ACW: Battle of Second Manassas - “A Most Vehement Contest” - Part 2/4

The Guns of August was written about WWI. However it seems just as applicable to the US Civil War. Soldiers, sailors and marines engaged in combat in August from 1861 to 1864 on land, on the sea and in swamps and assaults from the sea.
Saturday, August 29, 1863 Poor Fellows, they are Five to One Coffin – The Hunley’s First Sinking. “Apart from the assaults upon Battery Wagner, and even separate from the bombardment of Fort Sumter, the Federal blockade of Charleston Harbor was yet another hardship weathered by the Confederates in South Carolina. To break through the blockade, the Rebels had used many different privateers. None, however, were as different as Horace Lawson Hunley.
In the early days of the Confederacy, Hunley was discovered by a customs collector in New Orleans. Being a former state representative and lawyer, he wasn’t exactly an unknown, to be brought up by the bootstraps, but his skill in what would become one of the strangest undertakings of the war was, in 1861, not quite pronounced.
While others were thinking boats, Hunley was thinking submarines. His first attempt, the Pioneer, was built in early 1862, and tested in Lake Pontchartrain. All seemed more or less on the right track, as far as the vessel was concerned, though the same could not be said for the Confederate military situation in the Crescent City. With the coming of Yankees, the Pioneer was sank in a canal, and Hunley’s operation was moved to Mobile, Alabama.
There, he and his team began construction on the Pioneer II, which also became known at the American Diver. The submarine went through several different incarnations of power – including electric, steam, and hand-turned. They finally settled on the latter, and actually got the Pioneer II under the water in January of 1863. They attempted to launch an attack upon a Union blockade boat, but the poor submarine was found to be woefully slow. She was also found to be susceptible to choppy water and sank in a storm a month or so later, leaving Mr. Hunley two ships down and perhaps without employment.
Hunley wasn’t the first to dream up a submarine for use in warfare, of course. One was built by Colonial forces during the Revolutionary War. Appropriately, dubbed the Turtle, it didn’t work, but it was a start. The War of 1812 also featured such a contraption, but that too failed. And though Hunley may have been the first to give it another go during the Civil War, the Federals were on top of it (or under it?) as well.
The USS Alligator was the first submarine officially christened by the United States Navy. It was tested in Philadelphia and, though slow to be built, it seemed promising at first. She was finally selected to help take Charleston Harbor, and was due to arrive in April, 1863. As she was being towed down the coast, however, a storm kicked up and she sank off Cape Hatteras.
Hunley, of course, didn’t know much, if anything, about the Alligator, but if he did, her fate probably wouldn’t have ushered him away from his own. While still in Alabama, Hunley began work on another submarine, which would soon bear his own name. Through the spring and early summer, he and his crew constructed the finest vessel they could imagine. Like the American Diver and Alligator before her, she was powered by a modified hand crank and boasted four knots.
By July, Hunley was ready to test his new creation, successfully attacking a Federal coal barge in Mobile Bay. Impressed with his new design, General P.G.T. Beauregard, commanding the defenses of Charleston, asked the Confederate government to snatch up the new submarine, and ship her by rail to his headquarters. There, she arrived on August 12th with B.A. Whitney, one of her co-owners. Mr. Hunley would follow himself a bit later. In his stead, they sent James McClintock, one of the ship’s designers.
On the 15th, General Beauregard offered Whitney “the sum of $100,000 […] if he could “destroy the U.S. steam iron-clad Ironsides.” Whitney apparently took him up on the offer, making ready his “submarine torpedo boat.”
Meanwhile, another Confederate craft, dubbed the David was making an attempt upon the Ironsides. Though not technically a submarine, she was odd and sat very low to the water, convincing many who saw her (or almost saw her) to confuse her make. An ensign aboard the Federal vessel first took notice. “I saw a strange vessel, sitting very low in the water and having the appearance of being a large boat, coming up astern very fast,” he reported. “I hailed the stranger twice, receiving for an answer to the first hail, ‘Aye, aye,” and to the second, ‘I am the “Live Yankee,” from Port Royal.'”
The Ironside‘s captain, S.C. Rowan added that this mysterious Rebel ship “passed rapidly under our bow, with the intention, we presume, of applying a torpedo.” In five minutes, and after the Ironside fired several shots, she was gone. According to Confederate reports, “the current and other causes prevented a direct collection [with the Ironsides], and, having been discovered, the attempt was for the time abandoned.” Though the David wasn’t exactly successful, her attempt was lauded. The same could not be said for Hunley’s torpedo boat.
On August 23rd, as the Federal Swamp Angel was lobbing her last shells into the streets of Charleston, Whitney launched the vessel at sunset once more, but it did not go as well. Soon after setting off, they returned, telling the Confederate officer, General T.L. Clingman, on Sullivan’s Island that there had been some kind of accident. “Whitney says that though McClintock is timid, yet it shall go tonight unless the weather is bad,” reported Clingman.
On three separate occasions, Hunley’s little submarine did its best, but somehow or another failed. The Confederate officially began to think something wasn’t quire right with the project. They offered to put a naval captain in among the crew, but Whitney, the co-owner, declined. Finally, it was no longer a suggestion. The Confederate Navy officially seized the submarine and Whitney, McClintock and their crew were dismissed.
At her helm, the Confederates placed Lt. John Payne, who, along with nine other crewmen taken from the CSS Chicora, were to board the vessel and figure out how to make her work. This was apparently far too much to ask, for on this date, things went fairly wrong.
According to a daily report from Fort Johnson, “an unfortunate accident occurred at the wharf… by which five seamen of the Chicora were drowned. The submarine torpedo-boat became entangled in some way with ropes, was drawn on its side, filled, and went down. The bodies have not been recovered.”
This was more ill fortune than lack of experience. The submarine was tied up at the dock near Fort Johnson. Her hatches were open to air out the cramped vessel. Next to her was the steamer Etiwan, which started off without notice. When the Etiwan‘s ropes became entangled with the torpedo boat, the latter was capsized, trapping the five men inside.
Theodore Honour, a soldier in the 25th North Carolina, described the accident in a letter to his wife: “Just as they were learning the wharf at Fort Johnson, where I was myself a few minutes before – an accident happened which caused the boat to go under the water before they were prepared for such a thing, and five out of the nine went down in her and were drowned, the other four made their escape. They had not up to last night [the 29th] recovered either the boat or the bodies – poor fellows they are five in one coffin.”
Before long, Lt. Payne would be sacked, the submarine torpedo boat raised, and another officer placed in charge. A single sinking could not possibly doom Horace Lawson Hunley’s finest creation yet.”
[civilwardailygazette.com/poor-fellows-they-are-five-to-one-coffin-the-hunleys-first-sinking/]

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. Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans comments in the Chickamauga campaign in 1863. Maj Gen William T. Sherman provides a daily update on the siege of Atlanta in 1864.
Friday, August 29, 1862: Union Surgeon Alfred L. Castleman, writes his journal: “29th.—Struck tents near Alexandria, at 10 A. M., and have marched in direction of Fairfax Court House, I suppose to go to Bull Run, to reinforce General Pope, who with fifty thousand men is now engaged with Jackson and Longstreet’s army, over one hundred thousand strong. I hope to God that may be our destination, and that we may be in time. We have marched to-day only about six miles. The day is beautiful and cool, the roads fine. Why do we not go further. Is it because we have other destination than what I hoped?”
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+29%2C+1862]
Friday, August 29, 1862: John Beauchamp Jones, clerk with the Confederate War Department, notes in his diary: “AUGUST 29TH.—Bloody fighting is going on at Manassas. All the news is good for us. It appears that Pope, in his consummate egotism, refused to believe that he had been outwitted, and "pitched into" our corps and divisions, believing them to be merely brigades and regiments. He has been terribly cut up.”
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+29%2C+1862]
Friday, August 29, 1862: George Templeton Strong writes in his journal: “Still these brilliant, dashing, successful raids or forays of rebel cavalry within our lines. They have penetrated to Manassas, destroying supply trains and capturing guns, taking us by surprise. Are our generals traitors or imbecile? why does the Rebellion enjoy the monopoly of audacity and enterprise? Were I a general, even I, poor little feeble, myopic, flaccid effeminate George T. Strong, I think I could do better than this. . . . “
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+29%2C+1862]
Friday, August 29, 1862: Mrs. Judith White McGuire of Richmond, tells of a meeting with an old Lynchburg neighbor, and of the old lady’s fervor in the Southern cause: “At her beautiful home, more than a mile from town, I found . . . my venerable and venerated friend Mrs. Judge C, still the elegant, accomplished lady, the cheerful, warm-hearted, Christian Virginia woman. At four-score, the fire kindles in her eye as she speaks of our wrongs. "What would your father and my husband have thought of these times," she said to me— "men who loved and revered the Union, who would have yielded up their lives to support the Constitution, in its purity, but who could never have given up their cherished doctrines of State rights, nor have yielded one jot or tittle of their independence to the aggressions of the North?" She glories in having sons and grandsons fighting for the South. Two of the latter have already fallen in the great cause; I trust that the rest may be spared to her.”
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+29%2C+1862]
Saturday, August 29, 1863: Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans, U.S. Army observations “Having crossed the Tennessee river in the vicinity of Stevenson and Bridgeport, Ala., the Federals found themselves confronted by Sand mountain, the northern extremity of which is known as Raccoon mountain. At the eastern base of this ridge runs Lookout creek, separating from Sand mountain the ‘parallel ridge known as Lookout mountain, whose abrupt termination, where Lookout creek empties into the Tennessee, looms up in the sky just southwest of Chattanooga. Beyond Lookout mountain a valley runs in the same general direction, drained by Chattanooga creek, east of which is another parallel ridge, more passable, called Missionary ridge, the northward termination of which is east of Chattanooga and is pierced by the tunnel of the Georgia State railroad. East of Missionary ridge lies the most important of these valleys, McLemore’s cove, which is traversed by the west branch of Chickamauga creek, and ends 25 miles below Chattanooga in a junction of the mountain ridges. Pigeon mountain is the next running a parallel course of 40 miles, and still further east are the ranges of Chickamauga hills and Taylor’s ridge. These must all be traversed by Rosecrans, six ridges separated by valleys and creeks, before he could reach the railroad communications of Bragg.”
Saturday, August 29, 1863: In Bolivar, Tennessee, John Houston Bills of The Pillars, an early settler, planter and diarist wrote: “This my 63rd anniversary - my health yet good, my action a little stiff, but no pains or giving way of the Machinery of Life. The horrors of Civil War yet upon us, many of my servants have run away & most of those left has as well be gone, they being totally demoralized & ungovernable.”
Monday, August 29, 1864: Georgia operations, Siege of Atlanta: US troops wreck the West Point Railroad, as General Sherman describes: “[W]e spent the next day (29th) in breaking [the railroad] up thoroughly. The track was heaved up in sections the length of a regiment, then separated rail by rail; bonfires were made of the ties and of fence-rails on which the rails were heated, carried to trees or telegraph-poles, wrapped around and left to cool. Such rails could not be used again; and, to be still more certain, we filled up many deep cuts with trees, brush, and earth, and commingled with them loaded shells, so arranged that they would explode on an attempt to haul out the bushes. The explosion of one such shell would have demoralized a gang of negroes [sic], and thus would have prevented even the attempt to clear the road.”

Pictures: 1862-08-29 The Diehards by Don Troiani at Second Manassas battle; 1863-08-29 Hunley painting; xx; 1861-08-29 Fort Hatteras battle

A. Thursday, August 29, 1861: Union forces take Fort Hatteras, NC. The Union Navy fleet under Flag Officer Silas Sternham had succeeded in shutting down a Rebel battery and clearing out Fort Clark on Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The morning found the situation much the same. The Confederates appeared to be holding out in Fort Hatteras, like Clark, a log and sand fort, still flying the flag of secession.
On the land, over 300 foot soldiers comprised of infantry, Marines and artillerymen, had set up two of their own howitzers and were bombarding the Confederate ships which were in communication with Fort Hatteras.
Meanwhile, the Naval fleet steamed into position to bombard Hatteras. For most ships, their pivot guns caused the most destruction. In order to stay out of the range of the Rebel guns, the ships had to anchor far off the coast where only their heaviest guns with extreme elevations could be used. Due to the elevation, the cannons were used like mortars, sending shot and shell over the ramparts, and into the center of the fort.
For nearly three hours, the Union Navy pounded Hatteras, nearly breaking through its bomb-proof. Not a single Confederate cannon could reach the fleet, though for hours they kept up a steady fire. Finally realizing their efforts were in vain, at 11:10am, a white flag was hoisted over the fort in surrender.
Flag Officer Stringham and General Butler parlayed with the Confederate commanders and drew up the articles of capitulation, recognizing all 615 Rebels, soldiers and officers alike, as prisoners of war. The prisoners were taken aboard one of the Union ships while Butler and his men took command of Fort Hatteras, raising the United States flag aloft.
B. Friday, August 29, 1862: Second Battle of Bull Run (or Second Manassas), Virginia. John Pope believed he had Stonewall Jackson surrounded on three sides and decided to drive his attacks head-on into Jackson’s fortified line. Meanwhile, Jackson receives a note from Gen. Lee, telling him that Longstreet’s corps has cleared Thoroughfare Gap, and will be on the field by evening. Jackson decides to stay in his position until Longstreet can come up.
Morning Prelude: The Union troops are in confusion. Porter has conflicting orders telling him to march in two directions at once. Gen. McDowell is missing, and no one has seen him since early yesterday; in fact, he is trying to find Pope. When he finds Pope, he finds that Pope has been parcelling out McDowell’s divisions to other commanders, and so McDowell has not men to command—and then spends part of the morning wrangling with Gen. Porter and others to get his troops back. This halts Porter long enough that he does not advance to where Pope wanted him.
1. Attack on Rebel left flank: Pope orders Gen. Sigel to deploy his divisions to attack Jackson’s left flank, close to Bull Run Creek, with Gen. Kearney’s division to support. Sigel half-heartedly prepares for the assault: getting his troops into position takes all morning, and it does not go forward until nearly 1:00 P.M. He sends Gen. Carl Schurz’s two brigades of mostly German-speaking troops up the Manassas-Sudley Springs Road, and they strike the Confederates of A.P. Hill’s Light Division: Georgians under Thomas and South Carolinians under Gregg. Schurz reforms and attacks again, but Philip Kearney’s division does not move to support his right flank—so Schurz falls back again.
2. Milroy attacks the center: Then, at Jackson’s center, Gen. Robert Milroy pushes only two regiments into a gap in the Rebel line, but they are unable to stay there without support. Gen. Schenk, supported by Reynold’s division, is to attack Jackson’s right flank, but has not moved close enough yet. Pope arrives on the battlefield and is dismayed to find his troops in disarray, and the attacks not coordinated.
3. Longstreet deploys on the Confederate right: By this time, Longstreet’s troops are arriving on the field, and Stuart’s cavalry guides his division into positions pre-selected by Jackson. Hood’s division lines up on Jackson’s right, and then next in line come the divisions of Kemper and Jones and Wilcox. Gen. Lee is urging Longstreet to make his attack right away, but Longstreet’s scouts report the positions of Schenk and Reynolds in his front, as well as McDowell and Porter further south, and he counsels Lee to let him wait until the Federals make a move first. Lee agrees.
4. Confusion on the Federal left: Rebel cavalry attacks the column of Porter and McDowell as it toils up the road to Manassas Junction. As the Yankees are halted, they receive a badly-written order from Pope in which he expects (but does not say) that they should advance and attack what is supposed to be Jackson’s right on Stony Ridge. Porter sees plenty of evidence that there are Rebel troops massing on his left, and he is loath to march across their front. McDowell receives a report from Gen. Buford’s cavalary that at least 17 regiments of Confederate infantry have passed through Gainesville earlier that morning, but this information is not passed on to Pope until later in the night.
5. Pope tries to coordinate attacks on the right and left: Gen. Pope assumes that Porter and McDowell are going forward to smash Jackson’s right, and so—as a diversion—he orders forward just one brigade under Gen. Grover to charge into the left of Jackson’s line. Grover’s spirited bayonet charge hits a gap in the Rebel line, but once again Gen. Kearney does not advance as ordered to support this attack. Pender’s Rebels counterattack and drive Grover back with heavy losses. Pope sends a written order for Porter to attack, but this message does not arrive until after 6:30 PM. Reynolds’ division of McDowell’s Corps advances, but encounters Longstreet’s advance troops; upon reporting this to Pope, the commanding general chides Reynolds and believes Reynolds has only bumped into Porter’s men by accident. Pope arranges another diversion, and again orders Kearney to attack Jackson’s left, which Kearney finally does. With ten regiments, Kearney leads his men forward against Gregg’s South Carolinians, who are out of ammunition and exhausted. In the nick of time, the brigades of Early (Virginians) and Lawrence O’Bryan Branch (North Carolinians) counterattack and blunt the Federal attack. Kearney withdraws.
Meanwhile, McDowell has finally regained control of his scattered divisions and begins sending them to the center to help with the attacks. Lee’s scouts see this movement, seeing the Yankees veering away from Longstreet’s flank, and urges Longstreet to attack, but the latter argues that it is too close to dark—but he does send forward Hood’s troops, which encounter Hatch’s division in the gathering dark and fight to a standstill.
Conclusion to Day 1: At this point, Gen. Pope has it in his mind that Jackson is retreating. Finally convinced that Longstreet is indeed on the field, Pope assumes that they are there to cover Jackson’s retreat. Darkness settles over the field, and Pope is no more enlightened as to the intentions of the Confederates than he was the day before. Jackson, although with brigade commanders Forno, Field, and Trimble wounded, has clearly come out with a victory—so far.
But out on the Federal left flank is Longstreet, lined up with four divisions, and Pope unaware and unbelieving.
C. Saturday, August 29, 1863: Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans and his Army of the Cumberland began the Chickamauga Campaign, heading east for passes in Lookout Mountain in Tennessee. Maj. Gen. McCook’s XX Corps and Maj. Gen. Thomas’s XIV Corps began crossing the Tennessee at three points downstream with apparently opposition. Maj. Gen. Thomas Crittenden also began crossing with his XXI Corps at one point upstream and north of Chattanooga.
D. Monday, August 29, 1864: Battle of Smithfield Crossing, WV. Two Confederate infantry divisions crossed Opequon Creek at Smithfield and forced back Merritt's Union cavalry division back along the road to Charles Town. Ricketts's infantry division was brought up to stop the Confederate advance. The federals suffered 20 killed, 61 wounded and 100 captured. The confederates suffered 300 killed and wounded.
Details: The Smithfield Crossing Battle took place in late August 1864. This broad skirmish extended from Leetown, WV on the north, almost to Bunker Hill, WV on the west, and to Childs Road to the east. The most intense fighting occurred between Opequon Creek and Childs Road with fighting occurring throughout the village of Smithfield, as Middleway was generally known at that time. The battle, which resulted in some 300 casualties, was significant as the beginning of the final act between Confederate General Jubal Early's retreating forces and Union General Philip Sheridan's troops in the final Shenandoah Valley campaign. The outcome of the battle is considered a draw, but allowed Union forces to regain control of the Opequon Creek crossing on Bunker Hill Road after having been driven back towards Charles Town.
The action began on August 28, 1864 with skirmishing between Confederate General Lunsford Lomax's Cavalry division, and General Wesley Merritt's Union cavalry division, with the Union Cavalry pushing the Confederate Cavalry from around Leetown, south to Smithfield, and west across the Opequon bridge at Smithfield Crossing. On the morning of August 29, Merritt sent General George Custer's brigade of cavalry across the Opequon to reconnoiter. Custer encountered two Confederate infantry divisions as he neared Bunker Hill. These infantry divisions drove Custer's troops from their positions west of the Opequon back across Smithfield Crossing to Merritt's position. The Union cavalry division of three brigades was then forced back through Smithfield. The Confederate advance was stopped at Child's crossroad when a division of Union infantry arrived from the direction of Charles Town to reinforce the Union cavalry. The Confederate forces ultimately withdrew across the Opequon, leaving Smithfield Crossing in Union hands.

1. Thursday, August 29, 1861:
2. Friday, August 29, 1862: Confederate Heartland Offensive: CS General Forrest’s cavalry arrives at Altamont and is almost surrounded by Federal forces. The Confederates manage to sneak through enemy forces without any major engagements, and Forrest heads for Sparta.
[bjdeming.com/2012/10/12/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-27-to-september-2-1862/]
3. Friday, August 29, 1862: Confederate Heartland Offensive: The battle of Richmond, Kentucky, begins when advance elements of CS General Kirby Smith’s army, led by General Patrick Cleburne and supported by Colonel John Scott’s cavalry, encounter Union troops on the road from Big Hill to Richmond, Kentucky, and start skirmishing.
[bjdeming.com/2012/10/12/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-27-to-september-2-1862/]
4. Saturday, August 29, 1863: Federal cavalry regiments from Corinth, Mississippi, and from La Grange, Tennessee, have completed an extended raid into northern Mississippi where they destroyed railroad lines and facilities in Grenada and other locales. The damage is reported in the Richmond Daily Dispatch: “In addition to the machinery, there were no less than forty locomotives and several hundred cars, passenger and freight, amounting in value to millions of dollars, a property invaluable and impossible to be replaced until the end of the war, when it can lend us no assistance in the one great object we have all at heart — our liberty and independence. The enemy appears to have been more fully aware of its importance to our interests than our own authorities. . . . It is difficult to look these stern facts in the face without a feeling of bitterness and a sickening lamentation for such important and irreparable losses — rather, sacrifices.
When the witnesses of the sad scene left, the work of destruction was still going on, and the flames were leaping high in the air from store-houses groaning beneath the weight of Government stores. Fifteen miles from the scene the blood-red light of the conflagration still gleamed in the sorrowful eyes of the observers. Not before to-day has Gen. [Stephen D.] Lee been able to concentrate his cavalry and threaten the vandals. . . .”
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+29%2C+1863]
5. Saturday, August 29, 1863: A Union mutiny at Camp Hubbard, Thibodaux, LA, when the 2nd Rhode Island Cavalry received orders to consolidate with the 1st Louisiana Cavalry. The order was read to them by Lt. Hall (US). The Rhode Island soldiers refused to comply with the order, and the 1st Louisiana's commander, Colonel Harai Robinson, ordered the arrest of the two ringleaders of the mutiny, and appointed Lt. Hall to carry out the summary execution of the two prisoners. After the firing squads fired their weapons, Lt. Hall used his pistol to administer the coup de grace to one of the executed men.
[site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-c/week-124]
6. Saturday, August 29, 1863: Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans, U.S. Army observation “Having crossed the Tennessee river in the vicinity of Stevenson and Bridgeport, Ala., the Federals found themselves confronted by Sand mountain, the northern extremity of which is known as Raccoon mountain. At the eastern base of this ridge runs Lookout creek, separating from Sand mountain the ‘parallel ridge known as Lookout mountain, whose abrupt termination, where Lookout creek empties into the Tennessee, looms up in the sky just southwest of Chattanooga. Beyond Lookout mountain a valley runs in the same general direction, drained by Chattanooga creek, east of which is another parallel ridge, more passable, called Missionary ridge, the northward termination of which is east of Chattanooga and is pierced by the tunnel of the Georgia State railroad. East of Missionary ridge lies the most important of these valleys, McLemore’s cove, which is traversed by the west branch of Chickamauga creek, and ends 25 miles below Chattanooga in a junction of the mountain ridges. Pigeon mountain is the next running a parallel course of 40 miles, and still further east are the ranges of Chickamauga hills and Taylor’s ridge. These must all be traversed by Rosecrans, six ridges separated by valleys and creeks, before he could reach the railroad communications of Bragg.”
[bjdeming.com/2013/08/26/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-26-september-2-1863/]
7. Saturday, August 29, 1863: Five Confederate seamen drown during the initial trial run of the experimental submarine, CSS H.L. Hunley, Charleston Harbor, Charleston, SC.
[site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-c/week-124]
8. Saturday, August 29, 1863: In Charleston Bay, the experimental CSS Hunley, a submarine vessel, sinks to the bottom with a five of her crew of nine drowning. But the vessel is quickly raised and work resumes on refining its navigational features and training a new crew.
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+29%2C+1863]
9. Saturday, August 29, 1863: “Operations against the Navajo Indians in New Mexico Territory intensified, ‘Events in the period of 1863 included a cycle of treaties, raids and counter-raids by the Army, the Navajo and a civilian militia, with civilian speculators often on the fringe’, and skirmishing occurred at Texas Prairie, Missouri.”
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+29%2C+1863]
10. Saturday, August 29, 1863: Siege of Charleston Harbor: After several successful practice dives, the CSS Hunley returns to the wharf where it sinks. Some say the commanding officer accidentally stepped on the dive pedal while the hatch was open; others report that it happened when the steamship moored next to the Hunley moved unexpectedly. In any event, four crew members escape; the other five drown. Within 72 hours, General Beauregard will order the boat raised.
[bjdeming.com/2013/08/26/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-26-september-2-1863/]
11. Saturday, August 29, 1863: The Army of the Cumberland begins the Chickamauga Campaign, heading east for passes in Lookout Mountain.
[blueandgraytrail.com/year/186308]
12. Saturday, August 29, 1863: In Bolivar, Tennessee, John Houston Bills of The Pillars, an early settler, planter and diarist wrote: “This my 63rd anniversary - my health yet good, my action a little stiff, but no pains or giving way of the Machinery of Life. The horrors of Civil War yet upon us, many of my servants have run away & most of those left has as well be gone, they being totally demoralized & ungovernable.”
[site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-c/week-124]
13. Saturday, August 29, 1863: East Tennessee operations/Chickamauga Campaign. Several sources give this date, as Rosecrans is crossing the Tennessee, as the start of the Chickamauga Campaign.
[2013/08/26/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-26-september-2-1863/]
14. Monday, August 29, 1864: Georgia operations, Siege of Atlanta: US troops wreck the West Point Railroad, as General Sherman describes: “[W]e spent the next day (29th) in breaking [the railroad] up thoroughly. The track was heaved up in sections the length of a regiment, then separated rail by rail; bonfires were made of the ties and of fence-rails on which the rails were heated, carried to trees or telegraph-poles, wrapped around and left to cool. Such rails could not be used again; and, to be still more certain, we filled up many deep cuts with trees, brush, and earth, and commingled with them loaded shells, so arranged that they would explode on an attempt to haul out the bushes. The explosion of one such shell would have demoralized a gang of negroes [sic], and thus would have prevented even the attempt to clear the road.”
[bjdeming.com/2014/08/25/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-25-31-1864/]
15. Monday, August 29, 1864: McClellan Accepts His Presidential Nomination. While Grant stewed outside Petersburg, and Sherman squeezed out Atlanta, there was another General about to make his mark. George McClellan had more or less disappeared from public life after being dismissed from the Army in the autumn of 1862. But he was not wholly absent. It might have taken some time, but in July of 1864, McClellan made clear his intention to run against Abraham Lincoln in the coming election.
With every Union setback, calls sprang anew for the reinstatement of General McClellan, yet Lincoln would never entertain such a thing. For his part, McClellan made himself available for not only military duty, but to the Democratic Party, should they need him.
For a time, there was even an effort to place him in command of something if only he would give up his political aspirations. This he refused to entertain and by early September, when the Democratic National Convention was held in Chicago, he was nominated to run for President.
While the Democratic Party’s platform did not specifically mention slavery, their stance was clear when they resolved “that the aim and object of the Democratic party is to preserve the Federal Union and the rights of the States unimpaired.” What right did one state have over another that did not involve slavery?
For many in the North, the war had turned from one to preserve the Union to one to free the slaves. This was something the Democrats could not abide. In 1862, their motto was “the Constitution as it is and the Union as it was,” meaning that slavery should continue to be constitutionally protected and the Union should be preserved as it had been, with slavery, as if the war hadn’t specifically been about that very subject.
The crux of their position, however, was to end the war, capitulating and allowing the South to keep their slaves. The 1864 platform demanded that “immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities, with a view of an ultimate convention of the States, or other peaceable means, to the end that, at the earliest practicable moment, peace may be restored on the basis of the Federal Union of the States.”
To this, George McClellan assented, and on this day accepted their nomination to run. He had labored for days, honing his speech and selecting his words, until finally it was perfect. He began, making it clear that he did not seek this office, and from there stated his own reasons for running.
“The existence of more than one Government over the region which once owned our flag is incompatible with the peace, the power, and the happiness of the people.
“The preservation of our Union was the sole avowed object for which the war was commenced.
“It should have been conducted for that object only, and in accordance with those principle which I took occasion to declare when in active service.”
McClellan was referring specifically to his Harrison’s Landing letter to President Lincoln, in which he insisted that “Neither confiscation of property, political executions of persons, territorial organization of states or forcible abolition of slavery should be contemplated for a moment.”
This was his stance, and though it was said then that he was running as a so-called “Peace Candidate,” it might just as truthfully be said that he was running on the pro-slavery ticket.
The only basis for him was Union. “The reestablishment of the Union in all its integrity is, and must continue to be, the indispensable condition in any settlement.” His goal was “to secure such peace, reestablish the Union, and guarantee for the future the Constitutional rights of every state.”
He wished that whenever any seceded state was willing to rejoin the Union, “it should be received at once, with a full guarantee of all its Constitutional rights.”
Peace at any cost was not McClellan’s way. Though many in his party demanded just that, it was something with which he simply could not agree. “I could not look in the face of my gallant comrades of the army and navy who have survived so many bloody battles, and tell them that their labors and the scarifies of so many of our slain and wounded brethren had been in vain; that we had abandoned that Union for which we have so often periled our lives.”And if they were willing to come along with him, he would lead them, and if the “Ruler of the Universe” guided him to a victory, he would do so from the White House.
[civilwardailygazette.com/mcclellan-accepts-his-presidential-nomination/]
16. Monday, August 29, 1864: General Sterling Price (CSA) had been the Confederate commander in the first major battle of the War in the Trans-Mississippi, at Wilson’s Creek, Missouri. But had lost the state when he and Governor Claiborne Jackson had retreated into Arkansas. Jackson had set up a “government in exile,” and Price had gone on to fight valiantly in many other battles. Today, General Price takes command of an expedition that is leaving from Princeton, Arkansas to reclaim Missouri for the South. Fighting begins in Red Oak, Georgia, as Sherman tightens the noose even more around Atlanta. While removing Confederate obstructions from the channel leading into Mobile Bay, five sailors are killed and nine others injured when a torpedo explodes.
[site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/1864/week-177]

A Thursday, August 29, 1861: Confederate Fort Hatteras Surrendered. The Union Navy fleet under Flag Officer Silas Sternham had succeeded in shutting down a Rebel battery and clearing out Fort Clark on Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The morning found the situation much the same. The Confederates appeared to be holding out in Fort Hatteras, like Clark, a log and sand fort, still flying the flag of secession.
On the land, over 300 foot soldiers comprised of infantry, Marines and artillerymen, had set up two of their own howitzers and were bombarding the Confederate ships which were in communication with Fort Hatteras.
Meanwhile, the Naval fleet steamed into position to bombard Hatteras. For most ships, their pivot guns caused the most destruction. In order to stay out of the range of the Rebel guns, the ships had to anchor far off the coast where only their heaviest guns with extreme elevations could be used. Due to the elevation, the cannons were used like mortars, sending shot and shell over the ramparts, and into the center of the fort.
For nearly three hours, the Union Navy pounded Hatteras, nearly breaking through its bomb-proof. Not a single Confederate cannon could reach the fleet, though for hours they kept up a steady fire. Finally realizing their efforts were in vain, at 11:10am, a white flag was hoisted over the fort in surrender.
Flag Officer Stringham and General Butler parlayed with the Confederate commanders and drew up the articles of capitulation, recognizing all 615 Rebels, soldiers and officers alike, as prisoners of war. The prisoners were taken aboard one of the Union ships while Butler and his men took command of Fort Hatteras, raising the United States flag aloft.
[civilwardailygazette.com/rain-and-assumptions-in-western-virginia/]
A+ Thursday, August 29, 1861: Union forces take Fort Hatteras. This had genuine military importance in that it closed a major route for blockade runners, but its propaganda value was even greater. It was the first Federal invasion of Confederate soil in the Carolinas since secession, and caused rejoicing in the North, and corresponding despondency in the South. Many in the South were genuinely baffled as to why Lincoln was forcing a fight on them for doing what they believed to be perfectly legal, leaving the Union. Some in the North believed this was well. Peace conferences were scheduled today, one in Middletown, N.J. and the other in Newton, Long Island, New York. Neither effort amounted to a hill of beans.
[site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-a/part-twenty-1]
B Friday, August 29, 1862: Manassas/Second Manassas: CS General Jackson holds against US General Pope’s attacks.
[bjdeming.com/2012/10/12/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-27-to-september-2-1862/]
B+ Friday, August 29, 1862: In Virginia, in what would now be called the Second Manassas or Second Bull Run, the fighting continued with neither side gaining a clear advantage over the other. Again, only the night darkness stopped the fighting. Near Bolivar, TN, Col. Frank C. Armstrong was leading a Confederate force of 3,000 cavalry troopers towards Bolivar. He was conducting a raid into west Tennessee. When they were 5 miles from Bolivar, the Confederates came into contact with a Union force of 900 cavalry troopers, commanded by Col. Mortimer Leggett, on the Van Buren Road. During the fight, Leggett spotted a Confederate force coming to the area. Even though he knew that he was outnumbered, Leggett decided to stay and fight. Both sides had reinforcements come and bolster their numbers. The battle would last for 7 hours. Leggett had thought that he was the victor of the battle, since he held the ground at the end of the fight. Armstrong thought that he had won the battle. The federals suffered 5 killed, 18 wounded and 64 missing. The confederates suffered 71 casualties. Armstrong (CSA) then bypasses Bolivar and heads north toward Medon.
[site/civilwarhardemancotn/part-seventy-two]
B++ Friday, August 29, 1862: Second Battle of Bull Run (or Second Manassas), Virginia. Eastern Theater, Second Bull Run Campaign
Day 1
Pope now believes he has Jackson surrounded on three sides and decides to drive his attacks head-on into Jackson’s fortified line. Meanwhile, Jackson receives a note from Gen. Lee, telling him that Longstreet’s corps has cleared Thoroughfare Gap, and will be on the field by evening. Jackson decides to stay in his position until Longstreet can come up.
Morning Prelude: The Union troops are in confusion. Porter has conflicting orders telling him to march in two directions at once. Gen. McDowell is missing, and no one has seen him since early yesterday; in fact, he is trying to find Pope. When he finds Pope, he finds that Pope has been parcelling out McDowell’s divisions to other commanders, and so McDowell has not men to command—and then spends part of the morning wrangling with Gen. Porter and others to get his troops back. This halts Porter long enough that he does not advance to where Pope wanted him.
1. Attack on Rebel left flank: Pope orders Gen. Sigel to deploy his divisions to attack Jackson’s left flank, close to Bull Run Creek, with Gen. Kearney’s division to support. Sigel half-heartedly prepares for the assault: getting his troops into position takes all morning, and it does not go forward until nearly 1:00 P.M. He sends Gen. Carl Schurz’s two brigades of mostly German-speaking troops up the Manassas-Sudley Springs Road, and they strike the Confederates of A.P. Hill’s Light Division: Georgians under Thomas and South Carolinians under Gregg. Schurz reforms and attacks again, but Philip Kearney’s division does not move to support his right flank—so Schurz falls back again.
2. Milroy attacks the center: Then, at Jackson’s center, Gen. Robert Milroy pushes only two regiments into a gap in the Rebel line, but they are unable to stay there without support. Gen. Schenk, supported by Reynold’s division, is to attack Jackson’s right flank, but has not moved close enough yet. Pope arrives on the battlefield and is dismayed to find his troops in disarray, and the attacks not coordinated.
3. Longstreet deploys on the Confederate right: By this time, Longstreet’s troops are arriving on the field, and Stuart’s cavalry guides his division into positions pre-selected by Jackson. Hood’s division lines up on Jackson’s right, and then next in line come the divisions of Kemper and Jones and Wilcox. Gen. Lee is urging Longstreet to make his attack right away, but Longstreet’s scouts report the positions of Schenk and Reynolds in his front, as well as McDowell and Porter further south, and he counsels Lee to let him wait until the Federals make a move first. Lee agrees.
4. Confusion on the Federal left: Rebel cavalry attacks the column of Porter and McDowell as it toils up the road to Manassas Junction. As the Yankees are halted, they receive a badly-written order from Pope in which he expects (but does not say) that they should advance and attack what is supposed to be Jackson’s right on Stony Ridge. Porter sees plenty of evidence that there are Rebel troops massing on his left, and he is loath to march across their front. McDowell receives a report from Gen. Buford’s cavalary that at least 17 regiments of Confederate infantry have passed through Gainesville earlier that morning, but this information is not passed on to Pope until later in the night.
5. Pope tries to coordinate attacks on the right and left: Gen. Pope assumes that Porter and McDowell are going forward to smash Jackson’s right, and so—as a diversion—he orders forward just one brigade under Gen. Grover to charge into the left of Jackson’s line. Grover’s spirited bayonet charge hits a gap in the Rebel line, but once again Gen. Kearney does not advance as ordered to support this attack. Pender’s Rebels counterattack and drive Grover back with heavy losses. Pope sends a written order for Porter to attack, but this message does not arrive until after 6:30 PM. Reynolds’ division of McDowell’s Corps advances, but encounters Longstreet’s advance troops; upon reporting this to Pope, the commanding general chides Reynolds and believes Reynolds has only bumped into Porter’s men by accident. Pope arranges another diversion, and again orders Kearney to attack Jackson’s left, which Kearney finally does. With ten regiments, Kearney leads his men forward against Gregg’s South Carolinians, who are out of ammunition and exhausted. In the nick of time, the brigades of Early (Virginians) and Lawrence O’Bryan Branch (North Carolinians) counterattack and blunt the Federal attack. Kearney withdraws.
Meanwhile, McDowell has finally regained control of his scattered divisions and begins sending them to the center to help with the attacks. Lee’s scouts see this movement, seeing the Yankees veering away from Longstreet’s flank, and urges Longstreet to attack, but the latter argues that it is too close to dark—but he does send forward Hood’s troops, which encounter Hatch’s division in the gathering dark and fight to a standstill.
Conclusion to Day 1: At this point, Gen. Pope has it in his mind that Jackson is retreating. Finally convinced that Longstreet is indeed on the field, Pope assumes that they are there to cover Jackson’s retreat. Darkness settles over the field, and Pope is no more enlightened as to the intentions of the Confederates than he was the day before. Jackson, although with brigade commanders Forno, Field, and Trimble wounded, has clearly come out with a victory—so far.
But out on the Federal left flank is Longstreet, lined up with four divisions, and Pope unaware and unbelieving.
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+29%2C+1862]
C Saturday, August 29, 1863: Major General William S. Rosecrans (US) and his Army of the Cumberland begins the Chickamauga Campaign, heading east for passes in Lookout Mountain in Tennessee.
[/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-c/week-124]
C+ Saturday, August 29, 1863: On this date, the troops of Maj. Gen. McCook’s XX Corps and Maj. Gen. Thomas’s XIV Corps begin crossing the Tennessee at three points downstream, with apparently little opposition. Maj. Gen. Thomas Crittenden also begins crossing with his XXI Corps at one point upstream and north of Chattanooga.
[civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=August+29%2C+1863]
D Monday, August 29, 1864: Shenandoah Valley operations: Battle of Smithfield Crossing ends.
[bjdeming.com/2014/08/25/the-american-civil-war-150th-anniversary-august-25-31-1864/]
D+ Monday, August 29, 1864: The Smithfield Crossing Battle took place in late August 1864. This broad skirmish extended from Leetown, WV on the north, almost to Bunker Hill, WV on the west, and to Childs Road to the east. The most intense fighting occurred between Opequon Creek and Childs Road with fighting occurring throughout the village of Smithfield, as Middleway was generally known at that time. The battle, which resulted in some 300 casualties, was significant as the beginning of the final act between Confederate General Jubal Early's retreating forces and Union General Philip Sheridan's troops in the final Shenandoah Valley campaign. The outcome of the battle is considered a draw, but allowed Union forces to regain control of the Opequon Creek crossing on Bunker Hill Road after having been driven back towards Charles Town.
The action began on August 28, 1864 with skirmishing between Confederate General Lunsford Lomax's Cavalry division, and General Wesley Merritt's Union cavalry division, with the Union Cavalry pushing the Confederate Cavalry from around Leetown, south to Smithfield, and west across the Opequon bridge at Smithfield Crossing. On the morning of August 29, Merritt sent General George Custer's brigade of cavalry across the Opequon to reconnoiter. Custer encountered two Confederate infantry divisions as he neared Bunker Hill. These infantry divisions drove Custer's troops from their positions west of the Opequon back across Smithfield Crossing to Merritt's position. The Union cavalry division of three brigades was then forced back through Smithfield. The Confederate advance was stopped at Child's crossroad when a division of Union infantry arrived from the direction of Charles Town to reinforce the Union cavalry. The Confederate forces ultimately withdrew across the Opequon, leaving Smithfield Crossing in Union hands.
[middlewayconservancy.org/Smithfield_Battle.php]
D++ August 25-29, 1864 at Smithfield Crossing in Jefferson and Berkeley Counties, West Virginia - On August 29, 2 Confederate infantry divisions crossed Opequon Creek at Smithfield and forced back Merritt's Union cavalry division back along the road to Charles Town. Ricketts's infantry division was brought up to stop the Confederate advance. The federals suffered 20 killed, 61 wounded and 100 captured. The confederates suffered 300 killed and wounded. This was part of Sheridan's Shenandoah Valley Campaign [mycivilwar.com/battles/1864s.html]
FYI LTC Trent Klug COL Randall C. SSG (Join to see) GySgt Jack Wallace CWO4 Terrence Clark SMSgt Lawrence McCarterLTC Trent Klug SFC Bernard Walko SFC Stephen King SSG Franklin Briant SSG Byron Howard Sr CPL Ronald Keyes Jr SFC William Farrell CMDCM John F. "Doc" Bradshaw SPC Lyle MontgomerySPC Woody Bullard SSG Bill McCoy SPC Mike Bennett SSG Franklin BriantMSgt James Parker

Original civil war battle photographs from 1864 enlarged and enhanced
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDkyXqG5tvw

good history

Excellent history share.