What was the most significant event on August 24 during the U.S. Civil War?

Confederate spies apprehended in Washington, D.C in 1861. “Mrs. Rose Greenhow and Mrs. Philip Phillips are arrested on charges of corresponding with Confederates. Allan Pinkerton, head of the recently-formed Secret Service, apprehended Greenhow and placed her under house arrest. Leaked information was traced back to Greenhow's home, and upon searching her home for further evidence, Pinkerton and his men found maps of Washington fortifications and notes on military movements.”
Harper’s Weekly publishes an article on the issue of fugitive slaves coming into Union lines, and whether Federal troops are obligated to return runaways to their masters in 1861. Sixteen days earlier, Sec. of War Cameron told Maj Gen Butler in Virginia that "property" belonging to persons in rebellion was considered forfeit. "Hence no question can arise as to fugitives from service within the States and Territories in which the authorities of the Union is fully acknowledged. But he says that in the States wholly or in part under insurrectionary control, where the laws of the United States are so far opposed and resisted that they can not be effectually enforced, it is obvious that the rights dependent upon the execution of those laws must temporarily fail, and it is equally obvious that the rights dependent on the laws of the State within which military operations are conducted must be necessarily sub- ordinate to the exigencies created by the insurrection, if not wholly forfeited by the treasonable conduct of parties claiming them. To this the general rule of right to services forms an exception."
In 1863 while working behind US Maj Gen Meade’s lines, Major John Mosby suffered his first serious wound of the war in a skirmish at Gooding’s Tavern near Annandale. Confederate raiders were prowling the area at Billy Goodling's Tavern, 10 miles out of Alexandria, Virginia, when they discovered the Union detachment escorting 100 horses. Mosby and his raiders attacked the Union soldiers but Mosby was hit by Union fire twice, once in the thigh and once in the groin. Mosby was able to get back on his horse and ordered his men to leave the area before a Union pursuit could be organized. The Confederates split up into small parties and still managed to capture most of the horses. Mosby's wounds would keep him out of action for nearly a month.
In 1863 at the siege of Fort Sumpter, Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard sent Col. Jeremy Gilmer, his chief engineer. Together with Col. Alfred Rhett, who commanded Fort Sumter itself, and several other officers, they systematically assessed the damage.
The Federal fire upon Sumter had slacked but it was still steady. First, they looked to the state of the heavy artillery, which they admitted was “very limited.” One 11-inch gun was still “capable of being fired with advantage,” but two others (both 10-inchers) could only be fired at a “disadvantage, in consequence of shattered condition of parapet.”
Col. Rhett added that “in action it would be impracticable to use but one gun, the 11-inch, and that would soon be disabled. Another officer put it plainly: “The offensive condition of the fort is nearly destroyed.”
Furthermore, they discussed whether or not the three guns that remained in Sumter could be improved by moving them. While the opinions of the officers were mixed, though he “would like to see it carried out,” Col. Rhett considered it “impracticable.” And though nobody had much hope for Sumter in general, all agreed that it The last item they considered was how long the fort might be able to hold under a sustained attack. Some said twelve hours, others thirty-six, yet another simply couldn’t say. Col. Rhett, however, had a lot to say, and none of it was good.
“The eastern wall is much shattered by the fire of 7th of April, and has never been repaired,” began Rhett, referring to the failed Federal Naval bombardment. The same wall, continued Rhett, had “also been seriously damaged by fire from the land batteries on Morris Island,” referring to the most recent and continuing attacks.
In his opinion, the walls of the fort could withstand two, perhaps three hours more of bombardment from the Union ships. Such an assault “would destroy the integrity of the wall, if it did not bring it down.” If, however, both the Navy and the Federal batteries combined their fire in an obvious attempt to reduce the fort, it “would probably bring down a large part of the wall.”
Other parts of the fort were in no better shape. “The fort wall adjoining the pier of the upper magazine has been completely shot away, and I think a concentrated fire of two hours on the junction of the upper and lower magazines would render the magazine unsafe.” The north wall was even worse, as it could withstand only “a few shots.”
All this bad news, however, did not mean that the Confederate engineers, including Jeremy Gilmer, believed Fort Sumter should be abandoned. “We beg leave to state,” wrote Harris in his report, “that, in our opinion, it is not advisable to abandon the fort at this time. On the contrary, we think it should be held to the last extremity.” Just when the “last extremity” was still up in the air, but Harris believed a “resolute garrison” could hold the fort “for many days.”
Col. Alfred Rhett, however, might have had a different opinion. He would be the officer in charge of calling for the fort to be abandoned. To head off this ever-likely scenario, Col. Gilmer, emphatically stated that it should be General Beauregard who answered the question of its abandonment, “and not left to the discretion of the commander of the fort.”
Beauregard fully agreed. “Fort Sumter must be held to the last extremity,” he wrote two days later, “not surrendered until it becomes impossible to hold it longer without an unnecessary sacrifice of human life. Evacuation of the fort must not be contemplated one instant without positive orders from these headquarters.”
That same day, Beauregard wrote to Richmond and President Jefferson Davis that Sumter “even in ruins” would be held, “if necessary, with musket and bayonet.”

Below are a number of journal entries from 1862 and 1864 which shed light on what life was like for soldiers and civilians – the good, the bad and the ugly. In 1864, Maj Gen General William T. Sherman reports on the Siege of Atlanta

Sunday, August 24, 1862: The New York Herald, in the wake of defeats in the Seven Days Battles before Richmond, and at Cedar Mountain, publishes an editorial that questions how a nation so superior and population and material resources can not be winning the war by now. It implicitly calls into question the matter of generalship, which is on every Northerner’s mind these days (and will be even more so before September passes away): “President Lincoln has the confidence of the country. No man doubts his honesty or his patriotism. Down to the recent seven days bloody battles near Richmond he may, perhaps, have shared with the whole people of the North the belief that this war in a week or two would be substantially ended; but those memorable seven days have convinced him, as they have convinced the North and all our loyal States, that we had vastly underrated the numbers of the rebel army and exaggerated our own. But if, in anticipation of a crowning victory at Richmond, the energies and vigilance of the Administration in regard to our army were slackened, the severe disappointment which followed has brought its compensating reaction. It has taught us — Government and people — that while our war like means, resources, and facilities are absolutely overwhelming, they go for nothing unless we bring them to bear in superior strength against the active forces of this rebellion.”
Sunday, August 24, 1862: George Templeton Strong of New York City records in his journal the tone of the public anxiety over the apparently disordered military affairs in Virginia: “We are most anxious about affairs in Virginia. The streets are filled with rumors of a great disaster to General Pope’s command. They cannot be traced and are disbelieved, but these shadows are too often the forerunners of some calamitous fact. Such disaster is but too plainly probable, thanks to the refined strategy that has thus far directed the campaign. McClellan’s withdrawal to the lower end of the Peninsula makes the whole rebel army available for a dash in any direction its leaders may select. It is set free—disengaged—for offensive operations. . . . If they possess common sense, they will surely move against Pope with their whole available force, which certainly far outnumbers his, hoping to crush him and move on Washington before McClellan can join him. This is their hour. . . . They must strike now. . . . We want a strong man, a great general, very badly. Such a man would be dangerous, but we want him.”
Sunday, August 24, 1862: General Edmund Kirby-Smith, in command of the Army of East Tennessee, writes to his wife from Barboursville, Kentucky: “The country is aroused, the people are all against us, this is true of all the mountain region of Ky. but the blue grass region [west?] of the mountains is our dependence there the sentiment is in our favour and when we [debauch?] from the mountains, we expect support. My expedition is something like Cortez. I have burnt my ships behind me and thrown myself boldly into the enemy’s country, the results may be brilliant and if successful will be considered a stroke of inspiration and genious. pray for me darling wife.”
Wednesday, August 24, 1864: Maj Gen General William T. Sherman reports on the Siege of Atlanta: “On the 24th I rode down to the Chattahoochee bridge, to see in person that it could be properly defended by the single corps proposed to be left there for that purpose, and found that the rebel works, which had been built by Johnston to resist us, could be easily utilized against themselves; and on returning to my camp, at that same evening, I telegraphed to General Halleck as follows: Heavy fires in Atlanta all day, caused by our artillery. I will be all ready, and will commence the movement around Atlanta by the south, tomorrow night, and for some time you will hear little of us. I will keep open a courier line back to the Chattahoochee bridge, by way of Sandtown. The Twentieth Corps will hold the railroad-bridge, and I will move with the balance of the army, provisioned for twenty days.
Meantime General Dodge (commanding the Sixteenth Corps) had been wounded in the forehead, had gone to the rear, and his two divisions were distributed to the Fifteenth and Seventeenth Corps.

Pictures: 1862 Stonewall Jackson Foot Cavalry; 1863-08-24 Fort Sumter as it looked the previous day; 1862-08-24 Virginia - Jackson's flanking march to Manassas Map; 1864 Sherman's men destroying railroad, Atlanta GA, Sept. 1864

A. Saturday, August 24, 1861: San Bernardino, California - Maj. William S. Ketchum of the 4th U.S. Infantry, having steamed from San Francisco to San Pedro and landed his force of 2 companies of Regulars and 90 U.S. Dragoons, marched inland to quell uprisings in pro-Confederate Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties. On this date, his force camps on the outskirts of San Bernardino and later marches through the streets as a demonstration of Federal power.
B. Sunday, August 24, 1862: Gen. Robert E. Lee gave Stonewall Jackson orders to take his 27,000 men on a long swing to the west, around Maj Gen John Pope’s right flank, and hit the Federal supply base at Manassas Junction. Lee knows that this is a risky move, to divide his army in the face of the enemy----but he is convinced that Pope is not sufficiently perceptive to discern his move. He was correct. Jackson’s route took his force behind the Bull Run Mountains which screened his movements until he reached Thoroughfare Gap and turned southeast and stuck the rail junction at Manassas isolated Pope from supplies. Longstreet, meanwhile, begins shifting to the left to cover Jackson’s part of the line. Jackson’s corps is on the road by 3:00 A.M. later tonight, marching rapidly.
Details: The rest of Porter’s Army of the Potomac corps, as well as General Philip Kearney’s division of Heintzelman’s corps, arrive to reinforce Pope’s Army of Virginia. General McClellan himself arrives at Aquia Creek after a stop at Fortress Monroe. Meanwhile, General Lee, having learned of Pope’s position from the general’s dispatch book, and worried about the impending arrival of McClellan’s army, orders Jackson to move as if heading for the Luray Valley in the Shenandoah, but to actually march around the Union right flank and attack Pope’s supply lines on the O&A Railroad at Manassas Junction, while Longstreet holds Pope on the Rappahannock line.
C. Monday, August 24, 1863: Confederates Determined to Hold Fort Sumter, Even in Ruins. Fort Sumter, surrendered after a 7-day artillery bombardment. Hit by over 2,500 rounds, the fort was reduced to ruin. However, when the troops in the fort were seen trying to remove the remaining artillery guns, which were going to be shipped to Charleston to bolster the city’s defences, another 627 rounds were fired at it.
Rather than going himself once again, Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard sent Col. Jeremy Gilmer, his chief engineer. Together with Col. Alfred Rhett, who commanded Fort Sumter itself, and several other officers, they systematically assessed the damage.
Beauregard fully agreed. With their assessment “Fort Sumter must be held to the last extremity,” he wrote two days later, “not surrendered until it becomes impossible to hold it longer without an unnecessary sacrifice of human life. Evacuation of the fort must not be contemplated one instant without positive orders from these headquarters.”
Details: That same day, Beauregard wrote to Richmond and President Jefferson Davis that Sumter “even in ruins” would be held, “if necessary, with musket and bayonet.”
The Federal fire upon Sumter had slacked on this day, but it was still steady. First, they looked to the state of the heavy artillery, which they admitted was “very limited.” One 11-inch gun was still “capable of being fired with advantage,” but two others (both 10-inchers) could only be fired at a “disadvantage, in consequence of shattered condition of parapet.”
Col. Rhett added that “in action it would be impracticable to use but one gun, the 11-inch, and that would soon be disabled. Another officer put it plainly: “The offensive condition of the fort is nearly destroyed.”
Furthermore, they discussed whether or not the three guns that remained in Sumter could be improved by moving them. While the opinions of the officers were mixed, though he “would like to see it carried out,” Col. Rhett considered it “impracticable.” And though nobody had much hope for Sumter in general, all agreed that it The last item they considered was how long the fort might be able to hold under a sustained attack. Some said twelve hours, others thirty-six, yet another simply couldn’t say. Col. Rhett, however, had a lot to say, and none of it was good.
“The eastern wall is much shattered by the fire of 7th of April, and has never been repaired,” began Rhett, referring to the failed Federal Naval bombardment. The same wall, continued Rhett, had “also been seriously damaged by fire from the land batteries on Morris Island,” referring to the most recent and continuing attacks.
In his opinion, the walls of the fort could withstand two, perhaps three hours more of bombardment from the Union ships. Such an assault “would destroy the integrity of the wall, if it did not bring it down.” If, however, both the Navy and the Federal batteries combined their fire in an obvious attempt to reduce the fort, it “would probably bring down a large part of the wall.”
Other parts of the fort were in no better shape. “The fort wall adjoining the pier of the upper magazine has been completely shot away, and I think a concentrated fire of two hours on the junction of the upper and lower magazines would render the magazine unsafe.” The north wall was even worse, as it could withstand only “a few shots.”
All this bad news, however, did not mean that the Confederate engineers, including Jeremy Gilmer, believed Fort Sumter should be abandoned. “We beg leave to state,” wrote Harris in his report, “that, in our opinion, it is not advisable to abandon the fort at this time. On the contrary, we think it should be held to the last extremity.” Just when the “last extremity” was still up in the air, but Harris believed a “resolute garrison” could hold the fort “for many days.”
Col. Alfred Rhett, however, might have had a different opinion. He would be the officer in charge of calling for the fort to be abandoned. To head off this ever-likely scenario, Col. Gilmer, emphatically stated that it should be General Beauregard who answered the question of its abandonment, “and not left to the discretion of the commander of the fort.”
D. Wednesday, August 24, 1864: Destruction of the Weldon Railroad. By 9am General John Gibbon’s division joined the rest of Maj Gen Winfield Scott Hancock’s II Corps comrades at Ream’s Station. Their focus was the destruction of Weldon Railroad. All around the station, the constructed breastworks and rifle pits. Most, however, were taking turns on the rails, heating them and twisting them into pretzels. By the end of the day, as Winfield Scott Hancock reported, “the road is destroyed for about three miles and a half beyond Reams'” While the fist division, under General Nelson Miles, remained behind the entrenchments, Gibbon’s was to continue the work come dawn, though three or four miles to the south.
Thinking ahead, Hancock concluded that Gibbon’s men could, “in case of need, fall back on the plank road, if the enemy should appear in force on some of the roads between him and Reams’.”
But it was also around that time when Hancock received the news from signal officers reporting “large bodies of infantry passing south from their intrenchments by the Halifax and Vaughan roads [slightly to the northwest of his position]. They are probably destined to operate against General Warren or yourself – most probably against your operations. The commanding general cautions you to look out for them.”
Background: “If we can retain hold of the railroad it will be a great advantage,” wrote General Grant to General Meade on the morning of August 21st. And after days of fighting between Gouverneur K. Warren’s Fifth Corps and the Rebels south of Petersburg, it appeared as if their position would hold. The next day, Grant was convinced of this, and told Meade not to attack. If Warren could stand his ground, there was no need to throw his men against an entrenched foe.
And if they held, Grant had another idea. Winfield Scott Hancock’s Second Corps had been in a week-long battle at Deep Bottom, between Richmond and Petersburg. With that scrap dying down and with other available units able to take their place, he ordered the entire corps several miles south of Warren’s position with the same purpose in mind – to destroy the railroad.
Though the Confederate infantry had faded back and away from the railroad, the cavalry was still around in thick numbers. They sent their Northern counterparts scurrying for cover on the afternoon of the 23rd. The Federal troopers were from Hancock’s Cavalry, and Meade was none too pleased to learn that they had actually charged the enemy near Ream’s Station.
During the fight, Confederate General Wade Hampton had gotten a good look at what Hancock’s men were about. When Hampton returned to his camp that night, he wrote General Lee, telling him that the Federals were in a precarious spot, and if he had some reinforcemens, he might be able to dislodge them. Though it would not be soon enough to save the railroad. By nightfall of the 23rd, it had been completely gutted from Globe Tavern south to Ream’s Station.
Hancock’s infantry, under the screen and protection of the cavalry, were to tear up track and bend the rails the following day. However, Hancock informed on of his division, that if the fighting came in earnest, they were to reinforce the cavalry and fight it out. “You had better send back for ammunition if you are likely to need more,” concluded the message.




1. Saturday, August 24, 1861: At Richmond, Virginia, President Davis names James M. Mason as commissioner to Great Britain and John Slidell as commissioner to France.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-a/part-nineteen-1
2. Saturday, August 24, 1861: Lincoln informs Kentucky Governor Beriah Magoffin that he cannot and will not remove pro-Union forces from neutral Kentucky.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-a/part-nineteen-1
3. Saturday, August 24, 1861: In Richmond, Pres. Davis appoints three commissioners to act on behalf of the Confederacy in Europe. James Mason of Virginia (and the author of the much-hated 1850 Fugitive Slave law) is commissioner to Great Britain, John Slidell (former US Senator from Louisiana) is sent to France, and Pierre Rost of Louisiana to Spain. Their mission is to secure arms and supplies, purchase warships, borrow money, and work to establish diplomatic relations and even recognition for the CSA from these nations.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+24%2C+1861
4. Saturday, August 24, 1861: In Washington, Mrs. Rose Greenhow and Mrs. Philip Phillips are arrested on charges of corresponding with Confederates. Allan Pinkerton, head of the recently-formed Secret Service, apprehended Greenhow and placed her under house arrest. Leaked information was traced back to Greenhow's home, and upon searching her home for further evidence, Pinkerton and his men found maps of Washington fortifications and notes on military movements.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-a/part-nineteen-1
5. Saturday, August 24, 1861: Harper’s Weekly publishes an article on the issue of fugitive slaves coming into Union lines, and whether Federal troops are obligated to return runaways to their masters. Sec. of War Cameron tells Gen. Butler in Virginia 16 days ago that "property" belonging to persons in rebellion is considered forfeit. "Hence no question can arise as to fugitives from service within the States and Territories in which the authorities of the Union is fully acknowledged. But he says that in the States wholly or in part under insurrectionary control, where the laws of the United States are so far opposed and resisted that they can not be effectually enforced, it is obvious that the rights dependent upon the execution of those laws must temporarily fail, and it is equally obvious that the rights dependent on the laws of the State within which military operations are conducted must be necessarily sub- ordinate to the exigencies created by the insurrection, if not wholly forfeited by the treasonable conduct of parties claiming them. To this the general rule of right to services forms an exception."
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+24%2C+1861
6. Saturday, August 24, 1861: “The suppression of Democratic newspapers was not about to take a weekend off. For weeks now, a small Connecticut paper called the Bridgeport Advertiser & Farmer had received warnings from the local Republicans and the Federal government. The Farmer was indeed anti-Lincoln, calling him a “despot” and accusing him of assuming more power than the Constitution allowed a President.
Though Republicans had written much the same (and worse) of former-President Buchanan, during a time of war, dissent is often seen as a greater threat.
That evening, Democrats in Stepney held a “Peace Meeting” that was quickly disrupted and aggressively taken over by Unionists from Bridgeport led by P.T. Barnum, who quickly headed for the platform to make a speech. As Barnum was about to begin, the Democrats brandished pistols and threatened to kill Barnum if he spoke. In response, the Unionists, many of which were Bull Run veterans, drew pistols of their own and threatened to kill anyone who fired upon Barnum.
To quell the standoff, Barnum offered to allow any “secessionist” scheduled to speak the right to do so and be “given a fair hearing, provided they say nothing treasonable.” The Democrats declined and either left or stuck around to utter various threats.
After the impromptu Unionist meeting was adjourned, the Unionists returned the ten or so miles south to Bridgeport. They entered the town ready for action and jumped at the chance when one of their number yelled, “to the Farmer office!”
Nearly 500 fiery Unionists, trailed by 1,000 spectators, attacked the Farmer’s offices. There they threw to the street not only the paper, type and the books of the business, but somehow managed to throw two large presses through the windows. Upon the street, they broke the presses to pieces with hammers.
No arrests were made and the paper was out of business.”
http://civilwardailygazette.com/another-newspaper-suppressed-missouri-in-doubt-kentucky-in-turmoil/
7. Sunday, August 24, 1862: In international waters, Captain Raphael Semmes mounted a gun-carriage and read his commission from President Jefferson Davis, authorizing him to take command of the new cruiser. The new Confederate cruiser was powered by both sail and by two 300 horsepower horizontal steam engines. It would become the terror of Union ship captains and insurance companies. During all of CSS Alabama's raiding ventures, she boarded nearly 450 vessels, captured or burned 65 Union merchant ships, and took more than 2,000 prisoners without a single loss of life from either prisoners or her own crew. This cost insurance companies about $6,000,000 (approximately $123,000,000 in today's dollars. After the war, the US sued Great Britain for damages; since they built it and others for the Confederates and won $15,500,000.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/part-seventy-two
8. Sunday, August 24, 1862: Off the Azores, the CSS Alabama is commissioned.
https://bjdeming.com/2012/10/03/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-20-26-1862/
9. Sunday, August 24, 1862: A nearly comical series of telegrams between Gen. Halleck and Gen. McClellan make it clear that neither general knows where Gen. Pope is. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac is disembarking at Aquia Creek and Alexandria, and he is requesting orders, scarcely concealing his impatience. But Halleck does not know what to tell Little Mac, since he does not know where Pope is. Some of McClellan’s troops, such as Burnside’s IX Corps, and Porter’s V Corps, are in the field but so far have not been given any orders by Pope, either, who seems to not be aware that these reinforcements are at hand.
Sunday, August 24, 1862: Pope, on the other hand, clearly does not know where Gen. Lee and the Rebels are. Every time Pope’s troops make a thrust in any direction, they fail to make contact with the Rebels—and so his Army of Virginia continues sparring with a shadowy opponent, all the while retreating.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+24%2C+1862
10. Sunday, August 24, 1862: The New York Herald, in the wake of defeats in the Seven Days Battles before Richmond, and at Cedar Mountain, publishes an editorial that questions how a nation so superior and population and material resources can not be winning the war by now. It implicitly calls into question the matter of generalship, which is on every Northerner’s mind these days (and will be even more so before September passes away): “President Lincoln has the confidence of the country. No man doubts his honesty or his patriotism. Down to the recent seven days bloody battles near Richmond he may, perhaps, have shared with the whole people of the North the belief that this war in a week or two would be substantially ended; but those memorable seven days have convinced him, as they have convinced the North and all our loyal States, that we had vastly underrated the numbers of the rebel army and exaggerated our own. But if, in anticipation of a crowning victory at Richmond, the energies and vigilance of the Administration in regard to our army were slackened, the severe disappointment which followed has brought its compensating reaction. It has taught us — Government and people — that while our war like means, resources, and facilities are absolutely overwhelming, they go for nothing unless we bring them to bear in superior strength against the active forces of this rebellion.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+24%2C+1862
11. Sunday, August 24, 1862: George Templeton Strong of New York City records in his journal the tone of the public anxiety over the apparently disordered military affairs in Virginia: “We are most anxious about affairs in Virginia. The streets are filled with rumors of a great disaster to General Pope’s command. They cannot be traced and are disbelieved, but these shadows are too often the forerunners of some calamitous fact. Such disaster is but too plainly probable, thanks to the refined strategy that has thus far directed the campaign. McClellan’s withdrawal to the lower end of the Peninsula makes the whole rebel army available for a dash in any direction its leaders may select. It is set free—disengaged—for offensive operations. . . . If they possess common sense, they will surely move against Pope with their whole available force, which certainly far outnumbers his, hoping to crush him and move on Washington before McClellan can join him. This is their hour. . . . They must strike now. . . . We want a strong man, a great general, very badly. Such a man would be dangerous, but we want him.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+24%2C+1862
12. Sunday, August 24, 1862: General Edmund Kirby-Smith, in command of the Army of East Tennessee, writes to his wife from Barboursville, Kentucky: “The country is aroused, the people are all against us, this is true of all the mountain region of Ky. but the blue grass region [west?] of the mountains is our dependence there the sentiment is in our favour and when we [debauch?] from the mountains, we expect support. My expedition is something like Cortez. I have burnt my ships behind me and thrown myself boldly into the enemy’s country, the results may be brilliant and if successful will be considered a stroke of inspiration and genious. pray for me darling wife.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+24%2C+1862
13. Sunday, August 24, 1862: Near Lamar, Kansas, nine companies of Kansas cavalry are attacked by William Quantrill’s and Col. Hays’ bushwhackers. The fighting see-saws for some time, with the Federals driving off the Southern men.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+24%2C+1862
14. Sunday, August 24, 1862: Dallas, Missouri: A hot skirmish takes places between the Rebel irregulars of Col. Jeffries and a battalion of the 12th Missouri Cavalry, U.S. The Rebels, although more numerous, and driven from the field.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+24%2C+1862　
15. Sunday, August 24, 1862: On the Mississippi, a US boat crew is shot at from someone in Bayou Sara, Louisiana. The gunboat fires on the town in retaliation.
https://bjdeming.com/2012/10/03/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-20-26-1862/
16. Monday, August 24, 1863: near Alexandria, Virginia - On August 24, a 30-man detail of Company A/2nd Massachusetts Cavalry was escorting a herd of 100 horses. They were coming from Alexandria and heading to Centreville. When they reached Billy Goodling's Tavern, 10 miles out of Alexandria, they stopped to water the horses. Col. John S. Mosby and a group of his Confederate raiders where prowling the area when they discovered the Union detachment. He split his force in half for the attack. Lt. William T. Turner and 15 men were sent to attack the rear of the Union detachment while Mosby himself led the remainder of his force to attack the front of the Federals.
The Confederates made a charge into the Federals, forcing them to scurry for cover around the tavern. When they found cover, the Federals opened fire on the Confederates. Mosby was hit by Union fire twice, once in the thigh and once in the groin. He was forced into the nearby woods to be examined. When the Confederates saw Mosby being led away, they stopped their attack and went to the woods. Before Mosby could tell them to resume the attack, all but a handful of the Federals managed to escape. Turner led the raiders in pursuit of the Federals and captured most of the Union horses.
Mosby was able to get back on his horse and ordered his men to leave the area before a Union pursuit could be organized. The Confederates split up into small parties during their return march. Mosby's wounds would keep him out of action for nearly a month.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1863s.html
17. Monday, August 24, 1863: Col. John S. Mosby (CSA) and a group of his Confederate raiders were prowling the area at Billy Goodling's Tavern, 10 miles out of Alexandria, Virginia, when they discovered the Union detachment escorting 100 horses. Mosby and his raiders attacked the Union soldiers but Mosby was hit by Union fire twice, once in the thigh and once in the groin. Mosby was able to get back on his horse and ordered his men to leave the area before a Union pursuit could be organized. The Confederates split up into small parties and still managed to capture most of the horses. Mosby's wounds would keep him out of action for nearly a month.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-c/week-124
18. Monday, August 24, 1863: Virginia operations: While working behind US General Meade’s lines, Major John Mosby suffers his first serious wound of the war in a skirmish at Gooding’s Tavern near Annandale. He will be back at work in a month.
https://bjdeming.com/2013/08/19/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-19-25-1863/
19. Monday, August 24, 1863: East Tennessee operations: General Burnside and his headquarters leave London, Kentucky, effectively cutting communication with his base until he can reach Knoxville. The soldiers are on half-rations as they cross mountains and ford streams, heading for the Tennessee state line. Residents of the Cumberland Plateau, a Unionist region, are amazed to see the Federal troops, and gather in sometimes large groups along the roadside from as far as 12 miles away. Some Unionists decide the time has come for revenge for all they’ve suffered at the hand of Confederate sympathizers, eventually driving the pro-secessionists out of the highlands. As the march continues and they descend the eastern escarpment of the Cumberland Plateau and get into the Tennessee River Valley, the US troops will be met with a mixed reaction, with some locals welcoming them jubilantly, while others just show “contempt and hatred.”
https://bjdeming.com/2013/08/19/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-19-25-1863/
20. Wednesday, August 24, 1864: Siege of Atlanta: General Sherman reports: “On the 24th I rode down to the Chattahoochee bridge, to see in person that it could be properly defended by the single corps proposed to be left there for that purpose, and found that the rebel works, which had been built by Johnston to resist us, could be easily utilized against themselves; and on returning to my camp, at that same evening, I telegraphed to General Halleck as follows: Heavy fires in Atlanta all day, caused by our artillery. I will be all ready, and will commence the movement around Atlanta by the south, tomorrow night, and for some time you will hear little of us. I will keep open a courier line back to the Chattahoochee bridge, by way of Sandtown. The Twentieth Corps will hold the railroad-bridge, and I will move with the balance of the army, provisioned for twenty days.
Meantime General Dodge (commanding the Sixteenth Corps) had been wounded in the forehead, had gone to the rear, and his two divisions were distributed to the Fifteenth and Seventeenth Corps.
https://bjdeming.com/2014/08/17/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-18-24-1864/
21. Wednesday, August 24, 1864: “President Lincoln drafts a letter to New York Times editor Henry J. Raymond, who forecasts big electoral losses for the Republicans. Raymond predicts that a peace summit will ‘turn the tide of public sentiment.’ Lincoln instructs, ‘You will proceed forthwith and obtain, if possible, a conference for peace with Hon. Jefferson Davis, or any person by him authorized for that purpose…[Y]ou will propose, on behalf of this government, that upon the restoration of the Union and the national authority, the war shall cease at once, all remaining questions to be left for adjustment by peaceful modes. If this be accepted hostilities to cease at once.’ Ultimately, Lincoln and the Cabinet reject the peace conference suggestion.”
https://bjdeming.com/2014/08/17/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-18-24-1864/
22. Wednesday, August 24, 1864: Mississippi operations: Maury to Forrest: “You have again saved Mississippi. Come and help Mobile…We are very weak here. Forrest tells Chalmers to call off the chase. His division will be sent south to Mobile at the end of the month. US General Sherman to General Washburn: “If you get a chance send word to Forrest that I admire his dash but not his judgment. The oftener he runs his head against Memphis the better. This case illustrates the importance of converting those armories into regular citadels with loop-holes and flanks. See to it.” General Smith will soon begin withdrawing back towards Memphis.
https://bjdeming.com/2014/08/17/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-18-24-1864/
23. Wednesday, August 24, 1864:


A Saturday, August 24, 1861: San Bernardino, California - Maj. William S. Ketchum of the 4th U.S. Infantry, having steamed from San Francisco to San Pedro and landed his force of 2 companies of Regulars and 90 U.S. Dragoons, marched inland to quell uprisings in pro-Confederate Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties. On this date, his force camps on the outskirts of San Bernardino and later marches through the streets as a demonstration of Federal power.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+24%2C+1861
B Sunday, August 24, 1862: Gen. Lee calls a conference with Generals Longstreet and Jackson. He gives Jackson orders to take his 27,000 men on a long swing to the west, around Pope’s right flank, and hit the Federal supply base at Manassas Junction. Lee knows that this is a risky move, to divide his army in the face of the enemy----but he is convinced that Pope is not sufficiently perceptive to discern his move. He is right, of course. Jackson’s route will take him behind the Bull Run Mountains, which will act as a screen, until he reaches Thoroughfare Gap, where he will turn southeast and strike at the rail junction at Manassas and hopefully snare Pope and isolate him from supplies. Longstreet, meanwhile, begins shifting to the left to cover Jackson’s part of the line. Jackson’s corps is on the road by 3:00 A.M. later tonight, marching rapidly.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+24%2C+1862
B+ Sunday, August 24, 1862: “General Franz Sigel, according to his own commander, General John Pope, was slow and stupid. The previous day, he did little to dispel that notion when he failed to attack an isolated Confederate brigade trapped on the north side of the overflowing Rappahannock River. The waters receded later the evening and by 3am all of the Rebels were safely on the other side of the river. Sigel didn’t realize that he lost his chance and advanced towards Waterloo Bridge, where he met only Confederate skirmishers.
The Rebels belonged to General Jubal Early’s Brigade in Stonewall Jackson’s wing of the Army of Northern Virginia. Though Early had escaped what would have been likely destruction, it threw off General Robert E. Lee’s entire move up the Rappahannock. Originally, Lee wanted to beat Pope’s Union army to Waterloo Bridge, which he would have been able to do if Jackson wouldn’t have thrown Early’s Brigade across the river downstream of the objective. The Rebels lost a day due to this strange bit of maneuvering and the flooded river.
Separated by the Rappahannock, the two sides pounded each other with artillery throughout the day. Commanding the right wing of Lee’s Army, General James Longstreet was ordered to bring his men up to support Jackson. Though his original plan had to be altered, it was not all lost. Lee called both Longstreet and Jackson together for a council of war.
Thanks to Jeb Stuart’s raid on Catlett’s Station, General Pope’s papers had been captured. Those letters and dispatches told Lee that the Union Army of Virginia and General George McClellan’s Army of the Potomac were less than a week away from merging. This would bring the total number of Federals before Lee from 50,000 to somewhere in the neighborhood of 200,000.
Since a crossing of the Rappahannock near their current position would be met with considerable force, Lee could either retreat or make an incredibly daring move. He, much to Jackson’s delight, chose the latter. The Federals got their supplies through their base at Manassas Junction. Pope had to cover that base in his rear, while keeping a link with Fredericksburg, where portions of the Army of the Potomac were arriving.
Therefore, Lee’s plan was for Jackson to take his 27,000 on a wide march around Pope’s right flank until they hit the Manassas Gap Railroad. From there, they would descend upon Manassas Junction, through Thoroughfare Gap. If they used an unprotected ford and slid behind the mountains for cover, they would go undetected. While Jackson was on the flank march, Longstreet was to hold Pope’s attention along the Rappahannock until it was too late for Pope to do anything about Manassas Gap. Lee would then unite his two wings wherever Jackson would be. Pope’s army would be caught in the middle and cut off from reinforcements.
Jackson immediately set about readying his men for the move. Longstreet, likewise, began to move his troops to replace Jackson’s. To screen his movements, Stonewall wanted Jeb Stuart’s Cavalry to clear the way. Stuart, however, took notice that Federals were moving upon Waterloo Bridge with the intent to destroy it. Since it was the only bridge remaining across the Rappahannock, he decided to put a stop to it. He deployed sharpshooters all along the bank, keeping their Union counterparts at bay until infantry from Longstreet’s wing could take their place.
As Longstreet’s men slid in behind Stuart’s and Jackson’s, it freed them for the real work ahead. Jackson’s men returned to their camps at Jeffersonton, while Stuart studied the route he and Jackson would take.
They would first move through Amissville, then turn north on a small road, crossing the Rappahannock at an unknown ford at Hinson’s Mill. After crossing, they’d continue north through the town of Orleans to arrive at Salem on the Manassas Gap Railroad. Turning east, they’d bowl their way towards Manassas Junction.
Lee’s wings would be separated by about a fifty-mile march. Pope could always turn on either Jackson or Longstreet and easily crush the one before moving onto the next. But Lee was certain that Jackson would not be detected and that Longstreet could keep the Federals occupied long enough.
At 3am, Stonewall Jackson’s men stepped off.”
http://civilwardailygazette.com/lee-orders-a-bold-and-dangerous-plan/
B++ Sunday, August 24, 1862: Manassas/Second Manassas Campaign: The rest of Porter’s Army of the Potomac corps, as well as General Philip Kearney’s division of Heintzelman’s corps, arrive to reinforce Pope’s Army of Virginia. General McClellan himself arrives at Aquia Creek after a stop at Fortress Monroe. Meanwhile, General Lee, having learned of Pope’s position from the general’s dispatch book, and worried about the impending arrival of McClellan’s army, orders Jackson to move as if heading for the Luray Valley in the Shenandoah, but to actually march around the Union right flank and attack Pope’s supply lines on the O&A Railroad at Manassas Junction, while Longstreet holds Pope on the Rappahannock line.
https://bjdeming.com/2012/10/03/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-20-26-1862/
C Monday, August 24, 1863: Fort Sumter, also built to guard Charleston, surrendered after a 7-day artillery bombardment. Hit by over 2,500 rounds, the fort was reduced to ruin. However, when the troops in the fort were seen trying to remove the remaining artillery guns, which were going to be shipped to Charleston to bolster the city’s defences, another 627 rounds were fired at it.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-c/week-124
C+ Monday, August 24, 1863: Confederates Determined to Hold Fort Sumter, Even in Ruins. “I have the honor to report the practical demolition of Fort Sumter as the result of our seven days’ bombardment of that work,” wrote Federal commander Quincy Adams Gillmore, “including two days of which a powerful northeasterly storm most seriously diminished the accuracy and effect of our fire.” Gillmore was simply bragging at this point, but he was correct.
The “northeasterly storm” was actually a Category 2 hurricane that cost the lives of eighty people, though it never made actual landfall. It raged north from the Caribbean, coming no closer than 200 miles from Charleston, South Carolina, but still, the winds blew and rains poured before the storm headed northeast, skirting the New England coast. To continue an artillery bombardment through the deluge was indeed something of which to be proud.
“Fort Sumter is today a shapeless and harmless mass of ruins,” continued Gillmore. This was also no lie. But one gun remained fully operational at Sumter on this date.
Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard could see the sorry state of Fort Sumter from the defenses of Charleston, but still needed a closer look. He had personally visited the fort two days ago, but in that time nearly 1,400 shots had been fired against the crumbling symbol of Rebellion, with well over 1,000 hitting their mark.
Rather than going himself once again, Beauregard sent Col. Jeremy Gilmer, his chief engineer. Together with Col. Alfred Rhett, who commanded Fort Sumter itself, and several other officers, they systematically assessed the damage.
The Federal fire upon Sumter had slacked on this day, but it was still steady. First, they looked to the state of the heavy artillery, which they admitted was “very limited.” One 11-inch gun was still “capable of being fired with advantage,” but two others (both 10-inchers) could only be fired at a “disadvantage, in consequence of shattered condition of parapet.”
Col. Rhett added that “in action it would be impracticable to use but one gun, the 11-inch, and that would soon be disabled. Another officer put it plainly: “The offensive condition of the fort is nearly destroyed.”
Furthermore, they discussed whether or not the three guns that remained in Sumter could be improved by moving them. While the opinions of the officers were mixed, though he “would like to see it carried out,” Col. Rhett considered it “impracticable.” And though nobody had much hope for Sumter in general, all agreed that it The last item they considered was how long the fort might be able to hold under a sustained attack. Some said twelve hours, others thirty-six, yet another simply couldn’t say. Col. Rhett, however, had a lot to say, and none of it was good.
“The eastern wall is much shattered by the fire of 7th of April, and has never been repaired,” began Rhett, referring to the failed Federal Naval bombardment. The same wall, continued Rhett, had “also been seriously damaged by fire from the land batteries on Morris Island,” referring to the most recent and continuing attacks.
In his opinion, the walls of the fort could withstand two, perhaps three hours more of bombardment from the Union ships. Such an assault “would destroy the integrity of the wall, if it did not bring it down.” If, however, both the Navy and the Federal batteries combined their fire in an obvious attempt to reduce the fort, it “would probably bring down a large part of the wall.”
Other parts of the fort were in no better shape. “The fort wall adjoining the pier of the upper magazine has been completely shot away, and I think a concentrated fire of two hours on the junction of the upper and lower magazines would render the magazine unsafe.” The north wall was even worse, as it could withstand only “a few shots.”
All this bad news, however, did not mean that the Confederate engineers, including Jeremy Gilmer, believed Fort Sumter should be abandoned. “We beg leave to state,” wrote Harris in his report, “that, in our opinion, it is not advisable to abandon the fort at this time. On the contrary, we think it should be held to the last extremity.” Just when the “last extremity” was still up in the air, but Harris believed a “resolute garrison” could hold the fort “for many days.”
Col. Alfred Rhett, however, might have had a different opinion. He would be the officer in charge of calling for the fort to be abandoned. To head off this ever-likely scenario, Col. Gilmer, emphatically stated that it should be General Beauregard who answered the question of its abandonment, “and not left to the discretion of the commander of the fort.”
Beauregard fully agreed. “Fort Sumter must be held to the last extremity,” he wrote two days later, “not surrendered until it becomes impossible to hold it longer without an unnecessary sacrifice of human life. Evacuation of the fort must not be contemplated one instant without positive orders from these headquarters.”
That same day, Beauregard wrote to Richmond and President Jefferson Davis that Sumter “even in ruins” would be held, “if necessary, with musket and bayonet.”
http://civilwardailygazette.com/confederates-determined-to-hold-fort-sumter-even-in-ruins/
D Wednesday, August 24, 1864: Union II Corps moves south of Petersburg is going about its assigned work today, which is destruction along the Weldon Railroad. At Duvall’s Bluff, Arkansas General Joseph O. Shelby (CSA) sets about destroying telegraph lines, tearing up railroad tracks, torching hay and machinery.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/1864/week-176
D+ Wednesday, August 24, 1864: The Commanding General Cautions You To Look Out For Them. “If we can retain hold of the railroad it will be a great advantage,” wrote General Grant to General Meade on the morning of August 21st. And after days of fighting between Gouverneur K. Warren’s Fifth Corps and the Rebels south of Petersburg, it appeared as if their position would hold. The next day, Grant was convinced of this, and told Meade not to attack. If Warren could stand his ground, there was no need to throw his men against an entrenched foe.
And if they held, Grant had another idea. Winfield Scott Hancock’s Second Corps had been in a week-long battle at Deep Bottom, between Richmond and Petersburg. With that scrap dying down and with other available units able to take their place, he ordered the entire corps several miles south of Warren’s position with the same purpose in mind – to destroy the railroad.
Though the Confederate infantry had faded back and away from the railroad, the cavalry was still around in thick numbers. They sent their Northern counterparts scurrying for cover on the afternoon of the 23rd. The Federal troopers were from Hancock’s Cavalry, and Meade was none too pleased to learn that they had actually charged the enemy near Ream’s Station.
During the fight, Confederate General Wade Hampton had gotten a good look at what Hancock’s men were about. When Hampton returned to his camp that night, he wrote General Lee, telling him that the Federals were in a precarious spot, and if he had some reinforcemens, he might be able to dislodge them. Though it would not be soon enough to save the railroad. By nightfall of the 23rd, it had been completely gutted from Globe Tavern south to Ream’s Station.
Hancock’s infantry, under the screen and protection of the cavalry, were to tear up track and bend the rails the following day. However, Hancock informed on of his division, that if the fighting came in earnest, they were to reinforce the cavalry and fight it out. “You had better send back for ammunition if you are likely to need more,” concluded the message.
By 9am the next morning, the 24th – this date – General John Gibbon’s division joined their comrades at Ream’s Station. All around the station, the constructed breastworks and rifle pits. Most, however, were taking turns on the rails, heating them and twisting them into pretzels.
And by the end of the day, as Hancock reported, “the road is destroyed for about three miles and a half beyond Reams'” While the fist division, under General Nelson Miles, remained behind the entrenchments, Gibbon’s was to continue the work come dawn, though three or four miles to the south.
Thinking ahead, Hancock concluded that Gibbon’s men could, “in case of need, fall back on the plank road, if the enemy should appear in force on some of the roads between him and Reams’.”
But it was also around that time when Hancock received the news from signal officers reporting “large bodies of infantry passing south from their intrenchments by the Halifax and Vaughan roads [slightly to the northwest of his position]. They are probably destined to operate against General Warren or yourself – most probably against your operations. The commanding general cautions you to look out for them.”
http://civilwardailygazette.com/the-commanding-general-cautions-you-to-look-out-for-them/
FYI GySgt Jack Wallace CWO4 Terrence Clark SMSgt Lawrence McCarter A1C Pamela G RussellLTC Trent Klug SFC Bernard Walko SFC Stephen King SSG Franklin Briant SSG Byron Howard Sr CPL Ronald Keyes Jr SFC William Farrell CMDCM John F. "Doc" Bradshaw SPC Lyle MontgomeryDeborah GregsonPO2 Marco MonsalveSPC Woody Bullard SSG Michael Noll SSG Bill McCoySSG Donald H "Don" Bates MSgt (Join to see)

I'll take flying printing presses for $100..

I go with the second example because the prelude to the 2nd Battle of Manassas is still taught in military history as a daring risk in the face of a superior enemy host.