Posted on Jul 17, 2016
What was the most significant event on July 13 during the U.S. Civil War?
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New York City Draft Riots of 1863
It was the second largest insurrection in United States history and occurred in the middle of the largest insurrection in United States History. The History...
Cavalry raiders in 1861, 1862 and 1863. On Monday July 13, 1863 New York City broiled as the draft rioters erupted as angry crowds tend to do in the summer heat. They went after black folks, policemen and anything which reminded them of the civil war which had cost so many New York soldiers’ lives.
In 1861 CSA Brig Gen Robert Selden Garnett had the dubious distinction of being the first General Officer to be killed in the Civil War. He was killed at the Battle of Corrick's Ford, western Virginia. This battle was the high point of Brig Gen George B. McClellan’s career.
Monday, July 13, 1863: Lt. Col. Arthur Fremantle, of Her Majesty’s Coldstream Guards, is visiting New York on his way home to Britain. He happens to get a first-row seat to witness the New York riots: “I walked the whole distance of Broadway to the Consul's house, and nothing could exceed the apparent prosperity; the street was covered with banners and placards inviting people to enlist in various high-sounding regiments. Bounties of $550 were offered, and huge pictures hung across the street, on which numbers of ragged greybacks, terror depicted on their features, were being pursued by the Federals.
On returning to the Fifth Avenue, I found all the shopkeepers beginning to close their stores, and I perceived by degrees that there was great alarm about the resistance to the draft which was going on this morning. On reaching the hotel I perceived a whole block of buildings on fire close by: engines were present, but were not allowed to play by the crowd. In the hotel itself, universal consternation prevailed, and an attack by the mob had been threatened. I walked about in the neighbourhood, and saw a company of soldiers on the march, who were being jeered at and hooted by small boys, and I saw a negro pursued by the crowd take refuge with the military; he was followed by loud cries of "Down with the b——y nigger! Kill all niggers!"
By the grace of God in 1863 each and every of the 230 orphans from the Colored Orphan Asylum on Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street was led to safety even while the buildings they had lived in were being looted and torched during the first day of the New York City draft riots.
1863: Draft riots, New York City. “When officials (accompanied by just a dozen police officers) arrived at the city’s Provost Marshall’s office on the morning of Monday, July 13, they found a restless, anxious crowd of roughly 500, many of them armed. Shortly after the draft’s 10:30 a.m. start time, a volunteer fire company, angered at the military conscription of their chief two days earlier, arrived on the scene. Known as Black Joke Engine Co. No. 33, the burly group was just as famous for their fist-fighting skills as they were for their firefighting. The men soon began to smash the building’s windows and force their way inside, followed closely by the growing mob. After breaking in, they destroyed much of the draft equipment as local officials fled the scene. The protestors, meanwhile, began to spread out across the city, growing in numbers.
An early target of the mob was the pro-war press, particularly the New York Tribune, run by ardent abolitionist Horace Greeley. By mid-morning a group of protestors had descended on the city’s lower Manhattan media district and were only turned away under heavy fire by armed newspaper staffers. Around the same time, another mob contingent laid waste to the one of the city’s armories. Late that afternoon, the crowd reached the Colored Orphan Asylum on Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street, home to more than 230 children. The orphanage’s staff was able to evacuate all of the children to safety, but just minutes later the mob turned on the building with a savage ferocity, uprooting trees, destroying clothing, toys and supplies before setting fire to the building. As the first day of the riots wore on, many of its early members, whose opposition had been focused solely on the draft itself, turned away from the increasingly violent mob. Many, including some of the men from the Black Joke Engine Co. would spend the next several days combating the rioters and protecting the city’s citizens.”
Pictures: 1863-07-13 New York Draft Riot - Destruction of Colored Orphanage; 1863-07 NYSeventh-Draft-Riots-7.16.13; 1863-07-13 Aldie Gap in The Blue Ridge Mountains, Va. The Head Quarters of Mosby's Guerillas; CSA Brig Gen Robert Selden Garnett
A. 1861: Battle of Corrick's Ford, western Virginia. Significant Federal victory because it cleared the region of Confederates. Saturday, July 13, 1861: The Union troops in West Virginia under Brig Gen George B. McClellan advance, and attack the Confederate force at Corrick's Ford. While directing his rear guard General Robert Garnett is shot and dies minutes later. He is the first general to die during the Civil War
On this day, Union General George B. McClellan distinguishes himself by routing Confederates under General Robert Garnett at Corrick’s Ford in western Virginia. The battle ensured Yankee control of the region, secured the Union’s east-west railroad connections, and set in motion the events that would lead to the creation of West Virginia.
Background: Two days before Corrick’s Ford, Union troops under General William Rosecrans flanked a Confederate force at nearby Rich Mountain. The defeat forced Garnett to retreat from his position on Laurel Hill, while part of McClellan’s force pursued him across the Cheat River. A pitched battle ensued near Corrick’s Ford, in which Garnett was killed—the first general officer to die in the war. But losses were otherwise light, with only 70 Confederate, and 10 Union, casualties.
The Battle of Corrick’s Ford was a significant victory because it cleared the region of Confederates Unfortunately for the Union, the small campaign that climaxed at Corrick’s Ford was the zenith of McClellan’s military career.
B. 1862: The First Battle of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest cavalry surprised and quickly overran a Federal hospital and the camp of a detachment from the 9th Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment and the jail and courthouse in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. His major objective was to strike Murfreesboro, an important Union supply center on the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad. Additional Confederate troops attacked the camps of the other Union commands and the jail and courthouse. By late afternoon all of the Union units had surrendered to Forrest.
All of the Union units surrendered to Forrest, and the Confederates destroyed much of the Union's supplies and destroyed railroad track in the area. The primary consequence of the raid was the diversion of Union forces from a drive on Chattanooga.
The Murfreesboro garrison was camped in three locations around town and included detachments from four units comprising infantry, cavalry, and artillery, under the command of Brig. Gen. Thomas Turpin Crittenden, who had just arrived on July 12.
C. 1863: The New York City Draft Riots. In what will become the worst and most violent civil disturbance in United States history, riots begin spreading across the city, starting from the Five Points district and arising mostly out of unrest in the Irish populace and their dissatisfaction over the military draft, and the unwillingness of the working class to join the Army. A mob of 3,000 to 4, 000 people attack the Provost Marshal’s office, where the drawing of names for the Draft is being done, and capture the lists and draft tickets, scattering and destroying them. Then, they set fire to the buildings. The mob begins to catch and lynch negroes, and they attack the Colored Orphan Asylum on Fifth Avenue, looting the facility of any valuables, and set fire to the building. The firefighters are unable (or unwilling) to save the school. The mob attacks the local Armory at Second Avenue and a battle with police commences there. The mob also attacks the offices of Horace Greeley' New York Tribune. By 5:00 PM, the rioters have burned 7 buildings and killed 6 policemen, and attempt to murder Superintendent of Police Kennedy.
D. 1863: Loudoun County and Aldie, Virginia - Col. John S. Mosby and 27 Confederate raiders attacked 29 Sutler wagons. The Confederates overran the guards and encircled the entire wagon train. They captured all of the wagons and took the sutlers as prisoners. Instead of destroying the wagons as usual, Mosby decided to take the wagons toward Middleburg.
The Union command learned of the attack and sent a Union detachment from the 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry to find and capture the Confederates and the wagons. At Aldie, the Federals caught up with the Confederates and overtook them. The outnumbered Confederates had no choice but to abandon the wagons and escape. The wagons and prisoners were recaptured.
New York City Draft Riots of 1863
It was the second largest insurrection in United States history and occurred in the middle of the largest insurrection in United States History. The History Guy remembers when immigrants, police, African Americans and the army clashed in New York City in the midst of the Civil War.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bxnUh86RB8
FYI Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. PO3 Edward Riddle SPC Jon O. SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth LTC Trent Klug SFC Ralph E Kelley PO3 Phyllis Maynard Deborah Gregson SPC Mike Bennett Cpl Samuel Pope Sr SFC Jason Werstack Sgt (Join to see) LTC Greg Henning Lt Col Scott Shuttleworth Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen MGySgt (Join to see) CDR (Join to see) MSG Andrew White~1672722:CPL Ronald Keyes jr]
In 1861 CSA Brig Gen Robert Selden Garnett had the dubious distinction of being the first General Officer to be killed in the Civil War. He was killed at the Battle of Corrick's Ford, western Virginia. This battle was the high point of Brig Gen George B. McClellan’s career.
Monday, July 13, 1863: Lt. Col. Arthur Fremantle, of Her Majesty’s Coldstream Guards, is visiting New York on his way home to Britain. He happens to get a first-row seat to witness the New York riots: “I walked the whole distance of Broadway to the Consul's house, and nothing could exceed the apparent prosperity; the street was covered with banners and placards inviting people to enlist in various high-sounding regiments. Bounties of $550 were offered, and huge pictures hung across the street, on which numbers of ragged greybacks, terror depicted on their features, were being pursued by the Federals.
On returning to the Fifth Avenue, I found all the shopkeepers beginning to close their stores, and I perceived by degrees that there was great alarm about the resistance to the draft which was going on this morning. On reaching the hotel I perceived a whole block of buildings on fire close by: engines were present, but were not allowed to play by the crowd. In the hotel itself, universal consternation prevailed, and an attack by the mob had been threatened. I walked about in the neighbourhood, and saw a company of soldiers on the march, who were being jeered at and hooted by small boys, and I saw a negro pursued by the crowd take refuge with the military; he was followed by loud cries of "Down with the b——y nigger! Kill all niggers!"
By the grace of God in 1863 each and every of the 230 orphans from the Colored Orphan Asylum on Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street was led to safety even while the buildings they had lived in were being looted and torched during the first day of the New York City draft riots.
1863: Draft riots, New York City. “When officials (accompanied by just a dozen police officers) arrived at the city’s Provost Marshall’s office on the morning of Monday, July 13, they found a restless, anxious crowd of roughly 500, many of them armed. Shortly after the draft’s 10:30 a.m. start time, a volunteer fire company, angered at the military conscription of their chief two days earlier, arrived on the scene. Known as Black Joke Engine Co. No. 33, the burly group was just as famous for their fist-fighting skills as they were for their firefighting. The men soon began to smash the building’s windows and force their way inside, followed closely by the growing mob. After breaking in, they destroyed much of the draft equipment as local officials fled the scene. The protestors, meanwhile, began to spread out across the city, growing in numbers.
An early target of the mob was the pro-war press, particularly the New York Tribune, run by ardent abolitionist Horace Greeley. By mid-morning a group of protestors had descended on the city’s lower Manhattan media district and were only turned away under heavy fire by armed newspaper staffers. Around the same time, another mob contingent laid waste to the one of the city’s armories. Late that afternoon, the crowd reached the Colored Orphan Asylum on Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street, home to more than 230 children. The orphanage’s staff was able to evacuate all of the children to safety, but just minutes later the mob turned on the building with a savage ferocity, uprooting trees, destroying clothing, toys and supplies before setting fire to the building. As the first day of the riots wore on, many of its early members, whose opposition had been focused solely on the draft itself, turned away from the increasingly violent mob. Many, including some of the men from the Black Joke Engine Co. would spend the next several days combating the rioters and protecting the city’s citizens.”
Pictures: 1863-07-13 New York Draft Riot - Destruction of Colored Orphanage; 1863-07 NYSeventh-Draft-Riots-7.16.13; 1863-07-13 Aldie Gap in The Blue Ridge Mountains, Va. The Head Quarters of Mosby's Guerillas; CSA Brig Gen Robert Selden Garnett
A. 1861: Battle of Corrick's Ford, western Virginia. Significant Federal victory because it cleared the region of Confederates. Saturday, July 13, 1861: The Union troops in West Virginia under Brig Gen George B. McClellan advance, and attack the Confederate force at Corrick's Ford. While directing his rear guard General Robert Garnett is shot and dies minutes later. He is the first general to die during the Civil War
On this day, Union General George B. McClellan distinguishes himself by routing Confederates under General Robert Garnett at Corrick’s Ford in western Virginia. The battle ensured Yankee control of the region, secured the Union’s east-west railroad connections, and set in motion the events that would lead to the creation of West Virginia.
Background: Two days before Corrick’s Ford, Union troops under General William Rosecrans flanked a Confederate force at nearby Rich Mountain. The defeat forced Garnett to retreat from his position on Laurel Hill, while part of McClellan’s force pursued him across the Cheat River. A pitched battle ensued near Corrick’s Ford, in which Garnett was killed—the first general officer to die in the war. But losses were otherwise light, with only 70 Confederate, and 10 Union, casualties.
The Battle of Corrick’s Ford was a significant victory because it cleared the region of Confederates Unfortunately for the Union, the small campaign that climaxed at Corrick’s Ford was the zenith of McClellan’s military career.
B. 1862: The First Battle of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest cavalry surprised and quickly overran a Federal hospital and the camp of a detachment from the 9th Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment and the jail and courthouse in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. His major objective was to strike Murfreesboro, an important Union supply center on the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad. Additional Confederate troops attacked the camps of the other Union commands and the jail and courthouse. By late afternoon all of the Union units had surrendered to Forrest.
All of the Union units surrendered to Forrest, and the Confederates destroyed much of the Union's supplies and destroyed railroad track in the area. The primary consequence of the raid was the diversion of Union forces from a drive on Chattanooga.
The Murfreesboro garrison was camped in three locations around town and included detachments from four units comprising infantry, cavalry, and artillery, under the command of Brig. Gen. Thomas Turpin Crittenden, who had just arrived on July 12.
C. 1863: The New York City Draft Riots. In what will become the worst and most violent civil disturbance in United States history, riots begin spreading across the city, starting from the Five Points district and arising mostly out of unrest in the Irish populace and their dissatisfaction over the military draft, and the unwillingness of the working class to join the Army. A mob of 3,000 to 4, 000 people attack the Provost Marshal’s office, where the drawing of names for the Draft is being done, and capture the lists and draft tickets, scattering and destroying them. Then, they set fire to the buildings. The mob begins to catch and lynch negroes, and they attack the Colored Orphan Asylum on Fifth Avenue, looting the facility of any valuables, and set fire to the building. The firefighters are unable (or unwilling) to save the school. The mob attacks the local Armory at Second Avenue and a battle with police commences there. The mob also attacks the offices of Horace Greeley' New York Tribune. By 5:00 PM, the rioters have burned 7 buildings and killed 6 policemen, and attempt to murder Superintendent of Police Kennedy.
D. 1863: Loudoun County and Aldie, Virginia - Col. John S. Mosby and 27 Confederate raiders attacked 29 Sutler wagons. The Confederates overran the guards and encircled the entire wagon train. They captured all of the wagons and took the sutlers as prisoners. Instead of destroying the wagons as usual, Mosby decided to take the wagons toward Middleburg.
The Union command learned of the attack and sent a Union detachment from the 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry to find and capture the Confederates and the wagons. At Aldie, the Federals caught up with the Confederates and overtook them. The outnumbered Confederates had no choice but to abandon the wagons and escape. The wagons and prisoners were recaptured.
New York City Draft Riots of 1863
It was the second largest insurrection in United States history and occurred in the middle of the largest insurrection in United States History. The History Guy remembers when immigrants, police, African Americans and the army clashed in New York City in the midst of the Civil War.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bxnUh86RB8
FYI Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. PO3 Edward Riddle SPC Jon O. SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth LTC Trent Klug SFC Ralph E Kelley PO3 Phyllis Maynard Deborah Gregson SPC Mike Bennett Cpl Samuel Pope Sr SFC Jason Werstack Sgt (Join to see) LTC Greg Henning Lt Col Scott Shuttleworth Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen MGySgt (Join to see) CDR (Join to see) MSG Andrew White~1672722:CPL Ronald Keyes jr]
Civil War
Cavalry
Selective Service (the Draft)
Riots
American History
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In 1862 the Federal forces [Pope] and the confederate forces [Stonewall Jackson] move into the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
Sunday, July 13, 1862: “Gen. Pope’s Federal army is spread from Falmouth in Stafford County to Warrenton to Sperryville, near the Blue Ridge in the west, where the bulk of his army was---the divisions under Gen. Banks and Gen. Sigel. A Union cavalry contingent has advanced and taken Culpepper Court House, farther south along the line of the Orange and Alexandria RR, which runs north-south. Pope orders Brig. Gen. John Hatch, who commands a small mounted division of 3,000, to establish Culpepper as his HQ, and to send out pickets 20 miles to the south and southeast.”
Sunday, July 13, 1862: “Gen. Lee gives Stonewall Jackson orders to take his own division and that of Gen. Ewell, about 11,000 men, and to move northward to challenge the new operations of Gen. Pope and the new Federal Army of Virginia, who is now threatening a number of railroads, including the Virginia Central, Richmond’s main link with the Shenandoah Valley. As soon as Jackson receives the orders on this date, he moves. By sundown he and his 11,000 troops are out of camp and on the road. Jackson’s march follows the line of the Virginia Central Railroad, with the intention of occupying Gordonsville, astride Pope’s proposed path of advance.”
Below are a number of journal entries from 1862 and 1863 which shed light on what life was like for soldiers and
Sunday, July 13, 1862: Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, commander of the Army of the Potomac---still bottled up at Harrison’s Landing on the James Peninsula of Virginia---is beginning to assess the damage not only to the army but also to his own career. McClellan had suspected Sec. of War Edwin M. Stanton of being the main force against him in Washington, and sent a letter of accusation---after which, Stanton wrote a letter protesting that “No man had ever a truer friend than I have been to you and shall continue to be.” McClellan withdrew his letter. However, the General continues to harbor suspicions. In a letter to his wife Ellen, he empties both barrels at Stanton's character: “So, you want to know how I feel about Stanton? I will tell you with the most perfect frankness. I think that he is the most unmitigated scoundrel I ever knew, heard, or read of; I think that (and I do not wish to be irreverent) had he lived in the time of the Saviour, Judas Iscariot would have remained a respected member of the fraternity of the Apostles, and that the magnificent treachery and rascality of E.M. Stanton would have caused Judas to have raised his arms in holy horror and unaffected wonder – he would certainly have claimed and exercised the right to have been been the Betrayer of his Lord and Master, by virtue of the same merit that raised Satan to his “bad eminence.” I may do the man injustice – God grant that I may be wrong – for I hate to think that humanity can sink so low – but my opinion is just as I have told you.”
Monday, July 13, 1863 --- Col. Robert Gould Shaw, commander of the 54th Massachusetts Inf. Reg., writes to his wife Annie about the regiment’s transfer to James and Morris Island, near Charleston, South Carolina: “My Darling Annie, just after closing my last, on the envelope of which I said we were ordered away from St. Helena’s Island, we embarked on board the "Chasseur." We sailed at about 3 P.M., without anything but India-rubber blankets and a little hardbread, and arrived off Stono Inlet, near Charleston Harbour, at about one o’clock this morning. We lay off the bar until 1 P.M. waiting for the flood-tide. The sea was running very high all the time, so that the men were very sea-sick, and we had a decidedly uncomfortable day. . . .
July 10th—Still on board our transport. Last night, two regiments landed, but encountered nothing but a few outposts. General Terry’s part is only to make a feint, the real attack being on Morris Island from Folly. That began this morning, and the news from there is, that General Gillmore has got all his troops on Morris Island, and has possession of nearly half of it.
This afternoon I went inland about two miles, and from a housetop saw Fort Sumter, our Monitors, and the spires of Charleston. Just now the news of the fall of Vicksburg, and of Lee’s defeat has reached us. What an excitement there must be through the North! For my part, though, I do not believe the end is coming yet, and the next mail will probably tell us that Lee has got away with a good part of his army; there is too much danger of our government making a compromise, for peace to be entirely welcome now. I am very glad that McClellan was not restored to command, for such vacillation in the government would have been too contemptible. Every one can rejoice at Meade’s success, as he is as yet identified with no party. I hope the prisoners will not be paroled, for they will be in the army again in a month, if they are.
I found a classmate, to-day, on board the "Nantucket," surgeon there, and George Lawrence, of the class above me, paymaster on board the "Pawnee." They are both very nice fellows; particularly so, because they have invited me to dinner; having had hardly anything but hard-bread and salt-junk since we left camp, a good dinner is to be desired. . . .
Saturday evening — We landed at noon to-day, and are now about two miles inland. There are two Brigades in line in advance of us. I don’t think anything will be done on this side.
13th — Yesterday I dined with Lawrence on board the "Pawnee," and met some very pleasant men among the officers. It has been very fortunate for me to have found so many old acquaintances here, as it has been the means of my meeting a great many people who would have otherwise been disinclined to make the acquaintance of an officer commanding a black regiment.
Our men are out on picket with the white regiments, and have no trouble with them. One of my companies was driven in by a small force of Rebels last night, and behaved very well indeed. The Rebel pickets call to us, that they will give us three days to clear out. . . .
We have not had out clothes off since we left St. Helena, and have absolutely nothing but an India-rubber blanket apiece. Officers and men are in the same boat. I sent down to-day to get a clean shirt and a horse. They will not allow any accumulation of luggage here.
The general feeling is that Gillmore will get Charleston at last. . . .
Governor Andrew writes that he has urged the Secretary of War to send General Barlow here to take command of the black troops. This is what I have been asking him to do for some time.
We got some ham for dinner to-day, which is an improvement on salt-junk. I hope the mail will be allowed to go this time. Good bye, dearest Annie. Your loving Rob”
Monday, July 13, 1863: George Templeton Strong writes of the Riots in his journal, and how he goes walking to investigate: “Above Twentieth Street all shops were closed, and many people standing and staring or strolling uptown, not riotously disposed but eager and curious. Here and there a rough could be heard damning the draft. No policeman to be seen anywhere. Reached the seat of war at last, Forty-sixth Street and Third Avenue. Three houses on the avenue and two or three on the street were burned down; engines playing on the ruins---more energetically, I’m told, than they did when their efforts would have been useful.
The crowd seemed just what one commonly sees at any fire, but its nucleus of riot was concealed by an outside layer of ordinary peaceable lookers-on. Was told they had beat off a squad of police and another of “regulars”. . . . At last, it opened and out streamed a posse of perhaps five hundred, certainly less than one thousand, of the lowest Irish day laborers. The rabble was perfectly homogeneous. Every brute in the drove was pure Celtic---hod-carrier or loafer. They were unarmed. A few carried pieces of fence-paling and the like. They turned off west into Forty-fifth Street and gradually collected in front of two three-story dwelling houses on Lexington Avenue, just below that street, that stand alone together on a nearly vacant block. . . . Some said a drafting officer lived in one of them, others that a damaged policeman had taken refuge there. The mob was in no hurry. . . . After a while sporadic paving-stones began to fly at the windows, ladies and children emerged from the rear and had a rather hard scramble over a high board fence, and then scudded off across the open, Heaven knows whither. Then men and small boys . . . began smashing the sashes and the blinds and shied out light articles, such as books and crockery, and dropped chairs and mirrors into the back yard; the rear fence was demolished and loafers were seen marching off with portable articles of furniture. And at last a light smoke began to float out of the windows and I came away. . . .
The fury of the low Irish women in that region was noteworthy. Stalwart young vixens and withered old hags were swarming everywhere, all cursing the “bloody draft” and egging on their men to mischief. . . . If a quarter one hears to be true, this is an organized insurrection in the interest of the rebellion and Jefferson Davis rules New York today. . . .
We telegraphed, two or three of us, from General Wool’s rooms, to the President, begging that troops be sent on and stringent measures taken. The great misfortune is that nearly all our militia regiments have been despatched to Pennsylvania. . . . These wretched rioters have been plundering freely, I hear. Their outbreak will either destroy the city of damage the Copperhead cause fatally. Could we but catch the scoundrels who have stirred them up, what a blessing it would be!”
Pictures: 1862-07-13 Battle of Murfreesboro, TN; CSA Gen John Mosby; 1861-07-13 The Battle of Corrick's Ford in Beverly, West Virginia; xx
A. Saturday, July 13, 1861: Battle of Corrick's Ford, western Virginia. Significant Federal victory because it cleared the region of Confederates. Saturday, July 13, 1861: The Union troops in West Virginia under McClellan advance, and attack the Confederate force at Corrick's Ford. While directing his rear guard General Robert Garnett is shot and dies minutes later. He is the first general to die during the Civil War
On this day, Union General George B. McClellan distinguishes himself by routing Confederates under General Robert Garnett at Corrick’s Ford in western Virginia. The battle ensured Yankee control of the region, secured the Union’s east-west railroad connections, and set in motion the events that would lead to the creation of West Virginia.
Background: Two days before Corrick’s Ford, Union troops under General William Rosecrans flanked a Confederate force at nearby Rich Mountain. The defeat forced Garnett to retreat from his position on Laurel Hill, while part of McClellan’s force pursued him across the Cheat River. A pitched battle ensued near Corrick’s Ford, in which Garnett was killed—the first general officer to die in the war. But losses were otherwise light, with only 70 Confederate, and 10 Union, casualties.
The Battle of Corrick’s Ford was a significant victory because it cleared the region of Confederates Unfortunately for the Union, the small campaign that climaxed at Corrick’s Ford was the zenith of McClellan’s military career.
B. Sunday, July 13, 1862: Battle of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The First Battle of Murfreesboro was fought on July 13, 1862, in Rutherford County, Tennessee. Troops under Confederate cavalry commander Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest surprised and quickly overran a Federal hospital, the camps of several small Union units, and the jail and courthouse in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. All of the Union units surrendered to Forrest, and the Confederates destroyed much of the Union's supplies and destroyed railroad track in the area. The primary consequence of the raid was the diversion of Union forces from a drive on Chattanooga.
Background: On June 10, 1862, Union Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell, commanding the Army of the Ohio, started a leisurely advance toward Chattanooga. Brig. Gen. James S. Negley and his force threatened the city on June 7–8. In response to the threat, the Confederate government sent Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest to Chattanooga to organize a cavalry brigade. By July, Confederate cavalry under the command of Forrest and Colonel John Hunt Morgan were raiding into Middle Tennessee and Kentucky.
Forrest left Chattanooga on July 9 with two cavalry regiments and joined other units on the way, bringing the total force to about 1,400 men. The major objective was to strike Murfreesboro, an important Union supply center on the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad, at dawn on July 13.
Battle: The Murfreesboro garrison was camped in three locations around town and included detachments from four units comprising infantry, cavalry, and artillery, under the command of Brig. Gen. Thomas Turpin Crittenden, who had just arrived on July 12. Between 4:15 and 4:30 a.m. on the morning of July 13, Forrest's cavalry surprised the Union pickets on the Woodbury Pike, east of Murfreesboro, and quickly overran a Federal hospital and the camp of a detachment from the 9th Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment. Additional Confederate troops attacked the camps of the other Union commands and the jail and courthouse. By late afternoon all of the Union units had surrendered to Forrest.
Aftermath: The Confederates destroyed much of the Union supplies and tore up railroad track in the area, but the main result of the raid was the diversion of Union forces from a drive on Chattanooga. This raid, along with Morgan's raid into Kentucky, made possible Bragg's concentration of forces at Chattanooga and his early September invasion of Kentucky. The next action at Murfreesboro was the more prominent Battle of Stones River (known as the Battle of Murfreesboro in the South), fought December 31, 1862, to January 2, 1863.
Sunday, July 13, 1862: First Battle of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. By late afternoon all of the Union units had surrendered to the Confederates. The Confederates destroyed much of the Union supplies and tore up railroad track in the area, but the main result of the Confederate raid was to divert the Union forces from a drive on Chattanooga. The Murfreesboro raid, along with Morgan’s raid into Kentucky (we’ll hear more about that in coming days), made possible the concentration of General Braxton Bragg’s forces at Chattanooga and his invasion of Kentucky in early September.
[Special to Herald.]—The Unionists lost $30,000 worth of army stores at Murfreesboro. The Union forces engaged were the 3d Minnesota,1 Col. Lester,2 six companies of the 11th Michigan, Col. Parkhurst, 300 strong, the 3d battalion 7th Pennsylvania cavalry, 225, Hewett’s battery, 60 men, the 4th Kentucky, in all about 1,400 men.
The rebel force consisted of one regiment of mounted infantry, a regiment of Texan rangers, and Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee cavalry, between 3,000 and 4,000, mostly armed with carbines and shot guns. Their loss in killed and wounded heavier than ours.
The Pennsylvania 7th lost in killed, wounded, and missing, 200 men.
The only officers escaped as far as reported, are Capt. J. F. Andrus, Capt. C. C. McCormick, and Lieut. H. D. Mooney.
The Commissionary Department was recently replenished with new clothing, etc. which has fallen into the hands of the enemy.
Capt. Rounds, Provost Marshall of Murfreesboro, and Guard, shot nine rebels before surrendering. The rebel Gov. Harris and Andrews Ewing were known to be near Sparta a few days since, organizing a raid on Murfreesboro, which may it is apprehended, be extended to the Capital of the State.
The public are still in a great state of excitement, many families having left.—The Louisville cars this morning were filled with alarmed spectators and adventures.
It is reported that Gen. John C. Breckinridge, Col. Forest,3 and Col. Raines, of Nashville, commanded the rebel forces at Murfreesboro. It is also reported that they have taken Loreign, fifteen miles from Nashville, and that Gen. Kirby Smith is advancing on Nashville from Chattanooga with 15,000 men.
Murfreesboro was barricaded with bales of hay, and the federal shells set fire to many of the houses. Col. Lester is falling back towards Nashville.
Union re-enforcements are coming up by special trains.
The 28th Kentucky has just arrived. They are cheered as they passed through the streets. The secessionists confidently expect the arrival of the rebel forces some time to-night.
Col. Lester surrendered at Murfreesboro at four o’clock P. M.—the Minnesota Third and Hewitt’s battery including—the latter for want of ammunition.
Men are lying on the sidewalks asleep, holding their horses’ bridles in their hands, expecting every moment to be called into action.
C. Monday, July 13, 1863: The New York City Draft Riots. In what will become the worst and most violent civil disturbance in United States history, riots begin spreading across the city, starting from the Five Points district and arising mostly out of unrest in the Irish populace and their dissatisfaction over the military draft, and the unwillingness of the working class to join the Army. A mob of 3,000 to 4, 000 people attack the Provost Marshal’s office, where the drawing of names for the Draft is being done, and capture the lists and draft tickets, scattering and destroying them. Then, they set fire to the buildings. The mob begins to catch and lynch negroes, and they attack the Colored Orphan Asylum on Fifth Avenue, looting the facility of any valuables, and set fire to the building. The firefighters are unable (or unwilling) to save the school. The mob attacks the local Armory at Second Avenue and a battle with police commences there. The mob also attacks the offices of Horace Greeley' New York Tribune. By 5:00 PM, the rioters have burned 7 buildings and killed 6 policemen, and attempt to murder Superintendent of Police Kennedy.
D. Monday, July 13, 1863: Loudoun County and Aldie, Virginia - Col. John S. Mosby and 27 Confederate raiders attacked 29 Sutler wagons. The Confederates overran the guards and encircled the entire wagon train. They captured all of the wagons and took the sutlers as prisoners. Instead of destroying the wagons as usual, Mosby decided to take the wagons toward Middleburg.
The Union command learned of the attack and sent a Union detachment from the 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry to find and capture the Confederates and the wagons. At Aldie, the Federals caught up with the Confederates and overtook them. The outnumbered Confederates had no choice but to abandon the wagons and escape. The wagons and prisoners were recaptured.
1. Saturday, July 13, 1861: The Union troops in West Virginia under McClellan advance, and attack the Confederate force at Corrick's Ford, under Gen. Robert S. Garnett, who is killed in the fight. West Virginia is firmly in Northern hands now.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+13%2C+1861
2. Sunday, July 13, 1862: First Battle of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Nathan Bedford Forrest
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186207
3. Sunday, July 13, 1862 --- Gen. Pope’s Federal army is spread from Falmouth in Stafford County to Warrenton to Sperryville, near the Blue Ridge in the west, where the bulk of his army was---the divisions under Gen. Banks and Gen. Sigel. A Union cavalry contingent has advanced and taken Culpepper Court House, farther south along the line of the Orange and Alexandria RR, which runs north-south. Pope orders Brig. Gen. John Hatch, who commands a small mounted division of 3,000, to establish Culpepper as his HQ, and to send out pickets 20 miles to the south and southeast.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+13%2C+1862
4. Sunday, July 13, 1862 --- Gen. Lee gives Stonewall Jackson orders to take his own division and that of Gen. Ewell, about 11,000 men, and to move northward to challenge the new operations of Gen. Pope and the new Federal Army of Virginia, who is now threatening a number of railroads, including the Virginia Central, Richmond’s main link with the Shenandoah Valley. As soon as Jackson receives the orders on this date, he moves. By sundown he and his 11,000 troops are out of camp and on the road. Jackson’s march follows the line of the Virginia Central Railroad, with the intention of occupying Gordonsville, astride Pope’s proposed path of advance.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+13%2C+1862
5. Sunday, July 13, 1862: Rapidan Station, Virginia - On July 13, the Union forces entered the area at Rapidan Station. They encountered a small Confederate force guarding the train station, driving them away. The Federals then destroyed the railroad bridge located over the Rapidan River. With this accomplished, they withdrew back to their camp.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1862s.html
6. Sunday, July 13, 1862: near Wolf River, Tennessee - On July 13, a force of Confederate cavalry was near the Wolf River when they spotted a Union supply train belonging to Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman. The cavalry attacked the train and was able to burn part of the train.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1862s.html
7. Sunday, July 13, 1862: Abraham Lincoln reads a draft of the Emancipation proclamation to Secretary of State William Seward and Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, both strong abolitionists. Seward begins talking about the problems it will cause. Welles sits there dumbfounded.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186207
8. Sunday, July 13, 1862 --- Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, commander of the Army of the Potomac---still bottled up at Harrison’s Landing on the James Peninsula of Virginia---is beginning to assess the damage not only to the army but also to his own career. McClellan had suspected Sec. of War Edwin M. Stanton of being the main force against him in Washington, and sent a letter of accusation---after which, Stanton wrote a letter protesting that “No man had ever a truer friend than I have been to you and shall continue to be.” McClellan withdrew his letter. However, the General continues to harbor suspicions. In a letter to his wife Ellen, he empties both barrels at Stanton's character: “So, you want to know how I feel about Stanton? I will tell you with the most perfect frankness. I think that he is the most unmitigated scoundrel I ever knew, heard, or read of; I think that (and I do not wish to be irreverent) had he lived in the time of the Saviour, Judas Iscariot would have remained a respected member of the fraternity of the Apostles, and that the magnificent treachery and rascality of E.M. Stanton would have caused Judas to have raised his arms in holy horror and unaffected wonder – he would certainly have claimed and exercised the right to have been been the Betrayer of his Lord and Master, by virtue of the same merit that raised Satan to his “bad eminence.” I may do the man injustice – God grant that I may be wrong – for I hate to think that humanity can sink so low – but my opinion is just as I have told you.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+13%2C+1862
9. Sunday, July 13, 1862 --- Pres. Lincoln, having visited the seat of war and the Army of the Potomac in recent days, mulls over the figures given him by Gen. McClellan. Note that Lincoln is gently trying to jog McClellan’s veracity a bit---as we see in the toned-down irony of the fourth sentence of the letter. Thus, he has exposed the looseness with numbers in McClellan’s reports: EXECUTIVE MANSION. Washington, July 13, 1862; Major-General McCLELLAN: MY DEAR SIR: “I am told that over 160,000 men have gone into your army on the Peninsula. When I was with you the other day we made out 86,500 remaining, leaving 73,500 to be accounted for. I believe 23,500 will cover all the killed, wounded, and missing in all your battles and skirmishers, leaving 50,000 who have left otherwise. Not more than 5,000 of these have died, leaving 45,000 of your army still alive and not with it. I believe half or two-thirds of them are fit for duty to-day. Have you any more perfect knowledge of this than I have? If I am right, and you had these men with you, you could go into Richmond in the next three days. How can they be got to you, and how can they be prevented from getting away in such numbers for the future? A. LINCOLN.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+13%2C+1862
10. Monday, July 13, 1863: After several days of plundering Indiana, John Hunt Morgan crosses into Ohio.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186307
11. Monday, July 13, 1863 --- Lt. Col. Arthur Fremantle, of Her Majesty’s Coldstream Guards, is visiting New York on his way home to Britain. He happens to get a first-row seat to witness the New York riots: “I walked the whole distance of Broadway to the Consul's house, and nothing could exceed the apparent prosperity; the street was covered with banners and placards inviting people to enlist in various high-sounding regiments. Bounties of $550 were offered, and huge pictures hung across the street, on which numbers of ragged greybacks, terror depicted on their features, were being pursued by the Federals.
On returning to the Fifth Avenue, I found all the shopkeepers beginning to close their stores, and I perceived by degrees that there was great alarm about the resistance to the draft which was going on this morning. On reaching the hotel I perceived a whole block of buildings on fire close by: engines were present, but were not allowed to play by the crowd. In the hotel itself, universal consternation prevailed, and an attack by the mob had been threatened. I walked about in the neighbourhood, and saw a company of soldiers on the march, who were being jeered at and hooted by small boys, and I saw a negro pursued by the crowd take refuge with the military; he was followed by loud cries of "Down with the b——y nigger! Kill all niggers!" &c.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+13%2C+1863
12. Monday, July 13, 1863 --- Col. Robert Gould Shaw, commander of the 54th Massachusetts Inf. Reg., writes to his wife Annie about the regiment’s transfer to James and Morris Island, near Charleston, South Carolina: “My Darling Annie, just after closing my last, on the envelope of which I said we were ordered away from St. Helena’s Island, we embarked on board the "Chasseur." We sailed at about 3 P.M., without anything but India-rubber blankets and a little hardbread, and arrived off Stono Inlet, near Charleston Harbour, at about one o’clock this morning. We lay off the bar until 1 P.M. waiting for the flood-tide. The sea was running very high all the time, so that the men were very sea-sick, and we had a decidedly uncomfortable day. . . .
July 10th—Still on board our transport. Last night, two regiments landed, but encountered nothing but a few outposts. General Terry’s part is only to make a feint, the real attack being on Morris Island from Folly. That began this morning, and the news from there is, that General Gillmore has got all his troops on Morris Island, and has possession of nearly half of it.
This afternoon I went inland about two miles, and from a housetop saw Fort Sumter, our Monitors, and the spires of Charleston. Just now the news of the fall of Vicksburg, and of Lee’s defeat has reached us. What an excitement there must be through the North! For my part, though, I do not believe the end is coming yet, and the next mail will probably tell us that Lee has got away with a good part of his army; there is too much danger of our government making a compromise, for peace to be entirely welcome now. I am very glad that McClellan was not restored to command, for such vacillation in the government would have been too contemptible. Every one can rejoice at Meade’s success, as he is as yet identified with no party. I hope the prisoners will not be paroled, for they will be in the army again in a month, if they are.
I found a classmate, to-day, on board the "Nantucket," surgeon there, and George Lawrence, of the class above me, paymaster on board the "Pawnee." They are both very nice fellows; particularly so, because they have invited me to dinner; having had hardly anything but hard-bread and salt-junk since we left camp, a good dinner is to be desired. . . .
Saturday evening — We landed at noon to-day, and are now about two miles inland. There are two Brigades in line in advance of us. I don’t think anything will be done on this side.
13th — Yesterday I dined with Lawrence on board the "Pawnee," and met some very pleasant men among the officers. It has been very fortunate for me to have found so many old acquaintances here, as it has been the means of my meeting a great many people who would have otherwise been disinclined to make the acquaintance of an officer commanding a black regiment.
Our men are out on picket with the white regiments, and have no trouble with them. One of my companies was driven in by a small force of Rebels last night, and behaved very well indeed. The Rebel pickets call to us, that they will give us three days to clear out. . . .
We have not had out clothes off since we left St. Helena, and have absolutely nothing but an India-rubber blanket apiece. Officers and men are in the same boat. I sent down to-day to get a clean shirt and a horse. They will not allow any accumulation of luggage here.
The general feeling is that Gillmore will get Charleston at last. . . .
Governor Andrew writes that he has urged the Secretary of War to send General Barlow here to take command of the black troops. This is what I have been asking him to do for some time.
We got some ham for dinner to-day, which is an improvement on salt-junk. I hope the mail will be allowed to go this time. Good bye, dearest Annie. Your loving Rob”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+13%2C+1863
13. Monday, July 13, 1863 --- George Templeton Strong writes of the Riots in his journal, and how he goes walking to investigate: “Above Twentieth Street all shops were closed, and many people standing and staring or strolling uptown, not riotously disposed but eager and curious. Here and there a rough could be heard damning the draft. No policeman to be seen anywhere. Reached the seat of war at last, Forty-sixth Street and Third Avenue. Three houses on the avenue and two or three on the street were burned down; engines playing on the ruins---more energetically, I’m told, than they did when their efforts would have been useful.
The crowd seemed just what one commonly sees at any fire, but its nucleus of riot was concealed by an outside layer of ordinary peaceable lookers-on. Was told they had beat off a squad of police and another of “regulars”. . . . At last, it opened and out streamed a posse of perhaps five hundred, certainly less than one thousand, of the lowest Irish day laborers. The rabble was perfectly homogeneous. Every brute in the drove was pure Celtic---hod-carrier or loafer. They were unarmed. A few carried pieces of fence-paling and the like. They turned off west into Forty-fifth Street and gradually collected in front of two three-story dwelling houses on Lexington Avenue, just below that street, that stand alone together on a nearly vacant block. . . . Some said a drafting officer lived in one of them, others that a damaged policeman had taken refuge there. The mob was in no hurry. . . . After a while sporadic paving-stones began to fly at the windows, ladies and children emerged from the rear and had a rather hard scramble over a high board fence, and then scudded off across the open, Heaven knows whither. Then men and small boys . . . began smashing the sashes and the blinds and shied out light articles, such as books and crockery, and dropped chairs and mirrors into the back yard; the rear fence was demolished and loafers were seen marching off with portable articles of furniture. And at last a light smoke began to float out of the windows and I came away. . . .
The fury of the low Irish women in that region was noteworthy. Stalwart young vixens and withered old hags were swarming everywhere, all cursing the “bloody draft” and egging on their men to mischief. . . . If a quarter one hears to be true, this is an organized insurrection in the interest of the rebellion and Jefferson Davis rules New York today. . . .
We telegraphed, two or three of us, from General Wool’s rooms, to the President, begging that troops be sent on and stringent measures taken. The great misfortune is that nearly all our militia regiments have been despatched to Pennsylvania. . . . These wretched rioters have been plundering freely, I hear. Their outbreak will either destroy the city of damage the Copperhead cause fatally. Could we but catch the scoundrels who have stirred them up, what a blessing it would be!”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+13%2C+1863
14. Monday, July 13, 1863: Draft riots, New York City. When officials (accompanied by just a dozen police officers) arrived at the city’s Provost Marshall’s office on the morning of Monday, July 13, they found a restless, anxious crowd of roughly 500, many of them armed. Shortly after the draft’s 10:30 a.m. start time, a volunteer fire company, angered at the military conscription of their chief two days earlier, arrived on the scene. Known as Black Joke Engine Co. No. 33, the burly group was just as famous for their fist-fighting skills as they were for their fire fighting. The men soon began to smash the building’s windows and force their way inside, followed closely by the growing mob. After breaking in, they destroyed much of the draft equipment as local officials fled the scene. The protestors, meanwhile, began to spread out across the city, growing in numbers.
An early target of the mob was the pro-war press, particularly the New York Tribune, run by ardent abolitionist Horace Greeley. By mid-morning a group of protestors had descended on the city’s lower Manhattan media district and were only turned away under heavy fire by armed newspaper staffers. Around the same time, another mob contingent laid waste to the one of the city’s armories. Late that afternoon, the crowd reached the Colored Orphan Asylum on Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street, home to more than 230 children. The orphanage’s staff was able to evacuate all of the children to safety, but just minutes later the mob turned on the building with a savage ferocity, uprooting trees, destroying clothing, toys and supplies before setting fire to the building. As the first day of the riots wore on, many of its early members, whose opposition had been focused solely on the draft itself, turned away from the increasingly violent mob. Many, including some of the men from the Black Joke Engine Co. would spend the next several days combating the rioters and protecting the city’s citizens.
http://www.history.com/news/four-days-of-fire-the-new-york-city-draft-riots
15. Monday, July 13, 1863: Battle of Yazoo City, Mississippi.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186307
16. Monday, July 13, 1863: Battle of Donaldsonville, Louisiana.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186307
17. Monday, July 13, 1863 --- Morgan’s Rebel raiders raid and sack Harrison, Indiana, and later cross into Ohio this evening.
A Saturday, July 13, 1861: Battle of Corrick's Ford, West Virginia. While directing his rear guard General Robert Garnett is shot and dies minutes later. He is the first general to die during the Civil War
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186107
A+ On this day, Union General George B. McClellan distinguishes himself by routing Confederates under General Robert Garnett at Corrick’s Ford in western Virginia. The battle ensured Yankee control of the region, secured the Union’s east-west railroad connections, and set in motion the events that would lead to the creation of West Virginia.
Two days before Corrick’s Ford, Union troops under General William Rosecrans flanked a Confederate force at nearby Rich Mountain. The defeat forced Garnett to retreat from his position on Laurel Hill, while part of McClellan’s force pursued him across the Cheat River. A pitched battle ensued near Corrick’s Ford, in which Garnett was killed—the first general officer to die in the war. But losses were otherwise light, with only 70 Confederate, and 10 Union, casualties.
The Battle of Corrick’s Ford was a significant victory because it cleared the region of Confederates, but it is often overlooked, particularly because it was overshadowed by the Battle of Bull Run, Virginia, which occurred shortly thereafter on July 21. However, the success made McClellan a hero, even though his achievements were inflated. Two weeks later, McClellan became commander of the Army of the Potomac, the primary Federal army in the east. Unfortunately for the Union, the small campaign that climaxed at Corrick’s Ford was the zenith of McClellan’s military career.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/union-routs-rebels-at-the-battle-of-corricks-ford
B Sunday, July 13, 1862: First Battle of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The First Battle of Murfreesboro was fought on July 13, 1862, in Rutherford County, Tennessee, as part of the American Civil War. Troops under Confederate cavalry commander Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest surprised and quickly overran a Federal hospital, the camps of several small Union units, and the jail and courthouse in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. All of the Union units surrendered to Forrest, and the Confederates destroyed much of the Union's supplies and destroyed railroad track in the area. The primary consequence of the raid was the diversion of Union forces from a drive on Chattanooga.
Background: On June 10, 1862, Union Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell, commanding the Army of the Ohio, started a leisurely advance toward Chattanooga. Brig. Gen. James S. Negley and his force threatened the city on June 7–8. In response to the threat, the Confederate government sent Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest to Chattanooga to organize a cavalry brigade. By July, Confederate cavalry under the command of Forrest and Colonel John Hunt Morgan were raiding into Middle Tennessee and Kentucky.
Forrest left Chattanooga on July 9 with two cavalry regiments and joined other units on the way, bringing the total force to about 1,400 men. The major objective was to strike Murfreesboro, an important Union supply center on the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad, at dawn on July 13.
Battle: The Murfreesboro garrison was camped in three locations around town and included detachments from four units comprising infantry, cavalry, and artillery, under the command of Brig. Gen. Thomas Turpin Crittenden, who had just arrived on July 12. Between 4:15 and 4:30 a.m. on the morning of July 13, Forrest's cavalry surprised the Union pickets on the Woodbury Pike, east of Murfreesboro, and quickly overran a Federal hospital and the camp of a detachment from the 9th Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment. Additional Confederate troops attacked the camps of the other Union commands and the jail and courthouse. By late afternoon all of the Union units had surrendered to Forrest.
Aftermath: The Confederates destroyed much of the Union supplies and tore up railroad track in the area, but the main result of the raid was the diversion of Union forces from a drive on Chattanooga. This raid, along with Morgan's raid into Kentucky, made possible Bragg's concentration of forces at Chattanooga and his early September invasion of Kentucky. The next action at Murfreesboro was the more prominent Battle of Stones River (known as the Battle of Murfreesboro in the South), fought December 31, 1862, to January 2, 1863.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Murfreesboro
B+ Sunday, July 13, 1862: First Battle of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. By late afternoon all of the Union units had surrendered to the Confederates. The Confederates destroyed much of the Union supplies and tore up railroad track in the area, but the main result of the Confederate raid was to divert the Union forces from a drive on Chattanooga. The Murfreesboro raid, along with Morgan’s raid into Kentucky (we’ll hear more about that in coming days), made possible the concentration of General Braxton Bragg’s forces at Chattanooga and his invasion of Kentucky in early September.
[Special to Herald.]—The Unionists lost $30,000 worth of army stores at Murfreesboro. The Union forces engaged were the 3d Minnesota,1 Col. Lester,2 six companies of the 11th Michigan, Col. Parkhurst, 300 strong, the 3d battalion 7th Pennsylvania cavalry, 225, Hewett’s battery, 60 men, the 4th Kentucky, in all about 1,400 men.
The rebel force consisted of one regiment of mounted infantry, a regiment of Texan rangers, and Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee cavalry, between 3,000 and 4,000, mostly armed with carbines and shot guns. Their loss in killed and wounded heavier than ours.
The Pennsylvania 7th lost in killed, wounded, and missing, 200 men.
The only officers escaped as far as reported, are Capt. J. F. Andrus, Capt. C. C. McCormick, and Lieut. H. D. Mooney.
The Commissionary Department was recently replenished with new clothing, etc. which has fallen into the hands of the enemy.
Capt. Rounds, Provost Marshall of Murfreesboro, and Guard, shot nine rebels before surrendering. The rebel Gov. Harris and Andrews Ewing were known to be near Sparta a few days since, organizing a raid on Murfreesboro, which may it is apprehended, be extended to the Capital of the State.
The public are still in a great state of excitement, many families having left.—The Louisville cars this morning were filled with alarmed spectators and adventures.
It is reported that Gen. John C. Breckinridge, Col. Forest,3 and Col. Raines, of Nashville, commanded the rebel forces at Murfreesboro. It is also reported that they have taken Loreign, fifteen miles from Nashville, and that Gen. Kirby Smith is advancing on Nashville from Chattanooga with 15,000 men.
Murfreesboro was barricaded with bales of hay, and the federal shells set fire to many of the houses. Col. Lester is falling back towards Nashville.
Union re-enforcements are coming up by special trains.
The 28th Kentucky has just arrived. They are cheered as they passed through the streets. The secessionists confidently expect the arrival of the rebel forces some time to-night.
Col. Lester surrendered at Murfreesboro at four o’clock P. M.—the Minnesota Third and Hewitt’s battery including—the latter for want of ammunition.
Men are lying on the sidewalks asleep, holding their horses’ bridles in their hands, expecting every moment to be called into action.
https://thecivilwarandnorthwestwisconsin.wordpress.com/2012/07/23/1862-july-23-first-battle-of-murfreesboro-and-the-3rd-minnesota/
C Monday, July 13, 1863: Draft riots, New York City.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186307
C+ Monday, July 13, 1863 --- The New York City Draft Riots. In what will become the worst and most violent civil disturbance in United States history, riots begin spreading across the city, starting from the Five Points district and arising mostly out of unrest in the Irish populace and their dissatisfaction over the military draft, and the unwillingness of the working class to join the Army. A mob of 3,000 to 4, 000 people attack the Provost Marshal’s office, where the drawing of names for the Draft is being done, and capture the lists and draft tickets, scattering and destroying them. Then, they set fire to the buildings. The mob begins to catch and lynch negroes, and they attack the Colored Orphan Asylum on Fifth Avenue, looting the facility of any valuables, and set fire to the building. The firefighters are unable (or unwilling) to save the school. The mob attacks the local Armory at Second Avenue and a battle with police commences there. The mob also attacks the offices of Horace Greeley' New York Tribune. By 5:00 PM, the rioters have burned 7 buildings and killed 6 policemen, and attempt to murder Superintendent of Police Kennedy.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+13%2C+1863
D Monday, July 13, 1863: Louden County and Aldie, Virginia - On July 13, Col. John S. Mosby and 27 Confederate raiders attacked 29 Sutler wagons. The Confederates overran the guards and encircled the entire wagon train. They captured all of the wagons and took the sutlers as prisoners. Instead of destroying the wagons as usual, Mosby decided to take the wagons toward Middleburg.
The Union command learned of the attack and sent a Union detachment from the 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry to find and capture the Confederates and the wagons. At Aldie, the Federals caught up with the Confederates and overtook them. The outnumbered Confederates had no choice but to abandon the wagons and escape. The wagons and prisoners were recaptured.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1863s.html
FYI SPC Deb Root-WhiteLt Col Charlie Brown CWO2 John HeinzlGySgt Jack Wallace SPC Diana D. CWO4 Terrence Clark SPC Michael Oles SR SPC Michael Terrell TSgt David L. CPL Ronald Keyes Jr PO1 John Johnson SPC (Join to see) SMSgt Lawrence McCarter SP5 Dave (Shotgun) Shockley SGT Paul Russo[~1757912"LTC Keith L Jackson] A1C Pamela G RussellLTC Trent KlugMSG Roy CheeverPO2 Russell "Russ" Lincoln
Sunday, July 13, 1862: “Gen. Pope’s Federal army is spread from Falmouth in Stafford County to Warrenton to Sperryville, near the Blue Ridge in the west, where the bulk of his army was---the divisions under Gen. Banks and Gen. Sigel. A Union cavalry contingent has advanced and taken Culpepper Court House, farther south along the line of the Orange and Alexandria RR, which runs north-south. Pope orders Brig. Gen. John Hatch, who commands a small mounted division of 3,000, to establish Culpepper as his HQ, and to send out pickets 20 miles to the south and southeast.”
Sunday, July 13, 1862: “Gen. Lee gives Stonewall Jackson orders to take his own division and that of Gen. Ewell, about 11,000 men, and to move northward to challenge the new operations of Gen. Pope and the new Federal Army of Virginia, who is now threatening a number of railroads, including the Virginia Central, Richmond’s main link with the Shenandoah Valley. As soon as Jackson receives the orders on this date, he moves. By sundown he and his 11,000 troops are out of camp and on the road. Jackson’s march follows the line of the Virginia Central Railroad, with the intention of occupying Gordonsville, astride Pope’s proposed path of advance.”
Below are a number of journal entries from 1862 and 1863 which shed light on what life was like for soldiers and
Sunday, July 13, 1862: Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, commander of the Army of the Potomac---still bottled up at Harrison’s Landing on the James Peninsula of Virginia---is beginning to assess the damage not only to the army but also to his own career. McClellan had suspected Sec. of War Edwin M. Stanton of being the main force against him in Washington, and sent a letter of accusation---after which, Stanton wrote a letter protesting that “No man had ever a truer friend than I have been to you and shall continue to be.” McClellan withdrew his letter. However, the General continues to harbor suspicions. In a letter to his wife Ellen, he empties both barrels at Stanton's character: “So, you want to know how I feel about Stanton? I will tell you with the most perfect frankness. I think that he is the most unmitigated scoundrel I ever knew, heard, or read of; I think that (and I do not wish to be irreverent) had he lived in the time of the Saviour, Judas Iscariot would have remained a respected member of the fraternity of the Apostles, and that the magnificent treachery and rascality of E.M. Stanton would have caused Judas to have raised his arms in holy horror and unaffected wonder – he would certainly have claimed and exercised the right to have been been the Betrayer of his Lord and Master, by virtue of the same merit that raised Satan to his “bad eminence.” I may do the man injustice – God grant that I may be wrong – for I hate to think that humanity can sink so low – but my opinion is just as I have told you.”
Monday, July 13, 1863 --- Col. Robert Gould Shaw, commander of the 54th Massachusetts Inf. Reg., writes to his wife Annie about the regiment’s transfer to James and Morris Island, near Charleston, South Carolina: “My Darling Annie, just after closing my last, on the envelope of which I said we were ordered away from St. Helena’s Island, we embarked on board the "Chasseur." We sailed at about 3 P.M., without anything but India-rubber blankets and a little hardbread, and arrived off Stono Inlet, near Charleston Harbour, at about one o’clock this morning. We lay off the bar until 1 P.M. waiting for the flood-tide. The sea was running very high all the time, so that the men were very sea-sick, and we had a decidedly uncomfortable day. . . .
July 10th—Still on board our transport. Last night, two regiments landed, but encountered nothing but a few outposts. General Terry’s part is only to make a feint, the real attack being on Morris Island from Folly. That began this morning, and the news from there is, that General Gillmore has got all his troops on Morris Island, and has possession of nearly half of it.
This afternoon I went inland about two miles, and from a housetop saw Fort Sumter, our Monitors, and the spires of Charleston. Just now the news of the fall of Vicksburg, and of Lee’s defeat has reached us. What an excitement there must be through the North! For my part, though, I do not believe the end is coming yet, and the next mail will probably tell us that Lee has got away with a good part of his army; there is too much danger of our government making a compromise, for peace to be entirely welcome now. I am very glad that McClellan was not restored to command, for such vacillation in the government would have been too contemptible. Every one can rejoice at Meade’s success, as he is as yet identified with no party. I hope the prisoners will not be paroled, for they will be in the army again in a month, if they are.
I found a classmate, to-day, on board the "Nantucket," surgeon there, and George Lawrence, of the class above me, paymaster on board the "Pawnee." They are both very nice fellows; particularly so, because they have invited me to dinner; having had hardly anything but hard-bread and salt-junk since we left camp, a good dinner is to be desired. . . .
Saturday evening — We landed at noon to-day, and are now about two miles inland. There are two Brigades in line in advance of us. I don’t think anything will be done on this side.
13th — Yesterday I dined with Lawrence on board the "Pawnee," and met some very pleasant men among the officers. It has been very fortunate for me to have found so many old acquaintances here, as it has been the means of my meeting a great many people who would have otherwise been disinclined to make the acquaintance of an officer commanding a black regiment.
Our men are out on picket with the white regiments, and have no trouble with them. One of my companies was driven in by a small force of Rebels last night, and behaved very well indeed. The Rebel pickets call to us, that they will give us three days to clear out. . . .
We have not had out clothes off since we left St. Helena, and have absolutely nothing but an India-rubber blanket apiece. Officers and men are in the same boat. I sent down to-day to get a clean shirt and a horse. They will not allow any accumulation of luggage here.
The general feeling is that Gillmore will get Charleston at last. . . .
Governor Andrew writes that he has urged the Secretary of War to send General Barlow here to take command of the black troops. This is what I have been asking him to do for some time.
We got some ham for dinner to-day, which is an improvement on salt-junk. I hope the mail will be allowed to go this time. Good bye, dearest Annie. Your loving Rob”
Monday, July 13, 1863: George Templeton Strong writes of the Riots in his journal, and how he goes walking to investigate: “Above Twentieth Street all shops were closed, and many people standing and staring or strolling uptown, not riotously disposed but eager and curious. Here and there a rough could be heard damning the draft. No policeman to be seen anywhere. Reached the seat of war at last, Forty-sixth Street and Third Avenue. Three houses on the avenue and two or three on the street were burned down; engines playing on the ruins---more energetically, I’m told, than they did when their efforts would have been useful.
The crowd seemed just what one commonly sees at any fire, but its nucleus of riot was concealed by an outside layer of ordinary peaceable lookers-on. Was told they had beat off a squad of police and another of “regulars”. . . . At last, it opened and out streamed a posse of perhaps five hundred, certainly less than one thousand, of the lowest Irish day laborers. The rabble was perfectly homogeneous. Every brute in the drove was pure Celtic---hod-carrier or loafer. They were unarmed. A few carried pieces of fence-paling and the like. They turned off west into Forty-fifth Street and gradually collected in front of two three-story dwelling houses on Lexington Avenue, just below that street, that stand alone together on a nearly vacant block. . . . Some said a drafting officer lived in one of them, others that a damaged policeman had taken refuge there. The mob was in no hurry. . . . After a while sporadic paving-stones began to fly at the windows, ladies and children emerged from the rear and had a rather hard scramble over a high board fence, and then scudded off across the open, Heaven knows whither. Then men and small boys . . . began smashing the sashes and the blinds and shied out light articles, such as books and crockery, and dropped chairs and mirrors into the back yard; the rear fence was demolished and loafers were seen marching off with portable articles of furniture. And at last a light smoke began to float out of the windows and I came away. . . .
The fury of the low Irish women in that region was noteworthy. Stalwart young vixens and withered old hags were swarming everywhere, all cursing the “bloody draft” and egging on their men to mischief. . . . If a quarter one hears to be true, this is an organized insurrection in the interest of the rebellion and Jefferson Davis rules New York today. . . .
We telegraphed, two or three of us, from General Wool’s rooms, to the President, begging that troops be sent on and stringent measures taken. The great misfortune is that nearly all our militia regiments have been despatched to Pennsylvania. . . . These wretched rioters have been plundering freely, I hear. Their outbreak will either destroy the city of damage the Copperhead cause fatally. Could we but catch the scoundrels who have stirred them up, what a blessing it would be!”
Pictures: 1862-07-13 Battle of Murfreesboro, TN; CSA Gen John Mosby; 1861-07-13 The Battle of Corrick's Ford in Beverly, West Virginia; xx
A. Saturday, July 13, 1861: Battle of Corrick's Ford, western Virginia. Significant Federal victory because it cleared the region of Confederates. Saturday, July 13, 1861: The Union troops in West Virginia under McClellan advance, and attack the Confederate force at Corrick's Ford. While directing his rear guard General Robert Garnett is shot and dies minutes later. He is the first general to die during the Civil War
On this day, Union General George B. McClellan distinguishes himself by routing Confederates under General Robert Garnett at Corrick’s Ford in western Virginia. The battle ensured Yankee control of the region, secured the Union’s east-west railroad connections, and set in motion the events that would lead to the creation of West Virginia.
Background: Two days before Corrick’s Ford, Union troops under General William Rosecrans flanked a Confederate force at nearby Rich Mountain. The defeat forced Garnett to retreat from his position on Laurel Hill, while part of McClellan’s force pursued him across the Cheat River. A pitched battle ensued near Corrick’s Ford, in which Garnett was killed—the first general officer to die in the war. But losses were otherwise light, with only 70 Confederate, and 10 Union, casualties.
The Battle of Corrick’s Ford was a significant victory because it cleared the region of Confederates Unfortunately for the Union, the small campaign that climaxed at Corrick’s Ford was the zenith of McClellan’s military career.
B. Sunday, July 13, 1862: Battle of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The First Battle of Murfreesboro was fought on July 13, 1862, in Rutherford County, Tennessee. Troops under Confederate cavalry commander Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest surprised and quickly overran a Federal hospital, the camps of several small Union units, and the jail and courthouse in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. All of the Union units surrendered to Forrest, and the Confederates destroyed much of the Union's supplies and destroyed railroad track in the area. The primary consequence of the raid was the diversion of Union forces from a drive on Chattanooga.
Background: On June 10, 1862, Union Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell, commanding the Army of the Ohio, started a leisurely advance toward Chattanooga. Brig. Gen. James S. Negley and his force threatened the city on June 7–8. In response to the threat, the Confederate government sent Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest to Chattanooga to organize a cavalry brigade. By July, Confederate cavalry under the command of Forrest and Colonel John Hunt Morgan were raiding into Middle Tennessee and Kentucky.
Forrest left Chattanooga on July 9 with two cavalry regiments and joined other units on the way, bringing the total force to about 1,400 men. The major objective was to strike Murfreesboro, an important Union supply center on the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad, at dawn on July 13.
Battle: The Murfreesboro garrison was camped in three locations around town and included detachments from four units comprising infantry, cavalry, and artillery, under the command of Brig. Gen. Thomas Turpin Crittenden, who had just arrived on July 12. Between 4:15 and 4:30 a.m. on the morning of July 13, Forrest's cavalry surprised the Union pickets on the Woodbury Pike, east of Murfreesboro, and quickly overran a Federal hospital and the camp of a detachment from the 9th Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment. Additional Confederate troops attacked the camps of the other Union commands and the jail and courthouse. By late afternoon all of the Union units had surrendered to Forrest.
Aftermath: The Confederates destroyed much of the Union supplies and tore up railroad track in the area, but the main result of the raid was the diversion of Union forces from a drive on Chattanooga. This raid, along with Morgan's raid into Kentucky, made possible Bragg's concentration of forces at Chattanooga and his early September invasion of Kentucky. The next action at Murfreesboro was the more prominent Battle of Stones River (known as the Battle of Murfreesboro in the South), fought December 31, 1862, to January 2, 1863.
Sunday, July 13, 1862: First Battle of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. By late afternoon all of the Union units had surrendered to the Confederates. The Confederates destroyed much of the Union supplies and tore up railroad track in the area, but the main result of the Confederate raid was to divert the Union forces from a drive on Chattanooga. The Murfreesboro raid, along with Morgan’s raid into Kentucky (we’ll hear more about that in coming days), made possible the concentration of General Braxton Bragg’s forces at Chattanooga and his invasion of Kentucky in early September.
[Special to Herald.]—The Unionists lost $30,000 worth of army stores at Murfreesboro. The Union forces engaged were the 3d Minnesota,1 Col. Lester,2 six companies of the 11th Michigan, Col. Parkhurst, 300 strong, the 3d battalion 7th Pennsylvania cavalry, 225, Hewett’s battery, 60 men, the 4th Kentucky, in all about 1,400 men.
The rebel force consisted of one regiment of mounted infantry, a regiment of Texan rangers, and Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee cavalry, between 3,000 and 4,000, mostly armed with carbines and shot guns. Their loss in killed and wounded heavier than ours.
The Pennsylvania 7th lost in killed, wounded, and missing, 200 men.
The only officers escaped as far as reported, are Capt. J. F. Andrus, Capt. C. C. McCormick, and Lieut. H. D. Mooney.
The Commissionary Department was recently replenished with new clothing, etc. which has fallen into the hands of the enemy.
Capt. Rounds, Provost Marshall of Murfreesboro, and Guard, shot nine rebels before surrendering. The rebel Gov. Harris and Andrews Ewing were known to be near Sparta a few days since, organizing a raid on Murfreesboro, which may it is apprehended, be extended to the Capital of the State.
The public are still in a great state of excitement, many families having left.—The Louisville cars this morning were filled with alarmed spectators and adventures.
It is reported that Gen. John C. Breckinridge, Col. Forest,3 and Col. Raines, of Nashville, commanded the rebel forces at Murfreesboro. It is also reported that they have taken Loreign, fifteen miles from Nashville, and that Gen. Kirby Smith is advancing on Nashville from Chattanooga with 15,000 men.
Murfreesboro was barricaded with bales of hay, and the federal shells set fire to many of the houses. Col. Lester is falling back towards Nashville.
Union re-enforcements are coming up by special trains.
The 28th Kentucky has just arrived. They are cheered as they passed through the streets. The secessionists confidently expect the arrival of the rebel forces some time to-night.
Col. Lester surrendered at Murfreesboro at four o’clock P. M.—the Minnesota Third and Hewitt’s battery including—the latter for want of ammunition.
Men are lying on the sidewalks asleep, holding their horses’ bridles in their hands, expecting every moment to be called into action.
C. Monday, July 13, 1863: The New York City Draft Riots. In what will become the worst and most violent civil disturbance in United States history, riots begin spreading across the city, starting from the Five Points district and arising mostly out of unrest in the Irish populace and their dissatisfaction over the military draft, and the unwillingness of the working class to join the Army. A mob of 3,000 to 4, 000 people attack the Provost Marshal’s office, where the drawing of names for the Draft is being done, and capture the lists and draft tickets, scattering and destroying them. Then, they set fire to the buildings. The mob begins to catch and lynch negroes, and they attack the Colored Orphan Asylum on Fifth Avenue, looting the facility of any valuables, and set fire to the building. The firefighters are unable (or unwilling) to save the school. The mob attacks the local Armory at Second Avenue and a battle with police commences there. The mob also attacks the offices of Horace Greeley' New York Tribune. By 5:00 PM, the rioters have burned 7 buildings and killed 6 policemen, and attempt to murder Superintendent of Police Kennedy.
D. Monday, July 13, 1863: Loudoun County and Aldie, Virginia - Col. John S. Mosby and 27 Confederate raiders attacked 29 Sutler wagons. The Confederates overran the guards and encircled the entire wagon train. They captured all of the wagons and took the sutlers as prisoners. Instead of destroying the wagons as usual, Mosby decided to take the wagons toward Middleburg.
The Union command learned of the attack and sent a Union detachment from the 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry to find and capture the Confederates and the wagons. At Aldie, the Federals caught up with the Confederates and overtook them. The outnumbered Confederates had no choice but to abandon the wagons and escape. The wagons and prisoners were recaptured.
1. Saturday, July 13, 1861: The Union troops in West Virginia under McClellan advance, and attack the Confederate force at Corrick's Ford, under Gen. Robert S. Garnett, who is killed in the fight. West Virginia is firmly in Northern hands now.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+13%2C+1861
2. Sunday, July 13, 1862: First Battle of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Nathan Bedford Forrest
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186207
3. Sunday, July 13, 1862 --- Gen. Pope’s Federal army is spread from Falmouth in Stafford County to Warrenton to Sperryville, near the Blue Ridge in the west, where the bulk of his army was---the divisions under Gen. Banks and Gen. Sigel. A Union cavalry contingent has advanced and taken Culpepper Court House, farther south along the line of the Orange and Alexandria RR, which runs north-south. Pope orders Brig. Gen. John Hatch, who commands a small mounted division of 3,000, to establish Culpepper as his HQ, and to send out pickets 20 miles to the south and southeast.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+13%2C+1862
4. Sunday, July 13, 1862 --- Gen. Lee gives Stonewall Jackson orders to take his own division and that of Gen. Ewell, about 11,000 men, and to move northward to challenge the new operations of Gen. Pope and the new Federal Army of Virginia, who is now threatening a number of railroads, including the Virginia Central, Richmond’s main link with the Shenandoah Valley. As soon as Jackson receives the orders on this date, he moves. By sundown he and his 11,000 troops are out of camp and on the road. Jackson’s march follows the line of the Virginia Central Railroad, with the intention of occupying Gordonsville, astride Pope’s proposed path of advance.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+13%2C+1862
5. Sunday, July 13, 1862: Rapidan Station, Virginia - On July 13, the Union forces entered the area at Rapidan Station. They encountered a small Confederate force guarding the train station, driving them away. The Federals then destroyed the railroad bridge located over the Rapidan River. With this accomplished, they withdrew back to their camp.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1862s.html
6. Sunday, July 13, 1862: near Wolf River, Tennessee - On July 13, a force of Confederate cavalry was near the Wolf River when they spotted a Union supply train belonging to Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman. The cavalry attacked the train and was able to burn part of the train.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1862s.html
7. Sunday, July 13, 1862: Abraham Lincoln reads a draft of the Emancipation proclamation to Secretary of State William Seward and Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, both strong abolitionists. Seward begins talking about the problems it will cause. Welles sits there dumbfounded.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186207
8. Sunday, July 13, 1862 --- Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, commander of the Army of the Potomac---still bottled up at Harrison’s Landing on the James Peninsula of Virginia---is beginning to assess the damage not only to the army but also to his own career. McClellan had suspected Sec. of War Edwin M. Stanton of being the main force against him in Washington, and sent a letter of accusation---after which, Stanton wrote a letter protesting that “No man had ever a truer friend than I have been to you and shall continue to be.” McClellan withdrew his letter. However, the General continues to harbor suspicions. In a letter to his wife Ellen, he empties both barrels at Stanton's character: “So, you want to know how I feel about Stanton? I will tell you with the most perfect frankness. I think that he is the most unmitigated scoundrel I ever knew, heard, or read of; I think that (and I do not wish to be irreverent) had he lived in the time of the Saviour, Judas Iscariot would have remained a respected member of the fraternity of the Apostles, and that the magnificent treachery and rascality of E.M. Stanton would have caused Judas to have raised his arms in holy horror and unaffected wonder – he would certainly have claimed and exercised the right to have been been the Betrayer of his Lord and Master, by virtue of the same merit that raised Satan to his “bad eminence.” I may do the man injustice – God grant that I may be wrong – for I hate to think that humanity can sink so low – but my opinion is just as I have told you.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+13%2C+1862
9. Sunday, July 13, 1862 --- Pres. Lincoln, having visited the seat of war and the Army of the Potomac in recent days, mulls over the figures given him by Gen. McClellan. Note that Lincoln is gently trying to jog McClellan’s veracity a bit---as we see in the toned-down irony of the fourth sentence of the letter. Thus, he has exposed the looseness with numbers in McClellan’s reports: EXECUTIVE MANSION. Washington, July 13, 1862; Major-General McCLELLAN: MY DEAR SIR: “I am told that over 160,000 men have gone into your army on the Peninsula. When I was with you the other day we made out 86,500 remaining, leaving 73,500 to be accounted for. I believe 23,500 will cover all the killed, wounded, and missing in all your battles and skirmishers, leaving 50,000 who have left otherwise. Not more than 5,000 of these have died, leaving 45,000 of your army still alive and not with it. I believe half or two-thirds of them are fit for duty to-day. Have you any more perfect knowledge of this than I have? If I am right, and you had these men with you, you could go into Richmond in the next three days. How can they be got to you, and how can they be prevented from getting away in such numbers for the future? A. LINCOLN.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+13%2C+1862
10. Monday, July 13, 1863: After several days of plundering Indiana, John Hunt Morgan crosses into Ohio.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186307
11. Monday, July 13, 1863 --- Lt. Col. Arthur Fremantle, of Her Majesty’s Coldstream Guards, is visiting New York on his way home to Britain. He happens to get a first-row seat to witness the New York riots: “I walked the whole distance of Broadway to the Consul's house, and nothing could exceed the apparent prosperity; the street was covered with banners and placards inviting people to enlist in various high-sounding regiments. Bounties of $550 were offered, and huge pictures hung across the street, on which numbers of ragged greybacks, terror depicted on their features, were being pursued by the Federals.
On returning to the Fifth Avenue, I found all the shopkeepers beginning to close their stores, and I perceived by degrees that there was great alarm about the resistance to the draft which was going on this morning. On reaching the hotel I perceived a whole block of buildings on fire close by: engines were present, but were not allowed to play by the crowd. In the hotel itself, universal consternation prevailed, and an attack by the mob had been threatened. I walked about in the neighbourhood, and saw a company of soldiers on the march, who were being jeered at and hooted by small boys, and I saw a negro pursued by the crowd take refuge with the military; he was followed by loud cries of "Down with the b——y nigger! Kill all niggers!" &c.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+13%2C+1863
12. Monday, July 13, 1863 --- Col. Robert Gould Shaw, commander of the 54th Massachusetts Inf. Reg., writes to his wife Annie about the regiment’s transfer to James and Morris Island, near Charleston, South Carolina: “My Darling Annie, just after closing my last, on the envelope of which I said we were ordered away from St. Helena’s Island, we embarked on board the "Chasseur." We sailed at about 3 P.M., without anything but India-rubber blankets and a little hardbread, and arrived off Stono Inlet, near Charleston Harbour, at about one o’clock this morning. We lay off the bar until 1 P.M. waiting for the flood-tide. The sea was running very high all the time, so that the men were very sea-sick, and we had a decidedly uncomfortable day. . . .
July 10th—Still on board our transport. Last night, two regiments landed, but encountered nothing but a few outposts. General Terry’s part is only to make a feint, the real attack being on Morris Island from Folly. That began this morning, and the news from there is, that General Gillmore has got all his troops on Morris Island, and has possession of nearly half of it.
This afternoon I went inland about two miles, and from a housetop saw Fort Sumter, our Monitors, and the spires of Charleston. Just now the news of the fall of Vicksburg, and of Lee’s defeat has reached us. What an excitement there must be through the North! For my part, though, I do not believe the end is coming yet, and the next mail will probably tell us that Lee has got away with a good part of his army; there is too much danger of our government making a compromise, for peace to be entirely welcome now. I am very glad that McClellan was not restored to command, for such vacillation in the government would have been too contemptible. Every one can rejoice at Meade’s success, as he is as yet identified with no party. I hope the prisoners will not be paroled, for they will be in the army again in a month, if they are.
I found a classmate, to-day, on board the "Nantucket," surgeon there, and George Lawrence, of the class above me, paymaster on board the "Pawnee." They are both very nice fellows; particularly so, because they have invited me to dinner; having had hardly anything but hard-bread and salt-junk since we left camp, a good dinner is to be desired. . . .
Saturday evening — We landed at noon to-day, and are now about two miles inland. There are two Brigades in line in advance of us. I don’t think anything will be done on this side.
13th — Yesterday I dined with Lawrence on board the "Pawnee," and met some very pleasant men among the officers. It has been very fortunate for me to have found so many old acquaintances here, as it has been the means of my meeting a great many people who would have otherwise been disinclined to make the acquaintance of an officer commanding a black regiment.
Our men are out on picket with the white regiments, and have no trouble with them. One of my companies was driven in by a small force of Rebels last night, and behaved very well indeed. The Rebel pickets call to us, that they will give us three days to clear out. . . .
We have not had out clothes off since we left St. Helena, and have absolutely nothing but an India-rubber blanket apiece. Officers and men are in the same boat. I sent down to-day to get a clean shirt and a horse. They will not allow any accumulation of luggage here.
The general feeling is that Gillmore will get Charleston at last. . . .
Governor Andrew writes that he has urged the Secretary of War to send General Barlow here to take command of the black troops. This is what I have been asking him to do for some time.
We got some ham for dinner to-day, which is an improvement on salt-junk. I hope the mail will be allowed to go this time. Good bye, dearest Annie. Your loving Rob”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+13%2C+1863
13. Monday, July 13, 1863 --- George Templeton Strong writes of the Riots in his journal, and how he goes walking to investigate: “Above Twentieth Street all shops were closed, and many people standing and staring or strolling uptown, not riotously disposed but eager and curious. Here and there a rough could be heard damning the draft. No policeman to be seen anywhere. Reached the seat of war at last, Forty-sixth Street and Third Avenue. Three houses on the avenue and two or three on the street were burned down; engines playing on the ruins---more energetically, I’m told, than they did when their efforts would have been useful.
The crowd seemed just what one commonly sees at any fire, but its nucleus of riot was concealed by an outside layer of ordinary peaceable lookers-on. Was told they had beat off a squad of police and another of “regulars”. . . . At last, it opened and out streamed a posse of perhaps five hundred, certainly less than one thousand, of the lowest Irish day laborers. The rabble was perfectly homogeneous. Every brute in the drove was pure Celtic---hod-carrier or loafer. They were unarmed. A few carried pieces of fence-paling and the like. They turned off west into Forty-fifth Street and gradually collected in front of two three-story dwelling houses on Lexington Avenue, just below that street, that stand alone together on a nearly vacant block. . . . Some said a drafting officer lived in one of them, others that a damaged policeman had taken refuge there. The mob was in no hurry. . . . After a while sporadic paving-stones began to fly at the windows, ladies and children emerged from the rear and had a rather hard scramble over a high board fence, and then scudded off across the open, Heaven knows whither. Then men and small boys . . . began smashing the sashes and the blinds and shied out light articles, such as books and crockery, and dropped chairs and mirrors into the back yard; the rear fence was demolished and loafers were seen marching off with portable articles of furniture. And at last a light smoke began to float out of the windows and I came away. . . .
The fury of the low Irish women in that region was noteworthy. Stalwart young vixens and withered old hags were swarming everywhere, all cursing the “bloody draft” and egging on their men to mischief. . . . If a quarter one hears to be true, this is an organized insurrection in the interest of the rebellion and Jefferson Davis rules New York today. . . .
We telegraphed, two or three of us, from General Wool’s rooms, to the President, begging that troops be sent on and stringent measures taken. The great misfortune is that nearly all our militia regiments have been despatched to Pennsylvania. . . . These wretched rioters have been plundering freely, I hear. Their outbreak will either destroy the city of damage the Copperhead cause fatally. Could we but catch the scoundrels who have stirred them up, what a blessing it would be!”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+13%2C+1863
14. Monday, July 13, 1863: Draft riots, New York City. When officials (accompanied by just a dozen police officers) arrived at the city’s Provost Marshall’s office on the morning of Monday, July 13, they found a restless, anxious crowd of roughly 500, many of them armed. Shortly after the draft’s 10:30 a.m. start time, a volunteer fire company, angered at the military conscription of their chief two days earlier, arrived on the scene. Known as Black Joke Engine Co. No. 33, the burly group was just as famous for their fist-fighting skills as they were for their fire fighting. The men soon began to smash the building’s windows and force their way inside, followed closely by the growing mob. After breaking in, they destroyed much of the draft equipment as local officials fled the scene. The protestors, meanwhile, began to spread out across the city, growing in numbers.
An early target of the mob was the pro-war press, particularly the New York Tribune, run by ardent abolitionist Horace Greeley. By mid-morning a group of protestors had descended on the city’s lower Manhattan media district and were only turned away under heavy fire by armed newspaper staffers. Around the same time, another mob contingent laid waste to the one of the city’s armories. Late that afternoon, the crowd reached the Colored Orphan Asylum on Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street, home to more than 230 children. The orphanage’s staff was able to evacuate all of the children to safety, but just minutes later the mob turned on the building with a savage ferocity, uprooting trees, destroying clothing, toys and supplies before setting fire to the building. As the first day of the riots wore on, many of its early members, whose opposition had been focused solely on the draft itself, turned away from the increasingly violent mob. Many, including some of the men from the Black Joke Engine Co. would spend the next several days combating the rioters and protecting the city’s citizens.
http://www.history.com/news/four-days-of-fire-the-new-york-city-draft-riots
15. Monday, July 13, 1863: Battle of Yazoo City, Mississippi.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186307
16. Monday, July 13, 1863: Battle of Donaldsonville, Louisiana.
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17. Monday, July 13, 1863 --- Morgan’s Rebel raiders raid and sack Harrison, Indiana, and later cross into Ohio this evening.
A Saturday, July 13, 1861: Battle of Corrick's Ford, West Virginia. While directing his rear guard General Robert Garnett is shot and dies minutes later. He is the first general to die during the Civil War
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A+ On this day, Union General George B. McClellan distinguishes himself by routing Confederates under General Robert Garnett at Corrick’s Ford in western Virginia. The battle ensured Yankee control of the region, secured the Union’s east-west railroad connections, and set in motion the events that would lead to the creation of West Virginia.
Two days before Corrick’s Ford, Union troops under General William Rosecrans flanked a Confederate force at nearby Rich Mountain. The defeat forced Garnett to retreat from his position on Laurel Hill, while part of McClellan’s force pursued him across the Cheat River. A pitched battle ensued near Corrick’s Ford, in which Garnett was killed—the first general officer to die in the war. But losses were otherwise light, with only 70 Confederate, and 10 Union, casualties.
The Battle of Corrick’s Ford was a significant victory because it cleared the region of Confederates, but it is often overlooked, particularly because it was overshadowed by the Battle of Bull Run, Virginia, which occurred shortly thereafter on July 21. However, the success made McClellan a hero, even though his achievements were inflated. Two weeks later, McClellan became commander of the Army of the Potomac, the primary Federal army in the east. Unfortunately for the Union, the small campaign that climaxed at Corrick’s Ford was the zenith of McClellan’s military career.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/union-routs-rebels-at-the-battle-of-corricks-ford
B Sunday, July 13, 1862: First Battle of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The First Battle of Murfreesboro was fought on July 13, 1862, in Rutherford County, Tennessee, as part of the American Civil War. Troops under Confederate cavalry commander Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest surprised and quickly overran a Federal hospital, the camps of several small Union units, and the jail and courthouse in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. All of the Union units surrendered to Forrest, and the Confederates destroyed much of the Union's supplies and destroyed railroad track in the area. The primary consequence of the raid was the diversion of Union forces from a drive on Chattanooga.
Background: On June 10, 1862, Union Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell, commanding the Army of the Ohio, started a leisurely advance toward Chattanooga. Brig. Gen. James S. Negley and his force threatened the city on June 7–8. In response to the threat, the Confederate government sent Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest to Chattanooga to organize a cavalry brigade. By July, Confederate cavalry under the command of Forrest and Colonel John Hunt Morgan were raiding into Middle Tennessee and Kentucky.
Forrest left Chattanooga on July 9 with two cavalry regiments and joined other units on the way, bringing the total force to about 1,400 men. The major objective was to strike Murfreesboro, an important Union supply center on the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad, at dawn on July 13.
Battle: The Murfreesboro garrison was camped in three locations around town and included detachments from four units comprising infantry, cavalry, and artillery, under the command of Brig. Gen. Thomas Turpin Crittenden, who had just arrived on July 12. Between 4:15 and 4:30 a.m. on the morning of July 13, Forrest's cavalry surprised the Union pickets on the Woodbury Pike, east of Murfreesboro, and quickly overran a Federal hospital and the camp of a detachment from the 9th Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment. Additional Confederate troops attacked the camps of the other Union commands and the jail and courthouse. By late afternoon all of the Union units had surrendered to Forrest.
Aftermath: The Confederates destroyed much of the Union supplies and tore up railroad track in the area, but the main result of the raid was the diversion of Union forces from a drive on Chattanooga. This raid, along with Morgan's raid into Kentucky, made possible Bragg's concentration of forces at Chattanooga and his early September invasion of Kentucky. The next action at Murfreesboro was the more prominent Battle of Stones River (known as the Battle of Murfreesboro in the South), fought December 31, 1862, to January 2, 1863.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Murfreesboro
B+ Sunday, July 13, 1862: First Battle of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. By late afternoon all of the Union units had surrendered to the Confederates. The Confederates destroyed much of the Union supplies and tore up railroad track in the area, but the main result of the Confederate raid was to divert the Union forces from a drive on Chattanooga. The Murfreesboro raid, along with Morgan’s raid into Kentucky (we’ll hear more about that in coming days), made possible the concentration of General Braxton Bragg’s forces at Chattanooga and his invasion of Kentucky in early September.
[Special to Herald.]—The Unionists lost $30,000 worth of army stores at Murfreesboro. The Union forces engaged were the 3d Minnesota,1 Col. Lester,2 six companies of the 11th Michigan, Col. Parkhurst, 300 strong, the 3d battalion 7th Pennsylvania cavalry, 225, Hewett’s battery, 60 men, the 4th Kentucky, in all about 1,400 men.
The rebel force consisted of one regiment of mounted infantry, a regiment of Texan rangers, and Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee cavalry, between 3,000 and 4,000, mostly armed with carbines and shot guns. Their loss in killed and wounded heavier than ours.
The Pennsylvania 7th lost in killed, wounded, and missing, 200 men.
The only officers escaped as far as reported, are Capt. J. F. Andrus, Capt. C. C. McCormick, and Lieut. H. D. Mooney.
The Commissionary Department was recently replenished with new clothing, etc. which has fallen into the hands of the enemy.
Capt. Rounds, Provost Marshall of Murfreesboro, and Guard, shot nine rebels before surrendering. The rebel Gov. Harris and Andrews Ewing were known to be near Sparta a few days since, organizing a raid on Murfreesboro, which may it is apprehended, be extended to the Capital of the State.
The public are still in a great state of excitement, many families having left.—The Louisville cars this morning were filled with alarmed spectators and adventures.
It is reported that Gen. John C. Breckinridge, Col. Forest,3 and Col. Raines, of Nashville, commanded the rebel forces at Murfreesboro. It is also reported that they have taken Loreign, fifteen miles from Nashville, and that Gen. Kirby Smith is advancing on Nashville from Chattanooga with 15,000 men.
Murfreesboro was barricaded with bales of hay, and the federal shells set fire to many of the houses. Col. Lester is falling back towards Nashville.
Union re-enforcements are coming up by special trains.
The 28th Kentucky has just arrived. They are cheered as they passed through the streets. The secessionists confidently expect the arrival of the rebel forces some time to-night.
Col. Lester surrendered at Murfreesboro at four o’clock P. M.—the Minnesota Third and Hewitt’s battery including—the latter for want of ammunition.
Men are lying on the sidewalks asleep, holding their horses’ bridles in their hands, expecting every moment to be called into action.
https://thecivilwarandnorthwestwisconsin.wordpress.com/2012/07/23/1862-july-23-first-battle-of-murfreesboro-and-the-3rd-minnesota/
C Monday, July 13, 1863: Draft riots, New York City.
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C+ Monday, July 13, 1863 --- The New York City Draft Riots. In what will become the worst and most violent civil disturbance in United States history, riots begin spreading across the city, starting from the Five Points district and arising mostly out of unrest in the Irish populace and their dissatisfaction over the military draft, and the unwillingness of the working class to join the Army. A mob of 3,000 to 4, 000 people attack the Provost Marshal’s office, where the drawing of names for the Draft is being done, and capture the lists and draft tickets, scattering and destroying them. Then, they set fire to the buildings. The mob begins to catch and lynch negroes, and they attack the Colored Orphan Asylum on Fifth Avenue, looting the facility of any valuables, and set fire to the building. The firefighters are unable (or unwilling) to save the school. The mob attacks the local Armory at Second Avenue and a battle with police commences there. The mob also attacks the offices of Horace Greeley' New York Tribune. By 5:00 PM, the rioters have burned 7 buildings and killed 6 policemen, and attempt to murder Superintendent of Police Kennedy.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+13%2C+1863
D Monday, July 13, 1863: Louden County and Aldie, Virginia - On July 13, Col. John S. Mosby and 27 Confederate raiders attacked 29 Sutler wagons. The Confederates overran the guards and encircled the entire wagon train. They captured all of the wagons and took the sutlers as prisoners. Instead of destroying the wagons as usual, Mosby decided to take the wagons toward Middleburg.
The Union command learned of the attack and sent a Union detachment from the 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry to find and capture the Confederates and the wagons. At Aldie, the Federals caught up with the Confederates and overtook them. The outnumbered Confederates had no choice but to abandon the wagons and escape. The wagons and prisoners were recaptured.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1863s.html
FYI SPC Deb Root-WhiteLt Col Charlie Brown CWO2 John HeinzlGySgt Jack Wallace SPC Diana D. CWO4 Terrence Clark SPC Michael Oles SR SPC Michael Terrell TSgt David L. CPL Ronald Keyes Jr PO1 John Johnson SPC (Join to see) SMSgt Lawrence McCarter SP5 Dave (Shotgun) Shockley SGT Paul Russo[~1757912"LTC Keith L Jackson] A1C Pamela G RussellLTC Trent KlugMSG Roy CheeverPO2 Russell "Russ" Lincoln
The American Civil War 150 Years Ago Today: Search results for July 13, 1861
A no-frills day-by-day account of what was happening 150 years ago, this blog is intended to be a way that we can experience or remember the Civil War with more immediacy, in addition to understanding the flow of time as we live in it.
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SGT Paul Russo
Fascinating ,
As advanced as we like to think we are the Beast is there laying just beneath the surface. Is it an ideology or is hardwired into our DNA . Individually we may shake our shake our heads in disbelief but collectively we participate in the slaughter of our fellow humans as the final option .
As advanced as we like to think we are the Beast is there laying just beneath the surface. Is it an ideology or is hardwired into our DNA . Individually we may shake our shake our heads in disbelief but collectively we participate in the slaughter of our fellow humans as the final option .
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PO2 Russell "Russ" Lincoln
LTC Stephen F. thanks for the history lesson. That's more information than we got in school.
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The drafty riots were very interesting LTC Stephen F. to say the least and not the only time its happened! Thanks for sharing.
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LTC Stephen F.
You are very welcome my fellow civil war history friend and brother-in-Christ SFC William Farrell
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