Civil War 150th

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

In the New Mexico territory, Union Colonel John Slough went from liberal interpretation of his orders to remain at Fort Union to outright violation. Slough sent Major John Chivington on an advance with over 400 men, about a third of the Union force, to Glorieta Pass, which controlled the approach to the fort. Chivington's men found an took prisoner several Confederate pickets posted to guard a body of about 300 Southerners camped at Apache Canyon, behind the Pass.

Chivington could not be faulted for lack of initiative. He advanced on the Rebel camp, but was repulsed at first by artillery fire. Regrouping his men, he sent them to either flank, and this time forced the Confederates to fall back. The fall-back position was soon dealt with by more flank attacks, and then a northern cavalry charge netted a number of prisoners. Not knowing if there were Confederate reserves nearby, Chivington decided to break off and
camp for the night, and send for reinforcements. The Southerners had much the same idea.

Union losses were 5 killed, 14 wounded, and 3 missing. The Confederates lost 4 killed, 20 wounded, and 75 captured, a big chunk out of a 300-man force. The question was who could reinforce faster, and with more men.

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

A civil engineer named Charles Ellet, Jr., had been trying to interest Union Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles in building a squadron of steam-powered vessels who primary attack would be ramming the enemy ships. Wells had sent Ellet away, and refused to meet again. Not one to quit easily, Ellet had brought his proposal to Secretary of War Stanton. On this date, Stanton authorized Ellet to "provide steam rams for defense against ironclad vessels in the western waters". This would lead to a small fleet that was essentially private rather than run by the Navy.

It would also lead to one of the most unusual actions of the war: a clash of fleets on the Mississippi River. For the Confederates had come up with much the same idea.

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

It was becoming clearer and clearer that the South needed more troops. Jefferson Davis bit the bullet and proposed a conscription bill, the first in American history. This was a very disturbing act to many a Southerner; for suddenly the Confederate government was asking for powers, bypassing the states, that the Union had never asked. (Though it was only a matter of time before the North followed suit.)


In New Mexico, both sides had been reinforced to over a thousand men each. Union commander Colonel Slough split his force, sending his main body to hold Apache Canyon while his cavalry and some light infantrywent to the left, trying to get into the Confederate rear. Two things went wrong: first, his main force was now outnumbered, and second, the Rebels had already moved through Apache Canyon to Glorieta Pass.

Nonetheless, the Yankees attacked the advanced position of the Confederate force. For a time, their artillery gave them the edge, but more and more Rebels came into the fight. Eventually, the Southerners made a determined infantry charge, and the fighting became hand-to-hand. Survivors would claim that, man-for-man, it was some of the most desperate combat of the war. The Federals bought enough time for their guns to evacuate, but they were pushed back.

But one part of the Union plan went spectacularly right. The end run force under Major Chivington found the Southern supply train a few miles to the rear. Chivington waited at least an hour to attack, possibly suspecting it was too easy. Eventually he did, and easily scattered the guards, capturing a cannon. He then ordered his men to kill or drive off the 500 horses and mules, and set the eighty-odd wagons to the torch. This they did with a will.


The dream of a Confederate Arizona Territory literally went up in smoke. Without their supplies, the Rebel force had no real option but to retreat back to Santa Fe, and eventually all the way back to Texas. Casualties were remarkably even: the Union lost 46 killed, 64 wounded, and 15 captured or missing, while the Confederates lost 46 killed, 60 wounded, and 17 captured or missing.

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

On the Mississippi river, Island No. 10 had stopped the Union advance. Two bombardments had failed to make a significant impression on the fortifications. Union commander John Pope had told his superiors he would capture the place by April 3, but prospects now looked poor. On the naval side, Flag Officer Andrew Foote called a second council. Running a gunboat past the Confederate guns was still risky, but nothing else seemed to be working. Commander Henry Walke, captain of USS Carondelet volunteered to take his boat through. Foote approved, and Carondelet was quickly made ready for the run. Reinforcing material such as anchor chain was draped over her armor plating, and a coal barge was filled with coal and hay and lashed alongside. To lower the sound of her engines, the steam exhaust was diverted from the smokestacks. Then it was a question of waiting for a cloudy, or better yet foggy night.

[ckammp]

Bump.

This interesting thread deserves to be on the first page.

[Capt. Harlock]

April Fool's Day, 1862:

To get President Lincoln to agree to his plan to move the Army of the Potomac to the peninsula southeast of Richmond, George McClellan had promised to leave sufficient troops behind to make Washington secure. In a dispatch he wrote just before he set sail, he reported that there were 55,500 men from the Army of the Potomac in the area, plus the regular Washington garrison of 18,000 men, giving a total of 73,500.

The trouble was that McClellan had used "creative" math. Among other things, two units had been counted twice, and the "area" that he was using ran from the Shenandoah Valley all the way to Baltimore. There were actually about 50,000 men total, and only about 30,000 men in position to defend the capital. How McClellan expected this to fool the Secretary of War and the Commander-in-Chief is something of a mystery; both men were able to count, and they would soon do so.


At Island No. 10 on the Mississippi, Union Flag Officer Andrew Foote pulled an effective prank on the Confederates. He put together a raiding party of 50 infantrymen, conveyed by 50 sailors in lifeboats with muffled oars, for a daring raid on the island's guns. As they approached the island, nature played a trick of her own. A bolt of lightning illuminated the boats, and the Southern pickets opened fire.

Happily for the Federals, the Rebel sentinels quickly saw they were outnumbered. The bluecoats stormed ashore, the boys in gray retreated, and for a precious thirty minutes, there was no further interference. The six guns of Battery No. 1 were spiked, and the Union raiding party was back in the boats and pulling for the Northern camp before any further Southern troops arrived. The odds of successfully running a Northern gunboat past Island No. 10 had been increased.

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

On the peninsula, McClellan and his immense army moved out, beginning the eighty-mile march on Richmond. A few Confederate pickets were seen, but they scattered or surrendered at the sight of the Federal ranks. At the end of the day, the Army of the Potomac had made thirteen miles, about one-sixth of the distance to the Confederate capital. The Rebel prisoners informed the Union officers that "Prince John" Magruder (nicknamed because of his aristocratic bearing and fondness for theatrics) had no more than 8,000 Confederate troops, mostly concentrated at the historic place of Yorktown.

But there was an indication of trouble ahead. Alan Pinkerton's agents had reported "good, natural roads" leading north, but the spring rains turned them into quagmires. The heavy seige guns would have to be brought up by rail.


In southern Tenessee, the Confederate army under Albert Johnston was advancing into position to attack Grant's force. There had been considerable confusion and traffic jams leaving Corinth, Mississippi, and so only the advance units trickled in to the spot selected. General Beauregard was nearly in despair; the Southerners knew that another Union army under General Don Carlos Buell was moving to join Grant, and they had to attack soon. But amazingly, Grant had written to Buell that there was no need for haste, and Buell's force was marching leisurely.


At Island no. 10, there was no moon, and after dark a thunderstorm began. The time had come for the USS Carondelet to make her way downstream. She went quietly past the disabled Confederate Battery No. 1, but when she was level with the Battery No. 2, her smokestacks blazed up. (The re-routing of steam had cause the buildup of soot to dry out, and it caught fire.) The Rebel cannons opened up, but the storm served the Yankees well, and the shots went wide. Carondelet arrived at the Union position downstream unscathed.

[warspite1]

Wow [X(] I don't know if this is old news to you guys in the states, but this is the first time I have seen this.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17604991

[Capt. Harlock]

I don't know if this is old news to you guys in the states, but this is the first time I have seen this.

I blush to confess it was news to me too. I tend to be wary of statistical methods ("There are Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics") but with the Civil War, there is not much choice. The records of the Confederate side especially were spotty, largely due to the hasty evacuation and fire of Richmond. The Union also lost a number of documents in the Great Chicago Fire.

An interesting if grim point: WWII is considered the war in which the greatest number of United States servicemen died, the death toll of 400,000 surpassing the previous estimated Union death toll of 360,000. If Prof. Hacker's methods are accurate, the Civil War mark now surpasses the WWII mark.

[parusski]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Wow [X(] I don't know if this is old news to you guys in the states, but this is the first time I have seen this.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17604991

I have read estimates like this before and I really believe it is true. Think about how many Americans died in our Civil War as a percentage of the population, if the new figure is correct then 2.4% of the pre-war population died in the war. Compare that to WW2, which saw .307% of the population killed in the war. That is really something to ponder, that 8 times more civilians died during the civil war than ww2.

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

When the Union advance column came out of some woods south of Yorktown, they faced some serious Confederate fortifications. The Southerners had not been idle.

In all, to block the entire width of the peninsula, "Prince John" Magruder had a force of only 13,000 men, but mostly regular army rather than militia. McClellan had five times that many, and more on the way. The Federals could have stormed the earthworks, or found a weak point, and been hammering at the gates of Richmond in a week. But Magruder used his penchant for theatrics to the full. He had units march in large circles, with only one side visible to the Union scouts. When a hundred-man garrison was to be relieved, he sent out four or five hundred, who would change out one hundred, then march back. Behind trees, Magruder added bugle calls, drum rolls, and officers shouting orders to men who did not exist.

The Yankees bought it hook, line, and sinker. McClellan decided on a slow, careful siege. It did not help that at the end of the day, he received a message from Washington. President Lincoln and Secretary of War Stanton had detected the shortage of men in the area of the capital, and cancelled the transfer of a corps of 10,000 men to the Peninsula. McClellan was furious; in a letter to his wife he described it as "the most infamous thing that history has recorded."

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

Although he had been born as John Rowlands in Wales, the man who would become the 19th Century's most famous newspaper correspondent made his way to America at age 18 and changed his name to Henry Morton Stanley. It was under this name that he would eventually speak the immortal line, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?". On this date, however, that was in the future. He had joined a unit of the Confederate Army called the Dixie Greys, which was preparing to attack Grant's army at Pittsburgh Landing:

[font="Times New Roman"]Day broke with every promise of a fine day. Next to me, on my right, was a boy of seventeen, Henry Parker. I remember it because, while we stood-at-ease, he drew my attention to some violets at his feet, and said, "It would be a good idea to put a few in my cap. Perhaps the Yanks won't shoot me if they see me wearing such flowers, for they are a sign of peace." . . .

We loaded our muskets, and arranged our cartridge-pouches ready for use. Our weapons were the obsolete flint-locks, and the ammunition was rolled in cartridge-paper, which contained powder, a round ball, and three buckshot. When we loaded we had to tear the paper with our teeth, empty a little powder into the pan, lock it, empty the rest of the powder into the barrel, press paper and ball into the muzzle, and ram home. Then the Orderly-sergeant called the roll, and we knew that the Dixie Greys were present to a man.[/font]

On the Northern side, Grant and Sherman had both been remarkably careless. They assumed that the Rebels were still twenty-five miles (40 km) away in Corinth, Mississippi. The Confederate morning attack caught them and most (but not all) of the Union army by surprise. Southern commander Albert Sydney Johnston's plan had been to attack most strongly on his right or eastern side, driving the Northerners away from the Tennessee river and into swampy area. But he decided to lead some of his units personally, leaving the coordination to General Pierre Beauregard, who had his own ideas. In any case, the Union defense stiffened, units became intermingled, and overall direction was soon lost.


Sherman had suffered something much like a nervous breakdown in 1861, and it wouldn't have been surprising if he had snapped under the surprise attack. But the opposite happened. He performed amazingly well, seeming to be everywhere his men needed him, and refusing to leave the field after being wounded twice and having three horses shot from under him.

The remnants of two Union divisions pulled themselves together and established a defensive position known forever after as "The Hornets' Nest". Though the Federals on either side were pushed back, the Southerners kept attacking the position head-on instead of going around. The carnage soon intensified to levels even beyond anything at Bull Run, as Stanley later described:

[font="Times New Roman"]The world seemed bursting into fragments. Cannon and musket, shell and bullet, lent their several intensities to the distracting uproar... I likened the cannon, with their deep bass, to the roaring of a great heard of lions; the ripping, cracking musketry, to the incessant yapping of terriers; the windy whisk of shells, and zipping minie bullets, to the swoop of eagles, and the buzz of angry wasps. All the opposing armies of Grey and Blue fiercely blazed at each other.
After being exposed for a few seconds to this dreadful downpour, we heard the order to "Lie down, men, and continue your firing!" Before me was a prostrate tree, about fifteen inches in diameter, with a narrow strip of light between it and the ground. Behind this shelter a dozen of us flung ourselves. The security it appeared to offer restored me to my individuality. We could fight, and think, and observe, better than out in the open. But it was a terrible period! How the cannon bellowed, and their shells plunged and bounded, and flew with screeching hisses over us! Their sharp rending explosions and hurtling fragments made us shrink and cower, despite our utmost efforts to be cool and collected. I marvelled as I heard the unintermitting patter, snip, thud, and hum of the bullets, how anyone could live under this raining death. I could hear the balls beating a merciless tattoo on the outer surface of the log, pinging vivaciously as they flew off at a tangent from it, and thudding into something or other, at the rate of a hundred a second. One, here and there, found its way under the log, and buried itself in a comrade's body. One man raised his chest, as if to yawn, and jostled me. I turned to him, and saw that a bullet had gored his whole face, and penetrated into his chest. Another ball struck a man a deadly rap on the head, and he turned on his back and showed his ghastly white face to the sky...[/font]


At around 2:30 in the afternoon, bad luck struck the Confederate side. General Johnston was hit in the leg, quite possibly by an errant Rebel bullet. The wound did not appear very serious at first, so Johnston sent his surgeon away to deal with other wounded first. But in fact an artery had been severed, though masked by Johnston's boot. The surgeon returned in less than an hour, but by that time the Southern commander had bled to death. He was the most senior general to be killed in the entire Civil War.

The Hornets' Nest had withstood at least eight and possibly as many as fourteen charges. Finally the Confederates lined up fifty cannon, and pounded the Northerners until their commander raised the white flag. 2,300 prisoners were taken, but they had bought an invaluable seven hours. Grant had managed to establish a strong defensive line running from a bridge on the Tennessee to Owl Creek, boasting about fifty cannons of his own. The Southerners made one attack, but it not only ran into heavy fire from Grant's forces, but enfilade fire from two Union gunboats on the river.

With dusk arriving, Beauregard decided to rest his men for the night and resume the next day. Neither side got much rest, for a thunderstorm moved in, and the Union gunboats kept firing occasional shells towards the Southern positions nearly the entire night. Nonetheless, Beauregard believed "I thought I had General Grant just where I wanted him and could finish him up in the morning" and sent a telegram to President Davis announcing "A COMPLETE VICTORY".

Grant would not have agreed. When a weary Sherman found the Union Commander resting under a tree and smoking one of his trademark cigars, Sherman said, "Well, Grant, we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?" "Yes," Grant responded, and gave a puff. "Lick 'em tomorrow, though."

[british exil]

Lovely thread.
Enjoying every post, makes the US civil war more interesting. Following the daily exploits of Armies and Leaders.

Thx for all the hard work, keep them coming!

Mat

[parusski]

ORIGINAL: british exil

Lovely thread.
Enjoying every post, makes the US civil war more interesting. Following the daily exploits of Armies and Leaders.

Thx for all the hard work, keep them coming!

Mat

And this is THE battle in which only one person understood what a long and bloody war was in store for the nation--U.S. Grant.

[nicwb]

It also demonstrated Grant's total lack of panic under pressure. There's that quote that featured in Ken ben's documentary. After night fall on the first day, Grant met up with Sherman.

"Well Grant we've had the devil's own day"

"Yes" said Grant, "Lick 'em tomorrow"

Very few senior Union commanders seem to think that way at this stage of the war.

[parusski]

ORIGINAL: nicwb

It also demonstrated Grant's total lack of panic under pressure. There's that quote that featured in Ken ben's documentary. After night fall on the first day, Grant met up with Sherman.

"Well Grant we've had the devil's own day"

"Yes" said Grant, "Lick 'em tomorrow"

Very few senior Union commanders seem to think that way at this stage of the war.

Very good catch on your part. That is one of my many favorite quotes-interesting how Grant and Sherman said so much I like. [:D]

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

At Shiloh, General Beauregard had dismissed the reports of additional Northern troops joining Grant's forces. This was odd, because Beauregard had known of Don Carlos Buell's force moving south. And it was true. Buell's 15,000 Yankees had marched through the night, and by 4 a.m. were in position.

The Union counterattack got underway at dawn, and the ferocious fighting resumed. The Confederates had not entrenched their positions: they had been planning to do the attacking, and searching for food, ammunition, and shelter from the rain had occupied them. Nonetheless, the Rebels put up a very tough fight. By 10 a.m., Beauregard had temporarily stabilized his lines. He was helped by the fact that on the Northern side, there was a coordination problem. Buell considered his forces an independent command, not subject to Grant's orders.

But while the Union left paused to regroup, the Union right made progress. Soon, the Southerners were forced to fall back, lest they be flanked from the west. In early afternoon, Beauregard tried counter-attacking and for a time drove back the Union right. But then the Union left moved forward again, and because it had fresh troops, was successful. Beauregard's final counterattack was flanked and repulsed by a skillful maneuver from Grant.

With a quarter of his army killed, wounded, or missing, Beauregard knew it was time to retreat. Knowing his men were near the limit of endurance, Grant decided not to pursue. With fresher troops, Buell disagreed, but knew his force was too small to take on the Confederate army by itself.

The final toll was staggering for both sides. Union Losses were 1,754 dead, 8,408 wounded, 2,885 captured/missing (mostly from the Hornets' Nest). Confederate Losses were 1,723 dead, 8,012 wounded, 959 captured/missing. Among these was Henry Morton Stanley, who had been taken prisoner when he had not heard the rest of his unit falling back. Since Stanley had not attachment to the South as his birthplace, he would eventually join the Union army, and then the navy.



At Island No. 10, the Union troops could now cross the river below the island, while USS Carondelet and Pittsburg shelled the fortifications from the rear. Realizing his position was now hopeless, Confederate commander Mackall ordered his forces on the mainland to retreat to Tiptonville, while the island's garrison were left to themselves. The demoralized garrison soon surrendered to the Union gunboats. The Southerners on the mainland fared no better: Union commander Pope's scouts spotted their retreat, the gunboats shelled the columns and slowed them, and the Federals occupied Tiptonville before Mackall and his men could reach it. With nowhere to go, they surrendered as well.

Over 4,000 Confederates became prisoners. (Pope claimed almost 7,000, but this is unlikely.) The Mississippi River was now open to the North all the way down to Fort Pillow.

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

The next part of tightening the Union naval blockade was to seal off Savannah, Georgia. But there was a major obstacle: in the middle of the river mouth stood an island with Fort Pulaski, which was considered impregnable. Until it could be reduced, Confederate warships and blockade runners had a safe harbor behind it.

Fort Pulaski was built with brick walls six feet or more thick. To have a chance at breaking those walls, a smoothbore cannon would have to be within 800 yards. And there was no ground besides swamp within that distance. The U.S. Chief of Engineers, General Joseph Totten, had remarked, "You might as well bombard the Rocky Mountains." But a Union artillerist named Quincy Gillmore wasn't so sure. He believed that rifled cannon, which fired elongated and therefore heavier shells, would have the range, accuracy, and hitting power to do the job.

Gillmore put together a plan involving rifled guns to breach the fort walls, and mortars to land explosive shells inside the fort. It took a month of exhausting labor by soldiers and "contrabands", but finally a total of 36 guns were in position. On this date, after a demand for the surrender of the fort had been refused, the Union batteries opened fire.

Gillmore used two types of rifled cannon: "James rifles", which were made by cutting rifling into smoothbore cannon, and "Parrott rifles", which were made of cast iron with a reinforcing band of wrought iron around the breach. The James rifles were bigger, and soon were making serious dents in Fort Pulaski's walls. The mortars, on the other hand, were inaccurate at that range, landing only 10% of their shells on target. The Confederate defenders inside the fort began a spirited counter-battery fire, and proved to have rifled guns of their own, which were accurate enough to make working the Union guns a dangerous business. But by nightfall, most of the rebel guns had been silenced, and the fort's southeast corner had been breached.

[nicwb]

Thanks Capt Harlock - I've always wondered what the difference between James Rifles and Parrots was.

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

At Fort Pulaski, the bombardment resumed shortly after daybreak. The Confederates had done some cannon repair during the night, and again there were shells flying both ways. This time, the Union rifled guns focused on making a breach in the walls, and the smoothbores were used to widen a breach once made.

Eventually there was a collapse of one sector, and Yankee shells began to reach the interior of the fort, threatening a magazine containing twenty tons of powder. The Southern commander ran up the white flag. Into Union hands went nearly four dozen guns, over 360 prisoners, and control of the approach to Savannah.

The bombardment of Fort Pulaski was almost as much a revolution as the duel between the Monitor and the Virginia. Forts made of brick and stone were now as obsolete as warships made of wood. And General Quincy Gillmore became the North's premier expert on siege artillery. He would be heard from again.