What was the most significant event on September 29 during the U.S. Civil War?

Dueling was illegal during the Civil War but that did not stop “gentlemen” from getting into duels. In 1862, Federal Brig Gen Jefferson C. Davis shot to death Brig. General William “Bull” Nelson 2 days after Davis was assigned to work for Brig. General William “Bull” Nelson Davis is arrested, but never tried or convicted for his crime. He went on to command a corps in the Georgia and Carolinas campaign.
On the other hand, in the midst of carnage valor was more commonplace than dueling while uncommon valor at times became more common. In 1864, for valor at the Battle of New Market Heights during the siege of Petersburg Medals of Honor were awarded to 14 African-American soldiers. Two are recorded below:
1. “Private Gardiner earned the Medal of Honor on September 29, 1864, at the battle of Chaffin's Farm / New Market Heights. As the initial attack stalled at the abatis in front of the Confederate works, Colonel Draper tried to get the men to continue the charge but his orders could not be heard over the roar of the battle. All along the lines, White officers were being shot down. Lieutenant Colonel Shirtliff, commander of the 5th U.S.C.T., was mortally wounded. At this critical point in the battle, Black soldiers rose from the ranks to replace the White officers who had been killed or wounded. Sergeant Milton Holland, a 20 year-old from Austin, Texas, took command of Company C, Richmond born, Sergeant Powhatan Beaty, a former slave, took command of Company G, Sergeant James Bronson, a Virginia born 19-year-old from Pennsylvania, led Company D, Sergeant Robert Pimm, an Ohio farmer, led Company I.Inspired by the courage and example of such men as Holland, Beaty, Bronson and Pimm, the Black soldiers surged forward and took the Rebel works. The first to enter the works were Sergeant James H. Harris, Sergeant Edward Ratcliff and Private William H. Barnes of the 38th U.S.C.T. and Private James Gardiner of the 36th U.S.C.T. Sergeant Gardiner demonstrated his courage by rushing in advance of his brigade, he shot a Rebel officer who was on the parapet rallying his men, then charging into the works he ran the same officer through with a bayonet. His men followed him into the Rebel works where they met the enemy face to face, and Black men with arms of iron fought Southern White solders hand to hand with desperate valor. In the end, it was those who held the philosophy that Black men were inferior and fit only to be the slaves of other men that were driven from the field.”
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ncusct/medals.htm
2. Corporal James earned the Medal of Honor on September 29, 1864, at the battle of Chaffin's Farm / New Market Heights. For further details of the action see The Battle of New Market Heights. Corporal James' citation reads as follows: Having had his arm mutilated, making immediate amputation necessary, he loaded and discharged his piece with one hand and urged his men forward; this within 30 yards of the enemy works.
Although seriously wounded, having lost his left arm, Sergeant James did not want to be sent home. His people were not yet free and his job was not yet done. He sent a letter to General A. G. Draper requesting he be allowed to stay in the army. General Draper wrote the following letter, which is now in Miles James' service records in the National Archives in Washington D.C.
“Sergeant Miles James, Co. B, 36th U.S.C.T. writes me from your hospital to urge that he be permitted to remain in the service. He lost his left arm in the charge upon New Market Heights, September 29, 1864. If it be possible, I would most respectfully urge that his request be granted. He was made a Sergeant and awarded a silver medal by Major General Benjamin Butler, for gallant conduct. He is one of the bravest men I ever saw; and is in every respect a model soldier. He is worth more with a single arm, than half a dozen ordinary men. Being a Sergeant he will have very little occasion as a file closer to use a musket. He could be a Sergeant of my Provost-Guard, and could do filly duty in many ways. If consistent with your views of duty, I would be greatly obliged if you can make it convenient for him to return to his Regiment.”
General Draper's request was granted and Sergeant James was returned to duty with a Sergeant's sword rather than a musket. He served until October 13, 1865, when he was discharged for disability.”
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ncusct/medals.htm
Friday, September 29, 1864 Lt Gen U.S. Grant surprises CSA Gen Robert E. Lee north of the James River. “I hope it will lay no constraint on you,” wrote President Lincoln to General Grant on the morning of this date, “no do harm anyway, for me to say I am a little afraid lest Lee sends re-enforcements to Early, and thus enables him to turn upon Sheridan.”
Philip Sheridan had scored a major victory in the Shenandoah Valley, and had backed Jubal Early’s Confederates nearly out of the Valley itself. Lincoln’s fears were justified. If Early were to be reinforced, and if history was any measure, Sheridan would be whipped back to Washington. But Grant was also aware of such late history and made his reply in the early afternoon:
“I am taking steps to prevent Lee sending re-enforcements to Early by attacking him here.”
This had been in the planning for days. On the 27th, Grant had informed General George Meade, commanding the Army of the Potomac, that on the morning of the 29th, “a movement will take place intended to surprise and capture the works of the enemy north of the James River between Malvern Hill and Richmond.”
While Grant would direct Benjamin Butler’s Army of the James north of the James River, separating Richmond from Petersburg, Meade was to prepare for a battle of his own. Grant’s instructions, however, were thus far vague.
“As a co-operative movement with this you will please have the Army of the Potomac under arms at 4a.m. on the 29th ready to move in any direction,” Grant began, allowing that they should have up to four days’ worth of rations in their haversacks. Grant originally intended to give Meade specific instructions over which troops and which targets should be selected and attacked, “but, on reflection, I will leave the details to you, stating merely that I want every effort used to convince the enemy that the South Side [rail]road and Petersburg are the objects of our efforts.”
The only real stipulation Grant had was that if the road to Petersburg was open, take it. And whatever ground they held should be maintained.
Almost immediately, things went wrong. Meade was confused by Grant’s suggestive orders. “Do you refer to movements within or without our lines?” he asked. Unstated, at least at first, was that Grant wanted Meade to give the appearance that Butler’s troops on the Union right were actually being shuffled over to Meade on the Union left.
Grant and Butler’s attack was the main thrust. Meade was to exploit it if Lee shifted troops from the south to the north. The next day, Meade made his plans and prepared his forces. He would send two divisions from John Parke’s Ninth Corps, which would be supported by two divisions from Gouverneur K. Warren’s Fifth.
From two Confederate deserters, Meade learned that Lee had done his best to reinforce the lines southwest of Petersburg – near where he planned to hit them, near a farm owned by the Peebles Family and the Poplar Spring Church, north of the Federal left, up the tracks from Reams Station. The Rebels told of two large fortifications and thick hordes of their former comrades lining trenches paralleling the Boydton Plank Road.
This information solidified Grant’s suspicions that Lee still clung to Petersburg and any full on attack by Meade’s Army of the Potomac would be a pointless, bloody mess. It also supported the notion that once Butler made his attack north of the James, Lee would shift troops out of Meade’s way south of Petersburg.
Butler had masterfully kept his own plans a secret. There were no leaks and on the morning of this date, nobody gray suspected a thing. With two full corps, he crossed the James River – the Tenth Corps under David Birney on the right, the Eighteenth under Edward Ord on the left. They slipped across the pontoon bridge near Deep Bottom to direct their blow against New Market Heights.
A line of Confederate entrenchments extended east toward the crossing, but it was held by less than two thousand Rebels. The attack was led by a brigade from the Tenth Corps composed exclusively of black Union troops. They came, but were at first repulsed. Then, once more, they attacked – now reinforced to the strength of a division. The new bulk was so designed that it overcame the Confederate left and pried them from their defenses.
But this was only the work of the Tenth Corps. Ord’s Eighteenth was also on the hunt. Upon crossing the James, they separated, Ord continued west toward Fort Harrison along the main Confederate lines from which the New Market Heights line jutted. This was hardly an attack. Before the Federals were able to launch, the Rebels took notice, fired a few rounds, and escaped to a second line of defenses to the west.
With the Confederate works taken by Ord, and the New Market Heights line in retreat, the Rebels were compacted and able to stop any further Federal gains. But what they had lost was telling enough. Fort Harrison was gone and with it went some small control of the James River.
Lee was faced with two options – he could either do nothing and allow the Federal attacks to go unpunished, or he could strip forces from Petersburg to retake the fort and New Market Heights. “The enemy still hold Battery Harrison on the exterior line,” he wrote late on this date. “Our loss is very small.”
And it was. In all, the Confederates suffered fifty or so casualties to the bloodletting experienced by the attacking Federal forces, which numbered over 850 thus far. It was decided to retake Harrison, and Lee pulled 10,000 men from the Petersburg defenses to do it.
As Lee would attack the following day, so would Meade, taking unknown advantage of the lessened Confederates in the Petersburg lines. Warren and Parke’s men were at the ready and were now awaiting the dawn. [1]
[1] Sources: Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 42, Part 2, p1046-1048; Personal Memoirs by Ulysses S. Grant; Meade’s Army by Theodore Lyman; The Last Citadel by Noah Andre Trudeau; The Petersburg Campaign, Vol. 2 by Edwin Bearss.
http://civilwardailygazette.com/grant-surprises-lee-north-of-the-james/
Pictures: 1864-09-29_THREE MEDALS OF HONOR - The Battle of New Market Heights, fought on Thursday September; 1862-09-29 Brig Gen. Jefferson C. Davis kills Brig Gen. William Bull Nelson; 1864-09-29 Battle of New Market Heights map; 1863-09-29 E-lookoutMtn-2

A. 1861: Affair at Travisville, Tennessee. This turned out to be the first military conflict in Tennessee and brought about the first Civil War fatalities in Tennessee, when four Confederate soldiers were killed and four more captured. The prisoners were brought back to Kentucky, when, after taking a solemn obligation to prove faithful to the United States Government, they were released.
B. 1862: Brig Gen William A. 'Bull' Nelson got into an altercation with Brig Gen Jefferson C. Davis at the Galt House Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky. Davis confronted Nelson, sharp words were exchanged and Nelson slapped Davis on the side of the head. Gen. Davis went outside and borrowed a pistol and went back in and murdered Gen. Nelson with one shot in the heart. Earlier, Brig. Gen. Nelson, a corps commander under Buell, had called for the dismissal of Brig Gen Jefferson C. Davis, commander of the Home Guard Brigade in Louisville, for what Nelson considered dereliction of duty. Davis is arrested, but never tried or convicted for his crime. He will go on to command a corps in the Georgia and Carolinas campaign.
C. 1863: Siege of Chattanooga, Tennessee. CSA Gen Braxton Bragg decided upon a siege of Chattanooga, by default (1) knowing how low MG William Rosecrans’ men were in rations and (2) knowing or at least suspecting that significant Federal reinforcements were coming from the eastern theatre. His troops begin to install gun positions on Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain, overlooking the city of Chattanooga.
D. 1864: Battle of New Market Heights, Virginia. Battle of New Market Heights, Virginia. Union General Ulysses S. Grant tried to break the stalemate around Richmond and Petersburg (25 miles south of Richmond) by attacking two points along the defenses of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Grant selected General Benjamin Butler’s Army of the James to make the attack on New Market Heights. Butler ordered General David Birney to attack New Market Heights. Birney began the assault, sending a division of African-American soldiers against New Market Heights. Butler proved correct about the weakness of the Richmond defenses, which were significantly undermanned since most of Lee’s force was protecting Petersburg. The 1,800 Confederate defenders of New Market Heights soon realized the Yankee attack threatened to overrun their position. After a brief battle, they retreated closer to Richmond. At nearby Fort Harrison, Ord’s troops swarmed over the walls of the fort and scattered the 800 inexperienced defenders.
Despite the initial success, the Union attack became bogged down. The leading units of the attack suffered significant casualties, including many officers. The Confederate defenses were deep, and the Yankees faced another set of fortifications. Butler instructed his men to secure the captured territory before renewing the attack. That night, Lee moved several brigades from Petersburg for an unsuccessful counterattack on September 30.
In the end, Union soldiers bent the Richmond defenses but did not break them. Yankee casualties totaled approximately 3,300 of the 20,000 troops engaged, while the Confederates lost around 2,000 of 11,000 engaged. The stalemate continued until the following spring.
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