's Bluff performance.

October 21, 1861 - Colonel J. B. Plummer occupies Fredericktown, Missouri following a three-hour battle against Confederate Forces. (See Oct 18th entry.)

October 22, 1861 - General Pierre G. T. Beauregard retains command of the Division of the Potomac but the new Confederate Department of Virginia is carved out of the larger army with General Joseph E. Johnston, commanding.

October 22, 1861 - General Benjamin F. Kelly commands the new Department of Harpers Ferry for the Union.

October 22, 1861 - General Thomas J. Jackson leads Confederate forces into the Shenandoah Valley of western Virginia.

October 23, 1861 - General W. T. Sherman is alarmed by the strength of Confederate defenses in Kentucky as skirmishing breaks out at Hodgeville and West Liberty, Kentucky.

October 24, 1861 - President Lincoln attends the funeral of his friend Colonel Edward D. Baker.

October 24, 1861 - Inhabitants of western Virginia endorse a plan to form their own state.

October 24, 1861 - Western Union completes the transcontinental telegraph.

October 25, 1861 - Springfield, Missouri is occupied by Union cavalry forces, actually a small force of General Fremont's bodyguards; Major Charles Zagonyi, commanding. The bold move resulted in a Union victory and is the lone praiseworthy achievement for General Fremont. (NOTE-Remember, Secretary of War Cameron was sent to Missouri to assess Fremont's performance. Cameron arrived in Missouri October 11 and conducted interviews, inspected camps, and the general state of affairs.)

October 25, 1861 - The keel of the USS Monitor, Swedish inventor John Ericsson's one-turret warship, is laid at Greenpoint, New York.

October 26, 1861 - General Benjamin Butler reports that all Confederate forces are removed from western Virginia after skirmishing at Romney and South Branch Bridge.

October 26, 1861 - Missouri Home Guard commander Sterling Price and General John C. Fremont agree on a prisoner exchange.

October 27, 1861 - General John C. Fremont moves his Army toward Springfield in the mistaken belief that Sterling Price is still in that area. Price has long since retreated to safety due to Fremont's lethargic moves.

October 28, 1861 - Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston relieves General Simon B. Buckner at Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week -  October 29 - November 12 ,1861
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

Note: Again this issue covers two weeks of Civil War activity as the first winter of the war begins.

October 29, 1861 - Commodore Samuel F. Du Pont departs Hampton Roads, Virginia with 17 warships, 25 transports, and 25 supply ships along with 13,000 Union troops commanded by General Thomas W. Sherman. They intend to capture Port Royal, South Carolina (between Charleston and Savannah). This large flotilla encounters heavy seas and is widely scattered.

October 30, 1861 - President Jefferson Davis confronts General Pierre G.T. Beauregard about his report on the Battle of First Manassas. The President had claimed Beauregard attempted to "exalt yourself at my expense." The two never reconciled.

October 30, 1861 - Confederate forces sink stone-filled barges near Fort Donelson, Tennessee (on the Cumberland River) to obstruct Union gunboats.

October 31, 1861 - At Neosho, Missouri, southern leaning legislators vote to side with the Confederacy. The state remained divided and was claimed by both sides throughout the war.

October 31, 1861 - General Winfield Scott voluntarily resigns due to poor health and his age of 75. He resides at West Point, NY throughout the rest of the Civil War.

November 1, 1861 - General George B. McClellan, 35 years old with a high reputation but little experience, replaces General Scott as General in Chief of the Union Army.

November 1, 1861 - Confederate troops under General John B. Floyd botch an attack on General Rosecrans at Gauley Bridge and Cotton Hill in western Virginia. Confederate withdrawal from the area is now complete.

November 1, 1861 - General Ulysses S. Grant arrives in Cairo, Illinois and plans his advance on Columbus, Kentucky.

November 1, 1861 - General John C. Fremont concluded the prisoner exchange with General Sterling Price. Fremont exceeds his authority by releasing civilians now in military custody and President Lincoln negates his order.

November 2, 1861 - General John C. Fremont is relieved of command of the Department of the West at Springfield, Missouri and is temporarily replaced by General David Hunter.

November 4, 1861 -Commodore Samuel F. Du Pont finally reaches Port Royal Sound, South Carolina after several days at sea. (See note of October 29,1861.) The flotilla completes their mission and withdraws.

November 4, 1861 - General Thomas J. Jackson moves his headquarters to Winchester, Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley.

November 4, 1861 - President Davis and General P. G. T. Beauregard argue over strategy. Davis consults Generals Robert E. Lee and Samuel Cooper in his frustration with Beauregard.

November 5, 1861 - General Robert E. Lee assumes command of the Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.

November 6, 1861 - The Confederate Congress elects President Jefferson Davis as permanent chief executive of the Confederate States of America.

November 6, 1861 - General Fremont, still acting as if he is commander of the Department of the West, orders U.S. Grant to Belmont to decrease the Confederate pressure on the rest of Missouri. (Interestingly, the several sources used to put this historical review together do not agree on the date President Lincoln finally relieved Fremont or the date Fremont actually steps down. I have found a range of dates from October 24th through November 4th. I selected November 2, 1861 as the most reliable date reported as it comes from Samuel M. Schmucker's 1861 report in THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES published in 1865.)

November 6, 1861 - General U.S. Grant makes an amphibious descent from Cairo, Illinois with two infantry brigades, artillery, and cavalry. His destination is Belmont, Missouri, directly across from Columbus, Kentucky.

November 7, 1861 - General Leonidas Polk and General Gideon Pillow repulse General U. S. Grant at Belmont, Missouri.

November 7, 1861 - The Southern Blockading Squadron under Commodore Samuel F. Du Pont (October 29 and November 4, 1861 entries) disembarks General Thomas Sherman and his 13,000 troops, and then fires on Forts Beauregard and Walker at Port Royal. Port Royal and Hilton Head become major Union coaling stations throughout the war.

November 8, 1861 - General Robert E. Lee directs coastline evacuation of Confederate troops (except at Fort Pulaski) in light of the Port Royal loss.

November 9, 1861 - General Thomas Sherman captures the city of Beauford with support from gunboats of the blockading squadron.

November 9, 1861 - In a major Union restructuring, General Henry Halleck becomes commander of the new Department of Missouri, which includes Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois, and western Kentucky. General Don C. Buell replaces General William T. Sherman as head of the Department of the Cumberland, which is enlarged and renamed the Department of Ohio.

November 11, 1861 - General Leonidas Polk is wounded when a cannon explodes during test firing at Columbus, Kentucky.

November 12, 1861 - The British built steamer Fingal delivers military cargo to Savannah, Georgia and is armed and rechristened CSS Atlanta.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week -  November 13-27 ,1861
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

November 13, 1861 - President Lincoln is snubbed by General George B. McClellan when Lincoln calls on the General at McClellan's Headquarters and McClellan retires to bed. General McClellan was ordered to the White House for all subsequent meetings with the President.

November 15, 1861 - Captain David G. Farragut is selected by Secretary Gideon Wells to be the Naval leader in an expedition against New Orleans, the south's second largest city and a significant port. Wells was persuaded to choose Farragut by Captain David D. Porter, Farragut's stepbrother.

November 15, 1861 - General Don C. Buell arrives in Louisville, Kentucky to command the Department of the Ohio, replacing General William T. Sherman. President Lincoln urges Buell to advance into pro-Union eastern Tennessee. (Sherman was replaced due to his nervousness about being outnumbered by Confederate Forces, the high concentration of volunteers in his Department and their poor training, and newspaper reports that he was insane.)

November 15, 1861 - The USS San Jacinto arrives at Fortress Monroe, Virginia with James M. Mason and John Slidell, Confederate emissaries to Britain and France aboard. This is the first news of the unauthorized boarding of the British packet Trent by Captain Charles Wilkes several days earlier.

November 16, 1861 - Eight days after Captain Charles Wilkes violates international law involving rights of neutral nations by boarding the British mail-packet Trent and removing Southern envoys James Mason and John Slidell, Postmaster General Montgomery Blair and Senator Charles Sumner urge their immediate release. 



November 18, 1861 - Confederate leaning Kentuckians adopt a secession ordinance. Missouri and Kentucky both maintain separate legislatures, both Confederate and Union, for the next three years.

November 18, 1861 - The fifth session of the Provisional Confederate Congress meets in Richmond and remains in session through February 17, 1862.

November 20, 1861 - General George B. McClellan reviews the 70,000 men of the Army of the Potomac outside Washington, D.C. Visitors comment on the discipline and marching skill of the troops in contrast to the amateurish forces hastily assembled the past summer.

November 20, 1861 - General Halleck, recently assigned to the Department of Missouri in St. Louis, issues General Order #3 prohibiting former slaves from working in military camps.

November 21, 1861 - Confederate General Lloyd Tilghman becomes commander of both Fort Henry on the Tennessee River, and Fort Donelson on the Cumberland. These strategic forts are the core of the Confederate defenses in the central part of the divided United States.


November 21, 1861 - CSA General Albert S. Johnston again calls for 10,000 volunteers for the defense of Columbus, Kentucky.

November 22, 1861 - The Navy Department is authorized to recruit 500 marines and naval officers.

November 23, 1861 - A Union garrison repulses the Confederate attack on Ft. Pulaski on Santa Rosa Island, Pensacola, Florida.

November 24, 1861 - Colonel Nathan B. Forrest leads cavalry raids on Caseyville and Eddyville, Kentucky. This is Forrest's first notice in the war.

November 24, 1861 - Captain Wilkes reaches Boston, Massachusetts aboard the San Jacinto. Confederate emissaries Slidell and Mason are imprisoned at Fort Warren.

November 25, 1861 - Northern troops captured while burning bridges are to be hanged, if found guilty at court martial, by edict of Confederate secretary of war Judah P. Benjamin.

November 26, 1861 - At Wheeling, Virginia, a constituent's convention resolves to secede from Virginia and form a separate state. 



November 27, 1861 - Word of the "Trent Affair" reaches Great Britain. Talk of war on the United States and the "outrage on the British flag" causes indignation to run high.

November 27, 1861 - The large navel fleet assembled to capture control of New Orleans (see November 15 entry) leaves Hampton Roads, Virginia for Ships Island, Mississippi.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week -  November 28-December 12 ,1861
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

November 28, 1861 - Missouri is inducted into the Confederacy by the Confederate Congress as their 12th state. The Union does not recognize this move.

November 28, 1861 - General Benjamin M. Prentiss becomes commander of Union forces in the Department of North Missouri.

November 29, 1861 - Farmers near Charleston, South Carolina and Savannah, Georgia burn cotton to avoid Union confiscation of the crop.

November 29, 1861 - General John Schofield takes command of Union militia in Missouri.

November 30, 1861 - The Trent Affair continues as British Foreign Secretary Lord John Russell demands a formal apology and the immediate release of Confederate agents James Mason and John Slidell. British Minister to the United States, Lord Lyons, is instructed to depart Washington D.C. in one week if demands are not met.

December 1, 1861 - Six thousand British troops are sent to Canada and Admiral Sir Alexander Milne moves 40 vessels (with 1,273 guns mounted) to Halifax, Nova Scotia as the British Cabinet prepares for war.

December 1, 1861 - U.S. Secretary of War Cameron and President Lincoln discuss what should be done with the thousands of slaves flocking to Union lines. Desperate to maintain loyalty of Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri, Lincoln orders all mention of emancipation or military service for former slaves to be struck from all government reports.

December 1, 1861 - President Lincoln contacts General George B. McClellan and inquires exactly when offensive operation would resume.

December 1, 1861 - Confederate authorities in Tennessee hang pro-Union guerrillas charged with burning railroad bridges.

December 2, 1861 - General Henry Halleck is authorized to suspend writs of habeas corpus in Missouri.

December 2, 1861 - The U.S. Congress convenes their 37th Session.

December 2, 1861 - Secretary of War Simon Cameron reports to Congress that the Union Army consists of 20,334 soldiers and 640,637 volunteers (3-years).

December 2, 1861 - Secretary of the Navy Gideon Wells reports 22,000 men and 264 vessels make up the Union Navy. A total of 153 enemy vessels have been captured to date.

December 3, 1861 - President Lincoln addresses Congress and suggests slaves appropriated from Southern "owners" be allowed to emigrate.

December 3, 1861 - General Benjamin Butler's first two regiments reach Ship's Island, Mississippi and rapidly convert the area to a major staging area for operations against New Orleans.

December 4, 1861 - All British exports to the United States are stopped.

December 4, 1861 - The U.S. Senate votes to remove former Vice President John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky from their roles. Breckenridge has served as a Confederate general since November.

December 4, 1861 - General Henry Halleck arrives in Missouri and continues punitive measures against Confederate sympathizers, including death for anyone found guilty of aiding the rebel cause.

December 5, 1861 - Congress has a petition brought before the body that would mandate abolition of slavery if passed.

December 6, 1861 - Pro-Union newspaper editor William G. Brownlow is arrested in Knoxville and is charged with treason by the Confederate authorities.

December 7, 1861 - The United States ship "USS Santiago de Cuba" stops the British vessel "Eugenia Smith" and removes Confederate Purchasing Agent J. W. Zacharie of New Orleans. Tension continues to rise in light of the Trent affair.

December 8, 1861 - 7,000 Bibles are distributed to Union Troops by the American Bible Society.

December 9, 1861 - Congress votes 33-3 to establish an oversight committee to monitor the conduct of the war. This becomes infamous as the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War and was forever disliked by most Union Officers. The committee defended themselves claiming they would stop any further disasters such as Bull Run and Ball's Bluff.

December 10, 1861 - The Confederate Congress recognizes the Kentucky "government" and makes Kentucky their 13th state. Again, the United States never recognized this arrangement.

December 11, 1861 - Charleston, South Carolina is nearly destroyed by accidental fire. More than half of the city is consumed.

December 12, 1861 - As Union forces expand out from Port Royal Sound, U.S. Marine forces (Navy on land) take over a Confederate base on the Ashepoo River in South Carolina.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week -  December 13-31 ,1861
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

December 13, 1861 - Robert H. Milroy, newly appointed Union General, directs an attack against Confederate troops in western Virginia. Milroy marches his 830 men from Cheat Mountain while Colonel Gideon C. Moody moves his 930 men more than 12 miles to attack the 1,200 Confederates garrisoned atop Allegheny Mountain. Moody is delayed by poor terrain and Confederate General Edward Johnson charges downhill against first Milroy's troops and some five hours later against Moody. Union losses: 20 dead, 107 wounded, and 10 missing. Confederate losses: 20 killed, 98 wounded and 28 missing. This was after the western Virginia counties had voted to split from the rest of Virginia.

December 16, 1861 - Congressman Clement Vallandigham of Ohio introduces a resolution commending Captain Charles Wilkes for his role in the Trent Affair. Vallandigham is soon vilified as a "Copperhead."

December 17, 1861 - Armed forces from Spain, Britain, and France occupy Vera Cruz, Mexico, seeking reparations for foreign debts. When Napoleon III maneuvers to seize political control of Mexico, Spain and Britain withdraw. The United States accuses the French of taking advantage of America at a time when domestic strife is high.

December 17, 1861 - The U.S. Navy scuttles a "stone Fleet" of seven old vessels at the mouth of Savannah Harbor, Georgia.

December 18, 1861 - Union troops surround and capture more than 1500 Confederate soldiers and their equipment at Milford, Missouri. General John Pope discovers Confederate positions along Blackwater Creek, Missouri and General Sterling Price quickly withdraws.

December 19, 1861 - British minister to the United States, Lord Lyons, alerts Secretary of State Seward that Britain expects the unconditional release of James Mason and John Slidell (Trent Affair). Seward requests a formal presentation of the British demands on December 23rd.

December 20, 1861 - The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War is formally instituted with Radical Republicans including Benjamin Wade of Ohio and Zachariah Chandler of Michigan.
This group was formed in the wake of the defeats at Bull Run (July) and Ball's Bluff (October).

December 20, 1861 - A battle at Dranesville, Virginia involving Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart and Union General Edward O.C. Ord takes place as both sides compete for fodder and food. The two forces numbered about 4,000 total and many units saw their first action here. Stuart withdraws losing 43 killed, 143 wounded, and 8 missing (198 total) while Ord has 7 killed and 61 wounded.

December 21, 1861 - The Navy Metal of Honor is instituted by Congress.

December 22, 1861 - General Halleck repeats his order that anyone sabotaging Union railroads or rolling stock will be shot immediately.

December 23, 1861 - British Minister Lyons submits his formal note to Secretary of State Seward stating that agents Slidell and Mason must be released within one week or the British Ambassador will be withdrawn.

December 23, 1861 - Colonel James A. Garfield is dispatched with 1,100 infantry and 450 cavalry to southeastern Kentucky to break up a concentration of Confederate Troops.

December 24, 1861 - General Henry A. Wise is moved from the Virginia theater to a quiet sector in North Carolina due to poor performance.

December 25, 1861 - President Lincoln celebrates Christmas and late in the day confers with legal authorities about the Confederate envoys still held prisoner by the North.

December 25, 1861 - General U.S. Grant orders the expulsion of all fugitive former slaves from Ft. Holt, Kentucky.

December 26, 1861 - President Lincoln's Cabinet concurs that the seizure of Confederate agents is illegal and they should be released and allowed to continue their trip to Europe. While Captain Wilkes is blamed and the incident is deemed a "misunderstanding" by Captain Wilkes, an international crisis is averted.

December 26, 1861 - Martial Law is declared by General Halleck for areas within St. Louis and the nearby railroad properties.

December 27, 1861 - Secretary of State Henry H. Seward informs the House and Senate Foreign Relations Committees about the president's decision to release Slidell and Mason from captivity at Fort Warren, Boston, Massachusetts.

December 28, 1861 - Colonel Nathan B. Forrest leads a force of 300 Confederate Cavalry troops toward Sacramento, Kentucky but encounters a force of 168 Union men led by Major Eli Murray
en route. During the skirmish, Forrest calls his Confederate troops to realign, a maneuver which Major Murray believes is a retreat. In the confusion, Murray charges and loses two officers plus 11 enlisted killed and 40 prisoners taken. This is the second event that caused Forrest to be noticed by his superiors.

December 31, 1861 - Lincoln asks about activity planned in Halleck's Missouri Theater when he becomes aware there are no plans for any movement in the East. As the year ends, the President is disappointed and talks of the slowness of planning and the lack of success in light of the earlier predictions of a "short war."

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week -  January 1 - 7, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

January 1, 1862 - Confederate agents Slidell and Mason sail for Halifax en route to England aboard the

January 1, 1862 - George B. McClellan, General in Chief of the Union Army, continues his inactivity causing President Lincoln more anguish over the slow movement. McClellan is ill and does not answer Lincoln's telegraphs.

January 1, 1862 - General Thomas J. Jackson breaks his winter camp and moves his Stonewall Brigade and General William Loring's 8,500 troops toward Romney in western Virginia. Soon after leaving their Winchester, Virginia area encampments, the temperature falls and the troops suffer severely.

January 3, 1862 - Confederate President Davis is upset over the loss of Ship's Island, Mississippi and its probable effect on the ability of the South to hold New Orleans.

January 3, 1862 - Confederates under General Jackson continue a move up the Shenandoah Valley and plan the destruction of the B&O Railroad in western Virginia.

January 4, 1862 - Jackson's troops control the town of Bath, western Virginia.

January 5, 1862 - General Jackson's artillery bombards Union positions around Hancock, Maryland before seeking winter shelter and establishing a new winter camp.

January 6, 1862 - General in Chief McClellan is diagnosed as having typhoid fever. President Lincoln ignores radical Republican senators calling for replacement of McClellan.

January 6, 1862 - The Union Navy is critically short of manpower and Commodore Andrew H. Foote suggests drafting soldiers. The U.S. Army is reluctant but General Ulysses S. Grant recommends that guardhouse soldiers be moved to help the Navy.

January 7, 1862 - General Thomas Jackson remains intent on the capture of Romney, western Virginia, which is the key position controlling the South Branch Valley of the Potomac River. Troops are moved from their temporary winter camp at Hancock, Maryland toward Romney but encounter the Union Army at Blue Gap and are scattered. The Union also takes possession of two Confederate cannons.

January 7, 1862 - The Federal gunboat U.S.S. Conestoga returns from a reconnaissance of Confederate Fort Donelson, Tennessee. In a report to Commodore Foote, Donelson is described as well positioned with intrinsic strength and a danger to naval assault.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week -  January 15 - 21, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

January 15, 1862 - The poem "Battle Hymn of the Republic" written by Julia Ward Howe is published in the New York Herald Tribune.

January 15, 1862 - The U.S. Senate confirms Edwin M. Stanton as the new Secretary of War. Stanton from Ohio replaces Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania.

January 15, 1862 - At St. Louis Confederate General Lovell Mansfield confiscates 14 private civilian steamers to augment the defense of the city.

January 16, 1862 - Three new Eads (James B. Eads - designer) gunboats are commissioned by the Union. The Carondelet, St. Louis, and Cincinnati join the four existing gunboats to become the force assuring Union control of western waters. The three new gunboats are iron clad while the earlier gunboats had wood hulls and decks with some cladding added.

January 16, 1862 - Confederate General George B. Crittenden orders all Confederate troops to move to the south side of the Cumberland River (Kentucky) to avoid a battle with their backs to the river. General Felix K. Zollicoffer ignores the order and when Crittenden arrives with reinforcements, he decides to stay on the north side and engage the Union column at Logan's Crossroad.

January 17, 1862 - General George H. Thomas takes charge of 4,000 troops near Logan's Crossroads. The nearest Confederate troops are near Mills Springs, about ten miles away on the Cumberland River, and General Thomas expects an attack.

January 17, 1862 - Union General Charles F. Smith leads a probe in the direction of Ft. Henry, held by the Confederates on the Tennessee River. The Federal gunboats USS Conestoga and USS Lexington are able to acquire detailed knowledge of the position and formulate a plan for capture of the fort.

January 18, 1862 - General George H. Thomas sends reconnaissance parties toward the Cumberland River to assure that the Confederate forces are still on the north side of the river. Thomas learns that General Crittenden is planning to strike the Union camp at dawn. General Thomas moves two brigades of reinforcement troops nearer to Logan's Crossroads.

January 19, 1862 - At daybreak Generals Zollicofer and William H. Carroll attack the Union forces at Logan's Crossroads. In heavy rain and mud, the 4th Kentucky under Union Colonel Speed S. Fry forces a standoff with units of equal strength. General Zollicoffer is killed by Fry's troops when he is lost in the fog. The forces disengage and General Thomas follows the Confederate retreat. General Crittenden leads the Confederate troops to transports and escapes back to Nashville late in the evening. This battle is sometimes called the Battle of Mills Springs.

January 20, 1862 - Reports of the overwhelming Union victory at Logan's Creek revives Union sentiment in the region and Kentucky remains neutral. The Union gains control of the Cumberland, an important invasion route into eastern Tennessee.

January 20, 1862 - Navy Secretary Gideon Wells splits the Union Gulf Blockading Squadron into two districts; the Eastern and Western Blockading Squadrons. Commodore David G. Farragut commands the Eastern unit and Commander David D. Porter (Farragut's foster brother) commands the Western Squadron. They plan a campaign against New Orleans.

January 21, 1862 - Union forces move on Columbus, Kentucky lead by General John A. McClernand with no engagement.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week -  January 22 - 29, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

January 22, 1862 - At Fort Henry on the Tennessee River, the Federal gunboat USS Lexington fires on the Confederate batteries with some return fire.

January 23, 1862 - General Thomas J. Jackson moves his forces from Romney in western Virginia to Winchester. Confederate General William W. Loring remains in Romney but complains to friends in the Confederate Congress that General Jackson deliberately left his troops in an exposed position only 20 miles from Union lines and asks for a change of orders.

January 23, 1862 - General Henry W. Halleck adds strength to martial law in St. Louis. Pro-southern leaning inhabitants that fail to pay an assessment to support pro-Union fugitives now have their property seized.

January 23, 1862 - Commodore Andrew H. Foote, short of sailors to man his gunboat squadron, asks Secretary of Navy Gideon Wells to appeal to the War Department to arrange a draft of Army troops to fill the void.

January 26, 1862 - General Pierre G. T. Beauregard is moved from the eastern theatre to the west and is under command of General Albert Sidney Johnston. Command in Virginia remains under General Joseph E. Johnston, still at odds with Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

January 26, 1862 - A second "stone fleet" is sunk in Charleston Harbor at the mouth of Maffitt's Channel.

January 27, 1862 - Emperor Napoleon III promises continued neutrality but declares that the American conflict infringes on trade relations with France.

January 27, 1862 - President Lincoln issues General War Order No.1. This mandates a general offensive along a wide front to be underway no later than February 22nd. Both Army and Navy forces and all commanders are under the order. The order was issued as Lincoln became exasperated with the slow response to verbal orders and lack of initiative on the part of Command Officers. The message sent was also to inform that War Command is now centered in Washington.

January 28, 1862 - Confederate Colonel John H. Morgan leads his cavalry against Union forces at Greensburg and Lebanon, Kentucky.

January 28, 1862 - Commodore Andrew Foote advises senior general Henry Halleck to begin operations against Fort Henry and Fort Donelson before the water level on the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers begins to recede.
 

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week -  January 29 - February 4, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

January 29, 1862 - Union soldiers begin a manhunt for infamous guerrilla William C. Quantrill around Blue Springs, Missouri.

January 30, 1862 - Confederate envoys James M. Mason and John Slidell reach Southampton, England and receive a cordial welcome. (See several Trent Affair notes between November 7, 1861 and December 27, 1861.)

January 30, 1862 - At St. Louis General Henry W. Halleck authorizes combined Navy and Army operations against Confederate positions at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, Tennessee. General Ulysses S. Grant orders his command into action but recent heavy rain causes the roads to be impassable. All troops are moved by gunboats and barges.

January 30, 1862 - Federal gunboat USS Conestoga makes final reconnaissance of the Tennessee River preparing for the movement against Fort Henry.

January 30, 1862 - The USS Monitor ironclad, called "a cheese box on a raft" by some onlookers, is launched at Greenpoint, Long Island. Testing begins immediately.

January 31, 1862 - Great Britain's Queen Victoria advises Confederate agents of British displeasure over the Union blockade of southern ports. However, Southern hopes are dashed when the Queen reiterates her government's neutrality in matters of war.

January 31, 1862 - President Lincoln refines his Special War Order No.1 to mandate an advance on Manassas Junction, Virginia by February 22. General George McClellan ignores the order. The President's original order had been composed and issued on January 27th.

January 31, 1862 - Radical Republicans call for General McClellan to attack Southern positions but also to actively free slaves and enlist them in the military. McClellan declines to turn the fight to save the Union into a social crusade to free slaves.

January 31, 1862 - The Railways and Telegraph Act, empowering the President to seize control of these Confederate held assets, is passed by Congress.

January 31, 1862 - Judah P. Benjamin, Confederate Secretary of War, orders General Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson to move his troops from Winchester back to Romney in western Virginia. (See January 23,1862 when General Jackson moved to Winchester and General Loring's complaints were reported.) General Jackson, aware of Loring's violation of the chain of command behind his back, complies with the order and then resigns in anger. President Jefferson Davis refuses to accept the resignation and Jackson remains with the Army.

February 1, 1862 - General Henry H. Sibley moves into New Mexico Territory intent on bringing the entire region into Confederate control.

February 2, 1862 - General Grant and 17,000 troops depart Cairo, Illinois for a campaign against Fort Henry.

February 2, 1862 - The timberclad gunboats USS Lexington, Conestoga, and Tyler, under Lt. Seth L. Phelps, begin a foray down the Tennessee River to destroy the railroad bridge at Danville, Tennessee and then continue downstream as far as water depth allows.

February 3, 1862 - General George McClellan and President Lincoln continue to disagree on Union troop movement as well as the strategy to be used. Lincoln favors an overland campaign while McClellan suggests sidestepping Confederate defenses and landing behind the enemy.

February 3, 1862 - To stop the Confederates from carrying out the threat of hanging Union Naval personnel in retaliation for the Union treating Confederate captives as pirates, the Union decides to charge captured southern privateers as war prisoners.

February 4, 1862 - Confederate Commander at Fort Henry, General Lloyd Tilghman, learns of the large Union expedition floating toward his location and asks for reinforcements.

February 4, 1862 - Commodore Andrew H. Foote positions the USS Essex, Corondelet, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Tyler, and Lexington to bombard several targets along the Tennessee River. He also has a close-up look at Fort Henry. One Southerner is killed in the exchanges and several torpedoes (mines) break loose in the swift current but cause no damage to the Union fleet.

February 4, 1862 - The Confederate Congress briefly considers utilizing free African Americans in the Army. The remedy to address the shortage of troops in never seriously considered.
 

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week -  February 5 - 11, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

February 5, 1862 - Restrictions on the sale of guns, ammunition, and military supplies to the Confederacy are lifted by the British government.

February 5, 1862 - Julia Ward Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic" is printed in the Atlantic Monthly, arranged to the popular tune "John Brown's Body."

February 5, 1862 - General Charles F. Smith lands Union troops directly opposite Fort Henry at the unfinished Fort Heiman and seizes the fort without contact.

February 6, 1862 - In the drive toward Fort Henry on the Tennessee River, General U.S. Grant continues his strategic flanking movement. The fort is situated in low earthwork at river's edge and the Tennessee River is running full. His 17,000 troops are put ashore two miles below the fort but bog down in mud and proceed slowly. General Tilghman directs most of his 3,400 Confederate garrison to Fort Donelson, ten miles away on the Cumberland River. Little combat takes place but the Union troops detain 38 stragglers and capture six cannons as they pursue the Confederates.

February 6, 1862 - General Tilghman retains 17 cannons and 100 artillery troops to mount an "honorable" defense of Fort Henry. The four ironclad and three timber clad gunboats under Commodore Foote open fire on Fort Henry from 1,700 yards and move in to about 600 yards, maintaining constant fire for two hours. The fort's defenders score 59 hits on Foote's gunboats and a direct hit on the USS Essex, bursting her boilers. Several naval officers row through the sally port and accept Tilghman's surrender on the flooded parade ground. Union losses are 11 killed, 31 injured, and five missing. Confederate losses are five killed, six wounded, five missing, and 70 captured.

February 6, 1862 - After the fall of Fort Henry, Commodore Foote moves downstream on the Tennessee destroying railroad bridges as far south as Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

February 6, 1862 - At Jefferson City, Louisiana, the new and powerful ironclad CSS Louisiana is launched.

February 7, 1862 - Federal troops re-occupy Romney in western Virginia and General Loring withdraws to Winchester.

February 7, 1862 - Lt. Seth Phelps continues on his move down river on the Tennessee. The USS Conestoga surprises the Confederate steamers Samuel Orr, Appleton Belle, and Lynn Boyd and sets them afire.

February 7, 1862 - Hearing news of the fall of Fort Henry, Generals Beauregard, Albert S. Johnston, and William Hardee meet and send untested Generals Gideon Pillow at Clarksville, Tennessee and John B. Floyd at Bowling Green, Kentucky to slow the Union approach to Fort Donelson. Fort Donelson's garrison is directed to withdraw to Nashville.

February 7 & 8, 1862 - The U.S. Army and Navy win control of Roanoke Island, North Carolina. Control of Roanoke Island effectively stops Confederate communication with Norfolk, Virginia and Norfolk is eventually abandoned. General Ambrose Burnsides sets up enhanced blockade capability and controls the Albemarle Sound.

February 8, 1862 - President Davis reacts to the loss of Roanoke Island and Fort Henry, and a sense of gloom overtakes Richmond. Secretary of War Judah P. Benjamin, overall theatre commander Benjamin Huger, and local commander Henry A. Wise are investigated for incompetence and questionable behavior.

February 9, 1862 - General Gideon Pillow becomes commander of Fort Donelson, replacing Generals Bushrod J. Johnson and Simon Buckner.

February 10, 1862 - Commodore Foote moves to Cairo, Illinois to get emergency repair of his damaged gunboats and plans his move to Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River in Tennessee. Lt. Seth L. Phelps concludes his move downstream and arrives back at Fort Donelson.

February 10, 1862 - Union General Samuel R. Curtis and his 12,000 man Army of the Southwest leaves Rolla, Missouri to attack General Sterling Price and his 8,000 man Missouri Homeguard. This move is to drive Price west and into Arkansas to keep him from interfering with the Union thrust down the Mississippi.

February 11, 1862 - The northern railroads and captured southern rails are all placed under the control of the United States Military Railroads, established by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. The Military Railroad achieved safety and efficiency never rivaled in the south.

February 11, 1862 - Union Generals McClernand and Charles Smith march 15,000 men from Fort Henry to Fort Donelson through heavy rain. Confederate General Pillow is strengthened by the arrival of General John B. Floyd and 21,000 Confederates.
 

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week -  February 12 - 18, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

February 12, 1862 - At Roanoke Island, General Ambrose E. Burnside moves to expand his occupation and expands his perimeter all the way to Edenton, North Carolina.

February 12, 1862 - General Grant moves 15,000 Union troops ten miles from Fort Henry on the Cumberland River to Fort Donelson on the Tennessee. Fort Donelson is now defended by over 23,000 Confederates of General John B. Floyd's command. A siege operation is established with Union Generals John A. McClernand and Charles F. Smith supported by the USS Carondelet gunboat.

February 13, 1862 - General McClernand disobeys instructions to force no general confrontation at Fort Donelson and probes deeply into the Confederate defensive line. He is repulsed with losses when his troops storm a battery at the center of the Southern line.

February 13, 1862 - As Union forces approach Bowling Green, Kentucky, General William J. Hardee evacuates his Southern forces.

February 14, 1862 - President Lincoln announces a policy of general amnesty and pardons all political prisoners who consent to a loyalty oath.

February 14, 1862 - Bowling Green, Kentucky is occupied by Union troops commanded by General Ormsby M. Mitchel.

February 14, 1862 - Defenders of Fort Donelson conclude their position is hopeless. Generals John B. Floyd and Gideon Pillow plan to attempt a break to safety through Union lines for the next day. At 3:00 PM, Commodore Foote opens fire on the fort from 400 yards but the Confederate defenders return fire from an elevated bluff. Three of the four ironclads in Foote's gunboat squadron are damaged and Foote himself is severely wounded.

February 14, 1862 - The ironclad USS Galena is launched at Mystic, Connecticut but is still experimental.

February 15, 1862 - At daybreak, the Confederate defenders at Fort Donelson attack McClernand's division with great success. The captured Union troops attempt to surrender but Generals Pillow and Floyd refuse to take prisoners and flee by ferry to safety across the Tennessee River with about 5,000 Confederates. That night Federal reinforcements swell the troop force to over 27,000.

February 16, 1862 - Fort Donelson is surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant. When Generals Pillow and Floyd fled, General Buckner, an old acquaintance of Grant, was left in charge of Fort Donelson. When he asked Grant for surrender terms, Grant replied, "No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately on your works.' Grant is celebrated in the Northern Press as Unconditional Surrender Grant.

February 17, 1862 - U. S. Grant is promoted to major general of volunteers, U.S. Army.

February 17, 1862 - The U.S. Senate passes a resolution to create a Medal of Honor.

February 17, 1862 - Two Confederate Regiments advancing toward Fort Donelson are captured by Federal forces.

February 17, 1862 - Commodore Foote's gunboat squadron moves toward Confederate-held Clarksville, Tennessee.

February 18, 1862 - The Confederate Congress convenes in Richmond. This is the first ever meeting of officials elected to represent the Southern States.
 

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week -  February 19 - 25, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

February 19, 1862 - The Confederate Congress meeting at Richmond orders the release of 2,000 Federal Troops.

February 19, 1862 - Federal General Charles F. Smith occupies Clarksville, Tennessee and Fort Defiance. Commodore Andrew Foote assists and the Confederates evacuate as Foote's squadron approaches. Foote urges General Smith to move on Nashville while the Cumberland River is still high.

February 19, 1862 - The USS Monitor, under testing in New York Harbor, encounters propulsion defects.

February 19, 1862 - The USS Delaware and USS Commodore Perry move down the Chowan River in North Carolina, encounter resistance at Winston, and withdraw.

February 20, 1862 - At the White House, President Abraham Lincoln's 11-year old son William Wallace ("Willie") dies of typhoid fever.

February 20, 1862 - The Confederate Congress authorizes the evacuation of troops from Columbus, Kentucky with Forts Henry and Donelson both lost.

February 20, 1862 - Tennessee Governor Isham Harris moves the Confederate State Capitol to Memphis from Nashville as Nashville is threatened by Union forces.

February 20, 1862 - General John Wool, Union force commander at Ft. Monroe, receives intelligence that the ironclad CSS Virginia is being deployed against his position.

February 20, 1862 - General Albert Sidney Johnston completes the move of Confederate forces to Murfreesboro, Tennessee and combines the scattered forces arriving from Nashville.

February 21, 1862 - The Committee on the Conduct of the War removes Colonel Charles P. Stone from command and arrests him for betraying troops in the defeat of the Union at Ball's Bluff in October 1861. He remains imprisoned for 189 days and becomes an example of the power of the Committee. Stone is eventually pardoned and released.

February 21, 1862 - In New York City convicted slave trader Nathaniel Gordon is hanged, the first punished for this outlawed practice.

February 22, 1862 - President Jefferson Davis becomes the first elected official of the Confederate States of America. He blames the North for the hostilities and condemns the North's stand on states rights as a violation of the Constitution in his acceptance speech. President Davis and his Vice President Alexander Stevens were formerly provisional officers.

February 22, 1862 - General Don C. Buell moves the Army of Ohio from Bowling Green, Kentucky toward Nashville.

February 23, 1862 - President Lincoln appoints U.S. Senator Andrew Johnson of Tennessee as Military Governor of pro-Union eastern Tennessee.

February 23, 1862 - New commander of the Department of the Gulf for the Union is General Benjamin Butler.

February 23, 1862 - Confederate forces under Nathan Bedford Forrest evacuate ahead of The Army of Ohio advance on Nashville. The North holds Nashville throughout the war.

February 23, 1862 - Harper's Ferry, Virginia is reoccupied by the Union and General Nathaniel P. Banks.

February 24, 1862 - The CSS Virginia ironclad is ordered to move against Union naval forces off Hampton Roads by the Confederate secretary of the navy, Stephen R. Mallory. Captain Franklin Buchanan is the commander.

February 24, 1862 - Confederates are victorious at the Battle of Valverde, New Mexico thanks to Texas Troops led by General Henry H. Sibley.

February 24, 1862 - As President Lincoln's Cabinet meeting ends, newly appointed Department of The Gulf Commander General Benjamin Butler said, "Goodbye, Mr. President. We shall take New Orleans, or you will never see me again."

February 25, 1862 - President Lincoln approves the Legal Tender Act, the first government sponsored paper money system. The new "greenbacks" are intended for wartime use to expedite payment of Treasury Department bills. There are 400 million in circulation by war's end.

February 25, 1862 - The War Department is authorized to commandeer all commercial telegraph lines for military use, if needed.

February 25, 1862 - The new Union ironclad USS Monitor is commissioned at Long Island, Lt. John L. Wooden, Commanding. The revolutionary design features a single rotating turret with two 11-inch Dahlgren smoothbore cannons, and the body of the ship submerged underwater.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week -  February 26 - March 3, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

February 26, 1862 - Ambrose P. Hill becomes a brigadier general, CSA.

February 27, 1862 - Confederate President Davis suspends writs of habeas corpus as a wartime expedient. Lincoln had done the same thing in April 1861 around Washington and extended the suspension up the East Coast to Maine in October 1861.

February 27, 1862 - Martial Law is declared in Norfolk and Portsmouth, Virginia as Union forces approach.

February 27, 1862 - Departure of the USS Monitor is delayed due to shortage of ammunition and steering failure. In the South, the CSS Monitor is delayed by powder shortages.

February 28, 1862 - General Joseph E. Johnston is advised by President Jefferson Davis to formulate contingency plans for safe troop and material evacuation from Virginia.

February 28, 1862 - At Harper's Ferry, Union forces fail to cross the Potomac and to move against Confederate troops as planned. They failed because pontoon boats were too wide to fit through canal locks and therefore could not be positioned for the crossing.

February 28, 1862 - Federal troops occupy Charleston in western Virginia.

February 28, 1862 - Union General John Pope moves the Army of the Mississippi down river toward New Madrid where 7,500 Confederate Troops are stationed. The Confederate force is commanded by General John P. McCown and has 19 heavy guns mounted plus a flotilla of gunboats.

February 28, 1862 - Confederate forces capture Tucson in the New Mexico Territory. Locals quickly elect a delegation to attend the Confederate Congress meeting in Richmond.

March 1, 1862 - Confederate General John H. Winder declares Martial Law in Richmond.

March 1, 1862 - General Ulysses S. Grant is ordered by General Halleck, commanding the Department of the West, to cross the Tennessee River and move against Eastport, Mississippi.

March 1, 1862 - General P.G.T. Beauregard begins to form a Confederate line from Columbus, Kentucky, past Island No. 10 on the Mississippi River and Fort Pillow on the Tennessee River, all the way to Corinth, Mississippi. At the same time, General Albert Sidney Johnston begins to move from Murfreesboro, Tennessee to Corinth, Mississippi.

March 1, 1862 - Commodore Foote directs the USS Lexington and the USS Tyler to engage Confederate batteries at Pittsburgh Landing, Tennessee. Commodore Foote forbids any naval personnel from going ashore after some casualties occur as sailors and army sharpshooters land to scout the position.

March 1, 1862 - The USS Mount Vernon captures the British Queen, a British blockade-runner off Wilmington, North Carolina.

March 2, 1862 - General Leonidas Polk moves 140 cannons from the strong Confederate position at Columbus, Kentucky to New Madrid, Missouri and Island No. 10, across the Mississippi River. The Confederate line that at one time was as far east as the Cumberland Gap and reached to the Mississippi River has now moved south.

March 3, 1862 - U.S. Assistant Adj. General N. H. McLean issues a warning to St. Louis that any members of Confederate guerrilla bands "will be hung as robbers and murderers."

March 3, 1862 - John Bell Hood is appointed brigadier general, CSA.

March 3, 1862 - General Robert E. Lee is recalled from Charleston, South Carolina to Richmond, Virginia to act as an advisor to President Jefferson Davis.

March 3, 1862 - General Henry Halleck orders General Ulysses S. Grant held at Fort Henry, Tennessee under accusation of sloppy administration.

March 3, 1862 - General Pope and 18,000 Union Army of the Mississippi soldiers begin a siege operation against New Madrid, Missouri.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week -  March 5 - 11, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

Correction note: Last week, the Confederate ironclad should have been identified as the CSS Virginia in the third entry for February 27th.

March 5, 1862 - Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston masses his forces at Corinth, Mississippi to stop any Union thrust south on the Tennessee River. The Tennessee River flows north into the Ohio so south is often referred to as "up-river" in Civil War histories.

March 5, 1862 - General P.G.T. Beauregard takes charge of the new Confederate Army of the Mississippi, stationed at Jackson, Tennessee. 



March 5, 1862 - Savannah, Tennessee, located northeast of Corinth, Mississippi, becomes General Charles F. Smith's headquarters for Union forces. 



March 5, 1862 - Federal General Nathaniel P. Banks moves from Harper's Ferry in western Virginia to the Shenandoah Valley and encounters skirmishers at Bunker Hill and Pohick Church. 



March 6, 1862 - President Lincoln asks Congress to compensate States that willingly abolish slavery. State legislatures reject the idea.

March 6, 1862 - Sterling Price is appointed Major General, C.S.A.



March 6, 1862 - Following several delays, General George B. McClellan moves the Army of the Potomac southward against Southern troops at Manassas, Virginia. Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston falls back to Leesburg, Virginia. 



March 6, 1862 - General Samuel R. Curtis and 10,500 Union troops occupy positions around Pea Ridge and Elkhorn Tavern, Arkansas. C.S.A. General Earl Van Dorn moves to flank the Union Army and cut them off from the Missouri River escape. Three Cherokee regiments under General Albert Pike and Stand Watie join Van Dorn. 



March 7, 1862 - General Joseph E. Johnston continues to move away from Manassas Junction and the Army of the Potomac, moving south to Fredericksburg, Virginia. 



March 7, 1862 - Colonel Turner Ashby's Cavalry skirmish with Union forces at Winchester, Virginia. 



March 7, 1862 - General Earl Van Dorn's flanking movement at Pea Ridge becomes complicated and Texas General Ben McCulloch and second in command General James M. McIntosh are both killed. After four engagements, the line has moved less than 800 feet by nightfall. 



March 8, 1862 - General War Order #2 is issued by President Lincoln, organizing the Army of the Potomac into four corps with one corp left to defend Washington, D.C.



March 8, 1862 - Union forces occupy Leesburg, Virginia. 



March 8, 1862 - In Tennessee, Colonel John H. Morgan raids Nashville's outskirts while General John B. Floyd forces Union troops to leave Chattanooga and Knoxville. 



March 8, 1862 - General Van Dorn orders General Franz Sigel to attack Union positions believing General Curtis is low on artillery ammunition. General Van Dorn's Army is defeated with huge losses in casualties and prisoners. This is the first major victory for the Union in the far West. 



March 8, 1862 - The USS Monitor arrives off Hampton Roads after a perilous voyage from New York. 



March 8, 1862 - The CSS Virginia ironclad ram disables the sloop USS Cumberland and the frigate USS Congress, and then burns them. The USS Minnesota grounds itself to avoid an attack. Wooden warships fall into disfavor. 



March 9, 1862 - General McClellan cannot maintain contact with the southern army and moves back to Alexandria, Virginia. General Johnston moves further south, behind the Rappahannock. 



March 9, 1862 - Lieutenant Catesby ap Roger Jones assumes command of the CSS Virginia ironclad due to Captain Franklin Buchanan's wounds caused by shore gunfire during yesterday's encounters. As the CSS Virginia leaves Norfolk to destroy the USS Minnesota, the USS Monitor sails directly in its path. After a lengthy dual in front of shoreline spectators, the inconclusive confrontation ends. USS Monitor Lieutenant John L. Worden is injured when the pilothouse is hit and a wood splinter hits his eye. 



March 10, 1862 - President Lincoln pays a bedside visit to Lieutenant John L. Worden of the USS Monitor. 



March 10, 1862 - Commodore David G. Farragut begins working his deep draft warships over the sandbars into the Mississippi River below New Orleans.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week -  March 11 - 17, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

March 11, 1862 - President Lincoln issues War Order #3, removing General George B. McClellan as General in Chief. McClellan is retained as commander of the Army of the Potomac but all other commanders report directly to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.



March 11, 1862 - As the Departments of the Ohio, the Kansas, and the Missouri become the Department of the Mississippi, General Halleck is appointed commander of all Union forces in the West.

March 11, 1862 - President Davis rejects the reports of Generals John B. Floyd and Gideon Pillow concerning the loss of Forts Henry and Donelson and relieves them of command.



March 11, 1862 - The Dept. of Western Virginia is moved to General Fremont's Mountain Division.



March 11, 1862 - Troops from the USS Wabash capture and occupy St. Augustine, Florida. At Pensacola Confederates burn two of their gunboats fearing a Union thrust.

March 12, 1862 - General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson withdraws from western Virginia to move up the Shenandoah Valley. Federal troops occupy Winchester, Virginia.

March 12, 1862 - At New Madrid, Missouri on the Mississippi River, General John Pope deploys heavy artillery to strengthen his siege.



March 13, 1862 - General McClellan announces the Peninsula Campaign. Abandoning the overland move directly to Richmond, the Army of the Potomac is to be shipped to the mouth of the York and James Rivers and approach Richmond from the south. President Lincoln approves the plan but warns "at all events, move such Army at once in pursuit of the enemy."

March 13, 1862 - General Ambrose Burnside lands 12,000 Union troops supported by 13 gunboats at Slocum's Creek on the Neuse River in North Carolina. New Bern, North Carolina, an important railhead, is the objective. 



March 13, 1862 - General Robert E. Lee becomes war advisor to Confederate President Davis.



March 13, 1862 - New Madrid, Missouri falls to General Pope with the Confederates moving to Island #10, abandoning huge piles of supplies.

March 13, 1862 - General William T. Sherman probes from Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River into the land toward Corinth, Mississippi.

March 13, 1862 - The Union creates the Department of the South, which includes South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.

March 14, 1862 - New Bern, North Carolina, the second largest city in North Carolina is captured by General Burnside and is occupied throughout the remainder of the war.

March 14, 1862 - General Stephen Hurlbut's division joins General Sherman's Army that is deployed at Pittsburg Landing, near Shiloh Church.

March 14, 1862 - Commodore Andrew Foote moves six gunboats from Cairo, Illinois toward Island #10.

March 15, 1862 - Commodore Foote bombards Island #10 with his six gunboats and 121 mortars.

March 16, 1862 - Colonel John H. Morgan leads a Confederate raid at Gallatin, Tennessee.

March 16, 1862 - General Pope and Commodore Foote continue operations against Confederate held Island #10. This obstacle to Mississippi River travel remains strong.

March 17, 1862 - The 105,000 man Army of the Potomac leaves Alexandria, Virginia for Fort Monroe and the York and James Rivers aboard transports. General McClellan plans to outflank the Confederate Army defending Richmond.

March 17, 1862 - Commodore Foote continues the bombardment of Island #10 with both the USS Benton and the USS Cincinnati receiving damage when a gun on the USS St. Louis bursts, killing several sailors.

March 17, 1862 - The Union Navy Department is embarrassed when the CSS Nashville sails past Federal blockading ships at Beaufort, North Carolina. Navy Assistant Secretary Gustavus V. Fox called the incident "a Bull Run for the Navy."
 

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week -  March 18 - 24, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

March 18, 1862 - Robert M.T. Hunter, former Secretary of State for the Confederate Government, is elected to the Confederate Senate. President Davis appoints Secretary of War Judah P. Benjamin his new Secretary of State.

March 18, 1862 - Ambrose Burnside is promoted to Major General, U.S. Army.

March 18, 1862 - General Albert S. Johnston leads the Confederate advance guard into Corinth, Mississippi, arriving from Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

March 19, 1862 - Commodore Andrew H. Foote continues to utilize his gunboat squadron to assail Island #10 in the Mississippi River. Confederate resistance remains strong.

March 20, 1862 - In anticipation of operation against New Orleans, General Benjamin Butler is moved to command the Department of the Gulf Coast at Ship Island, Miss.

March 20, 1862 - General Ambrose Burnside moves a large force from their base at New Bern, North Carolina on the Neuse River to Washington, N.C. on Pamlico Sound.

March 20, 1862 - General Oliver O. Howard leads a small Federal reconnaissance force to Manassas Junction, Virginia.

March 20, 1862 - To strengthen the defense around Washington, D.C., Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks is ordered out of the Shenandoah Valley, moving his V Corps east.

March 21, 1862 - CSA Cavalry Commander Colonel Turner Ashby informs General Thomas J. Jackson of General Bank's move out of the Shenandoah. General Jackson moves toward Kerntown to try to lure the V Corps back to the valley. The Confederate fear is that Banks is moving in support of the Army of the Potomac moving on Richmond.

March 21, 1862 - A Union force at Cumberland Gap, Tennessee is engaged in a skirmish with General Edmund Kirby-Smith.

March 21, 1862 - The U.S. Army announces the promotions of Samuel R. Curtis, William S. Rosecrans, and Lew Wallace, now Major Generals.

March 22, 1862 - More promotions in the north; Don C. Buell, John Pope, and Franz Sigel are promoted to Major General.

March 22, 1862 - At New Orleans, General Mansfield Lovell, Commanding Confederate Officer reports his six steamers are prepared to defend the city. Inhabitants of New Orleans are dismayed by the movement of most Confederate naval assets upriver.

March 22, 1862 - Kerntown, western Virginia is the scene of skirmishing between CSA Cavalry Colonel Turner Ashby and Union forces under James Shield. Ashby reports to General Thomas J. Jackson that his strength is about equal to the Federals but Shield actually outnumbers him about two to one with many hidden in thick undergrowth.

March 22, 1862 - Confederate guerrillas under William C. Quantrill skirmish with the 2nd Kansas Cavalry near Independence, Missouri.

March 22, 1862 - The first English vessel built expressly for the Confederate Navy through the clandestine efforts of agent James D. Bulloch departs Liverpool for Nassau. The steamer is marked Oreto but will be renamed the CSS Florida and outfitted with four seven-inch guns prior to delivery.

March 23, 1862 - George W. Randolph is appointed Secretary of War by Confederate President Davis.

March 23, 1862 - To bypass Confederate defensive works on Island #10 on the Mississippi River, Union soldiers begin a 12-mile long, 50-foot wide canal. Union gunboats could then pass without direct contact with the enemy.

March 23, 1862 - The battle of Kerntown, Virginia (south of Winchester) takes place. General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson force marches his 4,500 man 41 miles in two days and attacks Gen. James Shield's 9000 Union troops. Jackson is initially successful and drives the Federal Troops back but the battle is a tactical defeat of the Confederate Army. The implications are more lasting. Union authorities believed Jackson would not have attacked unless he expected to be reinforced and Kerntown was just one step on Jackson's march to Washington. President Lincoln held McDowell's I Corps at Washington and two Divisions of Gen. Nathaniel Bank's forces at Harper Ferry. These forces are therefore not available to reinforce the Army of the Potomac moving in the Peninsula Campaign toward Richmond.

March 24, 1862 - General Jackson starts his highly successful Shenandoah Campaign.

March 24, 1862 - General Albert Sidney Johnston concentrates his Confederate forces at Corinth, Mississippi and General Ulysses S. Grant consolidates his forces at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, 20 miles north of Corinth.

March 24, 1862 - In Cincinnati, Ohio, radical abolitionist Wendell Phillips is pelted with eggs and stones due to the unpopularity of emancipation.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week -  March 25 - 31, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

March 25, 1862 - General Henry W. Halleck learns the Confederates are building a large ironclad (CSS Arkansas) at Memphis. He informs Commodore Andrew H. Foote. 



March 25, 1862 - A Confederate force in La Glorietta Pass near Santa Fe, New Mexico Territory is approached by troops led by Major John Chivington of the 1st Colorado Volunteers.

March 26, 1862 - In an early morning raid, the 1st Colorado Volunteer Infantry attacks Confederate forces commanded by Major Charles L. Pryor, capturing 30 members of the advanced guard. Texas troops suffer 16 dead, 30 wounded, and 79 missing. Federal losses are 19 killed, five wounded, and three missing in an all day battle.

March 26, 1862 - CSA General John H. Winder becomes commander of the Department of Henrico which includes Petersburg, Virginia. 



March 27, 1862 - General Joseph E. Johnston is ordered to Yorktown, Virginia to reinforce the Confederate Army of the Peninsula, commanded by Gen. John B. Magruder. 



March 27, 1862 - Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton announces plans to build several steam rams at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Cincinnati, Ohio. These new vessels are designed to counter the large ironclad under construction at Memphis. 



March 28, 1862 - Union Troops under command of General Oliver O. Howard occupy Shipping Point, Virginia and move to sever the Orange and Alexandria Railroad. 



March 28, 1862 - The strategic Cumberland Pass is occupied by Union General Washington Morgan's 7th Division. The pass connects Tennessee, Kentucky and western Virginia. 



March 28, 1862 - Near Glorietta Pass, New Mexico Territory, Union reinforcements arrive and attack the Confederate Texans at Apache Pass. Union troops are sent around the pass to close on the rear. The complete Southern baggage train with 90 wagons and 800 draft animals is discovered during this flanking movement and destroyed. General Henry H. Selby is forced back to Texas and this marks the end of Confederate activity in the New Mexico Territory.

March 28, 1862 - On the St. John's River in Florida, the Union locates and raises the racing yacht America that had been scuttled by southern sympathizers. The vessel becomes part of the U.S. Navy.

March 29, 1862 - General John C. Fremont takes command of the Mountain Department, replacing General William S. Rosecrans.

March 29, 1862 - General Albert Sidney Johnston and his Army of the Mississippi joins General Pierre G.T. Beauregard and his Army of Kentucky at Corinth, Mississippi. General Johnston commands with Beauregard as second in command. Division commanders are Generals Leonidas Polk, Braxton Bragg, William Hardee, and George Crittenden. 



March 31, 1862 - President Lincoln orders General McClellan to send another Division from the Army of the Potomac to defend Washington, D.C.



March 31, 1862 - Confederate General John P. McCown is relieved for his premature abandonment of New Madrid Bend and Island #10, Missouri on March 13. General William Mackall takes command. 


Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week -  April 1 - 7, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

April 1,1862 - General McClellan's Army of the Potomac is transferred from Alexandria, Virginia to Fortress Monroe, Virginia. 



April 1,1862 - Screened by cavalry under Colonel Ashby Turner, Confederate forces move up (south) the Shenandoah, led by General Thomas Jackson. 



April 1,1862 - Confederate reconnaissance of the Federal position at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee suggests that General Grant has split his force. 



April 1,1862 - The Federal gunboat USS St. Louis leads an expedition against Fort #1, located above Island #10 on the Mississippi. Fort #1 is captured and guns are spiked. The fleet withdraws, unmolested. 



April 2,1862 - Confederate spy Rose Greenhow is expelled from Washington, D.C.

April 2,1862 - General George McClellan and his staff arrive at Fortress Monroe and plan for the move north toward Yorktown, Virginia. 



April 2,1862 - The Army of the Ohio under Don C. Buell departs Nashville for Pittsburg Landing to join General U.S. Grant's forces. Confederate General Beauregard plans a complex wave attack, likely to cause mass confusion in battle. General Albert Sidney Johnston strikes preemptively to prevent the Federal forces from combining in overwhelming strength. 



April 3,1862 - Slavery is abolished in the District of Columbia, by order of the U.S.
Senate. 



April 3,1862 - Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, encouraged by events so far, orders all recruiting offices in the north closed.

April 3,1862 - President Lincoln, angered by General McClellan's failure to assign a larger defensive force around Washington D.C., calls for a full Army Corps to be assigned. 



April 3,1862 - President Lincoln orders offensive operations to begin against Richmond, Virginia. 



April 3,1862 - General McClellan completes final preparations for his massive Army of the Potomac to move into combat. His force numbers 112,000 men. 



April 3,1862 - General Albert S. Johnston leaves Corinth, Mississippi and marches toward Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee. The driving rain and poor marching conditions cause delays and General Johnston believes he has lost the element of surprise.

April 4,1862 - New Union Armies are organized as the Department of the Rappahannock (I Corps) under General Irvin McDowell and the Department of the Shenandoah (V corps) under General Nathaniel P. Banks. 



April 4,1862 - General McClellan gets his well-trained Army underway toward Yorktown. President Lincoln is encouraged that McClellan is finally moving. 



April 4,1862 - General Albert S. Johnston continues his weather impeded march toward Pittsburg Landing but the Union Army does not suspect any movement in the area. 



April 4,1862 - A Union Squadron with the USS J.P. Jackson, New London, and Hatteras lands 1,200 sailors and marines at Pass Christian, Mississippi. The CSS Pamlico and Oregon oppose the movement but then withdraw.

April 4,1862 - In rain and darkness, Commander Henry Walke on the USS Corondelet that is stacked with cordwood to protect its boilers, moves past the Confederate Batteries on Island #10. The Southerners are now cut off from reinforcements from downstream and Union General John Pope can safely move across the Mississippi River. 



April 5,1862 - The Army of the Potomac, with overwhelming forces, begins to move up the Peninsula toward Yorktown. Confederate General John B. Magruder with only 15,000 troops uses ruses such as "Quaker Guns" and march/counter march tactics to give the impression of greater numbers. General McClellan falls for these tactics and delays his movement for more than a month.

April 5,1862 - General Albert Sidney Johnston defies General Beauregard's suggestion of waiting for a larger force at Pittsburg Landing. General Johnston is credited with saying; "I would fight them if they were a million." Generals Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman remain unaware of the pending encounter. 



April 6,1862 - The Battle of Shiloh (Pittsburg Landing) takes place. General Grant is seven miles away at Savannah, Tennessee as the battle starts. General Sherman is on-site Commander. Some historical highlights include General Albert Sidney's death, the Hornets Nest, the Peach Orchard, General Lew Wallace and his 12,000 troops "forced marched"  from Crump's Landing seven miles away, the overnight arrival of General Don Buell's Army of the Ohio, and the heavy fire from the USS Tyler and USS Lexington on the Tennessee River. (Suggest you read the history of this significant battle for details.) 



April 6,1862 - The USS Carondelet moves down the Mississippi from New Madrid, spiked the Confederate shore battery at Tipton and generally controls the lower Mississippi. 


Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week -  April 7 - 14, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

April 7, 1862 - The struggle at Shiloh resumes as the reinforced Union pushes the Confederate forces back across the Union campsite of two nights ago. Losses in killed, wounded, and captured were a shock to both sides. The Confederate leaders were staking the entire West on the campaign at Shiloh and never regained strength in the area.

April 7, 1862 - Great Britain and the U.S. Government enter an agreement to aggressively suppress slave trade. 



April 7, 1862 - The Federal ironclads USS Pensacola and Mississippi enter the Mississippi River over the sandbars at the Passes.

April 7, 1862 - On the Mississippi River, the Federal gunboat USS Pittsburgh passes Island #10 and joins the USS Carondelet. Commodore Andrew Foote receives the thanks of Congress as his squadron can now cover General Pope's move to the Tennessee side of the river, where General Pope plans to invade Island #10. 



April 8, 1862 - As pro-Union demonstrations continue in east Tennessee, President Jefferson Davis declares Martial Law in that area. 



April 8, 1862 - The Confederate garrison on Island #10, commanded by General William W. Mackall is surrendered. In addition to 4,500 men, 109 heavy cannons, four steamers, and large quantities of military supplies are taken. The Union now controls the Mississippi as far south as Fort Pillow, Tennessee.

April 8, 1862 - General Pope receives the thanks of President Lincoln for the victory at Island #10 and is promoted to command the Army of Virginia in the East. 



April 8, 1862 - At Shiloh, General Sherman pursues the Confederate forces but the Confederate rear guard commanded by General Nathan B. Forrest stops the Union force. 



April 8, 1862 - More Federal ships cross the sandbars at the Passes and join the vessels earlier assembled. Commodore David G. Farragut has 24 warships with 200 large caliber guns plus 19 mortar schooners under Commander David D. Porter in his fleet. Next points of resistance on the way to New Orleans are Forts Jackson and St. Philip. New Orleans is some 80 miles away. 



April 9, 1862 - President Lincoln, agitated by General McClellan's continuing lack of movement, meets with his cabinet. The President then suggests several lines of attack. He tells General McClellan that his lack of movement "is but the story of Manassas repeated" and closes his telegraph message to McClellan saying, "But you must act."



April 10, 1862 - A joint congressional resolution to gradually emancipate black slaves is signed by President Lincoln. This move is primarily to keep Border States neutral and offers aid to the states for voluntary compliance. 



April 10, 1862 - General Joseph E. Johnston is appointed to lead the Confederate forces in the Peninsula District of Virginia. Johnston has 34,000 troops and believes that he is facing an estimated 100,000 northern army. 



April 10, 1862 - At Savannah, Georgia, Fort Pulaski on Cockspur Island is surrounded by Union artillery placements. A command to surrender the fort is answered with "I am here to defend this fort, not to surrender it," from Colonel Charles Olmstead. Captain Quincy A. Gilmore begins shelling at 8:15 A.M. and reduces the fort throughout the day. 



April 11, 1862 - The U.S. House of Representatives vote 93-39 to include the District of Columbia in the gradual abolishment of slavery. 



April 11, 1862 - A detachment from the USS Wabash joins General David Hunter, overall commander of the operation against Fort Pulaski, in the capture of the fort. This removes a major port used by the southern blockading force. 



April 11, 1862 - General Henry W. Halleck removes General Grant from overall command at Pittsburg Landing. General Grant retains command of the District of West Tennessee and General George H. Thomas assumes command of the Army of the Tennessee. 



April 11, 1862 - The repaired CSS Virginia ironclad returns to Hampton Roads and fails to bring on a second dual with the USS Monitor. 



April 12, 1862 - Confederate troop strength in the Peninsula grows with the addition of three divisions. General John B. Magruder's forces at Yorktown, now under General Johnston's overall command, are estimated to be about half as large as the Army of the Potomac. 



April 12, 1862 - The Confederate locomotive "General" and three freight cars are stolen from the water/wood supply stop at Big Shanty, Georgia by Major James J. Andrews and 22 Union volunteers. The "General" steams north toward Chattanooga, Tennessee, and the Union crew destroys track and bridges along the route. They have little success due to rain and the Confederate chase. After 90 miles, out of steam, the "General" is abandoned. Andrews and his men flee to the woods but only eight escaped. Andrews and seven others are executed as spies and the rest are eventually exchanged. This episode became known as the "Great Locomotive Chase." 



April 12, 1862 - Navy Secretary Gideon Wells urges President Lincoln to forbid export of anthracite coal. The blockade running ships of the Confederacy captured some of the outbound coal and used this nearly clean-burning fuel to power their ship, thereby being harder to detect than smoke belching steamers. 



April 13, 1862 - At Fort Pulaski in Savannah harbor, General David Hunter declares the area free of slavery and begins to free all slaves in the area of his control. 



April 13, 1862 - A coastal party begins to map the approaches to Forts Jackson and St. Philip below New Orleans. 



April 13, 1862 - Federal gunboats USS Tyler and Lexington transfer Union troops from Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee to Chickasaw, Alabama where a bridge of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad is destroyed.

April 14, 1862 - A joint attack by the Union army and navy captures Newbern, North Carolina. The area remains under Union control the rest of the war. 



April 14, 1862 - Commodore Foote begins bombarding Fort Pillow, Tennessee on the Mississippi River. This fort is 60 miles south of Island #10 and north of Memphis. 



April 14, 1862 - General Joseph E. Johnston meets with Confederate superiors at a high-level meeting in Richmond. General Johnston pleads for abandonment of the Peninsula position at Yorktown due to the presence of a newly estimated 112,000 Union troops. President Davis and advisor General Robert E. Lee turn down the request since abandonment of Yorktown would also cost the loss of Norfolk and its naval facility.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week -  April 15 - 21, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

April 15, 1862 - In Richmond, President Jefferson Davis orders General Joseph E. Johnston to move his army to Yorktown on the Virginia Peninsula and reinforce General Magruder. Johnston is disgruntled but prepares to march south (see the final entry last week- April 14,1862).

April 16, 1862 - A bill outlawing slave ownership in the District of Columbia is signed by President Lincoln. Compensation for slaves freed is $300.00 per slave. Slaves escaping from owners loyal to the Union are still to be returned to the owner under the Fugitive Slave Law.

April 16, 1862 - President Davis reacts to the approach of the Union Army close to Richmond by calling for a three-year conscription of all men age 18-35 into the Confederate Army. This is the first conscription legislation in U.S. history.

April 16, 1862 - Union General William F. Smith probes the Confederate position at Dam #1 on the Warwick River southwest of Yorktown on the Virginia Peninsula then attacks Burnt Chimneys and is repelled. General McClellan decides to erect siege works along the Warwick River defensive line.

April 16, 1862 - Seventeen ships of the Western Blockading Force (Commodore Farragut) are positioned below Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip, Louisiana on the Mississippi River south of New Orleans. The water is running high and Farragut's fleet passes over the defensive blocks placed in the river by the Confederates. The two forts mount over 90 cannons and have the "Mosquito Squadron" of small warships commanded by Captain George Hollis ready to help defend the positions.

April 17, 1862 - Fredericksburg and Falmouth, Virginia are occupied by Union troops commanded by General Irvin McDowell.

April 17, 1862 - Newly arrived reinforcements join General Joseph E. Johnston's army. The total force is now about 53,000, half the size of the Union force at Yorktown on the Warwick River line.

April 17, 1862 - Union General Nathaniel Banks' troops occupy Mount Jackson in western Virginia. General Thomas J. Jackson is forced to continue withdrawing before them.

April 18, 1862 - Commodore Farragut directs Commander David D. Porter to reduce Forts Jackson and St. Philips. Twenty mortar barges are assigned to bombard the positions using 200-pound mortar shells. The bombardment continues over the next five days.

April 19, 1862 - Artillery fire from Fort Jackson sinks the Federal mortar barge USS Marie J. Carlton.

April 19, 1862 - Federal forces remove chain obstructions across the Mississippi River at Forts Jackson and St. Philip, and the Union fleet slowly begins to move north toward New Orleans.

April 20, 1862 - General Irvin McDowell confers with President Lincoln at Aquia Creek, Virginia and accompanies the president back to Washington, D.C.

April 20, 1862 - General Edward Johnson moves his Confederate units eastward from Shenandoah Mountain in western Virginia under pressure from a larger Union force under General John C. Fremont.

April 21, 1862 - In Richmond, the Confederate Congress creates the first guerrilla forces by passing the Partisan Ranger Act. They then promptly adjourn as the Union Army moves even closer to Richmond.

April 21, 1862 - In east Tennessee, the Brownlow family and other northern sympathizers are evicted from the area.

April 21, 1862 - With Island #10 securely in Union hands, General John Pope moves his forces to the Tennessee side of the Mississippi River.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week -  April 22 - 28, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

April 22, 1862 - Herman Haupt, an engineer/inventor/railroad expert, is appointed by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton to serve as chief of construction and transportation for the U.S. Military. Transportation and traffic movement became much more efficient in the north.

April 22, 1862 - Union forces continue to occupy the Shenandoah Valley, now moving into Harrisonburg, Virginia.

April 22, 1862 - The division commanded by General William B. Franklin arrives at Fortress Monroe, Virginia to reinforce the Army of the Potomac.

April 22, 1862 - General Nathaniel P. Banks occupies Luray in western Virginia.

April 23, 1862 - Near Elizabeth, North Carolina, the U.S. Navy sinks a schooner at the mouth of the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal. Another useful waterway is closed to the South.

April 23, 1862 - Impatient with the progress of the mortar bombardment of Forts Jackson and St. Philip below New Orleans, Commodore David Farragut decides to run his entire fleet past the fortifications at night.

April 24, 1862 - The CSS Nashville successfully runs the Union Blockade at Wilmington, North Carolina and delivers 60,000 stands of arms and 40 tons of gunpowder.

April 24, 1862 - Commodore Farragut runs his fleet of 17 vessels past the last defensive position on the southern Mississippi below New Orleans. Commodore Farragut's Flagship, the USS Hartford, is damaged but continues while one vessel is sunk. Commander John K. Mitchell of the Southern squadron loses seven steamers and gunboats, but the biggest loss is the CSS Manassas, an ironclad ram that is run ashore and burned. The fate of New Orleans is decided.

April 25, 1862 - George H. Thomas is promoted to Major General, U.S. Army.

April 25, 1862 - Fort Macon on Bogue Banks Island off Beaufort, North Carolina is bombarded by Union cannon fire. Confederate troops feebly return fire using their old cannons and quickly surrender. General John G. Parke of General Ambrose E. Burnsides' Army accepts the surrender of Colonel Moses J. White along with about 300 captives.

April 25, 1862 - Commodore Farragut captures the city of New Orleans. Locals burn about 35,000 bales of cotton and resist the assault but the fighting is brief due to the water running high allowing Union gunners to point their guns over the levees.

April 25, 1862 - About 4,000 Confederate troops and their commander, General Mansfield Lovell, escape New Orleans, heading inland.

April 25, 1862 - The still under construction ironclad CSS Mississippi is destroyed by Confederate authorities in New Orleans to prevent its capture.

April 26, 1862 - Union forces occupy New Market, Virginia.

April 26, 1862 - The Union Navy captures four important Confederate vessels off the South Carolina coast. The USS Onward captures the schooner Chase off Raccoon Key; the USS Flambeau captures the blockade-runner Active off Stono Inlet; the USS Santiago De Cuba captures the Mersey off Charleston; and the USS Uncas captures the schooner Belle off Charleston.

April 27, 1862 - General Benjamin Huger evacuates Norfolk on orders from General Joseph E. Johnston. The vessels and equipment in the Gosport Naval Yard are to be salvaged or destroyed by the departing workers.

April 27, 1862 - U.S. Naval forces accept the surrender of Fort Livingston on Bastian Bay, Louisiana and the crew of the USS Kittatinny hoists the Stars and Stripes. The same afternoon, Fort Pike, Fort Quitman, and Fort Wood also capitulate.

April 28, 1862 - Confederate General John K. Duncan stated that he needed authority from New Orleans to surrender Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip. Commander Porter resumed the shelling of the forts believing the ammunition was running out at both strongholds.  The situation suddenly changed when General Duncan's 900 troops, many new immigrants to the area, mutiny and then surrender.  They were quickly paroled.

April 28, 1862 - The CSS Louisiana, Defiance, and McRae, unfinished ironclads, are burned to prevent capture at New Orleans. The British steamer Oreto arrives at Nassau, Bahamas. It later emerged as the CSS Florida.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week -  April 29 - May 5, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

April 29, 1862 - Timothy Webster, an employee of the Pinkerton Federal Secret Service, is hanged by Confederate authorities in Richmond. Webster was an important spy for the north.

April 29, 1862 - CSA General Joseph E. Johnston defends his decision to sacrifice Norfolk and Gosport Navy facilities as a better choice than to lose them and his entire Confederate Army as well. The siege artillery and Union force build-up along the Warwick River near Yorktown, Virginia causes him to inform his superior that he will be moving his army inland as soon as practical. Norfolk was abandoned on April 22, 1862.

April 29, 1862 - New Orleans officials formally surrender the city to Federal authorities. The crew from the USS Pensacola raised the U. S. flag over the
U. S. Customs House on orders from Commodore Farragut. This caused indignation from city inhabitants.

April 29, 1862 - General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson moves his forces from Staunton, Virginia to Port Republic, Virginia and sends Colonel Turner Ashby and his cavalry toward Harrisonburg, recently occupied by Union forces.

April 29, 1862 - General Henry Halleck directs General Grant to move from Pittsburg Landing toward General Beauregard's position at Corinth, Mississippi. Halleck became overall commander of the Army of the Mississippi on March 11,1862 and is now located at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee with about 100,000 troops in his combined army.

April 30, 1862 - General Thomas J. Jackson forces a 92-mile march plus 25 miles by rail in under four days and in heavy rain. They were moving toward Staunton, Virginia where Jackson intends to confront General John C. Fremont's 20,000-man army. For the rest of the Civil War, Johnston's troops refer to themselves as "Foot Cavalry."

April 30, 1862 - General Halleck completes the reorganization of his Armies of the Mississippi. General Grant is second in command, George H. Thomas (Army of the Tennessee) has the right wing, John Pope (Army of the Mississippi) left wing, John McClernand reserve wing, and Don C. Buell (Army of the Ohio) makes up the largest army ever assembled in North America. The 120,000-man army moves toward Corinth where General Beauregard has 53,000 Confederate troops.
May 1, 1862 - William Tecumseh Sherman is promoted to major general, U.S. Army.

May 1, 1862 - General Benjamin Butler and 15,000 Federal Troops enter New Orleans. Butler's dictatorial rule created wide spread ill feeling toward the north.

May 2, 1862 - General George McClellan continues to build siege artillery positions along the Warwick River line, now with more than 100 heavy guns and mortars. McClellan's opposition is largely an illusionary force including "Quaker Cannons" and continuous counter marching.

May 3, 1862 - General Joseph E. Johnston begins the withdrawal of his 55,000-man force from the Yorktown-Warwick River line. The southern troops fire some distracting cannon fire but General McClellan is astonished that the Confederate Army could vanish. The Confederates retreat through Williamsburg toward Richmond while the Union begins to move up the Yorktown Peninsula.

May 4, 1862 - Cavalry skirmishing takes place around old Williamsburg involving General J.E.B. Stuart and General George Steadman. The Confederates take the day when General Lafayette McLaws overruns Union troops under General Philip St. George Cook.

May 5, 1862 - President Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton board the steamer Miami to sail to Hampton Roads. They are on a mission to prod General McClellan to greater action.

May 5, 1862 - The largest battle to ever take place in Williamsburg, Virginia is indecisive with heavy causalities on both sides. The Confederate troops continue to withdraw toward Richmond and the Union troops occupy Williamsburg.

May 5, 1862 - Congress authorizes the creation of the Department of Agriculture.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - May 6 - 12, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President 

Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

Special Note... May 5, 1862... The day now celebrated as Cinco de Mayo in Mexico had little to do with the American Civil War. However, on this date in 1862 (150 years ago today) the French were defeated by the Mexican Militia led by Beneto Juarez and especially by the fork and shovel armed Mexican farmers. That victory for Mexico is the reason for the celebration on this date. Juarez asked for help from the United States but the Civil War prevented any aid. The French eventually defeated the Mexicans and installed Maximilian as the Emperor two years later.  

May 6, 1862 - At Harrisonburg, Virginia, General Thomas J. Jackson's Southern force defeats General Nathaniel P. Banks' Union troops with minor losses on both sides. General Jackson marches his skirmishers 35 miles through the mountains toward McDowell while General Banks moves his confused group to New Market, Virginia.

May 6, 1862 - Williamsburg continues to be the encampment of a large number of General McClellan's Union troops.

May 7, 1862 - On the road from Yorktown toward Richmond, both northern and southern troops continue to harass each other. At Eltham's Landing, Virginia, General William B. Franklin lands part of his division of Union forces to attack the flank of the Confederate Troops moving north. General Gustavus W. Smith, in charge of moving the Confederate baggage train, is aware of the danger and orders General John B. Hood's Texas Brigade to push the Union troops back toward the river. The move works until the guns from the river transports cause Hood to stop the pursuit. The wagon train moves on without damage and the Union force does not follow.

May 7, 1862 - President Lincoln inspects the USS Monitor near Fortress Monroe.

May 7, 1862 - General Jackson continues to push his 10,000 footsore soldiers toward McDowell in Western Virginia. As Jackson's forces prepare to engage General Robert H. Milroy's Federal Forces, General Robert C. Schenk's brigade arrives, bringing the Union Force up to about 6,000.

May 8, 1862 - Union forces occupy Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

May 8, 1862 - Generals Milroy and Jackson engage at McDowell in a relatively major battle. After a stiff fight lasting over four hours, Union General Milroy retreats with Confederate Cavalry Colonel Turner Ashby in pursuit. This is the first battle of Jackson's Valley Campaign and Jackson's losses are about twice the north's loss. General Edward Johnston is severely wounded in this battle and requires a lengthy convalescence.

May 8, 1862 - At Sewell's Point, Virginia, the USS Monitor, Dacotah, Seminole, Susquehanna, and Naugatuck bombard Confederate batteries. This encounter is under the direction of President Lincoln who also orders the USS Galena up the James River to support General McClellan.

May 8, 1862 - A landing party from the USS Iroquois strengthens the hold on Baton Rouge and seizes the local arsenal.

May 9, 1862 - President Lincoln uses diplomatic terms to again admonish General McClellan for his slow move toward Richmond.

May 9, 1862 - Confederate forces complete the evacuation of Norfolk, leaving behind vast quantities of supplies.

May 9, 1862 - General David Hunter, commanding the Department of the South (Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina) declares all slaves emancipated and plans to arm and use them in the military.

May 9, 1862 - As General Halleck moves slowly toward Corinth, Mississippi, General P.G.T. Beauregard begins to send skirmishers to further delay the Northern Army.

May 9, 1862 - Confederate forces abandon Pensacola, Florida navy yard and destroy the unfinished ironclad CSS Fulton.

May 9, 1862 - Captain Charles H. Davis relieves Commodore Andrew Foote. Commodore Foote was injured at the capture of Fort Donelson and is finally replaced.

May 10, 1862 - Gosport Navy Yard at Norfolk is occupied by Union Troops under General John Wool. This occupation was directed by President Lincoln from his offshore vessel.

May 10, 1862 - Hearing of the fall of New Orleans, the Confederates evacuate the city of Pensacola, Florida. Union troops move into the town and promptly reclaim the base and navy yard. This is quickly turned into a Union Blockading Force supply depot.

May 10, 1862 - The USS New Ironsides is launched at Philadelphia.

May 10, 1862 - In a rare squadron action in the Civil War the Confederate River Defense Fleet with eight converted steam rams moves into the Mississippi River just north of Fort Pillow. The seven Union ironclads under Captain Charles H. Davis outgun the southern force but are not as maneuverable in cramped water. The lightly armed but cotton bale-protected vessels of Captain James Montgomery give the ironclads a rough time, sinking two. The USS Carondelet, heavily clad and outfitted with rifled cannon, drives Montgomery back to Fort Pillow. Captain Davis asks for new speedy Ellet rams.

May 11, 1862 - The CSS Virginia, saved by the Confederate Navy when Gosport Navy Base was abandoned, is now scuttled because it draws too much water to hide up the James River. The Northern Blockading Fleet can now operate all the way to Drewry's Bluff, below Richmond on the James River.

May 12, 1862 - President Lincoln declares the Ports of Beaufort, North Carolina; Port Royal, South Carolina; and New Orleans open for trade. The president hopes commercial activity in the ports will strengthen political bonds between South and North.

May 12, 1862 - General McClellan moves to White House, Virginia, just 22 miles from Richmond.

May 12, 1862 - The crew of the CSS Virginia is assigned to man an artillery battery near Drewry's Bluff which rises about 100 feet above the river just seven miles down river from Richmond. General George C. W. Lee, engineering officer and eldest son of Robert E. Lee, supervises the installation of redoubts and other blocks in the river.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - May 13 - 19, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President 

Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

May 13, 1862 - Harbor Pilot Robert Smalls and seven other slaves seize the steamship Planter in Charleston Harbor and turn it over to the Union Blockade Squadron.

May 13, 1862 - President Jefferson Davis sends his wife Varina out of Richmond as the Army of the Potomac continues to move slowly toward the Southern capital, causing panic.

May 13, 1862 - Confederate General Thomas J. Jackson withdraws through the Shenandoah Valley. Union General John C. Fremont re-occupies Franklin in western Virginia.

May 14, 1862 - Union forces stop at White House on the Pamunkey River about 20 miles from Richmond after skirmishes at Gaines' Cross Roads. General McClellan has numerical superiority but elects to wait for General Irvin McDowell to arrive with his reinforcements.

May 15, 1862 - General Joseph E. Johnston withdraws his Confederate forces along the Chickahominy River and now stands within three miles of Richmond.

May 15, 1862 - Rude behavior toward Union occupiers by ladies of New Orleans angers General Benjamin F. Butler. He issued his now infamous General Order No.28, the "Women Order."  It stipulates that any women showing disrespect toward a Union soldier will be arrested and treated as a prostitute. The southern population responded with outrage, including threat of hanging if Butler is apprehended. Benjamin Butler was called "Beast Butler" the remainder of his career.

May 15, 1862 - General John C. Fremont moves on Princeton and Ravenswood in western Virginia.

May 15, 1862 - At Liverpool, England, the armed vessel named "290" is launched. This became the infamous CSS Alabama.

May 15, 1862 - Commodore John Rodgers moves the ironclads USS Monitor, Galena, and Naugatuck plus three wooden warships up the James River. At Drewry's Bluff, Confederate artillery gives battle and has the advantage of plunging fire from the heights while the US fleet can barely elevate their guns enough to return fire. The USS Galena is struck 40 times with serious damage. The USS Naugatuck suffers damage when a 100-pound Parrot gun explodes while firing. The fleet limps back to Norfolk.

May 15, 1862 - Corporal John B. Mackie is recognized for heroism under fire at the Drewry's Bluff battle. He is the first U.S. Marine Corp member eligible for the Medal of Honor.

May 16, 1862 - The mansion located at White House, Virginia on the Pamunkey River and formerly owned by General Robert E. Lee becomes General McClellan's headquarters
May 16, 1862 - General Butler orders two New Orleans newspapers (the Bee and the Delta) to close.

May 17, 1862 - General McDowell's I Corps is ordered south to join McClellan's Army near Richmond. McDowell has occupied Fredericksburg, Virginia since April 17th.

May 17, 1862 - General Jacob D. Cox leads Union Troops across the Flat Top Mountains of western Virginia in an effort to sever the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad near Princeton. Confederate General Humphrey Marshall attacks the Union troops at Princeton and saves the rail line.

May 17, 1862 - General Henry W. Halleck continues his slow move toward Corinth, Mississippi.

May 18, 1862 - Commander Stephen P. Lee demands the surrender of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Confederate General Martin Smith refuses. The fall of Vicksburg is more than a year away.

May 19, 1862 - President Lincoln countermands the "emancipation order" of General David Hunter that affected the Dept. of the South, (South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida). General Hunter issued the order on April 13th.

May 19, 1862 - Confederate troops led by General Thomas J. Jackson begin their move toward New Market, Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley.

May 19, 1862 - Union gunboats and troop carriers move south on the Mississippi River to attack Fort Pillow, near Memphis, Tennessee.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - May 20 - 26, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President 

Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

May 20, 1862 - President Lincoln signs the Homestead Act providing western land to settlers who have never borne arms against the Union or aided its enemies. This act insured each settler would receive 160 acres of land if they remain sedentary for five years and work their plot. It greatly hastened western settlement.

May 20, 1862 - General George B. McClellan halts eight miles from Richmond and divides his Army of the Potomac along both sides of the Chickahominy River where they wait for General Irvin McDowell and his army moving from Washington, D.C.

May 20, 1862 - General Thomas Jackson joins General Richard Ewell in the Luray Valley of western Virginia. The combined force now numbers 17,000. General "Stonewall" Jackson plans to pressure General Nathaniel Banks' forces in the valley to prevent them from moving to Richmond to aid McClellan.

May 20, 1862 - The Federal gunboat Oneida begins shelling the town of Vicksburg, Mississippi.

May 21, 1862 - General McClellan calls for reinforcements, ignoring his vast numerical superiority over General Joseph Johnston's Confederate force in Richmond. The Army of the Potomac is eight miles from Richmond and waits for General Irvin McDowell to join them.

May 21, 1862 - General Thomas J. Jackson moves north in the Luray Valley and approaches Front Royal, Virginia. His movement is masked by cavalry commanded by General Ashby Turner.

May 22, 1862 - The 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry (Rush's Lancers) reconnoiters the area around New Castle and Hanovertown, Virginia as a northern approach to Richmond.

May 22, 1862 - Union General Halleck continues his leisurely approach to Corinth, Mississippi. He has been moving south from Tennessee since the Battle of Shiloh on April 6th.

May 23, 1862 - Ashby Turner is promoted to brigadier general, CSA.

May 23, 1862 - President Lincoln travels to Fredericksburg, Virginia to confer with General McDowell. The president has McDowell delay his march toward Richmond.

May 23, 1862 - General Jackson and his 17,000 man army moves on the Union outpost of Front Royal and easily defeats the surprised force of 1,000 men commanded by Colonel John R. Kenly. Confederate spy Belle Boyd aids the Confederates by providing Union troop positions within the town. Colonel Kenly moves only three miles toward Cedarville before 904 of his 1,000 man force is taken captive.

May 23, 1862 - Both Confederate General Jackson and Union General Nathaniel Banks continue the race north to Winchester, Virginia.

May 24, 1862 - The defeat at Front Royal shakes the Union and President Lincoln directs General John C. Fremont to advance to the Shenandoah Valley and confront Confederate forces wherever he finds them. The president also informs General McClellan that reinforcements are not available to join his already large army.

May 24, 1862 - General Thomas Jackson tries to engage General Banks at Newtown, Virginia but catches up only to the rear guard of Banks' Army. Prisoners and a few wagons are captured but Bank's main force moves on toward Winchester. General Jackson's success causes more Union panic and President Lincoln orders General McDowell to move north in the Shenandoah Valley to cut off any Confederate escape routes.

May 25, 1862 - The battle now identified as the First Battle of Winchester takes place. This was a Sunday and the religious General Jackson disregards his habit of honoring the Sabbath and attacks. The Union line buckles and then breaks with a stampede of troops falling all the way back to the Potomac River in Maryland, some 35 miles north and completely out of the Shenandoah Valley. General Jackson is 50 miles from Washington with virtually no Union force in place to stop him. General Jackson is successful in distracting at least 40,000 Union Troops that could otherwise have joined the Army of the Potomac at the door of Richmond.

May 25, 1862 - General P.G.T. Beauregard abandons Corinth, Mississippi with his 50,000 men as General Halleck's much larger army continues to move closer.

May 25, 1862 - Colonel Charles Ellet moves seven steam power rams to join the Union flotilla of gunboats outside of Fort Pillow. Commodore Charles H. Davis is in command.

May 25, 1862 - President Lincoln telegraphs a message to General McClellan that contained this quote: "You must either attack Richmond or give up the job, and come back to the defense of Washington."

May 26, 1862 - Defeated General Nathaniel Banks enters Williamsport, Maryland. General Jackson occupies Winchester, Virginia and Union Generals Fremont and McDowell maneuver to cut the expected Confederate retreat south.

May 26, 1862 - Lt. Isaac Brown is ordered to command the still unfinished armored ram CSS Arkansas at Yazoo City, Mississippi. Union forces continue to study alternate approaches to Vicksburg.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - May 27 - June 2, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President 

Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

May 27, 1862 - Union forces under General Nathaniel Banks continue to cross the Potomac River to safety. General Thomas Jackson attacks their rearguard at Loudoun Height, western Virginia and threatens Harper's Ferry.

May 27, 1862 - A skirmish with a significant casualty count takes place at Hanover Court House, Virginia when General McClellan moves reinforcing troops to his right flank and they encounter the 28th North Carolina. Hanover Court House is on the north side of the Chickahominy River and only eight miles from Richmond.

May 28, 1862 - Confederate President Davis states, "We are steadily developing for a great battle, and under God's favor I trust for a decisive victory," as he expresses disappointment that General Joseph Johnston has not begun an offensive against the large Army of the Potomac at Richmond.

May 28, 1862 - The daily rum ration for Navy personnel is discussed as Secretary of the Navy Gustavus V. Fox asks for legislation to abolish the old practice.

May 29, 1862 - General J.E.B. Stuart and his cavalry arrive in Richmond and report to General Johnston that General McDowell's I Corps has been defeated at Fredericksburg. The armies of Generals McDowell, Fremont, and Banks have been effectively occupied which kept them from joining General McClellan's Army in front of Richmond.

May 29, 1862 - Nearly 50,000 troops of the Union army gather near Harper's Ferry in an attempt to cut off General Jackson's move from Front Royal. General "Stonewall" Jackson makes one of his rapid foot marches and quickly transits to Winchester and out of immediate danger.

May 29, 1862 - General P.G.T. Beauregard, facing superior manpower in General Halleck's Union force, abandons Corinth, Mississippi and withdraws toward Tupelo. The Confederate move was covered by singing, shouting, and other noise associated with the arrival of reinforcing forces when in fact the Confederate forces were leaving.

May 30, 1862 - General Joseph E. Johnston makes a close reconnaissance of Union troops on both sides of the rain-swollen Chickahominy River. He discovers the south bank is occupied by only 34,000 men of Generals Samuel Heintzelman and Erasmus Keyes, and they are unsupported. Johnston orders an attack by Generals James Longstreet, Daniel Hill, and Benjamin Huger, but the commands are all verbal and direct the young army to make complicated marches on three different roads.

May 30, 1862 - General Thomas J. Jackson stays ahead of the three converging Union Armies by moving from Winchester, Virginia, leaving a rearguard commanded by General Ashby Turner. The 1st Rhode Island Cavalry recaptures Front Royal along with over 150 Confederate troops and spy Belle Boyd.


May 30, 1862 - General Halleck follows the withdrawal of General Beauregard's army and captures about 2000 stragglers as they evacuate Corinth, Mississippi.

May 31, 1862 - The Southern Army at Richmond runs into several problems with the attack on the south side of the Chickamominy River. With sections of the Confederates on the wrong roads, troops becoming intermingled, and a slow march, the battles of Seven Pines and Fair Oaks begin about mid-afternoon and are inconclusive at 6:00 PM.

May 31, 1862 - A secondary attack by Confederate General W. H. Whiting's forces at Fair Oaks falters in the evening and General Johnston rides in to assume personal command. General Johnston is hit in the shoulder by a musket ball. General Gustavus Smith assumes command and the attack dissolves.

May 31, 1862 - General Thomas Jackson avoids the converging Union Armies and moves from Winchester to Strasburg, Virginia.

June 1, 1862 - Confederate forces at Seven Pines resume the offensive against the Army of the Potomac. General Robert E. Lee arrives from Richmond to succeed General Smith and orders the battle stopped at 1:00 PM. A major event of the war takes place when Robert E. Lee leaves the Confederate Capitol as advisor to President Davis and becomes a field General.

June 1, 1862 - A skirmish between General Jackson's Confederates and General Irvin McDowell's Union troops takes place at Mount Carmel, western Virginia.

June 2, 1862 - General Ashby Turner's cavalry is overrun at Woodstock, western Virginia by Union Cavalry commanded by General George Bayard.

June 2, 1862 - Union forces under General John Pope leave General Halleck's main force to follow General Beauregard's retreat to Rienzi, Mississippi.

June 2, 1862 - Mrs. Rose O'Neil Greenhow, who continued to spy for the Confederate cause while under house arrest in Washington, D.C., is banished to the South.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - June 3 - 9, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President 

Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

June 3, 1862 - Colonel George F. Shepley becomes military governor of Louisiana.

June 3, 1862 - Following the fall of Corinth, Mississippi to the Union, the Confederates abandon Fort Pillow, Tennessee, located below Island #10 on the Mississippi.

June 3, 1862 - Confederate forces no longer defend Memphis, Tennessee once Fort Pillow is abandoned. Only a weak Confederate Naval squadron protects Memphis.

June 4, 1862 - Southern farmers along the Yazoo River burn acres of growing cotton to keep the valuable crop from Union control.

June 4, 1862 - Following a brief skirmish at Big Bend, western Virginia, General Thomas J. Jackson moves his Army southward into the Shenandoah Valley.

June 4, 1862 - Commodore Charles H. Davis bypasses Fort Pillow with his gunboat flotilla.

June 4, 1862 - General Ormsby M. Mitchel skirmishes near Huntsville, Alabama and begins to threaten Chattanooga, Tennessee.

June 5, 1862 - President Lincoln appoints diplomats to Liberia and Haiti after the United States formally recognizes these largely black nations. Lincoln briefly considered moving former slaves to these locations to establish colonies of freed slaves.

June 5, 1862 - General McClellan's move toward Richmond is delayed once again, this time by inclement weather.

June 5, 1862 - General Robert E. Lee acquaints himself with the Confederate Army, his new command and readies his force for a counter strike when the Union Army moves.

June 5, 1862 - With no further threat from the Confederates at Fort Pillow, Tennessee, four gunboats and five rams under Commodore Charles H. Davis and Colonel Charles Ellet steam downriver to capture Memphis.

June 6, 1862 - Anchored off Island #45 just two miles north of Memphis, the Union ironclads USS Benton, Louisville, Carondelet, Cairo, and St. Louis plus Colonel Ellet's fleet of rams head for the city. Captain James E. Montgomery moves his steam rams, the CSS General Beauregard, General Bragg, General Price, General Van Dorn, General Thompson, Colonel Lovell, Sumter, and Little Rebel to oppose. All Confederate ships except the Van Dorn are rammed. Confederate loss also includes 100 killed and a similar number captured. The Union ran one of their vessels aground to keep it from sinking and suffered one casualty. Colonel Ellet was shot through the knee and died two weeks later with infection.

June 6, 1862 - Commodore Davis demands the surrender of Memphis, which occurs immediately. Memphis becomes a staging area for assaults on Vicksburg.

June 6, 1862 - Confederate cavalry General Ashby Turner is killed leading rearguard activity near Harrisonburg, western Virginia. General Jackson moves to Port Royal, western Virginia, and marches 100 miles in five days.

June 7, 1862 - At New Orleans, General Benjamin Butler adds to his legacy of being a brute and to his nickname Beast Butler by ordering William B. Mumford hanged for removing and destroying the Union flag raised over the New Orleans Mint when the city was captured back on April 25th.

June 7/8, 1862 - Union artillery attacks on Chattanooga accomplish nothing.

June 8, 1862 - General Jackson's Army of the Valley remains in Port Royal. A surprise Union raid captures three of his staff officers. The Union loses four cannons.

June 8, 1862 - Just seven miles from Port Royal at Cross Keyes, western Virginia, Union General Fremont and Confederate General Ewell's forces skirmish. General Fremont's actions were judged timid on this day.

June 9, 1862 - At Port Republic, Virginia, the Stonewall brigade has its last encounter of the Valley Campaign. Little is accomplished by either side. Jackson's battlefield leadership is brought into question due to his order to burn all bridges, taking away any chance to defeat the Union forces. General Fremont could only shell from across the river due to the bridges being burned, but he was late arriving and did not assist General Tyler in countering the initial attack by Jackson's troops.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - June 3 - 9, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President 

Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

June 10, 1862 - General Henry Halleck restores General U.S. Grant, Don C. Buell, and John Pope to command of their respective corps. General Grant is the theater commander and immediately quickens the pace after the slow moving Halleck makes this change.

June 11, 1862 - Lord Palmerston, British Prime Minister, sends a message to U.S. minister Charles F. Adams protesting the actions of General Benjamin Butler in New Orleans.

June 11, 1862 - General John C. Fremont moves his forces from Port Republic back to Mount Jackson in western Virginia.

June 11, 1862 - Confederate guerrillas are unsuccessful in an attack on a Federal mail escort at Pink Hill, Missouri. William Quantrill is the leader of the raid.

June 11, 1862 - General Henry W. Benham, temporarily in charge of the Department of the South, is ordered to refrain from any engagement of the enemy by his commander, General David Hunter.

June 12, 1862 - General George A. McCall's division joins the Army of the Potomac, further strengthening this already overwhelming force.

June 12, 1862 - At 2:00 AM, General J.E.B. Stuart suddenly ordered his 1200 troops to be ready to ride in 10 minutes. They leave Richmond and over the next three days complete a circuit around General McClellan's Army.

June 12, 1862 - General Robert E. Lee dispatches a sizeable force toward the Shenandoah Valley. It turns out to be an attempt to confuse the Federal Army leaders into thinking a major offensive push was planned for the valley.

June 13, 1862 - General J.E.B. Stuart is past the right flank of the Union army and decides to continue. In a minor skirmish with the 5th U.S. Cavalry, Captain William Latane of the 9th Virginia Cavalry is killed, the only casualty suffered by Stuart's forces on the entire ride.

June 14, 1862 - As J.E.B. Stuart closes in on the end of his ride around the Union Army, he is chased by Federal Cavalry commanded by his father-in-law, Colonel Philip St.George Cook, a fellow Virginian.

June 15, 1862 - President Lincoln informs General Fremont that Confederate troop movement toward the Shenandoah Valley is likely a ruse to mask General Thomas J. Jackson's movement to Richmond.

June 15, 1862 - General Robert E. Lee orders General Jackson to join the Army of Northern Virginia on the Peninsula as he arrives in the Richmond area from the Shenandoah Valley. It is General Lee's intent to cripple General McClellan's Army before Gen. McDowell can reinforce.

June 15, 1862 - General Stuart rides into Richmond with important military intelligence about the size and position of the Army of the Potomac. He also informs Lee that General John Fritz Porter's V Corps is "in the air" (unprotected and unsupported) on their right flank. General Lee plans an attack on this exposed weak spot.

June 15, 1862 - Union troops under General William T. Sherman skirmish at Tallahatchie Bridge, Mississippi.

June 16, 1862 - The rest of General Stuart's Cavalry arrives in Richmond with 165 prisoners and about 260 mules and horses.

June 16, 1862 - On James Island, South Carolina, General Henry Benham orders an attack on the Confederate fortification at Secessionville, southwest of Charleston, in spite of his standing order to avoid any contact with the enemy. (See entry for June 11, 1862.) The battle of Secessionville is a disaster for the Union. The fort is renamed Fort Lamar to honor Colonel Thomas G. Lamar of the 1st South Carolina Artillery, the unit most responsible for the defensive success. General Benham is relieved from command.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - June 17 - 23, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President 

Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

June 17, 1862 - General John C. Fremont resigns his commission, upset over being subordinate to General John Pope in the new Army of Virginia. General Fritz Sigel replaces Fremont.

June 17, 1862 - General Pierre G.T. Beauregard is in poor health and is replaced as commander of the Confederate Western Department by General Braxton Bragg, a close friend of President Jefferson Davis. Bragg is never well liked or respected by his subordinates due to his indecisive nature and rambling speeches. Many ranking Confederates openly loathed serving under him even though General Bragg was regarded as a capable strategist.

June 17, 1862 - General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson moves quickly toward Richmond to join Robert E. Lee's Army.

June 17, 1862 - Captain Charles H. Davis is promoted to Commodore and commander of U.S. Navy forces along the Mississippi.

June 18, 1862 - General George W. Morgan moves Union forces into the Cumberland Gap effectively controlling mountain trails between Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia. This revives long suppressed Union sentiment in the region.

June 18, 1862 - At Vicksburg, local residents join with the Confederate garrison occupying the town to construct extensive defensive works.

June 18, 1862 - Admiral David Farragut assembles his squadron and mortar fleet south of Vicksburg in preparation for the night run past Vicksburg's guns.

June 19, 1862 - President Lincoln signs legislation outlawing slavery in all territories.

June 19, 1862 - At James Island, South Carolina, General Henry W. Benham is arrested for his aborted attack on Secessionville. The Judge Advocate General recommends his brigadier's commission also be revoked. (See June 16,1862 when Benham was relieved from command.)

June 19, 1862 - Confederate Secretary of the Navy is informed of the readiness of the CSS Teaser, the first mine laying vessel. Also, galvanic cell batteries and an observation balloon are ready for use aboard this new ship.

June 20, 1862 - General Braxton Bragg reaches Tupelo, Mississippi to replace General Beauregard as commander of the Confederate Western Department.


June 20, 1862 - About 3000 Union Soldiers board Admiral Farragut's ships and depart Baton Rouge. General William Thomas commands the force that is directed to begin a canal to bypass Vicksburg, out of range of the Vicksburg guns.

June 21, 1862 - At Richmond, the expected heavy military action is further delayed while skirmish activity takes place along both sides of the Chickahominy River.

June 21, 1862 - Union landing parties from the USS Crusader and USS Planter capture Simmons Bluff and a Confederate encampment on the Madmelow River, South Carolina.

June 22, 1862 - Thirty nurses from the Sisters of Charity reach Fortress Monroe, Virginia to aid the Army of the Potomac.

June 23, 1862 - President Lincoln travels to West Point, New York to confer with Winfield Scott, former general in chief of Union forces. The apparent subject was Lincoln's dissatisfaction with General George McClellan and what course of action to follow.

June 23, 1862 - General Robert E. Lee plans his offensive action against the Army of the Potomac's right wing, commanded by General Fritz John Porter. (See June 15 entry.) The plan includes the use of 55,000 Confederates against Porter's 30,000 strong V Corps. The critical move is to have General Jackson, on a forced march from the Shenandoah Valley, to attack from behind while forces under Generals Longstreet, Daniel H. Hill, and Ambrose P. Hill attack from Richmond. General Jackson leaves to rejoin his marching force of "Foot Cavalry" on the critical move.

June 23, 1862 - General McClellan is held in place at Richmond by demonstrations by a small force of Confederates under Generals Huger and John Magruder.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - June 24 - 30, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President 

Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

June 24, 1862 - As the Army of the Potomac approaches Mechanicsville, Virginia, skirmishing breaks out. The Confederate forces abandon White House Landing.

June 24, 1862 - General Earl Van Dorn proceeds with the fortification of Vicksburg while about 3,000 Union soldiers camp directly across the river from the town.

June 25, 1862 - The Army of the Potomac is just six miles from Richmond, the closest they will get in the next 33 months. General McClellan orders cannons to be placed at Oak Grove, a swampy, wooded area in front of his army. The battle has an inconclusive value. General McClellan congratulates himself but only gained about 600 yards toward Richmond.

June 25, 1862 - The new Army of Virginia, made up of forces formerly under the command of Generals Irvin McDowell, John C. Fremont, and Nathaniel P. Banks is located in western Virginia under their new commander, General John Pope.

June 25, 1862 - At Pekin, (southern) Illinois, the Union League is founded to counter the growth of pro-Southern civic groups, to bolster Union morale, and to aid in the Union war effort.

June 26, 1862 - The battle planned by General Robert E. Lee to annihilate General Fitz John Porter's right wing pits 47,000 Confederates against 30,000 Union troops. The plan hinges on the arrival of General Thomas J. Jackson's army from the Shenandoah Valley. When General Jackson's exhausted army arrives at the assigned meeting point, no one is present with instructions so the army goes into bivouac. This first real battle of the Seven Days War is a technical Union win but the consequences are devastating to the Union. General McClellan orders General Porter to abandon the ground he just successfully defended and begins to move his own main army from the Pamunkey River to Harrison Landing on the James River. This move is ever after ridiculed by both sides as "the Great Skedaddle."

June 27, 1862 - President Lincoln receives a resignation letter from General Fremont and accepts the resignation of this controversial explorer, soldier, and politician.

June 27, 1862 - The Union V Corps moves about five miles to Gaines' Mill and establishes a defensive perimeter as General Lee's Confederates pursue. In spite of a series of blunders on both sides, an heroic charge by Union 2nd and 5th Cavalry troops covers the Union retreat and allows Porter's forces to escape the field. This is the bloodiest of the Seven Days Battles with 7,993 Confederate and 6,837 Union soldiers killed, missing, or wounded.

June 28, 1862 - Digging begins on the canal to skirt Vicksburg by altering a natural bend in the Mississippi River.

June 28, 1862 - General McClellan concludes that yet again he failed due to lack of requested reinforcements.

June 28, 1862 - Confederate forces under Colonel George T. Anderson are repulsed by Union troops at Garnett's and Golding's farms, Virginia. That night, General Robert Toombs, former Confederate Secretary of State, probes the Union line and also suffers defeat. These are the third and fourth battles of the "Seven Days Battles."

June 28, 1862 - Federal forces temporarily suspend the campaign on James Island and concentrate on the capture of Charleston, South Carolina.

June 28, 1862 - General Philip Sheridan moves Union Cavalry to Boonesboro, twenty miles south of Corinth, Mississippi and establishes a fortified outpost. General Braxton Bragg is believed to be in the area with a small Confederate force.

June 28, 1862 - General Earl Van Dorn arrives back in Vicksburg and continues the fortification of the town.

June 28, 1862 - The U.S. Navy vessels sail from Fortress Monroe to Harrison's Landing to secure communication for the Army of the Potomac, moving from Richmond.

June 29, 1862 - General John Magruder leaves Williamsburg, Virginia to look for Union forces moving north toward Richmond with the plan to attack the rearguard of any forces located. When the Union Army is found, Magruder is outnumbered; his 11,000 men to about 26,000 Union troops supported by 40 cannons. Even with these poor odds, Magruder attacks and Union General Edwin Sumner simply lobes shells toward the Confederate positions until a downpour brings the contact to a halt at 9:00 PM. Other than the substantial loss of men on both sides, little is accomplished and the II Corps moves on toward White Oak Swamp and Glendale.

June 29, 1862 - The Confederate Department of Alabama and West Florida disbands.

June 29, 1862 - The fifth major battle of the Seven Days Battles takes place at Savage's Station. Again, not much is gained by either side with General Jackson failing to properly execute the plan laid out by General Lee and General McClellan wonders why his forces can't work in the field the way it worked on the map. Both armies move toward Glendale.

June 30, 1862 - General McClellan's troops retreat after major action with General Lee's forces at White Oak Swamp or Glendale, the sixth of the "Seven Days Battles." Again, a very large casualty count, but no real victory for either side. The Union line of retreat is still open and they move to Malvern Hill, just two miles away and go into defensive positions. General Lee's Army prepares for another battle before the Union Army reaches Harrison's Landing; a spot General McClellan feels is defensible.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - July 1- 7, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President 

Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

July 1, 1862 - Although Union guns devastate the enemy at Malvern Hills, the last of the Seven Days Battles, Gen. McClellan withdraws and leaves Richmond safe. The Confederate capital is safe for another three and a half years. Casualties for the Malvern Hills battle were: Union loss - 3214, and Confederate loss - 5355. Totals for the Seven Days Battles were: Union loss - 15,849, and Confederate loss - 20,141.

July 1, 1862 - The Union's freshwater and saltwater fleets meet for the first time on the Mississippi River near Vicksburg.

July 1, 1862 - About 5,000 Confederate Cavalry attack at Boonesville, Mississippi, but Colonel Philip Sheridan counterattacks with just 827 Union troops and routs the enemy.

July 2, 1862 - US Congress passes legislation requiring each military officer and government official to swear allegiance to the Constitution. President Lincoln authorizes the law, which became know as the "Ironclad test oath."

July 2, 1862 - President Lincoln signs the Morrill Act establishing colleges for agriculture and mechanical arts.

July 2, 1862 - General McClellan concludes the "great Skedaddle" from near Richmond to Harrison's Landings.

July 3, 1862 - Both President Lincoln and Gen. McClellan come under criticism and recrimination over the Peninsula campaign's failure.

July 3, 1862 - General Sterling Price is appointed to command the Confederate Army of the West.

July 4, 1862 - Confederate Col. John Morgan conducts his first cavalry raid into Kentucky. This raid lasts through most of the month and results in capture and parole of 1200 Union supporters.

July 4, 1862 - General McClellan writes a letter to President Lincoln outlining how to conduct the war, advising that the objective should be to preserve the Union, not to abolish slavery.

July 4, 1862 - Fitz John Porter, John Sedgwick, and Philip Kearny become major generals of the U.S. Army.

July 5, 1862 - The USS Hatteras captures the Elizabeth, a Confederate sloop, off the Louisiana coast.

July 5, 1862 - The U.S. Navy Department is reorganized into Divisions by an Act of Congress. The Divisions were: Recruiting, Equipment, Ordnance, Yards & Docks, Construction & Repair, Steam Engineering, Provisions & Clothing, and Medicine & Surgery.

July 6, 1862 - General Nathan Bedford Forrest assembles a cavalry unit in Mississippi and plans an extended raid into Tennessee.

July 7, 1862 - President Lincoln visits Harrison's Landing, Virginia to discuss recent events with General McClellan. The general cites lack of proper reinforcements as the primary reason he could not move on Richmond. He also advised the President to take a conservative approach, both in war strategy and politics.

July 7, 1862 - Commodore John Rogers' James River Flotilla escorts the convoy of army transports to Harrison's Landing in support of the Army of the Potomac.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - July 8- 14, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President 

Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

July 8, 1862 - At Pleasant Hill, Missouri, Confederate General William C. Quantrill's camp is over-run and occupied by Federal troops.

July 8, 1862 - President Lincoln arrives at Harrison's Landing, Virginia, to confer with General McClellan.

July 9, 1862 - Confederate Cavalry commanded by Colonel John H. Morgan captures Tompkinsville, Kentucky, taking 400 Union troops as prisoners.

July 10, 1862 - General John Pope situates his newly named Army of Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley. Locals are warned of harsh justice for "treasonable acts" and ordered to assist Union efforts.

July 10, 1862 - Morgan's Confederate Raiders capture Glasgow, Kentucky. Colonel Morgan urges locals to "rise and arm, and drive the invaders from the soil."

July 11, 1862 - Congress authorizes compensation for the families of Union soldiers killed in action against the CSS Virginia at Hampton Roads, Virginia.

July 11, 1862 - Colonel Morgan moves north as far as Lebanon, Kentucky, alarming residents of Louisville and Lexington as well as Evansville, Indiana and Cincinnati, Ohio.

July 12, 1862 - Soldiers are included as eligible recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor, established in 1861 for navel personnel only.

July 12, 1862 - Due to falling water levels on the Yazoo River north of Vicksburg, Mississippi, the large ironclad CSS Arkansas is forced to move nearer to Vicksburg.

July 13, 1862 - President Lincoln seeks congressional action to compensate states willing to abolish slavery.

July 13, 1862 - President Lincoln informs Secretary of State William H. Seward and Secretary of the Navy Gideon Wells of his plan to read the "emancipation proclamation" to the full Cabinet on July 22.

July 13, 1862 - Union troops burn a bridge on the Rapidan River after a skirmish with Confederate forces.

July 13, 1862 - Confederate Cavalry led by Colonel John Morgan raids Harrodsburg, Kentucky while Colonel Nathan B. Forrest's Cavalry captures Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

July 14, 1862 - Border states announce their opposition to President Lincoln's compensated emancipation plan.

July 14, 1862 - The Army of Virginia under General Pope, is repositioned to be between Washington D.C. and the Confederate forces, now located north of Richmond and west of McClellan's position at Harrison's Landing on the Rappahannock River. The aim is to take pressure off of General McClellan's force.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - July 15- 21, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President 

Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

July 15, 1862 - The CSS Arkansas, moving from the Yazoo River into the Mississippi, is attack by the USS Carondelet, Tyler, and Queen of the West. The Arkansas inflicts damage on the Carondelet and Tyler, runs past 16 more Union vessels of Commodore Farragut's fleet, and docks below Vicksburg under the heavy guns on the bluff.

July 15, 1862 - Commodore Farragut, angered over being surprised, runs past Vicksburg in daylight and attacks the USS Arkansas. Both vessels involved are damaged but stay afloat. Farragut moves back to New Orleans due to low water in the Mississippi and to seek repairs. The Arkansas stays below Vicksburg for nearly another year.

July 16, 1862 - Confederate Agent John Slidell asks the French government to grant diplomatic recognition of the Confederate States of America. Emperor Napoleon III refuses.

July 16, 1862 - The Union's western fleet, constructed and controlled by the War Department, is transferred to the Navy Department by act of Congress.

July 16, 1862 - David G. Farragut is promoted to Rear Admiral, the first officer to hold the rank.

July 17, 1862 - Following General Halleck's move to Washington, D.C., General U.S. Grant resumes his command of the western theater.

July 17, 1862 - The Second Confiscation Act takes effect meaning all slaves reaching Union lines are free and slaves seeking assistance in immigrating to a Union State are helped.

July 18, 1862 - Colonel John H. Morgan leads Confederate Cavalry to Cynthiana, Kentucky.

July 18, 1862 - Confederate Captain Adam R. Johnson leads a raid into Newburg, Indiana. As he retreats back across the river, stovepipe cannons (fake or Quaker cannons) are erected effectively stopping any pursuit by the Indiana Home Guard. Johnson is ever after known as Stovepipe Johnson.

July 18, 1862 - Secretary of the Navy Wells directs each naval flag officer to select three candidates from their ranks to become Naval Academy candidates.

July 19, 1862 - New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley writes to President Lincoln suggesting he free all slaves as a way of weakening the Confederacy.

July 19, 1862 - Congress approves a pension bill guaranteeing lifetime subsidy to all naval personnel injured in the line of duty.

July 20, 1862 - Cavalry of Colonel Morgan's raiders are surprised and defeated by Union Cavalry at Owensville, Kentucky.

July 21, 1862 - General Sterling Price again commands The Confederate District of Tennessee. The Confederate Army of the Mississippi advances toward Chattanooga under command of General Braxton Bragg.

July 21, 1862 - In a cabinet meeting, President Lincoln discusses employment of African-Americans as soldiers with no action taken.

July 21, 1862 - Union General Sherman takes command of the District of Memphis.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - July 22- 28, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President 

Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

July 22, 1862 - The Emancipation Proclamation is presented to President Lincoln's entire Cabinet. Secretary of State William Seward suggests that the proclamation be held from public reading until a clear Union victory in the field.

July 22, 1862 - An exchange agreement for war prisoners is reached between Confederate and Union officials. The agreement works satisfactorily until the fall of 1863 when the question of treatment of black soldiers ends the plan.

July 22, 1862 - Secretary of War Stanton announces an Army plan for the confiscation of personal property for military use and the employment of black laborers in the military.

July 22, 1862 - Confederate Raider John H. Morgan moves south to Tennessee after an extended raid into Kentucky. Union officials discover the tapping of their telegraph system allowing the intercept of all army dispatches for the past 12 days.

July 22, 1862 - Captain William Porter aboard the USS Essex leads the USS Queen of the West in an attack on the CSS Arkansas below Vicksburg on the Mississippi River. The battle is a draw until the CSS Arkansas leaves the safety of the land based cannons of Vicksburg and is rammed by the USS Queen of the West with engine damage the result.

July 23, 1862 - General Halleck, newly arrived in Washington, suggests the combining of General George McClellan's army with the army of General John Pope.

July 23, 1862 - General John Pope tightens the Union military hold in the Shenandoah by ordering all men of military age to take an oath of allegiance or face deportation to the South. Violators to be executed and their property confiscated.

July 23, 1862 - General Braxton Bragg transfers about 31,000 Confederate Soldiers from Tupelo, Mississippi to Chattanooga, Tennessee in the largest rail transfer by the Confederacy during the war. About 32,000 Confederate troops remain in the Tupelo and Vicksburg areas under Generals Sterling Price and Earl Van Dorn. No clear line of authority is established between these two headstrong leaders to the detriment of the Confederacy.

July 24, 1862 - Falling water level on the Mississippi River coupled with crew sickness prompts Rear Admiral David Farragut to move his squadron from below Vicksburg to New Orleans. He also advises that naval force alone cannot take Vicksburg; a large, well-equipped army is his suggestion.

July 24, 1862 - Former President Martin Van Buren, eighth U.S. President, dies at age 80 at Kinderhook, New York.

July 24, 1862 - Union General John Gibbon reconnoiters Orange Court House, Virginia from his Fredericksburg field position.

July 24, 1862 - A Union gunboat flotilla steams to Helena, Arkansas to stem the flow of men and supplies coming from Texas and Arkansas. The flotilla is under command of Admiral Charles H. Davis and they plan to disrupt communications as well. Helena is located on the Mississippi River below Memphis.

July 25, 1862 - J. E. B. Stuart is appointed Major General, C.S.A.

July 27, 1862 - John Buford is promoted to Brigadier General of Cavalry, U.S. Army.

July 28, 1862 - Colonel John B. Morgan arrives back in Livingston, Tennessee after a successful raid into Kentucky.

July 28, 1862 - Governors of Texas, Louisiana, Missouri, and Arkansas ask President Jefferson Davis to appoint a strong commanding general to lead the defense of their states. They also ask for more men, supplies, and money.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - July 29 - August 4, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President 

Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

July 29, 1862 - Confederate spy Belle Boyd is arrested at Warrenton, Virginia and sent to the Old Capital Prison in Washington, D.C.

July 29, 1862 - The Confederate Army continues to move various units toward Chattanooga as a more central concentration of Southern forces. General Braxton Bragg plans an offensive move into Kentucky from northern Tennessee.

July 29, 1862 - British built ship "290" departs Liverpool for trials but actually sails to Nassau as the Enrica. This vessel later becomes the CSS Alabama, an infamous commerce raider for the South.

July 30, 1862 - General Benjamin Butler continues to rule New Orleans with an iron hand. This time he confiscates a load of church bells cast in Boston and orders them sold.

July 30, 1862 - General McClellan is ordered to send sick and wounded soldiers from Harrison's Landing to Washington D.C. as he prepares to shift his entire command back to the capital.

July 31, 1862 - U.S. Minister to England Charles F. Adams learns of the launch of the Enrica and asks Foreign Secretary Lord Russell to hold the vessel in the port. Lord Russell doesn't react for five days and the Confederate agents sail away. This is a major source of friction between the U.S. Government and England.

July 31, 1862 - Reacting to the news that hostile Southern citizens are to be shot for treason in the Shenandoah Valley under General Pope's order, President Jefferson Davis directs that any Union officer captured from Pope's Army of Virginia will be treated as a felon.

August 1, 1862 - An artillery dual takes place at Harrison's Landing, Virginia.

August 1, 1862 - Sixty-five pro-Union German settlers in Texas are convinced to cross the Rio Grande into Mexico and sail to New Orleans to enlist. Confederate authorities send 94 men to intercept them.

August 2, 1862 - American Minister Charles F. Adams is told to officially ignore any attempt at mediation brought forth by the British Government.

August 2, 1862 - Union forces of General Pope's command enter Orange Court House, Virginia and capture Confederate prisoners.

August 2, 1862 - General Henry Halleck directs General McClellan to begin the shift of Union troops from Harrison's Landing on the Yorktown Peninsula to Aquia Landing near Fredericksburg, Virginia to improve the protection of Washington, D.C.

August 4, 1862 - President Lincoln calls for 300,000 state militiamen to be drafted for nine months but this was never acted upon. Manpower shortages persisted but the president refused to induct two Negro Regiments from Indiana and suggested they could be employed as laborers.

August 4, 1862 - General Ambrose Burnsides arrives at Aquia Creek to assist the Army of Virginia and General Pope as they are brought together with McClellan's Army of the Potomac.

August 4, 1862 - General Butler orders assessments of $341,000 on "secessionists" to fund the care of the city's poor in New Orleans.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - August 5 - 11, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President 

Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

August 5, 1862 - In a large battle at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Confederate troops under General John C. Breckenridge attack a Union enclave. The focus of the attack is to rid the area of Union forces and to secure Port Hudson as a choke point on the Mississippi River. Port Hudson is about halfway between Vicksburg and Baton Rouge. Union General Thomas Williams is killed and Confederate General Charles Clark is wounded and later captured. Official counts show 84 soldiers killed on each side with 299 Union and 372 Southerners wounded.

August 5, 1862 - The CSS Arkansas, moving down the Mississippi River to counter Union gunboats at Baton Rouge, suffers a broken propeller shaft. This delay is named as the cause of the Confederate defeat.

August 6, 1862 - S. Rosecrans is promoted to Major General, U.S. Army.

August 6, 1862 - Skirmishing continues around Malvern Hill and Thornburg, Virginia. Federal forces withdraw.

August 6, 1862 - Union General Robert L. McCook, riding in an ambulance wagon in Tennessee, is murdered by Confederate guerrillas.

August 6, 1862 - Sioux Chief Little Crow meets with Indian Agent Andrew J. Myrick to plead for food. Due to the war, payments and supplies are tardy and the tribe is starving. Agent Myrick's official response is: "So far as I am concerned, if they are hungry, let them eat grass."  The Indians in Arkansas and Missouri actively fight with the Southern forces for much of the rest of the Civil War and participated in some of the bloodiest battles.

August 6, 1862 - The hobbled CSS Arkansas is attacked by the USS Essex as it moves from Baton Rouge and is run aground. Lieutenant Henry K. Stevens orders the ironclad scuttled. Never again is such a large Confederate warship deployed on the Mississippi.

August 7, 1862 - General Thomas J. Jackson orders 24,000 Confederate troops to march north toward Orange Courthouse, Virginia. The longtime feud between General Jackson and General Ambrose P. Hill is fueled by Hill getting a late start with only eight miles movement on the day.

August 7, 1862 - President Lincoln, Secretary Stanton, and Secretary Seward visit the Washington Navel Yard to witness the test firing of the experimental repeating cannon "Rafael."

August 8, 1862 - Secretary of War Edwin Stanton suspends writs of habeas corpus throughout the country to aid cases of treason and draft evasion.

August 8, 1862 - General Nathaniel Banks moves his 9,000 man Division of Union troops to Culpeper Road. General Thomas J. Jackson crosses the Rapidan River with his 24,000 Confederates to evict Banks' force from Culpeper County.


August 8, 1862 - General Braxton Bragg invades Kentucky from Chattanooga, Tennessee with 30,000 men of his Army of the Mississippi.

August 8, 1862 - At Huntsville, Alabama, Southern guerrillas attack rail traffic. The Union counters by arresting Secessionist Clergy and forcing them to ride as passengers on these trains.

August 9, 1862 - The Battle of Cedar Mountain near Culpeper, Virginia takes place. Union General Banks, outnumbered 24,000 to his 9,000, deploys along the base of the mountain with artillery cover above. General Jackson advances but is driven back by the cannon fire. Again, Ambrose P. Hill's unit is slow and strung out over several miles, resulting is a tardy deployment. Jackson fails to realize an additional two Union Brigades under General's Samuel Crawford and George Gordon are on the flank of the Confederate line. The result is the defeat of the famous Stonewall Brigade commanded by General Harry S. Winder, with Winder being killed. Reports suggest that General Jackson drew his sword, grabbed a flag, and led his troops to rally; the only time in the war he did so. The southern soldiers dubbed the site "Slaughter Mountain." The costly battle did delay the southward advance of General Pope, giving General Robert E. Lee time to reinforce Jackson with General Longstreet's forces.

August 10, 1862 - A general truce is in effect at Cedar Mountain to collect and bury the dead.

August 11, 1862 - General Jackson crosses the Rapidan River, withdrawing south to Gordanville, Virginia.

August 11, 1862 - William Quantrill, Confederate raider, captures and briefly holds Independence, Missouri.

August 11, 1862 - From Corinth, Mississippi, General Ulysses S. Grant announces all fugitive slaves will be employed by his department as laborers.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - August 12 - 18, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President 

Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

August 12, 1862 - Colonel John H. Morgan takes Gallatin, Tennessee by stealth, capturing 124 Union soldiers without firing a shot. A Louisville and Nashville Railroad tunnel is destroyed cutting General Don C. Buell's supply line. This delayed Buell's advance on Chattanooga for at least three months.

August 12, 1862 - Union forces leave Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and move toward Independence, Missouri to rid that city of Confederate irregulars.

August 13, 1862 - General Robert E. Lee begins moving his Army from the Peninsula toward Gordonville, Virginia. The first to move are 30,000 of General James Longstreet's men, transported by rail. They link up with General Jackson's corps near Gordonville. The abandonment of the Peninsula began when Northern units under General McClellan are moved from just east of Richmond to Aquia Creek, south of Washington, D.C. The Peninsula is completely emptied of both Union and Confederate field forces in the next several days.

August 13, 1862 - Union steamers (the George Peabody and the West Point) accidentally collide on the Potomac River resulting in 83 deaths, mostly convalescents.

August 13, 1862 - U.S. Navy Captain John W. Kittridge lands at Corpus Christi, Texas under flag of truce and urges Confederate leaders to evacuate local citizens as he intends to attack.

August 14, 1862 - President Lincoln confers with a delegation of free Blacks at the White House. He urges them to consider Central America as a possible location of a colony for free blacks. Black leaders, including Frederick Douglas, react with disdain and accuse the President of "contempt for Negroes."

August 14, 1862 - The III Corps and V Corps of the Union Army are transported from Harrison's Landing to Aquia Creek.

August 15, 1862 - General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia completes the move to fields around Gordonville, Virginia. General Lee plans a quick strike on the Union forces of General John Pope, still located on the south side of the Rappahannock. A rapid strike would isolate Pope and allow the Confederates to defeat this portion of the Union Army in detail (completely). General Lee is dissuaded from carrying out the plan by General Fitzhugh Lee who feels his cavalry horses are worn and need to rest.

August 16, 1862 - The Army of the Potomac completes its relocation from Harrison's Landing to Aquia Creek and is in position to better protect the capital.

August 16, 1862 - General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia is at Gordonville. The two armies are about 45 miles apart; the Union Army 35 miles Southeast of Manassas and the Confederates about 55 miles Southwest of that early war battlefield.

August 16, 1862 - A major Southern offensive to retake the border state of Kentucky is launched from Knoxville, Tennessee by General Edmond Kirby-Smith. His 10,000 troops move through the Cumberland Gap and occupy the town of Barboursville, Kentucky. Supply difficulties force the invaders to move on toward Lexington within two days.

August 17, 1862 - Half-starved Sioux tribe members stage an uprising in Southwest Minnesota, killing five settler farmers. A six-week continuous raid on settlers begins with Sioux Chief Little Crow realizing an Indian uprising is inevitable.

August 17, 1862 - J.E.B. Stuart becomes commander of all Cavalry units in the Army of Northern Virginia.

August 18, 1862 - The second session of the Confederate Congress convenes with a speech by President Jefferson Davis. The Confederate President dwells on a long list of bad behavior at New Orleans on the part of Union General Benjamin Butler.

August 18, 1862 - General Pope withdraws behind the Rappahannock River and awaits the arrival of reinforcements from General McClellan's army.

August 18, 1862 - Sioux tribe members attack the Upper and Lower Indian Agencies in Minnesota, killing 20 people including Agent Andrew J. Myrick. Agent Myrick's mouth is stuffed with grass in reprisal for his 'let the Indians eat grass' comments on August 6th.

August 18, 1862 - A landing party of 30 Union sailors with a single howitzer lands at Corpus Christi, Texas. A unit from the 8th Texas engages them and the attack is suspended.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - August 19 - 25, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President 

Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

August 19, 1862 - James B. McPherson from Clyde, Ohio is appointed brigadier general, U.S. Army.

August 19, 1862 - Colonel John H. Morgan's Confederate Cavalry raids several spots along the Louisiana and Nashville Railroad near Gallatin, Tennessee.

August 19, 1862 - General Horatio G. Wright becomes commander of the reconstituted Union Department of the Ohio. This Army includes units from Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and eastern Kentucky.

August 20, 1862 - With General Pope protected by the Rappahannock River, General Lee abandons his plan to strike Pope's Army. Skirmishes between Federal troops from General Pope's Army and advancing Confederate troops under General Thomas J. Jackson's erupt near Brandy Station, Raccoon Ford, and Kelly's Ford, Virginia.

August 20, 1862 - Sioux tribesmen attack at New Ulm, Minnesota and are driven back by armed settlers and militia.

August 20, 1862 - Horace Greeley's editorial in the New York Tribune urges President Lincoln to enact emancipation. Greeley's column is entitled "A prayer of 20 millions."

August 20, 1862 - General Hamilton Bee arrives in Corpus Christi, Texas to organize Confederate resistance to Captain Kittredge's planned assault.

August 21, 1862 - Postage stamps are issued by the Federal Government to help fund the war effort.

August 21, 1862 - Northern Commanders found in command of African-American troops are to be executed by order of the Confederate military authorities. Generals David Hunter and John W. Phelps are to be treated as felons, in particular, for their roll in freeing and arming slaves for service in the Union Army. General Phelps resigned, not because of the Confederate threat but because the Federal Government disavowed his efforts.

August 21, 1862 - General Bragg positions his force above Chattanooga while the city of Gallatin, Tennessee surrenders.

August 21, 1862 - Confederate forces try to cross the Rappahannock River and are defeated with 700 causalities and 2,000 men taken prisoner.

August 21, 1862 - Sioux Chief Little Crow leads a raid on Fort Ridgely, Minnesota but is driven off by 180 soldiers and three cannons from Lt. Timothy Sheehan's Company. The Sioux raiders continue the siege of the fort and await the arrival of more Sioux warriors.

August 22, 1862 - General J.E.B. Stuart and 1,500 troops attempt to cross the Rappahannock River, intent on cutting the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, a major supply route for the Union Armies. They occupy the town of Warrenton, Virginia and advance on Catlett's Station. They are about 11 miles south of the Manassas/Bull Run battlefield.

August 22, 1862 - The band of Santee (Sioux) of Chief Little Crow is joined by Sisseton and Wahpeton bands to make a tribal force of about 800. They make another attack on the 180 men at Fort Ridgley but are forced to withdraw, suffering about 100 killed.

August 22, 1862 - General Benjamin Butler actively recruits African American slaves into the Union Army at New Orleans.

August 22, 1862 - President Lincoln responds to Horace Greeley's editorial by stating, "My paramount objective in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery."

August 22, 1862 - Secretary of the Navy Gideon Wells directs Admiral Goldsborough to assist in the evacuation of Union soldiers from Fortress Monroe, completing the abandonment of the Peninsula by the Northern forces.

August 23, 1862 - General J.E.B. Stuart is informed that General Pope is in the vicinity of Catlett's Station and he advances under cover of a driving rainstorm. Stuart's cavalry collects about 300 prisoners, General Pope's personal baggage and uniforms, and military correspondence. General Lee now has information indicating the Union plan to unite Pope's 51,000 man Army of Virginia with the 100,000 strong Army of the Potomac under McClellan. General Lee does not have a large enough force to counter the combined Union Army. His immediate plan is to attack before they can merge.

August 23, 1862 - Confederate General Edmund Kirby-Smith marches into Lexington, Kentucky and then to Richmond, Kentucky, dispersing Union forces massing there.

August 23, 1862 - New Ulm, Minnesota is defended by citizens and the Sioux are driven off but the town is burned.

August 24, 1862 - General Robert E. Lee boldly divides his Army, detaching General Thomas J. Jackson's 25,000 men with orders to cut the Orange and Alexandria Railroad thereby cutting off General Pope's supply. Lee hopes to draw the Northern Army up from near Washington D.C. and into the open.

August 25, 1862 - Radical Republicans call for added troop strength in the Union Army, prompting Secretary of War Stanton to authorize the recruitment of up to 5,000 African-American soldiers. Five Regiments are to be formed by General Rufus Saxton, military Governor of the South Carolina Sea Islands.

August 25, 1862 - New Ulm, Minnesota is evacuated with 1,000 residents moving to Mankato, some 30 miles away.

August 25, 1862 - General Jackson's corps begins a wide flanking movement around General Pope's right. General Jackson's infamous "foot cavalry" marches are repeated when his corps moves 56 miles in two days and arrives behind the Union Army of Virginia. Jackson is now positioned between General Pope's Army and Washington, D.C.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - September 2 - 8, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President 

Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

September 2,1862 - General Pope orders his Union forces to retreat all the way to the edge of Washington, D.C. Second Manassas (Second Bull Run) concludes, a Union loss.

September 2, 1862 - President Lincoln restores General George B. McClellan to command of the Army of the Potomac. The soldiers hail the decision while the President's Cabinet advises against the move. General Pope is disgraced and without an official command.

September 2, 1862 - Generals Robert E. Lee and D. H. Hill combine their forces near Chantilly, Virginia. Combined strength is 70,000, compensating for loss of 30,000 men at Manassas.

September 2, 1862 - Union forces abandon Winchester but the Union forces at Spencer Court House in western Virginia are captured by General Albert Jenkins' Confederate Cavalry.

September 2, 1862 - Lexington, Kentucky is occupied by General Edmund Kirby-Smith's Confederate unit. This prompts Martial Law to be declared in Cincinnati as Confederates are as close as Richmond, Kentucky.

September 3, 1862 - General John Pope meets with General in Chief Halleck and lays the Manassas debacle on General Fritz John Porter's refusal to obey orders and General George B. McClellan's failure to supply timely support.

September 3, 1862 - Confederate forces occupy Winchester, Virginia and engage in skirmishes at Harper's Ferry, Falls Church, and Bunker Hill. General Edmond Kirby-Smith holds Lexington and moves on to Frankfort, the Provisional Capitol of Kentucky, amid cheering supporters.

September 3, 1862 - General Lee probes Washington defensive positions and decides not to attack. He moves toward Leesburg, Virginia on the Potomac River.

September 3, 1862 - The USS Essex bombards the city of Natchez, Mississippi. Essex commander William D. Porter receives surrender of the city.

September 4, 1862 - The Army of Northern Virginia crosses the Potomac River at White's Ford, Virginia and moves on into Maryland. Union troops evacuate Frederick, Maryland.

September 4, 1862 - The Naval Investigating Committee of the Confederate Congress supports Navy Secretary Stephen R. Mallory in spite of the loss of New Orleans and other ports.

September 4, 1862 - General Albert G. Jackson briefly moves his Confederate Cavalry across the Ohio River into Point Pleasant, western Virginia.

September 5, 1862 - General Pope is officially relieved of command and called to Washington for reassignment. General Halleck combines the Army of Virginia with the Army of the Potomac, all under the command of General McClellan.

September 5, 1862 - The Kanawha Valley of western Virginia becomes the site of campaigning by Confederate General William W. Loring.

September 6, 1862 - General Pope assumes command of the newly developed Department of the Northwest, which incorporates Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, plus the Dakota and Nebraska Territories. The new command is the military equivalent of political exile. General Pope now deals with Chief Little Crow and the Sioux.

September 6, 1862 - General Thomas J. Jackson move his Confederate troops to Frederick, Maryland and occupies the town. Expecting a greeting as liberators, they are received coolly.

September 6, 1862 - Federal forces abandon Aqua Creek and leave tons of supplies behind. General McClellan moves the combined army north to defend Washington.

September 7, 1862 - The news of General Lee joining General Jackson at Frederick, Maryland, prompts General McClellan to move north of Washington to meet the threat.

September 7, 1862 - Union forces occupy Bowling Green, Kentucky and Clarksville, Tennessee. Confederate General Braxton Bragg moves past General Buehl's Union forces and marches his Army of the Mississippi into Kentucky.

September 7, 1862 - The USS Essex receives 14 hits as it tries to pass Port Hudson, Louisiana under command of Commodore David D. Porter.

September 8, 1862 - General Nathaniel P. Banks takes over command of the defenses around Washington, D.C.

September 8, 1862 - A mounted troop from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas pursues Confederate guerrillas under William C. Quantrill.

September 8, 1862 - Confederate successes by the raiders CSS Alabama and Florida (both British built) are countered by a 'Flying Squadron' consisting of the USS Wachusett, Dacotah, Cimarron, Sanoma, Tioga, Octorara, and Santiago de Cuba. This squadron is assembled in the West Indies and is commanded by Commodore John Wilkes.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - September 9 - 15, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President 

Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable
 

September 9, 1862 - The large Confederate Army moves through Frederick, Maryland but General Lee worries about the Union garrison at Harper's Ferry, western Virginia, cutting his supply/communication lines. He writes Special Order No.191, ordering General Thomas J. Jackson to move directly back into the Shenandoah Valley and Generals Lafayette Mclaws and John J. Walker, taking a different route, all meeting up and capturing Harper's Ferry. At the same time, General Lee orders General Longstreet to advance toward Hagerstown, Maryland, splitting his army in two.

September 9, 1862 - General Samuel P. Heintzelman takes charge of the Union's defenses south of the Potomac River near Washington, D.C.

September 9, 1862 - Skirmishing at Williamsburg, Virginia continues. The Union has the stronger force in this area.

September 10, 1862 - General Lee fears Union General McClellan will close in on his position before General Longstreet can meet up with the main part of the Army of the Potomac. Lee dispatches General Daniel H. Hill to South Mountain, to delay any advance, as a precaution.

September 10, 1862 - General McClellan discovers that Lee has abandoned Frederick, Maryland and begins to move his Army with caution.

September 10, 1862 - Cincinnati, Ohio prepares for General Edmond Kirby-Smith's raid by posting over 50,000 squirrel hunters, volunteers, and state militia troops.

September 11, 1862 - Governor Andrew G. Curtin calls for 50,000 locals to defend Maryland from the Confederates.

September 11, 1862 - General Lee's Army occupies Hagerstown, Maryland. The Union Army continues to move toward Frederick.

September 11, 1862 - Confederate raiders under General Kirby-Smith capture Maysville, Kentucky, closer to Cincinnati.

September 12, 1862 - Pennsylvania's treasury and State archives are moved from Harrisburg and Philadelphia to New York.

September 12, 1862 - The last Confederate troops in Frederick, Maryland move north as General McClellan's 75,000-man force arrives.

September 12, 1862 - Union General Julius White moves his 2,000 troops from Martindale, Virginia to join the main force at Harper's Ferry. General Jackson approaches Harper's Ferry.

September 12, 1862 - General Kirby-Smith enters Glasgow, Kentucky.

September 13, 1862 - On the campground at Frederick, Maryland, recently abandoned by General Lee's army, Private Barton W. Mitchell of the 27th Indiana finds a copy of General Lee's Special Order No. 191 wrapped around three cigars. His commander, Colonel Robert H. Chilton, dispatches this prize through channels to General McClellan. McClellan realizes that Lee's army is badly dispersed and could be defeated. General McClellan misses the opportunity he has gained by delaying some 16 hours before starting to move in pursuit.

September 13, 1862 - Harper's Ferry is surrounded by a three-pronged Confederate force. General McLaws holds Maryland Heights, General Walker captures Loudoun Heights and General Jackson occupies School House Ridge, cutting off the town. About 23,000 Confederates trap colonel Dixon S. Miles and his 12,000 Union soldiers. General Lee's order to General Jackson is to take the town in two days or abandon the area and rejoin the badly dispersed army.

September 13, 1862 - Union troops at Munfordville, a Missouri brigade under General James R. Chalmers surrounds Kentucky. Colonel John T. Wilder refuses to surrender.

September 14, 1862 - General McClellan plans to catch General Lee's armies before they can regroup. He orders the I and IX Corps to march through Fox and Turner's passes on South Mountain by 9:00 AM. Confederate forces of Gen. D. H. Hill delay them until after 4:00 PM. General Longstreet re-enforces the Confederates while Union forces of General Ambrose E. Burnside and a corps from General Hooker's army joins in. South Mountain is finally cleared at 10:00 PM but an opportunity to capture the Southerners from behind as they besiege Harper's Ferry is lost. Losses run high on both sides.

September 14, 1862 - Harper's Ferry fighting continues with both sides suffering losses and failing to take advantage of strengths. General William B. Franklin over estimates the Confederate force strength and does not attack General McLaws' position, now in Pleasant Valley. This delay lasts overnight and allows the Confederates artillery to bombard Colonel Dixon's garrison into submission with few causalities. The delay also means General Jackson must begin his withdrawal to Sharpsburg.

September 14, 1862 - Colonel Benjamin F. Grimes and his 1,400 Union cavalrymen find an unguarded road and escape from Harper's Ferry. This saves both the 8th New York and the 12th Illinois Cavalries. They capture 97 Confederate supply wagons headed to Maryland during the escape.

September 14, 1862 - General Don C. Buell, commanding the Army of the Ohio, advances to Bowling Green, Kentucky.

September 14, 1862 - Colonel Wilder holds off Confederates at Munfordville, Kentucky by holding two fortified blockhouses. General Chalmers demands surrender and Wilder again refuses.

September 15, 1862 - General Robert E. Lee consolidates his armies near Sharpsburg, Maryland and instructs General Jackson to leave the Shenandoah Valley and join him with all haste.

September 15, 1862 - At Harpers Ferry, the Confederate bombardment continues with Colonel Dixon A. Miles being killed. General Julius White surrenders the Union garrison at Harper's Ferry, western Virginia to General Thomas J. Jackson. This is the largest capitulation by Union forces in the Civil War and the largest number of American's captured until Bataan Peninsula, Philippines in April 1942.

September 15, 1862 - General Braxton Bragg besieges the Union garrison in Munfordville, Kentucky and send two corps, led by Leonidas Polk and William Hardee to surround the town. General Simon B. Buckner, who owns a home in Munfordville, ultimately convinces Bragg that no attack should be carried out.

September 15, 1862 - General Kirby-Smith advances to Covington, Kentucky, opposite Cincinnati, but then retreats to Lexington.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - September 16 - 22, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

September 16, 1862 - Ebenezer Farrand, Commanding navel officer at Drewry's Bluff, is issued a vote of thanks by the Confederate Congress. This was for his action in the Battle of Drewry's Bluff on May 15, 1862.

September 16, 1862 - General Robert E. Lee positions his 18,000 man Army along Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg, Maryland and awaits the arrival of General Jackson's army, moving from their recent victory at Harper's Ferry. Ambrose P. Hill's Confederates are still at Harper's Ferry gathering captured supplies. Harper's Ferry is 17 miles from Sharpsburg. General McClellan arrives at Sharpsburg late in the evening with about 80,000 men, about double the Confederate strength even with Hill's unit.

September 16, 1862 - General John Pope arrives at his new duty station in St. Paul, Minnesota as the commander of the new Department of the Northwest.

September 17, 1862 - The Battle of Antietam begins about 5:30 AM when General Joseph Hooker's I Corps (12,000 Union Soldiers) clashes with the left flank of General Jackson's Confederates. The battle is a technical draw but is the bloodiest day of the Civil War, and still ranks as the bloodiest day of any war involving Americans. General Lee's invasion of the North is halted but casualties are heavy with 12,410 Union soldiers and 11,172 Confederates dead, wounded, or missing.

September 17, 1862 - General Braxton Bragg, with some 30,000 Confederates at Munfordville, Kentucky, captures 4,000 Union troops under Colonel John Wilder's command. Colonel Wilder, with no military training, enters General Simon B. Buckner's Confederate headquarters under a flag of truce and asks for guidance on what to do. Buckner shows the Colonel around the strong Confederate position and suggests surrender of all Union troops. Wilder lays down his arms and all Union soldiers are captured; then paroled and released.

September 17, 1862 - Union soldiers are forced out of the Cumberland Gap with the fall of Colonel Wilder's detachment at Munfordville, Kentucky. Tennessee is now open to invasion by the victorious Confederates.

September 18, 1862 - President Lincoln, grasping for a victory or at least some good news for the Union, judges the Antietam draw as military pretext to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.

September 18, 1862 - General Lee withdraws to Virginia without any interference or active pursuit by General McClellan's Army.

September 18, 1862 - Confederate General Earl Van Dorn at Vicksburg, Mississippi directs General Sterling Price to meet up with his army at Pocahontas, Tennessee. The plan is to join Braxton Bragg's force as they move into Tennessee after their victory in Kentucky. Unknown to Van Dorn, Price is being held in place by a Union column, which spoils this plan.

September 19, 1862 - General Braxton Bragg occupies Glasgow, Kentucky with his Army of Tennessee.

September 19, 1862 - Generals William Rosecrans and Edward O. C. Ord march two columns of 9,000 Union soldiers each southwest of Iuka, Mississippi in an attempt to trap General Sterling Price's 15,000-man army between them. Cavalry warnings alert General Price and the danger is averted when Price attacks the 11th Ohio Battery, seizing nine cannons. General Ord's order was to move when he heard shots fired but the curious "acoustic shadow" phenomenon caused him to fail. This claim also caused Rosecrans to be blamed for the loss. Friction between Ulysses S. Grant, Edward Ord, and William Rosecrans continued throughout the war.

September 19, 1862 - Skirmishing between General Robert E. Lee's army and Union forces takes place at Boteler's Ford. This is where Confederate Artillery Commander General William Pendleton reports to General Lee that all of his 45 cannons are captured. General Jackson is ordered forward to move against General Ambrose P. Hill's division and block the ford.

September 20, 1862 - General Ambrose P. Hill advances at Boteler's Ford and into Virginia after severe cannon fire with the 118th Pennsylvania forced over a high bluff with heavy losses. General Pendleton's report of complete loss of Confederate cannons on the previous day was revised to "only four are lost." Pendleton is restricted to administrative functions.

September 20, 1862 - General Bragg intends to encounter the Army of the Ohio commanded by General Don C. Buell as he marches from Munfordville toward Bardstown, Kentucky.

September 21, 1862 - General Buell arrives in Louisville ahead of General Bragg's advance. Union forces reoccupy Munfordville, abandoned by General Bragg.

September 22, 1862 - The Emancipation Proclamation, promising freedom for all African Americans currently held as slaves in secession states, is made public. President Lincoln skirts the issue of slaves held in Border States. Reactions to the unveiling of the proclamation range from anger to wild enthusiasm. The major immediate effect of the issuing of the proclamation is to lower the probability that England and France, both countries where slavery has long been banned, will not actively support the Confederacy.

September 22, 1862 - Union forces reoccupy Harper's Ferry.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - September 23 - 29, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President 

Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

September 23, 1862 - President Lincoln issues his Emancipation Proclamation to take effect January 1, 1863. The Proclamation liberates slaves in the Confederacy but not in Border States loyal to the Union. The order is carried in the Northern Press.

September 23, 1862 - The Santee (Sioux) warriors of Chief Little Crow's band flee north ahead of 1,600 volunteers and troops of Colonel Henry H. Silby's command. At nightfall, Little Wolf turns a small band back on the pursuing force. Several of Silby's volunteers attempt to desert but run into the ambush, alerting the camp. About 269 white hostages are rescued and 2,000 Santees surrender en masse. Some Santee leaders are hung but the band eventually is resettled to the Nebraska Territory.

September 24, 1862 - President Lincoln suspends writs of habeas corpus as suggested by Secretary of War Stanton. Military trials for all personnel suspected of encouraging disloyal practices or dodging the draft are now required.

September 24, 1862 - Pennsylvania Governor Andrew G. Curtin convenes a three-day conference of Union Governors in Altoona. The conference pledges continuing support of the President and suggests new ideas on how to proceed with the war.

September 24, 1862 - The Department of Missouri comes under the command of General Samuel R. Curtis. General Curtis formerly commanded the Department of Southwest Missouri and then the Department of Arkansas.

September 25, 1862 - General Don Buell and the Department of the Ohio reach Louisville and expect to confront General Bragg.

September 26, 1862 - Admiral Samuel F. DuPont suggests large coal barges attended by coal schooners as a way to aid the refueling of ships and decreases to problem of running enough coal through Southern held shore areas.

September 27, 1862 - All men between ages 35 and 45 years are subject to the Second Confederate Conscription Act. Allowance for religious conscientious objectors is recognized but an exemption tax of $500.00 is charged.

September 27, 1862 - General Benjamin Butler proceeds with his plan to form an all black unit in New Orleans. The 'Chasseurs d'Afrique' musters into Union service.

September 28, 1862 - Generals Earl Van Dorn and Sterling Price join forces at Ripley, Tennessee in preparation for an advance on Corinth, Mississippi. Van Dorn outranks Price and they remain at odds as Van Dorn is in command.

September 29, 1862 - General William "Bull" Nelson is shot dead at a Louisville, Kentucky hotel by his subordinate officer, Union General Jefferson C. Davis, ending a heated debate.

September 29, 1862 - The 22,000 man army under General Van Dorn's command departs Ripley for the all important rail junction at Corinth, Mississippi.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - September 30 - October 6, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President 

Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

September 30, 1862 - Braxton Bragg concentrates his army at Bardstown, Kentucky, just 30 miles from the Union forces of General Don Bell at Louisville.

September 30, 1862 - In Missouri, Confederate Colonels Douglas Cooper and Joseph Shelby, with combined forces of about 6,000 men, are defeated at Newtonia.

October 1, 1862 - The Union's Western gunboat fleet is transferred from the War Department to the Navy.

October 1, 1862 - Confederate General J. E. B. Stuart conducts his first cavalry raid into Pennsylvania.

October 1, 1862 - The Army of the Ohio, 50,000 strong and commanded by General Don Bell, is split into four columns. One column moves toward Frankfort, the provisional capitol of Kentucky, while the other three concentrate at Perryville. Movement is hampered by incessant heat and lack of water as a drought continues in the Midwest.

October 1, 1862 - At Vicksburg, General Earl Van Dorn is replaced by General John C. Pemberton, new commander of the Department of the Mississippi and East Louisiana.

October 1, 1862 - President Lincoln arrives at Harper's Ferry to consult with General McClellan on war strategy.

October 2, 1862 - The President has his tent set up adjacent to General McClellan's Headquarters' tent in an apparent attempt to spur the General into action.

October 2, 1862 - General Buell's movement to Frankfort is discovered by General Cleburne's scouts and Confederate headquarters is notified.

October 2, 1862 - Generals Sterling Price and Earl Van Dorn enter Chewalla, Tennessee, just north of their intended destination of Corinth, Mississippi. This is an attempt to convince Union General Rosecrans that they are marching north to aid General Bragg in Kentucky.

October 3, 1862 - Union soldiers capture a Confederate Battery at St. John's Bluff, Florida and occupy Jacksonville.

October 3, 1862 - Generals Earl Van Dorn with 22,000 Confederate soldiers and Sterling Price with 23,000 men attack at Corinth, Mississippi. Formed in a semi-circle facing south, the Confederates face three Divisions of Rosecrans' men; each supporting a line with carefully sited cannons. As the Southern force attacks, the first Union line drops back, further concentrating their force and resistance stiffens. Heat, lack of water, and fatigue cause the battle to come to a rest early in the evening.

October 4, 1862 - Confederate forces pick up the attack on Corinth at 4:00AM with success in the capture of Rosecrans' Robinson lunette (a fixed battery). Union resistance again stiffens and Van Dorn concedes defeat. Federal loss is 355 killed with 1,473 Confederates dead. Total killed, wounded, and missing is 2,520 North and 4,233 South.

October 4, 1862 - At Newtonia, Missouri, Confederate Indians commanded by Colonel Douglas Cooper retreat back to Indian Territory and Southwest Arkansas to regroup.

October 5, 1862 - British Prime Minister Lord Nelson and Foreign Secretary Lord Russell learn of the Confederate "defeat' at Antietam and President Lincoln's published Emancipation Proclamation. They withdraw plans to support the Confederacy.

October 5, 1862 - The Corinth campaign ends with General Van Dorn moving to Holly Springs, Mississippi.

October 6, 1862 - President Lincoln prods General McClellan and his Commanding Officer General Halleck to move The Army of the Potomac into Virginia and engage the Confederacy. Halleck's telegram: "The President directs that you cross the Potomac and give battle to the enemy or drive him south. Your army must move while the roads are good." McClellan does not move.

October 6, 1862 - Union General Buell and Confederate General Bragg both move near Bardstown and Harrodsburg, Kentucky, sometimes coming close enough to skirmish as they continue to move into the vicinity of Perryville, Kentucky.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week -  October 7 - 13, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President 

Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

October 7, 1862 - The III Corps of the Army of the Ohio suffers in the heat as they move on the Springfield Road toward Perryville, Kentucky. General Charles C. Gilbert orders General Phillip Sheridan's brigade to take a watering hole held by General Hardee's Confederates while General Braxton Bragg moves his Army of Mississippi into line for an attack. Bragg is unaware that two more Union Corps of General Don C. Buell's command are nearby and 32,000 more Union troops are within marching distance.

October 7, 1862 - General George B. McClellan issues an order reminding disgruntled officers of their legal obligation to respect civilian authority. This is in reaction to the release of the Emancipation Proclamation, a position McClellan opposes.

October 7, 1862 - The CSS Alabama captures and burns the Union bark 'Wave Crest' and the brig 'Dunkirk' off Nova Scotia. This begins an active era for the 'Alabama' and Captain Raphael Semmes.

October 7, 1862 - General Gordon Granger becomes commander of the Union Army of Kentucky.

October 8, 1862 - James N. McPherson is promoted to major general, U.S. Army.

October 8, 1862 - General Don C. Buell deploys his 25,000 Union men for battle near Perryville, Kentucky. General Leonidas Polk advanced to meet the Union force, estimated to be a single Corps, but is forced into a defensive position when he learns he is outnumbered. General Bragg arrives on the front midmorning and orders an attack on the Union right, Gen. Thomas Crittenden's II Corps. Fighting continues with the Union left being pushed back in confusion before the line is reformed. General Buell remains in his tent behind the line with the "acoustic shadow" phenomenon again preventing battle noise from being heard. Fighting continues until dark when Bragg orders a withdrawal back toward Harrodsburg. Losses are heavy on both sides with Confederate loss at 3,405 killed, wounded, and missing, and Union causalities at 4,211. The Confederates suffered a 20% loss; the Union slightly less.

October 8, 1862 - The CSS Alabama captures the USS Tonawanda, a packet ship that is released under bond.

October 9, 1862 - As word of the Perryville battle spreads, Kentucky is more strongly in the Union fold and Bragg's once promising campaign into Kentucky is ended.

October 9, 1862 - James Longstreet and Edmund Kirby-Smith are promoted to lieutenant generals, C.S.A.

October 10, 1862 - The Confederate Congress is encouraged by President Davis to draft 4,500 African Americans to build fortifications around Richmond.

October 10, 1862 - General J.E.B. Stuart begins what becomes his second circuit around McClellan's Army as he enters Pennsylvania at Black Creek, Maryland. His orders are to destroy the Cumberland Valley railroad bridge near Chambersburg.

October 10, 1862 - The Confederate Congress and President Davis promote John B. Hood and George E. Pickett as major generals and William Hardee, Thomas J. Jackson, John C. Pemberton, and Leonidas Polk to lieutenant generals, C.S.A.

October 11, 1862 - President Davis modifies Confederate draft law to exempt anyone holding 20 or more slaves. This invites a charge that politicians are waging "a rich man's war and a poor man's fight."

October 11, 1862 - Chambersburg is captured and held briefly by J.E.B. Stuart. The bridge is not destroyed but 300 Union prisoners are captured and paroled, and 500 horses are taken. The cavalry moves on to recross the Potomac at White's Ferry near Emmitsburg, Maryland. The entire route covered 180 miles in two days and resulted in 1200 horses seized, all without serious Union resistance.

October 11, 1862 - General Bragg continues to retreat southward. Harrodsburg, Kentucky is re-occupied by Union forces.

October 11, 1862 - The raider CSS Alabama captures the USS Manchester and finds New York newspapers reporting a U.S. Navy search for the Alabama. The Manchester is burned.

October 12, 1862 - J.E.B. Stuart returns to Virginia, completing another famous circuit. Military significance of the raid is minimal but General McClellan is discouraged and becomes more cautious than usual.

October 12, 1862 - Oceanographer and commander Matthew F. Maury slips past the Union blockade at Charleston, South Carolina and sails to Britain to purchase warships for the South.

October 13, 1862 - The second session of the First Confederate Congress adjourns in Richmond.

October 13, 1862 - General McClellan refuses to resume offensive movement. President Lincoln's telegram; "Are you not being overcautious when you assume that you cannot do what the enemy is constantly doing?"

October 13, 1862 - Generals Braxton Bragg and Edmund Kirby-Smith file through the Cumberland Gap back into Tennessee. The Confederate 'high spot' in Kentucky concludes.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week -  October 14 - 20, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President 

Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

October 14, 1862 - Elections in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Iowa result in Democratic Party gains. Democrats oppose emancipation and propose accommodation of the Confederacy.

October 14, 1862 - General John C. Pemberton takes command at Vicksburg, of the Department of Mississippi as well as Louisiana.

October 15, 1862 - Captain Semmes aboard the CSS Alabama captures and burns the Union bark Lamplighter off Nova Scotia.

October 15, 1862 - Permission is granted for Colonel John Morgan to move through central Kentucky and make raids on Union communications. General Edmund Kirby-Smith is Morgan's commanding officer.

October 15, 1862 - The Army of the Potomac begins to move from Sharpsburg to reconnoiter Harper's Ferry and then continue on to Smithfield in western Virginia.

October 16, 1862 - The Federal militia draft is violently opposed in several Pennsylvania Counties.

October 16, 1862 - Braxton Bragg continues to move his Confederate force through the Cumberland Gap with no interference from General Buell's nearby Union force.

October 16, 1862 - The Department of the Tennessee is reactivated by General Ulysses Grant and an immediate campaign against Vicksburg is planned.

October 17, 1862 - Colonel Morgan's 1,800 Cavalry Troops depart from their position southeast of Richmond and head toward Lexington, Kentucky on a second major raid into the area.

October 18, 1862 - Morgan's raid on Lexington nets 125 Union prisoners and drives the Union forces out of the town. Colonel Morgan then cuts across Kentucky, destroying railroad bridges and tracks. This raid lasts 12 days.

October 19, 1862 - The defeated Army of the Tennessee completes the move south through the Cumberland Gap, led by General Braxton Bragg. General Buell is criticized for allowing the Confederates to withdraw without a Union pursuit.

October 20, 1862 - Union forces on Gallatin Pike near Nashville, Tennessee successfully defend themselves when attacked by General Nathan B. Forrest.

October 20, 1862 - Near Bardstown, Kentucky, Confederates capture 81 Union supply wagons.

October 20, 1862 - General Grant's plan of action at Vicksburg, Mississippi, becomes complicated when President Lincoln directs former politician General John A. McClernand to mount an expedition against the same objective. The force McClernand employs is made up of troops from Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa and is named the Army of the Mississippi.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week -  October 21 - 27, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President 

Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

October 21, 1862 - President Jefferson Davis reveals his plan to clear Tennessee and Arkansas of all Union forces. General Theophilus H. Holmes will lead the offensive.

October 21, 1862 - The USS Louisville and the troop transport "Meteor" capture Bledsoe's Landing and Hamblin's Landing, Arkansas. This in retaliation for guerilla attacks on the vessels. Both towns are burned.

October 22, 1862 - Two weeks after the defeat at Perryville, General Braxton Bragg moves the last of the Confederates through the Cumberland Gap. General Buell's Union force does not impede the move.

October 22, 1862 - London, Kentucky is occupied by General Joseph Wheeler's Confederate Cavalry.

October 22, 1862 - The USS Ellis destroys the blockade-runner Adelaide at New Topsail Inlet and the USS Penobscot seizes the British brig "Robert Bruce" off Cape Fear, North Carolina.

October 23, 1862 - The CSS Alabama commanded by Captain Semmes continues to be active; this time capturing and burning the Union bark "Lafayette" near Halifax, Nova Scotia.

October 24, 1862 - General Don C. Buell is relieved of command of the Army of the Ohio, primarily for his failure to pursue and destroy General Braxton Bragg's army in their retreat from Perryville, Kentucky. Bragg now has his army near Chattanooga and Knoxville, Tennessee.

October 24, 1862 - General William S. Rosecrans takes over Command of the Department of the Cumberland.

October 25, 1862 - General George B. McClellan is again urged by President Lincoln to move his Army of the Potomac into some offensive operation in Virginia. McClellan's response claiming fatigued horses angers the President who responds: "Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done since the battle of Antietam that would fatigue anything?" (The Battle of Antietam was September 17th.)

October 25, 1862 - General Ulysses S. Grant now has the newly formed XIII Corps added to his Department of the Tennessee.

October 26, 1862 - General Samuel P. Heintzelman takes over the command of all Washington, D.C. defenses, replacing General Nathaniel P. Banks.

October 26, 1862 - General George B. McClellan begins to move, crossing the Potomac River back into Virginia. The president is "rejoiced" at the news but General Robert E. Lee has ample time to move his forces to occupy large areas between the Army of the Potomac and Richmond, Virginia.

October 27, 1862 - General Rosecrans is again promoted, this time to command of the XIV Corps in Tennessee.

October 27, 1862 - The CSS Alabama, a British built Confederate raider commanded by Captain Raphael Semmes, captures and burns the Union schooner Crenshaw near Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week -  October 28 - November 3, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

October 28, 1862 - The USS Montgomery captures the Confederate steamer "Carolina" off Pensacola, Florida.

October 28, 1862 - The Army of the Potomac under command of General George B. McClellan begins to slowly move north toward Warrenton, Virginia. Robert E. Lee falls back toward Richmond and extends his lines to prevent being encircled by the northern army.

October 28, 1862 - About 3,000 Confederates, retreating from the Kentucky Campaign, are engaged by 1,000 Union troops at Fayetteville, Arkansas. The Union force is commanded by General Samuel R. Curtis of the Army of the Frontier.

October 28, 1862 - The first black regiment to see combat, the 79th Colored Infantry from Kansas, is involved in action at Island Mounds, Missouri.

October 28, 1862 - Lieutenant John T. Wood, C.S.N., leads a raid capturing the Union ship "Alleghanian" off the mouth of the Rappahannock River, Chesapeake Bay.

October 28, 1862 - The CSS Alabama crew captures and burns the Union bark "Lauraetta" off Halifax.

October 29, 1862 - President Lincoln writes to General McClellan, "When you get entirely across the river, let me know. What do you know of the enemy?" He has no comment on the snail's
pace movement that is the usual for the Army of the Potomac under McClellan.

October 29, 1862 - The continued bad news from the west causes President Jefferson Davis to write, "Our only alternatives are to abandon important points or to use our limited resources as effectively as circumstances permit." This is in reaction to the failure of the Kentucky Campaign and the gathering of Union forces ever closer to Vicksburg.

October 29, 1862 - Near Petersburg in western Virginia, Federal troops recapture about 200 head of the cattle General J.E.B. Stuart's Cavalry gathered in their raid near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.

October 30, 1862 - Emperor Napoleon III suggests that France, Great Britain, and Russia form a mediation board to end the American War. If that failed, he suggested recognition of the Confederate States of America.

October 30, 1862 - Command of The Union Department of the South is resumed by General John M. Brannen following the death from illness of General Ormsby M. Mitchell at Beaufort, South Carolina.

October 30, 1862 - The U.S. Navy offers a reward of $500,000 for the capture of Confederate Raider CSS Alabama, formerly British "290." About a dozen Union ships joint the pursuit.

October 31, 1862 - General Ulysses S. Grant amasses 30,000 Union troops at Grand Junction, Tennessee in preparation for advance on Vicksburg, Mississippi.

October 31, 1862 - Lacking warships, the Confederate Congress authorizes formation of a Torpedo Bureau headed by General Gabriel Rains and a Naval Submarine Battery Service under Lieutenant Hunter Davidson. Together, these two units test and deploy many devices that ultimately sink or damage some 40 Union vessels.

November 1, 1862 - General Benjamin Butler issues a new order in New Orleans. This time he restricts movement into or out of the city and frees all slaves of "non loyal" citizens.

November 1, 1862 - Leaving Grand Junction, Tennessee, General Grant moves his army toward Holly Springs, an important rail junction. Moving in three columns, the Union force advances along the Mississippi Central Railroad.

November 1, 1862 - Captain Raphael Semmes aboard the CSS Alabama leads a successful capture and destruction of the Union whaler "Levi Starbuck" near Bermuda.

November 1, 1862 - The USS Louisville captures the Confederate steamer "Evansville" near Island No.36 on the Mississippi River.

November 3, 1862 - General James Longstreet's corps sets up a blocking position near Culpeper Court House, Virginia in front of the Army of the Potomac.

November 3, 1862 - Confederate guerrillas attack and capture a Union supply train at Harrisonville, Missouri. This is William C. Quantrill's band.

November 3, 1862 - Assistant Naval Secretary Gustavus Fox is urged by Commander Henry Thatcher to deploy more warships to the Mediterranean to preclude Confederate raids there.

November 3, 1862 - A second source of history of the Civil War cites the first black unit activity on this date. They report that the Union landed black troops on the coast of Georgia and Florida. This involved the 1st South Carolina Volunteers commanded by Colonel Thomas W. Higginson. (See the October 28th entry above.)

November 3, 1862 - Near Shallotte Inlet, North Carolina, the USS Penobscot runs the British blockade-runner "Pathfinder" aground.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week -  November 4 - 10, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

November 4, 1862 - Midterm elections in New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and Wisconsin result in significant Democratic Party gains but are offset by Republican gains in California and Michigan. The Republican Party retains control of the House of Representatives.

November 4, 1862 - Union troops occupy LaGrange, Tennessee prior to a final push to Vicksburg, Mississippi. General Grant plans to join the rest of his large army currently at Grand Junction, Tennessee, just 5 miles from Lagrange, and descend on Vicksburg.

November 4, 1862 - The rapid fire Gatling gun receives first government patents. The weapon was functional by the end of the war but rarely used.

November 5, 1862 - President Lincoln orders General Ambrose E. Burnsides to replace General George McClellan as commander of the Army of the Potomac.

November 5, 1862 - General James S. Nagley leads Union troops against General Nathan Bedford Forrest's cavalry near Nashville, Tennessee.

November 6, 1862 - Generals James Longstreet and Thomas J. Jackson are named commanders of the 1st and 2nd Army Corps of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, respectively.

November 6, 1862 - General Grant sends scouts into Mississippi to lead his army toward Vicksburg.

November 6, 1862 - Federal forces from Fort Scott, Kansas attempt to disburse or capture guerrillas led by William C. Quantrill.

November 7, 1862 - George B. McClellan formally steps down as commander of the Army of the Potomac but is adored by his troops that call him "Little Mac."

November 7, 1862 - The Army of the Mississippi re-organizes with General Leonidas Polk becoming 1st Corps commander and General William J. Hardee, 2nd Corps commander.

November 7, 1862 - General Rosecrans begins to move his Army of the Cumberland from Kentucky to Nashville, Tennessee. November 7, 1862 - The Ellet Rams are transferred from the War Department to the Mississippi Squadron as urged by Admiral David D. Porter. The move is authorized by President Lincoln.

November 8, 1862 - At New Orleans, General Benjamin Butler is replaced by General Nathaniel P. Banks as commander of the Department of the Gulf. Butler makes one last controversial decision by closing all breweries and distilleries, claiming the New Orleans' celebration of his dismissal could become a riot.

November 8, 1862 - The crew of the Confederate raider CSS Alabama captures and burns the Union vessel 'T.B. Wales' near Bermuda.

November 8, 1862 - General Grant begins his move into Mississippi with the ultimate destination of Vicksburg, some 210 miles away.

November 9, 1862 - General Ambrose E. Burnside becomes commander of the Army of the Potomac after initially trying to refuse the position. He sends a Cavalry scout unit to Fredericksburg, Virginia where they capture 54 Confederate prisoners and prove the defenses are weak. He plans further offensive moves.

November 9, 1862 - Greenville, North Carolina is captured by a joint Army/Navy landing party from the USS Louisiana.

November 10, 1862 - General Joseph Hooker takes command of the V Corps of the Army of the Potomac replacing General Fritz John Porter. Porter faces court martial charges for his failure to follow orders at Second Bull Run (Second Manassas).

November 10, 1862 - General George McClellan bids farewell to the Army of the Potomac at Warrenton, Virginia.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week -  November 11 - 17, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

November 11, 1862 - Near the Florida coast, the USS Kensington captures the Confederate schooner "Course."

November 11, 1862 - Skirmishing and light engagements are reported at Bachelor's Creek and New Bern, North Carolina and at Huntsville and Lebanon, Tennessee.

November 12, 1862 - The Confederate Blockade Runner "Maria" is a victim of the USS Kensington.

November 12, 1862 - Major General Joseph Hooker assumes command of the V Corps, Army of the Potomac.

November 13, 1862 - General Grant's forces moving toward Vicksburg occupy the important rail junction at Holly Springs, Mississippi.

November 13, 1862 - General Braxton Bragg moves the Confederate Army of Tennessee from Chattanooga to Murfreesboro, intending to unite with General John C. Breckinridge's force.

November 14, 1862 - General Burnside, newly in command of the Army of the Potomac, reorganizes his large force. Generals Joseph Hooker, Edwin Sumner, and William B. Franklin are appointed as Right, Center, and Left Grand Division Commanders. A Grand Division consisted of two Corps. The army starts their move toward Fredericksburg, Virginia in preparation for an eventual move to Richmond.

November 14, 1862 - General Braggs' Confederate Army of Tennessee concentrates at Tullahoma, Tennessee.

November 15, 1862 - Confederate Secretary of War George W. Randolph resigns without prior notice.

November 15, 1862 - General Burnside's troops cover about 40 miles in two days in their move to Fredericksburg. The quick move causes the Confederates to question Burnside's intentions.

November 15, 1862 - President Lincoln and several cabinet members escape injury when an experimental "Hyde Rocket" explodes during a demonstration at the Washington Navy Yard.

November 15, 1862 - The active Confederate Raider CSS Alabama arrives in Martinique Harbor and is held in a loose blockade by the USS San Jacinto. The USS San Jacinto is the same sloop that overpowered the British vessel "Trent," capturing Confederate ambassadors John Slidell and James Mason in what was called the "Trent Affair" in October 1861.

November 16, 1862 - As the Army of the Mississippi continues to reorganize, Generals Daniel Butterfield and William F. Smith take command of the V and VI Corps, respectively.

November 17, 1862 - With persuasion from President Jefferson Davis, General Gustavus W. Smith reluctantly assumes the Secretary of War position.

November 17, 1862 - The Union Right Grand Division deploys at Falmouth, Virginia, just across the Rappahannock from Fredericksburg, after an impressive march. Robert E. Lee is uncertain where the Union Army is positioned. General Burnside's advantage of surprise is lost by slow deployment of pontoon bridges and other equipment.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week -  November 18 - 24, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

November 18, 1862 - General Edwin Sumner and the Union Right Grand Division continues to occupy the Falmouth, Virginia side of the Rappahannock River directly opposite the heights of Fredericksburg, Virginia. A three-week delay in any activity from the Army of the Potomac allows General Longstreet to arrive with Confederate troops and greatly strengthens the defensive positions.

November 19, 1862 - General Burnsides arrives in Falmouth, Virginia. Confederate forces adjust their defense by moving General Longstreet's corps to Culpeper and cavalry troops of J.E.B. Stuart's to Warrenton.

November 19, 1862 - General Grant probes Confederate lines near Grand Junction, Tennessee as he continues toward Vicksburg, Mississippi.

November 20, 1862 - Confederates successfully attack Union Pickets at Bull Run Bridge, Virginia as their cavalry continues to occupy Warrenton and Leesburg, Virginia.

November 20, 1862 - General Robert E. Lee arrives in Fredericksburg to personally direct the Army of Northern Virginia.

November 20, 1862 - General Bragg shuffles commanders of the Army of Tennessee with the three corps now commanded by Generals Edmund Kirby-Smith, Leonidas Polk, and William J. Hardee.

November 21, 1862 - James A. Seddon is named new Confederate Secretary of War just four days after Gustavas W. Smith reluctantly accepted the position.

November 21, 1862 - General Burnside demands the surrender of Fredericksburg but the Mayor refuses. Burnside advises the evacuation of women and children.

November 21, 1862 - Nathan B. Forrest's cavalry is dispatched by General Braxton Bragg to disrupt communication lines in western Tennessee.

November 22, 1862 - Union Secretary of War Edwin Stanton releases the majority of political prisoners in army custody.

November 22, 1862 - General Burnside reverses himself and promises the Fredericksburg mayor that he will not fire on the town. Burnside also states that he expects no hostile action from inhabitants.

November 23, 1862 - Lieutenant William Cushing of the USS Ellis directs an armed party to seize two schooners near Jacksonville, North Carolina. The Confederate crews run the captured schooners aground and damage them by burning. Cushing and most of his party eventually escape in one of the damaged schooners.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week -  November 25 - December 1, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

November 25, 1862 - Confederate Cavalry captures Henderson, Tennessee and conducts a raid into Maryland, near Poolesville, Md.

November 25, 1862 - The USS 'Kittatinny' captures the British blockade runner 'Matilda' at sea.

November 26, 1862 - President Lincoln travels to Aquia Creek, Virginia to confer with General Ambrose E. Burnside. The discussion centers on tactics for the planned assault on Fredericksburg. The president favors a multi-pronged attack while Burnside wishes for a direct assault. The direct attack is chosen after a lengthy debate.

November 26, 1862 - General Braxton Bragg completes the movement of all Confederate troops out of Kentucky. General Bragg vows to maintain a strong presence in middle Tennessee near his current location at Murfreesboro.

November 26, 1862 - In navel activity, the USS Mount Vernon captures the Confederate blockade runner 'Levi Rowe' off North Carolina and the USS 'Kittatinny' seizes a Confederate schooner in the Gulf of Mexico.

November 27, 1862 - Federal forces evacuate Rienzi, Missouri and move toward Helena, Arkansas.

November 28, 1862 - In skirmish action at Frankfort, Virginia, 100 Confederate prisoners are captured.

November 28, 1862 - Union General James G. Blunt leads 5,000 men against 2,000 Confederate Cavalrymen at Cane Hill, Arkansas. In the nine-hour battle, General John S. Marmanduke's cavalry is driven into the Boston Mountains where General Joseph O. Shelby is positioned with a rearguard detachment. With near equal numbers, the battle breaks off with about 45 causalities on each side.

November 29, 1862 - With the Confederates knowing about General Blunt's small detachment in Arkansas, at least 100 miles from any Union assistance, Confederate General Thomas C. Hindman begins a march overland to attack the isolated column.

November 29, 1862 - U.S. Army promotions include Winfield S. Hancock, George G. Meade, John F. Reynolds, John M. Schofield, and Daniel E. Sickles, all promoted to major general.

November 29, 1862 - Confederate General John B. Magruder takes charge of the District of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. His first priority is the recapture of Galveston. Men and ships are assembled and two steamers are refitted with bales of cotton as "armor". These "Cotton Clads" will figure prominently in the planned capture of Galveston, Texas.

November 30, 1862 - With the delays in moving pontoons and other bridge equipment, General Burnside finally arrives in Falmouth, Virginia and he can move across the Rappahannock to Fredericksburg. The slow move allows General James Longstreet to move more that 35,000 Southern forces to the heights above the town.

November 30, 1862 - The Confederate raider 'Alabama' outruns the pursuit of the USS 'Vanderbilt'. The 'Alabama' captures the Union Bark 'Parker Cook' off the Leeward Islands.

December 1, 1862 - The third session of the 37th Congress convenes. President Lincoln presents a plan of compensated emancipation but there is little enthusiasm. He also mentions help for Blacks wanting to be colonized, again without positive reaction for the plan.

December 1, 1862 - Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles makes his second annual report to President Lincoln. There are 427 ships in commission mounting a total of 1,577 guns, crews numbering 28,000 men plus 12,000 mechanics and laborers.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week -  December 2 - 8, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - December 2 - 8, 1862 Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President 
 Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

December 2, 1862 - Confederate steamer 'Queen of the Bay' is run aground on Padre Island, Texas by a crew from the USS 'Sachem.' The sailors retreat 30 miles and eventually rejoin their refloated vessel.

December 3, 1862 - Confederate troops destroy 15 locomotives and 100 railcars to avoid capture of the equipment, then flee from Granada, Mississippi as Union troops commanded by General Alvin P. Hovey occupy the town.

December 3, 1862 - Confederate General Thomas C. Hindman leads 11,000 men out of Van Buren, Arkansas in bitter weather. They move to attack and destroy General Blunt's small Union unit at Cane Hill. Blunt becomes aware of Hindman's approach and telegraphs for help, which is 100 miles away. (See November 28th entry.)

December 4, 1862 - General Joseph E. Johnston arrives to coordinate the military operations of Generals Pemberton at Vicksburg, Mississippi and Braxton Bragg at Nashville. This extra level of control further complicates a command structure where-in President Davis controls the army from Richmond.

December 4, 1862 - Union forces capture Winchester, western Virginia, taking 145 Confederates as prisoners.

December 5, 1862 - President Lincoln pardons many of the Sioux tribesmen slated for execution. A total of 39 are condemned and hanged while 303 are released. The Sioux were detained after the uprising near New Ulm, Minnesota, in August and September 1862.

December 5, 1862 - Union Colonel Theophilus L. Dickey and his XIII Cavalry Corps, in pursuit of General Earl Van Dorn near Coffeyville, Mississippi, are engaged by a superior force of Confederates commanded by Generals Mansfield Lovell and Lloyd Tilghman. Colonel Dickey leads a successful withdrawal, suffering ten killed and 63 wounded while capturing 750 Southern soldiers, 200 horses, and 4 wagons.

December 5, 1862 - The CSS Alabama captures and releases the Federal schooner 'Union' near Haiti. Captain Raphael Semmes commands the Alabama.

December 6, 1862 - In a march that saved General Blunt's Union forces in Arkansas and preserved the Union war effort in that state, two divisions from the Army of the Frontier brave bitter cold and rough terrain to move 100 miles in three days. Under General Frances J. Herron, they move from Springfield, Missouri to Fayetteville, Arkansas.

December 7, 1862 - President Jefferson Davis contacts General Pemberton at Vicksburg inquiring "Are you in communication with General J.E. Johnston? Hope you will be reinforced in time."

December 7, 1862 -Hartsville, Tennessee is captured by a force of 2,400 Confederate raiders under General Morgan. Union General Absalom B. Moore's loss is 58 killed, 204 wounded and over 1800 captured.

December 7, 1862 - The Battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas takes place. Confederate General Hindman sends a cavalry force to distract General Blunt at Cane Hill while he advances on the tired and footsore command of General Herron near Prairie Grove, eight miles from Fayetteville. General Herron is badly outnumbered but he attacks when General Hindman goes into a defensive position. Union artillery is superior and the battle is a hard fought draw. Union loss is 175 dead, 813 wounded, and 263 missing (of 8,000 available) while Confederate losses total 164 killed, 817 wounded, and 336 missing (of 10,000 available to fight). The Confederates of Hindman's command evacuate and return to Van Buren. Over the next several days, large numbers of Confederate soldiers desert and the Union domination over Missouri and northwestern Arkansas remains.

December 7, 1862 - The CSS Alabama captures the steamer 'Ariel' off Cuba, this time taking 700 prisoners, including 150 U.S. Marines, Commanded by Louis C. Sartori.

December 8, 1862 - President Lincoln asks the U.S. Congress to issue an official vote of thanks to Captain John L. Worden for his role as commander of the USS Monitor.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week -  December 16-22, 1862
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

December 16, 1862 - General Ambrose Burnside issues a directive accepting full responsibility for the disaster at Fredericksburg, as the Army of the Potomac re-occupies Falmouth, Virginia. By early 1863, Burnside reverses his position and blames several others.

December 16, 1862 - General Benjamin Butler leaves his command at New Orleans and is succeeded by General Nathaniel P. Banks.

December 16, 1862 - General Nathan B. Forrest approaches Lexington, Tennessee and Union Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll is dispatched, with 700 men and two cannons, to obstruct Forrest's raid on the town. Ingersoll must move 28 miles from Jackson, Tennessee to Lexington. Moving at a trot, some veteran soldiers arrive in time to delay Forrest. Only about 200 of the 700 Union soldiers are veterans, the rest hastily trained recruits.

December 17, 1862 - President Lincoln is put on the spot when Radical Republicans call for Secretary of State William H. Seward to be replaced by Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase. Seward tenders his resignation at this insult. President Lincoln refuses to accept it.

December 17, 1862 - General Forrest prepares to enter Lexington, Tennessee with his 2,500 troops while 700 Union soldiers defend the town. Colonel Ingersoll orders all roads and crossings approaching the town destroyed. Somehow, a bridge on the Lower Road is overlooked.

December 17, 1862 - General Order No.11, expelling Jews from his theatre of operation, is issued by General U.S. Grant. The order reads "The Jews, as a class violating every regulation of trade established by the Treasury Department, and also department orders, are hereby expelled from the department within twenty-four hours of the receipt of this order." The order is rescinded some weeks later.

December 17, 1862 - General Earl Van Dorn, recently disgraced but appointed by General John Pemberton to command a cavalry unit, leaves Granada, Mississippi to move on a Union supply depot at Holly Springs. Taking an indirect route, he passes the town and then turns back, attacking the objective from three directions.

December 18, 1862 - General Forrest leads his cavalry troops on Lexington and wins a hard fought, daylong battle. The unburned bridge on the Lower Road is the only weak spot in Colonel Ingersoll's defense of the town.

December 18, 1862 - The Army of the Tennessee is reorganized under General Grant. Generals are: XIII Corps - John A. McClernand, XV Corps - William Tecumseh Sherman, XVI Corps - Stephen A. Hurlbut, and XVII Corps - James B. McPherson.

December 18, 1862 - Admiral Farragut suggests to newly arrived Commanding General Nathaniel P. Banks, that the reoccupation of Baton Rouge would be a first step to the eventual campaign against Port Hudson on the Mississippi River.

December 19, 1862 - General Grant is alerted to the impending raid on his supply depot at Holly Springs and warns Colonel Robert C. Murphy to prepare.

December 20, 1862 - General Sherman's XIII Corps of 32,000 Union troops moves down river on several transports, from Memphis, Tennessee, toward Vicksburg. In concert with demonstrations by General Grant's forces, the intent is to hold Confederate forces at Granada and prevent them from reaching Vicksburg.

December 20, 1862 - Confederate Cavalry under General Van Dorn have startling success in their raid on Holly Springs, Mississippi and the Union supply depot. Disguising the objective by marching on a roundabout route, Van Dorn enters Holly Springs unopposed and destroys $1.5 million in supplies and captures 1,500 Union prisoners. One of the largest raids on supplies in U.S. history, the loss had an impact on the entire Vicksburg campaign.

December 20, 1862 - Commander David D. Porter, aboard the USS 'Black Hawk,' joins General W.T. Sherman at Helena, Arkansas in a joint operation against Vicksburg.

December 21, 1862 - General John H. Morgan departs Alexandria, Tennessee on his third raid into Kentucky. This time he has 3,100 Confederate Cavalry Troops and the prime objective is to cut General William Rosecrans' supply line from Louisville on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad.

December 21, 1862 - General Grant is forced to move back to Memphis with the loss of his supply depot at Holly Springs. Grant is determined to make supply arrangements that do not depend on the railroad. In the meantime, he also is without telegraph communication with General Sherman. General Sherman is approaching Vicksburg, planning to meet up with Grant's forces for an attack.

December 22, 1862 - General Burnside meets with President Lincoln and they confer on future strategy. President Lincoln downplays the recent losses, including Fredericksburg.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - December 30, 1862 - January 5, 1863
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

December 30, 1862 - Colonel John Morgan encounters Union forces near New Haven, Kentucky. He moves on to destroy railroads, bridges, and the towns of Carter's Depot and Union, Kentucky are captured. Meanwhile, Union General Samuel P. Carter raids Confederate positions in Tennessee.

December 30, 1862 - Nathan B. Forrest's Confederate Raiders encamp at Parker's Cross Roads, Tennessee with plans to refloat their sunken flatboats at Clifton and cross the Tennessee River to safety. Scouts detect a large Union force nearby and Forrest decides to fight rather than run.

December 30, 1862 - The 43,000 men of the Army of the Cumberland under General William S. Rosecrans enters Murfreesboro, Tennessee after a three-day, 30-mile march in bad weather. Rosecrans' line is established across Stone's River from the 37,000 men Confederate Army of Tennessee under General Braxton Bragg. As the two armies settle in for the night, the military bands from the opposite camps "serenade" each other with competing tunes, including the sentimental "Home Sweet Home."

December 31, 1862 - President Lincoln approves the house vote to establish West Virginia as the 35th state.

December 31, 1862 - Cavalry General J.E.B. Stuart's latest foray behind enemy lines takes his unit to Culpeper Court House, Virginia where 200 captives and 20 wagons are seized.

December 31, 1862 - The Battle of Stone's River (Murfreesboro) begins. General Bragg launches the first assault and destroys Union General Richard W. Johnson's division. Union Generals Philip Sheridan, Alexander McCook, and Jefferson Davis fall back slowly giving General Rosecrans time to bring up fresh units. General Bragg fails to deploy four brigades of General John C. Breckenridge's command and the first day of the battle is a draw. The term "Hells half acre" is used to describe a heavily wooded section of the battlefield named Round Forrest.

December 31, 1862 - Union Colonel Cyrus L Dunham's forces are surrounded by General Nathan Forrest's Cavalry at Parker's Crossroads and many Union soldiers are already waving the white flag when Colonel John Fuller's 3rd Cavalry Brigade arrives from Clarksville and attacks the Confederate line from behind. The Confederates panic, then retreat, leaving cannons, wagons, and equipment behind. General Forrest saves his command by his order "Charge them both ways." This is a setback for Forrest with heavy losses but he continues to disrupt the Union assault on the important target, Vicksburg.

December 31, 1862 - The USS Monitor ironclad sinks in a gale off Cape Hatteras as it is being towed from Hampton Roads to Beaufort, North Carolina.

January 1, 1863 - President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation becomes law. "I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated states, and parts of states, are, and henceforth shall be free" is the core wording. Britain and France are now far less likely to support the South.

January 1, 1863 - President Lincoln does not accept General Ambrose Burnsides' resignation. Burnsides claims that none of the divisional commanders demonstrate faith in his capacity as a strategist or as a leader.

January 1, 1863 - At Murfreesboro, General Rosecrans and General Bragg suspend activity while dead and wounded are attended. Rosecrans moves back to a secondary line of defense along Stone's River and orders Colonel William Beatty to move his troops to high ground directly in front of General Breckenridge's division on the Confederate right. Bragg believes that he has superior numbers and is confused when Rosecrans does not give up the fight. Both sides expect resumption of combat the next day.

January 1, 1863 - General Sherman pulls his forces out of the Yazoo region north of Vicksburg.

January 1, 1863 - General John Magruder leads a surprise attack on Galveston, Texas. After an all day hard fought battle in and around Galveston Harbor, the Confederates prevail and Galveston remains in the hand of the South the rest of the war. Several vessels from both sides are sunk and causalities are moderate.

January 2, 1863 - General Joseph Wheeler leads his cavalry twice around the Army of the Cumberland at Stone's River. He takes 1,000 wagons and hundreds of prisoners.

January 2, 1863 - General Bragg decides to renew the battle with a frontal attack by Breckenridge's force, just where the opposition is the strongest. General Breckenridge protests but is ordered to attack. After some early Confederate success, General Rosecrans ordered his artillery chief, Captain John Mendenhall, to mass all 57 cannons on the river's higher west bank where the cannon fire can sweep the open ground across the river. This major battle is the costliest in causalities of any Civil War battle when calculated as percentage of loss of the fighting force present. Confederate losses were 13,249 of 41,400 present and Union losses of 10,266 of 34,739 present. While a technical Union win, neither army recovered for six months and Bragg's Army was never again effective or at their former strength. Bragg also suffered criticism and lack of leadership questions. (Some historical sources claim the percentage of loss at 29.9% and the loss at Gettysburg at 30%.)

January 2, 1863 - General Nathan B. Forrest's Cavalry Troops refloat the sunken flatboats and cross the Tennessee River at Clifton.

January 2, 1863 - Morgan's Raiders also move back into Tennessee. Their latest raid shows 1,800 prisoners and over $2 million in destruction of bridges and supplies.

January 2, 1863 - New Madrid is again occupied by the Union.

January 2, 1863 - General John A. McClernand takes command of the 32,000 man Army of the Mississippi at Milliken's Bend, Louisiana. His corps commanders are General George W. Morgan-I Corps and William T. Sherman-II Corps.

January 3, 1863 - Confederates of Bragg's Army fall back to Shelbyville and Tullahoma, Tennessee. General Rosecrans does not vigorously pursue.

January 4, 1863 - Henry W. Halleck, Army General in Chief, orders General U.S. Grant to rescind his December 17, 1862 General Order #11 which ordered the expulsion of all Jews from his department.

January 4, 1863 - General McClernand moves 32,000 Federal troops from Millikan's Bend, Louisiana into Arkansas, without prior clearance. Generals Morgan and Sherman are ordered to capture the Confederate outpost at Fort Hindman, 50 miles up the Arkansas River at Little Rock. Admiral Porter supplied gunboats and transports for this troop movement but Porter disliked McClernand so General Sherman negotiated this agreement.

January 5, 1863 - Federal forces occupy Murfreesboro, Tennessee as General Bragg moves his army southward.

January 5, 1863 - General Ambrose Burnside again tenders his resignation stating in part "to relieve you from all embarrassment in my case." President Lincoln again refuses to accept the resignation.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - January 6 - 12, 1863
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

January 6, 1863 - Fort Lawrence is burned by Confederate cavalry troops commanded by General John S. Marmaduke. They then join with Colonel Williams Quantrill's raiders at Springfield, Missouri.

January 7, 1863 - President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation is condemned by the Illinois state legislature for "turning the war into a crusade for liberating African-American slaves."

January 7, 1863 - General in Chief Henry Halleck allows General Burnside to proceed with his plan to attack across the Rappahannock River in spite of the hazards of winter marches.

January 8, 1863 - General John H. Marmaduke occupies Ozark, Missouri and joins General Sterling Price there. General Marmaduke then leads an unsuccessful raid on Springfield, Missouri.

January 9, 1863 - The Army of the Cumberland is reorganized by General Rosecrans with Generals George H. Thomas-XIV Corps, Alexander M. McCook-XX Corps, and Thomas L. Crittenden-XXI Corps.

January 9, 1863 - General Marmaduke leads the assault and capture of Hartville, Missouri.

January 9, 1863 - Arkansas Post (Fort Hindman) is garrisoned by 5,000 men and mounts 17 cannons. General Thomas J. Churchill commands. General McClernand, aboard Admiral Porter's flotilla, plans to exchange fire with the fort to cover troop landing, then run past the fort.

January 10, 1863 - General Fitz John Porter is cashiered and dropped from army rolls for disobeying orders at the Battle of Second Manassas. The order was overturned in 1879.

January 10, 1863 - Admiral Porter's flotilla consists of the USS Louisville, Baron deKalb, Cincinnati, Lexington, Black Hawk, Glide and Rattler. The troops land under cover of shelling but the flotilla fails to get past the heavy fire from the fort. Rattler has her cabin knocked off.

January 11, 1863 - General McClernand attacks Fort Hindman and makes little headway until gunboats reduce the fort's batteries. General Churchill surrenders late in the day. General McClernand captures 11 cannons, thousands of weapons, tons of ammunition, as well as 4,791 Confederate soldiers.

January 11, 1863 - The CSS Alabama, Captain Raphael Semmes commanding, sinks the paddle steamer "Hatteras" ending a 13-minute engagement off Galveston, Texas. Captain Semmes rescues the entire crew. Commanders of Union ships redouble efforts to track and corner or sink the "Alabama"

January 11, 1863 - Federal gunboats of Admiral Porter's flotilla reduce Fort Hindman. "No fort ever received a worse battering," according to Admiral Porter.

January 11, 1863 - Confederate General Marmaduke suffers the loss of 150 men at Wood's Fork, Missouri while Federal Colonel Lewis Merrill has 35 causalities.

January 12, 1863 - The Confederate Congress convenes at Richmond. President Davis condemns the Emancipation Proclamation but still expects eventual European recognition of the Confederacy.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - January 13 - 19, 1863
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

January 13, 1863 - Union Colonel Thomas W. Higginson of the 1st South Carolina Volunteer Infantry begins recruiting former slaves.

January 13, 1863 - The USS General Bragg departs Mound City, Arkansas to participate in a joint army-navy expedition along the Mississippi River. Confederate guerrillas are operating along the river and several buildings have been burned.

January 14, 1863 - Federal forces are successful against Confederates at Bayou Teche, Louisiana. Federal gunboats attack and sink the CSS Cotton.

January 15, 1863 - President Lincoln visits the Washington Navy Yard to confer with Admiral John A.B. Dahlgren and to observe weapons testing.

January 15, 1863 - In retaliation for the residents supporting guerrillas, Union troops burn Mound City, Arkansas.

January 16, 1863 - Lieutenant John N. Maffitt aboard the CSS Florida evades Union blockaders and slips out of Mobile Bay under darkness. The CSS Florida raider eventually captures 15 Union vessels.

January 17, 1863 - President Lincoln signs legislation that allows immediate payment to military personnel. He also asks Congress for currency reform as the North is facing mounting inflation.

January 17, 1863 - General U.S. Grant orders General McClernand back to Milliken's Bend, Louisiana. Grant resents McClernand's disregard for communication to gain approval of his expedition to Fort Hindeman, Arkansas.

January 18, 1863 - The 64th North Carolina under Colonel James A. Keith receives orders from General Henry Heth to sweep through western North Carolina in search of Northern sympathizers. Fifteen suspects are eventually captured. They all deny any bushwhacking activity but are lined up, shot, and buried in shallow graves. Confederate Secretary of War James A. Seddon and North Carolina Governor Zebulon B. Vance call for an investigation but no one is ever punished.

January 18, 1863 - Admiral Porter renews his efforts against Vicksburg by ordering all available gunboats to Milliken's Bend on the Yazoo.

January 19, 1863 - General Ambrose E. Burnside attempts to redeem his reputation by ordering his two Grand Divisions (under General Hooker and General William Franklin) to cross the Rappahannock at Bank's Ford, Virginia. This puts the Army of the Potomac behind General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and only ten miles from Fredericksburg. Good winter weather prevails but does not last.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - January 20 - 26, 1863
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

January 20, 1863 - The infamous "mud march" begins with General Ambrose Burnside leading the Army of the Potomac in an attempted march around the left flank of the Army of Northern Virginia, then cross the Rappahannock River to force a battle in the open. Burnside planned this ill-fated march as a way to bolster his flagging reputation. Rain and knee-deep mud lead to the ultimate abandonment of the attempt within two days and more questions about General Burnside's leadership abilities.

January 20, 1863 - Confederate troops under General John S. Marmaduke capture Patterson, Missouri.

January 21, 1863 - General Ulysses S. Grant's infamous General Order #11, the so called "Jew Order" which was rescinded by General Halleck's order of January 4,1863, reaches the president's desk. President Lincoln endorses the revocation stating "...it proscribed an entire religious class, some of whom are fighting in our ranks."

January 21, 1863 - President Lincoln endorses the court martial and dismissal of General Fritz John Porter.

January 21, 1863 - Confederate President Jefferson Davis sends General Joseph E. Johnston to Manchester, Tennessee to discuss the abandonment of Murfreesboro (Stone's River) with General Braxton Bragg. President Davis lacks confidence in General Bragg's ability to lead. This was brought on by complaints from Bragg's senior subordinates.

January 22, 1863 - General Burnside ends his attempt to flank the Southern Army and falls back to the camp at Falmouth, Virginia. The entire wagon train is mired in mud to the axles.

January 22, 1863 - Army of the Tennessee commander General John McClernand is reduced to commander of the XIII Corps and General Grant takes charge of all forces in Arkansas. Grant begins construction of a canal opposite Vicksburg, Mississippi to allow Union shipments of men and supplies to safely bypass Vicksburg's cannon fire.

January 23, 1863 - The soggy, demoralized Army of the Potomac settles into winter quarters at Falmouth, Virginia, directly across from Fredericksburg. General Burnside issues General Order #8 which strips Generals Joseph Hooker, Edwin Sumner, and William Franklin of their commands. General Burnside then rides to Washington to confer with the president.

January 24, 1863 - In an attempt to flank Vicksburg via the Yazoo River, Admiral David Porter arrives back at the mouth of the swampy Yazoo.

January 25, 1863 - The 54th Massachusetts Infantry, composed entirely of African Americans led by a white officer, is authorized by Massachusetts Governor John A. Andrews.

January 25, 1863 - General Ambrose Burnside is removed as commander of the Army of the Potomac. One of General Burnside's loudest critics, General Joseph Hooker, is named to the command of this army. Generals Edwin Sumner and William Franklin must await a board of inquiry to determine their futures.

January 25, 1863 - Lieutenant John S. Mosby leads the Virginia Partisan Rangers as they skirmish with Federal troops at Fairfax Court House, Virginia.

January 25, 1863 - General Marmaduke completes his raid into Missouri and returns to Batesville, Arkansas.

January 26, 1863 - President Lincoln announces the appointment of General Joseph "Fighting Joe" Hooker as the new commander of the Army of the Potomac. He further names the following Generals as Division Commanders: Darius Couch, Right Grand Division; George Mead, Central Grand Division; and Oliver O. Howard, Left Grand Division.

January 26, 1863 - The Confederate raider "Alabama" continues her success under the leadership of Captain Raphael Semmes. The Union ship "Golden Rule" is burned near Haiti.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - January 27 - February 2, 1863
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

January 27, 1863 - An anti-Union editorial appeared in the Philadelphia Journal newspaper. Newspaperman A. D. Boileau was arrested.

January 27, 1863 - Shoshone attacks on area settlers and miners in the Great Basin Region resulted in a cavalry expedition against the tribe on the Bear River, Idaho Territory. Led by Colonel Patrick E. Conner, the First California Cavalry of 300 riders carries out a two-pronged attack against Chief Bear Hunter and his 300 warriors. An extended conflict ended with 224 warriors killed and 164 women and children prisoners. Federals lost 21 dead and 46 wounded. The Shoshone forfeit all claims in the Great Basin Region and Colonel Conner is promoted to brigadier general.

January 27, 1863 - The Confederate raider "Alabama" burns and sinks another Union vessel. This time it is the brig "Chastelaine" in the Caribbean.

January 28, 1863 - General Theophilus Holmes, Commander of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department, receives a message from President Davis in Richmond saying: "The loss of either of the two positions-Vicksburg or Port Hudson-would destroy communication with the Trans-Mississippi Department and inflict upon the Confederacy an injury which I am sure you have not failed to appreciate."

January 29, 1863 - In light of Union Admiral Porter's move toward Milliken's Bend on the Yazoo River, President Jefferson Davis asks General Pemberton in command at Vicksburg, Mississippi: "Has anything or can anything be done to obstruct the navigation from Yazoo Pass down?"

January 29, 1863 - The Confederate government authorizes a loan of $15 million from French financiers.

January 30, 1863 - General Grant is officially placed in charge at Milliken's Bend, Louisiana and begins formulation of a new strategy to capture Vicksburg.

January 30, 1863 - Admiral Porter orders a sweep of the Yazoo River ports for cotton that can be confiscated to deprive the Confederacy of this asset. He also assigns the "USS Linden" to lend aid in General Grant's plan to dig a new canal to circumvent Vicksburg.

January 31, 1863 - General Braxton Bragg continues his withdrawal from Murfreesboro, Tennessee while Federal troops try to overtake his retreat. A skirmish near Dover results in 300 Southern soldiers captured and five Union casualties.

January 31, 1863 - Confederate rams "CSS Palmetto State" and "Chicora" sortie against the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron off Charleston, South Carolina. Admiral Samuel Du Pont suffers damage to the "USS Keystone State" and the lose of the merchantman "Mercedes" while under a thick haze. The Union has 24 dead and 24 injured seamen but the Blockade Force remains in place.

February 1, 1863 - The Confederate dollar's value falls to purchasing power of about 20 cents.

February 1, 1863 - Union forces capture Franklin, Tennessee.

February 1, 1863 - The ironclad "USS Montauk" under command of Captain John L. Worden attacks Fort McCalister on the Ogeechee River, Georgia. Other Union vessels involved include the "USS Seneca," "Wissahickon," "Dawn," and the mortar boat "C.P. Williams." Inflicting heavy damage on the fort while taking 48 rounds of cannon fire with little damage to the ships, they disengage after a four-hour battle.

February 2, 1863 - The new Department of Washington D.C. is organized. This unit is designated XXII Corps.

February 2, 1863 - A Mississippi River levee is cut by Colonel James H. Wilson's men, raising the water level on the Yazoo River to allow gunboats to navigate.

February 2, 1863 - The Federal ram "USS Queen of the West" under Colonel Charles Ellet runs past Vicksburg's batteries taking 12 hits with little damage. She attacks the Confederate vessel "City of Vicksburg" before moving up the Red River to destroy supply caches.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - February 3 - 9, 1863
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

February 3, 1863 - The French embassy sends a message to Secretary of State William H. Seward offering to mediate the war.

February 3, 1863 - Captain John L. Warden is honored with a note of thanks from the U.S. Congress for his service as captain of the "USS Monitor."

February 3, 1863 - At Yazoo Pass, Mississippi, the levee to allow access to Vicksburg from behind is completed. A combined expedition commanded by General Leonard F. Ross moves down the Yazoo River escorted by the gunboats "USS Baron De Kalb" and "Chillicothe."

February 3, 1863 - Captain Raphael Semmes leads the crew of the "CSS Alabama" raider as they seize and burn the Union schooner "Palmetto" off Puerto Rico.

February 3, 1863 - General Nathan B. Forrest's Confederate cavalry fails in an attack on Fort Donelson, Tennessee. Colonel Abner C. Harding's garrison successfully turns back the attack aided by support fire from the "USS Lexington," "Fairplay," "St. Clair," "Brilliant," "Robb," and "Silver Lake."

February 4, 1863 - Confederate troops commanded by General John S. Marmaduke are driven from Batesville, Arkansas by pursuing Federal Troops.

February 5, 1863 - Citing low expectations for successful negotiation of an end to the war between the North and South in America, Queen Victoria informs Parliament that Britain will not become involved.

February 5, 1863 - General Hooker, newly named commander of the Army of the Potomac, reorganizes his command. He first drops the "Grand Division" scheme and replaces it with a nine corps structure. Corps Commanders are Generals John F Reynolds (I), Darius N. Couch (II), Daniel E. Sickles (III), George G. Meade (V), John Sedgwick (VI), William F. Smith (IX), Franz Sigel (XI), Henry W. Slocum (XII), and George Stoneman (cavalry).

February 6, 1863 - Secretary of State Seward rejects the French proposal to mediate the hostilities.

February 6, 1863 - General William F. Smith's IX Corps moves to Newport News, Virginia to increase pressure on Richmond from the east.

February 7, 1863 - At Selma, Alabama, two new Confederate ironclads are launched and move to Mobile to be further outfitted.

February 8, 1863 - The Chicago Tribune is forced to suspend publication temporarily due to alleged "disloyal" statements.

February 9, 1863 - The Confederate Army of the Southwest adds the Trans-Mississippi Department as part of their force. General Edmund Kirby-Smith commands.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - February 10 - 16, 1863
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

February 10, 1863 - The ram "USS Queen of the West" moves down the Red River, Louisiana while the ram "USS Dick Fulton" is damaged by Confederate forces at Cyrus Bend, Arkansas.

February 11, 1863 - Confederate agent James M. Mason continues to ask Britain to recognize the Confederacy, this time at the Lord Mayor's banquet in London.

February 13, 1863 - Lieutenant John N. Maffitt commanding the Confederate raider "CSS Florida" orders an attack on the Union clipper ship "Jacob Bell." The clipper is damaged and an estimated $2 million in cargo is seized.

February 13, 1863 - The "USS Queen of the West," now on the Atchafalaya River, Louisiana, destroys a Confederate wagon train. The "USS Conestoga" captures the Confederate steamers "Rose Hambleton" and the "Evansville" on White River, Arkansas.

February 14, 1863 - In more Navy news, Colonel Charles R. Ellet sails the U.S. ram "Queen of the West" up the Black River where she overtakes the "CSS New Era No.5." Moving back downstream, the "Queen of the West" is fired on from Confederate shore batteries, run aground and captured. The Union crew transfers to the "New Era No. 5" prize they control and everyone escapes.

February 14, 1863 - The "USS Tioga" captures the British blockade runner "Avon" near the Bahamas and the "USS Forest Rose" takes the Confederate steamer "Chippewa Valley" near Island No. 63 on the Mississippi River.

February 15, 1863 - General John Morgan and his Confederate raiders are turned back by Union troops near Cainsville, Tennessee.

February 15, 1863 - The "USS Sonoma" captures the "Atlantic," a Confederate brig.

February 16, 1863 - The U.S. Congress authorizes a new Conscription Act as the session continues. Volunteer soldiers are not enough to fill the quota so all men between age 20 and 45 are now eligible for military service. Substitutes can still be hired for $300.00, however.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - February 24 - March 2, 1863
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

February 24, 1863 - The Yazoo Pass is finally clear of overhanging vegetation that took three weeks for Union Troops to clear. General Leonard F. Ross plans to move his armada of transports and ironclads downstream.

February 24, 1863 - The New Mexico Territory is divided to yield the new Arizona Territory, by act of Congress.

February 24, 1863 - The U.S. fleet continues to capture and in some cases destroy Confederate vessels and blockade runners. The USS "Mahaska" sinks the Confederate sloop "Mary Jane" and the barge "Ben Bolt" on the York River, Virginia. The USS "State of Georgia" captures the blockade runner "Annie" near Cape Romain, South Carolina, and the USS "Tahoma" captures the schooner "Stonewall" off Key West, Florida.

February 24, 1863 - Admiral David D. Porter abandons efforts to blockade the Red River with a single ship detached from his fleet after the CSS "Warren H. Webb," "Beatty," and "Queen of the West" ram the ironclad "USS Indianola" repeatedly and partially sink her.

February 25, 1863 - Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase completes a new banking system and congress adopts his proposal. Participating institutions reserve up to one-third of their capital in U.S. Securities and these serve to back national bank notes issued to the public. This was designed to help finance the war effort but remained in effect until the Federal Reserve was established in 1913.

February 25, 1863 - A large flotilla of light draft Union gunboats enter the Yazoo Pass.

February 25, 1863 - A British diplomatic protest follows the capture of the British merchant vessel by the crew of the USS "Vanderbilt." The protest involved the disposition of mail and President Lincoln orders the craft and all mail to be returned to their owners.

February 25, 1863 - The USS "Indianola," captured one day earlier by the Confederates, is scuttled as they attempt to refloat the vessel and "a formidable Union warship" approaches. The Union "ship" is actually an old coal barge disguised as an ironclad with dummy stacks, guns, and superstructure floated downriver by Admiral Porter.

February 26, 1863 - Confederate Army leadership moves include General Longstreet gaining command of the Department of Virginia and North Carolina while General Sterling Price is transferred back to the Trans-Mississippi Department.

February 26, 1863 - The National Council of Cherokee Indians renounces their alliance with the Confederacy and rejoins the Union. They agree to abolish slavery.

February 27, 1863 - Captain Raphael Semmes, in command of the CSS "Alabama" raider, takes another prize; this time the Union ship "Washington" which is released on bond.

February 28, 1863 - On the Yazoo River, the expedition made possible by clearing overgrowth moves into the Coldwater River ahead of army transports.

February 28, 1863 - The USS "Wynandank" captures the schooners "Vista" and "Thompson" off Piney Point, Virginia. The ironclad USS "Montauk" with Captain John Worden commanding, sinks the blockade runner CSS "Rattlesnake" (formerly Nashville) near Fort McAllister, Georgia. They are aided by the USS "Seneca," "Wisshocken," and "Dawn." The "Montauk" strikes a torpedo and is intentionally run aground on a mud bank for crew repair.

March 1, 1863 - General Nathan B. Forrest's Confederate raiders skirmish with Union force at Bradyville, Tennessee.

March 2, 1863 - The U.S. Congress dismisses 33 ranking officers on a variety of charges. They authorize four major generals and nine brigadier generals for Army service and an additional forty major generals and 200 brigadier generals for volunteer service.

March 2, 1863 - The CSS "Alabama" crew captures and burns the Federal ship "John A. Parks."

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - March 3 - 9, 1863
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

March 3, 1863 - The U.S. Congress resolves to condemn all offers to mediate the war as "foreign intervention."

March 3, 1863 - The Idaho Territory is formed by an act of Congress. This land is taken from the Washington and Dakota Territories.

March 3, 1863 - President Lincoln signs the Federal Draft Act. All able-bodied men between 20 and 46 years of age are eligible for military service.

March 3, 1863 - Prior to adjourning, the 37th U.S. Congress approves a $300 million loan to fund the war effort for the year, officially suspends writs of habeas corpus, establishes the National Academy of Sciences, and names financier Jay Cook as a Federal agent to promote the sale of war bonds.

March 3, 1863 - Ironclads USS Passaic, Nahant, and Patapsco; gunboats from USS Seneca, Dawn, and Wisssahicken plus three mortar barges engage batteries at Fort McAllister, Georgia with firing lasting more than six hours. Little damage is inflicted by either side but Union crews gained needed training that later proved beneficial at Charleston, South Carolina.

March 4, 1863 - At Franklin, Tennessee, General Earl Van Dorn leads Confederate forces in a skirmish. The Union cavalry is able to escape but the Union infantry units surrender.

March 5, 1863 - In Columbus, Ohio, Union troops damage the office of the newspaper "Crisis" for allegedly printing pro-southern editorials.

March 5, 1863 - Union Colonel John Coburn, with 2,857 soldiers, cavalry, and a six cannon battery is attacked by General Van Dorn's Confederate force at Thompson's Station, Tennessee. Rather than retreat, Coburn decides to attack the enemy camp. General Nathan Forrest's cavalry attacks Coburn's position and is held off several times. Ultimately, Coburn is forced to surrender. While the Union loss includes 1,221 soldiers captured, the long lasting story is that bad blood between Van Dorn and Forrest over the unequal sharing of captured Federal stores nearly results in a duel.

March 6, 1863 - Confederate raider CSS Florida captures and burns the USS Star of Peace at sea. The Florida is under command of Lieutenant John N. Maffitt.

March 7, 1863 - Song sheets, called "secession music," are confiscated in Baltimore, Maryland.

March 7, 1863 - Colonel Charles C. Dodge accuses the 103rd Pennsylvania Volunteers of plundering, unauthorized burning, and disrespectful conduct toward local women as his command moves from New Bern, North Carolina to Mattamuskeet.

March 7, 1863 - General Nathan P. Banks begins to move from New Orleans to Port Hudson, Louisiana on his way to join General Ulysses S. Grant at Vicksburg, Mississippi.

March 8, 1863 - At Fairfax County Courthouse, Virginia, Captain John Mosby's Rangers capture General Edwin H. Stoughton, 38 prisoners, and 58 horses. Labeled one of the most daring and embarrassing acts of the war, Mosby awakens General Stoughton by slapping him on his backside in his bed.

March 8, 1863 - Confederates fell trees across the Yazoo River and further slow the Union advance on that waterway as they attempt to approach Vicksburg by the "backdoor." Two added days are used to clear the trees and overhanging brush left by the retreating southern soldiers.

March 9, 1863 - The 22 boat expedition under the command of General Leonard F. Ross clears the Tallahatchie River at the confluence of the Yazoo and Yalobusha Rivers. They are moving to assist at Vicksburg. They encounter a small Confederate fortification named Fort Pemberton at Greenwood, Mississippi and stop to bombard it. Over the next week, their continuous contact with Fort Pemberton further delays the Yazoo River approach to Vicksburg and ultimately will cause the termination of this attempt on the Yazoo.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - March 10 - 16, 1863
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

March 10, 1863 - In two political opinions, the Supreme Court upheld President Lincoln's claims. The Court agreed that only Congress has the power to declare war but the President, as commander-in-chief, has the authority to suppress rebellion. In the second case (called the Prize Case) the naval blockade is approved by a 5-4 vote with the Court declaring the right of a sovereign nation to conduct a blockade while denying that the Confederate States of America actually exists.

March 10, 1863 - President Lincoln signs a general amnesty for all soldiers presently absent without leave. They must rejoin their units by April 1,1863.

March 10, 1863 - President Jefferson Davis travels to Vicksburg to confer with General John C. Pemberton.

March 11, 1863 - The gunboat USS Chillicothe engages the batteries at Fort Pemberton and is forced to withdraw in damaged condition, the result of countless hits. (See March 9th entry.)

March 12, 1863 - The USS Hartford, Admiral David Farragut's flagship, arrives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana as she moves up the Mississippi toward Vicksburg.

March 13, 1863 - In Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate Ordnance Laboratory on Brown's Island explodes with 70 causalities, mainly women workers.

March 13, 1863 - The USS Huntsville and USS Octorara capture British blockade runners Surprise near Charlottes Island, Florida and Florence Nightingale in the Bahamas.

March 13, 1863 - The ironclad USS Chillicothe, partially repaired from the March 11 encounter, rejoins the gunboats Baron de Kalb and Matamora in an exchange of cannon fire at Fort Pemberton, Mississippi. The Chillicothe receives an additional 38 hits and the flotilla withdraws up the Tallahatchie River.

March 14, 1863 - The Army of the Gulf, 30,000 men commanded by General Nathaniel P. Banks, advances on Port Hudson, Louisiana. They establish a series of artillery batteries to assist Admiral Farragut's fleet in passing Port Hudson.

March 14, 1863 - Admiral Farragut's squadron of seven ships attempts a run past Port Hudson at 11:00 P.M. and only two ships, the flagship USS Hartford and the Albatross, which is lashed to the Hartford, are able to pass successfully. The remaining ships are driven back downriver. Farragut is cut off from the rest of his fleet for several weeks. The attempt fails and the Federal authorities decide that Port Hudson is too strong to be bypassed by gunboats and therefore Port Hudson must be reduced prior to another attempt.

March 15, 1863 - Confederate raider CSS Alabama, commanded by Captain Raphael Semmes, captures the Union ship Punjab off Brazil and releases her under bond.

March 16, 1863 - Federal gunboats of the Yazoo River expedition again engage Fort Pemberton, Greenwood, Mississippi. The USS Chillicothe takes eight more hits and drifts helplessly. General Ross prepares to withdraw downstream and General Ulysses S. Grant terminates his attempts to attack Vicksburg by the backdoor.

March 16, 1863 - After a meeting with General Grant at Hill's Plantation, Mississippi, Admiral David D. Porter leads his five ironclads up Deer Creek in an attempt to reach Steele's Bayou from the northeast. General William Tecumseh Sherman's 2nd Division, XV Corps, arrives at Hill's Plantation to aid in Admiral Porter's advance on the Mississippi.

March 16, 1863 - Philip H. Sheridan is promoted to major general, U.S. Army.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - March 17 - 23, 1863
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

March 17, 1863 - The Yazoo River expedition steams down the Tallahatchie River after being stymied at Fort Pemberton.

March 17, 1863 - Confederate forces at Culpeper Station, Virginia become aware of General William W. Averell's Union cavalry approaching from Morrisville, Virginia. General Fitzhugh Lee orders his 800 men into the saddle and advances to meet the threat. General Averell places his 2,100 men behind a stone wall and deploys his six cannons. In a daylong encounter, the opponents advance and retreat several times, finally calling off the fight at 5:00 P. M. with 58 Union and 133 Confederate dead. The most notable loss was Major John Pelham, Confederate artillerist. Generals Averell and Fitzhugh Lee were roommates at West Point and Averell left a bag of coffee and a note inquiring if General Lee enjoyed his visit.

March 18, 1863 - The New Jersey state legislature passes a resolution condemning the war and calling for a negotiated end. New Jersey state regiments in the field pass a resolution condemning the legislature's act as "wicked" and "cowardly."

March 18, 1863 - The Confederate steamer 'Georgiana' is destroyed by the crew of the USS Wissahickon when the steamer attempts to run the blockade at Charleston, South Carolina.

March 19, 1863 - Admiral Farragut steams north on the Mississippi River with the USS Hartford and the Albatross, the only two ships he currently commands. He runs past heavy fire from Confederate guns at Grand Gulf, south of Vicksburg and anchors off Warrenton the next day.

March 19, 1863 - Admiral David D. Porter continues up Deer Creek, Mississippi toward Steele's Bayou, clearing Southern snipers and removing trees and other obstacles from the river.

March 20, 1863 - Admiral Porter's expedition passes Rolling Fork on Deer Creek but becomes trapped when Confederates fell trees and further obstruct the river.

March 20, 1863 - The Union garrison at Washington, North Carolina is ringed by several brigades of soldiers and artillery batteries. Garrison commander, General John G. Foster calls for Federal gunboats from the nearby Pamlico River to assist.

March 21, 1863 - Union General Edwin Vose Sumner, at 66 years, the oldest officer involved in the Civil War on either side, dies of natural causes at Syracuse, New York. General Sumner fought in both the Black Hawk and Mexican Wars.

March 21, 1863 - General Sherman's expedition encounters low hanging branches, tree-choked river banks, snipers, and man-made barriers as they move to rescue Admiral Porter's squadron on Deer Creek.

March 21, 1863 - General Leonard F. Ross turns around on the Yazoo River and streams back toward Fort Greenwood, Mississippi.

March 22, 1863 - In Kentucky, two separate raids begin. One results in the capture of Mount Sterling by elements of General Morgan's Raiders while the other is the launch of an extended raid throughout the state lead by General John Pegram.

March 22, 1863 - Admiral Porter concedes that the effort to reach Steele's Bayou from the Yazoo River has failed. Loading Sherman's infantry on his vessels, Admiral Porter sails back to Hill's Plantation and another attempt to reach Vicksburg via inland waterways is thwarted.

March 23, 1863 - The Confederate raider CSS Alabama captures and burns the Union ship 'Morningstar' and the whaler 'Kingfisher' off the Brazilian coast.

March 23, 1863 - Admiral Farragut orders the bombardment of Confederate works near Warrenton, Mississippi from his two ships, 'Hartford' and 'Albatross,' still separated from his fleet.

March 23, 1863 - Captain John Mosby leads Virginia Partisan Rangers in the defeat of a Federal force at Little River Turnpike, Virginia, then narrowly escapes capture by Union cavalry troops.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - March 24 - 30, 1863
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

March 24, 1863 - General John Pegram's Confederate Cavalry reaches Danville, Kentucky and skirmish against Union soldiers in a minor event.

March 24, 1863 - Admiral Porter successfully returns to Black Bayou, Mississippi after being trapped on Deer Creek by Confederate Infantry soldiers since March 20th.

March 25, 1863 - General Horatio Wright is moved from the Department of the Ohio back to the Army of the Potomac as a division commander. General Ambrose E. Burnsides becomes commander of the Department of the Ohio.

March 25, 1863 - At Brentwood, Tennessee, General Nathan B. Forrest leads his cavalry troops against the 22nd Wisconsin and a small detachment from the 19th Michigan. General Forrest had cut Union telegraph lines prior to the raid and successfully surrounds and captures both Union detachments. Union General Green C. Smith, leading a cavalry troop nearby, recaptures some Union wagons and supplies but General Forrest escapes with 700 captives.

March 25, 1863 - Unusually brisk Union naval activity records these successes: The USS 'State of Georgia' and 'Mount Vernon' capture the Confederate 'Rising Dawn' schooner off New Inlet, North Carolina. The USS Fort Henry captures the schooner 'Ranger' at Cedar Keys, Florida. The USS Kanawha captures the schooner Clara, off Mobile, Alabama, and the USS Wachusett captures the British blockade runner 'Dolphin' off St. Thomas in the Caribbean.

March 25, 1863 - Confederate successes include the CSS Alabama burning of the Union ships 'Charles Hill' and 'Nora', off the Brazilian coast and, at Vicksburg, shore batteries engage and sink the USS Lancaster with 30 hits and damage the USS Switzerland as they attempt to run past the shore defenses. The planned assault against Warrenton is postponed.

March 26, 1863 - Voters in the new state of West Virginia approve gradual emancipation of all slaves.

March 26, 1863 - The Confederate Congress authorizes government agents to seize slaves and supplies to support the Confederate Military. Many government officials and private citizens condemn the practice due to waste and abuse and call for the repeal of this legislation, which was called the "Impressment Act."

March 27, 1863 - American Indian leaders meet with President Lincoln at the White House. The president implores them to engage in agriculture saying "I can see no way in which your race is to become as numerous and prosperous as the white race except by living as they do, by the cultivation of the earth."

March 27, 1863 - Admiral Farragut, on board his flagship USS Hartford, orders the bombardment of Confederate defenses at Warrenton, Mississippi, below Vicksburg.

March 28, 1863 - The gunboat USS Diana, a former Confederate ship seized in April 1862 and re-fitted by the Union, is attack from the riverbank near Pattersonville, Louisiana on the Atchafalaya River. Union troops from the 160th New York and the 12th Connecticut are onboard and are driven from the deck. Ship Captain Thomas Peterson is killed and the Diana loses steering after a three-hour battle. Run aground and stuck, 120 Union soldiers are captured. The ship eventually re-enters Confederate service commanded by General Richard Taylor.

March 29, 1863 - General Grant begins to break from his supply base at Memphis by dispatching General John McClernand, with troops, to Milliken's Bend, Louisiana. These troops are to march south to New Carthage on the west bank of the Mississippi River. All attempts to take Vicksburg from a northern or westerly approach are abandoned.

March 29, 1863 - The USS Albatross joins the Hartford in bombarding Confederate batteries at Warrenton, Mississippi.

March 29, 1863 - Confederate troops, in a surprise attack on Fort Magruder at Williamsburg, Virginia, fail to displace the Union force occupying the site.

March 30, 1863 - The USS Monticello captures the British blockade runner 'Sue' near Little River, North Carolina.

President Lincoln announces a national day of fasting and prayer to take place April 30,1863.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - March 31 - April 6, 1863
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

March 31, 1863 - Oliver O. Howard is promoted to major general, U.S. Army.

March 31, 1863 - At Gulf Port, Mississippi, Admiral David G. Farragut sails past the Confederate batteries aboard his flagship USS Hartford, accompanied by the USS Albatross and the recently repaired ram "Switzerland." They continue to the Red River and establish a blockade.

March 31, 1863 - The crews of USS Two Sisters and the USS Memphis capture the Confederate schooner "Agnus" of Tortuga, Florida and the British schooner "Antelope" off Charleston, South Carolina, respectively.

April 1, 1863 - General Grant officially abandons any advance on Vicksburg, Mississippi from the north after Grant, General W.T. Sherman, Admiral David D. Porter, and the crew of the USS Tuscumbia complete a reconnaissance of the Yazoo River as far as Haynes Bluff. General Grant now concentrates his attention on operations below the city.

April 1, 1863 - Confederate Cavalry General John Mosby's 65 men are surprised in camp at Broad Run, Virginia by 200 Union Cavalry. More than 100 casualties result and Mosby prevails.

April 2, 1863 - The "Bread Riot" at Richmond takes place on this date. A small group of women and boys march from Capital Square in search of bread and draw a crowd of 1,000 or more unruly sympathizers. Full scale rioting and looting results and many businesses are ransacked. President Jefferson Davis leaves the Confederate "White House" and demands that they disperse or be fired on. The riot slowly falls apart.

April 2, 1863 - In a planning session concerning an attack on Vicksburg, General Sherman is assigned to create a diversion along Haynes Bluff north of Vicksburg while General Grant marches the main force south along the west bank of the Mississippi River. Admiral Porter will attempt to sail south past the city and reunite at Hard Times, Mississippi, 30 miles south. There the entire army will be moved to the Confederate shore by Porter's vessels. No date is set.

April 2, 1863 - Union forces under General John G. Foster are under siege at Washington, D.C. Naval gunboats move up the Pamlico River and silences the shore batteries of the Confederates, breaking the siege.

April 3, 1863 - In retaliation for recent Confederate attacks on Union shipping, the USS Lexington, Brilliant, Robb, Silver Lake, and Springfield bombard and destroy the town of Palmyra, Tennessee.

April 4, 1863 - The British built "Alexandra," destined for service in the Confederate navy, is set to depart the shipyard. American minister Charles F. Adams lodges a formal protest.

April 4, 1863 - The final Union activity on the Yazoo River is the expedition of Generals Leonard F. Ross and Isaac F. Quinby to bombard Fort Pemberton at Greenwood, Mississippi. The expedition fails and the flotilla vessels steam back to the Mississippi River.

April 4, 1863 - The CSS Alabama raider records another success by capturing and burning the Union ship "Louisa Hatch" off Brazil.

April 5, 1863 - General Joseph Hooker meets with President Lincoln at Fredericksburg, Virginia. They concur that the object of future military action should be directed at General Robert E. Lee's army and not at the city of Richmond.

April 5, 1863 - Admiral Samuel DuPont cautiously approaches Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, intending to attack. He decides to anchor his ironclads and steamers off shore until a sand bar can be marked with buoys.

April 6, 1863 - The newly completed warship "Alexandra" is seized by the British government to placate the U.S. (see the protest of April 2). The ship is eventually released to the Confederacy by the courts.

April 6, 1863 - With buoys installed on the Stono sand bar, Admiral DuPont leads his squadron of nine heavy ironclads inside Charleston Harbor.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - April 7 - 13, 1863
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

April 7, 1863 - General Joseph Wheeler, Confederate Cavalry Commander, leads an attack on railroads of the Louisville and Nashville and the Nashville and Chattanooga lines at Antioch Station, Tennessee.

April 7, 1863 - Admiral Dupont, thankful for a "failure, not a disaster" in Charleston Harbor, withdraws and suspends action. Unfavorable tides kept his squadron from deploying within range of Ft. Moultrie and Sumter until late afternoon. DuPont then finds that the harbor is filled with submerged obstacles as well as floating range markers. His slow-firing monitors can only fire 139 rounds while the 77 mounted cannons on shore fire 2,200 shells, most with great accuracy due to the pre-tested and marked range. The USS Weehawken strikes a mine and takes 55 hits in only 40 minutes. The other eight ironclads are also battered with only the "Keokuk," hit several times near the water line, no longer controllable. Admiral DuPont plans to attack again tomorrow but yields to his captains and admits the city is too strong to be taken by sea power alone. This is the biggest defeat of the U.S. Navy during the Civil War.

April 8, 1863 - President Lincoln and General Hooker review the Army of the Potomac at Falmouth, Virginia, across the river from Fredericksburg.

April 8, 1863 - The USS Keokuk sinks outside of Charleston Harbor. The Confederates recover the Keokuk's signal books and can now read squadron communication.

April 8, 1863 - Edward C. Gabaudan, Admiral Farragut's secretary, floats past Vicksburg to join the fleet below the city. He uses a small boat covered with branches and reported that Confederate sentinels rowed close to him but decided his vessel was a log and returned to shore.

April 9, 1863 - The former merchant ship "Japan" is commissioned into the Confederate Navy as the raider CSS Georgia, off the French coast. Operating near the Cape of Good Hope, she eventually captures nine Union vessels but is decommissioned early due to poor sailing abilities.

April 10, 1863 - To produce needed food for the army, President Jefferson Davis lectures "Let fields be devoted exclusively to the production of corn, oats, beans, peas, potatoes, and other food for man and beast." Of course, more natural crops for these farmers would have been tobacco and cotton.

April 10, 1863 - General Earl Van Dorn orders an attack on Union positions at Franklin, Tennessee but loses 300 men when General Gordon Granger's cavalry troop responds.

April 11, 1863 - Admiral Samuel P. Lee of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron sends several vessels to aid in the defense of Suffolk, Virginia, south of the James River. General James Longstreet, with 20,000 veteran soldiers, holds a "loose siege" of Suffolk while General John J. Peck occupies the town and mans fortifications with 25,000 Federals.

April 11, 1863 - Over 1,700 Union Cavalry under Colonel Able D. Streight begin a raid into Georgia from Nashville. They are all infantrymen and are mounted on mules, anticipating rough terrain in northern Alabama.

April 12, 1863 - General Hooker explains to President Lincoln that he wishes to swing around General Robert E. Lee's left and threaten Richmond. The president reminds him that the complete destruction of Lee's army is paramount.

April 12, 1863 - General Nathaniel Banks' XIX Corps of 16,000 men move in three divisions up the Teche River to Irish Bend on Bayou Teche, Louisiana.  Landing one division of 4,500 men north of the fort, the other two divisions open a three-hour artillery dual on Fort Bisland. Confederate General Richard Taylor commands about 4,000 men and plans to have General Henry Silby's Texas Brigade attack Bank's left flank the next day.

April 13, 1863 - General Silby fails to arrive at Irish Bend, Louisiana, either too sick or too drunk to comply with General Taylor's plan. The Union, far out-numbering the garrison in Fort Bisland, pushes their earthworks to within 400 yards of the fort. General Taylor decides to abandon the fort knowing that he will be crushed between Banks and the supporting division. General Taylor's men skirt the Union forces along the river and escape.

April 13, 1863 - President Lincoln instructs Admiral DuPont to maintain his position at Charleston Harbor, causing the Confederates to anticipate another attack.

April 13, 1863 - Commander of the Department of the Ohio, General Ambrose Burnside, suppresses the activities of Peace Democrats (Copperheads) by instituting military tribunal-and firing squads-for treasonable activities. Anyone displaying sympathy for the south could expect prompt removal across Confederate lines.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - April 14 - 20, 1863
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

April 14, 1863 - Fort Bisland, Louisiana is abandoned by General Richard Taylor's Confederate force. Union troops under General Cuvier Grover are surprised by Taylor's evacuating force and suffer about 600 causalities while Confederate losses are unknown. Union General Nathaniel Banks moves his larger force into the fort while Taylor's small force escapes without any pursuit by Grover or Banks.

April 14, 1863 - General Richard Taylor's retreating troops are forced to scuttle the recently re-captured CSS Diana. (See March 28,1863 entry.)

April 14, 1863 - At Suffolk, Virginia, the Federal gunboats USS Mount Washington, Stepping Stones, and Commodore Barney accurately target the advancing Confederates as they attempt to surround the Union garrison.

April 14, 1863 - The CSS Queen of the West ram is sunk in Grand Lake, Louisiana by the USS Estrella, Arizona, and Calhoun. The USS Huntsman seizes the British blockade runner 'Ascension' off the Florida Gulf Coast and the USS Sonoma captures the Confederate schooner 'Clyde' in the Gulf of Mexico.

April 15, 1863 - General Daniel H. Hill is forced to abandon his siege at New Bern, North Carolina with the arrival of Union General John G. Foster, who sails from Washington, North Carolina on the Pamlico River.

April 15, 1863 - The plan to bypass Vicksburg, Mississippi by marching troops down the left bank of the river, sailing part of the fleet past the fort under cover of darkness, and creating a diversion north of the city using General Sherman's troops begins. This plan was put together on April 2, 1863 (see entry) and was mostly completed by April 30. The advance on Vicksburg from the south then follows starting May 1, 1863.

April 15, 1863 - The portion of General Grant's plan carried out on this date includes assembly of 45,000 troops at Milliken's Bend, 10 miles north of Vicksburg and the march of General James McPherson's corps down the left side of the Mississippi River to New Carthage to join General McClernand already there. General Sherman begins to demonstrate at Chickasaw Bluffs as a feint.

April 15, 1863 - The CSS Alabama continues to have success as a raider, this time capturing and burning the whalers 'Kate Cory' and 'Lafayette' off Brazil.

April 16, 1863 - Legislation permitting minors under 18 years of age to become commissioned officers is signed by President Jefferson Davis.

April 16, 1863 - At Vicksburg, a gala ball underway to celebrate the "impregnability" of the city is interrupted by heavy gunfire on the Mississippi River. Admiral David Porter sails 12 vessels past the Confederate batteries. Action lasted over two hours with most vessels taking hits. The transport 'Henry Clay' sinks and the gunboat 'Forest Queen' is disabled.

April 17, 1863 - To draw attention away from Vicksburg, Colonel Benjamin H. Grierson begins a planned 16-day cavalry raid from La Grange, Tennessee, down through Mississippi to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He has 1,700 troopers from the 6th and 7th Illinois Cavalry, the 2nd Iowa, and a battery of horse artillery. The mission is to tear up track and telegraph while taking prisoners.

April 18, 1863 - To encourage outfitting of warships at private expense, the Confederate Congress authorizes a volunteer navy.

April 18, 1863 - Confederate held Fort Huger on the Nansemond River, Virginia is attacked by the crew from the USS Stepping Stones and 270 soldiers. The soldiers push into the fort before the garrison can react and seize 137 prisoners and five cannons. The 55th North Carolina, the guard unit in the fort, is blamed for the defeat and duals of honor are waged between several officers of commanding General Evander M. Law's staff.

April 18, 1863 - A force of 3,000 Confederates under General John S. Marmaduke is repulsed at Fayetteville, Arkansas, by a 2,000 man Union garrison.

April 18, 1863 - The USS Gem of the Sea sinks the British blockade runner 'Inez' off Cape Romain, South Carolina. The USS Stettin captures the Confederate steamer 'St. John' off Indian River Inlet, Florida, and the USS Susquehanna captures the Confederate schooner 'Alabama' off the Florida Gulf Coast.

April 19, 1863 - President Lincoln, General in Chief Henry Halleck, and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton meet at Aquia Creek, Virginia to discuss military matters.

April 20, 1863 - The USS Sterling Price and USS Tuscumba jointly reconnoiter the Mississippi River to Grand Gulf, the object of a planned Union assault.

April 20, 1863 - General Banks moves a portion of his command to Washington and Opelousas, Louisiana. The rest of Bank's command is inside Fort Bisland, Louisiana.

April 20, 1863 - President Lincoln announces that the new state of West Virginia will be established on June 20,1863. Land will come from the western most counties of Virginia.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - April 21 - 27, 1863
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

April 21, 1863 - A Confederate foray led by General William E. Jones plans to attack the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in the portion of Virginia that will become the new state of West Virginia in June. General Jones is to meet up with General John Imboden near Oakton and Grafton.

April 21, 1863 - In Mississippi, Union Cavalry under Colonel Benjamin Grierson skirmish with Confederates near Palo Alto with additional Southern cavalry units closing on the position. Grierson splits his command and sends Colonel Edward Hatch of the 2nd Iowa Cavalry to threaten the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, and then retreat back to La Grange, Tennessee. The Confederates mistakenly follow the Iowa Cavalry troop and Grierson is free to gallop through the heart of Mississippi virtually unopposed.

April 21, 1863 - A second convoy of army transports pass the batteries at Vicksburg at night under heavy fire. Of the six vessels, the steamer 'Tigress' is sunk while the 'Empire City' and the 'Moderator' are damaged. The rest of the vessels reach New Carthage where U.S. Grant now can move his Army across the river en masse.

April 22, 1863 - General John Pemberton at Vicksburg is urged by President Jefferson Davis to launch "fire rafts" to float downriver to disrupt Federal activity.

April 23, 1863 - The northern blockade of Wilmington, North Carolina harbor is broken when the Confederate steamers Merrimac, Charleston, Margaret and Jesse enter the harbor.

April 24, 1863 - President Lincoln authorizes General Order #100, also known as the Lieber Code. This code standardizes law pertaining to war. Written by Frances Lieber, it has 10 sections from Court Martial to Rebellion and has 157 Articles. (It is available online.)

April 24, 1863 - The Confederate Congress imposes a 10 percent tax on all produce harvested. Resentment grows in the farm-producing segment as they already are subject to direct requisition of the crops for war use.

April 24, 1863 - General Grant begins to transport the Army of the Potomac from Hard Times Plantation, Louisiana to the Mississippi side of the river, near Bruinsville.

April 24, 1863 - General Grierson's Union Cavalry seizes an arriving ammunition train at Newton Station, Mississippi and tears up miles of track belonging to the Southern Mississippi Railroad. They are less that 100 miles from Vicksburg and General Pemberton orders infantry and artillery Regiments at Jackson, Mississippi to intercept them.

April 24, 1863 - The Confederate Raiders CSS Alabama under command of Captain Raphael Semmes captures the Union whaler "Nye" off Brazil, and the CSS Florida, under Lieutenant John Maffitt sinks the Union ship "Oneida" at sea. Union success on this date includes the capture of the Confederate schooners 'Martha Ann' and 'A. Carson' off Horn Harbor, Virginia; the sloops 'Jane Adelie' and 'Bright' plus the schooners 'General Prim' and 'Rapid' in the Gulf of Mexico; and the schooner 'Joe Flanner' at sea.

April 24, 1863 - Admiral David Porter stations gunboats in the Mississippi River at the mouth of the Big Black River. This isolates the Confederate batteries at Grand Gulf, Mississippi.

April 25, 1863 - Cherokee Indians, followers of Colonel Stand Watie, and Confederate sympathizers skirmish with Union troops at Webber's Fall, Indian Territory. Apache Indians attack Federal troops near Fort Bowie, Arizona Territory.

April 26, 1863 - The mule riding infantry led by Colonel Abel Streight moves from Tuscumbia, Alabama, to Rome, Georgia to destroy the Western and Atlantic Railroad.

April 26, 1863 - Confederate Cavalry commanded by General John Imboden rides from Beverly, West Virginia toward Buchannon but are forced back by Union reinforcements.

April 26, 1863 - The CSS Alabama burns the Union ship 'Dorcus Prince' near Natal, Brazil.

April 27, 1863 - About 75,000 men from the Army of the Potomac under General Joseph Hooker leave Falmouth, Virginia. They deploy south of the Rappahannock River near the area known as the Wilderness, 10 miles behind Confederate line. General John Sedgwick remains at Fredericksburg with 40,000 troops and threatens General Lee's Army, holding Lee in place. Hooker enjoys the largest numerical superiority over Southern forces so far in the war.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week - April 28 - May 4, 1863
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

April 28, 1863 - The U.S. Army establishes the Invalid Corps, providing meaningful light duty for soldiers unfit for active duty.

April 28, 1863 - General Hooker's Army of the Potomac moves into position around Chancellorsville, Virginia. General John Sedgwick holds his portion of the Army at Fredericksburg in an attempt to distract and contain General Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia.

April 29, 1863 - Confederate General William E. Jones leads his cavalry through Buchanan, Virginia and captures the Union Depot there as well as 500 prisoners and 1500 horses.

April 29, 1863 - General Stoneman's Union Cavalry crosses the Rappahannock River into Virginia on a major raid. One brigade moves to destroy the Orange and Alexandria Railroad near Gordonsville, while the main body moves to destroy the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad. With only limited success, the move proved to be a poor use of cavalry when they could have been scouting the dense terrain north and northwest of Richmond.

April 29, 1863 - An elaborate feint to prevent Confederate reinforcements from shifting south toward Grand Gulf is carried out north of Vicksburg on the Yazoo River. At Haynes Bluff, a joint expedition of 22 gunboats, transports and mortar boats move up river.

April 29, 1863 - At Grand Gulf, Mississippi, Admiral David Porter's gunboat squadron bombards Confederate batteries for five hour, silencing them. Three vessels are damaged but all by-pass Grand Gulf and are now in position below Vicksburg.

April 30, 1863 - General Lee is surprised by General Hooker's rapid 30 mile march along the bank of the Rappahannock River, ending up behind Lee's position. Typically, Lee reacts boldly, dividing his force, leaving 10,000 men with General Jubal Early to guard Fredericksburg and marching 50,000 men to Chancellorsville Crossroad.

April 30, 1863 - General Grant continues to ferry the XIII Corps (McClernand) and XVII Corps (McPherson), a total of 23,000 men, to the Mississippi side of the river at Bruinsburg. These troops push several miles inland unopposed with Confederate attention on General Sherman's distractions at Haynes's Bluff. Grant later writes: "All the campaigns, labors, hardships, and exposures, from the month of December previous to this time, that had been made and endured, were for the accomplishment of this one object."

April 30, 1863 - The Great Seal of the Confederacy is approved. It shows George Washington and the motto "Deo Vindice" (God as our Defender).

May 1, 1863 - The first Confederate Congress, third session, adjourns. Major legislation included authorization for military tribunals to execute white officers commanding black troops and the execution of black troops. If not killed, return them to slavery.

May 1, 1863 - First contact of General Thomas J. Jackson's Army of Northern Virginia and Union pickets occurs near Chancellorsville. General Hooker moves his force back from clear, high ground, negating his advantage and artillery superiority. When General Lee arrives, he sends General Jackson on a flanking move around Hooker's right with 30,000 men while the 20,000 remaining men demonstrate to hold Hooker's attention. This is the second division on the Army of Northern Virginia in two days.

May 1, 1863 - General Grant moves to Port Gibson below Vicksburg, and attacks 8,000 Confederates, using General McClernand's 23,000 men. This engagement lasted from 6:00 AM until near sunset. The Confederates, led by General John S. Bowen, retreat, burning bridges behind them. Grant cuts his supply lines and communication, now moving quickly and unconstrained.

May 2, 1863 - At Chancellorsville, General Thomas J. Jackson moves his 30,000 men all night to circle the right flank of the Army of the Potomac. The right of the Union Army consists of General O. O. Howard's mostly German speaking XI Corps. Jackson attacks just as Howard's men are preparing dinner and Union resistance crumbles. Resistance soon stiffens and, in the confusion of darkness, men of the 18th North Carolina accidentally shoot General Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson, severely wounding him and he was removed from leadership.

May 2, 1863 - Confederate General Ambrose P. Hill takes command of Jackson's II Corps but he is subsequently wounded and command is passed to General J. E. B. Stuart.

May 2, 1863 - General Grant continues his rapid movement and arrives at Edwards Station, 16 miles from Vicksburg. He cuts the Vicksburg and Jackson Railroad, isolating Vicksburg. Colonel Benjamin Grierson completes his 16 days of raids in Louisiana, all designed to cover General Grant's movement. Grierson is promoted to brigadier general.

May 3, 1863 - General Stuart mounts 50 cannons atop Hazel Grove and bombards General Hooker's position. Fighting, often confusing and terrible in the thickly wooded Wilderness area, results in retreat of General Hooker's Army. General Joseph Hooker was stunned by falling debris when a column on his headquarters house was struck by a cannon ball.

May 3, 1863 - General Robert E. Lee arrives to take command and he becomes aware that General John Sedgwick is advancing from Fredericksburg, behind his position. Lee leaves 20,000 men to contain Hooker and sends General Richard H. Anderson's division to meet General Sedgwick's force. This is the third division of Lee's Army.

May 3, 1863 - General Hooker orders Sedgwick's VI Corps to storm the heights at Fredericksburg, then attack the Army of Northern Virginia from the west. Two attempts to take Marye's Heights fail before Sedgwick orders a bayonet attack and General Jubal Early's forces are ejected from the position.

May 3, 1863 - Known as the "mule brigade," Colonel Abel D. Streight's command is surrendered to General Nathan B. Forrest at Ceder Bluff, Alabama. While outnumbered, Forrest constantly parades his small unit in front of Colonel Streight's men, convincing Streight that he is actually outnumbered.

May 3, 1863 - The CSS Alabama captures and burns the Union bark 'Sea Lark' off Brazil. She was carrying cargo estimated to value at least $500,000.

May 4, 1863 - The Battle of Salem Church, Virginia ends the struggle in and around Chancellorsville. The Federals withdraw toward the Rappahannock River and entrench. After several Southern attempts to dislodge them, General Lee calls off the action. Union Generals Joseph Hooker and John Sedgwick make plans to move beyond the Rappahannock.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week -  May 5-11, 1863
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

May 5, 1863 - The 50th anniversary of the Battle of Fort Meigs in what is now Perrysburg, Ohio took place. This War of 1812 battle decided if the United States or the British would control Lake Erie. A British win might have caused Toledo, Vermillion, Sandusky, Cleveland, and other Ohio towns to be located in Canada. The U.S. won, 200 years ago today.

May 5, 1863 - US Congressman Clement L. Vallandigham of Ohio is arrested by Union soldiers after opposing the war and urging Union soldiers to desert.

May 5, 1863 - General Hooker leads his recently humbled Army of the Potomac back over the Rappahannock River, amid protests of subordinates. General Abner Doubleday questioned Hooker about his behavior in battle. General Hooker responded, "Doubleday, I was not hurt by a shell, and I was not drunk. For once I lost confidence in Joe Hooker and that is all there is to it." General Hooker lasts less than two more months as Army of the Potomac commander.

May 5, 1863 - General Sedgwick moves his Union VI Corps back over the Rappahannock River at Bank's Ford, the last act of the Chancellorsville campaign.

May 6, 1863 - General Ambrose P. Hill recovers from his injuries and formally succeeds General Thomas J. Jackson as II Corps commander, Army of Northern Virginia.

May 6, 1863 - At Sherwood, Missouri, 30 Union soldiers, both black and white, are killed. The town is burned the following day.

May 7, 1863 - Union Cavalry crosses Raccoon Ford, Virginia, after a less than stellar raid by General John Stoneman.

May 7, 1863 - The Union XV Corps leaves Milliken's Bend, Mississippi and marches overland under General W.T. Sherman. General Grant moves to attack the state capital at Jackson.

May 7, 1863 - Confederate General Earl Van Dorn is murdered while in his tent at Spring Hill, Tennessee. The killer is the husband of an alleged suitor.

May 7, 1863 - Admiral Porter steps ashore to accept the surrender of Alexandria, Louisiana, located on the Red River. Admiral Porter then moves back to the Mississippi River below Vicksburg.

May 8, 1863 - All foreigners becoming citizens of the United States are eligible for the draft, per decree from President Lincoln.

May 8, 1863 - General Stoneman is transferred as a corps commander of cavalry after his ill-advised raid and lack of any impact on the battle at Chancellorsville.

May 8, 1863 - General Sherman's Corp joins with General Grant's main Army in Mississippi.

May 9, 1863 - Congress appoints Hugh McCulloch as comptroller of currency as the new national bank begins operation.

May 9, 1863 - General Joseph E. Johnston is ordered to Mississippi to command all defensive forces.

May 10, 1863 - General Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson dies of pneumonia at Guiney's Station, Virginia. This is about 30 miles from Chancellersville where he was accidentally shot on May 2, 1863.

May 11, 1863 - President Lincoln rejects Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase's offers to resign in a dispute over an appointment decision.

May 11, 1863 - Union Cavalry commanded by Colonel Benjamin H. Grierson cuts the New Orleans and Jackson Railroad at Crystal Springs, Mississippi.

May 11, 1863 - General Pemberton learns that Union forces led by General Grant are near Edwards Station, just 16 miles from Vicksburg. He instructs General John Gregg to move his 4,000 men to Raymond, slow Grant's advance, and protect the Jackson and Vicksburg Railroad.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week -  May 12-18, 1863
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

May 12, 1863 - Union troops win a battle at Raymond, Mississippi, a few miles west of Jackson. General James McPherson's XVII Union Corps of John Logan's 3rd Division encounters resistance from General John Gregg's Confederates moving from Vicksburg. General Grant modifies his approach plans to avoid a direct move to Jackson and the possibility of being caught between Pemberton's force moving from the west and the arriving army of General Johnston from the east. General Grant now plans to meet portions of the Confederate Army piecemeal and defeat them before they can unite.

May 13, 1863 - At Jackson, Mississippi, General Grant directs Generals Sherman and McPherson to move rapidly on the Mississippi Springs Road while General John McClernand moves north toward Clinton.

May 13, 1863 - General Joseph Johnston arrives in Jackson, Mississippi, too late to ready any defense. He is forced to evacuate men and supplies while General Gregg covers Johnston's withdrawal. Johnston directs General Pemberton to march east from Vicksburg and try to catch the Union forces between them.

May 14, 1863 - In Richmond, General Robert E. Lee attends a high level strategy conference. This is the first time any plan is discussed that mentions a Confederate invasion on Northern soil. General Lee argues that such a move would discredit the Republican Party and European intervention into the American Civil War could be a result.

May 14, 1863 - Port Hudson, Louisiana is the only strong point on the Mississippi River once Vicksburg is under Union control. Confederate General Franklin Gardner and 5,000 men are in place to defend Port Hudson while Union General Nathaniel P. Banks advances from Baton Rouge with 30,000 troops.

May 14, 1863 - Jackson, Mississippi, a strategic rail junction east of Vicksburg falls after a daylong battle in heavy rain. General McPherson makes first contact midmorning and shells the Confederate positions during the downpour. General Sherman arrives from the south. General Gregg's 6,000 Confederates spread their line to defend but are over run when McPherson orders a bayonet charge. Several cannons are captured and General Joseph Johnston evacuates the Confederate army trains.

May 15, 1863 - The 'Jeffersonian' newspaper office in Richmond, Indiana is ransacked by angry Federal Troops after anti-Union sentiments were printed.

May 15, 1863 - Just two days after General Joseph Johnston ordered General Pemberton to march east from Edward's Station, Mississippi, to trap General Grant between them, Pemberton disobeyed orders and marched south toward Grand Gulf to cut the Union supply line. Grant had already abandoned his supply line and is "living off the land."

May 16, 1863 - The most decisive battle of the Vicksburg Campaign takes place at Champion's Hill, Mississippi, about midway between Jackson and Vicksburg. General Pemberton's 22,000 men are engaged by Ulysses S. Grant's 32,000 men from McPherson's and McClernand's corps. While the fighting moves at close quarters and the initiative changes sides at least three times, all falls apart when General Loring refuses to obey an order from Pemberton to move to support the center and left.

May 17, 1863 - General Pemberton chooses to defend a bridge on the Big Black River, just 12 miles east of Vicksburg. He defends this spot thinking that General Loring's division, separated from the main army since the previous day, will re-establish contact here rather than on a better defensive position further to the west. Loring is meanwhile marching east toward Jackson to unite with General Johnston's army.

May 17, 1863 - On the west bank of the Mississippi, a Confederate Cavalry raid on Union forces is successful. Cattle and a few prisoners are taken. The cattle were destined for General Nathaniel Bank's army.

May 17, 1863 - The Confederates suffer further loss of men and equipment, including 18 cannons, along the Big Black River. In the two-week campaign, General Grant has now opened the road to Vicksburg.

May 18, 1863 - British House of Lord's Foreign Secretary Lord Russell declares "no intention" of intervening in the American conflict.

May 18, 1863 - General Grant moves across the Big Black River and takes a position adjacent to the Confederate works at Vicksburg. Grant's position completely seals Vicksburg from escape or reinforcement but General Pemberton vows to fight on. General Joseph E. Johnston warns General Pemberton to be aware that he could become trapped. It is too late.

May 18, 1863 - General W. T. Sherman continues to move on the Yazoo River. As a diversionary force, Sherman intends to storm Snyder's Bluff and/or Haynes's Bluff north of Vicksburg. Commander John Grimes leads Federal gunboats USS Baron de Kalb, Choctaw, Linden, Romeo, Petrel, and Forest Rose, up the Yazoo River in support of General Sherman. Ultimately, the diversionary tactics are not needed and the gunboats shell Vicksburg. Sherman is ordered to plan an attack on the north edge of Vicksburg.

Civil War - 150 Years Ago This Week -  May 19-25, 1863
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable

May 19, 1863 - Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton orders Congressman Clement L. Vallandigham (D-Ohio) released and deported to the Confederate lines. The arrest and detention of the Congressman caused some negative sentiment in the North.

May 19, 1863 - General Sherman attacks the northern fringes of the Confederate defense at Vicksburg with desperate fighting and heavy losses. At a position known as Stockade Redan, the Union soldiers are flung back while similar losses were experienced by McClernand and McPherson at other positions on the city perimeter. General Grant suspends action.

May 19, 1863 - Army and navy siege guns begin a continuous bombardment of Vicksburg that lasts seven weeks.

May 21, 1863 - Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston directs General Franklin Gardner to abandon Port Hudson, Louisiana and come to the aid of Vicksburg. Gardner ignores the order and remains securely behind his four and one half miles of earthworks and natural defenses on a sharp bend in the Mississippi River. General Nathaniel P. Banks and his 30,000 Federal troops surround Gardner's garrison the next day.

May 21, 1863 - Yazoo City and the boat yard, machine shop, and tool storage buildings are destroyed and then abandoned by Confederate forces. Commander John Grimes leaves Haynes's Bluff and steams to Yazoo City and shells the Navy yard, destroying three ships under construction.

May 22, 1863 - President Jefferson Davis directs General Braxton Bragg to assist at Vicksburg, if possible. Bragg is in Tennessee and does not respond.

May 22, 1863 - The Bureau of Colored Troops is established by the U.S. War Department. The goal is to coordinate the recruitment of African Americans from all states and regions.

May 22- 1863 - General Grant launches a three-mile wide frontal assault on Vicksburg's defensive lines. Sherman's XV Corps and McPherson's XVII Corps attack simultaneously, trying to overpower the defenders. Steep and narrow ravines, felled trees, and strong breastworks cause heavy Union losses, (3,199 Union casualties of 45,000 engaged) and Grant resigns himself to the siege operation he wished to avoid. The USS Benton, Carondelet, Mound City, and Tuscumbia resume their bombardment of Vicksburg.

May 23, 1863 - Confederate Secretary of War John A. Seddon suggests to President Davis that an alternative operation be planned to take pressure off Vicksburg. He specifically suggests General Grant's supply base at Helena, Arkansas be considered.

May 23, 1863 - General Nathaniel Banks continues to tighten his hold on Port Hudson in preparation for a general assault. Banks has 30,000 soldiers; General Gardner has about 7,000.

May 24, 1863 - Staff promotions in the Confederate Army include Ambrose P. Hill appointed lieutenant general, CSA and Henry Heth appointed major general, CSA.

May 24, 1863 - Federal gunboats of the Yazoo River expedition move up the adjacent Sunflower River and destroy grain along the banks.

May 25, 1863 - Peace Democrat Clement Vallandigham is released from prison and escorted to Murfreesboro, Tennessee for deportation through the lines.

May 25, 1863 - An attempt to tunnel under the Vicksburg defensive lines and detonate 2,200 pounds of powder fails to penetrate the defenses as additional enemy lines are behind the point of detonation.

May 25, 1863 - The CSS Alabama claims another Union ship. The Gildersleeve is captured and burned near Bahia, Brazil.