What was the most significant event on June 30 during the U.S. Civil War?

2016-07-03T00:00:40-04:00

Erroneous newspaper reports gave false hope to the south in 1862: The Wilmington Daily Journal, a North Carolina newspaper, reports hopefully albeit erroneously “that McClellan is reported mortally wounded. His army is fighting for existence. It is at bay and desperate.” This typifies the optimistic tenor of much of the Southern journalistic response to the intense fighting around Richmond.
Battle of Glendale, Virginia. 1862: “What began as a rear-guard action devolves into one of the bloodiest fights of the war, considering its brevity and number of casualties. Although Lee fails to smash the Union Army, the Yankees fail to keep the fruits of victory.”
British liaison officer serving attached to the Confederates offers his observations on Robert E. Lee in 1863: Lt. Col. Arthur Fremantle, of Her Majesty’s Coldstream Guards, a visiting observer, writes in his diary of his first meeting with General Lee: “This morning, before marching from Chambersburg, General Longstreet introduced me to the Commander-in-Chief. General Lee is, almost without exception, the handsomest man of his age I ever saw. He is fifty-six years old, tall, broad-shouldered, very well made, well set up—a thorough soldier in appearance; and his manners are most courteous and full of dignity. He is a perfect gentleman in every respect. I imagine no man has so few enemies, or is so universally esteemed. Throughout the South, all agree in pronouncing him to be as near perfection as a man can be. He has none of the small vices, such as smoking, drinking, chewing, or swearing, and his bitterest enemy never accused him of any of the greater ones. He generally wears a well-worn long grey jacket, a high black felt hat, and blue trousers tucked into his Wellington boots. I never saw him carry arms; and the only mark of his military rank are the three stars on his collar. He rides a handsome horse, which is extremely well groomed. He himself is very neat in his dress and person, and in the most arduous marches he always looks smart and clean.
In the old army he was always considered one of its best officers; and at the outbreak of these troubles, he was Lieutenant-Colonel of the 2d cavalry. He was a rich man, but his fine estate was one of the first to fall into the enemy’s hands. I believe he has never slept in a house since he has commanded the Virginian army, and he invariably declines all offers of hospitality, for fear the person offering it may afterwards get into trouble for having sheltered the Rebel General. The relations between him and Longstreet are quite touching—they are almost always together. . . . I believe these two Generals to be as little ambitious and as thoroughly unselfish as any men in the world. Both long for a successful termination of the war, in order that they may retire into obscurity. . . . It is understood that General Lee is a religious man, though not so demonstrative in that respect as Jackson; and, unlike his late brother in arms, he is a member of the Church of England. His only faults, so far as I can learn, arise from his excessive amiability.”

Pictures: 1862-06-30 Battle of Glendale, Virginia; 1862-06-30 Lee's planned attack at Glendale, Virginia Map; 1863-06-30 Battle of Glendale, showing Longstreet's Attack, and Hill (in dark red) who later came to support Longstreet map; xx
A. 1861: Battle of Philippi, West Virginia. Union Victory. Brig Gen Thomas A. Morris devised a twin attack upon Philippi Confederate forces including an attack consisting of 1,600 cavalry troopers led by Col Benjamin Franklin Kelley. The Union forces also used a decoy wherein they took the train to the east in order to fool the opposition into thinking they meant to attack Harpers Ferry. In reality the Union forces meant to attack the town of the Philippi from the rear which meant that the Confederate forces commanded Col George A. Porterfield by were subjected to a two pronged attack.
The two Union Columns converged upon Philippi after a difficult overnight march in inclement weather. The rain meant that there were no Confederate picket lines to halt the attack. The Union victory in the Battle of Philippi was unambiguous and relatively bloodless – the Union experienced only 4 casualties as against 26 Confederate casualties.
The major fallout of the Battle of Philippi was that Brig Gen Robert Garnett replaced Col Porterfield as the commander of the Confederate forces in western Virginia.
B. 1862: Battle of Glendale, Virginia. Marginal and costly confederate victory. Shortly after 4:00pm an impatient Lee ordered James Longstreet's and A. P. Hill's divisions forward in the direction of Willis Church. The Southerners routed George McCall's Pennsylvania Reserve division and captured McCall. Disparate Union counterattacks resulted in fierce hand-to-hand fighting but somehow managed to seal the breach. When the sun set over Glendale, the Yankees still held their line of retreat along the Willis Church Road. In the darkness, the Army of the Potomac made its way to Malvern Hill. Lee had lost his best chance to end the Union army's retreat.
C. 1862: Union gunboat broadside at Tampa, Florida. The USS Sagamore gunboat came into Tampa Bay, turned her broadside on the town, and opened her ports. The gunboat then dispatched a launch carrying 20 men and a lieutenant under a flag of truce demanding the surrender of Tampa. The Confederates refused, and the gunboat opened fire. The officer then informed the Confederates that shelling would commence at 6:00 pm after allowing time to evacuate non-combatants from the city. Firing continued sporadically into the afternoon of July 1, when the Federal gunboat withdrew. Also known as: Yankee Outrage at Tampa.
D. 1864: Confederate Captain Rufus Ingram and his Partisan Rangers committed what has become known as the Bullion Bend robbery. The men stopped a stage coach in Placerville, California and got away with 40,000 dollars. In 1864, Rufus Ingram lead a group of Partisan Rangers who rode through California robbing stage coaches of gold and silver to fund the Confederacy. However, they were eventually caught by a Santa Clara County Sheriff.

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 Jul 3 at 2016 12:03 AM

2016-07-03T00:03:27-04:00

1861: “The CSS Sumter, the South’s first warship to steam as a commerce raider, commanded by Capt. Raphael Semmes, slips downriver from New Orleans and escapes through the Union Navy blockade. Sumter heads to sea to raid Northern commercial shipping.”
Forces closing in on the crossroads of Gettysburg in. Rumors of footgear draw confederates to the area 1863:
“Advanced units (2 brigades under Buford) of the Army of the Potomac occupy Gettysburg.”
“Army of Northern Virginia Major General Henry Heth orders a brigade under James J. Pettigrew to march to Gettysburg to investigate reports of a large quantity of footwear in the city.”
“Buford’s troopers encounter Confederate infantry from Gen. Henry Heth’s division of Hill’s Corps, and Buford makes a fatal decision: to hold the ridge lines at Gettysburg until Reynolds and the infantry come up. In the evening, after the skirmishing, Heth’s men withdraw towards Cashtown.”

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 30, 1862: Judith White McGuire, of Richmond, writes in her journal passionately of the dire possibilities at stake in the fighting roaring a few miles away at Glendale: “McClellan certainly retreating. We begin to breathe more freely; but he fights as he goes. Oh, that he may be surrounded before he gets to his gun-boats! Rumours are flying about that he is surrounded; but we do not believe it—only hope that he may be before he reaches the river. The city is sad, because of the dead and dying, but our hearts are filled with gratitude and love. The end is not yet—oh that it were!”
Tuesday, June 30, 1863: Stephen Minot Weld, an officer on Gen. Howard’s staff, Eleventh (XI) Corps in the Army of the Potomac, reveals some of the movements of the Union forces near the border of Pennsylvania and Maryland: “Just after we started I was sent to Taneytown (9 miles from Emmetsburg), to headquarters. I delivered my dispatches to General Meade, and received orders for Generals Howard and Reynolds. Moritz’s Tavern is about 7 miles from Gettysburg, where our cavalry advanced this morning. General Reynolds has command of three corps again, First, Third, and Eleventh. General Sickles resumed command of his corps again to-day. Spent the night at the tavern. Corps marched about 5 miles.”

Pictures: 1863-06-30 John Buford at Gettysburg, June 30, 1863; 1861-06-30 battle of Philippi, West Virginia; 1863 Gettysburg Campaign Map; xx

A. Battle of Philippi, West Virginia. Union Victory. Brig Gen Thomas A. Morris devised a twin attack upon Philippi Confederate forces including an attack consisting of 1,600 cavalry troopers led by Col Benjamin Franklin Kelley. The Union forces also used a decoy wherein they took the train to the east in order to fool the opposition into thinking they meant to attack Harpers Ferry. In reality the Union forces meant to attack the town of the Philippi from the rear which meant that the Confederate forces commanded Col George A. Porterfield by were subjected to a two pronged attack.
The two Union Columns converged upon Philippi after a difficult overnight march in inclement weather. The rain meant that there were no Confederate picket lines to halt the attack. The Union victory in the Battle of Philippi was unambiguous and relatively bloodless – the Union experienced only 4 casualties as against 26 Confederate casualties.
The major fallout of the Battle of Philippi was that Brig Gen Robert Garnett replaced Col Porterfield as the commander of the Confederate forces in western Virginia.
Background: A significant occurrence of the American Civil War was the Battle of Philippi – which incidentally was also the term used to refer to an ancient battle between the assassins of Julius Caesar on the one hand, and Marc Antony and Octavian on the other. In the context of the Civil War, the Battle of Philippi was a part of the West Virginia Campaign and was the first organized land action on June 30, 1861.
Some historians dismiss the battle as a mere skirmish; others refer to it sarcastically as The Philippi Races. In the sequence of events, the hostilities started at Fort Sumter in April was followed by the Fairfax Court House battle; it was a minor skirmish between a Union cavalry of regular army under the commands of Thomas A. Morris and a militia infantry of Virginia (Confederate) under the commands of George A. Porterfield.
Triggers for the Battle The main reasons behind the initiation of this offensive was to keep open, the important railroad line of Baltimore and Ohio; a railroad that was of great significance for the Union. Additionally, there were large numbers of pro-Union people in the areas along the river Ohio; the battle was initiated to protect their interests as well. This battle was also meant to start an offensive that would eventually lead up to an attack on Richmond, the Confederate capital as conceived by Maj Gen George B McClellan.
B. Monday, June 30, 1862: Battle of Glendale, Virginia. Marginal and costly confederate victory. Shortly after 4:00pm an impatient Lee ordered James Longstreet's and A. P. Hill's divisions forward in the direction of Willis Church. The Southerners routed George McCall's Pennsylvania Reserve division and captured McCall. Disparate Union counterattacks resulted in fierce hand-to-hand fighting but somehow managed to seal the breach. When the sun set over Glendale, the Yankees still held their line of retreat along the Willis Church Road. In the darkness, the Army of the Potomac made its way to Malvern Hill. Lee had lost his best chance to end the Union army's retreat.
George B. McClellan would not be sharing in his army's struggles this day. On the morning of June 30, the Young Napoleon boarded the Union gunboat Galena and spent the rest of the day completely cutoff from all communications with his beleaguered army. He left behind a leaderless force that occupied a patchwork defensive position stretching from White Oak Swamp to Malvern Hill on the James River. Without McClellan there to direct them, each corps and division commander posted his troops and fought the battle, in the words of one corps commander, "according to his own ideas."
In what was becoming a sadly recurring theme of the campaign, poor communication, confusion, and lackluster performances among the Confederate generals once again threatened to sap Lee's attack of all its energy. Two divisions of Union infantry and six batteries under the temporary command of William Franklin guarded the army's northern flank along White Oak Swamp, preventing a sluggish and cautious Stonewall Jackson from materially contributing to the day's action. At the same time, Benjamin Huger's Confederate division wasted hours cutting a new road through the thick woods and never participated in the battle.
Details: Meanwhile, Lee’s plan calls for Huger’s division to move in from the northeast, and A.P. Hill and Longstreet from the west. Holmes also prepares to strike from the southwest. Lee’s design is to take control of the roads of retreat so as to isolate and destroy part of the retreating Union army: so far, possession of the Quaker Road, the Long Bridge Road, and the heights of Malvern Hill, which command the roads leading to Harrison’s Landing and the Navy, are in McClellan’s hands. However, Huger advances with caution, and spends much of the day cutting a new road and, when finally within artillery range of the Union lines, decides to call off the attack. Believing that Huger has engaged the bluecoats, Lee orders Longstreet to step off, and Longstreet’s artillery is soon pelting the Federal lines as his six brigades of infantry go forward against the divisions of McCall, Hooker, Sedgwick, and Kearney, with McCall bearing the brunt: two of his brigades, under Meade and Truman Seymour, are hit hardest. The lack of a central command amongst the Union troops makes defense difficult: although Longstreet loses nearly a fourth of his division, he inflicts terrible losses on the Yankees as well. In the lead are the brigades of Wilcox at the north, then Micah Jenkins and then James Kemper, whose Virginians are all new to battle. Kemper pushes forward, captures some of the Federal guns, and pierces McCall’s line.
Jenkins aids him on his left, followed by Wilcox on Jenkins’ left. The Union response, uncoordinated, is sluggish. (Hand-to-hand fighting is vicious, and several Union commanders are wounded, including Meade and corps commander Sumner; McCall and Reynolds are captured. On the Southern side, Pender, Featherston, and Anderson are wounded.) Gen. Sumner sends Hooker in to strike the Confederate right flank, and Sedgwick’s brigades arrive in time to plug the holes. Hill’s men are brought up to relieve Longstreet’s exhausted brigades, but his attacks are also ineffectual.
Holmes attacks on the Union left, but is beaten back with losses. But, following a Federal pattern of tactical battlefield victory followed by retreat, the Union forces withdraw, and are able to finish their retreat on the protected roads. They begin forming a defensive line on the slopes of Malvern Hill during the night, in order to guard the approaches to the new Union base at Harrison’s Landing on the James River. The Yankee retreat is good for the Confederates---unfortunately, it convinces Lee that the Yankees are demoralized, and he feels that a swift blow struck the next day could finish them.
What began as a rear-guard action devolves into one of the bloodiest fights of the war, considering its brevity and number of casualties. Although Lee fails to smash the Union Army, the Yankees fail to keep the fruits of victory. Confederate Victory (marginal).
Background: With the Army of the Potomac in full retreat, Robert E. Lee intended to cut the Federal host in two by thrusting the largest portion of his army—six divisions totaling 44,800 men—against the Yankees then gathered near Glendale. At the same time, Stonewall Jackson's four divisions were to engage the Union rearguard at White Oak Swamp. In order to ensure the success of his scheme, Lee planned to employ every unit in his army except the division of Theophilus Holmes and J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry.
McClellan having given Lee the slip and successfully escaped out of the crossroads at Savage’s Station with his wagon trains intact, Lee now assigns the pursuit of the Federals to Gen. Stonewall Jackson---who, although he has shown none of the alacrity of the Shenandoah Valley Campaign, still possesses the confidence of the commanding general. But as Jackson’s men pass through Savage’s Station, they slow down to browse the mountains of supplies left by the Federals, especially the food, since Jackson’s men had been notoriously under-rationed for nearly a month. Jackson pushes onward, and finds the bridge across the creek at White Oak swamp, to the north of and directly to the rear of the Federal rear guard force, has been burned, and Yankee artillery and small arms fire prevent Jackson from sending in a force to re-build it.
C. Tuesday, June 30, 1863: Union gunboat broadside at Tampa, Florida. The USS Sagamore gunboat came into Tampa Bay, turned her broadside on the town, and opened her ports. The gunboat then dispatched a launch carrying 20 men and a lieutenant under a flag of truce demanding the surrender of Tampa. The Confederates refused, and the gunboat opened fire. The officer then informed the Confederates that shelling would commence at 6:00 pm after allowing time to evacuate non-combatants from the city. Firing continued sporadically into the afternoon of July 1, when the Federal gunboat withdrew. Also known as: Yankee Outrage at Tampa.
In his post-action report, Captain John William Pearson, CSA, reported to Gen. Joseph Finegan, CSA, what transpired. “I immediately manned one of my boats with 18 men met them in the bay, determined that they should not land on my shore, and on meeting the boat the lieutenant in command reported he had been sent by Captain Drake to demand an unconditional surrender of the town. My reply to him was that we did not understand the meaning of the word surrender; there was no such letter in our book; we don’t surrender. He then said they would commence shelling the town at 6 o’clock, and I told him to pitch in. We then gave three hearty cheers for the Southern Confederacy and the Federal boat crew said nothing…. At 6 o’clock they promptly opened fire on us with heavy shell and shot, and after two from them we opened from our batteries, consisting of three 24-pounder cannon. Both parties then kept up a regular fire until 7 p.m.” At that point, U.S.S. Sagamore withdrew. On July 1, between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m., the gunboat fired from beyond the range of the Confederate cannon. After a two-hour break for lunch, USS Sagamore fired two more rounds, weighed anchor, and sailed away. There were no Confederate casualties.
D. Thursday, June 30, 1864: Confederate Captain Rufus Ingram and his Partisan Rangers committed what has become known as the Bullion Bend robbery. The men stopped a stage coach in Placerville, California and got away with 40,000 dollars. In 1864, Rufus Ingram lead a group of Partisan Rangers who rode through California robbing stage coaches of gold and silver to fund the Confederacy. However, they were eventually caught by a Santa Clara County Sheriff.

1. Sunday, June 30, 1861: The CSS Sumter, the South’s first warship to steam as a commerce raider, commanded by Capt. Raphael Semmes, slips downriver from New Orleans and escapes through the Union Navy blockade. Sumter heads to sea to raid Northern commercial shipping.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=July+1%2C+1861
2. Monday, June 30, 1862: Battle of Glendale, Virginia. Robert E. Lee's [CS] last chance to cut the Army of the Potomac in two. George McClellan [US] withdraws to Malvern Hill.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186206
3. Monday, June 30, 1862 --- Judith White McGuire, of Richmond, writes in her journal passionately of the dire possibilities at stake in the fighting roaring a few miles away at Glendale: “McClellan certainly retreating. We begin to breathe more freely; but he fights as he goes. Oh, that he may be surrounded before he gets to his gun-boats! Rumours are flying about that he is surrounded; but we do not believe it—only hope that he may be before he reaches the river. The city is sad, because of the dead and dying, but our hearts are filled with gratitude and love. The end is not yet—oh that it were!”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+30%2C+1862
4. Monday, June 30, 1862 --- The Richmond Daily Dispatch, on this date, publishes a grandiloquent, yet vague, assessment of the Savage’s Station battle yesterday: “Suffice it to say that from the opening of the grand ball on Thursday afternoon down to the hour which witnessed the enemy in full retreat, the efforts of our forces were attended with unbroken success, and at no time did the brave men upon whom hung the hopes and the confidence of the country, falter or waver in their determination to make the victory decisive. Battery after battery was stormed with the most daring disregard of human life, and the apparently impregnable positions of the enemy were carried at the point of the bayonet with the most impetuous ardor. Never did men fight more bravely, and never was valor more surely and signally rewarded.
Our loss is heavy, both in officers and men. The soil of Virginia, the grand old mother of States is enriched with the best blood of her suffering Southern sisters, and from every State of the Confederacy the martyrs of liberty have united in pouring out the crimson tide as a rich and imperishable libation upon the altar of the one great common cause. . . .
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+30%2C+1862
5. Monday, June 30, 1862 --- The Wilmington Daily Journal, a North Carolina newspaper, reports hopefully albeit erroneously “that McClellan is reported mortally wounded. His army is fighting for existence. It is at bay and desperate.” This typifies the optimistic tenor of much of the Southern journalistic response to the intense fighting around Richmond.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+30%2C+1862
6. Monday, June 30, 1862 --- Battle of White Oak Swamp: In what becomes a separate action, Jackson probes the crossings in White Oak Swamp, where Gen. Franklin of the Union army has his corps deployed. After finding that he is unable to advance troops to re-build the bridge, Gen. Wade Hampton finds another crossing farther to the left, and Jackson instructs Hampton to have his men construct a bridge. Hampton completes the project, and reports to Jackson, volunteering to lead the attack across the rickety bridge. Jackson says nothing, but only walks away to a tree, lies down under it, and falls asleep. His men fail to be any kind of factor in the attack at Glendale. Meanwhile, Sedgwick brings his federal brigades to aid in the repulse of Jackson’s uncoordinated attack, and afterward swings them to the west to assist in the Union defense of Glendale.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+30%2C+1862
7. Monday, June 30, 1862: Rising Sun, Tennessee - On June 30, a group of Confederate cavalry was at Rising Sun when they spotted a Union supply train. The train belonged to Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's army. The wagon train suffered some casualties and a couple of lost wagons.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1862s.html
8. Tuesday, June 30, 1863 --- Siege of Vicksburg, Day 39
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+30%2C+1863
9. Tuesday, June 30, 1863 --- Siege of Port Hudson, Day 34
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+30%2C+1863
10. Tuesday, June 30, 1863 --- Lt. Col. Arthur Fremantle, of Her Majesty’s Coldstream Guards, a visiting observer, writes in his diary of his first meeting with General Lee: “30th June (Tuesday).—This morning, before marching from Chambersburg, General Longstreet introduced me to the Commander-in-Chief. General Lee is, almost without exception, the handsomest man of his age I ever saw. He is fifty-six years old, tall, broad-shouldered, very well made, well set up—a thorough soldier in appearance; and his manners are most courteous and full of dignity. He is a perfect gentleman in every respect. I imagine no man has so few enemies, or is so universally esteemed. Throughout the South, all agree in pronouncing him to be as near perfection as a man can be. He has none of the small vices, such as smoking, drinking, chewing, or swearing, and his bitterest enemy never accused him of any of the greater ones. He generally wears a well-worn long grey jacket, a high black felt hat, and blue trousers tucked into his Wellington boots. I never saw him carry arms; and the only mark of his military rank are the three stars on his collar. He rides a handsome horse, which is extremely well groomed. He himself is very neat in his dress and person, and in the most arduous marches he always looks smart and clean.
In the old army he was always considered one of its best officers; and at the outbreak of these troubles, he was Lieutenant-Colonel of the 2d cavalry. He was a rich man, but his fine estate was one of the first to fall into the enemy’s hands. I believe he has never slept in a house since he has commanded the Virginian army, and he invariably declines all offers of hospitality, for fear the person offering it may afterwards get into trouble for having sheltered the Rebel General. The relations between him and Longstreet are quite touching—they are almost always together. . . . I believe these two Generals to be as little ambitious and as thoroughly unselfish as any men in the world. Both long for a successful termination of the war, in order that they may retire into obscurity. . . . It is understood that General Lee is a religious man, though not so demonstrative in that respect as Jackson; and, unlike his late brother in arms, he is a member of the Church of England. His only faults, so far as I can learn, arise from his excessive amiability.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+30%2C+1863
11. Tuesday, June 30, 1863 --- Stephen Minot Weld, an officer on Gen. Howard’s staff, Eleventh (XI) Corps in the Army of the Potomac, reveals some of the movements of the Union forces near the border of Pennsylvania and Maryland: “Just after we started I was sent to Taneytown (9 miles from Emmetsburg), to headquarters. I delivered my dispatches to General Meade, and received orders for Generals Howard and Reynolds. Moritz’s Tavern is about 7 miles from Gettysburg, where our cavalry advanced this morning. General Reynolds has command of three corps again, First, Third, and Eleventh. General Sickles resumed command of his corps again to-day. Spent the night at the tavern. Corps marched about 5 miles.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+30%2C+1863
12. Tuesday, June 30, 1863: Advanced units (2 brigades under Buford) of the Army of the Potomac occupy Gettysburg.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186306
13. Tuesday, June 30, 1863: Army of Northern Virginia Major General Henry Heth orders a brigade under James J. Pettigrew to march to Gettysburg to investigate reports of a large quantity of footwear in the city.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186306
14. Tuesday, June 30, 1863 --- The Surgeon General determines that black troops are less susceptible to diseases in the field than white troops: “SURGEON GENERAL’S OFFICE, WASHINGTON, D.C., June 30, 1863. DEAR Sir: The reports received at this office hare reference so far only to the troops serving in the Department of the Gulf. In that Department it appears that malarious diseases (intermittent, remittent and typhoid fevers, diarrhoea, dysentery, etc.,) affect the white troops to the extent of 10 8-10 per cent., whilst the negro soldiers are affected but to the extent of 8-10 of one per cent. The difference is, therefore, greatly in favor of the colored troops.
Yours sincerely, W.A. HAMMOND. Surgeon-General.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+30%2C+1863
15. Tuesday, June 30, 1863 --- Elements of the 52nd North Carolina and another Confederate infantry regiment skirmish with Union cavalry of the 3rd Indiana under Buford near Fairfield, just southwest of Gettysburg. Buford pulls back and changes his route to the Emmitsburg Road, and approaches the town from the south. Buford is convinced that the Confederates are at Cashtown (which they are) and that they are coming into Gettysburg tomorrow. He sends a fast message to Gen. Reynolds to come up quickly while Buford holds with his cavalry---only two brigades under Gamble and Devin, and a battery of cannon. He sends this letter to Gen. Meade: Headquarters Army of the Potomac, HEADQUARTERS FIRST CAVALRY DIVISION, Gettysburg, June 30, 1863.
“I entered this place to-day at 11 a. m/ Found everybody in a terrible state of excitement on account of the enemy's advance upon this place. He had approached to within half a mile of the town when the head of my column entered. His force was terribly exaggerated by reasonable and truthful but inexperienced men. On pushing him back toward Cashtown, I learned from reliable men that [R. H]. Anderson's division was marching from Chambersburg by Mummasburg, Hunterstown, Abbottstown, on toward York. I have sent parties to the two first-named places, toward Cashtown, and a strong force toward Littlestown. Colonel Gamble has just sent me word that Lee signed a pass for a citizen this morning at Chambersburg. I can't do much just now. My men and horses are fagged out. I have not been able to get any grain yet. It is all in the country, and the people talk instead of working. Facilities for shoeing are nothing. Early's people seized every shoe and nail they could find. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, JNO. BUFORD, Brigadier-General of Volunteers.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+30%2C+1863
16. Tuesday, June 30, 1863 --- Buford’s troopers encounter Confederate infantry from Gen. Henry Heth’s division of Hill’s Corps, and Buford makes a fatal decision: to hold the ridge lines at Gettysburg until Reynolds and the infantry come up. In the evening, after the skirmishing, Heth’s men withdraw towards Cashtown.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+30%2C+1863
17. Tuesday, June 30, 1863 --- Battle of Hanover -- Gen. Judson Kilpatrick’s division of Union cavalry dashes north to Hanover, Pennsylvania, due east of Gettysburg. Treated to a breakfast there by the town, the blue troopers ride north out of town towards York, when Stuart with Chambliss’s brigade attacks the last Yankee regiment in town and surrounds it. Brig. Gen. Elon Farnsworth wheeled his Federal brigade around and headed back to Hanover to rescue the lone regiment: with a mounted charge, Farnsworth cleared the town of the Rebels, and nearly capturing Stuart himself. As the Rebels gather reinforcements, Custer’s brigade arrives and with Farnsworth makes a stand against repeated attacks by the Confederates. The bulk of Stuart’s gray troopers are further down the road, behind the huge captured wagon train, and there is a stalemate in the fight. Both sides bring in more troops, but Stuart finds himself hemmed in, and he and only some of his staff leap a wide ditch to escape capture. Having been embarrassed one again (after Brandy Station, Aldie, Upperville, and Middleburg) Stuart is once again stymied, and he has to withdraw and ride around Hanover the long way, thus delaying his reunion with Lee another day. Kilpatrick loses 215 troops, and Stuart loses about 117, but it is clearly a marginal Union Victory.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+30%2C+1863
18. Tuesday, June 30, 1863 --- Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy in Washington, writes in his journal of division and struggle in the U.S. Cabinet, and also offers his opinion of General Halleck’s thinking on the Rebel invasion, revealing a strategic savvy all too rare in Washington: “Lee and his army are well advanced into Pennsylvania, and they should not be permitted to fall back and recross the Potomac. Halleck is bent on driving them back, not on intercepting their retreat; is full of zeal to drive them out of Pennsylvania. I don’t want them to leave the State, except as prisoners. Meade will, I trust, keep closer to them than some others have done. . . . There is no doubt the bridge at Columbia [on the Susquehanna], one and a half miles long, has been burnt, and, it seems, by our own people. The officer who ordered it must have been imbued with Halleck’s tactics. I wish the Rebel army had got across before the bridge was burnt. But Halleck’s prayers and efforts, especially his prayers, are to keep the Rebels back, — drive them back across the “frontiers” instead of intercepting, capturing, and annihilating them. This movement of Lee and the Rebel forces into Pennsylvania is to me incomprehensible, nor do I get any light from military men or others in regard to it. Should they cross the Susquehanna, as our General-in-Chief and Governor Curtin fear, they will never recross it without being first captured. This they know, unless deceived by their sympathizing friends in the North, as in 1861; therefore I do not believe they will attempt it.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+30%2C+1863
19. Tuesday, June 30, 1863: Lake Providence, Louisiana - After Union forces began occupying the Louisiana river parishes, thousands of escaped slaves flocked to them. The Federals, therefore, leased some plantations and put the freedmen to work growing cotton or other crops; the proceeds from the sale of the crops helped defray expenses for food, clothing, etc. African-American troops were assigned to protect these plantations, releasing other troops to fight. Confederates, determined to recapture some of these freedmen and destroy the crops, undertook an expedition from Gaines's Landing, Arkansas, to Lake Providence.
The Federals had constructed a fort on an Indian mound to protect some of these leased plantations. The Confederates prepared to attack the fort on the 29th but decided to demand unconditional surrender first, which the Union forces accepted. Later in the day, Col. W.H. Parsons fought companies of the 1st Kansas Mounted Infantry. The Confederates then began burning and destroying the surrounding plantations, especially those that the Federals leased.
By the next morning, Union boats had landed the Mississippi Marine Brigade, under the command of Brig. Gen. Alfred W. Ellet, at Goodrich's Landing. At dawn, he set out with Col. William F. Wood's African-American units to find the Rebels. Ellet's cavalry found the Confederates first and began skirmishing. The fight became more intense as Ellet's other forces approached. Parsons eventually disengaged and fell back. Ellet's cavalry lost 120 killed & wounded.
Although the Confederates disrupted these operations, destroyed much property, and captured many supplies and weapons, the raid was a minor setback for the Union. The Confederates could cause momentary disturbances, but they were unable to effect any lasting changes.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1863s.html
20. Tuesday, June 30, 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 1. However, Polk was overly concerned about the fate of the army with its communications cut off—even temporarily—and counseled Bragg to retreat. Hardee, who had no faith in Bragg, refused to specifically recommend a retreat, but offered no encouragement to stay and fight. A day later, at 3 p.m. on June 30, Bragg issued orders for a nighttime withdrawal across the Elk. By leaving before the Union assault, Bragg gave up an opportunity to inflict potentially serious damage on the Army of the Cumberland.
The Army of Tennessee took up positions below the Elk River, but Hardee and Polk convinced Bragg to move farther south, to the town of Cowan. Steven Woodworth wrote that "The resolute and well-conceived Union advance and the constant carping and noncooperation of his generals seemed to have broken Bragg down physically and emotionally" and he suffered from a collection of physical ailments, including a painful case of boils that prevented him from mounting his horse to survey the battle lines. The Cowan position was not well defensible and the army remained there only until the evening of July 2. Without consulting his corps commanders, on July 3 Bragg ordered a retreat to Chattanooga. The army crossed the Tennessee River on July 4; a cavalry pursuit under Phil Sheridan was not successful in trapping the rear guard of Bragg's army before they crossed the river. All the Confederate units had encamped near Lookout Mountain by July 7.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tullahoma_Campaign
21. Tuesday, June 30, 1863: Battle of Hanover, Pennsylvania
http://www.emmitsburg.net/archive_list/articles/history/civil_war/engagements_in_the_emmitsburg_area.htm
22. Tuesday, June 30, 1863: Skirmish at Fairfield, Pennsylvania
http://www.emmitsburg.net/archive_list/articles/history/civil_war/engagements_in_the_emmitsburg_area.htm
23. Tuesday, June 30, 1863: Skirmish at Sporting Hill, Pennsylvania (Camp Hill)
http://www.emmitsburg.net/archive_list/articles/history/civil_war/engagements_in_the_emmitsburg_area.htm
24. Thursday, June 30, 1864: Salmon P. Chase resigns as Secretary of the Treasury.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186406

A Sunday, June 30, 1861: Battle of Philippi, West Virginia. A significant occurrence of the American Civil War was the Battle of Philippi – which incidentally was also the term used to refer to an ancient battle between the assassins of Julius Caesar on the one hand, and Marc Antony and Octavian on the other. In the context of the Civil War, the Battle of Philippi was a part of the West Virginia Campaign and was the first organized land action on June 30, 1861.
Some historians dismiss the battle as a mere skirmish; others refer to it sarcastically as The Philippi Races. In the sequence of events, the hostilities started at Fort Sumter in April was followed by the Fairfax Court House battle; it was a minor skirmish between a Union cavalry of regular army under the commands of Thomas A. Morris and a militia infantry of Virginia (Confederate) under the commands of George A. Porterfield.
Triggers for the Battle The main reasons behind the initiation of this offensive was to keep open, the important railroad line of Baltimore and Ohio; a railroad that was of great significance for the Union. Additionally, there were large numbers of pro-Union people in the areas along the river Ohio; the battle was initiated to protect their interests as well. This battle was also meant to start an offensive that would eventually lead up to an attack on Richmond, the Confederate capital as conceived by Maj Gen George B McClellan.
Strategy and Casualties General Morris devised a twin attack upon Philippi Confederate forces including an attack consisting of 1600 men led by Col Benjamin Franklin Kelley. The Union forces also used a decoy wherein they took the train to the east in order to fool the opposition into thinking they meant to attack Harpers Ferry. In reality the Union forces meant to attack the town of the Philippi from the rear which meant that the Confederate forces were subjected to a two pronged attack.
The two Union Columns converged upon Philippi after a difficult overnight march in inclement weather. The rain meant that there were no Confederate picket lines to halt the attack. The Union victory in the Battle of Philippi was unambiguous and relatively bloodless – the Union experienced only 4 casualties as against 26 Confederate casualties.
The major fallout of the Battle of Philippi was that Brig Gen Robert Garnett replaced Col Porterfield as the commander of the Confederate forces in western Virginia.
http://www.americacivilwar.org/battle-of-philippi
B Monday, June 30, 1862: Battle of Glendale, Virginia. With the Army of the Potomac in full retreat, Robert E. Lee intended to cut the Federal host in two by thrusting the largest portion of his army—six divisions totaling 44,800 men—against the Yankees then gathered near Glendale. At the same time, Stonewall Jackson's four divisions were to engage the Union rearguard at White Oak Swamp. In order to ensure the success of his scheme, Lee planned to employ every unit in his army except the division of Theophilus Holmes and J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry.
George B. McClellan would not be sharing in his army's struggles this day. On the morning of June 30, the Young Napoleon boarded the Union gunboat Galena and spent the rest of the day completely cutoff from all communications with his beleaguered army. He left behind a leaderless force that occupied a patchwork defensive position stretching from White Oak Swamp to Malvern Hill on the James River. Without McClellan there to direct them, each corps and division commander posted his troops and fought the battle, in the words of one corps commander, "according to his own ideas."
In what was becoming a sadly recurring theme of the campaign, poor communication, confusion, and lackluster performances among the Confederate generals once again threatened to sap Lee's attack of all its energy. Two divisions of Union infantry and six batteries under the temporary command of William Franklin guarded the army's northern flank along White Oak Swamp, preventing a sluggish and cautious Stonewall Jackson from materially contributing to the day's action. At the same time, Benjamin Huger's Confederate division wasted hours cutting a new road through the thick woods and never participated in the battle.
Shortly after 4:00pm an impatient Lee ordered James Longstreet's and A. P. Hill's divisions forward in the direction of Willis Church. The Southerners routed George McCall's Pennsylvania Reserve division and captured McCall. Disparate Union counterattacks resulted in fierce hand-to-hand fighting but somehow managed to seal the breach. When the sun set over Glendale, the Yankees still held their line of retreat along the Willis Church Road. In the darkness, the Army of the Potomac made its way to Malvern Hill. Lee had lost his best chance to end the Union army's retreat.
http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/glendale.html?tab=facts
Monday, June 30, 1862 --- Battles of Glendale (Frayser’s Farm): McClellan having given Lee the slip and successfully escaped out of the crossroads at Savage’s Station with his wagon trains intact, Lee now assigns the pursuit of the Federals to Gen. Stonewall Jackson---who, although he has shown none of the alacrity of the Shenandoah Valley Campaign, still possesses the confidence of the commanding general. But as Jackson’s men pass through Savage’s Station, they slow down to browse the mountains of supplies left by the Federals, especially the food, since Jackson’s men had been notoriously under-rationed for nearly a month. Jackson pushes onward, and finds the bridge across the creek at White Oak swamp, to the north of and directly to the rear of the Federal rear guard force, has been burned, and Yankee artillery and small arms fire prevent Jackson from sending in a force to re-build it.
Meanwhile, Lee’s plan calls for Huger’s division to move in from the northeast, and A.P. Hill and Longstreet from the west. Holmes also prepares to strike from the southwest. Lee’s design is to take control of the roads of retreat so as to isolate and destroy part of the retreating Union army: so far, possession of the Quaker Road, the Long Bridge Road, and the heights of Malvern Hill, which command the roads leading to Harrison’s Landing and the Navy, are in McClellan’s hands. However, Huger advances with caution, and spends much of the day cutting a new road and, when finally within artillery range of the Union lines, decides to call off the attack. Believing that Huger has engaged the bluecoats, Lee orders Longstreet to step off, and Longstreet’s artillery is soon pelting the Federal lines as his six brigades of infantry go forward against the divisions of McCall, Hooker, Sedgwick, and Kearney, with McCall bearing the brunt: two of his brigades, under Meade and Truman Seymour, are hit hardest. The lack of a central command amongst the Union troops makes defense difficult: although Longstreet loses nearly a fourth of his division, he inflicts terrible losses on the Yankees as well. In the lead are the brigades of Wilcox at the north, then Micah Jenkins and then James Kemper, whose Virginians are all new to battle. Kemper pushes forward, captures some of the Federal guns, and pierces McCall’s line.
Jenkins aids him on his left, followed by Wilcox on Jenkins’ left. The Union response, uncoordinated, is sluggish. (Hand-to-hand fighting is vicious, and several Union commanders are wounded, including Meade and corps commander Sumner; McCall and Reynolds are captured. On the Southern side, Pender, Featherston, and Anderson are wounded.) Gen. Sumner sends Hooker in to strike the Confederate right flank, and Sedgwick’s brigades arrive in time to plug the holes. Hill’s men are brought up to relieve Longstreet’s exhausted brigades, but his attacks are also ineffectual.
Holmes attacks on the Union left, but is beaten back with losses. But, following a Federal pattern of tactical battlefield victory followed by retreat, the Union forces withdraw, and are able to finish their retreat on the protected roads. They begin forming a defensive line on the slopes of Malvern Hill during the night, in order to guard the approaches to the new Union base at Harrison’s Landing on the James River. The Yankee retreat is good for the Confederates---unfortunately, it convinces Lee that the Yankees are demoralized, and he feels that a swift blow struck the next day could finish them.
What began as a rear-guard action devolves into one of the bloodiest fights of the war, considering its brevity and number of casualties. Although Lee fails to smash the Union Army, the Yankees fail to keep the fruits of victory. Confederate Victory (marginal).
Losses: Killed Wounded Captured or Missing Total
Union: 297 1,696 1,804 3,797
Confederate: 638 2,814 221 3,673
McClellan is not present at the battle, nor in direct contact with his commanders (none of whom are ordered by him to take command in his absence), since he spends the day aboard the USS Galena dining with its captain and observing the Navy shelling of part of Holmes’ force. He sends messages to Washington, asking for 50,000 reinforcements, with which he promises to re-coup his losses. Many thinkers on both sides consider this battle to have been Lee’s best chance to destroy McClellan and to have won the war.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=June+30%2C+1862
C Monday, June 30, 1862: Tampa, Florida - On June 30, a Union gunboat came into Tampa Bay, turned her broadside on the town, and opened her ports. The gunboat then dispatched a launch carrying 20 men and a lieutenant under a flag of truce demanding the surrender of Tampa. The Confederates refused, and the gunboat opened fire. The officer then informed the Confederates that shelling would commence at 6:00 pm after allowing time to evacuate non-combatants from the city. Firing continued sporadically into the afternoon of July 1, when the Federal gunboat withdrew. Also known as: Yankee Outrage at Tampa
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1862s.html
C+ On June 30, USS Sagamore, a Union gunboat, came into Tampa Bay, opened her ports, and turned her broadside on the town. The gunboat then launched a boat with 20 men flying a flag of truce. In his post-action report, Captain John William Pearson, CSA, reported to Gen. Joseph Finegan, CSA, what transpired. “I immediately manned one of my boats with 18 men met them in the bay, determined that they should not land on my shore, and on meeting the boat the lieutenant in command reported he had been sent by Captain Drake to demand an unconditional surrender of the town. My reply to him was that we did not understand the meaning of the word surrender; there was no such letter in our book; we don’t surrender. He then said they would commence shelling the town at 6 o’clock, and I told him to pitch in. We then gave three hearty cheers for the Southern Confederacy and the Federal boat crew said nothing…. At 6 o’clock they promptly opened fire on us with heavy shell and shot, and after two from them we opened from our batteries, consisting of three 24-pounder cannon. Both parties then kept up a regular fire until 7 p.m.” At that point, U.S.S. Sagamore withdrew. On July 1, between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m., the gunboat fired from beyond the range of the Confederate cannon. After a two-hour break for lunch, USS Sagamore fired two more rounds, weighed anchor, and sailed away. There were no Confederate casualties.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tampa
D Thursday, June 30, 1864: In 1864, Rufus Ingram lead a group of Partisan Rangers who rode through California robbing stage coaches of gold and silver to fund the Confederacy.
Rufus Ingram was commissioned as a Confederate Captain in 1864 and began recruiting men in Southern California to join his group of Partisan Rangers. For the remainder of 1864, Ingram’s men, who became known as Captain Ingram’s Partisan Rangers, committed multiple stage coach robberies to fund the Confederate cause. On June 30, 1864, Ingram and his Partisan Rangers committed what has become known as the Bullion Bend robbery. The men stopped a stage coach in Placerville, California and got away with 40,000 dollars. However, they were eventually caught by a Santa Clara County Sheriff.
http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/california-in-the-civil-war/10-facts-about-california.html
FYI LTC Trent Klug CW4 Private RallyPoint Member SPC Tina JonesSgt Axel HastingSGT Wayne Dunn PVT Kenneth Krause LTC Private RallyPoint Member PO3 Donald Murphy SPC Deb Root-WhiteCWO2 John HeinzlSGT John C.Lt Col Charlie Brown LTC Orlando Illi SSG Robert Pratt COL Jean (John) F. B. SSG Edward Tilton CSM Bruce Trego SSG Robert Webster SPC Jon O. SFC Richard Williamson

The American Civil War 150 Years Ago Today: Search results for July 1, 1861

A no-frills day-by-day account of what was happening 150 years ago, this blog is intended to be a way that we can experience or remember the Civil War with more immediacy, in addition to understanding the flow of time as we live in it.

Response by TSgt Joe C. made Jul 3 at 2016 12:37 AM

2016-07-03T00:37:54-04:00

Thank you LTC Stephen F. for sharing this day in Civil War history, mighty fine reading today! I went with 1861 today.

Response by SSG Leo Bell made Jul 3 at 2016 7:41 AM

2016-07-03T07:41:54-04:00

Thank you for sharing. I never knew that General Lee never carried a weapon. In all the history shows I've watched and ever picture I've seen. I think back and remember I never saw a weapon on him. Interesting. Thank you LTC Stephen Ford.

Response by Kim Bolen RN CCM ACM made Jul 3 at 2016 9:54 AM

2016-07-03T09:54:11-04:00

1862 Battle of Glendale Virginia