Lite version - What was the most significant event on August 1 during the U.S. Civil War?

2016-08-19T23:50:08-04:00

In the wild, wild west a small force with an intrepid leader could achieve an awful lot. In 1861 “Captain Baylor claimed Arizona and New Mexico for the Confederacy.”
In 1862, tit for tat in Richmond, Virginia as the “Confederate government issued General Order Number 54. This was in response to General Pope’s order that anyone caught helping Confederate forces in areas under his command would be executed. General Order Number 54 stated that General Pope and his subordinate officers would not be treated as prisoners-of-war if captured and would be held in close confinement. It also stated that if anyone was executed for helping the Confederates, Unionists prisoners selected by lot would be executed in retaliation.”
In 1863, CSA President Jefferson Davis offers amnesty to Confederate deserters. “In August of 1863 the South had not yet begun to scrape the bottom of the manpower barrel, but it had come to the point where the bottom of the barrel was clearly visible: the South was running out of men. Desertion carried a penalty of death; Davis offered amnesty to any deserter who returned to his unit within twenty days of the publication of his proclamation in the state where the deserter was at the time of the publication.”
PROCLAMATION. THE SOLDIERS OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES: “After more than two years of a warfare scarcely equaled in the number, magnitude, and fearful carnage of its battles, a warfare in which your courage and fortitude have illustrated your country and attracted not only gratitude at home, but admiration abroad, your enemies continue a struggle in which our final triumph must be inevitable. Unduly elated with their recent successes, they imagine that temporary reverses can quell your spirit or shake your determination, and they are now gathering heavy masses for a general invasion in the vain hope that by a desperate effort success may at length be reached.
You know too well, my countrymen, what they mean by success. Their malignant rage aims at nothing less than the extermination of yourselves, your wives, and children. They seek to destroy what they cannot plunder. They propose as the spoils of victory that your homes shall be partitioned among the wretches whose atrocious cruelties have stamped infamy on their Government. They design to incite servile insurrection and light the fires of incendiarism wherever they can reach your homes, and they debauch the inferior race, hitherto docile and contented, by promising indulgence of the vilest passions as the price of treachery. Conscious of their inability to prevail by legitimate warfare, not daring to make peace lest they should be hurled from their seats of power, the men who now rule in Washington refuse even to confer on the subject of putting an end to outrages which disgrace our age, or to listen to a suggestion for conductimig the war according to the usages of civilization.
Fellow-citizens, no alternative is left you but victory or subjugation, slavery, and the utter ruin of yourselves, your families, and your country. The victory is within your reach. You need but stretch forth your hands to grasp it. For this end all that is necessary is that those who are called to the field by every motive that can move the human heart should promptly repair to the post of duty, should stand by their comrades now in front of the foe, and thus so strengthen the armies of the Confederacy as to insure success. The men now absent from their posts would, if present in the field, suffice to create numerical equality between our force and that of the invaders; and when with any approach to such equality have we failed to be victorious? I believe that but few of those absent are actuated by unwillingness to serve their country, but that many have found it difficult to resist the temptation of a visit to their homes and the loved ones from whom they have been so long separated; that others have left for temporary attention to their affairs with the intention of returning, and then have shrunk from the consequence of the violation of duty; that others again have left their posts from mere restlessness and desire of change, each quieting the upbraidings of his conscience by persuading himself that his individual services could have no influence on the general result. These and other causes (although far less disgraceful than the desire to avoid danger or to escape from the sacrifices required by patriotism) are, nevertheless, grievous faults, and place the cause of our beloved country and of everything we hold dear in imminent peril.
I repeat that the men who now owe duty to their country, who have been called out and have not yet reported for duty, or who have absented themselves from their posts are sufficient in number to secure us victory in the struggle now impending. I call on you, then, my countrymen, to hasten to your camps in obedience to the dictates of honor and of duty, and I summon those who have absented themselves without leave, or who have remained absent beyond the period allowed by their furloughs, to repair without delay to their respective commands; and I do hereby declare that I grant a general pardon and amnesty to all officers and men within the Confederacy now absent without leave who shall with the least possible delay return to their proper posts of duty; but no excuse will be received for any delay beyond twenty days after the first publication of this proclamation in the State in which the absentee may be at the date of publication. This amnesty and pardon shall extend to all who have been accused, or who have been convicted and are undergoing sentence for absence without leave or desertion, excepting only those who have been twice convicted of desertion.
Finally, I conjure my countrywomen, the wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters of the Confederacy, to use their all-powerful influence in aid of this call, to add one crowning sacrifice to those which their patriotism has so freely and constantly offered on their countrys altar, and to take care that none who owe service in the field shall be sheltered at home from the disgrace of having deserted their duty to their families, to their country, and to their God.
Given under my hand and the seal of the Confederate States, at Richmond, this first day of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
[SEAL.] JEFFERSON DAVIS. By the President: J.P. BENJAMIN, Secretary of State.”

Pictures: 1864 THE HORSE MARINES Generals N.B. Forrest, J.R. Chalmers and the captured U.S.S. Undine Paris Landing Tennessee; 1864-08-01 battle of Folcks Mill marker; 1863-08-01 Map of Morris, Folly, Coles and James Island[s] etc., and Charleston Harbor S.C. shewing [sic] Union; Charleston, South Carolina breach patched in the defences

A. 1861: Captain Baylor claimed Arizona and New Mexico for the Confederacy.
B. 1862: Col. Joseph C. Porter led a Confederate force into Newark, Missouri. The town had an outpost that was garrisoned by 70 Union soldiers of the 2nd Missouri Cavalry. When the Confederates entered the town, the Federals fortified themselves in the Presbyterian Church and other brick buildings. After a brisk firefight, the Confederates set the buildings on fire. The Federals quickly surrendered and was paroled later that day. The Federals suffered 4 killed and 7 wounded. The confederates suffered 8 killed and 13 wounded.
C. 1863: Siege of Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. Federal forces begin a prolonged bombardment of Confederate forts, batteries, and entrenchments around Charleston Harbor.
D. 1864: Folck's Mill, Maryland - Brig. Gen. Benjamin Kelly small force of soldiers and citizens ambushed Jubal Early’s Rebel cavalrymen near Cumberland at Folck's Mill, and skirmishing continued for several hours. Eventually the Confederates withdrew. This was part of Early's Maryland Campaign
Background: After burning Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, on July 30, Johnson's and McCausland's cavalry brigades rode towards Cumberland, Maryland, to disrupt the B&O Railroad. Brig. Gen. Benjamin Kelly organized a small force of soldiers and citizens to meet the Confederate advance.

Response by LTC Stephen F. made Aug 19 at 2016 11:52 PM

2016-08-19T23:52:05-04:00

On Friday, August 1, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln pardons 90 soldiers who had been condemned by court-martial.
On Saturday, August 1, 1863, the “Confederate spy Belle Boyd was arrested and imprisoned in Washington DC. Jefferson Davis offered an amnesty to any Southern soldier absent without leave. This was becoming a chronic problem for the South and Davis hoped to rectify it in this manner. However, he was unaware that the North was experiencing a similar problem.”
In 1863, in the western theater of operations “Generals Grant and Banks confer at Vicksburg about an attack on Mobile, Alabama. US Admiral Porter relieves Admiral Farragut of command of the lower half of the Mississippi and assumes responsibility for the river from New Orleans to the headwaters. Farragut now is free to concentrate on Mobile.”

Below are a number of journal entries from 1861, 1862 and 1863 which shed light on what life was like for soldiers and civilians – the good, the bad and the ugly
August 1, 1861: The Diary of Mary Boykin Chesnut. On August 1, 1861, Mary Boykin Chesnut recorded some of the post-Battle of Manassas gossip floating around Richmond. The Wigfall girls have returned South, Robert A. Toombs is in the army now, and Commissary-General Northrop is already being blamed for the Confederate Army's failure to advance after the battle.
August 1st. - Mrs. Wigfall, with the "Lone Star" flag in her carriage, called for me. We drove to the fair grounds. Mrs. Davis's landau, with her spanking bays, rolled along in front of us. The fair grounds are as covered with tents, soldiers, etc., as ever. As one regiment moves off to the army, a fresh one from home comes to be mustered in and take its place.
The President, with his aides, dashed by. My husband was riding with him. The President presented the flag to the Texans. Mr. Chesnut came to us for the flag, and bore it aloft to the President. We seemed to come in for part of the glory. We were too far off to hear the speech, but Jeff Davis is very good at that sort of thing, and we were satisfied that it was well done.
Heavens! how that redoubtable Wigfall did rush those poor Texans about! He maneuvered and marched them until I was weary for their sakes. Poor fellows; it was a hot afternoon in August and the thermometer in the nineties. Mr. Davis uncovered to speak. Wigfall replied with his hat on. Is that military?
At the fair grounds to-day, such music, mustering, and marching, such cheering and flying of flags, such firing of guns and all that sort of thing. A gala day it was, with double-distilled Fourth-of-July feeling. In the midst of it all, a messenger came to tell Mrs. Wigfall that a telegram had been received, saying her children were safe across the lines in Gordonsville. That was something to thank God for, without any doubt.
These two little girls came from somewhere in Connecticut, with Mrs. Wigfall's sister - the one who gave me my Bogotsky, the only person in the world, except Susan Rutledge who ever seemed to think I had a soul to save. Now suppose Seward had held Louisa and Fanny as hostages for Louis Wigfall's good behavior; eh?
Excitement number two: that bold brigadier, the Georgia General Toombs, charging about too recklessly, got thrown. His horse dragged him up to the wheels of our carriage. For a moment it was frightful. Down there among the horses' hoofs was a face turned up toward us, purple with rage. His foot was still in the stirrup, and he had not let go the bridle. The horse was prancing over him, tearing and plunging; everybody was hemming him in, and they seemed so slow and awkward about it. We felt it an eternity, looking down at him, and expecting him to be killed before our very faces. However, he soon got it all straight, and, though awfully tousled and tumbled, dusty, rumpled, and flushed, with redder face and wilder hair than ever, he rode off gallantly, having to our admiration bravely remounted the recalcitrant charger.
Now if I were to pick out the best abused one, where all catch it so bountifully, I should say Mr. Commissary-General Northrop was the most "cussed " and villified man in the Confederacy. He is held accountable for everything that goes wrong in the army. He may not be efficient, but having been a classmate and crony of Jeff Davis at West Point, points the moral and adorns the tale. I hear that alluded to oftenest of his many crimes. They say Beauregard writes that his army is upon the verge of starvation. Here every man, woman, and child is ready to hang to the first lamp-post anybody of whom that army complains. Every Manassas soldier is a hero dear to our patriotic hearts. Put up with any neglect of the heroes of the 21st July - never!
And now they say we did not move on right after the flying foe because we had no provisions, no wagons, no ammunition, etc. Rain, mud, and Northrop. Where were the enemy's supplies that we bragged so of bagging? Echo answers where? Where there is a will there is a way. We stopped to plunder that rich convoy, and somehow, for a day or so, everybody thought the war was over and stopped to rejoice: so it appeared here. All this was our dinner-table talk to-day. Mr. Mason dined with us and Mr. Barnwell sits by me always. The latter reproved me sharply, but Mr. Mason laughed at "this headlong, unreasonable woman's harangue and female tactics and their war-ways." A freshet in the autumn does not compensate for a drought in the spring. Time and tide wait for no man, and there was a tide in our affairs which might have led to Washington, and we did not take it and lost our fortune this round. Things which nobody could deny.
McClellan virtually supersedes the Titan Scott. Physically General Scott is the largest man I ever saw. Mrs. Scott said, "nobody but his wife could ever know how little he was." And yet they say, old Winfield Scott could have organized an army for them if they had had patience. They would not give him time.
Friday, August 1, 1862: Surgeon Alfred L. Castleman, of the Union army, notes his impressions of the previous night’s bombardment: “August 1st.—The month was ushered in by the opening of a cannonade, precisely as the clock struck twelve, on our shipping, from the south side of the river. For a short time the firing was very brisk. It was from some batteries of flying artillery which had taken position during the night. They were soon silenced, but not till after they had killed and wounded a number of our sailors, and done some damage to our shipping.”
Saturday, August 1, 1863: Of this battle, George Michael Neese, an artilleryman in Chew’s Battery in the Confederate army, writes an account in his journal of his battery’s role in the fight: “We were directly on the right flank of the Yankee line, and we opened a square enfilade fire on their batteries, which compelled them to abandon their position immediately after we opened. We advanced then and took another position and opened fire, and the Yanks again retired, and so we kept up a running fight for two hours, in which time we drove the enemy back about three miles. Then the shades of night were already falling fast, and the gathering darkness lulled the wavelet of war to quietude and rest. The field where the little fight occurred is a level plain about two miles long, with the Orange and Alexandria Railroad on one side and a body of woods on the other. It is identically the very same field where General Stuart held his grand reviews last June. The engagement to-day was principally between cavalry, with some artillery mixed in on both sides.
General Hampton’s cavalry and General Jones’ brigade were in the fight on our side. For the last few days the weather has been oppressively hot, in fact, too hot for an active butcher business. However, if the bluecoats can endure it the gray jackets can do the same thing.”
Pictures: 1863-08 Morris Island, South Carolina - 300-pounder Parrott Rifle

Response by TSgt Joe C. made Aug 20 at 2016 3:02 AM

2016-08-20T03:02:26-04:00

Great read in Civil War history on 1 August LTC Stephen F..

Response by 1stSgt Eugene Harless made Aug 20 at 2016 10:47 AM

2016-08-20T10:47:47-04:00

Another good read Stephen, I'm sure you have more interesting info upcoming on Pope.

Response by SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth made Aug 20 at 2016 1:49 PM

2016-08-20T13:49:01-04:00

Thank you for all the great history you share.