Posted on Nov 16, 2016
What was the most significant event on September 15 during the U.S. Civil War?
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Throughout the Civil War near real time intelligence was worth its weight in platinum. The Pinkerton detective agency served the union and the telegraphs helped transmit information – sometimes coded because of “wire tapping.” In 1864 Phil Sheridan was finding constructive ways to determine where the Confederates were in the Shenandoah valley and north of Winchester, Virginia.
In 1862, after the ceasefire at Harpers Ferry, Col. Dixon Miles was hit which tore his left calf to the bone, proved to be unbearably painful as well as fatal. He died the following day. It was unknown whether he was shot by confederates violating the ceasefire or his own men exasperated because they had to surrender.
Sunday, September 15, 1861: Fremont Arrests Frank Blair; In the five months that had passed since Montgomery Meigs co-authored the plans to reinforce Fort Pickens, he had risen in rank from Captain to Brigadier-General. Earning the trust of President Lincoln, he, along with Postmaster General Montgomery Blair, were sent to St. Louis to investigate General Fremont. Secretary Blair’s brother, Col. Frank Blair, had written, detailing why Fremont had to be dismissed.
When Frances Blair, Sr. let slip to Mrs. Fremont that Frank had written Montgomery about General Fremont, word got back to the General who did not take it well.
The two Montgomeries spent a few days in St. Louis and came to the same conclusion: Fremont had to go. General Meigs wrote that “great distress and alarm prevail” throughout Missouri, while in St. Louis, Fremont “does not encourage the men to form regiments for defense.” Montgomery Blair concurred, stating that Fremont seemed “stupefied and almost unconscious and is doing absolutely nothing.”
Fremont waited until the day after the two Montgomeries left to retaliate against his old friend, Col. Frank Blair. On this date, General Fremont placed Blair under arrest for “insubordination in communicating … with the authorities at Washington; making complaints against and using disrespectful language towards Gen. Fremont, with a view of effecting his removal.”
In Washington, Lincoln and his Cabinet were again debating over what to do about removing Fremont. It was concluded that they wait and see what Meigs and Blair have to say about the matter when they return.
http://civilwardailygazette.com/fremont-arrests-frank-blair-more-friendly-fire-in-western-virginia/
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Sunday, September 15, 1861: CSA Brig Gen John B. Floyd again asked Secretary of War LeRoy Walker for CSA Brig Gen Henry Alexander Wise to be removed. The previous night, General Floyd, commanding the Confederate Army of the Kanawha, ordered General Wise to dispatch some of his cavalry to scout out the Turnpike west of their position on Big Sewell Mountain, twenty miles west of Lewisburg. After the retreat from Carnifex Ferry, the Confederate Army had withdrawn from its advanced positions along the Gauley River.
Floyd and Wise were rivals and completely unable to get along. While Wise had sent out his cavalry, Floyd had heard that they had returned, but was not informed about what they had found. The previous day, Floyd told Wise that he could not send his own cavalry as they were too worn out.
Wise replied that his returned troopers were only in camp to feed their horses. He reminded Floyd that there was no forage for cavalry mounts this side of Hawks Nest (his position before being compelled by Floyd to retire to Big Sewell). He also noted that his two companies of cavalry were just as worn out as Floyd’s cavalry.
He agreed to detail twenty-five cavalry scouts, imploring Floyd to do the same. Together, and with a few companies of infantry, they could line both sides of the Turnpike and ambush the Union troops as they advanced.
General Floyd was having a fairly rough week. The battle at Carnifex Ferry, his first action, had rattled him and gave General Wise a chance to get even more under his skin. It was in this mood that he wrote President Davis.
According to Floyd, the “petty jealousy of General Wise; his utter ignorance of all military rule and discipline; the peculiar contrariness of his character and disposition, are beginning to produce rapidly a disorganization which will prove fatal to the interests of the army if not arrested at once.”
An arrest was exactly what Floyd wished would solve the problem, but admitted that it “would not have cured the evil, for he has around him a set of men extremely like himself, and the demoralization of his corps I incline to think is complete.”
Floyd had said much the same a few week prior, when he wrote Secretary of War LeRoy Walker, hoping to have Wise’s Legion moved to another Department.
In conclusion, Floyd told Davis that it was “impossible for me to conduct a campaign with General Wise attached to my command. His presence with my force is almost as injurious as if he were in the camp of the enemy with his whole command.”
Sometime after writing to Davis, Floyd decided to give Wise another chance to work in concert with him. What choice was there? Both had appealed to General Lee, 100 miles to the north, but neither could get along with the other. Since President Davis couldn’t fix things immediately, Floyd would have to make the best of it.
http://civilwardailygazette.com/fremont-arrests-frank-blair-more-friendly-fire-in-western-virginia/
Tuesday, September 15, 1863: Lincoln: Move upon Lee in a manner of general attack. Since the Federal Cavalry from the Army of the Potomac took Culpeper Court House on the 13th, General George Meade had been in a quandary. Would Lee’s Confederates counterattack, crossing the Rapidan and storming their way to the Rappahannock and beyond? His own army lay concentrated against the latter and could, in his own estimation, hold the crossings, but Lee was wily, and it was difficult to say just what he would do.
Meade knew that some of Lee’s men had been sent west to reinforce Braxton Bragg near Chattanooga. By most accounts, James Longstreet’s entire corps had left, but some held that Lee himself had gone. He gave little credence to that bit of information, delivered by the reliably unreliable cavalry commander, Alfred Pleasonton. The misinformation might have been purposely planted by the Rebels, as it was gleaned from two lettered intercepted by the Federals under Pleasonton’s command.
More than likely, even Pleasonton didn’t fall for it. Longstreet had gone, taking one-third of Lee’s Confederates with him. By the 14th, it was almost common knowledge. Rebel prisoners, captured here and there over the past few days, had told all. A.P. Hill’s Corps and that of Richard Ewell’s were all that was left in the Army of Northern Virginia, tucked quietly behind the southern banks of the Rapidan. Pleasonton found out for himself as he tried to cross the same river in three different places. Each attempt was met with overwhelming strength, and the Federal troopers were forced back in all instances.
At any rate, through various bits of intelligence, General Meade was able to piece together his thoughts on the Rebels’ disposition, in a letter to General-in-Chief Henry Halleck.
“My judgment,” he began, “is that Lee’s army had been reduced by Longstreet’s corps, and perhaps by some regiments from Ewell and Hill. What the amount of the force left with him, it is difficult to conjectures, but I have no doubt it is deemed sufficient by him, with the advantages of position, to check my crossing the Rapidan, at least until he can withdraw, in case he desire to do so.”
Meade was probably correct in most of what he wrote. Though Longstreet brought with him only two of his own divisions (leaving George Pickett’s still-suffering division behind), Lee retained about 45,000 troops. Meade had around 75,000, though many had been detached for duty elsewhere. For the time being, Meade thought it sufficient to keep his cavalry close to the Rapidan, and Gouverneur K. Warren’s V Corps at Culpeper.
“If Lee’s army is as much reduced as the intelligence now received would lead us to believe,” continued Meade, “when the detached troops from his army return [meaning Meade’s army], I ought to be his superior in number, and should be able to require him to fall back.”
Little did Meade understand that he already greatly outnumbered Lee. Perhaps it wasn’t enough to launch a full scale assault upon him from across two rivers, but there was a definite numerical advantage. In closing, Meade revealed that he was not yet ready to make any sort of move: “At the same time, I see no object in advancing, unless it is with ulterior views, and I do not consider this army sufficiently large to follow him [Lee] to Richmond (in case that should prove practicable), and lay siege to that place, fortified as we know it to be.” History would tell us that Meade was openly admitting that he was not Ulysses S. Grant.
On this date, Meade received his reply from Washington. The first came from Halleck, who basically agreed with Meade. Though he thought that “preparations should be made to at least threaten Lee, and, if possible cut off a slice of his army,” he seemed fairly at ease. He did not believe that anyone knew enough about the Rebels’ position or numbers “to authorize any very considerable advance.”
Through the day, Meade learned that Lee had advanced some infantry across the Rapidan, though he couldn’t say how many. He explained this to Halleck, but in reply, he received a message from President Lincoln.
“My opinion,” began the President, writing to Halleck about Meade, “is that he should move upon Lee at once in manner of general attack, leave to developments whether he will make it a real attack. I think this would develop Lee’s real condition and purposes better than the cavalry alone can do.”
Halleck, to save some sort of face, added in an attached letter that he did not see Lincoln’s message “as materially different from my dispatch.” Of course, it was practically the opposite of what both Meade and Halleck wished to do. That said, he reminded Meade that he could be given no reinforcements. “No rash movements can, therefore, be ventured,” he wrote, apparently indicating that an advance, as Lincoln put it, “in manner of general attack,” was fairly out of the question.
Then Halleck went on about how Lee’s force, reduced as it was, could be further weakened by Meade’s cavalry and foraging expeditions. It was all rather vague.
At midnight, Meade replied, splitting the difference between Halleck’s views and those of the President. “I have ordered the army to cross the Rappahannock,” he wrote, “and shall take up a position tomorrow with my left at Stevensburg and right at Stone House Mountain. I will then picket the Rapidan with infantry, and thus relieve the cavalry, and will endeavor, by means of the latter, to obtain more information.
Oddly, in that same letter, Meade guessed Lee’s numbers almost exactly: “not less than 40,000 or 45,000 infantry and over 5,000 cavalry.” But he also reiterated his own thoughts on the matter of battle: “I hardly think he will cross the Rapidan to meet me at Culpeper, unless he is ignorant of my actual force. If he does not, it will be a difficult problem to attack him, or compel him to fall back, as he has such advantages in the line of the Rapidan, enabling him, by means of artillery and rifle pits, to hold it with much less force than is required to force the passage. I will not make the attempt unless I can see my way clear, and I do not much expect any greater success than requiring him to fall still farther back.”
Meade would begin crossing the next day, and for a week or more Meade’s infantry and cavalry would brush up against their counterparts along the Rapidan, each testing the resolve and strength of the other.
http://civilwardailygazette.com/lincoln-move-upon-lee-in-a-manner-of-general-attack/
Pictures: 1862-09 Maryland campaign Map; laying telegraph line; Scouts and guides for the Army of the Potomac; 1862-09-15 Col. Dixon Miles
A. 1861: Federal Victory at Battle of Cheat Mountain, western Virginia. Brig. Gen. Joseph J. Reynolds defeated CSA Gen Robert E. Lee. The Union defenders on Cheat Summit were very familiar with the terrain and mountain trails. CSA Colonel Albert Rust and Brig. Gen. Samuel Anderson, each leading approximately 1500 Confederates at Cheat Mountain, were convinced that an overwhelming force confronted them. Rust and Anderson withdrew their 3,000 men although they faced only about 300 determined Federals outside the Union fortifications. At Elk Water, Brig. Gen. Joseph J. Reynolds's brigade faced three more Confederate brigades but refused to budge from well-prepared entrenchments.
The Confederates did not press an attack after Col. John A. Washington, of Lee's staff, was killed during a reconnaissance of the Union right. Reynolds was so confident in the face of such timidity that he dispatched two of his own regiments from Elk Water up the mountain road to relieve the supposedly besieged fortress garrison, but the arriving Union reinforcements were unnecessary.
B. 1862: Confederate Victory.at Harper’s Ferry. CSA Gen Robert E. Lee worried that his plans were known, changed his course, just hoping his men in the field would get word in time. Harper’s Ferry fell quickly to Stonewall Jackson. Col Dixon Miles died just as he surrenders his force of 12,419 men. Jackson left behind an occupying force, and then marched at speed to rejoin Lee to once again consolidate the Army of Virginia (CSA) at the tiny Maryland village of Sharpsburg, on Antietam Creek. Lee had intended to gather his scattered troops and return to Virginia.
After an artillery battle, Col. Dixon Miles decides to surrender Harper’s Ferry. After the white flag is raised, Union gunners keep firing for some time, and the fire is returned by the Rebels. When the fire finally slackens, Col. Miles is wounded severely in the leg, and will die from his wound the next day. Harper’s Ferry belongs now to the Confederates again. They capture 11,000 Union troops, 13,000 stand of small arms, 73 cannons, and a vast haul of supplies, wagons, rations, and munitions. Jackson leaves A.P. Hill to clean up, and puts the rest of his troops on the road.
C. 1863: President Abraham Lincoln suspended the Writ of Habeas Corpus, especially for cases of prisoners of war, draftees, and desertion from the army. According to the United States Constitution, the “writ of habeas corpus” is the right of an arrested person to know what charges are being brought, and of the obligation of the state to produce evidence that the person charged was the one who committed the offense. It was one of the shining lights of our constitution’s freedoms, was swept again under the rug. Due to the existence of a “state of rebellion”, wrote Abraham Lincoln, the right would be suspended in cases of people arrested by military authorities whenever they deemed fit.
D. 1864: Spies for the Union. Sheridan was understandably frustrated as to Jubal Early’s location or intentions he turned to General George Crook, who had spent quite a bit of time in and around Winchester. Might there “be found in Winchester some reliable person who would be willing to co-operate and correspond with me?” General Crook knew of such a person, and suggested Rebecca Wright, “a young lady whom he had met there before the battle of Kernstown, who, he said, was a member of the Society of Friends and the teacher of a small private school. He knew she was faithful and loyal to the Government, and thought she might be willing to render us assistance, but he could not be certain of this, for on account of her well-known loyalty she was under constant surveillance.”
I learn from Major Gen. Crook that you are a loyal lady and still love the old flag. Can you inform me of the position of Early and his forces, the number of division in his army, and his probable or reported intentions? Have any more troops arrived from Richmond, or are any more coming or reported to be coming?
Tom Laws would slip through Confederate lines and into Winchester. The next day, around noon, he appeared at the school where Miss Wright taught. As it turned out, two nights previous, the teacher had entertained a Confederate officer. Everything was about to fall into place.
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, after the ceasefire at Harpers Ferry, Col. Dixon Miles was hit which tore his left calf to the bone, proved to be unbearably painful as well as fatal. He died the following day. It was unknown whether he was shot by confederates violating the ceasefire or his own men exasperated because they had to surrender.
Sunday, September 15, 1861: Fremont Arrests Frank Blair; In the five months that had passed since Montgomery Meigs co-authored the plans to reinforce Fort Pickens, he had risen in rank from Captain to Brigadier-General. Earning the trust of President Lincoln, he, along with Postmaster General Montgomery Blair, were sent to St. Louis to investigate General Fremont. Secretary Blair’s brother, Col. Frank Blair, had written, detailing why Fremont had to be dismissed.
When Frances Blair, Sr. let slip to Mrs. Fremont that Frank had written Montgomery about General Fremont, word got back to the General who did not take it well.
The two Montgomeries spent a few days in St. Louis and came to the same conclusion: Fremont had to go. General Meigs wrote that “great distress and alarm prevail” throughout Missouri, while in St. Louis, Fremont “does not encourage the men to form regiments for defense.” Montgomery Blair concurred, stating that Fremont seemed “stupefied and almost unconscious and is doing absolutely nothing.”
Fremont waited until the day after the two Montgomeries left to retaliate against his old friend, Col. Frank Blair. On this date, General Fremont placed Blair under arrest for “insubordination in communicating … with the authorities at Washington; making complaints against and using disrespectful language towards Gen. Fremont, with a view of effecting his removal.”
In Washington, Lincoln and his Cabinet were again debating over what to do about removing Fremont. It was concluded that they wait and see what Meigs and Blair have to say about the matter when they return.
http://civilwardailygazette.com/fremont-arrests-frank-blair-more-friendly-fire-in-western-virginia/
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Sunday, September 15, 1861: CSA Brig Gen John B. Floyd again asked Secretary of War LeRoy Walker for CSA Brig Gen Henry Alexander Wise to be removed. The previous night, General Floyd, commanding the Confederate Army of the Kanawha, ordered General Wise to dispatch some of his cavalry to scout out the Turnpike west of their position on Big Sewell Mountain, twenty miles west of Lewisburg. After the retreat from Carnifex Ferry, the Confederate Army had withdrawn from its advanced positions along the Gauley River.
Floyd and Wise were rivals and completely unable to get along. While Wise had sent out his cavalry, Floyd had heard that they had returned, but was not informed about what they had found. The previous day, Floyd told Wise that he could not send his own cavalry as they were too worn out.
Wise replied that his returned troopers were only in camp to feed their horses. He reminded Floyd that there was no forage for cavalry mounts this side of Hawks Nest (his position before being compelled by Floyd to retire to Big Sewell). He also noted that his two companies of cavalry were just as worn out as Floyd’s cavalry.
He agreed to detail twenty-five cavalry scouts, imploring Floyd to do the same. Together, and with a few companies of infantry, they could line both sides of the Turnpike and ambush the Union troops as they advanced.
General Floyd was having a fairly rough week. The battle at Carnifex Ferry, his first action, had rattled him and gave General Wise a chance to get even more under his skin. It was in this mood that he wrote President Davis.
According to Floyd, the “petty jealousy of General Wise; his utter ignorance of all military rule and discipline; the peculiar contrariness of his character and disposition, are beginning to produce rapidly a disorganization which will prove fatal to the interests of the army if not arrested at once.”
An arrest was exactly what Floyd wished would solve the problem, but admitted that it “would not have cured the evil, for he has around him a set of men extremely like himself, and the demoralization of his corps I incline to think is complete.”
Floyd had said much the same a few week prior, when he wrote Secretary of War LeRoy Walker, hoping to have Wise’s Legion moved to another Department.
In conclusion, Floyd told Davis that it was “impossible for me to conduct a campaign with General Wise attached to my command. His presence with my force is almost as injurious as if he were in the camp of the enemy with his whole command.”
Sometime after writing to Davis, Floyd decided to give Wise another chance to work in concert with him. What choice was there? Both had appealed to General Lee, 100 miles to the north, but neither could get along with the other. Since President Davis couldn’t fix things immediately, Floyd would have to make the best of it.
http://civilwardailygazette.com/fremont-arrests-frank-blair-more-friendly-fire-in-western-virginia/
Tuesday, September 15, 1863: Lincoln: Move upon Lee in a manner of general attack. Since the Federal Cavalry from the Army of the Potomac took Culpeper Court House on the 13th, General George Meade had been in a quandary. Would Lee’s Confederates counterattack, crossing the Rapidan and storming their way to the Rappahannock and beyond? His own army lay concentrated against the latter and could, in his own estimation, hold the crossings, but Lee was wily, and it was difficult to say just what he would do.
Meade knew that some of Lee’s men had been sent west to reinforce Braxton Bragg near Chattanooga. By most accounts, James Longstreet’s entire corps had left, but some held that Lee himself had gone. He gave little credence to that bit of information, delivered by the reliably unreliable cavalry commander, Alfred Pleasonton. The misinformation might have been purposely planted by the Rebels, as it was gleaned from two lettered intercepted by the Federals under Pleasonton’s command.
More than likely, even Pleasonton didn’t fall for it. Longstreet had gone, taking one-third of Lee’s Confederates with him. By the 14th, it was almost common knowledge. Rebel prisoners, captured here and there over the past few days, had told all. A.P. Hill’s Corps and that of Richard Ewell’s were all that was left in the Army of Northern Virginia, tucked quietly behind the southern banks of the Rapidan. Pleasonton found out for himself as he tried to cross the same river in three different places. Each attempt was met with overwhelming strength, and the Federal troopers were forced back in all instances.
At any rate, through various bits of intelligence, General Meade was able to piece together his thoughts on the Rebels’ disposition, in a letter to General-in-Chief Henry Halleck.
“My judgment,” he began, “is that Lee’s army had been reduced by Longstreet’s corps, and perhaps by some regiments from Ewell and Hill. What the amount of the force left with him, it is difficult to conjectures, but I have no doubt it is deemed sufficient by him, with the advantages of position, to check my crossing the Rapidan, at least until he can withdraw, in case he desire to do so.”
Meade was probably correct in most of what he wrote. Though Longstreet brought with him only two of his own divisions (leaving George Pickett’s still-suffering division behind), Lee retained about 45,000 troops. Meade had around 75,000, though many had been detached for duty elsewhere. For the time being, Meade thought it sufficient to keep his cavalry close to the Rapidan, and Gouverneur K. Warren’s V Corps at Culpeper.
“If Lee’s army is as much reduced as the intelligence now received would lead us to believe,” continued Meade, “when the detached troops from his army return [meaning Meade’s army], I ought to be his superior in number, and should be able to require him to fall back.”
Little did Meade understand that he already greatly outnumbered Lee. Perhaps it wasn’t enough to launch a full scale assault upon him from across two rivers, but there was a definite numerical advantage. In closing, Meade revealed that he was not yet ready to make any sort of move: “At the same time, I see no object in advancing, unless it is with ulterior views, and I do not consider this army sufficiently large to follow him [Lee] to Richmond (in case that should prove practicable), and lay siege to that place, fortified as we know it to be.” History would tell us that Meade was openly admitting that he was not Ulysses S. Grant.
On this date, Meade received his reply from Washington. The first came from Halleck, who basically agreed with Meade. Though he thought that “preparations should be made to at least threaten Lee, and, if possible cut off a slice of his army,” he seemed fairly at ease. He did not believe that anyone knew enough about the Rebels’ position or numbers “to authorize any very considerable advance.”
Through the day, Meade learned that Lee had advanced some infantry across the Rapidan, though he couldn’t say how many. He explained this to Halleck, but in reply, he received a message from President Lincoln.
“My opinion,” began the President, writing to Halleck about Meade, “is that he should move upon Lee at once in manner of general attack, leave to developments whether he will make it a real attack. I think this would develop Lee’s real condition and purposes better than the cavalry alone can do.”
Halleck, to save some sort of face, added in an attached letter that he did not see Lincoln’s message “as materially different from my dispatch.” Of course, it was practically the opposite of what both Meade and Halleck wished to do. That said, he reminded Meade that he could be given no reinforcements. “No rash movements can, therefore, be ventured,” he wrote, apparently indicating that an advance, as Lincoln put it, “in manner of general attack,” was fairly out of the question.
Then Halleck went on about how Lee’s force, reduced as it was, could be further weakened by Meade’s cavalry and foraging expeditions. It was all rather vague.
At midnight, Meade replied, splitting the difference between Halleck’s views and those of the President. “I have ordered the army to cross the Rappahannock,” he wrote, “and shall take up a position tomorrow with my left at Stevensburg and right at Stone House Mountain. I will then picket the Rapidan with infantry, and thus relieve the cavalry, and will endeavor, by means of the latter, to obtain more information.
Oddly, in that same letter, Meade guessed Lee’s numbers almost exactly: “not less than 40,000 or 45,000 infantry and over 5,000 cavalry.” But he also reiterated his own thoughts on the matter of battle: “I hardly think he will cross the Rapidan to meet me at Culpeper, unless he is ignorant of my actual force. If he does not, it will be a difficult problem to attack him, or compel him to fall back, as he has such advantages in the line of the Rapidan, enabling him, by means of artillery and rifle pits, to hold it with much less force than is required to force the passage. I will not make the attempt unless I can see my way clear, and I do not much expect any greater success than requiring him to fall still farther back.”
Meade would begin crossing the next day, and for a week or more Meade’s infantry and cavalry would brush up against their counterparts along the Rapidan, each testing the resolve and strength of the other.
http://civilwardailygazette.com/lincoln-move-upon-lee-in-a-manner-of-general-attack/
Pictures: 1862-09 Maryland campaign Map; laying telegraph line; Scouts and guides for the Army of the Potomac; 1862-09-15 Col. Dixon Miles
A. 1861: Federal Victory at Battle of Cheat Mountain, western Virginia. Brig. Gen. Joseph J. Reynolds defeated CSA Gen Robert E. Lee. The Union defenders on Cheat Summit were very familiar with the terrain and mountain trails. CSA Colonel Albert Rust and Brig. Gen. Samuel Anderson, each leading approximately 1500 Confederates at Cheat Mountain, were convinced that an overwhelming force confronted them. Rust and Anderson withdrew their 3,000 men although they faced only about 300 determined Federals outside the Union fortifications. At Elk Water, Brig. Gen. Joseph J. Reynolds's brigade faced three more Confederate brigades but refused to budge from well-prepared entrenchments.
The Confederates did not press an attack after Col. John A. Washington, of Lee's staff, was killed during a reconnaissance of the Union right. Reynolds was so confident in the face of such timidity that he dispatched two of his own regiments from Elk Water up the mountain road to relieve the supposedly besieged fortress garrison, but the arriving Union reinforcements were unnecessary.
B. 1862: Confederate Victory.at Harper’s Ferry. CSA Gen Robert E. Lee worried that his plans were known, changed his course, just hoping his men in the field would get word in time. Harper’s Ferry fell quickly to Stonewall Jackson. Col Dixon Miles died just as he surrenders his force of 12,419 men. Jackson left behind an occupying force, and then marched at speed to rejoin Lee to once again consolidate the Army of Virginia (CSA) at the tiny Maryland village of Sharpsburg, on Antietam Creek. Lee had intended to gather his scattered troops and return to Virginia.
After an artillery battle, Col. Dixon Miles decides to surrender Harper’s Ferry. After the white flag is raised, Union gunners keep firing for some time, and the fire is returned by the Rebels. When the fire finally slackens, Col. Miles is wounded severely in the leg, and will die from his wound the next day. Harper’s Ferry belongs now to the Confederates again. They capture 11,000 Union troops, 13,000 stand of small arms, 73 cannons, and a vast haul of supplies, wagons, rations, and munitions. Jackson leaves A.P. Hill to clean up, and puts the rest of his troops on the road.
C. 1863: President Abraham Lincoln suspended the Writ of Habeas Corpus, especially for cases of prisoners of war, draftees, and desertion from the army. According to the United States Constitution, the “writ of habeas corpus” is the right of an arrested person to know what charges are being brought, and of the obligation of the state to produce evidence that the person charged was the one who committed the offense. It was one of the shining lights of our constitution’s freedoms, was swept again under the rug. Due to the existence of a “state of rebellion”, wrote Abraham Lincoln, the right would be suspended in cases of people arrested by military authorities whenever they deemed fit.
D. 1864: Spies for the Union. Sheridan was understandably frustrated as to Jubal Early’s location or intentions he turned to General George Crook, who had spent quite a bit of time in and around Winchester. Might there “be found in Winchester some reliable person who would be willing to co-operate and correspond with me?” General Crook knew of such a person, and suggested Rebecca Wright, “a young lady whom he had met there before the battle of Kernstown, who, he said, was a member of the Society of Friends and the teacher of a small private school. He knew she was faithful and loyal to the Government, and thought she might be willing to render us assistance, but he could not be certain of this, for on account of her well-known loyalty she was under constant surveillance.”
I learn from Major Gen. Crook that you are a loyal lady and still love the old flag. Can you inform me of the position of Early and his forces, the number of division in his army, and his probable or reported intentions? Have any more troops arrived from Richmond, or are any more coming or reported to be coming?
Tom Laws would slip through Confederate lines and into Winchester. The next day, around noon, he appeared at the school where Miss Wright taught. As it turned out, two nights previous, the teacher had entertained a Confederate officer. Everything was about to fall into place.
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 1861, familiarity with the terrain and mountain trails at Cheat Mountain enabled a much smaller Federal foce under Brig. Gen. Joseph J. Reynolds to defeat a much larger force under CSA Robert E. Lee.
In 1861, Maj Gen Charles Fremont, “commander of Union forces in St. Louis, Mo. was under pressure on two fronts. He was supposed to be organizing a march of 38,000 troops to Lexington, Mo., where a Federal force was holding out against a siege of CSA Maj Gen Sterling Price. Fremont was also under pressure from President Lincoln, who was furious about Fremont’s orders freeing all the slaves in Missouri, and Lincoln’s friend, the politician-colonel Frank Blair Jr. who was furious about a recent audit of Fremont’s books. Fremont is having a hard time explaining to Blair and others the $12 million he spent in barely a month. Some of this was for gunboats and uniforms, but an amazing amount was spent on “fortifications”, food and parties. Fremont’s response: he put Blair under arrest, and cancelled the march to Lexington.”
Monday, September 15, 1862: Harpers Ferry surrenders; McClellan has Lee, but waits for “tomorrow”
In western Maryland, through the valley of Antietam Creek, the streets of Harpers Ferry, South Mountain, and the broad and dividing Potomac River, all was drenched in the dark hell of war. Bodies of friends, loved ones, comrades and enemies were strewn across mountain passes, as General McClellan’s Army of the Potomac, stirring into action, as the battered Army of Northern Virginia, clung for time and maybe life to the rocks of Turner’s Gap.
Time and maybe life was bought with blood and steel and lead – such an appalling cost for a Southern Army already weakened and small. Their commander, General Robert E. Lee had decided to retreat back across that wide river to his beloved Virginia. McClellan’s strange forward movement came quickly. He was not ready. They were not ready. What other choice was there but to gather his army?
The small crossroads of Sharpsburg was as good of a place as any to gather his scattered forces. The troops that had defended South Mountain the previous day were finding each other in Pleasant Valley, just west of the passes. Men under James Longstreet and D.H. Hill, together maybe 13,000-strong were making good time away from Boonsboro. Meanwhile, 23,000 under Stonewall Jackson, Lafayette McLaws and John Walker surrounded the Union garrison at Harpers Ferry.
For this retreat, Harpers Ferry, on the brink of surrender, would have to be forgotten. Lee directed McLaws to abandon his position upon Maryland Heights and find his own way to Virginia. Jackson and Walker were already on Southern side of the Potomac. When the rest of the army was brought together, Lee would walk it home. This was the only choice left to him.
But then it all changed.
While the battles soaked the Maryland soil with blood the previous day, Stonewall Jackson wanted to put an end to his stay at Harpers Ferry.
“So soon as you get your batteries all planted, let me know,” he wrote to General McLaws across the Potomac, “as I desire, after yourself, Walker, and myself have our batteries ready to open, to send in a flag of truce, for the purpose of getting out the non-combatants, should the commanding officer refuse to surrender. Should we have to attack, let the work be done thoroughly; fire on the houses when necessary. The citizens can keep out of harm’s way from your artillery. Demolish the place if it is occupied by the enemy, and does not surrender.”
The roar and percussion of artillery broke the dawn of this day at Harpers Ferry. The Rebel guns surrounding the town let loose their merciless fury. The Federals, under Col. Dixon Miles, replied, but to no effect. By 8am, a flag of truce was raised and most of the Rebel guns ceased. Most of those that did not quiet their pieces could not see the white flag in the drifting smoke and mists of morning. Some, however, saw it and unleashed whatever was left in their guns.
It was after the ceasefire that Col. Miles was hit. Some placed his wounding at the hands of these careless Rebel gunners, while others blamed his own men, who were disgusted over having to surrender with McClellan’s force so close at hand. Either way, Dixon Miles’ wound, which tore his left calf to the bone, proved to be unbearably painful as well as fatal. He would die the following day.
The garrison was surrendered to A.P. Hill, commanding a division under Jackson. In all, the Confederates captured 13,000 stand of arms, 73 pieces of artillery, wagons, stores, ordinance and 11,000 Union troops. As General Hill and his men counted their blessings, Jackson wrote to Lee.
“Through God’s blessing, Harper’s Ferry and its garrison are to be surrendered. As Hill’s troops have borne the heaviest part in the engagement, he will be left in command until the prisoners and public property shall be disposed of, unless you direct otherwise. The other forces cam move off this evening so soon as they get their rations. To what place shall they move?”
When Lee received the message, he ordered it be read to the army. Everything had changed. The campaign was not yet over. His army not yet beaten. Soon, they would be united and together, they could make their stand.
General George McClellan rightfully believed the Rebels to be in retreat. He ordered the veterans of the South Mountain battles to storm into Pleasant Valley, capturing and fighting whomever they found. If the Rebels concentrated at Boonsboro, it was Boonsboro that was to be assailed. If they moved towards Sharpsburg, then the Federals were to cut off the enemy retreat.
Under General Franklin, the Union troops poured through Crampton’s Gap, but came face-to-face with 5,000 Rebels under General McLaws. Before he could get his men into position, a roaring cheer could be heard coming from the direction of Harpers Ferry. Joining in the huzzah, McLaws’ men threw up their hats and yelled themselves hoarse.
“What the hell are you fellows cheering for?” bellowed a Federal soldier who had climbed upon a rock to get their attention.
“Because Harper’s Ferry is gone up, God damn you!” came the reply.
With this revelation, Franklin froze.
To the north, other Federal troops streamed through Turner’s and Fox’s Gaps. McClellan, remaining back at his camp, received good news upon good news throughout the day. Much of it was baseless conjecture, of course. “General Lee is wounded” came one. “The entire Rebel army is demoralized” stated another. He believed that the Confederates lost 15,000 the day before.
Soon, however, it was clear. The tails and stories, seemingly too good to be true, turned out to be just that. After receiving Stonewall’s dispatch, Lee dug in behind Antietam Creek, eight miles away from South Mountain. Such a short distance should have been covered in half a day, but, as usual, McClellan’s momentum ground to a halt.
A small rear guard action erupted south of Keedysville, but aside from that, hardly a shot was fired. McClellan’s army had more than 80,000 men. Across the small creek was hardly more than 15,000 Confederates. He knew, thanks to Lee’s lost Special Orders No. 191, that Jackson and McLaws were at Harpers Ferry. His plan to divide the Rebel army and destroy them in detail could have been realized in the afternoon of this day.
But it was not. McClellan vowed that “tomorrow” would be the time to attack. But by then, Jackson’s all-night march would bring his men to Sharpsburg, making their homes in Lee’s lines, and McClellan would have to think of yet another reason he could not attack until “tomorrow.”
http://civilwardailygazette.com/harpers-ferry-surrenders-mcclellan-has-lee-but-waits-for-tomorrow/
Thursday, September 15, 1864 “…And Still Love The Old Flag” – Sheridan Calls Upon Black People And Women For Information. “I have nothing new to report for yesterday or today,” wrote Phil Sheridan to General Grant. “There is as yet no indication of Early’s detaching.” Jubal Early’s Army of the Valley had been, in Sheridan’s mind, too strong to attack, but rumors held that an entire division would soon be leaving the Shenandoah Valley to return to General Lee’s main body in Petersburg. A Union soldier who had escaped capture in Winchester told of Confederate pontoon boats that had passed through the town, but Sheridan questioned his reliability.
And yet, he tried to uncover Early’s movements. “Have you any information from your scouts from Culpeper or other points south?” he asked his cavalry commanders. “[General Richard] Anderson, who is temporarily in command of Longstreet’s corps, is still here. It seems strange that he should remain, with only one division of the corps here.”
That was indeed strange. Anderson had left one division with Lee and another along the route to the Shenandoah Valley. With him was Kershaw’s Division, but neither he nor the division were in Winchester as Sheridan supposed. At sunrise of this date, the men of the division marched south along the Valley Pike. By dusk, they were just north of Front Royal, fifteen miles away from Winchester. They would, over the next few days, continue south through the Luray Valley toward Thornton’s Gap.
But this was hidden well from Sheridan, who continued to be perplexed by the Confederate army before him. To gain for himself some knowledge of the enemy’s position, he vigorously organized a legion of scouts. This, he hoped, “would give better results than had the method hitherto pursued in the department, which was to employ on this service doubtful citizens and Confederate deserters.”
And so Sheridan called for volunteers. It was hazardous duty, but the rewards, if successful, would be great. “These men were disguised in Confederate uniforms whenever necessary, were paid from the Secret Service Fund in proportion to the value of the intelligence they furnished, which often stood us in good stead in checking the forays of Gilmore, Mosby, and other irregulars.” He had unleashed his patrols in the direction of Winchester the night previous, but by dawn, they had found no changes to the Rebel pickets.
Sheridan concluded that Anderson still remained in Winchester, but could do nothing to prove it. His own cavalry could not best their Rebel counterparts because Early kept them too close to his infantry and there was no chance to get around them for a peek behind the scenes.
Sheridan was understandably frustrated. There had been no victories for his army since he took command. There had been setbacks and a few cavalry skirmishes, but Early’s Confederates remained not only in the Valley, but north of Winchester.
And so Sheridan turned to General George Crook, who had spent quite a bit of time in and around Winchester. Might there “be found in Winchester some reliable person who would be willing to co-operate and correspond with me?” This was, of course, going against his better judgment. He had wanted to use scouts rather than civilians, but he had few choices.
General Crook knew of such a person, and suggested Rebecca Wright, “a young lady whom he had met there before the battle of Kernstown, who, he said, was a member of the Society of Friends and the teacher of a small private school. He knew she was faithful and loyal to the Government, and thought she might be willing to render us assistance, but he could not be certain of this, for on account of her well-known loyalty she was under constant surveillance.”
Sheridan hesitated, but finally decided to make an attempt. There had been an older black man named Tom Laws, whom he had employed for information and sent two messengers to his house. Once in contact with him, Sheridan asked if he knew of Rebecca Wright. The man did, and Sheridan immediately composed a letter.
I learn from Major Gen. Crook that you are a loyal lady and still love the old flag. Can you inform me of the position of Early and his forces, the number of division in his army, and his probable or reported intentions? Have any more troops arrived form Richmond, or are any more coming or reported to be coming?
I am very respectfully, your most obedient servant. P.H. Sheridan, Maj. Gen. Commanding
You can trust the bearer. Sheridan wrote his message on thin tissue paper “Which was then compressed into a small pellet, and protected by wrapping it in tin-foil so that it could be safely carried in the man’s mouth. The probability of his being searched when he came to the Confederate picket-line was not remote, and in such even he was to swallow the pellet.”
Tom Laws would slip through Confederate lines and into Winchester. The next day, around noon, he appeared at the school where Miss Wright taught. As it turned out, two nights previous, the teacher had entertained a Confederate officer. Everything was about to fall into place.
http://civilwardailygazette.com/and-still-love-the-old-flag-sheridan-calls-upon-black-people-and-women-for-information/
Below are several journal entries from xx and 1863 which shed light on what life was like for soldiers and civilians – the good, the bad and the ugly. In 1863 Walt Whitman was serving as a volunteer hospital aid in Washington, wrote home to his mother about the loyalty of Union men from Southern states
Sunday, September 15, 1861: CSA Brig Gen John B. Floyd, was having a fairly rough week. The battle at Carnifex Ferry, his first action, had rattled him and gave CSA Brig Gen Henry Alexander Wise a chance to get even more under his skin. It was in this mood that he wrote President Davis. According to Floyd, the “petty jealousy of General Wise; his utter ignorance of all military rule and discipline; the peculiar contrariness of his character and disposition, are beginning to produce rapidly a disorganization which will prove fatal to the interests of the army if not arrested at once.”
An arrest was exactly what Floyd wished would solve the problem, but admitted that it “would not have cured the evil, for he has around him a set of men extremely like himself, and the demoralization of his corps I incline to think is complete.”
Floyd had said much the same a few week prior, when he wrote Secretary of War LeRoy Walker, hoping to have Wise’s Legion moved to another Department.
In conclusion, Floyd told Davis that it was “impossible for me to conduct a campaign with General Wise attached to my command. His presence with my force is almost as injurious as if he were in the camp of the enemy with his whole command.”
Sometime after writing to Davis, Floyd decided to give Wise another chance to work in concert with him. What choice was there? Both had appealed to General Lee, 100 miles to the north, but neither could get along with the other. Since President Davis couldn’t fix things immediately, Floyd would have to make the best of it.”
Monday, September 15, 1862: While the battles soaked the Maryland soil with blood the previous day, Stonewall Jackson wanted to put an end to his stay at Harpers Ferry.
“So soon as you get your batteries all planted, let me know,” he wrote to General McLaws across the Potomac, “as I desire, after yourself, Walker, and myself have our batteries ready to open, to send in a flag of truce, for the purpose of getting out the non-combatants, should the commanding officer refuse to surrender. Should we have to attack, let the work be done thoroughly; fire on the houses when necessary. The citizens can keep out of harm’s way from your artillery. Demolish the place if it is occupied by the enemy, and does not surrender.”
The roar and percussion of artillery broke the dawn of this day at Harpers Ferry. The Rebel guns surrounding the town let loose their merciless fury. The Federals, under Col. Dixon Miles, replied, but to no effect. By 8am, a flag of truce was raised and most of the Rebel guns ceased. Most of those that did not quiet their pieces could not see the white flag in the drifting smoke and mists of morning. Some, however, saw it and unleashed whatever was left in their guns.
“Through God’s blessing, Harper’s Ferry and its garrison are to be surrendered. As Hill’s troops have borne the heaviest part in the engagement, he will be left in command until the prisoners and public property shall be disposed of, unless you direct otherwise. The other forces cam move off this evening so soon as they get their rations. To what place shall they move?”
When Lee received the message, he ordered it be read to the army. Everything had changed. The campaign was not yet over. His army not yet beaten. Soon, they would be united and together, they could make their stand.
Under General Franklin, the Union troops poured through Crampton’s Gap, but came face-to-face with 5,000 Rebels under General McLaws. Before he could get his men into position, a roaring cheer could be heard coming from the direction of Harpers Ferry. Joining in the huzzah, McLaws’ men threw up their hats and yelled themselves hoarse.
“What the hell are you fellows cheering for?” bellowed a Federal soldier who had climbed upon a rock to get their attention.
“Because Harper’s Ferry is gone up, God damn you!” came the reply.
Tuesday, September 15, 1863: Gen. Halleck writes to Gen. Grant, warning him of Confederate coordination in the West. He asks Grant to send troops to cover Rosecrans’ right as he advances, and also warns of what is clear to everyone: that Joseph Johnston and Robert E. Lee have sent several divisions to reinforce Bragg. Halleck likewise warns that the Confederates have violated the rules of war by calling back troops that were paroled (set free to return home) without being exchanged (each one traded for a Union soldier delivered from prison): “The rebel Government has announced that some 16,000 of the prisoners paroled by you at Vicksburg are released from their paroles and will return to duty. None of them have been exchanged. It is also understood that they intend to put in the ranks against Rosecrans, without exchange, all the prisoners paroled by you and General Banks. Such outrageous conduct must cause very serious difficulties. After violating the cartel in every possible way, they now violate the plainest laws of war and principles of humanity.”
Tuesday, September 15, 1863: Walt Whitman, a poet and sometime journalist, currently serving as a volunteer hospital aid in Washington, writes home to his mother about the loyalty of Union men from Southern states: “I have known Tennessee Union men here in hospital, and I understand it, therefore—the region where Knoxville is is mainly Union, but the Southerners could not exist without it, as it is in their midst, so they determined to pound and kill and crush out the Unionists—all the savage and monstrous things printed in the papers about their treatment are true, at least that kind of thing is, as bad as the Irish in the mob treated the poor niggers in New York. We North don’t understand some things about Southerners; it is very strange, the contrast—if I should pick out the most genuine Union men and real patriots I have ever met in all my experience, I should pick out two or three Tennessee and Virginia Unionists I have met in the hospitals, wounded or sick. One young man I guess I have mentioned to you in my letters, John Barker, 2nd Tennessee Vol. (Union), was a long while a prisoner in Secesh prisons in Georgia, and in Richmond—three times the devils hung him up by the heels to make him promise to give up his Unionism; once he was cut down for dead. He is a young married man with one child. His little property destroyed, his wife and child turned out—he hunted and tormented—and any moment he could have had anything if he would join the Confederacy—but he was firm as a rock; he would not even take an oath to not fight for either side. They held him about eight months—then he was very sick, scurvy, and they exchanged him and he came up from Richmond here to hospital; here I got acquainted with him. . . . His whole thought was to get back and fight; he was not fit to go, but he has gone back to Tennessee. He spent two days with his wife and young one there, and then to his regiment—he writes to me frequently and I to him; he is not fit to soldier, for the Rebels have destroyed his health and strength (though he is only 23 or 4), but nothing will keep him from his regiment, and fighting—he is uneducated, but as sensible a young man as I ever met, and understands the whole question. Well, mother, Jack Barker is the most genuine Union man I have ever yet met. . . .”
Tuesday, September 15, 1863: William Dudley Gale, a Confederate soldier in Bragg’s Army of Tennessee, writes home to his wife Kate as skirmishing and deployment of troops fills the Chickamauga Valley between Lafayette and Ringgold in northern Georgia, the results of the two armies brushing up against each other. He makes reference to the Battle of Davis Cross Roads of Sept. 10 and 11: “Lafayette Ga, Sept 15th 1863, My dear wife, We all got back here last night and had a good wash and feel clean once more. We that is Polk Corps, with the Division of Genl Walker, left here with 3 days cook rations to go & fight Crittenden Corps and the forces between us and Ringold. We had an awful march thro such dust as I never dreamed of before about 9 miles and stopped at the position selected for battle [?] the Genl & staff arrived. We expected to be engaged any minute. Chatham had formed his line of battle and all night long, the Genl was busy making his arrangements to recive them in the morning as he con-fidently expected an attack. Sometime during the night Genl Hindman’s Division came up and was sent forward at once to form [hits?] line of battle and I was sent to guide him & place him in position. His new men had about 2 hours rest.
In the meantime, we could hear occasional shots fired by the pickets in front which died away about 11 am at 12:30 pm. A brick artillery fire was heard in front of our left where Genl Stahl was with his brigade, about 40 rounds were fired and all was still. We thought all the time that the fight was near. But not so far after coming a few more the army retired leaving us grivously disappointed. We had nothing to do but to re-turn to this place. A few days before, we had a glorious opportunity to destroy Thomas Corps, had Genl Hindman obeyed orders. Thomas was surrounded, by Hill & Cleburne at one end of a gap in the high ridge, and Hindmand & Buckner at the other, Hindman ranks Buckner, and was ordered to make the attack at daylight but did not do so. Both armies lay on their arms all day, Thomas afraid to move & Hindmand afraid to attack until night when the Yankees slipt off and left us in the lurch. I hear Genl Bragg is in high recruitment at [Ox?]. We hear that we will have large reinforcements soon when I expect we will go back to Chattanooga and drive them out. This will be bloody work as it was fortified by us & strengthened by them.
Capt Blake arrived yesterday with the bundle, thanks dear wife. The shoes do finely, so do Harry’s. I have suffered very much from boils but am getting better.
Blake is waiting to take this to Rome to mail, Kiss my dear little ones. God bless & preserve you my darling wife. Your const. ally, Wm. D. Gale”
Pictures: 1863-09-15 Train of Doom – Chattanooga, Tennessee; 1864-09-15 Sheridan and Laws; 1862-09 Battle of Harper's Ferry; 1864-09-15 George "Two Beards" Crook
A. Sunday, September 15, 1861: Battle of Cheat Mountain ended. Brig. Gen. Joseph J. Reynolds defeated CSA Gen Robert E. Lee. The Union defenders on Cheat Summit were very familiar with the terrain and mountain trails. Information from captured Federal soldiers was so misleading and two Federal probing attacks from Cheat Summit Fort were so aggressive that Colonel Albert Rust and Brig. Gen. Samuel Anderson, each leading approximately 1500 Confederates at Cheat Mountain, were convinced that an overwhelming force confronted them. Rust and Anderson withdrew their 3,000 men although they actually faced only about 300 determined Federals outside the Union fortifications. At Elk Water, Brig. Gen. Joseph J. Reynolds's brigade faced three more Confederate brigades but refused to budge from well-prepared entrenchments.
The Confederates did not press an attack after Col. John A. Washington, of Lee's staff, was killed during a reconnaissance of the Union right. Reynolds was so confident in the face of such timidity that he dispatched two of his own regiments from Elk Water up the mountain road to relieve the supposedly besieged fortress garrison, but the arriving Union reinforcements were unnecessary. Lee called off the attack and, after maneuvering in the vicinity, withdrew to Valley Mountain on September 17. Reynolds, meanwhile, planned an offensive against the Confederate forces stationed at the Greenbrier River.
B. Monday, September 15, 1862: Federals surrender Harper’s Ferry. CSA Gen Lee worried that his plans were known, changed his course, just hoping his men in the field would get word in time. Harper’s Ferry fell quickly to Stonewall Jackson. General Dixon Miles (pictured) died just as he surrenders his force of 12,419 men. This was the largest number of U.S. soldiers surrendered until the Battle of Corregidor in Philippines during World War II. A court of inquiry ruled after General Miles’s death, his "incapacity, amounting to almost imbecility." Jackson left behind an occupying force, and then marched at speed to rejoin Lee to once again consolidate the Army of Virginia (CSA) at the tiny Maryland village of Sharpsburg, on Antietam Creek. Lee had intended to gather his scattered troops and return to Virginia.
After an artillery battle, Col. Dixon Miles decides to surrender Harper’s Ferry. After the white flag is raised, Union gunners keep firing for some time, and the fire is returned by the Rebels. When the fire finally slackens, Col. Miles is wounded severely in the leg, and will die from his wound the next day. Harper’s Ferry belongs now to the Confederates again. They capture 11,000 Union troops, 13,000 stand of small arms, 73 cannons, and a vast haul of supplies, wagons, rations, and munitions. Jackson leaves A.P. Hill to clean up, and puts the rest of his troops on the road. Confederate Victory.
C. Tuesday, September 15, 1863: President Abraham Lincoln suspended the Writ of Habeas Corpus, especially for cases of prisoners of war, draftees, and desertion from the army. President Lincoln still defended his decision to suspend citizen’s their rights according to the United States Constitution, the “writ of habeas corpus.” This is the right of an arrested person to know what charges are being brought, and of the obligation of the state to produce evidence that the person charged was the one who committed the offense. It was one of the shining lights of our constitution’s freedoms, was swept again under the rug. Due to the existence of a “state of rebellion”, wrote Abraham Lincoln, the right would be suspended in cases of people arrested by military authorities whenever they deemed fit.
D. Thursday, September 15, 1864: Spies for the Union. Sheridan was understandably frustrated. There had been no victories for his army since he took command. There had been setbacks and a few cavalry skirmishes, but Early’s Confederates remained not only in the Valley, but north of Winchester.
And so Sheridan turned to General George Crook, who had spent quite a bit of time in and around Winchester. Might there “be found in Winchester some reliable person who would be willing to co-operate and correspond with me?” This was, of course, going against his better judgment. He had wanted to use scouts rather than civilians, but he had few choices.
General Crook knew of such a person, and suggested Rebecca Wright, “a young lady whom he had met there before the battle of Kernstown, who, he said, was a member of the Society of Friends and the teacher of a small private school. He knew she was faithful and loyal to the Government, and thought she might be willing to render us assistance, but he could not be certain of this, for on account of her well-known loyalty she was under constant surveillance.”
Sheridan hesitated, but finally decided to make an attempt. There had been an older black man named Tom Laws, whom he had employed for information and sent two messengers to his house. Once in contact with him, Sheridan asked if he knew of Rebecca Wright. The man did, and Sheridan immediately composed a letter.
I learn from Major Gen. Crook that you are a loyal lady and still love the old flag. Can you inform me of the position of Early and his forces, the number of division in his army, and his probable or reported intentions? Have any more troops arrived form Richmond, or are any more coming or reported to be coming?
I am very respectfully, your most obedient servant. P.H. Sheridan, Maj. Gen. Commanding
You can trust the bearer. Sheridan wrote his message on thin tissue paper “Which was then compressed into a small pellet, and protected by wrapping it in tin-foil so that it could be safely carried in the man’s mouth. The probability of his being searched when he came to the Confederate picket-line was not remote, and in such even he was to swallow the pellet.”
Tom Laws would slip through Confederate lines and into Winchester. The next day, around noon, he appeared at the school where Miss Wright taught. As it turned out, two nights previous, the teacher had entertained a Confederate officer. Everything was about to fall into place.
1. Sunday, September 15, 1861: Gen. Charles Fremont, commander of Union forces in St. Louis, Mo. was under pressure on two fronts. He was supposed to be organizing a march of 38,000 troops to Lexington, Mo., where a Federal force was holding out against a siege of Sterling Price (CSA). Fremont was also under pressure from President Lincoln, who was furious about Fremont’s orders freeing all the slaves in Missouri, and Lincoln’s friend, the politician-colonel Frank Blair Jr. who was furious about a recent audit of Fremont’s books. Fremont is having a hard time explaining to Blair and others the $12 million he spent in barely a month. Some of this was for gunboats and uniforms, but an amazing amount was spent on “fortifications”, food and parties. Fremont’s response: he put Blair under arrest, and cancelled the march to Lexington.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-a/part-23
2. Monday, September 15, 1862: Apparently, McClellan’s swift advance (well---swift for McClellan, at least) has caught Lee by surprise, and he has decided to retreat back across the Potomac. But first, he must gather the spread-out pieces of his army. Longstreet has 13,000 troops just west of the passes of South Mountain, and Jackson still has around 26,000 around Harper’s Ferry. Lee decides upon Sharpsburg for a place to collect, being a crossroads. By nightfall, Lee has only 15,000 men in line on the heights north and east of Sharpsburg. For some reason, McClellan’s movement grinds to a halt, even though the day ends with his army still a half-day’s march from Sharpsburg, and the Federals do not push the pursuit.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+15%2C+1862
3. Monday, September 15, 1862: Confederate troops under Gen. Bragg have attacked the Union fort at Munfordville, Kentucky, where a small Union garrison under Col. Wilde of Indiana beats back two attacks. Bragg stops his entire column and invests Munfordville in a siege.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+15%2C+1862
4. Tuesday, September 15, 1863: Gen. Halleck writes to Gen. Grant, warning him of Confederate coordination in the West. He asks Grant to send troops to cover Rosecrans’ right as he advances, and also warns of what is clear to everyone: that Joseph Johnston and Robert E. Lee have sent several divisions to reinforce Bragg. Halleck likewise warns that the Confederates have violated the rules of war by calling back troops that were paroled (set free to return home) without being exchanged (each one traded for a Union soldier delivered from prison): “The rebel Government has announced that some 16,000 of the prisoners paroled by you at Vicksburg are released from their paroles and will return to duty. None of them have been exchanged. It is also understood that they intend to put in the ranks against Rosecrans, without exchange, all the prisoners paroled by you and General Banks. Such outrageous conduct must cause very serious difficulties. After violating the cartel in every possible way, they now violate the plainest laws of war and principles of humanity.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+15%2C+1863
5. Tuesday, September 15, 1863: Walt Whitman, a poet and sometime journalist, currently serving as a volunteer hospital aid in Washington, writes home to his mother about the loyalty of Union men from Southern states: “I have known Tennessee Union men here in hospital, and I understand it, therefore—the region where Knoxville is is mainly Union, but the Southerners could not exist without it, as it is in their midst, so they determined to pound and kill and crush out the Unionists—all the savage and monstrous things printed in the papers about their treatment are true, at least that kind of thing is, as bad as the Irish in the mob treated the poor niggers in New York. We North don’t understand some things about Southerners; it is very strange, the contrast—if I should pick out the most genuine Union men and real patriots I have ever met in all my experience, I should pick out two or three Tennessee and Virginia Unionists I have met in the hospitals, wounded or sick. One young man I guess I have mentioned to you in my letters, John Barker, 2nd Tennessee Vol. (Union), was a long while a prisoner in Secesh prisons in Georgia, and in Richmond—three times the devils hung him up by the heels to make him promise to give up his Unionism; once he was cut down for dead. He is a young married man with one child. His little property destroyed, his wife and child turned out—he hunted and tormented—and any moment he could have had anything if he would join the Confederacy—but he was firm as a rock; he would not even take an oath to not fight for either side. They held him about eight months—then he was very sick, scurvy, and they exchanged him and he came up from Richmond here to hospital; here I got acquainted with him. . . . His whole thought was to get back and fight; he was not fit to go, but he has gone back to Tennessee. He spent two days with his wife and young one there, and then to his regiment—he writes to me frequently and I to him; he is not fit to soldier, for the Rebels have destroyed his health and strength (though he is only 23 or 4), but nothing will keep him from his regiment, and fighting—he is uneducated, but as sensible a young man as I ever met, and understands the whole question. Well, mother, Jack Barker is the most genuine Union man I have ever yet met. . . .”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+15%2C+1863
6. Tuesday, September 15, 1863: William Dudley Gale, a Confederate soldier in Bragg’s Army of Tennessee, writes home to his wife Kate as skirmishing and deployment of troops fills the Chickamauga Valley between Lafayette and Ringgold in northern Georgia, the results of the two armies brushing up against each other. He makes reference to the Battle of Davis Cross Roads of Sept. 10 and 11: “Lafayette Ga, Sept 15th 1863, My dear wife, We all got back here last night and had a good wash and feel clean once more. We that is Polk Corps, with the Division of Genl Walker, left here with 3 days cook rations to go & fight Crittenden Corps and the forces between us and Ringold. We had an awful march thro such dust as I never dreamed of before about 9 miles and stopped at the position selected for battle [?] the Genl & staff arrived. We expected to be engaged any minute. Chatham had formed his line of battle and all night long, the Genl was busy making his arrangements to recive them in the morning as he con-fidently expected an attack. Sometime during the night Genl Hindman’s Division came up and was sent forward at once to form [hits?] line of battle and I was sent to guide him & place him in position. His new men had about 2 hours rest.
In the meantime, we could hear occasional shots fired by the pickets in front which died away about 11 am at 12:30 pm. A brick artillery fire was heard in front of our left where Genl Stahl was with his brigade, about 40 rounds were fired and all was still. We thought all the time that the fight was near. But not so far after coming a few more the army retired leaving us grivously disappointed. We had nothing to do but to re-turn to this place. A few days before, we had a glorious opportunity to destroy Thomas Corps, had Genl Hindman obeyed orders. Thomas was surrounded, by Hill & Cleburne at one end of a gap in the high ridge, and Hindmand & Buckner at the other, Hindman ranks Buckner, and was ordered to make the attack at daylight but did not do so. Both armies lay on their arms all day, Thomas afraid to move & Hindmand afraid to attack until night when the Yankees slipt off and left us in the lurch. I hear Genl Bragg is in high recruitment at [Ox?]. We hear that we will have large reinforcements soon when I expect we will go back to Chattanooga and drive them out. This will be bloody work as it was fortified by us & strengthened by them.
Capt Blake arrived yesterday with the bundle, thanks dear wife. The shoes do finely, so do Harry’s. I have suffered very much from boils but am getting better.
Blake is waiting to take this to Rome to mail, Kiss my dear little ones. God bless & preserve you my darling wife. Your const. ally, Wm. D. Gale”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+15%2C+1863
7. Tuesday, September 15, 1863: Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186309
8. Thursday, September 15, 1864: The Daily Times in Leavenworth, Texas reports: “The train which arrived from Fort Smith week before last, brought from the South, four or five hundred women and children, who were sent here by order of Gen. Thayer. We understand that there are now at Fort Smith several hundred more, who are in a very destitute condition and who are to be sent to this place. What is to be done with these people, are we bound to support them? We understand that the Government furnishes fifteen days rations on their arrival, after which time they must provide for themselves. The citizens of Fort Scott will not see them suffer, but the number is so great that it will be utterly impossible for our citizens to support them through the coming winter. We must appeal abroad for help to Leavenworth, Lawrence and other Northern cities - Fort Scott, Kansas.”
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/1864/week-179
A Sunday, September 15, 1861: Battle of Cheat Mountain ended. Joseph Reynolds [US] defeats Robert E. Lee [CS]
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186109
A+ Sunday, September 15, 1861: Battle of Cheat Mountain ended. The approaches by each of the three Confederate brigades were uncoordinated. Rain, fog, mountainous terrain, and a dense forest limited visibility to minimal distances. As a result, each of the three Confederate brigades assigned to attack Cheat Summit Fort acted independently and never made contact with either of the other two Confederate brigades. The Union defenders on Cheat Summit were very familiar with the terrain and mountain trails. Information from captured Federal soldiers was so misleading and two Federal probing attacks from Cheat Summit Fort were so aggressive that Colonel Albert Rust and Brig. Gen. Samuel Anderson, each leading approximately 1500 Confederates at Cheat Mountain, were convinced that an overwhelming force confronted them. Rust and Anderson withdrew their 3,000 men although they actually faced only about 300 determined Federals outside the Union fortifications. At Elk Water, Brig. Gen. Joseph J. Reynolds 's brigade faced three more Confederate brigades but refused to budge from well-prepared entrenchments.
The Confederates did not press an attack after Col. John A. Washington, of Lee's staff, was killed during a reconnaissance of the Union right. Reynolds was so confident in the face of such timidity that he dispatched two of his own regiments from Elk Water up the mountain road to relieve the supposedly besieged fortress garrison, but the arriving Union reinforcements were unnecessary. Lee called off the attack and, after maneuvering in the vicinity, withdrew to Valley Mountain on September 17. Reynolds, meanwhile, planned an offensive against the Confederate forces stationed at the Greenbrier River.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cheat_Mountain
B Monday, September 15, 1862: With the fall of Harper's Ferry, Stonewall Jackson begins sending men to Robert E. Lee, preparing to face the Army of the Potomac at Sharpsburg.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186209
B+ Monday, September 15, 1862: Battle of Harper’s Ferry, Day 3 - After an artillery battle, Col. Dixon Miles decides to surrender Harper’s Ferry. After the white flag is raised, Union gunners keep firing for some time, and the fire is returned by the Rebels. When the fire finally slackens, Col. Miles is wounded severely in the leg, and will die from his wound the next day. Harper’s Ferry belongs now to the Confederates again. They capture 11,000 Union troops, 13,000 stand of small arms, 73 cannons, and a vast haul of supplies, wagons, rations, and munitions. Jackson leaves A.P. Hill to clean up, and puts the rest of his troops on the road. Confederate Victory.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+15%2C+1862
B++ Monday, September 15, 1862: Lee worried that his plans were known, changed his course, just hoping his men in the field would get word in time. Harper’s Ferry fell quickly to Stonewall Jackson. General Dixon Miles (pictured) died just as he surrenders his force of 12,419 men. This was the largest number of U.S. soldiers surrendered until the Battle of Corregidor in Philippines during World War II. A court of inquiry ruled after General Miles’s death, his "incapacity, amounting to almost imbecility." Jackson left behind an occupying force, and then marched at speed to rejoin Lee to once again consolidate the Army of Virginia (CSA) at the tiny Maryland village of Sharpsburg, on Antietam Creek. Lee had intended to gather his scattered troops and return to Virginia.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-b/part-seventy-five
Tuesday, September 15, 1863: Bragg (CSA) plans for an attack on September 18th. However, chaotic communications within the Confederate camp meant that there were delays in getting this information to the generals in the field.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-c/week-127
C Tuesday, September 15, 1863: On this date, Pres. Lincoln suspends the Writ of Habeas Corpus, especially for cases of prisoners of war, draftees, and desertion from the army.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+15%2C+1863
C+ Tuesday, September 15, 1863: In Washington, President Lincoln still defends his decision to suspend citizen’s their rights according to the United States Constitution, the “writ of habeas corpus.” This is the right of an arrested person to know what charges are being brought, and of the obligation of the state to produce evidence that the person charged was the one who committed the offense. It was one of the shining lights of our constitution’s freedoms, was swept again under the rug. Due to the existence of a “state of rebellion”, wrote Abraham Lincoln, the right would be suspended in cases of people arrested by military authorities whenever they deemed fit.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-c/week-127
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
In 1861, Maj Gen Charles Fremont, “commander of Union forces in St. Louis, Mo. was under pressure on two fronts. He was supposed to be organizing a march of 38,000 troops to Lexington, Mo., where a Federal force was holding out against a siege of CSA Maj Gen Sterling Price. Fremont was also under pressure from President Lincoln, who was furious about Fremont’s orders freeing all the slaves in Missouri, and Lincoln’s friend, the politician-colonel Frank Blair Jr. who was furious about a recent audit of Fremont’s books. Fremont is having a hard time explaining to Blair and others the $12 million he spent in barely a month. Some of this was for gunboats and uniforms, but an amazing amount was spent on “fortifications”, food and parties. Fremont’s response: he put Blair under arrest, and cancelled the march to Lexington.”
Monday, September 15, 1862: Harpers Ferry surrenders; McClellan has Lee, but waits for “tomorrow”
In western Maryland, through the valley of Antietam Creek, the streets of Harpers Ferry, South Mountain, and the broad and dividing Potomac River, all was drenched in the dark hell of war. Bodies of friends, loved ones, comrades and enemies were strewn across mountain passes, as General McClellan’s Army of the Potomac, stirring into action, as the battered Army of Northern Virginia, clung for time and maybe life to the rocks of Turner’s Gap.
Time and maybe life was bought with blood and steel and lead – such an appalling cost for a Southern Army already weakened and small. Their commander, General Robert E. Lee had decided to retreat back across that wide river to his beloved Virginia. McClellan’s strange forward movement came quickly. He was not ready. They were not ready. What other choice was there but to gather his army?
The small crossroads of Sharpsburg was as good of a place as any to gather his scattered forces. The troops that had defended South Mountain the previous day were finding each other in Pleasant Valley, just west of the passes. Men under James Longstreet and D.H. Hill, together maybe 13,000-strong were making good time away from Boonsboro. Meanwhile, 23,000 under Stonewall Jackson, Lafayette McLaws and John Walker surrounded the Union garrison at Harpers Ferry.
For this retreat, Harpers Ferry, on the brink of surrender, would have to be forgotten. Lee directed McLaws to abandon his position upon Maryland Heights and find his own way to Virginia. Jackson and Walker were already on Southern side of the Potomac. When the rest of the army was brought together, Lee would walk it home. This was the only choice left to him.
But then it all changed.
While the battles soaked the Maryland soil with blood the previous day, Stonewall Jackson wanted to put an end to his stay at Harpers Ferry.
“So soon as you get your batteries all planted, let me know,” he wrote to General McLaws across the Potomac, “as I desire, after yourself, Walker, and myself have our batteries ready to open, to send in a flag of truce, for the purpose of getting out the non-combatants, should the commanding officer refuse to surrender. Should we have to attack, let the work be done thoroughly; fire on the houses when necessary. The citizens can keep out of harm’s way from your artillery. Demolish the place if it is occupied by the enemy, and does not surrender.”
The roar and percussion of artillery broke the dawn of this day at Harpers Ferry. The Rebel guns surrounding the town let loose their merciless fury. The Federals, under Col. Dixon Miles, replied, but to no effect. By 8am, a flag of truce was raised and most of the Rebel guns ceased. Most of those that did not quiet their pieces could not see the white flag in the drifting smoke and mists of morning. Some, however, saw it and unleashed whatever was left in their guns.
It was after the ceasefire that Col. Miles was hit. Some placed his wounding at the hands of these careless Rebel gunners, while others blamed his own men, who were disgusted over having to surrender with McClellan’s force so close at hand. Either way, Dixon Miles’ wound, which tore his left calf to the bone, proved to be unbearably painful as well as fatal. He would die the following day.
The garrison was surrendered to A.P. Hill, commanding a division under Jackson. In all, the Confederates captured 13,000 stand of arms, 73 pieces of artillery, wagons, stores, ordinance and 11,000 Union troops. As General Hill and his men counted their blessings, Jackson wrote to Lee.
“Through God’s blessing, Harper’s Ferry and its garrison are to be surrendered. As Hill’s troops have borne the heaviest part in the engagement, he will be left in command until the prisoners and public property shall be disposed of, unless you direct otherwise. The other forces cam move off this evening so soon as they get their rations. To what place shall they move?”
When Lee received the message, he ordered it be read to the army. Everything had changed. The campaign was not yet over. His army not yet beaten. Soon, they would be united and together, they could make their stand.
General George McClellan rightfully believed the Rebels to be in retreat. He ordered the veterans of the South Mountain battles to storm into Pleasant Valley, capturing and fighting whomever they found. If the Rebels concentrated at Boonsboro, it was Boonsboro that was to be assailed. If they moved towards Sharpsburg, then the Federals were to cut off the enemy retreat.
Under General Franklin, the Union troops poured through Crampton’s Gap, but came face-to-face with 5,000 Rebels under General McLaws. Before he could get his men into position, a roaring cheer could be heard coming from the direction of Harpers Ferry. Joining in the huzzah, McLaws’ men threw up their hats and yelled themselves hoarse.
“What the hell are you fellows cheering for?” bellowed a Federal soldier who had climbed upon a rock to get their attention.
“Because Harper’s Ferry is gone up, God damn you!” came the reply.
With this revelation, Franklin froze.
To the north, other Federal troops streamed through Turner’s and Fox’s Gaps. McClellan, remaining back at his camp, received good news upon good news throughout the day. Much of it was baseless conjecture, of course. “General Lee is wounded” came one. “The entire Rebel army is demoralized” stated another. He believed that the Confederates lost 15,000 the day before.
Soon, however, it was clear. The tails and stories, seemingly too good to be true, turned out to be just that. After receiving Stonewall’s dispatch, Lee dug in behind Antietam Creek, eight miles away from South Mountain. Such a short distance should have been covered in half a day, but, as usual, McClellan’s momentum ground to a halt.
A small rear guard action erupted south of Keedysville, but aside from that, hardly a shot was fired. McClellan’s army had more than 80,000 men. Across the small creek was hardly more than 15,000 Confederates. He knew, thanks to Lee’s lost Special Orders No. 191, that Jackson and McLaws were at Harpers Ferry. His plan to divide the Rebel army and destroy them in detail could have been realized in the afternoon of this day.
But it was not. McClellan vowed that “tomorrow” would be the time to attack. But by then, Jackson’s all-night march would bring his men to Sharpsburg, making their homes in Lee’s lines, and McClellan would have to think of yet another reason he could not attack until “tomorrow.”
http://civilwardailygazette.com/harpers-ferry-surrenders-mcclellan-has-lee-but-waits-for-tomorrow/
Thursday, September 15, 1864 “…And Still Love The Old Flag” – Sheridan Calls Upon Black People And Women For Information. “I have nothing new to report for yesterday or today,” wrote Phil Sheridan to General Grant. “There is as yet no indication of Early’s detaching.” Jubal Early’s Army of the Valley had been, in Sheridan’s mind, too strong to attack, but rumors held that an entire division would soon be leaving the Shenandoah Valley to return to General Lee’s main body in Petersburg. A Union soldier who had escaped capture in Winchester told of Confederate pontoon boats that had passed through the town, but Sheridan questioned his reliability.
And yet, he tried to uncover Early’s movements. “Have you any information from your scouts from Culpeper or other points south?” he asked his cavalry commanders. “[General Richard] Anderson, who is temporarily in command of Longstreet’s corps, is still here. It seems strange that he should remain, with only one division of the corps here.”
That was indeed strange. Anderson had left one division with Lee and another along the route to the Shenandoah Valley. With him was Kershaw’s Division, but neither he nor the division were in Winchester as Sheridan supposed. At sunrise of this date, the men of the division marched south along the Valley Pike. By dusk, they were just north of Front Royal, fifteen miles away from Winchester. They would, over the next few days, continue south through the Luray Valley toward Thornton’s Gap.
But this was hidden well from Sheridan, who continued to be perplexed by the Confederate army before him. To gain for himself some knowledge of the enemy’s position, he vigorously organized a legion of scouts. This, he hoped, “would give better results than had the method hitherto pursued in the department, which was to employ on this service doubtful citizens and Confederate deserters.”
And so Sheridan called for volunteers. It was hazardous duty, but the rewards, if successful, would be great. “These men were disguised in Confederate uniforms whenever necessary, were paid from the Secret Service Fund in proportion to the value of the intelligence they furnished, which often stood us in good stead in checking the forays of Gilmore, Mosby, and other irregulars.” He had unleashed his patrols in the direction of Winchester the night previous, but by dawn, they had found no changes to the Rebel pickets.
Sheridan concluded that Anderson still remained in Winchester, but could do nothing to prove it. His own cavalry could not best their Rebel counterparts because Early kept them too close to his infantry and there was no chance to get around them for a peek behind the scenes.
Sheridan was understandably frustrated. There had been no victories for his army since he took command. There had been setbacks and a few cavalry skirmishes, but Early’s Confederates remained not only in the Valley, but north of Winchester.
And so Sheridan turned to General George Crook, who had spent quite a bit of time in and around Winchester. Might there “be found in Winchester some reliable person who would be willing to co-operate and correspond with me?” This was, of course, going against his better judgment. He had wanted to use scouts rather than civilians, but he had few choices.
General Crook knew of such a person, and suggested Rebecca Wright, “a young lady whom he had met there before the battle of Kernstown, who, he said, was a member of the Society of Friends and the teacher of a small private school. He knew she was faithful and loyal to the Government, and thought she might be willing to render us assistance, but he could not be certain of this, for on account of her well-known loyalty she was under constant surveillance.”
Sheridan hesitated, but finally decided to make an attempt. There had been an older black man named Tom Laws, whom he had employed for information and sent two messengers to his house. Once in contact with him, Sheridan asked if he knew of Rebecca Wright. The man did, and Sheridan immediately composed a letter.
I learn from Major Gen. Crook that you are a loyal lady and still love the old flag. Can you inform me of the position of Early and his forces, the number of division in his army, and his probable or reported intentions? Have any more troops arrived form Richmond, or are any more coming or reported to be coming?
I am very respectfully, your most obedient servant. P.H. Sheridan, Maj. Gen. Commanding
You can trust the bearer. Sheridan wrote his message on thin tissue paper “Which was then compressed into a small pellet, and protected by wrapping it in tin-foil so that it could be safely carried in the man’s mouth. The probability of his being searched when he came to the Confederate picket-line was not remote, and in such even he was to swallow the pellet.”
Tom Laws would slip through Confederate lines and into Winchester. The next day, around noon, he appeared at the school where Miss Wright taught. As it turned out, two nights previous, the teacher had entertained a Confederate officer. Everything was about to fall into place.
http://civilwardailygazette.com/and-still-love-the-old-flag-sheridan-calls-upon-black-people-and-women-for-information/
Below are several journal entries from xx and 1863 which shed light on what life was like for soldiers and civilians – the good, the bad and the ugly. In 1863 Walt Whitman was serving as a volunteer hospital aid in Washington, wrote home to his mother about the loyalty of Union men from Southern states
Sunday, September 15, 1861: CSA Brig Gen John B. Floyd, was having a fairly rough week. The battle at Carnifex Ferry, his first action, had rattled him and gave CSA Brig Gen Henry Alexander Wise a chance to get even more under his skin. It was in this mood that he wrote President Davis. According to Floyd, the “petty jealousy of General Wise; his utter ignorance of all military rule and discipline; the peculiar contrariness of his character and disposition, are beginning to produce rapidly a disorganization which will prove fatal to the interests of the army if not arrested at once.”
An arrest was exactly what Floyd wished would solve the problem, but admitted that it “would not have cured the evil, for he has around him a set of men extremely like himself, and the demoralization of his corps I incline to think is complete.”
Floyd had said much the same a few week prior, when he wrote Secretary of War LeRoy Walker, hoping to have Wise’s Legion moved to another Department.
In conclusion, Floyd told Davis that it was “impossible for me to conduct a campaign with General Wise attached to my command. His presence with my force is almost as injurious as if he were in the camp of the enemy with his whole command.”
Sometime after writing to Davis, Floyd decided to give Wise another chance to work in concert with him. What choice was there? Both had appealed to General Lee, 100 miles to the north, but neither could get along with the other. Since President Davis couldn’t fix things immediately, Floyd would have to make the best of it.”
Monday, September 15, 1862: While the battles soaked the Maryland soil with blood the previous day, Stonewall Jackson wanted to put an end to his stay at Harpers Ferry.
“So soon as you get your batteries all planted, let me know,” he wrote to General McLaws across the Potomac, “as I desire, after yourself, Walker, and myself have our batteries ready to open, to send in a flag of truce, for the purpose of getting out the non-combatants, should the commanding officer refuse to surrender. Should we have to attack, let the work be done thoroughly; fire on the houses when necessary. The citizens can keep out of harm’s way from your artillery. Demolish the place if it is occupied by the enemy, and does not surrender.”
The roar and percussion of artillery broke the dawn of this day at Harpers Ferry. The Rebel guns surrounding the town let loose their merciless fury. The Federals, under Col. Dixon Miles, replied, but to no effect. By 8am, a flag of truce was raised and most of the Rebel guns ceased. Most of those that did not quiet their pieces could not see the white flag in the drifting smoke and mists of morning. Some, however, saw it and unleashed whatever was left in their guns.
“Through God’s blessing, Harper’s Ferry and its garrison are to be surrendered. As Hill’s troops have borne the heaviest part in the engagement, he will be left in command until the prisoners and public property shall be disposed of, unless you direct otherwise. The other forces cam move off this evening so soon as they get their rations. To what place shall they move?”
When Lee received the message, he ordered it be read to the army. Everything had changed. The campaign was not yet over. His army not yet beaten. Soon, they would be united and together, they could make their stand.
Under General Franklin, the Union troops poured through Crampton’s Gap, but came face-to-face with 5,000 Rebels under General McLaws. Before he could get his men into position, a roaring cheer could be heard coming from the direction of Harpers Ferry. Joining in the huzzah, McLaws’ men threw up their hats and yelled themselves hoarse.
“What the hell are you fellows cheering for?” bellowed a Federal soldier who had climbed upon a rock to get their attention.
“Because Harper’s Ferry is gone up, God damn you!” came the reply.
Tuesday, September 15, 1863: Gen. Halleck writes to Gen. Grant, warning him of Confederate coordination in the West. He asks Grant to send troops to cover Rosecrans’ right as he advances, and also warns of what is clear to everyone: that Joseph Johnston and Robert E. Lee have sent several divisions to reinforce Bragg. Halleck likewise warns that the Confederates have violated the rules of war by calling back troops that were paroled (set free to return home) without being exchanged (each one traded for a Union soldier delivered from prison): “The rebel Government has announced that some 16,000 of the prisoners paroled by you at Vicksburg are released from their paroles and will return to duty. None of them have been exchanged. It is also understood that they intend to put in the ranks against Rosecrans, without exchange, all the prisoners paroled by you and General Banks. Such outrageous conduct must cause very serious difficulties. After violating the cartel in every possible way, they now violate the plainest laws of war and principles of humanity.”
Tuesday, September 15, 1863: Walt Whitman, a poet and sometime journalist, currently serving as a volunteer hospital aid in Washington, writes home to his mother about the loyalty of Union men from Southern states: “I have known Tennessee Union men here in hospital, and I understand it, therefore—the region where Knoxville is is mainly Union, but the Southerners could not exist without it, as it is in their midst, so they determined to pound and kill and crush out the Unionists—all the savage and monstrous things printed in the papers about their treatment are true, at least that kind of thing is, as bad as the Irish in the mob treated the poor niggers in New York. We North don’t understand some things about Southerners; it is very strange, the contrast—if I should pick out the most genuine Union men and real patriots I have ever met in all my experience, I should pick out two or three Tennessee and Virginia Unionists I have met in the hospitals, wounded or sick. One young man I guess I have mentioned to you in my letters, John Barker, 2nd Tennessee Vol. (Union), was a long while a prisoner in Secesh prisons in Georgia, and in Richmond—three times the devils hung him up by the heels to make him promise to give up his Unionism; once he was cut down for dead. He is a young married man with one child. His little property destroyed, his wife and child turned out—he hunted and tormented—and any moment he could have had anything if he would join the Confederacy—but he was firm as a rock; he would not even take an oath to not fight for either side. They held him about eight months—then he was very sick, scurvy, and they exchanged him and he came up from Richmond here to hospital; here I got acquainted with him. . . . His whole thought was to get back and fight; he was not fit to go, but he has gone back to Tennessee. He spent two days with his wife and young one there, and then to his regiment—he writes to me frequently and I to him; he is not fit to soldier, for the Rebels have destroyed his health and strength (though he is only 23 or 4), but nothing will keep him from his regiment, and fighting—he is uneducated, but as sensible a young man as I ever met, and understands the whole question. Well, mother, Jack Barker is the most genuine Union man I have ever yet met. . . .”
Tuesday, September 15, 1863: William Dudley Gale, a Confederate soldier in Bragg’s Army of Tennessee, writes home to his wife Kate as skirmishing and deployment of troops fills the Chickamauga Valley between Lafayette and Ringgold in northern Georgia, the results of the two armies brushing up against each other. He makes reference to the Battle of Davis Cross Roads of Sept. 10 and 11: “Lafayette Ga, Sept 15th 1863, My dear wife, We all got back here last night and had a good wash and feel clean once more. We that is Polk Corps, with the Division of Genl Walker, left here with 3 days cook rations to go & fight Crittenden Corps and the forces between us and Ringold. We had an awful march thro such dust as I never dreamed of before about 9 miles and stopped at the position selected for battle [?] the Genl & staff arrived. We expected to be engaged any minute. Chatham had formed his line of battle and all night long, the Genl was busy making his arrangements to recive them in the morning as he con-fidently expected an attack. Sometime during the night Genl Hindman’s Division came up and was sent forward at once to form [hits?] line of battle and I was sent to guide him & place him in position. His new men had about 2 hours rest.
In the meantime, we could hear occasional shots fired by the pickets in front which died away about 11 am at 12:30 pm. A brick artillery fire was heard in front of our left where Genl Stahl was with his brigade, about 40 rounds were fired and all was still. We thought all the time that the fight was near. But not so far after coming a few more the army retired leaving us grivously disappointed. We had nothing to do but to re-turn to this place. A few days before, we had a glorious opportunity to destroy Thomas Corps, had Genl Hindman obeyed orders. Thomas was surrounded, by Hill & Cleburne at one end of a gap in the high ridge, and Hindmand & Buckner at the other, Hindman ranks Buckner, and was ordered to make the attack at daylight but did not do so. Both armies lay on their arms all day, Thomas afraid to move & Hindmand afraid to attack until night when the Yankees slipt off and left us in the lurch. I hear Genl Bragg is in high recruitment at [Ox?]. We hear that we will have large reinforcements soon when I expect we will go back to Chattanooga and drive them out. This will be bloody work as it was fortified by us & strengthened by them.
Capt Blake arrived yesterday with the bundle, thanks dear wife. The shoes do finely, so do Harry’s. I have suffered very much from boils but am getting better.
Blake is waiting to take this to Rome to mail, Kiss my dear little ones. God bless & preserve you my darling wife. Your const. ally, Wm. D. Gale”
Pictures: 1863-09-15 Train of Doom – Chattanooga, Tennessee; 1864-09-15 Sheridan and Laws; 1862-09 Battle of Harper's Ferry; 1864-09-15 George "Two Beards" Crook
A. Sunday, September 15, 1861: Battle of Cheat Mountain ended. Brig. Gen. Joseph J. Reynolds defeated CSA Gen Robert E. Lee. The Union defenders on Cheat Summit were very familiar with the terrain and mountain trails. Information from captured Federal soldiers was so misleading and two Federal probing attacks from Cheat Summit Fort were so aggressive that Colonel Albert Rust and Brig. Gen. Samuel Anderson, each leading approximately 1500 Confederates at Cheat Mountain, were convinced that an overwhelming force confronted them. Rust and Anderson withdrew their 3,000 men although they actually faced only about 300 determined Federals outside the Union fortifications. At Elk Water, Brig. Gen. Joseph J. Reynolds's brigade faced three more Confederate brigades but refused to budge from well-prepared entrenchments.
The Confederates did not press an attack after Col. John A. Washington, of Lee's staff, was killed during a reconnaissance of the Union right. Reynolds was so confident in the face of such timidity that he dispatched two of his own regiments from Elk Water up the mountain road to relieve the supposedly besieged fortress garrison, but the arriving Union reinforcements were unnecessary. Lee called off the attack and, after maneuvering in the vicinity, withdrew to Valley Mountain on September 17. Reynolds, meanwhile, planned an offensive against the Confederate forces stationed at the Greenbrier River.
B. Monday, September 15, 1862: Federals surrender Harper’s Ferry. CSA Gen Lee worried that his plans were known, changed his course, just hoping his men in the field would get word in time. Harper’s Ferry fell quickly to Stonewall Jackson. General Dixon Miles (pictured) died just as he surrenders his force of 12,419 men. This was the largest number of U.S. soldiers surrendered until the Battle of Corregidor in Philippines during World War II. A court of inquiry ruled after General Miles’s death, his "incapacity, amounting to almost imbecility." Jackson left behind an occupying force, and then marched at speed to rejoin Lee to once again consolidate the Army of Virginia (CSA) at the tiny Maryland village of Sharpsburg, on Antietam Creek. Lee had intended to gather his scattered troops and return to Virginia.
After an artillery battle, Col. Dixon Miles decides to surrender Harper’s Ferry. After the white flag is raised, Union gunners keep firing for some time, and the fire is returned by the Rebels. When the fire finally slackens, Col. Miles is wounded severely in the leg, and will die from his wound the next day. Harper’s Ferry belongs now to the Confederates again. They capture 11,000 Union troops, 13,000 stand of small arms, 73 cannons, and a vast haul of supplies, wagons, rations, and munitions. Jackson leaves A.P. Hill to clean up, and puts the rest of his troops on the road. Confederate Victory.
C. Tuesday, September 15, 1863: President Abraham Lincoln suspended the Writ of Habeas Corpus, especially for cases of prisoners of war, draftees, and desertion from the army. President Lincoln still defended his decision to suspend citizen’s their rights according to the United States Constitution, the “writ of habeas corpus.” This is the right of an arrested person to know what charges are being brought, and of the obligation of the state to produce evidence that the person charged was the one who committed the offense. It was one of the shining lights of our constitution’s freedoms, was swept again under the rug. Due to the existence of a “state of rebellion”, wrote Abraham Lincoln, the right would be suspended in cases of people arrested by military authorities whenever they deemed fit.
D. Thursday, September 15, 1864: Spies for the Union. Sheridan was understandably frustrated. There had been no victories for his army since he took command. There had been setbacks and a few cavalry skirmishes, but Early’s Confederates remained not only in the Valley, but north of Winchester.
And so Sheridan turned to General George Crook, who had spent quite a bit of time in and around Winchester. Might there “be found in Winchester some reliable person who would be willing to co-operate and correspond with me?” This was, of course, going against his better judgment. He had wanted to use scouts rather than civilians, but he had few choices.
General Crook knew of such a person, and suggested Rebecca Wright, “a young lady whom he had met there before the battle of Kernstown, who, he said, was a member of the Society of Friends and the teacher of a small private school. He knew she was faithful and loyal to the Government, and thought she might be willing to render us assistance, but he could not be certain of this, for on account of her well-known loyalty she was under constant surveillance.”
Sheridan hesitated, but finally decided to make an attempt. There had been an older black man named Tom Laws, whom he had employed for information and sent two messengers to his house. Once in contact with him, Sheridan asked if he knew of Rebecca Wright. The man did, and Sheridan immediately composed a letter.
I learn from Major Gen. Crook that you are a loyal lady and still love the old flag. Can you inform me of the position of Early and his forces, the number of division in his army, and his probable or reported intentions? Have any more troops arrived form Richmond, or are any more coming or reported to be coming?
I am very respectfully, your most obedient servant. P.H. Sheridan, Maj. Gen. Commanding
You can trust the bearer. Sheridan wrote his message on thin tissue paper “Which was then compressed into a small pellet, and protected by wrapping it in tin-foil so that it could be safely carried in the man’s mouth. The probability of his being searched when he came to the Confederate picket-line was not remote, and in such even he was to swallow the pellet.”
Tom Laws would slip through Confederate lines and into Winchester. The next day, around noon, he appeared at the school where Miss Wright taught. As it turned out, two nights previous, the teacher had entertained a Confederate officer. Everything was about to fall into place.
1. Sunday, September 15, 1861: Gen. Charles Fremont, commander of Union forces in St. Louis, Mo. was under pressure on two fronts. He was supposed to be organizing a march of 38,000 troops to Lexington, Mo., where a Federal force was holding out against a siege of Sterling Price (CSA). Fremont was also under pressure from President Lincoln, who was furious about Fremont’s orders freeing all the slaves in Missouri, and Lincoln’s friend, the politician-colonel Frank Blair Jr. who was furious about a recent audit of Fremont’s books. Fremont is having a hard time explaining to Blair and others the $12 million he spent in barely a month. Some of this was for gunboats and uniforms, but an amazing amount was spent on “fortifications”, food and parties. Fremont’s response: he put Blair under arrest, and cancelled the march to Lexington.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-a/part-23
2. Monday, September 15, 1862: Apparently, McClellan’s swift advance (well---swift for McClellan, at least) has caught Lee by surprise, and he has decided to retreat back across the Potomac. But first, he must gather the spread-out pieces of his army. Longstreet has 13,000 troops just west of the passes of South Mountain, and Jackson still has around 26,000 around Harper’s Ferry. Lee decides upon Sharpsburg for a place to collect, being a crossroads. By nightfall, Lee has only 15,000 men in line on the heights north and east of Sharpsburg. For some reason, McClellan’s movement grinds to a halt, even though the day ends with his army still a half-day’s march from Sharpsburg, and the Federals do not push the pursuit.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+15%2C+1862
3. Monday, September 15, 1862: Confederate troops under Gen. Bragg have attacked the Union fort at Munfordville, Kentucky, where a small Union garrison under Col. Wilde of Indiana beats back two attacks. Bragg stops his entire column and invests Munfordville in a siege.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+15%2C+1862
4. Tuesday, September 15, 1863: Gen. Halleck writes to Gen. Grant, warning him of Confederate coordination in the West. He asks Grant to send troops to cover Rosecrans’ right as he advances, and also warns of what is clear to everyone: that Joseph Johnston and Robert E. Lee have sent several divisions to reinforce Bragg. Halleck likewise warns that the Confederates have violated the rules of war by calling back troops that were paroled (set free to return home) without being exchanged (each one traded for a Union soldier delivered from prison): “The rebel Government has announced that some 16,000 of the prisoners paroled by you at Vicksburg are released from their paroles and will return to duty. None of them have been exchanged. It is also understood that they intend to put in the ranks against Rosecrans, without exchange, all the prisoners paroled by you and General Banks. Such outrageous conduct must cause very serious difficulties. After violating the cartel in every possible way, they now violate the plainest laws of war and principles of humanity.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+15%2C+1863
5. Tuesday, September 15, 1863: Walt Whitman, a poet and sometime journalist, currently serving as a volunteer hospital aid in Washington, writes home to his mother about the loyalty of Union men from Southern states: “I have known Tennessee Union men here in hospital, and I understand it, therefore—the region where Knoxville is is mainly Union, but the Southerners could not exist without it, as it is in their midst, so they determined to pound and kill and crush out the Unionists—all the savage and monstrous things printed in the papers about their treatment are true, at least that kind of thing is, as bad as the Irish in the mob treated the poor niggers in New York. We North don’t understand some things about Southerners; it is very strange, the contrast—if I should pick out the most genuine Union men and real patriots I have ever met in all my experience, I should pick out two or three Tennessee and Virginia Unionists I have met in the hospitals, wounded or sick. One young man I guess I have mentioned to you in my letters, John Barker, 2nd Tennessee Vol. (Union), was a long while a prisoner in Secesh prisons in Georgia, and in Richmond—three times the devils hung him up by the heels to make him promise to give up his Unionism; once he was cut down for dead. He is a young married man with one child. His little property destroyed, his wife and child turned out—he hunted and tormented—and any moment he could have had anything if he would join the Confederacy—but he was firm as a rock; he would not even take an oath to not fight for either side. They held him about eight months—then he was very sick, scurvy, and they exchanged him and he came up from Richmond here to hospital; here I got acquainted with him. . . . His whole thought was to get back and fight; he was not fit to go, but he has gone back to Tennessee. He spent two days with his wife and young one there, and then to his regiment—he writes to me frequently and I to him; he is not fit to soldier, for the Rebels have destroyed his health and strength (though he is only 23 or 4), but nothing will keep him from his regiment, and fighting—he is uneducated, but as sensible a young man as I ever met, and understands the whole question. Well, mother, Jack Barker is the most genuine Union man I have ever yet met. . . .”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+15%2C+1863
6. Tuesday, September 15, 1863: William Dudley Gale, a Confederate soldier in Bragg’s Army of Tennessee, writes home to his wife Kate as skirmishing and deployment of troops fills the Chickamauga Valley between Lafayette and Ringgold in northern Georgia, the results of the two armies brushing up against each other. He makes reference to the Battle of Davis Cross Roads of Sept. 10 and 11: “Lafayette Ga, Sept 15th 1863, My dear wife, We all got back here last night and had a good wash and feel clean once more. We that is Polk Corps, with the Division of Genl Walker, left here with 3 days cook rations to go & fight Crittenden Corps and the forces between us and Ringold. We had an awful march thro such dust as I never dreamed of before about 9 miles and stopped at the position selected for battle [?] the Genl & staff arrived. We expected to be engaged any minute. Chatham had formed his line of battle and all night long, the Genl was busy making his arrangements to recive them in the morning as he con-fidently expected an attack. Sometime during the night Genl Hindman’s Division came up and was sent forward at once to form [hits?] line of battle and I was sent to guide him & place him in position. His new men had about 2 hours rest.
In the meantime, we could hear occasional shots fired by the pickets in front which died away about 11 am at 12:30 pm. A brick artillery fire was heard in front of our left where Genl Stahl was with his brigade, about 40 rounds were fired and all was still. We thought all the time that the fight was near. But not so far after coming a few more the army retired leaving us grivously disappointed. We had nothing to do but to re-turn to this place. A few days before, we had a glorious opportunity to destroy Thomas Corps, had Genl Hindman obeyed orders. Thomas was surrounded, by Hill & Cleburne at one end of a gap in the high ridge, and Hindmand & Buckner at the other, Hindman ranks Buckner, and was ordered to make the attack at daylight but did not do so. Both armies lay on their arms all day, Thomas afraid to move & Hindmand afraid to attack until night when the Yankees slipt off and left us in the lurch. I hear Genl Bragg is in high recruitment at [Ox?]. We hear that we will have large reinforcements soon when I expect we will go back to Chattanooga and drive them out. This will be bloody work as it was fortified by us & strengthened by them.
Capt Blake arrived yesterday with the bundle, thanks dear wife. The shoes do finely, so do Harry’s. I have suffered very much from boils but am getting better.
Blake is waiting to take this to Rome to mail, Kiss my dear little ones. God bless & preserve you my darling wife. Your const. ally, Wm. D. Gale”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+15%2C+1863
7. Tuesday, September 15, 1863: Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186309
8. Thursday, September 15, 1864: The Daily Times in Leavenworth, Texas reports: “The train which arrived from Fort Smith week before last, brought from the South, four or five hundred women and children, who were sent here by order of Gen. Thayer. We understand that there are now at Fort Smith several hundred more, who are in a very destitute condition and who are to be sent to this place. What is to be done with these people, are we bound to support them? We understand that the Government furnishes fifteen days rations on their arrival, after which time they must provide for themselves. The citizens of Fort Scott will not see them suffer, but the number is so great that it will be utterly impossible for our citizens to support them through the coming winter. We must appeal abroad for help to Leavenworth, Lawrence and other Northern cities - Fort Scott, Kansas.”
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/1864/week-179
A Sunday, September 15, 1861: Battle of Cheat Mountain ended. Joseph Reynolds [US] defeats Robert E. Lee [CS]
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186109
A+ Sunday, September 15, 1861: Battle of Cheat Mountain ended. The approaches by each of the three Confederate brigades were uncoordinated. Rain, fog, mountainous terrain, and a dense forest limited visibility to minimal distances. As a result, each of the three Confederate brigades assigned to attack Cheat Summit Fort acted independently and never made contact with either of the other two Confederate brigades. The Union defenders on Cheat Summit were very familiar with the terrain and mountain trails. Information from captured Federal soldiers was so misleading and two Federal probing attacks from Cheat Summit Fort were so aggressive that Colonel Albert Rust and Brig. Gen. Samuel Anderson, each leading approximately 1500 Confederates at Cheat Mountain, were convinced that an overwhelming force confronted them. Rust and Anderson withdrew their 3,000 men although they actually faced only about 300 determined Federals outside the Union fortifications. At Elk Water, Brig. Gen. Joseph J. Reynolds 's brigade faced three more Confederate brigades but refused to budge from well-prepared entrenchments.
The Confederates did not press an attack after Col. John A. Washington, of Lee's staff, was killed during a reconnaissance of the Union right. Reynolds was so confident in the face of such timidity that he dispatched two of his own regiments from Elk Water up the mountain road to relieve the supposedly besieged fortress garrison, but the arriving Union reinforcements were unnecessary. Lee called off the attack and, after maneuvering in the vicinity, withdrew to Valley Mountain on September 17. Reynolds, meanwhile, planned an offensive against the Confederate forces stationed at the Greenbrier River.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cheat_Mountain
B Monday, September 15, 1862: With the fall of Harper's Ferry, Stonewall Jackson begins sending men to Robert E. Lee, preparing to face the Army of the Potomac at Sharpsburg.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186209
B+ Monday, September 15, 1862: Battle of Harper’s Ferry, Day 3 - After an artillery battle, Col. Dixon Miles decides to surrender Harper’s Ferry. After the white flag is raised, Union gunners keep firing for some time, and the fire is returned by the Rebels. When the fire finally slackens, Col. Miles is wounded severely in the leg, and will die from his wound the next day. Harper’s Ferry belongs now to the Confederates again. They capture 11,000 Union troops, 13,000 stand of small arms, 73 cannons, and a vast haul of supplies, wagons, rations, and munitions. Jackson leaves A.P. Hill to clean up, and puts the rest of his troops on the road. Confederate Victory.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+15%2C+1862
B++ Monday, September 15, 1862: Lee worried that his plans were known, changed his course, just hoping his men in the field would get word in time. Harper’s Ferry fell quickly to Stonewall Jackson. General Dixon Miles (pictured) died just as he surrenders his force of 12,419 men. This was the largest number of U.S. soldiers surrendered until the Battle of Corregidor in Philippines during World War II. A court of inquiry ruled after General Miles’s death, his "incapacity, amounting to almost imbecility." Jackson left behind an occupying force, and then marched at speed to rejoin Lee to once again consolidate the Army of Virginia (CSA) at the tiny Maryland village of Sharpsburg, on Antietam Creek. Lee had intended to gather his scattered troops and return to Virginia.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-b/part-seventy-five
Tuesday, September 15, 1863: Bragg (CSA) plans for an attack on September 18th. However, chaotic communications within the Confederate camp meant that there were delays in getting this information to the generals in the field.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-c/week-127
C Tuesday, September 15, 1863: On this date, Pres. Lincoln suspends the Writ of Habeas Corpus, especially for cases of prisoners of war, draftees, and desertion from the army.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+15%2C+1863
C+ Tuesday, September 15, 1863: In Washington, President Lincoln still defends his decision to suspend citizen’s their rights according to the United States Constitution, the “writ of habeas corpus.” This is the right of an arrested person to know what charges are being brought, and of the obligation of the state to produce evidence that the person charged was the one who committed the offense. It was one of the shining lights of our constitution’s freedoms, was swept again under the rug. Due to the existence of a “state of rebellion”, wrote Abraham Lincoln, the right would be suspended in cases of people arrested by military authorities whenever they deemed fit.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-c/week-127
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
Harpers Ferry Surrenders; McClellan Has Lee, but Waits for “Tomorrow”
September 15, 1862 (Monday) In western Maryland, through the valley of Antietam Creek, the streets of Harpers Ferry, South Mountain, and the broad and dividing Potomac River, all was drenched in th…
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A night out was all it took to spark a War. And the help of a small gun.
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LTC Stephen F.
Thank you my friend PFC Donnie Harold Harris for responding and sharing your thoughts.
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