Posted on Oct 20, 2016
What was the most significant event on September 5 during the U.S. Civil War?
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CSS Alabama - Confederate Raider
The story of the CSS Alabama - the famous Confederate raider that wreaked havoc on the commerce of the north. Follow her to her final battle, a dramatic enco...
The Confederacy made many efforts to become a legitimate government through attempted trade agreements and vessel building contracts for ironclads with Great Britain and coercion to influence France in 1863.
Earlier in the war the south had duped the British into building warships for them:
1. 1862 - The CSS Alabama was built at Lairds shipyard in secrecy masquerading as a merchant ship. The vessel was built on the River Mersey in 1862 and crewed mainly by Liverpudlians,
2. The CSS Shenandoah was originally built for the British government as Sea King. After commissioning into the Confederate fleet she sailed from England to intercept commerce from the US West Coast bound to the Far East and Latin America. Shenandoah single handedly decimated the whaling fleet of the Northern Union.
3. 1863 - The Confederacy ordered from Lairds shipyard two armored iron hulled, twin rotating turret, rams powered by steam-sail. The warships were advanced designs with also the ability to ram and destroy wooden ships, hence the title rams. The ships were clandestinely built under cover of being destined for the Egyptian navy. These were the most advanced ships in the world and would have torn through the Northern Union fleet if let loose. The rotating turrets were a new development equipped with advanced rapid firing breach loading Armstrong guns. The rotating turrets enabled great flexibility when attacking enemy ships. These two deep sea operating ships are not to be confused with the iron clad turreted monitors used in the American civil war which were dedicated vessels for operating primarily in estuaries. One of the monitors capsized in deep water being so unstable.
“The Northern Union spy ring relayed to Washington the status of the construction of the ships. Washington put pressure on the British government to seize the ships from Lairds. The fear of these ships was so great a diplomatic row ensued with Abraham Lincoln threatening to declare war on the UK if the vessels were delivered.
With Britain having a huge naval fleet and a number of the advanced iron Warrier class ships complimented by the Laird rams, declaring war on the Britain would seem a foolish act when the Northern Union was already engaged in a war with the Confederacy. Britain had reinforced Canada with troops with the giant Great Eastern requisitioned as a troop ship sailing from Liverpool. Russia did give the Northern Union assurances that if Britain recognized the Confederacy they would declare war on Britain. Russia had ships based in San Francisco and New York. Delivering the rams to a French company may not be viewed as recognizing the Confederacy, however it is how the Northern Union and Russia would have interpreted the transactions. Having the Russians potentially on his side may have been the reason why Lincoln was so aggressive to the United Kingdom.
The Most Advanced Ships in the World
The British designed and built the first full iron hull warship, HMS Warrior in 1860, which is now berthed in Portsmouth harbor. Napoleon referred to Warrier as "that long black snake in the English Channel". The Warrior was highly successful in preventing a war with France.
However, the iron Laird Rams ordered by the Confederacy put the Warrior into instant obsolescence. The configuration had heavy impenetrable armor, two revolving armored turret guns, fore and aft, with quick firing breach loading Armstrong guns. The ships did not have to line up broadside against an enemy ship to fire, having the ability to fire its guns quickly at virtually any angle to an enemy ship. The rams were a quantum leap in design and technology and vessels to be feared. The rams could steam into a wooden hulled blue water fleet and decimate it. In harbors’ and rivers, they could just simply ram ironclad ships below the waterline. British navy ships were primarily designed by the Admiralty, in Admiralty shipyards. The Laird Rams were designed by men at Lairds who were supposed to only know merchant vessel design. The arrogant Admiralty designers were given a quick lesson in advanced warship design.
The Iron Rams Seized by the British Government.
Via the Northern Union spy network in Liverpool, the US ambassador was constantly informing the British authorities of the ships. The ships were being built for a French company on behalf of the Egyptian government and given Egyptian names - the company was fake. A country like Egypt at the time ordering such advanced and expensive vessels was highly unlikely. The British government needed positive proof of the Northern Union allegations. Lairds would minimally cooperate with the British government, as the orders were legitimate. The rams were clearly warships and not disguised as merchantmen as was the CSS Alabama. The British government sent HMS Majestic to the River Mersey standing off the Lairds shipyard. Later the Royal Navy seized the rams. The Royal Navy wanted the ships, however the Admiralty shunned them because it wasn't one of their designs. Initially the rams were not taken into the Royal Navy. Lairds lodged a claim for the ships from the British government for the seized partially built ships. Only then did the government pay up and take the ships into the Royal Navy paying for the full completion of the ships.
The ships were clandestinely named, El Tousson and El Monassir. The names on commission were to be CSS Mississippi and CSS North Carolina. The rams were eventually incorporated into the Royal Navy as HMS Wivern and HMS Scorpion. The ships were so advanced HMS Wivern was used until well into the 20th century being scrapped in 1922. A part of the money Lairds received for the rams from the British government, went into the Confederate Treasury, and helped to pay for CSS Shenandoah.
President Abraham Lincoln and General-in-Chief Winfield Scott look to wrangle Maj Gen Fremont in 1861: “General John C. Fremont, Union commander of the Western Department, was out of control and out of his depths. President Lincoln knew he had to be replaced, but was unsure who would be up to the incredibly difficult task of keeping Missouri in the Union. Lincoln met with General-in-Chief Winfield Scott on this rainy Thursday morning. They talked of Fremont’s August 30 proclamation, where he promised a death sentence to any armed secessionist and freed the slaves of any disloyal slave owners. Lately, the President had been hearing an increasing number of reports about Fremont’s ineptitude. The General rarely left his headquarters, got along with basically nobody and was fast losing the respect of his subordinates.
General Scott agreed. A change needed to be made. Replacing Fremont, however, was not what they had in mind. They decided to send an Adjutant and Inspector General to assist Fremont. Scott’s first choice was Major-General David Hunter, a West Point graduate, veteran of the Mexican War and borderline abolitionist. Hunter accompanied Lincoln from Springfield to Washington prior to the inauguration, suffering a broken collar bone while attempting to control the crowds clamoring to see the President-elect. General Scott, however, noted that, according to military tradition, Hunter was one rank too high to perform this duty.
Another option was Brigadier-General George Stoneman, also a West Point graduate (where he roomed with “Stonewall” Jackson). Stoneman spent most of his military career in the cavalry battling Indians in the West. Though he was Scott’s second choice, he was the only choice with the proper rank and was thus Scott’s official recommendation.
Stoneman, wrote Scott to Lincoln, “may prove to be a God-send in this emergency.” He had “youth, vigor, intelligence discretion, firmness, conciliatory manners.” He was, “perhaps the only one of high rank in the entire army who is on tolerable terms with Fremont.” Among Stoneman’s “rare merits,” gushed Scott, was “this crowning one: to do his country proportionate service, he is always willing to go from the most agreeable to the most disagreeable, post & duty.”
Scott concluded: “We may send Stoneman to Fremont as Chief of his Staff & act as Adjutant & Inspector General. If Fremont will listen to him he will soon win his confidence & effect every thing.”
Two Union Armies combined under Maj Gen George B. McClellan; Maj Gen John Pope relieved of command; Kentucky in another panic in 1862: “In Washington, as the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia was crossing the Potomac River north of the city, General John Pope, commander of the Union Army of Virginia, was ready to follow. The only problem was that John Pope had not a soldier to command.
Following the defeat at Second Manassas, and the retreat to the Federal capital, General George McClellan was placed in command of all troops. Technically, the order placing McClellan in command stated that it was only the troops in Washington. Both the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Virginia were in Washington, and so, by that order, McClellan was in charge. But should the Army of Virginia take the field, thought Pope, it would once again revert to his own command.
While this was being sorted out, Pope penned his official report of the battle, which, according to Naval Secretary Gideon Welles, read more like a manifesto than a report. In it, Pope leveled charges at McClellan, as well as Generals like Porter, Franklin, and Griffin. When presented to President Lincoln and his Cabinet, they requested a major rewrite before it be published. Still, the charges would stick – to everyone but McClellan.
Things on the morning of this date moved at a rapid pace. General-in-Chief Henry Halleck ordered McClellan to move immediately as “there can be no doubt that the enemy are crossing the Potomac in force.” McClellan then sent General Pope an order to have his command ready to move out. The problem was, Pope had no idea what he commanded.
“McClellan has ordered my troops to take post at various places,” wrote Pope to McClellan’s chief of staff, trying to figure it out, “and I have never been notified in a single instance of their positions.”
He wrote a similar memo to Halleck. “What is my command, and where is it?” wrote Pope. “McClellan has scattered it about in all directions, and has not informed me of the position of a single regiment. Am I to take the field under McClellan’s orders?”
Morning turned to afternoon, and yet Pope had no idea what was going on. Things, however, seemed to be happening without him. Again, he turned to Halleck, voicing quite a bit more ire than before. “I must again ask your attention to the condition of things in this army,” Pope began. “By the present arrangement you are doing me more injury than my worst enemy could do. It is understood, and acted on, that I am deprived of my command, and that it is assigned to McClellan. An order defining his exact status here as well as my own is necessary at once. I send you an official protest against his action.”
In response, Pope received a single sentence from Halleck: “The armies of the Potomac and Virginia are being consolidated, you will report for orders to the Secretary of War.”
While Pope was waiting, McClellan received the news in a confidential note from Halleck preceding official orders so that McClellan could “act accordingly in putting forces in the field.” He was told that “The President has directed that General Pope be relieved and report to War Department.” Generals Porter, Franklin, and Griffin, each named in Pope’s venomous report, were “to be relieved from duty till the charges against them are examined.”
Perhaps to soften the blow, Halleck wrote a longer, gentler note to Pope. He apologized for the delay in the morning, but said that it was because he simply didn’t know what Lincoln was going to do with Pope. The true reasons for his dismissal, however, were because it was clear that he couldn’t work under McClellan – the two simply could not get along. Secondly, Pope’s testimony was required for the case being built against Generals Porter, Franklin, and Griffin.
“Do not infer from this that any blame attaches to you,” begged Halleck with more than a whiff of insincerity. “On the contrary, we think you did your best with the material you had. I have not heard any one censure you in the least.”With this, Pope gathered his papers from his headquarters in Alexandria and crossed the bridge into Washington.
__________________
Bragg moves, Buell wonders, Kentucky panics. Braxton Bragg and his Army of Mississippi had stopped for a few days in Sparta, Tennessee. For weeks he had hemmed and hawed over what the destination of his campaign would be. Should he hit Nashville, with its stores and Federal supply lines? Or should he strike into the heart of Kentucky, joining his compatriot, Kirby Smith, in a move upon Lexington.
Before leaving his base at Chattanooga, he had chosen the latter. But at Sparta, things began to change. First, there was a contingent of politicos, headed by disposed Tennessee Governor Isham Harris, hovering about, trying to convince him to move on Nashville. Bragg may or may not have considered it, but if he did, it was because the road he had planned to take into Kentucky was bereft of forage for his army.
Besides, Union General Don Carlos Buell’s Army of the Ohio was clearly moving to fortify Nashville, thinking that was Bragg’s objective and hoping that the Rebels would oblige him. They would not.
But Buell had no intension of staying in Nashville. He hoped that Bragg would follow him, but more and more, it was looking like the Confederates were moving on Bowling Green, Kentucky. Buell, in a September 2nd letter to General-in-Chief Henry Halleck, was determined to leave a defensive force at Nashville, while taking the rest of his army into Kentucky. Still, it wasn’t yet obvious to Buell just where Bragg was going. He had hoped to have his army in Murfreesboro, about thirty miles east of Nashville, by this date. This would allow his men to defend against whatever force Bragg might be throwing at the city. Instead, he decided to pull back almost all the way to Nashville.
General Bragg had sent scouts to find a new road, and by this date, it seems that he had made up his mind – not over whether to attack Nashville or Kentucky, but about which road to take into Kentucky. Having deduced a passable route, he sent orders to Leonidus Polk, commanding a wing of his force to move immediately towards the Cumberland River via Gainesboro.
Though General Buell was trying to figure out what to do and how to do it (and why), it didn’t mean that the road to Kentucky was wide open for Bragg’s Confederates. The rampaging force under Kirby Smith was causing quite a panic in the streets of Louisville and Cincinnati after thoroughly lashing the Union force under “Bull” Nelson at Richmond, Kentucky.
General Horatio Wright, commander of the Department of the Ohio, wasn’t counting on help from Buell. Instead, he appointed General Lew Wallace (later of Ben Hur fame) to organize troops in Cincinnati. Wallace got to work, conscripting every able-bodied man he could find as either a laborer or soldier. Soon, Wallace had upwards of 15,000.
In and around Louisville, there were 25,000 Federal troops under the immediate command of General Jeremiah Boyle, who was once again overreacting. Just as when the Rebel raiders under John Hunt Morgan blew threw Kentucky, Boyle was predicting that Kirby Smith’s force of 30,000 (three times his actual number) would do the same. “The whole state will be in possession of Rebels if some efficient aid is not rendered immediately.”
Far southwest in Mississippi, Confederate Generals Earl Van Dorn and Sterling Price, commanding Vicksburg and Tupelo, respectively, were trying to figure out a way to combine their forces and do something about the Federals under General Ulysses Grant along the Mississippi/Tennessee border.
Bragg wanted Price to keep the Federals under General William Rosecrans at Corinth and Iuka from joining with Buell at Nashville. Van Dorn, on the other hand, seemed less than enthusiastic about helping. After Bragg began his campaign, Price learned that Rosecrans’ force was pulling out of Iuka, heading north, probably to reinforce Buell. He could no longer wait for Van Dorn.
[civilwardailygazette.com/two-union-armies-combined-pope-relieved-kentucky-in-another-panic]
Pictures: 1864-09 Maj Gen Phil Sheridan’s Ride; 1861-09 Brig Gen U.S. Grant Takes Paducah; 1863 HMS Wivern (Laird Ram) Notice the wooden three decked sailing ships being painted in the background indicating how advanced the turetted ships were; 1862-09-04 and 5 Crossings of Potomac Map
A. 1861: Brig Gen U.S. Grant took the initiative and seized Paducah, Kentucky. He was ordered by commanding Union Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont just to make demonstrations against the Confederate Army, rather than attack CSA Gen Leonidas Polk’s forces directly.
Hearing of Polk's move into Columbus, Kentucky, General Grant had previously begun preparations for the expedition to Paducah, Kentucky from Cairo, Illinois, near the mouth of the Cumberland River.
Union troops commanded by Ulysses Grant prepared to move into Kentucky in response to the move made by Polk.
B. 1862: The C.S.S. Alabama captured its first legitimate prize, the USS Ocmulgee whaler in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, near the Azores Islands. After the Alabama sighted the Ocmulgee it came in close under the pretense of the United States colors. The crew of the Alabama transferred the new Union prisoners and supplies onboard. CSA Captain Raphael Semmes waited until the following morning to burn her, not wanting to alert other whalers in the area. Then the Alabama left the area.
C. 1863: Chickamauga Campaign: CS General Wheeler, in charge of cavalry units south of Chattanooga, had not been getting much information on US movements in the area. Gen Braxton Bragg has been focused on US Maj Gen Thomas Leonidas Crittenden, who was moving in from the north, but he discovered that he was about to be flanked from the south by US Maj Gen George Thomas and Maj Gen Maj Gen Alexander McCook. His information source? A captured copy of the Chicago Times!
D. 1864: Shenandoah Valley campaign. CSA LT Gen Jubal Early moved his entire force back to the west side of the Opequon to their positions at Stephenson’s Depot. This was done with the hope that Sheridan might come out of his entrenchments and attack. As the Rebels disengaged, the Federals made no signs of advancing.
Maj Gen Phil Sheridan’s force, numbering 40,000, was twice as large as Early’s. And yet, he saw no real way of confronting the Rebels. In his memoirs, Sheridan shares his state of mind at this time of the conflict: “The difference of strength between the two armies at this date was considerably in my favor, but the conditions attending my situation in a hostile region necessitated so much detached service to protect trains, and to secure Maryland and Pennsylvania from raids, that my excess in numbers was almost canceled by these incidental demands that could not be avoided, and although I knew that I was strong, yet, in consequence of the injunctions of General Grant, I deemed it necessary to be very cautious; and the fact that the Presidential election was impending made me doubly so, the authorities at Washington having impressed upon me that the defeat of my army might be followed by the overthrow of the party in power, which event, it was believed, would at least retard the progress of the war, if, indeed, it did not lead to the complete abandonment of all coercive measures.”
“Under circumstances such as these I could not afford to risk a disaster, to say nothing of the intense disinclination every soldier has for such results; so, notwithstanding my superior strength, I determined to take all the time necessary to equip myself with the fullest information, and then seize an opportunity under such conditions that I could not well fail of success.”
CSS Alabama - Sweet Home Forever At Sea
FYI PV2 Larry Sellnow SFC Ralph E Kelley Maj William W. 'Bill' Price SPC Maurice Evans SPC Jon O. SGT Jim ArnoldAmn Dale PreisachCW4 (Join to see) LTC John Griscom LTC (Join to see) PO3 Steven Sherrill PO2 Tom Belcher PO1 John Johnson PO2 Marco Monsalve SN Greg Wright SPC Mike Bennett Maj John BellMaj Marty Hogan Sgt Sheri Lynn
CSS Alabama - Confederate Raider
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWpYAgxw53Q
Earlier in the war the south had duped the British into building warships for them:
1. 1862 - The CSS Alabama was built at Lairds shipyard in secrecy masquerading as a merchant ship. The vessel was built on the River Mersey in 1862 and crewed mainly by Liverpudlians,
2. The CSS Shenandoah was originally built for the British government as Sea King. After commissioning into the Confederate fleet she sailed from England to intercept commerce from the US West Coast bound to the Far East and Latin America. Shenandoah single handedly decimated the whaling fleet of the Northern Union.
3. 1863 - The Confederacy ordered from Lairds shipyard two armored iron hulled, twin rotating turret, rams powered by steam-sail. The warships were advanced designs with also the ability to ram and destroy wooden ships, hence the title rams. The ships were clandestinely built under cover of being destined for the Egyptian navy. These were the most advanced ships in the world and would have torn through the Northern Union fleet if let loose. The rotating turrets were a new development equipped with advanced rapid firing breach loading Armstrong guns. The rotating turrets enabled great flexibility when attacking enemy ships. These two deep sea operating ships are not to be confused with the iron clad turreted monitors used in the American civil war which were dedicated vessels for operating primarily in estuaries. One of the monitors capsized in deep water being so unstable.
“The Northern Union spy ring relayed to Washington the status of the construction of the ships. Washington put pressure on the British government to seize the ships from Lairds. The fear of these ships was so great a diplomatic row ensued with Abraham Lincoln threatening to declare war on the UK if the vessels were delivered.
With Britain having a huge naval fleet and a number of the advanced iron Warrier class ships complimented by the Laird rams, declaring war on the Britain would seem a foolish act when the Northern Union was already engaged in a war with the Confederacy. Britain had reinforced Canada with troops with the giant Great Eastern requisitioned as a troop ship sailing from Liverpool. Russia did give the Northern Union assurances that if Britain recognized the Confederacy they would declare war on Britain. Russia had ships based in San Francisco and New York. Delivering the rams to a French company may not be viewed as recognizing the Confederacy, however it is how the Northern Union and Russia would have interpreted the transactions. Having the Russians potentially on his side may have been the reason why Lincoln was so aggressive to the United Kingdom.
The Most Advanced Ships in the World
The British designed and built the first full iron hull warship, HMS Warrior in 1860, which is now berthed in Portsmouth harbor. Napoleon referred to Warrier as "that long black snake in the English Channel". The Warrior was highly successful in preventing a war with France.
However, the iron Laird Rams ordered by the Confederacy put the Warrior into instant obsolescence. The configuration had heavy impenetrable armor, two revolving armored turret guns, fore and aft, with quick firing breach loading Armstrong guns. The ships did not have to line up broadside against an enemy ship to fire, having the ability to fire its guns quickly at virtually any angle to an enemy ship. The rams were a quantum leap in design and technology and vessels to be feared. The rams could steam into a wooden hulled blue water fleet and decimate it. In harbors’ and rivers, they could just simply ram ironclad ships below the waterline. British navy ships were primarily designed by the Admiralty, in Admiralty shipyards. The Laird Rams were designed by men at Lairds who were supposed to only know merchant vessel design. The arrogant Admiralty designers were given a quick lesson in advanced warship design.
The Iron Rams Seized by the British Government.
Via the Northern Union spy network in Liverpool, the US ambassador was constantly informing the British authorities of the ships. The ships were being built for a French company on behalf of the Egyptian government and given Egyptian names - the company was fake. A country like Egypt at the time ordering such advanced and expensive vessels was highly unlikely. The British government needed positive proof of the Northern Union allegations. Lairds would minimally cooperate with the British government, as the orders were legitimate. The rams were clearly warships and not disguised as merchantmen as was the CSS Alabama. The British government sent HMS Majestic to the River Mersey standing off the Lairds shipyard. Later the Royal Navy seized the rams. The Royal Navy wanted the ships, however the Admiralty shunned them because it wasn't one of their designs. Initially the rams were not taken into the Royal Navy. Lairds lodged a claim for the ships from the British government for the seized partially built ships. Only then did the government pay up and take the ships into the Royal Navy paying for the full completion of the ships.
The ships were clandestinely named, El Tousson and El Monassir. The names on commission were to be CSS Mississippi and CSS North Carolina. The rams were eventually incorporated into the Royal Navy as HMS Wivern and HMS Scorpion. The ships were so advanced HMS Wivern was used until well into the 20th century being scrapped in 1922. A part of the money Lairds received for the rams from the British government, went into the Confederate Treasury, and helped to pay for CSS Shenandoah.
President Abraham Lincoln and General-in-Chief Winfield Scott look to wrangle Maj Gen Fremont in 1861: “General John C. Fremont, Union commander of the Western Department, was out of control and out of his depths. President Lincoln knew he had to be replaced, but was unsure who would be up to the incredibly difficult task of keeping Missouri in the Union. Lincoln met with General-in-Chief Winfield Scott on this rainy Thursday morning. They talked of Fremont’s August 30 proclamation, where he promised a death sentence to any armed secessionist and freed the slaves of any disloyal slave owners. Lately, the President had been hearing an increasing number of reports about Fremont’s ineptitude. The General rarely left his headquarters, got along with basically nobody and was fast losing the respect of his subordinates.
General Scott agreed. A change needed to be made. Replacing Fremont, however, was not what they had in mind. They decided to send an Adjutant and Inspector General to assist Fremont. Scott’s first choice was Major-General David Hunter, a West Point graduate, veteran of the Mexican War and borderline abolitionist. Hunter accompanied Lincoln from Springfield to Washington prior to the inauguration, suffering a broken collar bone while attempting to control the crowds clamoring to see the President-elect. General Scott, however, noted that, according to military tradition, Hunter was one rank too high to perform this duty.
Another option was Brigadier-General George Stoneman, also a West Point graduate (where he roomed with “Stonewall” Jackson). Stoneman spent most of his military career in the cavalry battling Indians in the West. Though he was Scott’s second choice, he was the only choice with the proper rank and was thus Scott’s official recommendation.
Stoneman, wrote Scott to Lincoln, “may prove to be a God-send in this emergency.” He had “youth, vigor, intelligence discretion, firmness, conciliatory manners.” He was, “perhaps the only one of high rank in the entire army who is on tolerable terms with Fremont.” Among Stoneman’s “rare merits,” gushed Scott, was “this crowning one: to do his country proportionate service, he is always willing to go from the most agreeable to the most disagreeable, post & duty.”
Scott concluded: “We may send Stoneman to Fremont as Chief of his Staff & act as Adjutant & Inspector General. If Fremont will listen to him he will soon win his confidence & effect every thing.”
Two Union Armies combined under Maj Gen George B. McClellan; Maj Gen John Pope relieved of command; Kentucky in another panic in 1862: “In Washington, as the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia was crossing the Potomac River north of the city, General John Pope, commander of the Union Army of Virginia, was ready to follow. The only problem was that John Pope had not a soldier to command.
Following the defeat at Second Manassas, and the retreat to the Federal capital, General George McClellan was placed in command of all troops. Technically, the order placing McClellan in command stated that it was only the troops in Washington. Both the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Virginia were in Washington, and so, by that order, McClellan was in charge. But should the Army of Virginia take the field, thought Pope, it would once again revert to his own command.
While this was being sorted out, Pope penned his official report of the battle, which, according to Naval Secretary Gideon Welles, read more like a manifesto than a report. In it, Pope leveled charges at McClellan, as well as Generals like Porter, Franklin, and Griffin. When presented to President Lincoln and his Cabinet, they requested a major rewrite before it be published. Still, the charges would stick – to everyone but McClellan.
Things on the morning of this date moved at a rapid pace. General-in-Chief Henry Halleck ordered McClellan to move immediately as “there can be no doubt that the enemy are crossing the Potomac in force.” McClellan then sent General Pope an order to have his command ready to move out. The problem was, Pope had no idea what he commanded.
“McClellan has ordered my troops to take post at various places,” wrote Pope to McClellan’s chief of staff, trying to figure it out, “and I have never been notified in a single instance of their positions.”
He wrote a similar memo to Halleck. “What is my command, and where is it?” wrote Pope. “McClellan has scattered it about in all directions, and has not informed me of the position of a single regiment. Am I to take the field under McClellan’s orders?”
Morning turned to afternoon, and yet Pope had no idea what was going on. Things, however, seemed to be happening without him. Again, he turned to Halleck, voicing quite a bit more ire than before. “I must again ask your attention to the condition of things in this army,” Pope began. “By the present arrangement you are doing me more injury than my worst enemy could do. It is understood, and acted on, that I am deprived of my command, and that it is assigned to McClellan. An order defining his exact status here as well as my own is necessary at once. I send you an official protest against his action.”
In response, Pope received a single sentence from Halleck: “The armies of the Potomac and Virginia are being consolidated, you will report for orders to the Secretary of War.”
While Pope was waiting, McClellan received the news in a confidential note from Halleck preceding official orders so that McClellan could “act accordingly in putting forces in the field.” He was told that “The President has directed that General Pope be relieved and report to War Department.” Generals Porter, Franklin, and Griffin, each named in Pope’s venomous report, were “to be relieved from duty till the charges against them are examined.”
Perhaps to soften the blow, Halleck wrote a longer, gentler note to Pope. He apologized for the delay in the morning, but said that it was because he simply didn’t know what Lincoln was going to do with Pope. The true reasons for his dismissal, however, were because it was clear that he couldn’t work under McClellan – the two simply could not get along. Secondly, Pope’s testimony was required for the case being built against Generals Porter, Franklin, and Griffin.
“Do not infer from this that any blame attaches to you,” begged Halleck with more than a whiff of insincerity. “On the contrary, we think you did your best with the material you had. I have not heard any one censure you in the least.”With this, Pope gathered his papers from his headquarters in Alexandria and crossed the bridge into Washington.
__________________
Bragg moves, Buell wonders, Kentucky panics. Braxton Bragg and his Army of Mississippi had stopped for a few days in Sparta, Tennessee. For weeks he had hemmed and hawed over what the destination of his campaign would be. Should he hit Nashville, with its stores and Federal supply lines? Or should he strike into the heart of Kentucky, joining his compatriot, Kirby Smith, in a move upon Lexington.
Before leaving his base at Chattanooga, he had chosen the latter. But at Sparta, things began to change. First, there was a contingent of politicos, headed by disposed Tennessee Governor Isham Harris, hovering about, trying to convince him to move on Nashville. Bragg may or may not have considered it, but if he did, it was because the road he had planned to take into Kentucky was bereft of forage for his army.
Besides, Union General Don Carlos Buell’s Army of the Ohio was clearly moving to fortify Nashville, thinking that was Bragg’s objective and hoping that the Rebels would oblige him. They would not.
But Buell had no intension of staying in Nashville. He hoped that Bragg would follow him, but more and more, it was looking like the Confederates were moving on Bowling Green, Kentucky. Buell, in a September 2nd letter to General-in-Chief Henry Halleck, was determined to leave a defensive force at Nashville, while taking the rest of his army into Kentucky. Still, it wasn’t yet obvious to Buell just where Bragg was going. He had hoped to have his army in Murfreesboro, about thirty miles east of Nashville, by this date. This would allow his men to defend against whatever force Bragg might be throwing at the city. Instead, he decided to pull back almost all the way to Nashville.
General Bragg had sent scouts to find a new road, and by this date, it seems that he had made up his mind – not over whether to attack Nashville or Kentucky, but about which road to take into Kentucky. Having deduced a passable route, he sent orders to Leonidus Polk, commanding a wing of his force to move immediately towards the Cumberland River via Gainesboro.
Though General Buell was trying to figure out what to do and how to do it (and why), it didn’t mean that the road to Kentucky was wide open for Bragg’s Confederates. The rampaging force under Kirby Smith was causing quite a panic in the streets of Louisville and Cincinnati after thoroughly lashing the Union force under “Bull” Nelson at Richmond, Kentucky.
General Horatio Wright, commander of the Department of the Ohio, wasn’t counting on help from Buell. Instead, he appointed General Lew Wallace (later of Ben Hur fame) to organize troops in Cincinnati. Wallace got to work, conscripting every able-bodied man he could find as either a laborer or soldier. Soon, Wallace had upwards of 15,000.
In and around Louisville, there were 25,000 Federal troops under the immediate command of General Jeremiah Boyle, who was once again overreacting. Just as when the Rebel raiders under John Hunt Morgan blew threw Kentucky, Boyle was predicting that Kirby Smith’s force of 30,000 (three times his actual number) would do the same. “The whole state will be in possession of Rebels if some efficient aid is not rendered immediately.”
Far southwest in Mississippi, Confederate Generals Earl Van Dorn and Sterling Price, commanding Vicksburg and Tupelo, respectively, were trying to figure out a way to combine their forces and do something about the Federals under General Ulysses Grant along the Mississippi/Tennessee border.
Bragg wanted Price to keep the Federals under General William Rosecrans at Corinth and Iuka from joining with Buell at Nashville. Van Dorn, on the other hand, seemed less than enthusiastic about helping. After Bragg began his campaign, Price learned that Rosecrans’ force was pulling out of Iuka, heading north, probably to reinforce Buell. He could no longer wait for Van Dorn.
[civilwardailygazette.com/two-union-armies-combined-pope-relieved-kentucky-in-another-panic]
Pictures: 1864-09 Maj Gen Phil Sheridan’s Ride; 1861-09 Brig Gen U.S. Grant Takes Paducah; 1863 HMS Wivern (Laird Ram) Notice the wooden three decked sailing ships being painted in the background indicating how advanced the turetted ships were; 1862-09-04 and 5 Crossings of Potomac Map
A. 1861: Brig Gen U.S. Grant took the initiative and seized Paducah, Kentucky. He was ordered by commanding Union Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont just to make demonstrations against the Confederate Army, rather than attack CSA Gen Leonidas Polk’s forces directly.
Hearing of Polk's move into Columbus, Kentucky, General Grant had previously begun preparations for the expedition to Paducah, Kentucky from Cairo, Illinois, near the mouth of the Cumberland River.
Union troops commanded by Ulysses Grant prepared to move into Kentucky in response to the move made by Polk.
B. 1862: The C.S.S. Alabama captured its first legitimate prize, the USS Ocmulgee whaler in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, near the Azores Islands. After the Alabama sighted the Ocmulgee it came in close under the pretense of the United States colors. The crew of the Alabama transferred the new Union prisoners and supplies onboard. CSA Captain Raphael Semmes waited until the following morning to burn her, not wanting to alert other whalers in the area. Then the Alabama left the area.
C. 1863: Chickamauga Campaign: CS General Wheeler, in charge of cavalry units south of Chattanooga, had not been getting much information on US movements in the area. Gen Braxton Bragg has been focused on US Maj Gen Thomas Leonidas Crittenden, who was moving in from the north, but he discovered that he was about to be flanked from the south by US Maj Gen George Thomas and Maj Gen Maj Gen Alexander McCook. His information source? A captured copy of the Chicago Times!
D. 1864: Shenandoah Valley campaign. CSA LT Gen Jubal Early moved his entire force back to the west side of the Opequon to their positions at Stephenson’s Depot. This was done with the hope that Sheridan might come out of his entrenchments and attack. As the Rebels disengaged, the Federals made no signs of advancing.
Maj Gen Phil Sheridan’s force, numbering 40,000, was twice as large as Early’s. And yet, he saw no real way of confronting the Rebels. In his memoirs, Sheridan shares his state of mind at this time of the conflict: “The difference of strength between the two armies at this date was considerably in my favor, but the conditions attending my situation in a hostile region necessitated so much detached service to protect trains, and to secure Maryland and Pennsylvania from raids, that my excess in numbers was almost canceled by these incidental demands that could not be avoided, and although I knew that I was strong, yet, in consequence of the injunctions of General Grant, I deemed it necessary to be very cautious; and the fact that the Presidential election was impending made me doubly so, the authorities at Washington having impressed upon me that the defeat of my army might be followed by the overthrow of the party in power, which event, it was believed, would at least retard the progress of the war, if, indeed, it did not lead to the complete abandonment of all coercive measures.”
“Under circumstances such as these I could not afford to risk a disaster, to say nothing of the intense disinclination every soldier has for such results; so, notwithstanding my superior strength, I determined to take all the time necessary to equip myself with the fullest information, and then seize an opportunity under such conditions that I could not well fail of success.”
CSS Alabama - Sweet Home Forever At Sea
FYI PV2 Larry Sellnow SFC Ralph E Kelley Maj William W. 'Bill' Price SPC Maurice Evans SPC Jon O. SGT Jim ArnoldAmn Dale PreisachCW4 (Join to see) LTC John Griscom LTC (Join to see) PO3 Steven Sherrill PO2 Tom Belcher PO1 John Johnson PO2 Marco Monsalve SN Greg Wright SPC Mike Bennett Maj John BellMaj Marty Hogan Sgt Sheri Lynn
CSS Alabama - Confederate Raider
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWpYAgxw53Q
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In 1862 CSA Gen Robert E. Lee took the Army of Northern Virginia toward Maryland. The Union’s military hierarchy could not make its mind up as to who should lead the Union’s army in the field. Maj Gen George B. McLellan was selected to command the new Army of the Potomac. Which had absorbed Maj Gen John Pope’s Army of Virginia
Maryland was a tempting target for Lee; as its fields were full of crops and any move north that he made would bring fear to those who lived in the capital who would have rightly believed that the city was his priority target. Maj Gen John Pope was sent to the Department of the Northwest, which included Minnesota, which had been undergoing a Sioux uprising.
In 1863 a Union infantry assault on Battery Wagner in Charleston’s harbor started after the “sub-surface torpedo mines” (land mines) had been cleared. Near White Stone Hill, in the Dakota Territory, hostile Indians clashed with troops from the 2nd Nebraska Infantry.
In 1864, voters in Louisiana who had taken an oath of loyalty to the United States ratified a state constitution abolishing slavery. Tennessee Unionists met in Nashville to restart the state government and plan participation in national elections that fall.
CSA Lt Gen Kirby Smith tried to convince France to help the Trans-Mississippi Confederacy in 1863: Kirby Smith is going to go on about this for quite some time. For the most part, the Confederacy had long ago given up hope that either France or England would weigh in on their side. To be sure, England was still giving nominal aid through blockade running and a final attempt to build a few rams for the Rebels, but for the most part, the South knew they were on their own.1 That is, all but Kirby Smith, Confederate commander of the Trans-Mississippi Department.
Smith, however, had a slightly different angle, as was true with many things into which he threw himself. In writing to John Slidell, the Confederate envoy to France – the same envoy who was captured by Federal authorities in the early war – Smith focused upon Mexico. It might seem a bit of a stretch, contacting Slidell to talk to France about Mexico, but it was clearly worth the effort.
What did Mexico have to do with the Confederate Department of the Trans-Mississippi? For that matter, what did France have to do with either? To shorten the lengthy story, Mexico owed France a great deal of money. When they didn’t pay, France took action, landing with the British and Spanish on the shores of Mexico in early 1862. They fought a few battles, held a siege or two, and by this time, the crown was about to be offered to the Austrian Maximilian I, who would soon accept it at the prodding of Napoleon III.
How France and Mexico were to be concerned over the happenings in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas, Kirby Smith explained in great and weirdly vague detail: “The action of the French in Mexico and the erection of an empire under their auspices makes the establishment of the Confederacy the policy of the French Government. The condition of the States west of the Mississippi, separated from the General Government, at Richmond; the exhausted state of the country, with its fighting population in the armies east of the Mississippi; the vast preparations making by the enemy to complete the occupation and subjugation of this whole Western Department, are all matters which, if properly brought before the French Emperor, should influence him in hastening the intervention of his good services in our behalf. This succor must come speedily, or it will be too late. Without assistance from abroad or an extraordinary interposition of Providence, less than twelve months will see this fair country irretrievably lost, and the French protectorate in Mexico will find a hostile power established on their frontier, of exhaustless resources and great military strength, impelled by revenge and the traditional policy of its Government to overthrow all foreign influences on the American continent.”
Basically, Smith was threatening Mexico and thus France with the threat of the United States government. No, it wasn’t a very convincing argument in the 1860s, though perhaps he hoped that the Mexican War of the 1840s would still be fresh in their thoughts.
In his long letter to John Slidell, Smith brings up several key points. The land in his department had been utterly exhausted. The men had almost all joined or been conscripted into the army, all that remained were “the aged, the infirm, and the lukewarm.” The policy of the Union army was clearly one of conquest. They wanted all of the states under his command, but would hardly stop there. Now that they had taken the Mississippi River, they would control it, “with their southern and western frontier open for extension toward Mexico and the Pacific.”
As with many such letters written by Southern officers to their fellow aristocrats, the issue of slavery was sapped any hint of irony from the conversation. Among the typical accusations of barbarity, Smith argued that “the forced impressment of our slaves into their army, to wage a ruthless war against their masters, all in the name of humanity call for the interposition of those powers who really hold the destiny of our country in their hands.”
In closing, he gave the true reason for his plea – shipping and commerce – and made the French a tempting offer: “The intervention of the French Government can alone save Mexico from having on its border a grasping, haughty, and imperious neighbor. If the policy of the Emperor looks to an intervention in our affairs, he should take immediate military possession of the east bank of the Rio Grande, and open to us the only channel (since the loss of the Mississippi) by which supplies and munitions of war can be introduced into the department. The whole cotton trade west of the Mississippi will thus be secured to the French market, and the enemy will be anticipated in making a lodgment on the Rio Grande, from which he could not be driven without great difficulty.”
Though Kirby Smith was bombastic, he did have some points, which he explained to President Jefferson Davis. Shipping and commerce were essential, of course, but the military state of affairs was in grave danger of collapsing. Smith admitted that he had painted the situation “in a gloomy light,” but warned that it “wasn’t a too exaggerated picture of what may occur.”
He brought up not only the Federal force under Frederick Steele that was drawing ever closer to Little Rock, Arkansas, but also James Blunt’s troops in Indian Territory [Oklahoma], and portions of Grant’s Army of the Tennessee that appeared to have designs upon Texas and Louisiana. He predicted that 100,000 Yankees could soon be brought to bear upon his department. He had but 30,000 men. What could he do?
Not only did he need men, but he needed arms as well. Richmond had tried, but ships had been seized at sea and weapons lost at Vicksburg. Though he had only 30,000 troops, he predicted that more would fall into the ranks if he had ways of arming them. “Sixty thousand rifles could, I believe, this moment be well disposed of throughout this department.”
While Smith waiting for something to happen, Union General Steele inched closer to Little Rock, and Confederate General Sterling Price tried to figure out how to stop him. In a letter to Price, Smith fell back on one of his old pet peeves. When he saw his armies, the one thing that always stuck in his crawl was how white men were working at teamsters and laborers. Wasn’t this what slaves were for?
“The urgency is immediate,” cautioned Smith, and urged Price to force the people to hand over their slaves. “The temper of the people is now favorable for such a step; there is a feeling of distrust in the loyalty of their slaves, and an anxiety to have the able-bodied males in the service of the Government; especially is this the case in the exposed portions of the country, and I think there large numbers could be obtained without difficulty.” If more slaves were doing the work that the white men were doing, “a large number of men would by this measure be added to the effective force in your district.”
This was hardly anything new. General Beauregard was saying the same thing in Charleston. But in a few weeks, Smith would make a very different and fairly controversial connection.”
http://civilwardailygazette.com/kirby-smith-tries-to-convince-france-to-help-the-trans-mississippi-confederacy/
Below are a number of journal entries from 1862, 1863 and 1864 which shed light on what life was like for soldiers and civilians – the good, the bad and the ugly. In 1864, Maj Gen William T. Sherman wrote in his journal about operations in Georgia.
Friday, September 5, 1862: General John Pope is told that all of his troops, now within the defenses of Washington, DC, are under McClellan’s command. He writes to Gen. Halleck in frustration: ARLINGTON, September 5, [1862] - 12.05 p. m. Major-General HALLECK, General-in-Chief: I have just received an order from General McClellan to have my command in readiness to march with three days' rations and further details of the march. What is my command, and where is it? McClellan has scattered it about in all directions, and has not informed me of the position of a single regiment. Am I do take the field and under McClellan's orders? Jno POPE, Major-General.
To this, Halleck answers, somewhat cryptically: WASHINGTON, D. C., September 5, 1862. Major-General POPE, Arlington: The armies of the Potomac and Virginia being consolidated, you will report for orders to the Secretary of War. H. W. HALLECK, General-in-Chief.
Friday, September 5, 1862: Henry Adams, son and secretary of the American Ambassador in London, Charles Francie Adams, Sr., writes to his brother, Charles, Jr., who is an officer in the cavalry: “Firmly convinced as I am that there can be no peace on our continent so long as the Southern people exist, I don’t much care whether they are destroyed by emancipation, or in other words a vigorous system of guerilla war carried on by negroes on our side, or by the slower and more doubtful measures of choaking them with their own cotton. Perhaps before long we shall have to use both weapons as vigorously as we are now using the last. But one thing is clear to my mind, which is that we must not let them as an independent state get the monopoly of cotton again, unless we want to find a powerful and bitterly hostile nation on our border, supported by all the moral and social influence of Great Britain in peace; certain in war to drag us into all the European complications; sure to be in perpetual anarchy within, but always ready to disturb anything and everything without; to compel us to support a standing army no less large than if we conquer them and hold them so, and with infinite means of wounding and scattering dissension among us. We must ruin them before we let them go or it will all have to be done over again. And we must exterminate them in the end, be it long or be it short, for it is a battle between us and slavery.”
Saturday, September 5, 1863: Jenkin Lloyd Jones, of the 6th Battery of Wisconsin artillery in the Federal army near Vicksburg, notes in his journal, after a long illness, that he is feeling better: “Vicksburg, Saturday, Sept. 5. Fine day. Health very good. Feel first rate today. We have fine times of it. We bought lots of potatoes and onions with butter, sauce, etc. and we live good for soldiers. Headquarters serenaded in the evening by 3rd Brigade band—Avery leader.”
Saturday, September 5, 1863: John Beauchamp Jones, of the Confederate War Department, worried in his journal over the possibilities that thje Army of Northern Virginia may be sent west to help redeem Southern fortunes there: “SEPTEMBER 5TH.—It is believed that Lee, with a large portion of his army, will proceed immediately to Tennessee against Rosecrans; and it is ascertained that Meade is sending reinforcements thither. But I fear for Virginia when Lee is away! Meade must have a large army left behind, else he would not send reinforcements to Rosecrans. This move will excite the fear of the extortionate farmers, at all events, and make them willing to sell their surplus produce. But if Richmond should fall, and the State be overrun, it is possible it would secede from the Confederacy, which would be a virtual dissolution of it.”
Monday, September 5, 1864: Georgia operations, Atlanta: General Sherman says: ‘The army still remained where the news of success had first found us, viz., Lovejoy’s; but, after due refection, I resolved not to attempt at that time a further pursuit of Hood’s army, but slowly and deliberately to move back, occupy Atlanta, enjoy a short period of rest, and to think well over the next step required in the progress of events. Orders for this movement were made on the 5th September, and three days were given for each army to reach the place assigned it, viz.: the Army of the Cumberland in and about Atlanta; the Army of the Tennessee at East Point; and the Army of the Ohio at Decatur.”
Pictures: Built at Lairds CSS Alabama; 1862-09-05 Line engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", 1862, depicting CSS Alabama burning a prize; 1864-09 Union cavalry general Alfred T. A. Torbert; 1863-09 Initial movements in the Chickamauga Campaign Map
A. Thursday, September 5, 1861: Brig Gen U.S. Grant took the initiative and seized Paducah, Kentucky. He was ordered by commanding Union Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont just to make demonstrations against the Confederate Army, rather than attack CSA Gen Leonidas Polk’s forces directly.
Hearing of Polk's move into Columbus, Kentucky, General Grant had previously begun preparations for the expedition to Paducah, Kentucky from Cairo, Illinois, near the mouth of the Cumberland River.
Union troops commanded by Ulysses Grant prepared to move into Kentucky in response to the move made by Polk.
Details: Grant’s first Civil War battles occurred while he was in command of the District of Cairo. The Confederate Army, stationed in Columbus under General Leonidas Polk, had violated Kentucky's military neutrality. Immediately, Grant took the initiative and seized Paducah, Kentucky on September 5, 1861. He was ordered by commanding Union Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont just to make demonstrations against the Confederate Army, rather than attack Polk directly.
B. Friday, September 5, 1862: The C.S.S. Alabama captured its first legitimate prize, the USS Ocmulgee whaler in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, near the Azores Islands. After the Alabama sighted the Ocmulgee it came in close under the pretense of the United States colors. The crew of the Alabama transferred the new Union prisoners and supplies onboard. CSA Captain Raphael Semmes waited until the following morning to burn her, not wanting to alert other whalers in the area. Then the Alabama left the area.
C. Saturday, September 5, 1863: East Tennessee operations/Chickamauga Campaign: CS General Wheeler, in charge of cavalry units south of Chattanooga, had not been getting much information on US movements in the area. Gen Braxton Bragg has been focused on US Maj Gen Thomas Leonidas Crittenden, who was moving in from the north, but he discovered that he was about to be flanked from the south by US Maj Gen George Thomas and Maj Gen Maj Gen Alexander McCook. His information source? A captured copy of the Chicago Times!
D. Monday, September 5, 1864: Shenandoah Valley campaign. CSA LT Gen Jubal Early moved his entire force back to the west side of the Opequon to their positions at Stephenson’s Depot. This was done with the hope that Sheridan might come out of his entrenchments and attack. As the Rebels disengaged, the Federals made no signs of advancing.
Maj Gen Phil Sheridan’s force, numbering 40,000, was twice as large as Early’s. And yet, he saw no real way of confronting the Rebels. In his memoirs, Sheridan shares his state of mind at this time of the conflict: “The difference of strength between the two armies at this date was considerably in my favor, but the conditions attending my situation in a hostile region necessitated so much detached service to protect trains, and to secure Maryland and Pennsylvania from raids, that my excess in numbers was almost canceled by these incidental demands that could not be avoided, and although I knew that I was strong, yet, in consequence of the injunctions of General Grant, I deemed it necessary to be very cautious; and the fact that the Presidential election was impending made me doubly so, the authorities at Washington having impressed upon me that the defeat of my army might be followed by the overthrow of the party in power, which event, it was believed, would at least retard the progress of the war, if, indeed, it did not lead to the complete abandonment of all coercive measures.”
“Under circumstances such as these I could not afford to risk a disaster, to say nothing of the intense disinclination every soldier has for such results; so, notwithstanding my superior strength, I determined to take all the time necessary to equip myself with the fullest information, and then seize an opportunity under such conditions that I could not well fail of success.”
1. Wednesday, September 5, 1855: Free-staters meet in Big Springs, Kansas to elect representatives to a constitutional convention in Topeka.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/date/September_5
2. Thursday, September, 5, 1861: Lincoln and Scott look to wrangle Fremont. “General John C. Fremont, Union commander of the Western Department, was out of control and out of his depths. President Lincoln knew he had to be replaced, but was unsure who would be up to the incredibly difficult task of keeping Missouri in the Union. Lincoln met with General-in-Chief Winfield Scott on this rainy Thursday morning. They talked of Fremont’s August 30 proclamation, where he promised a death sentence to any armed secessionist and freed the slaves of any disloyal slave owners. Lately, the President had been hearing an increasing number of reports about Fremont’s ineptitude. The General rarely left his headquarters, got along with basically nobody and was fast losing the respect of his subordinates.
General Scott agreed. A change needed to be made. Replacing Fremont, however, was not what they had in mind. They decided to send an Adjutant and Inspector General to assist Fremont. Scott’s first choice was Major-General David Hunter, a West Point graduate, veteran of the Mexican War and borderline abolitionist. Hunter accompanied Lincoln from Springfield to Washington prior to the inauguration, suffering a broken collar bone while attempting to control the crowds clamoring to see the President-elect. General Scott, however, noted that, according to military tradition, Hunter was one rank too high to perform this duty.
Another option was Brigadier-General George Stoneman, also a West Point graduate (where he roomed with “Stonewall” Jackson). Stoneman spent most of his military career in the cavalry battling Indians in the West. Though he was Scott’s second choice, he was the only choice with the proper rank and was thus Scott’s official recommendation.
Stoneman, wrote Scott to Lincoln, “may prove to be a God-send in this emergency.” He had “youth, vigor, intelligence discretion, firmness, conciliatory manners.” He was, “perhaps the only one of high rank in the entire army who is on tolerable terms with Fremont.” Among Stoneman’s “rare merits,” gushed Scott, was “this crowning one: to do his country proportionate service, he is always willing to go from the most agreeable to the most disagreeable, post & duty.”
Scott concluded: “We may send Stoneman to Fremont as Chief of his Staff & act as Adjutant & Inspector General. If Fremont will listen to him he will soon win his confidence & effect every thing.”
http://civilwardailygazette.com/lincoln-and-scott-look-to-wrangle-fremont/
3. Friday, September 5, 1862: Robert E. Lee took his army toward Maryland. At the same time the Union’s military hierarchy could not make its mind up as to who should lead the Union’s army in the field. Maryland was a tempting target for Lee; as its fields were full of crops and any move north that he made would bring fear to those who lived in the capital who would have rightly believed that the city was his priority target. General John Pope gets his orders was sent to the Department of the Northwest, which included Minnesota, which had been undergoing an uprising of the Sioux. Neither Pope nor the people he was supposed to protect were thrilled with this development.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-b/part-seventy-three
4. Friday, September 5, 1862: Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia enters Maryland.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186209
5. Friday, September 5, 1862: Robert E Lee took his army into Maryland. At the same time the Union’s military hierarchy could not make its mind up as to who should lead the Union’s army in the field. Maryland was a tempting target for Lee as its fields were full of crops and any move north that he made would bring fear to those who lived in the capital who would have rightly believed that the city was his priority target.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/the-american-civil-war/american-civil-war-september-1862/
6. Friday, September 5, 1862: Poolesville, Virginia - On September 5, Brig. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart led a Confederate cavalry force towards the village of Poolesville. Within 2 or 3 miles from the village, the Confederates flushed a small Union party from the area capturing 30 prisoners. They then continued to the village.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1862s.html
7. Friday, September 5, 1862: Eastern Theater, Maryland Campaign - Gen. Halleck pens orders for McClellan, insisting that no one can doubt any longer that the Rebels are crossing north over the Potomac in force.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+5%2C+1862
8. Friday, September 5, 1862: General Bragg, having conducted a dance of deception and innuendo in eastern Tennessee, finally decides to strike north with Kirby-Smith, rather than strike at Nashville. General Buell, with his Federal Army of the Ohio, is trying to find out what Bragg’s intentions are, and is pulling most of his troops into the vicinity of Nashville—just in case.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+5%2C+1862Friday, September 5, 1862: General John Pope is told that all of his troops, now within the defenses of Washington, DC, are under McClellan’s command. He writes to Gen. Halleck in frustration: ARLINGTON, September 5, [1862] - 12.05 p. m. Major-General HALLECK, General-in-Chief: I have just received an order from General McClellan to have my command in readiness to march with three days' rations and further details of the march. What is my command, and where is it? McClellan has scattered it about in all directions, and has not informed me of the position of a single regiment. Am I do take the field and under McClellan's orders? Jno POPE, Major-General.
To this, Halleck answers, somewhat cryptically: WASHINGTON, D. C., September 5, 1862. Major-General POPE, Arlington: The armies of the Potomac and Virginia being consolidated, you will report for orders to the Secretary of War. H. W. HALLECK, General-in-Chief.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+5%2C+1862
9. Friday, September 5, 1862: Henry Adams, son and secretary of the American Ambassador in London, Charles Francie Adams, Sr., writes to his brother, Charles, Jr., who is an officer in the cavalry: “Firmly convinced as I am that there can be no peace on our continent so long as the Southern people exist, I don’t much care whether they are destroyed by emancipation, or in other words a vigorous system of guerilla war carried on by negroes on our side, or by the slower and more doubtful measures of choaking them with their own cotton. Perhaps before long we shall have to use both weapons as vigorously as we are now using the last. But one thing is clear to my mind, which is that we must not let them as an independent state get the monopoly of cotton again, unless we want to find a powerful and bitterly hostile nation on our border, supported by all the moral and social influence of Great Britain in peace; certain in war to drag us into all the European complications; sure to be in perpetual anarchy within, but always ready to disturb anything and everything without; to compel us to support a standing army no less large than if we conquer them and hold them so, and with infinite means of wounding and scattering dissension among us. We must ruin them before we let them go or it will all have to be done over again. And we must exterminate them in the end, be it long or be it short, for it is a battle between us and slavery.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+5%2C+1862
10. Saturday, September 5, 1863: Jenkin Lloyd Jones, of the 6th Battery of Wisconsin artillery in the Federal army near Vicksburg, notes in his journal, after a long illness, that he is feeling better: “Vicksburg, Saturday, Sept. 5. Fine day. Health very good. Feel first rate today. We have fine times of it. We bought lots of potatoes and onions with butter, sauce, etc. and we live good for soldiers. Headquarters serenaded in the evening by 3rd Brigade band—Avery leader.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+5%2C+1863
11. Saturday, September 5, 1863: John Beauchamp Jones, of the Confederate War Department, worried in his journal over the possibilities that thje Army of Northern Virginia may be sent west to help redeem Southern fortunes there: “SEPTEMBER 5TH.—It is believed that Lee, with a large portion of his army, will proceed immediately to Tennessee against Rosecrans; and it is ascertained that Meade is sending reinforcements thither. But I fear for Virginia when Lee is away! Meade must have a large army left behind, else he would not send reinforcements to Rosecrans. This move will excite the fear of the extortionate farmers, at all events, and make them willing to sell their surplus produce. But if Richmond should fall, and the State be overrun, it is possible it would secede from the Confederacy, which would be a virtual dissolution of it.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+5%2C+1863
12. Saturday, September 5, 1863: An Union infantry assault on Battery Wagner in Charleston’s harbor started after the “sub-surface torpedo mines” (land mines) had been cleared. The British government seized two ironclads being built for the South in Liverpool, after a strong threat of war with Great Britain from Washington DC. A major foreign crisis was averted, and any glimmer of Confederate hope for British recognition vanished.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-c/week-125
13. Saturday, September 5, 1863: Near White Stone Hill, in the Dakota Territory, hostile Indians clash with troops from the 2nd Nebraska Infantry.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+5%2C+1863
14. Saturday, September 5, 1863: Lincoln Threatens War on The UK. “The Confederacy ordered from Lairds shipyard two armoured iron hulled, twin rotating turret, rams powered by steam-sail. The warships were advanced designs with also the ability to ram and destroy wooden ships, hence the title rams. The ships were clandestinely built under cover of being destined for the Egyptian navy. These were the most advanced ships in the world and would have torn through the Northern Union fleet if let loose. The rotating turrets were a new development equipped with advanced rapid firing breach loading Armstrong guns. The rotating turrets enabled great flexibility when attacking enemy ships. These two deep sea operating ships are not to be confused with the iron clad turetted monitors used in the American civil war which were dedicated vessels for operating primarily in estuaries. One of the monitors capsized in deep water being so unstable.
The Northern Union spy ring relayed to Washington the status of the construction of the ships. Washington put pressure on the British government to seize the ships from Lairds. The fear of these ships was so great a diplomatic row ensued with Abraham Lincoln threatening to declare war on the UK if the vessels were delivered.
With Britain having a huge naval fleet and a number of the advanced iron Warrier class ships complimented by the Laird rams, declaring war on the Britain would seem a foolish act when the Northern Union was already engaged in a war with the Confederacy. Britain had reinforced Canada with troops with the giant Great Eastern requisitioned as a troop ship sailing from Liverpool. Russia did give the Northern Union assurances that if Britain recognised the Confederacy they would declare war on Britain. Russia had ships based in San Francisco and New York. Delivering the rams to a French company may not be viewed as recognising the Confederacy, however it is how the Northern Union and Russia would have interpreted the transactions. Having the Russians potentially on his side may have been the reason why Lincoln was so aggressive to the United Kingdom.The Most Advanced Ships in the World
The British designed and built the first full iron hull warship, HMS Warrior in 1860, which is now berthed in Portsmouth harbour. Napoleon referred to Warrier as "that long black snake in the English Channel". The Warrior was highly successful in preventing a war with France.
However the iron Laird Rams ordered by the Confederacy put the Warrior into instant obsolescence. The configuration had heavy impenetrable armour, two revolving armoured turret guns, fore and aft, with quick firing breach loading Armstrong guns. The ships did not have to line up broadside against an enemy ship to fire, having the ability to fire its guns quickly at virtually any angle to an enemy ship. The rams were a quantum leap in design and technology and vessels to be feared. The rams could steam into a wooden hulled blue water fleet and decimate it. In harbours and rivers, they could just simply ram ironclad ships below the waterline. British navy ships were primarily designed by the Admiralty, in Admiralty shipyards. The Laird Rams were designed by men at Lairds who were supposed to only know merchant vessel design. The arrogant Admiralty designers were given a quick lesson in advanced warship design.
The Iron Rams Seized by the British Government
Via the Northern Union spy network in Liverpool, the US ambassador was constantly informing the British authorities of the ships. The ships were being built for a French company on behalf of the Egyptian government and given Egyptian names - the company was fake. A country like Egypt at the time ordering such advanced and expensive vessels was highly unlikely. The British government needed positive proof of the Northern Union allegations. Lairds would minimally cooperate with the British government, as the orders were legitimate. The rams were clearly warships and not disguised as merchantmen as was the CSS Alabama. The British government sent HMS Majestic to the River Mersey standing off the Lairds shipyard. Later the Royal Navy seized the rams. The Royal Navy wanted the ships, however the Admiralty shunned them because it wasn't one of their designs. Initially the rams were not taken into the Royal Navy. Lairds lodged a claim for the ships from the British government for the seized partially built ships. Only then did the government pay up and take the ships into the Royal Navy paying for the full completion of the ships.
The ships were clandestinely named, El Tousson and El Monassir. The names on commission were to be CSS Mississippi and CSS North Carolina. The rams were eventually incorporated into the Royal Navy as HMS Wivern and HMS Scorpion. The ships were so advanced HMS Wivern was used until well into the 20th century being scrapped in 1922. A part of the money Lairds received for the rams from the British government, went into the Confederate Treasury, and helped to pay for CSS Shenandoah.
https://localwiki.org/liverpool/Liverpool_-_The_Home_of_the_Confederate_Fleet
15. Saturday, September 5, 1863: British forces stop the shipment of two ironclads from Liverpool under orders from Lord Russell. This dashed Confederates hopes of British support during the war.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186309
16. Saturday, September 5, 1863: In Great Britain, the Laird shipyards in Liverpool are building two ironclad warships ostensibly for Egypt, but which are suspected of being made for the Confederate Navy. On this date, Lord Russell, Foreign Secretary, issues order to prevent the Laird ironclads from being delivered, until there is further investigation.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+5%2C+1863
17. Saturday, September 5, 1863: Britain is building two Scorpion-class ironclads, known as Laird rams, for the Confederacy. They will be able to break the blockade. Today, the US ambassador in London tells Britain’s foreign secretary that if the rams leave port, “It would be superfluous in me to point out to your Lordship that this is war.” In view of the overall world political situation as seen from the UK, the British government will see to it that work on the rams ceases and the ships never reach the South.
https://bjdeming.com/2013/09/02/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-2-8-1863/
18. Saturday, September 5, 1863: Saturday, September 5, 1863: Bragg orders a pullout from Chattanooga on the 6th.
https://bjdeming.com/2013/09/02/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-2-8-1863/
19. Saturday, September 5, 1863: Skirmishes at Alpine, Georgia, and Lebanon, Alabama.
https://bjdeming.com/2013/09/02/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-2-8-1863/
20. Saturday, September 5, 1863: Destruction of salt-works at Rawlingsville, Alabama.
https://bjdeming.com/2013/09/02/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-2-8-1863/
21. Monday, September 5, 1864: Georgia operations, Atlanta: General Sherman says: ‘The army still remained where the news of success had first found us, viz., Lovejoy’s; but, after due refection, I resolved not to attempt at that time a further pursuit of Hood’s army, but slowly and deliberately to move back, occupy Atlanta, enjoy a short period of rest, and to think well over the next step required in the progress of events. Orders for this movement were made on the 5th September, and three days were given for each army to reach the place assigned it, viz.: the Army of the Cumberland in and about Atlanta; the Army of the Tennessee at East Point; and the Army of the Ohio at Decatur.”
https://bjdeming.com/2014/09/01/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-1-7-1864/
22. Monday, September 5, 1864: Voters in Louisiana who had taken an oath of loyalty to the United States ratified a state constitution abolishing slavery.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186409
23. Monday, September 5, 1864: Tennessee Unionists meet in Nashville to restart the state government and plan participation in national elections that fall.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186409
24. Monday, September 5, 1864: Mississippi operations: Forrest arrives in Meridian and meets General Richard Taylor, CS President Davis’s brother-in-law, son of President Zachary Taylor, and commander-in-chief of the Confederacy. They discuss cutting Sherman’s lines. Forrest will establish headquarters in Verona, and Buford is ordered to join him there. Forrest orders the impressment of African Americans to repair the M&O Railroad as far as Corinth. His plan is to use the railroad to reach Sherman’s supply lines, so they can be cut. This work will be ongoing for the next two weeks.
https://bjdeming.com/2014/09/01/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-1-7-1864/
25. Monday, September 5, 1864: Lincoln got his national day of celebration; with the fall of Atlanta things were looking brighter for him in Washington. President Lincoln interviews Mary E. Wise, who joined 34th Indiana Regiment and serves until wounded. The paymaster withheld five months’ pay because of her sex. Lincoln directs payment and offers to supply funds if paymaster cannot legally do so. Voters in Louisiana who had taken an oath of loyalty to the United States ratified a state constitution abolishing slavery. In Tennessee, Unionists meet in Nashville to restart the state government and plan participation in national elections in the fall.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/1864/week-178
A Thursday, September, 5, 1861: Hearing of Polk's move into Columbus, Kentucky, General Grant begins preparations for an expedition to Paducah, Kentucky, near the mouth of the Cumberland River.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-a/part-twenty-one
A Thursday, September, 5, 1861: Union troops commanded by Ulysses Grant prepared to move into Kentucky in response to the move made by Polk.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/the-american-civil-war/american-civil-war-september-1861/
A+ Thursday, September, 5, 1861: Grant’s first Civil War battles occurred while he was in command of the District of Cairo. The Confederate Army, stationed in Columbus under General Leonidas Polk, had violated Kentucky's military neutrality. Immediately, Grant took the initiative and seized Paducah, Kentucky on September 5, 1861. He was ordered by commanding Union Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont just to make demonstrations against the Confederate Army, rather than attack Polk directly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_S._Grant_and_the_American_Civil_War
B Friday, September 5, 1862: The C.S.S. Alabama captures its first legitimate prize, the whaler Oemulgee, which Semmes orders burned.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+5%2C+1862
B+ Friday, September 5, 1862: Atlantic Ocean - On September 5, the CSS Alabama was in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, near the Azores Islands, when it spotted a Union ship nearby. The Alabama attacked the USS Ocmulgee and soon captured it. After transferring the new Union prisoners and supplies onboard, the Alabama burned the Ocmulgee and left.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1862s.html
C Saturday, September 5, 1863: East Tennessee operations/Chickamauga Campaign: CS General Wheeler, in charge of cavalry units south of Chattanooga, has not been getting much information on US movements in the area. Bragg has been focused on US General Thomas Leonidas Crittenden, who is moving in from the north, but today he discovers that he is about to be flanked from the south by US Generals George Thomas and Alexander McCook. His information source? A captured copy of the Chicago Times!
https://bjdeming.com/2013/09/02/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-2-8-1863/
C+ Saturday, September 5, 1863: Reconnaissance from Winston's Gap into Broomtown Valley, Ala. Skirmish at Lebanon, Ala. Skirmish near Alpine, Ga.
D Monday, September 5, 1864: Catching up with the Shenandoah Valley.
The month of August closed in the Shenandoah Valley with little resolution. Jubal Early’s Army of the Valley held their own north of Winchester at Bunker Hill. The cavalry skirmished here and there, with the Federals throwing back the Rebels at Leetown. The infantry even had a go at things, when Early pitched into the Union horse soldiers with two divisions.
Much of the fighting was for a crossing along Opequon Creek near Smithfield. It had changed hands twice before Union commander Philip Sheridan ordered it held. In the first couple days of September, he moved his cavalry to Berryville and sent a division under William Woods Averell toward Bunker Hill. There, the troopers were met by infantry and whipped generally.
Early reacted to both the move of Sherman’s main body and of Averell, first crossing the Opequon to possibly attack, and then recrossing it to protect his rear. Finally, Early decided to base his army at Stephenson’s Depot. From there, he could cover not only Bunker Hill, but Winchester as well as the B & O Railroad running through Martinsburg.
As Early repositioned his forces, Sheridan slid his own to a line running northeast from Berryville to Clifton, placing himself east of Winchester. This new move didn’t really seem to bother Early, though he was in the process of making a few changes.
For one, General Lee was getting fairly worried about the Petersburg front and hoped that if nothing was going to happen in the Shenandoah Valley, he might have Richard Anderson’s division either returned to him or moved to a position where Grant might dispatch troops away from Petersburg.
In this light, Anderson moved his division east toward Snicker’s Gap, not realizing that Sheridan’s forces were blocking the way at Berryville. Neither Sheridan nor Early expected a fight, but a fight was exactly what they got.
“At Berryville,” wrote Sheridan in his memoirs, “he blundered into Crook’s lines about sunset, and a bitter little fight ensued, in which the Confederates got so much the worst of it that they withdrew toward Winchester.”
The next day, the 4th, Early rushed three of his four remaining divisions toward Berryville. “We found Anderson in line of battle in front of Berryville and joined him to his left,” wrote the cartographer Jedidiah Hotchkiss. “He was skirmishing some with the enemy.” But Early saw that it was no use.
“I at first thought that I had reached his right flank, and was about making arrangements to attack it,” wrote Early after the war, “when casting my eye to my left, I discovered, as far as the eye could reach with the aid of field glasses, a line extending toward Summit Point. The position of the enemy occupied was a strong one, and he was busily engaged fortifying it, having already made considerable progress. It was not until I had this view that I realized the size of the enemy’s force, and as I discovered that his line was too long for me to get around his flank, and the position was too strong to attack in front, I returned and informed General Anderson of the condition of things.”
There was nothing more they could do. And so on this date, Early then moved his entire force back to the west side of the Opequon to their positions at Stephenson’s Depot. This was done with the hope that Sheridan might come out of his entrenchments and attack. As the Rebels disengaged, the Federals made no signs of advancing.
Sheridan’s force, numbering 40,000, was twice as large as Early’s. And yet, he saw no real way of confronting the Rebels. In his memoirs, Sheridan shares his state of mind at this time of the conflict: “The difference of strength between the two armies at this date was considerably in my favor, but the conditions attending my situation in a hostile region necessitated so much detached service to protect trains, and to secure Maryland and Pennsylvania from raids, that my excess in numbers was almost canceled by these incidental demands that could not be avoided, and although I knew that I was strong, yet, in consequence of the injunctions of General Grant, I deemed it necessary to be very cautious; and the fact that the Presidential election was impending made me doubly so, the authorities at Washington having impressed upon me that the defeat of my army might be followed by the overthrow of the party in power, which event, it was believed, would at least retard the progress of the war, if, indeed, it did not lead to the complete abandonment of all coercive measures.”
“Under circumstances such as these I could not afford to risk a disaster, to say nothing of the intense disinclination every soldier has for such results; so, notwithstanding my superior strength, I determined to take all the time necessary to equip myself with the fullest information, and then seize an opportunity under such conditions that I could not well fail of success.”
For nearly two weeks, the armies would move but little.
http://civilwardailygazette.com/catching-up-with-the-shenandoah-valley/
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Maryland was a tempting target for Lee; as its fields were full of crops and any move north that he made would bring fear to those who lived in the capital who would have rightly believed that the city was his priority target. Maj Gen John Pope was sent to the Department of the Northwest, which included Minnesota, which had been undergoing a Sioux uprising.
In 1863 a Union infantry assault on Battery Wagner in Charleston’s harbor started after the “sub-surface torpedo mines” (land mines) had been cleared. Near White Stone Hill, in the Dakota Territory, hostile Indians clashed with troops from the 2nd Nebraska Infantry.
In 1864, voters in Louisiana who had taken an oath of loyalty to the United States ratified a state constitution abolishing slavery. Tennessee Unionists met in Nashville to restart the state government and plan participation in national elections that fall.
CSA Lt Gen Kirby Smith tried to convince France to help the Trans-Mississippi Confederacy in 1863: Kirby Smith is going to go on about this for quite some time. For the most part, the Confederacy had long ago given up hope that either France or England would weigh in on their side. To be sure, England was still giving nominal aid through blockade running and a final attempt to build a few rams for the Rebels, but for the most part, the South knew they were on their own.1 That is, all but Kirby Smith, Confederate commander of the Trans-Mississippi Department.
Smith, however, had a slightly different angle, as was true with many things into which he threw himself. In writing to John Slidell, the Confederate envoy to France – the same envoy who was captured by Federal authorities in the early war – Smith focused upon Mexico. It might seem a bit of a stretch, contacting Slidell to talk to France about Mexico, but it was clearly worth the effort.
What did Mexico have to do with the Confederate Department of the Trans-Mississippi? For that matter, what did France have to do with either? To shorten the lengthy story, Mexico owed France a great deal of money. When they didn’t pay, France took action, landing with the British and Spanish on the shores of Mexico in early 1862. They fought a few battles, held a siege or two, and by this time, the crown was about to be offered to the Austrian Maximilian I, who would soon accept it at the prodding of Napoleon III.
How France and Mexico were to be concerned over the happenings in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas, Kirby Smith explained in great and weirdly vague detail: “The action of the French in Mexico and the erection of an empire under their auspices makes the establishment of the Confederacy the policy of the French Government. The condition of the States west of the Mississippi, separated from the General Government, at Richmond; the exhausted state of the country, with its fighting population in the armies east of the Mississippi; the vast preparations making by the enemy to complete the occupation and subjugation of this whole Western Department, are all matters which, if properly brought before the French Emperor, should influence him in hastening the intervention of his good services in our behalf. This succor must come speedily, or it will be too late. Without assistance from abroad or an extraordinary interposition of Providence, less than twelve months will see this fair country irretrievably lost, and the French protectorate in Mexico will find a hostile power established on their frontier, of exhaustless resources and great military strength, impelled by revenge and the traditional policy of its Government to overthrow all foreign influences on the American continent.”
Basically, Smith was threatening Mexico and thus France with the threat of the United States government. No, it wasn’t a very convincing argument in the 1860s, though perhaps he hoped that the Mexican War of the 1840s would still be fresh in their thoughts.
In his long letter to John Slidell, Smith brings up several key points. The land in his department had been utterly exhausted. The men had almost all joined or been conscripted into the army, all that remained were “the aged, the infirm, and the lukewarm.” The policy of the Union army was clearly one of conquest. They wanted all of the states under his command, but would hardly stop there. Now that they had taken the Mississippi River, they would control it, “with their southern and western frontier open for extension toward Mexico and the Pacific.”
As with many such letters written by Southern officers to their fellow aristocrats, the issue of slavery was sapped any hint of irony from the conversation. Among the typical accusations of barbarity, Smith argued that “the forced impressment of our slaves into their army, to wage a ruthless war against their masters, all in the name of humanity call for the interposition of those powers who really hold the destiny of our country in their hands.”
In closing, he gave the true reason for his plea – shipping and commerce – and made the French a tempting offer: “The intervention of the French Government can alone save Mexico from having on its border a grasping, haughty, and imperious neighbor. If the policy of the Emperor looks to an intervention in our affairs, he should take immediate military possession of the east bank of the Rio Grande, and open to us the only channel (since the loss of the Mississippi) by which supplies and munitions of war can be introduced into the department. The whole cotton trade west of the Mississippi will thus be secured to the French market, and the enemy will be anticipated in making a lodgment on the Rio Grande, from which he could not be driven without great difficulty.”
Though Kirby Smith was bombastic, he did have some points, which he explained to President Jefferson Davis. Shipping and commerce were essential, of course, but the military state of affairs was in grave danger of collapsing. Smith admitted that he had painted the situation “in a gloomy light,” but warned that it “wasn’t a too exaggerated picture of what may occur.”
He brought up not only the Federal force under Frederick Steele that was drawing ever closer to Little Rock, Arkansas, but also James Blunt’s troops in Indian Territory [Oklahoma], and portions of Grant’s Army of the Tennessee that appeared to have designs upon Texas and Louisiana. He predicted that 100,000 Yankees could soon be brought to bear upon his department. He had but 30,000 men. What could he do?
Not only did he need men, but he needed arms as well. Richmond had tried, but ships had been seized at sea and weapons lost at Vicksburg. Though he had only 30,000 troops, he predicted that more would fall into the ranks if he had ways of arming them. “Sixty thousand rifles could, I believe, this moment be well disposed of throughout this department.”
While Smith waiting for something to happen, Union General Steele inched closer to Little Rock, and Confederate General Sterling Price tried to figure out how to stop him. In a letter to Price, Smith fell back on one of his old pet peeves. When he saw his armies, the one thing that always stuck in his crawl was how white men were working at teamsters and laborers. Wasn’t this what slaves were for?
“The urgency is immediate,” cautioned Smith, and urged Price to force the people to hand over their slaves. “The temper of the people is now favorable for such a step; there is a feeling of distrust in the loyalty of their slaves, and an anxiety to have the able-bodied males in the service of the Government; especially is this the case in the exposed portions of the country, and I think there large numbers could be obtained without difficulty.” If more slaves were doing the work that the white men were doing, “a large number of men would by this measure be added to the effective force in your district.”
This was hardly anything new. General Beauregard was saying the same thing in Charleston. But in a few weeks, Smith would make a very different and fairly controversial connection.”
http://civilwardailygazette.com/kirby-smith-tries-to-convince-france-to-help-the-trans-mississippi-confederacy/
Below are a number of journal entries from 1862, 1863 and 1864 which shed light on what life was like for soldiers and civilians – the good, the bad and the ugly. In 1864, Maj Gen William T. Sherman wrote in his journal about operations in Georgia.
Friday, September 5, 1862: General John Pope is told that all of his troops, now within the defenses of Washington, DC, are under McClellan’s command. He writes to Gen. Halleck in frustration: ARLINGTON, September 5, [1862] - 12.05 p. m. Major-General HALLECK, General-in-Chief: I have just received an order from General McClellan to have my command in readiness to march with three days' rations and further details of the march. What is my command, and where is it? McClellan has scattered it about in all directions, and has not informed me of the position of a single regiment. Am I do take the field and under McClellan's orders? Jno POPE, Major-General.
To this, Halleck answers, somewhat cryptically: WASHINGTON, D. C., September 5, 1862. Major-General POPE, Arlington: The armies of the Potomac and Virginia being consolidated, you will report for orders to the Secretary of War. H. W. HALLECK, General-in-Chief.
Friday, September 5, 1862: Henry Adams, son and secretary of the American Ambassador in London, Charles Francie Adams, Sr., writes to his brother, Charles, Jr., who is an officer in the cavalry: “Firmly convinced as I am that there can be no peace on our continent so long as the Southern people exist, I don’t much care whether they are destroyed by emancipation, or in other words a vigorous system of guerilla war carried on by negroes on our side, or by the slower and more doubtful measures of choaking them with their own cotton. Perhaps before long we shall have to use both weapons as vigorously as we are now using the last. But one thing is clear to my mind, which is that we must not let them as an independent state get the monopoly of cotton again, unless we want to find a powerful and bitterly hostile nation on our border, supported by all the moral and social influence of Great Britain in peace; certain in war to drag us into all the European complications; sure to be in perpetual anarchy within, but always ready to disturb anything and everything without; to compel us to support a standing army no less large than if we conquer them and hold them so, and with infinite means of wounding and scattering dissension among us. We must ruin them before we let them go or it will all have to be done over again. And we must exterminate them in the end, be it long or be it short, for it is a battle between us and slavery.”
Saturday, September 5, 1863: Jenkin Lloyd Jones, of the 6th Battery of Wisconsin artillery in the Federal army near Vicksburg, notes in his journal, after a long illness, that he is feeling better: “Vicksburg, Saturday, Sept. 5. Fine day. Health very good. Feel first rate today. We have fine times of it. We bought lots of potatoes and onions with butter, sauce, etc. and we live good for soldiers. Headquarters serenaded in the evening by 3rd Brigade band—Avery leader.”
Saturday, September 5, 1863: John Beauchamp Jones, of the Confederate War Department, worried in his journal over the possibilities that thje Army of Northern Virginia may be sent west to help redeem Southern fortunes there: “SEPTEMBER 5TH.—It is believed that Lee, with a large portion of his army, will proceed immediately to Tennessee against Rosecrans; and it is ascertained that Meade is sending reinforcements thither. But I fear for Virginia when Lee is away! Meade must have a large army left behind, else he would not send reinforcements to Rosecrans. This move will excite the fear of the extortionate farmers, at all events, and make them willing to sell their surplus produce. But if Richmond should fall, and the State be overrun, it is possible it would secede from the Confederacy, which would be a virtual dissolution of it.”
Monday, September 5, 1864: Georgia operations, Atlanta: General Sherman says: ‘The army still remained where the news of success had first found us, viz., Lovejoy’s; but, after due refection, I resolved not to attempt at that time a further pursuit of Hood’s army, but slowly and deliberately to move back, occupy Atlanta, enjoy a short period of rest, and to think well over the next step required in the progress of events. Orders for this movement were made on the 5th September, and three days were given for each army to reach the place assigned it, viz.: the Army of the Cumberland in and about Atlanta; the Army of the Tennessee at East Point; and the Army of the Ohio at Decatur.”
Pictures: Built at Lairds CSS Alabama; 1862-09-05 Line engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", 1862, depicting CSS Alabama burning a prize; 1864-09 Union cavalry general Alfred T. A. Torbert; 1863-09 Initial movements in the Chickamauga Campaign Map
A. Thursday, September 5, 1861: Brig Gen U.S. Grant took the initiative and seized Paducah, Kentucky. He was ordered by commanding Union Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont just to make demonstrations against the Confederate Army, rather than attack CSA Gen Leonidas Polk’s forces directly.
Hearing of Polk's move into Columbus, Kentucky, General Grant had previously begun preparations for the expedition to Paducah, Kentucky from Cairo, Illinois, near the mouth of the Cumberland River.
Union troops commanded by Ulysses Grant prepared to move into Kentucky in response to the move made by Polk.
Details: Grant’s first Civil War battles occurred while he was in command of the District of Cairo. The Confederate Army, stationed in Columbus under General Leonidas Polk, had violated Kentucky's military neutrality. Immediately, Grant took the initiative and seized Paducah, Kentucky on September 5, 1861. He was ordered by commanding Union Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont just to make demonstrations against the Confederate Army, rather than attack Polk directly.
B. Friday, September 5, 1862: The C.S.S. Alabama captured its first legitimate prize, the USS Ocmulgee whaler in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, near the Azores Islands. After the Alabama sighted the Ocmulgee it came in close under the pretense of the United States colors. The crew of the Alabama transferred the new Union prisoners and supplies onboard. CSA Captain Raphael Semmes waited until the following morning to burn her, not wanting to alert other whalers in the area. Then the Alabama left the area.
C. Saturday, September 5, 1863: East Tennessee operations/Chickamauga Campaign: CS General Wheeler, in charge of cavalry units south of Chattanooga, had not been getting much information on US movements in the area. Gen Braxton Bragg has been focused on US Maj Gen Thomas Leonidas Crittenden, who was moving in from the north, but he discovered that he was about to be flanked from the south by US Maj Gen George Thomas and Maj Gen Maj Gen Alexander McCook. His information source? A captured copy of the Chicago Times!
D. Monday, September 5, 1864: Shenandoah Valley campaign. CSA LT Gen Jubal Early moved his entire force back to the west side of the Opequon to their positions at Stephenson’s Depot. This was done with the hope that Sheridan might come out of his entrenchments and attack. As the Rebels disengaged, the Federals made no signs of advancing.
Maj Gen Phil Sheridan’s force, numbering 40,000, was twice as large as Early’s. And yet, he saw no real way of confronting the Rebels. In his memoirs, Sheridan shares his state of mind at this time of the conflict: “The difference of strength between the two armies at this date was considerably in my favor, but the conditions attending my situation in a hostile region necessitated so much detached service to protect trains, and to secure Maryland and Pennsylvania from raids, that my excess in numbers was almost canceled by these incidental demands that could not be avoided, and although I knew that I was strong, yet, in consequence of the injunctions of General Grant, I deemed it necessary to be very cautious; and the fact that the Presidential election was impending made me doubly so, the authorities at Washington having impressed upon me that the defeat of my army might be followed by the overthrow of the party in power, which event, it was believed, would at least retard the progress of the war, if, indeed, it did not lead to the complete abandonment of all coercive measures.”
“Under circumstances such as these I could not afford to risk a disaster, to say nothing of the intense disinclination every soldier has for such results; so, notwithstanding my superior strength, I determined to take all the time necessary to equip myself with the fullest information, and then seize an opportunity under such conditions that I could not well fail of success.”
1. Wednesday, September 5, 1855: Free-staters meet in Big Springs, Kansas to elect representatives to a constitutional convention in Topeka.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/date/September_5
2. Thursday, September, 5, 1861: Lincoln and Scott look to wrangle Fremont. “General John C. Fremont, Union commander of the Western Department, was out of control and out of his depths. President Lincoln knew he had to be replaced, but was unsure who would be up to the incredibly difficult task of keeping Missouri in the Union. Lincoln met with General-in-Chief Winfield Scott on this rainy Thursday morning. They talked of Fremont’s August 30 proclamation, where he promised a death sentence to any armed secessionist and freed the slaves of any disloyal slave owners. Lately, the President had been hearing an increasing number of reports about Fremont’s ineptitude. The General rarely left his headquarters, got along with basically nobody and was fast losing the respect of his subordinates.
General Scott agreed. A change needed to be made. Replacing Fremont, however, was not what they had in mind. They decided to send an Adjutant and Inspector General to assist Fremont. Scott’s first choice was Major-General David Hunter, a West Point graduate, veteran of the Mexican War and borderline abolitionist. Hunter accompanied Lincoln from Springfield to Washington prior to the inauguration, suffering a broken collar bone while attempting to control the crowds clamoring to see the President-elect. General Scott, however, noted that, according to military tradition, Hunter was one rank too high to perform this duty.
Another option was Brigadier-General George Stoneman, also a West Point graduate (where he roomed with “Stonewall” Jackson). Stoneman spent most of his military career in the cavalry battling Indians in the West. Though he was Scott’s second choice, he was the only choice with the proper rank and was thus Scott’s official recommendation.
Stoneman, wrote Scott to Lincoln, “may prove to be a God-send in this emergency.” He had “youth, vigor, intelligence discretion, firmness, conciliatory manners.” He was, “perhaps the only one of high rank in the entire army who is on tolerable terms with Fremont.” Among Stoneman’s “rare merits,” gushed Scott, was “this crowning one: to do his country proportionate service, he is always willing to go from the most agreeable to the most disagreeable, post & duty.”
Scott concluded: “We may send Stoneman to Fremont as Chief of his Staff & act as Adjutant & Inspector General. If Fremont will listen to him he will soon win his confidence & effect every thing.”
http://civilwardailygazette.com/lincoln-and-scott-look-to-wrangle-fremont/
3. Friday, September 5, 1862: Robert E. Lee took his army toward Maryland. At the same time the Union’s military hierarchy could not make its mind up as to who should lead the Union’s army in the field. Maryland was a tempting target for Lee; as its fields were full of crops and any move north that he made would bring fear to those who lived in the capital who would have rightly believed that the city was his priority target. General John Pope gets his orders was sent to the Department of the Northwest, which included Minnesota, which had been undergoing an uprising of the Sioux. Neither Pope nor the people he was supposed to protect were thrilled with this development.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-b/part-seventy-three
4. Friday, September 5, 1862: Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia enters Maryland.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186209
5. Friday, September 5, 1862: Robert E Lee took his army into Maryland. At the same time the Union’s military hierarchy could not make its mind up as to who should lead the Union’s army in the field. Maryland was a tempting target for Lee as its fields were full of crops and any move north that he made would bring fear to those who lived in the capital who would have rightly believed that the city was his priority target.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/the-american-civil-war/american-civil-war-september-1862/
6. Friday, September 5, 1862: Poolesville, Virginia - On September 5, Brig. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart led a Confederate cavalry force towards the village of Poolesville. Within 2 or 3 miles from the village, the Confederates flushed a small Union party from the area capturing 30 prisoners. They then continued to the village.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1862s.html
7. Friday, September 5, 1862: Eastern Theater, Maryland Campaign - Gen. Halleck pens orders for McClellan, insisting that no one can doubt any longer that the Rebels are crossing north over the Potomac in force.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+5%2C+1862
8. Friday, September 5, 1862: General Bragg, having conducted a dance of deception and innuendo in eastern Tennessee, finally decides to strike north with Kirby-Smith, rather than strike at Nashville. General Buell, with his Federal Army of the Ohio, is trying to find out what Bragg’s intentions are, and is pulling most of his troops into the vicinity of Nashville—just in case.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+5%2C+1862Friday, September 5, 1862: General John Pope is told that all of his troops, now within the defenses of Washington, DC, are under McClellan’s command. He writes to Gen. Halleck in frustration: ARLINGTON, September 5, [1862] - 12.05 p. m. Major-General HALLECK, General-in-Chief: I have just received an order from General McClellan to have my command in readiness to march with three days' rations and further details of the march. What is my command, and where is it? McClellan has scattered it about in all directions, and has not informed me of the position of a single regiment. Am I do take the field and under McClellan's orders? Jno POPE, Major-General.
To this, Halleck answers, somewhat cryptically: WASHINGTON, D. C., September 5, 1862. Major-General POPE, Arlington: The armies of the Potomac and Virginia being consolidated, you will report for orders to the Secretary of War. H. W. HALLECK, General-in-Chief.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+5%2C+1862
9. Friday, September 5, 1862: Henry Adams, son and secretary of the American Ambassador in London, Charles Francie Adams, Sr., writes to his brother, Charles, Jr., who is an officer in the cavalry: “Firmly convinced as I am that there can be no peace on our continent so long as the Southern people exist, I don’t much care whether they are destroyed by emancipation, or in other words a vigorous system of guerilla war carried on by negroes on our side, or by the slower and more doubtful measures of choaking them with their own cotton. Perhaps before long we shall have to use both weapons as vigorously as we are now using the last. But one thing is clear to my mind, which is that we must not let them as an independent state get the monopoly of cotton again, unless we want to find a powerful and bitterly hostile nation on our border, supported by all the moral and social influence of Great Britain in peace; certain in war to drag us into all the European complications; sure to be in perpetual anarchy within, but always ready to disturb anything and everything without; to compel us to support a standing army no less large than if we conquer them and hold them so, and with infinite means of wounding and scattering dissension among us. We must ruin them before we let them go or it will all have to be done over again. And we must exterminate them in the end, be it long or be it short, for it is a battle between us and slavery.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+5%2C+1862
10. Saturday, September 5, 1863: Jenkin Lloyd Jones, of the 6th Battery of Wisconsin artillery in the Federal army near Vicksburg, notes in his journal, after a long illness, that he is feeling better: “Vicksburg, Saturday, Sept. 5. Fine day. Health very good. Feel first rate today. We have fine times of it. We bought lots of potatoes and onions with butter, sauce, etc. and we live good for soldiers. Headquarters serenaded in the evening by 3rd Brigade band—Avery leader.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+5%2C+1863
11. Saturday, September 5, 1863: John Beauchamp Jones, of the Confederate War Department, worried in his journal over the possibilities that thje Army of Northern Virginia may be sent west to help redeem Southern fortunes there: “SEPTEMBER 5TH.—It is believed that Lee, with a large portion of his army, will proceed immediately to Tennessee against Rosecrans; and it is ascertained that Meade is sending reinforcements thither. But I fear for Virginia when Lee is away! Meade must have a large army left behind, else he would not send reinforcements to Rosecrans. This move will excite the fear of the extortionate farmers, at all events, and make them willing to sell their surplus produce. But if Richmond should fall, and the State be overrun, it is possible it would secede from the Confederacy, which would be a virtual dissolution of it.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+5%2C+1863
12. Saturday, September 5, 1863: An Union infantry assault on Battery Wagner in Charleston’s harbor started after the “sub-surface torpedo mines” (land mines) had been cleared. The British government seized two ironclads being built for the South in Liverpool, after a strong threat of war with Great Britain from Washington DC. A major foreign crisis was averted, and any glimmer of Confederate hope for British recognition vanished.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-c/week-125
13. Saturday, September 5, 1863: Near White Stone Hill, in the Dakota Territory, hostile Indians clash with troops from the 2nd Nebraska Infantry.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+5%2C+1863
14. Saturday, September 5, 1863: Lincoln Threatens War on The UK. “The Confederacy ordered from Lairds shipyard two armoured iron hulled, twin rotating turret, rams powered by steam-sail. The warships were advanced designs with also the ability to ram and destroy wooden ships, hence the title rams. The ships were clandestinely built under cover of being destined for the Egyptian navy. These were the most advanced ships in the world and would have torn through the Northern Union fleet if let loose. The rotating turrets were a new development equipped with advanced rapid firing breach loading Armstrong guns. The rotating turrets enabled great flexibility when attacking enemy ships. These two deep sea operating ships are not to be confused with the iron clad turetted monitors used in the American civil war which were dedicated vessels for operating primarily in estuaries. One of the monitors capsized in deep water being so unstable.
The Northern Union spy ring relayed to Washington the status of the construction of the ships. Washington put pressure on the British government to seize the ships from Lairds. The fear of these ships was so great a diplomatic row ensued with Abraham Lincoln threatening to declare war on the UK if the vessels were delivered.
With Britain having a huge naval fleet and a number of the advanced iron Warrier class ships complimented by the Laird rams, declaring war on the Britain would seem a foolish act when the Northern Union was already engaged in a war with the Confederacy. Britain had reinforced Canada with troops with the giant Great Eastern requisitioned as a troop ship sailing from Liverpool. Russia did give the Northern Union assurances that if Britain recognised the Confederacy they would declare war on Britain. Russia had ships based in San Francisco and New York. Delivering the rams to a French company may not be viewed as recognising the Confederacy, however it is how the Northern Union and Russia would have interpreted the transactions. Having the Russians potentially on his side may have been the reason why Lincoln was so aggressive to the United Kingdom.The Most Advanced Ships in the World
The British designed and built the first full iron hull warship, HMS Warrior in 1860, which is now berthed in Portsmouth harbour. Napoleon referred to Warrier as "that long black snake in the English Channel". The Warrior was highly successful in preventing a war with France.
However the iron Laird Rams ordered by the Confederacy put the Warrior into instant obsolescence. The configuration had heavy impenetrable armour, two revolving armoured turret guns, fore and aft, with quick firing breach loading Armstrong guns. The ships did not have to line up broadside against an enemy ship to fire, having the ability to fire its guns quickly at virtually any angle to an enemy ship. The rams were a quantum leap in design and technology and vessels to be feared. The rams could steam into a wooden hulled blue water fleet and decimate it. In harbours and rivers, they could just simply ram ironclad ships below the waterline. British navy ships were primarily designed by the Admiralty, in Admiralty shipyards. The Laird Rams were designed by men at Lairds who were supposed to only know merchant vessel design. The arrogant Admiralty designers were given a quick lesson in advanced warship design.
The Iron Rams Seized by the British Government
Via the Northern Union spy network in Liverpool, the US ambassador was constantly informing the British authorities of the ships. The ships were being built for a French company on behalf of the Egyptian government and given Egyptian names - the company was fake. A country like Egypt at the time ordering such advanced and expensive vessels was highly unlikely. The British government needed positive proof of the Northern Union allegations. Lairds would minimally cooperate with the British government, as the orders were legitimate. The rams were clearly warships and not disguised as merchantmen as was the CSS Alabama. The British government sent HMS Majestic to the River Mersey standing off the Lairds shipyard. Later the Royal Navy seized the rams. The Royal Navy wanted the ships, however the Admiralty shunned them because it wasn't one of their designs. Initially the rams were not taken into the Royal Navy. Lairds lodged a claim for the ships from the British government for the seized partially built ships. Only then did the government pay up and take the ships into the Royal Navy paying for the full completion of the ships.
The ships were clandestinely named, El Tousson and El Monassir. The names on commission were to be CSS Mississippi and CSS North Carolina. The rams were eventually incorporated into the Royal Navy as HMS Wivern and HMS Scorpion. The ships were so advanced HMS Wivern was used until well into the 20th century being scrapped in 1922. A part of the money Lairds received for the rams from the British government, went into the Confederate Treasury, and helped to pay for CSS Shenandoah.
https://localwiki.org/liverpool/Liverpool_-_The_Home_of_the_Confederate_Fleet
15. Saturday, September 5, 1863: British forces stop the shipment of two ironclads from Liverpool under orders from Lord Russell. This dashed Confederates hopes of British support during the war.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186309
16. Saturday, September 5, 1863: In Great Britain, the Laird shipyards in Liverpool are building two ironclad warships ostensibly for Egypt, but which are suspected of being made for the Confederate Navy. On this date, Lord Russell, Foreign Secretary, issues order to prevent the Laird ironclads from being delivered, until there is further investigation.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+5%2C+1863
17. Saturday, September 5, 1863: Britain is building two Scorpion-class ironclads, known as Laird rams, for the Confederacy. They will be able to break the blockade. Today, the US ambassador in London tells Britain’s foreign secretary that if the rams leave port, “It would be superfluous in me to point out to your Lordship that this is war.” In view of the overall world political situation as seen from the UK, the British government will see to it that work on the rams ceases and the ships never reach the South.
https://bjdeming.com/2013/09/02/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-2-8-1863/
18. Saturday, September 5, 1863: Saturday, September 5, 1863: Bragg orders a pullout from Chattanooga on the 6th.
https://bjdeming.com/2013/09/02/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-2-8-1863/
19. Saturday, September 5, 1863: Skirmishes at Alpine, Georgia, and Lebanon, Alabama.
https://bjdeming.com/2013/09/02/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-2-8-1863/
20. Saturday, September 5, 1863: Destruction of salt-works at Rawlingsville, Alabama.
https://bjdeming.com/2013/09/02/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-2-8-1863/
21. Monday, September 5, 1864: Georgia operations, Atlanta: General Sherman says: ‘The army still remained where the news of success had first found us, viz., Lovejoy’s; but, after due refection, I resolved not to attempt at that time a further pursuit of Hood’s army, but slowly and deliberately to move back, occupy Atlanta, enjoy a short period of rest, and to think well over the next step required in the progress of events. Orders for this movement were made on the 5th September, and three days were given for each army to reach the place assigned it, viz.: the Army of the Cumberland in and about Atlanta; the Army of the Tennessee at East Point; and the Army of the Ohio at Decatur.”
https://bjdeming.com/2014/09/01/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-1-7-1864/
22. Monday, September 5, 1864: Voters in Louisiana who had taken an oath of loyalty to the United States ratified a state constitution abolishing slavery.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186409
23. Monday, September 5, 1864: Tennessee Unionists meet in Nashville to restart the state government and plan participation in national elections that fall.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186409
24. Monday, September 5, 1864: Mississippi operations: Forrest arrives in Meridian and meets General Richard Taylor, CS President Davis’s brother-in-law, son of President Zachary Taylor, and commander-in-chief of the Confederacy. They discuss cutting Sherman’s lines. Forrest will establish headquarters in Verona, and Buford is ordered to join him there. Forrest orders the impressment of African Americans to repair the M&O Railroad as far as Corinth. His plan is to use the railroad to reach Sherman’s supply lines, so they can be cut. This work will be ongoing for the next two weeks.
https://bjdeming.com/2014/09/01/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-1-7-1864/
25. Monday, September 5, 1864: Lincoln got his national day of celebration; with the fall of Atlanta things were looking brighter for him in Washington. President Lincoln interviews Mary E. Wise, who joined 34th Indiana Regiment and serves until wounded. The paymaster withheld five months’ pay because of her sex. Lincoln directs payment and offers to supply funds if paymaster cannot legally do so. Voters in Louisiana who had taken an oath of loyalty to the United States ratified a state constitution abolishing slavery. In Tennessee, Unionists meet in Nashville to restart the state government and plan participation in national elections in the fall.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/1864/week-178
A Thursday, September, 5, 1861: Hearing of Polk's move into Columbus, Kentucky, General Grant begins preparations for an expedition to Paducah, Kentucky, near the mouth of the Cumberland River.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-a/part-twenty-one
A Thursday, September, 5, 1861: Union troops commanded by Ulysses Grant prepared to move into Kentucky in response to the move made by Polk.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/the-american-civil-war/american-civil-war-september-1861/
A+ Thursday, September, 5, 1861: Grant’s first Civil War battles occurred while he was in command of the District of Cairo. The Confederate Army, stationed in Columbus under General Leonidas Polk, had violated Kentucky's military neutrality. Immediately, Grant took the initiative and seized Paducah, Kentucky on September 5, 1861. He was ordered by commanding Union Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont just to make demonstrations against the Confederate Army, rather than attack Polk directly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_S._Grant_and_the_American_Civil_War
B Friday, September 5, 1862: The C.S.S. Alabama captures its first legitimate prize, the whaler Oemulgee, which Semmes orders burned.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+5%2C+1862
B+ Friday, September 5, 1862: Atlantic Ocean - On September 5, the CSS Alabama was in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, near the Azores Islands, when it spotted a Union ship nearby. The Alabama attacked the USS Ocmulgee and soon captured it. After transferring the new Union prisoners and supplies onboard, the Alabama burned the Ocmulgee and left.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1862s.html
C Saturday, September 5, 1863: East Tennessee operations/Chickamauga Campaign: CS General Wheeler, in charge of cavalry units south of Chattanooga, has not been getting much information on US movements in the area. Bragg has been focused on US General Thomas Leonidas Crittenden, who is moving in from the north, but today he discovers that he is about to be flanked from the south by US Generals George Thomas and Alexander McCook. His information source? A captured copy of the Chicago Times!
https://bjdeming.com/2013/09/02/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-september-2-8-1863/
C+ Saturday, September 5, 1863: Reconnaissance from Winston's Gap into Broomtown Valley, Ala. Skirmish at Lebanon, Ala. Skirmish near Alpine, Ga.
D Monday, September 5, 1864: Catching up with the Shenandoah Valley.
The month of August closed in the Shenandoah Valley with little resolution. Jubal Early’s Army of the Valley held their own north of Winchester at Bunker Hill. The cavalry skirmished here and there, with the Federals throwing back the Rebels at Leetown. The infantry even had a go at things, when Early pitched into the Union horse soldiers with two divisions.
Much of the fighting was for a crossing along Opequon Creek near Smithfield. It had changed hands twice before Union commander Philip Sheridan ordered it held. In the first couple days of September, he moved his cavalry to Berryville and sent a division under William Woods Averell toward Bunker Hill. There, the troopers were met by infantry and whipped generally.
Early reacted to both the move of Sherman’s main body and of Averell, first crossing the Opequon to possibly attack, and then recrossing it to protect his rear. Finally, Early decided to base his army at Stephenson’s Depot. From there, he could cover not only Bunker Hill, but Winchester as well as the B & O Railroad running through Martinsburg.
As Early repositioned his forces, Sheridan slid his own to a line running northeast from Berryville to Clifton, placing himself east of Winchester. This new move didn’t really seem to bother Early, though he was in the process of making a few changes.
For one, General Lee was getting fairly worried about the Petersburg front and hoped that if nothing was going to happen in the Shenandoah Valley, he might have Richard Anderson’s division either returned to him or moved to a position where Grant might dispatch troops away from Petersburg.
In this light, Anderson moved his division east toward Snicker’s Gap, not realizing that Sheridan’s forces were blocking the way at Berryville. Neither Sheridan nor Early expected a fight, but a fight was exactly what they got.
“At Berryville,” wrote Sheridan in his memoirs, “he blundered into Crook’s lines about sunset, and a bitter little fight ensued, in which the Confederates got so much the worst of it that they withdrew toward Winchester.”
The next day, the 4th, Early rushed three of his four remaining divisions toward Berryville. “We found Anderson in line of battle in front of Berryville and joined him to his left,” wrote the cartographer Jedidiah Hotchkiss. “He was skirmishing some with the enemy.” But Early saw that it was no use.
“I at first thought that I had reached his right flank, and was about making arrangements to attack it,” wrote Early after the war, “when casting my eye to my left, I discovered, as far as the eye could reach with the aid of field glasses, a line extending toward Summit Point. The position of the enemy occupied was a strong one, and he was busily engaged fortifying it, having already made considerable progress. It was not until I had this view that I realized the size of the enemy’s force, and as I discovered that his line was too long for me to get around his flank, and the position was too strong to attack in front, I returned and informed General Anderson of the condition of things.”
There was nothing more they could do. And so on this date, Early then moved his entire force back to the west side of the Opequon to their positions at Stephenson’s Depot. This was done with the hope that Sheridan might come out of his entrenchments and attack. As the Rebels disengaged, the Federals made no signs of advancing.
Sheridan’s force, numbering 40,000, was twice as large as Early’s. And yet, he saw no real way of confronting the Rebels. In his memoirs, Sheridan shares his state of mind at this time of the conflict: “The difference of strength between the two armies at this date was considerably in my favor, but the conditions attending my situation in a hostile region necessitated so much detached service to protect trains, and to secure Maryland and Pennsylvania from raids, that my excess in numbers was almost canceled by these incidental demands that could not be avoided, and although I knew that I was strong, yet, in consequence of the injunctions of General Grant, I deemed it necessary to be very cautious; and the fact that the Presidential election was impending made me doubly so, the authorities at Washington having impressed upon me that the defeat of my army might be followed by the overthrow of the party in power, which event, it was believed, would at least retard the progress of the war, if, indeed, it did not lead to the complete abandonment of all coercive measures.”
“Under circumstances such as these I could not afford to risk a disaster, to say nothing of the intense disinclination every soldier has for such results; so, notwithstanding my superior strength, I determined to take all the time necessary to equip myself with the fullest information, and then seize an opportunity under such conditions that I could not well fail of success.”
For nearly two weeks, the armies would move but little.
http://civilwardailygazette.com/catching-up-with-the-shenandoah-valley/
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Kirby Smith Tries to Convince France to Help the Trans-Mississippi Confederacy
September 5, 1863 (Saturday) For the most part, the Confederacy had long ago given up hope that either France or England would weigh in on their side. To be sure, England was still giving nominal a…
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LTC Stephen F. thanks I am going with:
Brig Gen U.S. Grant took the initiative and seized Paducah, Kentucky. He was ordered by commanding Union Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont just to make demonstrations against the Confederate Army, rather than attack CSA Gen Leonidas Polk’s forces directly.
Great read and share!
Brig Gen U.S. Grant took the initiative and seized Paducah, Kentucky. He was ordered by commanding Union Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont just to make demonstrations against the Confederate Army, rather than attack CSA Gen Leonidas Polk’s forces directly.
Great read and share!
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Good morning - just in time for my first cup of coffee - thanks for the great post.
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LTC Stephen F.
I am thankful that you are joyfully resting in eternal peace my decesed brother-in-Christ SP5 Mark Kuzinski. The LORD reminds me to pray for your widow Diana Kuzinski periodically along with your grieving children and grandchildren. I pray the LORD blesses each of them with apeaceful night's sleep.
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