Posted on Oct 2, 2016
What was the most significant event on August 28 during the U.S. Civil War?
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Tour Stop 11: The Battles for Chattanooga & Orchard Knob
The defeat at the battle of Chickamauga left the Union Army of the Cumberland reeling. A halfhearted pursuit gave the Federals the opportunity to establish a...
River crossings by major forces such as Corps and Army’s in the civil war were long drawn-out affairs which were difficult enough when unopposed by current or enemy forces. When the current was swift and/or cannon fire from shore or gunboats raked the crossing forces the river had splotches of red blood which dissipated as the current moved the blood downstream.
In 1861, Ulysses S. Grant was given command of federal forces in Southern Illinois and Southeastern Missouri.
In 1861, the successful Federal joint navy, army and marine assault on Cape Hatteras, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina will help restore hope to the people of the north after the defeat at Manassas the previous month. Of course it took time for the news to hit the streets of the north.
In 1862, the Federal Bureau of Printing and Engraving began operations.
In East Tennessee in 1863, US General Rosecrans began to cross the Tennessee River at Caperton’s Ferry on August 27. His army was large enough that it took until September 4th to get the bulk of it on the southern bank.
In 1863, “no major battles occurred … but that, as usual, did not mean that cleanup was not still going on from the last one, nor preparations for the next. Confederate Naval Lt. George W. Gift paid a visit to the shipyard above Mobile Bay, Alabama, to observe the progress in construction of the two vessels Tennessee and Nashville. The Tennessee was nice enough, but Gift was in awe of the immense Nashville. ‘She is tremendous!’ he wrote. ‘The wardroom…is six staterooms and a pantry long, and about as broad between the rooms as the whole Chattahoochee. Her engines are tremendous, and it requires all her width, fifty feet, to place her boilers. The Tennessee is insignificant alongside her.'”
“The Armies return to Bull Run; Jackson Waits as Pope blunders” in 1862: “The sun rose upon utter confusion. The Union Army of Virginia, much like their commander, General John Pope, had been sluggish to react. A fresh corps under General Fitz John Porter was late in stepping off for Bristoe Station, scene of the previous day’s skirmish. Farther west, General Franz Sigel delayed his corps’ move towards Manassas until mid-morning. To make matters worse, Sigel had brought along his supply train, which tangled itself into General Irvin McDowell’s corps, delaying matters even more. Before Sigel could even start, McDowell had passed him.
Things were not much better for Stonewall Jackson, who had ordered his wing of the Army of Northern Virginia to the crossroads of Groveton, near the old battlefield at Bull Run, seven miles away from Manassas Junction. Of his three divisions, only one wound up where he wanted it to be – and that was only because Jackson accompanied it. Once again, Jackson had issued vague marching orders to commanders unable to digest them. General A.P. Hill’s men somehow wound up in Centerville, which, while completely in the wrong direction, confused Pope greatly. By late morning, Jackson’s weary men were reunited at Groveton.
Jackson’s main objective, and the reason he selected Groveton, was for a link up with General James Longstreet’s wing coming through Thoroughfare Gap. Meanwhile, Pope had ordered his army to coalesce at Manassas Junction, seven miles away. While Jackson was moving west, Pope was moving east (and north). At the point where the two forces came closest, they brushed up against each other.
Union General McDowell had pushed forward General John Reynolds’ division across the railroad where he came under the fire of artillery. This was, suspected McDowell, “some rear guard or cavalry party, with artillery.” After Reynolds had deployed his men, the Confederates vanished. When skirmishers were sent to check out the former enemy position, they found no trace of the Rebels.
In truth, Jackson was trying to draw the Federals – any Federals, apparently – into a fight. But McDowell had his orders, and when the Confederates disappeared, he decided not to pursue, but to continue on to Manassas Junction.
While Jackson waited, Pope reacted. He had heard the artillery booming off towards Groveton, but seemed to make nothing of it. When he arrived at Manassas Junction, he saw the place in ruins and believed Jackson to be retreating farther. From less-than-honest Rebel prisoners, he learned that the column seen near Centreville was Jackson’s entire force. Pope ordered McDowell and Sigel to Centreville, and sent two corps (under Generals Reno, Hooker and Kearny) towards the town, as well.
As Pope moved north, Jackson grew more and more jaded. He knew that he had to hit Pope before the Army of the Potomac could gather its forces at Alexandria. Also, if Pope got north of Bull Run, he could take up a similar position as he did just north of the Rappahannock. But all Jackson could do was hope for Pope to attack him or for General Lee to arrive with the rest of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.
Around 3pm, a message arrived from General Lee at Thoroughfare Gap, letting Stonewall know that Longstreet’s wing would cross in the morning and join with Jackson very soon. The General’s spirits were lifted – he even smiled. Suddenly, his isolated position didn’t seem so bad.
The road from Gainesville to Centreville, called the Warrenton Turnpike, led directly in front of Stonewall Jackson’s force, which was drawn up in a defensive position waiting for something to happen. Around 6pm, something happened. General Rufus King’s Division, of McDowell’s Corps, was missing their commander, who stayed back at Gainesville, sick. Instead, they were commanded by General John Hatch, the disgraced cavalry commander, who had been replaced by John Buford.
McDowell instructed Hatch to march towards Centreville, but to first throw out a regiment to probe the area around the road. The morning tangle with what he believed to be Jackson’s rear guard was still fresh in his mind. But Hatch found nothing and McDowell told him to continue on.
As Hatch moved along the road, some of his flankers exchanged shots with a few Rebels. He seemed to have made little of it, and continued on. Stonewall Jackson, however, with a full view of Hatch’s mile-long and strung out column, made of it all that he could.
“Bring out your men, Gentlemen,” Jackson quietly spoke to his officers. And soon lines were formed and bayonets fixed. From the woods that hid them from view, the bulk of Stonewall’s force emerged, flags waving in the breeze, and three batteries of artillery ready to fire.
Hatch’s men looked to their right and saw an unstoppable tide of Rebels screaming towards them. They turned towards the foe and immediately formed lines to advance. The Yankees met the Rebels halfway and the match began.
“In this fight there was very little maneuvering and very little tactics,” remembered General William Taliaferro after the war, “it was a question of endurance – and both endured.”
For two and a half hours, the two sides stood against each other, firing at nearly point blank range. History remembers this as a battle between the Stonewall Brigade and the Iron Brigade, but really, the Rebels fielded 4,500, while the Federals had 2,800 opposing. Each side tried to make some sort of charge, but both sides’ resistance was far too strong.
As evening bled the sky to darkness, the dying barely slackened. But when a Georgia regiment of reinforcements was sent to support the Stonewall Brigade, they mistook the Virginians as Federals and poured deadly volley after volley into them, their comrades. During this sad respite, the Federals begged an orderly leave.
The losses were staggering. Jackson lost 1,200, including several colonels, as well as Generals Taliferro and Ewell, who was shot in the leg and would be out of commission for ten months. Two regiments suffered 70% casualties, while the Stonewall Brigade sustained 40%. Federal losses were much worse. 1,100 out of 2,800 were either wounded or killed.
That night, Pope finally knew exactly where Jackson was, and all Jackson could do was hold his own and hope that Longstreet arrived soon.
But Longstreet had problems of his own. General McDowell had sent a division under James Ricketts to stop the Rebel advance through Thoroughfare Gap. Though outnumbered, Ricketts put up a good fight. But by the end of the day, Longstreet had positioned units on the Federals flanks and threatened to envelope his enemy. With little other choice left to him, Ricketts retreated towards Gainesville.
When he heard of the brawl near Groveton, General Pope surmised that Jackson was retreating away from Centreville and he was certain that he could destroy him. Pope called for an all out attack at dawn. And so he committed to fight Stonewall Jackson on ground of the Rebel’s own choosing.
At this point, Pope had a better idea of where Jackson was than he had of where his own troops were. He believed that he had boxed Stonewall in on three sides, but in truth, he was only in Jackson’s front.
The attack would be spearheaded by General Sigel, who was nearest to Groveton, and General Philip Kearny. The latter of whom had grown very tired of Pope’s boasting and blundering.
“Tell General Pope to go to Hell,” spat Kearny to the courier bearing the message. “We won’t march before morning.”
[civilwardailygazette.com/?s=August+28%2C+1862]
Pictures: 1862-08-28 Second Bull Run - Groveton Map; 1862-08-28 John Gibbon, who led the Iron Brigade in its first battle at Brawner's Farm (Gainesville); 1862-08-28 Second Bull Run Map Aug 28-30; 1861-08-28 Troops assaulting Cape Hatteras sketch
A. 1861: Union Navy, Army and Marines successfully attack Cape Hatteras, NC. The Union lands troops under fire at Cape Hatteras, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Naval guns’ batter both forts and Ft. Clark is abandoned. Confederate batteries fail to prevent a takeover of the area and the Confederates abandon Fort Clark without a fight, falling back to Fort Hatteras. Fort Hatteras surrenders the next day, leaving the Hatteras Inlet in Federal possession. Now, the U.S. Navy has open access to the vastness of Pamlico Sound, the vast inland waters that in turn give access to nearly all of the North Carolina coast. North Carolina, with the exception of the port of Wilmington, is effectively closed off to blockade-running commerce, and is vulnerable to more Union amphibious assaults on forts and towns that are on the Sound. In the following weeks, Ocracoke Inlet and the rest of NC's inlets fall to Federal forces.
B. 1862: Stalemate at the Battle of Groveton (Brawner’s Farm). After skirmishers exchange some fire, around 6:30 P.M., Jackson’s men come out of their railroad cut and pounce John Hatch’s brigade as it goes marching by on its way to Centreville. Gen. Gibbon unlimbers a battery of artillery and begins sparring with Jackson’s artillery, once the Federals figure out where it is coming from. Hatch’s brigade has already gone on, and does not deploy; Patrick’s forms up in the left rear, and so only Gibbon and Doubleday form their brigades. (It is not clear why neither Patrick nor Hatch participate in the fight.) The Federal column halts and begins to deploy into line in the woods parallel with the highway, with Gibbon sending the 2nd Wisconsin forward to chase off what he assumed was some of the Rebel horse artillery. As the 430 Wisconsin men deploy skirmishers, they drive the Rebel skirmishers back, until the famous Stonewall Brigade attacks the Wisconsin right flank. One by one, regiments are fed into the fray by both sides. Gibbon’s 2nd, 6th, and 7th Wisconsin, with the 19th Indiana, earn the sobriquet The Iron Brigade on this day, when both sides stand up and blast away at each other for several hours, until long after dark. Doubleday moves up two regiments to support Gibbon. Jackson eventually has 6,200 men in line against the 2,800 Federals. Finally, Jackson sends up some Georgia regiments to support the Stonewall Brigade, but mistaking the Stonewalls for Yankees in the dark, the Georgians pour volley after volley into their ranks, killing and wounding many of their own comrades. In the confusion of this tragedy, Gibbon and Doubleday withdraw their troops without further incident. The casualties are appalling: The Federals lose 1,100 out of 2,800, and the Rebels suffer over 1,200 casualties, with the Stonewall Brigade incurring over 40% losses. Two Georgia regiments receive over 70% losses. A number of senior Rebel officers are wounded or killed. Gen. Ewell and Gen. Taliaferro (pronounced Tolliver, believe it or not) are both wounded, and Ewell loses his leg to amputation. Taliferro writes of the battle: "In this fight there was no maneuvering and very little tactics. It was a question of endurance and both endured." Stalemate.
This battle makes a fitting prelude to tomorrow’s battle at Bull Run—a monument of confusion and mismanagement.
Background: The Warrenton Turnpike, which runs from Gainesville to Centreville, right across Jackson’s front, has become a major avenue for the rapid movement of Union troops the last two days. Jackson is hoping that some Federals will blunder by in a vulnerable way–and some do oblige him, before too long. Crossing his front, Federal troops encounter a few Rebel pickets. Gen. Rufus King’s division consists of the brigades of John Hatch, Abner Doubleday, John Gibbon, and Marsena Patrick.
C. 1863: Chattanooga Campaign: Maj Gen Rosecrans and the Army of the Cumberland had nearly completed bridges across the Tennessee River at three locations in northeastern Alabama, downstream from the city of Chattanooga. All felt that once the Union army crossed the river, Bragg’s Army of Tennessee, its morale suspected to be low, would partially disintegrate. But crossing was the dilemma. The river had carved a deep and narrow gorge through the winding landscape. Simply throwing a pontoon bridge across as they might do in Virginia, was an impossibility. Fords were few, and ferries took their place.
The lowermost crossing at Caperton’s Ferry, fifteen miles below Bridgeport, was handled by General Jefferson C. Davis, a division commander in John McCook’s XX Corps.
At what became known as the “middle crossing,” General Phillip Sheridan, also of McCook’s Corps, had to figure out what to do with the partially burned out railroad trestle. This, he left to General William Lytle, one of his brigade commanders. Lytle was more than fit for the work. The use of pontoons was out of the question. There were too few to span the river, and, as Lytle began, they had not yet arrived. Since the trestle was only partially destroyed, Lytle, along with his team of engineers, decided to temporarily patch it. He dispatched teams of ax-wielding soldiers into the forests to hew down as many trees as they could. Meanwhile, other companies were dispatched into the towns to tear apart barns and houses, securing their planks.
The upper crossing, overseen by General Joseph Reynolds of George Thomas’ XIV Corps, had it only slightly easier. For him, there were no pontoons, nor was there a partially-standing trestle. Luck, however, was on his side. Soon after arriving on the banks of the Tennessee, he sent a small number of his men across to secure railroad town of Shellmound. There, they found at least eight flatboats. These would be perfect makeshift replacement pontoons.
D. 1864: Maj Gen William Tecumseh Sherman further tightened his grip on Atlanta by destroying ten miles of the West Point Road that led from Atlanta to the Alabama state line. Almost 60,000 Union troops were moving south, west of Atlanta to Jonesboro, Georgia, trying to outflank John Bell Hood and cut the Macon and Western Railroad.
Tour Stop 11: The Battles for Chattanooga & Orchard Knob
The defeat at the battle of Chickamauga left the Union Army of the Cumberland reeling. A halfhearted pursuit gave the Federals the opportunity to establish a defensive line, and maintain control of the strategic city of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Throughout the fall of 1863, the eyes of the North and the South focused on Chattanooga, and some of the war's most famous personalities-Grant, Sherman, Cleburne, Sherida, Thomas, Longstreet, and Bragg-battled for possession of the gateway to the Deep South. Join historians A. Wilson Greene, Dr. Chris Mackowski, David A. Powell, and Kristopher White from panoramic Orchard Knob
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1lLYZISXus
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 PreisachLTC Thomas Tennant CWO3 (Join to see) PV2 Larry Sellnow LTC Trent Klug SSG Jeffrey Leake SFC Ralph E Kelley LTC Trent Klug LTC (Join to see) SFC Bernard Walko
In 1861, Ulysses S. Grant was given command of federal forces in Southern Illinois and Southeastern Missouri.
In 1861, the successful Federal joint navy, army and marine assault on Cape Hatteras, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina will help restore hope to the people of the north after the defeat at Manassas the previous month. Of course it took time for the news to hit the streets of the north.
In 1862, the Federal Bureau of Printing and Engraving began operations.
In East Tennessee in 1863, US General Rosecrans began to cross the Tennessee River at Caperton’s Ferry on August 27. His army was large enough that it took until September 4th to get the bulk of it on the southern bank.
In 1863, “no major battles occurred … but that, as usual, did not mean that cleanup was not still going on from the last one, nor preparations for the next. Confederate Naval Lt. George W. Gift paid a visit to the shipyard above Mobile Bay, Alabama, to observe the progress in construction of the two vessels Tennessee and Nashville. The Tennessee was nice enough, but Gift was in awe of the immense Nashville. ‘She is tremendous!’ he wrote. ‘The wardroom…is six staterooms and a pantry long, and about as broad between the rooms as the whole Chattahoochee. Her engines are tremendous, and it requires all her width, fifty feet, to place her boilers. The Tennessee is insignificant alongside her.'”
“The Armies return to Bull Run; Jackson Waits as Pope blunders” in 1862: “The sun rose upon utter confusion. The Union Army of Virginia, much like their commander, General John Pope, had been sluggish to react. A fresh corps under General Fitz John Porter was late in stepping off for Bristoe Station, scene of the previous day’s skirmish. Farther west, General Franz Sigel delayed his corps’ move towards Manassas until mid-morning. To make matters worse, Sigel had brought along his supply train, which tangled itself into General Irvin McDowell’s corps, delaying matters even more. Before Sigel could even start, McDowell had passed him.
Things were not much better for Stonewall Jackson, who had ordered his wing of the Army of Northern Virginia to the crossroads of Groveton, near the old battlefield at Bull Run, seven miles away from Manassas Junction. Of his three divisions, only one wound up where he wanted it to be – and that was only because Jackson accompanied it. Once again, Jackson had issued vague marching orders to commanders unable to digest them. General A.P. Hill’s men somehow wound up in Centerville, which, while completely in the wrong direction, confused Pope greatly. By late morning, Jackson’s weary men were reunited at Groveton.
Jackson’s main objective, and the reason he selected Groveton, was for a link up with General James Longstreet’s wing coming through Thoroughfare Gap. Meanwhile, Pope had ordered his army to coalesce at Manassas Junction, seven miles away. While Jackson was moving west, Pope was moving east (and north). At the point where the two forces came closest, they brushed up against each other.
Union General McDowell had pushed forward General John Reynolds’ division across the railroad where he came under the fire of artillery. This was, suspected McDowell, “some rear guard or cavalry party, with artillery.” After Reynolds had deployed his men, the Confederates vanished. When skirmishers were sent to check out the former enemy position, they found no trace of the Rebels.
In truth, Jackson was trying to draw the Federals – any Federals, apparently – into a fight. But McDowell had his orders, and when the Confederates disappeared, he decided not to pursue, but to continue on to Manassas Junction.
While Jackson waited, Pope reacted. He had heard the artillery booming off towards Groveton, but seemed to make nothing of it. When he arrived at Manassas Junction, he saw the place in ruins and believed Jackson to be retreating farther. From less-than-honest Rebel prisoners, he learned that the column seen near Centreville was Jackson’s entire force. Pope ordered McDowell and Sigel to Centreville, and sent two corps (under Generals Reno, Hooker and Kearny) towards the town, as well.
As Pope moved north, Jackson grew more and more jaded. He knew that he had to hit Pope before the Army of the Potomac could gather its forces at Alexandria. Also, if Pope got north of Bull Run, he could take up a similar position as he did just north of the Rappahannock. But all Jackson could do was hope for Pope to attack him or for General Lee to arrive with the rest of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.
Around 3pm, a message arrived from General Lee at Thoroughfare Gap, letting Stonewall know that Longstreet’s wing would cross in the morning and join with Jackson very soon. The General’s spirits were lifted – he even smiled. Suddenly, his isolated position didn’t seem so bad.
The road from Gainesville to Centreville, called the Warrenton Turnpike, led directly in front of Stonewall Jackson’s force, which was drawn up in a defensive position waiting for something to happen. Around 6pm, something happened. General Rufus King’s Division, of McDowell’s Corps, was missing their commander, who stayed back at Gainesville, sick. Instead, they were commanded by General John Hatch, the disgraced cavalry commander, who had been replaced by John Buford.
McDowell instructed Hatch to march towards Centreville, but to first throw out a regiment to probe the area around the road. The morning tangle with what he believed to be Jackson’s rear guard was still fresh in his mind. But Hatch found nothing and McDowell told him to continue on.
As Hatch moved along the road, some of his flankers exchanged shots with a few Rebels. He seemed to have made little of it, and continued on. Stonewall Jackson, however, with a full view of Hatch’s mile-long and strung out column, made of it all that he could.
“Bring out your men, Gentlemen,” Jackson quietly spoke to his officers. And soon lines were formed and bayonets fixed. From the woods that hid them from view, the bulk of Stonewall’s force emerged, flags waving in the breeze, and three batteries of artillery ready to fire.
Hatch’s men looked to their right and saw an unstoppable tide of Rebels screaming towards them. They turned towards the foe and immediately formed lines to advance. The Yankees met the Rebels halfway and the match began.
“In this fight there was very little maneuvering and very little tactics,” remembered General William Taliaferro after the war, “it was a question of endurance – and both endured.”
For two and a half hours, the two sides stood against each other, firing at nearly point blank range. History remembers this as a battle between the Stonewall Brigade and the Iron Brigade, but really, the Rebels fielded 4,500, while the Federals had 2,800 opposing. Each side tried to make some sort of charge, but both sides’ resistance was far too strong.
As evening bled the sky to darkness, the dying barely slackened. But when a Georgia regiment of reinforcements was sent to support the Stonewall Brigade, they mistook the Virginians as Federals and poured deadly volley after volley into them, their comrades. During this sad respite, the Federals begged an orderly leave.
The losses were staggering. Jackson lost 1,200, including several colonels, as well as Generals Taliferro and Ewell, who was shot in the leg and would be out of commission for ten months. Two regiments suffered 70% casualties, while the Stonewall Brigade sustained 40%. Federal losses were much worse. 1,100 out of 2,800 were either wounded or killed.
That night, Pope finally knew exactly where Jackson was, and all Jackson could do was hold his own and hope that Longstreet arrived soon.
But Longstreet had problems of his own. General McDowell had sent a division under James Ricketts to stop the Rebel advance through Thoroughfare Gap. Though outnumbered, Ricketts put up a good fight. But by the end of the day, Longstreet had positioned units on the Federals flanks and threatened to envelope his enemy. With little other choice left to him, Ricketts retreated towards Gainesville.
When he heard of the brawl near Groveton, General Pope surmised that Jackson was retreating away from Centreville and he was certain that he could destroy him. Pope called for an all out attack at dawn. And so he committed to fight Stonewall Jackson on ground of the Rebel’s own choosing.
At this point, Pope had a better idea of where Jackson was than he had of where his own troops were. He believed that he had boxed Stonewall in on three sides, but in truth, he was only in Jackson’s front.
The attack would be spearheaded by General Sigel, who was nearest to Groveton, and General Philip Kearny. The latter of whom had grown very tired of Pope’s boasting and blundering.
“Tell General Pope to go to Hell,” spat Kearny to the courier bearing the message. “We won’t march before morning.”
[civilwardailygazette.com/?s=August+28%2C+1862]
Pictures: 1862-08-28 Second Bull Run - Groveton Map; 1862-08-28 John Gibbon, who led the Iron Brigade in its first battle at Brawner's Farm (Gainesville); 1862-08-28 Second Bull Run Map Aug 28-30; 1861-08-28 Troops assaulting Cape Hatteras sketch
A. 1861: Union Navy, Army and Marines successfully attack Cape Hatteras, NC. The Union lands troops under fire at Cape Hatteras, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Naval guns’ batter both forts and Ft. Clark is abandoned. Confederate batteries fail to prevent a takeover of the area and the Confederates abandon Fort Clark without a fight, falling back to Fort Hatteras. Fort Hatteras surrenders the next day, leaving the Hatteras Inlet in Federal possession. Now, the U.S. Navy has open access to the vastness of Pamlico Sound, the vast inland waters that in turn give access to nearly all of the North Carolina coast. North Carolina, with the exception of the port of Wilmington, is effectively closed off to blockade-running commerce, and is vulnerable to more Union amphibious assaults on forts and towns that are on the Sound. In the following weeks, Ocracoke Inlet and the rest of NC's inlets fall to Federal forces.
B. 1862: Stalemate at the Battle of Groveton (Brawner’s Farm). After skirmishers exchange some fire, around 6:30 P.M., Jackson’s men come out of their railroad cut and pounce John Hatch’s brigade as it goes marching by on its way to Centreville. Gen. Gibbon unlimbers a battery of artillery and begins sparring with Jackson’s artillery, once the Federals figure out where it is coming from. Hatch’s brigade has already gone on, and does not deploy; Patrick’s forms up in the left rear, and so only Gibbon and Doubleday form their brigades. (It is not clear why neither Patrick nor Hatch participate in the fight.) The Federal column halts and begins to deploy into line in the woods parallel with the highway, with Gibbon sending the 2nd Wisconsin forward to chase off what he assumed was some of the Rebel horse artillery. As the 430 Wisconsin men deploy skirmishers, they drive the Rebel skirmishers back, until the famous Stonewall Brigade attacks the Wisconsin right flank. One by one, regiments are fed into the fray by both sides. Gibbon’s 2nd, 6th, and 7th Wisconsin, with the 19th Indiana, earn the sobriquet The Iron Brigade on this day, when both sides stand up and blast away at each other for several hours, until long after dark. Doubleday moves up two regiments to support Gibbon. Jackson eventually has 6,200 men in line against the 2,800 Federals. Finally, Jackson sends up some Georgia regiments to support the Stonewall Brigade, but mistaking the Stonewalls for Yankees in the dark, the Georgians pour volley after volley into their ranks, killing and wounding many of their own comrades. In the confusion of this tragedy, Gibbon and Doubleday withdraw their troops without further incident. The casualties are appalling: The Federals lose 1,100 out of 2,800, and the Rebels suffer over 1,200 casualties, with the Stonewall Brigade incurring over 40% losses. Two Georgia regiments receive over 70% losses. A number of senior Rebel officers are wounded or killed. Gen. Ewell and Gen. Taliaferro (pronounced Tolliver, believe it or not) are both wounded, and Ewell loses his leg to amputation. Taliferro writes of the battle: "In this fight there was no maneuvering and very little tactics. It was a question of endurance and both endured." Stalemate.
This battle makes a fitting prelude to tomorrow’s battle at Bull Run—a monument of confusion and mismanagement.
Background: The Warrenton Turnpike, which runs from Gainesville to Centreville, right across Jackson’s front, has become a major avenue for the rapid movement of Union troops the last two days. Jackson is hoping that some Federals will blunder by in a vulnerable way–and some do oblige him, before too long. Crossing his front, Federal troops encounter a few Rebel pickets. Gen. Rufus King’s division consists of the brigades of John Hatch, Abner Doubleday, John Gibbon, and Marsena Patrick.
C. 1863: Chattanooga Campaign: Maj Gen Rosecrans and the Army of the Cumberland had nearly completed bridges across the Tennessee River at three locations in northeastern Alabama, downstream from the city of Chattanooga. All felt that once the Union army crossed the river, Bragg’s Army of Tennessee, its morale suspected to be low, would partially disintegrate. But crossing was the dilemma. The river had carved a deep and narrow gorge through the winding landscape. Simply throwing a pontoon bridge across as they might do in Virginia, was an impossibility. Fords were few, and ferries took their place.
The lowermost crossing at Caperton’s Ferry, fifteen miles below Bridgeport, was handled by General Jefferson C. Davis, a division commander in John McCook’s XX Corps.
At what became known as the “middle crossing,” General Phillip Sheridan, also of McCook’s Corps, had to figure out what to do with the partially burned out railroad trestle. This, he left to General William Lytle, one of his brigade commanders. Lytle was more than fit for the work. The use of pontoons was out of the question. There were too few to span the river, and, as Lytle began, they had not yet arrived. Since the trestle was only partially destroyed, Lytle, along with his team of engineers, decided to temporarily patch it. He dispatched teams of ax-wielding soldiers into the forests to hew down as many trees as they could. Meanwhile, other companies were dispatched into the towns to tear apart barns and houses, securing their planks.
The upper crossing, overseen by General Joseph Reynolds of George Thomas’ XIV Corps, had it only slightly easier. For him, there were no pontoons, nor was there a partially-standing trestle. Luck, however, was on his side. Soon after arriving on the banks of the Tennessee, he sent a small number of his men across to secure railroad town of Shellmound. There, they found at least eight flatboats. These would be perfect makeshift replacement pontoons.
D. 1864: Maj Gen William Tecumseh Sherman further tightened his grip on Atlanta by destroying ten miles of the West Point Road that led from Atlanta to the Alabama state line. Almost 60,000 Union troops were moving south, west of Atlanta to Jonesboro, Georgia, trying to outflank John Bell Hood and cut the Macon and Western Railroad.
Tour Stop 11: The Battles for Chattanooga & Orchard Knob
The defeat at the battle of Chickamauga left the Union Army of the Cumberland reeling. A halfhearted pursuit gave the Federals the opportunity to establish a defensive line, and maintain control of the strategic city of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Throughout the fall of 1863, the eyes of the North and the South focused on Chattanooga, and some of the war's most famous personalities-Grant, Sherman, Cleburne, Sherida, Thomas, Longstreet, and Bragg-battled for possession of the gateway to the Deep South. Join historians A. Wilson Greene, Dr. Chris Mackowski, David A. Powell, and Kristopher White from panoramic Orchard Knob
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1lLYZISXus
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 PreisachLTC Thomas Tennant CWO3 (Join to see) PV2 Larry Sellnow LTC Trent Klug SSG Jeffrey Leake SFC Ralph E Kelley LTC Trent Klug LTC (Join to see) SFC Bernard Walko
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ACW: Battle of Second Manassas - “Brawl at Brawner Farm” - Part 1/4
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In 1861, the “Union Navy fleet arrived off the coast of Cape Hatteras the day prior. The night was passed readying the troops for the War’s first beach landing. General Butler left the flagship USS Minnesota to oversee the infantry operation from the Harriet Lane. The entire mission was under Navy Flag Officer Silas Sternham.
Butler commanded 915 troops, made up of infantry, artillery, Union Coast Guard and a company of Marines. All were put aboard iron-bottomed transport ships and were moved to close range of the Cape. Just then, the winds picked up, which threatened to scatter the plans of the foot soldiers.
As three steamers, including the Harriet Lane, covered the landing, the Minnesota led the rest of the ships in attacking a battery of guns just north of Fort Clark. The Rebels manning the artillery stepped lively for higher ground, abandoning their pieces and retreating to Clark.
Meanwhile, Butler’s landing had to be abandoned after only 315 soldiers made it ashore before the winds were too strong to risk more. Fifty artillerymen with two howitzers, along with fifty-five Marines, were among the few able to land. They moved south, past the abandoned battery and closed in on Fort Clark, which was now in a desperate duel with the Union warships.
After an hour or so of bombardment, it was seen that neither Forts Clark nor Hatteras were flying Rebel flags. Clark seemed to have been abandoned altogether. By 12:30pm, thinking that the Rebels had surrendered, Flag Officer Stringham ordered all firing to be stopped. Cautiously, the landing party advanced to the fort and by 2pm, a Union flag was snapping in the strong winds over Fort Clark.
One of the ships with the Minnesota was ordered to advance up the inlet, past the possibly-surrendered Fort Hatteras. When she pulled to within firing range, the Rebel fort opened upon her. In response, five other Union ships raked the fort with cannon shot.
Unable to move closer to the fort, the bombardment, which lasted until dusk, was ineffective. Butler’s landing party had withdrawn from Fort Clark and had moved close to where they landed, bivouacking for the night.
While the attack didn’t completely dislodge the Confederates from Cape Hatteras, it was clear that a Union victory would come the next day.”
Below are a number of journal entries from 1862, 1863 and 1864 which shed light on what life was like for soldiers and civilians – the good, the bad and the ugly. Maj Gen William T. Sherman provides a daily update on the siege of Atlanta.
Thursday, August 28, 1862: Capt. William Bolton, of the 51st Pennsylvania Infantry which serves in Gen. Reno’s division currently being hurried to the front, writes in his journal: “Left our bivouac at daylight, and passed through Manassas Junction at 12 o’clock. Here all was confusion. The rebels had reached this place ahead of us, captured seven trains of cars loaded with ammunition and provisions and army supplies generally. Ten locomotives were also destroyed. The enemy had supplied themselves with what they wanted and destroyed the balance. The ruins are still burning and it is said the destroyed property is worth $500,000. The 51st is covering the rear. . . . We have had more or less skirmishing all day. . . .”
Thursday, August 28, 1862: Preston Sessoms, a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, writes home to his sister Bettie about how lonesome it is on campus this year: “Chapel Hill N. Carolina. August 28th 1862. Sister Bett. I have again reached this place in safety, and found all things as they were when I left last January, except there has been a great deal change among the College affairs. For such a place as this, which is called a university,—there had ought to be no less than three or four hundred students, but there are only fifty here now, a very small number. Very soon after I left last January nearly all the students left and went to war; some were called out by the draft some were taken by the Conscription law and some went voluntarily, So nearly all left; if there had not new students come this session, there would be hardly twenty students here now. I call it very dull and lonesome place; if it was not for one thing I would not stay here, There is but two or three boarding houses now, all have gone down, and board is very high, and but very little to eat, The college expenses are the same as the have always been. I have heard something about the second call for conscripts; if there does come another call, this college will certainly break, it will take all, sweep it clean. . . .”
Friday, August 28, 1863: A letter co-authored by H.R. Donnell, Speaker of the House in the North Carolina legislature, and F.B. Satterthwaite, president of the Governor’s Council in that state---and with the approval of Gov. Vance---identifies and condemns the apparently false pretenses by which the “fire-eaters” and Secessionists used to bring the Southern states into rebellion. This letter concludes that a peace based on mutual separation is no longer possible, due to recent reverses, and advocates a convention of the various Southern states in order to seek out any honorable peace: “So far from the wars ending in six months, as they said it would, should it ensue, it has already lasted more than two years, and if their policy is to be pursued, it will last more than two years longer; and notwithstanding their predictions, the Yankees have fought on many occasions with a spirit and determination worthy of their ancestors of the revolution. . . .
England and France have not recognized us–have not raised the blockade–have not shown us any sympathy, nor is there any probability that they ever will–and that cotton is not the king is now universally acknowledged. And Maryland has not joined the confederacy, nor has Kentucky or Missouri ever really been with us. Slavery has not only not been perpetuated in the states, nor extended into the territories, but Missouri has passed an act of emancipation, and Maryland is ready to do so rather than give up her place in the Union, and the best hope of obtaining one foot of the territories for the purpose of extending slavery has departed from the confederacy forever.
. . . So far, the Yankees have never failed to hold every place of importance which they have taken, and present indications are that Charleston will soon be added to the number. The campaign of Gen. Lee into Pennsylvania has undoubtedly proved a failure, and with it the last hope of conquering a peace by a successful invasion of the enemy’s country. Our army has certainly been very much weakened and dispirited y this failure and the fall of Vicksburg, and how long even Richmond will be safe, no one can tell. As the Richmond Enquirer said some time ago, ‘They are slowly but surely gaining upon us, acre by acre, mile by mile,’ and unless Providence interposes in our behalf–of which I see no indications–we will, at no great distance of time, be a subjugated people.”
Friday, August 28, 1863: Sergeant Downing, of the 11th Iowa, adds in his journal of the expedition to Monroe, Louisiana, and how the Rebels did not put up a fight---and the comical results of a “foraging” expedition: “Friday, 28th—We had company inspection this morning and then started out for Monroe, expecting to have a little fight in taking the town. But upon reaching the place we found that the rebels had withdrawn, leaving at 6 o’clock in the morning. . . . Monroe is a nice town, well situated, and has some fine buildings. Strict orders had been given us not to kill any livestock on this expedition; all persons caught in the act were to be arrested. But some of the boys of our regiment had killed a hog and were in the act of cutting it up when the general of our division came riding along with his staff. The boys were caught in the very act. General Stephenson halted, and wanting to know by what authority they had killed the hog, he was going to have them arrested on the spot. But they had one fellow equal to the occasion, who explained that they had killed a wild hog. They were out in the timber getting wood with which to build fires, when some wild hogs there made a charge upon them, and in self-defense they had killed the boldest one; they then thought that as they had killed it they might as well bring it in and have some fresh pork. The general rode on.”
Sunday, August 28, 1864: Siege of Atlanta: Per Sherman: “On the 28th (making a general left-wheel, pivoting on Schofield) both Thomas and Howard reached the West Point Railroad, extending from East Point to Red-Oak Station and Fairburn.”
Pictures: 1861-08-28 Naval Bombardment of Fort Hatteras and Clark; 1863-08 Building a pontoon bridge across the Tennessee River after Confederates destroyed a bridge 1861-08-28 Ships at Hatteras Map sketch; 1862-08 5th Texas - 2nd Manassas
A. Wednesday, August 28, 1861: Union Navy, Army and Marines successfully attack Cape Hatteras, NC. The Union lands troops under fire at Cape Hatteras, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Naval guns’ batter both forts and Ft. Clark is abandoned. Confederate batteries fail to prevent a takeover of the area and the Confederates abandon Fort Clark without a fight, falling back to Fort Hatteras. Fort Hatteras surrenders later, leaving the Hatteras Inlet in Federal possession. Now, the U.S. Navy has open access to the vastness of Pamlico Sound, the vast inland waters that in turn give access to nearly all of the North Carolina coast. North Carolina, with the exception of the port of Wilmington, is effectively closed off to blockade-running commerce, and is vulnerable to more Union amphibious assaults on forts and towns that are on the Sound. In the following weeks, Ocracoke Inlet and the rest of NC's inlets fall to Federal forces.
B. Thursday, August 28, 1862: The Battle of Groveton (Brawner’s Farm). The Warrenton Turnpike, which runs from Gainesville to Centreville, right across Jackson’s front, has become a major avenue for the rapid movement of Union troops the last two days. Jackson is hoping that some Federals will blunder by in a vulnerable way–and some do oblige him, before too long. Crossing his front, Federal troops encounter a few Rebel pickets. After skirmishers exchange some fire, aroun 6:30 P.M., Jackson’s men come out of their railroad cut, and pounce on Gen. Rufus King’s division, commanded by Hatch, as it goes marching by on its way to Centreville. King’s division consists of the brigades of John Hatch, Abner Doubleday, John Gibbon, and Marsena Patrick. Gen. Gibbon unlimbers a battery of artillery and begins sparring with Jackson’s artillery, once the Federals figure out where it is coming from. Hatch’s brigade has already gone on, and does not deploy; Patrick’s forms up in the left rear, and so only Gibbon and Doubleday form their brigades. (It is not clear why neither Patrick nor Hatch participate in the fight.) The Federal column halts and begins to deploy into line in the woods parallel with the highway, with Gibbon sending the 2nd Wisconsin forward to chase off what he assumed was some of the Rebel horse artillery. As the 430 Wisconsin men deploy skirmishers, they drive the Rebel skirmishers back, until the famous Stonewall Brigade attacks the Wisconsin right flank. One by one, regiments are fed into the fray by both sides. Gibbon’s 2nd, 6th, and 7th Wisconsin, with the 19th Indiana, earn the sobriquet The Iron Brigade on this day, when both sides stand up and blast away at each other for several hours, until long after dark. Doubleday moves up two regiments to support Gibbon. Jackson eventually has 6,200 men in line against the 2,800 Federals. Finally, Jackson sends up some Georgia regiments to support the Stonewall Brigade, but mistaking the Stonewalls for Yankees in the dark, the Georgians pour volley after volley into their ranks, killing and wounding many of their own comrades. In the confusion of this tragedy, Gibbon and Doubleday withdraw their troops without further incident. The casualties are appalling: The Federals lose 1,100 out of 2,800, and the Rebels suffer over 1,200 casualties, with the Stonewall Brigade incurring over 40% losses. Two Georgia regiments receive over 70% losses. A number of senior Rebel officers are wounded or killed. Gen. Ewell and Gen. Taliaferro (pronounced Tolliver, believe it or not) are both wounded, and Ewell loses his leg to amputation. Taliferro writes of the battle: "In this fight there was no maneuvering and very little tactics. It was a question of endurance and both endured." Stalemate.
This battle makes a fitting prelude to tomorrow’s battle at Bull Run—a monument of confusion and mismanagement.
C. Friday, August 28, 1863: Chattanooga Campaign: Maj Gen Rosecrans and the Army of the Cumberland had nearly completed bridges across the Tennessee River at three locations in northeastern Alabama, downstream from the city of Chattanooga.
Background Details: Union Forces Prepare to Span the Tennessee River. The Union Army of the Cumberland stood still, folded into the heavy fog rising thick from the Tennessee River, which separated them from Braxton Bragg’s Confederates in and around Chattanooga. Upon their arrival, nearly two weeks past, they discovered that the crossings, especially the railroad trestle at Bridgeport, thirty-five miles downstream from their objective, were destroyed. To properly repair the bridge, two months would be required. General William Rosecrans, leading the Federal forces attempting to cross, did not have that kind of time.
All felt that once the Union army crossed the river, Bragg’s Army of Tennessee, its morale suspected to be low, would partially disintegrate. But crossing was the dilemma. The river had carved a deep and narrow gorge through the winding landscape. Simply throwing a pontoon bridge across as they might do in Virginia, was an impossibility. Fords were few, and ferries took their place.
At first, Rosecrans was hesitant to cross at all. By sending a third of his forces upriver from Chattanooga, and keeping the rest hidden behind impenetrable mountains downriver, Rosecrans successfully convinced Bragg of his plan to cross well below the city. For a time, he suspected that his ruse had failed, that Rebel forces were still tucked away behind the mountains south of Chattanooga. Following a quick expedition, however, he was satisfied that his trickery was effective, or at least Bragg did not suspect him.
With the way clear of enemy, but not clear of mountains, bad roads or the river, work began immediately. The mountains were scaled, the bad road repaired, and the crossings selected. It fell upon the two corps and six division commanders to figure it out for themselves. They were not left and abandoned by Rosecrans, of course. The bridge laying was highly specific to the each of the three crossings themselves required men on the ground to command them.
The lowermost crossing at Caperton’s Ferry, fifteen miles below Bridgeport, was handled by General Jefferson C. Davis, a division commander in John McCook’s XX Corps. There, three divisions would cross. Davis’ task of spanning the river was the quickest and simplest, as they had pontoon boats. For the other two crossings, the same could not be said.
At what became known as the “middle crossing,” General Phillip Sheridan, also of McCook’s Corps, had to figure out what to do with the partially burned out railroad trestle. This, he left to General William Lytle, one of his brigade commanders. Lytle was more than fit for the work. The use of pontoons was out of the question. There were too few to span the river, and, as Lytle began, they had not yet arrived. Since the trestle was only partially destroyed, Lytle, along with his team of engineers, decided to temporarily patch it. He dispatched teams of ax-wielding soldiers into the forests to hew down as many trees as they could. Meanwhile, other companies were dispatched into the towns to tear apart barns and houses, securing their planks.
Their work was admirable, and though they were surprisingly quick at their task. There was no way they could have fixed the bridge completely, but they spanned the river far enough that when the too-few pontoons arrived, they could be easily laid and work complete.
The upper crossing, overseen by General Joseph Reynolds of George Thomas’ XIV Corps, had it only slightly easier. For him, there were no pontoons, nor was there a partially-standing trestle. Luck, however, was on his side. Soon after arriving on the banks of the Tennessee, he sent a small number of his men across to secure railroad town of Shellmound. There, they found at least eight flatboats. These would be perfect makeshift replacement pontoons. His fellow division commander, John Brannon, was not so fortunate. His men were reduced to foraging for cast off lumber or chopping down trees to complete their portion of the bridge. But however it was accomplished – by skill, by luck, or by toil – by this date, the Federal bridges were so near to completion, that the following day (the 29th), Rosecrans would begin to cross. Apart from a volley fired by Confederate pickets before they scurried away, all of the crossings, which would last for several days, were uneventful (and thus fairly dull in recollection).
Jefferson C. Davis’ Division would be the first to cross, using their pontoons at Capterton’s Ferry. General Absalom Baird’s Division would be last, delayed until September 4th, by a small collapse of Lytle’s makeshift trestle.
D. Sunday, August 28, 1864: Maj Gen William Tecumseh Sherman further tightened his grip on Atlanta by destroying ten miles of the West Point Road that led from Atlanta to the Alabama state line. Almost 60,000 Union troops were moving south, west of Atlanta to Jonesboro, Georgia, trying to outflank John Bell Hood and cut the Macon and Western Railroad.
1. Wednesday, August 28, 1861: August 28, 1861: Ulysses S. Grant is given command of federal forces in Southern Illinois and Southeastern Missouri.
[blueandgraytrail.com/year/186108]
2. Wednesday, August 28, 1861: Union forces take fortifications on Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
[blueandgraytrail.com/year/186108]
3. A++ Wednesday, August 28, 1861: Union Navy, Army and Marines attack Cape Hatteras! The Union Navy fleet arrived off the coast of Cape Hatteras the day prior. The night was passed readying the troops for the War’s first beach landing. General Butler left the flagship USS Minnesota to oversee the infantry operation from the Harriet Lane. The entire mission was under Navy Flag Officer Silas Sternham.
Butler commanded 915 troops, made up of infantry, artillery, Union Coast Guard and a company of Marines. All were put aboard iron-bottomed transport ships and were moved to close range of the Cape. Just then, the winds picked up, which threatened to scatter the plans of the foot soldiers.
As three steamers, including the Harriet Lane, covered the landing, the Minnesota led the rest of the ships in attacking a battery of guns just north of Fort Clark. The Rebels manning the artillery stepped lively for higher ground, abandoning their pieces and retreating to Clark.
Meanwhile, Butler’s landing had to be abandoned after only 315 soldiers made it ashore before the winds were too strong to risk more. Fifty artillerymen with two howitzers, along with fifty-five Marines, were among the few able to land. They moved south, past the abandoned battery and closed in on Fort Clark, which was now in a desperate duel with the Union warships.
After an hour or so of bombardment, it was seen that neither Forts Clark nor Hatteras were flying Rebel flags. Clark seemed to have been abandoned altogether. By 12:30pm, thinking that the Rebels had surrendered, Flag Officer Stringham ordered all firing to be stopped. Cautiously, the landing party advanced to the fort and by 2pm, a Union flag was snapping in the strong winds over Fort Clark.
One of the ships with the Minnesota was ordered to advance up the inlet, past the possibly-surrendered Fort Hatteras. When she pulled to within firing range, the Rebel fort opened upon her. In response, five other Union ships raked the fort with cannon shot.
Unable to move closer to the fort, the bombardment, which lasted until dusk, was ineffective. Butler’s landing party had withdrawn from Fort Clark and had moved close to where they landed, bivouacking for the night.
While the attack didn’t completely dislodge the Confederates from Cape Hatteras, it was clear that a Union victory would come the next day.
[civilwardailygazette.com/confederate-fort-hatteras-surrendered-plans-in-missouri/
4. Thursday, August 28, 1862: Federal Bureau of Printing and Engraving begins operations.
[blueandgraytrail.com/year/186208]
5. Thursday, August 28, 1862: Braxton Bragg [CS] leaves from north of Chattanooga, Tennessee heading to join Kirby Smith in Kentucky.
[blueandgraytrail.com/year/186208]
6. Thursday, August 28, 1862: Capt. William Bolton, of the 51st Pennsylvania Infantry which serves in Gen. Reno’s division currently being hurried to the front, writes in his journal: “Left our bivouac at daylight, and passed through Manassas Junction at 12 o’clock. Here all was confusion. The rebels had reached this place ahead of us, captured seven trains of cars loaded with ammunition and provisions and army supplies generally. Ten locomotives were also destroyed. The enemy had supplied themselves with what they wanted and destroyed the balance. The ruins are still burning and it is said the destroyed property is worth $500,000. The 51st is covering the rear. . . . We have had more or less skirmishing all day. . . .”
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+28%2C+1862]
7. Thursday, August 28, 1862: Preston Sessoms, a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, writes home to his sister Bettie about how lonesome it is on campus this year: “Chapel Hill N. Carolina. August 28th 1862. Sister Bett. I have again reached this place in safety, and found all things as they were when I left last January, except there has been a great deal change among the College affairs. For such a place as this, which is called a university,—there had ought to be no less than three or four hundred students, but there are only fifty here now, a very small number. Very soon after I left last January nearly all the students left and went to war; some were called out by the draft some were taken by the Conscription law and some went voluntarily, So nearly all left; if there had not new students come this session, there would be hardly twenty students here now. I call it very dull and lonesome place; if it was not for one thing I would not stay here, There is but two or three boarding houses now, all have gone down, and board is very high, and but very little to eat, The college expenses are the same as the have always been. I have heard something about the second call for conscripts; if there does come another call, this college will certainly break, it will take all, sweep it clean. . . .”
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+28%2C+1862]
8. Thursday, August 28, 1862: Eastern Theater, Second Bull Run Campaign - Gen. Pope’s troops get entangled on the roads: because Gen. Sigel starts late, his wagons get snarled with Gen. McDowell’s troops. Pope, with his army spread out from Centreville to Bristoe Station to Haymarket, decides to concentrate his forces, since he is still very doubtful as to where the Rebels exactly are. Earlier in the morning, there is skirmishing between Jackson’s men and Yankees from John Reynolds’ division, but it never develops into a real fight, and so Reynolds marches on. Meanwhile, Stonewall Jackson holds his Rebels concealed within the railroad cut, waiting for some Yankees to blunder by.
9. Thursday, August 28, 1862: Battle of Groveton, Virginia.
[blueandgraytrail.com/year/186208]
10. Thursday, August 28, 1862: Battle of Brawner's Farm, Virginia. Stonewall Jackson [CS] engages Rufus King [US] near Manassas after eluding John Pope [US]. Richard Ewell
[blueandgraytrail.com/year/186208]
11. Thursday, August 28, 1862: Robert E. Lee and James Longstreet arrive at Manassas from the peninsula.
[blueandgraytrail.com/year/186208]
12. Thursday, August 28, 1862: Western theater: Skirmish near Corinth, Mississippi.
[bjdeming.com/2012/10/12/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-27-to-september-2-1862]
13. Thursday, August 28, 1862: Confederate Heartland Offensive: CS General Bragg and his almost 28,000-man army head north to unite with General Kirby Smith’s 12,000 troops. Bragg has realized that Smith has changed their agreement – instead of taking Cumberland Gap as he was supposed to, Smith has placed it under guard and continued on toward Richmond, Kentucky. The battleground, then, is going to be in Kentucky, not Tennessee, but Bragg has been assured many Kentuckians will rally to the cause once the Confederate armies arrive to liberate them. By this time, many units of the US Army of the Ohio are in motion, while General Buell himself, 50 miles from Chattanooga by now, turns north, both to pursue Bragg and also to pick up reinforcements at the Union base at Louisville, on the Ohio River. (18 – note: the exact dates here aren’t clear.)
[bjdeming.com/2012/10/12/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-27-to-september-2-1862/]
14. Friday, August 28, 1863: “Fighting occurred at Hartwood Church, Virginia; the Narrows near Shellmound, Tennessee; and at Jacksborough, Tennessee.”
[bjdeming.com/2013/08/26/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-26-september-2-1863/]
15. Friday, August 28, 1863: A letter co-authored by H.R. Donnell, Speaker of the House in the North Carolina legislature, and F.B. Satterthwaite, president of the Governor’s Council in that state---and with the approval of Gov. Vance---identifies and condemns the apparently false pretenses by which the “fire-eaters” and Secessionists used to bring the Southern states into rebellion. This letter concludes that a peace based on mutual separation is no longer possible, due to recent reverses, and advocates a convention of the various Southern states in order to seek out any honorable peace: “So far from the wars ending in six months, as they said it would, should it ensue, it has already lasted more than two years, and if their policy is to be pursued, it will last more than two years longer; and notwithstanding their predictions, the Yankees have fought on many occasions with a spirit and determination worthy of their ancestors of the revolution. . . .
England and France have not recognized us–have not raised the blockade–have not shown us any sympathy, nor is there any probability that they ever will–and that cotton is not the king is now universally acknowledged. And Maryland has not joined the confederacy, nor has Kentucky or Missouri ever really been with us. Slavery has not only not been perpetuated in the states, nor extended into the territories, but Missouri has passed an act of emancipation, and Maryland is ready to do so rather than give up her place in the Union, and the best hope of obtaining one foot of the territories for the purpose of extending slavery has departed from the confederacy forever.
. . . So far, the Yankees have never failed to hold every place of importance which they have taken, and present indications are that Charleston will soon be added to the number. The campaign of Gen. Lee into Pennsylvania has undoubtedly proved a failure, and with it the last hope of conquering a peace by a successful invasion of the enemy’s country. Our army has certainly been very much weakened and dispirited y this failure and the fall of Vicksburg, and how long even Richmond will be safe, no one can tell. As the Richmond Enquirer said some time ago, ‘They are slowly but surely gaining upon us, acre by acre, mile by mile,’ and unless Providence interposes in our behalf–of which I see no indications–we will, at no great distance of time, be a subjugated people.”
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+28%2C+1863]
16. Friday, August 28, 1863: Sergeant Downing, of the 11th Iowa, adds in his journal of the expedition to Monroe, Louisiana, and how the Rebels did not put up a fight---and the comical results of a “foraging” expedition: “Friday, 28th—We had company inspection this morning and then started out for Monroe, expecting to have a little fight in taking the town. But upon reaching the place we found that the rebels had withdrawn, leaving at 6 o’clock in the morning. . . . Monroe is a nice town, well situated, and has some fine buildings. Strict orders had been given us not to kill any livestock on this expedition; all persons caught in the act were to be arrested. But some of the boys of our regiment had killed a hog and were in the act of cutting it up when the general of our division came riding along with his staff. The boys were caught in the very act. General Stephenson halted, and wanting to know by what authority they had killed the hog, he was going to have them arrested on the spot. But they had one fellow equal to the occasion, who explained that they had killed a wild hog. They were out in the timber getting wood with which to build fires, when some wild hogs there made a charge upon them, and in self-defense they had killed the boldest one; they then thought that as they had killed it they might as well bring it in and have some fresh pork. The general rode on.”
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+28%2C+1863]
17. Friday, August 28, 1863: “No major battles occurred on this day, but that, as usual, did not mean that cleanup was not still going on from the last one, nor preparations for the next. Confederate Naval Lt. George W. Gift paid a visit to the shipyard above Mobile Bay, Alabama, to observe the progress in construction of the two vessels Tennessee and Nashville. The Tennessee was nice enough, but Gift was in awe of the immense Nashville. ‘She is tremendous!’ he wrote. ‘The wardroom…is six staterooms and a pantry long, and about as broad between the rooms as the whole Chattahoochee. Her engines are tremendous, and it requires all her width, fifty feet, to place her boilers. The Tennessee is insignificant alongside her.'”
[bjdeming.com/2013/08/26/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-26-september-2-1863/]
18. Sunday, August 28, 1864: Shenandoah Valley operations: Battle of Smithfield Crossing continues.
[bjdeming.com/2014/08/25/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-25-31-1864/]
19. Sunday, August 28, 1864: Georgia operations, Siege of Atlanta: Per Sherman: “On the 28th (making a general left-wheel, pivoting on Schofield) both Thomas and Howard reached the West Point Railroad, extending from East Point to Red-Oak Station and Fairburn.”
[bjdeming.com/2014/08/25/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-25-31-1864/]
20. Sunday, August 28, 1864: Fighting continues around Holly Springs, Mississippi, Leestown and Smithfield in West Virginia, Fayetteville, Arkansas, and Polk County, Missouri.
[site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/1864/week-177]
21. Sunday, August 28, 1864: Almost 60,000 Union troops are moving south, west of Atlanta to Jonesboro, Georgia, trying to outflank John Bell Hood and cut the Macon and Western Railroad
[blueandgraytrail.com/year/186408]
22. Sunday, August 28, 1864: Their Projected Campaign Is a Failure’ – Grant and Sheridan Underestimate Early.
General Grant was optimistic. Though the action around the Weldon Railroad south of Petersburg had been little more than a complete debacle, there might, he thought, be some good to come out of it. Late on August 26th, he wrote to Philip Sheridan to relay the good news.
“Telegraphed you that I had good reason for believing that Fitz Lee had been ordered back here. I now think it likely that all troops will be ordered back from the valley except what they believe to be the minimum number to detain you. My reason for supposing this is based upon the fact that yielding up the Weldon road seems to be a blow to the enemy he cannot stand.”
To his commander in the Shenandoah Valley, he figured that the Rebels had suffered as many as 10,000 casualties over the past two weeks. It was true, the Confederates had lost a number of troops, but General Lee wasn’t so ready to give up the Valley.
He was more than happy to hear about how Jubal Early forced the Yankees back toward Harpers Ferry, but kept a realistic outlook. “It will,” wrote Lee, “have little or no effect upon Grant’s operations, or prevent re-enforcements being sent to him.”
Early was proud of his accomplishments, but the sheer size of Sheridan’s force, now sprawling to the number of 30,000, dwarfed his own, dwindled to perhaps 10,000. The original plan had been for Early to once more cross the Potomac. However, Lee reasoned that “if Sheridan’s force is as large as you suppose, I do not know that you could operate to advantage north of the Potomac.”
General Lee was still not opposed to taking risks, and suggested that Early divide his force to send a division under Richard Anderson to destroy the railroad near Charlestown. Though the battles around the Weldon Railroad might not have caused Lee to recall some of Early’s troops as Grant nearly promised, it did cause him not to send any additional troops to Early.
Lee would not order Anderson’s division back to Richmond, but added in closing that he was “in great need of his troops, and if they can be spared from the Valley, or cannot operate to advantage there,” he would order them back.
The next day, August 27th, Early backed off. He had held close to Sheridan’s lines, but after a few friction points too many, he decided some distance might be necessary. And so he returned to Bunker Hill, north of Winchester, while Anderson marched his command to Brucetown, just northeast of the same.
Sheridan took Grant’s message to heart and when he witnessed the Confederate pull back, he thought it a retreat. “The indications are that they will fall back perhaps out of the Valley,” wrote Sheridan to one of his cavalry commanders on the night of the 27th. He surmized “that their projected campaign is a failure.” Less than a half hour later, he was convinced that the Rebels were indeed leaving the Valley.
The next day (this date), Union cavalry under Wesley Merritt dogged the Confederate cavalry, quickly backing toward Leetown. There they clashed, and the Confederates were thrown back toward Smithville in disarray. But in Smithville waited Fitz Lee and the rest of the Southern troopers. After an exchange of artillery, Merritt sent forward George Armstong Custer and slowly Fitz Lee’s Rebels faded back toward Bunker Hill. Merritt’s forces, however, stayed on the eastern banks of Opequan Creek, not daring to cross in pursuit.
The next day, and for the next several, Sheridan would learn that the Rebels were not in the process of leaving the Valley. Early had no such stuff in his thoughts. For the next, there would be the ebbing and flowing, the give and take, now so common in this theater. But never again would Early drive so far north.
[civilwardailygazette.com/their-projected-campaign-is-a-failure-grant-and-sheridan-underestimate-early/]
A Wednesday, August 28, 1861: The Union lands troops under fire at Cape Hatteras, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Confederate batteries fail to prevent a takeover of the area and the Confederates abandon Fort Clark without a fight, falling back to Fort Hatteras. Control of Hatteras Inlet enables the Union to crush blockade runners.
[site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-a/part-twenty-1]
A+ Wednesday, August 28, 1861: Battle of Hatteras Inlet: Naval guns’ batter both forts and Ft. Clark is abandoned. Fort Hatteras surrenders later, leaving the Hatteras Inlet in Federal possession. Now, the U.S. Navy has open access to the vastness of Pamlico Sound, the vast inland waters that in turn give access to nearly all of the North Carolina coast. North Carolina, with the exception of the port of Wilmington, is effectively closed off to blockade-running commerce, and is vulnerable to more Union amphibious assaults on forts and towns that are on the Sound. This Northern victory cheers the Northern populace after the disastrous defeats on land in the summer weeks preceding this one. In the following weeks, Ocracoke Inlet and the rest of NC's inlets fall to Federal forces.
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+28%2C+1861]
B Thursday, August 28, 1862: The battle of Manassas/Second Manassas begins. It’s sometimes called the Battle of Groveton, while the Confederate Stonewall Brigade meets the Union Iron Brigade at Brawner’s Farm.
[bjdeming.com/2012/10/12/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-27-to-september-2-1862/]
B+ Thursday, August 28, 1862: The Battle of Groveton (Brawner’s Farm). The Warrenton Turnpike, which runs from Gainesville to Centreville, right across Jackson’s front, has become a major avenue for the rapid movement of Union troops the last two days. Jackson is hoping that some Federals will blunder by in a vulnerable way–and some do oblige him, before too long. Crossing his front, Federal troops encounter a few Rebel pickets. After skirmishers exchange some fire, aroun 6:30 P.M., Jackson’s men come out of their railroad cut, and pounce on Gen. Rufus King’s division, commanded by Hatch, as it goes marching by on its way to Centreville. King’s division consists of the brigades of John Hatch, Abner Doubleday, John Gibbon, and Marsena Patrick. Gen. Gibbon unlimbers a battery of artillery and begins sparring with Jackson’s artillery, once the Federals figure out where it is coming from. Hatch’s brigade has already gone on, and does not deploy; Patrick’s forms up in the left rear, and so only Gibbon and Doubleday form their brigades. (It is not clear why neither Patrick nor Hatch participate in the fight.) The Federal column halts and begins to deploy into line in the woods parallel with the highway, with Gibbon sending the 2nd Wisconsin forward to chase off what he assumed was some of the Rebel horse artillery. As the 430 Wisconsin men deploy skirmishers, they drive the Rebel skirmishers back, until the famous Stonewall Brigade attacks the Wisconsin right flank. One by one, regiments are fed into the fray by both sides. Gibbon’s 2nd, 6th, and 7th Wisconsin, with the 19th Indiana, earn the sobriquet The Iron Brigade on this day, when both sides stand up and blast away at each other for several hours, until long after dark. Doubleday moves up two regiments to support Gibbon. Jackson eventually has 6,200 men in line against the 2,800 Federals. Finally, Jackson sends up some Georgia regiments to support the Stonewall Brigade, but mistaking the Stonewalls for Yankees in the dark, the Georgians pour volley after volley into their ranks, killing and wounding many of their own comrades. In the confusion of this tragedy, Gibbon and Doubleday withdraw their troops without further incident. The casualties are appalling: The Federals lose 1,100 out of 2,800, and the Rebels suffer over 1,200 casualties, with the Stonewall Brigade incurring over 40% losses. Two Georgia regiments receive over 70% losses. A number of senior Rebel officers are wounded or killed. Gen. Ewell and Gen. Taliaferro (pronounced Tolliver, believe it or not) are both wounded, and Ewell loses his leg to amputation. Taliferro writes of the battle: "In this fight there was no maneuvering and very little tactics. It was a question of endurance and both endured." Stalemate.
This battle makes a fitting prelude to tomorrow’s battle at Bull Run—a monument of confusion and mismanagement.
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+28%2C+1862]
C Friday, August 28, 1863: Chattanooga Campaign: Gen. Rosecrans and the Army of the Cumberland (U.S.) have nearly completed bridges across the Tennessee River at three locations in northeastern Alabama, downstream from the city of Chattanooga.
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+28%2C+1863]
C+ Friday, August 28, 1863: Union Forces Prepare to Span the Tennessee River. The Union Army of the Cumberland stood still, folded into the heavy fog rising thick from the Tennessee River, which separated them from Braxton Bragg’s Confederates in and around Chattanooga. Upon their arrival, nearly two weeks past, they discovered that the crossings, especially the railroad trestle at Bridgeport, thirty-five miles downstream from their objective, were destroyed. To properly repair the bridge, two months would be required. General William Rosecrans, leading the Federal forces attempting to cross, did not have that kind of time.
All felt that once the Union army crossed the river, Bragg’s Army of Tennessee, its morale suspected to be low, would partially disintegrate. But crossing was the dilemma. The river had carved a deep and narrow gorge through the winding landscape. Simply throwing a pontoon bridge across as they might do in Virginia, was an impossibility. Fords were few, and ferries took their place.
At first, Rosecrans was hesitant to cross at all. By sending a third of his forces upriver from Chattanooga, and keeping the rest hidden behind impenetrable mountains downriver, Rosecrans successfully convinced Bragg of his plan to cross well below the city. For a time, he suspected that his ruse had failed, that Rebel forces were still tucked away behind the mountains south of Chattanooga. Following a quick expedition, however, he was satisfied that his trickery was effective, or at least Bragg did not suspect him.
With the way clear of enemy, but not clear of mountains, bad roads or the river, work began immediately. The mountains were scaled, the bad road repaired, and the crossings selected. It fell upon the two corps and six division commanders to figure it out for themselves. They were not left and abandoned by Rosecrans, of course. The bridge laying was highly specific to the each of the three crossings themselves required men on the ground to command them.
The lowermost crossing at Caperton’s Ferry, fifteen miles below Bridgeport, was handled by General Jefferson C. Davis, a division commander in John McCook’s XX Corps. There, three divisions would cross. Davis’ task of spanning the river was the quickest and simplest, as they had pontoon boats. For the other two crossings, the same could not be said.
At what became known as the “middle crossing,” General Phillip Sheridan, also of McCook’s Corps, had to figure out what to do with the partially burned out railroad trestle. This, he left to General William Lytle, one of his brigade commanders. Lytle was more than fit for the work. The use of pontoons was out of the question. There were too few to span the river, and, as Lytle began, they had not yet arrived. Since the trestle was only partially destroyed, Lytle, along with his team of engineers, decided to temporarily patch it. He dispatched teams of ax-wielding soldiers into the forests to hew down as many trees as they could. Meanwhile, other companies were dispatched into the towns to tear apart barns and houses, securing their planks.
Their work was admirable, and though they were surprisingly quick at their task. There was no way they could have fixed the bridge completely, but they spanned the river far enough that when the too-few pontoons arrived, they could be easily laid and work complete.
The upper crossing, overseen by General Joseph Reynolds of George Thomas’ XIV Corps, had it only slightly easier. For him, there were no pontoons, nor was there a partially-standing trestle. Luck, however, was on his side. Soon after arriving on the banks of the Tennessee, he sent a small number of his men across to secure railroad town of Shellmound. There, they found at least eight flatboats. These would be perfect makeshift replacement pontoons. His fellow division commander, John Brannon, was not so fortunate. His men were reduced to foraging for cast off lumber or chopping down trees to complete their portion of the bridge.But however it was accomplished – by skill, by luck, or by toil – by this date, the Federal bridges were so near to completion, that the following day (the 29th), Rosecrans would begin to cross. Apart from a volley fired by Confederate pickets before they scurried away, all of the crossings, which would last for several days, were uneventful (and thus fairly dull in recollection).
Jefferson C. Davis’ Division would be the first to cross, using their pontoons at Capterton’s Ferry. General Absalom Baird’s Division would be last, delayed until September 4th, by a small collapse of Lytle’s makeshift trestle.
[civilwardailygazette.com/union-forces-prepare-to-span-the-tennessee-river/]
D Sunday, August 28, 1864: General William Tecumseh Sherman (US) further tightens his grip on Atlanta by destroying ten miles of the West Point Road that led from Atlanta to the Alabama state line. Almost 60,000 Union troops are moving south, west of Atlanta to Jonesboro, Georgia, trying to outflank John Bell Hood and cut the Macon and Western Railroad.
[site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/1864/week-177]
FYI GySgt Jack Wallace SFC Ralph E Kelley MAJ (Join to see) MAJ (Join to see) CWO4 Terrence Clark SMSgt Lawrence McCarter SFC Bernard Walko SFC Stephen King SSG Franklin Briant SSG Byron Howard Sr CPL Ronald Keyes Jr SrA Ronald MooreSFC William Farrell SPC Lyle MontgomerySPC Woody Bullard
ACW: Battle of Second Manassas - “Brawl at Brawner Farm” - Part 1/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aqIC2Gvnv4
Butler commanded 915 troops, made up of infantry, artillery, Union Coast Guard and a company of Marines. All were put aboard iron-bottomed transport ships and were moved to close range of the Cape. Just then, the winds picked up, which threatened to scatter the plans of the foot soldiers.
As three steamers, including the Harriet Lane, covered the landing, the Minnesota led the rest of the ships in attacking a battery of guns just north of Fort Clark. The Rebels manning the artillery stepped lively for higher ground, abandoning their pieces and retreating to Clark.
Meanwhile, Butler’s landing had to be abandoned after only 315 soldiers made it ashore before the winds were too strong to risk more. Fifty artillerymen with two howitzers, along with fifty-five Marines, were among the few able to land. They moved south, past the abandoned battery and closed in on Fort Clark, which was now in a desperate duel with the Union warships.
After an hour or so of bombardment, it was seen that neither Forts Clark nor Hatteras were flying Rebel flags. Clark seemed to have been abandoned altogether. By 12:30pm, thinking that the Rebels had surrendered, Flag Officer Stringham ordered all firing to be stopped. Cautiously, the landing party advanced to the fort and by 2pm, a Union flag was snapping in the strong winds over Fort Clark.
One of the ships with the Minnesota was ordered to advance up the inlet, past the possibly-surrendered Fort Hatteras. When she pulled to within firing range, the Rebel fort opened upon her. In response, five other Union ships raked the fort with cannon shot.
Unable to move closer to the fort, the bombardment, which lasted until dusk, was ineffective. Butler’s landing party had withdrawn from Fort Clark and had moved close to where they landed, bivouacking for the night.
While the attack didn’t completely dislodge the Confederates from Cape Hatteras, it was clear that a Union victory would come the next day.”
Below are a number of journal entries from 1862, 1863 and 1864 which shed light on what life was like for soldiers and civilians – the good, the bad and the ugly. Maj Gen William T. Sherman provides a daily update on the siege of Atlanta.
Thursday, August 28, 1862: Capt. William Bolton, of the 51st Pennsylvania Infantry which serves in Gen. Reno’s division currently being hurried to the front, writes in his journal: “Left our bivouac at daylight, and passed through Manassas Junction at 12 o’clock. Here all was confusion. The rebels had reached this place ahead of us, captured seven trains of cars loaded with ammunition and provisions and army supplies generally. Ten locomotives were also destroyed. The enemy had supplied themselves with what they wanted and destroyed the balance. The ruins are still burning and it is said the destroyed property is worth $500,000. The 51st is covering the rear. . . . We have had more or less skirmishing all day. . . .”
Thursday, August 28, 1862: Preston Sessoms, a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, writes home to his sister Bettie about how lonesome it is on campus this year: “Chapel Hill N. Carolina. August 28th 1862. Sister Bett. I have again reached this place in safety, and found all things as they were when I left last January, except there has been a great deal change among the College affairs. For such a place as this, which is called a university,—there had ought to be no less than three or four hundred students, but there are only fifty here now, a very small number. Very soon after I left last January nearly all the students left and went to war; some were called out by the draft some were taken by the Conscription law and some went voluntarily, So nearly all left; if there had not new students come this session, there would be hardly twenty students here now. I call it very dull and lonesome place; if it was not for one thing I would not stay here, There is but two or three boarding houses now, all have gone down, and board is very high, and but very little to eat, The college expenses are the same as the have always been. I have heard something about the second call for conscripts; if there does come another call, this college will certainly break, it will take all, sweep it clean. . . .”
Friday, August 28, 1863: A letter co-authored by H.R. Donnell, Speaker of the House in the North Carolina legislature, and F.B. Satterthwaite, president of the Governor’s Council in that state---and with the approval of Gov. Vance---identifies and condemns the apparently false pretenses by which the “fire-eaters” and Secessionists used to bring the Southern states into rebellion. This letter concludes that a peace based on mutual separation is no longer possible, due to recent reverses, and advocates a convention of the various Southern states in order to seek out any honorable peace: “So far from the wars ending in six months, as they said it would, should it ensue, it has already lasted more than two years, and if their policy is to be pursued, it will last more than two years longer; and notwithstanding their predictions, the Yankees have fought on many occasions with a spirit and determination worthy of their ancestors of the revolution. . . .
England and France have not recognized us–have not raised the blockade–have not shown us any sympathy, nor is there any probability that they ever will–and that cotton is not the king is now universally acknowledged. And Maryland has not joined the confederacy, nor has Kentucky or Missouri ever really been with us. Slavery has not only not been perpetuated in the states, nor extended into the territories, but Missouri has passed an act of emancipation, and Maryland is ready to do so rather than give up her place in the Union, and the best hope of obtaining one foot of the territories for the purpose of extending slavery has departed from the confederacy forever.
. . . So far, the Yankees have never failed to hold every place of importance which they have taken, and present indications are that Charleston will soon be added to the number. The campaign of Gen. Lee into Pennsylvania has undoubtedly proved a failure, and with it the last hope of conquering a peace by a successful invasion of the enemy’s country. Our army has certainly been very much weakened and dispirited y this failure and the fall of Vicksburg, and how long even Richmond will be safe, no one can tell. As the Richmond Enquirer said some time ago, ‘They are slowly but surely gaining upon us, acre by acre, mile by mile,’ and unless Providence interposes in our behalf–of which I see no indications–we will, at no great distance of time, be a subjugated people.”
Friday, August 28, 1863: Sergeant Downing, of the 11th Iowa, adds in his journal of the expedition to Monroe, Louisiana, and how the Rebels did not put up a fight---and the comical results of a “foraging” expedition: “Friday, 28th—We had company inspection this morning and then started out for Monroe, expecting to have a little fight in taking the town. But upon reaching the place we found that the rebels had withdrawn, leaving at 6 o’clock in the morning. . . . Monroe is a nice town, well situated, and has some fine buildings. Strict orders had been given us not to kill any livestock on this expedition; all persons caught in the act were to be arrested. But some of the boys of our regiment had killed a hog and were in the act of cutting it up when the general of our division came riding along with his staff. The boys were caught in the very act. General Stephenson halted, and wanting to know by what authority they had killed the hog, he was going to have them arrested on the spot. But they had one fellow equal to the occasion, who explained that they had killed a wild hog. They were out in the timber getting wood with which to build fires, when some wild hogs there made a charge upon them, and in self-defense they had killed the boldest one; they then thought that as they had killed it they might as well bring it in and have some fresh pork. The general rode on.”
Sunday, August 28, 1864: Siege of Atlanta: Per Sherman: “On the 28th (making a general left-wheel, pivoting on Schofield) both Thomas and Howard reached the West Point Railroad, extending from East Point to Red-Oak Station and Fairburn.”
Pictures: 1861-08-28 Naval Bombardment of Fort Hatteras and Clark; 1863-08 Building a pontoon bridge across the Tennessee River after Confederates destroyed a bridge 1861-08-28 Ships at Hatteras Map sketch; 1862-08 5th Texas - 2nd Manassas
A. Wednesday, August 28, 1861: Union Navy, Army and Marines successfully attack Cape Hatteras, NC. The Union lands troops under fire at Cape Hatteras, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Naval guns’ batter both forts and Ft. Clark is abandoned. Confederate batteries fail to prevent a takeover of the area and the Confederates abandon Fort Clark without a fight, falling back to Fort Hatteras. Fort Hatteras surrenders later, leaving the Hatteras Inlet in Federal possession. Now, the U.S. Navy has open access to the vastness of Pamlico Sound, the vast inland waters that in turn give access to nearly all of the North Carolina coast. North Carolina, with the exception of the port of Wilmington, is effectively closed off to blockade-running commerce, and is vulnerable to more Union amphibious assaults on forts and towns that are on the Sound. In the following weeks, Ocracoke Inlet and the rest of NC's inlets fall to Federal forces.
B. Thursday, August 28, 1862: The Battle of Groveton (Brawner’s Farm). The Warrenton Turnpike, which runs from Gainesville to Centreville, right across Jackson’s front, has become a major avenue for the rapid movement of Union troops the last two days. Jackson is hoping that some Federals will blunder by in a vulnerable way–and some do oblige him, before too long. Crossing his front, Federal troops encounter a few Rebel pickets. After skirmishers exchange some fire, aroun 6:30 P.M., Jackson’s men come out of their railroad cut, and pounce on Gen. Rufus King’s division, commanded by Hatch, as it goes marching by on its way to Centreville. King’s division consists of the brigades of John Hatch, Abner Doubleday, John Gibbon, and Marsena Patrick. Gen. Gibbon unlimbers a battery of artillery and begins sparring with Jackson’s artillery, once the Federals figure out where it is coming from. Hatch’s brigade has already gone on, and does not deploy; Patrick’s forms up in the left rear, and so only Gibbon and Doubleday form their brigades. (It is not clear why neither Patrick nor Hatch participate in the fight.) The Federal column halts and begins to deploy into line in the woods parallel with the highway, with Gibbon sending the 2nd Wisconsin forward to chase off what he assumed was some of the Rebel horse artillery. As the 430 Wisconsin men deploy skirmishers, they drive the Rebel skirmishers back, until the famous Stonewall Brigade attacks the Wisconsin right flank. One by one, regiments are fed into the fray by both sides. Gibbon’s 2nd, 6th, and 7th Wisconsin, with the 19th Indiana, earn the sobriquet The Iron Brigade on this day, when both sides stand up and blast away at each other for several hours, until long after dark. Doubleday moves up two regiments to support Gibbon. Jackson eventually has 6,200 men in line against the 2,800 Federals. Finally, Jackson sends up some Georgia regiments to support the Stonewall Brigade, but mistaking the Stonewalls for Yankees in the dark, the Georgians pour volley after volley into their ranks, killing and wounding many of their own comrades. In the confusion of this tragedy, Gibbon and Doubleday withdraw their troops without further incident. The casualties are appalling: The Federals lose 1,100 out of 2,800, and the Rebels suffer over 1,200 casualties, with the Stonewall Brigade incurring over 40% losses. Two Georgia regiments receive over 70% losses. A number of senior Rebel officers are wounded or killed. Gen. Ewell and Gen. Taliaferro (pronounced Tolliver, believe it or not) are both wounded, and Ewell loses his leg to amputation. Taliferro writes of the battle: "In this fight there was no maneuvering and very little tactics. It was a question of endurance and both endured." Stalemate.
This battle makes a fitting prelude to tomorrow’s battle at Bull Run—a monument of confusion and mismanagement.
C. Friday, August 28, 1863: Chattanooga Campaign: Maj Gen Rosecrans and the Army of the Cumberland had nearly completed bridges across the Tennessee River at three locations in northeastern Alabama, downstream from the city of Chattanooga.
Background Details: Union Forces Prepare to Span the Tennessee River. The Union Army of the Cumberland stood still, folded into the heavy fog rising thick from the Tennessee River, which separated them from Braxton Bragg’s Confederates in and around Chattanooga. Upon their arrival, nearly two weeks past, they discovered that the crossings, especially the railroad trestle at Bridgeport, thirty-five miles downstream from their objective, were destroyed. To properly repair the bridge, two months would be required. General William Rosecrans, leading the Federal forces attempting to cross, did not have that kind of time.
All felt that once the Union army crossed the river, Bragg’s Army of Tennessee, its morale suspected to be low, would partially disintegrate. But crossing was the dilemma. The river had carved a deep and narrow gorge through the winding landscape. Simply throwing a pontoon bridge across as they might do in Virginia, was an impossibility. Fords were few, and ferries took their place.
At first, Rosecrans was hesitant to cross at all. By sending a third of his forces upriver from Chattanooga, and keeping the rest hidden behind impenetrable mountains downriver, Rosecrans successfully convinced Bragg of his plan to cross well below the city. For a time, he suspected that his ruse had failed, that Rebel forces were still tucked away behind the mountains south of Chattanooga. Following a quick expedition, however, he was satisfied that his trickery was effective, or at least Bragg did not suspect him.
With the way clear of enemy, but not clear of mountains, bad roads or the river, work began immediately. The mountains were scaled, the bad road repaired, and the crossings selected. It fell upon the two corps and six division commanders to figure it out for themselves. They were not left and abandoned by Rosecrans, of course. The bridge laying was highly specific to the each of the three crossings themselves required men on the ground to command them.
The lowermost crossing at Caperton’s Ferry, fifteen miles below Bridgeport, was handled by General Jefferson C. Davis, a division commander in John McCook’s XX Corps. There, three divisions would cross. Davis’ task of spanning the river was the quickest and simplest, as they had pontoon boats. For the other two crossings, the same could not be said.
At what became known as the “middle crossing,” General Phillip Sheridan, also of McCook’s Corps, had to figure out what to do with the partially burned out railroad trestle. This, he left to General William Lytle, one of his brigade commanders. Lytle was more than fit for the work. The use of pontoons was out of the question. There were too few to span the river, and, as Lytle began, they had not yet arrived. Since the trestle was only partially destroyed, Lytle, along with his team of engineers, decided to temporarily patch it. He dispatched teams of ax-wielding soldiers into the forests to hew down as many trees as they could. Meanwhile, other companies were dispatched into the towns to tear apart barns and houses, securing their planks.
Their work was admirable, and though they were surprisingly quick at their task. There was no way they could have fixed the bridge completely, but they spanned the river far enough that when the too-few pontoons arrived, they could be easily laid and work complete.
The upper crossing, overseen by General Joseph Reynolds of George Thomas’ XIV Corps, had it only slightly easier. For him, there were no pontoons, nor was there a partially-standing trestle. Luck, however, was on his side. Soon after arriving on the banks of the Tennessee, he sent a small number of his men across to secure railroad town of Shellmound. There, they found at least eight flatboats. These would be perfect makeshift replacement pontoons. His fellow division commander, John Brannon, was not so fortunate. His men were reduced to foraging for cast off lumber or chopping down trees to complete their portion of the bridge. But however it was accomplished – by skill, by luck, or by toil – by this date, the Federal bridges were so near to completion, that the following day (the 29th), Rosecrans would begin to cross. Apart from a volley fired by Confederate pickets before they scurried away, all of the crossings, which would last for several days, were uneventful (and thus fairly dull in recollection).
Jefferson C. Davis’ Division would be the first to cross, using their pontoons at Capterton’s Ferry. General Absalom Baird’s Division would be last, delayed until September 4th, by a small collapse of Lytle’s makeshift trestle.
D. Sunday, August 28, 1864: Maj Gen William Tecumseh Sherman further tightened his grip on Atlanta by destroying ten miles of the West Point Road that led from Atlanta to the Alabama state line. Almost 60,000 Union troops were moving south, west of Atlanta to Jonesboro, Georgia, trying to outflank John Bell Hood and cut the Macon and Western Railroad.
1. Wednesday, August 28, 1861: August 28, 1861: Ulysses S. Grant is given command of federal forces in Southern Illinois and Southeastern Missouri.
[blueandgraytrail.com/year/186108]
2. Wednesday, August 28, 1861: Union forces take fortifications on Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
[blueandgraytrail.com/year/186108]
3. A++ Wednesday, August 28, 1861: Union Navy, Army and Marines attack Cape Hatteras! The Union Navy fleet arrived off the coast of Cape Hatteras the day prior. The night was passed readying the troops for the War’s first beach landing. General Butler left the flagship USS Minnesota to oversee the infantry operation from the Harriet Lane. The entire mission was under Navy Flag Officer Silas Sternham.
Butler commanded 915 troops, made up of infantry, artillery, Union Coast Guard and a company of Marines. All were put aboard iron-bottomed transport ships and were moved to close range of the Cape. Just then, the winds picked up, which threatened to scatter the plans of the foot soldiers.
As three steamers, including the Harriet Lane, covered the landing, the Minnesota led the rest of the ships in attacking a battery of guns just north of Fort Clark. The Rebels manning the artillery stepped lively for higher ground, abandoning their pieces and retreating to Clark.
Meanwhile, Butler’s landing had to be abandoned after only 315 soldiers made it ashore before the winds were too strong to risk more. Fifty artillerymen with two howitzers, along with fifty-five Marines, were among the few able to land. They moved south, past the abandoned battery and closed in on Fort Clark, which was now in a desperate duel with the Union warships.
After an hour or so of bombardment, it was seen that neither Forts Clark nor Hatteras were flying Rebel flags. Clark seemed to have been abandoned altogether. By 12:30pm, thinking that the Rebels had surrendered, Flag Officer Stringham ordered all firing to be stopped. Cautiously, the landing party advanced to the fort and by 2pm, a Union flag was snapping in the strong winds over Fort Clark.
One of the ships with the Minnesota was ordered to advance up the inlet, past the possibly-surrendered Fort Hatteras. When she pulled to within firing range, the Rebel fort opened upon her. In response, five other Union ships raked the fort with cannon shot.
Unable to move closer to the fort, the bombardment, which lasted until dusk, was ineffective. Butler’s landing party had withdrawn from Fort Clark and had moved close to where they landed, bivouacking for the night.
While the attack didn’t completely dislodge the Confederates from Cape Hatteras, it was clear that a Union victory would come the next day.
[civilwardailygazette.com/confederate-fort-hatteras-surrendered-plans-in-missouri/
4. Thursday, August 28, 1862: Federal Bureau of Printing and Engraving begins operations.
[blueandgraytrail.com/year/186208]
5. Thursday, August 28, 1862: Braxton Bragg [CS] leaves from north of Chattanooga, Tennessee heading to join Kirby Smith in Kentucky.
[blueandgraytrail.com/year/186208]
6. Thursday, August 28, 1862: Capt. William Bolton, of the 51st Pennsylvania Infantry which serves in Gen. Reno’s division currently being hurried to the front, writes in his journal: “Left our bivouac at daylight, and passed through Manassas Junction at 12 o’clock. Here all was confusion. The rebels had reached this place ahead of us, captured seven trains of cars loaded with ammunition and provisions and army supplies generally. Ten locomotives were also destroyed. The enemy had supplied themselves with what they wanted and destroyed the balance. The ruins are still burning and it is said the destroyed property is worth $500,000. The 51st is covering the rear. . . . We have had more or less skirmishing all day. . . .”
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+28%2C+1862]
7. Thursday, August 28, 1862: Preston Sessoms, a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, writes home to his sister Bettie about how lonesome it is on campus this year: “Chapel Hill N. Carolina. August 28th 1862. Sister Bett. I have again reached this place in safety, and found all things as they were when I left last January, except there has been a great deal change among the College affairs. For such a place as this, which is called a university,—there had ought to be no less than three or four hundred students, but there are only fifty here now, a very small number. Very soon after I left last January nearly all the students left and went to war; some were called out by the draft some were taken by the Conscription law and some went voluntarily, So nearly all left; if there had not new students come this session, there would be hardly twenty students here now. I call it very dull and lonesome place; if it was not for one thing I would not stay here, There is but two or three boarding houses now, all have gone down, and board is very high, and but very little to eat, The college expenses are the same as the have always been. I have heard something about the second call for conscripts; if there does come another call, this college will certainly break, it will take all, sweep it clean. . . .”
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+28%2C+1862]
8. Thursday, August 28, 1862: Eastern Theater, Second Bull Run Campaign - Gen. Pope’s troops get entangled on the roads: because Gen. Sigel starts late, his wagons get snarled with Gen. McDowell’s troops. Pope, with his army spread out from Centreville to Bristoe Station to Haymarket, decides to concentrate his forces, since he is still very doubtful as to where the Rebels exactly are. Earlier in the morning, there is skirmishing between Jackson’s men and Yankees from John Reynolds’ division, but it never develops into a real fight, and so Reynolds marches on. Meanwhile, Stonewall Jackson holds his Rebels concealed within the railroad cut, waiting for some Yankees to blunder by.
9. Thursday, August 28, 1862: Battle of Groveton, Virginia.
[blueandgraytrail.com/year/186208]
10. Thursday, August 28, 1862: Battle of Brawner's Farm, Virginia. Stonewall Jackson [CS] engages Rufus King [US] near Manassas after eluding John Pope [US]. Richard Ewell
[blueandgraytrail.com/year/186208]
11. Thursday, August 28, 1862: Robert E. Lee and James Longstreet arrive at Manassas from the peninsula.
[blueandgraytrail.com/year/186208]
12. Thursday, August 28, 1862: Western theater: Skirmish near Corinth, Mississippi.
[bjdeming.com/2012/10/12/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-27-to-september-2-1862]
13. Thursday, August 28, 1862: Confederate Heartland Offensive: CS General Bragg and his almost 28,000-man army head north to unite with General Kirby Smith’s 12,000 troops. Bragg has realized that Smith has changed their agreement – instead of taking Cumberland Gap as he was supposed to, Smith has placed it under guard and continued on toward Richmond, Kentucky. The battleground, then, is going to be in Kentucky, not Tennessee, but Bragg has been assured many Kentuckians will rally to the cause once the Confederate armies arrive to liberate them. By this time, many units of the US Army of the Ohio are in motion, while General Buell himself, 50 miles from Chattanooga by now, turns north, both to pursue Bragg and also to pick up reinforcements at the Union base at Louisville, on the Ohio River. (18 – note: the exact dates here aren’t clear.)
[bjdeming.com/2012/10/12/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-27-to-september-2-1862/]
14. Friday, August 28, 1863: “Fighting occurred at Hartwood Church, Virginia; the Narrows near Shellmound, Tennessee; and at Jacksborough, Tennessee.”
[bjdeming.com/2013/08/26/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-26-september-2-1863/]
15. Friday, August 28, 1863: A letter co-authored by H.R. Donnell, Speaker of the House in the North Carolina legislature, and F.B. Satterthwaite, president of the Governor’s Council in that state---and with the approval of Gov. Vance---identifies and condemns the apparently false pretenses by which the “fire-eaters” and Secessionists used to bring the Southern states into rebellion. This letter concludes that a peace based on mutual separation is no longer possible, due to recent reverses, and advocates a convention of the various Southern states in order to seek out any honorable peace: “So far from the wars ending in six months, as they said it would, should it ensue, it has already lasted more than two years, and if their policy is to be pursued, it will last more than two years longer; and notwithstanding their predictions, the Yankees have fought on many occasions with a spirit and determination worthy of their ancestors of the revolution. . . .
England and France have not recognized us–have not raised the blockade–have not shown us any sympathy, nor is there any probability that they ever will–and that cotton is not the king is now universally acknowledged. And Maryland has not joined the confederacy, nor has Kentucky or Missouri ever really been with us. Slavery has not only not been perpetuated in the states, nor extended into the territories, but Missouri has passed an act of emancipation, and Maryland is ready to do so rather than give up her place in the Union, and the best hope of obtaining one foot of the territories for the purpose of extending slavery has departed from the confederacy forever.
. . . So far, the Yankees have never failed to hold every place of importance which they have taken, and present indications are that Charleston will soon be added to the number. The campaign of Gen. Lee into Pennsylvania has undoubtedly proved a failure, and with it the last hope of conquering a peace by a successful invasion of the enemy’s country. Our army has certainly been very much weakened and dispirited y this failure and the fall of Vicksburg, and how long even Richmond will be safe, no one can tell. As the Richmond Enquirer said some time ago, ‘They are slowly but surely gaining upon us, acre by acre, mile by mile,’ and unless Providence interposes in our behalf–of which I see no indications–we will, at no great distance of time, be a subjugated people.”
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+28%2C+1863]
16. Friday, August 28, 1863: Sergeant Downing, of the 11th Iowa, adds in his journal of the expedition to Monroe, Louisiana, and how the Rebels did not put up a fight---and the comical results of a “foraging” expedition: “Friday, 28th—We had company inspection this morning and then started out for Monroe, expecting to have a little fight in taking the town. But upon reaching the place we found that the rebels had withdrawn, leaving at 6 o’clock in the morning. . . . Monroe is a nice town, well situated, and has some fine buildings. Strict orders had been given us not to kill any livestock on this expedition; all persons caught in the act were to be arrested. But some of the boys of our regiment had killed a hog and were in the act of cutting it up when the general of our division came riding along with his staff. The boys were caught in the very act. General Stephenson halted, and wanting to know by what authority they had killed the hog, he was going to have them arrested on the spot. But they had one fellow equal to the occasion, who explained that they had killed a wild hog. They were out in the timber getting wood with which to build fires, when some wild hogs there made a charge upon them, and in self-defense they had killed the boldest one; they then thought that as they had killed it they might as well bring it in and have some fresh pork. The general rode on.”
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+28%2C+1863]
17. Friday, August 28, 1863: “No major battles occurred on this day, but that, as usual, did not mean that cleanup was not still going on from the last one, nor preparations for the next. Confederate Naval Lt. George W. Gift paid a visit to the shipyard above Mobile Bay, Alabama, to observe the progress in construction of the two vessels Tennessee and Nashville. The Tennessee was nice enough, but Gift was in awe of the immense Nashville. ‘She is tremendous!’ he wrote. ‘The wardroom…is six staterooms and a pantry long, and about as broad between the rooms as the whole Chattahoochee. Her engines are tremendous, and it requires all her width, fifty feet, to place her boilers. The Tennessee is insignificant alongside her.'”
[bjdeming.com/2013/08/26/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-26-september-2-1863/]
18. Sunday, August 28, 1864: Shenandoah Valley operations: Battle of Smithfield Crossing continues.
[bjdeming.com/2014/08/25/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-25-31-1864/]
19. Sunday, August 28, 1864: Georgia operations, Siege of Atlanta: Per Sherman: “On the 28th (making a general left-wheel, pivoting on Schofield) both Thomas and Howard reached the West Point Railroad, extending from East Point to Red-Oak Station and Fairburn.”
[bjdeming.com/2014/08/25/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-25-31-1864/]
20. Sunday, August 28, 1864: Fighting continues around Holly Springs, Mississippi, Leestown and Smithfield in West Virginia, Fayetteville, Arkansas, and Polk County, Missouri.
[site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/1864/week-177]
21. Sunday, August 28, 1864: Almost 60,000 Union troops are moving south, west of Atlanta to Jonesboro, Georgia, trying to outflank John Bell Hood and cut the Macon and Western Railroad
[blueandgraytrail.com/year/186408]
22. Sunday, August 28, 1864: Their Projected Campaign Is a Failure’ – Grant and Sheridan Underestimate Early.
General Grant was optimistic. Though the action around the Weldon Railroad south of Petersburg had been little more than a complete debacle, there might, he thought, be some good to come out of it. Late on August 26th, he wrote to Philip Sheridan to relay the good news.
“Telegraphed you that I had good reason for believing that Fitz Lee had been ordered back here. I now think it likely that all troops will be ordered back from the valley except what they believe to be the minimum number to detain you. My reason for supposing this is based upon the fact that yielding up the Weldon road seems to be a blow to the enemy he cannot stand.”
To his commander in the Shenandoah Valley, he figured that the Rebels had suffered as many as 10,000 casualties over the past two weeks. It was true, the Confederates had lost a number of troops, but General Lee wasn’t so ready to give up the Valley.
He was more than happy to hear about how Jubal Early forced the Yankees back toward Harpers Ferry, but kept a realistic outlook. “It will,” wrote Lee, “have little or no effect upon Grant’s operations, or prevent re-enforcements being sent to him.”
Early was proud of his accomplishments, but the sheer size of Sheridan’s force, now sprawling to the number of 30,000, dwarfed his own, dwindled to perhaps 10,000. The original plan had been for Early to once more cross the Potomac. However, Lee reasoned that “if Sheridan’s force is as large as you suppose, I do not know that you could operate to advantage north of the Potomac.”
General Lee was still not opposed to taking risks, and suggested that Early divide his force to send a division under Richard Anderson to destroy the railroad near Charlestown. Though the battles around the Weldon Railroad might not have caused Lee to recall some of Early’s troops as Grant nearly promised, it did cause him not to send any additional troops to Early.
Lee would not order Anderson’s division back to Richmond, but added in closing that he was “in great need of his troops, and if they can be spared from the Valley, or cannot operate to advantage there,” he would order them back.
The next day, August 27th, Early backed off. He had held close to Sheridan’s lines, but after a few friction points too many, he decided some distance might be necessary. And so he returned to Bunker Hill, north of Winchester, while Anderson marched his command to Brucetown, just northeast of the same.
Sheridan took Grant’s message to heart and when he witnessed the Confederate pull back, he thought it a retreat. “The indications are that they will fall back perhaps out of the Valley,” wrote Sheridan to one of his cavalry commanders on the night of the 27th. He surmized “that their projected campaign is a failure.” Less than a half hour later, he was convinced that the Rebels were indeed leaving the Valley.
The next day (this date), Union cavalry under Wesley Merritt dogged the Confederate cavalry, quickly backing toward Leetown. There they clashed, and the Confederates were thrown back toward Smithville in disarray. But in Smithville waited Fitz Lee and the rest of the Southern troopers. After an exchange of artillery, Merritt sent forward George Armstong Custer and slowly Fitz Lee’s Rebels faded back toward Bunker Hill. Merritt’s forces, however, stayed on the eastern banks of Opequan Creek, not daring to cross in pursuit.
The next day, and for the next several, Sheridan would learn that the Rebels were not in the process of leaving the Valley. Early had no such stuff in his thoughts. For the next, there would be the ebbing and flowing, the give and take, now so common in this theater. But never again would Early drive so far north.
[civilwardailygazette.com/their-projected-campaign-is-a-failure-grant-and-sheridan-underestimate-early/]
A Wednesday, August 28, 1861: The Union lands troops under fire at Cape Hatteras, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Confederate batteries fail to prevent a takeover of the area and the Confederates abandon Fort Clark without a fight, falling back to Fort Hatteras. Control of Hatteras Inlet enables the Union to crush blockade runners.
[site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-a/part-twenty-1]
A+ Wednesday, August 28, 1861: Battle of Hatteras Inlet: Naval guns’ batter both forts and Ft. Clark is abandoned. Fort Hatteras surrenders later, leaving the Hatteras Inlet in Federal possession. Now, the U.S. Navy has open access to the vastness of Pamlico Sound, the vast inland waters that in turn give access to nearly all of the North Carolina coast. North Carolina, with the exception of the port of Wilmington, is effectively closed off to blockade-running commerce, and is vulnerable to more Union amphibious assaults on forts and towns that are on the Sound. This Northern victory cheers the Northern populace after the disastrous defeats on land in the summer weeks preceding this one. In the following weeks, Ocracoke Inlet and the rest of NC's inlets fall to Federal forces.
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+28%2C+1861]
B Thursday, August 28, 1862: The battle of Manassas/Second Manassas begins. It’s sometimes called the Battle of Groveton, while the Confederate Stonewall Brigade meets the Union Iron Brigade at Brawner’s Farm.
[bjdeming.com/2012/10/12/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-27-to-september-2-1862/]
B+ Thursday, August 28, 1862: The Battle of Groveton (Brawner’s Farm). The Warrenton Turnpike, which runs from Gainesville to Centreville, right across Jackson’s front, has become a major avenue for the rapid movement of Union troops the last two days. Jackson is hoping that some Federals will blunder by in a vulnerable way–and some do oblige him, before too long. Crossing his front, Federal troops encounter a few Rebel pickets. After skirmishers exchange some fire, aroun 6:30 P.M., Jackson’s men come out of their railroad cut, and pounce on Gen. Rufus King’s division, commanded by Hatch, as it goes marching by on its way to Centreville. King’s division consists of the brigades of John Hatch, Abner Doubleday, John Gibbon, and Marsena Patrick. Gen. Gibbon unlimbers a battery of artillery and begins sparring with Jackson’s artillery, once the Federals figure out where it is coming from. Hatch’s brigade has already gone on, and does not deploy; Patrick’s forms up in the left rear, and so only Gibbon and Doubleday form their brigades. (It is not clear why neither Patrick nor Hatch participate in the fight.) The Federal column halts and begins to deploy into line in the woods parallel with the highway, with Gibbon sending the 2nd Wisconsin forward to chase off what he assumed was some of the Rebel horse artillery. As the 430 Wisconsin men deploy skirmishers, they drive the Rebel skirmishers back, until the famous Stonewall Brigade attacks the Wisconsin right flank. One by one, regiments are fed into the fray by both sides. Gibbon’s 2nd, 6th, and 7th Wisconsin, with the 19th Indiana, earn the sobriquet The Iron Brigade on this day, when both sides stand up and blast away at each other for several hours, until long after dark. Doubleday moves up two regiments to support Gibbon. Jackson eventually has 6,200 men in line against the 2,800 Federals. Finally, Jackson sends up some Georgia regiments to support the Stonewall Brigade, but mistaking the Stonewalls for Yankees in the dark, the Georgians pour volley after volley into their ranks, killing and wounding many of their own comrades. In the confusion of this tragedy, Gibbon and Doubleday withdraw their troops without further incident. The casualties are appalling: The Federals lose 1,100 out of 2,800, and the Rebels suffer over 1,200 casualties, with the Stonewall Brigade incurring over 40% losses. Two Georgia regiments receive over 70% losses. A number of senior Rebel officers are wounded or killed. Gen. Ewell and Gen. Taliaferro (pronounced Tolliver, believe it or not) are both wounded, and Ewell loses his leg to amputation. Taliferro writes of the battle: "In this fight there was no maneuvering and very little tactics. It was a question of endurance and both endured." Stalemate.
This battle makes a fitting prelude to tomorrow’s battle at Bull Run—a monument of confusion and mismanagement.
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+28%2C+1862]
C Friday, August 28, 1863: Chattanooga Campaign: Gen. Rosecrans and the Army of the Cumberland (U.S.) have nearly completed bridges across the Tennessee River at three locations in northeastern Alabama, downstream from the city of Chattanooga.
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+28%2C+1863]
C+ Friday, August 28, 1863: Union Forces Prepare to Span the Tennessee River. The Union Army of the Cumberland stood still, folded into the heavy fog rising thick from the Tennessee River, which separated them from Braxton Bragg’s Confederates in and around Chattanooga. Upon their arrival, nearly two weeks past, they discovered that the crossings, especially the railroad trestle at Bridgeport, thirty-five miles downstream from their objective, were destroyed. To properly repair the bridge, two months would be required. General William Rosecrans, leading the Federal forces attempting to cross, did not have that kind of time.
All felt that once the Union army crossed the river, Bragg’s Army of Tennessee, its morale suspected to be low, would partially disintegrate. But crossing was the dilemma. The river had carved a deep and narrow gorge through the winding landscape. Simply throwing a pontoon bridge across as they might do in Virginia, was an impossibility. Fords were few, and ferries took their place.
At first, Rosecrans was hesitant to cross at all. By sending a third of his forces upriver from Chattanooga, and keeping the rest hidden behind impenetrable mountains downriver, Rosecrans successfully convinced Bragg of his plan to cross well below the city. For a time, he suspected that his ruse had failed, that Rebel forces were still tucked away behind the mountains south of Chattanooga. Following a quick expedition, however, he was satisfied that his trickery was effective, or at least Bragg did not suspect him.
With the way clear of enemy, but not clear of mountains, bad roads or the river, work began immediately. The mountains were scaled, the bad road repaired, and the crossings selected. It fell upon the two corps and six division commanders to figure it out for themselves. They were not left and abandoned by Rosecrans, of course. The bridge laying was highly specific to the each of the three crossings themselves required men on the ground to command them.
The lowermost crossing at Caperton’s Ferry, fifteen miles below Bridgeport, was handled by General Jefferson C. Davis, a division commander in John McCook’s XX Corps. There, three divisions would cross. Davis’ task of spanning the river was the quickest and simplest, as they had pontoon boats. For the other two crossings, the same could not be said.
At what became known as the “middle crossing,” General Phillip Sheridan, also of McCook’s Corps, had to figure out what to do with the partially burned out railroad trestle. This, he left to General William Lytle, one of his brigade commanders. Lytle was more than fit for the work. The use of pontoons was out of the question. There were too few to span the river, and, as Lytle began, they had not yet arrived. Since the trestle was only partially destroyed, Lytle, along with his team of engineers, decided to temporarily patch it. He dispatched teams of ax-wielding soldiers into the forests to hew down as many trees as they could. Meanwhile, other companies were dispatched into the towns to tear apart barns and houses, securing their planks.
Their work was admirable, and though they were surprisingly quick at their task. There was no way they could have fixed the bridge completely, but they spanned the river far enough that when the too-few pontoons arrived, they could be easily laid and work complete.
The upper crossing, overseen by General Joseph Reynolds of George Thomas’ XIV Corps, had it only slightly easier. For him, there were no pontoons, nor was there a partially-standing trestle. Luck, however, was on his side. Soon after arriving on the banks of the Tennessee, he sent a small number of his men across to secure railroad town of Shellmound. There, they found at least eight flatboats. These would be perfect makeshift replacement pontoons. His fellow division commander, John Brannon, was not so fortunate. His men were reduced to foraging for cast off lumber or chopping down trees to complete their portion of the bridge.But however it was accomplished – by skill, by luck, or by toil – by this date, the Federal bridges were so near to completion, that the following day (the 29th), Rosecrans would begin to cross. Apart from a volley fired by Confederate pickets before they scurried away, all of the crossings, which would last for several days, were uneventful (and thus fairly dull in recollection).
Jefferson C. Davis’ Division would be the first to cross, using their pontoons at Capterton’s Ferry. General Absalom Baird’s Division would be last, delayed until September 4th, by a small collapse of Lytle’s makeshift trestle.
[civilwardailygazette.com/union-forces-prepare-to-span-the-tennessee-river/]
D Sunday, August 28, 1864: General William Tecumseh Sherman (US) further tightens his grip on Atlanta by destroying ten miles of the West Point Road that led from Atlanta to the Alabama state line. Almost 60,000 Union troops are moving south, west of Atlanta to Jonesboro, Georgia, trying to outflank John Bell Hood and cut the Macon and Western Railroad.
[site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/1864/week-177]
FYI GySgt Jack Wallace SFC Ralph E Kelley MAJ (Join to see) MAJ (Join to see) CWO4 Terrence Clark SMSgt Lawrence McCarter SFC Bernard Walko SFC Stephen King SSG Franklin Briant SSG Byron Howard Sr CPL Ronald Keyes Jr SrA Ronald MooreSFC William Farrell SPC Lyle MontgomerySPC Woody Bullard
ACW: Battle of Second Manassas - “Brawl at Brawner Farm” - Part 1/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aqIC2Gvnv4
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LTC Stephen F. good afternoon, I am out of votes, however I am going with:
1864: Maj Gen William Tecumseh Sherman further tightened his grip on Atlanta by destroying ten miles of the West Point Road that led from Atlanta to the Alabama state line. Almost 60,000 Union troops were moving south, west of Atlanta to Jonesboro, Georg
IMHO it had a psychological effect on the war and everyone in it, wow tremendously and strategically of importance to the supply system
1864: Maj Gen William Tecumseh Sherman further tightened his grip on Atlanta by destroying ten miles of the West Point Road that led from Atlanta to the Alabama state line. Almost 60,000 Union troops were moving south, west of Atlanta to Jonesboro, Georg
IMHO it had a psychological effect on the war and everyone in it, wow tremendously and strategically of importance to the supply system
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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 yo consider the August 28, 1864 "Maj Gen William Tecumseh Sherman further tightened his grip on Atlanta by destroying ten miles of the West Point Road that led from Atlanta to the Alabama state line. Almost 60,000 Union troops were moving south, west of Atlanta to Jonesboro, Georgia' to be thne most significant event on August 28 uring the US Civil War.
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