Civil War 150th

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

The weather at Port Royal turned stormy. Union Flag Officer DuPont postponed his fleet attack on the two Rebel forts for one more day.

For the first and only time, the voters of the Confederacy went to the polls to elect a President. Symbolically, the date was exactly one year after the election of Abraham Lincoln. (And therefore a Wednesday rather than a Tuesday.) Since Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stephens were unopposed, they received all 109 electoral votes.

[Capt. Harlock]

The Sunday New York Times for today (Nov. 6) has a grim but fascinating piece: a chart of history's 100 worst human-caused mass death events.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/opini ... ef=opinion

The U. S. Civil War is there, though thankfully one of the smaller events. Especially interesting to note is that while WWII caused the most deaths in absolute numbers, the Mongol conquests by Genghis Khan and his successors killed the highest percentage of the world's population at the time.

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

The British mail packet Trent left Havana on schedule, with Mason, Slidell, their secretaries, and Slidell’s wife and children aboard. As Captain Wilkes had guessed, she headed for the Bahama Channel.


Ulysses S. Grant commanded his first battle. Escorted by the gunboats USS Tyler and USS Lexington, Grant's 3,100-strong force sailed from Cairo, Illinois, to a Confederate camp at Belmont, Missouri. The Northerners quickly overran the camp, but then lost their discipline to celebrate and plunder. Grant put a stop to this by having the remains of the camp set on fire. But in the meantime, the scattered Confederate forces quickly reorganized and were reinforced from Columbus, Kentucky, which was just across the Mississippi.
As the Federals began to march back to their transports, taking with them captured guns and prisoners, they were attacked by Southern reinforcements who appeared to cut off Grant's avenue of retreat. More, Southern artillery including the "Lady Polk", a 128-pounder Whitworth rifle which was the largest gun in the Confederacy, began to fire on them from Columbus. Grant said calmly, "Well, we must cut our way out as we cut our way in." He had some help: the Union gunboats exchanged fire with the Confederate batteries.
Once back at the landing, one Union regiment was unaccounted for, separated from view by the terrain. Grant galloped back to look for it, but found only a mass of Confederate soldiers moving in his direction. He spun his horse and raced for the river. The mooring lines of the boats had already been cast off, but the captain of one boat had a plank run out for Grant, and he escaped with his force to Paducah, Kentucky.
The Union losses were 607 (120 dead, 383 wounded, 104 captured/missing), while Confederate losses were 641 (105 killed, 419 wounded, 117 captured/missing).


At Port Royal, South Carolina, Flag Officer Samuel DuPont moved his main force, fifteen warships in all, in to attack. The plan had been to sail back and forth in an elliptical pattern, bombarding Fort Walker on one leg and Fort Beauregard on the other. After the first turn, however, one of the ship captains had a better idea. He detected a spot where he could enfilade Fort Walker without any guns being able to bear on him, so he sailed the Mohican over to that location and dropped anchor. Several other Union ships followed him, and soon Fort Walker was having its guns dismounted. It didn't make that much difference: the gunners on either fort had not been trained to hit moving naval targets, and though they fired most of their ammunition, relatively little damage was done to the Union vessels. Around noon a sixteenth Northern warship, the Pocohontas, arrived after a storm delay and added her firepower.
Finally, around 2:00, the Confederates abandoned Fort Walker. Only three guns that would bear to sea at all were left, and even those were nearly out of ammuniton. The lack of fire was soon noticed by both the Northern fleet and the men in Fort Beauregard. A boat crew took possession of the fort and raised the Union flag. The commander in Fort Beauregard realized his men were now vulnerable to being cut off, as the fort was on an island. He therefore ordered the fort to be quietly evacuated. This was done steathily enough that the Federals did not realize the second fort was theirs for the taking until sunset.
But now there was nothing to prevent the landing of 13,000 Yankees and their supplies, and the Confederates had no force in the area to match them.

[Anonymous]

[Deleted by Admins]

[ilovestrategy]

Capt. Harlock, this is fascinating. It's like reading a page turner! [&o]

[planner 3]

Capt......beats BLIO by a long shot, having lived near Ball's Bluff, (now Whites Ferry, MD/VA) and on the Potomac River makes a very good visual prospective for me. Tanks

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

Around noon, the lookouts of the USS San Jacinto spotted the Trent, just as Captain Wilkes had planned. The San Jacinto fired a shot ahead of the British vessel to warn her to heave to. Captain James Moir attempted to sail on, so Wilkes had a shell instead of solid shot fired, and this only 100 yards off the Trent's bow. Captain Moir yielded to the inevitable.

Second-in-command Lieutenant Donald Fairfax went aboard the Trent with instructions to demand the passenger list, and if Mason and Slidell were aboard, seize them as prisoners and commandeer the Trent as a prize. He was backed up by two boats of marines and armed sailors waiting alongside. Captain Moir refused to turn over the passenger list, but Mason and Slidell identified themselves to Lieutenant Fairfax. Moir also refused to allow a search of his ship, and Fairfax, knowing there would already be an international incident, did not insist on a search or take possession of the Trent.

Although Mason and Slidell had revealed themselves, they declined to come on board the San Jacinto, whereupon the two boatloads of Union men came aboard and matters were settled more or less peacefully. (Slidell attempted to hide in his cabin.) Back on board the San Jacinto, Fairfax explained his reasons for disobeying orders and not seizing the Trent, and Wilkes accepted the situation. (In times past, Wilkes had ordered Courts-Martial for less, but he may have been swayed by the fact that there were women on board.) The two ships went their separate ways. No dispatches, which might have made the interception legal, were found on the envoys or in their luggage.

Interestingly, one of Mason’s daughters, writing in 1906, said that the Confederate dispatch bag was held by a Commander Williams RN on the Trent, and later delivered to the Confederate envoys in London. If so, a servant of the British government had violated Britain's declared neutrality -- but there is no proof.

[Anonymous]

[Deleted by Admins]

[ilovestrategy]

I bet the British government was not too happy about one of their ships being pulled over.

[planner 3]

ilovestragergy: Why should they complain, (the Brits), they showed us how to do it prior to War of 1812. Turn about is fair play, don't ya think ?

[Capt. Harlock]

I bet the British government was not too happy about one of their ships being pulled over.

Indeed they were not. Or perhaps I should say, they wouldn't be:

Early November, 1861:

The USS James Adger, Captain Marchand commanding, had been sent in pursuit of the Nashville and now arrived off Britain. The British government was aware that the James Adger was there to capture Mason and Slidell, and also believed they were on board the Nashville. A warship was sent to patrol within the three mile limit around Nashville's expected port of call, so that the interception would occur outside British territorial waters. This would avoid the diplomatic problems that would result if the James Adger boarded Nashville in British territorial waters.

Captain Marchand reacted by boasting that he would capture the two envoys within sight of the British shore if necessary, even if they were on a British ship. The British Foreign Office therefore requested a legal opinion from the three Law Officers of the Crown (the Queen’s advocate, the attorney general, and the solicitor general) on the legality of capturing the envoys from a British ship. Surprisingly, the three lawyers would use a British mail steamer as an example in their reply. Not surprisingly, that reply would be negative.

[nicwb]

Why should they complain, (the Brits), they showed us how to do it prior to War of 1812. Turn about is fair play, don't ya think ?

Too true the whole thing was a re-run of the Chesapeake incident in 1807 except the roles were reversed.

In 1807 a British frigate forcibly stopped (fired upon) and searched the USS Chesapeake off the US coast looking for Royal Navy deserters. They found them.

To make the parallel complete on that occcassion Congress complained mightly about Freedom of the Seas and the rights of neutrals (the Brits were engaged in the Napoleonic war). In the end the British had to give back the deserters AND pay compensation.

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

General Sherman was not doing well with his command of Union forces in Kentucky. He had fallen into McClellan's error and badly over-estimated the Confederate troops against him. When he informed Secretary of War Simon Cameron that he would need 200,000 men to hold Kentucky, the press called the request insane (with some justification) and came to the opinion that Sherman was insane (with less justification, although Sherman was not in the best mental state at this point in his career).

Sherman had looked at the map and decided that his forces near the Cumberland Gap were too far forward, and ordered a withdrawal. General Thomas, the commander on the spot, was aware that the Southerners were planning no advance at that point, and tried to get Sherman to change his mind. But on this date, Sherman's orders went into force. A number of the troops were from that area, and this meant they could no longer protect their homes and families. Not too surprisingly, there was low morale, disorder, and in a few cases, open mutiny.

It just so happened that Tennessee Senator Andrew Johnson was on the scene; he had been trying to convince any commander in the Kentucky-Ohio-Tennessee region to advance into eastern Tennessee, where pro-Union sentiment was strong. He went to Thomas' headquarters and all but exploded in rage about the retreat, and was not much calmed when told the orders came from Sherman.

Sherman had made a powerful enemy. Senator Johnson was the only Senator from a Southern state who remained loyal to the Union, making him an important figure -- important enough that he would become the seventeenth President of the United States.

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

No one not on board the Trent or the San Jacinto had been aware of the capture of envoys Mason and Slidell. On this date, that changed: the San Jacinto arrived at Fort Monroe, the site of the first "contrabands" to escape from slavery. Captain Wilkes sent a telegram to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles informing him of the capture. By nightfall, the news was streaming across the wires of most of the Union's major cities. Secretary Welles also personally met with President Lincoln.

In Kentucky, a change in command had already been in the works. Today, General Don Carlos Buell relieved William T. Sherman as the head of Union forces in the state. Sherman was ordered to report to General Henry Halleck for re-assignment.

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

In the Lincoln administration, there were quiet doubts about the seizure of Mason and Slidell. The War of 1812 had been largely fought over the principle of not taking men from the ships of neutral nations, which Great Britain now was, at least for the moment. If Britain should return the favor by going to war over the stopping of one of its ships, the United States would be in a poor moral position, and an even worse practical position. The Royal Navy was easily the most powerful in the world, and the Union Navy was still very much in the process of expanding: there was as yet not even the rank of Rear Admiral.

But on this date, the morning newspapers hit the stands, and Charles Wilkes immediately became a hero to the people of the North. James Mason, the man who drafted the detested Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, was now a Union prisoner.

[martok]

Once again, I'd like to thank Captain Harlock for this thread.  This is fascinating stuff! 
 
 

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

At Russelville, Kentucky, Henry Burnett was elected presiding officer of the convention hoping to enact secession. By this time, Union troops were not too far off, so Burnett proposed a postponement until January. The majority of the delegates, however, voted to continue. It would not be the last disagreement among the convention.

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

The USS San Jacinto, with Mason, Slidell, and their secretaries aboard, had been ordered north. On this date the ship stopped off at Rhode Island for more coal, and Mason and Slidell learned they were to be held at the newly completed Fort Warren on an island off Boston. Knowing the weather would turn cold, and that Boston had been a hotbed of abolition sentiment before the war began, they asked to be held in Rhode Island instead. Capt. Wilkes telegraphed their request to Secretary of the Navy Welles, but he would deny it.


At Russelville, Kentucky, the secession convention realized they were going to be stuck on the details of the constitution and laws of the "new" state. With Union forces uncomfortably close, they decided to do what they could, passing an ordinance of secession and declaring "the Constitution and laws of Kentucky, not inconsistent with the acts of this Convention, and the establishment of this Government, and the laws which may be enacted by the Governor and Council, shall be the laws of this state." The ordinance of secession read:

[font="Times New Roman"]Whereas, the Federal Constitution, which created the Government of the United States, was declared by the framers thereof to be the supreme law of the land, and was intended to limit and did expressly limit the powers of said Government to certain general specified purposes, and did expressly reserve to the States and people all other powers whatever, and the President and Congress have treated this supreme law of the Union with contempt and usurped to themselves the power to interfere with the rights and liberties of the States and the people against the expressed provisions of the Constitution, and have thus substituted for the highest forms of national liberty and constitutional government a central despotism founded upon the ignorant prejudices of the masses of Northern society, and instead of giving protection with the Constitution to the people of fifteen States of this Union have turned loose upon them the unrestrained and raging passions of mobs and fanatics, and because we now seek to hold our liberties, our property, our homes, and our families under the protection of the reserved powers of the States, have blockaded our ports, invaded our soil, and waged war upon our people for the purpose of subjugating us to their will; and

Whereas, our honor and our duty to posterity demand that we shall not relinquish our own liberty and shall not abandon the right of our descendants and the world to the inestimable blessings of constitutional government: Therefore,

Be it ordained, That we do hereby forever sever our connection with the Government of the United States, and in the name of the people we do hereby declare Kentucky to be a free and independent State, clothed with all power to fix her own destiny and to secure her own rights and liberties.

And whereas, the majority of the Legislature of Kentucky have violated their most solemn pledges made before the election, and deceived and betrayed the people; have abandoned the position of neutrality assumed by themselves and the people, and invited into the State the organized armies of Lincoln; have abdicated the Government in favor of a military despotism which they have placed around themselves, but cannot control, and have abandoned the duty of shielding the citizen with their protection; have thrown upon our people and the State the horrors and ravages of war, instead of attempting to preserve the peace, and have voted men and money for the war waged by the North for the destruction of our constitutional rights; have violated the expressed words of the constitution by borrowing five millions of money for the support of the war without a vote of the people; have permitted the arrest and imprisonment of our citizens, and transferred the constitutional prerogatives of the Executive to a military commission of partisans; have seen the writ of habeus corpus suspended without an effort for its preservation, and permitted our people to be driven in exile from their homes; have subjected our property to confiscation and our persons to confinement in the penitentiary as felons, because we may choose to take part in a cause for civil liberty and constitutional government against a sectional majority waging war against the people and institutions of fifteen independent States of the old Federal Union, and have done all these things deliberately against the warnings and vetoes of the Governor and the solemn remonstrances of the minority in the Senate and House of Representatives: Therefore,

Be it further ordained, That the unconstitutional edicts of a factious majority of a Legislature thus false to their pledges, their honor, and their interests are not law, and that such a government is unworthy of the support of a brave and free people, and that we do therefore declare that the people are thereby absolved from all allegiance to said government, and that they have a right to establish any government which to them may seem best adapted to the preservation of their rights and liberties. [/font]


George W. Johnson was selected as Governor, making Kentucky the third state after Virginia and Missouri with two men who claimed to be Governor. Lastly, the convention approved the design of a new state seal:

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

Although the Pensacola area had been quiet since the defeated Confederate landing, Colonel Harvey Brown, the commander of Fort Pickens knew the rebels were building up the batteries of cannon pointed at him. He determined to strike first. Consulting with Flag Officer William McKeen of the Gulf Blockading Squadron, it was decided to attack using the fort's guns and supporting fire from USS Niagara and Richmond. The targets were Fort McCree, across the channel, and Fort Barrancas, which was further into Pensacola Bay.

Just before 10 am, the Federals opened up. It took the Southerners almost half an hour to respond. When they did, it was clear Colonel Brown's worries had been sound. In addition to the two forts, the Southerners had built several shore batteries, and Fort Pickens received counter-fire from almost four miles of coastline. The two Northern ships could only fire on Fort McCree, but they did so with great effect. By 3 pm Fort McCree was out of the game, its last gun silenced. However, the remaining artillery duel lasted the rest of the day; the cannons at Fort Pickens turned to Fort Barrancas, doing much less damage, and also threw some shells into into the naval yard, which the Southern ships hastily evacuated. Fort Pickens itself is not recorded as sustaining any significant damage, though there were two solid hits on the Richmond.

The Confederate commander was General Braxton Bragg, of whom more would be heard later on in the war. He wrote in his official report that considering “the number and caliber of guns and weight of metal brought into action it will rank with the heaviest bombardment in the world.”

[Capt. Harlock]

150 Years Ago Today:

As Mason and Slidell had feared, the weather had turned unpleasant. However, the two Confederate envoys had the run of the San Jacinto and dined with Captain Wilkes. (The discussion of politics at the Captain's table was banned.) On this date, the ship finally arrived at Fort Warren and discharged her prisoners. Accompanying the envoys were their two secretaries, six trunks, six valises, several cases of brandies, wines and liquors, a number of cigars, and two casks of Scotch.

Meanwhile, the Trent was still at sea. No one in Britain had yet heard of the capture.