What was the most significant event on October 3 during the U.S. Civil War?

In 1861, the glamor of war had largely worn off by October. The bright eyes which marched towards Bull Run in the summer by now were dimmed after months of marching, punctuated with bloodshed at skirmishes and impromptu and fixed battles.
In 1863, after fighting an illness for some time, Willy Sherman, Maj Gen. William T. Sherman’s favorite son, died of swamp fevers at Vicksburg, Mississippi.
In 1862 Despite Rosecrans, The Federals held Corinth after repeated Rebel attacks. “Union General William Rosecrans had been mistaken. He believed that the Confederates under Generals Earl van Dorn and Sterling Price were going to bypass his command at Corinth, Mississippi to head into Tennessee – perhaps towards Jackson or Bolivar – to sever his supply line and force him out of his entrenchments without a fight. That wasn’t a bad plan, really. Several Confederate commanders had even suggested it. But Van Dorn had been itching for a fight and Corinth was the place.
The reason Rosecrans was misled was because Van Dorn’s forces feigned as if they were heading into Tennessee. Rather than strike directly towards Corinth, they moved northwest of the city and then, on October 2nd, quickly changed course to fall upon Rosecrans with all they had. Corinth had once been held by General Beauregard’s army and Van Dorn aimed to get it back. His men would be attacking the very defenses they had helped build.
All that had, however, was about the same as all Rosecrans had – just over 20,000. Rosecrans also had plenty of reinforcements within a day’s march, which was something Van Dorn did not have. The Federals also had Ulysses S. Grant.
Grant had, at first, been fooled, just like Rosecrans. But he figured it all out long before his subordinate, ordering more Federal reinforcements towards the targeted city.
When Rosecrans finally discovered Van Dorn moving upon him, he acted boldly, even brashly. He suggested that he move his entire force out of the trenches to attack Van Dorn as he crossed the Hatchie River and “push those fellows to the wall.” Grant never responded to that idea, and Rosecrans was forced to wait it out. The problem was that while he understood Corinth to be the target, he didn’t know from which direction the Rebels would attack. This would cause him to commit only a fraction of his available forces throughout the day.
After the sun began to rise, sharp skirmishing was heard in the direction of Chewalla, a small border town along the Hatchie, ten miles to the northwest. Rosecrans’ men – skirmishers and pickets – tumbled back into the defenses.
When they were before the town, Van Dorn ordered Price’s two divisions to cover the ground between the two railroads leading into town, and Lovell’s division to fall in on Price’s right, covering the western roads. This was no easy task. The ground was anything but level, covered in thick timber and nearly impossible to traverse. Adding to the confusion was the Federal artillery. It wasn’t until 10am that Van Dorn’s men were ready to step off. From left to right (north to west) the divisions of Hebert, Maury, and Lovell prepared to attack.
To the front of the most northerly division, under Hebert, a steep wooded ridge would have to be scaled under enemy fire. Van Dorn wisely had them wait in the hopes that Rosecrans would pull Union troops from Hebert’s front once Maury and Lovell started their attack.
To Lovell’s front, a small, undersized brigade was all that stood in his way, but they put up one hell of a vicious fight. From behind the old Rebel breastworks, they threw havoc down upon their attackers. Their defense was admirable, causing the Rebels more casualties than they could readily afford. As they screamed ever closer, Federal artillery hit them with cannister, tearing holes in their line and misting the thick air with red.
The Rebels fell back, attacked again, and fell back yet another time. On the third attempt, a hundred men were lost in a fleeting handful of seconds. They came as furies, yelling with blood in their throats and spilling over their former embrasures. The Federal regiments fell back one by one, each seeming to take on and, for a time, hold off a Rebel brigade each.
To the north, atop a wooded ridge, the Federal brigades watched the Rebels under General Hebert form and wait. Six full brigades were clearly ready to attack, but were unmoving. Hebert sent out a thick skirmish line as shots were taken here and there and artillery peppered the morning and afternoon.
The Union division commander, Thomas Davies, quickly realized that he was outnumbered and his cause would be better served by concentrating the forces close to town, under the mouths of the two heavy artillery batteries. Though Rosecrans had not peeled men away from Davies’ line, the Rebels under Sterling Price (including Hebert’s and Maury’s divisions) attacked up the ridge.
They Rebels came at them with a reckless charge, casting off concerns for all safety and humanity. Soon, they threw back the Federals in their front and forced the retreat of any on their flanks. Davies had a mind to reform under the batteries in hopes that Price would attack. There, he believed, he could stop the Rebels. But after taking the breastworks, Price halted his tired and parched men. To the right, Lovell did the same with his Confederates.
Davies’ position was a fine one. Backed by the artillery, his line was under the cover of the woods, with an open field to his front. His right flank was held by an impassible swamp, while his left was anchored by field artillery. But he had less than 2,000 men.
The respite for the Rebels was short-lived. Price advanced with Martin Green’s brigade to the front. The Union artillery exhausted their ammunition several times trying to stymie their sluggish advance. Mostly, the shots went long and missed them. With the artillery coffers now empty, Davies sent word to Rosecrans that more men were needed. As the artillery retired, Green’s men came forth. Rosecrans ordered a division to come to Davies’ assistance, but the written orders were unclear – Rosecrans had ordered them to Davies’ left, when really he should have ordered them to the right. Before it was all cleared away, the battle would be over.
Many of the Union troops were hidden from Confederate sight. When Green’s boys approached to within musket range, the Federals leveled a killing volley, dropping bodies, heads and hearts clutched to the ground. As the wounded fell or streamed to the rear, Price charged again with similar results. He had other brigades waiting in reserve, but sent only a regiment at a time to assist Green. And, a regiment at a time, the Federals mauled the Rebels.
Though Price’s men were melting away, those who stood, stood well – braving the Federal onslaught. As the Union ammunition neared its end, Price finally called off the frontal assault to turn to the enemy flank. Davies saw this and knew he couldn’t hold. By 5pm, the entire Union line had withdrawn into the town.
After the firing had ended, Rosecrans called a council of war. His four divisions realigned themselves in their new positions and waited for dawn and the renewed Rebel attack. [1]
[1] Sources: The Darkest Days of the War by Peter Cozzens; Banners to the Breeze by Earl J. Hess; Grant Rises in the West by Kenneth P. Williams.
http://civilwardailygazette.com/despite-rosecrans-the-union-hold-corinth-after-repeated-rebel-attacks/

Below are several journal entries from 1861, 1862, 1863 and 1864 which shed light on what life was like for soldiers and civilians – the good, the bad and the ugly. … I am including journal entries from Sergeant Alexander G. Downing, Company E, Eleventh Iowa Infantry, Third Brigade, "Crocker's Brigade," Sixth Division of the Seventeenth Corps, Army of the Tennessee for each year. I have been spending some time researching Civil War journals and diaries and editing them to fit into this series of Civil War discussions.

Thursday, October 3, 1861: Journal of Sergeant Alexander G. Downing, Company E, Eleventh Iowa Infantry, Third Brigade, “Crocker's Brigade,” “It rained again all day, and although our camp is on high ground, on the bluff just east of town, yet it is a jelly of mud. It couldn't be otherwise with three or four thousand men tramping over it.”
Thursday, October, 3, 1861: The Memphis Daily Appeal reports: The Richmond Enquirer states that a lady who gave her name as Mrs. Mary Ann Keith, of Memphis, was arrested in Lynchburg on Wednesday. When arrested she was rigged out in a full suit of soldiers' clothes, and had registered her name at the Piedmont House as Lieutenant Buford. She declared that she was all right on the southern question, and scouted the idea of being a spy. She said her reason for dressing in soldier clothes was, that she had determined to fight the battles of her country, and thought such disguise more likely to enable her to accomplish her object. She was sent on to Richmond for a further hearing. About 250 women are thought to have served in the Confederate army disguised as men, with about 400 women serving in a similar manner in the Union Army.
Friday, October 3, 1862: Journal of Sergeant Alexander G. Downing, Company E, Eleventh Iowa Infantry, Third Brigade, “Crocker's Brigade,” “I was on camp guard all last night, on the second relief. Troops were coming in all night. This morning about daylight the Sixth Division was ordered out. and marching out about two miles to the northwest, we met the rebels in force and formed a line of battle. Our pickets having been attacked about sunrise, the battle now commenced in earnest and lasted all day. There was some hard fighting in the afternoon, particularly off on the right, and our men soon fell back to the first line of breastworks. About 3 p. m. the Iowa Brigade was flanked and had to fall back to the second line of breastworks, but the brigade, with the exception of the Fifteenth Regiment, did not get into the thick of the fight. 1 The fighting continued till dark, and after that there was some very heavy cannonading.”
Friday, October 3, 1862: The Richmond Daily Dispatch publishes an editorial and that argues the Emancipation Proclamation will not survive, since its implications endanger Yankees’ most cherished principles---namely, profits and commercial prosperity: “Unless the Conservative party of the North accept Lincoln’s proclamation as an empty menace, never intended to be carried into effect, they must recoil from the farther support of the war as from their own destruction. If it could be accomplished, the whole object for which the war has been begun and is carried on by the Northern capitalists, viz: Southern commerce and trade, would be utterly destroyed. Without slave labor, no cotton, rice, nor sugar, and very little tobacco, is a proposition which commands as universal assent among the money men of the North as the planters of the South. Without the staples raised by slave labor, what becomes of the commerce of the United States? Without the labor to cultivate the soil, how can the Federal Government make the South pay the cost of the war, even if it could reduce it to subjugation?
These are questions which must present themselves with fearful significance to all Northern men who have money embarked in the war, and to that large and influential class which is seeking to restore the trade and commerce of the Union. What the South would become, if the object of the proclamation could be accomplished, no one need be told. . . . But the whole South would become a St. Domingo, overrun by a race of negro barbarians, who would in ten years blot out from the entire landscape every vestige of productive industry, and every sign of civilization. . . .
If the North, or any part of it, except the ultra Abolitionists, is willing to prosecute the war for such a purpose, it must be given over to that madness that goeth before destruction. . . . We present the question only as one of profit and loss, and submit it to Northern calculation.”
Saturday, October 3, 1863: Journal of Sergeant Alexander G. Downing, Company E, Eleventh Iowa Infantry, Third Brigade “Crocker's Brigade,” “Orders have been issued to fortify Vicksburg so that a small force can hold the place against one five times the number; the fortifications are to be on the highest ground in the city. I was on duty at a picket post three miles below Vicksburg, on the east bank of the Mississippi. There were four privates and two corporals at the post, the corporals taking their turns in standing out in front as vedettes.”
Saturday, October 3, 1863: Surrender and Humiliation of McMinnville, Tennessee. The garrison and the town were in Rebel hands by 1pm. In his report, Major Anderson described what followed: “From 1 until 8 p. m. the men stood in line and were compelled to submit to the most brutal outrages on the part of the rebels ever known to any civilized war in America or elsewhere. The rebel troops or soldiers, and sometimes the officers, would call upon an officer or soldier standing in the line, when surrendered, for his overcoat, dress-coat, blouse, hat, shoes, boots, watch, pocket-book, money, and even to finger-rings, or, in fact, anything that happened to please their fancy, and with a pistol cocked in one band, in the attitude of shooting, demand the article they wanted. In this way the men of the Fourth Tennessee Infantry were stripped of their blankets, oil-cloths, overcoats, a large number of dress-coats, blouses, boots and shoes, jewelry, hats, knapsacks, and haversacks.
When the officers tried to save the records of their companies (the assistant quartermaster, acting commissary of subsistence, and commanding officers their records) the papers were pulled out of their pockets, torn to pieces, and thrown away. All, or about all, of the officers’ clothing was taken — valises and contents. While all this was going on, Major-General Wheeler was sitting on his horse and around the streets of McMinnville, witnessing and, we think, encouraging the same infernal outrages, seeming to not want or desire to comply with his agreement. The attention of Major-General Wheeler, Major-General Wharton, General Martin, General Davidson, and General [Colonel] Gillespie, and Brigadier-General Hodge was called to the same several times by Maj. M. L. Patterson, to gain his officers and men protection according to promise and agreement, and they would send some subordinate officer, who had no control over the men, or would reply that he (Wheeler) could not control his men; that they would do as they pleased, &c. Several of the officers of the Fourth Tennessee Infantry called on General Wheeler for protection. He would pay no attention to them, saying that he had no control over his men. &c.
http://civilwardailygazette.com/the-surrender-and-humiliation-of-mcminnville-tennessee/
Major-General Wheeler then ordered the command outside of his immediate lines, on the Sparta road, a section of country infested with guerrillas, where there was robbing and plundering the paroled prisoners all of the way, even compelling captains to sit down in the middle of the road and pull off their boots.
Monday, October 3, 1864: Journal of Sergeant Alexander G. Downing, Company E, Eleventh Iowa Infantry, Third Brigade, “Crocker's Brigade,” “A heavy rain last night. We started early this morning and arrived in camp about 9 o'clock. This afternoon we received orders to prepare to march early tomorrow morning with fifteen days' rations. It is supposed that the expedition is going out towards Kennesaw mountain, as it is reported that Hood is moving north with the main part of his army, and that he is now in the vicinity of Kennesaw. The Fourteenth, Fifteenth and Seventeenth Corps are to move north, while the Twentieth and Twenty-third are to remain here at Atlanta. News came today that General Grant is within five miles of Richmond and that he has whipped the rebels at every point.”

A. Thursday, October 3, 1861: Battle of Greenbrier River, western Virginia. General Reynolds had marched his 5,000 Union troops twelve miles through the night to bring them to the doorstep of Camp Bartow and roughly 1,800 Rebels.
A Georgia regiment quickly formed between the east river bank and a mill race to hold off the thousands in the advancing Union ranks. They held their ground, firing volley upon volley, buying time for the rest of the camp to man the defenses. After an hour of hard fighting, the Georgians fell back to the parapets.
Three Union batteries opened upon the camp from behind an orchard, and by 8am, the Rebel battery was returning fire. The Confederates were greatly out-gunned, the Union firing four shots to their one. Throughout the morning, the thundering artillery was incessant and deafening.
An Indiana soldier described “the storm of shot and shell traversing mid-air not more than fifty feet from our heads” as “at once terribly grand and terrific.”
The Rebels clung to their entrenchments and the Union troops laid flat on the ground, behind fences and anything else that might afford cover.
After an hour and a half, the fire began to die off. Not wanting to frontally assault the camp, General Reynolds chose to test the left flank. Waiting for his men were troops from Arkansas and Virginia. As the Yankees marched towards them, the Rebels fired one sharp volley that sent the advancing line scrambling back.
The artillery again picked up. Shells exploded over huddling Confederates as balls tore some men to pieces. The arm of a Union artilleryman was hit by a projectile, all but severing it from his body. With cool calmness, he pulled out his pocket knife with his good arm, and sliced through the remaining flesh and skin until the dead arm fell to the ground.
A Virginia regiment had adopted a kitten who, as the bursting shells kicked up dirt and rocks, playfully chased down the debris, batting and tumbling over and atop the parapets.
As the battle raged on, the Confederates established a field hospital to treat their wounded. Normally, a yellow flag was used to denote its location, but, unable to find a yellow flag, the surgeon hoisted aloft a white flag. In short order, a Union messenger, sent by Reynolds, rode forward under a flag of truce and inquired from a Rebel Colonel if the flag meant that they were surrendering.
“Go back and shoot your damn guns!” the Colonel replied and the battle continued.
Union officers urged Reynolds to commit all of his forces and attack the camp. Certain it would fail, he ordered that the Confederate right flank be tested. Four regiments from Indiana and Ohio marched over a small hill towards the river. As they came within the range of the Rebel guns firing cannister, the Union troops were met with the shotgun-like fire of hundreds of inch-round balls. Their lines melted away as their commanders implored them to rally.
As they fell back, General Reynolds thought he saw Confederate reinforcements pouring into camp. Though this was probably only a few companies of a Virginia regiment that had been posted a few miles east, it was enough to convince him that he could not take Camp Bartow. By 1pm, the Union artillery was limbered and the men fell in for their long march back to Cheat Mountain. Before dusk, they had returned.
Most of battle was artillery. The Confederate camp was destroyed, most tents were ripped through by Union cannonballs. During the duels, the Union artillery of thirteen guns fired over 11,000 rounds. Though the powder and ammunition expended led both sides to believe that the other suffered terribly, the casualties were surprisingly light. The Confederates had six dead and thirty-three wounded (with thirteen missing and taken prisoner). Union casualties were nearly equal, at eight killed and thirty-five wounded. [1]
B. Friday, October 3, 1862: Battle of Corinth, Mississippi begins. On October 2, Gen Rosecrans learned that the Confederates were approaching Corinth from the northwest. He positioned his advance guard about three miles beyond the town limits. On October 3, Confederate and Union forces fought initially at the old Confederate earthworks, then Battery F. The Confederates then pushed the Union army back about two miles towards town and heavy fighting was concentrated around the White House, just north of Battery Robinett. About 6:00 p.m., Maj. Gen. Van Dorn, Confederate commander, called a halt to the fighting, certain he could win an overwhelming victory in the morning.
During the night, Union commanders moved their men in a more compact position closer to Corinth. The partially entrenched line was less than two miles long and was strengthened at key positions by the cannons located along the College Hill batteries; Batteries Williams and Robinett, overlooking the Memphis-Charleston Railroad; and an unfinished Battery Powell, on the northern outskirts of Corinth.
About 9:00, the Confederated opened a savage attack on the Union line. Some Confederates fought their way into town to the railroad crossing. About 10:00, four columns of Confederates advanced on Battery Robinett. They charged three times, each time being mowed down by fire from the battery cannons and the muskets from the men in adjoining fields. After desperate fighting, a Union bayonet charge broke up the enemy columns. By noon, Van Dorn was in retreat.
C. Saturday, October 3, 1863: McMinnville, Tennessee surrenders. Detachment of 4th Tennessee Infantry. During the Confederate raid by Wheeler and Roddey their combined forces approached McMinnville about11 a.m. on the 3rd. When Maj. M. L. Patterson, commanding the post, learned of the Confederate advance he disposed of his small force of 320 men as best he could, and after skirmishing an hour and a half received a flag of truce from Wheeler demanding an unconditional surrender. Thinking it useless to attempt further resistance he submitted, and the garrison was turned over to the Confederates. Seven men were killed and 23 wounded on the Federal side during the skirmishing prior to the surrender, while the Confederates lost 23 killed and twice that number wounded according to Patterson’s estimate.
Details: Col. John A. Wharton and his Confederate force reached McMinnville. The town and its 400-man Union garrison quickly fell to the Confederates. Afterwards, Wharton ordered his men to begin destroying all of the supplies in town, which they did.
Details: Wheeler’s second column, under Gen. Henry Davidson, rides toward McMinnville, which is garrisoned by the 4th Tennessee (U.S.), under Maj. Michael Patterson---about 400 men. After several attacks, Davidson demands Patterson’s surrender. Afterwards, the 4th Tennessee are subject to “brutal outrages,” the taking of their personal property, coats, and boots.
D. Monday, October 3, 1864: Mosby executes revenge near Harrisonburg, Virginia. After learning that some of his men were executed by the Federals, CSA Lt. Col. John S. Mosby sought some payback. Mosby came upon Lt. John R. Meigs returning to the Union camp there. Meigs was a topographical engineer. When Meigs and two of his orderlies saw Mosby and his men riding towards them, in the rain, they thought that they were Union cavalry, until the Confederates shot and killed Meigs.
After John R. Meigs father Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs found out about the killing of his son, he established the soldier's cemetery in Gen. Robert E. Lee's former garden at his house in Arlington. Ironically the young Meigs was laid to rest at Oak Hill Cemetery in Georgetown in Washington, D.C. and not at Arlington.

Pictures: 1862-10-03 Battle of Corinth painting; 1863-10-02 Pres. Lincoln meets with General McClellan in the General’s tent; 1861-10-03 Greenbrier River Battle map; 1862-10-03 Battle of Corinth

1. Thursday, October, 3, 1861: The Memphis Daily Appeal reports: The Richmond Enquirer states that a lady who gave her name as Mrs. Mary Ann Keith, of Memphis, was arrested in Lynchburg on Wednesday. When arrested she was rigged out in a full suit of soldiers' clothes, and had registered her name at the Piedmont House as Lieutenant Buford. She declared that she was all right on the southern question, and scouted the idea of being a spy. She said her reason for dressing in soldier clothes was, that she had determined to fight the battles of her country, and thought such disguise more likely to enable her to accomplish her object. She was sent on to Richmond for a further hearing. About 250 women are thought to have served in the Confederate army disguised as men, with about 400 women serving in a similar manner in the Union Army.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-a/part-twenty-five
2. Thursday, October 3, 1861: Springfield Station, Virginia - On October 3, a group of Union cavalry, commanded by Col. ?? Pratt, entered Springfield Station. There, they met and engaged a Confederate cavalry force. The skirmish results were inconclusive.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1861s.html
3. Friday, October 3, 1862: near Franklin, Tennessee - On October 3, a Union force, commanded by Maj. Gen. John Dix, arrived at the Blackwater River, near Franklin, when he spotted some Confederates nearby. The Confederate force had thrown up a movable bridge across the river. Dix attempted to destroy the bridge.
After a short fight, both sides withdrew a short distance to regroup.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1862s.html
4. Friday, October 3, 1862: The Richmond Daily Dispatch publishes an editorial and that argues the Emancipation Proclamation will not survive, since its implications endanger Yankees’ most cherished principles---namely, profits and commercial prosperity: “Unless the Conservative party of the North accept Lincoln’s proclamation as an empty menace, never intended to be carried into effect, they must recoil from the farther support of the war as from their own destruction. If it could be accomplished, the whole object for which the war has been begun and is carried on by the Northern capitalists, viz: Southern commerce and trade, would be utterly destroyed. Without slave labor, no cotton, rice, nor sugar, and very little tobacco, is a proposition which commands as universal assent among the money men of the North as the planters of the South. Without the staples raised by slave labor, what becomes of the commerce of the United States? Without the labor to cultivate the soil, how can the Federal Government make the South pay the cost of the war, even if it could reduce it to subjugation?
These are questions which must present themselves with fearful significance to all Northern men who have money embarked in the war, and to that large and influential class which is seeking to restore the trade and commerce of the Union. What the South would become, if the object of the proclamation could be accomplished, no one need be told. . . . But the whole South would become a St. Domingo, overrun by a race of negro barbarians, who would in ten years blot out from the entire landscape every vestige of productive industry, and every sign of civilization. . . .
If the North, or any part of it, except the ultra Abolitionists, is willing to prosecute the war for such a purpose, it must be given over to that madness that goeth before destruction. . . . We present the question only as one of profit and loss, and submit it to Northern calculation.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=October+3%2C+1862
5. Friday, October 3, 1862: McClellan invited Abraham Lincoln to visit the field for the day, to look things over and inspect the troops. At his headquarters Lincoln was entertained with parades. Demonstrations of various maneuvers were performed. Lincoln, unimpressed, called the army “Gen. McClellan’s bodyguard.”
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-b/part-seventy-seven
6. Friday, October 3, 1862: Now the “Second Battle of Corinth,” with General Van Dorn’s rebels, start the fight about 10:00 AM, and fight all day pushing the Federal troops back twice. By evening, Van Dorn was sure that he could finish the Federals off during the next day. This confidence--combined with the heat, fatigue, and water shortages--persuaded him to cancel any further operations that day.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-b/part-seventy-seven
7. Saturday, October 3, 1863: President Lincoln calls for a national day of Thanksgiving at the end of November.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186310
8. Saturday, October 3, 1863: Sarah Josepha Buell Hale the author of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” also began her advocacy for a national holiday began in 1846 and lasted 17 years before it was successful. In support of the proposed national holiday, she wrote letters to five Presidents of the United States: Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, and Abraham Lincoln. After reading several articles on the subject by Sarah, Abraham Lincoln calls for a national day of Thanksgiving to be celebrated on the final Thursday in November 1863.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-c/week-129
9. Saturday, October 3, 1863: After fighting an illness for some time, Willy Sherman, Gen. Sherman’s favorite son, dies of swamp fevers at Vicksburg. Sherman still expedites the movement of his troops by rail, by river, and by foot towards Corinth, Mississippi.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=October+3%2C+1863
10. Saturday, October 3, 1863: Wheeler’s second column, under Gen. Henry Davidson, rides toward McMinnville, which is garrisoned by the 4th Tennessee (U.S.), under Maj. Michael Patterson---about 400 men. After several attacks, Davidson demands Patterson’s surrender. Afterwards, the 4th Tennessee are subject to “brutal outrages,” the taking of their personal property, coats, and boots.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=October+3%2C+1863
11. Saturday, October 3, 1863: Col. James Chestnut, a personal representative from Pres. Davis, arrives at Bragg’s Missionary Ridge headquarters to investigate the bad blood amongst Bragg and his officers. Chestnut talks with Gen. Polk and Gen. Longstreet on this date.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=October+3%2C+1863
12. Saturday, October 3, 1863: The first reinforcements for the Army of the Cumberland arrived in Chattanooga. The newspaper Richmond Examiner reports that the Southern victory at Chickamauga gained little for the Confederacy, since “the enemy hold Chattanooga and East Tennessee, which were the prizes of the battle.” The article goes on to say that “Jeff Davis will soon again have to make the mournful confession he made 18 months ago, that the Confederacy has undertaken more than it has the means of achieving.”
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-c/week-129
13. Monday, October 3, 1864: Jefferson Davis stops and makes a speech at Columbia, South Carolina, declaring that if everyone supported the work of Hood, he was confident that Sherman would be defeated.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/1864/week-182
14. Monday, October 3, 1864: Hood’s men meanwhile break the track of the Chattanooga-Atlanta railroad, a further blow to Sherman. Sherman finally orders General George H. Thomas (US) back to Nashville to defend against this harassment in his rear.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/1864/week-182

A Thursday, October 3, 1861: Battle of Greenbrier River, western Virginia.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186110
A+ Thursday, October 3, 1861: Battle of Greenbrier River, western Virginia. During the night of October 2-3, Brig. Gen. Joseph Reynolds with two brigades advanced from Cheat Mountain to reconnoiter the Confederate position at Camp Bartow on the Greenbrier River. Reynolds forces drove in the CSA Brig. Gen. Henry R. Jackson’s Confederate pickets and opened fire with his artillery. After sporadic fighting and an abortive attempt to turn his enemy’s right flank, Reynolds withdrew to Cheat Mountain
Estimated Casualties: 80 total (US 40; CS 40)
https://www.nps.gov/abpp/battles/wv007.htm
B Friday, October 3, 1862: Battle of Corinth, Mississippi begins. Earl Van Dorn [CS] and Sterling Price [CS] attack William Rosecrans [US] northern perimeter, driving it back to a reinforced line. Rosecrans successfully defends the city.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186210
B+ Friday, October 3, 1862: The Battle of Corinth. On October 2, Gen Rosecrans learned that the Confederates were approaching Corinth from the northwest. He positioned his advance guard about three miles beyond the town limits. On October 3, Confederate and Union forces fought initially at the old Confederate earthworks, then Battery F. The Confederates then pushed the Union army back about two miles towards town and heavy fighting was concentrated around the White House, just north of Battery Robinett. About 6:00 p.m., Maj. Gen. Van Dorn, Confederate commander, called a halt to the fighting, certain he could win an overwhelming victory in the morning.
During the night, Union commanders moved their men in a more compact position closer to Corinth. The partially entrenched line was less than two miles long and was strengthened at key positions by the cannons located along the College Hill batteries; Batteries Williams and Robinett, overlooking the Memphis-Charleston Railroad; and an unfinished Battery Powell, on the northern outskirts of Corinth.
About 9:00, the Confederated opened a savage attack on the Union line. Some Confederates fought their way into town to the railroad crossing. About 10:00, four columns of Confederates advanced on Battery Robinett. They charged three times, each time being mowed down by fire from the battery cannons and the muskets from the men in adjoining fields. After desperate fighting, a Union bayonet charge broke up the enemy columns. By noon, Van Dorn was in retreat.
http://www.corinthcivilwar.com/history.htm
B Friday, October 3, 1862: Western Theater, Battle of Corinth, Mississippi.
Day 1: Gen. Van Dorn, Confederate commander of the combined armies, makes a feint to Pocahontas, Tennessee, but turns to attack Corinth, Mississippi, and catches Gen. Rosecrans, the Union commander, somewhat by surprise. Rosecrans has been sent to Corinth in anticipation of just such an attack, and he has about 23,000 men, in 10 infantry brigades and 2 cavalry brigades. Van Dorn has about 22,000 men—also in 10 infantry brigades and 2 brigades of cavalry. However, the Federals have better artillery and more of it.
Early in the morning, Van Dorn’s vedettes begin driving in the Union pickets from several miles northwest of town, as the Rebels advance quickly. Van Dorn lines up all three of his divisions for attack: Hebert to the north, Maury to his right—both under Gen. Price—and then Lovell to the extreme right. But the ground is heavily timbered and uneven: it takes several hours to get his men into position. Rosecrans had Hamilton, Davies, and McKean, from right to left, in the old siege earthworks to meet the Rebels. Lovell opens the attack by a frontal attack on McKean’s division, hoping that Rosecrans would move troops from the right to the left—and then Price’s divisions would attack the Federal right. The Federals hold, and then throw the Rebels back. Lovell re-forms and comes again–and again. The Northern line holds, although it is getting thin: really, most of the defensive fighting is done by only one of McKean’s brigades. Maury then strikes Davies on his left flank, and the Union line begins to fall back. Hebert, the Creole from Louisiana, finally moves forward, up a steep ridge to hit Davies’ right flank. As the Rebels begin to push back the Union line, McArthur joins in from reserve—and Rosecrans by mid-afternoon orders Hamilton to change division front and prepare to attack the Confederates in the flank as they sweep forward toward the retreating Yankees. But the broken ground and confusing forest thickets prevent Hamilton from being ready until dark: the attach is delayed until darkness makes in unfeasible. During the night, Rosecrans concentrates his lines by pulling them closer into town.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=October+3%2C+1862
C Saturday, October 3, 1863: McMinnville, Tennessee - On October 3, Col. John A. Wharton and his Confederate force reached McMinnville. The town and its 400-man Union garrison quickly fell to the Confederates. Afterwards, Wharton ordered his men to begin destroying all of the supplies in town, which they did.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1863s.html
C Saturday, October 3, 1863: McMinnville, Tennessee surrenders. Detachment of 4th Tennessee Infantry. During the Confederate raid by Wheeler and Roddey their combined forces approached McMinnville about11 a.m. on the 3rd. When Maj. M. L. Patterson, commanding the post, learned of the Confederate advance he disposed of his small force of 320 men as best he could, and after skirmishing an hour and a half received a flag of truce from Wheeler demanding an unconditional surrender. Thinking it useless to attempt further resistance he submitted, and the garrison was turned over to the Confederates. Seven men were killed and 23 wounded on the Federal side during the skirmishing prior to the surrender, while the Confederates lost 23 killed and twice that number wounded according to Patterson’s estimate.
http://www.americancivilwarforum.com/honored-tennesseans-two-union-one-confederate-1090.html
D Monday, October 3, 1864: Harrisonburg, Virginia - On October 3, after learning that some of his men were executed by the Federals, Lt. Col. John S. Mosby sought some payback. Mosby found Lt. John R. Meigs returning to the Union camp at Harrisonburg. Meigs was a topographical engineer and the son of Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs.
Meigs and two of his orderlies saw Mosby and his men riding towards them. They thought that they were Union cavalry until the Confederates shot and killed Meigs. After M. Meigs found out about this, he established the soldier's cemetery in Gen. Robert E. Lee's former garden at his house in Arlington.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1864s.html
D+ Monday, October 3, 1864: Near Harrisonburg, Virginia after learning that some of his men were executed by the Federals, Lt. Col. John S. Mosby (CSA) sought some payback. Mosby came upon Lt. John R. Meigs returning to the Union camp there. Meigs was a topographical engineer and the son of Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs (designer of the cemetery being made at “Arlington,” General Robert E. Lee’s home.) Meigs and two of his orderlies saw Mosby and his men riding towards them. In the rain, they thought that they were Union cavalry, until the Confederates shot and killed Meigs. Strange, the young Meigs will be laid to rest at Oak Hill Cemetery in Georgetown in Washington, D.C. and not at Arlington.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/1864/week-182
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LTC Stephen F. thanks for this stellar read/share. I am choosing: 1864: Mosby executes revenge near Harrisonburg, Virginia. After learning that some of his men were executed by the Federals, CSA Lt. Col. John S. Mosby sought some payback. Mosby came upon Lt. John R. Meigs returning to the Union camp there. Meigs was a

Another great edition on what happened on Oct 3rd in Civil War history LTC Stephen F....I always enjoy reading these. I chose all events on this day as being equally as important as the others.