Civil War 150th

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

William Quantrill had managed to assemble a force of about 300 raiders at Blackwater Creek, Missouri. On this date, they rode out, headed for Lawrence, Kansas. More pro-southern riders would join them on the way. There is a question whether Jesse James was among them, since that would spoil his reputation as a late-19th century Robin Hood, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. It seems very likely that his brother Frank was present, however, along with the four Younger Brothers who would form the notorious James-Younger Gang after the war.

Because Lawrence had been the center of anti-slavery activity in Kansas before the war, it was obvious to the Northerners that it was a Confederate target. Oddly enough, no alarm was raised as Quantrill's Raiders made their way towards the town, and little attempt to provide a garrison had been made.

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

At the port of Charleston, the Union siege guns continued the battering of Fort Sumter. Seeing that the gun platforms were being steadily wrecked, the Confederates were removing what cannon they could salvage under cover of night, and sending them to batteries on the mainland. On this date, the "Swamp Angel" gun was finally ready, and Northern commander Quincy Gillmore sent an ultimatum to Confederate commander P. G. T. Beauregard to pull back, or the city of Charleston would be shelled. However, the message was not properly signed, and by the workings of bureaucracy was not delivered to Beauregard.


In Chattanooga, another day of fasting and prayer for the Southern cause had been declared. On this day it was evidently ineffective: the 18th Indiana Light Artillery set up on the opposite bank of the Tennessee. (Nathan Bedford Forrest and his cavalry had been posted too far up the river.)

[font="Times New Roman"]One morning while sitting around our camp fires we heard a boom, and a bomb shell passed over our heads. The Yankee army was right on the other bank of the Tennessee river. Bragg did not know of their approach until the cannon fired. Rosecrans' army is crossing the Tennessee river. A part are already on Lookout Mountain. Some of their cavalry scouts had captured some of our foraging parties in Wills valley. The air was full of flying rumors. Wagons are being packed, camps are broken up, and there is a general hubbub everywhere. But your old soldier is always ready at a moment's notice. The assembly is sounded; form companies, and we are ready for a march, or a fight, or a detail, or anything. If we are marched a thousand miles or twenty yards, it is all the same. The private soldier is a machine that has no right to know anything. He is a machine that moves without any volition of his own. If Edison could invent a wooden man that could walk and load and shoot, then you would have a good sample of the private soldier, and it would have this advantage—the private soldier eats and the wooden man would not. We left Chattanooga, but whither bound we knew not, and cared not; but we marched toward Chickamauga and crossed at Lee & Gordon's mill.
[center]-- Sam R. Watkins, "Company Aytch" Maury Grays, First Tennessee Regiment or, A Side Show of the Big Show[/center] [/font]


At 5:00 A.M. at least three hundred, and possibly four hundred, Southern raiders descended on Lawrence, Kansas. There were some Union sodiers in the town, but they were recruits, and by an amazingly foolish decision, their muskets were locked up in the town armory. From an admittedly sensationalized account:

[font="Times New Roman"]"...the command was given- "Rush on to the town!" Instantly they rushed forward with the yell of demons. The attack was perfectly planned. Every man knew his place. Detachments scattered to every section of the town, and it was done with such promptness and speed that before people could gather the meaning of their first yell, every part of the town was full of them. They flowed into every street.
[...]
After the Eldridge House surrendered, and all fears of resistance were removed, the ruffians scattered in small gangs to all parts of the town in search of plunder and blood. The order was "to burn every house, and kill every man." Almost every house was visited and robbed, and the men found in them killed or left, according to the character or whim of the captors."[/font]

The group led by "Bloody Bill" Anderson generally gave no quarter to any adult males. But in every case, the raiders avoided shooting the women (although more than once a wife who tried to shield her husband was pulled away, and the man finished off). The biggest target was Senator James Lane, the author of the Osceola raid of 1861, but he escaped by running into a cornfield and hiding among the stalks, still dressed in his nightshirt.

By the time the raiders left, four hours later, they had killed at least 185 men and teenage boys, and burned a quarter of the structures in the town, including a number of private houses. Although back-and-forth atrocities had been going on in Missouri and Kansas almost from the beginning of the war, this was the deadliest event of them all. Union outrage would allow a terrible retaliation.

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

At Charleston, since the Northerners had received no answer to their ultimatum, the Swamp Angel gun opened fire. An argument can be made that the city was a legitimate military target, since there were military factories there, and also numbers of soldiers were stationed in the town. Even more, the docks where blockade runners unloaded cargoes of arms were considered fair game. But the Yankees were especially vengeful towards the city they considered the "Cradle of the Rebellion", and wanted widespread damage. They had prepared special incendiary shells packed with "Greek Fire", which supposedly could not be put out by water.

(Incidentally, "Greek Fire" was really developed and used by the Byzantines rather than the ancient Greeks. Its composition was understandably kept secret, but when the Byzantine Empire fell, the formula was lost. Both Northern and Southern chemists developed their own versions of it during the war, but there is no way of knowing whether their formulas were the same as the Byzantine version.)

In practice, the incendiary payloads proved no more effective at starting fires than regular explosive shells. Sixteen shells were fired that day, causing a few casualties but great outrage among the denizens of Charleston. Herman Melville wrote a poem in protest:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/175177

Melville's phrase "dooms by a far decree" suggests an impunity, which the gunners manning the Swamp Angel did not entirely have. Although no cannon in Charleston had the range to reply, Southern guns in Fort Wagner and other batteries did. Fortunately for the Yankees, the Confederate artillerists cut their fuses too long, and their shells buried themselves in the marsh before exploding.

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

In order to reach the heart of Charleston, the artillerymen manning the Swamp Angel were using extra powder to propel their shells. In fact, the charge was powerful enough that the shells would occasionally detonate inside the barrel of the gun. On the 36th round, the combined explosion of shell and propellant charge burst the gun. Three men were injured, though none fatally, and the Swamp Angel’s career was over less than two days after it had begun.



The guns aimed at Fort Sumter were doing better. The masonry walls had been pounded almost to rubble, and all the platforms capable of mounting heavy guns had been wrecked. Union commander Quincy Gillmore telegraphed to the War Department, "Fort Sumter is a shapeless and harmless mass of ruin". He was somewhat optimistic, for infantry with long-range rifles could still occupy the fort.

[Capt. Harlock]

150 years Ago Today:

After the Lawrence Massacre, there had been a pursuit of Quantrill's Raiders back to Missouri. Most of the Raiders had disbanded and gone back to posing as civilians in the houses of pro-Southerners. Though some were identified (and usually lynched), the majority had clearly gotten away.

Union District commander Thomas Ewing decided that guerillas could not hide among the civilian population if there were no civilian population. He issued on order No. 11 even more shameful than Grant's No. 11 (which had expelled the Jewish population).


[font="Times New Roman"][center]General Order № 11.[/center]
[right]Headquarters District of the Border,
Kansas City, August 25, 1863.[/right]

1. All persons living in Jackson, Cass, and Bates counties, Missouri, and in that part of Vernon included in this district, except those living within one mile of the limits of Independence, Hickman's Mills, Pleasant Hill, and Harrisonville, and except those in that part of Kaw Township, Jackson County, north of Brush Creek and west of Big Blue, are hereby ordered to remove from their present places of residence within fifteen days from the date hereof.

Those who within that time establish their loyalty to the satisfaction of the commanding officer of the military station near their present place of residence will receive from him a certificate stating the fact of their loyalty, and the names of the witnesses by whom it can be shown. All who receive such certificates will be permitted to remove to any military station in this district, or to any part of the State of Kansas, except the counties of the eastern border of the State. All others shall remove out of the district. Officers commanding companies and detachments serving in the counties named will see that this paragraph is promptly obeyed.

2. All grain and hay in the field or under shelter, in the district from which inhabitants are required to remove, within reach of military stations after the 9th day of September next, will be taken to such stations and turned over to the proper officers there and report of the amount so turned over made to district headquarters, specifying the names of all loyal owners and amount of such product taken from them. All grain and hay found in such district after the 9th day of September next, not convenient to such stations, will be destroyed.

3. The provisions of General Order No. 10 from these headquarters will be at once vigorously executed by officers commanding in the parts of the district and at the station not subject to the operations of paragraph 1 of this order, and especially the towns of Independence, Westport and Kansas City.

4. Paragraph 3, General Order No. 10 is revoked as to all who have borne arms against the Government in the district since the 20th day of August, 1863.

By order of Brigadier General Ewing.
H. Hannahs, Adjt.-Gen'l.[/font]


In other words, the four southern counties of Missouri became virtual wasteland, with about 20,000 people forced to leave their homes, which were then burned to the ground.

Senator James Lane, having barely escaped the Lawrence Massacre, didn’t believe it went far enough. He gathered a posse of a thousand Kansans and began to march on the pro-Confederate bastion of Westport, Missouri, probably to treat it as Lawrence had been treated. General Ewing, to his slight credit, sent several companies of Union troops to block this move, and Lane and his followers backed down.

To complete the tragedy, it didn't really work. For a time, the pro-southern “bushwackers" actually gained more supplies, moving in to seize the abandoned grain and livestock of the farmers forced to flee. Guerrilla activity in Kansas and Missouri continued on its savage course.

Though he was a pro-Union man, artist George Caleb Bingham denounced Order No. 11. He wrote to General Ewing, "If you execute this order, I shall make you infamous with pen and brush," and indeed he created a famous painting dramatizing the sad consequences – but not until 1868.

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

James C. Conkling, a long-time acquaintance of Abraham Lincoln's, was nonetheless unhappy with the Emancipation Proclamation. Conkling also happened to be prominent in Illinois politics, so when he heard of a rumor to replace Lincoln as the Republican candidate for President in 1864, he invited Lincoln to an assembly in their home state to defend his positions in continuing the war and freeing the slaves. Lincoln couldn't make it, but wrote an eloquent letter for Conkling to read aloud:

[font="Times New Roman"][center]Executive Mansion,
Washington, August 26, 1863.[/center]
Hon. James C. Conkling
My Dear Sir,

[...]

A compromise, to be effective, must be made either with those who control the rebel army, or with the people first liberated from the domination of that army, by the success of our own army. Now allow me to assure you, that no word or intimation, from that rebel army, or from any of the men controlling it, in relation to any peace compromise, has ever come to my knowledge or belief. All charges and insinuations to the contrary, are deceptive and groundless. And I promise you, that if any such proposition shall hereafter come, it shall not be rejected, and kept a secret from you. I freely acknowledge myself the servant of the people, according to the bond of service--the United States Constitution; and that, as such, I am responsible to them.

But to be plain, you are dissatisfied with me about the negro. Quite likely there is a difference of opinion between you and myself upon that subject. I certainly wish that all men could be free, while I suppose you do not. Yet I have neither adopted, nor proposed any measure, which is not consistent with even your view, provided you are for the Union. I suggested compensated emancipation; to which you replied you wished not to be taxed to buy negroes. But I had not asked you to be taxed to buy negroes, except in such way, as to save you from greater taxation to save the Union exclusively by other means.

You dislike the emancipation proclamation; and, perhaps, would have it retracted. You say it is unconstitutional--I think differently. I think the constitution invests its Commander-in-chief, with the law of war, in time of war. The most that can be said, if so much, is, that slaves are property. Is there--has there ever been--any question that by the law of war, property, both of enemies and friends, may be taken when needed? And is it not needed whenever taking it, helps us, or hurts the enemy?

[...]

You say you will not fight to free negroes. Some of them seem willing to fight for you; but, no matter. Fight you, then exclusively to save the Union. I issued the proclamation on purpose to aid you in saving the Union. Whenever you shall have conquered all resistance to the Union, if I shall urge you to continue fighting, it will be an apt time, then, for you to declare you will not fight to free negroes.

I thought that in your struggle for the Union, to whatever extent the negroes should cease helping the enemy, to that extent it weakened the enemy in his resistance to you. Do you think differently? I thought that whatever negroes can be got to do as soldiers, leaves just so much less for white soldiers to do, in saving the Union. Does it appear otherwise to you? But negroes, like other people, act upon motives. Why should they do any thing for us, if we will do nothing for them? If they stake their lives for us, they must be prompted by the strongest motive--even the promise of freedom. And the promise being made, must be kept.

The signs look better. The Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea . . . And while those who have cleared the great river may well be proud, even that is not all. It is hard to say that anything has been more bravely, and well done, than at Antietam, Murfreesboro, Gettysburg, and on many fields of lesser note. Nor must Uncle Sam's web-feet be forgotten. At all the watery margins they have been present. Not only on the deep sea, the broad bay, and the rapid river, but also up the narrow muddy bayou, and wherever the ground was a little damp, they have been, and made their tracks. Thanks to all. For the great republic--for the principle it lives by, and keeps alive--for man's vast future--thanks to all.

Peace does not appear so distant as it did. I hope it will come soon, and come to stay; and so come as to be worth the keeping in all future time. It will then have been proved that, among free men, there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet; and that they who take such appeal are sure to lose their case, and pay the cost...

... Let us diligently apply the means, never doubting that a just God, in his own good time, will give us the rightful result.

Yours very truly
A. Lincoln [/font]


(The full text is available at http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lin ... nkling.htm )

To the anger and disappointment of both men, some of the text was leaked by the Chicago Tribune before the assembly was held. Perhaps it was for the best, however, for the letter received great publicity. Even today, the phrase "The Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea" is used in histories of the Vicksburg Campaign.

[Capt. Harlock]

Late August, 1863

Both George Meade and the Army of the Potomac in the east, and U. S. Grant and his forces in the west, were at a standstill. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia were still blocking any advance on Richmond, and the War Department in Washington was blocking the moves that Grant wanted to make. In frustration, Grant took leave to visit New Orleans, while Sherman invited his family to visit with him in the camps he had set up in Missouri. Both Union generals would come to regret these moves.

But the summer campaigning season was not being entirely wasted by the Northerners. In middle Tennessee, William Rosecrans and the Army of the Cumberland was inching forward against Chattanooga. With his superior numbers, Rosecrans probed for wherever the Confederates were weakest. Braxton Bragg quickly became aware that "he who defends everywhere defends nowhere", and attempted to concentrate his troops near Chattanooga, meanwhile calling urgently for reinforcements. To make the Southern situation even worse, Ambrose Burnside was now advancing through eastern Tennessee, closing in on the key city of Knoxville. Burnside had only 12,000 men, but he outnumbered the Rebels in the area even more than Rosecrans' forces outnumbered Bragg's.

The Yankees also were making progress outside Charleston. With Fort Sumter's guns neutralized, the Union Navy began sending in small craft to clear the mines ("torpedoes") in the channels leading to Charleston. Unless something could be done, the city's days as a harbor for blockade runners were numbered. Something was in fact in the works: the Rebels were experimenting with semi- and fully-submersible ships to attack the Northern blockade fleet. But the crews needed more training. In the meantime, the Union soldiers on land were doing their part, and had seized a line of rifle-pits very close to the walls of Fort Wagner. Union commander Quincy Gillmore had seen the terrible cost of attempting to storm the fort, however, and got the bright idea to use his heavy guns instead. Since they had been able to batter Fort Sumter to ruins, what might they do at closer range against earthwork walls?

And to add the final touch, the Northerners were moving against Arkansas. After the Battle of Helena, the Confederates did not have enough troops to block an advance on the capital of Little Rock, and with the loss of the Mississippi River, no reinforcements could be sent. Even more, the Union victory at Honey Springs had allowed Federal troops to march into the state from Indian territory to the west as well as from Helena in the east. The North was on the way to adding Arkansas to Tennessee and Louisiana as "reconstructed" states.

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

In Charleston harbor, the Confederates were working to get a crew trained for Horace L. Hunley's fully submersible vessel. According to one report, nearly an entire crew of nine men had already drowned when a wave had spilled through open hatches while the craft was still surfaced. On this date, however, there was a confirmed tragedy. Under the command of Lieutenant John Payne, the vessel had just set out from a wharf at Fort Sumter when something went wrong with the diving planes. (Payne may have accidentally stepped on the controls.) It went to the bottom, with Payne and two crewmen just managing to escape through the hatches.

The submersible would be raised and the five dead crewmen buried with full military honors, although strictly speaking the vessel was not formally a part of the Confederate Navy. In fact, in the wake of this fiasco, area commander P. G. T. Beauregard would order the vessel to be placed under the authority of the Army.

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

In southeast Tennessee, William Rosecrans had taken advantage of the concentration of Confederate forces. The Union troops were now crossing the Tennessee River in three separate places. Rosecrans did not consider this to be quite enough, since he had an army of nearly 60,000 men to support. To ensure an adequate supply line, a bridge was being constructed in a fourth place, which required a length of 2,000 feet (823 m). Confederate commander Braxton Bragg still had no clear idea where the Federal army was, and so did not dare strike at the crossings, lest he meet superior forces.

Map by Hal Jespersen, www.cwmaps.com

In the far west, the Northerners were securing their chain of forts to break the Confederate control of Indian territory. With Fort Gibson secure, they now turned to Fort Smith in western Arkansas. On this date, they occupied the fort without a shot after discovering that the Rebels had evacuated the night before. A Union column of about 700 men under Colonel William F. Cloud was sent to pursue, but was ambushed by the Southerners on an Arkansas ridge with the poetic name of Devil's Backbone.

The Federals fell back temporarily, but they had more cannon with them than the Rebels did. Cloud regrouped his bluecoats, unlimbered his guns, and the advance with artillery support drove the Confederates from the field after about three hours of long-range combat. Losses were light: the Union suffered 2 killed, 12 wounded, and 2 missing, while the Confederates had 5 killed, 12 wounded, and 30 captured. Fort Smith would remain in Northern hands for the rest of the war.

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

Union troops under Ambrose Burnside occupied Knoxville, Tennessee, after the Confederate garrison had been evacuated. With 12,000 men, Burnside was leading a much smaller force than he had when he was the commander of the Army of the Potomac. However, he seemed to be doing rather better with it.

With Yankees also streaming across the Tennessee river near Chattanooga, the Davis administration in Richmond knew something had to be done. Much of the Joseph Johnston's army in Mississippi was being sent to reinforce Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee, but with this latest set-back, more seemed to be needed. And James Longstreet had an idea. His superior Robert E. Lee, anxious as ever to drive the Northerners out of Virginia, had proposed an offensive there, but on this date Longstreet made a counter-proposal which met a receptive hearing:


[font="Times New Roman"]REPLY. Head-quarters, September 2, 1863.
General R. E. Lee, Commanding:

General,—Your letter of the 31st is received. I have expressed to Generals Ewell and Hill your wishes, and am doing all that can be done to be well prepared with my own command. Our greatest difficulty will be in preparing our animals. I do not see that we can reasonably hope to accomplish much by offensive operations, unless you are strong enough to cross the Potomac. If we advance to meet the enemy on this side he will in all probability go into one of his many fortified positions. These we cannot afford to attack. I know but little of the condition of our affairs in the West, but am inclined to the opinion that our best opportunity for great results is in Tennessee. If we could hold the defensive here with two corps and send the other to operate in Tennessee with that army, I think that we could accomplish more than by an advance from here.

I remain, general, very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
James Longstreet, Lieutenant-General.[/font]

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

By now, the two ironclad vessels under construction by the Laird brothers shipbuilding firm were getting disturbingly close to readiness for sea. The sale to the Egyptian government had been exposed as a sham, but Confederate agent James Bulloch had then set up a dummy sale to a French firm. And this time the inquiry requested by Prime Minister Lord Russell decided the sale to be legal. Nonetheless, the ships were obviously warships (they had gun turrets), and in fact would be among the most powerful in the world once guns were installed.

If they sailed out of port on "sea trials" the odds were that they would be armed at another port, and then go straight to the Confederacy. This had happened with the Laird-built Alabama, which now already causing serious trouble for Union merchant vessels on the sea lanes, and Lord Russell very much wanted to avoid any further problems with British neutrality. After Gettysburg and Vicksburg, the prevailing opinion was that the Union would prevail (which of course turned out to be correct) and backing the losing side is rarely a good idea. The question, therefore, was whether to break the letter of the law by interfering with an apparently legal enterprise, or break the spirit of the law by permitting the sailing of warships for the Confederacy, which Britain had not recognized. Lord Russell had to act in a matter of days, and according to his private papers, on this date he made up his mind. The Laird Rams would be prevented from leaving the docks.

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

In London, U. S. ambassador Charles Francis Adams received the decision of the British legal council declaring that the Laird rams appeared to have been lawfully sold to the French, and so the British government did not have legal grounds to to detain them. He immediately wrote to Prime Minister Russell, forwarding copies of depositions that, among other evidence, the ships were to be re-named CSS North Carolina and CSS Mississippi. Worried that it was not enough, Adams began writing another note to Russell, raising the specter of war without explicitly threatening it.


In New Orleans, U. S. Grant had obtained leave to visit friends in Louisiana. On this date, however, he met with a worse injury than anything he would receive on the battlefield:

[font="Times New Roman"]The horse I rode was vicious and but little used, and on my return to New Orleans ran away and, shying at a locomotive in the street, fell, probably on me. I was rendered insensible, and when I regained consciousness I found myself in a hotel near by with several doctors attending me. My leg was swollen from the knee to the thigh, and the swelling, almost to the point of bursting, extended along the body up to the arm-pit. The pain was almost beyond endurance. I lay at the hotel something over a week without being able to turn myself in bed. I had a steamer stop at the nearest point possible, and was carried to it on a litter. I was then taken to Vicksburg, where I remained unable to move for some time afterwards.
[center]-- The Personal Memoirs of General U. S. Grant[/center] [/font]

It was an extraordinary accident, for Grant was considered possibly the finest Union horseman in the western theater.

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

In the early days of the war, the Union Navy had been stretched very thin by the need to blockade the immense Southern coastline. Intervention by the British navy would have been fatal, to say nothing of an invasion of British troops from Canada. But now gunboats, ironclads, and ocean-going cruisers were coming off the docks of Northern shipyards, and the Union army boasted some of the toughest and most experienced soldiers in the world. (Unfortunately, the Confederate Army could make the same boast.) After the victories of Gettysburg and Vicksburg, there was no appetite in London for a direct conflict with the United States. Ambassador Charles Francis Adams used that to his advantage in his famous letter to Prime Minister Russell protesting the finding that the Laird rams were legal:

[font="Times New Roman"]My Lord: At this moment, when one of the iron-clad vessels is on the point of departure from this kingdom on its hostile errand against the United States, I am honored with yours of the 1st instant. I trust I need not express how profound is my regret at the conclusion to which her Majesty's government have arrived. I can regard it in no otherwise than as practically opening to the insurgents free liberty in this kingdom to execute a policy of attacking New York, Boston, and Portland, and breaking our blockade. It would be superfluous in me to point out to your Lordship that this is war. I prefer to desist from communicating to your Lordship even such portions of my existing instructions as are suited to the case, lest I should contribute to the aggravated difficulties already too serious. I therefore content myself with informing your Lordship that I transmit by the present steamer a copy of your note for the consideration of my government, and shall await the more specific directions that will be contained in the reply.
[/font]

It was a masterly piece of Victorian manners. By using the phrase "superfluous in me to point out" Adams could deny that he had actually threatened war, while having clearly raised the possibility. The end result would be what Adams and the Lincoln administration wanted: the British government would seize the ships. Although the historical evidence is that Lord Russell had already decided on this action, he had not made it public. Ambassador Adams therefore received the credit for a diplomatic coup, and became a Northern hero.

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

At Charleston, the heavy Union siege guns lost one of their number. A Whitworth gun had been loaned by the Navy to the land batteries, and a shell became jammed half-way down the barrel. When the sailors servicing the gun attempted to ram the shell further towards the breech, it exploded, killing four.

Nonetheless, the remaining Yankee cannon were doing tremendous damage to Fort Wagner and the immediate surroundings. Many of the buried dead from the Northern infantry assaults in July had been blasted out of the ground, and the resulting smell made the fort an appalling place for its remaining garrison. On this date, Confederate commander P. G. T. Beauregard ordered not just the fort, but all of Morris Island evacuated. The evacuation was quietly carried out that night.


In Little Rock, Arkansas, a rivalry between Confederate generals came to a head. The Southern cavalry defending the state had been divided between John Marmaduke and Lucius "Marsh" Walker, and each thought there was one commander too many. Marmaduke had essentially accused Walker of cowardice for a failure to advance in an earlier action, and on this date the two men fought a duel.

Major General Sterling Price, the overall commander in Arkansas, attempted to prevent the duel by ordering both officers to remain at their respective camps. The order failed to reach Walker, and Marmaduke appears to have ignored it. The results showed the increased lethality of Civil War firearms. The two men used Colt Navy revolvers, and though both missed their first shot, Marmaduke promptly fired again and this time hit Walker in the lower abdomen, a mortal wound. He died the following day.

It might have been better for the Confederacy if the duel had gone the other way, for Marmaduke was a prima donna general who alienated nearly everyone around him. Although he had disobeyed orders, and dueling was illegal under Arkansas state law, Marmaduke escaped lightly. He was briefly arrested but soon released, for the Yankees were still advancing on the state capital of Little Rock, and an experienced cavalry leader was needed.

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

At the end of the otherwise excellent 1989 movie "Glory", it is wrongly stated that Fort Wagner was never taken. In actuality, on this date the Yankees took possession not only of Fort Wagner but also of a smaller fort or battery named Gregg, along with the rest of Morris Island. Perhaps suffering from overconfidence, Union Navy commander John Dahlgren sent a message to General P.G.T. Beauregard, demanding the surrender of Fort Sumter as well. Back came a message declining the request, and inviting Dahlgren to "take it if he could". An annoyed Dahlgren decided to accept the invitation.


At Chattanooga, Tennessee, Confederate commander Braxton Bragg finally started to get a good idea of where the Union Army of the Cumberland was. Unfortunately, it was already on the south side of the Tennessee River, having streamed across rapidly built bridges over the last several days. Worse, Union cavalry had moved past the city and was threatening the Southern railroad lines.

Confederate reinforcements were on the way, but slowly. It had been hoped that two divisions from the Army of Northern Virginia under James Longstreet could have reached the city by now, but the Northern seizure of Knoxville had forced them to take a rail route almost twice as long. In the meantime, Bragg had no intention of being trapped in Chattanooga as had happened in Vicksburg. He promptly began evacuating his army.


Map by Hal Jespersen, www.cwmaps.com

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

In Mexico, the French had occupied Mexico City, proclaimed a Catholic empire, and were now attempting to persuade an Austrian nobleman named Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph to accept the throne. The Lincoln administration was displeased about this violation of the Monroe Doctrine, and the acquiesence of the Confederacy in return for informal agreements with the French government. General Nathaniel Banks was directed to invade Texas with the eventual aim of cutting off smuggling across the Rio Grande, and providing support for the Mexican republicans under Benito Juarez.

At first, Banks wanted to advance along the Red River. But the water level was unusually low after a hot summer, so it was decided instead to sail troops through the Gulf of Mexico into the Sabine River (along the border of Louisiana) and capture Sabine City as a base. They had done it before almost one year earlier, but evacuated after the recapture of Galveston.

However, the Confederates had not been idle, and had built a fort named Griffin equipped with six guns to defend the town. The 44-man garrison had been assigned there as a punishment, since the weather was hot and the duty monotonous. But they had been supplied with enough ammunition for regular practice. When the Union fleet of four gunboats and seven transports steamed into sight, the men wisely held fire until the Northern vessels reached the range markers placed in the river. Then the Rebel cannon opened up with grim accuracy.

USS Sachem took a shot through her boiler which completely disabled her. USS Clifton had her rudder ropes shot away and ran aground. Both vessels soon had to hoist the white flag lest their crews be butchered by the Confederate guns. With half their gunboats lost and still facing the Fort Griffin battery and two Rebel gunboats, the Northerners knew it was time to withdraw. An an expedition containing 5,000 Federal soldiers had been defeated primarily by 44 Rebel artillerymen. The Union lost about 200 men killed or captured, while the Confederates are not reported to have sustained a single casualty. Nathaniel Banks, who had been beaten by Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley and lost nearly 10,000 men at Port Hudson, sustained another black mark on his record. But his political connections (he had been Speaker of the House of Representatives) kept him from being relieved.


Just off Charleston, Admiral John Dahlgren's amphibious landing on Fort Sumter discovered that the ruins were still inhabited by over 300 Confederate infantry. Although the Northerners had in excess of 400 men, it wasn't enough to dislodge the Rebels, who had the advantage of fighting on the defensive. After intense close-range combat amid the piles of rubble, the Yankees were forced to withdraw. This action cost the Union Navy 117 men killed, wounded, and captured. Confederate casualties are unknown, but almost certainly much lower.

The Confederates would keep possession of Fort Sumter almost until the end of the war, but it was a moral victory only. Its value as an anti-ship platform was gone, and the Union Navy could keep a tight blockade on the approach to Charleston. More, long-range Northern guns on Morris Island now commanded the channels and could even reach the wharves of the city. As a harbor for blockade runners, Charleston was effectively out of the game.

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

On the northern border of Tennessee, 2,300 Confederates holding the Cumberland Gap, the gateway into Kentucky, surrendered to the Union. The advance of the Army of the Ohio under Burnside and the Army of the Cumberland under Rosecrans had left them completely isolated.


On the southern border of Tennessee, the Federal troops walked into Chattanooga with no opposition. Rosecrans had been criticized by the War Department in Washington for doing little while the great events of Vicksburg and Gettysburg were unfolding, even though he had pulled off the remarkable Tullahoma campaign. But this was an accomplishment he knew that would not be downplayed, especially since President Lincoln had been anxious from the war's beginning to save the pro-Union population of eastern Tennessee. Rosecrans wired to General-in-Chief Halleck, "Chattanooga is ours without a struggle and East Tennessee is free."

It was true enough, for the moment. But the importance of Chattanooga was realized in Richmond as well, and great efforts were underway to roll back the Yankee gains. On this date, the arrangements had finally been completed for the complicated railroad journey from the eastern theater, and first soldiers of two divisions under James Longstreet got under way.

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

At Bayou Forche, Arkansas, Union cavalry crossed the Arkansas River to attack the state capital of Little Rock from the southeast. It was part of a pincer movement, with Northern troops also advancing on the city from the north. The cavalry move encountered serious opposition for a time, but the Yankees got support from artillery on the north side of the river. Although the guns had to fire across the stream, they soon got the range of the Confederate defenders, who were forced to retreat.

The Southern troops on the north side of the city were also pushed back, and now the choice was to evacuate the city or be trapped inside it. Evacuation was decided upon and promptly executed, including the members of the state government, and by evening the Union army was occupying Little Rock. It was the fourth Confederate state capital to fall (although the North was showing little interest in keeping Jackson, Mississippi), and it also gave the Yankees full control of the Arkansas river. The town of Washington in Hempstead County would become the seat of the Confederate state government for remainder of its existence.

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

The transfer of James Longstreet and two divisions from the Army of Northern Virginia had not been kept secret long. In fact, to Longstreet's consternation, it had been published in a New York newspaper the very day he boarded his train for the Chattanooga front. On this date, the cavalry of the Union army was ordered to see what they could accomplish against the weakened Confederates.

They attacked the town of Culpeper Court House, known to be a center of the Rebel cavalry. Outnumbering "Jeb" Stuart's troopers three to two, they seized a railroad depot, a hundred prisoners, and three guns. (Interestingly, there were no reported fatalities.) The Confederates retreated across the Rapidan River, where they found safety in friendly infantry positions. Both sides were unhappy; the Southerners because they had to give up still more ground in Virginia, the Northerners because their advance was stalled.

[Capt. Harlock]

September 15, 1863:

President Lincoln had suspended the writ of habeas corpus during the struggle to keep Maryland in the Union. The Supreme Court, under pro-slavery Chief Justice Roger Taney, had struck this down, ruling that only Congress could legislate that authority. Lincoln had simply ignored the ruling at the time, but in March of 1863, Congress had given him the authority. On this date, he exercised it:

[font="Times New Roman"][center]By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation[/center]

Whereas the Constitution of the United States has ordained that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended unless when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it; and

Whereas a rebellion was existing on the 3d day of March, 1863, which rebellion is still existing; and

Whereas by a statute which was approved on that day it was enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled that during the present insurrection the President of the United States, whenever in his judgment the public safety may require, is authorized to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in any case throughout the United States or any part thereof; and

Whereas, in the judgment of the President, the public safety does require that the privilege of the said writ shall now be suspended throughout the United States in the cases where, by the authority of the President of the United States, military, naval, and civil officers of the United States, or any of them, hold persons under their command or in their custody, either as prisoners of war, spies, or aiders or abettors of the enemy, or officers, soldiers, or seamen enrolled or drafted or mustered or enlisted in or belonging to the land or naval forces of the United States, or as deserters therefrom, or otherwise amenable to military law or the rules and articles of war or the rules or regulations prescribed for the military or naval services by authority of the President of the United States. or for resisting a draft, or for any other offense against the military or naval service:

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do hereby proclaim and make known to all whom it may concern that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus is suspended throughout the United States in the several cases before mentioned, and that this suspension will continue throughout the duration of the said rebellion or until this proclamation shall, by a subsequent one to be issued by the President of the United States, be modified or revoked. And I do hereby require all magistrates, attorneys, and other civil officers within the United States and all officers and others in the military and naval services of the United States to take distinct notice of this suspension and to give it full effect, and all citizens of the United States to conduct and govern themselves accordingly and in conformity with the Constitution of the United States and the laws of Congress in such case made and provided.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed this 15th day of September, A.D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-eighth.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

By the President:

WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State .[/font]

Why Lincoln should have suspended habeas corpus throughout the entire United States is something of a mystery. (Perhaps he feared the Northern "Copperheads" opposing the Emancipation Proclamation and/or the war.) And though Roger Taney was no longer Chief Justice, in 1866 the Supreme Court would decide that this was unconstitutional: habeas corpus could not be suspended, and military courts could not try civilians, in areas where civil courts were still functioning.