Lite version - What was the most significant event on July 29 during the U.S. Civil War?

LTC Stephen F. — Sun, 14 Aug 2016 21:31:00 -0400

In 1862, Belle Boyd was arrested as a Confederate spy. She was released a month later on lack of evidence.
In 1863, Lincoln didn't want another Battle of Fredericksburg or Battle of Chancellorsville. With Robert E. Lee back on Virginia soil, Lincoln became wary of the Gray Fox laying a trap for Meade. Lincoln tells Major General Halleck to ease up on Meade. In the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln had pressed hard on Major General George G. Meade to aggressively pursue the retreating Confederates, hoping to destroy Lee's army before it could get back across the Potomac River. On this day 150 years ago, Lincoln instructed Major General Halleck to ease up on Meade, fearing that Meade might feel too much pressure to attack Lee. Executive Mansion, Washington, to Major General Halleck “Seeing Gen. Meade's despatch of yesterday to yourself, causes, me to fear that he supposes the government here is demanding of him to bring on a general engagement with Lee as soon as possible. I am claiming no such thing of him. In fact, my judgment is against it; which judgment, of course, I will yield if yours and his are the contrary. If he could not safely engage Lee at Williamsport, it seems absurd to suppose he can safely engage him now, when he has scarcely more than two thirds of the force he had at Williamsport, while it must be, that Lee has been reinforced. True, I desired Gen. Meade to pursue Lee across the Potomac, hoping, as has proved true, that he would thereby clear the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and get some advantages by harrassing him on his retreat. These being past, I am unwilling he should now get into a general engagement on the impression that we here are pressing him; and I shall be glad for you to so inform him, unless your own judgment is against it. Yours truly A. LINCOLN.”

Pictures: 1864-07 Petersburg tunnel Plan des Stollens; 1862-07-29 CSS Nashville 2; 1861 Robert E. Lee; CSS Robert E Lee - blockade runner

A. 1861: Union forces in western Virginia still held the upper hand. President Jefferson Davis decided to send General Robert E Lee to the area to resolve matters.
B. 1862: Fort McAllister, Georgia came under Union naval attack somewhat by accident. The CSS Thomas L. Wragg (The Nashville) had been successfully turned away from Charleston and Savannah by the Union naval blockade that was becoming more effective. Coming upriver to deal with the schooner were four Union vessels, under Commander Charles Steedman, led by the USS Paul Jones, a heavily armored side-wheeler with a 100-pounder rifled cannon among the weapons onboard. In support of the Paul Jones were two 90-day gunboats, The USS Umadilla and USS The Huron and the sloop USS Madgie. When the Paul Jones rounded a nearby island shortly after 10:00am its guns were blazing. The fort's commander, now Captain Hartage, could tell by the range that the Paul Jones must be using the new rifled cannon and ordered his men to hold fire. Finally the Yankee side-wheeler came into range and the Rebel gunners saluted it warmly.
For nearly an hour and a half the cannons blazed. Then the Paul Jones and the others retreated to safety further down the river.
C. 1862: The newly commissioned CSS Alabama leaves Mersey River, England: A most significant event takes place on this date in the John Laird shipyards in Birkenhead, when a vessel commissioned by the Confederate States of America (known up to this point only as Hull No. 290) is launched and---despite the best diplomatic efforts of Ambassador Charles Francis Adams, Sr.---is allowed to leave Liverpool harbor as the S.S. Enrica. At sea, the ship is outfitted with cannons and equipment and re-commisioned the CSS Alabama, which will make history as the most successful and destructive ship in the Confederate Navy, capturing and destroying a huge amount of Yankee shipping and driving much of the Northern merchant shipping from the seas.
D. 1864: Conclusion of First Battle of Deep Bottom, Darbytown, Virginia. Successful Federal diversion which drew Confederate forces away from Petersburg. The Confederate held the filed. During the night of July 29, the Federals recrossed the river leaving a garrison as heretofore to hold the bridgehead at Deep Bottom.
Background: During the night of July 26-27, the Union II Corps and two divisions of US General Sheridan's cavalry under command of Major General Winfield Scott Hancock crossed to the north side of James River to threaten Richmond. This demonstration diverted Confederate forces from the impending attack at Petersburg on July 30. Union efforts to turn the Confederate position at New Market Heights and Fussell's Mill were abandoned when the Confederates strongly reinforced their lines and counterattacked.

Response by LTC Stephen F. made Aug 14 at 2016 9:32 PM

LTC Stephen F. — Sun, 14 Aug 2016 21:32:50 -0400

In 1861 “Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard wrote to his aides-de-camp, including Colonel William Porcher Miles, who was also serving in the Confederate Congress as chairman of the House Military Affairs Committee at the same time. In his letter, Beauregard claims that it is a lack of subsistence supplies that made it impossible for the Confederate Army to advance on Washington, D.C. after the victory at the Battle of Manassas. Beauregard's accusations soon made their way up the chain of command and his letter would stir up a dispute with Confederate President Jefferson Davis that would cause dangerous division within the Southern high command.”
MANASSAS, VIRGINIA, July 29th, 1861. “My dear Colonels, I send you, herewith, some important suggestions relative to the best mode of providing for the wants of this army, furnished me by Colonel L. M. Hatch, whose experience in such matters entitles his views and opinions to considerable weight. Unless the requirements of our army in the field are provided for beforehand, we shall be in a perfect state of destitution very shortly.
I will remark here, that we have been out of subsistence for several days, some of my regiments not having had anything to eat for more than twenty-four hours. They have stood it, though, nobly; but, if it happens again, I shall join one of their camps and share their wants with them; for I will never allow them to suppose that I feast while they suffer.
The want of food and transportation has made us lose all the fruits of our victory. We ought at this moment to be in or about Washington, but we are perfectly anchored here, and God only knows when we will be able to advance; without these means we can neither advance nor retreat. The mobility of an army, which constitutes the great strength of modern armies, does not certainly form an element of ours, for we seem to be rooted to this spot.
Cannot something be done towards furnishing us more expeditiously and regularly with food and transportation?
It seems to me that if the States had been called upon to furnish their quota of wagons per regiment in the field, one of these evils could have been obviated.
From all accounts, Washington could have been taken up to the 24th instant, by twenty thousand men ! Only think of the brilliant results we have lost by the two causes referred to.
Again, we must have a few more field-officers from the old service, otherwise our regiments will get worsted sooner or later.
In haste, yours truly, G. T. BEAUREGARD.”
Below are a number of journal entries from 1862 and 1863 which shed light on what life was like for soldiers and civilians – the good, the bad and the ugly. The 1863 letter from the brothers Dial who are Unionist mountaineers in NC is challenging to read but the points come across pretty clearly – secessionists leave us alone.
Tuesday, July 29, 1862: Union Army surgeon Alfred L. Castleman, with the Army of the Potomac camps at Harrison’s Landing, Virginia, notes mysterious movements in the army: “Some mysterious movements are going on in this army. At night we look over a large flat covered with tents, lighted by camp fires, resonant with the sounds of living soldiers. In the morning that same flat is deserted and still, as if the angel of death had enjoyed a passover. What has become of the busy actors of the night, none who dare speak of it can conjecture.”
Tuesday, July 29, 1862: Confederate War Department clerk John Beauchamp Jones notes the effect of the Yankee Gen. Pope and his policies: “JULY 29TH.—Pope’s army, greatly reinforced, are committing shocking devastations in Culpepper and Orange Counties. His brutal orders, and his bragging proclamations, have wrought our men to such a pitch of exasperation that, when the day of battle comes, there will be, most be terrible slaughter.”
Tuesday, July 29, 1862: Sarah Morgan of Baton Rouge writes in her journal of the sufferings of the Union soldiers in the malarial summer heat of Louisiana: “These poor soldiers are dying awfully. Thirteen went yesterday. On Sunday the boats discharged hundreds of sick at our landing. Some lay there all the afternoon in the hot sun, waiting for the wagon to carry them to the hospital, which task occupied the whole evening. In the mean time these poor wretches lay uncovered on the ground, in every stage of sickness. . . . All day our vis-à-vis, Baumstark, with his several aids, plies his hammer; all day Sunday he made coffins, and says he can’t make them, fast enough. Think, too, he is by no means the only undertaker here! Oh, I wish these poor men were safe in their own land! It is heartbreaking to see them die here like dogs, with no one to say Godspeed. The Catholic priest went to see some, sometime ago, and going near one who lay in bed, said some kind thing, when the man burst into tears and cried, “Thank God, I have heard one kind word before I die!” In a few minutes the poor wretch was dead.”
Wednesday, July 29, 1863: Capt. Josiah Marshall Favill, a young Englishman who serves as an officer in the 57th New York Infantry, writes in his diary about the lingering disorder in New York City after he and a companion deliver the body of Gen. Zook, killed at Gettysburg, to his family. The two young officers volunteer to help quell the riot, but are forced to lay low instead: “In accordance with orders, as soon as the obsequies of General Zook were over, Broom and I reported to the military commander of the district, General Dix, when it was suggested as a mater of prudence we doff our uniforms. This seemed to us most astonishing, that the uniform which we supposed every man and woman, particularly just after such a great and magnificent battle, would delight in, should be a badge of disfavor, but as we had no citizens’ clothing, we were obliged to confine ourselves to those parts of the city considered least dangerous, which was most humiliating; however, we volunteered our services in case of necessity, left our address and retired. Mitchell very kindly sent us a twenty day leave of absence from General Warren, now in command of the Second corps, so we remained in town till the 27th. Butler soon arrived with a large force, which went into bivouac on the Battery, City Hall Park, and other open places, and the rioters were instantly brought under control. Guns were posted in various places sweeping the streets, and Butler’s reputation was not of the sort the rioters and negro lynchers cared to trifle with.”
Wednesday, July 29, 1863: In the mountains of North Carolina, three brothers, apparently Unionists, write a threatening letter to Captain Quill Hunter, who is probably a Confederate conscription or provost officer---an example of the typical resistance of the Unionist mountaineers against the Confederate government: “Capt Quill Hunter if yo ever hunt for us a gin i will put lead in yo god dam your hell fired soll yo have give the people orders to Shoot us down when they find us and if yo dont take your orders back i will Shoot yo If Sutch men as yo are is christians of heaven i want to know who is the hippocrits of hell we have never done yo any harms for yo to hunt for us we will give yo something to hunt for heareafter here after when any body sees us i will know where to watch for yo the Secessions needent to degrudge what we steel for we are the United States Regulars (Seal)
We dont ax [Sprinkles houns?] no more adds than hell does a powder house ave got orders from the Govenor to take yo because yo dont take us that is our latest orders we dist dare yo to go and Abuse Mother or talk about trying them When the Yankees comes we will go and Show them Some Secess to kill If this dont give yo warning enough the next warning we will give yo with powder and lead take the hint in time we are the old United States Regulars.
Wilse Dial, James Dial, Calvin Dial”

Response by SFC William Farrell made Aug 14 at 2016 9:51 PM

SFC William Farrell — Sun, 14 Aug 2016 21:51:41 -0400

Love the old fort diagram LTC Stephen F.. We have Fort Adams right here in Newport, the largest pre Civil War fort in the country with active troops up until the early 1950's. The area surrounding it now is military housing.

Response by SP5 Mark Kuzinski made Aug 15 at 2016 12:34 AM

SP5 Mark Kuzinski — Mon, 15 Aug 2016 00:34:43 -0400

Thanks for the night read LTC Stephen F. - Great post.

Response by SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth made Aug 15 at 2016 7:43 AM

SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth — Mon, 15 Aug 2016 07:43:36 -0400

Thanks for the articles and history given.

Response by 1stSgt Eugene Harless made Aug 15 at 2016 6:48 PM

1stSgt Eugene Harless — Mon, 15 Aug 2016 18:48:54 -0400

The CSS Alabama destroyed or captured more US ships (65)than any other enemy The US faced, In fact it sank more ships period than any single Axis vessel in WW2, including the vaunted U-boats/