Posted on Nov 2, 2016
What was the most significant event on September 11 during the U.S. Civil War?
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In 1862, the confederate forces of the Army of Northern Virginia converge on Harpers Ferry from east, south and north to clear the town of Federal forces because it lay astride the clear lines of communication as Robert E. Lee desired to move his army through Maryland to Harrisburg, PA. Of course, the best laid plans of mice and men oft go astray.
In 1862, Rebel cavalry under Col. Tom Rosser rides into Westminster, Maryland, captured the town and seized stores of all kinds, especially shoes, and a locomotive with cars. The Southerners pay for what they take with Confederate scrip which was worthless to the northern citizens.
In 1863 during the Western Gulf blockade, the captain of the blockade-running steamer Fanny, bound for Mobile, burns his ship to water level rather than let it be captured by US ships.
On the eve of General Lee’s surprise attack in 1861. By this cold and rainy morning, General Lee’s brigades of the Army of the Northwest were reaching their positions. The complex plan of attack, issued on September 8th, was made more complex by the cliffs, rocky valleys, impenetrable forests and mountain spurs.
Of the five brigades, four had already left their camps. Rust’s Brigade of 1,600, to attack the Union right flank on Cheat Mountain, had started out from Traveler’s Repose on the 9th. They left the comfort of the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike for the tangled wilderness without a road nor a path to guide them. They marched miles through the freezing cold waters of Shavers Fork. As the rain fell, on this date, they reached a ridge about a mile from the Union right. Here they slept in the wet mud without so much as a fire to warm them.
Donelson’s brigade left Valley Mountain on the 10th. They were to attack the Union left at Elkwater [near Salt Lick on the map]. Donelson’s march was little easier than Rust’s. For twenty miles, the Confederates cut their way across cliffs and spurs, joining hands to pull their comrades over the defiles. On the rainy morning of this date, Donelson’s troops killed or captured several unsuspecting Yankee scouts and attacked a stronghold, capturing an entire company of fifty soldiers without firing a shot. As night fell upon them, they too were in position, overlooking the unsuspecting Union camp at Elkwater.
Also leaving Valley Mountain that day was the brigade of Anderson. His twenty-mile march proved no simple task, the men being forced to march single file, strung out over four miles of twisted western Virginia mountainside. The rain fell in torrents as Anderson’s men bivouacked on the western slope of Cheat Mountain.
The remaining two brigades, those of Jackson and Loring, were to stick to their respective turnpikes for an easy march on the morning of this date. Loring, from Valley Mountain, marched his men north along the Huntersville Turnpike, capturing a few Union pickets along the way to Elkwater. Jackson, following the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike from Traveler’s Repose, headed west towards Cheat Mountain.
By nightfall, all five brigades were exactly where they were supposed to be. Five thousand Rebels nearly surrounded 3,000 Union troops. The next morning, Rust’s Brigade was to attack at dawn. The sound of the fighting would be the signal for the rest of the Army of the Northwest to begin their attacks. General Lee’s plan was set. Everything relied upon Colonel Rust, whose only military experience was a strange, aborted reconnaissance of Cheat Mountain two weeks prior where he wandered around in “reckless folly” before returning to his camp. Nevertheless, General Lee took a liking to him and placed everything in his questionably capable hands.
http://civilwardailygazette.com/on-the-eve-of-general-lees-surprise/
Confederates funnel towards Harpers Ferry in 1862. “As three Confederate columns picked their way through western Maryland and along the Potomac River towards Harpers Ferry, Col. Dixon Miles, commanding the Union forces garrisoning the town, was in denial. The previous day, a small company of his cavalry brushed into the Rebels at Boonsboro and their report suggested Harpers Ferry was their destination.
Miles heard other reports that placed enemy troops on the road to Sharpsburg, but even with that he just assumed they were simply foraging parties. “I cannot learn he has any disposition to advance this way,” he reported. Nevertheless, he made some preliminary efforts just in case, ordering the ferry boats to be burned at Shepherdstown if it had to be abandoned.
He also conceded that if the Rebels were going to attack, they would do so through Solomon’s Gap, four miles north of Maryland Heights – a pass that he had earlier refused to fortify. None of his guns on Maryland Heights [the fortified eminence just east of Harpers Ferry] could hit Solomon’s Gap. That afternoon, Miles crossed the river and visited Maryland Heights. There, he learned from a scout that the Rebels had breached Solomon’s Gap to advance towards Harpers Ferry along the western slope of Maryland Heights. From the Heights, Miles could see Confederates advancing through Brownsville Gap and down Pleasant Valley towards the Potomac and Harpers Ferry. Sporadic artillery fire peppered the advance until nightfall.
The Confederates Miles saw were those of General Lafayette McLaws Division. His objective was Maryland Heights, from which, he would command the entire Union force at Harpers Ferry. It was hoped that just by taking the Heights, he would effect a surrender. McLaws had marched through Burkittsville, bypassing Crampton’s Gap and the main road, opting to take the more southerly Brownsville Gap.
Near the end of the day, having skirmished here and there with the Rebels, McLaws divided his 8,000 men, sending some towards Solomon’s Gap, while others moved south through Brownsville and Pleasant Valley. Generals Kershaw and Barksdale, commanding a brigade each, were to move along Elk Ridge (which became Maryland Heights when it reached the Potomac). McLaws was confident that they could take the Heights.
Meanwhile, another Confederate force under General John Walker was making its way towards Loudoun Heights, a rise opposite the southern end of Harpers Ferry.
The main Confederate force approaching Harpers Ferry was under General Stonewall Jackson. They had pushed off from Boonsboro before dawn. When orders were issued to him on the 9th, Martinsburg was believed to be abandoned by the Yankees. When he learned that it was occupied, he decided to veer from his actual orders and add sixty-miles to his tramp. By noon, his men were crossing the Potomac at Williamsport. They stopped for the night at Hedgesville, several miles north of Martinsburg.
All day long at Martinsburg, General Julius White had been hearing reports of Rebels crossing the Potomac. He had been ordered to hold Martinsburg to the last extremity, and was growing more and more doubtful that it could be done. He sent a scouting party to validate the reports and obstruct the road to Martinsburg as much as possible.
By nightfall, he realized that his tiny force of 2,500 could do nothing but vacate the town. White acted quickly. Securing a train from Harpers Ferry, his men loaded it with everything they could get their hands on. Whatever could not be loaded into the train was hefted onto wagons. At 2am, his men left the town, marching for Harpers Ferry.
http://civilwardailygazette.com/confederates-funnel-towards-harpers-ferry-grant-perplexed-by-mississippi-rebels/
In 1862, Maj Gen U.S. Grant is perplexed by Mississippi Rebels. Price and Van Dorn Advance – Rosecrans sees nothing alarming.
When the Union Army of the Ohio, under Don Carlos Buell, began their northward move from Nashville, it set into motion a flurry of other events. General Braxton Bragg, commanding the main Confederate army, had to change his marching orders from Bowling Green, Kentucky to the more easterly Glasgow. While Kirby Smith still threatened Cincinnati, there must have been a notion of impending haste. To the south, however, even more was happening.
Two small Confederate forces, led by Generals Sterling Price and Earl Van Dorn, occupied different parts of Mississippi. Price had held Tupelo, while Van Dorn had Vicksburg. Covering both were Federals under Ulysses S. Grant in Memphis and Corinth.
Even before Buell and Bragg began their marches north, Bragg had been urging Price to move, hoping to keep Federal reinforcements from reaching Buell. Conversely, Van Dorn was urging Price to follow him in an advance towards Grand Junction (midway between Memphis and Corinth).
This was all because of Rosecrans. Bragg and Price were afraid that Rosecrans would reinforce Buell in Kentucky, while Van Dorn was hoping to keep Rosecrans from reinforcing Grant in Memphis. Rosecrans was in Iuka, just east of Corinth, but by September 6th, Bragg and Price believed he was on the move towards Nashville. Price was ordered by Bragg to hurry along and stop him.
With elements of his command already moved north, through Saltillo and Baldwyn, on this date, Price stepped off, 14,000-strong. On this night, through hot dust and humidity, they arrived at Marietta, eight miles east of Baldwyn. The day had sapped their strength, and, when halted, most simply fell upon the side of the road to sleep.
But Price wasn’t the only Confederate force in Mississippi on the move. Van Dorn had also left his camp at Vicksburg for Holly Springs, a railroad junction southeast of Memphis and southwest of Corinth. As Van Dorn was moving north, he was still trying to convince Price to join him. He even wrote to the Secretary of War (who passed it along to President Davis), hoping that they would give him command over Price.
Due to the date of his promotion, he was technically Price’s superior. Davis gave him that authority, but never bothered to tell anyone but Van Dorn.
While all this was happening, Grant moved his headquarters to Corinth, leaving William Tecumseh Sherman in command at Memphis. The movements of the two Rebel armies absolutely confounded him. “With all the vigilance I can bring to bear I cannot determine the objects of the enemy,” wrote Grant to General-in-Chief Henry Halleck. “Everything threatens an attack here, but my fear is that it is to cover some other movement.”
He had no idea what that “other movement” might be, while Rosecrans believed it to be some demonstration to cover another move against Buell’s rear. As time moved on, Grant became more and more convinced that Corinth would be the focus of the Confederate attack. On this date, he predicted it would happen in forty-eight hours. Rosecrans’ forces were scattered and so he ordered them to be concentrated, while Rosecrans remained unconvinced: “I see nothing in this to alarm us.”
http://civilwardailygazette.com/confederates-funnel-towards-harpers-ferry-grant-perplexed-by-mississippi-rebels/
Pictures: 1863-09-11 CSS blockade runner Fanny burns; 1862-09 Harpers Ferry; 1863-09-11 Chickamauga Campaign Davis's Cross Roads Map; 1861-09-11 Cheat Mountain Camp
A. 1861: Union victory at Cheat Mountain, western Virginia. Confederate General Robert E. Lee commences his attack on Union forces in western Virginia at Cheat Mountain. Rainy weather slows Confederate troop movement, preventing Lee's surprise attack, and enabled the Union to hold their position. The Union victory at Cheat Mountain securedthe region of western Virginia for the Union and later statehood. The battle lasted 3 days with estimated casualties: 170 total (US 80; CS 90.)
B. 1862: Antietam/Sharpsburg campaign: Confederate forces converge of Harpers Ferry. Maj Gen Stonewall Jackson crossed the Potomac and spread his forces out to prevent any escapes from Martinsburg. However, the Federal forces there immediately evacuated the town and headed for Harper’s Ferry. In Maryland Maj Gen Lafayette McLaws, crossed South Mountain over the Brownsville Gap. Gen. John Walker into position on Maryland Heights and Loudon Heights respectively, both of which overlook Harper’s Ferry and dominate the town. Jackson, with more divisions, has crossed the Potomac back into Virginia, and is moving in from the north.
C. 1863: CSA Gen Braxton Bragg failed at the Battle of Davis Crossroads, Georgia. Braxton Bragg ordered Maj. Gen. Thomas C. Hindman to assault Maj. Gen. James S. Negley's division in the flank at Davis's Cross Roads, while CSA Maj. Gen. Patrick Cleburne's division forced its way through Dug Gap to strike Negley in front. Hindman was to receive reinforcements for this movement, but most of them did not arrive. The Confederate officers, therefore, met and decided that they could not attack in their present condition. The next morning, however, fresh troops did arrive, and the Confederates began to move on the Union line. The supporting Union division had by now joined Negley, and, hearing of a Confederate attack, the Union forces determined that a strategic withdrawal to Stevens Gap was in order. Negley first moved his division to the ridge east of West Chickamauga Creek, where it established a defensive line. The other division then moved through them to Stevens Gap and established a defensive line there. Both divisions awaited the rest of Thomas's corps. All of this was accomplished under constant pursuit and fire from the Confederates.
D. 1864: The USS Stockdale led the tinclad USS Randolph and the Army troop transport ship Planter in an expedition up the Fish River to seize a sawmill engine, some livestock, and 60,000 board feet (100 m3) of lumber. Confederate riflemen fired upon the retiring ships and felled trees ahead of them, but the Union ships broke through the obstructions to safety.
FYI SGT Mark Anderson PO3 Edward Riddle Maj William W. 'Bill' Price COL (Join to see) SSgt David M.] SPC Maurice Evans SPC Jon O. SGT Jim ArnoldAmn Dale PreisachCW4 (Join to see) Sgt Jerry GenesioSSG (Join to see)LTC John Griscom LTC Thomas Tennant LTC David Brown LTC (Join to see) CWO3 (Join to see) SGT John " Mac " McConnell SFC (Join to see) CPL Ronald Keyes Jr
In 1862, Rebel cavalry under Col. Tom Rosser rides into Westminster, Maryland, captured the town and seized stores of all kinds, especially shoes, and a locomotive with cars. The Southerners pay for what they take with Confederate scrip which was worthless to the northern citizens.
In 1863 during the Western Gulf blockade, the captain of the blockade-running steamer Fanny, bound for Mobile, burns his ship to water level rather than let it be captured by US ships.
On the eve of General Lee’s surprise attack in 1861. By this cold and rainy morning, General Lee’s brigades of the Army of the Northwest were reaching their positions. The complex plan of attack, issued on September 8th, was made more complex by the cliffs, rocky valleys, impenetrable forests and mountain spurs.
Of the five brigades, four had already left their camps. Rust’s Brigade of 1,600, to attack the Union right flank on Cheat Mountain, had started out from Traveler’s Repose on the 9th. They left the comfort of the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike for the tangled wilderness without a road nor a path to guide them. They marched miles through the freezing cold waters of Shavers Fork. As the rain fell, on this date, they reached a ridge about a mile from the Union right. Here they slept in the wet mud without so much as a fire to warm them.
Donelson’s brigade left Valley Mountain on the 10th. They were to attack the Union left at Elkwater [near Salt Lick on the map]. Donelson’s march was little easier than Rust’s. For twenty miles, the Confederates cut their way across cliffs and spurs, joining hands to pull their comrades over the defiles. On the rainy morning of this date, Donelson’s troops killed or captured several unsuspecting Yankee scouts and attacked a stronghold, capturing an entire company of fifty soldiers without firing a shot. As night fell upon them, they too were in position, overlooking the unsuspecting Union camp at Elkwater.
Also leaving Valley Mountain that day was the brigade of Anderson. His twenty-mile march proved no simple task, the men being forced to march single file, strung out over four miles of twisted western Virginia mountainside. The rain fell in torrents as Anderson’s men bivouacked on the western slope of Cheat Mountain.
The remaining two brigades, those of Jackson and Loring, were to stick to their respective turnpikes for an easy march on the morning of this date. Loring, from Valley Mountain, marched his men north along the Huntersville Turnpike, capturing a few Union pickets along the way to Elkwater. Jackson, following the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike from Traveler’s Repose, headed west towards Cheat Mountain.
By nightfall, all five brigades were exactly where they were supposed to be. Five thousand Rebels nearly surrounded 3,000 Union troops. The next morning, Rust’s Brigade was to attack at dawn. The sound of the fighting would be the signal for the rest of the Army of the Northwest to begin their attacks. General Lee’s plan was set. Everything relied upon Colonel Rust, whose only military experience was a strange, aborted reconnaissance of Cheat Mountain two weeks prior where he wandered around in “reckless folly” before returning to his camp. Nevertheless, General Lee took a liking to him and placed everything in his questionably capable hands.
http://civilwardailygazette.com/on-the-eve-of-general-lees-surprise/
Confederates funnel towards Harpers Ferry in 1862. “As three Confederate columns picked their way through western Maryland and along the Potomac River towards Harpers Ferry, Col. Dixon Miles, commanding the Union forces garrisoning the town, was in denial. The previous day, a small company of his cavalry brushed into the Rebels at Boonsboro and their report suggested Harpers Ferry was their destination.
Miles heard other reports that placed enemy troops on the road to Sharpsburg, but even with that he just assumed they were simply foraging parties. “I cannot learn he has any disposition to advance this way,” he reported. Nevertheless, he made some preliminary efforts just in case, ordering the ferry boats to be burned at Shepherdstown if it had to be abandoned.
He also conceded that if the Rebels were going to attack, they would do so through Solomon’s Gap, four miles north of Maryland Heights – a pass that he had earlier refused to fortify. None of his guns on Maryland Heights [the fortified eminence just east of Harpers Ferry] could hit Solomon’s Gap. That afternoon, Miles crossed the river and visited Maryland Heights. There, he learned from a scout that the Rebels had breached Solomon’s Gap to advance towards Harpers Ferry along the western slope of Maryland Heights. From the Heights, Miles could see Confederates advancing through Brownsville Gap and down Pleasant Valley towards the Potomac and Harpers Ferry. Sporadic artillery fire peppered the advance until nightfall.
The Confederates Miles saw were those of General Lafayette McLaws Division. His objective was Maryland Heights, from which, he would command the entire Union force at Harpers Ferry. It was hoped that just by taking the Heights, he would effect a surrender. McLaws had marched through Burkittsville, bypassing Crampton’s Gap and the main road, opting to take the more southerly Brownsville Gap.
Near the end of the day, having skirmished here and there with the Rebels, McLaws divided his 8,000 men, sending some towards Solomon’s Gap, while others moved south through Brownsville and Pleasant Valley. Generals Kershaw and Barksdale, commanding a brigade each, were to move along Elk Ridge (which became Maryland Heights when it reached the Potomac). McLaws was confident that they could take the Heights.
Meanwhile, another Confederate force under General John Walker was making its way towards Loudoun Heights, a rise opposite the southern end of Harpers Ferry.
The main Confederate force approaching Harpers Ferry was under General Stonewall Jackson. They had pushed off from Boonsboro before dawn. When orders were issued to him on the 9th, Martinsburg was believed to be abandoned by the Yankees. When he learned that it was occupied, he decided to veer from his actual orders and add sixty-miles to his tramp. By noon, his men were crossing the Potomac at Williamsport. They stopped for the night at Hedgesville, several miles north of Martinsburg.
All day long at Martinsburg, General Julius White had been hearing reports of Rebels crossing the Potomac. He had been ordered to hold Martinsburg to the last extremity, and was growing more and more doubtful that it could be done. He sent a scouting party to validate the reports and obstruct the road to Martinsburg as much as possible.
By nightfall, he realized that his tiny force of 2,500 could do nothing but vacate the town. White acted quickly. Securing a train from Harpers Ferry, his men loaded it with everything they could get their hands on. Whatever could not be loaded into the train was hefted onto wagons. At 2am, his men left the town, marching for Harpers Ferry.
http://civilwardailygazette.com/confederates-funnel-towards-harpers-ferry-grant-perplexed-by-mississippi-rebels/
In 1862, Maj Gen U.S. Grant is perplexed by Mississippi Rebels. Price and Van Dorn Advance – Rosecrans sees nothing alarming.
When the Union Army of the Ohio, under Don Carlos Buell, began their northward move from Nashville, it set into motion a flurry of other events. General Braxton Bragg, commanding the main Confederate army, had to change his marching orders from Bowling Green, Kentucky to the more easterly Glasgow. While Kirby Smith still threatened Cincinnati, there must have been a notion of impending haste. To the south, however, even more was happening.
Two small Confederate forces, led by Generals Sterling Price and Earl Van Dorn, occupied different parts of Mississippi. Price had held Tupelo, while Van Dorn had Vicksburg. Covering both were Federals under Ulysses S. Grant in Memphis and Corinth.
Even before Buell and Bragg began their marches north, Bragg had been urging Price to move, hoping to keep Federal reinforcements from reaching Buell. Conversely, Van Dorn was urging Price to follow him in an advance towards Grand Junction (midway between Memphis and Corinth).
This was all because of Rosecrans. Bragg and Price were afraid that Rosecrans would reinforce Buell in Kentucky, while Van Dorn was hoping to keep Rosecrans from reinforcing Grant in Memphis. Rosecrans was in Iuka, just east of Corinth, but by September 6th, Bragg and Price believed he was on the move towards Nashville. Price was ordered by Bragg to hurry along and stop him.
With elements of his command already moved north, through Saltillo and Baldwyn, on this date, Price stepped off, 14,000-strong. On this night, through hot dust and humidity, they arrived at Marietta, eight miles east of Baldwyn. The day had sapped their strength, and, when halted, most simply fell upon the side of the road to sleep.
But Price wasn’t the only Confederate force in Mississippi on the move. Van Dorn had also left his camp at Vicksburg for Holly Springs, a railroad junction southeast of Memphis and southwest of Corinth. As Van Dorn was moving north, he was still trying to convince Price to join him. He even wrote to the Secretary of War (who passed it along to President Davis), hoping that they would give him command over Price.
Due to the date of his promotion, he was technically Price’s superior. Davis gave him that authority, but never bothered to tell anyone but Van Dorn.
While all this was happening, Grant moved his headquarters to Corinth, leaving William Tecumseh Sherman in command at Memphis. The movements of the two Rebel armies absolutely confounded him. “With all the vigilance I can bring to bear I cannot determine the objects of the enemy,” wrote Grant to General-in-Chief Henry Halleck. “Everything threatens an attack here, but my fear is that it is to cover some other movement.”
He had no idea what that “other movement” might be, while Rosecrans believed it to be some demonstration to cover another move against Buell’s rear. As time moved on, Grant became more and more convinced that Corinth would be the focus of the Confederate attack. On this date, he predicted it would happen in forty-eight hours. Rosecrans’ forces were scattered and so he ordered them to be concentrated, while Rosecrans remained unconvinced: “I see nothing in this to alarm us.”
http://civilwardailygazette.com/confederates-funnel-towards-harpers-ferry-grant-perplexed-by-mississippi-rebels/
Pictures: 1863-09-11 CSS blockade runner Fanny burns; 1862-09 Harpers Ferry; 1863-09-11 Chickamauga Campaign Davis's Cross Roads Map; 1861-09-11 Cheat Mountain Camp
A. 1861: Union victory at Cheat Mountain, western Virginia. Confederate General Robert E. Lee commences his attack on Union forces in western Virginia at Cheat Mountain. Rainy weather slows Confederate troop movement, preventing Lee's surprise attack, and enabled the Union to hold their position. The Union victory at Cheat Mountain securedthe region of western Virginia for the Union and later statehood. The battle lasted 3 days with estimated casualties: 170 total (US 80; CS 90.)
B. 1862: Antietam/Sharpsburg campaign: Confederate forces converge of Harpers Ferry. Maj Gen Stonewall Jackson crossed the Potomac and spread his forces out to prevent any escapes from Martinsburg. However, the Federal forces there immediately evacuated the town and headed for Harper’s Ferry. In Maryland Maj Gen Lafayette McLaws, crossed South Mountain over the Brownsville Gap. Gen. John Walker into position on Maryland Heights and Loudon Heights respectively, both of which overlook Harper’s Ferry and dominate the town. Jackson, with more divisions, has crossed the Potomac back into Virginia, and is moving in from the north.
C. 1863: CSA Gen Braxton Bragg failed at the Battle of Davis Crossroads, Georgia. Braxton Bragg ordered Maj. Gen. Thomas C. Hindman to assault Maj. Gen. James S. Negley's division in the flank at Davis's Cross Roads, while CSA Maj. Gen. Patrick Cleburne's division forced its way through Dug Gap to strike Negley in front. Hindman was to receive reinforcements for this movement, but most of them did not arrive. The Confederate officers, therefore, met and decided that they could not attack in their present condition. The next morning, however, fresh troops did arrive, and the Confederates began to move on the Union line. The supporting Union division had by now joined Negley, and, hearing of a Confederate attack, the Union forces determined that a strategic withdrawal to Stevens Gap was in order. Negley first moved his division to the ridge east of West Chickamauga Creek, where it established a defensive line. The other division then moved through them to Stevens Gap and established a defensive line there. Both divisions awaited the rest of Thomas's corps. All of this was accomplished under constant pursuit and fire from the Confederates.
D. 1864: The USS Stockdale led the tinclad USS Randolph and the Army troop transport ship Planter in an expedition up the Fish River to seize a sawmill engine, some livestock, and 60,000 board feet (100 m3) of lumber. Confederate riflemen fired upon the retiring ships and felled trees ahead of them, but the Union ships broke through the obstructions to safety.
FYI SGT Mark Anderson PO3 Edward Riddle Maj William W. 'Bill' Price COL (Join to see) SSgt David M.] SPC Maurice Evans SPC Jon O. SGT Jim ArnoldAmn Dale PreisachCW4 (Join to see) Sgt Jerry GenesioSSG (Join to see)LTC John Griscom LTC Thomas Tennant LTC David Brown LTC (Join to see) CWO3 (Join to see) SGT John " Mac " McConnell SFC (Join to see) CPL Ronald Keyes Jr
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In 1863, CSA gen Braxton Bragg tried to isolate a Federal Division at the Battle of David Crossroads. He failed to accomplish his mission as the Federal forces under Maj. Gen. James S. Negley's division performed with discipline under near constant confederate fire. This battle set the stage for the bloody Battle of Chickamauga on September 19.
After a year and a half of war the Confederacy decided that an “entirely defensive campaign was not going to succeed in winning their war of independence. Aggressive efforts were now underway on two fronts, one famous, one less so. Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia were in Hagerstown, MD today. It was assumed in the South that Maryland would have seceded and joined the Confederacy, if it were not for the presence of Union troops. Lee was expecting many men to flock to his colors to enlist, but this did not happen.”
On the western front, General Kirby Smith confederate forces were within seven miles of Cincinnati, Ohio. “This inspired panic in the citizenry there, many of whom clogged the roads in an attempt to flee town.
In Greensboro, NC, O. Henry [William Sydney Porter] was born. He would become one of America’s greatest authors.
Below are several journal entries from 1862 and 1863 which shed light on what life was like for soldiers and civilians – the good, the bad and the ugly.
Thursday, September 11, 1862: Gov. Andrew Curtin reveals considerable panic as he writes a telegram to Pres. Lincoln insisting that 80,000 troops be sent to protect Harrisburg and Philadelphia. Gen. McClellan is the one who answers, revealing, on his part, a profound ignorance of where exactly Lee is or what the Rebels’ plans are: “HARRISBURG, PA., September 11, 1862. (Received 8.30 p. m.) His Excellency the PRESIDENT: “I have information this evening of a private character, which I deem entirely reliable, that the whole of the rebel army has been moved from Frederick, and their destination is Harrisburg and Philadelphia. You should order a strong guard placed upon the railway lines from Washington to Harrisburg to-night, and send here not less than 80,000 disciplined forces, and order from New York and States east all available forces to concentrate here at once. To this we will add all the militia forces possible, and I think that in a few days we can muster 50,000 men. It is our only hope to save the North and crush the rebel army. Do not suppose for one instant that I am unnecessarily alarmed. I believe I know all that I have stated to be true. I have had the country examined west of the river to-day by competent military engineers, and their report this evening is that defensive works cannot be erected to be useful against 50,000 men. The enemy will bring against us not less than 120,000, with large amount of artillery. The time for decided action by the National Government has arrived. What may we expect?
A. G. CURTIN, Governor of Pennsylvania.
______________
HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. September 11, 1862-1.15 p. m. To Gov. ANDREW G. CURTIN, Harrisburg, Pa.: “I am in hourly expectation of gaining definite news from Ridgevillle and New Market. I thought to-day to know definitely whether the enemy are still massed near Frederick; whether they have any force east of the Monocacy; whether they have moved on Hagerstown in large force. I now think nearly all their available forces is on this side of the Potomac.
I would urge upon Your Excellency, in the event of their moving upon Pennsylvania, to take sure means to delay their advance by destroying bridges, obstructing the roads, harassing their front, flank, and rear, destroying supplies, &c. This in necessary to enable me to gain time to take the best route to foil their purpose.
GEO. B. McCLELLAN, Major-General, Commanding.”
Thursday, September 11, 1862: Captain William J. Bolton, serving in the 51st Pennsylvania Infantry Reg., writes in his journal about their movements across Maryland, as Burnside’s corps continues looking for the Rebels: “Regiment left their bivouac at 6 o’clock A.M. passed through the little town of Unity and went into bivouac after dark near the town of Damascus. Burnside has pushed a strong reconnaissance across the National Road and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad towards New Market. A corresponding movement of all the troops in the centre and on the left moved in the direction of Urbana and Poolesville.”
Thursday, September 11, 1862: George Templeton Strong, ever the keen observer but also a director of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, dedicated to the health of the soldiers and care for the wounded, writes in his journal on this date concerned the Army’s shameful neglect in Virginia of the Union wounded: “Letters from Agnew full of interest. He has been all over our last battlefields under a flag of truce; thirty-six hours in the saddle. . . . Our wounded were left in the field, without shelter, food, or water, from Saturday night till Wednesday morning, because "that scoundrel, Pope" was too busy cooking up his report to think of sending out a flag of truce. Very many perished from starvation and exposure. Our Commission wagons were first on the ground and did good service, thank God; and the relations of our inspectors and agents with the medical staff seem perfectly harmonious. All, from the Surgeon-General down, recognize the value of what we are doing, or rather of what the people is doing through us as its almoner.”
Friday, September 11, 1863: John C. West, an infantryman in the 4th Texas in Hood’s division, writes home to his wife as his regiment passes through North Carolina on the way to Georgia to reinforce Gen. Bragg, in anticipation of Rosecrans’ offensive, and expresses himself with characteristic Texas bravado and assurance: “Letter No. XV. Wilmington, North Carolina, September11th, 1863. My Precious Wife: “I am at this place on my way to Bragg’s army. Our division has been ordered there. Of course in a hurried letter I can give you no account of the movements of our armies. Suffice it to say that we are not whipped on this side of the river yet, and I do not believe the combined Yankee army can subjugate the Texas brigade, though they may all be killed. I have met Major Hampton Gibbs here, and have spent most of the day with him visiting the blockaders, and he has extended to me every courtesy possible, and I shall recollect my detention in Wilmington with pleasure. I have had but one letter from you since I left Texas, but feel satisfied that all is well.
Brother Charles wrote to me in August and said you were all well up to the 10th of July. Douglas De Saussure was wounded in the shoulder a few days ago at Charleston, so I expect to see him in passing through Columbia, as I have permission to go by there. This will be sent by blockader Elizabeth. Hampton Gibbs sends regards to you. Your husband, faithfully ever, John C. West.”
Friday, September 11, 1863: Luman Harris Tenney, a 2nd Lieutenant in the 2nd Ohio Cavalry, writes in his journal as his regiment campaigns in East Tennessee, a largely Unionist region recently liberated by Gen. Burnside’s IX Corps, mentioning specifically the bounty of good things to eat in this theater: “11th. Awakened at daylight and moved at sunrise. In advance. Gen. Shackleford now commands 4th Div. and Col. Carter the Brigade. Gen. Carter Prov. Mar. Gen. of Tenn. Reached Clinch River at sundown, and camped. Receipted for oats, plenty of eggs, chickens and potatoes. Camp near a little stream on Union man’s place. Bosworth sick today and in ambulance. Chicken and potatoes for supper. Apples and peaches enough today.”
Friday, September 11, 1863: Col. Rutherford B. Hayes, of the 23rd Ohio Infantry Regiment, stationed in West Virginia, writes home to his wife with the usual news of camp life and of his constant wish to have her with him there in the field: “Camp White, September 11, 1863. Dearest: — Glad to get letters both from you and Mother last night. Bless the boys, how they must enjoy their first family visit to their new home! I would be as happy as any of them to be there.
We hear good news from Burnside in Tennessee. If true it makes it more desirable that you should come here soon. If he moves along the railroad into southwestern Virginia, we are likely to push forward to cooperate, in which case we shall probably get too far into Dixie for our families to winter with us. I will notify you if anything occurs to make it imprudent for you to be here a couple of weeks hence. . . . If after you reach here it turns out that we shall winter in the valley, I shall send for Mother Webb and all the boys and keep house, or you can go back after them. In that case you can rent the house, or if you prefer to winter at Fremont or in Chillicothe, in case you can’t do so here, you may rent the house at once.
My reason for wanting you to come here as soon as you are through visiting at Fremont, is, that perhaps we shall be ordered forward as soon as east Tennessee is firmly in our possession. I think, however, the chances are in favor of our wintering on the Kanawha.
Get me a lot of silk handkerchiefs and about three or four pair stockings, not very heavy, but so-so. You can get them at Fremont and do it before you forget.. . . Mrs. Barrett is the only other officer’s wife now here and she talks of going home in a fortnight. . . . Let me know by telegraph when you will be at Gallipolis and the doctor or some one will come there after you.
Since writing we have further news of gratifying successes in east Tennessee. If all continues to go well there, it increases the chances of a forward movement here, and furnishes additional reason for you to come on soon before it is too late. — Love to all.
Affectionately, R.”
Pictures: Co C, 63rd Virginia Infantry; Steamboat Conversions of the Civil War USS Cricket; 1863-09 Movement to contact at Chickamauga; U.S.S. Onondaga 1864
A. Wednesday, September 11, 1861: Union victory at Cheat Mountain, western Virginia. Confederate General Robert E. Lee commences his attack on Union forces in western Virginia at Cheat Mountain. Rainy weather slows Confederate troop movement, preventing Lee's surprise attack, and enabled the Union to hold their position. The Union victory at Cheat Mountain secured the region of western Virginia for the Union and later statehood. The battle lasted 3 days with estimated casualties: 170 total (US 80; CS 90.)
By this cold and rainy morning, General Lee’s brigades of the Army of the Northwest were reaching their positions. The complex plan of attack, issued on September 8th, was made more complex by the cliffs, rocky valleys, impenetrable forests and mountain spurs.
Of the five brigades, four had already left their camps. Rust’s Brigade of 1,600, to attack the Union right flank on Cheat Mountain, had started out from Traveler’s Repose on the 9th. They left the comfort of the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike for the tangled wilderness without a road nor a path to guide them. They marched miles through the freezing cold waters of Shavers Fork. As the rain fell, on this date, they reached a ridge about a mile from the Union right. Here they slept in the wet mud without so much as a fire to warm them.
Donelson’s brigade left Valley Mountain on the 10th. They were to attack the Union left at Elkwater. Donelson’s march was little easier than Rust’s. For twenty miles, the Confederates cut their way across cliffs and spurs, joining hands to pull their comrades over the defiles. On the rainy morning of this date, Donelson’s troops killed or captured several unsuspecting Yankee scouts and attacked a stronghold, capturing an entire company of fifty soldiers without firing a shot. As night fell upon them, they too were in position, overlooking the unsuspecting Union camp at Elkwater.
Also leaving Valley Mountain that day was the brigade of Anderson. His twenty-mile march proved no simple task, the men being forced to march single file, strung out over four miles of twisted western Virginia mountainside. The rain fell in torrents as Anderson’s men bivouacked on the western slope of Cheat Mountain.
The remaining two brigades, those of Jackson and Loring, were to stick to their respective turnpikes for an easy march on the morning of this date. Loring, from Valley Mountain, marched his men north along the Huntersville Turnpike, capturing a few Union pickets along the way to Elkwater. Jackson, following the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike from Traveler’s Repose, headed west towards Cheat Mountain.
By nightfall, all five brigades were exactly where they were supposed to be. Five thousand Rebels nearly surrounded 3,000 Union troops. The next morning, Rust’s Brigade was to attack at dawn. The sound of the fighting would be the signal for the rest of the Army of the Northwest to begin their attacks. General Lee’s plan was set. Everything relied upon Colonel Rust, whose only military experience was a strange, aborted reconnaissance of Cheat Mountain two weeks prior where he wandered around in “reckless folly” before returning to his camp. Nevertheless, General Lee took a liking to him and placed everything in his questionably capable hands.
B. Thursday, September 11, 1862: Antietam/Sharpsburg campaign: Confederate forces converge of Harpers Ferry. Maj Gen Stonewall Jackson crossed the Potomac and spread his forces out to prevent any escapes from Martinsburg. However, the Federal forces there immediately evacuated the town and headed for Harper’s Ferry. In Maryland Maj Gen Lafayette McLaws, crossed South Mountain over the Brownsville Gap. Gen. John Walker into position on Maryland Heights and Loudon Heights respectively, both of which overlook Harper’s Ferry and dominate the town. Jackson, with more divisions, has crossed the Potomac back into Virginia, and is moving in from the north.
C. Friday, September 11, 1863: CSA Gen Braxton Bragg failed at the Battle of Davis Crossroads, Georgia.
Braxton Bragg ordered Maj. Gen. Thomas C. Hindman to assault Maj. Gen. James S. Negley's division in the flank at Davis's Cross Roads, while CSA Maj. Gen. Patrick Cleburne's division forced its way through Dug Gap to strike Negley in front. Hindman was to receive reinforcements for this movement, but most of them did not arrive. The Confederate officers, therefore, met and decided that they could not attack in their present condition. The next morning, however, fresh troops did arrive, and the Confederates began to move on the Union line. The supporting Union division had by now joined Negley, and, hearing of a Confederate attack, the Union forces determined that a strategic withdrawal to Stevens Gap was in order. Negley first moved his division to the ridge east of West Chickamauga Creek, where it established a defensive line. The other division then moved through them to Stevens Gap and established a defensive line there. Both divisions awaited the rest of Thomas's corps. All of this was accomplished under constant pursuit and fire from the Confederates.
After his abortive attempt to attack one isolated Union corps, Bragg turned his attention to the corps to his north, the XXI Corps under Maj. Gen. Thomas L. Crittenden, setting the stage for the bloody Battle of Chickamauga on September 19.
Sept 10, 1863: Thomas's corps raced forward, seized the important gaps in Missionary Ridge and Pigeon Mountain, and moved out into McLemore Cove. Maj. Gen. James S. Negley's division, supported by Brig. Gen. Absalom Baird's division, was moving across the mouth of the cove on the Dug Gap road when Negley learned that Confederate units were concentrating around Dug Gap. Moving through determined resistance, he closed on the gap, withdrawing to Davis' Cross Roads in the evening of September 10 to await the supporting division.
D. Sunday, September 11, 1864: The USS Stockdale joined leading the tinclad USS Randolph and the Army troop transport ship Planter in an expedition up the Fish River to seize a sawmill engine, some livestock, and 60,000 board feet (100 m3) of lumber. Confederate riflemen fired upon the retiring ships and felled trees ahead of them, but the Union ships broke through the obstructions to safety.
Details: The USS Stockdale, Acting Lt. Wiggen commanding, set forth up the Fish River to Mobile Bay today, leading the tinclad USS Randolph and the Army troop transport ship Planter, which was towing a barge. Their destination: a sawmill up on the bay. The expedition arrived without incident, landed troops, and proceeded to confiscate Confederate equipment including 60,000 board feet of sawn lumber, the engine used to saw the logs, and some livestock. The problem came when the now heavily-loaded ships tried to get back down the river. Confederate troops lined the river as it began to grow dark. Shots were fired and trees were even felled into the water in an attempt to snag and stop the vessels. The military ships returned fire with the ship’s guns, the troops fired muskets, and the reinforced Randolph smashed its way through the log blockades. All the boats returned safely.
1. Wednesday, September 11, 1861: Memphis Daily Appeal, “Wife Whipper.—George Welaner was yesterday arrested by officers Sullivan and Irby, on the charge of whipping his wife. He had a cowhide hid under his coat when the officers arrested him. He was fined $20 by Recorder Moore.”
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-a/part-twenty-two
2. Wednesday, September 11, 1861: President Lincoln orders John C. Fremont to rescind his order freeing some slaves in Missouri and issue a new order conforming to the Confiscation Act passed by Congress Missouri.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186109
3. Wednesday, September 11, 1861: Abraham Lincoln has Secretary of War Simon Cameron order the arrest of Maryland legislators who are openly pro-South.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186109
4. Thursday, September 11, 1862: On the western front, other forces in gray under General Kirby Smith were within seven miles of Cincinnati, Ohio. This inspired panic in the citizenry there, many of whom clogged the roads in an attempt to flee town.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-b/part-74
5. Thursday, September 11, 1862: In Greensboro, NC, William Sydney Porter was born today. He will become one of America’s greatest authors, but you might know him better just by his pen name, O. Henry.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-b/part-74
6. Thursday, September 11, 1862: In northern Mississippi, both armies are operating with little information about the other. Gen. Earl Van Dorn, with one Rebel army, has left Vicksburg and is pushing northward to threaten Grant’s line between Memphis and Corinth. Gen. Price has another Rebel army at Tupelo, and has been toying with idea of striking at Iuka, just east of Corinth, at Gen. Rosecrans’ small Army of the Mississippi—mainly to keep Rosecrans from marching north to reinforce Buell as Buell lumbers northward after Bragg. (In fact, the Confederates’ fears are valid; Rosecrans has just sent off a division under Gen. Jefferson C. Davis—true story—to reinforce Buell at Nashville.) On this date, Gen. Sterling Price’s army steps off, marching for Iuka. Also, Gen. Grant---who has been unable to discern the Rebels’ intentions up till now—finally decides that Price is going to attack Iuka. Grant leaves Sherman in command at Memphis and goes to Corinth.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+11%2C+1862
7. Thursday, September 11, 1862: In Kentucky, there is skirmishing along the West Licking River, just seven miles south of Cincinnati, as Gen. Kirby-Smith’s Rebels arrive in Latonia Springs and begin probing the Union defenses there.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+11%2C+1862
8. Thursday, September 11, 1862: Confederate Heartland Offensive: The first advance elements of the US Army of the Ohio reach Bowling Green, Kentucky. Until General Buell’s arrival in 3 days, General Lovell Rousseau takes charge of the city’s defenses, rebuilding the former Confederate fortifications and supplementing the town’s stockpile of rations. Meanwhile, CS General Bragg’s forces start moving into Glasgow, Kentucky. Over the next couple of days both sides will be busy foraging for supplies and clean water; extreme drought has forced them to live on often putrid water and green corn during their respective marches.
https://bjdeming.com/2012/10/15/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-10-16-1862/
9. Thursday, September 11, 1862: The Confederacy, after a year and a half of war decide that an entirely defensive campaign was not going to succeed in winning their war of independence. Aggressive efforts were now underway on two fronts, one famous, one less so. Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia were in Hagerstown, MD today. It was assumed in the South that Maryland would have seceded and joined the Confederacy, if it were not for the presence of Union troops. Lee was expecting many men to flock to his colors to enlist, but this did not happen.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-b/part-74
10. Thursday, September 11, 1862: Rebel cavalry under Col. Tom Rosser rides into Westminster, Maryland, sealing up the town and seizing stores of all kinds, especially shoes, and a locomotive with cars. The Southerners pay for what they take with Confederate scrip.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+11%2C+1862
11. Thursday, September 11, 1862: Captain William J. Bolton, serving in the 51st Pennsylvania Infantry Reg., writes in his journal about their movements across Maryland, as Burnside’s corps continues looking for the Rebels: “Regiment left their bivouac at 6 o’clock A.M. passed through the little town of Unity and went into bivouac after dark near the town of Damascus. Burnside has pushed a strong reconnaissance across the National Road and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad towards New Market. A corresponding movement of all the troops in the centre and on the left moved in the direction of Urbana and Poolesville.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+11%2C+1862
12. Thursday, September 11, 1862: Gov. Andrew Curtin reveals considerable panic as he writes a telegram to Pres. Lincoln insisting that 80,000 troops be sent to protect Harrisburg and Philadelphia. Gen. McClellan is the one who answers, revealing, on his part, a profound ignorance of where exactly Lee is or what the Rebels’ plans are: “HARRISBURG, PA., September 11, 1862. (Received 8.30 p. m.) His Excellency the PRESIDENT: “I have information this evening of a private character, which I deem entirely reliable, that the whole of the rebel army has been moved from Frederick, and their destination is Harrisburg and Philadelphia. You should order a strong guard placed upon the railway lines from Washington to Harrisburg to-night, and send here not less than 80,000 disciplined forces, and order from New York and States east all available forces to concentrate here at once. To this we will add all the militia forces possible, and I think that in a few days we can muster 50,000 men. It is our only hope to save the North and crush the rebel army. Do not suppose for one instant that I am unnecessarily alarmed. I believe I know all that I have stated to be true. I have had the country examined west of the river to-day by competent military engineers, and their report this evening is that defensive works cannot be erected to be useful against 50,000 men. The enemy will bring against us not less than 120,000, with large amount of artillery. The time for decided action by the National Government has arrived. What may we expect?
A. G. CURTIN, Governor of Pennsylvania.
______________
13. HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. September 11, 1862-1.15 p. m. To Gov. ANDREW G. CURTIN, Harrisburg, Pa.: “I am in hourly expectation of gaining definite news from Ridgevillle and New Market. I thought to-day to know definitely whether the enemy are still massed near Frederick; whether they have any force east of the Monocacy; whether they have moved on Hagerstown in large force. I now think nearly all their available forces is on this side of the Potomac.
I would urge upon Your Excellency, in the event of their moving upon Pennsylvania, to take sure means to delay their advance by destroying bridges, obstructing the roads, harassing their front, flank, and rear, destroying supplies, &c. This in necessary to enable me to gain time to take the best route to foil their purpose.
GEO. B. McCLELLAN, Major-General, Commanding.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+11%2C+1862
14. Thursday, September 11, 1862: George Eyster, of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, writes a hurried note to his brother-in-law John Riddle Warner in Gettysburg, giving voice to the atmosphere of panic in southern Pennsylvania in anticipation of the Confederate advance, as Rebel troops have entered Hagerstown this morning. close to the state line: “We think ourselves now in actual danger. Our town is to-night under strict military surveillance. Judge Kinwell being the Provost Marshall. At least 500 men are under arms and posted on the various roads. An hour ago a dispatch was received from the government saying we had reliable intelligence that it was the intention of the rebels to enter Pennsylvania. Capt Ward telegraphs just now from Greencastle that he has the roads strongly picketed, but apprehends no attack before morning. The rebels are certainly at Hagerstown in very strong force.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+11%2C+1862
15. Thursday, September 11, 1862: George Templeton Strong, ever the keen observer but also a director of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, dedicated to the health of the soldiers and care for the wounded, writes in his journal on this date concerned the Army’s shameful neglect in Virginia of the Union wounded: “Letters from Agnew full of interest. He has been all over our last battlefields under a flag of truce; thirty-six hours in the saddle. . . . Our wounded were left in the field, without shelter, food, or water, from Saturday night till Wednesday morning, because "that scoundrel, Pope" was too busy cooking up his report to think of sending out a flag of truce. Very many perished from starvation and exposure. Our Commission wagons were first on the ground and did good service, thank God; and the relations of our inspectors and agents with the medical staff seem perfectly harmonious. All, from the Surgeon-General down, recognize the value of what we are doing, or rather of what the people is doing through us as its almoner.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+11%2C+1862
16. Friday, September 11, 1863: John C. West, an infantryman in the 4th Texas in Hood’s division, writes home to his wife as his regiment passes through North Carolina on the way to Georgia to reinforce Gen. Bragg, in anticipation of Rosecrans’ offensive, and expresses himself with characteristic Texas bravado and assurance: “Letter No. XV. Wilmington, North Carolina, September11th, 1863. My Precious Wife: “I am at this place on my way to Bragg’s army. Our division has been ordered there. Of course in a hurried letter I can give you no account of the movements of our armies. Suffice it to say that we are not whipped on this side of the river yet, and I do not believe the combined Yankee army can subjugate the Texas brigade, though they may all be killed. I have met Major Hampton Gibbs here, and have spent most of the day with him visiting the blockaders, and he has extended to me every courtesy possible, and I shall recollect my detention in Wilmington with pleasure. I have had but one letter from you since I left Texas, but feel satisfied that all is well.
Brother Charles wrote to me in August and said you were all well up to the 10th of July. Douglas De Saussure was wounded in the shoulder a few days ago at Charleston, so I expect to see him in passing through Columbia, as I have permission to go by there. This will be sent by blockader Elizabeth. Hampton Gibbs sends regards to you. Your husband, faithfully ever, John C. West.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+11%2C+1863
17. Friday, September 11, 1863: Luman Harris Tenney, a 2nd Lieutenant in the 2nd Ohio Cavalry, writes in his journal as his regiment campaigns in East Tennessee, a largely Unionist region recently liberated by Gen. Burnside’s IX Corps, mentioning specifically the bounty of good things to eat in this theater: “11th. Awakened at daylight and moved at sunrise. In advance. Gen. Shackleford now commands 4th Div. and Col. Carter the Brigade. Gen. Carter Prov. Mar. Gen. of Tenn. Reached Clinch River at sundown, and camped. Receipted for oats, plenty of eggs, chickens and potatoes. Camp near a little stream on Union man’s place. Bosworth sick today and in ambulance. Chicken and potatoes for supper. Apples and peaches enough today.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+11%2C+1863
18. Friday, September 11, 1863: Col. Rutherford B. Hayes, of the 23rd Ohio Infantry Regiment, stationed in West Virginia, writes home to his wife with the usual news of camp life and of his constant wish to have her with him there in the field: “Camp White, September 11, 1863. Dearest: — Glad to get letters both from you and Mother last night. Bless the boys, how they must enjoy their first family visit to their new home! I would be as happy as any of them to be there.
We hear good news from Burnside in Tennessee. If true it makes it more desirable that you should come here soon. If he moves along the railroad into southwestern Virginia, we are likely to push forward to cooperate, in which case we shall probably get too far into Dixie for our families to winter with us. I will notify you if anything occurs to make it imprudent for you to be here a couple of weeks hence. . . . If after you reach here it turns out that we shall winter in the valley, I shall send for Mother Webb and all the boys and keep house, or you can go back after them. In that case you can rent the house, or if you prefer to winter at Fremont or in Chillicothe, in case you can’t do so here, you may rent the house at once.
My reason for wanting you to come here as soon as you are through visiting at Fremont, is, that perhaps we shall be ordered forward as soon as east Tennessee is firmly in our possession. I think, however, the chances are in favor of our wintering on the Kanawha.
Get me a lot of silk handkerchiefs and about three or four pair stockings, not very heavy, but so-so. You can get them at Fremont and do it before you forget.. . . Mrs. Barrett is the only other officer’s wife now here and she talks of going home in a fortnight. . . . Let me know by telegraph when you will be at Gallipolis and the doctor or some one will come there after you.
Since writing we have further news of gratifying successes in east Tennessee. If all continues to go well there, it increases the chances of a forward movement here, and furnishes additional reason for you to come on soon before it is too late. — Love to all.
Affectionately, R.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+11%2C+1863
19. Friday, September 11, 1863: near Davis' Cross Roads in Dade and Walker Counties, Georgia - After the Tullahoma Campaign, Rosecrans renewed his offensive, aiming to force the Rebels out of Chattanooga. The III corps, comprising Rosecrans's army, split and set out for Chattanooga by separate routes. Hearing of the Union advance, Braxton Bragg concentrated troops around Chattanooga. While Col. John T. Wilder's artillery fired on Chattanooga, Rosecrans attempted to take advantage of Bragg's situation and ordered other troops into Georgia. They raced forward, seized the important gaps, and moved out into McLemore's Cove.
Negley's XIV Army Corps division, supported by Brig. General Absalom Baird's division, was moving across the mouth of the cove on the Dug Gap road when Negley learned that Rebels were concentrating around Dug Gap. Moving through determined resistance, he closed on the gap, withdrawing to Davis' Cross Roads in the evening of September 10 to await the supporting division. Bragg had ordered Gen. Hindman with his division to assault Negley at Davis' Cross Roads in the flank, while Maj. Gen. Patrick R. Cleburne's division forced its way through Dug Gap to strike Negley in front.
Hindman was to receive reinforcements for this movement, but most of them did not arrive. The Confederate officers, therefore, met and decided that they could not attack in their present condition. The next morning, however, fresh troops did arrive, and the Confederates began to move on the Union line. The supporting Union division had, by now, joined Negley, and, hearing of a Confederate attack, the Union forces determined that a strategic withdrawal, in the face of an enemy of supposedly superior numbers, to Stevens Gap was in order. Negley first moved his division to the ridge east of West Chickamauga Creek where it established a defensive line.
The other division then moved through them to Stevens Gap and established a defensive line there. Both divisions awaited the rest of Maj. Gen. George Thomas's corps. All of this was accomplished under constant pursuit and fire from the Confederates.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1863s.html
20. Friday, September 11, 1863: In the early hours of this morning General Braxton Bragg issued orders for an attack on Union troops camped in a north Georgia region known as McLemore’s Cove. But the attack never happened. It seems that one Major Noquot, (CSA) a foreign soldier-of-fortune with a limited command of the English language, was to transport the message to attack. Noquot showed up late today after taking 12 hours to cover a distance of about five miles. He said he got lost in the dark and camped for the night. Union troops moved before an attack could be made. President Lincoln urges Andrew Johnson to establish a civil government in Tennessee. Generals Johnston and Forrest (CSA) skirmish with Union troops near Dalton, GA.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-c/week-126
21. Friday, September 11, 1863: Battle of Davis Cross Roads, Day 2: As reinforcements under Gen. John Breckenridge arrive, Hindman continues the attack on the Federals. Even though Gen. Baird has arrived to reinforce Negley, he elects to retreat back down in the valley and across to Stevens Gap. Stalemate.
Rosecrans moves McCook’s corps south to flank Bragg, while Crittenden’s corps moves south from Chattanooga. Thomas, in the center, is reluctant to move against Bragg, however, since the three Federal corps are widely scattered and unable to aid each other. Both Blue and Gray begin an uneasy dance of deception and blindman’s bluff.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+11%2C+1863
22. Friday, September 11, 1863: Chickamauga Campaign: Reconnaissance toward Rome, Georgia. Skirmishes in Georgia near Blue Bird Gap and at Davis Cross Roads/Dug Gap, Rossville, Ringgold and Lee and Gordon’s Mills.
General Forrest conducts a fighting retreat, reinforced by various units along the way. These Confederate cavalrymen are forced to dismount and fight as infantry to take advantage of cover, and they do stop Crittenden’s advance. The Federals fall back to Ringgold and then the head of the column attacks Lee and Gordon’s Mills.
During the day’s fighting, at Tunnel Hill, “Forrest sustained an unspecified wound serious enough for him to violate his teetotalism and take a drink of whisky. But he did not quit the field.”
The fighting at Davis Cross Roads has made Rosecrans aware of the Army of Tennessee but assumes incorrectly that they are behind Pigeon Mountain.
https://bjdeming.com/2013/09/09/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-9-15-1863/
23. Friday, September 11, 1863: Arkansas operations/Little Rock Campaign. “A desultory and ineffective pursuit of the fugitive Confederates on September 11 ended the Little Rock Campaign.”
https://bjdeming.com/2013/09/09/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-9-15-1863/
24. Friday, September 11, 1863: Western Gulf blockade: The captain of the blockade-running steamer Fanny, bound for Mobile, burns his ship to water level rather than let it be captured by US ships.
https://bjdeming.com/2013/09/09/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-9-15-1863/
25. Friday, September 11, 1863: US President Lincoln turns down General Ambrose Burnside’s resignation, asks Governor Andrew Johnson of Tennessee to inaugurate a state government at once, and confers with Secretary of War Stanton and General-in-Chief Halleck about the situation in Charleston.
https://bjdeming.com/2013/09/09/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-9-15-1863/
A Wednesday, September 11, 1861: Confederate General Robert E. Lee commences his attack on Union forces in western Virginia at Cheat Mountain. Rainy weather slows Confederate troop movement, preventing Lee's surprise attack, and enabling the Union to hold their position. The Union victory at Cheat Mountain secures the region of western Virginia for the Union and later statehood. The battle lasted 3 days with estimated casualties: 170 total (US 80; CS 90.)
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-a/part-twenty-two
B Thursday, September 11, 1862: Antietam/Sharpsburg campaign: Jackson crosses the Potomac and spreads his forces out to prevent any escapes from Martinsburg, but it’s unnecessary: the Federal forces there immediately evacuate the town and head for Harper’s Ferry. General Lafayette McLaws, with 10 brigades plus Anderson’s division crosses South Mountain over the Brownsville Gap.
https://bjdeming.com/2012/10/15/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-10-16-1862/
B Thursday, September 11, 1862: In Maryland, Rebel divisions under Gen. McLaws and Gen. John Walker are advancing into position on Maryland Heights and Loudon Heights respectively, both of which overlook Harper’s Ferry and dominate the town. Jackson, with more divisions, has crossed the Potomac back into Virginia, and is moving in from the north.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+11%2C+1862
C Friday, September 11, 1863: Battle of Davis Crossroads, Georgia. Braxton Bragg; Chickamauga Campaign
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186309
C Friday, September 11, 1863: Battle of Davis Crossroads, Georgia. Thomas's corps raced forward, seized the important gaps in Missionary Ridge and Pigeon Mountain, and moved out into McLemore Cove. Maj. Gen. James S. Negley's division, supported by Brig. Gen. Absalom Baird's division, was moving across the mouth of the cove on the Dug Gap road when Negley learned that Confederate units were concentrating around Dug Gap. Moving through determined resistance, he closed on the gap, withdrawing to Davis' Cross Roads in the evening of September 10 to await the supporting division.
Bragg had ordered Maj. Gen. Thomas C. Hindman with his division to assault Negley in the flank at Davis's Cross Roads, while Maj. Gen. Patrick Cleburne's division forced its way through Dug Gap to strike Negley in front. Hindman was to receive reinforcements for this movement, but most of them did not arrive. The Confederate officers, therefore, met and decided that they could not attack in their present condition. The next morning, however, fresh troops did arrive, and the Confederates began to move on the Union line. The supporting Union division had by now joined Negley, and, hearing of a Confederate attack, the Union forces determined that a strategic withdrawal to Stevens Gap was in order. Negley first moved his division to the ridge east of West Chickamauga Creek, where it established a defensive line. The other division then moved through them to Stevens Gap and established a defensive line there. Both divisions awaited the rest of Thomas's corps. All of this was accomplished under constant pursuit and fire from the Confederates.
After his abortive attempt to attack one isolated Union corps, Bragg turned his attention to the corps to his north, the XXI Corps under Maj. Gen. Thomas L. Crittenden, setting the stage for the bloody Battle of Chickamauga on September 19
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Davis%27s_Cross_Roads
Sunday, September 11, 1864: General Hood (CSA) directs his officers that a truce of ten days has been agreed upon between himself and General Sherman (US), commencing upon the 12th instant and ending on the 21st. This truce is only applicable to the thoroughfares and the country leading to and in the vicinity of Rough and Ready, Georgia, the object being to aid in the removal of citizens of Atlanta who shall desire to come South under the recent order of General Sherman.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/1864/week-179
Sunday, September 11, 1864: In the District of South Kansas, Major General George Sykes (US) reports the Union failure at Cabin Creek, where the Confederates capture over 300 wagons as well as the same in men. In the Dakota Territory, a federal expedition arrives from Fort Rice, to relieve Capt. Fisk’s (US) emigrant wagon train. Upon arriving, the Yankees find the emigrants in a fortified position, refusing to go any further into the Bad Lands without proper protection. On the way back to Fort Rice, the Federals have some 30 horses stolen by Indians.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/1864/week-179
Sunday, September 11, 1864: Georgia operations. The ordered evacuation of Atlanta begins.
https://bjdeming.com/2014/09/08/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-8-14-1864/
Sunday, September 11, 1864: “The USS Stockdale, Acting Lt. Wiggen commanding, set forth up the Fish River to Mobile Bay today, leading the tinclad USS Randolph and the Army troop transport ship Planter, which was towing a barge. Their destination: a sawmill up on the bay. The expedition arrived without incident, landed troops, and proceeded to confiscate Confederate equipment including 60,000 board feet of sawn lumber, the engine used to saw the logs, and some livestock. The problem came when the now heavily-loaded ships tried to get back down the river. Confederate troops lined the river as it began to grow dark. Shots were fired and trees were even felled into the water in an attempt to snag and stop the vessels. The military ships returned fire with the ship’s guns, the troops fired muskets, and the reinforced Randolph smashed its way through the log blockades. All the boats returned safely.”
https://bjdeming.com/2014/09/08/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-8-14-1864/
FYI GySgt Jack Wallace CWO4 Terrence Clark SMSgt Lawrence McCarter LTC Trent Klug SFC Bernard WalkoSSG Franklin Briant SSG Byron Howard Sr CPL Ronald Keyes Jr SFC William Farrell CMDCM John F. "Doc" Bradshaw SPC Lyle MontgomeryPO2 Marco MonsalveSPC Woody Bullard SSG Michael Noll SSG Bill McCoy SFC David Reid, M.S, PHR, SHRM-CP, DTMSgt Christopher Collins SPC (Join to see) SPC Gary C. PO3 Lynn Spalding
After a year and a half of war the Confederacy decided that an “entirely defensive campaign was not going to succeed in winning their war of independence. Aggressive efforts were now underway on two fronts, one famous, one less so. Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia were in Hagerstown, MD today. It was assumed in the South that Maryland would have seceded and joined the Confederacy, if it were not for the presence of Union troops. Lee was expecting many men to flock to his colors to enlist, but this did not happen.”
On the western front, General Kirby Smith confederate forces were within seven miles of Cincinnati, Ohio. “This inspired panic in the citizenry there, many of whom clogged the roads in an attempt to flee town.
In Greensboro, NC, O. Henry [William Sydney Porter] was born. He would become one of America’s greatest authors.
Below are several journal entries from 1862 and 1863 which shed light on what life was like for soldiers and civilians – the good, the bad and the ugly.
Thursday, September 11, 1862: Gov. Andrew Curtin reveals considerable panic as he writes a telegram to Pres. Lincoln insisting that 80,000 troops be sent to protect Harrisburg and Philadelphia. Gen. McClellan is the one who answers, revealing, on his part, a profound ignorance of where exactly Lee is or what the Rebels’ plans are: “HARRISBURG, PA., September 11, 1862. (Received 8.30 p. m.) His Excellency the PRESIDENT: “I have information this evening of a private character, which I deem entirely reliable, that the whole of the rebel army has been moved from Frederick, and their destination is Harrisburg and Philadelphia. You should order a strong guard placed upon the railway lines from Washington to Harrisburg to-night, and send here not less than 80,000 disciplined forces, and order from New York and States east all available forces to concentrate here at once. To this we will add all the militia forces possible, and I think that in a few days we can muster 50,000 men. It is our only hope to save the North and crush the rebel army. Do not suppose for one instant that I am unnecessarily alarmed. I believe I know all that I have stated to be true. I have had the country examined west of the river to-day by competent military engineers, and their report this evening is that defensive works cannot be erected to be useful against 50,000 men. The enemy will bring against us not less than 120,000, with large amount of artillery. The time for decided action by the National Government has arrived. What may we expect?
A. G. CURTIN, Governor of Pennsylvania.
______________
HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. September 11, 1862-1.15 p. m. To Gov. ANDREW G. CURTIN, Harrisburg, Pa.: “I am in hourly expectation of gaining definite news from Ridgevillle and New Market. I thought to-day to know definitely whether the enemy are still massed near Frederick; whether they have any force east of the Monocacy; whether they have moved on Hagerstown in large force. I now think nearly all their available forces is on this side of the Potomac.
I would urge upon Your Excellency, in the event of their moving upon Pennsylvania, to take sure means to delay their advance by destroying bridges, obstructing the roads, harassing their front, flank, and rear, destroying supplies, &c. This in necessary to enable me to gain time to take the best route to foil their purpose.
GEO. B. McCLELLAN, Major-General, Commanding.”
Thursday, September 11, 1862: Captain William J. Bolton, serving in the 51st Pennsylvania Infantry Reg., writes in his journal about their movements across Maryland, as Burnside’s corps continues looking for the Rebels: “Regiment left their bivouac at 6 o’clock A.M. passed through the little town of Unity and went into bivouac after dark near the town of Damascus. Burnside has pushed a strong reconnaissance across the National Road and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad towards New Market. A corresponding movement of all the troops in the centre and on the left moved in the direction of Urbana and Poolesville.”
Thursday, September 11, 1862: George Templeton Strong, ever the keen observer but also a director of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, dedicated to the health of the soldiers and care for the wounded, writes in his journal on this date concerned the Army’s shameful neglect in Virginia of the Union wounded: “Letters from Agnew full of interest. He has been all over our last battlefields under a flag of truce; thirty-six hours in the saddle. . . . Our wounded were left in the field, without shelter, food, or water, from Saturday night till Wednesday morning, because "that scoundrel, Pope" was too busy cooking up his report to think of sending out a flag of truce. Very many perished from starvation and exposure. Our Commission wagons were first on the ground and did good service, thank God; and the relations of our inspectors and agents with the medical staff seem perfectly harmonious. All, from the Surgeon-General down, recognize the value of what we are doing, or rather of what the people is doing through us as its almoner.”
Friday, September 11, 1863: John C. West, an infantryman in the 4th Texas in Hood’s division, writes home to his wife as his regiment passes through North Carolina on the way to Georgia to reinforce Gen. Bragg, in anticipation of Rosecrans’ offensive, and expresses himself with characteristic Texas bravado and assurance: “Letter No. XV. Wilmington, North Carolina, September11th, 1863. My Precious Wife: “I am at this place on my way to Bragg’s army. Our division has been ordered there. Of course in a hurried letter I can give you no account of the movements of our armies. Suffice it to say that we are not whipped on this side of the river yet, and I do not believe the combined Yankee army can subjugate the Texas brigade, though they may all be killed. I have met Major Hampton Gibbs here, and have spent most of the day with him visiting the blockaders, and he has extended to me every courtesy possible, and I shall recollect my detention in Wilmington with pleasure. I have had but one letter from you since I left Texas, but feel satisfied that all is well.
Brother Charles wrote to me in August and said you were all well up to the 10th of July. Douglas De Saussure was wounded in the shoulder a few days ago at Charleston, so I expect to see him in passing through Columbia, as I have permission to go by there. This will be sent by blockader Elizabeth. Hampton Gibbs sends regards to you. Your husband, faithfully ever, John C. West.”
Friday, September 11, 1863: Luman Harris Tenney, a 2nd Lieutenant in the 2nd Ohio Cavalry, writes in his journal as his regiment campaigns in East Tennessee, a largely Unionist region recently liberated by Gen. Burnside’s IX Corps, mentioning specifically the bounty of good things to eat in this theater: “11th. Awakened at daylight and moved at sunrise. In advance. Gen. Shackleford now commands 4th Div. and Col. Carter the Brigade. Gen. Carter Prov. Mar. Gen. of Tenn. Reached Clinch River at sundown, and camped. Receipted for oats, plenty of eggs, chickens and potatoes. Camp near a little stream on Union man’s place. Bosworth sick today and in ambulance. Chicken and potatoes for supper. Apples and peaches enough today.”
Friday, September 11, 1863: Col. Rutherford B. Hayes, of the 23rd Ohio Infantry Regiment, stationed in West Virginia, writes home to his wife with the usual news of camp life and of his constant wish to have her with him there in the field: “Camp White, September 11, 1863. Dearest: — Glad to get letters both from you and Mother last night. Bless the boys, how they must enjoy their first family visit to their new home! I would be as happy as any of them to be there.
We hear good news from Burnside in Tennessee. If true it makes it more desirable that you should come here soon. If he moves along the railroad into southwestern Virginia, we are likely to push forward to cooperate, in which case we shall probably get too far into Dixie for our families to winter with us. I will notify you if anything occurs to make it imprudent for you to be here a couple of weeks hence. . . . If after you reach here it turns out that we shall winter in the valley, I shall send for Mother Webb and all the boys and keep house, or you can go back after them. In that case you can rent the house, or if you prefer to winter at Fremont or in Chillicothe, in case you can’t do so here, you may rent the house at once.
My reason for wanting you to come here as soon as you are through visiting at Fremont, is, that perhaps we shall be ordered forward as soon as east Tennessee is firmly in our possession. I think, however, the chances are in favor of our wintering on the Kanawha.
Get me a lot of silk handkerchiefs and about three or four pair stockings, not very heavy, but so-so. You can get them at Fremont and do it before you forget.. . . Mrs. Barrett is the only other officer’s wife now here and she talks of going home in a fortnight. . . . Let me know by telegraph when you will be at Gallipolis and the doctor or some one will come there after you.
Since writing we have further news of gratifying successes in east Tennessee. If all continues to go well there, it increases the chances of a forward movement here, and furnishes additional reason for you to come on soon before it is too late. — Love to all.
Affectionately, R.”
Pictures: Co C, 63rd Virginia Infantry; Steamboat Conversions of the Civil War USS Cricket; 1863-09 Movement to contact at Chickamauga; U.S.S. Onondaga 1864
A. Wednesday, September 11, 1861: Union victory at Cheat Mountain, western Virginia. Confederate General Robert E. Lee commences his attack on Union forces in western Virginia at Cheat Mountain. Rainy weather slows Confederate troop movement, preventing Lee's surprise attack, and enabled the Union to hold their position. The Union victory at Cheat Mountain secured the region of western Virginia for the Union and later statehood. The battle lasted 3 days with estimated casualties: 170 total (US 80; CS 90.)
By this cold and rainy morning, General Lee’s brigades of the Army of the Northwest were reaching their positions. The complex plan of attack, issued on September 8th, was made more complex by the cliffs, rocky valleys, impenetrable forests and mountain spurs.
Of the five brigades, four had already left their camps. Rust’s Brigade of 1,600, to attack the Union right flank on Cheat Mountain, had started out from Traveler’s Repose on the 9th. They left the comfort of the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike for the tangled wilderness without a road nor a path to guide them. They marched miles through the freezing cold waters of Shavers Fork. As the rain fell, on this date, they reached a ridge about a mile from the Union right. Here they slept in the wet mud without so much as a fire to warm them.
Donelson’s brigade left Valley Mountain on the 10th. They were to attack the Union left at Elkwater. Donelson’s march was little easier than Rust’s. For twenty miles, the Confederates cut their way across cliffs and spurs, joining hands to pull their comrades over the defiles. On the rainy morning of this date, Donelson’s troops killed or captured several unsuspecting Yankee scouts and attacked a stronghold, capturing an entire company of fifty soldiers without firing a shot. As night fell upon them, they too were in position, overlooking the unsuspecting Union camp at Elkwater.
Also leaving Valley Mountain that day was the brigade of Anderson. His twenty-mile march proved no simple task, the men being forced to march single file, strung out over four miles of twisted western Virginia mountainside. The rain fell in torrents as Anderson’s men bivouacked on the western slope of Cheat Mountain.
The remaining two brigades, those of Jackson and Loring, were to stick to their respective turnpikes for an easy march on the morning of this date. Loring, from Valley Mountain, marched his men north along the Huntersville Turnpike, capturing a few Union pickets along the way to Elkwater. Jackson, following the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike from Traveler’s Repose, headed west towards Cheat Mountain.
By nightfall, all five brigades were exactly where they were supposed to be. Five thousand Rebels nearly surrounded 3,000 Union troops. The next morning, Rust’s Brigade was to attack at dawn. The sound of the fighting would be the signal for the rest of the Army of the Northwest to begin their attacks. General Lee’s plan was set. Everything relied upon Colonel Rust, whose only military experience was a strange, aborted reconnaissance of Cheat Mountain two weeks prior where he wandered around in “reckless folly” before returning to his camp. Nevertheless, General Lee took a liking to him and placed everything in his questionably capable hands.
B. Thursday, September 11, 1862: Antietam/Sharpsburg campaign: Confederate forces converge of Harpers Ferry. Maj Gen Stonewall Jackson crossed the Potomac and spread his forces out to prevent any escapes from Martinsburg. However, the Federal forces there immediately evacuated the town and headed for Harper’s Ferry. In Maryland Maj Gen Lafayette McLaws, crossed South Mountain over the Brownsville Gap. Gen. John Walker into position on Maryland Heights and Loudon Heights respectively, both of which overlook Harper’s Ferry and dominate the town. Jackson, with more divisions, has crossed the Potomac back into Virginia, and is moving in from the north.
C. Friday, September 11, 1863: CSA Gen Braxton Bragg failed at the Battle of Davis Crossroads, Georgia.
Braxton Bragg ordered Maj. Gen. Thomas C. Hindman to assault Maj. Gen. James S. Negley's division in the flank at Davis's Cross Roads, while CSA Maj. Gen. Patrick Cleburne's division forced its way through Dug Gap to strike Negley in front. Hindman was to receive reinforcements for this movement, but most of them did not arrive. The Confederate officers, therefore, met and decided that they could not attack in their present condition. The next morning, however, fresh troops did arrive, and the Confederates began to move on the Union line. The supporting Union division had by now joined Negley, and, hearing of a Confederate attack, the Union forces determined that a strategic withdrawal to Stevens Gap was in order. Negley first moved his division to the ridge east of West Chickamauga Creek, where it established a defensive line. The other division then moved through them to Stevens Gap and established a defensive line there. Both divisions awaited the rest of Thomas's corps. All of this was accomplished under constant pursuit and fire from the Confederates.
After his abortive attempt to attack one isolated Union corps, Bragg turned his attention to the corps to his north, the XXI Corps under Maj. Gen. Thomas L. Crittenden, setting the stage for the bloody Battle of Chickamauga on September 19.
Sept 10, 1863: Thomas's corps raced forward, seized the important gaps in Missionary Ridge and Pigeon Mountain, and moved out into McLemore Cove. Maj. Gen. James S. Negley's division, supported by Brig. Gen. Absalom Baird's division, was moving across the mouth of the cove on the Dug Gap road when Negley learned that Confederate units were concentrating around Dug Gap. Moving through determined resistance, he closed on the gap, withdrawing to Davis' Cross Roads in the evening of September 10 to await the supporting division.
D. Sunday, September 11, 1864: The USS Stockdale joined leading the tinclad USS Randolph and the Army troop transport ship Planter in an expedition up the Fish River to seize a sawmill engine, some livestock, and 60,000 board feet (100 m3) of lumber. Confederate riflemen fired upon the retiring ships and felled trees ahead of them, but the Union ships broke through the obstructions to safety.
Details: The USS Stockdale, Acting Lt. Wiggen commanding, set forth up the Fish River to Mobile Bay today, leading the tinclad USS Randolph and the Army troop transport ship Planter, which was towing a barge. Their destination: a sawmill up on the bay. The expedition arrived without incident, landed troops, and proceeded to confiscate Confederate equipment including 60,000 board feet of sawn lumber, the engine used to saw the logs, and some livestock. The problem came when the now heavily-loaded ships tried to get back down the river. Confederate troops lined the river as it began to grow dark. Shots were fired and trees were even felled into the water in an attempt to snag and stop the vessels. The military ships returned fire with the ship’s guns, the troops fired muskets, and the reinforced Randolph smashed its way through the log blockades. All the boats returned safely.
1. Wednesday, September 11, 1861: Memphis Daily Appeal, “Wife Whipper.—George Welaner was yesterday arrested by officers Sullivan and Irby, on the charge of whipping his wife. He had a cowhide hid under his coat when the officers arrested him. He was fined $20 by Recorder Moore.”
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-a/part-twenty-two
2. Wednesday, September 11, 1861: President Lincoln orders John C. Fremont to rescind his order freeing some slaves in Missouri and issue a new order conforming to the Confiscation Act passed by Congress Missouri.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186109
3. Wednesday, September 11, 1861: Abraham Lincoln has Secretary of War Simon Cameron order the arrest of Maryland legislators who are openly pro-South.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186109
4. Thursday, September 11, 1862: On the western front, other forces in gray under General Kirby Smith were within seven miles of Cincinnati, Ohio. This inspired panic in the citizenry there, many of whom clogged the roads in an attempt to flee town.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-b/part-74
5. Thursday, September 11, 1862: In Greensboro, NC, William Sydney Porter was born today. He will become one of America’s greatest authors, but you might know him better just by his pen name, O. Henry.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-b/part-74
6. Thursday, September 11, 1862: In northern Mississippi, both armies are operating with little information about the other. Gen. Earl Van Dorn, with one Rebel army, has left Vicksburg and is pushing northward to threaten Grant’s line between Memphis and Corinth. Gen. Price has another Rebel army at Tupelo, and has been toying with idea of striking at Iuka, just east of Corinth, at Gen. Rosecrans’ small Army of the Mississippi—mainly to keep Rosecrans from marching north to reinforce Buell as Buell lumbers northward after Bragg. (In fact, the Confederates’ fears are valid; Rosecrans has just sent off a division under Gen. Jefferson C. Davis—true story—to reinforce Buell at Nashville.) On this date, Gen. Sterling Price’s army steps off, marching for Iuka. Also, Gen. Grant---who has been unable to discern the Rebels’ intentions up till now—finally decides that Price is going to attack Iuka. Grant leaves Sherman in command at Memphis and goes to Corinth.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+11%2C+1862
7. Thursday, September 11, 1862: In Kentucky, there is skirmishing along the West Licking River, just seven miles south of Cincinnati, as Gen. Kirby-Smith’s Rebels arrive in Latonia Springs and begin probing the Union defenses there.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+11%2C+1862
8. Thursday, September 11, 1862: Confederate Heartland Offensive: The first advance elements of the US Army of the Ohio reach Bowling Green, Kentucky. Until General Buell’s arrival in 3 days, General Lovell Rousseau takes charge of the city’s defenses, rebuilding the former Confederate fortifications and supplementing the town’s stockpile of rations. Meanwhile, CS General Bragg’s forces start moving into Glasgow, Kentucky. Over the next couple of days both sides will be busy foraging for supplies and clean water; extreme drought has forced them to live on often putrid water and green corn during their respective marches.
https://bjdeming.com/2012/10/15/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-10-16-1862/
9. Thursday, September 11, 1862: The Confederacy, after a year and a half of war decide that an entirely defensive campaign was not going to succeed in winning their war of independence. Aggressive efforts were now underway on two fronts, one famous, one less so. Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia were in Hagerstown, MD today. It was assumed in the South that Maryland would have seceded and joined the Confederacy, if it were not for the presence of Union troops. Lee was expecting many men to flock to his colors to enlist, but this did not happen.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-b/part-74
10. Thursday, September 11, 1862: Rebel cavalry under Col. Tom Rosser rides into Westminster, Maryland, sealing up the town and seizing stores of all kinds, especially shoes, and a locomotive with cars. The Southerners pay for what they take with Confederate scrip.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+11%2C+1862
11. Thursday, September 11, 1862: Captain William J. Bolton, serving in the 51st Pennsylvania Infantry Reg., writes in his journal about their movements across Maryland, as Burnside’s corps continues looking for the Rebels: “Regiment left their bivouac at 6 o’clock A.M. passed through the little town of Unity and went into bivouac after dark near the town of Damascus. Burnside has pushed a strong reconnaissance across the National Road and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad towards New Market. A corresponding movement of all the troops in the centre and on the left moved in the direction of Urbana and Poolesville.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+11%2C+1862
12. Thursday, September 11, 1862: Gov. Andrew Curtin reveals considerable panic as he writes a telegram to Pres. Lincoln insisting that 80,000 troops be sent to protect Harrisburg and Philadelphia. Gen. McClellan is the one who answers, revealing, on his part, a profound ignorance of where exactly Lee is or what the Rebels’ plans are: “HARRISBURG, PA., September 11, 1862. (Received 8.30 p. m.) His Excellency the PRESIDENT: “I have information this evening of a private character, which I deem entirely reliable, that the whole of the rebel army has been moved from Frederick, and their destination is Harrisburg and Philadelphia. You should order a strong guard placed upon the railway lines from Washington to Harrisburg to-night, and send here not less than 80,000 disciplined forces, and order from New York and States east all available forces to concentrate here at once. To this we will add all the militia forces possible, and I think that in a few days we can muster 50,000 men. It is our only hope to save the North and crush the rebel army. Do not suppose for one instant that I am unnecessarily alarmed. I believe I know all that I have stated to be true. I have had the country examined west of the river to-day by competent military engineers, and their report this evening is that defensive works cannot be erected to be useful against 50,000 men. The enemy will bring against us not less than 120,000, with large amount of artillery. The time for decided action by the National Government has arrived. What may we expect?
A. G. CURTIN, Governor of Pennsylvania.
______________
13. HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. September 11, 1862-1.15 p. m. To Gov. ANDREW G. CURTIN, Harrisburg, Pa.: “I am in hourly expectation of gaining definite news from Ridgevillle and New Market. I thought to-day to know definitely whether the enemy are still massed near Frederick; whether they have any force east of the Monocacy; whether they have moved on Hagerstown in large force. I now think nearly all their available forces is on this side of the Potomac.
I would urge upon Your Excellency, in the event of their moving upon Pennsylvania, to take sure means to delay their advance by destroying bridges, obstructing the roads, harassing their front, flank, and rear, destroying supplies, &c. This in necessary to enable me to gain time to take the best route to foil their purpose.
GEO. B. McCLELLAN, Major-General, Commanding.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+11%2C+1862
14. Thursday, September 11, 1862: George Eyster, of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, writes a hurried note to his brother-in-law John Riddle Warner in Gettysburg, giving voice to the atmosphere of panic in southern Pennsylvania in anticipation of the Confederate advance, as Rebel troops have entered Hagerstown this morning. close to the state line: “We think ourselves now in actual danger. Our town is to-night under strict military surveillance. Judge Kinwell being the Provost Marshall. At least 500 men are under arms and posted on the various roads. An hour ago a dispatch was received from the government saying we had reliable intelligence that it was the intention of the rebels to enter Pennsylvania. Capt Ward telegraphs just now from Greencastle that he has the roads strongly picketed, but apprehends no attack before morning. The rebels are certainly at Hagerstown in very strong force.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+11%2C+1862
15. Thursday, September 11, 1862: George Templeton Strong, ever the keen observer but also a director of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, dedicated to the health of the soldiers and care for the wounded, writes in his journal on this date concerned the Army’s shameful neglect in Virginia of the Union wounded: “Letters from Agnew full of interest. He has been all over our last battlefields under a flag of truce; thirty-six hours in the saddle. . . . Our wounded were left in the field, without shelter, food, or water, from Saturday night till Wednesday morning, because "that scoundrel, Pope" was too busy cooking up his report to think of sending out a flag of truce. Very many perished from starvation and exposure. Our Commission wagons were first on the ground and did good service, thank God; and the relations of our inspectors and agents with the medical staff seem perfectly harmonious. All, from the Surgeon-General down, recognize the value of what we are doing, or rather of what the people is doing through us as its almoner.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+11%2C+1862
16. Friday, September 11, 1863: John C. West, an infantryman in the 4th Texas in Hood’s division, writes home to his wife as his regiment passes through North Carolina on the way to Georgia to reinforce Gen. Bragg, in anticipation of Rosecrans’ offensive, and expresses himself with characteristic Texas bravado and assurance: “Letter No. XV. Wilmington, North Carolina, September11th, 1863. My Precious Wife: “I am at this place on my way to Bragg’s army. Our division has been ordered there. Of course in a hurried letter I can give you no account of the movements of our armies. Suffice it to say that we are not whipped on this side of the river yet, and I do not believe the combined Yankee army can subjugate the Texas brigade, though they may all be killed. I have met Major Hampton Gibbs here, and have spent most of the day with him visiting the blockaders, and he has extended to me every courtesy possible, and I shall recollect my detention in Wilmington with pleasure. I have had but one letter from you since I left Texas, but feel satisfied that all is well.
Brother Charles wrote to me in August and said you were all well up to the 10th of July. Douglas De Saussure was wounded in the shoulder a few days ago at Charleston, so I expect to see him in passing through Columbia, as I have permission to go by there. This will be sent by blockader Elizabeth. Hampton Gibbs sends regards to you. Your husband, faithfully ever, John C. West.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+11%2C+1863
17. Friday, September 11, 1863: Luman Harris Tenney, a 2nd Lieutenant in the 2nd Ohio Cavalry, writes in his journal as his regiment campaigns in East Tennessee, a largely Unionist region recently liberated by Gen. Burnside’s IX Corps, mentioning specifically the bounty of good things to eat in this theater: “11th. Awakened at daylight and moved at sunrise. In advance. Gen. Shackleford now commands 4th Div. and Col. Carter the Brigade. Gen. Carter Prov. Mar. Gen. of Tenn. Reached Clinch River at sundown, and camped. Receipted for oats, plenty of eggs, chickens and potatoes. Camp near a little stream on Union man’s place. Bosworth sick today and in ambulance. Chicken and potatoes for supper. Apples and peaches enough today.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+11%2C+1863
18. Friday, September 11, 1863: Col. Rutherford B. Hayes, of the 23rd Ohio Infantry Regiment, stationed in West Virginia, writes home to his wife with the usual news of camp life and of his constant wish to have her with him there in the field: “Camp White, September 11, 1863. Dearest: — Glad to get letters both from you and Mother last night. Bless the boys, how they must enjoy their first family visit to their new home! I would be as happy as any of them to be there.
We hear good news from Burnside in Tennessee. If true it makes it more desirable that you should come here soon. If he moves along the railroad into southwestern Virginia, we are likely to push forward to cooperate, in which case we shall probably get too far into Dixie for our families to winter with us. I will notify you if anything occurs to make it imprudent for you to be here a couple of weeks hence. . . . If after you reach here it turns out that we shall winter in the valley, I shall send for Mother Webb and all the boys and keep house, or you can go back after them. In that case you can rent the house, or if you prefer to winter at Fremont or in Chillicothe, in case you can’t do so here, you may rent the house at once.
My reason for wanting you to come here as soon as you are through visiting at Fremont, is, that perhaps we shall be ordered forward as soon as east Tennessee is firmly in our possession. I think, however, the chances are in favor of our wintering on the Kanawha.
Get me a lot of silk handkerchiefs and about three or four pair stockings, not very heavy, but so-so. You can get them at Fremont and do it before you forget.. . . Mrs. Barrett is the only other officer’s wife now here and she talks of going home in a fortnight. . . . Let me know by telegraph when you will be at Gallipolis and the doctor or some one will come there after you.
Since writing we have further news of gratifying successes in east Tennessee. If all continues to go well there, it increases the chances of a forward movement here, and furnishes additional reason for you to come on soon before it is too late. — Love to all.
Affectionately, R.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+11%2C+1863
19. Friday, September 11, 1863: near Davis' Cross Roads in Dade and Walker Counties, Georgia - After the Tullahoma Campaign, Rosecrans renewed his offensive, aiming to force the Rebels out of Chattanooga. The III corps, comprising Rosecrans's army, split and set out for Chattanooga by separate routes. Hearing of the Union advance, Braxton Bragg concentrated troops around Chattanooga. While Col. John T. Wilder's artillery fired on Chattanooga, Rosecrans attempted to take advantage of Bragg's situation and ordered other troops into Georgia. They raced forward, seized the important gaps, and moved out into McLemore's Cove.
Negley's XIV Army Corps division, supported by Brig. General Absalom Baird's division, was moving across the mouth of the cove on the Dug Gap road when Negley learned that Rebels were concentrating around Dug Gap. Moving through determined resistance, he closed on the gap, withdrawing to Davis' Cross Roads in the evening of September 10 to await the supporting division. Bragg had ordered Gen. Hindman with his division to assault Negley at Davis' Cross Roads in the flank, while Maj. Gen. Patrick R. Cleburne's division forced its way through Dug Gap to strike Negley in front.
Hindman was to receive reinforcements for this movement, but most of them did not arrive. The Confederate officers, therefore, met and decided that they could not attack in their present condition. The next morning, however, fresh troops did arrive, and the Confederates began to move on the Union line. The supporting Union division had, by now, joined Negley, and, hearing of a Confederate attack, the Union forces determined that a strategic withdrawal, in the face of an enemy of supposedly superior numbers, to Stevens Gap was in order. Negley first moved his division to the ridge east of West Chickamauga Creek where it established a defensive line.
The other division then moved through them to Stevens Gap and established a defensive line there. Both divisions awaited the rest of Maj. Gen. George Thomas's corps. All of this was accomplished under constant pursuit and fire from the Confederates.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1863s.html
20. Friday, September 11, 1863: In the early hours of this morning General Braxton Bragg issued orders for an attack on Union troops camped in a north Georgia region known as McLemore’s Cove. But the attack never happened. It seems that one Major Noquot, (CSA) a foreign soldier-of-fortune with a limited command of the English language, was to transport the message to attack. Noquot showed up late today after taking 12 hours to cover a distance of about five miles. He said he got lost in the dark and camped for the night. Union troops moved before an attack could be made. President Lincoln urges Andrew Johnson to establish a civil government in Tennessee. Generals Johnston and Forrest (CSA) skirmish with Union troops near Dalton, GA.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-c/week-126
21. Friday, September 11, 1863: Battle of Davis Cross Roads, Day 2: As reinforcements under Gen. John Breckenridge arrive, Hindman continues the attack on the Federals. Even though Gen. Baird has arrived to reinforce Negley, he elects to retreat back down in the valley and across to Stevens Gap. Stalemate.
Rosecrans moves McCook’s corps south to flank Bragg, while Crittenden’s corps moves south from Chattanooga. Thomas, in the center, is reluctant to move against Bragg, however, since the three Federal corps are widely scattered and unable to aid each other. Both Blue and Gray begin an uneasy dance of deception and blindman’s bluff.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+11%2C+1863
22. Friday, September 11, 1863: Chickamauga Campaign: Reconnaissance toward Rome, Georgia. Skirmishes in Georgia near Blue Bird Gap and at Davis Cross Roads/Dug Gap, Rossville, Ringgold and Lee and Gordon’s Mills.
General Forrest conducts a fighting retreat, reinforced by various units along the way. These Confederate cavalrymen are forced to dismount and fight as infantry to take advantage of cover, and they do stop Crittenden’s advance. The Federals fall back to Ringgold and then the head of the column attacks Lee and Gordon’s Mills.
During the day’s fighting, at Tunnel Hill, “Forrest sustained an unspecified wound serious enough for him to violate his teetotalism and take a drink of whisky. But he did not quit the field.”
The fighting at Davis Cross Roads has made Rosecrans aware of the Army of Tennessee but assumes incorrectly that they are behind Pigeon Mountain.
https://bjdeming.com/2013/09/09/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-9-15-1863/
23. Friday, September 11, 1863: Arkansas operations/Little Rock Campaign. “A desultory and ineffective pursuit of the fugitive Confederates on September 11 ended the Little Rock Campaign.”
https://bjdeming.com/2013/09/09/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-9-15-1863/
24. Friday, September 11, 1863: Western Gulf blockade: The captain of the blockade-running steamer Fanny, bound for Mobile, burns his ship to water level rather than let it be captured by US ships.
https://bjdeming.com/2013/09/09/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-9-15-1863/
25. Friday, September 11, 1863: US President Lincoln turns down General Ambrose Burnside’s resignation, asks Governor Andrew Johnson of Tennessee to inaugurate a state government at once, and confers with Secretary of War Stanton and General-in-Chief Halleck about the situation in Charleston.
https://bjdeming.com/2013/09/09/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-9-15-1863/
A Wednesday, September 11, 1861: Confederate General Robert E. Lee commences his attack on Union forces in western Virginia at Cheat Mountain. Rainy weather slows Confederate troop movement, preventing Lee's surprise attack, and enabling the Union to hold their position. The Union victory at Cheat Mountain secures the region of western Virginia for the Union and later statehood. The battle lasted 3 days with estimated casualties: 170 total (US 80; CS 90.)
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-a/part-twenty-two
B Thursday, September 11, 1862: Antietam/Sharpsburg campaign: Jackson crosses the Potomac and spreads his forces out to prevent any escapes from Martinsburg, but it’s unnecessary: the Federal forces there immediately evacuate the town and head for Harper’s Ferry. General Lafayette McLaws, with 10 brigades plus Anderson’s division crosses South Mountain over the Brownsville Gap.
https://bjdeming.com/2012/10/15/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-10-16-1862/
B Thursday, September 11, 1862: In Maryland, Rebel divisions under Gen. McLaws and Gen. John Walker are advancing into position on Maryland Heights and Loudon Heights respectively, both of which overlook Harper’s Ferry and dominate the town. Jackson, with more divisions, has crossed the Potomac back into Virginia, and is moving in from the north.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+11%2C+1862
C Friday, September 11, 1863: Battle of Davis Crossroads, Georgia. Braxton Bragg; Chickamauga Campaign
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186309
C Friday, September 11, 1863: Battle of Davis Crossroads, Georgia. Thomas's corps raced forward, seized the important gaps in Missionary Ridge and Pigeon Mountain, and moved out into McLemore Cove. Maj. Gen. James S. Negley's division, supported by Brig. Gen. Absalom Baird's division, was moving across the mouth of the cove on the Dug Gap road when Negley learned that Confederate units were concentrating around Dug Gap. Moving through determined resistance, he closed on the gap, withdrawing to Davis' Cross Roads in the evening of September 10 to await the supporting division.
Bragg had ordered Maj. Gen. Thomas C. Hindman with his division to assault Negley in the flank at Davis's Cross Roads, while Maj. Gen. Patrick Cleburne's division forced its way through Dug Gap to strike Negley in front. Hindman was to receive reinforcements for this movement, but most of them did not arrive. The Confederate officers, therefore, met and decided that they could not attack in their present condition. The next morning, however, fresh troops did arrive, and the Confederates began to move on the Union line. The supporting Union division had by now joined Negley, and, hearing of a Confederate attack, the Union forces determined that a strategic withdrawal to Stevens Gap was in order. Negley first moved his division to the ridge east of West Chickamauga Creek, where it established a defensive line. The other division then moved through them to Stevens Gap and established a defensive line there. Both divisions awaited the rest of Thomas's corps. All of this was accomplished under constant pursuit and fire from the Confederates.
After his abortive attempt to attack one isolated Union corps, Bragg turned his attention to the corps to his north, the XXI Corps under Maj. Gen. Thomas L. Crittenden, setting the stage for the bloody Battle of Chickamauga on September 19
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Davis%27s_Cross_Roads
Sunday, September 11, 1864: General Hood (CSA) directs his officers that a truce of ten days has been agreed upon between himself and General Sherman (US), commencing upon the 12th instant and ending on the 21st. This truce is only applicable to the thoroughfares and the country leading to and in the vicinity of Rough and Ready, Georgia, the object being to aid in the removal of citizens of Atlanta who shall desire to come South under the recent order of General Sherman.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/1864/week-179
Sunday, September 11, 1864: In the District of South Kansas, Major General George Sykes (US) reports the Union failure at Cabin Creek, where the Confederates capture over 300 wagons as well as the same in men. In the Dakota Territory, a federal expedition arrives from Fort Rice, to relieve Capt. Fisk’s (US) emigrant wagon train. Upon arriving, the Yankees find the emigrants in a fortified position, refusing to go any further into the Bad Lands without proper protection. On the way back to Fort Rice, the Federals have some 30 horses stolen by Indians.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/1864/week-179
Sunday, September 11, 1864: Georgia operations. The ordered evacuation of Atlanta begins.
https://bjdeming.com/2014/09/08/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-8-14-1864/
Sunday, September 11, 1864: “The USS Stockdale, Acting Lt. Wiggen commanding, set forth up the Fish River to Mobile Bay today, leading the tinclad USS Randolph and the Army troop transport ship Planter, which was towing a barge. Their destination: a sawmill up on the bay. The expedition arrived without incident, landed troops, and proceeded to confiscate Confederate equipment including 60,000 board feet of sawn lumber, the engine used to saw the logs, and some livestock. The problem came when the now heavily-loaded ships tried to get back down the river. Confederate troops lined the river as it began to grow dark. Shots were fired and trees were even felled into the water in an attempt to snag and stop the vessels. The military ships returned fire with the ship’s guns, the troops fired muskets, and the reinforced Randolph smashed its way through the log blockades. All the boats returned safely.”
https://bjdeming.com/2014/09/08/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-8-14-1864/
FYI GySgt Jack Wallace CWO4 Terrence Clark SMSgt Lawrence McCarter LTC Trent Klug SFC Bernard WalkoSSG Franklin Briant SSG Byron Howard Sr CPL Ronald Keyes Jr SFC William Farrell CMDCM John F. "Doc" Bradshaw SPC Lyle MontgomeryPO2 Marco MonsalveSPC Woody Bullard SSG Michael Noll SSG Bill McCoy SFC David Reid, M.S, PHR, SHRM-CP, DTMSgt Christopher Collins SPC (Join to see) SPC Gary C. PO3 Lynn Spalding
Part Twenty Two - Hardeman County Tennessee Civil War History
150th Anniversary of the Great American Civil War -Explore the coming of war, with secession and sending our young men into battle. Living in Hardeman County Tennessee during this unsettled times, surely was hardship enough, but to have war hanging over them would be harder than we can imagine today.
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LTC Trent Klug
Bragg seemed to be his own worst enemy and I be hard-pressed to name a victory he led personally.
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LTC Stephen F.
I concur with your assessment as far as his Civil War service record my friend and brother-in-Christ LTC Trent Klug However he received "well-deserved laurels as an artillery battery commander at the crucial 1847 Battle of Buena Vista." at the age of 29.
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LTC Stephen F.
You are very welcome my deceased friend and brother-in-Christ SP5 Mark Kuzinski I am thankful that you are joyfully abiding with the LORD in spirit. I lift up your widow Diana, your children and grandchildren as the LORD prompts e to pray for them.
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