In Washington, Secretary of the Navy Wells selected David Dixon Porter to command the Union vessels on the Mississippi. It was a controversial choice, for Porter was promoted over several more senior officers to become the second Rear Admiral in the U. S. Navy after Farragut.
In Richmond, President Davis selected Major General John Pemberton to replace General Earl Van Dorn to command of the reorganized Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana. This made no difference at the time, for Van Dorn was busy in the field. He had combined his army with that of Sterling Price, and maneuvered so as to confuse the Union commanders as to his real target -- the key city of Corinth, Mississippi. The trouble was that he had confused Union general William Rosecrans enough so that Rosecrans decided to fall back on his base -- in Corinth. The Southern army of 22,000 men was about to clash with the Northern army of 23,000.
Prime Minister Lord Palmerston was having second thoughts about British intervention and recognition of the Confederacy. The news of Antietam, though it was tactically a draw, clearly meant that the Southern invasion in the east had failed. This threw into question the invasion of Kentucky and the offensive in the Mississippi/Tennessee theater. Palmerston now leaned towards waiting and watching.
But the next big piece of news to arrive was political rather than military. The preliminary version of the Emancipation Proclamation stirred up tremendous public debate, just as it had in America. The upper classes, still favoring the Confederacy, heaped scorn on it. The conservative London Times editorialized:
[font="Times New Roman"][center]Where he has no power Mr. LINCOLN will set the negroes free; where he regains power he will consider them as slaves. 'Come to me,' he cries to the insurgent planters, 'and I will preserve your rights as slaveholders; but set me still at defiance, and I will wrap myself in virtue and take the sword of freedom in my hand, and, instead of aiding you to oppress, I will champion the rights of humanity. Here are whips for you who are loyal; go forth and flog or sell your black chattels as you please.[/center][/font]
Likewise, cartoonist John Tenniel portrayed Lincoln as playing a last card against a winning Jefferson Davis.
(Although Tenniel's name is now little remembered, he is the man who did the immortal illustrations for "Alice in Wonderland".)
But among the lower classes, which inconveniently meant the majority of voters, the Proclamation was applauded. The freeing of slaves was now to be an explicit war goal, and support for the North climbed steeply. Henry Adams, the son of Ambassador Charles Francis Adams, recorded: "The Emancipation Proclamation has done more for us than all our former victories and all our diplomacy."
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That on the first day of January in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free;
The key piece of note in that speech that was of great importance and has been white washed by Lincoln supporters for a century and a half, is that he left a status quo with regards to ALL slaves residing in neutral/border states and took no regard to their sufferings.. it was a purely, 100% political speech to fire up his "base" and start as much of an insurrection as possible behind the lines of his "enemy".
Nice how winners and losers in all wars are always allowed to write history is it not?
he left a status quo with regards to ALL slaves residing in neutral/border states
Like it or not, the U. S. Constitution as originally drafted recognized slavery and gave the slave-holders certain rights. Lincoln believed that he could not lawfully emancipate slaves belonging to law-abiding citizens of the Union. (It seems appalling that such could be law-abiding, but occasionally "the law is a ass".) The Emancipation Proclamation was issued as a war measure, by Lincoln's authority as commander-in-chief, and so could only be applied to those levying war against the United States.
The complete abolition of slavery could only come by Constitutional amendment, which process was begun on January 11, 1864. (In other words, I'll have to wait about a year and a half before I start blogging it.)
Civil war? What does that mean? Is there any foreign war? Isn't every war fought between men, between brothers?
For once, Confederate general Earl Van Dorn had done almost everything right. He had combined all the available Rebel troops into a powerful and experienced army, and had marched it around to attack Corinth from the north, blocking U. S. Grant's attempts to reinforce the city. The one disadvantage was that the Southerners themselves had built extensive entrenchments to the north of Corinth to defend the city earlier in the year. These were now available for the Union troops to use.
Van Dorn had planned an enveloping attack, but it suffered the usual fate of plans after first contact with the enemy. The Confederates found the enemy and went for him, issuing the Rebel Yell. The Federals let their cannon do much of the shouting for them, and Southern casualties were heavy.
But in one aspect the straight-on attack worked well for Van Dorn. Much of the Union right wing was unengaged as the Rebels went for the left and center. The Yankees at the points of contact were over-matched by numbers and sheer determination, and slowly fell back from their outer entrenchments to a set of inner defenses. With its flank exposed, the Union right retreated as well. (Though it could easily have attacked the Confederate flank.)
The attack ran out of daylight, which was a mercy for both sides given the hot weather. As darkness fell, both sides paused to consolidate their positions. Pleased with his troops' advance, Van Dorn decided to continue the frontal attack the next day. There was no time for siege operations; Northern reinforcements were on the way, and he could not block them for long.
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Civil war? What does that mean? Is there any foreign war? Isn't every war fought between men, between brothers?
he left a status quo with regards to ALL slaves residing in neutral/border states
Like it or not, the U. S. Constitution as originally drafted recognized slavery and gave the slave-holders certain rights. Lincoln believed that he could not lawfully emancipate slaves belonging to law-abiding citizens of the Union. (It seems appalling that such could be law-abiding, but occasionally "the law is a ass".) The Emancipation Proclamation was issued as a war measure, by Lincoln's authority as commander-in-chief, and so could only be applied to those levying war against the United States.
The complete abolition of slavery could only come by Constitutional amendment, which process was begun on January 11, 1864. (In other words, I'll have to wait about a year and a half before I start blogging it.)
Great response and perfect explanation.
"I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are. If I killed them all there would be news from Hell before breakfast."- W.T. Sherman
The Southern sympathizers in Kentucky had already set up a "shadow" government and passed an ordinance of secession. With the state capital, Frankfort, now in Confederate hands they now were able to more formally claim to be the rightful government of Kentucky. Unfortunately their first selection as governor had been unwise enough to join the Confederate army and had been mortally wounded at Shiloh. The second man to be chosen, Richard Hawes, was inaugurated on this date.
But it didn't last long. The inaugural festivities were inconsiderately cut short by the sound of Yankee artillery. Having secured the city of Louisville, the Union army under Don Carlos Buell was marching to re-take the capital. Knowing themselves outnumbered, the Confederates skedaddled to join Braxton Bragg's army, which was moving towards a showdown with the Northerners.
At Corinth, Mississippi, the Confederates began their do-or-die effort with an artillery barrage before dawn. The Federals soon replied in kind, and although one Union officer wrote that he enjoyed the distinctive sounds of the different sizes of guns, little damage was done to either side.
That changed rapidly when the Southern infantry charged. The fighting became intense as the Rebels went for the guns, and the Yankees used everything from grapeshot to hand grenades to repel them. The carnage at Battery Robinett was especially brutal, with the Southerners finally managing to seize the position, only to be driven back out by Northern reserves.
The difference this day was that Union commander William Rosecrans was actively involved. Some later said that he inspired the men with his example and encouraging words, while others wrote that he had beaten those attempting to flee back into line with the flat of his sword. What seems clear is that he fed reinforcements to the places they were needed, and he had just a few more men than his opponent, Earl Van Dorn.
At one point, a group of Confederates from Arkansas managed to pierce the Union line and enter the streets of Corinth. But there was nothing available to support them with, and they found themselves enveloped on three sides. They turned and fought their way out, though not without loss.
It was another hot Mississippi day, with the temperature reaching 94 F (34.5 C). By noon, Van Dorn realized that his men could do no more. They had fought nearly all day yesterday, and undergone hard marching for several days before that. Sadly, he gave the order to retreat. (Fellow general Sterling Price is reported to have had tears going down his face.)
Corinth had been a costly battle for the relative sizes of the two armies. Union losses were 355 killed, 1,841 wounded, and 324 missing, while Confederate casualties were 473 killed, 1,997 wounded, and 1,763 captured or missing) This was nearly a fifth of the Southern army. With U. S. Grant sending more Northern troops to the area, the remainder were in jeopardy as well.
Union General Edward Ord was leading a detachment of Grant's troops, trying to trap the combined Confederate force of Earl Van Dorn and Sterling Price. Early in the morning, Ord's bluecoats met another Union force led by general Stephen Hurlbut. Ord had seniority and took over command of their quickly joined forces.
It was not long before they encountered Rebels. Sterling Price's Southerners were the forefront of the Confederate retreat, and had occupied Davis' Bridge across the Hatchie River. Since the Northerners were fresh and not falling back from a defeat, they managed to push the Confederates back and seize control of the bridge.
But now the Northerners were in danger. They had about 4,000 men, no match for the over 17,000 troops of the combined Southern force. U. S. Grant had foreseen this and had ordered William Rosecrans to march out of Corinth in pursuit of the Confederates. This would have turned the scales completely, catching the Southern army between the hammer and the anvil -- but Rosecrans did not move the day of the battle, and on this date he took the wrong road. In the meantime, General Ord had been wounded in the lower leg, and command passed back to the less experienced Hurlbut.
Luckily for the Northerners, the Confederates were happy to let them keep the bridge if they could only get back to their base. Rebel scouts found a ford across the river, and Van Dorn's entire army was soon marching away. The action produced distinct unhappiness on both sides. Grant decided he did not want Rosecrans as a subordinate, and looked for a separate command to send Rosecrans off to. Sterling Price decided he did not want Van Dorn as a superior, and would eventually go to Richmond to ask to be restored to independent command.
Civil war? What does that mean? Is there any foreign war? Isn't every war fought between men, between brothers?
In Kentucky, the Confederates under Braxton Bragg were encountering frustration. The cavalry raid under John Hunt Morgan earlier in the year had seemed to promise lots of recruits to the Southern cause. But the extra muskets that the invading Rebels had brought with them were going mostly unused. The majority of Kentuckians willing to join the Southern army had already done so in 1861, when the state was officially neutral and both sides recruited energetically. More, the Confederate conscription acts had also unilaterally extended the one-year volunteers' time of service to three years. Men began to suspect that once they put on the gray uniform, they would wear it for however long the war might last. (And in time they would be proved right.)
More immediately, they were now marching in search of the Yankees, instead of waiting for the Northerners to expose themselves as Bragg had originally planned. It was not a good time for marching; a hot dry summer, still lingering into autumn, had caused a serious shortage of water in the area. What had been creeks were now isolated pools strung along creek-beds, and frequently covered with algae. The Southerners might have been happier had they known that the Federal troops under Don Carlos Buell were encountering the same problem. (Buell had been restored to command after Washington discovered there was no one else in the area with his experience at handling a large army.) Word reached both sides that water was available near the town of Perryville in northern Kentucky.
Buell had sent a good part of his army to chase the Rebels away from Frankfort, and had spread out the remained to find what water they could. His cavalry detected the Southerners moving into Perryville, and he determined to attack. The stage was set at last for the showdown in Kentucky -- but first Buell had to get his forces back together.
At Perryville, Kentucky, Union commander Buell was unhappy with his position, and decided to postpone his attack until the 9th. This gave Confederate commander Bragg the opportunity to get in the first punch. Bragg should have been badly outmatched, but he faced only a little over one-third of the Union army. Because of the trick of "acoustic shadow", the Northern general heard no firing, and did not even realize that a major battle was underway until mid-afternoon. But the men on the firing lines knew all too well.
Private Sam Watkins, who penned perhaps the most famous memoirs of any Southern infantryman, would write:
[font="Courier New"]I was in every battle, skirmish and march that was made by the First Tennessee Regiment during the war, and I do not remember of a harder contest and more evenly fought battle than that of Perryville. If it had been two men wrestling, it would have been called a "dog fall." Both sides claim the victory—both whipped.
I stood picket in Perryville the night before the battle—a Yankee on one side of the street, and I on the other. We got very friendly during the night, and made a raid on a citizen's pantry, where we captured a bucket of honey, a pitcher of sweet milk, and three or four biscuits. The old citizen was not at home—he and his whole household had gone visiting, I believe. In fact, I think all of the citizens of Perryville were taken with a sudden notion of promiscuous visiting about this time...
At length the morning dawned. Our line was drawn up on one side of Perryville, the Yankee army on the other. The two enemies that were soon to meet in deadly embrace seemed to be eyeing each other. The blue coats lined the hillside in plain view. You could count the number of their regiments by the number of their flags. We could see the huge war dogs frowning at us, ready at any moment to belch forth their fire and smoke, and hurl their thunderbolts of iron and death in our very midst.
I wondered why the fighting did not begin. Never on earth were our troops more eager for the engagement to open. The Yankees commenced to march toward their left, and we marched almost parallel to our right...
About 12 o'clock, while we were marching through a corn-field, in which the corn had been shocked, they opened their war dogs upon us. . . The battle now opened in earnest, and from one end of the line to the other seemed to be a solid sheet of blazing smoke and fire. Our regiment crossed a stream, being preceded by Wharton's Texas Rangers, and we were ordered to attack at once with vigor. Here General Maney's horse was shot. From this moment the battle was a mortal struggle. Two lines of battle confronted us. We killed almost everyone in the first line, and were soon charging over the second, when right in our immediate front was their third and main line of battle, from which four Napoleon guns poured their deadly fire.
We did not recoil, but our line was fairly hurled back by the leaden hail that was poured into our very faces. Eight color-bearers were killed at one discharge of their cannon. We were right up among the very wheels of their Napoleon guns. It was death to retreat now to either side. Our Lieutenant-Colonel, Patterson, halloed to charge and take their guns, and we were soon in a hand-to-hand fight—every man for himself—using the butts of our guns and bayonets. One side would waver and fall back a few yards, and would rally, when the other side would fall back, leaving the four Napoleon guns; and yet the battle raged. Such obstinate fighting I never had seen before or since. The guns were discharged so rapidly that it seemed the earth itself was in a volcanic uproar. The iron storm passed through our ranks, mangling and tearing men to pieces. The very air seemed full of stifling smoke and fire, which seemed the very pit of hell, peopled by contending demons.
Our men were dead and dying right in the very midst of this grand havoc of battle. It was a life to life and death to death grapple. The sun was poised above us, a great red ball, sinking slowly in the west, yet the scene of battle and carnage continued. I cannot describe it. The mantle of night fell upon the scene. I do not know which side whipped, but I know that I helped bring off those four Napoleon guns that night...
The battle of Perryville presented a strange scene. The dead, dying, and wounded of both armies, Confederate and Federal, were blended in inextricable confusion. Now and then a cluster of dead Yankees and close by a cluster of dead Rebels. It was like the Englishman's grog—'alf and 'alf. Now, if you wish, kind reader, to find out how many were killed and wounded, I refer you to the histories. [/font]
The Union losses totaled 4,276 (894 killed, 2,911 wounded, 471 captured/missing) while the Confederate losses were 3,401 (532 killed 2,641 wounded 228 captured/missing).
Bragg's Confederates had won a tactical victory, inflicting more casualties on the Federals than they sustained, and gaining ground. But scouts and cavalry had discovered just how badly they were outnumbered; the Northerners still had over 50,000 men to only 13,000 effectives left for the Southerners. That night Bragg decided to retreat. He would eventually have to withdraw from Kentucky entirely, and the third part of the only strategically coordinated Confederate offensive of the war had been stopped.
Civil war? What does that mean? Is there any foreign war? Isn't every war fought between men, between brothers?
George McClellan's Army of the Potomac was still on the northern side of that river. Not even a personal visit from President Lincoln had prodded him to go after Lee's Army of northern Virginia. In the meantime, Stonewall Jackson's troops were re-occupying the northern part of the Shenandoah Valley and merrily wrecking the sections of the important Baltimore and Ohio Railroad that ran through the area. But no bluecoats seemed to be stirring.
Lee wondered about this lack of action, and decided he needed more information on the size and positioning of the Union army. And he had just the man for the job: J. E. B. Stuart. On this date, Stuart set off to repeat his accomplishment in the Virginia Peninsula of riding around McClellan's entire army. In case the Yankees were ready to fight, this time Stuart brought nearly 2,000 cavalry along with him.
Civil war? What does that mean? Is there any foreign war? Isn't every war fought between men, between brothers?
J.E.B. Stuart and has troopers had already got further into Union territory than Lee's army did during all of the Antietam campaign. On this date, his force arrived in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, 13 miles (21 km) north of the Maryland state line (and the famous Mason-Dixon line). Chambersburg had been a "stop" on the Underground Railroad, and would have the misfortune of being overrun by Confederates three times during the war.
Word of Stuart's raid had spread quickly over the telegraph, but had not reached a number of places which had no telegraph wires. In Washington, General-in-Chief Halleck wired sternly to McClellan that "not a man should be permitted to return to Virginia". This was much easier ordered than done, since man for man, Stuart's troopers could whip any Union cavalry in the east. In the meantime, there was no Union force of any significance at Chambersburg, and in fact most of the town officials had fled. It was left to a local judge to surrender the town to the Confederates.
Stuart's men had no compunction about taking food, forage, and new clothing from the citizens of Pennsylvania, unlike Maryland which they still hoped to bring into the Confederacy. Some of the Rebel troopers attempted to pay with Confederate money, but others helped themselves at pistol- or saber-point. However, as during the raid on John Pope's headquarters, they failed to destroy the key railroad bridge in the area. It turned out to be an iron structure rather than a wooden one, so neither torches nor axes had any serious effect.
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Civil war? What does that mean? Is there any foreign war? Isn't every war fought between men, between brothers?
"Jeb" Stuart's cavalry successfully evaded most of Union infantry attempting to trap him. Arriving at White's Ford, the same spot Lee's army had used to cross into Maryland, the Rebels scared off the single Yankee regiment guarding it, and went back across the Potomac River into Virginia. During the three days, the Confederate troopers had covered 130 miles (209 km), seized 1,200 fresh horses and 500 firearms, and captured 30 local officials with a view to exchanging them for Southern civil prisoners. On a more troublesome note, they had also taken eight black men and boys, who were likely enslaved.
Far from "not a man should be allowed to return to Virginia", the Rebels had lost just one man wounded and two missing as they had ridden completely around McClellan's army for the second time. Lincoln remarked that if McClellan let it happen a third time, he would be gone. As things turned out, McClellan would already be gone by the third attempt.
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The raiders of the Great Locomotive Chase were understandably worried. Their leader, James Andrews, had been hanged and so had seven others. On this date, six of the remaining Northern men managed to escape from the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, Georgia. Andrews had unsuccessfully attempted to escape, but these six were more fortunate. Helped by local blacks, they made it to the Union lines and safety, where they would eventually become some of the first recipients of the Medal of Honor.
In the Kentucky-Tennessee theater, Braxton Bragg and Kirby Smith had re-united, but their combined forces were still no match for the still-growing Union army under Don Carlos Buell. Smith especially was almost in despair over the possibility of losing artillery and transport wagons because he could not retreat them fast enough. He need not have worried -- Buell's pursuit was very slow, partly because he could not make up his mind whether to protect Nashville, or to march eastward. By historical irony, the population of eastern Tennessee was the area of the state most loyal to the Union, but it was also the area that the Confederate army largely occupied. The pro-Northerners in the area had been suffering badly under both official repression and vigilante attacks, and Lincoln was very anxious to liberate the area. Buell, however, was slowly concluding that he needed to hold what the Union already had in Tennessee.
He had forgotten the political dimension of the war. Mid-term elections were only three weeks away, and standing pat wasn't good enough. The Lincon administration needed victories.
Civil war? What does that mean? Is there any foreign war? Isn't every war fought between men, between brothers?
In Kentucky, John Hunt Morgan was not happy with the Confederate retreat, and quite possibly jealous of "Jeb" Stuart's accomplishments in the East. Morgan took 1,800 cavalrymen and Texas Rangers, close to the same number of men on Stuart's latest raid, and set out to ride around the Union Army of the Ohio as Stuart had ridden around the Army of the Potomac.
On this date, Morgan and his men reached Lexington, Kentucky, which happened to be where Morgan had grown up. He set up a double-sided attack, with men coming in from both sides of the Union camp just outside town. There was one problem with this plan: the field of action was small enough so that some of the Southern bullets and cannon balls went over the heads of their Yankee targets and hit Morgan's forces on the other side. A confused melee began to break out, until Morgan personally charged into the middle and commanded the Federals to surrender, and the Rebels to cease fire. Both orders were obeyed.
Civil war? What does that mean? Is there any foreign war? Isn't every war fought between men, between brothers?
The Confederacy only controlled the stretch of the Mississippi River between Vicksburg and Port Hudson, but they were making good use of it. Ulysses S. Grant, Henry Halleck, and Abraham Lincoln saw clearly that the capture of Vicksburg would be as powerful a blow against the South as any they could deliver. The problem was that Grant had 45,000 men at his disposal, which was not enough to both move against Vicksburg and deal with the 30,000 man army of Earl Van Dorn and Sterling Price. The Rebels had entrenched themselves at Holly Springs, Mississippi, and were drawing supplies from the railroad and Confederate sympathizers in Union-held Memphis. (General Sherman winked at cigars and liquor for Van Dorn's personal use being smuggled in, but tried hard to intercept anything militarily useful, like medicines.)
Into this situation came an Illinois politician turned general named John McClernand (below). With the help of his contacts, especially the Governor of Illinois, he convinced Lincoln that he could raise thousands of new troops, and seize Vicksburg while Grant held off the Confederate army. (In this way he would essentially be promoted to independent command.) Lincoln gave the go-ahead, annoying General-in-Chief Halleck because this had not gone through the War Department. Halleck would prove to be right, and the Union would learn another lesson of the cost of not having unity of command.
Jefferson Davis knew the value of unity of command, and to achieve it he sent John C. Pemberton (below) to take over the Department of Mississippi and all Confederate troops in the area. He promoted Pemberton to Lieutenant General, to the unhappiness of Earl Van Dorn, who no longer had an independent command. Especially galling was that Pemberton was originally a Northerner, having been born in Philadelphia. He had two brothers fighting for the Union, but had gone with the South because of his Virginia-born wife.
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Civil war? What does that mean? Is there any foreign war? Isn't every war fought between men, between brothers?
In Kentucky, John Hunt Morgan and his troopers had successfully ridden around the Union army, though it had taken them six days to do it. Nonetheless, no further men were enlisting in the Confederate ranks, and Braxton Bragg decided it was time to withdraw completely. He and his army moved south through the Cumberland Gap, bringing the "Confederate Heartland Campaign" to an end. On the other side, he found a telegraphic summons to Richmond waiting for him. He knew he would have to answer some tough questions about the failure to hold what his army and that of Edmund Kirby Smith had captured.
Speaking of Kirby Smith, he resumed his command of the Department of East Tennessee, which he had relinquished to join Braxton Bragg on the Heartland Campaign. Smith now considered himself as having an independent command again, and refused to obey any more orders from Bragg.
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As Braxton Bragg traveled to Richmond facing possible loss of his command, the axes began to fall on the Northern side as well. General William Rosecrans was ordered to relieve Don Carlos Buell in Kentucky. (U. S. Grant was delighted to see Rosecrans off, and in fact later wrote in his memoirs that he would have relieved Rosecrans from duty with his forces that day if the orders from Washington had not come through.) Buell was ordered to report to Indianapolis for further orders. The orders never came.
George McClellan was a trickier problem. Lincoln was growing angrier with McClellan by the day, but it was unwise to fire the politically-connected general with mid-term elections only days away. But when McClellan wrote that he could not move forward because the horses in his army were fatigued, Lincoln fired back an impatient note:
[font="Times New Roman"]I have just read your despatch about sore tongued and fatigued horses. Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done since the battle of Antietam that fatigues anything?[/font]
Civil war? What does that mean? Is there any foreign war? Isn't every war fought between men, between brothers?
Union Major General Ormsby Mitchel, commander of the Department of the South, died. The Department of the South consisted of the areas of the "cotton states" that the North had managed to capture. Mitchel was on the Island of Port Royal off South Carolina, when he contracted yellow fever.
It was not unusual for general officers to die in the Civil War, in fact, they had a 50% higher likelihood of being killed in action than did a private. (The custom of the time was for them to lead their men on the battlefield, where they made obvious targets for the enemy.) What made Mitchel's death extraordinary was that he died of disease, which generals did not often do since their food and accommodations were usually rather better than those of the rank and file. Also, being the head of an entire department, he was arguably the highest ranking Union general to die in the Civil War.
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