Civil War 150th

[ilovestrategy]

I bet a hard charger like Lyon just hated the thought of retreating! 

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

A rival balloonist to Lowe named John LaMountain used the deck of the small vessel Fanny to launch an observation balloon 2,000 feet (610 meters) over the James River. (Which is Richmond's waterway to the Atlantic.) It is the first aerial ascent from a ship in history.

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

The special session of Congress began to bear fruit. (Some of it bitter.) President Lincoln signed into law a variety of bills including the Revenue Act of 1861. Included in this act was the first direct income tax (3% of all incomes over $800).

In Missouri, General McCulloch and the mixed rebel army began to catch up with General Lyon's army as they retreated to Springfield. The Confederate advance forces skirmished with the Union rear-guard, McCulloch himself occasionally riding up to take a pot-shot or two at the Northerners. But it was another searing hot day, and the Confederate supply wagons had not been able to keep up with the rest of McCulloch's forces. By the end of the day McCulloch halted his army for rest and water, and planned a slower pursuit.

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

Benjamin Butler's argument to treat runaway slaves as "contraband of war" prevailed in Congress, producing the Confiscation Act of 1861:

[font="Times New Roman"]Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That if, during the present or any future insurrection against the Government of the United States, after the President of the United States shall have declared, by proclamation, that the laws of the United States are opposed, and the execution thereof obstructed, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the power vested in the marshals by law, any person or persons, his, her, or their agent, attorney, or employe, shall purchase or acquire, sell or give, any property of whatsoever kind or description, with intent to use or employ the same, or suffer the same to be used or employed, in aiding, abetting, or promoting such insurrection or resistance to the laws, or any person or persons engaged therein ; or if any person or persons, being the owner or owners of any such property, shall knowingly use or employ, or consent to the use or employment of the same as aforesaid, all such property is hereby declared to be lawful subject of prize and capture wherever found ; and it shall be the duty of the President of the United States to cause the same to be seized, confiscated, and condemned.[/font]

(Note that the opening language was a copy of the preamble to Lincoln's call for the militia on April 15. The full text of the Act can be found at: http://teachingamericanhistory.org/libr ... cument=557 )
Congress also retroactively approved all of Lincoln's previous proclamations, including suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. Chief Justice Taney had declared that only Congress had the right to authorize such a suspension, so (better late than never) it was now legal.

In Missouri, McCulloch's Confederate forces made camp at Wilson's Creek, a short distance from Springfield. He now had a choice of whether to besiege the town and the Union force, or use his advantage in numbers to carry it by direct assault.

In western Virginia, a name to be famous entered the scene. General Robert E. Lee set up a headquarters at Valley Mountain, preparing (he hoped) to drive the Union forces from the Kanawha Valley. Unfortunately, he did not have direct command of the majority of the Confederate troops in the area. While pulling together an army, he sent his son as a messenger to northern General Rosecrans with a proposal:

[font="Courier New"]With a view of alleviating individual distress I have the honor to propose an exchange of prisoners. If you will cause to be forwarded a list of those in your hands including those placed on parole an equal number of U. S. troops, man for man or similar grade, will be sent to the point most convenient to their present abode. An exchange in this manner can be conveniently effected.
Very respectfully,
R. E LEE, General, Commanding.[/font]

The prisoner exchange would work quite well for the first half of the war -- but its breakdown would lead to tragedy.

[ilovestrategy]

I like how respectful Lee's letter was. 

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:


Wealthy industrialist James B. Eads signed a contract to produce seven armored river boats or "ironclads". These were the design of Samuel Pook, which would draw only six feet and mount 13 guns. In order to carry engines that would drive armor and cannon at eight knots while maintaining the light draft, the boats had to be made with a high beam to length ratio. Pook's design gave the hull three keels, the outboard two longer than the one in the middle. Propulsion was provided by a single paddle wheel at the stern.
The contract specified the cost to be $89,600 per vessel, and the first to be delivered by October 10. In a classic case of government contracting, design changes caused the deliveries to be late, and the cost soared to about $191,000 each. However, the boats would give invaluable service during the Union river campaigns.




Near Fort Monroe, Virginia, General John B. Magruder gave the first southern response to the Confiscation Act. With two companies of Confederate troops, he overran the village of Hampton, where a number of "contrabands" had gathered. Seizing all the blacks, he ordered all the whites in Hampton to evacuate as well, and then had the village burned to the ground.

[ilovestrategy]

I wonder what the wood and sail old time sailors thought when they saw those new fangeled contraptions.

[Capt. Harlock]

I wonder what the wood and sail old time sailors thought when they saw those new fangeled contraptions.

Surprisingly enough, history records something like an answer. For the first part of the war, the river gunboats were assigned to the Army instead of the Navy, so not many of the "old tars" saw the craft. (Eventually it was realized that fresh water posed essentially the same problems of maintenance as salt water, and the boats went under the wing of the more experienced Navy.) By that time, the locals at the launching sites had dubbed the boats "Pook turtles" after the designer, and the name stuck.

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

It was becoming clearer and clearer to both sides that Nathaniel Lyon did not have enough troops to hold Springfield, Missouri against the mixed Confederate army camped at Wilson's Creek. Sterling Price waived his supposed seniority (he was a Missouri Major General; Ben McCulloch a Confederate Brigadier) and vested command with the more cautious Texan. But now McCulloch agreed that the time was right to attack.

Coincidentally, Lyon planned to withdraw northeast to Rolla, Missouri to reinforce and resupply, but he also decided on a spoiling attack to delay pursuit.


Union Colonel Franz Sigel developed a very risky plan, with which Lyon concurred, that split the already out-numbered Union force. Sigel proposed striking the Confederates in a pincer movement. He planned to lead 1,200 men, coming in from the south, while the main body under Lyon struck from the north.


The Union army marched out of Springfield into rainy night, leaving about 1,000 men to protect supplies and cover the retreat. The rebel army also began its move, but the rain showers threatened to soak the powder of Price's men. The poorly-equipped State Guard lacked cartridge boxes, so the Confederates returned to camp.

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

At about 5:00 a.m. Nathaniel Lyon's army, in two columns commanded by himself and Col. Franz Sigel, attacked the Confederates camped on Wilson's Creek. Because the Southerners had planned to march that day, they had not set out a proper number of pickets during the night. Rebel cavalry received the first blow and fell back, but reinforcements soon rushed up and brought the Union advance to a halt. Soon it became apparent just how badly the Federals were outnumbered.

Meanwhile, the Confederates had routed Sigel's column, south of Skegg's Branch. The Northerners mistook the approaching 3rd Louisiana for the 3rd Iowa Infantry (which also wore gray uniforms), and didn't fire until the Confederates were nearly upon them. Sigel's flank was overrun, and the colonel and his men fled the field, losing four guns.

Trying to advance a little further, Lyon directed two companies of Iowa troops to go forward, himself leading the column, swinging his hat. A murderous fire was opened from the thick brush, and a bullet hit Lyon's chest. He slowly dismounted, and as he fell into the arms of his faithful orderly, Lehmann, he exclaimed, "Lehmann, I am killed," and died a few moments later. He had become the first Union general to be killed in action. Colonel Mitchell was also severely wounded about the same time and removed to the rear.

With all the higher-ranking officers down, Major Samuel D. Sturgis assumed command. Happily for the Northerners, Sturgis proved equal to the crisis. He established a defensive line on what came to be known as "Bloody Hill". The Confederates attacked the Union forces three times over the next few hours but failed to break through the Union line. Finally at 11:00 a.m., the Confederates withdrew. Sturgis realized, however, that his men were exhausted and his ammunition was low, so he ordered a retreat back to Springfield. The Confederates, having supply problems of their own, decided not to pursue.

Given that the troops present were less half of the numbers at Bull Run, losses at Wilson's Creek were heavy. Union casualties were 1,317 (258 killed, 873 wounded, 186 missing), fully a quarter of those engaged. Confederate casualties were at least 1,232 (277 killed, 945 wounded, 10 or more missing).

Sterling Price was delighted with the Union retreat and urged immediate invasion of Missouri by the entire army. Benjamin McCulloch demurred, claiming he had insufficient supplies and no way to support such a move. Price angrily resumed his command of the Missouri State Guard, and moved on with that half of the Confederate force.

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

The Union force had given up Springfield, Missouri, and was falling back on Rolla, which had a railroad station and so had more supplies. But under Franz Sigel's command, they were marching very slowly, largely due to Sigel's pampering of the troops of German ancestry. The news of the retreat and the death of Nathaniel Lyon traveled considerably faster. In St. Louis, which had been fairly calm since the riots in the spring, there was renewed unrest as the fortunes of the Confederates seemed to be on the rise.

(In Springfield, however, the Southerners were becoming less popular as a number of Benjamin McCulloch's men disobeyed his orders and took what they wanted to alleviate their shortage of supplies.)

St. Louis was now the headquarters of the entire Department of the West, commanded by Major General John Charles Fremont. At this time Fremont was one of the most famous men in America. He had been an explorer (with Kit Carson on one expedition), made a fortune in the California gold rush, and most importantly, been the first Republican candidate for President in 1856. He was also a staunch abolitionist. Fremont now took the step of declaring martial law in St. Louis, and began thinking of further measures.

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

The problem of the same names for places in different states showed up dramatically, as there was house-to-house fighting in Charleston. But this was the town of Charleston, Missouri, which had been occupied by 500 men of the pro-secessionist Missouri State Guard. A Union force of 300 troops advanced from nearby Bird's Point. The Northern cavalry went the wrong way and were out of the action, but the 250 remaining Federals advanced into the town square after sunset. In a spirited shoot-out in the darkness, the Union troops managed to drive the rebels off, remarkably losing only one man killed and six wounded. There are no official figures of Confederate losses -- General Fremont reported forty dead to Washington, but this is certainly an exaggeration.

As far as your humble correspondent knows, this was the first case of soldier-to-soldier street fighting in the Civil War. (As opposed to the soldier-vs-civilian fighting in the Baltimore and St. Louis riots.)

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

The Second Wheeling Convention presented an ordinance laying out the means to create the state of "Kanawah". When the convention approved the ordinance that day, its work was done. The convention was adjourned, to be replaced by the State Constitutional Convention that November. (A new state requires a new state constitution.)

The Confederates were not about to take this lying down. But although Robert E. Lee was in the area, the Southerners were giving a classic demonstration of the cost of not having unity of command. Lee had very few men under his direct authority, with most of the troops led by either General John Floyd or General Henry Wise. Floyd and Wise despised each other, and cooperated as little as possible. Nonetheless they began to move slowly forward to expel the Union forces from western Virginia.

[ilovestrategy]

The state of Kanawah? I can't get into that.

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

A conference of four thousand Cherokees was assembled at Tahlequah, Indian Territory. (Modern-day Oklahoma.) There were two major factions: the neutral-leaning Keetowahs, led by John Ross, and the Knights of the Golden Circle, led by Stand Watie, who wished to side with the South. Ironically, both men were slaveholders, and Ross was only one-eighth Cherokee. Faced with the Confederate victories at Bull Run and Wilson's Creek, Ross reluctantly agreed that it would be best to back the winning side.

[ilovestrategy]

I never knew about the Indians.

[rhondabrwn]

Stand Watie and his Indians had a counter in Victory Games "Civil War" as I recall

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

The town of Harpers Ferry changed hands again when a troop of Confederate cavalry under Captain Turner Ashby rode in. Ashby had been part of the original group that had seized the rifle works when Virginia seceded. His career would be meteoric: he would come to be called "The Black Knight of the Confederacy" for his daring and endurance in combat, and be promoted several times in less than a a year. After achieving the rank of Brigadier General, he would be killed in action in June 1862.

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

Jefferson Davis named James M. Mason as "commissioner" to Great Britain and John Slidell as commissioner to France. (Since the countries had not formally recognized the Confederacy, they couldn't be titled "ambassador".) They would play their part in history even before they crossed the Atlantic.

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

Brigadier John Floyd, commanding Confederate forces in the Kanawha Valley, had crossed the Gauley River. Four days later, Colonel Erastus Tyler had marched 850 soldiers of the 7th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry to Kessler’s Cross Lanes, fewer than three miles from Floyd’s camp. Floyd wasted no time in responding to the Federal threat. Early the next morning, August 26, his 2,000 soldiers launched a surprise attack against Tyler’s encampment. The Rebels routed the Federals in a short battle that last only thirty to forty-five minutes. Estimated Casualties: Union 245; Confederate 40. At last the Confederates had achieved a success in western Virginia. But instead of pursuing, Floyd withdrew back to the river and established a defensive position at Carnifex Ferry.

In one of the least important diplomatic events of the year, King Kamehameha IV proclaimed the neutrality of the Hawaiian Islands during the Civil War. (Hawaii was an independent kingdom at that point.)