Posted on May 17, 2016
What was the most significant event on May 16 during the U.S. Civil War?
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The proper method of unscrewing the pine tick in 1862: Josiah Marshall Favill, a young Union officer at Port Royal, South Carolina, remark in his journal a humorous anecdote on the local insect life: “In the meantime, we have been occupying ourselves in the study of natural history, particularly with the pine tick, an insect abounding in these parts; it has a spiral proboscis by which it screws itself fast to the fleshy part of one’s body, without attracting attention or causing any pain, and then quietly proceeds to gorge itself with blood, until it swells to the size of a large coffee berry, and looks almost exactly like one in color and shape. It is at this stage that you begin to feel an itching, and looking for the cause, find half a dozen or more of these ugly black-looking berries sticking on your legs; naturally, you yank them off without hesitancy, but are astonished to find the itching increases, and the inflammation and swelling continues spreading. Upon a close inspection, one finds that on pulling the creature off, his proboscis was left behind, imbedded deeply in the flesh, and this is the cause, or seems to be, of all the trouble. The remedy is to boldly cut out the offending head; there is, however, a scientific method of removing them, when first discovered, and that is, simply to unscrew them; seizing them carefully between the thumb and forefinger, you gently turn to the left, and are surprised to find they come out easily, and completely, exactly like a screw.”
Pay finally reaches the heroes of Olustee in 1864: Oliver Willcox Norton, an officer in a black regiment, writes home to his sister: “This mail brings us the good news that colored soldiers are at last to get their dues in the matter of pay. The paymaster was here a week ago and offered the heroes of Olustee $7 a month. Most of them would not take it. Only those very much in need of money did so.”
Pictures: 1863 Battle of Champion Hill. Mississippi; 1864 The Battle of Drewry's Bluff-Fort Darling (Second) in Chesterfield County, Virginia Bermuda Hundred Campaign; 1863 Battle of Champion Hill; 1861_Kentucky Neutrality
FYI CWO4 Terrence Clark MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D. MSG Roy Cheever Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. SMSgt Lawrence McCarter PO3 Edward Riddle MAJ Roland McDonald SSG Byron Hewett CMDCM John F. "Doc" Bradshaw COL (Join to see) SPC Michael Terrell COL Lisandro Murphy SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL] MAJ Ken Landgren LTC Trent Klug CWO3 Dennis M. CPT Kevin McComasSPC Tina Jones
Pay finally reaches the heroes of Olustee in 1864: Oliver Willcox Norton, an officer in a black regiment, writes home to his sister: “This mail brings us the good news that colored soldiers are at last to get their dues in the matter of pay. The paymaster was here a week ago and offered the heroes of Olustee $7 a month. Most of them would not take it. Only those very much in need of money did so.”
Pictures: 1863 Battle of Champion Hill. Mississippi; 1864 The Battle of Drewry's Bluff-Fort Darling (Second) in Chesterfield County, Virginia Bermuda Hundred Campaign; 1863 Battle of Champion Hill; 1861_Kentucky Neutrality
FYI CWO4 Terrence Clark MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D. MSG Roy Cheever Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. SMSgt Lawrence McCarter PO3 Edward Riddle MAJ Roland McDonald SSG Byron Hewett CMDCM John F. "Doc" Bradshaw COL (Join to see) SPC Michael Terrell COL Lisandro Murphy SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL] MAJ Ken Landgren LTC Trent Klug CWO3 Dennis M. CPT Kevin McComasSPC Tina Jones
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Friday, May 16, 1862: Katherine Prescott Wormeley, a Union woman volunteering as a nurse at an Army hospital down in Virginia, relates in her journal an incident that happened while she was caring for wounded men all laid out on the deck of a ship heading to Washington: Getting them all washed, as I say, is a droll piece of work. Some are indifferent to the absurd luxury of soap and water, and some are so fussy. Some poor faces we must wash ourselves, and that softly and slowly. I started along each row with two tin basins and two bits of soap, my arm being the towel-horse. Now, you are not to suppose that each man had a basinful of clean water all to himself. However, I thought three to a basin was enough, or four, if they did n’t wash too hard. But an old corporal taught me better. "Stop, marm!" said he, as I was turning back with the dirty water to get fresh; "that water will do for several of us yet. Bless you! I make my coffee of worse than that."
Monday, May 16, 1864: Union soldier John W. Derr writes home to his family during a brief respite in the ongoing Battle of Spotsylvania: Spotsylvania Court House, Va.
“My Dear Father and Mother, I take this present opportunity to inform this few lines to you to let you know that I am well at present time and I hope this few lines will find you in the same state of good health. You must excuse me for not writing to you any sooner because we was busy this two last weeks after the rebels. We had two pretty hard fights since. We are out and are now laying on the battle field for the six last days firing at the rebels and are fighting with them every day. But all the boys from around there are safe yet as much as I know. But John Boyer got wounded today but it ain’t very bad. It is only a flesh wound through the left leg above the knee. And John D. Weikel is missing. Nobody knows anything about him and I don’t know where he is or where he got to. He got away from us in the morning that we went into the battle. He was along when we advanced in line of battle. Thank God that I am safe yet and I hope that I always may get through safe. We have some hard nuts to bite. But I hope we will be successful in taking Richmond for we are bound to have it or else all die. This is the cry all through the Army. I also seen some of the 17th Pennsylvania Cavalry. I seen Daniel Derr and Elias Derr and Isaac Yarnall and Emanuel Bolich and they are all well and look hearty. So I must close this few lines for it is getting dark and I have no more to write for this time. This few lines from your beloved son.” John W. Derr
Pictures: 1864 Bermuda Hundred Battle 39th Illinois Battle Map; 1864 Spotsylvania drawing.; 1863 Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant; xx
Since RallyPoint truncates survey selection text I am posting events that were not included and then the full text of each survey choice below:
A. On May 16, 1861, the Kentucky lower house overwhelmingly adopted a resolution of the state's official neutrality in the Civil War and a resolution refusing to heed President Lincoln's call for military volunteers; Kentucky's upper house concurred five days later. On May 20, Governor Beriah Magoffin issued a proclamation recognizing and affirming Kentucky's neutrality.
Magoffin also urged his fellow governors of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Tennessee to send delegates to a conference intended to force the Union and the Confederacy to cease hostilities and negotiate a settlement. The three northern state governors refused to consider the proposal and busied themselves with mobilizing for the Union cause, while Tennessee staked its claim with the Confederacy. On June 8, only Missouri and Kentucky were represented at the peace conference, which passed a few resolutions and quickly adjourned.
Governor Magoffin rejected requests from both Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president, to supply their respective armies with troops from his state. The governor, however, was sympathetic to the Confederate cause and looked the other way when Confederate recruiters entered Kentucky. There was also a substantial and lucrative trade in various wartime goods, such as horses, food, and even munitions, flowing from the north through Kentucky into the Confederacy. The Union army and Midwestern governors took steps to curb the trade, but they could not eliminate it. President Lincoln believed that theoretically he had the constitutional authority to compel Kentucky's compliance with the Union, but recognized his "real world" options were severely limited. Any premature show of force could send Kentucky into the arms of the Confederacy. As bad as neutrality was, that scenario would be far worse.
Lincoln's patience was finally rewarded. On June 20, 1861, (the day after this postdated cartoon was published), Kentucky Unionists secured five of six congressional seats in a special election (many pro-Confederates boycotted the vote). That political victory was reinforced in the legislative elections on August 5 when Unionists won large majorities in both the state house and senate. On August 16, President Lincoln issued a proclamation prohibiting all trade with the Confederacy.
The final turning point came on the battlefield. At the westernmost edge of Kentucky, Confederate troops under Leonidas Polk were stationed in northwestern Tennessee and Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant manned Cairo, Illinois, fifty miles north. On September 3, 1861, Polk and his men invaded Kentucky to capture the railroad terminal at Columbus. In reaction, Grant moved his troops into Paducah and Smithfield, Kentucky. Both sides had violated Kentucky's neutrality, but the Confederates were the initial aggressors. On September 18, the Kentucky legislature resolved that the Confederate "invaders must be expelled." The American flag was hoisted above the capital, and Governor Magoffin resigned.
By the end of 1861, 50,000 Union soldiers occupied most of the state except for the southwest corner controlled by 35,000 Confederate troops. More than any other state, the idea that the Civil War was a war between brothers was true in Kentucky. One example of many was the family of the late Henry Clay, Kentucky's longtime congressman and senator who forged sectional compromises in 1820 and 1850: four of his grandsons fought for the Confederacy, while three grandsons fought for the Union.
B. Saturday, May 16, 1863: Battle of Champion Hill, Mississippi: Decisive Union victory. The Battle of Champion Hill was the largest, bloodiest, and most significant action of Grant’s Vicksburg Campaign. 32,000 advancing Union soldiers met 23,000 Confederates in a fierce struggle for a vital crossroads roughly halfway between Vicksburg and Jackson, Mississippi. The field was dominated by bald Champion Hill, from which Confederate artillery opened fire on the Union army at 9:45 A.M. The first Federal assault on the hill drove the Southerners back with bayonets and clubbed muskets. As the Union soldiers tried to reform and consolidate their gains, they were swept away by a counterattack led by John Bowen’s Missourians and Arkansans. Ulysses S. Grant ordered more men towards the hill and Bowen’s Confederates were themselves driven off, compelling a general retreat. Southern Brig. Gen. Lloyd Tilghman was killed while directing a desperate rearguard action that enabled most of the Confederate army to escape towards Vicksburg. The decisive Union victory at Champion Hill was instrumental in forcing the Confederates out of the open field and into a doomed position inside the walls of Vicksburg.
C. Monday, May 16, 1864: Battle of Spotsylvania, Day 9: Gen. Lee realizes that Grant intends to attack his right, and so begins to shift part of Anderson’s First Corps in that direction. Sporadic skirmishing continues, as both armies suffer in the mud.
D. Monday, May 16, 1864 Battle of Drewry’s Bluff, Virginia: Confederate Victory. Reinforced by troops from Richmond and North Carolina, Gen P.G.T Beauregard rapidly organized the 10 brigades at his disposal into 3 divisions and ordered an attack for the 16th. At 4:45 A.M. that morning, CSA Maj. Gen. Robert Ransom's 4 brigades charged into Maj. Gen. William F. Smith's XVIII Corps’ right flank. Charles A. Heckman's brigade, capturing 400 Federals, 5 flags, and the brigade commander. Ransom halted; his organization was gone and his ammunition low. CSA Maj. Gen. Robert F. Hoke, delayed by the fog, soon attacked Maj. Gen. Quincy A. Gillmore's X Corps’ lines. The Federals stubbornly fell back, but again the fog disorganized the Confederate attackers. Gillmore counterattacked into a gap between the Confederate brigades, halting the Confederate advance. By 10:00 A.M., Beauregard's brigades had been spent and Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler began withdrawing. CSA Maj. Gen. W.H.C. Whiting, with 2 Confederate brigades, had been ordered to attack Butler's rear. Whiting halted before one of the Union divisions left behind at Walthall's Station. Whiting's lack of aggressiveness and a heavy rainstorm allowed Butler to reach his works across the neck of the peninsula. On the morning of the 17th, the Confederates arrived opposite the Union works. Beauregard sealed the neck of Bermuda Hundred, effectively encasing Butler on the peninsula. The grave threat to Richmond and Petersburg had been temporarily eliminated.
Background: By the morning of the 13th, the Federals had pushed the Confederates from their outer works into the main line at Drewry's Bluff. The shallowness of the river, however, prevented an attack by the Union monitors. The cautious Butler settled into a defensive posture on the 14th, with Maj. Gen. William F. Smith's XVIII Corps on the right and Maj. Gen. Quincy A. Gillmore's X Corps on the left. Butler formulated an attack for the 15th but cancelled it because he preferred to hold his troops for a strong defense. Leaving only a garrison at Petersburg, Beauregard arrived at Drewry's Bluff on the 14th.
1. Thursday, May 16, 1861: The pro-Union Kentucky state legislature refuses to vote for secession. Instead, the body votes to declare Kentucky "neutral." Both Federal and Rebel troops elect to honor the "neutrality" for the time being, and send no troops into Kentucky–nor does Kentucky send any regiments to either army.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=may+16%2C+1861
2. Friday, May 16, 1862: Eastern Theater, Shendoah Valley Campaign - Gen. Lee sends orders to Stonewall Jackson and the Army of the Valley to incorporate Ewell’s division under his command and to advance north to engage Gen. Banks’ Union forces near Strasburg. There is evidence that Banks is planning to send troops east to assist McClellan, and Lee wants to be sure that McClellan–who is knocking at Richmond’s door–does not get reinforced.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=may+16%2C+1862
3. Friday, May 16, 1862 --- In New Orleans, Gen. Butler, in command of the occupying U.S. forces, orders that Confederate money will no longer be used as a medium of exchange. Butler also orders the New Orleans Bee to be closed down, as a newspaper loyal to the enemy, and the New Orleans Delta to be taken over by the Federal government.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=may+16%2C+1862
4. Friday, May 16, 1862 --- Katherine Prescott Wormeley, a Union woman volunteering as a nurse at an Army hospital down in Virginia, relates in her journal an incident that happened while she was caring for wounded men all laid out on the deck of a ship heading to Washington: Getting them all washed, as I say, is a droll piece of work. Some are indifferent to the absurd luxury of soap and water, and some are so fussy. Some poor faces we must wash ourselves, and that softly and slowly. I started along each row with two tin basins and two bits of soap, my arm being the towel-horse. Now, you are not to suppose that each man had a basinful of clean water all to himself. However, I thought three to a basin was enough, or four, if they did n’t wash too hard. But an old corporal taught me better. "Stop, marm!" said he, as I was turning back with the dirty water to get fresh; "that water will do for several of us yet. Bless you! I make my coffee of worse than that."
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=may+16%2C+1862
5. Friday, May 16, 1862—Josiah Marshall Favill, a young Union officer at Port Royal, South Carolina, remark in his journal a humorous anecdote on the local insect life: In the meantime, we have been occupying ourselves in the study of natural history, particularly with the pine tick, an insect abounding in these parts; it has a spiral proboscis by which it screws itself fast to the fleshy part of one’s body, without attracting attention or causing any pain, and then quietly proceeds to gorge itself with blood, until it swells to the size of a large coffee berry, and looks almost exactly like one in color and shape. It is at this stage that you begin to feel an itching, and looking for the cause, find half a dozen or more of these ugly black-looking berries sticking on your legs; naturally, you yank them off without hesitancy, but are astonished to find the itching increases, and the inflammation and swelling continues spreading. Upon a close inspection, one finds that on pulling the creature off, his proboscis was left behind, imbedded deeply in the flesh, and this is the cause, or seems to be, of all the trouble. The remedy is to boldly cut out the offending head; there is, however, a scientific method of removing them, when first discovered, and that is, simply to unscrew them; seizing them carefully between the thumb and forefinger, you gently turn to the left, and are surprised to find they come out easily, and completely, exactly like a screw.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=may+16%2C+1862
6. Saturday, May 16, 1863 --- Sergeant Osborn H. Oldroyd, of the 20th Ohio Infantry Regiment, records his impressions of this battle and aftermath in his journal: The enemy charged out of the woods in front of us in a solid line, and as they were climbing the fence between us, which separated the open field from the timber, DeGolier's battery, stationed in our front, opened on them with grape and canister, and completely annihilated men and fence and forced the enemy to fall back. Such terrible execution by a battery I never saw. It seemed as if every shell burst just as it reached the fence, and rails and rebs flew into the air together. They, finding our center too strong, renewed their charge on our left, and succeeded in driving it a short distance, but their success was only for a moment, for our boys rallied, and with reinforcements drove them in turn. We now charged into the woods and drove them a little ways, and as we charged over the spot so lately occupied by the foe, we saw the destruction caused by our battery, the ground being covered thickly with rebel grey. When we reached the woods we were exposed to a galling fire, and were at one time nearly surrounded but we fought there hard until our ammunition was exhausted, when we fixed bayonets and prepared to hold our ground. . . .
This was a hard day's fight, for the rebels, finding that they had been beaten in three battles about Vicksburg, had no doubt resolved to make a desperate stand against our conquering march; but alas! For them, this day's course of events was like the rest. When the fight was over, Generals Grant, McClernand, Sherman, McPherson and Logan rode over the victorious field, greeted with the wildest cheers. I wonder if they love their men as we love them. We received our mail an hour or two after the fight, and the fierce struggle through which we had just passed was forgotten as we read the news from home. Our fingers fresh from the field left powder marks on the white messengers that had come to cheer us.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=may+16%2C+1863
7. Saturday, May 16, 1863 --- Private Jenkin Lloyd Jones, of the 6th Battery, Wisconsin Artillery, writes in his journal of Champion Hill, where his battery has been engaged: Logan’s Division managed to get on their [Confederate] right flank, driving them with rapidity, but at the same time they were driving the line on the left and came near penetrating our center, many of our men having used all their ammunition, and the amount of stragglers falling back without order becoming dangerous. It was a dangerous moment. All eyes were anxiously looking, almost trembling, for the result; but at last there comes Colonel Holmes with his Brigade on double quick, which soon checked their progress, and the artillery were brought into position, McAllister’s 24-pounder howitzers on the left, with Quinby’s on the right and center. The infantry fell back at double quick as we opened fire on them, shelling the woods—38 pieces in all, belching away in fearful rapidity. Kept it up for one hour. When we ceased firing, they had left and all was still. The fight continued about five hours, the musketry having been exceedingly hot. We took seventeen pieces of artillery and about 2,000 prisoners.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=may+16%2C+1863
8. Saturday, May 16, 1863: Judge H. H. Leavitt denies a motion for habeas corpus in the Vallandigham case in Ohio.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186305
9. Monday, May 16, 1864 --- Oliver Willcox Norton, an officer in a black regiment, writes home to his sister. One historical point of interest: This mail brings us the good news that colored soldiers are at last to get their dues in the matter of pay. The paymaster was here a week ago and offered the heroes of Olustee $7 a month. Most of them would not take it. Only those very much in need of money did so.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=may+16%2C+1864
10. Monday, May 16, 1864 --- Union soldier John W. Derr writes home to his family during a brief respite in the ongoing Battle of Spotsylvania: Spotsylvania Court House, Va. May 16th, 1864
My Dear Father and Mother,
I take this present opportunity to inform this few lines to you to let you know that I am well at present time and I hope this few lines will find you in the same state of good health. You must excuse me for not writing to you any sooner because we was busy this two last weeks after the rebels. We had two pretty hard fights since. We are out and are now laying on the battle field for the six last days firing at the rebels and are fighting with them every day. But all the boys from around there are safe yet as much as I know. But John Boyer got wounded today but it ain’t very bad. It is only a flesh wound through the left leg above the knee. And John D. Weikel is missing. Nobody knows anything about him and I don’t know where he is or where he got to. He got away from us in the morning that we went into the battle. He was along when we advanced in line of battle. Thank God that I am safe yet and I hope that I always may get through safe. We have some hard nuts to bite. But I hope we will be successful in taking Richmond for we are bound to have it or else all die. This is the cry all through the Army. I also seen some of the 17th Pennsylvania Cavalry. I seen Daniel Derr and Elias Derr and Isaac Yarnall and Emanuel Bolich and they are all well and look hearty. So I must close this few lines for it is getting dark and I have no more to write for this time. This few lines from your beloved son. John W. Derr
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=may+16%2C+1864
A On May 16, 1861, the Kentucky lower house overwhelmingly adopted a resolution of the state's official neutrality in the Civil War and a resolution refusing to heed President Lincoln's call for military volunteers; Kentucky's upper house concurred five days later. On May 20, Governor Beriah Magoffin issued a proclamation recognizing and affirming Kentucky's neutrality.
Magoffin also urged his fellow governors of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Tennessee to send delegates to a conference intended to force the Union and the Confederacy to cease hostilities and negotiate a settlement. The three northern state governors refused to consider the proposal and busied themselves with mobilizing for the Union cause, while Tennessee staked its claim with the Confederacy. On June 8, only Missouri and Kentucky were represented at the peace conference, which passed a few resolutions and quickly adjourned.
Governor Magoffin rejected requests from both Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president, to supply their respective armies with troops from his state. The governor, however, was sympathetic to the Confederate cause and looked the other way when Confederate recruiters entered Kentucky. There was also a substantial and lucrative trade in various wartime goods, such as horses, food, and even munitions, flowing from the north through Kentucky into the Confederacy. The Union army and Midwestern governors took steps to curb the trade, but they could not eliminate it. President Lincoln believed that theoretically he had the constitutional authority to compel Kentucky's compliance with the Union, but recognized his "real world" options were severely limited. Any premature show of force could send Kentucky into the arms of the Confederacy. As bad as neutrality was, that scenario would be far worse.
Lincoln's patience was finally rewarded. On June 20, 1861, (the day after this postdated cartoon was published), Kentucky Unionists secured five of six congressional seats in a special election (many pro-Confederates boycotted the vote). That political victory was reinforced in the legislative elections on August 5 when Unionists won large majorities in both the state house and senate. On August 16, President Lincoln issued a proclamation prohibiting all trade with the Confederacy.
The final turning point came on the battlefield. At the westernmost edge of Kentucky, Confederate troops under Leonidas Polk were stationed in northwestern Tennessee and Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant manned Cairo, Illinois, fifty miles north. On September 3, 1861, Polk and his men invaded Kentucky to capture the railroad terminal at Columbus. In reaction, Grant moved his troops into Paducah and Smithfield, Kentucky. Both sides had violated Kentucky's neutrality, but the Confederates were the initial aggressors. On September 18, the Kentucky legislature resolved that the Confederate "invaders must be expelled." The American flag was hoisted above the capital, and Governor Magoffin resigned.
By the end of 1861, 50,000 Union soldiers occupied most of the state except for the southwest corner controlled by 35,000 Confederate troops. More than any other state, the idea that the Civil War was a war between brothers was true in Kentucky. One example of many was the family of the late Henry Clay, Kentucky's longtime congressman and senator who forged sectional compromises in 1820 and 1850: four of his grandsons fought for the Confederacy, while three grandsons fought for the Union.
https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/harp/0629.html
B Saturday, May 16, 1863: Battle of Champion Hill, Mississippi: Pemberton agrees to attack the federal line with Johnston. The focal point of the attack, Champion Hill, will change hands three times, but the Confederate forces fail to meet. Pemberton withdraws to Vicksburg.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186305
B + Saturday, May 16, 1863: Battle of Champion Hill, Mississippi
U.S. Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant Army of the Tennessee 32,000
C.S. Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton Army of Mississippi 22,000
Grant pushes his troop westward from Jackson. Pemberton, the Confederate commander of the Army of Mississippi, having been forsaken by Joseph Johnston, does not know whether to push East to attack the Yankees, divert southeast to destroy their supply line (not knowing that Grant no longer has one), to come out and fight, or to flee into the fortress of Vicksburg. Pemberton marches 22,000 of his Confederates east to a crossroads where the roads from Jackson, Raymond, and Vicksburg meet, and deploys his line on a ridge overlooking the area, covering the Raymond and Middle Roads. Grant orders McPherson’s XVII Corps to advance from Bolton Station, and for McClernand’s XIII Corps to advance from Raymond. Gen. Pemberton deploys Bowen’s division on the Middle Road, Loring’s division on the Raymond Road, and Stevenson’s division farther north, making the Rebel left flank by the Jackson Road. McPherson advances his divisions to attack the Confederate left at Champion Hill, where there were few Rebel troops. McClernand finally gets his divisions on track and moving forward, but at a very slow pace.
Pemberton, still unaware of how many Yankees were in front of him, almost gives orders to break off the fighting and head north to unite with Gen. Johnston’s 10,000. However, soon Stevenson’s pickets encounter McPherson’s columns advancing along the Jackson (Clinton) Road, and so Stevenson deploys his division on the crest of Champion Hill, overlooking the road.
McPherson’s Federals attack the hill, and are beaten off. McPherson re-forms, and as the Yankees rush up the hill, Hovey and Crocker’s westward attack and Logan’s southward attack catch the Rebels in a vise: the Rebel left is crushed, and is routed. As Grant arrives on the battlefield, he focuses on the left and pushes McClernand’s slow corps forward. But Pemberton’s one remaining division, Bowen, launches a counterattack that pushes the Federals back on their heels. Bowen splits the Union lines, but his losses are high and he is fearfully short of ammunition. Pemberton looks for reinforcements, and tries to move Loring to the left to bolster the line on the right of Champion Hill, but Loring is reluctant, since he has McClernand’s Yankees in his front. Stevenson and Bowen rally and try to recover their position, but McPherson counterattacks, and once again the Rebel line collapses. Bowen orders a retreat, and the entire army retreats west to Edward’s Station, where Pemberton sets up an artillery line, and the two sides shells each other for the rest of the day. Grant’s men are too exhausted to push into another attack, but by midnight, the Rebels withdraw, and Grant’s men occupy Edward’s Station. Pemberton falls back to the Big Black River. This battle turns out to be the decisive battle of the Vicksburg campaign. Union Victory.
Losses: Killed Wounded Captured/Missing Total
U.S. 410 1,844 187 2,457
C.S. 381 1,018 2,441 3,840
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=may+16%2C+1863
C Monday, May 16, 1864 --- Battle of Spotsylvania, Day 9: Gen. Lee realizes that Grant intends to attack his right, and so begins to shift part of Anderson’s First Corps in that direction. Sporadic skirmishing continues, as both armies suffer in the mud.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=may+16%2C+1864
D Monday, May 16, 1864 --- Bermuda Hundred Campaign: Battle of Drewry’s Bluff: CSA Gen P.G.T Beauregard sends Gen. Whiting and his command in a flank march to take Butler’s army in the rear, while Gen. Ransom and his division press the Federal right flank, under Gen. “Baldy” Smith. Ransom’s attack is beaten off, and he waits for Whiting to get in position to trap the Yankees between them. Gen. Butler has, meanwhile, ordered Gen. Gillmore to attack the Rebel line, but Gillmore stalls and dawdles, and finally launches his attack just as Butler has decided to withdraw Smith’s troops on Gillmore’s flank. Whiting, in the meantime, turns north at Port Walthall, but encounters a Union brigade under Adelbert Ames, who holds his ground. Convinced that the Confederates in the rear would annihilate them, Butler orders both of his corps to abandon the field, march back south to their defenses, and get safe behind them. Confederate Victory.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=may+16%2C+1864
D+ Monday, May 16, 1864 Battle of Drewry’s Bluff, Virginia: Confederate Victory. Reinforced by troops from Richmond and North Carolina, Gen P.G.T Beauregard rapidly organized the 10 brigades at his disposal into 3 divisions and ordered an attack for the 16th. At 4:45 A.M. that morning, CSA Maj. Gen. Robert Ransom's 4 brigades charged into Maj. Gen. William F. Smith's XVIII Corps’ right flank. Charles A. Heckman's brigade, capturing 400 Federals, 5 flags, and the brigade commander. Ransom halted; his organization was gone and his ammunition low. CSA Maj. Gen. Robert F. Hoke, delayed by the fog, soon attacked Maj. Gen. Quincy A. Gillmore's X Corps’ lines. The Federals stubbornly fell back, but again the fog disorganized the Confederate attackers. Gillmore counterattacked into a gap between the Confederate brigades, halting the Confederate advance. By 10:00 A.M., Beauregard's brigades had been spent and Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler began withdrawing. CSA Maj. Gen. W.H.C. Whiting, with 2 Confederate brigades, had been ordered to attack Butler's rear. Whiting halted before one of the Union divisions left behind at Walthall's Station. Whiting's lack of aggressiveness and a heavy rainstorm allowed Butler to reach his works across the neck of the peninsula. On the morning of the 17th, the Confederates arrived opposite the Union works. Beauregard sealed the neck of Bermuda Hundred, effectively encasing Butler on the peninsula. The grave threat to Richmond and Petersburg had been
temporarily eliminated.
Background: By the morning of the 13th, the Federals had pushed the Confederates from their outer works into the main line at Drewry's Bluff. The shallowness of the river, however, prevented an attack by the Union monitors. The cautious Butler settled into a defensive posture on the 14th, with Maj. Gen. William F. Smith's XVIII Corps on the right and Maj. Gen. Quincy A. Gillmore's X Corps on the left. Butler formulated an attack for the 15th but cancelled it because he preferred to hold his troops for a strong defense. Leaving only a garrison at Petersburg, Beauregard arrived at Drewry's Bluff on the 14th.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/640512.html#sthash.8Fnz6pvq.dpuf
FYI CSM Charles Hayden SGT Tiffanie G. SGT Mary G.CPL Ronald Keyes Jr SPC Michael Duricko, Ph.D MAJ Roland McDonald SSG Franklin BriantCPO William Glen (W.G.) Powell1stSgt Eugene Harless PO3 (Join to see)MSG Greg KellyMSG Joseph ChristofaroLTC Greg Henning CPT (Join to see) SGT John " Mac " McConnell LTC John Griscom LTC Thomas Tennant MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca SFC George Smith SPC Michael Terrell
Monday, May 16, 1864: Union soldier John W. Derr writes home to his family during a brief respite in the ongoing Battle of Spotsylvania: Spotsylvania Court House, Va.
“My Dear Father and Mother, I take this present opportunity to inform this few lines to you to let you know that I am well at present time and I hope this few lines will find you in the same state of good health. You must excuse me for not writing to you any sooner because we was busy this two last weeks after the rebels. We had two pretty hard fights since. We are out and are now laying on the battle field for the six last days firing at the rebels and are fighting with them every day. But all the boys from around there are safe yet as much as I know. But John Boyer got wounded today but it ain’t very bad. It is only a flesh wound through the left leg above the knee. And John D. Weikel is missing. Nobody knows anything about him and I don’t know where he is or where he got to. He got away from us in the morning that we went into the battle. He was along when we advanced in line of battle. Thank God that I am safe yet and I hope that I always may get through safe. We have some hard nuts to bite. But I hope we will be successful in taking Richmond for we are bound to have it or else all die. This is the cry all through the Army. I also seen some of the 17th Pennsylvania Cavalry. I seen Daniel Derr and Elias Derr and Isaac Yarnall and Emanuel Bolich and they are all well and look hearty. So I must close this few lines for it is getting dark and I have no more to write for this time. This few lines from your beloved son.” John W. Derr
Pictures: 1864 Bermuda Hundred Battle 39th Illinois Battle Map; 1864 Spotsylvania drawing.; 1863 Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant; xx
Since RallyPoint truncates survey selection text I am posting events that were not included and then the full text of each survey choice below:
A. On May 16, 1861, the Kentucky lower house overwhelmingly adopted a resolution of the state's official neutrality in the Civil War and a resolution refusing to heed President Lincoln's call for military volunteers; Kentucky's upper house concurred five days later. On May 20, Governor Beriah Magoffin issued a proclamation recognizing and affirming Kentucky's neutrality.
Magoffin also urged his fellow governors of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Tennessee to send delegates to a conference intended to force the Union and the Confederacy to cease hostilities and negotiate a settlement. The three northern state governors refused to consider the proposal and busied themselves with mobilizing for the Union cause, while Tennessee staked its claim with the Confederacy. On June 8, only Missouri and Kentucky were represented at the peace conference, which passed a few resolutions and quickly adjourned.
Governor Magoffin rejected requests from both Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president, to supply their respective armies with troops from his state. The governor, however, was sympathetic to the Confederate cause and looked the other way when Confederate recruiters entered Kentucky. There was also a substantial and lucrative trade in various wartime goods, such as horses, food, and even munitions, flowing from the north through Kentucky into the Confederacy. The Union army and Midwestern governors took steps to curb the trade, but they could not eliminate it. President Lincoln believed that theoretically he had the constitutional authority to compel Kentucky's compliance with the Union, but recognized his "real world" options were severely limited. Any premature show of force could send Kentucky into the arms of the Confederacy. As bad as neutrality was, that scenario would be far worse.
Lincoln's patience was finally rewarded. On June 20, 1861, (the day after this postdated cartoon was published), Kentucky Unionists secured five of six congressional seats in a special election (many pro-Confederates boycotted the vote). That political victory was reinforced in the legislative elections on August 5 when Unionists won large majorities in both the state house and senate. On August 16, President Lincoln issued a proclamation prohibiting all trade with the Confederacy.
The final turning point came on the battlefield. At the westernmost edge of Kentucky, Confederate troops under Leonidas Polk were stationed in northwestern Tennessee and Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant manned Cairo, Illinois, fifty miles north. On September 3, 1861, Polk and his men invaded Kentucky to capture the railroad terminal at Columbus. In reaction, Grant moved his troops into Paducah and Smithfield, Kentucky. Both sides had violated Kentucky's neutrality, but the Confederates were the initial aggressors. On September 18, the Kentucky legislature resolved that the Confederate "invaders must be expelled." The American flag was hoisted above the capital, and Governor Magoffin resigned.
By the end of 1861, 50,000 Union soldiers occupied most of the state except for the southwest corner controlled by 35,000 Confederate troops. More than any other state, the idea that the Civil War was a war between brothers was true in Kentucky. One example of many was the family of the late Henry Clay, Kentucky's longtime congressman and senator who forged sectional compromises in 1820 and 1850: four of his grandsons fought for the Confederacy, while three grandsons fought for the Union.
B. Saturday, May 16, 1863: Battle of Champion Hill, Mississippi: Decisive Union victory. The Battle of Champion Hill was the largest, bloodiest, and most significant action of Grant’s Vicksburg Campaign. 32,000 advancing Union soldiers met 23,000 Confederates in a fierce struggle for a vital crossroads roughly halfway between Vicksburg and Jackson, Mississippi. The field was dominated by bald Champion Hill, from which Confederate artillery opened fire on the Union army at 9:45 A.M. The first Federal assault on the hill drove the Southerners back with bayonets and clubbed muskets. As the Union soldiers tried to reform and consolidate their gains, they were swept away by a counterattack led by John Bowen’s Missourians and Arkansans. Ulysses S. Grant ordered more men towards the hill and Bowen’s Confederates were themselves driven off, compelling a general retreat. Southern Brig. Gen. Lloyd Tilghman was killed while directing a desperate rearguard action that enabled most of the Confederate army to escape towards Vicksburg. The decisive Union victory at Champion Hill was instrumental in forcing the Confederates out of the open field and into a doomed position inside the walls of Vicksburg.
C. Monday, May 16, 1864: Battle of Spotsylvania, Day 9: Gen. Lee realizes that Grant intends to attack his right, and so begins to shift part of Anderson’s First Corps in that direction. Sporadic skirmishing continues, as both armies suffer in the mud.
D. Monday, May 16, 1864 Battle of Drewry’s Bluff, Virginia: Confederate Victory. Reinforced by troops from Richmond and North Carolina, Gen P.G.T Beauregard rapidly organized the 10 brigades at his disposal into 3 divisions and ordered an attack for the 16th. At 4:45 A.M. that morning, CSA Maj. Gen. Robert Ransom's 4 brigades charged into Maj. Gen. William F. Smith's XVIII Corps’ right flank. Charles A. Heckman's brigade, capturing 400 Federals, 5 flags, and the brigade commander. Ransom halted; his organization was gone and his ammunition low. CSA Maj. Gen. Robert F. Hoke, delayed by the fog, soon attacked Maj. Gen. Quincy A. Gillmore's X Corps’ lines. The Federals stubbornly fell back, but again the fog disorganized the Confederate attackers. Gillmore counterattacked into a gap between the Confederate brigades, halting the Confederate advance. By 10:00 A.M., Beauregard's brigades had been spent and Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler began withdrawing. CSA Maj. Gen. W.H.C. Whiting, with 2 Confederate brigades, had been ordered to attack Butler's rear. Whiting halted before one of the Union divisions left behind at Walthall's Station. Whiting's lack of aggressiveness and a heavy rainstorm allowed Butler to reach his works across the neck of the peninsula. On the morning of the 17th, the Confederates arrived opposite the Union works. Beauregard sealed the neck of Bermuda Hundred, effectively encasing Butler on the peninsula. The grave threat to Richmond and Petersburg had been temporarily eliminated.
Background: By the morning of the 13th, the Federals had pushed the Confederates from their outer works into the main line at Drewry's Bluff. The shallowness of the river, however, prevented an attack by the Union monitors. The cautious Butler settled into a defensive posture on the 14th, with Maj. Gen. William F. Smith's XVIII Corps on the right and Maj. Gen. Quincy A. Gillmore's X Corps on the left. Butler formulated an attack for the 15th but cancelled it because he preferred to hold his troops for a strong defense. Leaving only a garrison at Petersburg, Beauregard arrived at Drewry's Bluff on the 14th.
1. Thursday, May 16, 1861: The pro-Union Kentucky state legislature refuses to vote for secession. Instead, the body votes to declare Kentucky "neutral." Both Federal and Rebel troops elect to honor the "neutrality" for the time being, and send no troops into Kentucky–nor does Kentucky send any regiments to either army.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=may+16%2C+1861
2. Friday, May 16, 1862: Eastern Theater, Shendoah Valley Campaign - Gen. Lee sends orders to Stonewall Jackson and the Army of the Valley to incorporate Ewell’s division under his command and to advance north to engage Gen. Banks’ Union forces near Strasburg. There is evidence that Banks is planning to send troops east to assist McClellan, and Lee wants to be sure that McClellan–who is knocking at Richmond’s door–does not get reinforced.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=may+16%2C+1862
3. Friday, May 16, 1862 --- In New Orleans, Gen. Butler, in command of the occupying U.S. forces, orders that Confederate money will no longer be used as a medium of exchange. Butler also orders the New Orleans Bee to be closed down, as a newspaper loyal to the enemy, and the New Orleans Delta to be taken over by the Federal government.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=may+16%2C+1862
4. Friday, May 16, 1862 --- Katherine Prescott Wormeley, a Union woman volunteering as a nurse at an Army hospital down in Virginia, relates in her journal an incident that happened while she was caring for wounded men all laid out on the deck of a ship heading to Washington: Getting them all washed, as I say, is a droll piece of work. Some are indifferent to the absurd luxury of soap and water, and some are so fussy. Some poor faces we must wash ourselves, and that softly and slowly. I started along each row with two tin basins and two bits of soap, my arm being the towel-horse. Now, you are not to suppose that each man had a basinful of clean water all to himself. However, I thought three to a basin was enough, or four, if they did n’t wash too hard. But an old corporal taught me better. "Stop, marm!" said he, as I was turning back with the dirty water to get fresh; "that water will do for several of us yet. Bless you! I make my coffee of worse than that."
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=may+16%2C+1862
5. Friday, May 16, 1862—Josiah Marshall Favill, a young Union officer at Port Royal, South Carolina, remark in his journal a humorous anecdote on the local insect life: In the meantime, we have been occupying ourselves in the study of natural history, particularly with the pine tick, an insect abounding in these parts; it has a spiral proboscis by which it screws itself fast to the fleshy part of one’s body, without attracting attention or causing any pain, and then quietly proceeds to gorge itself with blood, until it swells to the size of a large coffee berry, and looks almost exactly like one in color and shape. It is at this stage that you begin to feel an itching, and looking for the cause, find half a dozen or more of these ugly black-looking berries sticking on your legs; naturally, you yank them off without hesitancy, but are astonished to find the itching increases, and the inflammation and swelling continues spreading. Upon a close inspection, one finds that on pulling the creature off, his proboscis was left behind, imbedded deeply in the flesh, and this is the cause, or seems to be, of all the trouble. The remedy is to boldly cut out the offending head; there is, however, a scientific method of removing them, when first discovered, and that is, simply to unscrew them; seizing them carefully between the thumb and forefinger, you gently turn to the left, and are surprised to find they come out easily, and completely, exactly like a screw.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=may+16%2C+1862
6. Saturday, May 16, 1863 --- Sergeant Osborn H. Oldroyd, of the 20th Ohio Infantry Regiment, records his impressions of this battle and aftermath in his journal: The enemy charged out of the woods in front of us in a solid line, and as they were climbing the fence between us, which separated the open field from the timber, DeGolier's battery, stationed in our front, opened on them with grape and canister, and completely annihilated men and fence and forced the enemy to fall back. Such terrible execution by a battery I never saw. It seemed as if every shell burst just as it reached the fence, and rails and rebs flew into the air together. They, finding our center too strong, renewed their charge on our left, and succeeded in driving it a short distance, but their success was only for a moment, for our boys rallied, and with reinforcements drove them in turn. We now charged into the woods and drove them a little ways, and as we charged over the spot so lately occupied by the foe, we saw the destruction caused by our battery, the ground being covered thickly with rebel grey. When we reached the woods we were exposed to a galling fire, and were at one time nearly surrounded but we fought there hard until our ammunition was exhausted, when we fixed bayonets and prepared to hold our ground. . . .
This was a hard day's fight, for the rebels, finding that they had been beaten in three battles about Vicksburg, had no doubt resolved to make a desperate stand against our conquering march; but alas! For them, this day's course of events was like the rest. When the fight was over, Generals Grant, McClernand, Sherman, McPherson and Logan rode over the victorious field, greeted with the wildest cheers. I wonder if they love their men as we love them. We received our mail an hour or two after the fight, and the fierce struggle through which we had just passed was forgotten as we read the news from home. Our fingers fresh from the field left powder marks on the white messengers that had come to cheer us.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=may+16%2C+1863
7. Saturday, May 16, 1863 --- Private Jenkin Lloyd Jones, of the 6th Battery, Wisconsin Artillery, writes in his journal of Champion Hill, where his battery has been engaged: Logan’s Division managed to get on their [Confederate] right flank, driving them with rapidity, but at the same time they were driving the line on the left and came near penetrating our center, many of our men having used all their ammunition, and the amount of stragglers falling back without order becoming dangerous. It was a dangerous moment. All eyes were anxiously looking, almost trembling, for the result; but at last there comes Colonel Holmes with his Brigade on double quick, which soon checked their progress, and the artillery were brought into position, McAllister’s 24-pounder howitzers on the left, with Quinby’s on the right and center. The infantry fell back at double quick as we opened fire on them, shelling the woods—38 pieces in all, belching away in fearful rapidity. Kept it up for one hour. When we ceased firing, they had left and all was still. The fight continued about five hours, the musketry having been exceedingly hot. We took seventeen pieces of artillery and about 2,000 prisoners.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=may+16%2C+1863
8. Saturday, May 16, 1863: Judge H. H. Leavitt denies a motion for habeas corpus in the Vallandigham case in Ohio.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186305
9. Monday, May 16, 1864 --- Oliver Willcox Norton, an officer in a black regiment, writes home to his sister. One historical point of interest: This mail brings us the good news that colored soldiers are at last to get their dues in the matter of pay. The paymaster was here a week ago and offered the heroes of Olustee $7 a month. Most of them would not take it. Only those very much in need of money did so.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=may+16%2C+1864
10. Monday, May 16, 1864 --- Union soldier John W. Derr writes home to his family during a brief respite in the ongoing Battle of Spotsylvania: Spotsylvania Court House, Va. May 16th, 1864
My Dear Father and Mother,
I take this present opportunity to inform this few lines to you to let you know that I am well at present time and I hope this few lines will find you in the same state of good health. You must excuse me for not writing to you any sooner because we was busy this two last weeks after the rebels. We had two pretty hard fights since. We are out and are now laying on the battle field for the six last days firing at the rebels and are fighting with them every day. But all the boys from around there are safe yet as much as I know. But John Boyer got wounded today but it ain’t very bad. It is only a flesh wound through the left leg above the knee. And John D. Weikel is missing. Nobody knows anything about him and I don’t know where he is or where he got to. He got away from us in the morning that we went into the battle. He was along when we advanced in line of battle. Thank God that I am safe yet and I hope that I always may get through safe. We have some hard nuts to bite. But I hope we will be successful in taking Richmond for we are bound to have it or else all die. This is the cry all through the Army. I also seen some of the 17th Pennsylvania Cavalry. I seen Daniel Derr and Elias Derr and Isaac Yarnall and Emanuel Bolich and they are all well and look hearty. So I must close this few lines for it is getting dark and I have no more to write for this time. This few lines from your beloved son. John W. Derr
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=may+16%2C+1864
A On May 16, 1861, the Kentucky lower house overwhelmingly adopted a resolution of the state's official neutrality in the Civil War and a resolution refusing to heed President Lincoln's call for military volunteers; Kentucky's upper house concurred five days later. On May 20, Governor Beriah Magoffin issued a proclamation recognizing and affirming Kentucky's neutrality.
Magoffin also urged his fellow governors of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Tennessee to send delegates to a conference intended to force the Union and the Confederacy to cease hostilities and negotiate a settlement. The three northern state governors refused to consider the proposal and busied themselves with mobilizing for the Union cause, while Tennessee staked its claim with the Confederacy. On June 8, only Missouri and Kentucky were represented at the peace conference, which passed a few resolutions and quickly adjourned.
Governor Magoffin rejected requests from both Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president, to supply their respective armies with troops from his state. The governor, however, was sympathetic to the Confederate cause and looked the other way when Confederate recruiters entered Kentucky. There was also a substantial and lucrative trade in various wartime goods, such as horses, food, and even munitions, flowing from the north through Kentucky into the Confederacy. The Union army and Midwestern governors took steps to curb the trade, but they could not eliminate it. President Lincoln believed that theoretically he had the constitutional authority to compel Kentucky's compliance with the Union, but recognized his "real world" options were severely limited. Any premature show of force could send Kentucky into the arms of the Confederacy. As bad as neutrality was, that scenario would be far worse.
Lincoln's patience was finally rewarded. On June 20, 1861, (the day after this postdated cartoon was published), Kentucky Unionists secured five of six congressional seats in a special election (many pro-Confederates boycotted the vote). That political victory was reinforced in the legislative elections on August 5 when Unionists won large majorities in both the state house and senate. On August 16, President Lincoln issued a proclamation prohibiting all trade with the Confederacy.
The final turning point came on the battlefield. At the westernmost edge of Kentucky, Confederate troops under Leonidas Polk were stationed in northwestern Tennessee and Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant manned Cairo, Illinois, fifty miles north. On September 3, 1861, Polk and his men invaded Kentucky to capture the railroad terminal at Columbus. In reaction, Grant moved his troops into Paducah and Smithfield, Kentucky. Both sides had violated Kentucky's neutrality, but the Confederates were the initial aggressors. On September 18, the Kentucky legislature resolved that the Confederate "invaders must be expelled." The American flag was hoisted above the capital, and Governor Magoffin resigned.
By the end of 1861, 50,000 Union soldiers occupied most of the state except for the southwest corner controlled by 35,000 Confederate troops. More than any other state, the idea that the Civil War was a war between brothers was true in Kentucky. One example of many was the family of the late Henry Clay, Kentucky's longtime congressman and senator who forged sectional compromises in 1820 and 1850: four of his grandsons fought for the Confederacy, while three grandsons fought for the Union.
https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/harp/0629.html
B Saturday, May 16, 1863: Battle of Champion Hill, Mississippi: Pemberton agrees to attack the federal line with Johnston. The focal point of the attack, Champion Hill, will change hands three times, but the Confederate forces fail to meet. Pemberton withdraws to Vicksburg.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186305
B + Saturday, May 16, 1863: Battle of Champion Hill, Mississippi
U.S. Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant Army of the Tennessee 32,000
C.S. Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton Army of Mississippi 22,000
Grant pushes his troop westward from Jackson. Pemberton, the Confederate commander of the Army of Mississippi, having been forsaken by Joseph Johnston, does not know whether to push East to attack the Yankees, divert southeast to destroy their supply line (not knowing that Grant no longer has one), to come out and fight, or to flee into the fortress of Vicksburg. Pemberton marches 22,000 of his Confederates east to a crossroads where the roads from Jackson, Raymond, and Vicksburg meet, and deploys his line on a ridge overlooking the area, covering the Raymond and Middle Roads. Grant orders McPherson’s XVII Corps to advance from Bolton Station, and for McClernand’s XIII Corps to advance from Raymond. Gen. Pemberton deploys Bowen’s division on the Middle Road, Loring’s division on the Raymond Road, and Stevenson’s division farther north, making the Rebel left flank by the Jackson Road. McPherson advances his divisions to attack the Confederate left at Champion Hill, where there were few Rebel troops. McClernand finally gets his divisions on track and moving forward, but at a very slow pace.
Pemberton, still unaware of how many Yankees were in front of him, almost gives orders to break off the fighting and head north to unite with Gen. Johnston’s 10,000. However, soon Stevenson’s pickets encounter McPherson’s columns advancing along the Jackson (Clinton) Road, and so Stevenson deploys his division on the crest of Champion Hill, overlooking the road.
McPherson’s Federals attack the hill, and are beaten off. McPherson re-forms, and as the Yankees rush up the hill, Hovey and Crocker’s westward attack and Logan’s southward attack catch the Rebels in a vise: the Rebel left is crushed, and is routed. As Grant arrives on the battlefield, he focuses on the left and pushes McClernand’s slow corps forward. But Pemberton’s one remaining division, Bowen, launches a counterattack that pushes the Federals back on their heels. Bowen splits the Union lines, but his losses are high and he is fearfully short of ammunition. Pemberton looks for reinforcements, and tries to move Loring to the left to bolster the line on the right of Champion Hill, but Loring is reluctant, since he has McClernand’s Yankees in his front. Stevenson and Bowen rally and try to recover their position, but McPherson counterattacks, and once again the Rebel line collapses. Bowen orders a retreat, and the entire army retreats west to Edward’s Station, where Pemberton sets up an artillery line, and the two sides shells each other for the rest of the day. Grant’s men are too exhausted to push into another attack, but by midnight, the Rebels withdraw, and Grant’s men occupy Edward’s Station. Pemberton falls back to the Big Black River. This battle turns out to be the decisive battle of the Vicksburg campaign. Union Victory.
Losses: Killed Wounded Captured/Missing Total
U.S. 410 1,844 187 2,457
C.S. 381 1,018 2,441 3,840
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=may+16%2C+1863
C Monday, May 16, 1864 --- Battle of Spotsylvania, Day 9: Gen. Lee realizes that Grant intends to attack his right, and so begins to shift part of Anderson’s First Corps in that direction. Sporadic skirmishing continues, as both armies suffer in the mud.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=may+16%2C+1864
D Monday, May 16, 1864 --- Bermuda Hundred Campaign: Battle of Drewry’s Bluff: CSA Gen P.G.T Beauregard sends Gen. Whiting and his command in a flank march to take Butler’s army in the rear, while Gen. Ransom and his division press the Federal right flank, under Gen. “Baldy” Smith. Ransom’s attack is beaten off, and he waits for Whiting to get in position to trap the Yankees between them. Gen. Butler has, meanwhile, ordered Gen. Gillmore to attack the Rebel line, but Gillmore stalls and dawdles, and finally launches his attack just as Butler has decided to withdraw Smith’s troops on Gillmore’s flank. Whiting, in the meantime, turns north at Port Walthall, but encounters a Union brigade under Adelbert Ames, who holds his ground. Convinced that the Confederates in the rear would annihilate them, Butler orders both of his corps to abandon the field, march back south to their defenses, and get safe behind them. Confederate Victory.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=may+16%2C+1864
D+ Monday, May 16, 1864 Battle of Drewry’s Bluff, Virginia: Confederate Victory. Reinforced by troops from Richmond and North Carolina, Gen P.G.T Beauregard rapidly organized the 10 brigades at his disposal into 3 divisions and ordered an attack for the 16th. At 4:45 A.M. that morning, CSA Maj. Gen. Robert Ransom's 4 brigades charged into Maj. Gen. William F. Smith's XVIII Corps’ right flank. Charles A. Heckman's brigade, capturing 400 Federals, 5 flags, and the brigade commander. Ransom halted; his organization was gone and his ammunition low. CSA Maj. Gen. Robert F. Hoke, delayed by the fog, soon attacked Maj. Gen. Quincy A. Gillmore's X Corps’ lines. The Federals stubbornly fell back, but again the fog disorganized the Confederate attackers. Gillmore counterattacked into a gap between the Confederate brigades, halting the Confederate advance. By 10:00 A.M., Beauregard's brigades had been spent and Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler began withdrawing. CSA Maj. Gen. W.H.C. Whiting, with 2 Confederate brigades, had been ordered to attack Butler's rear. Whiting halted before one of the Union divisions left behind at Walthall's Station. Whiting's lack of aggressiveness and a heavy rainstorm allowed Butler to reach his works across the neck of the peninsula. On the morning of the 17th, the Confederates arrived opposite the Union works. Beauregard sealed the neck of Bermuda Hundred, effectively encasing Butler on the peninsula. The grave threat to Richmond and Petersburg had been
temporarily eliminated.
Background: By the morning of the 13th, the Federals had pushed the Confederates from their outer works into the main line at Drewry's Bluff. The shallowness of the river, however, prevented an attack by the Union monitors. The cautious Butler settled into a defensive posture on the 14th, with Maj. Gen. William F. Smith's XVIII Corps on the right and Maj. Gen. Quincy A. Gillmore's X Corps on the left. Butler formulated an attack for the 15th but cancelled it because he preferred to hold his troops for a strong defense. Leaving only a garrison at Petersburg, Beauregard arrived at Drewry's Bluff on the 14th.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/640512.html#sthash.8Fnz6pvq.dpuf
FYI CSM Charles Hayden SGT Tiffanie G. SGT Mary G.CPL Ronald Keyes Jr SPC Michael Duricko, Ph.D MAJ Roland McDonald SSG Franklin BriantCPO William Glen (W.G.) Powell1stSgt Eugene Harless PO3 (Join to see)MSG Greg KellyMSG Joseph ChristofaroLTC Greg Henning CPT (Join to see) SGT John " Mac " McConnell LTC John Griscom LTC Thomas Tennant MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca SFC George Smith SPC Michael Terrell
The American Civil War 150 Years Ago Today: Search results for may 16, 1861
A no-frills day-by-day account of what was happening 150 years ago, this blog is intended to be a way that we can experience or remember the Civil War with more immediacy, in addition to understanding the flow of time as we live in it.
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LTC Stephen F. what a masterpiece of literature here, I am always intrigued of your intellectual scholar of the Civil War.
My Choice:1863: Battle of Champion Hill, Mississippi: Decisive Union victory. The Battle of Champion Hill was the largest, bloodiest, and most significant action of Grant’s Vicksburg Campaign. 32,000 advancing Union soldiers met 23,000 Confederates in a fierce stru
The majestic battle of men, supplies, weapons and the will to will!
My Choice:1863: Battle of Champion Hill, Mississippi: Decisive Union victory. The Battle of Champion Hill was the largest, bloodiest, and most significant action of Grant’s Vicksburg Campaign. 32,000 advancing Union soldiers met 23,000 Confederates in a fierce stru
The majestic battle of men, supplies, weapons and the will to will!
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LTC Stephen F.
Thank you my friend and brother SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL for letting us know that you voted for 1863: Battle of Champion Hill, Mississippi as the most significant event of May 16 during the Civil War
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