Posted on Jul 23, 2016
What was the most significant event on July 17 during the U.S. Civil War?
1.51K
47
10
17
17
0
Civil War Battle Series The Battle of Honey Springs, 1st Kansas takes a stand the American Civil...
Civil War Battle Series: The Battle at Honey Springs300 pairs of shackles were discovered on the Confederate supply train. Brigadier General Douglas H. Coop...
In 1861 “this day witnessed the most fighting to date. All the fighting was on a small-scale” but it took place in the west at Fulton, Missouri and in Martinsburg, Missouri; and in the east in Scarrytown, western Virginia and Bunker Hill, Virginia.
One of the first Confederate victories occurred in the battle of Scary Creek in western Virginia in 1861.CSA Col. George S. Patton, grandfather of LTC George S. Patton of WWII fame, led men in this battle. “Gen. George B. McClellan directed Jacob D. Cox of Ohio to clear the Kanawha Valley of the Confederate Army of Gen. Henry A. Wise of Virginia. Cox’s advance party crossed the Kanawha River and encountered Confederate pickets at the mouth of Little Scary Creek. He dispatched about 1,300 federal soldiers under field command of Col. John W. Lowe of the 12th Ohio Infantry to engage the approximate 900 Confederates at Scary Creek. The Confederates were led by Col. George S. Patton, grandfather of Gen. George S. Patton of World War II. A near five-hour battle of heavy musketry and artillery fire ensued, including a number of unsuccessful federal charges across the Scary Creek bridge. Patton was seriously wounded and Capt. Albert Gallatin Jenkins rallied the disorganized Confederates to victory.
President Abraham Lincoln signed the second Confiscation Act into law after it was, passed on July 17, 1862. It was “virtually an emancipation proclamation. It said that slaves of civilian and military Confederate officials “shall be forever free,” but it was enforceable only in areas of the South occupied by the Union Army. Lincoln was again concerned about the effect of an antislavery measure on the border states and again urged these states to begin gradual compensated emancipation.”
The largest and most decisive of the war’s battles fought in the Indian Territory occurs in 1863 at the Battle of Honey Springs, Oklahoma. “This battle put an end to Confederate hopes that the Five Civilized Tribes (Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole) who occupy this territory would help the South dominate in the region west of the Mississippi, and thus threaten the western borders of the northern states, too. Maj. Gen. James Blunt, always resourceful in the face of shortages and administrative indifference, was the first to raise black troops (in Kansas) and Indian troops for the Federal army. He marches his small, 3,000-man division down to Fort Gibson in the Territory to make it a strong point, positioned as it was at the junction of the Neosho and Arkansas Rivers in northeastern Oklahoma. Gen. Douglas Cooper, Confederate commander of the district, has two brigades---one of Texas troops and another of Indian troops, making nearly 5,700 men altogether---and is waiting at Honey Springs (about 20 miles to the southwest), a major Confederate supply depot, for Gen. Cabell to arrive from Ft. Smith with another 3,000 men. Gen. Blunt gets wind of Cooper’s idea, and in spite of suffering from encephalitis, Blunt gets his 3,000 troops on the road to attack the Rebels first, before they can effect a junction with Cabell’s force. With 250 mounted men and 4 cannon, Blunt first secures a crossing over the Arkansas River, and the rest of his force follows him. He now has 3,000 infantry troops, 12 field pieces, and a few cavalry troopers. As he approaches Honey Springs along the Texas Road, he finds the Rebels arrayed for battle just east of Elk Creek.
Army of the Frontier – Maj. Gen. James Blunt, commanded:
1st Brigade - Col William R. Judson
2nd Indian Home Guard --- Lt Col Fred W. Schaurte
1st Kansas Colored Infantry--- Col James M. Williams (w), Lt Col John Bowles
6 Companies, 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry --- Capt Edward R. Stevens
2nd Brigade - Col William A. Phillips
6 Companies, 2nd Colorado Infantry --- Col Theodore H. Dodd
1st Indian Home Guard --- Col Stephen H. Wattles
Detachments of 6th Kansas Cavalry* --- Col William F. Campbell
Artillery
2nd Kansas Light Artillery
1st Section --- Capt Edward Smith
2nd Section --- Lt John P. Grassberger
3rd Kansas Light Artillery* --- Capt Henry Hopkins
Blunt lines up his two brigades---one under Col. William Judson on the right, and another under Col. William Philips on the left, supported by 12 field guns.
On the Confederate side, Gen. Cooper had only 4 field guns, and three of these were 12-pounder howitzers, which fired only small loads at a limited range. Cooper’s army was organized as follows:
First Brigade, Indian Troops, Brig. Gen. Douglas Cooper, comm.
Texas Brigade - Col Thomas C. Bass
20th Texas Cavalry (Dismounted) --- Col Thomas Coker Bass
29th Texas Cavalry - Col Charles DeMorse (W)|
5th Texas Partisan Rangers--- Col Leonidas M. Martin
Indian Brigade - Brig Gen Douglas Cooper
1st Cherokee Mounted Rifles* --- Maj Joseph F. Thompson
2nd Cherokee Mounted Rifles# --- Lt Col James M. Bell
1st Choctaw---Chickasaw Mounted Rifles --- Col Tandy Walker
1st Creek --- Col Daniel N. McIntosh
2nd Creek--- Col Chilly McIntosh
Artillery & Cavalry
Lee's Battery--- Capt Roswell W. Lee
Scanland's Squadron Texas Cavalry --- Capt John Scanland
Gillett's Squadron Texas Cavalry --- Capt L. E. Gillett
Cooper is at a disadvantage because nearly a fourth of his force lack serviceable weapons, and the Rebels’ powder supply is limited and of poor quality. Some eyewitnesses claim that nearly half of the Rebels were not even engaged. The battle commences with an artillery duel that lasts for over an hour, each side having only disabled one gun of the other. Blunt has his cavalry dismount, and the battle turns into a seesaw firefight in the underbrush. At one point, the Confederate superior numbers are put to use as they extend their right to flank the Federal left. Blunt orders the 1st Kansas Colored to attack the Rebel center and capture their guns, and the black troops move forward and pour in a deadly volley fire. But the 2nd Indian Home Guard, in the smoke and confusion, veers to the right and finds itself between the 1st Kansas and the Texans they were fighting. Lt. Col. Bowles orders the Indians to retreat back into their position. From the Confederate lines, it sounds and looks as if the Union troops are retreating, and they advance into what they hope is a disintegrating Union line; but as they hit the Union line, they find an established and solid battle line, and the Federal troops pour deadly volleys into the surprised Southerners. The 20th Texas Cavalry takes especially heavy losses, and after the loss of their colors, the Confederate line begins to fall back. Cooper moves his forces farther back to guard the Elk Creek bridge while his artillery is evacuated, and later, at the Honey Springs Depot itself, the Chickasaw and Choctaw troops, supported by Texas troopers, hold off the Federals long enough to cover the retreat. The Rebels set fire to the depot, but Blunt’s men salvage much of the supplies. The Rebels immediately march west, and---two hours after the battle is over---encounter Gen. Cabell and his reinforcements---who are too late. The next day, July 18, Blunt marches his men back to Fort Gibson. Union Victory.
Losses: U.S. 79 C.S. 637”
Pictures: 1863-07-17 Union cavalry charge, Battle of Honey Springs, Indian Territory; 1861-07-17 Battle of Scary Creek map; 1863-07-17 Battle of Honey Springs, Oklahoma Map; 1862-07-02 Cynthiana, Kentucky battle map
A. 1861: Battle of Scary Creek, western Virginia. One of the first Confederate victories. At the Great Kanawha Valley, Col. Jacob D. Cox was leading a force of Federals when they were suddenly attacked by a group of Confederates, commanded by Brig. Gen. Henry A. Wise. The Federals were advancing into western Virginia toward Charleston at the time. The Confederates were trying to block Cox from advancing any further. Wise only slowed the Federals down because they soon pushed the Confederates aside and continued their advance.
Gen. George B. McClellan directed Jacob D. Cox of Ohio to clear the Kanawha Valley of the Confederate Army of Gen. Henry A. Wise of Virginia. Cox’s advance party crossed the Kanawha River and encountered Confederate pickets at the mouth of Little Scary Creek. He dispatched about 1,300 federal soldiers under field command of Col. John W. Lowe of the 12th Ohio Infantry to engage the approximate 900 Confederates at Scary Creek. The Confederates were led by Col. George S. Patton, grandfather of Gen. George S. Patton of World War II. A near five-hour battle of heavy musketry and artillery fire ensued, including a number of unsuccessful federal charges across the Scary Creek bridge. Patton was seriously wounded and Capt. Albert Gallatin Jenkins rallied the disorganized Confederates to victory.
B. 1862: Near Georgetown, Kentucky. Confrontation that ended peacefully and highlights how the Civil War divided families. Maj. R. M. Gano and an advance detachment of Morgan’s raiders arrive at Braedalbane, the plantation of the Reverend Robert Jefferson Breckinridge, the uncle of John Cabell Breckinridge, former Vice President of the United States and U.S. Senator, and currently a general in the Confederate States Army. In fact, the Reverend is a Unionist and abolitionist, unlike his nephew or his son William, who rides off the enlist with Morgan and serve the Confederacy. Morgan’s troopers cause some panic at the farm, but leave it unharmed.
Reverend Robert Jefferson Breckinridge was the uncle of John Cabell Breckinridge. Unlike his nephew, R.J. Breckinridge was a Unionist and an abolitionist, and had been instrumental in the efforts to keep Kentucky in the Union. His son William C.P. Breckinridge joined the CSA sometime during Morgan’s first Kentucky raid as a captain in the cavalry. Breckinridge lived on a 600-acre farm known as Braedalbane, near Lexington.
C. 1862: Battle at Cynthiana, Kentucky. Confederate raid victory. Attempting to cross the Licking River Bridge, CSA Col. John H. Morgan 's raiders encountered nearly 400 enemy soldiers and Unionist home guard (local militia). These men had positioned themselves across the river in houses and had posted artillery to contest the bridge crossing. When Morgan's attack commenced, one company braved enemy fire and waded across the river. When these Confederates became pinned down, other rebel troops crossed downstream and outflanked the Unionist defenders, who ultimately surrendered.
Morgan captured more than 300 horses, destroyed Cynthiana's railroad depot and nearby railroad track, and wrecked a Union camp.
D. 1863: Battle of Honey Springs, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). Union cavalry victory and Federal forces controlled Indian Territory, north of the Arkansas River. Union and Confederate troops had frequently skirmished in the vicinity of Honey Springs Depot. The Union commander in the area, Maj. Gen. James G. Blunt, correctly surmised that Confederate forces, mostly Native American troops under the command of Brig. Gen. Douglas H. Cooper, were about to concentrate and would then attack his force at Fort Gibson. He decided to defeat the Confederates at Honey Springs Depot before they were joined by Brig. Gen. William Cabell’s brigade, advancing from Fort Smith, Arkansas.
Details: Blunt skirmished with Rebel troops early on the morning of the 17th, and by midafternoon, full-scale fighting ensued. The Confederates had wet powder, causing misfires, and the problem intensified when rain began. After repulsing one attack, Cooper pulled his forces back to obtain new ammunition. In the meantime, Cooper began to experience command problems, and he learned that Blunt was about to turn his left flank. The Confederate retreat began, and although Cooper fought a rearguard action, many of those troops counterattacked, failed, and fled. Any possibility of the Confederates taking Fort Gibson was gone.
Civil War Battle Series The Battle of Honey Springs, 1st Kansas takes a stand the American Civil War
300 pairs of shackles were discovered on the Confederate supply train. Brigadier General Douglas H. Cooper intended to bring back the brave members of the 1st Kansas. However, the men of the 1st Kansas had other plans.
The Battle of Honey Springs, the climatic engagement of the Civil War in Indian Territory, was fought on July 17, 1863, and had been in the making since the beginning of the war.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTE70IIjeik
FYI PV2 Larry Sellnow SFC Dr. Jesus Garcia-Arce, Psy.D LTC Trent Klug Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. COL (Join to see) SPC Maurice EvansPO3 Edward Riddle SPC Michael Duricko, Ph.D SFC Ralph E KelleySrA Ronald MooreSGT Mark Anderson PFC Donnie Harold Harris COL Randall C. MAJ (Join to see) SPC Mike Bennett CPL Ronald Keyes Jr SPC James NeidigSPC Jon O.Raymond Cox Deborah Gregson
One of the first Confederate victories occurred in the battle of Scary Creek in western Virginia in 1861.CSA Col. George S. Patton, grandfather of LTC George S. Patton of WWII fame, led men in this battle. “Gen. George B. McClellan directed Jacob D. Cox of Ohio to clear the Kanawha Valley of the Confederate Army of Gen. Henry A. Wise of Virginia. Cox’s advance party crossed the Kanawha River and encountered Confederate pickets at the mouth of Little Scary Creek. He dispatched about 1,300 federal soldiers under field command of Col. John W. Lowe of the 12th Ohio Infantry to engage the approximate 900 Confederates at Scary Creek. The Confederates were led by Col. George S. Patton, grandfather of Gen. George S. Patton of World War II. A near five-hour battle of heavy musketry and artillery fire ensued, including a number of unsuccessful federal charges across the Scary Creek bridge. Patton was seriously wounded and Capt. Albert Gallatin Jenkins rallied the disorganized Confederates to victory.
President Abraham Lincoln signed the second Confiscation Act into law after it was, passed on July 17, 1862. It was “virtually an emancipation proclamation. It said that slaves of civilian and military Confederate officials “shall be forever free,” but it was enforceable only in areas of the South occupied by the Union Army. Lincoln was again concerned about the effect of an antislavery measure on the border states and again urged these states to begin gradual compensated emancipation.”
The largest and most decisive of the war’s battles fought in the Indian Territory occurs in 1863 at the Battle of Honey Springs, Oklahoma. “This battle put an end to Confederate hopes that the Five Civilized Tribes (Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole) who occupy this territory would help the South dominate in the region west of the Mississippi, and thus threaten the western borders of the northern states, too. Maj. Gen. James Blunt, always resourceful in the face of shortages and administrative indifference, was the first to raise black troops (in Kansas) and Indian troops for the Federal army. He marches his small, 3,000-man division down to Fort Gibson in the Territory to make it a strong point, positioned as it was at the junction of the Neosho and Arkansas Rivers in northeastern Oklahoma. Gen. Douglas Cooper, Confederate commander of the district, has two brigades---one of Texas troops and another of Indian troops, making nearly 5,700 men altogether---and is waiting at Honey Springs (about 20 miles to the southwest), a major Confederate supply depot, for Gen. Cabell to arrive from Ft. Smith with another 3,000 men. Gen. Blunt gets wind of Cooper’s idea, and in spite of suffering from encephalitis, Blunt gets his 3,000 troops on the road to attack the Rebels first, before they can effect a junction with Cabell’s force. With 250 mounted men and 4 cannon, Blunt first secures a crossing over the Arkansas River, and the rest of his force follows him. He now has 3,000 infantry troops, 12 field pieces, and a few cavalry troopers. As he approaches Honey Springs along the Texas Road, he finds the Rebels arrayed for battle just east of Elk Creek.
Army of the Frontier – Maj. Gen. James Blunt, commanded:
1st Brigade - Col William R. Judson
2nd Indian Home Guard --- Lt Col Fred W. Schaurte
1st Kansas Colored Infantry--- Col James M. Williams (w), Lt Col John Bowles
6 Companies, 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry --- Capt Edward R. Stevens
2nd Brigade - Col William A. Phillips
6 Companies, 2nd Colorado Infantry --- Col Theodore H. Dodd
1st Indian Home Guard --- Col Stephen H. Wattles
Detachments of 6th Kansas Cavalry* --- Col William F. Campbell
Artillery
2nd Kansas Light Artillery
1st Section --- Capt Edward Smith
2nd Section --- Lt John P. Grassberger
3rd Kansas Light Artillery* --- Capt Henry Hopkins
Blunt lines up his two brigades---one under Col. William Judson on the right, and another under Col. William Philips on the left, supported by 12 field guns.
On the Confederate side, Gen. Cooper had only 4 field guns, and three of these were 12-pounder howitzers, which fired only small loads at a limited range. Cooper’s army was organized as follows:
First Brigade, Indian Troops, Brig. Gen. Douglas Cooper, comm.
Texas Brigade - Col Thomas C. Bass
20th Texas Cavalry (Dismounted) --- Col Thomas Coker Bass
29th Texas Cavalry - Col Charles DeMorse (W)|
5th Texas Partisan Rangers--- Col Leonidas M. Martin
Indian Brigade - Brig Gen Douglas Cooper
1st Cherokee Mounted Rifles* --- Maj Joseph F. Thompson
2nd Cherokee Mounted Rifles# --- Lt Col James M. Bell
1st Choctaw---Chickasaw Mounted Rifles --- Col Tandy Walker
1st Creek --- Col Daniel N. McIntosh
2nd Creek--- Col Chilly McIntosh
Artillery & Cavalry
Lee's Battery--- Capt Roswell W. Lee
Scanland's Squadron Texas Cavalry --- Capt John Scanland
Gillett's Squadron Texas Cavalry --- Capt L. E. Gillett
Cooper is at a disadvantage because nearly a fourth of his force lack serviceable weapons, and the Rebels’ powder supply is limited and of poor quality. Some eyewitnesses claim that nearly half of the Rebels were not even engaged. The battle commences with an artillery duel that lasts for over an hour, each side having only disabled one gun of the other. Blunt has his cavalry dismount, and the battle turns into a seesaw firefight in the underbrush. At one point, the Confederate superior numbers are put to use as they extend their right to flank the Federal left. Blunt orders the 1st Kansas Colored to attack the Rebel center and capture their guns, and the black troops move forward and pour in a deadly volley fire. But the 2nd Indian Home Guard, in the smoke and confusion, veers to the right and finds itself between the 1st Kansas and the Texans they were fighting. Lt. Col. Bowles orders the Indians to retreat back into their position. From the Confederate lines, it sounds and looks as if the Union troops are retreating, and they advance into what they hope is a disintegrating Union line; but as they hit the Union line, they find an established and solid battle line, and the Federal troops pour deadly volleys into the surprised Southerners. The 20th Texas Cavalry takes especially heavy losses, and after the loss of their colors, the Confederate line begins to fall back. Cooper moves his forces farther back to guard the Elk Creek bridge while his artillery is evacuated, and later, at the Honey Springs Depot itself, the Chickasaw and Choctaw troops, supported by Texas troopers, hold off the Federals long enough to cover the retreat. The Rebels set fire to the depot, but Blunt’s men salvage much of the supplies. The Rebels immediately march west, and---two hours after the battle is over---encounter Gen. Cabell and his reinforcements---who are too late. The next day, July 18, Blunt marches his men back to Fort Gibson. Union Victory.
Losses: U.S. 79 C.S. 637”
Pictures: 1863-07-17 Union cavalry charge, Battle of Honey Springs, Indian Territory; 1861-07-17 Battle of Scary Creek map; 1863-07-17 Battle of Honey Springs, Oklahoma Map; 1862-07-02 Cynthiana, Kentucky battle map
A. 1861: Battle of Scary Creek, western Virginia. One of the first Confederate victories. At the Great Kanawha Valley, Col. Jacob D. Cox was leading a force of Federals when they were suddenly attacked by a group of Confederates, commanded by Brig. Gen. Henry A. Wise. The Federals were advancing into western Virginia toward Charleston at the time. The Confederates were trying to block Cox from advancing any further. Wise only slowed the Federals down because they soon pushed the Confederates aside and continued their advance.
Gen. George B. McClellan directed Jacob D. Cox of Ohio to clear the Kanawha Valley of the Confederate Army of Gen. Henry A. Wise of Virginia. Cox’s advance party crossed the Kanawha River and encountered Confederate pickets at the mouth of Little Scary Creek. He dispatched about 1,300 federal soldiers under field command of Col. John W. Lowe of the 12th Ohio Infantry to engage the approximate 900 Confederates at Scary Creek. The Confederates were led by Col. George S. Patton, grandfather of Gen. George S. Patton of World War II. A near five-hour battle of heavy musketry and artillery fire ensued, including a number of unsuccessful federal charges across the Scary Creek bridge. Patton was seriously wounded and Capt. Albert Gallatin Jenkins rallied the disorganized Confederates to victory.
B. 1862: Near Georgetown, Kentucky. Confrontation that ended peacefully and highlights how the Civil War divided families. Maj. R. M. Gano and an advance detachment of Morgan’s raiders arrive at Braedalbane, the plantation of the Reverend Robert Jefferson Breckinridge, the uncle of John Cabell Breckinridge, former Vice President of the United States and U.S. Senator, and currently a general in the Confederate States Army. In fact, the Reverend is a Unionist and abolitionist, unlike his nephew or his son William, who rides off the enlist with Morgan and serve the Confederacy. Morgan’s troopers cause some panic at the farm, but leave it unharmed.
Reverend Robert Jefferson Breckinridge was the uncle of John Cabell Breckinridge. Unlike his nephew, R.J. Breckinridge was a Unionist and an abolitionist, and had been instrumental in the efforts to keep Kentucky in the Union. His son William C.P. Breckinridge joined the CSA sometime during Morgan’s first Kentucky raid as a captain in the cavalry. Breckinridge lived on a 600-acre farm known as Braedalbane, near Lexington.
C. 1862: Battle at Cynthiana, Kentucky. Confederate raid victory. Attempting to cross the Licking River Bridge, CSA Col. John H. Morgan 's raiders encountered nearly 400 enemy soldiers and Unionist home guard (local militia). These men had positioned themselves across the river in houses and had posted artillery to contest the bridge crossing. When Morgan's attack commenced, one company braved enemy fire and waded across the river. When these Confederates became pinned down, other rebel troops crossed downstream and outflanked the Unionist defenders, who ultimately surrendered.
Morgan captured more than 300 horses, destroyed Cynthiana's railroad depot and nearby railroad track, and wrecked a Union camp.
D. 1863: Battle of Honey Springs, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). Union cavalry victory and Federal forces controlled Indian Territory, north of the Arkansas River. Union and Confederate troops had frequently skirmished in the vicinity of Honey Springs Depot. The Union commander in the area, Maj. Gen. James G. Blunt, correctly surmised that Confederate forces, mostly Native American troops under the command of Brig. Gen. Douglas H. Cooper, were about to concentrate and would then attack his force at Fort Gibson. He decided to defeat the Confederates at Honey Springs Depot before they were joined by Brig. Gen. William Cabell’s brigade, advancing from Fort Smith, Arkansas.
Details: Blunt skirmished with Rebel troops early on the morning of the 17th, and by midafternoon, full-scale fighting ensued. The Confederates had wet powder, causing misfires, and the problem intensified when rain began. After repulsing one attack, Cooper pulled his forces back to obtain new ammunition. In the meantime, Cooper began to experience command problems, and he learned that Blunt was about to turn his left flank. The Confederate retreat began, and although Cooper fought a rearguard action, many of those troops counterattacked, failed, and fled. Any possibility of the Confederates taking Fort Gibson was gone.
Civil War Battle Series The Battle of Honey Springs, 1st Kansas takes a stand the American Civil War
300 pairs of shackles were discovered on the Confederate supply train. Brigadier General Douglas H. Cooper intended to bring back the brave members of the 1st Kansas. However, the men of the 1st Kansas had other plans.
The Battle of Honey Springs, the climatic engagement of the Civil War in Indian Territory, was fought on July 17, 1863, and had been in the making since the beginning of the war.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTE70IIjeik
FYI PV2 Larry Sellnow SFC Dr. Jesus Garcia-Arce, Psy.D LTC Trent Klug Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. COL (Join to see) SPC Maurice EvansPO3 Edward Riddle SPC Michael Duricko, Ph.D SFC Ralph E KelleySrA Ronald MooreSGT Mark Anderson PFC Donnie Harold Harris COL Randall C. MAJ (Join to see) SPC Mike Bennett CPL Ronald Keyes Jr SPC James NeidigSPC Jon O.Raymond Cox Deborah Gregson
Civil War
Cavalry
American History
Edited >1 y ago
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 6
10
10
0
Early in the war common courtesy prevailed more often than later especially in the border states like Kentucky.
Near Georgetown, Kentucky. Major R. M. Gano, part of Morgan’s first Kentucky raid, reached Braedalbane on July 17, 1862, and relates how the ladies of the house met him with some trepidation. The rebel troops had no interest in disturbing Reverend Breckinridge, though, and passed on.
Reverend Robert Jefferson Breckinridge was the uncle of John Cabell Breckinridge. Unlike his nephew, R.J. Breckinridge was a Unionist and an abolitionist, and had been instrumental in the efforts to keep Kentucky in the Union. His son William C.P. Breckinridge joined the CSA sometime during Morgan’s first Kentucky raid as a captain in the cavalry. Breckinridge lived on a 600-acre farm known as Braedalbane, near.
From the Official Record: Report of R. M. GANO, Major, Commanding Batt. Cav. in Morgan’s Brigade, C. S. Army. To Gen. Morgan. “We passed through the farm of Victor Flournoy, stopping to refresh ourselves at the spring of the Rev. R. H. Breckinridge, where the ladies came out, and one, whose bright eyes bespoke a southern heart, was very curious to know what party we belonged to. This accidental call was construed into an attempt to arrest the doctor, and his son, Captain Will. Breckinridge, whom we had not seen, was accused of being accessory.
It is not surprising they should judge thus, meting by their own measure. The enemy may feel the effect of Captain Will’s steel upon the field of battle, but they will never find a man of his noble Southern soul trying to secure his father’s arrest.
Taking tea at my father’s, I proceeded on to Kiser’s Station, on the Paris and Covington road, and fired the bridge. The burning bridge fired an old shed beneath, which i afterward learned was Mr. Kisser’s distillery. I regretted the loss of private property, but, as it did happen, better be a distillery than anything else.
I here lost 7 pickets through their mistaking the road, and we hunted them until day, and consequently did not destroy the Townsend Bridge, as I had contemplated.
We then proceeded toward Georgetown, and while encamped in a wood-land near that place R. P. Tannehill, of Company A, Texas Squadron, was by the accidental discharge of a gun launched into eternity. Robert was a brave soldier boy, always ready, devoted to the Southern cause, and the main prop of his widowed mother; but we laid our bold soldier boy to rest more than 1,000 miles from his fond mother, who little dreams, of the removal of her boy.”
Below are a number of journal entries from 1862 and 1863 which shed light on what life was like for soldiers and civilians – the good, the bad and the ugly. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles provides insight in 1863.
Thursday, July 17, 1862: George Templeton Strong of New York City writes in his journal of an Army friend who has been serving on McClellan’s staff: “Lawrence Williams denounces the Administration, Stanton especially, with plainness of speech that does not altogether become a major in the United States Army. He shudders at abolitionists as hydrophobic patients at the sound of falling water. But it is remarkable that his estimate of Lincoln has changed. He doesn’t call Lincoln a "gorilla ape" as he did last winter, but relies on him as the only honest and patriotic man in the Administration. Perhaps he is not so far wrong.”
Thursday, July 17, 1862: Surgeon Alfred L. Castleman writes in his journal about the differences between North and South in attitudes toward commerce: ‘To-night we lie at the mouth of the Chickahominy, under protection of our gun boats. What a commercial world this State of Virginia should be. Its navigable waters are nearly equal to that of all the Free States combined; yet there are single cities in the North which have a larger commerce than the whole of the Slave States. Why is this? Has the peculiar institution any thing to do with it? If so, God, nature— everything speaks aloud against it as a curse. The ground which we now occupy is one of the most beautiful, as well as one of the most desirable sites for a city in America, high and dry, with an easy ascent from the water, presenting three fronts to the navigable rivers, with fine water views in all directions, as extensive as the range of vision, with business amounting to one house and a few cords of dry pine wood, which seems to be the article of export from this part of the State.”
Thursday, July 17, 1862: Capt. William L. Bolton, of the 51st Pennsylvania Infantry, records in his journal his own view of the wrangling and maneuvering between Pope and Lee in central Virginia: “Company A resting all day, other companies on picket duty and repairing the roads. Another foraging party sent out to-day to the same place for corn and coming in sight of the corn-crib discovered the enemy loading from the same crib. The came back at a double-quick. We can plainly see Stonewall Jackson do-day pitching his tents on a high hill on Slaughter Mountain. Can see them signal with flags from Cedar Mountain in day light, and with lights at night.”
Friday, July 17, 1863: Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles writes more in his journal concerning the denouement of Gettysburg and Vicksburg: “In a conversation with General Wadsworth, who called on me, I learned that at the council of the general officers, Meade was disposed to make an attack, and was supported by Wadsworth, Howard, and Pleasonton, but Sedgwick, Sykes, and the older regular officers dissented. Meade, rightly disposed but timid and irresolute, hesitated and delayed until too late. Want of decision and self-reliance in an emergency has cost him and the country dear, for had he fallen upon Lee it could hardly have been otherwise than the capture of most of the Rebel army.
The surrender of Port Hudson is undoubtedly a fact. It could not hold out after the fall of Vicksburg. We have information also that Sherman has caught up with and beaten Johnston.”
Pictures: 1862-07-17 licking bridge, Kentucky; 1861-07-17 Battle of Scary Creek, western Virginia marker; 1863-07-17 The Battle of Honey Springs - black soldier; xx
A. Wednesday, July 17, 1861: Battle of Scary Creek, western Virginia. One of the first Confederate victories. At the Great Kanawha Valley, Col. Jacob D. Cox was leading a force of Federals when they were suddenly attacked by a group of Confederates, commanded by Brig. Gen. Henry A. Wise. The Federals were advancing into western Virginia toward Charleston at the time. The Confederates were trying to block Cox from advancing any further. Wise only slowed the Federals down because they soon pushed the Confederates aside and continued their advance.
Fought July 17, 1861, the battle was the result of a movement by Gen. Jacob D. Cox of Ohio, under the direction of Gen. George B. McClellan, to clear the Kanawha Valley of the Confederate Army of Gen. Henry A. Wise of Virginia. Cox’s advance party crossed the Kanawha River and encountered Confederate pickets at the mouth of Little Scary Creek. He dispatched about 1,300 federal soldiers under field command of Col. John W. Lowe of the 12th Ohio Infantry to engage the approximate 900 Confederates at Scary Creek. The Confederates were led by Col. George S. Patton, grandfather of Gen. George S. Patton of World War II. A near five-hour battle of heavy musketry and artillery fire ensued, including a number of unsuccessful federal charges across the Scary Creek bridge. Patton was seriously wounded and Capt. Albert Gallatin Jenkins rallied the disorganized Confederates to victory.
Background: Located in Putnam County on the west side of the Kanawha River just opposite Nitro, Scary Creek was the site of one of the earliest battles of the Civil War and one of the first Confederate victories. On July 11, 1861, Cox launched a three-pronged movement eastward from Point Pleasant with his infantry, cavalry, and artillery, an attempt to entrap Wise at Charleston. By July 16, following some insignificant skirmishing and a clash at Barboursville, the bulk of Cox’s forces had consolidated at the mouth of the Pocatalico River, downstream and on the opposite side of the Kanawha.
Aftermath: Casualties were slight on both sides, and the southern victory was short-lived as Wise abandoned the Kanawha Valley by August 1 due to pressure by McClellan on Confederate forces in northern West Virginia.
B. Thursday, July 17, 1862: Near Georgetown, Kentucky, Maj. R. M. Gano and an advance detachment of Morgan’s raiders arrive at Breadalbane, the plantation of the Reverend Robert Jefferson Breckinridge, the uncle of John Cabell Breckinridge, former Vice President of the United States and U.S. Senator, and currently a general in the Confederate States Army. In fact, the Reverend is a Unionist and abolitionist, unlike his nephew or his son William, who rides off the enlist with Morgan and serve the Confederacy. Morgan’s troopers cause some panic at the farm, but leave it unharmed.
Reverend Robert Jefferson Breckinridge was the uncle of John Cabell Breckinridge. Unlike his nephew, R.J. Breckinridge was a Unionist and an abolitionist, and had been instrumental in the efforts to keep Kentucky in the Union. His son William C.P. Breckinridge joined the CSA sometime during Morgan’s first Kentucky raid as a captain in the cavalry. Breckinridge lived on a 600-acre farm known as Braedalbane, near Lexington.
C. Thursday, July 17, 1862: Battle at Cynthiana, Kentucky. Confederate raid victory. Attempting to cross the Licking River Bridge, CSA Col. John H. Morgan 's raiders encountered nearly 400 enemy soldiers and Unionist home guard (local militia). These men had positioned themselves across the river in houses and had posted artillery to contest the bridge crossing. When Morgan's attack commenced, one company braved enemy fire and waded across the river. When these Confederates became pinned down, other rebel troops crossed downstream and outflanked the Unionist defenders, who ultimately surrendered.
Morgan captured more than 300 horses, destroyed Cynthiana's railroad depot and nearby railroad track, and wrecked a Union camp.
Background: After leaving Knoxville, Morgan and his 800 troopers reached Cynthiana on July 17. It was a town strategically located on the Kentucky Central Railroad and the Licking River.
D. Friday, July 17, 1863: Battle of Honey Springs, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). Union cavalry victory and Federal forces controlled Indian Territory, north of the Arkansas River. Union and Confederate troops had frequently skirmished in the vicinity of Honey Springs Depot. The Union commander in the area, Maj. Gen. James G. Blunt, correctly surmised that Confederate forces, mostly Native American troops under the command of Brig. Gen. Douglas H. Cooper, were about to concentrate and would then attack his force at Fort Gibson. He decided to defeat the Confederates at Honey Springs Depot before they were joined by Brig. Gen. William Cabell’s brigade, advancing from Fort Smith, Arkansas.
Details: Blunt skirmished with Rebel troops early on the morning of the 17th, and by midafternoon, full-scale fighting ensued. The Confederates had wet powder, causing misfires, and the problem intensified when rain began. After repulsing one attack, Cooper pulled his forces back to obtain new ammunition. In the meantime, Cooper began to experience command problems, and he learned that Blunt was about to turn his left flank. The Confederate retreat began, and although Cooper fought a rearguard action, many of those troops counterattacked, failed, and fled. Any possibility of the Confederates taking Fort Gibson was gone.
Background: Blunt began crossing the swollen Arkansas River on July 15, 1863, and, by midnight on July 16-17, he had a force of 3,000 men, composed of whites, Native Americans, and African Americans, marching toward Honey Springs.
Aftermath: Following this battle, Union forces controlled Indian Territory, north of the Arkansas River.
1. Wednesday, July 17, 1861: Battle of Scary Creek.
[blueandgraytrail.com/year/186107]
2. Wednesday, July 17, 1861: Pres. Davis orders Gen. Joseph Johnston, with 9,000 men in the Shenandoah Valley, to move to Manassas, and reinforce Beauregard, who has 22,000 there.
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+17%2C+1861]
3. Wednesday, July 17, 1861: The U. S. begins issuing demand notes commonly called "Greenbacks."
[blueandgraytrail.com/year/186107]
4. Wednesday, July 17, 1861: This day witnessed the most fighting to date. All the fighting was on a small-scale but it took place in Fulton, Missouri, Martinsburg, Missouri, Scarrytown, western Virginia and Bunker Hill, Virginia.
[historylearningsite.co.uk/the-american-civil-war/american-civil-war-july-1861/]
5. Thursday, July 17, 1862 --- The Richmond Daily Dispatch, on this date, quotes part of an editorial from the London Times, which calls for British intervention in the American war, since the lack of cotton in this season is causing great damage to British industries: “How long, then, are England and France to tolerate a war waged, utterly in vain, for an object whose attainment would confer no benefit on those who seek it, and would be an unmarred misfortune to the rest of the world? How long are we to suffer, while the North strains its powers to the uttermost to restore a Union, which, while it existed, was the common enemy of Europe, and, to an especial sense, the enemy of England? . . . If the cause of the North were a good or a holy one, England might be content to suffer long and severely for conscience sake; but we are not willing to see our countrymen starve that Northern lust of empire may be gratified by the sacrifice of Southern freedom, or that Massachusetts may grow rich on subsidies wrung by a protective tariff from Georgia and Alabama. It is time that some decided action should be taken by France and England on behalf of justice and humanity, as well as foe [sic] the protection of their half ruined manufacturers and hungry operatives. Such action must be taken at last; . . . and if we are to act after all, it is a saving of needless misery to act at once, with gentleness and courtesy, but with immovable firmness of purpose. The war in America, the cotton famine in Europe, must be terminated; when this resolution is once announced by the two great Powers, neither the patient sufferers here nor the exhausted combatants beyond the Atlantic will have long to wait for relief.”
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+17%2C+1862]
6. Thursday, July 17, 1862 --- Pres. Lincoln accepts a meeting with a Committee of the Reformed Presbyterian Synod, whose members present a resolution on Slavery, proposing immediate abolition. In his answer, the President offers his response: “Had Slavery no existence among us, and were the question asked shall we adopt such an institution? we should agree as to the reply which should be made. If there be any diversity in our views it is not as to whether we should receive Slavery when free from it, but as to how we may best get rid of it already amongst us. Were an individual asked whether he would wish to have a wen on his neck, he could not hesitate as to the reply; but were it asked whether a man who has such a wen should at once be relieved of it by the application of the surgeon's knife, there might be diversity of opinion, perhaps the man might bleed to death, as the result of such an operation.
Feeling deeply my responsibility to my country and to that God to whom we all owe allegiance, I assure you I will try to do my best, and so may God help me.”
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+17%2C+1862]
7. Thursday, July 17, 1862 --- On this date, significantly, Lincoln signs into law the Second Confiscation Act, which provides freedom for slaves confiscated from owners who are in rebellion against the United States.
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+17%2C+1862]
8. Thursday, July 17, 1862 --- Gen. Ambrose Burnside and 7,000 of his troops from coastal North Carolina arrive at Newport News, Virginia, intended as reinforcements to McClellan.
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+17%2C+1862]
9. Thursday, July 17, 1862 --- George Templeton Strong of New York City writes in his journal of an Army friend who has been serving on McClellan’s staff: “Lawrence Williams denounces the Administration, Stanton especially, with plainness of speech that does not altogether become a major in the United States Army. He shudders at abolitionists as hydrophobic patients at the sound of falling water. But it is remarkable that his estimate of Lincoln has changed. He doesn’t call Lincoln a "gorilla ape" as he did last winter, but relies on him as the only honest and patriotic man in the Administration. Perhaps he is not so far wrong.”
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+17%2C+1862]
10. Thursday, July 17, 1862 --- Surgeon Alfred L. Castleman writes in his journal about the differences between North and South in attitudes toward commerce: ‘To-night we lie at the mouth of the Chickahominy, under protection of our gun boats. What a commercial world this State of Virginia should be. Its navigable waters are nearly equal to that of all the Free States combined; yet there are single cities in the North which have a larger commerce than the whole of the Slave States. Why is this? Has the peculiar institution any thing to do with it? If so, God, nature— everything speaks aloud against it as a curse. The ground which we now occupy is one of the most beautiful, as well as one of the most desirable sites for a city in America, high and dry, with an easy ascent from the water, presenting three fronts to the navigable rivers, with fine water views in all directions, as extensive as the range of vision, with business amounting to one house and a few cords of dry pine wood, which seems to be the article of export from this part of the State.”
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+17%2C+1862]
11. Thursday, July 17, 1862 --- Capt. William L. Bolton, of the 51st Pennsylvania Infantry, records in his journal his own view of the wrangling and maneuvering between Pope and Lee in central Virginia: “Company A resting all day, other companies on picket duty and repairing the roads. Another foraging party sent out to-day to the same place for corn and coming in sight of the corn-crib discovered the enemy loading from the same crib. The came back at a double-quick. We can plainly see Stonewall Jackson do-day pitching his tents on a high hill on Slaughter Mountain. Can see them signal with flags from Cedar Mountain in day light, and with lights at night.”
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+17%2C+1862]
12. Thursday, July 17, 1862: Congress passes the Second Confiscation Act, or The Confiscation Act of 1862. This allows for confiscation of property from people who participate in the war.
[blueandgraytrail.com/year/186207]
13. Thursday, July 17, 1862: President Lincoln signs “An act to suppress insurrection, and to punish treason and rebellion, to seize and confiscate property of rebels, and for other purposes,” together with joint resolution explanatory of act, and draft of Message stating objections to bill before it becomes law. He also approves an act amending the Militia Act of 1795 and subsequent amendments to allow the call-up of more men, as well as to enable the use of African Americans in any military capacity, including as soldiers.
[bjdeming.com/2012/07/20/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-july-16-22-1862/]
14. Thursday, July 17, 1862: Lincoln signed the Second Confiscation Act, which granted freedom to slaves who entered Federal jurisdiction.
[historylearningsite.co.uk/the-american-civil-war/american-civil-war-july-1862/]
15. Thursday, July 17, 1862: Western Theater: General Grant sends the division of General George H. Thomas to Buell.
[bjdeming.com/2012/07/20/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-july-16-22-1862/]
16. Thursday, July 17, 1862 --- Gen. William "Bull" Nelson is ordered by Gen. Buell to go to Kentucky to train and organize the new troops being sent there into a defense force in anticipation of Bragg’s invasion. Nelson is being given a few veteran troops to fill out the defensive force.
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+17%2C+1862]
17. Thursday, July 17, 1862 --- Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart prepares his brigades for a big raid behind Union lines to cut their supply route over the Rappahannock.
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+17%2C+1862]
18. Thursday, July 17, 1862 --- As Gen. James Blunt and his army approach Lone Jack, Missouri, there is more fighting there as the Rebels attack the Federal skirmishers vigorously while the main Rebel force retreats southward.
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+17%2C+1862]
19. Thursday, July 17, 1862: Morgan’s Confederate raiders took Cynthiana, Kentucky; Major General John Pope’s Federals captured Gordonsville, Virginia; and skirmishes occurred near Mount Pleasant and Columbia, Tennessee.
[thisweekinthecivilwar.com/?p=1312]
20. Thursday, July 17, 1862: Cynthiana, Kentucky - On July 17, a Confederate cavalry raiding party, commanded by Col. John H. Morgan, arrived at the town of Cynthiana. They quickly attacked the town and captured it.
[mycivilwar.com/battles/1862s.html]
21. Thursday, July 17, 1862: Cynthiana, Kentucky. The first battle fought in Cynthiana occurred at Licking Creek on July 17, 1862, was part of Gen. John Hunt Morgan's "First Kentucky Raid." The Federal force of 500 soldiers was defeated by Morgan's 800 Confederate soldiers and Cynthiana was captured.
[railsrus.com/civilwar/region4/cynthian.html]
22. Thursday, July 17, 1862: Gordonsville, Virginia - On July 17, a Union force, commanded by Maj. Gen. John Pope, attacked a smaller Confederate force near Gordonsville. The Confederates were forced to retreat, leaving the path to Gordonsville wide open. Pope led his men to the town and captured it without any resistance.
[mycivilwar.com/battles/1862s.html]
23. Friday, July 17, 1863 --- Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles writes more in his journal concerning the denouement of Gettysburg and Vicksburg: “In a conversation with General Wadsworth, who called on me, I learned that at the council of the general officers, Meade was disposed to make an attack, and was supported by Wadsworth, Howard, and Pleasonton, but Sedgwick, Sykes, and the older regular officers dissented. Meade, rightly disposed but timid and irresolute, hesitated and delayed until too late. Want of decision and self-reliance in an emergency has cost him and the country dear, for had he fallen upon Lee it could hardly have been otherwise than the capture of most of the Rebel army.
The surrender of Port Hudson is undoubtedly a fact. It could not hold out after the fall of Vicksburg. We have information also that Sherman has caught up with and beaten Johnston.
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+17%2C+1863]
24. Friday, July 17, 1863: Honey Springs, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).
[bjdeming.com/2013/07/21/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-july-15-21-1863/]
25. Friday, July 17, 1863 --- Civil strife in the streets of New York is less severe, even as more troops arrive from the Army of the Potomac.
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+17%2C+1863]
26. Sunday, July 17, 1864: Opelika, Alabama - On July 17, Brig. Gen. Lovell H. Rosseau and his Union force attacked the town of Opelika. The local Confederate force was under the command of Maj. Gen. Gideon J. Pillow. The Federals took or burned large quantities of supplies. They then took off down the West Point Railroad. While doing this, they destroyed 30 miles of track and burned several railroad stations and warehouses.
[mycivilwar.com/battles/1864s.html]
27. Sunday, July 17, 1864: Shenandoah operations, Early’s Raid: Battle of Cool Spring/Snicker’s Ferry/Parker’s Ford begins.
[bjdeming.com/2014/07/13/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-july-14-20-1864/]
28. Sunday, July 17, 1864: General Joseph E. Johnston relieved of command of the Army of Tennessee. John Bell Hood replaces him.
[blueandgraytrail.com/year/186407]
29. Sunday, July 17, 1864: Georgia operations. President Davis, supported by his cabinet and the pro-administration part of the Confederate Congress, fires General Johnston, replacing him with General John Bell Hood.
[bjdeming.com/2014/07/13/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-july-14-20-1864/]
30. Sunday, July 17, 1864: Jefferson Davis relieved Johnston of his command and appointed John B Hood in his place. Hood was the youngest commander of an army in the war aged 33 years. He lost his left arm at the Battle of Gettysburg and his right leg at the Battle of Chickamauga. Davis hoped that his fighting spirit and undoubted bravery would rub off on the men tasked with the defence of Atlanta.
[historylearningsite.co.uk/the-american-civil-war/american-civil-war-july-1864/]
31. Sunday, July 17, 1864: General Sherman says: On the 17th we began the general movement against Atlanta, Thomas crossing the Chattahoochee at Powers’s and Paice’s, by pontoon-bridges; Schofield moving out toward Cross Keys, and McPherson toward Stone Mountain. We encountered but little opposition except by cavalry.
[bjdeming.com/2014/07/13/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-july-14-20-1864]
A Wednesday, July 17, 1861: Scary Creek, western Virginia - On July 17, at the Great Kanawha Valley, Col. Jacob D. Cox was leading a force of Federals when they were suddenly attacked by a group of Confederates, commanded by Brig. Gen. Henry A. Wise. The Federals were advancing into western Virginia toward Charleston at the time. The Confederates were trying to block Cox from advancing any further. Wise only slowed the Federals down because they soon pushed the Confederates aside and continued their advance.
[mycivilwar.com/battles/1861s.html]
A+ Wednesday, July 17, 1861: Battle of Scary Creek. Located in Putnam County on the west side of the Kanawha River just opposite Nitro, Scary Creek was the site of one of the earliest battles of the Civil War and one of the first Confederate victories.
Fought July 17, 1861, the battle was the result of a movement by Gen. Jacob D. Cox of Ohio, under the direction of Gen. George B. McClellan, to clear the Kanawha Valley of the Confederate Army of Gen. Henry A. Wise of Virginia.
On July 11, 1861, Cox launched a three-pronged movement eastward from Point Pleasant with his infantry, cavalry, and artillery, an attempt to entrap Wise at Charleston. By July 16, following some insignificant skirmishing and a clash at Barboursville, the bulk of Cox’s forces had consolidated at the mouth of the Pocatalico River, downstream and on the opposite side of the Kanawha. The following day, Cox’s advance party crossed the Kanawha River and encountered Confederate pickets at the mouth of Little Scary Creek. He dispatched about 1,300 federal soldiers under field command of Col. John W. Lowe of the 12th Ohio Infantry to engage the approximate 900 Confederates at Scary Creek. The Confederates were led by Col. George S. Patton, grandfather of Gen. George S. Patton of World War II. A near five-hour battle of heavy musketry and artillery fire ensued, including a number of unsuccessful federal charges across the Scary Creek bridge. Patton was seriously wounded and Capt. Albert Gallatin Jenkins rallied the disorganized Confederates to victory.
Casualties were slight on both sides, and the southern victory was short-lived as Wise abandoned the Kanawha Valley by August 1 due to pressure by McClellan on Confederate forces in northern West Virginia.
[.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/190]
B. Thursday, July 17, 1862 --- Near Georgetown, Kentucky, Maj. R. M. Gano and an advance detachment of Morgan’s raiders arrive at Breadalbane, the plantation of the Reverend Robert Jefferson Breckinridge, the uncle of John Cabell Breckinridge, former Vice President of the United States and U.S. Senator, and currently a general in the Confederate States Army. In fact, the Reverend is a Unionist and abolitionist, unlike his nephew or his son William, who rides off the enlist with Morgan and serve the Confederacy. Morgan’s troopers cause some panic at the farm, but leave it unharmed.
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+17%2C+1862]
B++ Thursday, July 17, 1862: Near Georgetown, Kentucky. Major R. M. Gano, part of Morgan’s first Kentucky raid, reached Braedalbane on July 17, 1862, and relates how the ladies of the house met him with some trepidation. The rebel troops had no interest in disturbing Reverend Breckinridge, though, and passed on.
Reverend Robert Jefferson Breckinridge was the uncle of John Cabell Breckinridge. Unlike his nephew, R.J. Breckinridge was a Unionist and an abolitionist, and had been instrumental in the efforts to keep Kentucky in the Union. His son William C.P. Breckinridge joined the CSA sometime during Morgan’s first Kentucky raid as a captain in the cavalry. Breckinridge lived on a 600-acre farm known as Braedalbane, near Lexington. Reverend Robert Jefferson Breckinridge was the uncle of John Cabell Breckinridge. Unlike his nephew, R.J. Breckinridge was a Unionist and an abolitionist, and had been instrumental in the efforts to keep Kentucky in the Union. His son William C.P. Breckinridge joined the CSA sometime during Morgan’s first Kentucky raid as a captain in the cavalry. Breckinridge lived on a 600-acre farm known as Braedalbane, near Lexington — I don’t know the exact location, but from the account below it must be somewhere close to Georgetown, KY, north of Lexington..
From the Official Record: Report of R. M. GANO, Major, Commanding Batt. Cav. in Morgan’s Brigade, C. S. Army. To Gen. Morgan. “We passed through the farm of Victor Flournoy, stopping to refresh ourselves at the spring of the Rev. R. H. Breckinridge, where the ladies came out, and one, whose bright eyes bespoke a southern heart, was very curious to know what party we belonged to. This accidental call was construed into an attempt to arrest the doctor, and his son, Captain Will. Breckinridge, whom we had not seen, was accused of being accessory.
It is not surprising they should judge thus, meting by their own measure. The enemy may feel the effect of Captain Will’s steel upon the field of battle, but they will never find a man of his noble Southern soul trying to secure his father’s arrest.
Taking tea at my father’s, I proceeded on to Kiser’s Station, on the Paris and Covington road, and fired the bridge. The burning bridge fired an old shed beneath, which i afterward learned was Mr. Kisser’s distillery. I regretted the loss of private property, but, as it did happen, better be a distillery than anything else.
I here lost 7 pickets through their mistaking the road, and we hunted them until day, and consequently did not destroy the Townsend Bridge, as I had contemplated.
We then proceeded toward Georgetown, and while encamped in a wood-land near that place R. P. Tannehill, of Company A, Texas Squadron, was by the accidental discharge of a gun launched into eternity. Robert was a brave soldier boy, always ready, devoted to the Southern cause, and the main prop of his widowed mother; but we laid our bold soldier boy to rest more than 1,000 miles from his fond mother, who little dreams, of the removal of her boy.
[gathkinsons.net/sesqui/?p=4251]
C Thursday, July 17, 1862: Cynthiana, Kentucky. After leaving Knoxville, Morgan and his 800 troopers reached Cynthiana on July 17. It was a town strategically located on the Kentucky Central Railroad and the Licking River.
Morgan had met little resistance on this raid, but that changed when he reached Cynthiana. Attempting to cross the Licking River Bridge, Morgan's raiders encountered nearly 400 enemy soldiers and Unionist home guard (local militia). These men had positioned themselves across the river in houses and had posted artillery to contest the bridge crossing. When Morgan's attack commenced, one company braved enemy fire and waded across the river. When these Confederates became pinned down, other rebel troops crossed downstream and outflanked the Unionist defenders, who ultimately surrendered.
Morgan captured more than 300 horses, destroyed Cynthiana's railroad depot and nearby railroad track, and wrecked a Union camp.
[explorekyhistory.ky.gov/items/show/99]
D Friday, July 17, 1863: Honey Springs, Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) 65 miles west of Fort Smith, Federal forces defeat Confederates in the battle of Honey Springs.
[blueandgraytrail.com/year/186307]
D+ Friday, July 17, 1863: The Battle of Honey Springs. Union and Confederate troops had frequently skirmished in the vicinity of Honey Springs Depot. The Union commander in the area, Maj. Gen. James G. Blunt, correctly surmised that Confederate forces, mostly Native American troops under the command of Brig. Gen. Douglas H. Cooper, were about to concentrate and would then attack his force at Fort Gibson. He decided to defeat the Confederates at Honey Springs Depot before they were joined by Brig. Gen. William Cabell’s brigade, advancing from Fort Smith, Arkansas. Blunt began crossing the swollen Arkansas River on July 15, 1863, and, by midnight on July 16-17, he had a force of 3,000 men, composed of whites, Native Americans, and African Americans, marching toward Honey Springs. Blunt skirmished with Rebel troops early on the morning of the 17th, and by midafternoon, full-scale fighting ensued. The Confederates had wet powder, causing misfires, and the problem intensified when rain began. After repulsing one attack, Cooper pulled his forces back to obtain new ammunition. In the meantime, Cooper began to experience command problems, and he learned that Blunt was about to turn his left flank. The Confederate retreat began, and although Cooper fought a rearguard action, many of those troops counterattacked, failed, and fled. Any possibility of the Confederates taking Fort Gibson was gone. Following this battle, Union forces controlled Indian Territory, north of the Arkansas River.
[civilwar.org/battlefields/honey-springs.html]
D++ Friday, July 17, 1863 --- Battle of Honey Springs, Oklahoma – The largest and most decisive of the war’s battles fought in the Indian Territory, this battle put an end to Confederate hopes that the Five Civilized Tribes (Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole) who occupy this territory would help the South dominate in the region west of the Mississippi, and thus threaten the western borders of the northern states, too. Maj. Gen. James Blunt, always resourceful in the face of shortages and administrative indifference, was the first to raise black troops (in Kansas) and Indian troops for the Federal army. He marches his small, 3,000-man division down to Fort Gibson in the Territory to make it a strong point, positioned as it was at the junction of the Neosho and Arkansas Rivers in northeastern Oklahoma. Gen. Douglas Cooper, Confederate commander of the district, has two brigades---one of Texas troops and another of Indian troops, making nearly 5,700 men altogether---and is waiting at Honey Springs (about 20 miles to the southwest), a major Confederate supply depot, for Gen. Cabell to arrive from Ft. Smith with another 3,000 men. Gen. Blunt gets wind of Cooper’s idea, and in spite of suffering from encephalitis, Blunt gets his 3,000 troops on the road to attack the Rebels first, before they can effect a junction with Cabell’s force. With 250 mounted men and 4 cannon, Blunt first secures a crossing over the Arkansas River, and the rest of his force follows him. He now has 3,000 infantry, 12 field pieces, and a few cavalry. As he approaches Honey Springs along the Texas Road, he finds the Rebels arrayed for battle just east of Elk Creek.
Army of the Frontier – Maj. Gen. James Blunt, comm.
1st Brigade - Col William R. Judson
2nd Indian Home Guard --- Lt Col Fred W. Schaurte
1st Kansas Colored Infantry--- Col James M. Williams (w), Lt Col John Bowles
6 Companies, 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry --- Capt Edward R. Stevens
2nd Brigade - Col William A. Phillips
6 Companies, 2nd Colorado Infantry --- Col Theodore H. Dodd
1st Indian Home Guard --- Col Stephen H. Wattles
Detachments of 6th Kansas Cavalry* --- Col William F. Campbell
Artillery
2nd Kansas Light Artillery
1st Section --- Capt Edward Smith
2nd Section --- Lt John P. Grassberger
3rd Kansas Light Artillery* --- Capt Henry Hopkins
Blunt lines up his two brigades---one under Col. William Judson on the right, and another under Col. William Philips on the left, supported by 12 field guns. On the Confederate side, Gen. Cooper had only 4 field guns, and three of these were 12-pounder howitzers, which fired only small loads at a limited range. Cooper’s army was organized as follows:
First Brigade, Indian Troops, Brig. Gen. Douglas Cooper, comm.
Texas Brigade - Col Thomas C. Bass
20th Texas Cavalry (Dismounted) --- Col Thomas Coker Bass
29th Texas Cavalry - Col Charles DeMorse (W)|
5th Texas Partisan Rangers--- Col Leonidas M. Martin
Indian Brigade - Brig Gen Douglas Cooper
1st Cherokee Mounted Rifles* --- Maj Joseph F. Thompson
2nd Cherokee Mounted Rifles# --- Lt Col James M. Bell
1st Choctaw---Chickasaw Mounted Rifles --- Col Tandy Walker
1st Creek --- Col Daniel N. McIntosh
2nd Creek--- Col Chilly McIntosh
Artillery & Cavalry
Lee's Battery--- Capt Roswell W. Lee
Scanland's Squadron Texas Cavalry --- Capt John Scanland
Gillett's Squadron Texas Cavalry --- Capt L. E. Gillett
Cooper is at a disadvantage because nearly a fourth of his force lack serviceable weapons, and the Rebels’ powder supply is limited and of poor quality. Some eyewitnesses claim that nearly half of the Rebels were not even engaged. The battle commences with an artillery duel that lasts for over an hour, each side having only disabled one gun of the other. Blunt has his cavalry dismount, and the battle turns into a seesaw firefight in the underbrush. At one point, the Confederate superior numbers are put to use as they extend their right to flank the Federal left. Blunt orders the 1st Kansas Colored to attack the Rebel center and capture their guns, and the black troops move forward and pour in a deadly volley fire. But the 2nd Indian Home Guard, in the smoke and confusion, veers to the right and finds itself between the 1st Kansas and the Texans they were fighting. Lt. Col. Bowles orders the Indians to retreat back into their position. From the Confederate lines, it sounds and looks as if the Union troops are retreating, and they advance into what they hope is a disintegrating Union line; but as they hit the Union line, they find an established and solid battle line, and the Federal troops pour deadly volleys into the surprised Southerners. The 20th Texas Cavalry takes especially heavy losses, and after the loss of their colors, the Confederate line begins to fall back. Cooper moves his forces farther back to guard the Elk Creek bridge while his artillery is evacuated, and later, at the Honey Springs Depot itself, the Chickasaw and Choctaw troops, supported by Texas troopers, hold off the Federals long enough to cover the retreat. The Rebels set fire to the depot, but Blunt’s men salvage much of the supplies. The Rebels immediately march west, and---two hours after the battle is over---encounter Gen. Cabell and his reinforcements---who are too late. The next day, July 18, Blunt marches his men back to Fort Gibson. Union Victory.
Losses: U.S. 79 C.S. 637
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+17%2C+1863]
Longest Seige Port Hudson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFJ8_XpyqiA
FYI Lt Col Charlie BrownGySgt Jack Wallace CWO4 Terrence Clark SPC Michael Oles SR SPC Michael Terrell LTC Keith L Jackson LTC Trent KlugPO2 Russell "Russ" Lincoln PO3 Edward Riddle PO2 Marco Monsalve PV2 Larry Sellnow SFC Ralph E KelleyCPT Richard Trione 1LT (Join to see) CWO3 Dennis M. CWO4 Terrence Clark PO3 Steven Sherrill PO1 John Johnson SSG Pete Fleming ] SSgt (Join to see)
Near Georgetown, Kentucky. Major R. M. Gano, part of Morgan’s first Kentucky raid, reached Braedalbane on July 17, 1862, and relates how the ladies of the house met him with some trepidation. The rebel troops had no interest in disturbing Reverend Breckinridge, though, and passed on.
Reverend Robert Jefferson Breckinridge was the uncle of John Cabell Breckinridge. Unlike his nephew, R.J. Breckinridge was a Unionist and an abolitionist, and had been instrumental in the efforts to keep Kentucky in the Union. His son William C.P. Breckinridge joined the CSA sometime during Morgan’s first Kentucky raid as a captain in the cavalry. Breckinridge lived on a 600-acre farm known as Braedalbane, near.
From the Official Record: Report of R. M. GANO, Major, Commanding Batt. Cav. in Morgan’s Brigade, C. S. Army. To Gen. Morgan. “We passed through the farm of Victor Flournoy, stopping to refresh ourselves at the spring of the Rev. R. H. Breckinridge, where the ladies came out, and one, whose bright eyes bespoke a southern heart, was very curious to know what party we belonged to. This accidental call was construed into an attempt to arrest the doctor, and his son, Captain Will. Breckinridge, whom we had not seen, was accused of being accessory.
It is not surprising they should judge thus, meting by their own measure. The enemy may feel the effect of Captain Will’s steel upon the field of battle, but they will never find a man of his noble Southern soul trying to secure his father’s arrest.
Taking tea at my father’s, I proceeded on to Kiser’s Station, on the Paris and Covington road, and fired the bridge. The burning bridge fired an old shed beneath, which i afterward learned was Mr. Kisser’s distillery. I regretted the loss of private property, but, as it did happen, better be a distillery than anything else.
I here lost 7 pickets through their mistaking the road, and we hunted them until day, and consequently did not destroy the Townsend Bridge, as I had contemplated.
We then proceeded toward Georgetown, and while encamped in a wood-land near that place R. P. Tannehill, of Company A, Texas Squadron, was by the accidental discharge of a gun launched into eternity. Robert was a brave soldier boy, always ready, devoted to the Southern cause, and the main prop of his widowed mother; but we laid our bold soldier boy to rest more than 1,000 miles from his fond mother, who little dreams, of the removal of her boy.”
Below are a number of journal entries from 1862 and 1863 which shed light on what life was like for soldiers and civilians – the good, the bad and the ugly. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles provides insight in 1863.
Thursday, July 17, 1862: George Templeton Strong of New York City writes in his journal of an Army friend who has been serving on McClellan’s staff: “Lawrence Williams denounces the Administration, Stanton especially, with plainness of speech that does not altogether become a major in the United States Army. He shudders at abolitionists as hydrophobic patients at the sound of falling water. But it is remarkable that his estimate of Lincoln has changed. He doesn’t call Lincoln a "gorilla ape" as he did last winter, but relies on him as the only honest and patriotic man in the Administration. Perhaps he is not so far wrong.”
Thursday, July 17, 1862: Surgeon Alfred L. Castleman writes in his journal about the differences between North and South in attitudes toward commerce: ‘To-night we lie at the mouth of the Chickahominy, under protection of our gun boats. What a commercial world this State of Virginia should be. Its navigable waters are nearly equal to that of all the Free States combined; yet there are single cities in the North which have a larger commerce than the whole of the Slave States. Why is this? Has the peculiar institution any thing to do with it? If so, God, nature— everything speaks aloud against it as a curse. The ground which we now occupy is one of the most beautiful, as well as one of the most desirable sites for a city in America, high and dry, with an easy ascent from the water, presenting three fronts to the navigable rivers, with fine water views in all directions, as extensive as the range of vision, with business amounting to one house and a few cords of dry pine wood, which seems to be the article of export from this part of the State.”
Thursday, July 17, 1862: Capt. William L. Bolton, of the 51st Pennsylvania Infantry, records in his journal his own view of the wrangling and maneuvering between Pope and Lee in central Virginia: “Company A resting all day, other companies on picket duty and repairing the roads. Another foraging party sent out to-day to the same place for corn and coming in sight of the corn-crib discovered the enemy loading from the same crib. The came back at a double-quick. We can plainly see Stonewall Jackson do-day pitching his tents on a high hill on Slaughter Mountain. Can see them signal with flags from Cedar Mountain in day light, and with lights at night.”
Friday, July 17, 1863: Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles writes more in his journal concerning the denouement of Gettysburg and Vicksburg: “In a conversation with General Wadsworth, who called on me, I learned that at the council of the general officers, Meade was disposed to make an attack, and was supported by Wadsworth, Howard, and Pleasonton, but Sedgwick, Sykes, and the older regular officers dissented. Meade, rightly disposed but timid and irresolute, hesitated and delayed until too late. Want of decision and self-reliance in an emergency has cost him and the country dear, for had he fallen upon Lee it could hardly have been otherwise than the capture of most of the Rebel army.
The surrender of Port Hudson is undoubtedly a fact. It could not hold out after the fall of Vicksburg. We have information also that Sherman has caught up with and beaten Johnston.”
Pictures: 1862-07-17 licking bridge, Kentucky; 1861-07-17 Battle of Scary Creek, western Virginia marker; 1863-07-17 The Battle of Honey Springs - black soldier; xx
A. Wednesday, July 17, 1861: Battle of Scary Creek, western Virginia. One of the first Confederate victories. At the Great Kanawha Valley, Col. Jacob D. Cox was leading a force of Federals when they were suddenly attacked by a group of Confederates, commanded by Brig. Gen. Henry A. Wise. The Federals were advancing into western Virginia toward Charleston at the time. The Confederates were trying to block Cox from advancing any further. Wise only slowed the Federals down because they soon pushed the Confederates aside and continued their advance.
Fought July 17, 1861, the battle was the result of a movement by Gen. Jacob D. Cox of Ohio, under the direction of Gen. George B. McClellan, to clear the Kanawha Valley of the Confederate Army of Gen. Henry A. Wise of Virginia. Cox’s advance party crossed the Kanawha River and encountered Confederate pickets at the mouth of Little Scary Creek. He dispatched about 1,300 federal soldiers under field command of Col. John W. Lowe of the 12th Ohio Infantry to engage the approximate 900 Confederates at Scary Creek. The Confederates were led by Col. George S. Patton, grandfather of Gen. George S. Patton of World War II. A near five-hour battle of heavy musketry and artillery fire ensued, including a number of unsuccessful federal charges across the Scary Creek bridge. Patton was seriously wounded and Capt. Albert Gallatin Jenkins rallied the disorganized Confederates to victory.
Background: Located in Putnam County on the west side of the Kanawha River just opposite Nitro, Scary Creek was the site of one of the earliest battles of the Civil War and one of the first Confederate victories. On July 11, 1861, Cox launched a three-pronged movement eastward from Point Pleasant with his infantry, cavalry, and artillery, an attempt to entrap Wise at Charleston. By July 16, following some insignificant skirmishing and a clash at Barboursville, the bulk of Cox’s forces had consolidated at the mouth of the Pocatalico River, downstream and on the opposite side of the Kanawha.
Aftermath: Casualties were slight on both sides, and the southern victory was short-lived as Wise abandoned the Kanawha Valley by August 1 due to pressure by McClellan on Confederate forces in northern West Virginia.
B. Thursday, July 17, 1862: Near Georgetown, Kentucky, Maj. R. M. Gano and an advance detachment of Morgan’s raiders arrive at Breadalbane, the plantation of the Reverend Robert Jefferson Breckinridge, the uncle of John Cabell Breckinridge, former Vice President of the United States and U.S. Senator, and currently a general in the Confederate States Army. In fact, the Reverend is a Unionist and abolitionist, unlike his nephew or his son William, who rides off the enlist with Morgan and serve the Confederacy. Morgan’s troopers cause some panic at the farm, but leave it unharmed.
Reverend Robert Jefferson Breckinridge was the uncle of John Cabell Breckinridge. Unlike his nephew, R.J. Breckinridge was a Unionist and an abolitionist, and had been instrumental in the efforts to keep Kentucky in the Union. His son William C.P. Breckinridge joined the CSA sometime during Morgan’s first Kentucky raid as a captain in the cavalry. Breckinridge lived on a 600-acre farm known as Braedalbane, near Lexington.
C. Thursday, July 17, 1862: Battle at Cynthiana, Kentucky. Confederate raid victory. Attempting to cross the Licking River Bridge, CSA Col. John H. Morgan 's raiders encountered nearly 400 enemy soldiers and Unionist home guard (local militia). These men had positioned themselves across the river in houses and had posted artillery to contest the bridge crossing. When Morgan's attack commenced, one company braved enemy fire and waded across the river. When these Confederates became pinned down, other rebel troops crossed downstream and outflanked the Unionist defenders, who ultimately surrendered.
Morgan captured more than 300 horses, destroyed Cynthiana's railroad depot and nearby railroad track, and wrecked a Union camp.
Background: After leaving Knoxville, Morgan and his 800 troopers reached Cynthiana on July 17. It was a town strategically located on the Kentucky Central Railroad and the Licking River.
D. Friday, July 17, 1863: Battle of Honey Springs, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). Union cavalry victory and Federal forces controlled Indian Territory, north of the Arkansas River. Union and Confederate troops had frequently skirmished in the vicinity of Honey Springs Depot. The Union commander in the area, Maj. Gen. James G. Blunt, correctly surmised that Confederate forces, mostly Native American troops under the command of Brig. Gen. Douglas H. Cooper, were about to concentrate and would then attack his force at Fort Gibson. He decided to defeat the Confederates at Honey Springs Depot before they were joined by Brig. Gen. William Cabell’s brigade, advancing from Fort Smith, Arkansas.
Details: Blunt skirmished with Rebel troops early on the morning of the 17th, and by midafternoon, full-scale fighting ensued. The Confederates had wet powder, causing misfires, and the problem intensified when rain began. After repulsing one attack, Cooper pulled his forces back to obtain new ammunition. In the meantime, Cooper began to experience command problems, and he learned that Blunt was about to turn his left flank. The Confederate retreat began, and although Cooper fought a rearguard action, many of those troops counterattacked, failed, and fled. Any possibility of the Confederates taking Fort Gibson was gone.
Background: Blunt began crossing the swollen Arkansas River on July 15, 1863, and, by midnight on July 16-17, he had a force of 3,000 men, composed of whites, Native Americans, and African Americans, marching toward Honey Springs.
Aftermath: Following this battle, Union forces controlled Indian Territory, north of the Arkansas River.
1. Wednesday, July 17, 1861: Battle of Scary Creek.
[blueandgraytrail.com/year/186107]
2. Wednesday, July 17, 1861: Pres. Davis orders Gen. Joseph Johnston, with 9,000 men in the Shenandoah Valley, to move to Manassas, and reinforce Beauregard, who has 22,000 there.
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+17%2C+1861]
3. Wednesday, July 17, 1861: The U. S. begins issuing demand notes commonly called "Greenbacks."
[blueandgraytrail.com/year/186107]
4. Wednesday, July 17, 1861: This day witnessed the most fighting to date. All the fighting was on a small-scale but it took place in Fulton, Missouri, Martinsburg, Missouri, Scarrytown, western Virginia and Bunker Hill, Virginia.
[historylearningsite.co.uk/the-american-civil-war/american-civil-war-july-1861/]
5. Thursday, July 17, 1862 --- The Richmond Daily Dispatch, on this date, quotes part of an editorial from the London Times, which calls for British intervention in the American war, since the lack of cotton in this season is causing great damage to British industries: “How long, then, are England and France to tolerate a war waged, utterly in vain, for an object whose attainment would confer no benefit on those who seek it, and would be an unmarred misfortune to the rest of the world? How long are we to suffer, while the North strains its powers to the uttermost to restore a Union, which, while it existed, was the common enemy of Europe, and, to an especial sense, the enemy of England? . . . If the cause of the North were a good or a holy one, England might be content to suffer long and severely for conscience sake; but we are not willing to see our countrymen starve that Northern lust of empire may be gratified by the sacrifice of Southern freedom, or that Massachusetts may grow rich on subsidies wrung by a protective tariff from Georgia and Alabama. It is time that some decided action should be taken by France and England on behalf of justice and humanity, as well as foe [sic] the protection of their half ruined manufacturers and hungry operatives. Such action must be taken at last; . . . and if we are to act after all, it is a saving of needless misery to act at once, with gentleness and courtesy, but with immovable firmness of purpose. The war in America, the cotton famine in Europe, must be terminated; when this resolution is once announced by the two great Powers, neither the patient sufferers here nor the exhausted combatants beyond the Atlantic will have long to wait for relief.”
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+17%2C+1862]
6. Thursday, July 17, 1862 --- Pres. Lincoln accepts a meeting with a Committee of the Reformed Presbyterian Synod, whose members present a resolution on Slavery, proposing immediate abolition. In his answer, the President offers his response: “Had Slavery no existence among us, and were the question asked shall we adopt such an institution? we should agree as to the reply which should be made. If there be any diversity in our views it is not as to whether we should receive Slavery when free from it, but as to how we may best get rid of it already amongst us. Were an individual asked whether he would wish to have a wen on his neck, he could not hesitate as to the reply; but were it asked whether a man who has such a wen should at once be relieved of it by the application of the surgeon's knife, there might be diversity of opinion, perhaps the man might bleed to death, as the result of such an operation.
Feeling deeply my responsibility to my country and to that God to whom we all owe allegiance, I assure you I will try to do my best, and so may God help me.”
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+17%2C+1862]
7. Thursday, July 17, 1862 --- On this date, significantly, Lincoln signs into law the Second Confiscation Act, which provides freedom for slaves confiscated from owners who are in rebellion against the United States.
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+17%2C+1862]
8. Thursday, July 17, 1862 --- Gen. Ambrose Burnside and 7,000 of his troops from coastal North Carolina arrive at Newport News, Virginia, intended as reinforcements to McClellan.
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+17%2C+1862]
9. Thursday, July 17, 1862 --- George Templeton Strong of New York City writes in his journal of an Army friend who has been serving on McClellan’s staff: “Lawrence Williams denounces the Administration, Stanton especially, with plainness of speech that does not altogether become a major in the United States Army. He shudders at abolitionists as hydrophobic patients at the sound of falling water. But it is remarkable that his estimate of Lincoln has changed. He doesn’t call Lincoln a "gorilla ape" as he did last winter, but relies on him as the only honest and patriotic man in the Administration. Perhaps he is not so far wrong.”
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+17%2C+1862]
10. Thursday, July 17, 1862 --- Surgeon Alfred L. Castleman writes in his journal about the differences between North and South in attitudes toward commerce: ‘To-night we lie at the mouth of the Chickahominy, under protection of our gun boats. What a commercial world this State of Virginia should be. Its navigable waters are nearly equal to that of all the Free States combined; yet there are single cities in the North which have a larger commerce than the whole of the Slave States. Why is this? Has the peculiar institution any thing to do with it? If so, God, nature— everything speaks aloud against it as a curse. The ground which we now occupy is one of the most beautiful, as well as one of the most desirable sites for a city in America, high and dry, with an easy ascent from the water, presenting three fronts to the navigable rivers, with fine water views in all directions, as extensive as the range of vision, with business amounting to one house and a few cords of dry pine wood, which seems to be the article of export from this part of the State.”
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+17%2C+1862]
11. Thursday, July 17, 1862 --- Capt. William L. Bolton, of the 51st Pennsylvania Infantry, records in his journal his own view of the wrangling and maneuvering between Pope and Lee in central Virginia: “Company A resting all day, other companies on picket duty and repairing the roads. Another foraging party sent out to-day to the same place for corn and coming in sight of the corn-crib discovered the enemy loading from the same crib. The came back at a double-quick. We can plainly see Stonewall Jackson do-day pitching his tents on a high hill on Slaughter Mountain. Can see them signal with flags from Cedar Mountain in day light, and with lights at night.”
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+17%2C+1862]
12. Thursday, July 17, 1862: Congress passes the Second Confiscation Act, or The Confiscation Act of 1862. This allows for confiscation of property from people who participate in the war.
[blueandgraytrail.com/year/186207]
13. Thursday, July 17, 1862: President Lincoln signs “An act to suppress insurrection, and to punish treason and rebellion, to seize and confiscate property of rebels, and for other purposes,” together with joint resolution explanatory of act, and draft of Message stating objections to bill before it becomes law. He also approves an act amending the Militia Act of 1795 and subsequent amendments to allow the call-up of more men, as well as to enable the use of African Americans in any military capacity, including as soldiers.
[bjdeming.com/2012/07/20/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-july-16-22-1862/]
14. Thursday, July 17, 1862: Lincoln signed the Second Confiscation Act, which granted freedom to slaves who entered Federal jurisdiction.
[historylearningsite.co.uk/the-american-civil-war/american-civil-war-july-1862/]
15. Thursday, July 17, 1862: Western Theater: General Grant sends the division of General George H. Thomas to Buell.
[bjdeming.com/2012/07/20/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-july-16-22-1862/]
16. Thursday, July 17, 1862 --- Gen. William "Bull" Nelson is ordered by Gen. Buell to go to Kentucky to train and organize the new troops being sent there into a defense force in anticipation of Bragg’s invasion. Nelson is being given a few veteran troops to fill out the defensive force.
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+17%2C+1862]
17. Thursday, July 17, 1862 --- Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart prepares his brigades for a big raid behind Union lines to cut their supply route over the Rappahannock.
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+17%2C+1862]
18. Thursday, July 17, 1862 --- As Gen. James Blunt and his army approach Lone Jack, Missouri, there is more fighting there as the Rebels attack the Federal skirmishers vigorously while the main Rebel force retreats southward.
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+17%2C+1862]
19. Thursday, July 17, 1862: Morgan’s Confederate raiders took Cynthiana, Kentucky; Major General John Pope’s Federals captured Gordonsville, Virginia; and skirmishes occurred near Mount Pleasant and Columbia, Tennessee.
[thisweekinthecivilwar.com/?p=1312]
20. Thursday, July 17, 1862: Cynthiana, Kentucky - On July 17, a Confederate cavalry raiding party, commanded by Col. John H. Morgan, arrived at the town of Cynthiana. They quickly attacked the town and captured it.
[mycivilwar.com/battles/1862s.html]
21. Thursday, July 17, 1862: Cynthiana, Kentucky. The first battle fought in Cynthiana occurred at Licking Creek on July 17, 1862, was part of Gen. John Hunt Morgan's "First Kentucky Raid." The Federal force of 500 soldiers was defeated by Morgan's 800 Confederate soldiers and Cynthiana was captured.
[railsrus.com/civilwar/region4/cynthian.html]
22. Thursday, July 17, 1862: Gordonsville, Virginia - On July 17, a Union force, commanded by Maj. Gen. John Pope, attacked a smaller Confederate force near Gordonsville. The Confederates were forced to retreat, leaving the path to Gordonsville wide open. Pope led his men to the town and captured it without any resistance.
[mycivilwar.com/battles/1862s.html]
23. Friday, July 17, 1863 --- Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles writes more in his journal concerning the denouement of Gettysburg and Vicksburg: “In a conversation with General Wadsworth, who called on me, I learned that at the council of the general officers, Meade was disposed to make an attack, and was supported by Wadsworth, Howard, and Pleasonton, but Sedgwick, Sykes, and the older regular officers dissented. Meade, rightly disposed but timid and irresolute, hesitated and delayed until too late. Want of decision and self-reliance in an emergency has cost him and the country dear, for had he fallen upon Lee it could hardly have been otherwise than the capture of most of the Rebel army.
The surrender of Port Hudson is undoubtedly a fact. It could not hold out after the fall of Vicksburg. We have information also that Sherman has caught up with and beaten Johnston.
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+17%2C+1863]
24. Friday, July 17, 1863: Honey Springs, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).
[bjdeming.com/2013/07/21/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-july-15-21-1863/]
25. Friday, July 17, 1863 --- Civil strife in the streets of New York is less severe, even as more troops arrive from the Army of the Potomac.
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+17%2C+1863]
26. Sunday, July 17, 1864: Opelika, Alabama - On July 17, Brig. Gen. Lovell H. Rosseau and his Union force attacked the town of Opelika. The local Confederate force was under the command of Maj. Gen. Gideon J. Pillow. The Federals took or burned large quantities of supplies. They then took off down the West Point Railroad. While doing this, they destroyed 30 miles of track and burned several railroad stations and warehouses.
[mycivilwar.com/battles/1864s.html]
27. Sunday, July 17, 1864: Shenandoah operations, Early’s Raid: Battle of Cool Spring/Snicker’s Ferry/Parker’s Ford begins.
[bjdeming.com/2014/07/13/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-july-14-20-1864/]
28. Sunday, July 17, 1864: General Joseph E. Johnston relieved of command of the Army of Tennessee. John Bell Hood replaces him.
[blueandgraytrail.com/year/186407]
29. Sunday, July 17, 1864: Georgia operations. President Davis, supported by his cabinet and the pro-administration part of the Confederate Congress, fires General Johnston, replacing him with General John Bell Hood.
[bjdeming.com/2014/07/13/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-july-14-20-1864/]
30. Sunday, July 17, 1864: Jefferson Davis relieved Johnston of his command and appointed John B Hood in his place. Hood was the youngest commander of an army in the war aged 33 years. He lost his left arm at the Battle of Gettysburg and his right leg at the Battle of Chickamauga. Davis hoped that his fighting spirit and undoubted bravery would rub off on the men tasked with the defence of Atlanta.
[historylearningsite.co.uk/the-american-civil-war/american-civil-war-july-1864/]
31. Sunday, July 17, 1864: General Sherman says: On the 17th we began the general movement against Atlanta, Thomas crossing the Chattahoochee at Powers’s and Paice’s, by pontoon-bridges; Schofield moving out toward Cross Keys, and McPherson toward Stone Mountain. We encountered but little opposition except by cavalry.
[bjdeming.com/2014/07/13/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-july-14-20-1864]
A Wednesday, July 17, 1861: Scary Creek, western Virginia - On July 17, at the Great Kanawha Valley, Col. Jacob D. Cox was leading a force of Federals when they were suddenly attacked by a group of Confederates, commanded by Brig. Gen. Henry A. Wise. The Federals were advancing into western Virginia toward Charleston at the time. The Confederates were trying to block Cox from advancing any further. Wise only slowed the Federals down because they soon pushed the Confederates aside and continued their advance.
[mycivilwar.com/battles/1861s.html]
A+ Wednesday, July 17, 1861: Battle of Scary Creek. Located in Putnam County on the west side of the Kanawha River just opposite Nitro, Scary Creek was the site of one of the earliest battles of the Civil War and one of the first Confederate victories.
Fought July 17, 1861, the battle was the result of a movement by Gen. Jacob D. Cox of Ohio, under the direction of Gen. George B. McClellan, to clear the Kanawha Valley of the Confederate Army of Gen. Henry A. Wise of Virginia.
On July 11, 1861, Cox launched a three-pronged movement eastward from Point Pleasant with his infantry, cavalry, and artillery, an attempt to entrap Wise at Charleston. By July 16, following some insignificant skirmishing and a clash at Barboursville, the bulk of Cox’s forces had consolidated at the mouth of the Pocatalico River, downstream and on the opposite side of the Kanawha. The following day, Cox’s advance party crossed the Kanawha River and encountered Confederate pickets at the mouth of Little Scary Creek. He dispatched about 1,300 federal soldiers under field command of Col. John W. Lowe of the 12th Ohio Infantry to engage the approximate 900 Confederates at Scary Creek. The Confederates were led by Col. George S. Patton, grandfather of Gen. George S. Patton of World War II. A near five-hour battle of heavy musketry and artillery fire ensued, including a number of unsuccessful federal charges across the Scary Creek bridge. Patton was seriously wounded and Capt. Albert Gallatin Jenkins rallied the disorganized Confederates to victory.
Casualties were slight on both sides, and the southern victory was short-lived as Wise abandoned the Kanawha Valley by August 1 due to pressure by McClellan on Confederate forces in northern West Virginia.
[.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/190]
B. Thursday, July 17, 1862 --- Near Georgetown, Kentucky, Maj. R. M. Gano and an advance detachment of Morgan’s raiders arrive at Breadalbane, the plantation of the Reverend Robert Jefferson Breckinridge, the uncle of John Cabell Breckinridge, former Vice President of the United States and U.S. Senator, and currently a general in the Confederate States Army. In fact, the Reverend is a Unionist and abolitionist, unlike his nephew or his son William, who rides off the enlist with Morgan and serve the Confederacy. Morgan’s troopers cause some panic at the farm, but leave it unharmed.
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+17%2C+1862]
B++ Thursday, July 17, 1862: Near Georgetown, Kentucky. Major R. M. Gano, part of Morgan’s first Kentucky raid, reached Braedalbane on July 17, 1862, and relates how the ladies of the house met him with some trepidation. The rebel troops had no interest in disturbing Reverend Breckinridge, though, and passed on.
Reverend Robert Jefferson Breckinridge was the uncle of John Cabell Breckinridge. Unlike his nephew, R.J. Breckinridge was a Unionist and an abolitionist, and had been instrumental in the efforts to keep Kentucky in the Union. His son William C.P. Breckinridge joined the CSA sometime during Morgan’s first Kentucky raid as a captain in the cavalry. Breckinridge lived on a 600-acre farm known as Braedalbane, near Lexington. Reverend Robert Jefferson Breckinridge was the uncle of John Cabell Breckinridge. Unlike his nephew, R.J. Breckinridge was a Unionist and an abolitionist, and had been instrumental in the efforts to keep Kentucky in the Union. His son William C.P. Breckinridge joined the CSA sometime during Morgan’s first Kentucky raid as a captain in the cavalry. Breckinridge lived on a 600-acre farm known as Braedalbane, near Lexington — I don’t know the exact location, but from the account below it must be somewhere close to Georgetown, KY, north of Lexington..
From the Official Record: Report of R. M. GANO, Major, Commanding Batt. Cav. in Morgan’s Brigade, C. S. Army. To Gen. Morgan. “We passed through the farm of Victor Flournoy, stopping to refresh ourselves at the spring of the Rev. R. H. Breckinridge, where the ladies came out, and one, whose bright eyes bespoke a southern heart, was very curious to know what party we belonged to. This accidental call was construed into an attempt to arrest the doctor, and his son, Captain Will. Breckinridge, whom we had not seen, was accused of being accessory.
It is not surprising they should judge thus, meting by their own measure. The enemy may feel the effect of Captain Will’s steel upon the field of battle, but they will never find a man of his noble Southern soul trying to secure his father’s arrest.
Taking tea at my father’s, I proceeded on to Kiser’s Station, on the Paris and Covington road, and fired the bridge. The burning bridge fired an old shed beneath, which i afterward learned was Mr. Kisser’s distillery. I regretted the loss of private property, but, as it did happen, better be a distillery than anything else.
I here lost 7 pickets through their mistaking the road, and we hunted them until day, and consequently did not destroy the Townsend Bridge, as I had contemplated.
We then proceeded toward Georgetown, and while encamped in a wood-land near that place R. P. Tannehill, of Company A, Texas Squadron, was by the accidental discharge of a gun launched into eternity. Robert was a brave soldier boy, always ready, devoted to the Southern cause, and the main prop of his widowed mother; but we laid our bold soldier boy to rest more than 1,000 miles from his fond mother, who little dreams, of the removal of her boy.
[gathkinsons.net/sesqui/?p=4251]
C Thursday, July 17, 1862: Cynthiana, Kentucky. After leaving Knoxville, Morgan and his 800 troopers reached Cynthiana on July 17. It was a town strategically located on the Kentucky Central Railroad and the Licking River.
Morgan had met little resistance on this raid, but that changed when he reached Cynthiana. Attempting to cross the Licking River Bridge, Morgan's raiders encountered nearly 400 enemy soldiers and Unionist home guard (local militia). These men had positioned themselves across the river in houses and had posted artillery to contest the bridge crossing. When Morgan's attack commenced, one company braved enemy fire and waded across the river. When these Confederates became pinned down, other rebel troops crossed downstream and outflanked the Unionist defenders, who ultimately surrendered.
Morgan captured more than 300 horses, destroyed Cynthiana's railroad depot and nearby railroad track, and wrecked a Union camp.
[explorekyhistory.ky.gov/items/show/99]
D Friday, July 17, 1863: Honey Springs, Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) 65 miles west of Fort Smith, Federal forces defeat Confederates in the battle of Honey Springs.
[blueandgraytrail.com/year/186307]
D+ Friday, July 17, 1863: The Battle of Honey Springs. Union and Confederate troops had frequently skirmished in the vicinity of Honey Springs Depot. The Union commander in the area, Maj. Gen. James G. Blunt, correctly surmised that Confederate forces, mostly Native American troops under the command of Brig. Gen. Douglas H. Cooper, were about to concentrate and would then attack his force at Fort Gibson. He decided to defeat the Confederates at Honey Springs Depot before they were joined by Brig. Gen. William Cabell’s brigade, advancing from Fort Smith, Arkansas. Blunt began crossing the swollen Arkansas River on July 15, 1863, and, by midnight on July 16-17, he had a force of 3,000 men, composed of whites, Native Americans, and African Americans, marching toward Honey Springs. Blunt skirmished with Rebel troops early on the morning of the 17th, and by midafternoon, full-scale fighting ensued. The Confederates had wet powder, causing misfires, and the problem intensified when rain began. After repulsing one attack, Cooper pulled his forces back to obtain new ammunition. In the meantime, Cooper began to experience command problems, and he learned that Blunt was about to turn his left flank. The Confederate retreat began, and although Cooper fought a rearguard action, many of those troops counterattacked, failed, and fled. Any possibility of the Confederates taking Fort Gibson was gone. Following this battle, Union forces controlled Indian Territory, north of the Arkansas River.
[civilwar.org/battlefields/honey-springs.html]
D++ Friday, July 17, 1863 --- Battle of Honey Springs, Oklahoma – The largest and most decisive of the war’s battles fought in the Indian Territory, this battle put an end to Confederate hopes that the Five Civilized Tribes (Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole) who occupy this territory would help the South dominate in the region west of the Mississippi, and thus threaten the western borders of the northern states, too. Maj. Gen. James Blunt, always resourceful in the face of shortages and administrative indifference, was the first to raise black troops (in Kansas) and Indian troops for the Federal army. He marches his small, 3,000-man division down to Fort Gibson in the Territory to make it a strong point, positioned as it was at the junction of the Neosho and Arkansas Rivers in northeastern Oklahoma. Gen. Douglas Cooper, Confederate commander of the district, has two brigades---one of Texas troops and another of Indian troops, making nearly 5,700 men altogether---and is waiting at Honey Springs (about 20 miles to the southwest), a major Confederate supply depot, for Gen. Cabell to arrive from Ft. Smith with another 3,000 men. Gen. Blunt gets wind of Cooper’s idea, and in spite of suffering from encephalitis, Blunt gets his 3,000 troops on the road to attack the Rebels first, before they can effect a junction with Cabell’s force. With 250 mounted men and 4 cannon, Blunt first secures a crossing over the Arkansas River, and the rest of his force follows him. He now has 3,000 infantry, 12 field pieces, and a few cavalry. As he approaches Honey Springs along the Texas Road, he finds the Rebels arrayed for battle just east of Elk Creek.
Army of the Frontier – Maj. Gen. James Blunt, comm.
1st Brigade - Col William R. Judson
2nd Indian Home Guard --- Lt Col Fred W. Schaurte
1st Kansas Colored Infantry--- Col James M. Williams (w), Lt Col John Bowles
6 Companies, 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry --- Capt Edward R. Stevens
2nd Brigade - Col William A. Phillips
6 Companies, 2nd Colorado Infantry --- Col Theodore H. Dodd
1st Indian Home Guard --- Col Stephen H. Wattles
Detachments of 6th Kansas Cavalry* --- Col William F. Campbell
Artillery
2nd Kansas Light Artillery
1st Section --- Capt Edward Smith
2nd Section --- Lt John P. Grassberger
3rd Kansas Light Artillery* --- Capt Henry Hopkins
Blunt lines up his two brigades---one under Col. William Judson on the right, and another under Col. William Philips on the left, supported by 12 field guns. On the Confederate side, Gen. Cooper had only 4 field guns, and three of these were 12-pounder howitzers, which fired only small loads at a limited range. Cooper’s army was organized as follows:
First Brigade, Indian Troops, Brig. Gen. Douglas Cooper, comm.
Texas Brigade - Col Thomas C. Bass
20th Texas Cavalry (Dismounted) --- Col Thomas Coker Bass
29th Texas Cavalry - Col Charles DeMorse (W)|
5th Texas Partisan Rangers--- Col Leonidas M. Martin
Indian Brigade - Brig Gen Douglas Cooper
1st Cherokee Mounted Rifles* --- Maj Joseph F. Thompson
2nd Cherokee Mounted Rifles# --- Lt Col James M. Bell
1st Choctaw---Chickasaw Mounted Rifles --- Col Tandy Walker
1st Creek --- Col Daniel N. McIntosh
2nd Creek--- Col Chilly McIntosh
Artillery & Cavalry
Lee's Battery--- Capt Roswell W. Lee
Scanland's Squadron Texas Cavalry --- Capt John Scanland
Gillett's Squadron Texas Cavalry --- Capt L. E. Gillett
Cooper is at a disadvantage because nearly a fourth of his force lack serviceable weapons, and the Rebels’ powder supply is limited and of poor quality. Some eyewitnesses claim that nearly half of the Rebels were not even engaged. The battle commences with an artillery duel that lasts for over an hour, each side having only disabled one gun of the other. Blunt has his cavalry dismount, and the battle turns into a seesaw firefight in the underbrush. At one point, the Confederate superior numbers are put to use as they extend their right to flank the Federal left. Blunt orders the 1st Kansas Colored to attack the Rebel center and capture their guns, and the black troops move forward and pour in a deadly volley fire. But the 2nd Indian Home Guard, in the smoke and confusion, veers to the right and finds itself between the 1st Kansas and the Texans they were fighting. Lt. Col. Bowles orders the Indians to retreat back into their position. From the Confederate lines, it sounds and looks as if the Union troops are retreating, and they advance into what they hope is a disintegrating Union line; but as they hit the Union line, they find an established and solid battle line, and the Federal troops pour deadly volleys into the surprised Southerners. The 20th Texas Cavalry takes especially heavy losses, and after the loss of their colors, the Confederate line begins to fall back. Cooper moves his forces farther back to guard the Elk Creek bridge while his artillery is evacuated, and later, at the Honey Springs Depot itself, the Chickasaw and Choctaw troops, supported by Texas troopers, hold off the Federals long enough to cover the retreat. The Rebels set fire to the depot, but Blunt’s men salvage much of the supplies. The Rebels immediately march west, and---two hours after the battle is over---encounter Gen. Cabell and his reinforcements---who are too late. The next day, July 18, Blunt marches his men back to Fort Gibson. Union Victory.
Losses: U.S. 79 C.S. 637
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+17%2C+1863]
Longest Seige Port Hudson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFJ8_XpyqiA
FYI Lt Col Charlie BrownGySgt Jack Wallace CWO4 Terrence Clark SPC Michael Oles SR SPC Michael Terrell LTC Keith L Jackson LTC Trent KlugPO2 Russell "Russ" Lincoln PO3 Edward Riddle PO2 Marco Monsalve PV2 Larry Sellnow SFC Ralph E KelleyCPT Richard Trione 1LT (Join to see) CWO3 Dennis M. CWO4 Terrence Clark PO3 Steven Sherrill PO1 John Johnson SSG Pete Fleming ] SSgt (Join to see)
(10)
(0)
4
4
0
2
2
0
LTC Stephen F. thanks for the awesome read and share, know this, its really appreciated for the well conveyed and articulate read.
1861: Battle of Scary Creek, western Virginia. One of the first Confederate victories. At the Great Kanawha Valley, Col. Jacob D. Cox was leading a force of Federals when they were suddenly attacked by a group of Confederates, commanded by Brig. Gen. Henr
1861: Battle of Scary Creek, western Virginia. One of the first Confederate victories. At the Great Kanawha Valley, Col. Jacob D. Cox was leading a force of Federals when they were suddenly attacked by a group of Confederates, commanded by Brig. Gen. Henr
(2)
(0)
LTC Stephen F.
You are very welcome my friend and brother-in-Christ SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL and thanks for letting us know that you consider July 17, 1861 'Battle of Scary Creek, western Virginia. One of the first Confederate victories' to be the most significant event in the Civil War for July 17.
(0)
(0)
Read This Next
Continue with Facebook 
Continue with Google