Posted on Jun 13, 2016
What was the most significant event on June 12 during the U.S. Civil War?
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The ugly battle of Cold Harbor and Grant`s biggest regret.
By June 1864 the northern strategy of attrition is taking its toll on the southern resources of trained soldiers and shortage of material. While the south generally had the advantage of interiors lines of communication, Lt Gen Winfield Scot’s original anaconda plan strategy was paying off because the blockade severely restricted incoming and outgoing shipments. Additionally, by now, the Mississippi River was in the sphere of control of the federal navy which separated the confederate forces in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas from the forces in the east.
Personnel issues in the Civil War met with bureaucratic resistance in 1863: Major Alexander Biddle, commander of the 121st Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, writes home to his wife about his futile attempts to resign from the U.S. Army: . . . We number now less than 260 men present for duty and many of these are excused from drill — not a command of a Major. I think I therefore might be spared Imbecility which often amounts to cruelty marks the Course of Govt towards this Army, if it is not our Generals doing that we have so much tape to tie us. To get my resignation considered it had to pass through 3 clerks and 3 Generals inspections if indeed the latter ever saw it at all. You now dear wife know my fate for the present — bereft as I am of all hope of happiness which I alone look for here below in your society. I must trust that in a little while I shall have some other opportunity — which I shall most eagerly embrace. I have had no letters from home but yours and dont expect any — strange but so it is. May God bless and keep you in health and strength and happiness soon to be reunited with your ever loving husband, Alexander. A kiss for Aleck, Harry, Julia, Winny and Louis — when I heard that De Hunter had been with you I was pleased at the dear little boy’s name.”
NY Times uses poetic terms to describe summer in Vicksburg in 1863: The New York Times “IN REAR OF VICKSBURGH. The weather, which for the last month has been as cool as one could expect, has suddenly become as hot as the furnace prepared for the three uncompromising Hebrews [Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego]. The air is tremulous with heat; the dust-covered leaves droop and wither; thunders go growling and roaring over the sky toward evening, but bring us no rain, only hot lightnings and hypocritical clouds; the nights are stale with polished skies and a bright moon that instead of light glow with and reflect back the heat which the earth has absorbed during the day. Where yesterday there was a green, placid bayou, there is to-day only a natural canal, on whose steep banks lie rotting dogs and unshapely driftwood, and whose bottom is covered here with oozy, bubbling slime, and there with yawning cracks that seem to open down to the centre of the earth.
Standing upon any one of the higher hills between Ha[y]nes’ Bluff and Vicksburgh, the entire position of our army, its movements and the passage of teams can be correctly guessed at by the spectator, by watching the lines of dust that rise above the ocean of verdure whose leafy swells and hollows stretch away illimitably before him. The Southern Summer — that Summer with its sweltering heats, its dried-up streams, its nights dripping with unhealthy dews, its dust-malaria, discomforts and death — is upon us.”
LT Gen Ulysses S. Grant moves the Federal forces away from Cold Harbor and left it to the Confederacy in 1864. This battle cost the Union many more soldiers than the south. However, the south had much less capability to replace their battle losses than the north did.
“The Battle of Cold Harbor was the final victory won by Lee's army during the war (part of his forces won the Battle of the Crater the following month, during the Siege of Petersburg, but this did not represent a general engagement between the armies), and its most decisive in terms of casualties. The Union army, in attempting the futile assault, lost 10,000 to 13,000 men over twelve days. The battle brought the toll in Union casualties since the beginning of May to a total of more than 52,000, compared to 33,000 for Lee. Although the cost was great, Grant's larger army finished the campaign with lower relative casualties than Lee's.”
Pictures: 1864-06-12 Battle of Trevilian Station June-11 and 12; 1864-06 Grant's Overland Campaign May - June 1864; 1864-06-12 Movement of forces away from Cold Harbor; Brig. Gen. James Ewell Brown Stuart, CSA
A. 1862: CSA Brig Gen James Ewell Brown (J.E.B.) Stuart begins his ride into the Federal rear areas to gather intelligence, capture supplies, and wreak havoc on the Federal communications and supply lines. His men were the 1st Virginia Cavalry (under Col. Fitzhugh Lee, nephew to Robert E. Lee), the 9th Virginia (under Col. Rooney Lee, the general’s son), additional troops of the 4th Virginia, and a couple of squadrons of the Jeff Davis Legion, plus a two-gun section of his horse artillery - a twelve-pound howitzer and a six-pound English rifle-piece commanded by James Breathed. This "light brigade" set off north before 3:00 AM, through Yellow Tavern and on to Ashland. He then turns east along the south bank of the Pamunkey River, and stops at Hanover Court House. Just west of Hanover, they encounter troopers from the 6th U.S. Cavalry, who in turn withdraw. The Union cavalry officer informs his superiors that it is only a squadron of Rebels and nothing to worry about.
B. 1862: CSA Maj Gen again moves into the Shenandoah Valley, after ensconcing his army at Brown's Gap for three days and pushes north. Federal Maj Gen Fremont and Banks are worried about Jackson’s growing strength. Fremont believes Jackson to have 35,000 against his own 14,000. Jackson’s cavalry, now under Col. Mumford, begins harassing Maj Gen Fremont and his rear guard as Fremont was leaving the valley.
C. 1864: Battle of Trevilian Station, Virginia. Major General Phillip Sheridan’s men tore up several miles of railroad before advancing on CSA Maj Gen Wade Hampton’s position to the west. Sheridan did succeed in drawing Confederate attention away from Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s movements near the James River, but he failed at to meet up with General Hunter or create any real, long-term disruption of the Confederate supply line. Furthermore, the casualties sustained in this battle and the month-long separation of the cavalry from the rest of the Army of the Potomac had a serious impact on the army’s operations during one of the toughest campaigns of the war. Had Sheridan achieved his goals, Hunter might have been able to capture Lynchburg, cutting off one of Lee’s key supply centers and potentially shortening the war by several months.
Hampton’s men had spent the night establishing a strong position, with an angled line anchored on the railroad embankment and, by midday, support from CSA Maj Gen Fitzhugh Lee. Time and time again Sheridan ordered his cavalry to attack this line, and time and time again they were driven back. The men began to refer to the angle in CSA Maj Gen Hampton’s line as their own “Bloody Angle,” referencing the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House the month before. Ultimately, Sheridan was forced to abandon his attempts to break Hampton’s line, and he withdrew that night, returning to the Army of the Potomac.
While Sheridan and other Union commanders tried to claim the Battle of Trevilian Station as a victory, most historians describe the battle as either inconclusive or a Confederate victory.
D. 1864: Battle of Cold Harbor ends. Confederate victory. LT Gen Ulysses S. Grant ordered Meade to leave Cold Harbor as quickly as possible to avoid immediate detection by the Confederates, cross the James, and proceed toward Petersburg. After some days of military inactivity, the Army of the Potomac moved out of its lines at Cold Harbor. However, while the army had not been fighting, it had been constructing better roads and pontoons to allow for the swifter movement of men and supplies. Such planning paid off. CSA Robert E. Lee had already guessed that Grant would attack Petersburg and countered by sending II Corps to the Shenandoah Valley in an effort to threaten Washington and distract Grant from Richmond.
June 12, 1864 The Battle of Cold Harbor
The ugly battle of Cold Harbor and Grant`s biggest regret.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gorflq_Rf_w
FYI CWO4 Terrence Clark MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D. MSG Roy Cheever Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. SMSgt Lawrence McCarter PO3 Edward Riddle MAJ Roland McDonald SSG Byron Hewett CMDCM John F. "Doc" Bradshaw COL (Join to see) SPC Michael Terrell COL Lisandro Murphy SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL] LTC Trent Klug
Personnel issues in the Civil War met with bureaucratic resistance in 1863: Major Alexander Biddle, commander of the 121st Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, writes home to his wife about his futile attempts to resign from the U.S. Army: . . . We number now less than 260 men present for duty and many of these are excused from drill — not a command of a Major. I think I therefore might be spared Imbecility which often amounts to cruelty marks the Course of Govt towards this Army, if it is not our Generals doing that we have so much tape to tie us. To get my resignation considered it had to pass through 3 clerks and 3 Generals inspections if indeed the latter ever saw it at all. You now dear wife know my fate for the present — bereft as I am of all hope of happiness which I alone look for here below in your society. I must trust that in a little while I shall have some other opportunity — which I shall most eagerly embrace. I have had no letters from home but yours and dont expect any — strange but so it is. May God bless and keep you in health and strength and happiness soon to be reunited with your ever loving husband, Alexander. A kiss for Aleck, Harry, Julia, Winny and Louis — when I heard that De Hunter had been with you I was pleased at the dear little boy’s name.”
NY Times uses poetic terms to describe summer in Vicksburg in 1863: The New York Times “IN REAR OF VICKSBURGH. The weather, which for the last month has been as cool as one could expect, has suddenly become as hot as the furnace prepared for the three uncompromising Hebrews [Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego]. The air is tremulous with heat; the dust-covered leaves droop and wither; thunders go growling and roaring over the sky toward evening, but bring us no rain, only hot lightnings and hypocritical clouds; the nights are stale with polished skies and a bright moon that instead of light glow with and reflect back the heat which the earth has absorbed during the day. Where yesterday there was a green, placid bayou, there is to-day only a natural canal, on whose steep banks lie rotting dogs and unshapely driftwood, and whose bottom is covered here with oozy, bubbling slime, and there with yawning cracks that seem to open down to the centre of the earth.
Standing upon any one of the higher hills between Ha[y]nes’ Bluff and Vicksburgh, the entire position of our army, its movements and the passage of teams can be correctly guessed at by the spectator, by watching the lines of dust that rise above the ocean of verdure whose leafy swells and hollows stretch away illimitably before him. The Southern Summer — that Summer with its sweltering heats, its dried-up streams, its nights dripping with unhealthy dews, its dust-malaria, discomforts and death — is upon us.”
LT Gen Ulysses S. Grant moves the Federal forces away from Cold Harbor and left it to the Confederacy in 1864. This battle cost the Union many more soldiers than the south. However, the south had much less capability to replace their battle losses than the north did.
“The Battle of Cold Harbor was the final victory won by Lee's army during the war (part of his forces won the Battle of the Crater the following month, during the Siege of Petersburg, but this did not represent a general engagement between the armies), and its most decisive in terms of casualties. The Union army, in attempting the futile assault, lost 10,000 to 13,000 men over twelve days. The battle brought the toll in Union casualties since the beginning of May to a total of more than 52,000, compared to 33,000 for Lee. Although the cost was great, Grant's larger army finished the campaign with lower relative casualties than Lee's.”
Pictures: 1864-06-12 Battle of Trevilian Station June-11 and 12; 1864-06 Grant's Overland Campaign May - June 1864; 1864-06-12 Movement of forces away from Cold Harbor; Brig. Gen. James Ewell Brown Stuart, CSA
A. 1862: CSA Brig Gen James Ewell Brown (J.E.B.) Stuart begins his ride into the Federal rear areas to gather intelligence, capture supplies, and wreak havoc on the Federal communications and supply lines. His men were the 1st Virginia Cavalry (under Col. Fitzhugh Lee, nephew to Robert E. Lee), the 9th Virginia (under Col. Rooney Lee, the general’s son), additional troops of the 4th Virginia, and a couple of squadrons of the Jeff Davis Legion, plus a two-gun section of his horse artillery - a twelve-pound howitzer and a six-pound English rifle-piece commanded by James Breathed. This "light brigade" set off north before 3:00 AM, through Yellow Tavern and on to Ashland. He then turns east along the south bank of the Pamunkey River, and stops at Hanover Court House. Just west of Hanover, they encounter troopers from the 6th U.S. Cavalry, who in turn withdraw. The Union cavalry officer informs his superiors that it is only a squadron of Rebels and nothing to worry about.
B. 1862: CSA Maj Gen again moves into the Shenandoah Valley, after ensconcing his army at Brown's Gap for three days and pushes north. Federal Maj Gen Fremont and Banks are worried about Jackson’s growing strength. Fremont believes Jackson to have 35,000 against his own 14,000. Jackson’s cavalry, now under Col. Mumford, begins harassing Maj Gen Fremont and his rear guard as Fremont was leaving the valley.
C. 1864: Battle of Trevilian Station, Virginia. Major General Phillip Sheridan’s men tore up several miles of railroad before advancing on CSA Maj Gen Wade Hampton’s position to the west. Sheridan did succeed in drawing Confederate attention away from Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s movements near the James River, but he failed at to meet up with General Hunter or create any real, long-term disruption of the Confederate supply line. Furthermore, the casualties sustained in this battle and the month-long separation of the cavalry from the rest of the Army of the Potomac had a serious impact on the army’s operations during one of the toughest campaigns of the war. Had Sheridan achieved his goals, Hunter might have been able to capture Lynchburg, cutting off one of Lee’s key supply centers and potentially shortening the war by several months.
Hampton’s men had spent the night establishing a strong position, with an angled line anchored on the railroad embankment and, by midday, support from CSA Maj Gen Fitzhugh Lee. Time and time again Sheridan ordered his cavalry to attack this line, and time and time again they were driven back. The men began to refer to the angle in CSA Maj Gen Hampton’s line as their own “Bloody Angle,” referencing the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House the month before. Ultimately, Sheridan was forced to abandon his attempts to break Hampton’s line, and he withdrew that night, returning to the Army of the Potomac.
While Sheridan and other Union commanders tried to claim the Battle of Trevilian Station as a victory, most historians describe the battle as either inconclusive or a Confederate victory.
D. 1864: Battle of Cold Harbor ends. Confederate victory. LT Gen Ulysses S. Grant ordered Meade to leave Cold Harbor as quickly as possible to avoid immediate detection by the Confederates, cross the James, and proceed toward Petersburg. After some days of military inactivity, the Army of the Potomac moved out of its lines at Cold Harbor. However, while the army had not been fighting, it had been constructing better roads and pontoons to allow for the swifter movement of men and supplies. Such planning paid off. CSA Robert E. Lee had already guessed that Grant would attack Petersburg and countered by sending II Corps to the Shenandoah Valley in an effort to threaten Washington and distract Grant from Richmond.
June 12, 1864 The Battle of Cold Harbor
The ugly battle of Cold Harbor and Grant`s biggest regret.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gorflq_Rf_w
FYI CWO4 Terrence Clark MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D. MSG Roy Cheever Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. SMSgt Lawrence McCarter PO3 Edward Riddle MAJ Roland McDonald SSG Byron Hewett CMDCM John F. "Doc" Bradshaw COL (Join to see) SPC Michael Terrell COL Lisandro Murphy SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL] LTC Trent Klug
Civil War
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American History
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British Liaison officer to the CSA observes a slave auction in 1863 and meet Cajun CSA Gen P.G.T. Beauregard, while in 1862 future president of the United States Col Rutherford B. Hayes is on duty with his regiment in western Virginia and writes home to his wife.,
Friday, June 12, 1863: Lt. Col. Arthur Fremantle, of the British Army, writes in his journal of the time he is spending in Charleston, where he witnesses a slave auction and finally meets General Beauregard, who of course makes a plug for British intervention. This passage reveals interesting nuances from an anti-slavery Englishman (we presume) who nevertheless does not think it is all that bad: “I went to a slave auction at 11; but they had been so quick about it that the whole affair was over before I arrived, although I was only ten minutes late. The negroes—about fifteen men, three women, and three children—were seated on benches, looking perfectly contented and indifferent I saw the buyers opening the mouths and showing the teeth of their new purchases to their friends in a very business-like manner. This was certainly not a very agreeable spectacle to an Englishman, and I know that many Southerners participate in the same feeling; for I have often been told by people that they had never seen a negro sold by auction, and never wished to do so. . . . I am perfectly aware that many influential men in the South feel humiliated and annoyed with several of the incidents connected with slavery; and I think that if the Confederate States were left alone, the system would be much modified and amended, although complete emancipation cannot be expected; for the Southerners believe it to be as impracticable to cultivate cotton on a large scale in the South, without forced black labour, as the British have found it to produce sugar in Jamaica; and they declare that the example the English have set them of sudden emancipation in that island is by no means encouraging. They say that that magnificent colony, formerly so wealthy and prosperous, is now nearly valueless—the land going out of cultivation—the Whites ruined—the Blacks idle, slothful, and supposed to be in a great measure relapsing into their primitive barbarism. . . .
At 1 P.M. I called on General Beauregard, who is a man of middle height, about forty-seven years of age. He would be very youthful in appearance were it not for the colour of his hair, which is much greyer than his earlier photographs represent. Some persons account for the sudden manner in which his hair turned grey by allusions to his cares and anxieties during the last two years; but the real and less romantic reason is to be found in the rigidity of the Yankee blockade, which interrupts the arrival of articles of toilette. He has a long straight nose, handsome brown eyes, and a dark mustache without whiskers, and his manners are extremely polite. He is a New Orleans Creole, and French is his native language.
He was extremely civil to me, and arranged that I should see some of the land fortifications to-morrow. He spoke to me of the inevitable necessity, sooner or later, of a war between the Northern States and Great Britain; and he remarked that, if England would join the South at once, the Southern armies, relieved of the present blockade and enormous Yankee pressure, would be able to march right into the Northern States, and, by occupying their principal cities, would give the Yankees so much employment that they would be unable to spare many men for Canada. . . .”
Thursday, June 12, 1862: Col Rutherford B. Hayes, future president of the United States, is on duty with his regiment in western Virginia, and writes home to his wife, and gives her an account of the tedium of camp life: “A day’s life runs about thus: — At 5 A. M., one or the other of our two Giles County contrabands, Calvin or Samuel, comes in hesitatingly and in a modest tone suggests, "Gentlemen, it is ‘most breakfast time." About ten minutes later, finding no results from his first summons, he repeats, perhaps with some slight variation. This is kept up until we get up to breakfast, that is to say, sometimes cold biscuits, cooked at the hospital, sometimes army bread, tea and coffee, sugar, sometimes milk, fried pork, sometimes beef, and any "pison" or fraudulent truck in the way of sauce or pickles or preserves (!) (good peaches sometimes), which the sutler may chance to have. After breakfast there is a little to be done; then a visit of half an hour to brigade headquarters, Colonel Scammon’s; then a visit to division ditto, General Cox’s, where we gossip over the news, foreign and domestic (all outside of our camps being foreign, the residue domestic), then home again, and novel reading is the chief thing till dinner. I have read "Ivanhoe," "Bride of Lammermoor," and [one] of Dickens’ and one of Fielding’s the last ten days.
P. M., generally ride with Avery from five to ten miles; and as my high-spirited horse has no other exercise, and as Carrington (Company C boy) is a good forager and feeds him tip-top, the way we go it is locomotive-like in speed. After this, more novel reading until the telegraphic news and mails, both of which come about the same hour, 5:30 P. M. Then gossip on the news and reading newspapers until bedtime — early bedtime, 9 P. M. We have music, company drills, — no room for battalion drills in these mountains, — and target practice with other little diversions and excitements, and so "wags the world away."
. . . Write as often as you can. I think of you often and with so much happiness; then I run over the boys in my mind — Birt, Webb, Ruddy. The other little fellow I hardly feel acquainted with yet, but the other three fill a large place in my heart.
Keep up good heart. It is all coming out right. There will be checks and disappointments, no doubt, but the work goes forwards. We are much better off than I thought a year ago we should be. — A year ago! Then we were swearing the men in at Camp Chase. Well, we think better of each other than we did then, and are very jolly and friendly."I love you s’much." Love to all. Affectionately, R,
Thursday, June 12, 1862: Mary Boykin Chestnut of South Carolina writes in her diary: “Sixteen more Yankee regiments have landed on James Island. Eason writes, "They have twice the energy and enterprise of our people."
Is answered: "Wait awhile. Let them alone until climate and mosquitoes and sand flies and dealing with negroes take it all out of them.". . .
General Scott on Southern soldiers. He says we have élan, courage, woodcraft, consummate horsemanship, endurance of pain equal to the Indians, but that we will not submit to discipline. We will not take care of things or husband our resources. Where we are, there is waste and destruction. If it could all be done by one wild, desperate dash, we would do it. But he does not think we can stand the long blank months between the acts—waiting! We can bear pain without murmur, but we will not submit to be bored, &c&c&c.
Now for the other side. They can wait. They can bear discipline. They can endure forever—losses in battle nothing to them, resources in men and materials fo war inexhaustible. And if they see fit they will fight to the bitter end. . . .
After all this—tried to read Uncle Tom. Could not. Too sickening. A man send his little son to beat a human being tied to a tree? It is bad as Squeers beating Smike in the hack.* Flesh and blood revolts. You must skip that—It is too bad—or the pulling out of eyeballs in Lear.[*This occurs in Charles Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby.]”
Below are a number of journal entries from 1862 and 1863 which shed light on what life was like for soldiers – the good, the bad and the ugly.
Pictures: 1862-06-12 The route of Brig. Gen. James Ewell Brown Stuart’s Raid; Brig. Gen. James Ewell Brown Stuart, CSA; Stonewall Jackson marches; xx
Since RallyPoint truncates survey selection text I am posting events that were not included and then the full text of each survey choice below:
A. Thursday, June 12, 1862: CSA Brig Gen James Ewell Brown (J.E.B.) Stuart begins his ride into the Federal rear areas to gather intelligence, capture supplies, and wreak havoc on the Federal communications and supply lines. His men were the 1st Virginia Cavalry (under Col. Fitzhugh Lee, nephew to Robert E. Lee), the 9th Virginia (under Col. Rooney Lee, the general’s son), additional troops of the 4th Virginia, and a couple of squadrons of the Jeff Davis Legion, plus a two-gun section of his horse artillery - a twelve-pound howitzer and a six-pound English rifle-piece commanded by James Breathed. This "light brigade" set off north before 3:00 AM, through Yellow Tavern and on to Ashland. He then turns east along the south bank of the Pamunkey River, and stops at Hanover Court House. Just west of Hanover, they encounter troopers from the 6th U.S. Cavalry, who in turn withdraw. The Union cavalry officer informs his superiors that it is only a squadron of Rebels and nothing to worry about.
Background: General Robert E. Lee’s orders to Stuart were characteristic of Lee--breathtakingly bold, but tempered with warnings of caution. "You are desired to make a scout movement to the rear of the enemy now posted on the Chickahominy, with a view of gaining intelligence of his operations, communications, etc., and of driving in his foraging parties and securing such grain, cattle, etc., for ourselves as you can make arrangements to have driven in."
Lee added: "You will return as soon as the object of your expedition is accomplished; and you must bear constantly in mind, while endeavoring to execute the general purpose of your mission, not to hazard unnecessarily your command, or to attempt what your judgment may not approve; but be content to accomplish all the good you can, without feeling it necessary to obtain all that might be desired."
Stuart replied "And if I find the way open, it may be that I can ride all the way around him. Circle his whole army." There is no record of Lee’s reply.
The Union Commander: Brigadier General Phillip St. George Cooke commanded the Federal cavalry on the Union right and was in camp in Hanover County. Cooke was the father-in-law of Confederate J. E. B Stuart and was also the uncle of John Esten Cooke, who rode with Stuart.
B. Thursday, June 12, 1862: CSA Maj Gen again moves into the Shenandoah Valley, after ensconcing his army at Brown's Gap for three days and pushes north. Federal Maj Gen Fremont and Banks are worried about Jackson’s growing strength. Fremont believes Jackson to have 35,000 against his own 14,000. Jackson’s cavalry, now under Col. Mumford, begins harassing Maj Gen Fremont and his rear guard as Fremont was leaving the valley.
C. Sunday, June 12, 1864: Battle of Trevilian Station, Virginia. Major General Phillip Sheridan’s men tore up several miles of railroad before advancing on CSA Maj Gen Wade Hampton’s position to the west. Hampton’s men had spent the night establishing a strong position, with an angled line anchored on the railroad embankment and, by midday, support from CSA Maj Gen Fitzhugh Lee. Time and time again Sheridan ordered his cavalry to attack this line, and time and time again they were driven back. The men began to refer to the angle in Hampton’s line as their own “Bloody Angle,” referencing the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House the month before. Ultimately, Sheridan was forced to abandon his attempts to break Hampton’s line, and he withdrew that night, returning to the Army of the Potomac.
While Sheridan and other Union commanders tried to claim the Battle of Trevilian Station as a victory, most historians describe the battle as either inconclusive or a Confederate victory. Sheridan did succeed in drawing Confederate attention away from Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s movements near the James River, but he failed at to meet up with General Hunter or create any real, long-term disruption of the Confederate supply line. Furthermore, the casualties sustained in this battle and the month-long separation of the cavalry from the rest of the Army of the Potomac had a serious impact on the army’s operations during one of the toughest campaigns of the war. Had Sheridan achieved his goals, Hunter might have been able to capture Lynchburg, cutting off one of Lee’s key supply centers and potentially shortening the war by several months.
Background: In the summer of 1864, hoping to draw attention away from his own movement across the James River toward Petersburg, Union commander Ulysses S. Grant sent Major General Phillip Sheridan on an ambitious cavalry raid toward Charlottesville. Sheridan hoped to destroy as much of the Virginia Central railroad as possible, interrupting crucial Confederate supply lines, and then press on and join forces with General David Hunter in Charlottesville.
When Robert E. Lee became aware of this Union movement, he sent the cavalry divisions of CSA Maj Gen Wade Hampton and CSA Maj Gen Fitzhugh Lee to attack the Federals near Trevilian Station, Virginia. What resulted was the largest and bloodiest all-cavalry battle of the Civil War. On June 11, the two divisions approached the Union position along separate roads, with Hampton’s men coming from Trevilian Station and Lee’s men from nearby Louisa Court House. Hampton’s division clashed with the Union First Division under Brigadier General Alfred Torbert, and vicious dismounted fighting raged while Hampton waited for Fitzhugh Lee’s division to arrive and provide support. However, when Lee’s force encountered Union General George Custer’s men on the road, they fell back after only a brief fight, a dangerous decision that created an opening for Custer to take Hampton’s supply train.
Custer’s men immediately took advantage of this gap, driving a wedge between the two Confederate divisions and capturing essential supplies. However, in their haste to claim the spoils of their momentary victory, Custer’s cavalry allowed themselves to be cut off from the rest of Sheridan’s force. When Confederate reinforcements arrived, they were quickly surrounded. This clash has become known as “Custer’s First Last Stand.” The four Michigan regiments of Custer’s brigade took fire from all sides, and only Sheridan’s arrival to drive back the Confederate force saved the Boy General and his men from capture or death. By the time night fell on the 11th, Union forces held Trevilian Station
D. Sunday, June 12, 1864: Battle of Cold Harbor ends. Confederate victory. LT Gen Ulysses S. Grant ordered Meade to leave Cold Harbor as quickly as possible to avoid immediate detection by the Confederates, cross the James, and proceed toward Petersburg. After some days of military inactivity, the Army of the Potomac moved out of its lines at Cold Harbor. However, while the army had not been fighting, it had been constructing better roads and pontoons to allow for the swifter movement of men and supplies. Such planning paid off. CSA Robert E. Lee had already guessed that Grant would attack Petersburg and countered by sending II Corps to the Shenandoah Valley in an effort to threaten Washington and distract Grant from Richmond.
LT Gen Ulysses S. Grant realized that, once again in the campaign, he was in a stalemate with CSA Robert E. Lee and additional assaults were not the answer. He planned three actions to make some headway. First, in the Shenandoah Valley, Maj. Gen. David Hunter was making progress against Confederate forces, and Grant hoped that by interdicting Lee's supplies, the Confederate general would be forced to dispatch reinforcements to the Valley. Second, on June 7 Grant dispatched his cavalry under Sheridan (the divisions of Brig. Gens. David McM. Gregg and Wesley Merritt) to destroy the Virginia Central Railroad near Charlottesville. Third, he planned a stealthy operation to withdraw from Lee's front and move across the James River. Lee reacted to the first two actions as Grant had hoped. He pulled Breckinridge's division from Cold Harbor and sent it toward Lynchburg to parry Hunter. By June 12 he followed this by assigning Jubal Early permanent command of the Second Corps and sending them to the Valley as well. And he sent two of his three cavalry divisions in pursuit of Sheridan, leading to the Battle of Trevilian Station. However, despite anticipating that Grant might shift across the James, Lee was taken by surprise when it occurred. On June 12 the Army of the Potomac finally disengaged to march southeast to cross the James and threaten Petersburg, a crucial rail junction south of Richmond.
1. Saturday, June 12, 1852: On the 49th ballot, the Democratic Convention in Baltimore, Maryland elects Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire
http://blueandgraytrail.com/date/June_12
2. Saturday, June 12, 1858: Brigham Young accepts a pardon for the people of the Utah Territory
http://blueandgraytrail.com/date/June_12
3. Thursday, June 12, 1862: near Village Creek, Arkansas - On June 12, a Union force neared Village Creek, when they spotted a small group of Confederates at the Waddell's farm. The Federals attacked the Confederates, forcing them to quickly retreat. After the Confederates left, the Federals confiscated all of the corn and bacon at the farm, filling up a total of 36 wagons.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1862s.html
4. Thursday, June 12, 1862—Once again, Pres. Lincoln orders Gen. McDowell’s I Corps to move east and south and join McClellan for what he hoped was the big push to capture Richmond. However, Fremont and Banks are worried about Jackson’s growing strength. Fremont believes Jackson to have 35,000 against his own 14,000.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+12%2C+1862
5. Thursday, June 12, 1862—George Templeton Strong, of New York City, expresses frustration at McClellan’s lack of aggression: “But Richmond—McClellan!!!??? There is the critical position. Success there kills the rebellion, or leaves it only a feeble life, like that of a decapitated hornet, able to sting careless fingers but sure soon to perish innocuously if left alone. Can we hope for the "crowning mercy" of victory there? People are not sanguine about it. They think McClellan too slow and fear Joe Johnston (or G.W. Smith, for they say Joe Johnston was badly wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines or Fair Oaks) has been largely reinforced. . . . Time will tell. By why does not McDowell move down from Fredericksburg with his 40,000 men, more or less? And why does he visit Washington so often? . . . “
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+12%2C+1862
6. Wednesday, June 12, 1861: Jackson made a proclamation in Jefferson City declaring Lyon’s men “invaders”. He called for 50,000 volunteers to defend the state against Lyon’s.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/the-american-civil-war/american-civil-war-june-1861/
7. Friday, June 12, 1863—Major Alexander Biddle, commander of the 121st Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, writes home to his wife about his futile attempts to resign from the U.S. Army: . . . We number now less than 260 men present for duty and many of these are excused from drill — not a command of a Major. I think I therefore might be spared Imbecility which often amounts to cruelty marks the Course of Govt towards this Army, if it is not our Generals doing that we have so much tape to tie us. To get my resignation considered it had to pass through 3 clerks and 3 Generals inspections if indeed the latter ever saw it at all. You now dear wife know my fate for the present — bereft as I am of all hope of happiness which I alone look for here below in your society. I must trust that in a little while I shall have some other opportunity — which I shall most eagerly embrace. I have had no letters from home but yours and dont expect any — strange but so it is. May God bless and keep you in health and strength and happiness soon to be reunited with your ever loving husband, Alexander
A kiss for Aleck, Harry, Julia, Winny and Louis — when I heard that De Hunter had been with you I was pleased at the dear little boy’s name.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+12%2C+1863
8. Friday, June 12, 1863—Lt. Col. Arthur Fremantle, of the British Army, writes in his journal of the time he is spending in Charleston, where he witnesses a slave auction and finally meets General Beauregard, who of course makes a plug for British intervention. This passage reveals interesting nuances from an anti-slavery Englishman (we presume) who nevertheless does not think it is all that bad: I went to a slave auction at 11; but they had been so quick about it that the whole affair was over before I arrived, although I was only ten minutes late. The negroes—about fifteen men, three women, and three children—were seated on benches, looking perfectly contented and indifferent I saw the buyers opening the mouths and showing the teeth of their new purchases to their friends in a very business-like manner. This was certainly not a very agreeable spectacle to an Englishman, and I know that many Southerners participate in the same feeling; for I have often been told by people that they had never seen a negro sold by auction, and never wished to do so. . . . I am perfectly aware that many influential men in the South feel humiliated and annoyed with several of the incidents connected with slavery; and I think that if the Confederate States were left alone, the system would be much modified and amended, although complete emancipation cannot be expected; for the Southerners believe it to be as impracticable to cultivate cotton on a large scale in the South, without forced black labour, as the British have found it to produce sugar in Jamaica; and they declare that the example the English have set them of sudden emancipation in that island is by no means encouraging. They say that that magnificent colony, formerly so wealthy and prosperous, is now nearly valueless—the land going out of cultivation—the Whites ruined—the Blacks idle, slothful, and supposed to be in a great measure relapsing into their primitive barbarism. . . .
At 1 P.M. I called on General Beauregard, who is a man of middle height, about forty-seven years of age. He would be very youthful in appearance were it not for the colour of his hair, which is much greyer than his earlier photographs represent. Some persons account for the sudden manner in which his hair turned grey by allusions to his cares and anxieties during the last two years; but the real and less romantic reason is to be found in the rigidity of the Yankee blockade, which interrupts the arrival of articles of toilette. He has a long straight nose, handsome brown eyes, and a dark mustache without whiskers, and his manners are extremely polite. He is a New Orleans Creole, and French is his native language.
He was extremely civil to me, and arranged that I should see some of the land fortifications to-morrow. He spoke to me of the inevitable necessity, sooner or later, of a war between the Northern States and Great Britain; and he remarked that, if England would join the South at once, the Southern armies, relieved of the present blockade and enormous Yankee pressure, would be able to march right into the Northern States, and, by occupying their principal cities, would give the Yankees so much employment that they would be unable to spare many men for Canada. . . .
9. http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+12%2C+1863
10. Friday, June 12, 1863—The New York Times prints dispatches from its correspondent at the Vicksburg siege, noting the onset of the Southern summer, in rather vivid, poetic terms: “IN REAR OF VICKSBURGH, Saturday, May 30. The weather, which for the last month has been as cool as one could expect, has suddenly become as hot as the furnace prepared for the three uncompromising Hebrews [Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego]. The air is tremulous with heat; the dust-covered leaves droop and wither; thunders go growling and roaring over the sky toward evening, but bring us no rain, only hot lightnings and hypocritical clouds; the nights are stale with polished skies and a bright moon that instead of light glow with and reflect back the heat which the earth has absorbed during the day. Where yesterday there was a green, placid bayou, there is to-day only a natural canal, on whose steep banks lie rotting dogs and unshapely driftwood, and whose bottom is covered here with oozy, bubbling slime, and there with yawning cracks that seem to open down to the centre of the earth.
Standing upon any one of the higher hills between Ha[y]nes’ Bluff and Vicksburgh, the entire position of our army, its movements and the passage of teams can be correctly guessed at by the spectator, by watching the lines of dust that rise above the ocean of verdure whose leafy swells and hollows stretch away illimitably before him.
The Southern Summer — that Summer with its sweltering heats, its dried-up streams, its nights dripping with unhealthy dews, its dust-malaria, discomforts and death — is upon us.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+12%2C+1863
11. We are making some progress toward the capture of Vicksburgh, although, just now, operations are so multifarious and extended, that it puzzles one to keep track of them all …
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+12%2C+1863
12. Friday, June 12, 1863—The Richmond Daily Dispatch publishes the latest dispatches on conditions at Vicksburg. Among other details are these: Our scouts from the vicinity of Vicksburg report that Grant in hauling water for his troops from the High Black, a distance of eight miles.
His mounted siege guns opened fire to-night. The fire was incessant, our columbiads replying, with a proclamation to the world of the invincible spirit which animates our troops in the works, and that "Vicksburg never surrenders."
All eyes are turned towards Kirby Smith, on whose movements depend, perhaps, the fate of Port Hudson and Vicksburg.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+12%2C+1863
13. Thursday, June 12, 1862—Mary Boykin Chestnut of South Carolina writes in her diary: “Sixteen more Yankee regiments have landed on James Island. Eason writes, "They have twice the energy and enterprise of our people."
Is answered: "Wait awhile. Let them alone until climate and mosquitoes and sand flies and dealing with negroes take it all out of them.". . .
General Scott on Southern soldiers. He says we have élan, courage, woodcraft, consummate horsemanship, endurance of pain equal to the Indians, but that we will not submit to discipline. We will not take care of things or husband our resources. Where we are, there is waste and destruction. If it could all be done by one wild, desperate dash, we would do it. But he does not think we can stand the long blank months between the acts—waiting! We can bear pain without murmur, but we will not submit to be bored, &c&c&c.
Now for the other side. They can wait. They can bear discipline. They can endure forever—losses in battle nothing to them, resources in men and materials fo war inexhaustible. And if they see fit they will fight to the bitter end. . . .
After all this—tried to read Uncle Tom. Could not. Too sickening. A man send his little son to beat a human being tied to a tree? It is bad as Squeers beating Smike in the hack.* Flesh and blood revolts. You must skip that—It is too bad—or the pulling out of eyeballs in Lear.[*This occurs in Charles Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby.]”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+12%2C+1862
14. Thursday, June 12, 1862—Col Rutherford B. Hayes, future president of the United States, is on duty with his regiment in western Virginia, and writes home to his wife, and gives her an account of the tedium of camp life: “A day’s life runs about thus: — At 5 A. M., one or the other of our two Giles County contrabands, Calvin or Samuel, comes in hesitatingly and in a modest tone suggests, "Gentlemen, it is ‘most breakfast time." About ten minutes later, finding no results from his first summons, he repeats, perhaps with some slight variation. This is kept up until we get up to breakfast, that is to say, sometimes cold biscuits, cooked at the hospital, sometimes army bread, tea and coffee, sugar, sometimes milk, fried pork, sometimes beef, and any "pison" or fraudulent truck in the way of sauce or pickles or preserves (!) (good peaches sometimes), which the sutler may chance to have. After breakfast there is a little to be done; then a visit of half an hour to brigade headquarters, Colonel Scammon’s; then a visit to division ditto, General Cox’s, where we gossip over the news, foreign and domestic (all outside of our camps being foreign, the residue domestic), then home again, and novel reading is the chief thing till dinner. I have read "Ivanhoe," "Bride of Lammermoor," and [one] of Dickens’ and one of Fielding’s the last ten days.
P. M., generally ride with Avery from five to ten miles; and as my high-spirited horse has no other exercise, and as Carrington (Company C boy) is a good forager and feeds him tip-top, the way we go it is locomotive-like in speed. After this, more novel reading until the telegraphic news and mails, both of which come about the same hour, 5:30 P. M. Then gossip on the news and reading newspapers until bedtime — early bedtime, 9 P. M. We have music, company drills, — no room for battalion drills in these mountains, — and target practice with other little diversions and excitements, and so "wags the world away."
. . . Write as often as you can. I think of you often and with so much happiness; then I run over the boys in my mind — Birt, Webb, Ruddy. The other little fellow I hardly feel acquainted with yet, but the other three fill a large place in my heart.
Keep up good heart. It is all coming out right. There will be checks and disappointments, no doubt, but the work goes forwards. We are much better off than I thought a year ago we should be. — A year ago! Then we were swearing the men in at Camp Chase. Well, we think better of each other than we did then, and are very jolly and friendly."I love you s’much." Love to all. Affectionately, R,
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+12%2C+1862
15. Friday, June 12, 1863: Rumours of an invasion by Lee’s men led to many fleeing their homes in Union areas near to the ‘border’ with the South. Few responded to a call by the Pennsylvania governor for volunteers for a state militia.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/the-american-civil-war/american-civil-war-june-1863/
16. Friday, June 12, 1863—Virginia: Lt. Gen. Richard Ewell and the II Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia has crossed the Blue Ridge through the gaps and is marching swiftly northward, down the Shenandoah Valley. At Winchester is a small Union force under Maj. Gen. Robert Milroy, a perpetual problem general for the War Department in Washington. To date, his principal distinction is having let Stonewall Jackson surprise and defeat him in the West Virginia town of McDowell over a year ago. He apparently rules with a rather harsh form of martial law in Winchester, imprisoning any woman who insults a Union soldier, reading all of the mail passing in and out of the town, and even declaring all of the slaves in the town to be free (a measure not approved by Washington). He quarters his troops in the homes of the citizens—certainly not the kind of act that would win hearts for the Union cause.
17. Milroy’s division at Winchester appears to be a ripe plum for the Rebels to pick, since Ewell is packing three divisions—those of Robert Rodes, Edward Johnson, and the irascible Jubal A. Early. Gen. Halleck back in Washington sends a message to Milroy’s department commander, Gen. Schenk, that the garrison "should" be pulled out of Winchester. But Milroy insists he can hold the town against any move by the enemy. But up to this point, Milroy’s cavalry has been skirmishing only with Rebel cavalry.
18. http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+12%2C+1863
19. Friday, June 12, 1863—The heavy firing at Vicksburg continues. Last night it was heavier than any that has yet been heard. The weather is clean and warm. The thermometer indicates 90 degrees. . . .
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+12%2C+1863
20.
Thursday, June 12, 1862: After three days rest, Jackson’s army made a move to Richmond to support Lee. Jackson’s 20,000 men had effectively tied up 60,000 Unionist troops in the Shenandoah Valley. Jefferson Davis had initially feared a two-pronged Unionist attack on Richmond but the work of Lee all but ruled this out.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/the-american-civil-war/american-civil-war-june-1862/
A. Thursday, June 12, 1862: J. E. B. Stuart "rides around the Union Army," raiding supplies and battling small groups of Yankees during the Peninsula Campaign in Virginia.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186206
A+ Thursday, June 12, 1862—Gen. Stuart’s Wild Ride - On this date, Brig. Gen. James Ewell Brown Stuart (J.E.B.) Stuart, with 1,200 troopers, begins his ride into the Federal rear areas to gather intelligence, capture supplies, and wreak havoc on the Federal communications and supply lines. His men were the 1st Virginia Cavalry (under Col. Fitzhugh Lee, nephew to Robert E. Lee), the 9th Virginia (under Col. Rooney Lee, the general’s son), additional troops of the 4th Virginia, and a couple of squadrons of the Jeff Davis Legion, plus a two-gun section of his horse artillery. This "light brigade" set off north before 3:00 AM, through Yellow Tavern and on to Ashland. He then turns east along the south bank of the Pamunkey River, and stops at Hanover Court House. Just west of Hanover, they encounter troopers from the 6th U.S. Cavalry, who in turn withdraw. The Union cavalry officer informs his superiors that it is only a squadron of Rebels and nothing to worry about.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+12%2C+1862
A++ Thursday, June 12, 1862: The Mission: General Robert E. Lee’s orders to Stuart were characteristic of Lee--breathtakingly bold, but tempered with warnings of caution.
"You are desired to make a scout movement to the rear of the enemy now posted on the Chickahominy, with a view of gaining intelligence of his operations, communications, etc., and of driving in his foraging parties and securing such grain, cattle, etc., for ourselves as you can make arrangements to have driven in."
Lee added: "You will return as soon as the object of your expedition is accomplished; and you must bear constantly in mind, while endeavoring to execute the general purpose of your mission, not to hazard unnecessarily your command, or to attempt what your judgment may not approve; but be content to accomplish all the good you can, without feeling it necessary to obtain all that might be desired."
Stuart replied "And if I find the way open, it may be that I can ride all the way around him. Circle his whole army." There is no record of Lee’s reply.
General JEB Stuart left the Confederate lines on June 12, 1862 with 1200 men. His commanders were Colonel Fitzhugh Lee, Lieutenant Colonel Will Martin, and Colonel W. H. F. "Rooney" Lee. Rooney Lee was the 25-year old son of General Robert E. Lee, and the owner of White House on the Pamunkey River where the Union army had its supply base. James Breathed commanded a section of Stuart’s Flying Artillery - a twelve-pound howitzer and a six-pound English rifle-piece.
The Union Commander: Brigadier General Phillip St. George Cooke commanded the Federal cavalry on the Union right and was in camp in Hanover County. Cooke was the father-in-law of Confederate J. E. B. Stuart and was also the uncle of John Esten Cooke, who rode with Stuart.
The Expedition: On June 10, 1862 Brig. General J. E. B. Stuart met with General Robert E. Lee at Confederate Army Headquarters at Dabb’s House in Henrico County where they discussed the vulnerability of the Union army’s right wing, north of the Chickahominy River.
On June 11, Stuart received his orders for the expedition along with Lee’s caution not to go beyond those orders.
At 2 am on June 12, Stuart’s men were awakened in their Henrico County camps at Mordecai Farm (Bryan Park) and at Kilby’s Station.
The column headed west towards Louisa, appearing to all that they were going to join Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley. They then moved north past Ashland and camped at the Winston Farm near Taylorsville on the South Anna River in Hanover County.
That evening Stuart and "Rooney" Lee visited Hickory Hill, the home of Mrs. Lee’s family. Stuart fell asleep in a chair while Rooney Lee talked with his wife and relatives.
[June 13 – 16] On the morning of Friday, June 13, Stuart called together his field officers and told them his plan to reconnoiter the Union right. Silently they broke camp and moved east towards Hanover Courthouse.
Avoiding the Union troops near Old Church, Stuart headed south past Taliaferro’s Mill and Enon Church.
Near Haw’s Shop, Union scouts charged, fired at the lead column and veered off. Stuart commanded "Form fours! Draw Saber! Charge!" A few prisoners were taken but most escaped.
They crossed Totopotomoy Creek with no opposition, but soon found the Union cavalry ready to defend the road at Linney’s Corner in Hanover County. Stuart gave the order to charge. At the head of the lead column was Confederate Captain William Latané, a doctor from Essex County. The troopers threw themselves against the Federal cavalry under the command of Union Captain William Royall. Latané wounded Royall with his saber, but Royall fired his revolver and Captain Latané, hit by 5 bullets, became the only Confederate killed on the expedition.
Stuart was 14 miles from Hanover Courthouse and had accomplished his goal of establishing that the Union right was poorly defended. He weighed the option of returning to Richmond along the same route they had traveled, where the Union army would be on alert or proceeding forward approaching Richmond south of the Chickahominy River.
Whether the decision to ride around the Union army was made at that time or whether Stuart had already determined to continue his daring adventure, we may never know, but ride forward they did, making history and adding to the reputation of their leader.
At Garlick’s Landing in New Kent County, the Confederates attacked and burned Union vessels that were unloading supplies.
At Tunstall’s Station, Stuart’s troopers cut telegraph lines, attacked a train heading towards White House Landing, and attempted to burn the station.
They rode past St. Peters Church, once the family church of Martha Washington, the First First Lady.
At Talleysville, they visited Kearney’s Division Hospital, relieved a sutler of his supply of food and drink at Baltimore Store, and halted to give time for the rest of the command to catch up.
The order was given to move out at midnight. Stuart and many of his troopers slept in the saddle; prisoners rode two to a mule; and the road glowed white in the moonlight. The Union cavalry was still two hours behind at Tunstall’s Station.
The column passed Olivet Church, and at first light on June 14 arrived at Christian’s Ford on the Chickahominy River. The high water that had plagued both armies throughout the Peninsula Campaign could not be crossed, and another route had to be found.
A mile down river at Providence Forge, the bridge had been destroyed, but the stone abutments were still intact. The raiders rebuilt the bridge with wood from a nearby barn and the troopers crossed just ahead of the arrival of Union cavalry.
Now in Charles City County they rested for two hours at Green Oak, the home of Thomas Christian, then rode to Woodburn, Judge Isaac Christian’s plantation near Charles City Court House, and stopped for coffee at Rowland’s Mill (now Edgewood). They continued to Col. J. M. Wilcox’s home of Buckland.
The Union cavalry was no longer a threat, but Stuart’s command was not out of danger. As they rode towards Richmond, the troopers could see the masts of Union vessels on the James River.
On the morning of June 15 Stuart left the column under the command of Col. Fitz Lee and rode ahead to report to Robert E. Lee. The rest of the Confederate troopers entered Richmond on the 16th.
http://www.newkent.net/historystuart.html
B Thursday, June 12, 1862—Gen. Jackson again moves into the Valley and pushing north. His cavalry, now under Col. Mumford, begins harrassing Fremont and his rear guard.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+12%2C+1862
B+ Thursday, June 12, 1862: After Port Republic, Jackson ensconced his army at Brown's Gap for three days and, on June 12, moved back into the Valley, by which time Frémont and Shields were gone. Four days later, Robert E. Lee summoned Jackson's command to Richmond, where it participated in the Seven Days' Battles against McClellan.
http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Shenandoah_Valley_Campaign_of_1862
C Sunday, June 12, 1864: Battle of Trevilian Station. Phil Sheridan strikes Fitzhugh Lee and Wade Hampton, trying to reach Hunter at Charlottesville. In spite of initial success, he is turned back.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186406
C+ Sunday, June 12, 1864: Battle of Trevilian Station, Virginia. On June 12, Major General Phillip Sheridan’s men tore up several miles of railroad before advancing on CSA General Wade Hampton’s position to the west. Hampton’s men had spent the night establishing a strong position, with an angled line anchored on the railroad embankment and, by midday, support from CSA General Fitzhugh Lee. Time and time again Sheridan ordered his cavalry to attack this line, and time and time again they were driven back. The men began to refer to the angle in Hampton’s line as their own “Bloody Angle,” referencing the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House the month before. Ultimately, Sheridan was forced to abandon his attempts to break Hampton’s line, and he withdrew that night, returning to the Army of the Potomac.
While Sheridan and other Union commanders tried to claim the Battle of Trevilian Station as a victory, most historians describe the battle as either inconclusive or a Confederate victory. Sheridan did succeed in drawing Confederate attention away from Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s movements near the James River, but he failed at to meet up with General Hunter or create any real, long-term disruption of the Confederate supply line. Furthermore, the casualties sustained in this battle and the month-long separation of the cavalry from the rest of the Army of the Potomac had a serious impact on the army’s operations during one of the toughest campaigns of the war. Had Sheridan achieved his goals, Hunter might have been able to capture Lynchburg, cutting off one of Lee’s key supply centers and potentially shortening the war by several months.
Background: In the summer of 1864, hoping to draw attention away from his own movement across the James River toward Petersburg, Union commander Ulysses S. Grant sent Major General Phillip Sheridan on an ambitious cavalry raid toward Charlottesville. Sheridan hoped to destroy as much of the Virginia Central railroad as possible, interrupting crucial Confederate supply lines, and then press on and join forces with General David Hunter in Charlottesville.
When Robert E. Lee became aware of this Union movement, he sent the cavalry divisions of General Wade Hampton and General Fitzhugh Lee to attack the Federals near Trevilian Station, Virginia. What resulted was the largest and bloodiest all-cavalry battle of the Civil War. On June 11, the two divisions approached the Union position along separate roads, with Hampton’s men coming from Trevilian Station and Lee’s men from nearby Louisa Court House. Hampton’s division clashed with the Union First Division under Brigadier General Alfred Torbert, and vicious dismounted fighting raged while Hampton waited for Fitzhugh Lee’s division to arrive and provide support. However, when Lee’s force encountered Union General George Custer’s men on the road, they fell back after only a brief fight, a dangerous decision that created an opening for Custer to take Hampton’s supply train.
Custer’s men immediately took advantage of this gap, driving a wedge between the two Confederate divisions and capturing essential supplies. However, in their haste to claim the spoils of their momentary victory, Custer’s cavalry allowed themselves to be cut off from the rest of Sheridan’s force. When Confederate reinforcements arrived, they were quickly surrounded. This clash has become known as “Custer’s First Last Stand.” The four Michigan regiments of Custer’s brigade took fire from all sides, and only Sheridan’s arrival to drive back the Confederate force saved the Boy General and his men from capture or death. By the time night fell on the 11th, Union forces held Trevilian Station
http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/trevilian-station.html?tab=facts
D Sunday, June 12, 1864: After some days of military inactivity, the Army of the Potomac moved out of its lines at Cold Harbor. However, while the army had not been fighting, it had been constructing better roads and pontoons to allow for the swifter movement of men and supplies. Such planning paid off.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186406
D+ Sunday, June 12, 1864: Cold Harbor, Virginia. Finally, late on June 11 or early on June 12, Grant’s aides returned from planning a route for the army across the James River. Grant ordered Meade to leave Cold Harbor as quickly as possible to avoid immediate detection by the Confederates, cross the James, and proceed toward Petersburg. Lee had already guessed that Grant would attack Petersburg and countered by sending II Corps to the Shenandoah Valley in an effort to threaten Washington and distract Grant from Richmond.
http://www.historynet.com/cold-harbor
D++ Sunday, June 12, 1864: Cold Harbor, Virginia. Grant realized that, once again in the campaign, he was in a stalemate with Lee and additional assaults were not the answer. He planned three actions to make some headway. First, in the Shenandoah Valley, Maj. Gen. David Hunter was making progress against Confederate forces, and Grant hoped that by interdicting Lee's supplies, the Confederate general would be forced to dispatch reinforcements to the Valley. Second, on June 7 Grant dispatched his cavalry under Sheridan (the divisions of Brig. Gens. David McM. Gregg and Wesley Merritt) to destroy the Virginia Central Railroad near Charlottesville. Third, he planned a stealthy operation to withdraw from Lee's front and move across the James River. Lee reacted to the first two actions as Grant had hoped. He pulled Breckinridge's division from Cold Harbor and sent it toward Lynchburg to parry Hunter. By June 12 he followed this by assigning Jubal Early permanent command of the Second Corps and sending them to the Valley as well. And he sent two of his three cavalry divisions in pursuit of Sheridan, leading to the Battle of Trevilian Station. However, despite anticipating that Grant might shift across the James, Lee was taken by surprise when it occurred. On June 12 the Army of the Potomac finally disengaged to march southeast to cross the James and threaten Petersburg, a crucial rail junction south of Richmond.
Aftermath The Battle of Cold Harbor was the final victory won by Lee's army during the war (part of his forces won the Battle of the Crater the following month, during the Siege of Petersburg, but this did not represent a general engagement between the armies), and its most decisive in terms of casualties. The Union army, in attempting the futile assault, lost 10,000 to 13,000 men over twelve days. The battle brought the toll in Union casualties since the beginning of May to a total of more than 52,000, compared to 33,000 for Lee. Although the cost was great, Grant's larger army finished the campaign with lower relative casualties than Lee's.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cold_Harbor
FYI SPC Michael Duricko, Ph.D MAJ Roland McDonald SSG Franklin BriantCPO William Glen (W.G.) Powell1stSgt Eugene Harless PO3 (Join to see)MSG Greg Kelly CPT (Join to see) LTC Thomas Tennant GySgt Jack Wallace PO1 Sam Deel LTC David Brown LTC (Join to see) SFC Eric Harmon SSG Bill McCoySPC (Join to see) Kim Bolen RN CCM ACM
Friday, June 12, 1863: Lt. Col. Arthur Fremantle, of the British Army, writes in his journal of the time he is spending in Charleston, where he witnesses a slave auction and finally meets General Beauregard, who of course makes a plug for British intervention. This passage reveals interesting nuances from an anti-slavery Englishman (we presume) who nevertheless does not think it is all that bad: “I went to a slave auction at 11; but they had been so quick about it that the whole affair was over before I arrived, although I was only ten minutes late. The negroes—about fifteen men, three women, and three children—were seated on benches, looking perfectly contented and indifferent I saw the buyers opening the mouths and showing the teeth of their new purchases to their friends in a very business-like manner. This was certainly not a very agreeable spectacle to an Englishman, and I know that many Southerners participate in the same feeling; for I have often been told by people that they had never seen a negro sold by auction, and never wished to do so. . . . I am perfectly aware that many influential men in the South feel humiliated and annoyed with several of the incidents connected with slavery; and I think that if the Confederate States were left alone, the system would be much modified and amended, although complete emancipation cannot be expected; for the Southerners believe it to be as impracticable to cultivate cotton on a large scale in the South, without forced black labour, as the British have found it to produce sugar in Jamaica; and they declare that the example the English have set them of sudden emancipation in that island is by no means encouraging. They say that that magnificent colony, formerly so wealthy and prosperous, is now nearly valueless—the land going out of cultivation—the Whites ruined—the Blacks idle, slothful, and supposed to be in a great measure relapsing into their primitive barbarism. . . .
At 1 P.M. I called on General Beauregard, who is a man of middle height, about forty-seven years of age. He would be very youthful in appearance were it not for the colour of his hair, which is much greyer than his earlier photographs represent. Some persons account for the sudden manner in which his hair turned grey by allusions to his cares and anxieties during the last two years; but the real and less romantic reason is to be found in the rigidity of the Yankee blockade, which interrupts the arrival of articles of toilette. He has a long straight nose, handsome brown eyes, and a dark mustache without whiskers, and his manners are extremely polite. He is a New Orleans Creole, and French is his native language.
He was extremely civil to me, and arranged that I should see some of the land fortifications to-morrow. He spoke to me of the inevitable necessity, sooner or later, of a war between the Northern States and Great Britain; and he remarked that, if England would join the South at once, the Southern armies, relieved of the present blockade and enormous Yankee pressure, would be able to march right into the Northern States, and, by occupying their principal cities, would give the Yankees so much employment that they would be unable to spare many men for Canada. . . .”
Thursday, June 12, 1862: Col Rutherford B. Hayes, future president of the United States, is on duty with his regiment in western Virginia, and writes home to his wife, and gives her an account of the tedium of camp life: “A day’s life runs about thus: — At 5 A. M., one or the other of our two Giles County contrabands, Calvin or Samuel, comes in hesitatingly and in a modest tone suggests, "Gentlemen, it is ‘most breakfast time." About ten minutes later, finding no results from his first summons, he repeats, perhaps with some slight variation. This is kept up until we get up to breakfast, that is to say, sometimes cold biscuits, cooked at the hospital, sometimes army bread, tea and coffee, sugar, sometimes milk, fried pork, sometimes beef, and any "pison" or fraudulent truck in the way of sauce or pickles or preserves (!) (good peaches sometimes), which the sutler may chance to have. After breakfast there is a little to be done; then a visit of half an hour to brigade headquarters, Colonel Scammon’s; then a visit to division ditto, General Cox’s, where we gossip over the news, foreign and domestic (all outside of our camps being foreign, the residue domestic), then home again, and novel reading is the chief thing till dinner. I have read "Ivanhoe," "Bride of Lammermoor," and [one] of Dickens’ and one of Fielding’s the last ten days.
P. M., generally ride with Avery from five to ten miles; and as my high-spirited horse has no other exercise, and as Carrington (Company C boy) is a good forager and feeds him tip-top, the way we go it is locomotive-like in speed. After this, more novel reading until the telegraphic news and mails, both of which come about the same hour, 5:30 P. M. Then gossip on the news and reading newspapers until bedtime — early bedtime, 9 P. M. We have music, company drills, — no room for battalion drills in these mountains, — and target practice with other little diversions and excitements, and so "wags the world away."
. . . Write as often as you can. I think of you often and with so much happiness; then I run over the boys in my mind — Birt, Webb, Ruddy. The other little fellow I hardly feel acquainted with yet, but the other three fill a large place in my heart.
Keep up good heart. It is all coming out right. There will be checks and disappointments, no doubt, but the work goes forwards. We are much better off than I thought a year ago we should be. — A year ago! Then we were swearing the men in at Camp Chase. Well, we think better of each other than we did then, and are very jolly and friendly."I love you s’much." Love to all. Affectionately, R,
Thursday, June 12, 1862: Mary Boykin Chestnut of South Carolina writes in her diary: “Sixteen more Yankee regiments have landed on James Island. Eason writes, "They have twice the energy and enterprise of our people."
Is answered: "Wait awhile. Let them alone until climate and mosquitoes and sand flies and dealing with negroes take it all out of them.". . .
General Scott on Southern soldiers. He says we have élan, courage, woodcraft, consummate horsemanship, endurance of pain equal to the Indians, but that we will not submit to discipline. We will not take care of things or husband our resources. Where we are, there is waste and destruction. If it could all be done by one wild, desperate dash, we would do it. But he does not think we can stand the long blank months between the acts—waiting! We can bear pain without murmur, but we will not submit to be bored, &c&c&c.
Now for the other side. They can wait. They can bear discipline. They can endure forever—losses in battle nothing to them, resources in men and materials fo war inexhaustible. And if they see fit they will fight to the bitter end. . . .
After all this—tried to read Uncle Tom. Could not. Too sickening. A man send his little son to beat a human being tied to a tree? It is bad as Squeers beating Smike in the hack.* Flesh and blood revolts. You must skip that—It is too bad—or the pulling out of eyeballs in Lear.[*This occurs in Charles Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby.]”
Below are a number of journal entries from 1862 and 1863 which shed light on what life was like for soldiers – the good, the bad and the ugly.
Pictures: 1862-06-12 The route of Brig. Gen. James Ewell Brown Stuart’s Raid; Brig. Gen. James Ewell Brown Stuart, CSA; Stonewall Jackson marches; xx
Since RallyPoint truncates survey selection text I am posting events that were not included and then the full text of each survey choice below:
A. Thursday, June 12, 1862: CSA Brig Gen James Ewell Brown (J.E.B.) Stuart begins his ride into the Federal rear areas to gather intelligence, capture supplies, and wreak havoc on the Federal communications and supply lines. His men were the 1st Virginia Cavalry (under Col. Fitzhugh Lee, nephew to Robert E. Lee), the 9th Virginia (under Col. Rooney Lee, the general’s son), additional troops of the 4th Virginia, and a couple of squadrons of the Jeff Davis Legion, plus a two-gun section of his horse artillery - a twelve-pound howitzer and a six-pound English rifle-piece commanded by James Breathed. This "light brigade" set off north before 3:00 AM, through Yellow Tavern and on to Ashland. He then turns east along the south bank of the Pamunkey River, and stops at Hanover Court House. Just west of Hanover, they encounter troopers from the 6th U.S. Cavalry, who in turn withdraw. The Union cavalry officer informs his superiors that it is only a squadron of Rebels and nothing to worry about.
Background: General Robert E. Lee’s orders to Stuart were characteristic of Lee--breathtakingly bold, but tempered with warnings of caution. "You are desired to make a scout movement to the rear of the enemy now posted on the Chickahominy, with a view of gaining intelligence of his operations, communications, etc., and of driving in his foraging parties and securing such grain, cattle, etc., for ourselves as you can make arrangements to have driven in."
Lee added: "You will return as soon as the object of your expedition is accomplished; and you must bear constantly in mind, while endeavoring to execute the general purpose of your mission, not to hazard unnecessarily your command, or to attempt what your judgment may not approve; but be content to accomplish all the good you can, without feeling it necessary to obtain all that might be desired."
Stuart replied "And if I find the way open, it may be that I can ride all the way around him. Circle his whole army." There is no record of Lee’s reply.
The Union Commander: Brigadier General Phillip St. George Cooke commanded the Federal cavalry on the Union right and was in camp in Hanover County. Cooke was the father-in-law of Confederate J. E. B Stuart and was also the uncle of John Esten Cooke, who rode with Stuart.
B. Thursday, June 12, 1862: CSA Maj Gen again moves into the Shenandoah Valley, after ensconcing his army at Brown's Gap for three days and pushes north. Federal Maj Gen Fremont and Banks are worried about Jackson’s growing strength. Fremont believes Jackson to have 35,000 against his own 14,000. Jackson’s cavalry, now under Col. Mumford, begins harassing Maj Gen Fremont and his rear guard as Fremont was leaving the valley.
C. Sunday, June 12, 1864: Battle of Trevilian Station, Virginia. Major General Phillip Sheridan’s men tore up several miles of railroad before advancing on CSA Maj Gen Wade Hampton’s position to the west. Hampton’s men had spent the night establishing a strong position, with an angled line anchored on the railroad embankment and, by midday, support from CSA Maj Gen Fitzhugh Lee. Time and time again Sheridan ordered his cavalry to attack this line, and time and time again they were driven back. The men began to refer to the angle in Hampton’s line as their own “Bloody Angle,” referencing the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House the month before. Ultimately, Sheridan was forced to abandon his attempts to break Hampton’s line, and he withdrew that night, returning to the Army of the Potomac.
While Sheridan and other Union commanders tried to claim the Battle of Trevilian Station as a victory, most historians describe the battle as either inconclusive or a Confederate victory. Sheridan did succeed in drawing Confederate attention away from Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s movements near the James River, but he failed at to meet up with General Hunter or create any real, long-term disruption of the Confederate supply line. Furthermore, the casualties sustained in this battle and the month-long separation of the cavalry from the rest of the Army of the Potomac had a serious impact on the army’s operations during one of the toughest campaigns of the war. Had Sheridan achieved his goals, Hunter might have been able to capture Lynchburg, cutting off one of Lee’s key supply centers and potentially shortening the war by several months.
Background: In the summer of 1864, hoping to draw attention away from his own movement across the James River toward Petersburg, Union commander Ulysses S. Grant sent Major General Phillip Sheridan on an ambitious cavalry raid toward Charlottesville. Sheridan hoped to destroy as much of the Virginia Central railroad as possible, interrupting crucial Confederate supply lines, and then press on and join forces with General David Hunter in Charlottesville.
When Robert E. Lee became aware of this Union movement, he sent the cavalry divisions of CSA Maj Gen Wade Hampton and CSA Maj Gen Fitzhugh Lee to attack the Federals near Trevilian Station, Virginia. What resulted was the largest and bloodiest all-cavalry battle of the Civil War. On June 11, the two divisions approached the Union position along separate roads, with Hampton’s men coming from Trevilian Station and Lee’s men from nearby Louisa Court House. Hampton’s division clashed with the Union First Division under Brigadier General Alfred Torbert, and vicious dismounted fighting raged while Hampton waited for Fitzhugh Lee’s division to arrive and provide support. However, when Lee’s force encountered Union General George Custer’s men on the road, they fell back after only a brief fight, a dangerous decision that created an opening for Custer to take Hampton’s supply train.
Custer’s men immediately took advantage of this gap, driving a wedge between the two Confederate divisions and capturing essential supplies. However, in their haste to claim the spoils of their momentary victory, Custer’s cavalry allowed themselves to be cut off from the rest of Sheridan’s force. When Confederate reinforcements arrived, they were quickly surrounded. This clash has become known as “Custer’s First Last Stand.” The four Michigan regiments of Custer’s brigade took fire from all sides, and only Sheridan’s arrival to drive back the Confederate force saved the Boy General and his men from capture or death. By the time night fell on the 11th, Union forces held Trevilian Station
D. Sunday, June 12, 1864: Battle of Cold Harbor ends. Confederate victory. LT Gen Ulysses S. Grant ordered Meade to leave Cold Harbor as quickly as possible to avoid immediate detection by the Confederates, cross the James, and proceed toward Petersburg. After some days of military inactivity, the Army of the Potomac moved out of its lines at Cold Harbor. However, while the army had not been fighting, it had been constructing better roads and pontoons to allow for the swifter movement of men and supplies. Such planning paid off. CSA Robert E. Lee had already guessed that Grant would attack Petersburg and countered by sending II Corps to the Shenandoah Valley in an effort to threaten Washington and distract Grant from Richmond.
LT Gen Ulysses S. Grant realized that, once again in the campaign, he was in a stalemate with CSA Robert E. Lee and additional assaults were not the answer. He planned three actions to make some headway. First, in the Shenandoah Valley, Maj. Gen. David Hunter was making progress against Confederate forces, and Grant hoped that by interdicting Lee's supplies, the Confederate general would be forced to dispatch reinforcements to the Valley. Second, on June 7 Grant dispatched his cavalry under Sheridan (the divisions of Brig. Gens. David McM. Gregg and Wesley Merritt) to destroy the Virginia Central Railroad near Charlottesville. Third, he planned a stealthy operation to withdraw from Lee's front and move across the James River. Lee reacted to the first two actions as Grant had hoped. He pulled Breckinridge's division from Cold Harbor and sent it toward Lynchburg to parry Hunter. By June 12 he followed this by assigning Jubal Early permanent command of the Second Corps and sending them to the Valley as well. And he sent two of his three cavalry divisions in pursuit of Sheridan, leading to the Battle of Trevilian Station. However, despite anticipating that Grant might shift across the James, Lee was taken by surprise when it occurred. On June 12 the Army of the Potomac finally disengaged to march southeast to cross the James and threaten Petersburg, a crucial rail junction south of Richmond.
1. Saturday, June 12, 1852: On the 49th ballot, the Democratic Convention in Baltimore, Maryland elects Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire
http://blueandgraytrail.com/date/June_12
2. Saturday, June 12, 1858: Brigham Young accepts a pardon for the people of the Utah Territory
http://blueandgraytrail.com/date/June_12
3. Thursday, June 12, 1862: near Village Creek, Arkansas - On June 12, a Union force neared Village Creek, when they spotted a small group of Confederates at the Waddell's farm. The Federals attacked the Confederates, forcing them to quickly retreat. After the Confederates left, the Federals confiscated all of the corn and bacon at the farm, filling up a total of 36 wagons.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1862s.html
4. Thursday, June 12, 1862—Once again, Pres. Lincoln orders Gen. McDowell’s I Corps to move east and south and join McClellan for what he hoped was the big push to capture Richmond. However, Fremont and Banks are worried about Jackson’s growing strength. Fremont believes Jackson to have 35,000 against his own 14,000.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+12%2C+1862
5. Thursday, June 12, 1862—George Templeton Strong, of New York City, expresses frustration at McClellan’s lack of aggression: “But Richmond—McClellan!!!??? There is the critical position. Success there kills the rebellion, or leaves it only a feeble life, like that of a decapitated hornet, able to sting careless fingers but sure soon to perish innocuously if left alone. Can we hope for the "crowning mercy" of victory there? People are not sanguine about it. They think McClellan too slow and fear Joe Johnston (or G.W. Smith, for they say Joe Johnston was badly wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines or Fair Oaks) has been largely reinforced. . . . Time will tell. By why does not McDowell move down from Fredericksburg with his 40,000 men, more or less? And why does he visit Washington so often? . . . “
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+12%2C+1862
6. Wednesday, June 12, 1861: Jackson made a proclamation in Jefferson City declaring Lyon’s men “invaders”. He called for 50,000 volunteers to defend the state against Lyon’s.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/the-american-civil-war/american-civil-war-june-1861/
7. Friday, June 12, 1863—Major Alexander Biddle, commander of the 121st Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, writes home to his wife about his futile attempts to resign from the U.S. Army: . . . We number now less than 260 men present for duty and many of these are excused from drill — not a command of a Major. I think I therefore might be spared Imbecility which often amounts to cruelty marks the Course of Govt towards this Army, if it is not our Generals doing that we have so much tape to tie us. To get my resignation considered it had to pass through 3 clerks and 3 Generals inspections if indeed the latter ever saw it at all. You now dear wife know my fate for the present — bereft as I am of all hope of happiness which I alone look for here below in your society. I must trust that in a little while I shall have some other opportunity — which I shall most eagerly embrace. I have had no letters from home but yours and dont expect any — strange but so it is. May God bless and keep you in health and strength and happiness soon to be reunited with your ever loving husband, Alexander
A kiss for Aleck, Harry, Julia, Winny and Louis — when I heard that De Hunter had been with you I was pleased at the dear little boy’s name.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+12%2C+1863
8. Friday, June 12, 1863—Lt. Col. Arthur Fremantle, of the British Army, writes in his journal of the time he is spending in Charleston, where he witnesses a slave auction and finally meets General Beauregard, who of course makes a plug for British intervention. This passage reveals interesting nuances from an anti-slavery Englishman (we presume) who nevertheless does not think it is all that bad: I went to a slave auction at 11; but they had been so quick about it that the whole affair was over before I arrived, although I was only ten minutes late. The negroes—about fifteen men, three women, and three children—were seated on benches, looking perfectly contented and indifferent I saw the buyers opening the mouths and showing the teeth of their new purchases to their friends in a very business-like manner. This was certainly not a very agreeable spectacle to an Englishman, and I know that many Southerners participate in the same feeling; for I have often been told by people that they had never seen a negro sold by auction, and never wished to do so. . . . I am perfectly aware that many influential men in the South feel humiliated and annoyed with several of the incidents connected with slavery; and I think that if the Confederate States were left alone, the system would be much modified and amended, although complete emancipation cannot be expected; for the Southerners believe it to be as impracticable to cultivate cotton on a large scale in the South, without forced black labour, as the British have found it to produce sugar in Jamaica; and they declare that the example the English have set them of sudden emancipation in that island is by no means encouraging. They say that that magnificent colony, formerly so wealthy and prosperous, is now nearly valueless—the land going out of cultivation—the Whites ruined—the Blacks idle, slothful, and supposed to be in a great measure relapsing into their primitive barbarism. . . .
At 1 P.M. I called on General Beauregard, who is a man of middle height, about forty-seven years of age. He would be very youthful in appearance were it not for the colour of his hair, which is much greyer than his earlier photographs represent. Some persons account for the sudden manner in which his hair turned grey by allusions to his cares and anxieties during the last two years; but the real and less romantic reason is to be found in the rigidity of the Yankee blockade, which interrupts the arrival of articles of toilette. He has a long straight nose, handsome brown eyes, and a dark mustache without whiskers, and his manners are extremely polite. He is a New Orleans Creole, and French is his native language.
He was extremely civil to me, and arranged that I should see some of the land fortifications to-morrow. He spoke to me of the inevitable necessity, sooner or later, of a war between the Northern States and Great Britain; and he remarked that, if England would join the South at once, the Southern armies, relieved of the present blockade and enormous Yankee pressure, would be able to march right into the Northern States, and, by occupying their principal cities, would give the Yankees so much employment that they would be unable to spare many men for Canada. . . .
9. http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+12%2C+1863
10. Friday, June 12, 1863—The New York Times prints dispatches from its correspondent at the Vicksburg siege, noting the onset of the Southern summer, in rather vivid, poetic terms: “IN REAR OF VICKSBURGH, Saturday, May 30. The weather, which for the last month has been as cool as one could expect, has suddenly become as hot as the furnace prepared for the three uncompromising Hebrews [Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego]. The air is tremulous with heat; the dust-covered leaves droop and wither; thunders go growling and roaring over the sky toward evening, but bring us no rain, only hot lightnings and hypocritical clouds; the nights are stale with polished skies and a bright moon that instead of light glow with and reflect back the heat which the earth has absorbed during the day. Where yesterday there was a green, placid bayou, there is to-day only a natural canal, on whose steep banks lie rotting dogs and unshapely driftwood, and whose bottom is covered here with oozy, bubbling slime, and there with yawning cracks that seem to open down to the centre of the earth.
Standing upon any one of the higher hills between Ha[y]nes’ Bluff and Vicksburgh, the entire position of our army, its movements and the passage of teams can be correctly guessed at by the spectator, by watching the lines of dust that rise above the ocean of verdure whose leafy swells and hollows stretch away illimitably before him.
The Southern Summer — that Summer with its sweltering heats, its dried-up streams, its nights dripping with unhealthy dews, its dust-malaria, discomforts and death — is upon us.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+12%2C+1863
11. We are making some progress toward the capture of Vicksburgh, although, just now, operations are so multifarious and extended, that it puzzles one to keep track of them all …
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+12%2C+1863
12. Friday, June 12, 1863—The Richmond Daily Dispatch publishes the latest dispatches on conditions at Vicksburg. Among other details are these: Our scouts from the vicinity of Vicksburg report that Grant in hauling water for his troops from the High Black, a distance of eight miles.
His mounted siege guns opened fire to-night. The fire was incessant, our columbiads replying, with a proclamation to the world of the invincible spirit which animates our troops in the works, and that "Vicksburg never surrenders."
All eyes are turned towards Kirby Smith, on whose movements depend, perhaps, the fate of Port Hudson and Vicksburg.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+12%2C+1863
13. Thursday, June 12, 1862—Mary Boykin Chestnut of South Carolina writes in her diary: “Sixteen more Yankee regiments have landed on James Island. Eason writes, "They have twice the energy and enterprise of our people."
Is answered: "Wait awhile. Let them alone until climate and mosquitoes and sand flies and dealing with negroes take it all out of them.". . .
General Scott on Southern soldiers. He says we have élan, courage, woodcraft, consummate horsemanship, endurance of pain equal to the Indians, but that we will not submit to discipline. We will not take care of things or husband our resources. Where we are, there is waste and destruction. If it could all be done by one wild, desperate dash, we would do it. But he does not think we can stand the long blank months between the acts—waiting! We can bear pain without murmur, but we will not submit to be bored, &c&c&c.
Now for the other side. They can wait. They can bear discipline. They can endure forever—losses in battle nothing to them, resources in men and materials fo war inexhaustible. And if they see fit they will fight to the bitter end. . . .
After all this—tried to read Uncle Tom. Could not. Too sickening. A man send his little son to beat a human being tied to a tree? It is bad as Squeers beating Smike in the hack.* Flesh and blood revolts. You must skip that—It is too bad—or the pulling out of eyeballs in Lear.[*This occurs in Charles Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby.]”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+12%2C+1862
14. Thursday, June 12, 1862—Col Rutherford B. Hayes, future president of the United States, is on duty with his regiment in western Virginia, and writes home to his wife, and gives her an account of the tedium of camp life: “A day’s life runs about thus: — At 5 A. M., one or the other of our two Giles County contrabands, Calvin or Samuel, comes in hesitatingly and in a modest tone suggests, "Gentlemen, it is ‘most breakfast time." About ten minutes later, finding no results from his first summons, he repeats, perhaps with some slight variation. This is kept up until we get up to breakfast, that is to say, sometimes cold biscuits, cooked at the hospital, sometimes army bread, tea and coffee, sugar, sometimes milk, fried pork, sometimes beef, and any "pison" or fraudulent truck in the way of sauce or pickles or preserves (!) (good peaches sometimes), which the sutler may chance to have. After breakfast there is a little to be done; then a visit of half an hour to brigade headquarters, Colonel Scammon’s; then a visit to division ditto, General Cox’s, where we gossip over the news, foreign and domestic (all outside of our camps being foreign, the residue domestic), then home again, and novel reading is the chief thing till dinner. I have read "Ivanhoe," "Bride of Lammermoor," and [one] of Dickens’ and one of Fielding’s the last ten days.
P. M., generally ride with Avery from five to ten miles; and as my high-spirited horse has no other exercise, and as Carrington (Company C boy) is a good forager and feeds him tip-top, the way we go it is locomotive-like in speed. After this, more novel reading until the telegraphic news and mails, both of which come about the same hour, 5:30 P. M. Then gossip on the news and reading newspapers until bedtime — early bedtime, 9 P. M. We have music, company drills, — no room for battalion drills in these mountains, — and target practice with other little diversions and excitements, and so "wags the world away."
. . . Write as often as you can. I think of you often and with so much happiness; then I run over the boys in my mind — Birt, Webb, Ruddy. The other little fellow I hardly feel acquainted with yet, but the other three fill a large place in my heart.
Keep up good heart. It is all coming out right. There will be checks and disappointments, no doubt, but the work goes forwards. We are much better off than I thought a year ago we should be. — A year ago! Then we were swearing the men in at Camp Chase. Well, we think better of each other than we did then, and are very jolly and friendly."I love you s’much." Love to all. Affectionately, R,
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+12%2C+1862
15. Friday, June 12, 1863: Rumours of an invasion by Lee’s men led to many fleeing their homes in Union areas near to the ‘border’ with the South. Few responded to a call by the Pennsylvania governor for volunteers for a state militia.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/the-american-civil-war/american-civil-war-june-1863/
16. Friday, June 12, 1863—Virginia: Lt. Gen. Richard Ewell and the II Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia has crossed the Blue Ridge through the gaps and is marching swiftly northward, down the Shenandoah Valley. At Winchester is a small Union force under Maj. Gen. Robert Milroy, a perpetual problem general for the War Department in Washington. To date, his principal distinction is having let Stonewall Jackson surprise and defeat him in the West Virginia town of McDowell over a year ago. He apparently rules with a rather harsh form of martial law in Winchester, imprisoning any woman who insults a Union soldier, reading all of the mail passing in and out of the town, and even declaring all of the slaves in the town to be free (a measure not approved by Washington). He quarters his troops in the homes of the citizens—certainly not the kind of act that would win hearts for the Union cause.
17. Milroy’s division at Winchester appears to be a ripe plum for the Rebels to pick, since Ewell is packing three divisions—those of Robert Rodes, Edward Johnson, and the irascible Jubal A. Early. Gen. Halleck back in Washington sends a message to Milroy’s department commander, Gen. Schenk, that the garrison "should" be pulled out of Winchester. But Milroy insists he can hold the town against any move by the enemy. But up to this point, Milroy’s cavalry has been skirmishing only with Rebel cavalry.
18. http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+12%2C+1863
19. Friday, June 12, 1863—The heavy firing at Vicksburg continues. Last night it was heavier than any that has yet been heard. The weather is clean and warm. The thermometer indicates 90 degrees. . . .
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+12%2C+1863
20.
Thursday, June 12, 1862: After three days rest, Jackson’s army made a move to Richmond to support Lee. Jackson’s 20,000 men had effectively tied up 60,000 Unionist troops in the Shenandoah Valley. Jefferson Davis had initially feared a two-pronged Unionist attack on Richmond but the work of Lee all but ruled this out.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/the-american-civil-war/american-civil-war-june-1862/
A. Thursday, June 12, 1862: J. E. B. Stuart "rides around the Union Army," raiding supplies and battling small groups of Yankees during the Peninsula Campaign in Virginia.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186206
A+ Thursday, June 12, 1862—Gen. Stuart’s Wild Ride - On this date, Brig. Gen. James Ewell Brown Stuart (J.E.B.) Stuart, with 1,200 troopers, begins his ride into the Federal rear areas to gather intelligence, capture supplies, and wreak havoc on the Federal communications and supply lines. His men were the 1st Virginia Cavalry (under Col. Fitzhugh Lee, nephew to Robert E. Lee), the 9th Virginia (under Col. Rooney Lee, the general’s son), additional troops of the 4th Virginia, and a couple of squadrons of the Jeff Davis Legion, plus a two-gun section of his horse artillery. This "light brigade" set off north before 3:00 AM, through Yellow Tavern and on to Ashland. He then turns east along the south bank of the Pamunkey River, and stops at Hanover Court House. Just west of Hanover, they encounter troopers from the 6th U.S. Cavalry, who in turn withdraw. The Union cavalry officer informs his superiors that it is only a squadron of Rebels and nothing to worry about.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+12%2C+1862
A++ Thursday, June 12, 1862: The Mission: General Robert E. Lee’s orders to Stuart were characteristic of Lee--breathtakingly bold, but tempered with warnings of caution.
"You are desired to make a scout movement to the rear of the enemy now posted on the Chickahominy, with a view of gaining intelligence of his operations, communications, etc., and of driving in his foraging parties and securing such grain, cattle, etc., for ourselves as you can make arrangements to have driven in."
Lee added: "You will return as soon as the object of your expedition is accomplished; and you must bear constantly in mind, while endeavoring to execute the general purpose of your mission, not to hazard unnecessarily your command, or to attempt what your judgment may not approve; but be content to accomplish all the good you can, without feeling it necessary to obtain all that might be desired."
Stuart replied "And if I find the way open, it may be that I can ride all the way around him. Circle his whole army." There is no record of Lee’s reply.
General JEB Stuart left the Confederate lines on June 12, 1862 with 1200 men. His commanders were Colonel Fitzhugh Lee, Lieutenant Colonel Will Martin, and Colonel W. H. F. "Rooney" Lee. Rooney Lee was the 25-year old son of General Robert E. Lee, and the owner of White House on the Pamunkey River where the Union army had its supply base. James Breathed commanded a section of Stuart’s Flying Artillery - a twelve-pound howitzer and a six-pound English rifle-piece.
The Union Commander: Brigadier General Phillip St. George Cooke commanded the Federal cavalry on the Union right and was in camp in Hanover County. Cooke was the father-in-law of Confederate J. E. B. Stuart and was also the uncle of John Esten Cooke, who rode with Stuart.
The Expedition: On June 10, 1862 Brig. General J. E. B. Stuart met with General Robert E. Lee at Confederate Army Headquarters at Dabb’s House in Henrico County where they discussed the vulnerability of the Union army’s right wing, north of the Chickahominy River.
On June 11, Stuart received his orders for the expedition along with Lee’s caution not to go beyond those orders.
At 2 am on June 12, Stuart’s men were awakened in their Henrico County camps at Mordecai Farm (Bryan Park) and at Kilby’s Station.
The column headed west towards Louisa, appearing to all that they were going to join Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley. They then moved north past Ashland and camped at the Winston Farm near Taylorsville on the South Anna River in Hanover County.
That evening Stuart and "Rooney" Lee visited Hickory Hill, the home of Mrs. Lee’s family. Stuart fell asleep in a chair while Rooney Lee talked with his wife and relatives.
[June 13 – 16] On the morning of Friday, June 13, Stuart called together his field officers and told them his plan to reconnoiter the Union right. Silently they broke camp and moved east towards Hanover Courthouse.
Avoiding the Union troops near Old Church, Stuart headed south past Taliaferro’s Mill and Enon Church.
Near Haw’s Shop, Union scouts charged, fired at the lead column and veered off. Stuart commanded "Form fours! Draw Saber! Charge!" A few prisoners were taken but most escaped.
They crossed Totopotomoy Creek with no opposition, but soon found the Union cavalry ready to defend the road at Linney’s Corner in Hanover County. Stuart gave the order to charge. At the head of the lead column was Confederate Captain William Latané, a doctor from Essex County. The troopers threw themselves against the Federal cavalry under the command of Union Captain William Royall. Latané wounded Royall with his saber, but Royall fired his revolver and Captain Latané, hit by 5 bullets, became the only Confederate killed on the expedition.
Stuart was 14 miles from Hanover Courthouse and had accomplished his goal of establishing that the Union right was poorly defended. He weighed the option of returning to Richmond along the same route they had traveled, where the Union army would be on alert or proceeding forward approaching Richmond south of the Chickahominy River.
Whether the decision to ride around the Union army was made at that time or whether Stuart had already determined to continue his daring adventure, we may never know, but ride forward they did, making history and adding to the reputation of their leader.
At Garlick’s Landing in New Kent County, the Confederates attacked and burned Union vessels that were unloading supplies.
At Tunstall’s Station, Stuart’s troopers cut telegraph lines, attacked a train heading towards White House Landing, and attempted to burn the station.
They rode past St. Peters Church, once the family church of Martha Washington, the First First Lady.
At Talleysville, they visited Kearney’s Division Hospital, relieved a sutler of his supply of food and drink at Baltimore Store, and halted to give time for the rest of the command to catch up.
The order was given to move out at midnight. Stuart and many of his troopers slept in the saddle; prisoners rode two to a mule; and the road glowed white in the moonlight. The Union cavalry was still two hours behind at Tunstall’s Station.
The column passed Olivet Church, and at first light on June 14 arrived at Christian’s Ford on the Chickahominy River. The high water that had plagued both armies throughout the Peninsula Campaign could not be crossed, and another route had to be found.
A mile down river at Providence Forge, the bridge had been destroyed, but the stone abutments were still intact. The raiders rebuilt the bridge with wood from a nearby barn and the troopers crossed just ahead of the arrival of Union cavalry.
Now in Charles City County they rested for two hours at Green Oak, the home of Thomas Christian, then rode to Woodburn, Judge Isaac Christian’s plantation near Charles City Court House, and stopped for coffee at Rowland’s Mill (now Edgewood). They continued to Col. J. M. Wilcox’s home of Buckland.
The Union cavalry was no longer a threat, but Stuart’s command was not out of danger. As they rode towards Richmond, the troopers could see the masts of Union vessels on the James River.
On the morning of June 15 Stuart left the column under the command of Col. Fitz Lee and rode ahead to report to Robert E. Lee. The rest of the Confederate troopers entered Richmond on the 16th.
http://www.newkent.net/historystuart.html
B Thursday, June 12, 1862—Gen. Jackson again moves into the Valley and pushing north. His cavalry, now under Col. Mumford, begins harrassing Fremont and his rear guard.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+12%2C+1862
B+ Thursday, June 12, 1862: After Port Republic, Jackson ensconced his army at Brown's Gap for three days and, on June 12, moved back into the Valley, by which time Frémont and Shields were gone. Four days later, Robert E. Lee summoned Jackson's command to Richmond, where it participated in the Seven Days' Battles against McClellan.
http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Shenandoah_Valley_Campaign_of_1862
C Sunday, June 12, 1864: Battle of Trevilian Station. Phil Sheridan strikes Fitzhugh Lee and Wade Hampton, trying to reach Hunter at Charlottesville. In spite of initial success, he is turned back.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186406
C+ Sunday, June 12, 1864: Battle of Trevilian Station, Virginia. On June 12, Major General Phillip Sheridan’s men tore up several miles of railroad before advancing on CSA General Wade Hampton’s position to the west. Hampton’s men had spent the night establishing a strong position, with an angled line anchored on the railroad embankment and, by midday, support from CSA General Fitzhugh Lee. Time and time again Sheridan ordered his cavalry to attack this line, and time and time again they were driven back. The men began to refer to the angle in Hampton’s line as their own “Bloody Angle,” referencing the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House the month before. Ultimately, Sheridan was forced to abandon his attempts to break Hampton’s line, and he withdrew that night, returning to the Army of the Potomac.
While Sheridan and other Union commanders tried to claim the Battle of Trevilian Station as a victory, most historians describe the battle as either inconclusive or a Confederate victory. Sheridan did succeed in drawing Confederate attention away from Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s movements near the James River, but he failed at to meet up with General Hunter or create any real, long-term disruption of the Confederate supply line. Furthermore, the casualties sustained in this battle and the month-long separation of the cavalry from the rest of the Army of the Potomac had a serious impact on the army’s operations during one of the toughest campaigns of the war. Had Sheridan achieved his goals, Hunter might have been able to capture Lynchburg, cutting off one of Lee’s key supply centers and potentially shortening the war by several months.
Background: In the summer of 1864, hoping to draw attention away from his own movement across the James River toward Petersburg, Union commander Ulysses S. Grant sent Major General Phillip Sheridan on an ambitious cavalry raid toward Charlottesville. Sheridan hoped to destroy as much of the Virginia Central railroad as possible, interrupting crucial Confederate supply lines, and then press on and join forces with General David Hunter in Charlottesville.
When Robert E. Lee became aware of this Union movement, he sent the cavalry divisions of General Wade Hampton and General Fitzhugh Lee to attack the Federals near Trevilian Station, Virginia. What resulted was the largest and bloodiest all-cavalry battle of the Civil War. On June 11, the two divisions approached the Union position along separate roads, with Hampton’s men coming from Trevilian Station and Lee’s men from nearby Louisa Court House. Hampton’s division clashed with the Union First Division under Brigadier General Alfred Torbert, and vicious dismounted fighting raged while Hampton waited for Fitzhugh Lee’s division to arrive and provide support. However, when Lee’s force encountered Union General George Custer’s men on the road, they fell back after only a brief fight, a dangerous decision that created an opening for Custer to take Hampton’s supply train.
Custer’s men immediately took advantage of this gap, driving a wedge between the two Confederate divisions and capturing essential supplies. However, in their haste to claim the spoils of their momentary victory, Custer’s cavalry allowed themselves to be cut off from the rest of Sheridan’s force. When Confederate reinforcements arrived, they were quickly surrounded. This clash has become known as “Custer’s First Last Stand.” The four Michigan regiments of Custer’s brigade took fire from all sides, and only Sheridan’s arrival to drive back the Confederate force saved the Boy General and his men from capture or death. By the time night fell on the 11th, Union forces held Trevilian Station
http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/trevilian-station.html?tab=facts
D Sunday, June 12, 1864: After some days of military inactivity, the Army of the Potomac moved out of its lines at Cold Harbor. However, while the army had not been fighting, it had been constructing better roads and pontoons to allow for the swifter movement of men and supplies. Such planning paid off.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186406
D+ Sunday, June 12, 1864: Cold Harbor, Virginia. Finally, late on June 11 or early on June 12, Grant’s aides returned from planning a route for the army across the James River. Grant ordered Meade to leave Cold Harbor as quickly as possible to avoid immediate detection by the Confederates, cross the James, and proceed toward Petersburg. Lee had already guessed that Grant would attack Petersburg and countered by sending II Corps to the Shenandoah Valley in an effort to threaten Washington and distract Grant from Richmond.
http://www.historynet.com/cold-harbor
D++ Sunday, June 12, 1864: Cold Harbor, Virginia. Grant realized that, once again in the campaign, he was in a stalemate with Lee and additional assaults were not the answer. He planned three actions to make some headway. First, in the Shenandoah Valley, Maj. Gen. David Hunter was making progress against Confederate forces, and Grant hoped that by interdicting Lee's supplies, the Confederate general would be forced to dispatch reinforcements to the Valley. Second, on June 7 Grant dispatched his cavalry under Sheridan (the divisions of Brig. Gens. David McM. Gregg and Wesley Merritt) to destroy the Virginia Central Railroad near Charlottesville. Third, he planned a stealthy operation to withdraw from Lee's front and move across the James River. Lee reacted to the first two actions as Grant had hoped. He pulled Breckinridge's division from Cold Harbor and sent it toward Lynchburg to parry Hunter. By June 12 he followed this by assigning Jubal Early permanent command of the Second Corps and sending them to the Valley as well. And he sent two of his three cavalry divisions in pursuit of Sheridan, leading to the Battle of Trevilian Station. However, despite anticipating that Grant might shift across the James, Lee was taken by surprise when it occurred. On June 12 the Army of the Potomac finally disengaged to march southeast to cross the James and threaten Petersburg, a crucial rail junction south of Richmond.
Aftermath The Battle of Cold Harbor was the final victory won by Lee's army during the war (part of his forces won the Battle of the Crater the following month, during the Siege of Petersburg, but this did not represent a general engagement between the armies), and its most decisive in terms of casualties. The Union army, in attempting the futile assault, lost 10,000 to 13,000 men over twelve days. The battle brought the toll in Union casualties since the beginning of May to a total of more than 52,000, compared to 33,000 for Lee. Although the cost was great, Grant's larger army finished the campaign with lower relative casualties than Lee's.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cold_Harbor
FYI SPC Michael Duricko, Ph.D MAJ Roland McDonald SSG Franklin BriantCPO William Glen (W.G.) Powell1stSgt Eugene Harless PO3 (Join to see)MSG Greg Kelly CPT (Join to see) LTC Thomas Tennant GySgt Jack Wallace PO1 Sam Deel LTC David Brown LTC (Join to see) SFC Eric Harmon SSG Bill McCoySPC (Join to see) Kim Bolen RN CCM ACM
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CSM Charles Hayden
LTC Stephen F. As in Pickett's charge? Even more sobering is that some former Confederate Generals would not acknowledge one another on the streets of Richmond in later years. They all fought for the same cause.
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SGT Mary G.
LTC Stephen F. - Haven't been to Gettysburg and Kennesaw, but I have been to Petersburg where there are still Civil War Bunkers, and where there was also Revolutionary War action. It's amazing to walk on the same ground and absorb the sense of place associated with the history. The series of battles was apparently the longest siege in our history which eventually resulted in the fall of Richmond because of cutting off the supply line. Location of Quartmaster AIT.
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LTC Stephen F.
Thank you my friend and sister-in-Christ SGT Mary G. for letting us know you have been to Petersburg, Virginia.
I was TDY en-route to Fort Lee in the summer of 1989. At that time I explored the Petersburg battlefield which i had studied as a USMA cadet.
Yes Virginia is full of history including the early part of this nation from the Peninsula which saw crops, settlement and massacre in the 1600s and battles in the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. I live in northern Virginia which has many historical markers and sites including the battlefields on Manassas, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, the Shenandoah Valley.
I was TDY en-route to Fort Lee in the summer of 1989. At that time I explored the Petersburg battlefield which i had studied as a USMA cadet.
Yes Virginia is full of history including the early part of this nation from the Peninsula which saw crops, settlement and massacre in the 1600s and battles in the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. I live in northern Virginia which has many historical markers and sites including the battlefields on Manassas, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, the Shenandoah Valley.
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SGT Mary G.
I have some deep roots in Virginia and truly enjoyed the opportunity to live there briefly. Scots-Irish ancestors arrived in very late 1500s in Loudoun County, when it was still Augusta County - the old homestead in Leesburg. Also ancestors in Fairfax County probably as early. They never left the area, except for some, several generations later. So much of the first history of what became our nation happened in Virginia.
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LTC Stephen F. goin togo with 1864: Battle of Cold Harbor ends. Confederate victory. LT Gen Ulysses S. Grant ordered Meade to leave Cold Harbor as quickly as possible to avoid immediate detection by the Confederates, cross the James, and proceed toward Petersburg. After some days of m..
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LTC Stephen F.
Thank you my civil war history appreciating friend and brother-in-Christ SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL for letting me know you voted for 1864: Battle of Cold Harbor ends. Confederate victory.
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Great Civil War history for June 12th LTC Stephen F., I appreciate the share and information.
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LTC Stephen F.
You are very welcome my civil war history appreciating friend and brother-in-Christ TSgt Joe C.
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