Posted on Jun 17, 2016
What was the most significant event on June 16 during the U.S. Civil War?
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[1864] The Siege of Petersburg
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Early morning assault bogs down in marshy and muddy area in 1862: Federal forces assault failed on the confederate defenses around Charleston, SC on James Island.
1863: CSA Gen Robert E. Lee is moving the infantry and artillery of the Army of Northern Virginia while the cavalry is screening and foraging and moving ahead in Pennsylvania. Most likely he had no idea of the carnage that awaited his Army in the vicinity of Chambersburg at a place known as Gettysburg.
1863: Confederate Cavalry General Albert Jenkins was “of good stock.”
“The Confederates were a mostly well behaved lot. They hardly bothered the farmers, did not tear down fences, and took only a few of the cattle. Most things they took were paid for in Confederate script. Jenkins and his men cleaned out the downtown merchants, who were hardly amused with being paid in such worthless notes.”
“General Jenkins and his Confederates paid for everything, but three particular items:
(1) “horses, which he considered contraband of war. When the horses were found to be in short supply;”
(2) weapons in the town. “Any make or model would do. When delivered, he destroyed the worthless and kept the finest.”
(3) “black people. His men rounded them up like they had wanted to round up horses. Slave, free, man, women, or child, it did not matter. To them, a black person was a slave and nothing more.”
Tuesday June 16, 1863: Corporal James Kendall Hosmer, a Union soldier with Gen. Banks’ Army of the Gulf besieging Port Hudson, writes of the miseries of serving in the infantry investing a besieged fortress, and of the graphic experience of making an assault: “ The Fifty-second Regiment are holding an advanced position here, and, ever since daylight of the morning of the 14th, have lived in the midst of a rain of rifle-balls. At the bottom of the little ravine, I am secure; but if I should put my head up to the surface, climbing up the bank six or eight feet, I should be in the midst of flying bullets, and a fair mark for the rebel sharpshooters who are close at hand. Our brigade is thrown out into the very teeth of the enemy, on ground our troops have never before occupied. This little corner is occupied by the color-guard. If I go to the company, I must go stooping or crawling on my stomach; I must run from a stump to a trunk, and from that to a clump of bushes, and hear all the time the “zip” and “hum” of the rifle-balls. . . .
The work of death had begun; for ambulance-men were bringing back the wounded: and, almost before we had time to think we were in danger, I saw one of our men fall back into the arms of his comrades, shot dead through the chest. The banks of the ravine rose on either side of the road in which we had halted: but just here the trench made a turn; and in front, at the distance of five or six hundred yards, we could plainly see the rebel rampart, red in the morning-light as with blood, and shrouded in white vapor along the edge as the sharpshooters behind kept up an incessant discharge. I believe I felt no sensation of fear, nor do I think those about me did. Wilson and Hardiker carried the flags, and their faces were cheerful and animated. . . . .
In a minute or two, the column has ascended, and is deploying in a long line, under the colonel’s eye, on the open ground. The rebel engineers are most skilful fellows. Between us and the brown earth-heap which we are to try to gain to-day, the space is not wide; but it is cut up in every direction with ravines and gullies. These were covered, until the parapet was raised, with a heavy growth of timber; but now it has all been cut down, so that in every direction the fallen tops of large trees interlace, trunks block up every passage, and brambles are growing over the whole. It is out of the question to advance here in line of battle; it seems almost out of the question to advance in any order: but the word is given, “Forward!” and on we go. Know that this whole space is swept by a constant patter of balls: it is really a “leaden rain.” We go crawling and stooping: but now and then before us rises in plain view the line of earth-works, smoky and sulphurous with volleys; while all about us fall the balls, now sending a lot of little splinters from a stump, now knocking the dead wood out of the old tree-trunk that is sheltering me, now driving up a cloud of dust from a little knoll, or cutting off the head of a weed just under the hand as with an invisible knife. I see one of our best captains carried off the field, mortally wounded, shot through both lungs, — straight, bright-eyed, though so sadly hurt, supported by two of his men; and now almost at my side, in the color-company, one soldier is struck in the hand, and another in the leg. . . . Presently we move on again, through brambles and under charred trunks, tearing our way . . . creeping on our bellies across exposed ridges, where bullets hum and sing like stinging bees; and, right in plain view, the ridge of earth, its brow white with incessant volleys. . . . Down into our little nook now come tumbling a crowd of disorganized, panting men. They are part of a New-York regiment, who, on the crest just over us, have been meeting with very severe loss. . . . From time to time, afterwards, wounded men crawl back from their position a few yards in front of where we are, — one shot through the ankles, who, however, can crawl on his hands and knees; one in the hand; one with his blouse all torn about his breast, where a ball has struck him, yet he can creep away. . . .
It is now noon and after. The sun is intolerably hot, and we have no sufficient shade. That, however, is nothing for us who are unhurt; but we hear of poor wounded men lying without shelter, among them Gen. Paine, whom the ambulance-men cannot yet reach on account of the enemy’s fire. We begin to know that the attack has failed. . . . We have not been as much exposed as some other regiments, and our loss has not been large. The fire, however, seemed very hot, and close at hand; and the wonder to us all is, that no more fell. Darkness settles down; shots are received and returned, but only at random now; and, ever and anon, from the batteries goes tearing through the air a monstrous shell, with a roar like a rushing railroad-train, then an explosion putting every thing for the moment in light. . . . For food to-day, I have had two or three hard crackers and cold potatoes. We have no blankets: so down I lie to sleep as I can on the earth, without covering; and, before morning, am chilled through with the dew and coldness of the air. . . .”
[At night] I climbed up from the ravine, and sat alone, upon the hill on the field, under the starlight. It was a sweet night, and only once or twice came to my sense the taint of unburied slain. For the rest, all was pure. In a half-comic way, the whippoorwill changed his song into “Whipped you well, whipped you well!” I will never believe the bull-frogs that night croaked any thing but “Rebs, rebs!” and the jeering owls hooted out from the tree-tops, “What can you do-o-o?” All about the horizon, fringing the starlit space of blue, a storm was gathering; and behind the black clouds shook the lightning, like the menacing finger of an almighty power threatening doom to this obstinate stronghold. . . .”
Pictures: 1862-06-16 Secessionville SC battle map; 1864-06-16 The charge of the 22nd Negro Regiment, Petersburg, Virginia; 1864-06-15 Petersburg June 15-16; CSA Gen Stonewall Jackson
A. 1862: Battle of Secessionville, South Carolina. Brigadier General H. W. Benham attacks forces under CSA Brigadier General Nathan "Shanks" Evans near Charleston. The Federal army came close to capturing a vital position on James Island, but Federal General Benham's poor planning and the timely arrival of reinforcements resulted in a victory for the outnumbered Confederates.
The Confederate advanced pickets were overrun about 5:00am, this activity alerted the defenders. Col. Lamar mounted the parapet to observe the Union front about 700 yards and closing. He immediately dispatched couriers to Gen. Evans, who was five miles away at Fort Johnson with the reserves. As the defenders rushed to their stations, Col. Lamar took personal command of the 8-inch-Columbiad. The Union lines were within two hundred yards of the fort, Lamar order the Columbiad to fire; grapeshot, nails, iron chain and glass blasted from the cannon directly at the Union center, tearing a great hole through the Federal lines. The Battle of Secessionville had commenced.
Col. Lamar sharply ordered all gun commanders into action and moved the infantry into place firing volleys as they came onto line. The 8th Mich. on the Union right, was now clambering up the face of the fort followed by the 7th Conn. troops and soon after the 28th Mass. The arrival of Confederate reinforcements drove the Federal assault force back from the parapet when the Confederate defense was on the verge of collapse due to casualties on the critical gun crews. The Federals came under severe fire from three sides as they advanced up the fort walls, only to be ordered to fall back to regroup after suffering heavy casualties. Meanwhile the 79th NY on the Union left actually mounted the fort's parapet and were engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the Rebs, when the Union artillery, located at the River's house, opened fire on that fort breaking up the Union attack and forcing the 79th to withdraw. As the first Federal wave collapsed and retreated they hampered the second wave from attacking.
The Federals fell back to the protection of the hedge rows to reformed their lines. They were to make two more unsuccessful assaults before a general withdraw was ordered. While the main assault was taking place the 3rd New Hampshire was attempting a flanking maneuver from the federal left. Their assault brought them to within several yards of the flank of the fort, but they could not make a full assault due to the water and pluff mud that proved to be impassable. They proceeded to assault the fort from across the marsh driving the defenders from the parapets. The two 24-pounders Lamar set up on his right flank were still silent, even though the new gun crews were on line. Lt. Col. Ellison Capers of the 24th SC infantry was sent up to the position to determine the problem. The gun crew, although an artillery unit, had never been trained in firing a cannon before and did not know what to do. Capers sprang into action loading and firing the piece himself, while training the gun crew. Meanwhile 250 men of the 4th LA Battalion arrived from their encampment 2-1/2 miles away to sure up the confederate flank and pour a decimating fire into the 3rd NH troops, causing the Union force to fall back.
By 9:00am the Battle was over. The Federals had sustained 689 casualties, of which 107 dead. Whereas the Confederates realized 207 casualties with 52 killed. Had the Federals captured Battery Lamar they would have flanked the harbor defenses and might have forced the abandonment of Charleston by the Confederacy, cut the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and established a base for operations into the interior which might have ended the war two years sooner.
B. 1862: CSA Gen. Robert E. Lee orders Maj Gen Thomas Stonewall Jackson to begin plans to leave the Valley to bring his 18,500 men to Richmond. After what had already become a legendary campaign of fighting, deception and hard marching, his force was needed to reinforce the Army of Northern Virginia, protecting the capital from Union General George McClellan’s Army of the Potomac.
C. 1863: Gettysburg Campaign. Come dawn, the true occupation began of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. CSA Brig Gen Jenkins and his Confederates paid for everything, but three particular items. The first was horses, which he considered contraband of war. When the horses were found to be in short supply, he proceeded to take all of the arms in the town. Any make or model would do. When delivered, he destroyed the worthless and kept the finest.
The third item which Jenkins took while refusing to pay was black people. His men rounded them up like they had wanted to round up horses. Slave, free, man, women, or child, it did not matter. To them, a black person was a slave and nothing more.
D. 1864: The Second Battle of Petersburg, Virginia: June 15-18, 1864
Despite three full Federal corps being present, Winfield Scott Hancock’s II Corps was the only one which made any attacks greater than a demonstration. Confederate Batteries 3, 13, and 14 fell after the 6 pm attacks commenced. However, CSA Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard’s lines had held, and he even made a few local counterattacks that evening to try to regain some ground. These failed, but kept the tired Union soldiers from getting much needed sleep. The odds were not going to get better than this for the Union forces.
Background: Marching from Cold Harbor, Meade’s Army of the Potomac crossed the James River on transports and a 2,200-foot long pontoon bridge at Windmill Point. Butler’s leading elements (XVIII Corps and Kautz’s cavalry) crossed the Appomattox River at Broadway Landing and attacked the Petersburg defenses on June 15. The 5,400 defenders of Petersburg under command of Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard were driven from their first line of entrenchments back to Harrison Creek. The first day of the Second Battle of Petersburg had seen the Confederate defenders driven back from the Dimmock Line to the western bank of Harrison Creek.
After dark the William F. “Baldy” Smith’s XVIII Corps was relieved by the Winfield Scott Hancock’s II Corps. CSA Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard had received reinforcements through the night, with Hoke’s division arriving first, and then Johnson’s division after Beauregard made the decision to strip the Bermuda Hundred lines to the north of all but skirmishers. CSA Gen. Robert E. Lee would have to plug that hole with his Army of Northern Virginia. Over on the Union side, Winfield Scott Hancock’s II Corps had joined Baldy Smith’s XVIII Corps late on the evening of June 15, and the IX Corps joined them late on the morning of the 16th. The Union corps kept expanding the line to the left from the anchor of the Appomattox River, the XVIII Corps on the left, the II Corps in the center, and the IX Corps on the far right. Three Union corps, around 50,000 men, confronted two Confederate divisions, around 14,000 or so.
Hancock had instructed II Corps division commanders Gibbon and Birney to scout the positions in front of them for a dawn attack, but delays prevented this from occurring until 6 am, well after dawn. Gibbon was on the right, Birney in the center, and as Barlow’s division of the II Corps showed up after a frustrating march in which they lost their way, they formed the left of the corps. Lt Gen Ulysses S. Grant conferred with Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, asked him to take charge of the assaults, and asked for an attack by 6 pm on the evening of the 16th.
FYI PV2 Larry Sellnow Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. SMSgt Lawrence McCarter PO3 Edward Riddle MAJ Roland McDonald CMDCM John F. "Doc" Bradshaw COL (Join to see) SPC Michael Terrell COL Lisandro Murphy LTC Trent Klug CWO3 Dennis M. CPT Kevin McComas]SSgt David M. SPC Maurice Evans SFC Ralph E Kelley
[1864] The Siege of Petersburg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3KKP-efrOI
1863: CSA Gen Robert E. Lee is moving the infantry and artillery of the Army of Northern Virginia while the cavalry is screening and foraging and moving ahead in Pennsylvania. Most likely he had no idea of the carnage that awaited his Army in the vicinity of Chambersburg at a place known as Gettysburg.
1863: Confederate Cavalry General Albert Jenkins was “of good stock.”
“The Confederates were a mostly well behaved lot. They hardly bothered the farmers, did not tear down fences, and took only a few of the cattle. Most things they took were paid for in Confederate script. Jenkins and his men cleaned out the downtown merchants, who were hardly amused with being paid in such worthless notes.”
“General Jenkins and his Confederates paid for everything, but three particular items:
(1) “horses, which he considered contraband of war. When the horses were found to be in short supply;”
(2) weapons in the town. “Any make or model would do. When delivered, he destroyed the worthless and kept the finest.”
(3) “black people. His men rounded them up like they had wanted to round up horses. Slave, free, man, women, or child, it did not matter. To them, a black person was a slave and nothing more.”
Tuesday June 16, 1863: Corporal James Kendall Hosmer, a Union soldier with Gen. Banks’ Army of the Gulf besieging Port Hudson, writes of the miseries of serving in the infantry investing a besieged fortress, and of the graphic experience of making an assault: “ The Fifty-second Regiment are holding an advanced position here, and, ever since daylight of the morning of the 14th, have lived in the midst of a rain of rifle-balls. At the bottom of the little ravine, I am secure; but if I should put my head up to the surface, climbing up the bank six or eight feet, I should be in the midst of flying bullets, and a fair mark for the rebel sharpshooters who are close at hand. Our brigade is thrown out into the very teeth of the enemy, on ground our troops have never before occupied. This little corner is occupied by the color-guard. If I go to the company, I must go stooping or crawling on my stomach; I must run from a stump to a trunk, and from that to a clump of bushes, and hear all the time the “zip” and “hum” of the rifle-balls. . . .
The work of death had begun; for ambulance-men were bringing back the wounded: and, almost before we had time to think we were in danger, I saw one of our men fall back into the arms of his comrades, shot dead through the chest. The banks of the ravine rose on either side of the road in which we had halted: but just here the trench made a turn; and in front, at the distance of five or six hundred yards, we could plainly see the rebel rampart, red in the morning-light as with blood, and shrouded in white vapor along the edge as the sharpshooters behind kept up an incessant discharge. I believe I felt no sensation of fear, nor do I think those about me did. Wilson and Hardiker carried the flags, and their faces were cheerful and animated. . . . .
In a minute or two, the column has ascended, and is deploying in a long line, under the colonel’s eye, on the open ground. The rebel engineers are most skilful fellows. Between us and the brown earth-heap which we are to try to gain to-day, the space is not wide; but it is cut up in every direction with ravines and gullies. These were covered, until the parapet was raised, with a heavy growth of timber; but now it has all been cut down, so that in every direction the fallen tops of large trees interlace, trunks block up every passage, and brambles are growing over the whole. It is out of the question to advance here in line of battle; it seems almost out of the question to advance in any order: but the word is given, “Forward!” and on we go. Know that this whole space is swept by a constant patter of balls: it is really a “leaden rain.” We go crawling and stooping: but now and then before us rises in plain view the line of earth-works, smoky and sulphurous with volleys; while all about us fall the balls, now sending a lot of little splinters from a stump, now knocking the dead wood out of the old tree-trunk that is sheltering me, now driving up a cloud of dust from a little knoll, or cutting off the head of a weed just under the hand as with an invisible knife. I see one of our best captains carried off the field, mortally wounded, shot through both lungs, — straight, bright-eyed, though so sadly hurt, supported by two of his men; and now almost at my side, in the color-company, one soldier is struck in the hand, and another in the leg. . . . Presently we move on again, through brambles and under charred trunks, tearing our way . . . creeping on our bellies across exposed ridges, where bullets hum and sing like stinging bees; and, right in plain view, the ridge of earth, its brow white with incessant volleys. . . . Down into our little nook now come tumbling a crowd of disorganized, panting men. They are part of a New-York regiment, who, on the crest just over us, have been meeting with very severe loss. . . . From time to time, afterwards, wounded men crawl back from their position a few yards in front of where we are, — one shot through the ankles, who, however, can crawl on his hands and knees; one in the hand; one with his blouse all torn about his breast, where a ball has struck him, yet he can creep away. . . .
It is now noon and after. The sun is intolerably hot, and we have no sufficient shade. That, however, is nothing for us who are unhurt; but we hear of poor wounded men lying without shelter, among them Gen. Paine, whom the ambulance-men cannot yet reach on account of the enemy’s fire. We begin to know that the attack has failed. . . . We have not been as much exposed as some other regiments, and our loss has not been large. The fire, however, seemed very hot, and close at hand; and the wonder to us all is, that no more fell. Darkness settles down; shots are received and returned, but only at random now; and, ever and anon, from the batteries goes tearing through the air a monstrous shell, with a roar like a rushing railroad-train, then an explosion putting every thing for the moment in light. . . . For food to-day, I have had two or three hard crackers and cold potatoes. We have no blankets: so down I lie to sleep as I can on the earth, without covering; and, before morning, am chilled through with the dew and coldness of the air. . . .”
[At night] I climbed up from the ravine, and sat alone, upon the hill on the field, under the starlight. It was a sweet night, and only once or twice came to my sense the taint of unburied slain. For the rest, all was pure. In a half-comic way, the whippoorwill changed his song into “Whipped you well, whipped you well!” I will never believe the bull-frogs that night croaked any thing but “Rebs, rebs!” and the jeering owls hooted out from the tree-tops, “What can you do-o-o?” All about the horizon, fringing the starlit space of blue, a storm was gathering; and behind the black clouds shook the lightning, like the menacing finger of an almighty power threatening doom to this obstinate stronghold. . . .”
Pictures: 1862-06-16 Secessionville SC battle map; 1864-06-16 The charge of the 22nd Negro Regiment, Petersburg, Virginia; 1864-06-15 Petersburg June 15-16; CSA Gen Stonewall Jackson
A. 1862: Battle of Secessionville, South Carolina. Brigadier General H. W. Benham attacks forces under CSA Brigadier General Nathan "Shanks" Evans near Charleston. The Federal army came close to capturing a vital position on James Island, but Federal General Benham's poor planning and the timely arrival of reinforcements resulted in a victory for the outnumbered Confederates.
The Confederate advanced pickets were overrun about 5:00am, this activity alerted the defenders. Col. Lamar mounted the parapet to observe the Union front about 700 yards and closing. He immediately dispatched couriers to Gen. Evans, who was five miles away at Fort Johnson with the reserves. As the defenders rushed to their stations, Col. Lamar took personal command of the 8-inch-Columbiad. The Union lines were within two hundred yards of the fort, Lamar order the Columbiad to fire; grapeshot, nails, iron chain and glass blasted from the cannon directly at the Union center, tearing a great hole through the Federal lines. The Battle of Secessionville had commenced.
Col. Lamar sharply ordered all gun commanders into action and moved the infantry into place firing volleys as they came onto line. The 8th Mich. on the Union right, was now clambering up the face of the fort followed by the 7th Conn. troops and soon after the 28th Mass. The arrival of Confederate reinforcements drove the Federal assault force back from the parapet when the Confederate defense was on the verge of collapse due to casualties on the critical gun crews. The Federals came under severe fire from three sides as they advanced up the fort walls, only to be ordered to fall back to regroup after suffering heavy casualties. Meanwhile the 79th NY on the Union left actually mounted the fort's parapet and were engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the Rebs, when the Union artillery, located at the River's house, opened fire on that fort breaking up the Union attack and forcing the 79th to withdraw. As the first Federal wave collapsed and retreated they hampered the second wave from attacking.
The Federals fell back to the protection of the hedge rows to reformed their lines. They were to make two more unsuccessful assaults before a general withdraw was ordered. While the main assault was taking place the 3rd New Hampshire was attempting a flanking maneuver from the federal left. Their assault brought them to within several yards of the flank of the fort, but they could not make a full assault due to the water and pluff mud that proved to be impassable. They proceeded to assault the fort from across the marsh driving the defenders from the parapets. The two 24-pounders Lamar set up on his right flank were still silent, even though the new gun crews were on line. Lt. Col. Ellison Capers of the 24th SC infantry was sent up to the position to determine the problem. The gun crew, although an artillery unit, had never been trained in firing a cannon before and did not know what to do. Capers sprang into action loading and firing the piece himself, while training the gun crew. Meanwhile 250 men of the 4th LA Battalion arrived from their encampment 2-1/2 miles away to sure up the confederate flank and pour a decimating fire into the 3rd NH troops, causing the Union force to fall back.
By 9:00am the Battle was over. The Federals had sustained 689 casualties, of which 107 dead. Whereas the Confederates realized 207 casualties with 52 killed. Had the Federals captured Battery Lamar they would have flanked the harbor defenses and might have forced the abandonment of Charleston by the Confederacy, cut the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and established a base for operations into the interior which might have ended the war two years sooner.
B. 1862: CSA Gen. Robert E. Lee orders Maj Gen Thomas Stonewall Jackson to begin plans to leave the Valley to bring his 18,500 men to Richmond. After what had already become a legendary campaign of fighting, deception and hard marching, his force was needed to reinforce the Army of Northern Virginia, protecting the capital from Union General George McClellan’s Army of the Potomac.
C. 1863: Gettysburg Campaign. Come dawn, the true occupation began of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. CSA Brig Gen Jenkins and his Confederates paid for everything, but three particular items. The first was horses, which he considered contraband of war. When the horses were found to be in short supply, he proceeded to take all of the arms in the town. Any make or model would do. When delivered, he destroyed the worthless and kept the finest.
The third item which Jenkins took while refusing to pay was black people. His men rounded them up like they had wanted to round up horses. Slave, free, man, women, or child, it did not matter. To them, a black person was a slave and nothing more.
D. 1864: The Second Battle of Petersburg, Virginia: June 15-18, 1864
Despite three full Federal corps being present, Winfield Scott Hancock’s II Corps was the only one which made any attacks greater than a demonstration. Confederate Batteries 3, 13, and 14 fell after the 6 pm attacks commenced. However, CSA Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard’s lines had held, and he even made a few local counterattacks that evening to try to regain some ground. These failed, but kept the tired Union soldiers from getting much needed sleep. The odds were not going to get better than this for the Union forces.
Background: Marching from Cold Harbor, Meade’s Army of the Potomac crossed the James River on transports and a 2,200-foot long pontoon bridge at Windmill Point. Butler’s leading elements (XVIII Corps and Kautz’s cavalry) crossed the Appomattox River at Broadway Landing and attacked the Petersburg defenses on June 15. The 5,400 defenders of Petersburg under command of Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard were driven from their first line of entrenchments back to Harrison Creek. The first day of the Second Battle of Petersburg had seen the Confederate defenders driven back from the Dimmock Line to the western bank of Harrison Creek.
After dark the William F. “Baldy” Smith’s XVIII Corps was relieved by the Winfield Scott Hancock’s II Corps. CSA Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard had received reinforcements through the night, with Hoke’s division arriving first, and then Johnson’s division after Beauregard made the decision to strip the Bermuda Hundred lines to the north of all but skirmishers. CSA Gen. Robert E. Lee would have to plug that hole with his Army of Northern Virginia. Over on the Union side, Winfield Scott Hancock’s II Corps had joined Baldy Smith’s XVIII Corps late on the evening of June 15, and the IX Corps joined them late on the morning of the 16th. The Union corps kept expanding the line to the left from the anchor of the Appomattox River, the XVIII Corps on the left, the II Corps in the center, and the IX Corps on the far right. Three Union corps, around 50,000 men, confronted two Confederate divisions, around 14,000 or so.
Hancock had instructed II Corps division commanders Gibbon and Birney to scout the positions in front of them for a dawn attack, but delays prevented this from occurring until 6 am, well after dawn. Gibbon was on the right, Birney in the center, and as Barlow’s division of the II Corps showed up after a frustrating march in which they lost their way, they formed the left of the corps. Lt Gen Ulysses S. Grant conferred with Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, asked him to take charge of the assaults, and asked for an attack by 6 pm on the evening of the 16th.
FYI PV2 Larry Sellnow Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. SMSgt Lawrence McCarter PO3 Edward Riddle MAJ Roland McDonald CMDCM John F. "Doc" Bradshaw COL (Join to see) SPC Michael Terrell COL Lisandro Murphy LTC Trent Klug CWO3 Dennis M. CPT Kevin McComas]SSgt David M. SPC Maurice Evans SFC Ralph E Kelley
[1864] The Siege of Petersburg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3KKP-efrOI
Civil War
Cavalry
Slavery
American History
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In 1862, Sarah Morgan is saddened at the way confederate women despise the Federal soldiers in Louisiana.
In 1863, Rachel Cormany, a citizen of Chambersburg described how the Rebels “were hunting up the contrabands & driving them off by droves.”
In 1863, “Gen. Grant issues an order to the commander of one of his districts concerning mixing white and negro regiments: “Negro troops should be kept aloof from white troops, especially in their camps, as much as possible. Wherever the movements of the enemy require a concentration of your forces, bring them together without regard to color. U. S. GRANT”.
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.
Monday, June 16, 1862: Sarah Morgan writes in her journal of the vindictive treatment of other Louisiana women against the Yankees. Sarah is herself a patriot and true-blue secessionist---but is horrified at the unchristian changes in her neighbors: “This war has brought out wicked, malignant feelings that I did not believe could dwell in woman’s heart. I see some of the holiest eyes, so holy one would think the very spirit of charity lived in them, and all Christian meekness, go off in a mad tirade of abuse and say, with the holy eyes wondrously changed, “I hope God will send down plague, yellow fever, famine, on these vile Yankees, and that not one will escape death.” O, what unutterable horror that remark causes me as often as I hear it! I think of the many mothers, wives, and sisters who wait as anxiously, pray as fervently in their faraway homes for their dear ones, as we do here; I fancy them waiting day after day for the footsteps that will never come, growing more sad, lonely, and heart-broken as the days wear on; I think of how awful it would be if one would say, “Your brothers are dead”; how it would crush all life and happiness out of me; and I say, “God forgive these poor women! They know not what they say!” O women! into what loathsome violence you have abased your holy mission! God will punish us for our hard-heartedness.”
Monday, June 16, 1862: Lt. Charles Wright Wills, of the Union Army of the Mississippi, in the 8th Illinois Infantry, gives us a rather idyllic and pastoral view of life in camp at Rienzi, Tishomingo Co., Miss. after a rigorous campaign: “We are camped here enjoying ourselves grandly. As our brigade is scattered over a line of 50 miles we just pitch our headquarters in the quietest spot we can find independent of the command. There are only two companies now out of the 24 within 8 miles of us, and all we have to do with any of them is to send them orders and receive their communications and forward them. In the heat of the day we read and lounge in our tents, and mornings we go to the creek and bathe and then ride a dozen or so miles to keep our horses exercised. I have a clerk, too, for my copying, etc., so I’m a gentleman. Evenings I visit generally some of the half dozen families within a half mile of us of whom I borrow books and in return furnish them with occasional papers. We have splendid water and my health is perfect. This is the healthiest part of the South.”
Tuesday June 16, 1863 --- Charles H. Lynch, a young officer in the 18th Connecticut Infantry, was with Milroy’s troops at Winchester, and he describes what happens to the little of his regiment that got away from capture by the Rebels: “Up very early this morning. All Major Peale could muster of the 18th Regiment was only thirty members. The rest of those who escaped were with Captain Matthewson, they taking a different route from Major Peale who followed the route taken by General Milroy.
After breakfast of hardtack and coffee, the Major marched us on through Harper’s Ferry, crossing the Potomac River on a pontoon bridge. On, up Maryland Heights, halting under low pine trees, well up to the top of the Heights. Here we were allowed to remain for rest and sleep. General Dan Tyler, a Connecticut man, was in command of a large force at this point. From the top of the Heights we could see the enemy crossing the Potomac River at Williamsport into Maryland. Our detachment was detailed for headquarters guard at the quarters of General Tyler. The duty was easy and made very interesting about all the time.”
Tuesday June 16, 1863 “Chambersburg, like many larger towns, had a section where many of the black people lived. According to a local paper, Jenkins’ men, “went to the part of the town occupied by the colored population, and kidnapped all they could find, from the child in the cradle up to men and women of fifty years of age.”
Rachel Cormany, a citizen of Chambersburg remembered that the Rebels “were hunting up the contrabands &c driving them off by droves. O! How it grated on our hearts to have to sit quietly &c look at such brutal deeds—I saw no men among the contrabands — all women & children.” Cormany recognized that “some of the colored people who were raised here were taken along.” But she could do little apart from watching as the black women and children were “driven like cattle.” One women, she recalled “was pleading wonderfully with her driver for her children – but all the sympathy she received from him was a rough ‘March along.'”
Pictures 1863-06-16 Invasion of Pennsylvania by CSA Brig Gen Jenkins Cavalry; 1863-06-16 Negroes Driven South; 1861-1865 Civil War Charleston defenses map; xx
Since RallyPoint truncates survey selection text I am posting events that were not included and then the full text of each survey choice below:
A. Monday, June 16, 1862: Battle of Secessionville, South Carolina. Brigadier General H. W. Benham attacks forces under CSA Brigadier General Nathan "Shanks" Evans near Charleston. The Federal army came close to capturing a vital position on James Island, but Federal General Benham's poor planning and the timely arrival of reinforcements resulted in a victory for the outnumbered Confederates.
The Confederate advanced pickets were overrun about 5:00am, this activity alerted the defenders. Col. Lamar mounted the parapet to observe the Union front about 700 yards and closing. He immediately dispatched couriers to Gen. Evans, who was five miles away at Fort Johnson with the reserves. As the defenders rushed to their stations, Col. Lamar took personal command of the 8-inch-Columbiad. The Union lines were within two hundred yards of the fort, Lamar order the Columbiad to fire; grapeshot, nails, iron chain and glass blasted from the cannon directly at the Union center, tearing a great hole through the Federal lines. The Battle of Secessionville had commenced.
Col. Lamar sharply ordered all gun commanders into action and moved the infantry into place firing volleys as they came onto line. The 8th Mich. on the Union right, was now clambering up the face of the fort followed by the 7th Conn. troops and soon after the 28th Mass. The arrival of Confederate reinforcements drove the Federal assault force back from the parapet when the Confederate defense was on the verge of collapse due to casualties on the critical gun crews. The Federals came under severe fire from three sides as they advanced up the fort walls, only to be ordered to fall back to regroup after suffering heavy casualties. Meanwhile the 79th NY on the Union left actually mounted the fort's parapet and were engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the Rebs, when the Union artillery, located at the River's house, opened fire on that fort breaking up the Union attack and forcing the 79th to withdraw. As the first Federal wave collapsed and retreated they hampered the second wave from attacking.
The Federals fell back to the protection of the hedge rows to reformed their lines. They were to make two more unsuccessful assaults before a general withdraw was ordered. While the main assault was taking place the 3rd New Hampshire was attempting a flanking maneuver from the federal left. Their assault brought them to within several yards of the flank of the fort, but they could not make a full assault due to the water and pluff mud that proved to be impassable. They proceeded to assault the fort from across the marsh driving the defenders from the parapets. The two 24-pounders Lamar set up on his right flank were still silent, even though the new gun crews were on line. Lt. Col. Ellison Capers of the 24th SC infantry was sent up to the position to determine the problem. The gun crew, although an artillery unit, had never been trained in firing a cannon before and did not know what to do. Capers sprang into action loading and firing the piece himself, while training the gun crew. Meanwhile 250 men of the 4th LA Battalion arrived from their encampment 2-1/2 miles away to sure up the confederate flank and pour a decimating fire into the 3rd NH troops, causing the Union force to fall back.
By 9:00am the Battle was over. The Federals had sustained 689 casualties, of which 107 dead. Whereas the Confederates realized 207 casualties with 52 killed. Had the Federals captured Battery Lamar they would have flanked the harbor defenses and might have forced the abandonment of Charleston by the Confederacy, cut the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and established a base for operations into the interior which might have ended the war two years sooner.
Background: In the spring of 1862, Charleston Harbor was in the grips of the Federal Navy's blockade, they were trying to find a way to land troops to assault Charleston by land. A slave, Robert Smalls, who was a pilot aboard an inland steamer, the PLANTER, stole the ship on May 12th and ran it past the Confederate forts out to the Federal fleet blockading Charleston harbor. With the ship, he also brought news that the Confederates had abandoned Cole's and Battery Islands. This opened the way for Federal troops to be landed on the southeastern end of James Island, and the path to attempt an assault on Charleston.
Major General David Hunter was in command of the Federal forces for the Department of the South. He had already planned to attack Charleston from the south, and the opportunity was now at hand. He assembled and landed two divisions supported by Federal gunboats on the southeastern end of James Island on the 2nd of June, from here he had planned to advance toward Charleston along the Stono River. Placed in charge of the Federal forces was Brig. Gen. Henry W. Benham; his left flank division commander was Brig. Gen. Horatio G. Wright, commanding three brigades (3100 men); his main assault force was commanded by Brig. Gen. Isaac I. Stevens having two brigades totaling 3200 men.
Meeting light resistance through several skirmishes between June 2 and June 12, Hunter was convinced that he was outnumbered and needed more men before making any further assaults. Benham was left with the instructions from Hunter, "You will make no attempt to advance on Charleston or to attach Fort Johnson until you are largely reinforced or until you receive specific instructions from these headquarters."
Meanwhile, Major Gen. John C. Pemberton, commander of the Confederate forces defending Charleston, seeing that the Federal preparations for advancement onto James Island was underway, redeployed three batteries to the island and ordered the additional building of earthworks to defend the approaches up the island. He placed Brig. Gen. Nathan George Evans, a South Carolinian, in command of the James Island defenses.
One of the new earthwork defenses ordered to be built was a fort at Secessionville. In command of this fort was Colonel T. G. Lamar, with his 750 men. The fort was built in a rough shape of an "M", bordered on each side by marsh. The nine cannon defending the fort consisted of: an 8-inch Columbiad in the center flanked on either side with a 24-pounder rifled gun, a 24-pound smoothbore, and an 18-pounder. At another battery to his northern flank he had an additional two 24-pounders; these two guns had not received their gun crews. Within a two hour march, Gen. Evans had placed in reserve three regiments of infantry (2000 men), to be used if necessary to support any action on the island.
The stage was set for the Battle of Secessionville. On the 15th of June Gen. Benham laid plans for the Union forces to make an early morning surprise attack on the Secessionville fort, a "reconnaissance in force" as he so called it. He would use approximately 3500 of his troops to make a frontal assault before daybreak, attacking to two structured waves. During that day and throughout the night Col. Lamar had his troops working on shoring up the fort's defenses. Col. Lamar finally dismissed his men at 4:00am. By this time the union forces comprising the 8th Michigan, the 7th Connecticut, 28th Massachusetts and 79th New York Highlanders were on the move, supposedly at the double-quick, advancing on the fort. However, advancing through the darkness, the troops had to negotiate through two hedge rows and open cotton fields now knee-deep in weeds. This resulted in breaking up the initial federal lines and slowing the advance. As the field narrowed approaching the fort the left side of the union front was pushed into the marsh and got bogged down in the mud. It also compressed the Union center, slowing the advance such that the second wave ran into the first complicating the advance even more.
B. Monday, June 16, 1862: CSA Gen. Robert E. Lee orders Maj Gen Thomas Stonewall Jackson to begin plans to leave the Valley to bring his 18,500 men to Richmond. After what had already become a legendary campaign of fighting, deception and hard marching, his force was needed to reinforce the Army of Northern Virginia, protecting the capital from Union General George McClellan’s Army of the Potomac.
C. Tuesday, June 16, 1863: Gettysburg Campaign. Come dawn, the true occupation began of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. CSA Brig Gen Jenkins and his Confederates paid for everything, but three particular items. The first was horses, which he considered contraband of war. When the horses were found to be in short supply, he proceeded to take all of the arms in the town. Any make or model would do. When delivered, he destroyed the worthless and kept the finest.
The third item which Jenkins took while refusing to pay was black people. His men rounded them up like they had wanted to round up horses. Slave, free, man, women, or child, it did not matter. To them, a black person was a slave and nothing more.
Background: Confederate Cavalry General Albert Jenkins was of good stock. He was born to wealthy parents on a Virginia plantation, attended a private academy, a fine college in Pennsylvania, and Harvard Law School. Prior to the war, he served in the United States Congress. He was no ill-mannered, blood thirty rouge. By all accounts, he was a southern gentleman, even when being entertained by the fine citizens of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.
Jenkins and about 2,000 of his cavaliers had been attached to General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Though not a part of Jeb Stuart’s illustrious division, Jenkins’ Cavalry was an officially recognized unit – not a loose band of partisan rangers. Still, General Lee didn’t quite trust them. They had raised much hell throughout Western Virginia and perhaps their ways were not up to Lee’s own standards. Nevertheless, they were brought aboard and given to General Richard Ewell to be used as screens in the march north across the Potomac. Ewell, in turn, gave them to Robert Rodes, a strict disciplinarian, who he believed would keep Jenkins in line.
Rodes had sent Jenkins north as a vanguard, with orders to take Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, where they arrived late the previous night. For the couple of days preceding their arrival, bands of black families, both free and slave, passed through town, warning of the invasion. Before the arrival of the Rebels, almost every horse had been sent north, hopefully out of their reach. When Union troops fled through town, it fully convinced them that not only were the Confederates in Pennsylvania, but Chambersburg was their target.
Chambersburg, like many larger towns, had a section where many of the black people lived. According to a local paper, Jenkins’ men, “went to the part of the town occupied by the colored population, and kidnapped all they could find, from the child in the cradle up to men and women of fifty years of age.”
Rachel Cormany, a citizen of Chambersburg remembered that the Rebels “were hunting up the contrabands &c driving them off by droves. O! How it grated on our hearts to have to sit quietly &c look at such brutal deeds—I saw no men among the contrabands — all women & children.” Cormany recognized that “some of the colored people who were raised here were taken along.” But she could do little apart from watching as the black women and children were “driven like cattle.” One women, she recalled “was pleading wonderfully with her driver for her children – but all the sympathy she received from him was a rough ‘March along.'”
D. Thursday, June 16, 1864: The Second Battle of Petersburg, Virginia: June 15-18, 1864
Despite three full Federal corps being present, Winfield Scott Hancock’s II Corps was the only one which made any attacks greater than a demonstration. Confederate Batteries 3, 13, and 14 fell after the 6 pm attacks commenced. However, CSA Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard’s lines had held, and he even made a few local counterattacks that evening to try to regain some ground. These failed, but kept the tired Union soldiers from getting much needed sleep. The odds were not going to get better than this for the Union forces.
Background: Marching from Cold Harbor, Meade’s Army of the Potomac crossed the James River on transports and a 2,200-foot long pontoon bridge at Windmill Point. Butler’s leading elements (XVIII Corps and Kautz’s cavalry) crossed the Appomattox River at Broadway Landing and attacked the Petersburg defenses on June 15. The 5,400 defenders of Petersburg under command of Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard were driven from their first line of entrenchments back to Harrison Creek. The first day of the Second Battle of Petersburg had seen the Confederate defenders driven back from the Dimmock Line to the western bank of Harrison Creek.
After dark the William F. “Baldy” Smith’s XVIII Corps was relieved by the Winfield Scott Hancock’s II Corps. CSA Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard had received reinforcements through the night, with Hoke’s division arriving first, and then Johnson’s division after Beauregard made the decision to strip the Bermuda Hundred lines to the north of all but skirmishers. CSA Gen. Robert E. Lee would have to plug that hole with his Army of Northern Virginia. Over on the Union side, Winfield Scott Hancock’s II Corps had joined Baldy Smith’s XVIII Corps late on the evening of June 15, and the IX Corps joined them late on the morning of the 16th. The Union corps kept expanding the line to the left from the anchor of the Appomattox River, the XVIII Corps on the left, the II Corps in the center, and the IX Corps on the far right. Three Union corps, around 50,000 men, confronted two Confederate divisions, around 14,000 or so.
Hancock had instructed II Corps division commanders Gibbon and Birney to scout the positions in front of them for a dawn attack, but delays prevented this from occurring until 6 am, well after dawn. Gibbon was on the right, Birney in the center, and as Barlow’s division of the II Corps showed up after a frustrating march in which they lost their way, they formed the left of the corps. Lt Gen Ulysses S. Grant conferred with Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, asked him to take charge of the assaults, and asked for an attack by 6 pm on the evening of the 16th.
1. Wednesday, June 16, 1852: Whig Convention begins in Baltimore, Maryland. They will nominate Winfield Scott for President
http://blueandgraytrail.com/date/June_16
2. Monday, June 16, 1862 --- Sarah Morgan writes in her journal of the vindictive treatment of other Louisiana women against the Yankees. Sarah is herself a patriot and true-blue secessionist---but is horrified at the unchristian changes in her neighbors: “This war has brought out wicked, malignant feelings that I did not believe could dwell in woman’s heart. I see some of the holiest eyes, so holy one would think the very spirit of charity lived in them, and all Christian meekness, go off in a mad tirade of abuse and say, with the holy eyes wondrously changed, “I hope God will send down plague, yellow fever, famine, on these vile Yankees, and that not one will escape death.” O, what unutterable horror that remark causes me as often as I hear it! I think of the many mothers, wives, and sisters who wait as anxiously, pray as fervently in their faraway homes for their dear ones, as we do here; I fancy them waiting day after day for the footsteps that will never come, growing more sad, lonely, and heart-broken as the days wear on; I think of how awful it would be if one would say, “Your brothers are dead”; how it would crush all life and happiness out of me; and I say, “God forgive these poor women! They know not what they say!” O women! into what loathsome violence you have abased your holy mission! God will punish us for our hard-heartedness.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+16%2C+1862
3. Monday, June 16, 1862 --- Lt. Charles Wright Wills, of the Union Army of the Mississippi, in the 8th Illinois Infantry, gives us a rather idyllic and pastoral view of life in camp at Rienzi, Tishomingo Co., Miss. after a rigorous campaign: “We are camped here enjoying ourselves grandly. As our brigade is scattered over a line of 50 miles we just pitch our headquarters in the quietest spot we can find independent of the command. There are only two companies now out of the 24 within 8 miles of us, and all we have to do with any of them is to send them orders and receive their communications and forward them. In the heat of the day we read and lounge in our tents, and mornings we go to the creek and bathe and then ride a dozen or so miles to keep our horses exercised. I have a clerk, too, for my copying, etc., so I’m a gentleman. Evenings I visit generally some of the half dozen families within a half mile of us of whom I borrow books and in return furnish them with occasional papers. We have splendid water and my health is perfect. This is the healthiest part of the South.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+16%2C+1862
4. Tuesday June 16, 1863 --- Charles H. Lynch, a young officer in the 18th Connecticut Infantry, was with Milroy’s troops at Winchester, and he describes what happens to the little of his regiment that got away from capture by the Rebels: “Up very early this morning. All Major Peale could muster of the 18th Regiment was only thirty members. The rest of those who escaped were with Captain Matthewson, they taking a different route from Major Peale who followed the route taken by General Milroy.
After breakfast of hardtack and coffee, the Major marched us on through Harper’s Ferry, crossing the Potomac River on a pontoon bridge. On, up Maryland Heights, halting under low pine trees, well up to the top of the Heights. Here we were allowed to remain for rest and sleep. General Dan Tyler, a Connecticut man, was in command of a large force at this point. From the top of the Heights we could see the enemy crossing the Potomac River at Williamsport into Maryland. Our detachment was detailed for headquarters guard at the quarters of General Tyler. The duty was easy and made very interesting about all the time.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+16%2C+1863
5. Tuesday June 16, 1863: Gen. Grant issues an order to the commander of one of his districts concerning mixing white and negro regiments: “Negro troops should be kept aloof from white troops, especially in their camps, as much as possible. Wherever the movements of the enemy require a concentration of your forces, bring them together without regard to color. U. S. GRANT.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+16%2C+1863
6. Tuesday June 16, 1863: Siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi [May 26 to July 4, 1863] Date of the start of siege varies from May 18 - May 26.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/date/June_16
7. Tuesday June 16, 1863 --- Siege of Vicksburg, Day 25
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+16%2C+1863
8. Tuesday June 16, 1863: Siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana [May 27 to July 9, 1863] After attempting to storm the walls of Port Hudson, Nathaniel Banks digs in for a siege.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/date/June_16
9. Tuesday June 16, 1863 --- Siege of Port Hudson, Day 20
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+16%2C+1863
10. Tuesday June 16, 1863 --- Corporal James Kendall Hosmer, a Union soldier with Gen. Banks’ Army of the Gulf besieging Port Hudson, writes of the miseries of serving in the infantry investing a besieged fortress, and of the graphic experience of making an assault: “ The Fifty-second Regiment are holding an advanced position here, and, ever since daylight of the morning of the 14th, have lived in the midst of a rain of rifle-balls. At the bottom of the little ravine, I am secure; but if I should put my head up to the surface, climbing up the bank six or eight feet, I should be in the midst of flying bullets, and a fair mark for the rebel sharpshooters who are close at hand. Our brigade is thrown out into the very teeth of the enemy, on ground our troops have never before occupied. This little corner is occupied by the color-guard. If I go to the company, I must go stooping or crawling on my stomach; I must run from a stump to a trunk, and from that to a clump of bushes, and hear all the time the “zip” and “hum” of the rifle-balls. . . .
The work of death had begun; for ambulance-men were bringing back the wounded: and, almost before we had time to think we were in danger, I saw one of our men fall back into the arms of his comrades, shot dead through the chest. The banks of the ravine rose on either side of the road in which we had halted: but just here the trench made a turn; and in front, at the distance of five or six hundred yards, we could plainly see the rebel rampart, red in the morning-light as with blood, and shrouded in white vapor along the edge as the sharpshooters behind kept up an incessant discharge. I believe I felt no sensation of fear, nor do I think those about me did. Wilson and Hardiker carried the flags, and their faces were cheerful and animated. . . . .
In a minute or two, the column has ascended, and is deploying in a long line, under the colonel’s eye, on the open ground. The rebel engineers are most skilful fellows. Between us and the brown earth-heap which we are to try to gain to-day, the space is not wide; but it is cut up in every direction with ravines and gullies. These were covered, until the parapet was raised, with a heavy growth of timber; but now it has all been cut down, so that in every direction the fallen tops of large trees interlace, trunks block up every passage, and brambles are growing over the whole. It is out of the question to advance here in line of battle; it seems almost out of the question to advance in any order: but the word is given, “Forward!” and on we go. Know that this whole space is swept by a constant patter of balls: it is really a “leaden rain.” We go crawling and stooping: but now and then before us rises in plain view the line of earth-works, smoky and sulphurous with volleys; while all about us fall the balls, now sending a lot of little splinters from a stump, now knocking the dead wood out of the old tree-trunk that is sheltering me, now driving up a cloud of dust from a little knoll, or cutting off the head of a weed just under the hand as with an invisible knife. I see one of our best captains carried off the field, mortally wounded, shot through both lungs, — straight, bright-eyed, though so sadly hurt, supported by two of his men; and now almost at my side, in the color-company, one soldier is struck in the hand, and another in the leg. . . . Presently we move on again, through brambles and under charred trunks, tearing our way . . . creeping on our bellies across exposed ridges, where bullets hum and sing like stinging bees; and, right in plain view, the ridge of earth, its brow white with incessant volleys. . . . Down into our little nook now come tumbling a crowd of disorganized, panting men. They are part of a New-York regiment, who, on the crest just over us, have been meeting with very severe loss. . . . From time to time, afterwards, wounded men crawl back from their position a few yards in front of where we are, — one shot through the ankles, who, however, can crawl on his hands and knees; one in the hand; one with his blouse all torn about his breast, where a ball has struck him, yet he can creep away. . . .
It is now noon and after. The sun is intolerably hot, and we have no sufficient shade. That, however, is nothing for us who are unhurt; but we hear of poor wounded men lying without shelter, among them Gen. Paine, whom the ambulance-men cannot yet reach on account of the enemy’s fire. We begin to know that the attack has failed. . . . We have not been as much exposed as some other regiments, and our loss has not been large. The fire, however, seemed very hot, and close at hand; and the wonder to us all is, that no more fell. Darkness settles down; shots are received and returned, but only at random now; and, ever and anon, from the batteries goes tearing through the air a monstrous shell, with a roar like a rushing railroad-train, then an explosion putting every thing for the moment in light. . . . For food to-day, I have had two or three hard crackers and cold potatoes. We have no blankets: so down I lie to sleep as I can on the earth, without covering; and, before morning, am chilled through with the dew and coldness of the air. . . .”
[At night] I climbed up from the ravine, and sat alone, upon the hill on the field, under the starlight. It was a sweet night, and only once or twice came to my sense the taint of unburied slain. For the rest, all was pure. In a half-comic way, the whippoorwill changed his song into “Whipped you well, whipped you well!” I will never believe the bull-frogs that night croaked any thing but “Rebs, rebs!” and the jeering owls hooted out from the tree-tops, “What can you do-o-o?” All about the horizon, fringing the starlit space of blue, a storm was gathering; and behind the black clouds shook the lightning, like the menacing finger of an almighty power threatening doom to this obstinate stronghold. . . .”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+16%2C+1863
11. Thursday, June 16, 1864: Siege of Petersburg, Virginia [June 15, 1864 to April 2, 1865]
http://blueandgraytrail.com/date/June_16
12. Thursday, June 16, 1864: More units from the Army of the Potomac joined the attack on Petersburg. Against the odds, the defenders held out.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/the-american-civil-war/american-civil-war-june-1864/
13. June 16, 1876: The three-day Republican Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio (Hayes home state) shifted its support from front runner James Blaine to Rutherford B. Hayes on the second ballot.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/date/June_16
A Monday, June 16, 1862: Battle of Secessionville [Battle of Fort Johnson], South Carolina. Brigadier General H. W. Benham [US] attacks forces under Brigadier General Nathan "Shanks" Evans near Charleston
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186206
A+ Monday, June 16, 1862 --- Battle of Secessionville, So. Carolina – Gen. Henry Benham puts his two Federal divisions (about 6,600 men) on the road early in the morning, with Stevens’ division drawn up on the right to attack Ft. Lamar near this town. Gen. Wright’s Yankees are drawn up on Stevens’ left, to cover his advance. Facing the Federals were about 2,000 Confederates under Gen. Nathan “Shanks” Evans. The Federals step off at 4:00 AM, with the 8th Michigan in the lead. The 8-inch Columbiad cannon at the fort opens with a round of grapeshot which sweeps a large gap in the center of the Michigan line, but they keep pressing on until they reach the parapet, firing down into the fort. Stevens throws in more regiments, but Evans places fresh men in the fort’s defenses. Finally, Stevens calls a withdrawal, with heavy casualties. At this time, Wright’s division is moving up, accompanied by Gen. Benham. Wright wheels right into position, but is attacked on his left flank by fresh Southern troops from the north, under Hagood---with the Eutaw Battalion and the 24th So. Carolina. Wright details several regiments and some artillery to hold off Hagood, and tries to help Stevens, but neither general can see a way to advance across the open ground to the fort’s walls without severe losses. By 9:00 AM, the Federals call off the assault. Confederate Victory
Losses: Union – 685 Confederate – 204
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+16%2C+1862
A++ Monday, June 16, 1862: Battle of Secessionville, South Carolina. Early June 1862, Maj. Gen. David Hunter transported Horatio G. Wright’s and Isaac I. Stevens’s Union divisions under immediate direction of Brig. Gen. Henry Benham to James Island where they entrenched at Grimball’s Landing near the southern flank of the Confederate defenses. On June 16, contrary to Hunter’s orders, Benham launched an unsuccessful frontal assault against Fort Lamar at Secessionville. Because Benham was said to have disobeyed orders, Hunter relieved him of command.
A+++ Monday, June 16, 1862: Battle of Secessionville, South Carolina. The Federal army came close to capturing a vital position on James Island in June 1862, but Federal General Benham's poor planning and the timely arrival of reinforcements resulted in a victory for the outnumbered Confederates.
In the spring of 1862, Charleston Harbor was in the grips of the Federal Navy's blockade, they were trying to find a way to land troops to assault Charleston by land. A slave, Robert Smalls, who was a pilot aboard an inland steamer, the PLANTER, stole the ship on May 12th and ran it past the Confederate forts out to the Federal fleet blockading Charleston harbor. With the ship, he also brought news that the Confederates had abandoned Cole's and Battery Islands. This opened the way for Federal troops to be landed on the southeastern end of James Island, and the path to attempt an assault on Charleston.
Major General David Hunter was in command of the Federal forces for the Department of the South. He had already planned to attack Charleston from the south, and the opportunity was now at hand. He assembled and landed two divisions supported by Federal gunboats on the southeastern end of James Island on the 2nd of June, from here he had planned to advance toward Charleston along the Stono River. Placed in charge of the Federal forces was Brig. Gen. Henry W. Benham; his left flank division commander was Brig. Gen. Horatio G. Wright, commanding three brigades (3100 men); his main assault force was commanded by Brig. Gen. Isaac I. Stevens having two brigades totaling 3200 men.
Meeting light resistance through several skirmishes between June 2 and June 12, Hunter was convinced that he was outnumbered and needed more men before making any further assaults. Benham was left with the instructions from Hunter, "You will make no attempt to advance on Charleston or to attach Fort Johnson until you are largely reinforced or until you receive specific instructions from these headquarters."
Meanwhile, Major Gen. John C. Pemberton, commander of the Confederate forces defending Charleston, seeing that the Federal preparations for advancement onto James Island was underway, redeployed three batteries to the island and ordered the additional building of earthworks to defend the approaches up the island. He placed Brig. Gen. Nathan George Evans, a South Carolinian, in command of the James Island defenses.
One of the new earthwork defenses ordered to be built was a fort at Secessionville. In command of this fort was Colonel T. G. Lamar, with his 750 men. The fort was built in a rough shape of an "M", bordered on each side by marsh. The nine cannon defending the fort consisted of: an 8-inch Columbiad in the center flanked on either side with a 24-pounder rifled gun, a 24-pound smoothbore, and an 18-pounder. At another battery to his northern flank he had an additional two 24-pounders; these two guns had not received their gun crews. Within a two hour march, Gen. Evans had placed in reserve three regiments of infantry (2000 men), to be used if necessary to support any action on the island.
The stage was set for the Battle of Secessionville. On the 15th of June Gen. Benham laid plans for the Union forces to make an early morning surprise attack on the Secessionville fort, a "reconnaissance in force" as he so called it. He would use approximately 3500 of his troops to make a frontal assault before daybreak, attacking to two structured waves. During that day and throughout the night Col. Lamar had his troops working on shoring up the fort's defenses. Col. Lamar finally dismissed his men at 4:00am. By this time the union forces comprising the 8th Michigan, the 7th Connecticut, 28th Massachusetts and 79th New York Highlanders were on the move, supposedly at the double-quick, advancing on the fort. However, advancing through the darkness, the troops had to negotiate through two hedge rows and open cotton fields now knee-deep in weeds. This resulted in breaking up the initial federal lines and slowing the advance. As the field narrowed approaching the fort the left side of the union front was pushed into the marsh and got bogged down in the mud. It also compressed the Union center, slowing the advance such that the second wave ran into the first complicating the advance even more.
The Confederate advanced pickets were overrun about 5:00am, this activity alerted the defenders. Col. Lamar mounted the parapet to observe the Union front about 700 yards and closing. He immediately dispatched couriers to Gen. Evans, who was five miles away at Fort Johnson with the reserves. As the defenders rushed to their stations, Col. Lamar took personal command of the 8-inch-Columbiad. The Union lines were within two hundred yards of the fort, Lamar order the Columbiad to fire; grapeshot, nails, iron chain and glass blasted from the cannon directly at the Union center, tearing a great hole through the Federal lines. The Battle of Secessionville had commenced.
Col. Lamar sharply ordered all gun commanders into action and moved the infantry into place firing volleys as they came onto line. The 8th Mich. on the Union right, was now clambering up the face of the fort followed by the 7th Conn. troops and soon after the 28th Mass. The arrival of Confederate reinforcements drove the Federal assault force back from the parapet when the Confederate defense was on the verge of collapse due to casualties on the critical gun crews. The Federals came under severe fire from three sides as they advanced up the fort walls, only to be ordered to fall back to regroup after suffering heavy casualties. Meanwhile the 79th NY on the Union left actually mounted the fort's parapet and were engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the Rebs, when the Union artillery, located at the River's house, opened fire on that fort breaking up the Union attack and forcing the 79th to withdraw. As the first Federal wave collapsed and retreated they hampered the second wave from attacking.
The Federals fell back to the protection of the hedge rows to reformed their lines. They were to make two more unsuccessful assaults before a general withdraw was ordered. While the main assault was taking place the 3rd New Hampshire was attempting a flanking maneuver from the federal left. Their assault brought them to within several yards of the flank of the fort, but they could not make a full assault due to the water and pluff mud that proved to be impassable. They proceeded to assault the fort from across the marsh driving the defenders from the parapets. The two 24-pounders Lamar set up on his right flank were still silent, even though the new gun crews were on line. Lt. Col. Ellison Capers of the 24th SC infantry was sent up to the position to determine the problem. The gun crew, although an artillery unit, had never been trained in firing a cannon before and did not know what to do. Capers sprang into action loading and firing the piece himself, while training the gun crew. Meanwhile 250 men of the 4th LA Battalion arrived from their encampment 2-1/2 miles away to sure up the confederate flank and pour a decimating fire into the 3rd NH troops, causing the Union force to fall back.
By 9:00am the Battle was over. The Federals had sustained 689 casualties, of which 107 dead. Whereas the Confederates realized 207 casualties with 52 killed. Had the Federals captured Battery Lamar they would have flanked the harbor defenses and might have forced the abandonment of Charleston by the Confederacy, cut the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and established a base for operations into the interior which might have ended the war two years sooner.
http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/secessionville/secessionville-history-articles/the-battle-of-secessionville.html
B Monday, June 16, 1862 --- Gen. Robert E. Lee orders Stonewall Jackson to begin plans to leave the Valley and join him at Richmond.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+16%2C+1862
B+ Monday, June 16, 1862: Stonewall Jackson had been called by General Robert E. Lee to bring his 18,500 men to Richmond. After what had already become a legendary campaign of fighting, deception and hard marching, his force was needed to reinforce the Army of Northern Virginia, protecting the capital from Union General George McClellan’s Army of the Potomac. Jackson received his orders on the 16th.
http://civilwardailygazette.com/stonewall-jackson-leaves-the-valley-federals-expect-an-attack/
C Tuesday June 16, 1863; Gettysburg Campaign. Confederate Cavalry General Albert Jenkins was of good stock. He was born to wealthy parents on a Virginia plantation, attended a private academy, a fine college in Pennsylvania, and Harvard Law School. Prior to the war, he served in the United States Congress. He was no ill-mannered, blood thirty rouge. By all accounts, he was a southern gentleman, even when being entertained by the fine citizens of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.
Jenkins and about 2,000 of his cavaliers had been attached to General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Though not a part of Jeb Stuart’s illustrious division, Jenkins’ Cavalry was an officially recognized unit – not a loose band of partisan rangers. Still, General Lee didn’t quite trust them. They had raised much hell throughout Western Virginia and perhaps their ways were not up to Lee’s own standards. Nevertheless, they were brought aboard and given to General Richard Ewell to be used as screens in the march north across the Potomac. Ewell, in turn, gave them to Robert Rodes, a strict disciplinarian, who he believed would keep Jenkins in line.
Rodes had sent Jenkins north as a vanguard, with orders to take Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, where they arrived late the previous night. For the couple of days preceding their arrival, bands of black families, both free and slave, passed through town, warning of the invasion. Before the arrival of the Rebels, almost every horse had been sent north, hopefully out of their reach. When Union troops fled through town, it fully convinced them that not only were the Confederates in Pennsylvania, but Chambersburg was their target. The Rebels entered town well after dark, but spent the night a mile or so north.
Come dawn, the true occupation began. The Confederates were a mostly well behaved lot. They hardly bothered the farmers, did not tear down fences, and took only a few of the cattle. Most things they took were paid for in Confederate script. Jenkins and his men cleaned out the downtown merchants, who were hardly amused with being paid in such worthless notes.
General Jenkins and his Confederates paid for everything, but three particular items. The first was horses, which he considered contraband of war. When the horses were found to be in short supply, he proceeded to take all of the arms in the town. Any make or model would do. When delivered, he destroyed the worthless and kept the finest.
The third item which Jenkins took while refusing to pay was black people. His men rounded them up like they had wanted to round up horses. Slave, free, man, women, or child, it did not matter. To them, a black person was a slave and nothing more.
Chambersburg, like many larger towns, had a section where many of the black people lived. According to a local paper, Jenkins’ men, “went to the part of the town occupied by the colored population, and kidnapped all they could find, from the child in the cradle up to men and women of fifty years of age.”
Rachel Cormany, a citizen of Chambersburg remembered that the Rebels “were hunting up the contrabands &c driving them off by droves. O! How it grated on our hearts to have to sit quietly &c look at such brutal deeds—I saw no men among the contrabands — all women & children.” Cormany recognized that “some of the colored people who were raised here were taken along.” But she could do little apart from watching as the black women and children were “driven like cattle.” One women, she recalled “was pleading wonderfully with her driver for her children – but all the sympathy she received from him was a rough ‘March along.'”
http://civilwardailygazette.com/confederate-cavalry-rounds-up-pennsylvania-blacks-free-and-slave/
D Thursday, June 16, 1864: The Second Battle of Petersburg, Virginia: June 15-18, 1864
Description: Marching from Cold Harbor, Meade’s Army of the Potomac crossed the James River on transports and a 2,200-foot long pontoon bridge at Windmill Point. Butler’s leading elements (XVIII Corps and Kautz’s cavalry) crossed the Appomattox River at Broadway Landing and attacked the Petersburg defenses on June 15. The 5,400 defenders of Petersburg under command of Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard were driven from their first line of entrenchments back to Harrison Creek. After dark the XVIII Corps was relieved by the II Corps. On June 16, the II Corps captured another section of the Confederate line; on the 17th, the IX Corps gained more ground. Beauregard stripped the Howlett Line (Bermuda Hundred) to defend the city, and Lee rushed reinforcements to Petersburg from the Army of Northern Virginia. The II, IX, and V Corps from right to left attacked on June 18 but was repulsed with heavy casualties. By now the Confederate works were heavily manned and the greatest opportunity to capture Petersburg without a siege was lost. The siege of Petersburg began. Union Gen. James St. Clair Morton, chief engineer of the IX Corps, was killed on June 17.
The first day of the Second Battle of Petersburg had seen the Confederate defenders driven back from the Dimmock Line to the western bank of Harrison Creek. Beauregard had received reinforcements through the night, with Hoke’s division arriving first, and then Johnson’s division after Beauregard made the decision to strip the Bermuda Hundred lines to the north of all but skirmishers. Lee would have to plug that hole with his Army of Northern Virginia. Over on the Union side, Hancock’s Second Corps had joined Baldy Smith’s Eighteenth Corps late on the evening of June 15, and the Ninth Corps joined them late on the morning of the 16th. The Union corps kept expanding the line to the left from the anchor of the Appomattox River, the Eighteenth Corps on the left, the Second in the center, and the Ninth on the far right. Three Union corps, around 50,000 men, confronted two Confederate divisions, around 14,000 or so.
Hancock had instructed Second Corps division commanders Gibbon and Birney to scout the positions in front of them for a dawn attack, but delays prevented this from occurring until 6 am, well after dawn. Gibbon was on the right, Birney in the center, and as Barlow’s division of the Second Corps showed up after a frustrating march in which they lost their way, they formed the left of the corps. Grant conferred with Meade, asked him to take charge of the assaults, and asked for an attack by 6 pm on the evening of the 16th.
Despite three full corps being present, Hancock’s Second Corps was the only one which made any attacks greater than a demonstration. Batteries 3, 13, and 14 fell after the 6 pm attacks commenced. However, Beauregard’s lines had held, and he even made a few local counterattacks that evening to try to regain some ground. These failed, but kept the tired Union soldiers from getting much needed sleep. The odds were not going to get better than this for the Union forces. Again, more men would arrive on each side on the night of the 16th into the 17th. The third day of the Second Battle of Petersburg would see more attacks…
http://www.beyondthecrater.com/resources/bat-sum/petersburg-siege-sum/first-offensive-summaries/the-second-battle-of-petersburg-summary/
FYI SPC Michael Duricko, Ph.D MAJ Roland McDonald SSG Franklin BriantCPO William Glen (W.G.) Powell1stSgt Eugene Harless PO3 (Join to see)MSG Greg Kelly CPT (Join to see) LTC Thomas Tennant GySgt Jack Wallace LTC David BrownLTC (Join to see) SFC Eric Harmon SSG Bill McCoySPC (Join to see) MAJ Byron Oyler SSG (Join to see) Sgt Axel HastingA1C Pamela G Russell
In 1863, Rachel Cormany, a citizen of Chambersburg described how the Rebels “were hunting up the contrabands & driving them off by droves.”
In 1863, “Gen. Grant issues an order to the commander of one of his districts concerning mixing white and negro regiments: “Negro troops should be kept aloof from white troops, especially in their camps, as much as possible. Wherever the movements of the enemy require a concentration of your forces, bring them together without regard to color. U. S. GRANT”.
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.
Monday, June 16, 1862: Sarah Morgan writes in her journal of the vindictive treatment of other Louisiana women against the Yankees. Sarah is herself a patriot and true-blue secessionist---but is horrified at the unchristian changes in her neighbors: “This war has brought out wicked, malignant feelings that I did not believe could dwell in woman’s heart. I see some of the holiest eyes, so holy one would think the very spirit of charity lived in them, and all Christian meekness, go off in a mad tirade of abuse and say, with the holy eyes wondrously changed, “I hope God will send down plague, yellow fever, famine, on these vile Yankees, and that not one will escape death.” O, what unutterable horror that remark causes me as often as I hear it! I think of the many mothers, wives, and sisters who wait as anxiously, pray as fervently in their faraway homes for their dear ones, as we do here; I fancy them waiting day after day for the footsteps that will never come, growing more sad, lonely, and heart-broken as the days wear on; I think of how awful it would be if one would say, “Your brothers are dead”; how it would crush all life and happiness out of me; and I say, “God forgive these poor women! They know not what they say!” O women! into what loathsome violence you have abased your holy mission! God will punish us for our hard-heartedness.”
Monday, June 16, 1862: Lt. Charles Wright Wills, of the Union Army of the Mississippi, in the 8th Illinois Infantry, gives us a rather idyllic and pastoral view of life in camp at Rienzi, Tishomingo Co., Miss. after a rigorous campaign: “We are camped here enjoying ourselves grandly. As our brigade is scattered over a line of 50 miles we just pitch our headquarters in the quietest spot we can find independent of the command. There are only two companies now out of the 24 within 8 miles of us, and all we have to do with any of them is to send them orders and receive their communications and forward them. In the heat of the day we read and lounge in our tents, and mornings we go to the creek and bathe and then ride a dozen or so miles to keep our horses exercised. I have a clerk, too, for my copying, etc., so I’m a gentleman. Evenings I visit generally some of the half dozen families within a half mile of us of whom I borrow books and in return furnish them with occasional papers. We have splendid water and my health is perfect. This is the healthiest part of the South.”
Tuesday June 16, 1863 --- Charles H. Lynch, a young officer in the 18th Connecticut Infantry, was with Milroy’s troops at Winchester, and he describes what happens to the little of his regiment that got away from capture by the Rebels: “Up very early this morning. All Major Peale could muster of the 18th Regiment was only thirty members. The rest of those who escaped were with Captain Matthewson, they taking a different route from Major Peale who followed the route taken by General Milroy.
After breakfast of hardtack and coffee, the Major marched us on through Harper’s Ferry, crossing the Potomac River on a pontoon bridge. On, up Maryland Heights, halting under low pine trees, well up to the top of the Heights. Here we were allowed to remain for rest and sleep. General Dan Tyler, a Connecticut man, was in command of a large force at this point. From the top of the Heights we could see the enemy crossing the Potomac River at Williamsport into Maryland. Our detachment was detailed for headquarters guard at the quarters of General Tyler. The duty was easy and made very interesting about all the time.”
Tuesday June 16, 1863 “Chambersburg, like many larger towns, had a section where many of the black people lived. According to a local paper, Jenkins’ men, “went to the part of the town occupied by the colored population, and kidnapped all they could find, from the child in the cradle up to men and women of fifty years of age.”
Rachel Cormany, a citizen of Chambersburg remembered that the Rebels “were hunting up the contrabands &c driving them off by droves. O! How it grated on our hearts to have to sit quietly &c look at such brutal deeds—I saw no men among the contrabands — all women & children.” Cormany recognized that “some of the colored people who were raised here were taken along.” But she could do little apart from watching as the black women and children were “driven like cattle.” One women, she recalled “was pleading wonderfully with her driver for her children – but all the sympathy she received from him was a rough ‘March along.'”
Pictures 1863-06-16 Invasion of Pennsylvania by CSA Brig Gen Jenkins Cavalry; 1863-06-16 Negroes Driven South; 1861-1865 Civil War Charleston defenses map; xx
Since RallyPoint truncates survey selection text I am posting events that were not included and then the full text of each survey choice below:
A. Monday, June 16, 1862: Battle of Secessionville, South Carolina. Brigadier General H. W. Benham attacks forces under CSA Brigadier General Nathan "Shanks" Evans near Charleston. The Federal army came close to capturing a vital position on James Island, but Federal General Benham's poor planning and the timely arrival of reinforcements resulted in a victory for the outnumbered Confederates.
The Confederate advanced pickets were overrun about 5:00am, this activity alerted the defenders. Col. Lamar mounted the parapet to observe the Union front about 700 yards and closing. He immediately dispatched couriers to Gen. Evans, who was five miles away at Fort Johnson with the reserves. As the defenders rushed to their stations, Col. Lamar took personal command of the 8-inch-Columbiad. The Union lines were within two hundred yards of the fort, Lamar order the Columbiad to fire; grapeshot, nails, iron chain and glass blasted from the cannon directly at the Union center, tearing a great hole through the Federal lines. The Battle of Secessionville had commenced.
Col. Lamar sharply ordered all gun commanders into action and moved the infantry into place firing volleys as they came onto line. The 8th Mich. on the Union right, was now clambering up the face of the fort followed by the 7th Conn. troops and soon after the 28th Mass. The arrival of Confederate reinforcements drove the Federal assault force back from the parapet when the Confederate defense was on the verge of collapse due to casualties on the critical gun crews. The Federals came under severe fire from three sides as they advanced up the fort walls, only to be ordered to fall back to regroup after suffering heavy casualties. Meanwhile the 79th NY on the Union left actually mounted the fort's parapet and were engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the Rebs, when the Union artillery, located at the River's house, opened fire on that fort breaking up the Union attack and forcing the 79th to withdraw. As the first Federal wave collapsed and retreated they hampered the second wave from attacking.
The Federals fell back to the protection of the hedge rows to reformed their lines. They were to make two more unsuccessful assaults before a general withdraw was ordered. While the main assault was taking place the 3rd New Hampshire was attempting a flanking maneuver from the federal left. Their assault brought them to within several yards of the flank of the fort, but they could not make a full assault due to the water and pluff mud that proved to be impassable. They proceeded to assault the fort from across the marsh driving the defenders from the parapets. The two 24-pounders Lamar set up on his right flank were still silent, even though the new gun crews were on line. Lt. Col. Ellison Capers of the 24th SC infantry was sent up to the position to determine the problem. The gun crew, although an artillery unit, had never been trained in firing a cannon before and did not know what to do. Capers sprang into action loading and firing the piece himself, while training the gun crew. Meanwhile 250 men of the 4th LA Battalion arrived from their encampment 2-1/2 miles away to sure up the confederate flank and pour a decimating fire into the 3rd NH troops, causing the Union force to fall back.
By 9:00am the Battle was over. The Federals had sustained 689 casualties, of which 107 dead. Whereas the Confederates realized 207 casualties with 52 killed. Had the Federals captured Battery Lamar they would have flanked the harbor defenses and might have forced the abandonment of Charleston by the Confederacy, cut the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and established a base for operations into the interior which might have ended the war two years sooner.
Background: In the spring of 1862, Charleston Harbor was in the grips of the Federal Navy's blockade, they were trying to find a way to land troops to assault Charleston by land. A slave, Robert Smalls, who was a pilot aboard an inland steamer, the PLANTER, stole the ship on May 12th and ran it past the Confederate forts out to the Federal fleet blockading Charleston harbor. With the ship, he also brought news that the Confederates had abandoned Cole's and Battery Islands. This opened the way for Federal troops to be landed on the southeastern end of James Island, and the path to attempt an assault on Charleston.
Major General David Hunter was in command of the Federal forces for the Department of the South. He had already planned to attack Charleston from the south, and the opportunity was now at hand. He assembled and landed two divisions supported by Federal gunboats on the southeastern end of James Island on the 2nd of June, from here he had planned to advance toward Charleston along the Stono River. Placed in charge of the Federal forces was Brig. Gen. Henry W. Benham; his left flank division commander was Brig. Gen. Horatio G. Wright, commanding three brigades (3100 men); his main assault force was commanded by Brig. Gen. Isaac I. Stevens having two brigades totaling 3200 men.
Meeting light resistance through several skirmishes between June 2 and June 12, Hunter was convinced that he was outnumbered and needed more men before making any further assaults. Benham was left with the instructions from Hunter, "You will make no attempt to advance on Charleston or to attach Fort Johnson until you are largely reinforced or until you receive specific instructions from these headquarters."
Meanwhile, Major Gen. John C. Pemberton, commander of the Confederate forces defending Charleston, seeing that the Federal preparations for advancement onto James Island was underway, redeployed three batteries to the island and ordered the additional building of earthworks to defend the approaches up the island. He placed Brig. Gen. Nathan George Evans, a South Carolinian, in command of the James Island defenses.
One of the new earthwork defenses ordered to be built was a fort at Secessionville. In command of this fort was Colonel T. G. Lamar, with his 750 men. The fort was built in a rough shape of an "M", bordered on each side by marsh. The nine cannon defending the fort consisted of: an 8-inch Columbiad in the center flanked on either side with a 24-pounder rifled gun, a 24-pound smoothbore, and an 18-pounder. At another battery to his northern flank he had an additional two 24-pounders; these two guns had not received their gun crews. Within a two hour march, Gen. Evans had placed in reserve three regiments of infantry (2000 men), to be used if necessary to support any action on the island.
The stage was set for the Battle of Secessionville. On the 15th of June Gen. Benham laid plans for the Union forces to make an early morning surprise attack on the Secessionville fort, a "reconnaissance in force" as he so called it. He would use approximately 3500 of his troops to make a frontal assault before daybreak, attacking to two structured waves. During that day and throughout the night Col. Lamar had his troops working on shoring up the fort's defenses. Col. Lamar finally dismissed his men at 4:00am. By this time the union forces comprising the 8th Michigan, the 7th Connecticut, 28th Massachusetts and 79th New York Highlanders were on the move, supposedly at the double-quick, advancing on the fort. However, advancing through the darkness, the troops had to negotiate through two hedge rows and open cotton fields now knee-deep in weeds. This resulted in breaking up the initial federal lines and slowing the advance. As the field narrowed approaching the fort the left side of the union front was pushed into the marsh and got bogged down in the mud. It also compressed the Union center, slowing the advance such that the second wave ran into the first complicating the advance even more.
B. Monday, June 16, 1862: CSA Gen. Robert E. Lee orders Maj Gen Thomas Stonewall Jackson to begin plans to leave the Valley to bring his 18,500 men to Richmond. After what had already become a legendary campaign of fighting, deception and hard marching, his force was needed to reinforce the Army of Northern Virginia, protecting the capital from Union General George McClellan’s Army of the Potomac.
C. Tuesday, June 16, 1863: Gettysburg Campaign. Come dawn, the true occupation began of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. CSA Brig Gen Jenkins and his Confederates paid for everything, but three particular items. The first was horses, which he considered contraband of war. When the horses were found to be in short supply, he proceeded to take all of the arms in the town. Any make or model would do. When delivered, he destroyed the worthless and kept the finest.
The third item which Jenkins took while refusing to pay was black people. His men rounded them up like they had wanted to round up horses. Slave, free, man, women, or child, it did not matter. To them, a black person was a slave and nothing more.
Background: Confederate Cavalry General Albert Jenkins was of good stock. He was born to wealthy parents on a Virginia plantation, attended a private academy, a fine college in Pennsylvania, and Harvard Law School. Prior to the war, he served in the United States Congress. He was no ill-mannered, blood thirty rouge. By all accounts, he was a southern gentleman, even when being entertained by the fine citizens of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.
Jenkins and about 2,000 of his cavaliers had been attached to General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Though not a part of Jeb Stuart’s illustrious division, Jenkins’ Cavalry was an officially recognized unit – not a loose band of partisan rangers. Still, General Lee didn’t quite trust them. They had raised much hell throughout Western Virginia and perhaps their ways were not up to Lee’s own standards. Nevertheless, they were brought aboard and given to General Richard Ewell to be used as screens in the march north across the Potomac. Ewell, in turn, gave them to Robert Rodes, a strict disciplinarian, who he believed would keep Jenkins in line.
Rodes had sent Jenkins north as a vanguard, with orders to take Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, where they arrived late the previous night. For the couple of days preceding their arrival, bands of black families, both free and slave, passed through town, warning of the invasion. Before the arrival of the Rebels, almost every horse had been sent north, hopefully out of their reach. When Union troops fled through town, it fully convinced them that not only were the Confederates in Pennsylvania, but Chambersburg was their target.
Chambersburg, like many larger towns, had a section where many of the black people lived. According to a local paper, Jenkins’ men, “went to the part of the town occupied by the colored population, and kidnapped all they could find, from the child in the cradle up to men and women of fifty years of age.”
Rachel Cormany, a citizen of Chambersburg remembered that the Rebels “were hunting up the contrabands &c driving them off by droves. O! How it grated on our hearts to have to sit quietly &c look at such brutal deeds—I saw no men among the contrabands — all women & children.” Cormany recognized that “some of the colored people who were raised here were taken along.” But she could do little apart from watching as the black women and children were “driven like cattle.” One women, she recalled “was pleading wonderfully with her driver for her children – but all the sympathy she received from him was a rough ‘March along.'”
D. Thursday, June 16, 1864: The Second Battle of Petersburg, Virginia: June 15-18, 1864
Despite three full Federal corps being present, Winfield Scott Hancock’s II Corps was the only one which made any attacks greater than a demonstration. Confederate Batteries 3, 13, and 14 fell after the 6 pm attacks commenced. However, CSA Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard’s lines had held, and he even made a few local counterattacks that evening to try to regain some ground. These failed, but kept the tired Union soldiers from getting much needed sleep. The odds were not going to get better than this for the Union forces.
Background: Marching from Cold Harbor, Meade’s Army of the Potomac crossed the James River on transports and a 2,200-foot long pontoon bridge at Windmill Point. Butler’s leading elements (XVIII Corps and Kautz’s cavalry) crossed the Appomattox River at Broadway Landing and attacked the Petersburg defenses on June 15. The 5,400 defenders of Petersburg under command of Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard were driven from their first line of entrenchments back to Harrison Creek. The first day of the Second Battle of Petersburg had seen the Confederate defenders driven back from the Dimmock Line to the western bank of Harrison Creek.
After dark the William F. “Baldy” Smith’s XVIII Corps was relieved by the Winfield Scott Hancock’s II Corps. CSA Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard had received reinforcements through the night, with Hoke’s division arriving first, and then Johnson’s division after Beauregard made the decision to strip the Bermuda Hundred lines to the north of all but skirmishers. CSA Gen. Robert E. Lee would have to plug that hole with his Army of Northern Virginia. Over on the Union side, Winfield Scott Hancock’s II Corps had joined Baldy Smith’s XVIII Corps late on the evening of June 15, and the IX Corps joined them late on the morning of the 16th. The Union corps kept expanding the line to the left from the anchor of the Appomattox River, the XVIII Corps on the left, the II Corps in the center, and the IX Corps on the far right. Three Union corps, around 50,000 men, confronted two Confederate divisions, around 14,000 or so.
Hancock had instructed II Corps division commanders Gibbon and Birney to scout the positions in front of them for a dawn attack, but delays prevented this from occurring until 6 am, well after dawn. Gibbon was on the right, Birney in the center, and as Barlow’s division of the II Corps showed up after a frustrating march in which they lost their way, they formed the left of the corps. Lt Gen Ulysses S. Grant conferred with Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, asked him to take charge of the assaults, and asked for an attack by 6 pm on the evening of the 16th.
1. Wednesday, June 16, 1852: Whig Convention begins in Baltimore, Maryland. They will nominate Winfield Scott for President
http://blueandgraytrail.com/date/June_16
2. Monday, June 16, 1862 --- Sarah Morgan writes in her journal of the vindictive treatment of other Louisiana women against the Yankees. Sarah is herself a patriot and true-blue secessionist---but is horrified at the unchristian changes in her neighbors: “This war has brought out wicked, malignant feelings that I did not believe could dwell in woman’s heart. I see some of the holiest eyes, so holy one would think the very spirit of charity lived in them, and all Christian meekness, go off in a mad tirade of abuse and say, with the holy eyes wondrously changed, “I hope God will send down plague, yellow fever, famine, on these vile Yankees, and that not one will escape death.” O, what unutterable horror that remark causes me as often as I hear it! I think of the many mothers, wives, and sisters who wait as anxiously, pray as fervently in their faraway homes for their dear ones, as we do here; I fancy them waiting day after day for the footsteps that will never come, growing more sad, lonely, and heart-broken as the days wear on; I think of how awful it would be if one would say, “Your brothers are dead”; how it would crush all life and happiness out of me; and I say, “God forgive these poor women! They know not what they say!” O women! into what loathsome violence you have abased your holy mission! God will punish us for our hard-heartedness.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+16%2C+1862
3. Monday, June 16, 1862 --- Lt. Charles Wright Wills, of the Union Army of the Mississippi, in the 8th Illinois Infantry, gives us a rather idyllic and pastoral view of life in camp at Rienzi, Tishomingo Co., Miss. after a rigorous campaign: “We are camped here enjoying ourselves grandly. As our brigade is scattered over a line of 50 miles we just pitch our headquarters in the quietest spot we can find independent of the command. There are only two companies now out of the 24 within 8 miles of us, and all we have to do with any of them is to send them orders and receive their communications and forward them. In the heat of the day we read and lounge in our tents, and mornings we go to the creek and bathe and then ride a dozen or so miles to keep our horses exercised. I have a clerk, too, for my copying, etc., so I’m a gentleman. Evenings I visit generally some of the half dozen families within a half mile of us of whom I borrow books and in return furnish them with occasional papers. We have splendid water and my health is perfect. This is the healthiest part of the South.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+16%2C+1862
4. Tuesday June 16, 1863 --- Charles H. Lynch, a young officer in the 18th Connecticut Infantry, was with Milroy’s troops at Winchester, and he describes what happens to the little of his regiment that got away from capture by the Rebels: “Up very early this morning. All Major Peale could muster of the 18th Regiment was only thirty members. The rest of those who escaped were with Captain Matthewson, they taking a different route from Major Peale who followed the route taken by General Milroy.
After breakfast of hardtack and coffee, the Major marched us on through Harper’s Ferry, crossing the Potomac River on a pontoon bridge. On, up Maryland Heights, halting under low pine trees, well up to the top of the Heights. Here we were allowed to remain for rest and sleep. General Dan Tyler, a Connecticut man, was in command of a large force at this point. From the top of the Heights we could see the enemy crossing the Potomac River at Williamsport into Maryland. Our detachment was detailed for headquarters guard at the quarters of General Tyler. The duty was easy and made very interesting about all the time.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+16%2C+1863
5. Tuesday June 16, 1863: Gen. Grant issues an order to the commander of one of his districts concerning mixing white and negro regiments: “Negro troops should be kept aloof from white troops, especially in their camps, as much as possible. Wherever the movements of the enemy require a concentration of your forces, bring them together without regard to color. U. S. GRANT.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+16%2C+1863
6. Tuesday June 16, 1863: Siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi [May 26 to July 4, 1863] Date of the start of siege varies from May 18 - May 26.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/date/June_16
7. Tuesday June 16, 1863 --- Siege of Vicksburg, Day 25
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+16%2C+1863
8. Tuesday June 16, 1863: Siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana [May 27 to July 9, 1863] After attempting to storm the walls of Port Hudson, Nathaniel Banks digs in for a siege.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/date/June_16
9. Tuesday June 16, 1863 --- Siege of Port Hudson, Day 20
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+16%2C+1863
10. Tuesday June 16, 1863 --- Corporal James Kendall Hosmer, a Union soldier with Gen. Banks’ Army of the Gulf besieging Port Hudson, writes of the miseries of serving in the infantry investing a besieged fortress, and of the graphic experience of making an assault: “ The Fifty-second Regiment are holding an advanced position here, and, ever since daylight of the morning of the 14th, have lived in the midst of a rain of rifle-balls. At the bottom of the little ravine, I am secure; but if I should put my head up to the surface, climbing up the bank six or eight feet, I should be in the midst of flying bullets, and a fair mark for the rebel sharpshooters who are close at hand. Our brigade is thrown out into the very teeth of the enemy, on ground our troops have never before occupied. This little corner is occupied by the color-guard. If I go to the company, I must go stooping or crawling on my stomach; I must run from a stump to a trunk, and from that to a clump of bushes, and hear all the time the “zip” and “hum” of the rifle-balls. . . .
The work of death had begun; for ambulance-men were bringing back the wounded: and, almost before we had time to think we were in danger, I saw one of our men fall back into the arms of his comrades, shot dead through the chest. The banks of the ravine rose on either side of the road in which we had halted: but just here the trench made a turn; and in front, at the distance of five or six hundred yards, we could plainly see the rebel rampart, red in the morning-light as with blood, and shrouded in white vapor along the edge as the sharpshooters behind kept up an incessant discharge. I believe I felt no sensation of fear, nor do I think those about me did. Wilson and Hardiker carried the flags, and their faces were cheerful and animated. . . . .
In a minute or two, the column has ascended, and is deploying in a long line, under the colonel’s eye, on the open ground. The rebel engineers are most skilful fellows. Between us and the brown earth-heap which we are to try to gain to-day, the space is not wide; but it is cut up in every direction with ravines and gullies. These were covered, until the parapet was raised, with a heavy growth of timber; but now it has all been cut down, so that in every direction the fallen tops of large trees interlace, trunks block up every passage, and brambles are growing over the whole. It is out of the question to advance here in line of battle; it seems almost out of the question to advance in any order: but the word is given, “Forward!” and on we go. Know that this whole space is swept by a constant patter of balls: it is really a “leaden rain.” We go crawling and stooping: but now and then before us rises in plain view the line of earth-works, smoky and sulphurous with volleys; while all about us fall the balls, now sending a lot of little splinters from a stump, now knocking the dead wood out of the old tree-trunk that is sheltering me, now driving up a cloud of dust from a little knoll, or cutting off the head of a weed just under the hand as with an invisible knife. I see one of our best captains carried off the field, mortally wounded, shot through both lungs, — straight, bright-eyed, though so sadly hurt, supported by two of his men; and now almost at my side, in the color-company, one soldier is struck in the hand, and another in the leg. . . . Presently we move on again, through brambles and under charred trunks, tearing our way . . . creeping on our bellies across exposed ridges, where bullets hum and sing like stinging bees; and, right in plain view, the ridge of earth, its brow white with incessant volleys. . . . Down into our little nook now come tumbling a crowd of disorganized, panting men. They are part of a New-York regiment, who, on the crest just over us, have been meeting with very severe loss. . . . From time to time, afterwards, wounded men crawl back from their position a few yards in front of where we are, — one shot through the ankles, who, however, can crawl on his hands and knees; one in the hand; one with his blouse all torn about his breast, where a ball has struck him, yet he can creep away. . . .
It is now noon and after. The sun is intolerably hot, and we have no sufficient shade. That, however, is nothing for us who are unhurt; but we hear of poor wounded men lying without shelter, among them Gen. Paine, whom the ambulance-men cannot yet reach on account of the enemy’s fire. We begin to know that the attack has failed. . . . We have not been as much exposed as some other regiments, and our loss has not been large. The fire, however, seemed very hot, and close at hand; and the wonder to us all is, that no more fell. Darkness settles down; shots are received and returned, but only at random now; and, ever and anon, from the batteries goes tearing through the air a monstrous shell, with a roar like a rushing railroad-train, then an explosion putting every thing for the moment in light. . . . For food to-day, I have had two or three hard crackers and cold potatoes. We have no blankets: so down I lie to sleep as I can on the earth, without covering; and, before morning, am chilled through with the dew and coldness of the air. . . .”
[At night] I climbed up from the ravine, and sat alone, upon the hill on the field, under the starlight. It was a sweet night, and only once or twice came to my sense the taint of unburied slain. For the rest, all was pure. In a half-comic way, the whippoorwill changed his song into “Whipped you well, whipped you well!” I will never believe the bull-frogs that night croaked any thing but “Rebs, rebs!” and the jeering owls hooted out from the tree-tops, “What can you do-o-o?” All about the horizon, fringing the starlit space of blue, a storm was gathering; and behind the black clouds shook the lightning, like the menacing finger of an almighty power threatening doom to this obstinate stronghold. . . .”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+16%2C+1863
11. Thursday, June 16, 1864: Siege of Petersburg, Virginia [June 15, 1864 to April 2, 1865]
http://blueandgraytrail.com/date/June_16
12. Thursday, June 16, 1864: More units from the Army of the Potomac joined the attack on Petersburg. Against the odds, the defenders held out.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/the-american-civil-war/american-civil-war-june-1864/
13. June 16, 1876: The three-day Republican Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio (Hayes home state) shifted its support from front runner James Blaine to Rutherford B. Hayes on the second ballot.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/date/June_16
A Monday, June 16, 1862: Battle of Secessionville [Battle of Fort Johnson], South Carolina. Brigadier General H. W. Benham [US] attacks forces under Brigadier General Nathan "Shanks" Evans near Charleston
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186206
A+ Monday, June 16, 1862 --- Battle of Secessionville, So. Carolina – Gen. Henry Benham puts his two Federal divisions (about 6,600 men) on the road early in the morning, with Stevens’ division drawn up on the right to attack Ft. Lamar near this town. Gen. Wright’s Yankees are drawn up on Stevens’ left, to cover his advance. Facing the Federals were about 2,000 Confederates under Gen. Nathan “Shanks” Evans. The Federals step off at 4:00 AM, with the 8th Michigan in the lead. The 8-inch Columbiad cannon at the fort opens with a round of grapeshot which sweeps a large gap in the center of the Michigan line, but they keep pressing on until they reach the parapet, firing down into the fort. Stevens throws in more regiments, but Evans places fresh men in the fort’s defenses. Finally, Stevens calls a withdrawal, with heavy casualties. At this time, Wright’s division is moving up, accompanied by Gen. Benham. Wright wheels right into position, but is attacked on his left flank by fresh Southern troops from the north, under Hagood---with the Eutaw Battalion and the 24th So. Carolina. Wright details several regiments and some artillery to hold off Hagood, and tries to help Stevens, but neither general can see a way to advance across the open ground to the fort’s walls without severe losses. By 9:00 AM, the Federals call off the assault. Confederate Victory
Losses: Union – 685 Confederate – 204
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+16%2C+1862
A++ Monday, June 16, 1862: Battle of Secessionville, South Carolina. Early June 1862, Maj. Gen. David Hunter transported Horatio G. Wright’s and Isaac I. Stevens’s Union divisions under immediate direction of Brig. Gen. Henry Benham to James Island where they entrenched at Grimball’s Landing near the southern flank of the Confederate defenses. On June 16, contrary to Hunter’s orders, Benham launched an unsuccessful frontal assault against Fort Lamar at Secessionville. Because Benham was said to have disobeyed orders, Hunter relieved him of command.
A+++ Monday, June 16, 1862: Battle of Secessionville, South Carolina. The Federal army came close to capturing a vital position on James Island in June 1862, but Federal General Benham's poor planning and the timely arrival of reinforcements resulted in a victory for the outnumbered Confederates.
In the spring of 1862, Charleston Harbor was in the grips of the Federal Navy's blockade, they were trying to find a way to land troops to assault Charleston by land. A slave, Robert Smalls, who was a pilot aboard an inland steamer, the PLANTER, stole the ship on May 12th and ran it past the Confederate forts out to the Federal fleet blockading Charleston harbor. With the ship, he also brought news that the Confederates had abandoned Cole's and Battery Islands. This opened the way for Federal troops to be landed on the southeastern end of James Island, and the path to attempt an assault on Charleston.
Major General David Hunter was in command of the Federal forces for the Department of the South. He had already planned to attack Charleston from the south, and the opportunity was now at hand. He assembled and landed two divisions supported by Federal gunboats on the southeastern end of James Island on the 2nd of June, from here he had planned to advance toward Charleston along the Stono River. Placed in charge of the Federal forces was Brig. Gen. Henry W. Benham; his left flank division commander was Brig. Gen. Horatio G. Wright, commanding three brigades (3100 men); his main assault force was commanded by Brig. Gen. Isaac I. Stevens having two brigades totaling 3200 men.
Meeting light resistance through several skirmishes between June 2 and June 12, Hunter was convinced that he was outnumbered and needed more men before making any further assaults. Benham was left with the instructions from Hunter, "You will make no attempt to advance on Charleston or to attach Fort Johnson until you are largely reinforced or until you receive specific instructions from these headquarters."
Meanwhile, Major Gen. John C. Pemberton, commander of the Confederate forces defending Charleston, seeing that the Federal preparations for advancement onto James Island was underway, redeployed three batteries to the island and ordered the additional building of earthworks to defend the approaches up the island. He placed Brig. Gen. Nathan George Evans, a South Carolinian, in command of the James Island defenses.
One of the new earthwork defenses ordered to be built was a fort at Secessionville. In command of this fort was Colonel T. G. Lamar, with his 750 men. The fort was built in a rough shape of an "M", bordered on each side by marsh. The nine cannon defending the fort consisted of: an 8-inch Columbiad in the center flanked on either side with a 24-pounder rifled gun, a 24-pound smoothbore, and an 18-pounder. At another battery to his northern flank he had an additional two 24-pounders; these two guns had not received their gun crews. Within a two hour march, Gen. Evans had placed in reserve three regiments of infantry (2000 men), to be used if necessary to support any action on the island.
The stage was set for the Battle of Secessionville. On the 15th of June Gen. Benham laid plans for the Union forces to make an early morning surprise attack on the Secessionville fort, a "reconnaissance in force" as he so called it. He would use approximately 3500 of his troops to make a frontal assault before daybreak, attacking to two structured waves. During that day and throughout the night Col. Lamar had his troops working on shoring up the fort's defenses. Col. Lamar finally dismissed his men at 4:00am. By this time the union forces comprising the 8th Michigan, the 7th Connecticut, 28th Massachusetts and 79th New York Highlanders were on the move, supposedly at the double-quick, advancing on the fort. However, advancing through the darkness, the troops had to negotiate through two hedge rows and open cotton fields now knee-deep in weeds. This resulted in breaking up the initial federal lines and slowing the advance. As the field narrowed approaching the fort the left side of the union front was pushed into the marsh and got bogged down in the mud. It also compressed the Union center, slowing the advance such that the second wave ran into the first complicating the advance even more.
The Confederate advanced pickets were overrun about 5:00am, this activity alerted the defenders. Col. Lamar mounted the parapet to observe the Union front about 700 yards and closing. He immediately dispatched couriers to Gen. Evans, who was five miles away at Fort Johnson with the reserves. As the defenders rushed to their stations, Col. Lamar took personal command of the 8-inch-Columbiad. The Union lines were within two hundred yards of the fort, Lamar order the Columbiad to fire; grapeshot, nails, iron chain and glass blasted from the cannon directly at the Union center, tearing a great hole through the Federal lines. The Battle of Secessionville had commenced.
Col. Lamar sharply ordered all gun commanders into action and moved the infantry into place firing volleys as they came onto line. The 8th Mich. on the Union right, was now clambering up the face of the fort followed by the 7th Conn. troops and soon after the 28th Mass. The arrival of Confederate reinforcements drove the Federal assault force back from the parapet when the Confederate defense was on the verge of collapse due to casualties on the critical gun crews. The Federals came under severe fire from three sides as they advanced up the fort walls, only to be ordered to fall back to regroup after suffering heavy casualties. Meanwhile the 79th NY on the Union left actually mounted the fort's parapet and were engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the Rebs, when the Union artillery, located at the River's house, opened fire on that fort breaking up the Union attack and forcing the 79th to withdraw. As the first Federal wave collapsed and retreated they hampered the second wave from attacking.
The Federals fell back to the protection of the hedge rows to reformed their lines. They were to make two more unsuccessful assaults before a general withdraw was ordered. While the main assault was taking place the 3rd New Hampshire was attempting a flanking maneuver from the federal left. Their assault brought them to within several yards of the flank of the fort, but they could not make a full assault due to the water and pluff mud that proved to be impassable. They proceeded to assault the fort from across the marsh driving the defenders from the parapets. The two 24-pounders Lamar set up on his right flank were still silent, even though the new gun crews were on line. Lt. Col. Ellison Capers of the 24th SC infantry was sent up to the position to determine the problem. The gun crew, although an artillery unit, had never been trained in firing a cannon before and did not know what to do. Capers sprang into action loading and firing the piece himself, while training the gun crew. Meanwhile 250 men of the 4th LA Battalion arrived from their encampment 2-1/2 miles away to sure up the confederate flank and pour a decimating fire into the 3rd NH troops, causing the Union force to fall back.
By 9:00am the Battle was over. The Federals had sustained 689 casualties, of which 107 dead. Whereas the Confederates realized 207 casualties with 52 killed. Had the Federals captured Battery Lamar they would have flanked the harbor defenses and might have forced the abandonment of Charleston by the Confederacy, cut the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and established a base for operations into the interior which might have ended the war two years sooner.
http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/secessionville/secessionville-history-articles/the-battle-of-secessionville.html
B Monday, June 16, 1862 --- Gen. Robert E. Lee orders Stonewall Jackson to begin plans to leave the Valley and join him at Richmond.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+16%2C+1862
B+ Monday, June 16, 1862: Stonewall Jackson had been called by General Robert E. Lee to bring his 18,500 men to Richmond. After what had already become a legendary campaign of fighting, deception and hard marching, his force was needed to reinforce the Army of Northern Virginia, protecting the capital from Union General George McClellan’s Army of the Potomac. Jackson received his orders on the 16th.
http://civilwardailygazette.com/stonewall-jackson-leaves-the-valley-federals-expect-an-attack/
C Tuesday June 16, 1863; Gettysburg Campaign. Confederate Cavalry General Albert Jenkins was of good stock. He was born to wealthy parents on a Virginia plantation, attended a private academy, a fine college in Pennsylvania, and Harvard Law School. Prior to the war, he served in the United States Congress. He was no ill-mannered, blood thirty rouge. By all accounts, he was a southern gentleman, even when being entertained by the fine citizens of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.
Jenkins and about 2,000 of his cavaliers had been attached to General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Though not a part of Jeb Stuart’s illustrious division, Jenkins’ Cavalry was an officially recognized unit – not a loose band of partisan rangers. Still, General Lee didn’t quite trust them. They had raised much hell throughout Western Virginia and perhaps their ways were not up to Lee’s own standards. Nevertheless, they were brought aboard and given to General Richard Ewell to be used as screens in the march north across the Potomac. Ewell, in turn, gave them to Robert Rodes, a strict disciplinarian, who he believed would keep Jenkins in line.
Rodes had sent Jenkins north as a vanguard, with orders to take Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, where they arrived late the previous night. For the couple of days preceding their arrival, bands of black families, both free and slave, passed through town, warning of the invasion. Before the arrival of the Rebels, almost every horse had been sent north, hopefully out of their reach. When Union troops fled through town, it fully convinced them that not only were the Confederates in Pennsylvania, but Chambersburg was their target. The Rebels entered town well after dark, but spent the night a mile or so north.
Come dawn, the true occupation began. The Confederates were a mostly well behaved lot. They hardly bothered the farmers, did not tear down fences, and took only a few of the cattle. Most things they took were paid for in Confederate script. Jenkins and his men cleaned out the downtown merchants, who were hardly amused with being paid in such worthless notes.
General Jenkins and his Confederates paid for everything, but three particular items. The first was horses, which he considered contraband of war. When the horses were found to be in short supply, he proceeded to take all of the arms in the town. Any make or model would do. When delivered, he destroyed the worthless and kept the finest.
The third item which Jenkins took while refusing to pay was black people. His men rounded them up like they had wanted to round up horses. Slave, free, man, women, or child, it did not matter. To them, a black person was a slave and nothing more.
Chambersburg, like many larger towns, had a section where many of the black people lived. According to a local paper, Jenkins’ men, “went to the part of the town occupied by the colored population, and kidnapped all they could find, from the child in the cradle up to men and women of fifty years of age.”
Rachel Cormany, a citizen of Chambersburg remembered that the Rebels “were hunting up the contrabands &c driving them off by droves. O! How it grated on our hearts to have to sit quietly &c look at such brutal deeds—I saw no men among the contrabands — all women & children.” Cormany recognized that “some of the colored people who were raised here were taken along.” But she could do little apart from watching as the black women and children were “driven like cattle.” One women, she recalled “was pleading wonderfully with her driver for her children – but all the sympathy she received from him was a rough ‘March along.'”
http://civilwardailygazette.com/confederate-cavalry-rounds-up-pennsylvania-blacks-free-and-slave/
D Thursday, June 16, 1864: The Second Battle of Petersburg, Virginia: June 15-18, 1864
Description: Marching from Cold Harbor, Meade’s Army of the Potomac crossed the James River on transports and a 2,200-foot long pontoon bridge at Windmill Point. Butler’s leading elements (XVIII Corps and Kautz’s cavalry) crossed the Appomattox River at Broadway Landing and attacked the Petersburg defenses on June 15. The 5,400 defenders of Petersburg under command of Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard were driven from their first line of entrenchments back to Harrison Creek. After dark the XVIII Corps was relieved by the II Corps. On June 16, the II Corps captured another section of the Confederate line; on the 17th, the IX Corps gained more ground. Beauregard stripped the Howlett Line (Bermuda Hundred) to defend the city, and Lee rushed reinforcements to Petersburg from the Army of Northern Virginia. The II, IX, and V Corps from right to left attacked on June 18 but was repulsed with heavy casualties. By now the Confederate works were heavily manned and the greatest opportunity to capture Petersburg without a siege was lost. The siege of Petersburg began. Union Gen. James St. Clair Morton, chief engineer of the IX Corps, was killed on June 17.
The first day of the Second Battle of Petersburg had seen the Confederate defenders driven back from the Dimmock Line to the western bank of Harrison Creek. Beauregard had received reinforcements through the night, with Hoke’s division arriving first, and then Johnson’s division after Beauregard made the decision to strip the Bermuda Hundred lines to the north of all but skirmishers. Lee would have to plug that hole with his Army of Northern Virginia. Over on the Union side, Hancock’s Second Corps had joined Baldy Smith’s Eighteenth Corps late on the evening of June 15, and the Ninth Corps joined them late on the morning of the 16th. The Union corps kept expanding the line to the left from the anchor of the Appomattox River, the Eighteenth Corps on the left, the Second in the center, and the Ninth on the far right. Three Union corps, around 50,000 men, confronted two Confederate divisions, around 14,000 or so.
Hancock had instructed Second Corps division commanders Gibbon and Birney to scout the positions in front of them for a dawn attack, but delays prevented this from occurring until 6 am, well after dawn. Gibbon was on the right, Birney in the center, and as Barlow’s division of the Second Corps showed up after a frustrating march in which they lost their way, they formed the left of the corps. Grant conferred with Meade, asked him to take charge of the assaults, and asked for an attack by 6 pm on the evening of the 16th.
Despite three full corps being present, Hancock’s Second Corps was the only one which made any attacks greater than a demonstration. Batteries 3, 13, and 14 fell after the 6 pm attacks commenced. However, Beauregard’s lines had held, and he even made a few local counterattacks that evening to try to regain some ground. These failed, but kept the tired Union soldiers from getting much needed sleep. The odds were not going to get better than this for the Union forces. Again, more men would arrive on each side on the night of the 16th into the 17th. The third day of the Second Battle of Petersburg would see more attacks…
http://www.beyondthecrater.com/resources/bat-sum/petersburg-siege-sum/first-offensive-summaries/the-second-battle-of-petersburg-summary/
FYI SPC Michael Duricko, Ph.D MAJ Roland McDonald SSG Franklin BriantCPO William Glen (W.G.) Powell1stSgt Eugene Harless PO3 (Join to see)MSG Greg Kelly CPT (Join to see) LTC Thomas Tennant GySgt Jack Wallace LTC David BrownLTC (Join to see) SFC Eric Harmon SSG Bill McCoySPC (Join to see) MAJ Byron Oyler SSG (Join to see) Sgt Axel HastingA1C Pamela G Russell
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Thank You Brother Steve for all this new info about the Civil War. I happened to pick Gettysburg which turned out to be the most popular.
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LTC Stephen F.
You are very welcome my friend and brother-in-Christ PO3 Edward Riddle and thanks for letting us know that you consider the June 16, 1863 Gettysburg campaign to be the most significant evcent on June 16 in the US Civil War.
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Extraordinary read, as always, LTC Stephen F.. Fast forward a few years, and the date takes on new meaning, at least for me! On June 16, 1973, I was commissioned a second lieutenant and the fun began!
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Great info once again. What is intriging to me is the fate of the escaped slaves and free people of color who were seized by the Confederate Cavalry. Was there ever an account on what happened to them? It sounds like many were Women and young children. Since the war ended less then two years after the even you would think one or several of them would have told there account to someone.
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LTC Stephen F.
1stSgt Eugene Harless It took a little digging but I found some information which indicated many of those taken were either helped to escape or escaped on their own from the rebels who were taking them south.
"Negroes Taken South.
Quite a number of Negroes, free and slave--men, women and children--were captured by Jenkins and started South to be sold into bondage. Many escaped in various ways, and the people of Greencastle captured the guard of one negro [illegible] in and discharged the negroes; but, perhaps a full fifty were got off to slavery. One negro effected his escape by shooting and seriously wounding his rebel guard. He forced the gun from the rebel and fired, wounding [illegible] in the head, and then skedaddled. Some of the men were bound with ropes, and the children were mounted in front or behind the rebels on their horses. By great exertions of several citizens some of the negroes were discharged.
http://www2.vcdh.virginia.edu/saxon/servlet/SaxonServlet?source=/xml_docs/valley_news/newspaper_catalog.xml&style=/xml_docs/valley_news/news_cat.xsl&level=edition&paper=fr&year=1863&month=07&day=08&edition=fr1863/pa.fr.fr.1863.07.08.xml
"Negroes Taken South.
Quite a number of Negroes, free and slave--men, women and children--were captured by Jenkins and started South to be sold into bondage. Many escaped in various ways, and the people of Greencastle captured the guard of one negro [illegible] in and discharged the negroes; but, perhaps a full fifty were got off to slavery. One negro effected his escape by shooting and seriously wounding his rebel guard. He forced the gun from the rebel and fired, wounding [illegible] in the head, and then skedaddled. Some of the men were bound with ropes, and the children were mounted in front or behind the rebels on their horses. By great exertions of several citizens some of the negroes were discharged.
http://www2.vcdh.virginia.edu/saxon/servlet/SaxonServlet?source=/xml_docs/valley_news/newspaper_catalog.xml&style=/xml_docs/valley_news/news_cat.xsl&level=edition&paper=fr&year=1863&month=07&day=08&edition=fr1863/pa.fr.fr.1863.07.08.xml
Summary: The Repository provides a detailed account of the Rebel General Jenkins's first invasion and occupation of Chambersburg, which began on June 17. It reports that Jenkins prevented much damage, but "robbed" stores (paying with "bogus money"--Confederate scrip) of most goods. His men took arms and horses as contraband of war. Many horses and most of the black population escaped to the mountains. The Repository calculated $300,000 in...
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