What was the most significant event on August 7 during the U.S. Civil War?

In the heat of summer and the cold of winter chance encounters, ambushes, raids and skirmishes occurred throughout the southern and western states. Frequently the encounters were between confederates and federal soldiers while sometimes the combat was with Indian warriors, bushwhackers or general criminals.
When was engulfs a region the criminals and thugs come out and take revenge, extract extortion, rape, murder and pillage until they are killed or brought to justice.
OPSEC and punishment for infractions spelled out in an 1863 General Order outside Charleston, SC “The practice of giving information to their friends or to the public press, on matters connected with military operations in progress or in contemplation, so unscrupulously indulged in by officers, citizens, and soldiers in this department, and by employes on transports, is fraught with incalculable evil to our cause, and must be stopped at once. No information which could in any way benefit the enemy must be divulged, directly or indirectly.
Upon the following subjects in particular, the strictest silence must be observed, viz:
First. The names of division, brigade, or post commanders.
Second. The strength of regiments, brigades, or divisions, except after engagements have taken place.
Third. The number and position of regiments, brigades, divisions, batteries, or pieces of artillery.
Fourth. Allusions to the kind or quantity of arms, cannon, or ammunition.
Fifth. The number of transports or kind of supplies transported in any movement.
Sixth. The description of any movement or any allusions to its object until the same shall have been accomplished or defeated.
Seventh. Suggestions of future movements or attacks.
Eight. Any allusions whatever to scouts or reconnaissances, whether accomplished or yet in prospect.
Ninth. The position or location of camps, batteries, pickets, military roads or outposts.
Tenth. The publication of official reports of operations without special permission from the department commander.
Eleventh. Violations of this order will be met with the severest punishment known to military law and usage in the field.
By order of Brigadier General Q. A. Gillmore: ED. W. SMITH, Assistant Adjutant-General.”

Below are a number of journal entries from 1862 and 1863 which shed light on what life was like for soldiers and civilians – the good, the bad and the ugly
Thursday, August 7, 1862: A Union officer names Charles Wright Wills, now of the 8th Illinois Infantry, writes in his journal from Tuscumbia, Alabama, where his regiment is bivouacked, and tells of the activity of Rebel raiders trying to destroy the rail lines which the Federals now use for supply, as well as his feelings about slavery and the War and how it is prosecuted—and a few prophetic remarks about General Pope’s arrogance: “This has been the hottest day of the summer, and I’ve been in the sun all day with thick woolen clothes on, wool shirts, too. I started for Decatur about 7 this morning and got back at 5 p.m. All platform cars, no possible chance for shade. I rode on the cowcather going out, and on the tender, which was ahead, coming back. We got within ten miles of Decatur when we came to two bridges burned last night, and had to come back. There is not a bridge or culvert on this road as far as our brigade guards it, that has not been burned, at least once, and many of the cattle guards even have been burned. They don’t fire on the trains though in this country, which is some little consolation to the traveler. Since we have been guarding the road, some two weeks, they have burned in our district four bridges, one water tank, and two station houses, and torn up rails several times. All this work is done in the night. . . . The negroes are under no restraint whatever, now. Don’t half work, their masters say, About 40 negro women who were clearing a piece of woodland dropped their axes and picks and came out to the road as the train passed. They were by odds the most antic and amusing lot of slaves I have yet seen. . . . I have seen but two negroes yet that have marks of severe punishment. They were man and wife, and belong to a planter living 12 miles from here. The man I think is made a cripple for life from blows by a club on his ankles and knees, the woman is badly cut on the arms and shoulders, as with a horsewhip, but she’s all right yet. How a man can be fool enough to so abuse such valuable property as this is more than I can understand. . . . Colonel Kellogg seems to think that I will be mustered out in a short time. I’ll promise you one thing, that if I am, I’ll not enlist again until the policy of this war changes, and in actions as well as words, too. J. Pope is disgusting me with him very rapidly. John is a horrid blower of his own horn. If he don’t astonish this country, after all of his blowing, the country will astonish him to his entire dissatisfaction before he’s many months older. Oh! if Grant will only go to work and get somebody whipped, or if he’d retreat, that would be better than doing nothing, though not as good as advancing.”
Thursday, August 7, 1862: Sarah Morgan gets news of the already-decided Battle of Baton Rouge a day late, and mourns the loss of the town to the Yankees again: “Evening. I am so disheartened! I have been listening with the others to a man who was telling us about Baton Rouge, until I am heartsick. He says the Yankees have been largely reinforced, and are prepared for another attack which will probably take place to morrow; that the fight was a dreadful one, we driving them in, and losing twelve hundred, to their fifteen hundred. It must have been awful! And that our troops have resolved to burn the town down, since they cannot hold it under the fire of the gunboats.”
Thursday, August 7, 1862: George Templeton Strong of New York City writes in his journal about McClellans’ fading star: “McClellan’s great name is growing very obscure, I regret to say, and we generally doubt whether he is a genuine congener of Napoleon after all. As we deified him without reason, I suppose we are free to reduce his rank whenever we like. Prevailing color of people’s talk is blue. What’s very bad, we beging to lose faith in Uncle Abe.”
Strong continues: “We gradually come round to a better opinion of McClellan’s movements during the memorable battle week; incline to believe his march on the James River a most delicate and critical operation, successfully executed under the most disadvantageous conditions, winding up with demoralizing repulse and slaughter of the rebels at Malvern Hill.”
Friday, August 7, 1863: John C. West, an infantryman in the 5th Texas Infantry Regiment, writes home to his wife, but here after Gettysburg, there is a distinctly dark and stoic note in his writing that contrasts with his usual cheery tone from before: “You must not be uneasy about me when you do not hear from me. I have received but one letter from you since I left home, yet I am satisfied that all is well, and, strange to say, I have no desire to return home while the war lasts. I believe this disposition has been especially vouchsafed me in order that I may be fully prepared for all the hardships that befall me. Since the fall of Vicksburg I have not had much hope of hearing from you, though, to our suprise, yesterday, Coella and Macon Mullens received letters of the 5th and 6th of July. This has encouraged me to hope for one from you. I have written you a great many letters from different points. You must not be uneasy if you hear of me being destitute or in need of anything. A soldier can not carry enough with him on a march to make him comfortable. Another hope and desire you must give up; it is almost impracticable and hopeless to attempt to recover the body of a private soldier killed in battle, so don’t think about this; I can rest one place as well as another. All the Waco boys are writing to-day, as notice has been given that a Mr. Parsons will take them to Texas. Do all you can to keep your mind employed and your face in smiles. All will yet be well for us. Pray for me, and if I am taken from you, it will be all right. I trust in God. Kisses for the children.
Your husband, faithfully ever, John C. West.”
Friday, August 7, 1863: Kate Cummings, Confederate army volunteer nurse, writes in her journal concerning her latest trials with the obstinacy of the supervising physician on her hospital, and her insistence on beingn treated with respect: “August 7.—I intend leaving to-day for Chattanooga. This morning I sent for Dr. A., and told him that it was impossible for us to get along without more servants; and I told him further that I knew of some who could be hired, and asked his consent; but he would not give it. So I then told him that Mrs. W. and myself would leave. At this he became quite angry, and said he could not compel us to remain, but since he had hired us ladies, he would pay us for the time we had been there. The latter part he said with emphasis, and then left me. Had he remained longer, I should have informed him that when we “hired” ourselves, we were not aware it was to him, but to the same government which had “hired” him.
I am beginning to think that we were spoiled in the Newsom Hospital; but I should hope that there are not many surgeons in the department such as Dr. A. If there are, it is not much wonder that so few ladies of refinement enter them.
I ask but one thing from any surgeon, and that is, to be treated with the same respect due to men in their own sphere of life. I waive all claim for that due me as a lady, but think I have a right to expect the other. I scarcely think that Dr. A. would dared to have spoken to one of his assistant surgeons as he did to me.”

Pictures: 1864-08 Siege of Atlanta, Thure de Thulstrup; 1864 Drawings General Sherman's campaign - from sketches by Theodore R. Davis; 1863-08-07 Siege of Charleston Map; 1864-08-07 Notable Generals at Battle of Moorefield


A. Thursday, August 7, 1862: near Decatur, Alabama a Confederate force was near Moseley's Plantation, when they spotted a train nearby. The plantation was located about 2.5 miles from Decatur. The Confederates attacked the train when it approached their position and quickly captured it. The train was a convalescent train headed to the Union lines. After stealing all valuables and equipment, the Confederates then left.
B. Thursday, August 7, 1862: near Fort Fillmore, New Mexico a Union force, commanded by Brig. Gen. E.R.S. Canby, encountered a Confederate force near Fort Fillmore. They attacked and defeated the Confederates, who were in the process of retreating from Santa Fe.
C. Sunday, August 7, 1864: Cavalry Battle of Moorefield, WV. While returning to the Shenandoah Valley after burning Chambersburg, Brig. Gen. John McCausland’s and Johnson’s cavalry were surprised at Moorefield on August 7 and routed by Brig. Gen. William W. Averell’s pursuing Union cavalry. This defeat impeded the morale and effectiveness of the Confederate cavalry for the remainder of the 1864 Valley Campaign.
Battle: Brig. Gen. William W. Averell led Union troops to a victory over Brig. Gen. John McCausland and his Confederate troops in Hardy County, West Virginia.
At approximately 3 a.m. the Union vanguard led by Capt. Thomas Kerr encountered and captured the first Confederate pickets north of Moorefield. After the pickets were sent to the rear, Averell rode up and prepared for his attack, placing Maj. Thomas Gibson in the center along the Moorefield road. Two columns under Col. William Powell formed on the flanks of Gibson. Kerr again lead the vanguard. With his line formed Averell ordered the attack. Gibson's column immediately smashed into the Bradley Johnson camp. Most of Johnson's men were asleep and woke up only in time to be taken prisoner or rush off in full retreat. The commotion of Johnson's retreating men was enough to awake the men in McCausland's camp on the other side of the river who were able to form a line and meet Gibson's advance at the river. Averell had planned to meet resistance at the river and thus sent his two flanking columns to cross up and down stream respectively of Gibson's crossing. The two columns soon crossed and poured into the flank of the hastily formed Confederate line causing it to break into retreat. The Federal advance then pushed on encountering Brig. Gen. William Jackson's horse cavalry on the Winchester pike east of town. Jackson tried to bring his guns up to fire on the Federals, but because the retreating Confederates were so interspersed among them he could not get a shot off before they were overrun and captured.
D. Sunday, August 7, 1864: Atlanta campaign: Battle of Utoy Creek ends. Sherman resumes siege operations against Atlanta.

1. Wednesday, August 7, 1861: Hampton, Virginia - The village of Hampton, Virginia, near Fort Monroe, was burned by Confederate forces under Brig. Gen. John B. Magruder in operations against Brig. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler's Union forces. Magruder said he had learned that Butler had intended to use the town for what he called "runaway slaves" and what Butler called "contraband."
Butler claimed that the few town residents remaining were given 15 minutes to leave and that it was a "wanton act."
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1861s.html
2. Wednesday, August 7, 1861: John Bankhead Magruder burns the village of Hampton, near Fort Monroe, Virginia. General Benjamin Butler had been planning to use it to house "contraband." (Butler's word for slaves)
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186108
3. Wednesday, August 7, 1861: Gideon J. Pillow wrote to his superior, Leonidas K. Polk, to complain about the size of his force and its placement for the defense of New Madrid, Missouri. HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF LIBERATION, New Madrid, Mo., August 7, 1861. “Major-General POLK: I received a dispatch at 3 o'clock this morning. General Hardee is at Greenville. Thompson was ordered back to be within supporting s distance of my position, but I doubt if he will return. If the enemy should send down a large force against me I must fight it in the open field, and if surrounded, which can easily be done, you will perceive that my whole force will be in great danger.
If you hold this place, it is certain the enemy can get no lower down the river. If this force should not be able to hold its position, there is no reason for keeping it here when its power for defense would be more than doubled elsewhere. If not supported by a force adequate to the work and the exposed position nor withdrawn, I shall have no alternative left me but to abandon this place and go into the interior, where the force will be less exposed. Your course leaves me no other alternative.
My duty to the troops under my command requires me to adopt all possible expedients to avoid its sacrifice, and in my present position I see no other. If you cannot supply additional force and if you are apprehensive of an attempt to descend the river, why not place this force where its power would make the works at Forts Pillow and Randolph impregnable? I am satisfied the enemy will not attempt a descent so low down as these works without large force, but he will certainly have a force in hand in a very short time to attack this place, and with my small force will crush me and take the work, and then, if he should go on down, with the small force left to defend the works at Pillow and Randolph, I see no reason why he could not take them also, but if there were troops enough here to protect this place he could not go below. If, however, this force should be cut up, and your whole force thus taken in detail, he will make a success of what otherwise could be successfully resisted. Before I agreed to come on this duty you assured me I should have the supportof Hardees and Thompson's forces, and you said you would give me a carte blanche. In all these assurances I am disappointed. It is painful to be under the necessity of thus complaining, but I am left without support, in an exposed condition, and with an inadequate supporting force, and though I have in three several dispatches explained everything to you, you fail to support me and place your disposable force below here, though you are fully advised of the danger of the position of this force, and you must know that if I am sacrificed here the forces below will also be sacrificed and the works all taken, whereas if this force was sustained or withdrawn to the strong position below, the country below would be safe.
I know what I have to do and am fully prepared to make any personal sacrifice, but I owe it to my command to avoid, if possible, so great a disaster to the country as their sacrifice would be. Controlled by these circumstances, my convictions of duty compel me to inform you that, unless assured of support, I shall take my whole force, abandon this place, and strike into the interior as the only course left. If the result should prove disastrous to my command or the country below, the responsibility will not rest on me.
I am, general, with respect, GID. J. PILLOW, General, Commanding.”
In the years since the American Civil War the mythology of the war has credited the South with having better generals than it actually did. Much of this legend is built upon the victories won by Robert E. Lee in Virginia in 1862 and 1863. The reality is that the South had as many bad generals as the North did, maybe more--and unlike the North, the South had no margin for error. Of all the bad generals the South had, one of the very worst was Gideon J. Pillow.
Pillow had served in the Mexican War under Winfield Scott, and had tried to claim credit for some of Scott's victories. Scott's verdict on Pillow was scathing. According to Scott, Pillow was "amiable and possessed of some acuteness, but the only person I have ever known who was wholly indifferent in the choice between truth and falsehood, honesty and dishonesty:—ever as ready to attain an end by the one as the other, and habitually boastful of acts of cleverness at the total sacrifice of moral character." The South would pay dearly for making Gideon J. Pillow a general.
http://www.civilwar-online.com/search?q=August+7%2C+1861
4. Thursday, August 7, 1862: A Union officer names Charles Wright Wills, now of the 8th Illinois Infantry, writes in his journal from Tuscumbia, Alabama, where his regiment is bivouacked, and tells of the activity of Rebel raiders trying to destroy the rail lines which the Federals now use for supply, as well as his feelings about slavery and the War and how it is prosecuted—and a few prophetic remarks about General Pope’s arrogance: “This has been the hottest day of the summer, and I’ve been in the sun all day with thick woolen clothes on, wool shirts, too. I started for Decatur about 7 this morning and got back at 5 p.m. All platform cars, no possible chance for shade. I rode on the cowcather going out, and on the tender, which was ahead, coming back. We got within ten miles of Decatur when we came to two bridges burned last night, and had to come back. There is not a bridge or culvert on this road as far as our brigade guards it, that has not been burned, at least once, and many of the cattle guards even have been burned. They don’t fire on the trains though in this country, which is some little consolation to the traveler. Since we have been guarding the road, some two weeks, they have burned in our district four bridges, one water tank, and two station houses, and torn up rails several times. All this work is done in the night. . . . The negroes are under no restraint whatever, now. Don’t half work, their masters say, About 40 negro women who were clearing a piece of woodland dropped their axes and picks and came out to the road as the train passed. They were by odds the most antic and amusing lot of slaves I have yet seen. . . . I have seen but two negroes yet that have marks of severe punishment. They were man and wife, and belong to a planter living 12 miles from here. The man I think is made a cripple for life from blows by a club on his ankles and knees, the woman is badly cut on the arms and shoulders, as with a horsewhip, but she’s all right yet. How a man can be fool enough to so abuse such valuable property as this is more than I can understand. . . . Colonel Kellogg seems to think that I will be mustered out in a short time. I’ll promise you one thing, that if I am, I’ll not enlist again until the policy of this war changes, and in actions as well as words, too. J. Pope is disgusting me with him very rapidly. John is a horrid blower of his own horn. If he don’t astonish this country, after all of his blowing, the country will astonish him to his entire dissatisfaction before he’s many months older. Oh! if Grant will only go to work and get somebody whipped, or if he’d retreat, that would be better than doing nothing, though not as good as advancing.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+7%2C+1862
5. Thursday, August 7, 1862: Sarah Morgan gets news of the already-decided Battle of Baton Rouge a day late, and mourns the loss of the town to the Yankees again: “Evening. I am so disheartened! I have been listening with the others to a man who was telling us about Baton Rouge, until I am heartsick. He says the Yankees have been largely reinforced, and are prepared for another attack which will probably take place to morrow; that the fight was a dreadful one, we driving them in, and losing twelve hundred, to their fifteen hundred. It must have been awful! And that our troops have resolved to burn the town down, since they cannot hold it under the fire of the gunboats.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+7%2C+1862
6. Thursday, August 7, 1862: George Templeton Strong of New York City writes in his journal about McClellans’ fading star: “McClellan’s great name is growing very obscure, I regret to say, and we generally doubt whether he is a genuine congener of Napoleon after all. As we deified him without reason, I suppose we are free to reduce his rank whenever we like. Prevailing color of people’s talk is blue. What’s very bad, we beging to lose faith in Uncle Abe.”
Strong continues: “We gradually come round to a better opinion of McClellan’s movements during the memorable battle week; incline to believe his march on the James River a most delicate and critical operation, successfully executed under the most disadvantageous conditions, winding up with demoralizing repulse and slaughter of the rebels at Malvern Hill.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+7%2C+1862
7. Thursday, August 7, 1862 --- Gen. Robert E. Lee, in an attempt to coordinate with Gen. Jackson, gives him instructions on Jackson’s possibilities—and explains why Lee must still keep a close eye on what the Yankees are doing in the Tidewater part of Virginia: “. . . Porter's mortar fleet is in Hampton Roads; his gunboats at City Point and Curl's Neck. I hope to determine to-day what it means, but at present it seems to me too hazardous to diminish the forces here until something more is ascertained. I therefore cannot promise to send you the re-enforcements I intended and still desire. As the expectation of re-enforcements may delay your operations and otherwise embarrass you and prevent your making an advantageous movement, you had better not calculate on them. If I can send them I will; if I cannot, and you think it proper and advantageous, act without them. Being on the spot you must determine what force to operate against. I agree with you in believing that if you advance into Fauquier [County] the force at Fredericksburg, if it be Popes, would in all probability follow; but if it be Burnside's, and Pope in your front is strong enough to resist you, it might operate injuriously on your rear, also to the railroad, your communications, &c. . . . I must now leave the matter to your reflection and good judgment. Make up your mind what is best to be done under all the circumstances which surround us, and let me hear the result at which you arrive. I will inform you if any change takes place here that bears on the subject.
I am, very respectfully, R. E. LEE, General, Commanding.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+7%2C+1862
8. Thursday, August 7, 1862 --- McClellan’s advance has finally occupied Malvern Hill, and skirmishes with Rebel cavalry. Meanwhile, Lee has put his troops on the road toward Malvern Hill. They camp on the night of the 6th, and this morning, as they advance toward Malvern Hill to push back the Yankee incursion, they find Malvern Hill empty. McClellan has pulled the Federal troops back.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+7%2C+1862
9. Thursday, August 7, 1862 --- Gen. Stonewall Jackson orders his three divisions (Winder, A.P. Hill, and Ewell) to break camp and march northward from Gordonsville.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+7%2C+1862
10. Chattanooga Campaign of 1862: US General Buell tells General Halleck he estimates a Confederate force of 90,000 in East Tennessee, roughly twice the strength of his 46,000-man Army of the Ohio, with possibly 60,000 at Chattanooga and in Knoxville. “I shall march on Chattanooga at the earliest possible day,” he telegraphs the US general-in-chief, “unless I ascertain certainly that the enemy’s strength renders it imprudent.”
https://bjdeming.com/2012/09/17/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-6-12-1862/
11. Thursday, August 7, 1862: Malvern Hill: General Hooker manages to withdraw just before the Confederate army arrives. When Lee’s troops reach the hill, it is deserted.
https://bjdeming.com/2012/09/17/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-6-12-1862/
12. Thursday, August 7, 1862: Manassas/Second Manassas Campaign: CS General Jackson, in Gordonsville with a total of 24,000 troops, learns of Pope’s concentration, and with Lee’s concurrence, decides to attack before the entire army reaches Culpeper. Meanwhile, General Pope orders General Banks to move forward to the turnpike crossing at the Hazel River. General McDowell is moving forward with an extra division to Culpeper Court House, so the entire US Army of Virginia, some 28,500 men, is scattered on the turnpike between Sperryville and Culpeper. General King’s division remains at Fredericksburg, while Buford’s cavalry at Madison Court House pickets the Rapidan River from Barnett’s Ford to the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, supported by General Sigel’s infantry brigade and battery. General George D. Bayard, a classmate of Jeb Stuart at West Point, is at Rapidan Station and his cavalry extends Buford’s left to Raccoon Ford, and cavalry pickets along the river extend Bayard’s left to General King.
https://bjdeming.com/2012/09/17/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-6-12-1862/
13. Friday, August 7, 1863: Siege of Charleston Harbor: CS General Beauregard asks his old command in Mobile, Alabama to send him that new submarine they’re working on. This is actually the third such underwater craft that Horace Hunley has developed, and it’s still in testing, but Beauregard needs all the naval assistance he can get for Charleston’s defense. (10) This latest sub was tested in Mobile Bay in July and sank a coal flatboat. The craft now will be loaded onto a rail car headed for South Carolina.
https://bjdeming.com/2013/08/05/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-5-11-1863/
14. Friday, August 7, 1863: US President Lincoln says no after receiving a letter from New York State Governor Horatio Seymour(link is to a PDF file) after the riots in New York City, requesting that the draft be suspended in that state.
https://bjdeming.com/2013/08/05/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-5-11-1863/
15. Thursday, August 7, 1862: Headquarters, New Market, Va., August 7, 1862 – 9 a.m. General Thomas J. Jackson, Commanding Valley District: “General: Your dispatch of yesterday is received. I am here in consequence of the reported advance of McClellan’s army. I have no idea that he will advance on Richmond now, but it may be premonitory to get a new position, reconnoiter, &c. I think it more probable to cover other movements, probably that of Burnside from Fredericksburg, of which I wrote you last night. It was to save you the abundance of hard fighting that I ventured to suggest for your consideration not to attack the enemy’s strong points, but to turn his position at Warrenton, &c., so as to draw him out of them. I would rather you should have easy fighting and heavy victories.
I am, very respectfully, R.E. Lee, General, Commanding
https://bjdeming.com/2012/09/17/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-6-12-1862/
16. Friday, August 7, 1863: John C. West, an infantryman in the 5th Texas Infantry Regiment, writes home to his wife, but here after Gettysburg, there is a distinctly dark and stoic note in his writing that contrasts with his usual cheery tone from before: “You must not be uneasy about me when you do not hear from me. I have received but one letter from you since I left home, yet I am satisfied that all is well, and, strange to say, I have no desire to return home while the war lasts. I believe this disposition has been especially vouchsafed me in order that I may be fully prepared for all the hardships that befall me. Since the fall of Vicksburg I have not had much hope of hearing from you, though, to our suprise, yesterday, Coella and Macon Mullens received letters of the 5th and 6th of July. This has encouraged me to hope for one from you. I have written you a great many letters from different points. You must not be uneasy if you hear of me being destitute or in need of anything. A soldier can not carry enough with him on a march to make him comfortable. Another hope and desire you must give up; it is almost impracticable and hopeless to attempt to recover the body of a private soldier killed in battle, so don’t think about this; I can rest one place as well as another. All the Waco boys are writing to-day, as notice has been given that a Mr. Parsons will take them to Texas. Do all you can to keep your mind employed and your face in smiles. All will yet be well for us. Pray for me, and if I am taken from you, it will be all right. I trust in God. Kisses for the children.
Your husband, faithfully ever, John C. West.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+7%2C+1863
17. Friday, August 7, 1863: Kate Cummings, Confederate army volunteer nurse, writes in her journal concerning her latest trials with the obstinacy of the supervising physician on her hospital, and her insistence on beingn treated with respect: “August 7.—I intend leaving to-day for Chattanooga. This morning I sent for Dr. A., and told him that it was impossible for us to get along without more servants; and I told him further that I knew of some who could be hired, and asked his consent; but he would not give it. So I then told him that Mrs. W. and myself would leave. At this he became quite angry, and said he could not compel us to remain, but since he had hired us ladies, he would pay us for the time we had been there. The latter part he said with emphasis, and then left me. Had he remained longer, I should have informed him that when we “hired” ourselves, we were not aware it was to him, but to the same government which had “hired” him.
I am beginning to think that we were spoiled in the Newsom Hospital; but I should hope that there are not many surgeons in the department such as Dr. A. If there are, it is not much wonder that so few ladies of refinement enter them.
I ask but one thing from any surgeon, and that is, to be treated with the same respect due to men in their own sphere of life. I waive all claim for that due me as a lady, but think I have a right to expect the other. I scarcely think that Dr. A. would dared to have spoken to one of his assistant surgeons as he did to me.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+7%2C+1863
18. Friday, August 7, 1863: Clamping down on leaks on Morris Island. The American Civil War introduced many novel Practices to modern warfare. New technologies like the telegraph, steamships, and mass newspapers had dramatically increased the speed of mass communications. On this day, 150 years ago, the Union army on Morris Island felt the need to clamp down on the flow of information that might aid the enemy.
GENERAL ORDERS, HDQRS. DEPT. OF THE SOUTH, Numbers 66. In the Field, Morris Island, S. C., August 7, 1863.
I. The practice of giving information to their friends or to the public press, on matters connected with military operations in progress or in contemplation, so unscrupulously indulged in by officers, citizens, and soldiers in this department, and by employes on transports, is fraught with incalculable evil to our cause, and must be stopped at once. No information which could in any way benefit the enemy must be divulged, directly or indirectly.
Upon the following subjects in particular, the strictest silence must be observed, viz:
First. The names of division, brigade, or post commanders.
Second. The strength of regiments, brigades, or divisions, except after engagements have taken place.
Third. The number and position of regiments, brigades, divisions, batteries, or pieces of artillery.
Fourth. Allusions to the kind or quantity of arms, cannon, or ammunition.
Fifth. The number of transports or kind of supplies transported in any movement.
Sixth. The description of any movement or any allusions to its object until the same shall have been accomplished or defeated.
Seventh. Suggestions of future movements or attacks.
Eight. Any allusions whatever to scouts or reconnaissances, whether accomplished or yet in prospect.
Ninth. The position or location of camps, batteries, pickets, military roads or outposts.
Tenth. The publication of official reports of operations without special permission from the department commander.
Eleventh. Violations of this order will be met with the severest punishment known to military law and usage in the field.
By order of Brigadier General Q. A. Gillmore: ED. W. SMITH, Assistant Adjutant-General.
http://www.civilwar-online.com/search?q=August+7%2C+1863
19. Sunday, August 7, 1864: Shenandoah Valley operations: “Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan formally received his new command today in Halltown, Va. Officially his new job was called the Middle Military Division. Its territory included West Virginia, Washington D.C., and the Susquehanna Valley. Unofficially, at this point he had only one task in front of him: catch, kill, or at least chase Jubal Early and his force of cavalry out of the area before they caused any further nuisance.”
https://bjdeming.com/2014/08/03/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-4-10-1864/

A Thursday, August 7, 1862: near Decatur, Alabama - On August 7, a Confederate force was near Moseley's Plantation, when they spotted a train nearby. The plantation was located about 2.5 miles from Decatur. The Confederates attacked the train when it approached their position and quickly captured it. The train was a convalescent train headed to the Union lines. After stealing all valuables and equipment, the Confederates then left.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1862s.html
Thursday, August 7, 1862: Wood Springs, Tennessee - On August 7, a Union cavalry force was at Wood Springs, located about 5 miles east of Dryersburg. The spotted a Confederate cavalry force nearby and was able to sneak up on them and attack. The Confederates were caught offguard and routed.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1862s.html
B Thursday, August 7, 1862: near Fort Fillmore, New Mexico - On August 7, a Union force, commanded by Brig. Gen. E.R.S. Canby, encountered a Confederate force near Fort Fillmore. They attacked and defeated the Confederates, who were in the process of retreating from Santa Fe.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1862s.html
C Sunday, August 7, 1864: Battle of Moorefield. Last major engagement in West Virginia during the Civil War.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186408
C Sunday, August 7, 1864: Shenandoah Valley operations: First Battle of Moorefield/Oldfields.
https://bjdeming.com/2014/08/03/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-4-10-1864/
C. Sunday, August 7, 1864: Battle of Moorefield. While returning to the Shenandoah Valley after burning Chambersburg, Brig. Gen. John McCausland’s and Johnson’s cavalry were surprised at Moorefield on August 7 and routed by Brig. Gen. William W. Averell‘s pursuing Union cavalry. This defeat impeded the morale and effectiveness of the Confederate cavalry for the remainder of the 1864 Valley Campaign.
Battle: The Battle of Moorefield was a cavalry battle in the American Civil War, which took place on August 7, 1864, at Moorefield, West Virginia, as part of the Valley Campaigns of 1864. Brig. Gen. William W. Averell led Union troops to a victory over Brig. Gen. John McCausland and his Confederate troops in Hardy County, West Virginia.
At approximately 3 a.m. the Union vanguard led by Capt. Thomas Kerr encountered and captured the first Confederate pickets north of Moorefield. After the pickets were sent to the rear, Averell rode up and prepared for his attack, placing Maj. Thomas Gibson in the center along the Moorefield road. Two columns under Col. William Powell formed on the flanks of Gibson. Kerr again lead the vanguard. With his line formed Averell ordered the attack. Gibson's column immediately smashed into the Bradley Johnson camp. Most of Johnson's men were asleep and woke up only in time to be taken prisoner or rush off in full retreat. The commotion of Johnson's retreating men was enough to awake the men in McCausland's camp on the other side of the river who were able to form a line and meet Gibson's advance at the river. Averell had planned to meet resistance at the river and thus sent his two flanking columns to cross up and down stream respectively of Gibson's crossing. The two columns soon crossed and poured into the flank of the hastily formed Confederate line causing it to break into retreat. The Federal advance then pushed on encountering Brig. Gen. William Jackson's horse cavalry on the Winchester pike east of town. Jackson tried to bring his guns up to fire on the Federals, but because the retreating Confederates were so interspersed among them he could not get a shot off before they were overrun and captured.
http://thomaslegion.net/battleofmoorefield.html
D Sunday, August 7, 1864: Georgia operations, Atlanta campaign: Battle of Utoy Creek ends. Sherman resumes siege operations against Atlanta.
https://bjdeming.com/2014/08/03/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-4-10-1864/
D+ Sunday, August 7, 1864: Atlanta campaign: Sherman to Halleck (in Washington): “Have received to-day the dispatches of the Secretary of War and of General Grant, which are very satisfactory. We keep hammering away all the time, and there is no peace, inside or outside of Atlanta. To-day General Schofield got round the line which was assaulted yesterday by General Reilly’s brigade, turned it and gained the ground where the assault had been made, and got possession of all our dead and wounded. He continued to press on that flank, and brought on a noisy but not a bloody battle. He drove the enemy behind his main breastworks, which cover the railroad from Atlanta to East Point, and captured a good many of the skirmishers, who are of his best troops—for the militia hug the breastworks close. I do not deem it prudent to extend any more to the right, but will push forward daily by parallels, and make the inside of Atlanta too hot to be endured. I have sent back to Chattanooga for two thirty-pound Parrotts, with which we can pick out almost any house in town. I am too impatient for a siege, and don’t know but this is as good a place to fight it out on, as farther inland. One thing is certain, whether we get inside of Atlanta or not, it will be a used-up community when we are done with it.”
https://bjdeming.com/2014/08/03/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-4-10-1864/
D++ On August 4, Sherman decided it was time to move forward and seize the railroad to East Point. He ordered Schofield to advance his Twenty-Third Corps plus Maj. Gen. John M. Palmer's Fourteenth Corps (of Thomas' army) and "not stop until he has absolute control of that railroad." The next day only one Union brigade, Brig. Gen. Absalom Baird's, moved forward and seized an entrenched skirmish line with 140 prisoners, at the cost of 83 killed and wounded. But such was the complete gain for the whole day, a trifle for which Schofield felt compelled to apologize. For the next morning, Schofield ordered part of his corps to attack at Utoy Creek. By the time the Federals advanced, Bate's division had taken position on a ridge west of the main defensive line, south of Sandtown Road. The Confederates were ready. The Rebels had strengthened their works with abates; Union soldiers had heard the felling of trees. Into this entanglement and up the slope the troops of Col. James W. Reilly's brigade charged around 10 a.m. and Bate's division opened with heavy musketry and cannon fire, driving them back. Another Union advance also met with repulse. Altogether Reilly lost 76 killed, 199 wounded and 31 captured, against 15-20 casualties in Bate's command.
Schofield, mindful of Sherman's insistence on finding a way to the railroad, sent a division farther west to flank Bate's line. Late in the afternoon, two Federal brigades charged a battery guarding the Rebels' extreme left and pushed it back at the cost of several hundred casualties. The bluecoats failed to make more headway before nightfall, but the flanking move eventually forced Bate to withdraw his division to the main Confederate line. The next day, August 7, Maj Gen John Schofield sent his infantry forward to probe the enemy position, and found the Southerners "strongly fortified and protected by abatis," too strong for his corps to tackle alone. Even the Fourteenth Corps, now under Brig. Gen. Richard Johnson (Palmer had resigned over rank) finally got into action, incurring nearly 200 casualties in sallies against the Rebel works. Sherman termed the whole day's proceeding "a noisy but not a bloody battle."
From the fighting at Utoy Creek, August 5-7, Sherman pondered two points. First (as if he did not already know it), infantry assaults against obstacles and trenches were futile. He had lost close to a thousand men over the several days, while Confederate casualties, in the hundreds, arose mainly from skirmishers captured in their rifle pits. Sherman's second lesson was that Hood had constructed a trench line far enough to guard the railroad from Atlanta to East Point. Sherman's grand wheel to the right, begun July 27 with Howard's Army of the Tennessee and followed by Schofield's Army of the Ohio on August 2, had been blunted.
http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/atlanta/atlanta-history-articles/utoy-creek.html
FYI SPC Deb Root-White GySgt Jack Wallace CWO4 Terrence Clark SPC Michael Oles SRSMSgt Lawrence McCarter A1C Pamela G RussellLTC Trent KlugPO2 Russell "Russ" Lincoln SFC Bernard Walko SFC Stephen King SFC Ralph E Kelley SSG Franklin Briant Lt Col Scott Shuttleworth MSgt Robert C AldiSSG Byron Howard Sr Cpl Samuel Pope Sr CPL Ronald Keyes Jr SPC Nancy Greene SPC Diana D. SFC William Farrell

LTC Stephen F. I am going to choose:
1864: Cavalry Battle of Moorefield, WV. Brig. Gen. William W. Averell led Union troops to a victory over CSA Brig. Gen. John McCausland and his Confederate troops in Hardy County, West Virginia. While returning to the Shenandoah Valley after burning Chamb

Love the pictures LTC Stephen F., makes history so much more real for me. Thank you.