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

Federal naval action in 1862 on the western theatre rivers – wins and losses. On the Mississippi River after being fired on from waterfront buildings, the US gunboat Essex shells Natchez until the mayor surrenders unconditionally.
On the Tennessee River, the U.S.S. A.B. Terry, an improvised gunboat, ran aground on Duck Shoals and was captured by Rebel guerillas. Among the prisoners were three free blacks, whom their captors immediately sold into slavery.
In 1863, British Lord Russell ordered two ironclad Laird Rams bound for the Confederacy to be detained.
In the western theater in 1863, CSA General Braxton Bragg named Nathan Bedford Forrest as commander of cavalry units north of Chattanooga. These included some of John H. Morgan’s men and Forrest disobeys Bragg’s order to dismount the Kentuckians. That night, CSA General D.H. Hill began the evacuation of Chattanooga with his corps on the road to LaFayette, Georgia.
The long rest of Meade’s army following Gettysburg was drawing to a close in 1863: George Meade’s Union Army of the Potomac troops had followed General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia south to the Rappahannock, and then stopped. “Neither side wished to attack the other, both believing their foes to have entrenched in fine defensive positions.
Though the soaring heat of August, President Lincoln and General-in-Chief Henry Halleck, strongly urged Meade not to move the troops or animals much, if at all. With the divisions and corps lining the river, Meade set to work on the day-to-day tasks associated with running an army. This included everything from trying to figure out how many wagons to take along with them to how to deal with newspapers in the camps.
In the middle of August, as the head died down though slightly, Meade dispatched thousands of troops to New York City and elsewhere to quell the riots over conscription. It was because of the conscription, however, that his army’s numbers did not dwindle, hovering around 76,000. These conscriptions, however, were hardly replacements for veterans both dispatched to New York or lying dead in their graves at Gettysburg.
Just as the new draftees were everything Meade wanted, neither were many of the officers remaining to fill the gaps left by those killed and wounded in the previous campaign. The I Corps, which had been brutally mangled on the first day at Gettysburg was now under the command of John Newton. Meade had personally selected Newton from the III Corps on the second day at Gettysburg, following a very short stint by Abner Doubleday, who was now pushing a pencil at a desk in Washington.
The lauded hero of Little Round Top, Gouverneur K. Warren, who had first spied the Rebels moving far on the Federal left flank, had gained the trust of Meade as a superior engineer. Only time would tell if he might make a fitting corps commander. He was given temporary lead of the II Corps until Winfield Scott Hancock, wounded on the third day at Gettysburg, returned.
General Meade had no qualms at all over replacing III Corps commander Dan Sickles, and did so with William French. Sickles had lost a leg at Gettysburg, and unlike Hancock, would not be welcomed back. General French’s Division had commanded the garrison at Harpers Ferry before being added to the III Corps after the battle. It was clear that if French could handle and independent command, he should do well enough at the head of a corps – even if the assignment was, for the time being, temporary.
The other four corps, the V, VI, XI, and XII, retained the same healthy commanders that had fought at Gettysburg: George Sykes, John Sedgwick, Oliver Howard, and Henry Slocum. Of these, the XI Corps was the most controversial and thus least wanted by Meade. Already, a division had been sent to reinforce General Quincy Gillmore on Morris Island near Charleston, and Meade had machinations to completely dissolve the corps.
Towards the middle of August, Meade thought the army might have to move, to track down the Rebels wherever they may be, and ordered each of his corps commanders to make sure that their men and supply trains were in order. Nothing came of it, but it was probably good to make sure his army could move if called upon.
Almost nothing of note occurred in the latter days of August, though it seems wrong to say. No doubt that Confederate raiders under John Singlton Mosby operated on the fringes, and that Federal cavalry did their best to keep them in check. Even that, however, fade for a spell, as Mosby himself had been wounded.
By the end of August, most of Meade’s scouts were reporting “no change” in their fronts. The only action, apart from minor skirmishes, was undertaken by Judson Kilpatrick’s Cavalry Division on the 1st and 2nd of September. Two Federal ironclads had been taken by the Rebels near Port Royal. Kilpatrick was to recapture and destroy them. Meade had put the entire army on alert, but on this date, when the news came back that Kilpatrick had achieved his objective, the well-rested army was again put at ease.
Through the quiet end of summer, things across the Rappahannock, across the Rapidan, seemed to be stirring. Maybe it was a sort of second sense had by Meade and Halleck, but both believed that General Lee was up to something, and that soon they stillness would be broken and the shells would once again fly.”
[civilwardailygazette.com/the-long-rest-of-meades-army/]
Hood decided to go on the offensive because the William T. Sherman would not content himself with atlanta in 1864: Now that he was more or less safe at Lovejoy Station, General John Bell Hood paused to inform Richmond of the past several days: “On the evening of the 30th the enemy made a lodgment across Flint River, near Jonesborough. We attacked them on the evening of the 31st with two corps, failing to dislodge them. This made it necessary to abandon Atlanta, which was done on the night of September 1. Our loss on the evening of the 31st was so small that it is evident that our effort was not a vigorous one. On the evening of September 1 General Hardee’s corps, in position at Jonesborough, was assaulted by a superior force of the enemy, and being outflanked was forced to withdraw during the night to this point, with the loss of 8 pieces of artillery.”
Hood gathered his corps commanders to see if they could figure out any way to gain reinforcements. They could not, though that hardly caused Hood to waver. He desperately wanted to go on the offensive. He realized, as he wrote to Richmond that “the enemy will not content himself with Atlanta, but will continue offensive movements.”
Atlanta had been abandoned, but Hood was far from whipped. He immediately began to consider means in which he could best Sherman. He realized that there was little point in holding out hope for reinforcements, and so he concluded that there was only one thing left to do: “by maneuvers to draw Sherman back into the mountains, then beat him in battle, and at least regain our lost territory.”
Hood fully believed that his troops were not demoralized, and would cling to this idea for days. But he was mistaken. Since taking command of the Army of Tennessee, they had retreated into Atlanta, built up defenses and finally abandoned it, being more out-maneuvered than out-fought. Though he could field roughly 39,000, his infantry had been reduced to 23,000 men fit for battle. This was, perhaps, 26,000 less men than he had at hand when he started. Fully 12,500 were killed or wounded and as many as 13,000 had been taken prisoner by Sherman’s forces.
In Atlanta, Hood left behind storehouses of supplies, including food and ammunition. The city itself was a hub of manufacturing, but that too was now lost. Even if Atlanta could somehow be retaken, the factories and foundries had been destroyed by Hood upon his egress – though they would most certainly have been destroyed by the Federals should they be compelled to retire themselves. More than anything, Atlanta, the Southern city, had fallen.
For the failure, Hood blamed William Hardee, commanding a corps of infantry at Jonesboro. Hardee had held as he could against six Federal corps, allowing time for Hood to abandon Atlanta. Hood, however, claimed that Hardee could have won the day and because it was not won, Atlanta was lost.
“The fate of Atlanta was sealed from the moment when General Hood allowed an enemy superior in numbers to pass unmolested around his flank and plant himself firmly upon his only line of railroad,” wrote Hardee in his official report. “If, after the enemy reached Jonesborough, General Hood had attacked him with his whole army instead of with a part of it, he could not reasonably have expected to drive from that position an army before which his own had been for four months retiring in the open field.”
For the next few days, both armies would stare at each other south of Atlanta.”
[civilwardailygazette.com/the-enemy-will-not-content-himself-with-atlanta-hood-to-go-on-the-offensive/]


Below are a number of journal entries from 1862 and 1864 which shed light on what life was like for soldiers and civilians – the good, the bad and the ugly.
Wednesday, September 3, 1862: Gen. Robert E. Lee, eager to follow up his victories on the Peninsula and at Second Bull Run, writes to Pres. Davis, arguing for an invasion of the North---specifically of Maryland which, for most Southerners, is likely to turn Confederate with a little encouragement. Now that Confederate troops occupy Fairfax, Dranesville, and Leesburg and thus control the key roads in northern Virginia, such a move is advantageous. Lee writes: “MR. PRESIDENT: The present seems to be the most propitious time since the commencement of the war of the Confederate Army to enter Maryland. The two grand armies of the United States that have been operating in Virginia, though now united, are much weakened and demoralized. Their new levies, of which I understand 60,000 men have already been posted in Washington, are not yet organized, and will take some time to prepare for the field. If it is ever desired to give material aid to Maryland and afford her an opportunity of throwing off the oppression to which she is now subject, this would seem the most favorable.
After the enemy had disappeared from the vicinity of Fairfax Court-House, and taken the road to Alexandria, and Washington, I did not think it would be advantageous to follow him farther. I had no intention of attacking him in his fortifications, and am not prepared to invest them. If I possessed the necessary munitions, I should be unable to supply provisions for the troops. I therefore determined, while threatening the approaches to Washington, to draw the troops into Loudoun, where forage and some provisions can be obtained, menace their possession of the Shenandoah Valley, and, if found practicable to cross into Maryland. . . .
What occasions me most concern is the fear of getting out of ammunition. I beg you will instruct the Ordnance Department to spare no pains in manufacturing a sufficient amount of the best kind, and to be particular, in preparing that for the artillery, to provide three times as much of the long-range ammunition as of that for smooth-bore or short-range guns. The points to which I desire the ammunition to be forwarded will be made known to the Department in time. If the Quartermaster's Department can furnish any shoes, it would be the greatest relief. We have entered upon September, and the nights are becoming cool.
I have the honor to be, with high respect, your obedient servant, R. E. LEE, General.”
Wednesday, September 3, 1862: Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy, considers the status of the Army and the war effort, and its head officers who are not suited to the exigencies of the day: “The army has no head. Halleck is here in the Department, a military director, not a general, a man of some scholastic attainments, but without soldierly capacity. McClellan is an intelligent engineer and officer, but not a commander to head a great army in the field. To attack or advance with energy and power is not in him; to fight is not his forte. I sometimes fear his heart is not earnest in the cause, yet I do not entertain the thought that he is unfaithful. The study of military operations interests and amuses him. It flatters him to have on his staff French princes and men of wealth and position; he likes show, parade, and power. Wishes to outgeneral the Rebels, but not to kill and destroy them. . . .
I cannot relieve my mind from the belief that to him, in a great degree, and to his example, influence, and conduct are to be attributed some portion of our late reverses, more than to any other person on cither side. His reluctance to move or have others move, his inactivity, his detention of Franklin, his omission to send forward supplies unless Pope would send a cavalry escort from the battle-field, and the tone of his conversation and dispatches, all show a moody state of feeling. The slight upon him and the generals associated with him, in the selection of Pope, was injudicious, impolitic, wrong perhaps, but is no justification for their withholding one tithe of strength in a great emergency, where the lives of their countrymen and the welfare of the country were in danger. . . .”
Saturday, September 3, 1864: “EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D.C. September 3, 1864. The national thanks are rendered by the President to Major-General W. T. Sherman and the gallant officers and soldiers of his command before Atlanta, for the distinguished ability and perseverance displayed in the campaign in Georgia, which, under Divine favor, has resulted in the capture of Atlanta. The marches, battles, sieges, and other military operations, that have signalized the campaign, must render it famous in the annals of war, and have entitled those who have participated therein to the applause and thanks of the nation. ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States”

Pictures: 1863-09-03 Massacre at Whitestone Hill; Rowboat and US Vessel; 1861-09-03 Kentucky neutrality cartoon; 1862-09-03 action at Dranesville historical marker

A. Tuesday, September, 3, 1861: Confederate forces enter Kentucky, thus ending its neutrality. Confederate Gen. Gideon Pillow under orders from Gen. Leonidas Polk, invaded Kentucky and headed for Columbus on the Mississippi River to eliminate a federal artillery battery and troop entrenchments at Baldwins which was opposite Columbus. The Confederate Secretary of War, LeRoy Walker of Alabama, was horrified and tried to send orders to Polk to withdraw the invasion forthwith, but he was overruled by Jefferson Davis.
On this date, Confederate General Pillow, commanding troops at New Madrid, Missouri, received orders from Polk to load his men onto boats, steam up river and occupy Columbus. This was a direct order to violate the neutrality. However, Polk was convinced that the presence of Union forces opposite Columbus meant that they had their minds set upon taking the town themselves (which was true).
General Pillow, well aware of Union cannon and entrenchments opposite Columbus, landed at and occupied Hickman, Kentucky, just south of the target city
Background: When war started, Leonidas Polk was a bishop in the Episcopal Church, but resigned from the Church because of its support of the Union.
On August 28, Union General Fremont, commander of the Western Department, ordered General Grant to “occupy Columbus, Ky., as soon as possible.”1 This would, of course, be a clear violation of Kentucky’s neutrality. Perhaps because of this, Fremont failed to mention his intentions to Lincoln.
A few days later, General Polk, commander of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department (for the time being, called “Department No. 2”), wrote to Kentucky’s governor, expressing his concern that he “should be ahead of the enemy in occupying Columbus and Paducah.” This would also violate Kentucky’s neutrality.
General Polk noticed that Union forces had established a battery across the Mississippi River from Columbus, Kentucky, at Baldwins.
B. Wednesday, September 3, 1862: Antietam campaign. In anticipation of the southern attack, the Federal commander of the garrison at Harper’s Ferry, Col. Dixon Miles ordered an evacuation of Winchester, Virginia which was the main Federal base in the Shenandoah Valley. Troops carried all the supplies they could to Harper’s Ferry. By then Miles had nearly 14,000 troops in Harper’s Ferry.
At the same time Robert E. Lee ordered Maj Gen Stonewall Jackson to put his corps in motion from Chantilly to Dranesville.
Background: Gen. Henry W. Halleck, commander of all U.S. armies, correctly guesses that Lee, certainly not foolish enough to attack Washington, will cross the Potomac upstream and invade Maryland. Halleck gives direct orders to McClellan to immediately assemble a field army and have them provisioned and on the road in two days.
C. Thursday, September 3, 1863: White Stone Hill Massacre, Dakota territory. General Alfred Sully led his troops to a hunting camp of over 4,000 Yanktonais and Hunkpatinas. General Sully was looking to locate and punish Dakota who the U.S. believed had participated in the “Dakota Uprising” of 1862. The Yanktonai and Hunkpatina camp he encountered was a peaceful camp that was busy making winter food preparations. Chief Bighead, Little Soldier, and Two Bears were among some of the leaders that were present. Chief Bighead attempted to surrender by waving a white flour sack but the camp was attacked anyway. The Native casualties were enormous—between 100 to 300 men, women, and children on the battlefield, whereas 156 more were captured and taken to Fort Randall. Those who did survive fled West and crossed the Missouri River near present-day Cannonball, North Dakota. General Sully lost 20 troops and an additional 38 were wounded. After the initial onslaught, General Sully and his troops set up camp at the present day sight on the 4th of September and in the ensuing days they proceeded to burn and destroy all of the Natives possessions and food. It was reported that: “Five-hundred-thousand pounds of jerked buffalo meat, food gathered for the Indians’ long winter, was burned for two-days by about 100 men, causing the melted tallow to run down the valley like a stream”
D. Saturday, September 3, 1864: John Bell Hood had abandoned Atlanta. He immediately began to consider means in which he could best Sherman. He realized that there was little point in holding out hope for reinforcements, and so he concluded that there was only one thing left to do: “by maneuvers to draw Sherman back into the mountains, then beat him in battle, and at least regain our lost territory.”
Hood fully believed that his troops were not demoralized, and would cling to this idea for days. But he was mistaken. Since taking command of the Army of Tennessee, they had retreated into Atlanta, built up defenses and finally abandoned it, being more out-maneuvered than out-fought. Though he could field roughly 39,000, his infantry had been reduced to 23,000 men fit for battle. This was, perhaps, 26,000 less men than he had at hand when he started. Fully 12,500 were killed or wounded and as many as 13,000 had been taken prisoner by Sherman’s forces.
In Atlanta, Hood left behind storehouses of supplies, including food and ammunition. The city itself was a hub of manufacturing, but that too was now lost. Even if Atlanta could somehow be retaken, the factories and foundries had been destroyed by Hood upon his egress – though they would most certainly have been destroyed by the Federals should they be compelled to retire themselves. More than anything, Atlanta, the Southern city, had fallen.
Background: Now that he was more or less safe at Lovejoy Station, General John Bell Hood paused to inform Richmond of the past several days: “On the evening of the 30th the enemy made a lodgment across Flint River, near Jonesborough. We attacked them on the evening of the 31st with two corps, failing to dislodge them. This made it necessary to abandon Atlanta, which was done on the night of September 1. Our loss on the evening of the 31st was so small that it is evident that our effort was not a vigorous one. On the evening of September 1 General Hardee’s corps, in position at Jonesborough, was assaulted by a superior force of the enemy, and being outflanked was forced to withdraw during the night to this point, with the loss of 8 pieces of artillery.”
Hood gathered his corps commanders to see if they could figure out any way to gain reinforcements. They could not, though that hardly caused Hood to waver. He desperately wanted to go on the offensive. He realized, as he wrote to Richmond that “the enemy will not content himself with Atlanta, but will continue offensive movements.”
For the failure, Hood blamed William Hardee, commanding a corps of infantry at Jonesboro. Hardee had held as he could against six Federal corps, allowing time for Hood to abandon Atlanta. Hood, however, claimed that Hardee could have won the day and because it was not won, Atlanta was lost.
“The fate of Atlanta was sealed from the moment when General Hood allowed an enemy superior in numbers to pass unmolested around his flank and plant himself firmly upon his only line of railroad,” wrote Hardee in his official report. “If, after the enemy reached Jonesborough, General Hood had attacked him with his whole army instead of with a part of it, he could not reasonably have expected to drive from that position an army before which his own had been for four months retiring in the open field.”
Aftermath: For the next few days, both armies would stare at each other south of Atlanta.”

1. Tuesday, September 3, 1861: Kentucky’s Neutrality Is Officially Violated. Kentucky was, as much as it was possible, neutral. Both the Union and the Confederacy made a show of respecting that neutrality, but both also made secret plans to win the state (by force, if necessary) for their own cause. Kentucky troops had entered both the Union and Confederate armies, but only the North had established a camp within its borders. While the state government complained to Lincoln about the camp, Lincoln claimed that it was made up completely of the state’s citizens and so did not violate the state’s neutrality.
On August 28, Union General Fremont, commander of the Western Department, ordered General Grant to “occupy Columbus, Ky., as soon as possible.”1 This would, of course, be a clear violation of Kentucky’s neutrality. Perhaps because of this, Fremont failed to mention his intentions to Lincoln.
A few days later, General Polk, commander of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department (for the time being, called “Department No. 2”), wrote to Kentucky’s governor, expressing his concern that he “should be ahead of the enemy in occupying Columbus and Paducah.”2 This would also violate Kentucky’s neutrality.
Polk noticed that Union forces had established a battery across the Mississippi River from Columbus, Kentucky, at Baldwins. On this date, Confederate General Pillow, commanding troops at New Madrid, Missouri, received orders from Polk to load his men onto boats, steam up river and occupy Columbus. This was a direct order to violate the neutrality. However, Polk was convinced that the presence of Union forces opposite Columbus meant that they had their minds set upon taking the town themselves (which was true).
General Pillow, well aware of Union cannon and entrenchments opposite Columbus, landed at and occupied Hickman, Kentucky, just south of the target city
[civilwardailygazette.com/kentuckys-neutrality-is-officially-violated/]
2. Wednesday, September 3, 1862: President Lincoln discusses with Gen. Pope recent changes in military command. Donald, Chase Diaries, 120.
[thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1862-09-03]
3. Wednesday, September 3, 1862: President Lincoln orders Gen. Halleck to organize immediately an army for active operations from all material within his control independent of forces needed for defense of Washington and to put this army in field. Abraham Lincoln to Henry W. Halleck, 3 September 1862, CW, 5:404.
thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1862-09-03
4. Wednesday, September 3, 1862: President Lincoln appoints Joseph Holt as Judge Advocate General of the Army. Evening Star (Washington, DC), 4 September 1862, 2d ed., 3:5.
thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1862-09-03
5. Wednesday, September 3, 1862: President Lincoln at Soldiers' Home confers from 9 P.M. until midnight with Secretary of State William H. Seward, just returned from New York. Evening Star (Washington, DC), 4 September 1862, 2d ed., 3:6.
thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1862-09-03
6. September 3-4, 1862: Antietam/Sharpsburg: General Lee moves north through the Shenandoah with 55,000 men. Advance elements cross into Maryland.
bjdeming.com/2012/10/13/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-3-9-1862/
7. September 3-4, 1862: Confederate Heartland Offensive: CS General Kirby Smith occupies the state capital Frankfort, Kentucky, and waits there for General Bragg’s forces to arrive.
bjdeming.com/2012/10/13/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-3-9-1862/
8. September 3-4, 1862: General Heth’s move toward Cincinnati elicits a strong alarm there over the next several days. Bragg and Forrest are in the area of Sparta, Tennessee, and Bragg orders the cavalry commander to observe and harass the rear of Buell’s army, as well as protect Bragg’s left flank. Forrest gets reinforcement with four Alabama companies of his old regiment, as well as some artillery pieces. Between now and September 8th, Forrest and his men will have many skirmishes with Union troops.
[bjdeming.com/2012/10/13/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-3-9-1862/]
9. Wednesday, September 3, 1862: US General John Pope, now without command of his army, sat down and wrote his report to Lincoln; blaming McClellan and others for their mistakes causing him to lose his latest battle.
[civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-b/part-seventy-three]
10. Western Theater: On the Mississippi River, after being fired on from waterfront buildings, a US gunboat shells Natchez until the mayor surrenders unconditionally.
[bjdeming.com/2012/10/13/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-3-9-1862/]
11. Wednesday, September 3, 1862: The U.S.S. A.B. Terry, an improvised gunboat, runs aground on Duck Shoals on the Tennessee River, and is captured by Rebel guerillas. Among the prisoners are three free blacks, whom their captors immediately sell into slavery.
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+3%2C+1862]
12. Wednesday, September 3, 1862: A heated battle at Grieger’s Lake, Kentucky features 600 Rebel irregular cavalry under attack by a numerically inferior Federal force of cavalry under Col. Shackleford. The Federals rout the Rebels, who re-form and counterattack. After an extended firefight, the Federals are running out of ammunition, and so Shackleford leads a saber charge and drives the Rebels out again.
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+3%2C+1862]
13. Wednesday, September 3, 1862: Confederate forces capture Frankfurt, the capital of Kentucky.
[blueandgraytrail.com/year/186209]
14. Wednesday, September 3, 1862: Gen. Robert E. Lee, eager to follow up his victories on the Peninsula and at Second Bull Run, writes to Pres. Davis, arguing for an invasion of the North---specifically of Maryland which, for most Southerners, is likely to turn Confederate with a little encouragement. Now that Confederate troops occupy Fairfax, Dranesville, and Leesburg and thus control the key roads in northern Virginia, such a move is advantageous. Lee writes: “MR. PRESIDENT: The present seems to be the most propitious time since the commencement of the war of the Confederate Army to enter Maryland. The two grand armies of the United States that have been operating in Virginia, though now united, are much weakened and demoralized. Their new levies, of which I understand 60,000 men have already been posted in Washington, are not yet organized, and will take some time to prepare for the field. If it is ever desired to give material aid to Maryland and afford her an opportunity of throwing off the oppression to which she is now subject, this would seem the most favorable.
After the enemy had disappeared from the vicinity of Fairfax Court-House, and taken the road to Alexandria, and Washington, I did not think it would be advantageous to follow him farther. I had no intention of attacking him in his fortifications, and am not prepared to invest them. If I possessed the necessary munitions, I should be unable to supply provisions for the troops. I therefore determined, while threatening the approaches to Washington, to draw the troops into Loudoun, where forage and some provisions can be obtained, menace their possession of the Shenandoah Valley, and, if found practicable to cross into Maryland. . . .
What occasions me most concern is the fear of getting out of ammunition. I beg you will instruct the Ordnance Department to spare no pains in manufacturing a sufficient amount of the best kind, and to be particular, in preparing that for the artillery, to provide three times as much of the long-range ammunition as of that for smooth-bore or short-range guns. The points to which I desire the ammunition to be forwarded will be made known to the Department in time. If the Quartermaster's Department can furnish any shoes, it would be the greatest relief. We have entered upon September, and the nights are becoming cool.
I have the honor to be, with high respect, your obedient servant, R. E. LEE, General.”
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+3%2C+1862]
15. Wednesday, September 3, 1862: Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy, considers the status of the Army and the war effort, and its head officers who are not suited to the exigencies of the day: “The army has no head. Halleck is here in the Department, a military director, not a general, a man of some scholastic attainments, but without soldierly capacity. McClellan is an intelligent engineer and officer, but not a commander to head a great army in the field. To attack or advance with energy and power is not in him; to fight is not his forte. I sometimes fear his heart is not earnest in the cause, yet I do not entertain the thought that he is unfaithful. The study of military operations interests and amuses him. It flatters him to have on his staff French princes and men of wealth and position; he likes show, parade, and power. Wishes to outgeneral the Rebels, but not to kill and destroy them. . . .
I cannot relieve my mind from the belief that to him, in a great degree, and to his example, influence, and conduct are to be attributed some portion of our late reverses, more than to any other person on cither side. His reluctance to move or have others move, his inactivity, his detention of Franklin, his omission to send forward supplies unless Pope would send a cavalry escort from the battle-field, and the tone of his conversation and dispatches, all show a moody state of feeling. The slight upon him and the generals associated with him, in the selection of Pope, was injudicious, impolitic, wrong perhaps, but is no justification for their withholding one tithe of strength in a great emergency, where the lives of their countrymen and the welfare of the country were in danger. . . .”
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+3%2C+1862]
16. Thursday, September 3, 1863: Vicksburg had fallen to siege on July 4. Part of the terms of surrender negotiated by General John C. Pemberton (CSA) was that his men, all 27,000 of them, would be paroled en masse and given a 30-day furlough, which was the time during which they would not be permitted to take up arms against the enemy. The men were to go to their homes, take care of necessary business and visit their families, then return to Pemberton’s command. The problem was with Part 3...the thirty days were up and an awful lot of his men were forgetting the part about returning to the army. Since they had not gone through the usual process of exchange they could not legally be used for fighting anyway, but these niceties were beginning to go by the wayside.
[civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-c/week-125]
17. Thursday, September 3, 1863: Lord Russell (Great Britain) orders two ironclad Laird Rams bound for the Confederacy to be detained.
[blueandgraytrail.com/year/186309]
18. Thursday, September 3, 1863: East Tennessee operations/Chickamauga Campaign: This night, CS General D.H. Hill begins the evacuation of Chattanooga with his corps, on the road to LaFayette, in northwest Georgia.
[bjdeming.com/2013/09/02/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-2-8-1863/]
19. Thursday, September 3, 1863: General Bragg names Forrest commander of cavalry units north of Chattanooga. These include some of John H. Morgan’s men, and Forrest disobeys Bragg’s order to dismount the Kentuckians.
[bjdeming.com/2013/09/02/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-2-8-1863/]
20. Thursday, September 3, 1863: Skirmish at Alpine, Georgia.
[bjdeming.com/2013/09/02/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-2-8-1863/]
21. Saturday, September 3, 1864: “EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D.C. September 3, 1864. The national thanks are rendered by the President to Major-General W. T. Sherman and the gallant officers and soldiers of his command before Atlanta, for the distinguished ability and perseverance displayed in the campaign in Georgia, which, under Divine favor, has resulted in the capture of Atlanta. The marches, battles, sieges, and other military operations, that have signalized the campaign, must render it famous in the annals of war, and have entitled those who have participated therein to the applause and thanks of the nation. ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States”
[sonofthesouth.net/union-generals/sherman/memoirs/general-sherman-burning-atlanta.htm]
22. Saturday, September 3, 1864: Shenandoah operations: Battle of Berryville begins.
[bjdeming.com/2014/09/01/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-1-7-1864/]
23. Saturday, September 3, 1864: Mississippi operations: Part of CS General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s forces, McCulloch’s Brigade (formerly on its way to the Yazoo River to reinforce General Wirt Adams) is re-deployed to Mobile.
[bjdeming.com/2014/09/01/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-1-7-1864/]
24. Saturday, September 3, 1864: With the war news from Atlanta, this was so important the taking of Atlanta, that Lincoln orders a day of national rejoicing on September 5, 1864. This Union victory presents President Abraham Lincoln with the key he needed to reelection in the fall of 1864.
[civilwarhardemancotn/departments/1864/week-177]
25. Saturday, September 3, 1864: Confederate Generals Wheeler, Roddy, and Forrest are between Nashville and Murfreesboro. General Wheeler’s troops burn several miles of the Great Western and the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad. General John Kelly’s a division of Wheeler’s Corps skirmishes with a U.S. Cavalry force near Franklin. Kelly is mortally wounded. More skirmishes at and near Union City.
[civilwarhardemancotn/departments/1864/week-177]

A Tuesday, September, 3, 1861: Confederate forces enter Kentucky, thus ending its neutrality. Confederate Gen. Gideon Pillow under orders from Gen. Leonidas Polk, invaded the state and headed for Columbus, Ky., on the Mississippi River. The Confederate Secretary of War, LeRoy Walker of Alabama, was horrified and tried to send orders to Polk to withdraw the invasion forthwith, but he was overruled by Jefferson Davis. When war started, Leonidas Polk was a bishop in the Episcopal Church, but resigned from the Church because of its support of the Union.
[civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-a/part-twenty-one]
A+ Tuesday, September 3, 1861: In response to a federal build-up in the West, Leonidas Polk orders Gideon Pillow to take Columbus, Kentucky on the Mississippi River.
[blueandgraytrail.com/year/186109]
A++ Tuesday, September 3, 1861: On August 28, Union General Fremont, commander of the Western Department, ordered General Grant to “occupy Columbus, Ky., as soon as possible.”1 This would, of course, be a clear violation of Kentucky’s neutrality. Perhaps because of this, Fremont failed to mention his intentions to Lincoln.
A few days later, General Polk, commander of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department (for the time being, called “Department No. 2”), wrote to Kentucky’s governor, expressing his concern that he “should be ahead of the enemy in occupying Columbus and Paducah.”2 This would also violate Kentucky’s neutrality.
Polk noticed that Union forces had established a battery across the Mississippi River from Columbus, Kentucky, at Baldwins. On this date, Confederate General Pillow, commanding troops at New Madrid, Missouri, received orders from Polk to load his men onto boats, steam up river and occupy Columbus. This was a direct order to violate the neutrality. However, Polk was convinced that the presence of Union forces opposite Columbus meant that they had their minds set upon taking the town themselves (which was true).
General Pillow, well aware of Union cannon and entrenchments opposite Columbus, landed at and occupied Hickman, Kentucky, just south of the target city.”
[civilwardailygazette.com/kentuckys-neutrality-is-officially-violated/]
B Wednesday, September 3, 1862: Lee gives orders to Gen. Stonewall Jackson to put his corps in motion from Chantilly to Dranesville. Within a few hours, Jackson’s troops are on the move.
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+3%2C+1862]
B+ Wednesday, September 3, 1862: Col. Dixon Miles, the Federal commander of the garrison n at Harper’s Ferry, has ordered an evacuation of Winchester, Virginia, the main Federal base in the Shenandoah Valley. Troops carry all the supplies they can and have come to Harper’s Ferry. Miles has nearly 12,000 troops in Harper’s Ferry, and the addition of the Winchester evacuees brings it to 14,000.
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+3%2C+1862]
B++ Wednesday, September 3, 1862: Gen. Henry W. Halleck, commander of all U.S. armies, correctly guesses that Lee, certainly not foolish enough to attack Washington, will cross the Potomac upstream and invade Maryland. Halleck gives direct orders to McClellan to immediately assemble a field army and have them provisioned and on the road in two days.
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+3%2C+1862]

C Wednesday, September 3, 1862: On September 3, 1863 General Alfred Sully led his troops to a hunting camp of over 4,000 Yanktonais and Hunkpatinas. General Sully was looking to locate and punish Dakota who the U.S. believed had participated in the “Dakota Uprising” of 1862. The Yanktonai and Hunkpatina camp he encountered was a peaceful camp that was busy making winter food preparations. Chief Bighead, Little Soldier, and Two Bears were among some of the leaders that were present. Chief Bighead attempted to surrender by waving a white flour sack but the camp was attacked anyway. The Native casualties were enormous—between 100 to 300 men, women, and children on the battlefield, whereas 156 more were captured and taken to Fort Randall. Those who did survive fled West and crossed the Missouri River near present-day Cannonball, North Dakota. General Sully lost 20 troops and an additional 38 were wounded. After the initial onslaught, General Sully and his troops set up camp at the present day sight on the 4th of September and in the ensuing days they proceeded to burn and destroy all of the Natives possessions and food. It was reported that: “Five-hundred-thousand pounds of jerked buffalo meat, food gathered for the Indians’ long winter, was burned for two-days by about 100 men, causing the melted tallow to run down the valley like a stream” (Matthew Von Pinnon, Fargo Forum, 9-2-2001).
[thpo.standingrock.org/programs/display.asp?program_id=THPO&pg=White%20Stone%20Hill]
C+ Thursday, September 3, 1863: In North Dakota, Brig. General Alfred Sully (US) decided to find the Sioux Indians and punish them for recrossing the James River. This decision over the next couple of days would cost 72 Union soldiers their lives and 750 Indians theirs. This engagement weakened but did not destroy the Native American resistance in the area.
[site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-c/week-125]
D Saturday, September 3, 1864: The Enemy Will Not Content Himself With Atlanta’ – Hood To Go On The Offensive? Now that he was more or less safe at Lovejoy Station, General John Bell Hood paused to inform Richmond of the past several days: “On the evening of the 30th the enemy made a lodgment across Flint River, near Jonesborough. We attacked them on the evening of the 31st with two corps, failing to dislodge them. This made it necessary to abandon Atlanta, which was done on the night of September 1. Our loss on the evening of the 31st was so small that it is evident that our effort was not a vigorous one. On the evening of September 1 General Hardee’s corps, in position at Jonesborough, was assaulted by a superior force of the enemy, and being outflanked was forced to withdraw during the night to this point, with the loss of 8 pieces of artillery.”
Hood gathered his corps commanders to see if they could figure out any way to gain reinforcements. They could not, though that hardly caused Hood to waver. He desperately wanted to go on the offensive. He realized, as he wrote to Richmond that “the enemy will not content himself with Atlanta, but will continue offensive movements.”
Atlanta had been abandoned, but Hood was far from whipped. He immediately began to consider means in which he could best Sherman. He realized that there was little point in holding out hope for reinforcements, and so he concluded that there was only one thing left to do: “by maneuvers to draw Sherman back into the mountains, then beat him in battle, and at least regain our lost territory.”
Hood fully believed that his troops were not demoralized, and would cling to this idea for days. But he was mistaken. Since taking command of the Army of Tennessee, they had retreated into Atlanta, built up defenses and finally abandoned it, being more out-maneuvered than out-fought. Though he could field roughly 39,000, his infantry had been reduced to 23,000 men fit for battle. This was, perhaps, 26,000 less men than he had at hand when he started. Fully 12,500 were killed or wounded and as many as 13,000 had been taken prisoner by Sherman’s forces.
In Atlanta, Hood left behind storehouses of supplies, including food and ammunition. The city itself was a hub of manufacturing, but that too was now lost. Even if Atlanta could somehow be retaken, the factories and foundries had been destroyed by Hood upon his egress – though they would most certainly have been destroyed by the Federals should they be compelled to retire themselves. More than anything, Atlanta, the Southern city, had fallen.
For the failure, Hood blamed William Hardee, commanding a corps of infantry at Jonesboro. Hardee had held as he could against six Federal corps, allowing time for Hood to abandon Atlanta. Hood, however, claimed that Hardee could have won the day and because it was not won, Atlanta was lost.
“The fate of Atlanta was sealed from the moment when General Hood allowed an enemy superior in numbers to pass unmolested around his flank and plant himself firmly upon his only line of railroad,” wrote Hardee in his official report. “If, after the enemy reached Jonesborough, General Hood had attacked him with his whole army instead of with a part of it, he could not reasonably have expected to drive from that position an army before which his own had been for four months retiring in the open field.”
For the next few days, both armies would stare at each other south of Atlanta.”
[civilwardailygazette.com/the-enemy-will-not-content-himself-with-atlanta-hood-to-go-on-the-offensive/]

The ships of the Laird Brothers
Laird was a shipyard in Birkenhead, England, which attempted to construct two ironclad rams for the Confederacy. The subterfuge used to try to create these powerful warships despite the rules of the British Foreign Enlistment Act is an intriguing story of secret agents and political power
In 1863, British Lord Russell ordered two ironclad Laird Rams bound for the Confederacy to be detained.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRSk1bksE0g
FYI GySgt Jack Wallace CWO4 Terrence Clark SMSgt Lawrence McCarter LTC Trent Klug SFC Bernard Walko SFC Stephen King SSG Franklin Briant PO2 Tom Belcher PO1 John Johnson PO2 Marco Monsalve SN Greg Wright PO3 Steven SherrillSSG Bill McCoy SPC Mike Bennett Sgt Sheri Lynn

good history... Thanks

A couple great pictures there LTC Stephen F.. Do you know how many Ironclads there were? I always think of the two famous ones.