What was the most significant event on June 28 during the U.S. Civil War?

2016-06-30T23:06:33-04:00

Successful Federal Wilder Cavalry Brigade Raid does not lose a man in Tullahoma Campaign in 1863: On June 28, Col. John T. Wilder's brigade left on a raid to damage the railroad infrastructure in Bragg's rear, heading south toward Decherd, a small town on the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad. They defeated a small garrison of Confederates in Decherd, tore up 300 yards of track and a burned the railroad depot filled with Confederate rations. The next morning, they rode into the foothills of the Cumberland Mountains, reaching the town of Sewanee, the place Leonidas Polk had selected a few years before as the future site of the University of the South, where they destroyed a branch rail line. Although pursued by a larger Confederate force, the Lightning Brigade was back in Manchester by noon, June 30. They had not lost a single man on their raid.
Burning bridges in wartime can be a very good thing in 1863 Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania militia were unsuccessful in blowing a bridge across the Susquehanna River but they set fire to it which stopped CSA Maj Gen Ewell’s 25,000 or so confederates from crossing in the Gettysburg campaign.

Pictures: 1863-06-28 burning of the Wrightsville -Columbia bridge across the Susquehanna; 1862-06-28 Union wounded at a field hospital following the Battle of Gaines Mill; 1862-06-28 Seven Days Battles; Col John T Wilder

A. 1862: White House Landing, Virginia. During a lull in the seven days’ battles, Gen. McClellan is convinced that he must retreat and that the project to take Richmond is no longer feasible. He sends out orders to abandon all non-essential equipment (tents, camp equipment, etc.) and for all supply and ammunition trains and their wagons to withdraw south and east to Savage’s Station, along the York River Railroad. An immense amount of army stores are put to the torch. A large Union force destroyed supplies at White House Landing rather than let them fall into the hands of the Confederates. The White House was the estate of Col. Rooney Lee, one of Gen. Robert E. Lee's sons. The house was rumored to be the place where George Washington was to have married Curtis Lee. Brig. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart was told that there were 5,000 Union soldiers guarding a nearby burning depot.
B. 1863: Wrightsville, Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Militia burn bridge across the Susquehanna River blocking CSA Maj. Gen. Richard Ewell and 25,000 Confederate troops from seizing hiss target of the town of Wrightsville. Wrightsville was an obvious target because it held the Columbia Bridge over the river, a 5,620ft. structure that was alleged to have been the longest wooden span in the world at the time. The western riverbank was guarded by the 27th Pennsylvania Militia. Other units were readied for a defense of the bridge. If the Federals were attacked by a strong force, they would withdraw and blow up the bridge, which was prepared for an explosion with prearranged powder charges.
Brig. Gen. John B. Gordon led the Confederate approach to Wrightsville. He had set up 2 cannon and began bombarding the town and the Union defense works. The Union militia withdrew rapidly eastward across the bridge into Columbia and set off the powder charges. Unfortunately for them, the bridge did not fall. Instead, the kerosene-soaked timbers caught fire and the blaze spread into the town. This created an inferno that was visible for many miles away.
C. 1863: Successful Wilder Brigade Raid in Tullahoma Campaign., Col. John T. Wilder's brigade left on a raid to damage the railroad infrastructure in Bragg's rear, heading south toward Decherd, a small town on the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad. The rain swollen Elk River proved a significant obstacle, but they disassembled a nearby mill and constructed a raft to float their howitzers across. They defeated a small garrison of Confederates in Decherd, tore up 300 yards of track and a burned the railroad depot filled with Confederate rations. The next morning, they rode into the foothills of the Cumberland Mountains, reaching the town of Sewanee, the place Leonidas Polk had selected a few years before as the future site of the University of the South, where they destroyed a branch rail line. Although pursued by a larger Confederate force, the Lightning Brigade was back in Manchester by noon, June 30. They had not lost a single man on their raid.
Bragg was not overly concerned by the raid in his rear area and the damage to the railroad was repaired quickly. His men waited in their Tullahoma fortifications for a frontal assault that Rosecrans planned for July
D. 1864: The Federal Wilson-Kautz raid ended in failure at the Battle of Sappony Church, Virginia [Stony Creek Depot] Brig. Gen. James Wilson and Brig. Gen. August Kautz’s raiders crossed the Nottoway River and CSA Maj Gen Wade Hampton’s cavalry division intercepted them as the Northerners headed north to Stony Creek Depot on the Weldon Railroad. While the two sides were engaged, CSA Maj Gen William H.F. Lee’s Division arrived during the afternoon and joined forces with Hampton. Now outnumbered, Brig. Gen. James Wilson and Brig. Gen. August Kautz withdrew after nightfall, attempting to reach Reams Railway Station to the north. During the night, Wilson and Kautz disengaged and pressed north on the Halifax Road for the supposed security of Reams Station, abandoning many fleeing slaves who had sought security with the Federal raiders.
Estimated Casualties: 1,817 for entire raid
Result(s): Confederate victory

FYI CWO4 Terrence Clark MSG Roy Cheever Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. SMSgt Lawrence McCarter PO3 Edward Riddle MAJ Roland McDonald SSG Byron Hewett CMDCM John F. "Doc" Bradshaw COL Private RallyPoint Member SPC Michael Terrell COL Lisandro Murphy SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL] MAJ Ken Landgren LTC Trent Klug CWO3 Dennis M. CPT Kevin McComas]SSgt David M. MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D.

Response by LTC Stephen F. made Jun 30 at 2016 11:09 PM

2016-06-30T23:09:19-04:00

Union burns vast sums of supplies in 1862 as they back away from Lee’s numerically inferior forces. In 1863 a bridge is burnt which stops the confederate forces from crossing the Susquehanna River and exploiting the Pennsylvania countryside.
Saturday, June 28, 1862: Tunstall's Station, Virginia “Brig. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart and his Confederate force arrived at Tunstall's Station. His forward pickets asked Stuart to come forward and inspect a Union position at Black Creek. A Union cavalry squadron, and farther back an artillery position, was located on the opposite creek bank. After studying the layout, Stuart discovered that the bridge across the creek had been burned down and the creek banks were very steep with miry approaches. This canceled out any attack by fording the creek. Stuart called for Maj. John Pelham and his artillery battery. They fired a few shots into the Union position, effectively scattering the Union cavalry. It also scattered a hidden ambush site that the Federals had set for the Confederates.
Afterwards, Stuart had sent some dismounted skirmishers across the creek to investigate the former Union position. They did not find anything.”
Saturday, June 28, 1862: Seven Days' Battles, Day 4. “There is no significant fighting on this day, although the Union Army is very busy. Gen. McClellan is convinced that he must retreat and that the project to take Richmond is no longer feasible. He sends out orders to abandon all non-essential equipment (tents, camp equipment, etc.) and for all supply and ammunition trains and their wagons to withdraw south and east to Savage’s Station, along the York River Railroad. An immense amount of army stores are put to the torch. He also orders that “the sick and wounded that are not able to walk must necessarily be left.” This is a decision that will not sit well with a number of people in the North. Gen. Porter is able pull his entire force south of the Chickahominy River, and the Federals torch their base on White House on the York River. McClellan himself rides all the way down to the James River and moves his headquarters to a gunboat on the river, leaving others to attend to the complicated details of the retreat.
In the meantime, Lee has his troops on the move. Surmising correctly that McClellan is moving south to the protection of the Navy’s gunboats on the James River, Lee hopes to trap McClellan as the Federals try to disentangle their army from the Chickahominy and especially the White Oak Swamp: if the Rebels can catch them in the midst of this morass before the bluecoats pass through it, it might mean the end of the Army of the Potomac, or at least severely crippling it. Today, Gen. Magruder sends out a reconnaissance in force to tap the Federal lines at Golding’s Farm on the far left Union flank, mostly to convince the Yankees that the entire Union line was under attack, or soon would be.”
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.
Saturday, June 28, 1862 --- Lt. Charles Francis Adams, Jr., of the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry regiment, writes home of his frustration over the Secessionville debacle, and of the inefficiency of the Union command in the South Carolina coastal theater---and of the stumbling blocks that the many missionaries and philanthropists in the wake of the Army have imposed by getting underfoot of military priorities: “And today, though under every circumstance I have looked on riding into Charleston as a sure and ample reward for all I might be called on to undergo, I hear that the chances are immense against my ever receiving that reward with an indifference which surprises me. I am ordered and I can’t help it; though it seems strange to me that we must turn our backs on these fellows for lack of ten poor regiments out of the grand army of the republic. I do so know we could whip these men if we had two chances out of five, and we would so like to do it; and now to go back with nothing but failure — oh! for one hour of generalship!! Everything here but honor has been sacrificed to the fussy incompetence of Benham, the unmilitary amiability of Hunter, and the misplaced philanthropy of Edward L. Pierce…. Philanthropy is a nuisance in time of war. . . . I respect the missionaries for their objects and perseverance, but they have no business here. Their time is not yet and they make us fight in fetters. . . .”
Saturday, June 28, 1862 --- John Beauchamp Jones, in Richmond, writes of the gleeful spectacle made by over 2,000 Union prisoners in the city, including field officers such as Gen. McCall and Gen. Reynolds: “To-day some of our streets are crammed with thousands of bluejackets—Yankee prisoners. There are many field officers, and among them several generals.
General Reynolds, who surrendered with his brigade, was thus accosted by one of our functionaries, who knew him before the war began: “General, this is in accordance with McClellan’s prediction; you are in Richmond.”
“Yes, sir,” responded the general, in bitterness; ” and d—n me, if it is not precisely in the manner I anticipated.”
Sunday, June 28, 1863 --- Lt. Col. Arthur Fremantle, the British Army observer traveling with Lee’s army, writes in his journal of his meeting Gen. Hood, and of the reception of Rebels by Pennsylvanians: “I was introduced to General Hood this morning; he is a tall, thin, wiry-looking man, with a grave face and a light-coloured beard, thirty-three years old, and is accounted one of the best and most promising officers in the army. By his Texan and Alabamian troops he is adored; he formerly commanded the Texan Brigade, but has now been promoted to the command of a division. His troops are accused of being a wild set, and difficult to manage; and it is the great object of the chiefs to check their innate plundering propensities by every means in their power.
I went into Chambersburg at noon, and found Lawley ensconced in the Franklin Hotel. Both he and I had much difficulty in getting into that establishment. . . . Half-a-dozen Pennsylvanian viragos surrounded and assailed me with their united tongues to a deafening degree. Nor would they believe me when I told them I was an English spectator and a noncombatant: they said I must be either a Rebel or a Yankee—by which expression I learned for the first time that the term Yankee is as much used as a reproach in Pennsylvania as in the South.”
Sunday, June 28, 1863 --- Jenkin Lloyd Jones, an artilleryman laying siege to Vicksburg, writes in his journal with a melancholy turn of mind: “Before Vicksburg, Sunday, June 28. A Sunday is with us, but no one finds any reminder of it as he looks about him. The same routine is gone through with, and were it not for my memoranda I would not know it. When I compare this with the Sunday at home, when all work is laid aside, sister and brother that during the week have been absent, are at home, all there, the quiet lunch for supper—all, all crowd upon my memory, and I long for the time when I can again enjoy them, and the vacuity in my heart be filled, and even to-day I can imagine I can see that gathering, and I know that Mother’s anxious heart looks upon my vacant seat and wonders if her boy is yet spared.”

Pictures: River Civil War Individual Weapons; 1863 Tullahoma Campaign Map; 1864-06-28 Battle of Sappony Church -Wilson-Kautz_Raid Map; xx

A. Saturday, June 28, 1862: White House Landing, Virginia. During a lull in the seven days’ battles, Gen. McClellan is convinced that he must retreat and that the project to take Richmond is no longer feasible. He sends out orders to abandon all non-essential equipment (tents, camp equipment, etc.) and for all supply and ammunition trains and their wagons to withdraw south and east to Savage’s Station, along the York River Railroad. An immense amount of army stores are put to the torch. A large Union force destroyed supplies at White House Landing rather than let them fall into the hands of the Confederates. The White House was the estate of Col. Rooney Lee, one of Gen. Robert E. Lee's sons. The house was rumored to be the place where George Washington was to have married Curtis Lee. Brig. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart was told that there were 5,000 Union soldiers guarding a nearby burning depot.
B. Sunday, June 28, 1863: Wrightsville, Pennsylvania – CSA Maj. Gen. Richard Ewell had already approached the Susquehanna River, bring with him 25,000 Confederate troops. His target was the town of Wrightsville. Wrightsville was an obvious target because it held the Columbia Bridge over the river, a 5,620ft. structure that was alleged to have been the longest wooden span in the world at the time. The western riverbank was guarded by the 27th Pennsylvania Militia. Other units were readied for a defense of the bridge. If the Federals were attacked by a strong force, they would withdraw and blow up the bridge, which was prepared for an explosion with prearranged powder charges.
Brig. Gen. John B. Gordon led the Confederate approach to Wrightsville. He had set up 2 cannon and began bombarding the town and the Union defense works. The Union militia withdrew rapidly eastward across the bridge into Columbia and set off the powder charges. Unfortunately for them, the bridge did not fall. Instead, the kerosene-soaked timbers caught fire and the blaze spread into the town. This created an inferno that was visible for many miles away.
C. Sunday, June 28, 1863: Successful Wilder Brigade Raid in Tullahoma Campaign, [June 24 – July 3, 1863] On June 28, Col. John T. Wilder's brigade left on a raid to damage the railroad infrastructure in Bragg's rear, heading south toward Decherd, a small town on the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad. The rain swollen Elk River proved a significant obstacle, but they disassembled a nearby mill and constructed a raft to float their howitzers across. They defeated a small garrison of Confederates in Decherd, tore up 300 yards of track and a burned the railroad depot filled with Confederate rations. The next morning, they rode into the foothills of the Cumberland Mountains, reaching the town of Sewanee, the place Leonidas Polk had selected a few years before as the future site of the University of the South, where they destroyed a branch rail line. Although pursued by a larger Confederate force, the Lightning Brigade was back in Manchester by noon, June 30. They had not lost a single man on their raid.
Bragg was not overly concerned by the raid in his rear area and the damage to the railroad was repaired quickly. His men waited in their Tullahoma fortifications for a frontal assault that Rosecrans planned for July
D. Tuesday, June 28, 1864: The Federal Wilson Kautz raid ended in failure at the Battle of Sappony Church, Virginia [Stony Creek Depot] Brig. Gen. James Wilson and Brig. Gen. August Kautz’s raiders crossed the Nottoway River, when CSA Maj Gen Wade Hampton’s cavalry division intercepted them as the Northerners headed north to Stony Creek Depot on the Weldon Railroad. While the two sides were engaged, CSA Maj Gen William H.F. Lee’s Division arrived during the afternoon and joined forces with Hampton. Now outnumbered, Brig. Gen. James Wilson and Brig. Gen. August Kautz withdrew after nightfall, attempting to reach Reams Railway Station to the north. During the night, Wilson and Kautz disengaged and pressed north on the Halifax Road for the supposed security of Reams Station, abandoning many fleeing slaves who had sought security with the Federal raiders.
Principal Commanders: Brig. Gen. James Wilson and Brig. Gen. August Kautz [US]; Maj. Gen. Wade Hampton [CS]
Estimated Casualties: 1,817 for entire raid
Result(s): Confederate victory
Background: On March 10, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln appointed Ulysses S. Grant as General-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States. Grant brought with him, from his successes in the Western Theater of the war, a reputation for the doggedness that Lincoln was seeking in his generals. Unlike previous Union generals, whose leadership was marked by their own timidity, Grant was tenacious. Upon his arrival in Washington, Grant drafted a plan to get the various Union armies in the field to act in concert. He also devised his Overland Campaign to invade east-central Virginia. Unlike previous campaigns into that area, Grant's plan focused upon defeating General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, rather than capturing or occupying geographic locations. Grant instructed General George Meade, who commanded the Army of the Potomac, "Wherever Lee goes, there you will go also." Grant realized that, with the superior resources he had at his disposal, Lee was destined to lose a war of attrition, as long as Northern troops persistently engaged the Confederates.
On June 22, Grant and Major General George G. Meade (commanding the Army of the Potomac) dispatched the cavalry divisions of Brigadier-General James Wilson and Brigadier-General August Kautz on a raid against Confederate railroads south of Petersburg. With a combined force of over five thousand troopers and sixteen pieces of artillery under Wilson's overall command, the Yankees destroyed two trains, several stations, and roughly sixty miles of track along the South Side Railroad while also engaging in several skirmishes with Major General W.H.F. "Rooney" Lee's cavalry.
Among Wilson's targets was the Staunton River Bridge—a long wooden structure that spanned the Staunton River near Roanoke Station (present-day Randolph, Virginia), roughly one hundred miles west of Petersburg. On June 25, a small force of just 938 Confederate reserves and local citizens held off Kautz's attempt to destroy the bridge until Rooney Lee's cavalry arrived and drove the Yankees away.

1. Thursday, June 28, 1860: Southern Democrats hold a convention in Richmond where they select John C. Breckinridge as their nominee for President.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/1860
2. Thursday, June 28, 1860: Joseph E. Johnston appointed Quartermaster General.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/1860
3. Friday, June 28, 1861: Senior Union officers argued that a rush to Richmond – as demanded by the public –would be folly and would almost certainly end in very heavy Unionist casualties.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/the-american-civil-war/american-civil-war-june-1861/
4. Saturday, June 28, 1862: Tunstall's Station, Virginia - On June 28, Brig. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart and his Confederate force arrived at Tunstall's Station. His forward pickets asked Stuart to come forward and inspect a Union position at Black Creek. A Union cavalry squadron, and farther back an artillery position, was located on the opposite creek bank. After studying the layout, Stuart discovered that the bridge across the creek had been burned down and the creek banks were very steep with miry approaches. This canceled out any attack by fording the creek. Stuart called for Maj. John Pelham and his artillery battery. They fired a few shots into the Union position, effectively scattering the Union cavalry. It also scattered a hidden ambush site that the Federals had set for the Confederates.
Afterwards, Stuart had sent some dismounted skirmishers across the creek to investigate the former Union position. They did not find anything.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1862s.html
5. Saturday, June 28, 1862: Blackland, Mississippi - On June 28, a group of Union cavalry pickets, commanded by Brig. Gen. William S. Rosecrans, was at Blackland. They were attacked by a group of Confederates, forcing them to pull back to the main Union lines.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1862s.html
6. Saturday, June 28, 1862 --- Lt. Charles Francis Adams, Jr., of the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry regiment, writes home of his frustration over the Secessionville debacle, and of the inefficiency of the Union command in the South Carolina coastal theater---and of the stumbling blocks that the many missionaries and philanthropists in the wake of the Army have imposed by getting underfoot of military priorities: “And today, though under every circumstance I have looked on riding into Charleston as a sure and ample reward for all I might be called on to undergo, I hear that the chances are immense against my ever receiving that reward with an indifference which surprises me. I am ordered and I can’t help it; though it seems strange to me that we must turn our backs on these fellows for lack of ten poor regiments out of the grand army of the republic. I do so know we could whip these men if we had two chances out of five, and we would so like to do it; and now to go back with nothing but failure — oh! for one hour of generalship!! Everything here but honor has been sacrificed to the fussy incompetence of Benham, the unmilitary amiability of Hunter, and the misplaced philanthropy of Edward L. Pierce…. Philanthropy is a nuisance in time of war. . . . I respect the missionaries for their objects and perseverance, but they have no business here. Their time is not yet and they make us fight in fetters. . . .”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+28%2C+1862
7. Saturday, June 28, 1862 --- John Beauchamp Jones, in Richmond, writes of the gleeful spectacle made by over 2,000 Union prisoners in the city, including field officers such as Gen. McCall and Gen. Reynolds: “To-day some of our streets are crammed with thousands of bluejackets—Yankee prisoners. There are many field officers, and among them several generals.
General Reynolds, who surrendered with his brigade, was thus accosted by one of our functionaries, who knew him before the war began: “General, this is in accordance with McClellan’s prediction; you are in Richmond.”
“Yes, sir,” responded the general, in bitterness; ” and d—n me, if it is not precisely in the manner I anticipated.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+28%2C+1862
8. Saturday, June 28, 1862 --- Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, in collusion with telegraph officials, elects to send to Lincoln only an expurgated and vetted version of McClellan’s insubordinate telegram from last night, omitting the lines, “If I save this army now, I tell you plainly that I owe no thanks to you, or to any other persons in Washington. You have done your best to sacrifice this army.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+28%2C+1862
9. Saturday, June 28, 1862 --- Admiral Farragut, in an extended re-attempt at taking Vicksburg, finally has to admit that he cannot take the city without the Army, and Gen. Williams and his brigade just are not enough troops to do it. Farragut writes to Captain Charles Davis about his dilemma: I think, therefore, that so long as they have the military force to hold the back country, it will be impossible for me to reduce the place without your assistance and that of the Army. I have only about 3,000 soldiers, under General Williams, associated with me, but they are not sufficient to land in the face of all Van Dorn’s division of Beauregard’s army.
Gen. Williams has attempted to dig a canal to re-route the river, but is losing too many men to illness, and finds that the canal would be too narrow for the job, and so abandons the project.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+28%2C+1862
10. Saturday, June 28, 1862:??, Virginia - On June 28, the Union force, commanded by Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, arrived at Dispatch Station, located on the Richmond & York Railroad. They encountered a smaller group of Confederates, forcing them to continue their retreat towards Richmond.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1862s.html
11. Sunday, June 28, 1863 --- Siege of Vicksburg, Day 37http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+28%2C+1863
12. Sunday, June 28, 1863 --- Siege of Port Hudson, Day 32
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+28%2C+1863
13. Sunday, June 28, 1863 --- Lt. Col. Arthur Fremantle, the British Army observer traveling with Lee’s army, writes in his journal of his meeting Gen. Hood, and of the reception of Rebels by Pennsylvanians: “I was introduced to General Hood this morning; he is a tall, thin, wiry-looking man, with a grave face and a light-coloured beard, thirty-three years old, and is accounted one of the best and most promising officers in the army. By his Texan and Alabamian troops he is adored; he formerly commanded the Texan Brigade, but has now been promoted to the command of a division. His troops are accused of being a wild set, and difficult to manage; and it is the great object of the chiefs to check their innate plundering propensities by every means in their power.
I went into Chambersburg at noon, and found Lawley ensconced in the Franklin Hotel. Both he and I had much difficulty in getting into that establishment. . . . Half-a-dozen Pennsylvanian viragos surrounded and assailed me with their united tongues to a deafening degree. Nor would they believe me when I told them I was an English spectator and a noncombatant: they said I must be either a Rebel or a Yankee—by which expression I learned for the first time that the term Yankee is as much used as a reproach in Pennsylvania as in the South.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+28%2C+1863
14. Sunday, June 28, 1863 --- Jenkin Lloyd Jones, an artilleryman laying siege to Vicksburg, writes in his journal with a melancholy turn of mind: “Before Vicksburg, Sunday, June 28. A Sunday is with us, but no one finds any reminder of it as he looks about him. The same routine is gone through with, and were it not for my memoranda I would not know it. When I compare this with the Sunday at home, when all work is laid aside, sister and brother that during the week have been absent, are at home, all there, the quiet lunch for supper—all, all crowd upon my memory, and I long for the time when I can again enjoy them, and the vacuity in my heart be filled, and even to-day I can imagine I can see that gathering, and I know that Mother’s anxious heart looks upon my vacant seat and wonders if her boy is yet spared.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+28%2C+1863
15. Sunday, June 28, 1863: George Meade [US] assumes command of the Army of the Potomac, replacing Joe Hooker.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186306
16. Sunday, June 28, 1863: Judson Kirkpatrick is appointed commander of the 3d Division of Cavalry Corps, Army of the Potomac.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186306
17. Sunday, June 28, 1863: Confederates pass through York and reach the bridge over the Susquehanna River at Columbia, but Union militia set fire to the bridge, denying access to the east shore. Southern cavalry skirmishes with Union militia near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
https://www.nps.gov/gett/learn/historyculture/civil-war-timeline.htm
18. Sunday, June 28, 1863 --- Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade assumes command of the Army of the Potomac. He is not very clear on where his army is at the moment, but scouting reports give him a fairly clear idea on where the Rebels are, stretched out between between Chambersburg to the west and York nad Carlisle to the east. Most of the Army of the Potomac, as Meade soon learns, is in central Maryland, near Frederick and Middletown.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+28%2C+1863
19. Sunday, June 28, 1863 --- Gen. Robert E. Lee, however, has little idea of where the Union army is. Stuart’s cavalry has gotten separated from the rest of Lee’s army, has harassed and captured Federal wagon trains, and is riding in the territory between the Federals and Washington, D.C. Ewell is with two of his divisions in Carlisle, and has dispatched Albert Jenkins’ cavalry brigade to probe ahead to Harrisburg. Jubal Early, in York, sends John B. Gordon ahead to Wrightsville, to capture a bridge across the Susquehanna; Gordon’s men skirmish with and put to flight a small unit of militia, but are unable to prevent the Pennsylvanians from putting the Wrightsville bridge to the torch.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+28%2C+1863
20. Sunday, June 28, 1863 --- On this day, Gen. Alfred Pleasonton promotes three young captains four ranks up to brigadier general, in an effort to shake up the command complacency in the Cavalry Corps in the Army of the Potomac. The three new generals are Wesley Merrit, who takes a brigade in Buford’s division, Elon J. Farnsworth, and George Armstrong Custer, who each take a brigade in Kilpatrick’s division. Custer’s command is a brigade of Michigan cavalry regiments from his home state.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+28%2C+1863
21. Tuesday, June 28, 1864: Fugitive slave laws repealed by the U. S. Congress.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186406
22. Tuesday, June 28, 1864: Though they held Sherman at Kennesaw Mountain, the South knew that it was only a matter of time until it fell, such was the size of the force they were facing. Their commander here, Johnston, decided to pull back to the Chattahoochee River
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/the-american-civil-war/american-civil-war-june-1864/
23.

A Saturday, June 28, 1862: White House, Virginia - On June 28, a large Union force burned the White House. The White House was the estate of Col. Rooney Lee, one of Gen. Robert E. Lee's sons. The house was rumored to be the place where George Washington was to have married Curtis Lee. Brig. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart was told that there were 5,000 Union soldiers guarding a nearby burning depot.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1862s.html
A+ Saturday, June 28, 1862: The Union Army continued its withdrawal and destroyed supplies at White House Landing rather than let them fall into the hands of the Confederates.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/the-american-civil-war/american-civil-war-june-1862/
A++ Saturday, June 28, 1862 --- Seven Days' Battles, Day 4. There is no significant fighting on this day, although the Union Army is very busy. Gen. McClellan is convinced that he must retreat and that the project to take Richmond is no longer feasible. He sends out orders to abandon all non-essential equipment (tents, camp equipment, etc.) and for all supply and ammunition trains and their wagons to withdraw south and east to Savage’s Station, along the York River Railroad. An immense amount of army stores are put to the torch. He also orders that “the sick and wounded that are not able to walk must necessarily be left.” This is a decision that will not sit well with a number of people in the North. Gen. Porter is able pull his entire force south of the Chickahominy River, and the Federals torch their base on White House on the York River. McClellan himself rides all the way down to the James River and moves his headquarters to a gunboat on the river, leaving others to attend to the complicated details of the retreat.
In the meantime, Lee has his troops on the move. Surmising correctly that McClellan is moving south to the protection of the Navy’s gunboats on the James River, Lee hopes to trap McClellan as the Federals try to disentangle their army from the Chickahominy and especially the White Oak Swamp: if the Rebels can catch them in the midst of this morass before the bluecoats pass through it, it might mean the end of the Army of the Potomac, or at least severely crippling it. Today, Gen. Magruder sends out a reconnaissance in force to tap the Federal lines at Golding’s Farm on the far left Union flank, mostly to convince the Yankees that the entire Union line was under attack, or soon would be.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+28%2C+1862
B Sunday, June 28, 1863: Jubal Early seizes York, Pennsylvania.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186306
B Sunday, June 28, 1863: Wrightsville, Pennsylvania - On June 28, Maj. Gen. Richard Ewell had already approached the Susquehanna River, bring with him 25,000 Confederate troops. His target was the town of Wrightsville. Wrightsville was an obvious target because it held the Columbia Bridge over the river, a 5,620ft. structure that was alleged to have been the longest wooden span in the world at the time. The western riverbank was guarded by the 27th Pennsylvania Militia. Other units were readied for a defense of the bridge. If the Federals were attacked by a strong force, they would withdraw and blow up the bridge, which was prepared for an explosion with prearranged powder charges.
Brig. Gen. John B. Gordon led the Confederate approach to Wrightsville. He had set up 2 cannon and began bombarding the town and the Union defense works. The Union militia withdrew rapidly eastward across the bridge into Columbia and set off the powder charges. Unfortunately for them, the bridge did not fall. Instead, the kerosene-soaked timbers caught fire and the blaze spread into the town. This created an inferno that was visible for many miles away.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1863s.html
C Sunday, June 28, 1863: Tullahoma Campaign, [June 24 – July 3, 1863] On June 28, Wilder's brigade left on a raid to damage the railroad infrastructure in Bragg's rear, heading south toward Decherd, a small town on the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad. The rainswollen Elk River proved a significant obstacle, but they disassembled a nearby mill and constructed a raft to float their howitzers across. They defeated a small garrison of Confederates in Decherd, tore up 300 yards of track and a burned the railroad depot filled with Confederate rations. The next morning, they rode into the foothills of the Cumberland Mountains, reaching the town of Sewanee, the place Leonidas Polk had selected a few years before as the future site of the University of the South, where they destroyed a branch rail line. Although pursued by a larger Confederate force, the Lightning Brigade was back in Manchester by noon, June 30. They had not lost a single man on their raid.
Bragg was not overly concerned by the raid in his rear area and the damage to the railroad was repaired quickly. His men waited in their Tullahoma fortifications for a frontal assault that Rosecrans planned for July
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tullahoma_Campaign
D Tuesday, June 28, 1864: Battle of Sappony Church, Virginia [Stony Creek Depot] Location: Sussex County
Campaign: Richmond-Petersburg Campaign (June 1864-March 1865)
Principal Commanders: Brig. Gen. James Wilson and Brig. Gen. August Kautz [US]; Maj. Gen. Wade Hampton [CS]
Estimated Casualties: 1,817 for entire raid
Description: Maj. Gen. William H.F. “Rooney” Lee’s cavalry division pursued Wilson’s and Kautz’s raiders who failed to destroy the Staunton River Bridge on June 25. Wilson and Kautz headed east and, on June 28, crossed the Nottoway River at the Double Bridges and headed north to Stony Creek Depot on the Weldon Railroad. Here, they were attacked by Maj. Gen. Wade Hampton’s cavalry division. Later in the day, William H.F. Lee’s Division arrived to join forces with Hampton, and the Federals were heavily pressured. During the night, Wilson and Kautz disengaged and pressed north on the Halifax Road for the supposed security of Reams Station, abandoning many fleeing slaves who had sought security with the Federal raiders.
Result(s): Confederate victory
https://www.nps.gov/abpp/battles/va067.htm
D+ Tuesday, June 28, 1864: Battle of Sappony Church was part of the Wilson-Kautz Raid during the Petersburg Campaign.
Background: On March 10, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln appointed Ulysses S. Grant as General-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States. Grant brought with him, from his successes in the Western Theater of the war, a reputation for the doggedness that Lincoln was seeking in his generals. Unlike previous Union generals, whose leadership was marked by their own timidity, Grant was tenacious. Upon his arrival in Washington, Grant drafted a plan to get the various Union armies in the field to act in concert. He also devised his Overland Campaign to invade east-central Virginia. Unlike previous campaigns into that area, Grant's plan focused upon defeating General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, rather than capturing or occupying geographic locations. Grant instructed General George Meade, who commanded the Army of the Potomac, "Wherever Lee goes, there you will go also." Grant realized that, with the superior resources he had at his disposal, Lee was destined to lose a war of attrition, as long as Northern troops persistently engaged the Confederates.
On May 4, 1864, Grant launched his Overland Campaign when the Army of the Potomac crossed the Rappahannock and Rapidan Rivers, occupying an area locally known as the Wilderness. For the next eight weeks, the two sides engaged in a series of horrific battles that produced unprecedented numbers of casualties. Following a bloody frontal assault at Cold Harbor that cost the Federals an estimated thirteen thousand casualties, Grant abandoned his hope to defeat Lee's army head-on. Instead, Grant decided to isolate the Army of Northern Virginia at Richmond and, then, slowly to starve it into submission by cutting off its supply lines. The key to the plan was capturing Petersburg, Virginia.
Petersburg, Virginia, is located on the south bank of the Appomattox River, roughly twenty miles below Richmond. During the Civil War, the two cities were connected by the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad, which served as an important conduit for supplies to the Confederate capital. In addition to the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad, two other rail lines converged at Petersburg. The Weldon Railroad (also called the Petersburg and Weldon Railroad) connected Petersburg to the Confederacy's last linkage to overseas markets at Wilmington, North Carolina. Farther to the west, the South Side Railroad joined Petersburg to Lynchburg, Virginia and points westward. If Grant could cut these rail lines, Lee would be forced to abandon Richmond.
On June 22, Grant and Major General George G. Meade (commanding the Army of the Potomac) dispatched the cavalry divisions of Brigadier-General James Wilson and Brigadier-General August Kautz on a raid against Confederate railroads south of Petersburg. With a combined force of over five thousand troopers and sixteen pieces of artillery under Wilson's overall command, the Yankees destroyed two trains, several stations, and roughly sixty miles of track along the South Side Railroad while also engaging in several skirmishes with Major General W.H.F. "Rooney" Lee's cavalry.
Among Wilson's targets was the Staunton River Bridge—a long wooden structure that spanned the Staunton River near Roanoke Station (present-day Randolph, Virginia), roughly one hundred miles west of Petersburg. On June 25, a small force of just 938 Confederate reserves and local citizens held off Kautz's attempt to destroy the bridge until Rooney Lee's cavalry arrived and drove the Yankees away.
Battle: Lee's cavalry continued to pursue Wilson and Kautz as they retreated toward Petersburg. By June 28, the Federal raiders had crossed the Nottoway River, when Major General Wade Hampton’s cavalry division intercepted them as the Northerners headed north to Stony Creek Depot on the Weldon Railroad. While the two sides were engaged, Lee's troopers arrived during the afternoon and joined forces with Hampton. Now outnumbered, Wilson and Kautz withdrew after nightfall, attempting to reach Reams Railway Station to the north. As they fled, the Yankees left behind a large number of slaves who were accompanying them in search of freedom.
http://www.ohiocivilwarcentral.com/entry.php?rec=1079
FYI SPC Michael Duricko, Ph.D MAJ Roland McDonald SSG Franklin Briant CPO William Glen (W.G.) Powell 1stSgt Eugene Harless MSG Greg KellyLTC Thomas Tennant GySgt Jack Wallace LTC Private RallyPoint Member SPC Private RallyPoint Member SSG Private RallyPoint Member Sgt Axel Hasting Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. SPC Jon O. SGT Private RallyPoint Member SSG Michael Noll SSG William Jones SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth

Civil War Timeline / Chronology for 1860

Response by SFC William Farrell made Jul 1 at 2016 12:21 AM

2016-07-01T00:21:09-04:00

Four years of hell for Americans on both sides of the fence LTC Stephen F., thanks for sharing.

Response by TSgt Joe C. made Jul 1 at 2016 4:52 AM

2016-07-01T04:52:06-04:00

Thank you for sharing this day in Civil War history with us again LTC Stephen F., always a great read. Today, I chose all events.

Response by SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL made Jul 1 at 2016 4:59 AM

2016-07-01T04:59:43-04:00

LTC Stephen F. I like 1862: White House Landing, Virginia. During a lull in the seven days’ battles, Gen. McClellan is convinced that he must retreat and that the project to take Richmond is no longer feasible. He sends out orders to abandon all non-essential equipment (tents ------simply with Richmond being a major hub for logistics for the Civil-War

Response by SSG Leo Bell made Jul 1 at 2016 5:46 AM

2016-07-01T05:46:29-04:00

Thanks for sharing. This was a good day for a union garrison during the war. It's always good when you don't lose a man in a raid.

Response by MSG Brad Sand made Jul 1 at 2016 11:40 AM

2016-07-01T11:40:18-04:00

The Wilder Brigade raid show the value of properly deployed cavalry...I think that even if the commanders of the day did not fully understand the results, tacticians like von Schlieffen would and would use this to excellent results.