Posted on Sep 28, 2016
What was the most significant event on August 26 during the U.S. Civil War?
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In the Civil War sometimes soldiers could be moved by train but generally they moved on their feet. Adequate foot gear was very important. Trench foot and leaches were some of the unfortunate ailments that soldiers had to endure. Long foot marches in all kinds of weather toughened many and broke some soldiers. Many battles were fought between entrenched soldiers and those who had marched many miles hurriedly to get to the battle.
Adrenaline helped sustain those who marched long and hard while vomiting occurred on both sides especially when the smell of death hit them full force.
In 1862, Stonewall Jackson’s foot cavalry marched long and hard to get around John Pope’s forces during the Second Manassas campaign.
In 1863, CSA General John Floyd died of natural causes at home in Abingdon, VA. He had been blamed by the CSA leadership for the confederate defeat at Fort Donelson the year before. He was a very capable man as evidenced by his serving as Governor of Virginia and later President Buchanan’s Secretary of War. He had directed J.E.B Stuart and Robert E. Lee against John Brown’s standoff at Harpers Ferry. Later he defied President Buchanan by not reinforcing the Charleston, SC forts. He did not want to exacerbate the situation.
Psychological warfare against a grieving woman. In 1862, the Richmond Daily Dispatch taunted Mrs Lincoln with the death of two of her brothers, three of whom served in the Confederate Army: “Woe upon the Lady of the White House.
The "Lady of the White House," as Mrs. Lincoln is termed by the Northern papers, has doubtless felt deeply the woe that has been brought upon her by the unnatural war which Lincoln is waging upon the South. She has recently lost another brother, Lieut A. H. Todd, who [fell in] Baton Rouge gallantly battling for Southern independence. He was [a] noble gentleman and officer, and was attached to the 1st Kentucky. The brother was killed at Shiloh, and the only brother now left is said to be Captain Todd, now in command of the Confederate water battery below Vicksburg. May this last one be spared to his country! In penning this notice of the woe that has come upon Mrs. Lincoln. our design is not to reproach, much less to taunt or insult her. She is the sister of the gallant dead to whom we have referred and respect for their devoted patriotism and manly virtues forbid any such attempts on our part. We only refer to it to show the horrors which war produces and this unnatural one more than all. Well has it been written that.
"Man’s inhumanity to man. Makes counties thousands mourn."
In this bloody war brothers have drawn the sword upon brothers; fathers upon sons, and sons upon fathers. Those who should have been "loving in life," and who in death, "should not have been divided," have hated in life, and been divided in death. Take only this one family of noble name and deeds — the Todd family of Kentucky–as an illustration, and what may not be written of it of heroic deeds, and of woe unutterable — of patriotic suffering, and of political pride and power! "Esther, the Queen," saved "Mordecai." Would that a second Esther could stay this bloody war.”
In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln had been invited to a rally back home in Illinois in support of the Union (and against Emancipation). He drafted a letter explaining that he would be unable to attend and requested his letter be read at the assembly.: “EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, August 26, 1863. HON. JAMES C. CONKLING.
MY DEAR SIR:—Your letter inviting me to attend a mass meeting of unconditional Union men, to be held at the capital of Illinois, on the 3d day of September, has been received. It would be very agreeable for me thus to meet my old friends at my own home, but I cannot just now be absent from here so long as a visit there would require.
The meeting is to be of all those who maintain unconditional devotion to the Union, and I am sure that my old political friends will thank me for tendering, as I do, the nation's gratitude to those other noble men whom no partisan malice or partisan hope can make false to the nation's life. . . .
A compromise, to be effective, must be made either with those who control the rebel army, or with the people, first liberated from the domination of that army by the success of our own army. Now allow me to assure you that no word or intimation from that rebel army, or from any of the men controlling it, in relation to any peace compromise, has ever come to my knowledge or belief. All charges and insinuations to the contrary are deceptive and groundless. . . .
But, to be plain: You are dissatisfied with me about the negro. Quite likely there is a difference of opinion between you and myself upon that subject. I certainly wish that all men could be free, while you, I suppose, do not. Yet, I have neither adopted nor proposed any measure which is not consistent with even your view, provided you are for the Union. I suggested compensated emancipation; to which you replied you wished not to be taxed to buy negroes. But I had not asked you to be taxed to buy negroes, except in such way as to save you from greater taxation to save the Union exclusively by other means.
You dislike the Emancipation Proclamation, and perhaps would have it retracted. You say it is unconstitutional. I think differently. I think the Constitution invests its commander-in-chief with the law of war in time of war. The most that can be said, if so much, is, that slaves are property. Is there, has there ever been, any question that by the law of war, property, both of enemies and friends, may be taken when needed? And is it not needed whenever it helps us and hurts the enemy?
But the proclamation, as law, either is valid or is not valid. If it is not valid it needs no retraction. If it is valid it cannot be retracted, any more than the dead can be brought to life. Some of you profess to think its retraction would operate favorably for the Union, why better after the retraction than before the issue? There was more than a year and a half of trial to suppress the rebellion before the proclamation was issued, the last one hundred days of which passed under an explicit notice that it was coming, unless averted by those in revolt returning to their allegiance. The war has certainly progressed as favorably for us since the issue of the proclamation as before. . . .
You say that you will not fight to free negroes. Some of them seem willing to fight for you; but no matter. Fight you, then, exclusively, to save the Union. I issued the proclamation on purpose to aid you in saving the Union. Whenever you shall have conquered all resistance to the Union, if I shall urge you to continue fighting, it will be an apt time then for you to declare you will not fight to free negroes. I thought that in your struggle for the Union, to whatever extent the negroes should cease helping the enemy, to that extent it weakened the enemy in his resistance to you. Do you think differently? I thought that whatever negroes can be got to do as soldiers, leaves just so much less for white soldiers to do in saving the Union. Does it appear otherwise to you? But negroes, like other people, act upon motives. Why should they do anything for us if we will do nothing for them? If they stake their lives for us they must be prompted by the strongest motive, even the promise of freedom. And the promise, being made, must be kept.
The signs look better. The Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea. Thanks to the great Northwest for it; nor yet wholly to them. . . . Peace does not appear so distant as it did. I hope it will come soon, and come to stay, and so come as to be worth the keeping in all future time. It will then have been proved that among freemen there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet, and that they who take such appeal are sure to lose their case and pay the cost. And there will be some black men who can remember that with silent tongue, and clinched teeth, and steady eye, and well-poised bayonet, they have helped mankind on to this great consummation; while I fear there will be some white ones unable to forget that with malignant heart and deceitful speech they have striven to hinder it.
Still, let us not be over-sanguine of a speedy, final triumph. Let us be quite sober. Let us diligently apply the means, never doubting that a just God, in His own good time, will give us the rightful result.
Yours very truly, A. LINCOLN.
Pictures: Confederate River crossing painting; Battery K; 1862-08 Second Bull Run Campaign- Jackson's march around Pope Map; 1864 The Siege of Atlanta by Thure de Thulstrup
A. 1861: The Battle of Kessler's Cross Lanes in Nicholas County, Virginia (now West Virginia) begins in the early morning. Confederate General John B. Floyd surprised attack the Federal troops of the 7th Ohio Infantry, led by Colonel E. B. Tyler, while they were fixing their breakfast. The Federal soldiers were badly defeated and scattered. This surprise attack also known as the Battle of Knives and Forks had estimated casualties: 285 total (US 245; CS 40) men, including killed and captured.
B. 1862: Robert E. Lee’s nephew, Fitzhugh Lee captures the rail depot at Manassas Junction. From local citizens, Jackson learned of a huge Federal supply stockpile several miles up the railroad at Manassas Junction. He sent a brigade led by General Trimble and supported by Stuart’s cavalry, who took the junction before Pope can react to the loss of Bristoe Station, thus setting in motion events that will culminate in the battle of Manassas/Second Manassas.
C. 1863: Siege of Fort Sumter and Fort Wagner in Charleston Harbor. The bombardment of Fort Sumter continued although the fort was nearly in ruins and none of the fort’s large guns was workable by this point. Union troops made major progress was against Fort Wagner in Charleston, SC harbor. The fort itself was still holding out but Union troops took the rifle pits in front of them. The Rebels refuse to concede or evacuate. However, any further movement forward was severely hampered when it became clear that the battery had been surrounded by “sub-surface torpedo mines” activated by foot pressure. The U.S. Navy begins to work at clearing the harbor channels of torpedoes, since Sumter cannot fire on the crews. General Beauregard (CSA) believed that the fall of Battery Wagner was inevitable and planned for its evacuation.
Fort Wagner, meanwhile, is the object of interest from Gen. Gillmore, the area’s Federal commander. He orders an attack that captures the rifle pits in front of the fort, but the fort remains in Confederate hands. However, both of these projects are postponed due to the advent of a fourth major hurricane of the season on the Carolina coast.
D. 1864: Maj Gen William T. Sherman’s army is effectively surrounding Atlanta and continues to cut CSA General John Bell Hood’s forces off from the outside world.
FYI SGT Mark Anderson PO3 Edward Riddle Maj William W. 'Bill' Price COL (Join to see) SSgt David M.] SPC Maurice Evans SPC Jon O. SGT Jim ArnoldAmn Dale PreisachCW4 (Join to see) Sgt Jerry GenesioSSG (Join to see)LTC John Griscom LTC Thomas Tennant LTC David Brown LTC (Join to see) CWO3 (Join to see) SGT John " Mac " McConnell SFC (Join to see) CPL Ronald Keyes Jr
Adrenaline helped sustain those who marched long and hard while vomiting occurred on both sides especially when the smell of death hit them full force.
In 1862, Stonewall Jackson’s foot cavalry marched long and hard to get around John Pope’s forces during the Second Manassas campaign.
In 1863, CSA General John Floyd died of natural causes at home in Abingdon, VA. He had been blamed by the CSA leadership for the confederate defeat at Fort Donelson the year before. He was a very capable man as evidenced by his serving as Governor of Virginia and later President Buchanan’s Secretary of War. He had directed J.E.B Stuart and Robert E. Lee against John Brown’s standoff at Harpers Ferry. Later he defied President Buchanan by not reinforcing the Charleston, SC forts. He did not want to exacerbate the situation.
Psychological warfare against a grieving woman. In 1862, the Richmond Daily Dispatch taunted Mrs Lincoln with the death of two of her brothers, three of whom served in the Confederate Army: “Woe upon the Lady of the White House.
The "Lady of the White House," as Mrs. Lincoln is termed by the Northern papers, has doubtless felt deeply the woe that has been brought upon her by the unnatural war which Lincoln is waging upon the South. She has recently lost another brother, Lieut A. H. Todd, who [fell in] Baton Rouge gallantly battling for Southern independence. He was [a] noble gentleman and officer, and was attached to the 1st Kentucky. The brother was killed at Shiloh, and the only brother now left is said to be Captain Todd, now in command of the Confederate water battery below Vicksburg. May this last one be spared to his country! In penning this notice of the woe that has come upon Mrs. Lincoln. our design is not to reproach, much less to taunt or insult her. She is the sister of the gallant dead to whom we have referred and respect for their devoted patriotism and manly virtues forbid any such attempts on our part. We only refer to it to show the horrors which war produces and this unnatural one more than all. Well has it been written that.
"Man’s inhumanity to man. Makes counties thousands mourn."
In this bloody war brothers have drawn the sword upon brothers; fathers upon sons, and sons upon fathers. Those who should have been "loving in life," and who in death, "should not have been divided," have hated in life, and been divided in death. Take only this one family of noble name and deeds — the Todd family of Kentucky–as an illustration, and what may not be written of it of heroic deeds, and of woe unutterable — of patriotic suffering, and of political pride and power! "Esther, the Queen," saved "Mordecai." Would that a second Esther could stay this bloody war.”
In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln had been invited to a rally back home in Illinois in support of the Union (and against Emancipation). He drafted a letter explaining that he would be unable to attend and requested his letter be read at the assembly.: “EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, August 26, 1863. HON. JAMES C. CONKLING.
MY DEAR SIR:—Your letter inviting me to attend a mass meeting of unconditional Union men, to be held at the capital of Illinois, on the 3d day of September, has been received. It would be very agreeable for me thus to meet my old friends at my own home, but I cannot just now be absent from here so long as a visit there would require.
The meeting is to be of all those who maintain unconditional devotion to the Union, and I am sure that my old political friends will thank me for tendering, as I do, the nation's gratitude to those other noble men whom no partisan malice or partisan hope can make false to the nation's life. . . .
A compromise, to be effective, must be made either with those who control the rebel army, or with the people, first liberated from the domination of that army by the success of our own army. Now allow me to assure you that no word or intimation from that rebel army, or from any of the men controlling it, in relation to any peace compromise, has ever come to my knowledge or belief. All charges and insinuations to the contrary are deceptive and groundless. . . .
But, to be plain: You are dissatisfied with me about the negro. Quite likely there is a difference of opinion between you and myself upon that subject. I certainly wish that all men could be free, while you, I suppose, do not. Yet, I have neither adopted nor proposed any measure which is not consistent with even your view, provided you are for the Union. I suggested compensated emancipation; to which you replied you wished not to be taxed to buy negroes. But I had not asked you to be taxed to buy negroes, except in such way as to save you from greater taxation to save the Union exclusively by other means.
You dislike the Emancipation Proclamation, and perhaps would have it retracted. You say it is unconstitutional. I think differently. I think the Constitution invests its commander-in-chief with the law of war in time of war. The most that can be said, if so much, is, that slaves are property. Is there, has there ever been, any question that by the law of war, property, both of enemies and friends, may be taken when needed? And is it not needed whenever it helps us and hurts the enemy?
But the proclamation, as law, either is valid or is not valid. If it is not valid it needs no retraction. If it is valid it cannot be retracted, any more than the dead can be brought to life. Some of you profess to think its retraction would operate favorably for the Union, why better after the retraction than before the issue? There was more than a year and a half of trial to suppress the rebellion before the proclamation was issued, the last one hundred days of which passed under an explicit notice that it was coming, unless averted by those in revolt returning to their allegiance. The war has certainly progressed as favorably for us since the issue of the proclamation as before. . . .
You say that you will not fight to free negroes. Some of them seem willing to fight for you; but no matter. Fight you, then, exclusively, to save the Union. I issued the proclamation on purpose to aid you in saving the Union. Whenever you shall have conquered all resistance to the Union, if I shall urge you to continue fighting, it will be an apt time then for you to declare you will not fight to free negroes. I thought that in your struggle for the Union, to whatever extent the negroes should cease helping the enemy, to that extent it weakened the enemy in his resistance to you. Do you think differently? I thought that whatever negroes can be got to do as soldiers, leaves just so much less for white soldiers to do in saving the Union. Does it appear otherwise to you? But negroes, like other people, act upon motives. Why should they do anything for us if we will do nothing for them? If they stake their lives for us they must be prompted by the strongest motive, even the promise of freedom. And the promise, being made, must be kept.
The signs look better. The Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea. Thanks to the great Northwest for it; nor yet wholly to them. . . . Peace does not appear so distant as it did. I hope it will come soon, and come to stay, and so come as to be worth the keeping in all future time. It will then have been proved that among freemen there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet, and that they who take such appeal are sure to lose their case and pay the cost. And there will be some black men who can remember that with silent tongue, and clinched teeth, and steady eye, and well-poised bayonet, they have helped mankind on to this great consummation; while I fear there will be some white ones unable to forget that with malignant heart and deceitful speech they have striven to hinder it.
Still, let us not be over-sanguine of a speedy, final triumph. Let us be quite sober. Let us diligently apply the means, never doubting that a just God, in His own good time, will give us the rightful result.
Yours very truly, A. LINCOLN.
Pictures: Confederate River crossing painting; Battery K; 1862-08 Second Bull Run Campaign- Jackson's march around Pope Map; 1864 The Siege of Atlanta by Thure de Thulstrup
A. 1861: The Battle of Kessler's Cross Lanes in Nicholas County, Virginia (now West Virginia) begins in the early morning. Confederate General John B. Floyd surprised attack the Federal troops of the 7th Ohio Infantry, led by Colonel E. B. Tyler, while they were fixing their breakfast. The Federal soldiers were badly defeated and scattered. This surprise attack also known as the Battle of Knives and Forks had estimated casualties: 285 total (US 245; CS 40) men, including killed and captured.
B. 1862: Robert E. Lee’s nephew, Fitzhugh Lee captures the rail depot at Manassas Junction. From local citizens, Jackson learned of a huge Federal supply stockpile several miles up the railroad at Manassas Junction. He sent a brigade led by General Trimble and supported by Stuart’s cavalry, who took the junction before Pope can react to the loss of Bristoe Station, thus setting in motion events that will culminate in the battle of Manassas/Second Manassas.
C. 1863: Siege of Fort Sumter and Fort Wagner in Charleston Harbor. The bombardment of Fort Sumter continued although the fort was nearly in ruins and none of the fort’s large guns was workable by this point. Union troops made major progress was against Fort Wagner in Charleston, SC harbor. The fort itself was still holding out but Union troops took the rifle pits in front of them. The Rebels refuse to concede or evacuate. However, any further movement forward was severely hampered when it became clear that the battery had been surrounded by “sub-surface torpedo mines” activated by foot pressure. The U.S. Navy begins to work at clearing the harbor channels of torpedoes, since Sumter cannot fire on the crews. General Beauregard (CSA) believed that the fall of Battery Wagner was inevitable and planned for its evacuation.
Fort Wagner, meanwhile, is the object of interest from Gen. Gillmore, the area’s Federal commander. He orders an attack that captures the rifle pits in front of the fort, but the fort remains in Confederate hands. However, both of these projects are postponed due to the advent of a fourth major hurricane of the season on the Carolina coast.
D. 1864: Maj Gen William T. Sherman’s army is effectively surrounding Atlanta and continues to cut CSA General John Bell Hood’s forces off from the outside world.
FYI SGT Mark Anderson PO3 Edward Riddle Maj William W. 'Bill' Price COL (Join to see) SSgt David M.] SPC Maurice Evans SPC Jon O. SGT Jim ArnoldAmn Dale PreisachCW4 (Join to see) Sgt Jerry GenesioSSG (Join to see)LTC John Griscom LTC Thomas Tennant LTC David Brown LTC (Join to see) CWO3 (Join to see) SGT John " Mac " McConnell SFC (Join to see) CPL Ronald Keyes Jr
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In 1861, King Kamehameha IV of the Kingdom of Hawaii announced that his nation would remain neutral in the Civil War conflict. This permitted Confederate-flagged ships to dock in the vital Pacific port.
In 1861, General Benjamin Butler led a successful amphibious landing on Cape Hatteras. Union vessels move out toward Cape Hatteras, NC, in preparation for a Federal assault on Confederate fortifications. Commodore Silas Stringham and General Benjamin Butler have eight vessels and 900 men at their disposal.
In 1862, General McDowell saw Longstreet’s strength and decided not to cross the Rappahannock, with Pope’s approval. Around noon, word reaches Pope that Confederates had passed through Thoroughfare Gap in strength. Pope does nothing in reaction to the report. Stuart’s cavalry reaches Jackson late in the afternoon. Lee ordered Longstreet’s artillery to fight a prolonged duel with Union artillery across the Rappahannock, which held Pope’s army in place while Jackson moved around behind it. Late that afternoon, the Union withdrew from the Sulphur Springs area, and Lee ordered Longstreet to move to join Jackson. Longstreet’s march began that evening. Meanwhile, at sunset, while US generals Pope and Halleck were trying to sort out if Confederate forces had gone into the Shenandoah, General Jackson’s corps reached the Union supply line at Bristoe Station, near the now nearly 1-year-old battle field of Bull Run/First Manassas. Pope quickly learns of their presence, as they prevent Pope’s trains from running on the line and destroy the railroad bridge over Broad Run. From local citizens, Jackson learns of a huge Federal supply stockpile several miles up the railroad at Manassas Junction. He sent a brigade led by General Trimble and supported by Stuart’s cavalry, who took the junction before Pope can react to the loss of Bristoe Station, thus setting in motion events that will culminate in the battle of Manassas/Second Manassas.
In 1863 fighting happened at Rocky Gap, West Virginia; Bayou Meto/Reed’s Bridge in Arkansas; and at Perryville in Indian Territory. While these phrases are easy to scan through. For the men who fought at these skirmishes these were life and death matters.
Below are a number of journal entries from 1861, 1862, 1863 and 1864 which shed light on what life was like for soldiers and civilians – the good, the bad and the ugly. In 1863, there was a skirmish near Rienzi in the western theater. This may have been the skirmish for which Colonel Philip Sheridan named his famous horse. In 1864, Maj Gen William T. Sherman wrote a few lines about the day’s events in the siege of Atlanta.
Monday, August, 26, 1861: Hardeman County plantation owner/ planter, merchant, and civic leader, John Houston Bills (The Pillars) wrote in his dairy: “Return home as far as Jackson, where we are stopped by the bridge across the Forked Deer burned. It rained all day. I have with me a very sick soldier named Brown.”
Tuesday, August 26, 1862: From the Official Records: “HEADQUARTERS, Rienzi, Miss. “COLONEL: I have the honor to inclose a report from Colonel Sheridan, commanding Second Brigade, Cavalry Division, of skirmish with and pursuit of a party of guerrillas on the 26th instant, on the Rienzi and Ripley road.
From a deserter and the prisoners taken I learn that eleven companies, under Falkner, left Ripley on Sunday, the 24th instant, and passed north near Corinth, avoiding all roads and traveling principally nights. They skulked and spied about through the woods, captured 7 of our men, who had straggled out from Corinth, and then approached this place with great caution, supposing it to have been evacuated except by a small cavalry force.
That morning three battalions of our cavalry had gone on a scout to the southeast, south, and southwest, and it is probable that Falkner’s party had been apprised of this through spies. This led them to suppose our camp was vacated and that they would be able to dash in and destroy it. The result of their audacity you will learn from the accompanying report. . . .”
Tuesday, August 26, 1862: George Michael Neese, a Confederate artilleryman, notes in his journal the orders to march out with the rest of Lee’s army: “August 26 — Last night at one o’clock our old bugle bleated around camp and waked us from a very sweet sleep to weary marching, and I felt very much like choking the man that dares to make such a blasted blowing noise at the stilly hour of midnight; but such is war when well followed. Whenever our haversacks are loaded with three days’ rations we may look for marching orders at any moment, day or night. Soon after the bugle sounded we were on the march toward the Blue Ridge. At daylight we arrived at Amissville, a small village in the southeastern edge of Rappahannock County. We halted there for the brigade wagons, which came up at nine o’clock. Then we renewed our march and moved to Gaines’ Crossroads, and camped. Gaines’ Crossroads is in Rappahannock County, twelve miles west of Warrenton. A great many of Jackson’s wagons are camped here.”
Tuesday, August 26, 1862: Stephen Tippetts, a Federal soldier in the 85th New York Infantry with the Army of the Potomac, writes home to his fiancee, Margaret Little. Among other things, he shares these thoughts with her: “One year ago today I entered the service of Uncle Sam and although I have seen a great many hardships; the year has passed very quickly, It does not seem to be a year since I enjoyed your society at Hugh’s how is it with you? I hope it will not be a year longer before I shall have the pleasure of enjoying your society all the while at my – our – home with no more war to call me away from my own dear Maggie. Such anticipations as these seem to cheer me in my lonely hours and nerve me in the hour of danger – was it not for the bright prospect ahead I should care but little what became of me. But I shall have to close as I have some duty to do. Please write soon and long, I hope in my next to tell you where we are located.”
Wednesday, August 26, 1863: George Templeton Strong writes in his journal about the aftermath of the deadly Draft Riots in New York City in the month preceding: “It seems certain that the riot of July has damaged Seymour and his friends seriously in this city. It has stirred up also a feeling against Irishmen more bitter and proscriptive than was displayed by the most thorough Native American partisans* in former times. No wonder. The atrocities those Celtic devils perpetrated can hardly be paralleled in the history of human crime and cruelty, and were without shadow of provocation or excuse.”
Wednesday, August 26, 1863: Harper’s Weekly publishes an editorial about the use of black troops: “THE magnificent behavior of the Second Louisiana colored regiment at Port Hudson recalls the fact that it is just two years since a warning, uttered in the columns of this journal, that if this war lasted we should arm the negroes, and use them to fight the rebels, was received with shrieks of indignation, not only at the South and in such semi-neutral States as Maryland and Kentucky, but throughout the loyal North and even in the heart of New England. At that time the bulk of the people of the United States entertained a notion that it was unworthy of a civilized or a Christian nation to use in war soldiers whose skin was not white. How so singular a notion could have originated, and how men should have clung to it in the face of the example of foreign nations and our own experience in the wars of 1776 and 1812, can only be explained by referring to the extraordinary manner in which for forty years slavery had been warping the heart and mind of the American people. A generation of men had grown up in awe of slavery, and in unchristian contempt of the blacks. And that generation declared that it would not have negro soldiers. . . .”
Friday, August 26, 1864: Siege of Atlanta: General Sherman wrote: “The next night (26th) the Fifteenth and Seventeenth Corps, composing the Army of the Tennessee (Howard), drew out of their trenches, made a wide circuit, and came up on the extreme right of the Fourth and Fourteenth Corps of the Army of the Cumberland (Thomas) along Utoy Creek, facing south. The enemy seemed to suspect something that night, using his artillery pretty freely; but I think he supposed we were going to retreat altogether. An artillery-shot, fired at random, killed one man and wounded another…”
Pictures: 1861-08-26 Union Forces Landing to Take Control of Fort Hatteras; 1863-08-26 Cross Lanes sketch; 1863-08 Gillmore's Line of Earthworks in Front of Fort Wagner, Morris Island, SC, July 1863 Map; 1864-08 Sherman Atlanta
A. Monday, August, 26, 1861: The Battle of Kessler's Cross Lanes in Nicholas County, Virginia (now West Virginia) begins in the early morning. Confederate General John B. Floyd surprised attack the Federal troops of the 7th Ohio Infantry, led by Colonel E. B. Tyler, while they were fixing their breakfast. The Federal soldiers were badly defeated and scattered. This surprise attack also known as the Battle of Knives and Forks had estimated casualties: 285 total (US 245; CS 40) men, including killed and captured.
B. Tuesday, August 26, 1862: Robert E. Lee’s nephew, Fitzhugh Lee captures the rail depot at Manassas Junction. From local citizens, Jackson learned of a huge Federal supply stockpile several miles up the railroad at Manassas Junction. He sent a brigade led by General Trimble and supported by Stuart’s cavalry, who took the junction before Pope can react to the loss of Bristoe Station, thus setting in motion events that will culminate in the battle of Manassas/Second Manassas.
C. Wednesday, August 26, 1863: Siege of Fort Wagner, S.C. Union troops today made major progress was against Fort Wagner in Charleston, SC harbor. The fort itself was still holding out but Union troops took the rifle pits in front of them. However, any further movement forward was severely hampered when it became clear that the battery had been surrounded by “sub-surface torpedo mines” activated by foot pressure. General Beauregard (CSA) believed that the fall of Battery Wagner was inevitable and planned for its evacuation.
Details: The bombardment of Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor, continues, although the fort is nearly in ruins and yet the garrison has not been significantly weakened thereby, except that none of the fort’s large guns are workable by this point. The Rebels refuse to concede or evacuate. The U.S. Navy begins to work at clearing the harbor channels of torpedoes, since Sumter cannot fire on the crews. Fort Wagner, meanwhile, is the object of interest from Gen. Gillmore, the area’s Federal commander. He orders an attack that captures the rifle pits in front of the fort, but the fort remains in Confederate hands. However, both of these projects are postponed due to the advent of a fourth major hurricane of the season on the Carolina coast.
D. Friday, August 26, 1864: Maj Gen William T. Sherman’s army is effectively surrounding Atlanta and continues to cut CSA General John Bell Hood’s forces off from the outside world.
1. Monday, August, 26, 1861: Also on this day, King Kamehameha IV (pictured) of the Kingdom of Hawaii announced that his nation would merely remain neutral in the conflict. This was not entirely bad however, as it permitted Confederate-flag ships to dock in the vital Pacific port.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-a/part-twenty-1
2. Monday, August, 26, 1861: Hardeman County plantation owner/ planter, merchant, and civic leader, John Houston Bills (The Pillars) wrote in his dairy: “Return home as far as Jackson, where we are stopped by the bridge across the Forked Deer burned. It rained all day. I have with me a very sick soldier named Brown.”
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-a/part-twenty-1
3. Monday, August, 26, 1861: General Benjamin Butler leads a successful amphibious landing on Cape Hatteras.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186108
4. Monday, August, 26, 1861: Today, Union vessels move out toward Cape Hatteras, NC, in preparation for a Federal assault on Confederate fortifications. Commodore Silas Stringham and General Benjamin Butler have eight vessels and 900 men at their disposal.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-a/part-twenty-1
5. Tuesday, August 26, 1862: On August 26, a Union force, commanded by Maj. Gen. Samuel R. Curtis, captured the Confederate steamer, CSS Fair Play.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1862s.html
6. Tuesday, August 26, 1862: Western theater: Skirmish near Rienzi. This may have been the skirmish for which Colonel Philip Sheridan named his famous horse (here is more information on Sheridan’s Rienzi/Winchester and other horses of Civil War leaders). From the Official Records: “HEADQUARTERS, Rienzi, Miss., August 28, 1862. COLONEL: I have the honor to inclose a report from Colonel Sheridan, commanding Second Brigade, Cavalry Division, of skirmish with and pursuit of a party of guerrillas on the 26th instant, on the Rienzi and Ripley road.
From a deserter and the prisoners taken I learn that eleven companies, under Falkner, left Ripley on Sunday, the 24th instant, and passed north near Corinth, avoiding all roads and traveling principally nights. They skulked and spied about through the woods, captured 7 of our men, who had straggled out from Corinth, and then approached this place with great caution, supposing it to have been evacuated except by a small cavalry force.
That morning three battalions of our cavalry had gone on a scout to the southeast, south, and southwest, and it is probable that Falkner’s party had been apprised of this through spies. This led them to suppose our camp was vacated and that they would be able to dash in and destroy it. The result of their audacity you will learn from the accompanying report. . . .
https://bjdeming.com/2012/10/03/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-20-26-1862/
7. Tuesday, August 26, 1862: George Michael Neese, a Confederate artilleryman, notes in his journal the orders to march out with the rest of Lee’s army: “August 26 — Last night at one o’clock our old bugle bleated around camp and waked us from a very sweet sleep to weary marching, and I felt very much like choking the man that dares to make such a blasted blowing noise at the stilly hour of midnight; but such is war when well followed. Whenever our haversacks are loaded with three days’ rations we may look for marching orders at any moment, day or night. Soon after the bugle sounded we were on the march toward the Blue Ridge. At daylight we arrived at Amissville, a small village in the southeastern edge of Rappahannock County. We halted there for the brigade wagons, which came up at nine o’clock. Then we renewed our march and moved to Gaines’ Crossroads, and camped. Gaines’ Crossroads is in Rappahannock County, twelve miles west of Warrenton. A great many of Jackson’s wagons are camped here.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+26%2C+1862
8. Tuesday, August 26, 1862: Stephen Tippetts, a Federal soldier in the 85th New York Infantry with the Army of the Potomac, writes home to his fiancee, Margaret Little. Among other things, he shares these thoughts with her: “One year ago today I entered the service of Uncle Sam and although I have seen a great many hardships; the year has passed very quickly, It does not seem to be a year since I enjoyed your society at Hugh’s how is it with you? I hope it will not be a year longer before I shall have the pleasure of enjoying your society all the while at my – our – home with no more war to call me away from my own dear Maggie. Such anticipations as these seem to cheer me in my lonely hours and nerve me in the hour of danger – was it not for the bright prospect ahead I should care but little what became of me. But I shall have to close as I have some duty to do. Please write soon and long, I hope in my next to tell you where we are located.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+26%2C+1862
9. Tuesday, August 26, 1862: The Richmond Daily Dispatch publishes this editorial on Mrs. Lincoln, taunting her with the death of two of her brothers, three of whom served in the Confederate Army: “Woe upon the Lady of the White House.
The "Lady of the White House," as Mrs. Lincoln is termed by the Northern papers, has doubtless felt deeply the woe that has been brought upon her by the unnatural war which Lincoln is waging upon the South. She has recently lost another brother, Lieut A. H. Todd, who [fell in] Baton Rouge gallantly battling for Southern independence. He was [a] noble gentleman and officer, and was attached to the 1st Kentucky. The brother was killed at Shiloh, and the only brother now left is said to be Captain Todd, now in command of the Confederate water battery below Vicksburg. May this last one be spared to his country! In penning this notice of the woe that has come upon Mrs. Lincoln. our design is not to reproach, much less to taunt or insult her. She is the sister of the gallant dead to whom we have referred and respect for their devoted patriotism and manly virtues forbid any such attempts on our part. We only refer to it to show the horrors which war produces and this unnatural one more than all. Well has it been written that.
"Man’s inhumanity to man. Makes counties thousands mourn."
In this bloody war brothers have drawn the sword upon brothers; fathers upon sons, and sons upon fathers. Those who should have been "loving in life," and who in death, "should not have been divided," have hated in life, and been divided in death. Take only this one family of noble name and deeds — the Todd family of Kentucky–as an illustration, and what may not be written of it of heroic deeds, and of woe unutterable — of patriotic suffering, and of political pride and power! "Esther, the Queen," saved "Mordecai." Would that a second Esther could stay this bloody war.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+26%2C+1862
10. Tuesday, August 26, 1862: Gen. Lee decides to move the other half of his army. Leaving Pope on the other side of the Rappahannock River to face what he thought was the bulk of Lee’s army, the Confederates begin to move out on the road that Jackson took, heading north under cover of the Bull Run mountains.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+26%2C+1862
11. Tuesday, August 26, 1862: Manassas/Second Manassas Campaign: General McDowell sees Longstreet’s strength and decides not to cross the Rappahannock, with Pope’s approval. Around noon, word reaches Pope that Confederates have passed through Thoroughfare Gap in strength. Pope does nothing in reaction to the report. (His claim that he did react to this news in the after-action report is false, according to (14).) Stuart’s cavalry reaches Jackson late in the afternoon. Lee orders Longstreet’s artillery to fight a prolonged duel with Union artillery across the Rappahannock, which holds Pope’s army in place while Jackson moves around behind it. Late that afternoon, the Union withdraws from the Sulphur Springs area, and Lee orders Longstreet to move to join Jackson. Longstreet’s march begins that evening. Meanwhile, at sunset, while US generals Pope and Halleck are trying to sort out if Confederate forces have gone into the Shenandoah, General Jackson’s corps reaches the Union supply line at Bristoe Station, near the now nearly 1-year-old battle field of Bull Run/First Manassas. Pope quickly learns of their presence, as they prevent Pope’s trains from running on the line and destroy the railroad bridge over Broad Run. From local citizens, Jackson learns of a huge Federal supply stockpile several miles up the railroad at Manassas Junction. He sends a brigade led by General Trimble and supported by Stuart’s cavalry, who take the junction before Pope can react to the loss of Bristoe Station, thus setting in motion events that will culminate in the battle of Manassas/Second Manassas.
https://bjdeming.com/2012/10/03/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-20-26-1862/
12. Tuesday, August 26, 1862: Fitzhugh Lee [CS] captures the rail depot at Manassas Junction setting in motion a chain of events that culminate in Second Manassas.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186208
13. Tuesday, August 26, 1862: Learning that Stonewall Jackson’s troops had turned and were marching southeast through Thoroughfare Gap, aimed precisely at his rear and supply base, Pope details one division under Gen. Ricketts (from McDowell’s corps) to go see what Jackson was up to. Pope’s army other wise stays put down by the Rappahannock. In the meantime, two brigades of Stuart’s cavalry catch up with Stonewall’s troops. Stonewall details these riders and Gen. Ewell’s entire division to march on Bristoe Station, on the railroad that supplies Pope: there, they find a small detachment of infantry, which puts up a spirited fight—but they are driven off, and the Rebels destroy three trains as they come into the station, before the third one, damaged, backs up to warn the Union command. Jackson sends Gen. Trimble marching to Manassas to capture that depot, which Trimble finds by midnight. There is a skirmish there with a Federal detachment, which is also driven off, after the Rebels capture 300 of them.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+26%2C+1862
14. Tuesday, August 26, 1862: Confederate Heartland Offensive: General Bragg and his army leave Chattanooga, with General Leonidas Polk in command of the right wing and General William Hardee leading the left. When General Buell hears about it, he orders all widely scattered elements of the Army of the Ohio to converge on Nashville; he is mistaken. Bragg is actually heading for Glasgow, Kentucky.
https://bjdeming.com/2012/10/03/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-20-26-1862/
15. Wednesday, August 26, 1863: George Templeton Strong writes in his journal about the aftermath of the deadly Draft Riots in New York City in the month preceding: “It seems certain that the riot of July has damaged Seymour and his friends seriously in this city. It has stirred up also a feeling against Irishmen more bitter and proscriptive than was displayed by the most thorough Native American partisans* in former times. No wonder. The atrocities those Celtic devils perpetrated can hardly be paralleled in the history of human crime and cruelty, and were without shadow of provocation or excuse.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+26%2C+1863
16. Wednesday, August 26, 1863: Harper’s Weekly publishes an editorial about the use of black troops: “THE magnificent behavior of the Second Louisiana colored regiment at Port Hudson recalls the fact that it is just two years since a warning, uttered in the columns of this journal, that if this war lasted we should arm the negroes, and use them to fight the rebels, was received with shrieks of indignation, not only at the South and in such semi-neutral States as Maryland and Kentucky, but throughout the loyal North and even in the heart of New England. At that time the bulk of the people of the United States entertained a notion that it was unworthy of a civilized or a Christian nation to use in war soldiers whose skin was not white. How so singular a notion could have originated, and how men should have clung to it in the face of the example of foreign nations and our own experience in the wars of 1776 and 1812, can only be explained by referring to the extraordinary manner in which for forty years slavery had been warping the heart and mind of the American people. A generation of men had grown up in awe of slavery, and in unchristian contempt of the blacks. And that generation declared that it would not have negro soldiers. . . .”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+26%2C+1863
17. Wednesday, August 26, 1863: Pres. Lincoln, having been invited to a rally back home in Illinois in support of the Union (and against Emancipation), writes a gracious answer for his friend James Conkling to read to the assemblage, stating in return that he is unable to attend, addressing the issues of many Midwesterners’ dissatisfaction with Emancipation and Negroes serving in the army. Among others, Lincoln makes these arguments: “EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, August 26, 1863. HON. JAMES C. CONKLING.
MY DEAR SIR:—Your letter inviting me to attend a mass meeting of unconditional Union men, to be held at the capital of Illinois, on the 3d day of September, has been received. It would be very agreeable for me thus to meet my old friends at my own home, but I cannot just now be absent from here so long as a visit there would require.
The meeting is to be of all those who maintain unconditional devotion to the Union, and I am sure that my old political friends will thank me for tendering, as I do, the nation's gratitude to those other noble men whom no partisan malice or partisan hope can make false to the nation's life. . . .
A compromise, to be effective, must be made either with those who control the rebel army, or with the people, first liberated from the domination of that army by the success of our own army. Now allow me to assure you that no word or intimation from that rebel army, or from any of the men controlling it, in relation to any peace compromise, has ever come to my knowledge or belief. All charges and insinuations to the contrary are deceptive and groundless. . . .
But, to be plain: You are dissatisfied with me about the negro. Quite likely there is a difference of opinion between you and myself upon that subject. I certainly wish that all men could be free, while you, I suppose, do not. Yet, I have neither adopted nor proposed any measure which is not consistent with even your view, provided you are for the Union. I suggested compensated emancipation; to which you replied you wished not to be taxed to buy negroes. But I had not asked you to be taxed to buy negroes, except in such way as to save you from greater taxation to save the Union exclusively by other means.
You dislike the Emancipation Proclamation, and perhaps would have it retracted. You say it is unconstitutional. I think differently. I think the Constitution invests its commander-in-chief with the law of war in time of war. The most that can be said, if so much, is, that slaves are property. Is there, has there ever been, any question that by the law of war, property, both of enemies and friends, may be taken when needed? And is it not needed whenever it helps us and hurts the enemy?
But the proclamation, as law, either is valid or is not valid. If it is not valid it needs no retraction. If it is valid it cannot be retracted, any more than the dead can be brought to life. Some of you profess to think its retraction would operate favorably for the Union, why better after the retraction than before the issue? There was more than a year and a half of trial to suppress the rebellion before the proclamation was issued, the last one hundred days of which passed under an explicit notice that it was coming, unless averted by those in revolt returning to their allegiance. The war has certainly progressed as favorably for us since the issue of the proclamation as before. . . .
You say that you will not fight to free negroes. Some of them seem willing to fight for you; but no matter. Fight you, then, exclusively, to save the Union. I issued the proclamation on purpose to aid you in saving the Union. Whenever you shall have conquered all resistance to the Union, if I shall urge you to continue fighting, it will be an apt time then for you to declare you will not fight to free negroes. I thought that in your struggle for the Union, to whatever extent the negroes should cease helping the enemy, to that extent it weakened the enemy in his resistance to you. Do you think differently? I thought that whatever negroes can be got to do as soldiers, leaves just so much less for white soldiers to do in saving the Union. Does it appear otherwise to you? But negroes, like other people, act upon motives. Why should they do anything for us if we will do nothing for them? If they stake their lives for us they must be prompted by the strongest motive, even the promise of freedom. And the promise, being made, must be kept.
The signs look better. The Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea. Thanks to the great Northwest for it; nor yet wholly to them. . . . Peace does not appear so distant as it did. I hope it will come soon, and come to stay, and so come as to be worth the keeping in all future time. It will then have been proved that among freemen there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet, and that they who take such appeal are sure to lose their case and pay the cost. And there will be some black men who can remember that with silent tongue, and clinched teeth, and steady eye, and well-poised bayonet, they have helped mankind on to this great consummation; while I fear there will be some white ones unable to forget that with malignant heart and deceitful speech they have striven to hinder it.
Still, let us not be over-sanguine of a speedy, final triumph. Let us be quite sober. Let us diligently apply the means, never doubting that a just God, in His own good time, will give us the rightful result.
Yours very truly, A. LINCOLN.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+26%2C+1863
18. Wednesday, August 26, 1863: In discussing his critics in a letter to be read at a September 3rd meeting in Springfield, Illinois, US President Lincoln says, “To such I would say: you desire peace … But how can we attain it? … If you are not for force, nor yet for dissolution, there only remains some imaginable compromise. I do not believe any compromise, embracing the maintenance of the Union, is now possible. All I learn, leads to a directly opposite belief. The strength of the rebellion, is its military – its army. That army dominates all the country, and all the people, within its range. Any offer of terms made by any man or men within that range, in opposition to that army, is simply nothing for the present; because such man or men, have no power whatever to enforce their side of a compromise, if one were made with them.”
https://bjdeming.com/2013/08/26/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-26-september-2-1863/
19. Wednesday, August 26, 1863: Other fighting happens at Rocky Gap, West Virginia; Bayou Meto/Reed’s Bridge in Arkansas; and at Perryville in Indian Territory.
https://bjdeming.com/2013/08/26/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-26-september-2-1863/
20. Wednesday, August 26, 1863: Former Governor of Virginia and President Buchanan’s Secretary of War General John Floyd dies of natural causes in Abingdon, VA.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186308
21. Friday, August 26, 1864: Georgia operations, Siege of Atlanta: General Sherman again: “The next night (26th) the Fifteenth and Seventeenth Corps, composing the Army of the Tennessee (Howard), drew out of their trenches, made a wide circuit, and came up on the extreme right of the Fourth and Fourteenth Corps of the Army of the Cumberland (Thomas) along Utoy Creek, facing south. The enemy seemed to suspect something that night, using his artillery pretty freely; but I think he supposed we were going to retreat altogether. An artillery-shot, fired at random, killed one man and wounded another…”
https://bjdeming.com/2014/08/25/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-25-31-1864/
22. Friday, August, 26, 1864: August 25-29, 1864 at Smithfield Crossing in Jefferson and Berkeley Counties, West Virginia - On August 29, 2 Confederate infantry divisions crossed Opequon Creek at Smithfield and forced back Merritt's Union cavalry division back along the road to Charles Town. Ricketts's infantry division was brought up to stop the Confederate advance. The federals suffered 20 killed, 61 wounded and 100 captured. The confederates suffered 300 killed and wounded. This was part of Sheridan's Shenandoah Valley Campaign http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1864s.html
23. Friday, August 26, 1864: Lieut. General Jubal Early (CSA) crosses the Potomac River going back into Maryland at Williamsport.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/1864/week-176
24. Friday, August 26, 1864: Shenandoah Valley operations: Battle of Smithfield Crossing continues.
https://bjdeming.com/2014/08/25/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-25-31-1864
A Monday, August, 26, 1861: The Battle of Kessler's Cross Lanes in Nicholas County, Virginia (now West Virginia) begins in the early morning. Confederate General John B. Floyd surprised attack the Federal troops of the 7th Ohio Infantry, led by Colonel E. B. Tyler, while they were fixing their breakfast. The Federal soldiers were badly defeated and scattered. This surprise attack also known as the Battle of Knives and Forks had estimated casualties: 285 total (US 245; CS 40) men, including killed and captured.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-a/part-twenty-1
A+ Monday, August, 26, 1861: Battle of (Kessler's) Cross Lanes, Virginia. Operations in Western Virginia. CSA General John Floyd routs an Ohio regiment.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186108
B Tuesday, August 26, 1862: Robert E. Lee’s nephew, Fitzhugh Lee (CS) captures the rail depot at Manassas Junction setting in motion a chain of events that culminate into the Second Manassas.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/part-seventy-two
B+ Tuesday, August 26, 1862: From local citizens, Jackson learns of a huge Federal supply stockpile several miles up the railroad at Manassas Junction. He sends a brigade led by General Trimble and supported by Stuart’s cavalry, who take the junction before Pope can react to the loss of Bristoe Station, thus setting in motion events that will culminate in the battle of Manassas/Second Manassas.
https://bjdeming.com/2012/10/03/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-20-26-1862/
C Wednesday, August 26, 1863: Siege of Charleston Harbor: Fort Wagner still is in Confederate hands, but US forces manage to take the rifle pits in front of it.
https://bjdeming.com/2013/08/26/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-26-september-2-1863/
C+ Wednesday, August 26, 1863: Union troops today made major progress was against Fort Wagner in Charleston, SC harbor. The fort itself was still holding out but Union troops took the rifle pits in front of them. However, any further movement forward was severely hampered when it became clear that the battery had been surrounded by “sub-surface torpedo mines” activated by foot pressure. General Beauregard (CSA) believed that the fall of Battery Wagner was inevitable and planned for its evacuation.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-c/week-124
C++ Wednesday, August 26, 1863: The bombardment of Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor, continues, although the fort is nearly in ruins and yet the garrison has not been significantly weakened thereby, except that none of the fort’s large guns are workable by this point. The Rebels refuse to concede or evacuate. The U.S. Navy begins to work at clearing the harbor channels of torpedoes, since Sumter cannot fire on the crews. Fort Wagner, meanwhile, is the object of interest from Gen. Gillmore, the area’s Federal commander. He orders an attack that captures the rifle pits in front of the fort, but the fort remains in Confederate hands. However, both of these projects are postponed due to the advent of a fourth major hurricane of the season on the Carolina coast.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+26%2C+1863
D Friday, August 26, 1864: General Sherman’s army is effectively surrounding Atlanta and continues to cut General Hood (CSA) off from the outside world.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/1864/week-176
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)
In 1861, General Benjamin Butler led a successful amphibious landing on Cape Hatteras. Union vessels move out toward Cape Hatteras, NC, in preparation for a Federal assault on Confederate fortifications. Commodore Silas Stringham and General Benjamin Butler have eight vessels and 900 men at their disposal.
In 1862, General McDowell saw Longstreet’s strength and decided not to cross the Rappahannock, with Pope’s approval. Around noon, word reaches Pope that Confederates had passed through Thoroughfare Gap in strength. Pope does nothing in reaction to the report. Stuart’s cavalry reaches Jackson late in the afternoon. Lee ordered Longstreet’s artillery to fight a prolonged duel with Union artillery across the Rappahannock, which held Pope’s army in place while Jackson moved around behind it. Late that afternoon, the Union withdrew from the Sulphur Springs area, and Lee ordered Longstreet to move to join Jackson. Longstreet’s march began that evening. Meanwhile, at sunset, while US generals Pope and Halleck were trying to sort out if Confederate forces had gone into the Shenandoah, General Jackson’s corps reached the Union supply line at Bristoe Station, near the now nearly 1-year-old battle field of Bull Run/First Manassas. Pope quickly learns of their presence, as they prevent Pope’s trains from running on the line and destroy the railroad bridge over Broad Run. From local citizens, Jackson learns of a huge Federal supply stockpile several miles up the railroad at Manassas Junction. He sent a brigade led by General Trimble and supported by Stuart’s cavalry, who took the junction before Pope can react to the loss of Bristoe Station, thus setting in motion events that will culminate in the battle of Manassas/Second Manassas.
In 1863 fighting happened at Rocky Gap, West Virginia; Bayou Meto/Reed’s Bridge in Arkansas; and at Perryville in Indian Territory. While these phrases are easy to scan through. For the men who fought at these skirmishes these were life and death matters.
Below are a number of journal entries from 1861, 1862, 1863 and 1864 which shed light on what life was like for soldiers and civilians – the good, the bad and the ugly. In 1863, there was a skirmish near Rienzi in the western theater. This may have been the skirmish for which Colonel Philip Sheridan named his famous horse. In 1864, Maj Gen William T. Sherman wrote a few lines about the day’s events in the siege of Atlanta.
Monday, August, 26, 1861: Hardeman County plantation owner/ planter, merchant, and civic leader, John Houston Bills (The Pillars) wrote in his dairy: “Return home as far as Jackson, where we are stopped by the bridge across the Forked Deer burned. It rained all day. I have with me a very sick soldier named Brown.”
Tuesday, August 26, 1862: From the Official Records: “HEADQUARTERS, Rienzi, Miss. “COLONEL: I have the honor to inclose a report from Colonel Sheridan, commanding Second Brigade, Cavalry Division, of skirmish with and pursuit of a party of guerrillas on the 26th instant, on the Rienzi and Ripley road.
From a deserter and the prisoners taken I learn that eleven companies, under Falkner, left Ripley on Sunday, the 24th instant, and passed north near Corinth, avoiding all roads and traveling principally nights. They skulked and spied about through the woods, captured 7 of our men, who had straggled out from Corinth, and then approached this place with great caution, supposing it to have been evacuated except by a small cavalry force.
That morning three battalions of our cavalry had gone on a scout to the southeast, south, and southwest, and it is probable that Falkner’s party had been apprised of this through spies. This led them to suppose our camp was vacated and that they would be able to dash in and destroy it. The result of their audacity you will learn from the accompanying report. . . .”
Tuesday, August 26, 1862: George Michael Neese, a Confederate artilleryman, notes in his journal the orders to march out with the rest of Lee’s army: “August 26 — Last night at one o’clock our old bugle bleated around camp and waked us from a very sweet sleep to weary marching, and I felt very much like choking the man that dares to make such a blasted blowing noise at the stilly hour of midnight; but such is war when well followed. Whenever our haversacks are loaded with three days’ rations we may look for marching orders at any moment, day or night. Soon after the bugle sounded we were on the march toward the Blue Ridge. At daylight we arrived at Amissville, a small village in the southeastern edge of Rappahannock County. We halted there for the brigade wagons, which came up at nine o’clock. Then we renewed our march and moved to Gaines’ Crossroads, and camped. Gaines’ Crossroads is in Rappahannock County, twelve miles west of Warrenton. A great many of Jackson’s wagons are camped here.”
Tuesday, August 26, 1862: Stephen Tippetts, a Federal soldier in the 85th New York Infantry with the Army of the Potomac, writes home to his fiancee, Margaret Little. Among other things, he shares these thoughts with her: “One year ago today I entered the service of Uncle Sam and although I have seen a great many hardships; the year has passed very quickly, It does not seem to be a year since I enjoyed your society at Hugh’s how is it with you? I hope it will not be a year longer before I shall have the pleasure of enjoying your society all the while at my – our – home with no more war to call me away from my own dear Maggie. Such anticipations as these seem to cheer me in my lonely hours and nerve me in the hour of danger – was it not for the bright prospect ahead I should care but little what became of me. But I shall have to close as I have some duty to do. Please write soon and long, I hope in my next to tell you where we are located.”
Wednesday, August 26, 1863: George Templeton Strong writes in his journal about the aftermath of the deadly Draft Riots in New York City in the month preceding: “It seems certain that the riot of July has damaged Seymour and his friends seriously in this city. It has stirred up also a feeling against Irishmen more bitter and proscriptive than was displayed by the most thorough Native American partisans* in former times. No wonder. The atrocities those Celtic devils perpetrated can hardly be paralleled in the history of human crime and cruelty, and were without shadow of provocation or excuse.”
Wednesday, August 26, 1863: Harper’s Weekly publishes an editorial about the use of black troops: “THE magnificent behavior of the Second Louisiana colored regiment at Port Hudson recalls the fact that it is just two years since a warning, uttered in the columns of this journal, that if this war lasted we should arm the negroes, and use them to fight the rebels, was received with shrieks of indignation, not only at the South and in such semi-neutral States as Maryland and Kentucky, but throughout the loyal North and even in the heart of New England. At that time the bulk of the people of the United States entertained a notion that it was unworthy of a civilized or a Christian nation to use in war soldiers whose skin was not white. How so singular a notion could have originated, and how men should have clung to it in the face of the example of foreign nations and our own experience in the wars of 1776 and 1812, can only be explained by referring to the extraordinary manner in which for forty years slavery had been warping the heart and mind of the American people. A generation of men had grown up in awe of slavery, and in unchristian contempt of the blacks. And that generation declared that it would not have negro soldiers. . . .”
Friday, August 26, 1864: Siege of Atlanta: General Sherman wrote: “The next night (26th) the Fifteenth and Seventeenth Corps, composing the Army of the Tennessee (Howard), drew out of their trenches, made a wide circuit, and came up on the extreme right of the Fourth and Fourteenth Corps of the Army of the Cumberland (Thomas) along Utoy Creek, facing south. The enemy seemed to suspect something that night, using his artillery pretty freely; but I think he supposed we were going to retreat altogether. An artillery-shot, fired at random, killed one man and wounded another…”
Pictures: 1861-08-26 Union Forces Landing to Take Control of Fort Hatteras; 1863-08-26 Cross Lanes sketch; 1863-08 Gillmore's Line of Earthworks in Front of Fort Wagner, Morris Island, SC, July 1863 Map; 1864-08 Sherman Atlanta
A. Monday, August, 26, 1861: The Battle of Kessler's Cross Lanes in Nicholas County, Virginia (now West Virginia) begins in the early morning. Confederate General John B. Floyd surprised attack the Federal troops of the 7th Ohio Infantry, led by Colonel E. B. Tyler, while they were fixing their breakfast. The Federal soldiers were badly defeated and scattered. This surprise attack also known as the Battle of Knives and Forks had estimated casualties: 285 total (US 245; CS 40) men, including killed and captured.
B. Tuesday, August 26, 1862: Robert E. Lee’s nephew, Fitzhugh Lee captures the rail depot at Manassas Junction. From local citizens, Jackson learned of a huge Federal supply stockpile several miles up the railroad at Manassas Junction. He sent a brigade led by General Trimble and supported by Stuart’s cavalry, who took the junction before Pope can react to the loss of Bristoe Station, thus setting in motion events that will culminate in the battle of Manassas/Second Manassas.
C. Wednesday, August 26, 1863: Siege of Fort Wagner, S.C. Union troops today made major progress was against Fort Wagner in Charleston, SC harbor. The fort itself was still holding out but Union troops took the rifle pits in front of them. However, any further movement forward was severely hampered when it became clear that the battery had been surrounded by “sub-surface torpedo mines” activated by foot pressure. General Beauregard (CSA) believed that the fall of Battery Wagner was inevitable and planned for its evacuation.
Details: The bombardment of Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor, continues, although the fort is nearly in ruins and yet the garrison has not been significantly weakened thereby, except that none of the fort’s large guns are workable by this point. The Rebels refuse to concede or evacuate. The U.S. Navy begins to work at clearing the harbor channels of torpedoes, since Sumter cannot fire on the crews. Fort Wagner, meanwhile, is the object of interest from Gen. Gillmore, the area’s Federal commander. He orders an attack that captures the rifle pits in front of the fort, but the fort remains in Confederate hands. However, both of these projects are postponed due to the advent of a fourth major hurricane of the season on the Carolina coast.
D. Friday, August 26, 1864: Maj Gen William T. Sherman’s army is effectively surrounding Atlanta and continues to cut CSA General John Bell Hood’s forces off from the outside world.
1. Monday, August, 26, 1861: Also on this day, King Kamehameha IV (pictured) of the Kingdom of Hawaii announced that his nation would merely remain neutral in the conflict. This was not entirely bad however, as it permitted Confederate-flag ships to dock in the vital Pacific port.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-a/part-twenty-1
2. Monday, August, 26, 1861: Hardeman County plantation owner/ planter, merchant, and civic leader, John Houston Bills (The Pillars) wrote in his dairy: “Return home as far as Jackson, where we are stopped by the bridge across the Forked Deer burned. It rained all day. I have with me a very sick soldier named Brown.”
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-a/part-twenty-1
3. Monday, August, 26, 1861: General Benjamin Butler leads a successful amphibious landing on Cape Hatteras.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186108
4. Monday, August, 26, 1861: Today, Union vessels move out toward Cape Hatteras, NC, in preparation for a Federal assault on Confederate fortifications. Commodore Silas Stringham and General Benjamin Butler have eight vessels and 900 men at their disposal.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-a/part-twenty-1
5. Tuesday, August 26, 1862: On August 26, a Union force, commanded by Maj. Gen. Samuel R. Curtis, captured the Confederate steamer, CSS Fair Play.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1862s.html
6. Tuesday, August 26, 1862: Western theater: Skirmish near Rienzi. This may have been the skirmish for which Colonel Philip Sheridan named his famous horse (here is more information on Sheridan’s Rienzi/Winchester and other horses of Civil War leaders). From the Official Records: “HEADQUARTERS, Rienzi, Miss., August 28, 1862. COLONEL: I have the honor to inclose a report from Colonel Sheridan, commanding Second Brigade, Cavalry Division, of skirmish with and pursuit of a party of guerrillas on the 26th instant, on the Rienzi and Ripley road.
From a deserter and the prisoners taken I learn that eleven companies, under Falkner, left Ripley on Sunday, the 24th instant, and passed north near Corinth, avoiding all roads and traveling principally nights. They skulked and spied about through the woods, captured 7 of our men, who had straggled out from Corinth, and then approached this place with great caution, supposing it to have been evacuated except by a small cavalry force.
That morning three battalions of our cavalry had gone on a scout to the southeast, south, and southwest, and it is probable that Falkner’s party had been apprised of this through spies. This led them to suppose our camp was vacated and that they would be able to dash in and destroy it. The result of their audacity you will learn from the accompanying report. . . .
https://bjdeming.com/2012/10/03/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-20-26-1862/
7. Tuesday, August 26, 1862: George Michael Neese, a Confederate artilleryman, notes in his journal the orders to march out with the rest of Lee’s army: “August 26 — Last night at one o’clock our old bugle bleated around camp and waked us from a very sweet sleep to weary marching, and I felt very much like choking the man that dares to make such a blasted blowing noise at the stilly hour of midnight; but such is war when well followed. Whenever our haversacks are loaded with three days’ rations we may look for marching orders at any moment, day or night. Soon after the bugle sounded we were on the march toward the Blue Ridge. At daylight we arrived at Amissville, a small village in the southeastern edge of Rappahannock County. We halted there for the brigade wagons, which came up at nine o’clock. Then we renewed our march and moved to Gaines’ Crossroads, and camped. Gaines’ Crossroads is in Rappahannock County, twelve miles west of Warrenton. A great many of Jackson’s wagons are camped here.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+26%2C+1862
8. Tuesday, August 26, 1862: Stephen Tippetts, a Federal soldier in the 85th New York Infantry with the Army of the Potomac, writes home to his fiancee, Margaret Little. Among other things, he shares these thoughts with her: “One year ago today I entered the service of Uncle Sam and although I have seen a great many hardships; the year has passed very quickly, It does not seem to be a year since I enjoyed your society at Hugh’s how is it with you? I hope it will not be a year longer before I shall have the pleasure of enjoying your society all the while at my – our – home with no more war to call me away from my own dear Maggie. Such anticipations as these seem to cheer me in my lonely hours and nerve me in the hour of danger – was it not for the bright prospect ahead I should care but little what became of me. But I shall have to close as I have some duty to do. Please write soon and long, I hope in my next to tell you where we are located.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+26%2C+1862
9. Tuesday, August 26, 1862: The Richmond Daily Dispatch publishes this editorial on Mrs. Lincoln, taunting her with the death of two of her brothers, three of whom served in the Confederate Army: “Woe upon the Lady of the White House.
The "Lady of the White House," as Mrs. Lincoln is termed by the Northern papers, has doubtless felt deeply the woe that has been brought upon her by the unnatural war which Lincoln is waging upon the South. She has recently lost another brother, Lieut A. H. Todd, who [fell in] Baton Rouge gallantly battling for Southern independence. He was [a] noble gentleman and officer, and was attached to the 1st Kentucky. The brother was killed at Shiloh, and the only brother now left is said to be Captain Todd, now in command of the Confederate water battery below Vicksburg. May this last one be spared to his country! In penning this notice of the woe that has come upon Mrs. Lincoln. our design is not to reproach, much less to taunt or insult her. She is the sister of the gallant dead to whom we have referred and respect for their devoted patriotism and manly virtues forbid any such attempts on our part. We only refer to it to show the horrors which war produces and this unnatural one more than all. Well has it been written that.
"Man’s inhumanity to man. Makes counties thousands mourn."
In this bloody war brothers have drawn the sword upon brothers; fathers upon sons, and sons upon fathers. Those who should have been "loving in life," and who in death, "should not have been divided," have hated in life, and been divided in death. Take only this one family of noble name and deeds — the Todd family of Kentucky–as an illustration, and what may not be written of it of heroic deeds, and of woe unutterable — of patriotic suffering, and of political pride and power! "Esther, the Queen," saved "Mordecai." Would that a second Esther could stay this bloody war.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+26%2C+1862
10. Tuesday, August 26, 1862: Gen. Lee decides to move the other half of his army. Leaving Pope on the other side of the Rappahannock River to face what he thought was the bulk of Lee’s army, the Confederates begin to move out on the road that Jackson took, heading north under cover of the Bull Run mountains.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+26%2C+1862
11. Tuesday, August 26, 1862: Manassas/Second Manassas Campaign: General McDowell sees Longstreet’s strength and decides not to cross the Rappahannock, with Pope’s approval. Around noon, word reaches Pope that Confederates have passed through Thoroughfare Gap in strength. Pope does nothing in reaction to the report. (His claim that he did react to this news in the after-action report is false, according to (14).) Stuart’s cavalry reaches Jackson late in the afternoon. Lee orders Longstreet’s artillery to fight a prolonged duel with Union artillery across the Rappahannock, which holds Pope’s army in place while Jackson moves around behind it. Late that afternoon, the Union withdraws from the Sulphur Springs area, and Lee orders Longstreet to move to join Jackson. Longstreet’s march begins that evening. Meanwhile, at sunset, while US generals Pope and Halleck are trying to sort out if Confederate forces have gone into the Shenandoah, General Jackson’s corps reaches the Union supply line at Bristoe Station, near the now nearly 1-year-old battle field of Bull Run/First Manassas. Pope quickly learns of their presence, as they prevent Pope’s trains from running on the line and destroy the railroad bridge over Broad Run. From local citizens, Jackson learns of a huge Federal supply stockpile several miles up the railroad at Manassas Junction. He sends a brigade led by General Trimble and supported by Stuart’s cavalry, who take the junction before Pope can react to the loss of Bristoe Station, thus setting in motion events that will culminate in the battle of Manassas/Second Manassas.
https://bjdeming.com/2012/10/03/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-20-26-1862/
12. Tuesday, August 26, 1862: Fitzhugh Lee [CS] captures the rail depot at Manassas Junction setting in motion a chain of events that culminate in Second Manassas.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186208
13. Tuesday, August 26, 1862: Learning that Stonewall Jackson’s troops had turned and were marching southeast through Thoroughfare Gap, aimed precisely at his rear and supply base, Pope details one division under Gen. Ricketts (from McDowell’s corps) to go see what Jackson was up to. Pope’s army other wise stays put down by the Rappahannock. In the meantime, two brigades of Stuart’s cavalry catch up with Stonewall’s troops. Stonewall details these riders and Gen. Ewell’s entire division to march on Bristoe Station, on the railroad that supplies Pope: there, they find a small detachment of infantry, which puts up a spirited fight—but they are driven off, and the Rebels destroy three trains as they come into the station, before the third one, damaged, backs up to warn the Union command. Jackson sends Gen. Trimble marching to Manassas to capture that depot, which Trimble finds by midnight. There is a skirmish there with a Federal detachment, which is also driven off, after the Rebels capture 300 of them.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+26%2C+1862
14. Tuesday, August 26, 1862: Confederate Heartland Offensive: General Bragg and his army leave Chattanooga, with General Leonidas Polk in command of the right wing and General William Hardee leading the left. When General Buell hears about it, he orders all widely scattered elements of the Army of the Ohio to converge on Nashville; he is mistaken. Bragg is actually heading for Glasgow, Kentucky.
https://bjdeming.com/2012/10/03/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-20-26-1862/
15. Wednesday, August 26, 1863: George Templeton Strong writes in his journal about the aftermath of the deadly Draft Riots in New York City in the month preceding: “It seems certain that the riot of July has damaged Seymour and his friends seriously in this city. It has stirred up also a feeling against Irishmen more bitter and proscriptive than was displayed by the most thorough Native American partisans* in former times. No wonder. The atrocities those Celtic devils perpetrated can hardly be paralleled in the history of human crime and cruelty, and were without shadow of provocation or excuse.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+26%2C+1863
16. Wednesday, August 26, 1863: Harper’s Weekly publishes an editorial about the use of black troops: “THE magnificent behavior of the Second Louisiana colored regiment at Port Hudson recalls the fact that it is just two years since a warning, uttered in the columns of this journal, that if this war lasted we should arm the negroes, and use them to fight the rebels, was received with shrieks of indignation, not only at the South and in such semi-neutral States as Maryland and Kentucky, but throughout the loyal North and even in the heart of New England. At that time the bulk of the people of the United States entertained a notion that it was unworthy of a civilized or a Christian nation to use in war soldiers whose skin was not white. How so singular a notion could have originated, and how men should have clung to it in the face of the example of foreign nations and our own experience in the wars of 1776 and 1812, can only be explained by referring to the extraordinary manner in which for forty years slavery had been warping the heart and mind of the American people. A generation of men had grown up in awe of slavery, and in unchristian contempt of the blacks. And that generation declared that it would not have negro soldiers. . . .”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+26%2C+1863
17. Wednesday, August 26, 1863: Pres. Lincoln, having been invited to a rally back home in Illinois in support of the Union (and against Emancipation), writes a gracious answer for his friend James Conkling to read to the assemblage, stating in return that he is unable to attend, addressing the issues of many Midwesterners’ dissatisfaction with Emancipation and Negroes serving in the army. Among others, Lincoln makes these arguments: “EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, August 26, 1863. HON. JAMES C. CONKLING.
MY DEAR SIR:—Your letter inviting me to attend a mass meeting of unconditional Union men, to be held at the capital of Illinois, on the 3d day of September, has been received. It would be very agreeable for me thus to meet my old friends at my own home, but I cannot just now be absent from here so long as a visit there would require.
The meeting is to be of all those who maintain unconditional devotion to the Union, and I am sure that my old political friends will thank me for tendering, as I do, the nation's gratitude to those other noble men whom no partisan malice or partisan hope can make false to the nation's life. . . .
A compromise, to be effective, must be made either with those who control the rebel army, or with the people, first liberated from the domination of that army by the success of our own army. Now allow me to assure you that no word or intimation from that rebel army, or from any of the men controlling it, in relation to any peace compromise, has ever come to my knowledge or belief. All charges and insinuations to the contrary are deceptive and groundless. . . .
But, to be plain: You are dissatisfied with me about the negro. Quite likely there is a difference of opinion between you and myself upon that subject. I certainly wish that all men could be free, while you, I suppose, do not. Yet, I have neither adopted nor proposed any measure which is not consistent with even your view, provided you are for the Union. I suggested compensated emancipation; to which you replied you wished not to be taxed to buy negroes. But I had not asked you to be taxed to buy negroes, except in such way as to save you from greater taxation to save the Union exclusively by other means.
You dislike the Emancipation Proclamation, and perhaps would have it retracted. You say it is unconstitutional. I think differently. I think the Constitution invests its commander-in-chief with the law of war in time of war. The most that can be said, if so much, is, that slaves are property. Is there, has there ever been, any question that by the law of war, property, both of enemies and friends, may be taken when needed? And is it not needed whenever it helps us and hurts the enemy?
But the proclamation, as law, either is valid or is not valid. If it is not valid it needs no retraction. If it is valid it cannot be retracted, any more than the dead can be brought to life. Some of you profess to think its retraction would operate favorably for the Union, why better after the retraction than before the issue? There was more than a year and a half of trial to suppress the rebellion before the proclamation was issued, the last one hundred days of which passed under an explicit notice that it was coming, unless averted by those in revolt returning to their allegiance. The war has certainly progressed as favorably for us since the issue of the proclamation as before. . . .
You say that you will not fight to free negroes. Some of them seem willing to fight for you; but no matter. Fight you, then, exclusively, to save the Union. I issued the proclamation on purpose to aid you in saving the Union. Whenever you shall have conquered all resistance to the Union, if I shall urge you to continue fighting, it will be an apt time then for you to declare you will not fight to free negroes. I thought that in your struggle for the Union, to whatever extent the negroes should cease helping the enemy, to that extent it weakened the enemy in his resistance to you. Do you think differently? I thought that whatever negroes can be got to do as soldiers, leaves just so much less for white soldiers to do in saving the Union. Does it appear otherwise to you? But negroes, like other people, act upon motives. Why should they do anything for us if we will do nothing for them? If they stake their lives for us they must be prompted by the strongest motive, even the promise of freedom. And the promise, being made, must be kept.
The signs look better. The Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea. Thanks to the great Northwest for it; nor yet wholly to them. . . . Peace does not appear so distant as it did. I hope it will come soon, and come to stay, and so come as to be worth the keeping in all future time. It will then have been proved that among freemen there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet, and that they who take such appeal are sure to lose their case and pay the cost. And there will be some black men who can remember that with silent tongue, and clinched teeth, and steady eye, and well-poised bayonet, they have helped mankind on to this great consummation; while I fear there will be some white ones unable to forget that with malignant heart and deceitful speech they have striven to hinder it.
Still, let us not be over-sanguine of a speedy, final triumph. Let us be quite sober. Let us diligently apply the means, never doubting that a just God, in His own good time, will give us the rightful result.
Yours very truly, A. LINCOLN.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+26%2C+1863
18. Wednesday, August 26, 1863: In discussing his critics in a letter to be read at a September 3rd meeting in Springfield, Illinois, US President Lincoln says, “To such I would say: you desire peace … But how can we attain it? … If you are not for force, nor yet for dissolution, there only remains some imaginable compromise. I do not believe any compromise, embracing the maintenance of the Union, is now possible. All I learn, leads to a directly opposite belief. The strength of the rebellion, is its military – its army. That army dominates all the country, and all the people, within its range. Any offer of terms made by any man or men within that range, in opposition to that army, is simply nothing for the present; because such man or men, have no power whatever to enforce their side of a compromise, if one were made with them.”
https://bjdeming.com/2013/08/26/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-26-september-2-1863/
19. Wednesday, August 26, 1863: Other fighting happens at Rocky Gap, West Virginia; Bayou Meto/Reed’s Bridge in Arkansas; and at Perryville in Indian Territory.
https://bjdeming.com/2013/08/26/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-26-september-2-1863/
20. Wednesday, August 26, 1863: Former Governor of Virginia and President Buchanan’s Secretary of War General John Floyd dies of natural causes in Abingdon, VA.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186308
21. Friday, August 26, 1864: Georgia operations, Siege of Atlanta: General Sherman again: “The next night (26th) the Fifteenth and Seventeenth Corps, composing the Army of the Tennessee (Howard), drew out of their trenches, made a wide circuit, and came up on the extreme right of the Fourth and Fourteenth Corps of the Army of the Cumberland (Thomas) along Utoy Creek, facing south. The enemy seemed to suspect something that night, using his artillery pretty freely; but I think he supposed we were going to retreat altogether. An artillery-shot, fired at random, killed one man and wounded another…”
https://bjdeming.com/2014/08/25/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-25-31-1864/
22. Friday, August, 26, 1864: August 25-29, 1864 at Smithfield Crossing in Jefferson and Berkeley Counties, West Virginia - On August 29, 2 Confederate infantry divisions crossed Opequon Creek at Smithfield and forced back Merritt's Union cavalry division back along the road to Charles Town. Ricketts's infantry division was brought up to stop the Confederate advance. The federals suffered 20 killed, 61 wounded and 100 captured. The confederates suffered 300 killed and wounded. This was part of Sheridan's Shenandoah Valley Campaign http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1864s.html
23. Friday, August 26, 1864: Lieut. General Jubal Early (CSA) crosses the Potomac River going back into Maryland at Williamsport.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/1864/week-176
24. Friday, August 26, 1864: Shenandoah Valley operations: Battle of Smithfield Crossing continues.
https://bjdeming.com/2014/08/25/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-25-31-1864
A Monday, August, 26, 1861: The Battle of Kessler's Cross Lanes in Nicholas County, Virginia (now West Virginia) begins in the early morning. Confederate General John B. Floyd surprised attack the Federal troops of the 7th Ohio Infantry, led by Colonel E. B. Tyler, while they were fixing their breakfast. The Federal soldiers were badly defeated and scattered. This surprise attack also known as the Battle of Knives and Forks had estimated casualties: 285 total (US 245; CS 40) men, including killed and captured.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-a/part-twenty-1
A+ Monday, August, 26, 1861: Battle of (Kessler's) Cross Lanes, Virginia. Operations in Western Virginia. CSA General John Floyd routs an Ohio regiment.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186108
B Tuesday, August 26, 1862: Robert E. Lee’s nephew, Fitzhugh Lee (CS) captures the rail depot at Manassas Junction setting in motion a chain of events that culminate into the Second Manassas.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/part-seventy-two
B+ Tuesday, August 26, 1862: From local citizens, Jackson learns of a huge Federal supply stockpile several miles up the railroad at Manassas Junction. He sends a brigade led by General Trimble and supported by Stuart’s cavalry, who take the junction before Pope can react to the loss of Bristoe Station, thus setting in motion events that will culminate in the battle of Manassas/Second Manassas.
https://bjdeming.com/2012/10/03/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-20-26-1862/
C Wednesday, August 26, 1863: Siege of Charleston Harbor: Fort Wagner still is in Confederate hands, but US forces manage to take the rifle pits in front of it.
https://bjdeming.com/2013/08/26/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-26-september-2-1863/
C+ Wednesday, August 26, 1863: Union troops today made major progress was against Fort Wagner in Charleston, SC harbor. The fort itself was still holding out but Union troops took the rifle pits in front of them. However, any further movement forward was severely hampered when it became clear that the battery had been surrounded by “sub-surface torpedo mines” activated by foot pressure. General Beauregard (CSA) believed that the fall of Battery Wagner was inevitable and planned for its evacuation.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-c/week-124
C++ Wednesday, August 26, 1863: The bombardment of Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor, continues, although the fort is nearly in ruins and yet the garrison has not been significantly weakened thereby, except that none of the fort’s large guns are workable by this point. The Rebels refuse to concede or evacuate. The U.S. Navy begins to work at clearing the harbor channels of torpedoes, since Sumter cannot fire on the crews. Fort Wagner, meanwhile, is the object of interest from Gen. Gillmore, the area’s Federal commander. He orders an attack that captures the rifle pits in front of the fort, but the fort remains in Confederate hands. However, both of these projects are postponed due to the advent of a fourth major hurricane of the season on the Carolina coast.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+26%2C+1863
D Friday, August 26, 1864: General Sherman’s army is effectively surrounding Atlanta and continues to cut General Hood (CSA) off from the outside world.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/1864/week-176
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)
Part Twenty - Hardeman County Tennessee Civil War History
150th Anniversary of the Great American Civil War -Explore the coming of war, with secession and sending our young men into battle. Living in Hardeman County Tennessee during this unsettled times, surely was hardship enough, but to have war hanging over them would be harder than we can imagine today.
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LTC Stephen F. I am going with:
1862: Robert E. Lee’s nephew, Fitzhugh Lee captures the rail depot at Manassas Junction. From local citizens, Jackson learned of a huge Federal supply stockpile several miles up the railroad at Manassas Junction. He sent a brigade led by General Trimble a
True importance!
1862: Robert E. Lee’s nephew, Fitzhugh Lee captures the rail depot at Manassas Junction. From local citizens, Jackson learned of a huge Federal supply stockpile several miles up the railroad at Manassas Junction. He sent a brigade led by General Trimble a
True importance!
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LTC Stephen F.
Thank you my friend and brother-in-Christ SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL for letting us know that you consider "Tuesday, August 26, 1862: Robert E. Lee’s nephew, Fitzhugh Lee captures the rail depot at Manassas Junction. From local citizens, Jackson learned of a huge Federal supply stockpile several miles up the railroad at Manassas Junction. He sent a brigade led by General Trimble and supported by Stuart’s cavalry, who took the junction before Pope can react to the loss of Bristoe Station, thus setting in motion events that will culminate in the battle of Manassas/Second Manassas." to be the most significant event for August 26 during the US Civil War.
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Very nice post sir,
I would have to say all the above. The importance of an event is only appreciated in hindsight. All these events had a impact on the civil war in one way or another.
I would have to say all the above. The importance of an event is only appreciated in hindsight. All these events had a impact on the civil war in one way or another.
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LTC Stephen F.
You arevery welcome my friend MAJ (Join to see) and thanks for letting us know that you consider all of teh events I listed as significant for August 26 during the US Civil War
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