What was the most significant event on July 6 during the U.S. Civil War?

2016-07-08T23:21:14-04:00

In 1864, Robert E. Lee sent Jubal Early and a confederate division to threaten Washington, D.C. from the west via Harpers Ferry in the hope that it would draw federal forces away from attacking his forces which were defending the Confederate capital.
The CSS Sumter brings 7 captured Federal sailing ships in tow to Cuba in the van hope of stabling a relationship with Cuba in 1861 letter from Commander Raphael Semmes, C.S. Navy to the governor of Cienfuegos, Cuba announcing the arrival of that vessel with seven prizes of war.
“This letter is a remarkable document--Semmes truly outdoes himself in trying to make the argument that the Spain's Cuban colonial administration should violate international law and help the South. Semmes did not tarry to argue the point--he sailed the next day after appointing a local merchant as his agent and leaving behind instructions for a five-man prize crew that had failed to make Cienfuegos in time and were left behind. Semmes left the stragglers' baggage behind and instructed them to find their own way back to the Confederacy.
As for Governor Don Jose De La Pozuela, he waited a decent amount of time for Semmes to make himself scarce and let he let every one of the Confederate raider's prizes go free. Spain's Cuban colonial governors, it seemed, were not interested in ensuring that the Confederate Navy got a fair chance.”
Grant reflects on the fall of Vicksburg in 1863: After the war, Ulysses S. Grant reflected on the immediate consequences of the fall of Vicksburg. One of the more surprising consequences for readers of history who are used reading about the Confederate army capturing and using Union weapons was the way Grant's army re-equipped itself with the Enfield rifles captured from Pemberton's men. From Grant's memoirs.
“The first dispatch I received from the government after the fall of Vicksburg was in these words: "I fear your paroling the prisoners at Vicksburg, without actual delivery to a proper agent as required by the seventh article of the cartel, may be construed into an absolute release, and that the men will immediately be placed in the ranks of the enemy. Such has been the case elsewhere. If these prisoners have not been allowed to depart, you will detain them until further orders."
Halleck did not know that they had already been delivered into the hands of Major Watts, Confederate commissioner for the exchange of prisoners.
At Vicksburg 31,600 prisoners were surrendered, together with 172 cannon about 60,000 muskets and a large amount of ammunition. The small-arms of the enemy were far superior to the bulk of ours. Up to this time our troops at the West had been limited to the old United States flint-lock muskets changed into percussion, or the Belgian musket imported early in the war—almost as dangerous to the person firing it as to the one aimed at—and a few new and improved arms. These were of many different calibers, a fact that caused much trouble in distributing ammunition during an engagement. The enemy had generally new arms which had run the blockade and were of uniform caliber. After the surrender I authorized all colonels whose regiments were armed with inferior muskets, to place them in the stack of captured arms and replace them with the latter. A large number of arms turned in to the Ordnance Department as captured, were thus arms that had really been used by the Union army in the capture of Vicksburg.
In this narrative I have not made the mention I should like of officers, dead and alive, whose services entitle them to special mention. Neither have I made that mention of the navy which its services deserve. Suffice it to say, the close of the siege of Vicksburg found us with an army unsurpassed, in proportion to its numbers, taken as a whole of officers and men. A military education was acquired which no other school could have given. Men who thought a company was quite enough for them to command properly at the beginning, would have made good regimental or brigade commanders; most of the brigade commanders were equal to the command of a division, and one, Ransom, would have been equal to the command of a corps at least. Logan and Crocker ended the campaign fitted to command independent armies.
General F. P. Blair joined me at Milliken's Bend a full-fledged general, without having served in a lower grade. He commanded a division in the campaign. I had known Blair in Missouri, where I had voted against him in 1858 when he ran for Congress. I knew him as a frank, positive and generous man, true to his friends even to a fault, but always a leader. I dreaded his coming; I knew from experience that it was more difficult to command two generals desiring to be leaders than it was to command one army officered intelligently and with subordination. It affords me the greatest pleasure to record now my agreeable disappointment in respect to his character. There was no man braver than he, nor was there any who obeyed all orders of his superior in rank with more unquestioning alacrity. He was one man as a soldier, another as a politician.
The navy under Porter was all it could be, during the entire campaign. Without its assistance the campaign could not have been successfully made with twice the number of men engaged. It could not have been made at all, in the way it was, with any number of men without such assistance. The most perfect harmony reigned between the two arms of the service. There never was a request made, that I am aware of, either of the flag-officer or any of his subordinates, that was not promptly complied with.
The campaign of Vicksburg was suggested and developed by circumstances. The elections of 1862 had gone against the prosecution of the war. Voluntary enlistments had nearly ceased and the draft had been resorted to; this was resisted, and a defeat or backward movement would have made its execution impossible. A forward movement to a decisive victory was necessary. Accordingly I resolved to get below Vicksburg, unite with Banks against Port Hudson, make New Orleans a base and, with that base and Grand Gulf as a starting point, move our combined forces against Vicksburg. Upon reaching Grand Gulf, after running its batteries and fighting a battle, I received a letter from Banks informing me that he could not be at Port Hudson under ten days, and then with only fifteen thousand men. The time was worth more than the reinforcements; I therefore determined to push into the interior of the enemy's country.
With a large river behind us, held above and below by the enemy, rapid movements were essential to success. Jackson was captured the day after a new commander had arrived, and only a few days before large reinforcements were expected. A rapid movement west was made; the garrison of Vicksburg was met in two engagements and badly defeated, and driven back into its stronghold and there successfully besieged. It looks now as though Providence had directed the course of the campaign while the Army of the Tennessee executed the decree.
Upon the surrender of the garrison of Vicksburg there were three things that required immediate attention. The first was to send a force to drive the enemy from our rear, and out of the State. The second was to send reinforcements to Banks near Port Hudson, if necessary, to complete the triumph of opening the Mississippi from its source to its mouth to the free navigation of vessels bearing the Stars and Stripes. The third was to inform the authorities at Washington and the North of the good news, to relieve their long suspense and strengthen their confidence in the ultimate success of the cause they had so much at heart.
Soon after negotiations were opened with General Pemberton for the surrender of the city, I notified Sherman, whose troops extended from Haines' Bluff on the left to the crossing of the Vicksburg and Jackson road over the Big Black on the right, and directed him to hold his command in readiness to advance and drive the enemy from the State as soon as Vicksburg surrendered. Steele and Ord were directed to be in readiness to join Sherman in his move against General Johnston, and Sherman was advised of this also. Sherman moved promptly, crossing the Big Black at three different points with as many columns, all concentrating at Bolton, twenty miles west of Jackson.”
Pictures: 1863-07-06 amputation photograph from Gettysburg; 1861-07-06 CSS Sumter Cuba; 1863-07 Union militia burned the bridge between Wrightsville; 1863-07-06 Wartime Hagerstown

A. 1861: Commander Raphael Semmes and the C.S.S. Sumter showed up off the Cuban port of Cienfuegos with no less than seven prizes in his custody. Cuba rejects the offer of supporting the Confederacy. Semmes had managed to scoop up seven small U.S. flagged sailing ships in his first week at sea. Semmes realized that if he returned to the Confederacy he would likely find himself confronted by a blockader that outgunned him. Raphael Semmes sat down and wrote a long letter to the Spanish governor of Cienfuegos appealing to Spain's sympathy and invoking the Confederacy and Spain's common interest in protecting slavery: "our unity of interest and policy with regard to an important social and industrial institution." Semmes remarked on how unfair it was that the Union had received all the ships of the U.S. Navy instead of handing over the South's fair share. Semmes then calls upon Spain to make it a fair fight by allowing the South to use Cuban ports for parking captured Union ships until they can be sold.
B. 1862: on the James River, Virginia - Brig. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart led 2 infantry regiments and 6 cannon alongside the James River. he had information that some Union gunboats would be travelling on the river. He set his men into an ambush and waited. A short time after the ambush was set, a Union flotilla came upstream. Slowly passing the ambush was 5 Union transport ships with soldiers on their decks. They were no more than 100 yards away when the Confederates opened fire on the ships with a devastating effect. The artillery shells were crashing through the sides of the ships.
One of the transports sank and a number of soldiers had been knocked overboard of all of the ships, floating in the river. many of the soldiers drowned before being rescued. Stuart heard some additional ships heading towards his position. He ordered his men to pack up and they silently withdrew back to the Confederate lines.
C. 1863: Battle of Hagerstown, Maryland. Confederate and Union cavalry clashed at the intersection of Baltimore and South Potomac streets in Hagerstown. Confederates could not cross the swollen Potomac River because their pontoon bridge was destroyed. The Battle of Hagerstown, a seven-hour fight that involved roughly 2,000 soldiers and resulted in nearly 200 casualties. “The Confederates pretty much find that they’re trapped north of the Potomac River.” The stage for the Battle of Hagerstown was set when Union Brig. Gen. Hugh Kilpatrick turned his men toward Hagerstown after receiving intelligence that Confederate supply wagons were heading toward the city.
The first phase of the battle started at about noon when a brigade of Virginia cavalry under Col. John Chambliss deployed south of Hagerstown.
The 9th Virginia Cavalry was sent out as skirmishers across the southern end of town, while the 10th Virginia Cavalry formed a barricade along Baltimore Street in the area of South Potomac Street.
“They literally turned over wagons like the stuff you see in old Western movies ... to keep the Union cavalry from getting into town,” Bockmiller said.
Union soldiers under the command of Kilpatrick charged several squadrons up Frederick Street. They then turned west on Baltimore Street toward the defending Confederates.
“A fight ensues at the corner of Potomac and Baltimore,” Bockmiller said. “The Union cavalry overwhelms the barricade and sends the 9th and 10 Virginia fleeing up Potomac Street near Public Square.”
D. 1864: Federal commanders in Washington D. C. begin recalling demobilized troops to defend the city from Jubal Early. Meanwhile thousands of active duty Union troops were rushed to Washington. This is what Robert E. Lee had hoped for as it relieved the pressure on his army as it was defending the capital of the Confederate States of America. At this point Jubal Early’s troops were resting and recovering for the battle at Maryland Heights near Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.

FYI MSG Roy Cheever Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. PO3 Edward Riddle SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL Maj William W. 'Bill' Price COL Private RallyPoint Member COL Lisandro Murphy SSgt David M. MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D. SPC Maurice Evans SPC Jon O. SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth SSG Trevor S.PO3 Phyllis Maynard SPC Miguel C. 1SG Steven Imerman SSgt Charles Ankner SGM Steve Wettstein SGT Jim Arnold

Response by LTC Stephen F. made Jul 8 at 2016 11:24 PM

2016-07-08T23:24:01-04:00

In 1863, as the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia is desperate to cross back to Maryland they have to deal with flooding of the Potomac River and Maj. Gen. William French, stationed at Frederick, Md., proceeded to the ford at Falling Waters, near Williamsport, and destroyed the pontoon bridge there.
1863: “Wounded Confederate soldiers arrive in Martinsburg following the Army of Northern Virginia's defeat at the Battle of Gettysburg.” I was interested to note that wounded confederate soldiers were treated in Martinsburg, West Virginia in 1863 since that is where the VA Medical Center that treats me is located in the 21st century.
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.
Saturday, July 06, 1861: C.S.S. SUMTER, Cienfuegos, Island of Cuba, July 6, 1861. To His Excellency Don JOSE DE LA POZUELA, Governor of the City of Cienfuegos, Island of Cuba. “SIR: I have the honor to inform your Excellency of my arrival at the port of Cienfuegos, with seven prizes of war. These vessels are the brigantines Cuba, Machias, Ben Dunning, Albert Adams, and Naiad, and barks West Wind and Lewis (Louisa) Kilhain, property of citizens of time United States, which States, as your Excellency is aware, are waging an unjust and aggressive war upon the Confederate States, which I have the honor, with this ship under my command, to represent. I have sought a port of Cuba with these prizes with the expectation that Spain will extend to cruisers of the Confederate States the same friendly reception that in similar circumstances she would extend to the cruisers of the enemy; in other words, that she will permit me to leave the captured vessels within her junsdiction until they can be adjudicated by a court of admiralty of the Confederate States. As a people, maintaining a government de facto, and not only holding the enemy in check, but gaining advantages over him, we are entitled to all the rights of belligerents, and I confidently rely upon the friendly disposition of Spain, who is our near neighbor in the most important of her colonial possessions, to receive us with equal and even-handed justice, if not with the sympathy which our unity of interest and policy with regard to an important social and industrial institution are so well calculated to inspire. A rule which would exclude our prizes from her ports during the war, although it should be applied in terms equally to the enemy, would not, I respectfully suggest, be an equitable or just rule. The basis of such a rule, as indeed of all the conduct of a neutral during war, is equal and impartial justice to all the belligerents, and this should be a substantial and practical justice, and not exist in delusive or deceptive terms merely.
Now, a little reflection will show your Excellency that the rule in question can not be applied in the present war without operating great injustice to the Confederate States. It is well known to your Excellency that the United States, being a manufacturing and commercial people, while the Confederate States have been thus far almost wholly an agricultural and planting people, the former had within their limits and control at the commencement of the war almost the whole naval force of the old Government, and that they have seized and appropriated this force to themselves regardless of the just claims of the Confederate States to a portion, and a large portion of it, as taxpayers out of whose contributions it was created. The United States are thus enabled to blockade all the important ports of the Confederate States. In this condition of things, observe the practical working of the rule which I am discussing. It must be admitted that we have equal belligerent rights with the enemy. One of the most important of these rights in a war against a commercial people is that which I have just exercised, of capturing his property upon the high seas. But how are the Confederate States to enjoy to its full extent the benefit of this right, if their cruisers are not permitted to enter neutral ports with their prizes, and retain them there in safe custody until they can be condemned and disposed of? They can not send them to their own ports for the reasons already stated. Except for the purpose of destruction, therefore, their right of capture would be entirely defeated by the adoption of the rule in question, whilst the enemy would suffer no inconvenience from it, as all his ports are open to him. I take it for granted that Spain will not think of acting upon so unjust and unequal a rule. But another question arises, indeed has already arisen, in the cases of some of the very captures which I have brought into port. The cargoes of several of the vessels are claimed, as appears by certificates found among the papers, as Spanish property. This fact can not of course be verified, except by a judicial proceeding in the prize courts of the Confederate States. But whilst this fact is being determined, what is to be done with the property? I have the right to destroy the vessels but not the cargoes, in case the latter should prove to be, as claimed, Spanish property, but how am I to destroy the former and not the latter? I can not, before sentence, unlade the cargoes and deliver them to the claimants, for I do not know that the claims will be sustained, and I can not destroy them, for I do not know that the claims will not be sustained.
Indeed, one of the motives which influenced me in seeking a Spanish port was the fact that these cargoes were claimed by Spanish subjects, whom I was desirous of putting to as little inconvenience as possible in the unlading and reception of their property after sentence, should it be restored to them.
It will be for your Excellency to consider and act upon these grave questions, touching alike the interests of both our governments. I have the honor to be, etc., [RAPHAEL SEMMES, Commander, C.S. Navy.]”
http://www.civilwar-online.com/search?q=July+6,+1861
Sunday, July 06, 1862: Josiah Marshall Favill, a captain in the 57th New York Infantry Regiment, writes in his diary, puzzling over the Army of the Potomac’s recent defeats in the Seven Days Battles---a remarkably clear although implicit criticism of McClellan in the observations of such a young officer of the entire Peninsula Campaign: “July 6th. I was present at an interesting conversation between General French and Zook, regarding the campaign just closed. Both of them admitted it had been a complete failure, in spite of the gallant and meritorious conduct of the troops. From the time the army first started for Manassas, until the second day of July, its movements, except in retreat, have been timid, vacillating, and indecisive. In no instance has it initiated the fighting, although organized for that purpose. When attacked, it has shown itself capable of great deeds, and has invariably succeeded in defeating its opponent, but never was allowed to take advantage of the fact. Upon landing before Yorktown, that stronghold could, as is well known now, have been captured by a coup-de-main, with almost no loss, the enemy being in small force, and wholly unprepared for defence. That plan, however, never seems to have occurred to the general commanding, his brain being filled with the idea of a great siege, like Sebastopol, in the Crimea. Having decided on the siege, everything else was neglected and the slow, laborious operation of digging entrenchments, and erecting batteries went along just as in the sieges of the Middle Ages, every one taking his time, and only careful to do things regularly. When the enemy evacuated the place, through lack of alertness on our part, they were able to move everything of value, and make an orderly and secure retreat, not a single wagon being abandoned. The advance and operations at Williamsburg were of the most perfunctory order, ill advised, indifferently carried out, and wholly without result. While the general commanding ostensibly undertook to cut off part of the enemy’s force at West Point, or near there, the movements of the Army of the Potomac were so sluggish that the enemy easily got out of the way. Our army met with no resistance on the advance to West Point, and yet was nearly ten days in getting there. The advance from the White House to the Chickahominy was extraordinarily slow and hesitating, the troops not averaging more than five miles a day. Arriving at the Chickahominy, the grave military error of isolating a part of the army by a treacherous and difficult stream, was inexcusable, and has lost us much prestige. On the first of June everything was propitious, the army concentrated, the men anxious for a trial of their strength, and all abundantly supplied. At the very outset we forgot our plans; our theory, and our duty, and instead of taking the initiative with the combined army, and attacking the enemy, we awaited his attack and contented ourselves throughout the entire day with simply repulsing his efforts and holding our ground. Was there ever so great a miscarriage before? That a general attack would have resulted in success, and possibly an overwhelming victory, was the opinion of almost every officer in the field with whom I talked. But the general commanding seemed to be satisfied with holding his ground. Why we should have remained at Fair Oaks passes understanding. If we could not advance and attack advantageously, on the first of June, how could we do so subsequently, when the enemy had fortified himself? Fortifying ourselves on the southern, or right bank of the Chickahominy, we remained constantly under fire, powerless and inactive. How long this state of things would have lasted, had not the enemy renewed the fighting, is hard to guess. Gaines’ Mills afforded one more capital chance for carrying out our plans. The enemy concentrated his army, and made a powerful attack on our right, a formidable position, which might have been held had troops enough been sent to support Porter’s command, but in arranging for their attack, the enemy withdrew nearly all his troops in front of Sumner, Franklin, and Heintzleman’s splendid corps, which lay inactive behind impregnable earthworks. As we knew, at least in front of our corps negroes were marched about their lines, beating drums, and making a noise, to deceive us with the belief that the troops were still there. Zook ascertained they were not there, and begged for permission to attack. If late in the afternoon, when Lee was concentrating all his forces, and pushing the fighting against Porter’s corps, Sumner had made a dash for the works in front, they would certainly have been carried, and our advance moved to within shelling distance of Richmond, which would have been a position worth obtaining. In any case, we should inevitably have drawn off the force attacking Porter, and probably had the chance to fight them in rear of their own works. Admitting the retreat was conducted superbly, the general’s Fourth of July address to the contrary, there was an immense amount of all kinds of material destroyed. At Savage Station, while we lay there, a heavy train loaded with stores, was set on fire and sent under full headway over the burning bridge across the Chickahominy, to plunge headlong into the stream, where all was absolutely destroyed. The fight at Malvern Hill was entirely favorable to our side, the enemy lost enormously, while we suffered very little, and at the close of the fight, the rebel troops were dispirited and thoroughly exhausted; our corps, and the troops on the right were mostly fresh, excepting two brigades of our division. If a grand attack in force, of the entire army, well led, had been ordered immediately after the repulse of the enemy’s last attack, who can doubt the result? But the same timid methods continued and the army was withdrawn, exactly as though it had sustained an overwhelming defeat. With such a commander, we can’t hope for success, at least in anything more than a defensive warfare. Such certainly is the opinion of a great many of our brightest officers.”
Monday, July 06, 1863: In a letter to his wife dated July 6, 1863, Robert Gould Shaw addressed his wife's concerns about his being associated with the notorious Kansas Jayhawker James Montgomery and tells her about his visit to the monitor U.S.S. Montauk. St. Helena’s Island. “My Own Darling Wife, As I wrote you last week, your long letter of June 5th to 10th came at last, and to-day I got that of the 23d to 26th. I am so sorry you have been worrying yourself about Montgomery and my connection with him, and I hope that my later letters have put your mind at rest. . . .
When you get this, you will have been a good while without news from me, as the last mail was not allowed to go, on account of the military movements in this Department. I wrote to Father the other day that we were left here, and most of the other troops had gone to Folly Island,—at least we suppose that was their destination. There is no knowing how soon, or in what direction, we may get orders to move. It is my great desire to join the main army, and General Strong was so sorry to leave this regiment, that I think there may be a chance of his getting hold of us again.
. . . To-day I went on board the “Montauk,” a Monitor lying in the harbour. I met there an officer named Cushman, who took me all over the vessel, and explained everything. In port the cabins are tolerably well ventilated, though very dark; but at sea everything is closed, and in action also; so that the air in the men’s quarters becomes so foul that the lights can hardly be kept going. Forty per cent of their men are on the sick-list, and they have to send some of them home every day. Such a hideous place to live in I never saw. The officers of the navy have by no means as much confidence in the Monitors as the public at large, and say they can be of service only against other iron-clads, or wooden vessels, and brick-and-mortar work. Forts of other descriptions, such as field-works and sand-batteries, they think would get the better of them. It has been necessary to make a great many changes and improvements in them to render them fit for active service; and as this has been done by officers of the navy, they all seem very indignant that Ericsson should have all the credit. They say that, as he turned them over to the navy, they would have been useless. The officers also affirm that the Monitor class or iron-clads was invented by a New York man named Pimbey, four years before Ericsson’s was presented, and that the latter now pays him $30,000 for every Monitor he turns out. In short, they pitch into Ericsson energetically, and think he has appropriated other men’s work and inventions unsparingly. They showed us all the places where the “Montauk” was struck at Charleston, and explained how several of the vessels were disabled by one plate or bolt being forced out of place. The 11-inch gun can be fired once in 2.30 minutes, and the 15-inch not so often. This is very slow. Nevertheless, they are terrible engines, and wonderful in their strength.
I afterwards visited the “Atlanta,” or “Fingal,” the Rebel ram lately captured. She is very powerful, but roughly finished. She had four pieces; two 7-inch and two 61/2-inch rifles, marked “Tredegar Foundry.” They were roughly finished on the outside, but terrible-looking guns. This craft would have made great havoc in our blockading fleet, if she had got out, and it was by a piece of good fortune that we captured her. . . .
With all the love that I have, Your attached Husband

Pictures: 1864 Jubal Early Raid on DC Map; 1863-07 Confederate Pontoon Bridge; The James River Channel Between City Point and Haxell's; 1862 U.S. Army chartered transport Saxon

A. Saturday, July 06, 1861: Commander Raphael Semmes and the C.S.S. Sumter showed up off the Cuban port of Cienfuegos with no less than seven prizes in his custody. Semmes had managed to scoop up seven small U.S. flagged sailing ships in his first week at sea. But Semmes had a problem: the ports of the Confederacy were being blockaded: he had nowhere to take his prizes. If he returned to the Confederacy he would likely find himself confronted by a blockader that outgunned him. What was Semmes to do?
What Raphael Semmes did was to sit down and write a long letter to the Spanish governor of Cienfuegos appealing to Spain's sympathy and invoking the Confederacy and Spain's common interest in protecting slavery: "our unity of interest and policy with regard to an important social and industrial institution." Semmes remarked on how unfair it was that the Union had received all the ships of the U.S. Navy instead of handing over the South's fair share. Semmes then calls upon Spain to make it a fair fight by allowing the South to use Cuban ports for parking captured Union ships until they can be sold.
B. Sunday, July 06, 1862: on the James River, Virginia - Brig. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart led 2 infantry regiments and 6 cannon alongside the James River. he had information that some Union gunboats would be travelling on the river. He set his men into an ambush and waited. A short time after the ambush was set, a Union flotilla came upstream. Slowly passing the ambush was 5 Union transport ships with soldiers on their decks. They were no more than 100 yards away when the Confederates opened fire on the ships with a devastating effect. The artillery shells were crashing through the sides of the ships.
One of the transports sank and a number of soldiers had been knocked overboard of all of the ships, floating in the river. many of the soldiers drowned before being rescued. Stuart heard some additional ships heading towards his position. He ordered his men to pack up and they silently withdrew back to the Confederate lines.
C. Monday, July 06, 1863: Battle of Hagerstown, Maryland. Confederate and Union cavalry clashed at the intersection of Baltimore and South Potomac streets in Hagerstown. Confederates could not cross the swollen Potomac River because their pontoon bridge was destroyed. The Battle of Hagerstown, a seven-hour fight that involved roughly 2,000 soldiers and resulted in nearly 200 casualties. “The Confederates pretty much find that they’re trapped north of the Potomac River.” The stage for the Battle of Hagerstown was set when Union Brig. Gen. Hugh Kilpatrick turned his men toward Hagerstown after receiving intelligence that Confederate supply wagons were heading toward the city.
Stephen Bockmiller, a local historian and planner for the City of Hagerstown, said the battle was fought primarily by cavalry troops who crossed paths three days after the Battle of Gettysburg ended July 3.
As the Confederates were retreating on July 4, a driving rainstorm struck the area and caused the Potomac River to swell, Bockmiller said. The high water, coupled with the Union army’s destruction of a Confederate pontoon bridge near Williamsport, produced a barrier that prevented Southern forces from escaping to Virginia.
“The Confederates pretty much find that they’re trapped north of the Potomac River,” Bockmiller said.
The stage for the Battle of Hagerstown was set when Union Brig. Gen. Hugh Kilpatrick turned his men toward Hagerstown after receiving intelligence that Confederate supply wagons were heading toward the city.
Bockmiller said when Kilpatrick’s forces arrived around noon on July 6, they discovered the Rebels already had occupied the town.
“(Kilpatrick) finds that the Confederates have beaten him here,” Bockmiller said.
First phase
The first phase of the battle started at about noon when a brigade of Virginia cavalry under Col. John Chambliss deployed south of Hagerstown.
The 9th Virginia Cavalry was sent out as skirmishers across the southern end of town, while the 10th Virginia Cavalry formed a barricade along Baltimore Street in the area of South Potomac Street.
“They literally turned over wagons like the stuff you see in old Western movies ... to keep the Union cavalry from getting into town,” Bockmiller said.
Union soldiers under the command of Kilpatrick charged several squadrons up Frederick Street. They then turned west on Baltimore Street toward the defending Confederates.
“A fight ensues at the corner of Potomac and Baltimore,” Bockmiller said. “The Union cavalry overwhelms the barricade and sends the 9th and 10 Virginia fleeing up Potomac Street near Public Square.”
Second phase
As the two armies clashed on Public Square, a separate company of Confederate cavalry under the command of Capt. Frank Bond joined the fight from Washington Street.
“There was a huge mounted cavalry battle in the middle of Public Square — picture scores and scores of mounted soldiers shooting and slashing at one another,” Bockmiller said. “It was pretty much chaos. It was stirrup-to-stirrup action.”
During the fight, Bockmiller said, a Confederate sergeant named Hammond Dorsey killed several Union soldiers during a sword battle. Bockmiller said Dorsey’s rampage was halted when he went after a Union bugler, who used his instrument to blunt a number of saber strikes from Dorsey.
Witness accounts said the bugle, which was mangled in the attack, saved the Union trooper’s life and no doubt spared several of his comrades from Dorsey’s wrath.
While the cavalry battle waged on the square, Confederate forces set up more defensive positions to the north near the site of the current City Hall at 1 E. Franklin St. and at Zion Church on the northwest corner of Church and North Potomac streets.
Third phase
During the third phase of the battle, things slowed down as far as the cavalry action, and Union soldiers hunkered down on Public Square, basically just holding the ground.
Bockmiller said two regiments of North Carolina cavalry under the command of Brig. Gen. Beverly Robertson entered town from the north and created a defensive position at Zion Church.
“The hill that Zion Church is on was the north end of town at the time. It was high ground,” Bockmiller said.
He said a few hundred of Robertson’s men created the defensive position at Church and Potomac streets.
During this phase of the battle, Bockmiller said, an artillery duel took place.
Union troops set up two artillery pieces at the site of the old Washington County Hospital, he said. At the time, the land was occupied by a school known as the Hagerstown Female Seminary.
Bockmiller said Confederate artillery deployed on the north end of the city, possibly in the area where Pangborn Elementary School is today.
He said the artillery battle lasted for a 30-minute span that town residents said “shook the town to its core.”
Federal artillery hit a Confederate supply wagon loaded with ordnance, Bockmiller said, causing a “huge explosion.”
Fourth phase
After the artillery exchange, Union troops who earlier had taken up a position on the square divided into two groups of 10 men each.
The men started to move north up both sides of Potomac Street, led by Capt. Ulric Dahlgren, who stayed on top of his horse.
Bockmiller said the Union troops used crates and the insets of doors for cover as they moved up the street.
During the advance, an older man, whose was a civilian and name is not known for certain, exited a building with a musket and joined the fight on the side of the Union.
“He was shot down before he got a block,” Bockmiller said.
The Union soldiers were able to make it to Potomac and Franklin streets near the current City Hall.
Meanwhile, the Confederates used alleys to work their way from Zion Church to a well at the site where the Pioneer Ladder Co. on West Franklin Street is today. From there, the Rebels fired at the advancing Yankees.
At the intersection of Franklin and Potomac streets, Dahlgren was shot in the ankle, Bockmiller said. From that point on, the Union advance wavered.
“Dahlgren rides back to Kilpatrick and informs him that we’ve picked up an extra block of territory, but the attack has stalled down again,” Bockmiller said.
Dahlgren, not knowing how badly he was wounded, passed out from losing a large amount of blood. His foot was amputated at Boonsboro shortly after the battle.
Dahlgren returned to action and eventually was promoted to colonel. He died on March 2, 1864, while fighting near Richmond, Va.
Fifth phase
The fifth phase of the battle was a mounted Union cavalry charge up Potomac Street toward the Confederate positions at the north end of town.
Bockmiller said the 18th Pennsylvania Cavalry sent two companies up Potomac Street, but the attack fizzled in front of City Hall.
At this point of the battle, Kilpatrick decided that the Confederate supply wagons he initially came to Hagerstown to capture weren’t worth the cost.
“What he’s got himself into isn’t worth trying to get those wagons anymore,” Bockmiller said.
Kilpatrick heard that Union Brig. Gen. John Buford was engaged in a fight at Williamsport, and pulled out of Hagerstown at about 7 p.m. to lend support.
“That leaves a battle with a few hundred killed and wounded, and streets littered with dead and wounded men and horses,” Bockmiller said.
About 100 Union soldiers were stranded in town when Kilpatrick pulled out, Bockmiller said. A few were able to escape and rejoin their units, while the rest were hidden by residents who were sympathetic to the Union cause.
D. Wednesday, July 06, 1864: Federal commanders in Washington D. C. begin recalling demobilized troops to defend the city from Jubal Early. Meanwhile thousands of active duty Union troops were rushed to Washington. This is what Robert E. Lee had hoped for as it relieved the pressure on his army as it was defending the capital of the Confederate States of America. At this point Jubal Early’s troops were resting and recovering for the battle at Maryland Heights near Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.

1. Saturday, July 06, 1861: General Sigel continued his withdrawal to Mount Vernon.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/the-american-civil-war/american-civil-war-july-1861/
2. Sunday, July 06, 1862: Major General Ambrose Burnside leaves North Carolina by boat and heads to Harrison's Landing.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186207
3. Sunday, July 06, 1862 --- Col. Nathan Bedford Forrest of the Confederate Army, with over 1,000 mounted men, sets off from Tupelo, Mississippi on a raid into central Tennessee, in order to threaten Halleck’s and Buell’s supply lines. Buell’s Army of the Ohio is moving gradually east towards Chattanooga.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+6%2C+1862
4. Monday, July 06, 1863: Rear Admiral Samuel Du Pont, South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, is relieved of duty over the lack of ability of the Navy to make headway against the fortifications of Charleston, according to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles. He is replaced by John Dahlgren.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186307
5. Monday, July 06, 1863 --- Lincoln writes to Gen. Henry W. Halleck about Meade’s intentions to pursue or even destroy Lee as the Rebels move west and east toward the crossing across the Potomac, in a tone that is scarcely restrained in its irony and sarcasm: Soldiers' Home, [Washington,] July 6, 1863--- 7 p.m. to Major-General Halleck: “I left the telegraph office a good deal dissatisfied. You know I did not like the phrase, in Orders, No. 68, I believe, ``Drive the invaders from our soil.'' Since that, I see a dispatch from General French, saying the enemy is crossing his wounded over the river in flats, without saying why he does not stop it, or even intimating a thought that it ought to be stopped. Still later, another dispatch from General Pleasonton, by direction of General Meade, to General French, stating that the main army is halted because it is believed the rebels are concentrating ``on the road toward Hagerstown, beyond Fairfield,'' and is not to move until it is ascertained that the rebels intend to evacuate Cumberland Valley.
These things all appear to me to be connected with a purpose to cover Baltimore and Washington, and to get the enemy across the river again without a further collision, and they do not appear connected with a purpose to prevent his crossing and to destroy him. I do fear the former purpose is acted upon and the latter is rejected.
If you are satisfied the latter purpose is entertained and is judiciously pursued, I am content. If you are not so satisfied, please look to it. Yours, truly, A. LINCOLN.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+6%2C+1863
6. Sunday, July 06, 1862 --- Josiah Marshall Favill, a captain in the 57th New York Infantry Regiment, writes in his diary, puzzling over the Army of the Potomac’s recent defeats in the Seven Days Battles---a remarkably clear although implicit criticism of McClellan in the observations of such a young officer of the entire Peninsula Campaign: “July 6th. I was present at an interesting conversation between General French and Zook, regarding the campaign just closed. Both of them admitted it had been a complete failure, in spite of the gallant and meritorious conduct of the troops. From the time the army first started for Manassas, until the second day of July, its movements, except in retreat, have been timid, vacillating, and indecisive. In no instance has it initiated the fighting, although organized for that purpose. When attacked, it has shown itself capable of great deeds, and has invariably succeeded in defeating its opponent, but never was allowed to take advantage of the fact. Upon landing before Yorktown, that stronghold could, as is well known now, have been captured by a coup-de-main, with almost no loss, the enemy being in small force, and wholly unprepared for defence. That plan, however, never seems to have occurred to the general commanding, his brain being filled with the idea of a great siege, like Sebastopol, in the Crimea. Having decided on the siege, everything else was neglected and the slow, laborious operation of digging entrenchments, and erecting batteries went along just as in the sieges of the Middle Ages, every one taking his time, and only careful to do things regularly. When the enemy evacuated the place, through lack of alertness on our part, they were able to move everything of value, and make an orderly and secure retreat, not a single wagon being abandoned. The advance and operations at Williamsburg were of the most perfunctory order, ill advised, indifferently carried out, and wholly without result. While the general commanding ostensibly undertook to cut off part of the enemy’s force at West Point, or near there, the movements of the Army of the Potomac were so sluggish that the enemy easily got out of the way. Our army met with no resistance on the advance to West Point, and yet was nearly ten days in getting there. The advance from the White House to the Chickahominy was extraordinarily slow and hesitating, the troops not averaging more than five miles a day. Arriving at the Chickahominy, the grave military error of isolating a part of the army by a treacherous and difficult stream, was inexcusable, and has lost us much prestige. On the first of June everything was propitious, the army concentrated, the men anxious for a trial of their strength, and all abundantly supplied. At the very outset we forgot our plans; our theory, and our duty, and instead of taking the initiative with the combined army, and attacking the enemy, we awaited his attack and contented ourselves throughout the entire day with simply repulsing his efforts and holding our ground. Was there ever so great a miscarriage before? That a general attack would have resulted in success, and possibly an overwhelming victory, was the opinion of almost every officer in the field with whom I talked. But the general commanding seemed to be satisfied with holding his ground. Why we should have remained at Fair Oaks passes understanding. If we could not advance and attack advantageously, on the first of June, how could we do so subsequently, when the enemy had fortified himself? Fortifying ourselves on the southern, or right bank of the Chickahominy, we remained constantly under fire, powerless and inactive. How long this state of things would have lasted, had not the enemy renewed the fighting, is hard to guess. Gaines’ Mills afforded one more capital chance for carrying out our plans. The enemy concentrated his army, and made a powerful attack on our right, a formidable position, which might have been held had troops enough been sent to support Porter’s command, but in arranging for their attack, the enemy withdrew nearly all his troops in front of Sumner, Franklin, and Heintzleman’s splendid corps, which lay inactive behind impregnable earthworks. As we knew, at least in front of our corps negroes were marched about their lines, beating drums, and making a noise, to deceive us with the belief that the troops were still there. Zook ascertained they were not there, and begged for permission to attack. If late in the afternoon, when Lee was concentrating all his forces, and pushing the fighting against Porter’s corps, Sumner had made a dash for the works in front, they would certainly have been carried, and our advance moved to within shelling distance of Richmond, which would have been a position worth obtaining. In any case, we should inevitably have drawn off the force attacking Porter, and probably had the chance to fight them in rear of their own works. Admitting the retreat was conducted superbly, the general’s Fourth of July address to the contrary, there was an immense amount of all kinds of material destroyed. At Savage Station, while we lay there, a heavy train loaded with stores, was set on fire and sent under full headway over the burning bridge across the Chickahominy, to plunge headlong into the stream, where all was absolutely destroyed. The fight at Malvern Hill was entirely favorable to our side, the enemy lost enormously, while we suffered very little, and at the close of the fight, the rebel troops were dispirited and thoroughly exhausted; our corps, and the troops on the right were mostly fresh, excepting two brigades of our division. If a grand attack in force, of the entire army, well led, had been ordered immediately after the repulse of the enemy’s last attack, who can doubt the result? But the same timid methods continued and the army was withdrawn, exactly as though it had sustained an overwhelming defeat. With such a commander, we can’t hope for success, at least in anything more than a defensive warfare. Such certainly is the opinion of a great many of our brightest officers.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+6%2C+1862
7. Monday, July 06, 1863: Gettysburg Campaign
• Skirmish at Hagerstown, Maryland
• Skirmish at Williamsport, Maryland
http://www.emmitsburg.net/archive_list/articles/history/civil_war/engagements_in_the_emmitsburg_area.htm
8. Monday, July 06, 1863: Meade’s army started to move out of Gettysburg and followed Lee’s army but did nothing to actively engage it.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/the-american-civil-war/american-civil-war-july-1863/
9. Wednesday, July 06, 1864: Hagerstown, Maryland - On July 6, Brig. Gen. John McClausland and his Confederate cavalry entered Hagerstown. McClausland levied the town for $20,000 in retaliation for the Maj. Gen. David Hunter's raid and destruction in the Shenandoah Valley. After getting their money, the Confederates left town.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1864s.html
10. Wednesday, July 06, 1864: Jackson County, Missouri - On July 6, Capt. George Todd and his Confederate guerrillas ambushed a Union patrol of the 2nd Colorado Cavalry. The Federals were quickly scattered and 8 union soldiers were killed.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1864s.html
11. Monday, July 06, 1863 --- Siege of Port Hudson, Day 40
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+6%2C+1863
12. Monday, July 06, 1863: In a letter to his wife dated July 6, 1863, Robert Gould Shaw addressed his wife's concerns about his being associated with the notorious Kansas Jayhawker James Montgomery and tells her about his visit to the monitor U.S.S. Montauk. St. Helena’s Island. “My Own Darling Wife, As I wrote you last week, your long letter of June 5th to 10th came at last, and to-day I got that of the 23d to 26th. I am so sorry you have been worrying yourself about Montgomery and my connection with him, and I hope that my later letters have put your mind at rest. . . .
When you get this, you will have been a good while without news from me, as the last mail was not allowed to go, on account of the military movements in this Department. I wrote to Father the other day that we were left here, and most of the other troops had gone to Folly Island,—at least we suppose that was their destination. There is no knowing how soon, or in what direction, we may get orders to move. It is my great desire to join the main army, and General Strong was so sorry to leave this regiment, that I think there may be a chance of his getting hold of us again.
. . . To-day I went on board the “Montauk,” a Monitor lying in the harbour. I met there an officer named Cushman, who took me all over the vessel, and explained everything. In port the cabins are tolerably well ventilated, though very dark; but at sea everything is closed, and in action also; so that the air in the men’s quarters becomes so foul that the lights can hardly be kept going. Forty per cent of their men are on the sick-list, and they have to send some of them home every day. Such a hideous place to live in I never saw. The officers of the navy have by no means as much confidence in the Monitors as the public at large, and say they can be of service only against other iron-clads, or wooden vessels, and brick-and-mortar work. Forts of other descriptions, such as field-works and sand-batteries, they think would get the better of them. It has been necessary to make a great many changes and improvements in them to render them fit for active service; and as this has been done by officers of the navy, they all seem very indignant that Ericsson should have all the credit. They say that, as he turned them over to the navy, they would have been useless. The officers also affirm that the Monitor class or iron-clads was invented by a New York man named Pimbey, four years before Ericsson’s was presented, and that the latter now pays him $30,000 for every Monitor he turns out. In short, they pitch into Ericsson energetically, and think he has appropriated other men’s work and inventions unsparingly. They showed us all the places where the “Montauk” was struck at Charleston, and explained how several of the vessels were disabled by one plate or bolt being forced out of place. The 11-inch gun can be fired once in 2.30 minutes, and the 15-inch not so often. This is very slow. Nevertheless, they are terrible engines, and wonderful in their strength.
I afterwards visited the “Atlanta,” or “Fingal,” the Rebel ram lately captured. She is very powerful, but roughly finished. She had four pieces; two 7-inch and two 61/2-inch rifles, marked “Tredegar Foundry.” They were roughly finished on the outside, but terrible-looking guns. This craft would have made great havoc in our blockading fleet, if she had got out, and it was by a piece of good fortune that we captured her. . . .
With all the love that I have, Your attached Husband
http://www.civilwar-online.com/search?updated-max=2013-07-08T15:22:00-04:00&max-results=6&reverse-paginate=true&start=42&by-date=false
13. Grant reflects on the fall of Vicksburg in 1863: After the war, Ulysses S. Grant reflected on the immediate consequences of the fall of Vicksburg. One of the more surprising consequences for readers of history who are used reading about the Confederate army capturing and using Union weapons was the way Grant's army re-equipped itself with the Enfield rifles captured from Pemberton's men. From Grant's memoirs.
“The first dispatch I received from the government after the fall of Vicksburg was in these words: "I fear your paroling the prisoners at Vicksburg, without actual delivery to a proper agent as required by the seventh article of the cartel, may be construed into an absolute release, and that the men will immediately be placed in the ranks of the enemy. Such has been the case elsewhere. If these prisoners have not been allowed to depart, you will detain them until further orders."
Halleck did not know that they had already been delivered into the hands of Major Watts, Confederate commissioner for the exchange of prisoners.
At Vicksburg 31,600 prisoners were surrendered, together with 172 cannon about 60,000 muskets and a large amount of ammunition. The small-arms of the enemy were far superior to the bulk of ours. Up to this time our troops at the West had been limited to the old United States flint-lock muskets changed into percussion, or the Belgian musket imported early in the war—almost as dangerous to the person firing it as to the one aimed at—and a few new and improved arms. These were of many different calibers, a fact that caused much trouble in distributing ammunition during an engagement. The enemy had generally new arms which had run the blockade and were of uniform caliber. After the surrender I authorized all colonels whose regiments were armed with inferior muskets, to place them in the stack of captured arms and replace them with the latter. A large number of arms turned in to the Ordnance Department as captured, were thus arms that had really been used by the Union army in the capture of Vicksburg.
In this narrative I have not made the mention I should like of officers, dead and alive, whose services entitle them to special mention. Neither have I made that mention of the navy which its services deserve. Suffice it to say, the close of the siege of Vicksburg found us with an army unsurpassed, in proportion to its numbers, taken as a whole of officers and men. A military education was acquired which no other school could have given. Men who thought a company was quite enough for them to command properly at the beginning, would have made good regimental or brigade commanders; most of the brigade commanders were equal to the command of a division, and one, Ransom, would have been equal to the command of a corps at least. Logan and Crocker ended the campaign fitted to command independent armies.
General F. P. Blair joined me at Milliken's Bend a full-fledged general, without having served in a lower grade. He commanded a division in the campaign. I had known Blair in Missouri, where I had voted against him in 1858 when he ran for Congress. I knew him as a frank, positive and generous man, true to his friends even to a fault, but always a leader. I dreaded his coming; I knew from experience that it was more difficult to command two generals desiring to be leaders than it was to command one army officered intelligently and with subordination. It affords me the greatest pleasure to record now my agreeable disappointment in respect to his character. There was no man braver than he, nor was there any who obeyed all orders of his superior in rank with more unquestioning alacrity. He was one man as a soldier, another as a politician.
The navy under Porter was all it could be, during the entire campaign. Without its assistance the campaign could not have been successfully made with twice the number of men engaged. It could not have been made at all, in the way it was, with any number of men without such assistance. The most perfect harmony reigned between the two arms of the service. There never was a request made, that I am aware of, either of the flag-officer or any of his subordinates, that was not promptly complied with.
The campaign of Vicksburg was suggested and developed by circumstances. The elections of 1862 had gone against the prosecution of the war. Voluntary enlistments had nearly ceased and the draft had been resorted to; this was resisted, and a defeat or backward movement would have made its execution impossible. A forward movement to a decisive victory was necessary. Accordingly I resolved to get below Vicksburg, unite with Banks against Port Hudson, make New Orleans a base and, with that base and Grand Gulf as a starting point, move our combined forces against Vicksburg. Upon reaching Grand Gulf, after running its batteries and fighting a battle, I received a letter from Banks informing me that he could not be at Port Hudson under ten days, and then with only fifteen thousand men. The time was worth more than the reinforcements; I therefore determined to push into the interior of the enemy's country.
With a large river behind us, held above and below by the enemy, rapid movements were essential to success. Jackson was captured the day after a new commander had arrived, and only a few days before large reinforcements were expected. A rapid movement west was made; the garrison of Vicksburg was met in two engagements and badly defeated, and driven back into its stronghold and there successfully besieged. It looks now as though Providence had directed the course of the campaign while the Army of the Tennessee executed the decree.
Upon the surrender of the garrison of Vicksburg there were three things that required immediate attention. The first was to send a force to drive the enemy from our rear, and out of the State. The second was to send reinforcements to Banks near Port Hudson, if necessary, to complete the triumph of opening the Mississippi from its source to its mouth to the free navigation of vessels bearing the Stars and Stripes. The third was to inform the authorities at Washington and the North of the good news, to relieve their long suspense and strengthen their confidence in the ultimate success of the cause they had so much at heart.
Soon after negotiations were opened with General Pemberton for the surrender of the city, I notified Sherman, whose troops extended from Haines' Bluff on the left to the crossing of the Vicksburg and Jackson road over the Big Black on the right, and directed him to hold his command in readiness to advance and drive the enemy from the State as soon as Vicksburg surrendered. Steele and Ord were directed to be in readiness to join Sherman in his move against General Johnston, and Sherman was advised of this also. Sherman moved promptly, crossing the Big Black at three different points with as many columns, all concentrating at Bolton, twenty miles west of Jackson.”
http://www.civilwar-online.com/search?updated-max=2013-07-08T15:22:00-04:00&max-results=6&reverse-paginate=true&start=42&by-date=false

A Saturday, July 06, 1861: Raphael Semmes tries to bring prizes into Cienfuegos, Cuba. Commander Raphael Semmes and the C.S.S. Sumter showed up off the Cuban port of Cienfuegos with no less than seven prizes in his custody. Semmes had managed to scoop up seven small U.S. flagged sailing ships in his first week at sea. But Semmes had a problem: the ports of the Confederacy were being blockaded: he had nowhere to take his prizes. If he returned to the Confederacy he would likely find himself confronted by a blockader that outgunned him. What was Semmes to do?
What Raphael Semmes did was to sit down and write a long letter to the Spanish governor of Cienfuegos appealing to Spain's sympathy and invoking the Confederacy and Spain's common interest in protecting slavery: "our unity of interest and policy with regard to an important social and industrial institution." Semmes remarked on how unfair it was that the Union had received all the ships of the U.S. Navy instead of handing over the South's fair share. Semmes then calls upon Spain to make it a fair fight by allowing the South to use Cuban ports for parking captured Union ships until they can be sold.
Letter from Commander Semmes, C.S. Navy, commanding C.S.S. Sumter, to the governor of Cienfuegos, Cuba, announcing the arrival of that vessel at that port, with seven prizes of war.
C.S.S. SUMTER, Cienfuegos, Island of Cuba, July 6, 1861. To His Excellency Don JOSE DE LA POZUELA, Governor of the City of Cienfuegos, Island of Cuba. “SIR: I have the honor to inform your Excellency of my arrival at the port of Cienfuegos, with seven prizes of war. These vessels are the brigantines Cuba, Machias, Ben Dunning, Albert Adams, and Naiad, and barks West Wind and Lewis (Louisa) Kilhain, property of citizens of time United States, which States, as your Excellency is aware, are waging an unjust and aggressive war upon the Confederate States, which I have the honor, with this ship under my command, to represent. I have sought a port of Cuba with these prizes with the expectation that Spain will extend to cruisers of the Confederate States the same friendly reception that in similar circumstances she would extend to the cruisers of the enemy; in other words, that she will permit me to leave the captured vessels within her junsdiction until they can be adjudicated by a court of admiralty of the Confederate States. As a people, maintaining a government de facto, and not only holding the enemy in check, but gaining advantages over him, we are entitled to all the rights of belligerents, and I confidently rely upon the friendly disposition of Spain, who is our near neighbor in the most important of her colonial possessions, to receive us with equal and even-handed justice, if not with the sympathy which our unity of interest and policy with regard to an important social and industrial institution are so well calculated to inspire. A rule which would exclude our prizes from her ports during the war, although it should be applied in terms equally to the enemy, would not, I respectfully suggest, be an equitable or just rule. The basis of such a rule, as indeed of all the conduct of a neutral during war, is equal and impartial justice to all the belligerents, and this should be a substantial and practical justice, and not exist in delusive or deceptive terms merely.
Now, a little reflection will show your Excellency that the rule in question can not be applied in the present war without operating great injustice to the Confederate States. It is well known to your Excellency that the United States, being a manufacturing and commercial people, while the Confederate States have been thus far almost wholly an agricultural and planting people, the former had within their limits and control at the commencement of the war almost the whole naval force of the old Government, and that they have seized and appropriated this force to themselves regardless of the just claims of the Confederate States to a portion, and a large portion of it, as taxpayers out of whose contributions it was created. The United States are thus enabled to blockade all the important ports of the Confederate States. In this condition of things, observe the practical working of the rule which I am discussing. It must be admitted that we have equal belligerent rights with the enemy. One of the most important of these rights in a war against a commercial people is that which I have just exercised, of capturing his property upon the high seas. But how are the Confederate States to enjoy to its full extent the benefit of this right, if their cruisers are not permitted to enter neutral ports with their prizes, and retain them there in safe custody until they can be condemned and disposed of? They can not send them to their own ports for the reasons already stated. Except for the purpose of destruction, therefore, their right of capture would be entirely defeated by the adoption of the rule in question, whilst the enemy would suffer no inconvenience from it, as all his ports are open to him. I take it for granted that Spain will not think of acting upon so unjust and unequal a rule. But another question arises, indeed has already arisen, in the cases of some of the very captures which I have brought into port. The cargoes of several of the vessels are claimed, as appears by certificates found among the papers, as Spanish property. This fact can not of course be verified, except by a judicial proceeding in the prize courts of the Confederate States. But whilst this fact is being determined, what is to be done with the property? I have the right to destroy the vessels but not the cargoes, in case the latter should prove to be, as claimed, Spanish property, but how am I to destroy the former and not the latter? I can not, before sentence, unlade the cargoes and deliver them to the claimants, for I do not know that the claims will be sustained, and I can not destroy them, for I do not know that the claims will not be sustained.
Indeed, one of the motives which influenced me in seeking a Spanish port was the fact that these cargoes were claimed by Spanish subjects, whom I was desirous of putting to as little inconvenience as possible in the unlading and reception of their property after sentence, should it be restored to them.
It will be for your Excellency to consider and act upon these grave questions, touching alike the interests of both our governments. I have the honor to be, etc., [RAPHAEL SEMMES, Commander, C.S. Navy.]”
This letter is a remarkable document--Semmes truly outdoes himself in trying to make the argument that the Spain's Cuban colonial administration should violate international law and help the South. Semmes did not tarry to argue the point--he sailed the next day after appointing a local merchant as his agent and leaving behind instructions for a five man prize crew that had failed to make Cienfuegos in time and were left behind. Semmes left the stragglers' baggage behind and instructed them to find their own way back to the Confederacy.
As for Governor Don Jose De La Pozuela, he waited a decent amount of time for Semmes to make himself scarce and let he let every one of the Confederate raider's prizes go free. Spain's Cuban colonial governors, it seemed, were not interested in ensuring that the Confederate Navy got a fair chance.
http://www.civilwar-online.com/2016/07/july-6-1861-raphael-semmes-tries-to.html
B Sunday, July 06, 1862: on the James River, Virginia - On July 6, Brig. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart led 2 infantry regiments and 6 cannon alongside the James River. he had information that some Union gunboats would be travelling on the river. He set his men into an ambush and waited. A short time after the ambush was set, a Union flotilla came upstream. Slowly passing the ambush was 5 Union transport ships with soldiers on their decks. They were no more than 100 yards away when the Confederates opened fire on the ships with a devastating effect. The artillery shells were crashing through the sides of the ships.
One of the transports sank and a number of soldiers had been knocked overboard of all of the ships, floating in the river. many of the soldiers drowned before being rescued. Stuart heard some additional ships heading towards his position. He ordered his men to pack up and they silently withdrew back to the Confederate lines.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1862s.html
Monday, July 06, 1863 --- Gen. Wm. T. Sherman, under Grant’s orders, launches a pursuit of Joseph Johnston’s Confederate troops, as the Rebels fall back toward Jackson, the state capital. As they withdraw, Johnston orders all wells to be fouled, so as to deprive Sherman’s men of any water. This infuriates the Yankees, and Sherman wreaks havoc on farms and property along the way.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+6%2C+1863
Monday, July 06, 1863: Wounded Confederate soldiers arrive in Martinsburg following the Army of Northern Virginia's defeat at the Battle of Gettysburg.
http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Martinsburg_Virginia_During_the_Civil_War
Monday, July 06, 1863 --- In Maryland, Gen. John Buford’s cavalry division encounter Confederate troops in Hagerstown, and also in Boonsboro. The fight escalates when Judson Kilpatrick and his Federal cavalry division arrives, and Stuart’s cavalry gets more involved. The Federals are finally driven off, but Buford retains control of the gap through the mountain at Boonsboro.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+6%2C+1863
C Monday, July 06, 1863: Battle of Hagerstown, Maryland. The stage for the Battle of Hagerstown was set when Union Brig. Gen. Hugh Kilpatrick turned his men toward Hagerstown after receiving intelligence that Confederate supply wagons were heading toward the city.
On July 6, 1863, Confederate and Union cavalry clashed at the intersection of Baltimore and South Potomac streets in Hagerstown. That skirmish was the start of what was to become the Battle of Hagerstown, a seven-hour fight that involved roughly 2,000 soldiers and resulted in nearly 200 casualties.
Stephen Bockmiller, a local historian and planner for the City of Hagerstown, said the battle was fought primarily by cavalry troops who crossed paths three days after the Battle of Gettysburg ended July 3.
As the Confederates were retreating on July 4, a driving rainstorm struck the area and caused the Potomac River to swell, Bockmiller said. The high water, coupled with the Union army’s destruction of a Confederate pontoon bridge near Williamsport, produced a barrier that prevented Southern forces from escaping to Virginia.
“The Confederates pretty much find that they’re trapped north of the Potomac River,” Bockmiller said.
The stage for the Battle of Hagerstown was set when Union Brig. Gen. Hugh Kilpatrick turned his men toward Hagerstown after receiving intelligence that Confederate supply wagons were heading toward the city.
Bockmiller said when Kilpatrick’s forces arrived around noon on July 6, they discovered the Rebels already had occupied the town.
“(Kilpatrick) finds that the Confederates have beaten him here,” Bockmiller said.
First phase
The first phase of the battle started at about noon when a brigade of Virginia cavalry under Col. John Chambliss deployed south of Hagerstown.
The 9th Virginia Cavalry was sent out as skirmishers across the southern end of town, while the 10th Virginia Cavalry formed a barricade along Baltimore Street in the area of South Potomac Street.
“They literally turned over wagons like the stuff you see in old Western movies ... to keep the Union cavalry from getting into town,” Bockmiller said.
Union soldiers under the command of Kilpatrick charged several squadrons up Frederick Street. They then turned west on Baltimore Street toward the defending Confederates.
“A fight ensues at the corner of Potomac and Baltimore,” Bockmiller said. “The Union cavalry overwhelms the barricade and sends the 9th and 10 Virginia fleeing up Potomac Street near Public Square.”
Second phase
As the two armies clashed on Public Square, a separate company of Confederate cavalry under the command of Capt. Frank Bond joined the fight from Washington Street.
“There was a huge mounted cavalry battle in the middle of Public Square — picture scores and scores of mounted soldiers shooting and slashing at one another,” Bockmiller said. “It was pretty much chaos. It was stirrup-to-stirrup action.”
During the fight, Bockmiller said, a Confederate sergeant named Hammond Dorsey killed several Union soldiers during a sword battle. Bockmiller said Dorsey’s rampage was halted when he went after a Union bugler, who used his instrument to blunt a number of saber strikes from Dorsey.
Witness accounts said the bugle, which was mangled in the attack, saved the Union trooper’s life and no doubt spared several of his comrades from Dorsey’s wrath.
While the cavalry battle waged on the square, Confederate forces set up more defensive positions to the north near the site of the current City Hall at 1 E. Franklin St. and at Zion Church on the northwest corner of Church and North Potomac streets.
Third phase
During the third phase of the battle, things slowed down as far as the cavalry action, and Union soldiers hunkered down on Public Square, basically just holding the ground.
Bockmiller said two regiments of North Carolina cavalry under the command of Brig. Gen. Beverly Robertson entered town from the north and created a defensive position at Zion Church.
“The hill that Zion Church is on was the north end of town at the time. It was high ground,” Bockmiller said.
He said a few hundred of Robertson’s men created the defensive position at Church and Potomac streets.
During this phase of the battle, Bockmiller said, an artillery duel took place.
Union troops set up two artillery pieces at the site of the old Washington County Hospital, he said. At the time, the land was occupied by a school known as the Hagerstown Female Seminary.
Bockmiller said Confederate artillery deployed on the north end of the city, possibly in the area where Pangborn Elementary School is today.
He said the artillery battle lasted for a 30-minute span that town residents said “shook the town to its core.”
Federal artillery hit a Confederate supply wagon loaded with ordnance, Bockmiller said, causing a “huge explosion.”
Fourth phase
After the artillery exchange, Union troops who earlier had taken up a position on the square divided into two groups of 10 men each.
The men started to move north up both sides of Potomac Street, led by Capt. Ulric Dahlgren, who stayed on top of his horse.
Bockmiller said the Union troops used crates and the insets of doors for cover as they moved up the street.
During the advance, an older man, whose was a civilian and name is not known for certain, exited a building with a musket and joined the fight on the side of the Union.
“He was shot down before he got a block,” Bockmiller said.
The Union soldiers were able to make it to Potomac and Franklin streets near the current City Hall.
Meanwhile, the Confederates used alleys to work their way from Zion Church to a well at the site where the Pioneer Ladder Co. on West Franklin Street is today. From there, the Rebels fired at the advancing Yankees.
At the intersection of Franklin and Potomac streets, Dahlgren was shot in the ankle, Bockmiller said. From that point on, the Union advance wavered.
“Dahlgren rides back to Kilpatrick and informs him that we’ve picked up an extra block of territory, but the attack has stalled down again,” Bockmiller said.
Dahlgren, not knowing how badly he was wounded, passed out from losing a large amount of blood. His foot was amputated at Boonsboro shortly after the battle.
Dahlgren returned to action and eventually was promoted to colonel. He died on March 2, 1864, while fighting near Richmond, Va.
Fifth phase
The fifth phase of the battle was a mounted Union cavalry charge up Potomac Street toward the Confederate positions at the north end of town.
Bockmiller said the 18th Pennsylvania Cavalry sent two companies up Potomac Street, but the attack fizzled in front of City Hall.
At this point of the battle, Kilpatrick decided that the Confederate supply wagons he initially came to Hagerstown to capture weren’t worth the cost.
“What he’s got himself into isn’t worth trying to get those wagons anymore,” Bockmiller said.
Kilpatrick heard that Union Brig. Gen. John Buford was engaged in a fight at Williamsport, and pulled out of Hagerstown at about 7 p.m. to lend support.
“That leaves a battle with a few hundred killed and wounded, and streets littered with dead and wounded men and horses,” Bockmiller said.
About 100 Union soldiers were stranded in town when Kilpatrick pulled out, Bockmiller said. A few were able to escape and rejoin their units, while the rest were hidden by residents who were sympathetic to the Union cause.
http://articles.herald-mail.com/2013-07-04/news/40397643_1_stephen-bockmiller-virginia-cavalry-frederick-street
D Wednesday, July 06, 1864: Federal commanders in Washington D. C. begin recalling troops to defend the city from Jubal Early.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186407
D Wednesday, July 06, 1864: Thousands of Union troops were rushed to Washington. This is what Lee had hoped for as it relieved the pressure on his army.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/the-american-civil-war/american-civil-war-july-1864/
FYI SPC Deb Root-White Lt Col Charlie Brown CWO2 John HeinzlGySgt Jack Wallace SPC Diana D. CWO4 Terrence Clark SPC Michael Oles SR [SPC Michael Terrell TSgt David L. CPL Ronald Keyes Jr PO1 John Johnson SPC Private RallyPoint Member SMSgt Lawrence McCarter SP5 Dave (Shotgun) Shockley SFC Randy Purham MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca Maj Kim Patterson SSG Ed Mikus PFC Eric Minchey TSgt George Rodriguez

The American Civil War: Search results for July 6

Response by TSgt Joe C. made Jul 9 at 2016 1:23 AM

2016-07-09T01:23:57-04:00

Interesting what happened on 6 July during the Civil War LTC Stephen F., a very informative read!

Response by SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth made Jul 9 at 2016 6:27 AM

2016-07-09T06:27:48-04:00

Lot of important history here.

Response by 1stSgt Eugene Harless made Jul 9 at 2016 8:25 AM

2016-07-09T08:25:16-04:00

Interesting read about Grant re-equipping his men with Confederate Muskets after Vicksburg. There were literally hundreds of makes and models of rifles used by both armies during the war. It's interesting in that at the start of the war men drilled with sticks and pikes and by the time Lee was on his retreatr after Petersburg the Union Army used Captured Muskets to corduroy muddy roads with.

Response by TSgt George Rodriguez made Jul 6 at 2022 9:38 PM

2022-07-06T21:38:26-04:00

Thanks for the history lesson.