What was the most significant event on March 27 during the U.S. Civil War?
1865 Union Major General E.R.S. Canby’s XIII & XVI corps traveled along the eastern shore of Mobile Bay, forcing the Confederates back into their defenses and making Spanish Fort and Fort Blakeley the focus of their efforts.
1866 temporary support for states’ rights. POTUS Johnson vetoes the Civil Rights
On the Friday prior to Good Friday, President Jefferson Davis of the Confederate States calls for yet another day of fasting and prayer for the Southern cause on this date. There were battles and skirmishes in both eastern and western operational theaters on this day as in most days of the war.
In 1866 Congress would override President Andrew Johnson’s veto of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. Congress was at odds with POTUS Johnson about reconstruction.
Since RallyPoint truncates survey selection text I am posting events that were not included and then the full text of each survey choice below:
a. Friday March 27, 1863: Skirmish at Palatka, Florida
b. March 27, 1862: “Baptists and the American Civil War: The influence of Southern women upon Confederate soldiers bears upon the minds of Southern Baptists. Alcohol, identified as one of the greatest evils in camp life — and considered a catalyst for other evils — must be curtailed. Home front Southern Baptist ministers and denominational leaders look to women to save men from evil spirits. But are Southern women doing enough to save the Confederacy? An editorial in the Baptist press takes women to task for falling short of their duty: “
“The experience of the South in the present conflict demonstrates, (if demonstration were needed) how grossly Plato misconceived the true source of woman’s power to strengthen her country in time of war, when he made it the law of his perfect ‘Republic,’ that she should be trained to arms. Woman must first belie her sex, before she could assume the part of the soldier. Hers is a nobler mission.
he is the soldier’s mother, wife, sister, daughter. Her influence in these relations, the gentlest, purest and strongest, which appeals to our nature from the human side, serves to hold him steadfast in the way of honor.
She is the soldier’s intercessor. Her prayers, ascending day and night, win to his succor the aids of grace–the only influence appealing to our nature from the divine side, and therefore infinitely outweighing all others.
She is the soldier’s benefactress. Lavish of her means and patient in her toil, she cheers the camp with countless tokens of remembrance, to supply his wants and to alleviate his privations.
She is the soldier’s nurse. When disease wastes him, when he languishes from wounds received in the shock of battle, more than the good Samaritan lives again in her, for the offices which the Samaritan entrusted to others, she illumes with her own presence and performs with her own hands.
She is the soldier’s exemplar. The scorn with which she repels disloyalty, the fearlessness with which she confronts danger, the smile with which she treads the path of unwonted self-denials–these are an inspiration, and as he looks upon them he kindles into a hero.
But we have somewhat against woman in the matter of the present war. She has not sufficiently fulfilled the functions of the soldier’s mentor. She has flattered and feted drunken officers, until they have brought our cause to the verge of ruin. A thousand murders may lie “bosomed up” in the intemperance of an officer; it may work out the dire results of treason, and bind the yoke of the oppressor about our necks; and yet woman has affected not to see it–has labored to mould no popular sentiment which might frown it down–has suffered the deadly current to sweep on, without putting forth her utmost might of influence to arrest it. Oh, if she would but address herself to this task new, if in conversation and by letter, she would become the earnest (and therefore eloquent) advocate of sobriety, if she would bar the officer who loves strong drink from the Eden of her presence, would not our military affairs soon take a more hopeful aspect? We make no doubt of it.”
http://civilwarbaptists.com/thisdayinhistory/1862-march-27/
c. March 27, 1862: Trans-Mississippi Theater, New Mexico Campaign – Col. Scurry arrives with over 1,000 Texans to reinforce Maj. Pyron’s reduced number at Apache Canyon. He forms a strong line across the Santa Fe Trail, and places 4 cannon at the summit of a hill that commands the canyon and the Santa Fe Trail that runs through it toward Glorieta Pass. http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=march+27+1863
d. March 27, 1862--- Gen. Lee, being convinced that McClellan’s move toward the James Peninsula was a serious move, and not a feint, he orders Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, near Rappahannock Station, to send 10,000 more men to the Peninsula to reinforce Gen. Magruder, who is watching the Federal build-up near Ft. Monroe.
e. March 27, 1862--- Two ironclad warships are being constructed at New Orleans: The CSS Louisiana and the CSS Mississippi. The Mississippi is far from finished: she still lacks her armor, heavy guns, and propeller shafts. The Louisiana is closer to completion.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=march+27+1863
f. March 27, 1862--- Surgeon Alfred L. Castleman, of the Army of the Potomac, notes in his journal the result of a Union advance in Virginia, and the taking of a Confederate picket post: A day of excitement. We are near the enemy. Brigade left camp at 6 A.M.; marched ten miles along the beautiful James River. Almost every building on the route burned. Dreadful devastation. At 12 o’clock came upon the rebel pickets. They ran, leaving camp fires burning. In one tent found a boiler of hot coffee, in another a haversack of hot biscuit. Very acceptable, after a long and muddy march.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=march+27+1863
g. March 27, 1862--- A Union force from Gen. Banks corps in the Shenandoah Valley, having occupied Strasburg, Virginia, finds itself being shelled by four guns under the command of Col. Turner Ashby of Jackson’s army. Several shells explode in the Union camp, killing one man and wounding another. Union artillery soon chases off Ashby and his artillery.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=march+27+1863
h. March 27, 1862--- Major Elisha Franklin Paxton, of the 27th Virginia Inf., serving under Stonewall Jackson, writes home from camp at Mount Jackson, and mentions the fierce battle at Kernstown: Since last Thursday, when we started towards Winchester, we have had exciting times. We were engaged on Sunday in a fiercer struggle, more obstinately maintained on our side, than that at Manassas last July. The battle between the infantry, the artillery having been engaged in firing some time before, commenced about five o’clock and ended about six o’clock, when our line gave way and retreated in disorder to our wagons, about four miles from the battle-field. Our loss in killed, wounded and missing, I suppose, may reach 400. Col. Echols had his arm broken. . . . The next morning after the battle we left in good order about ten o ‘clock, and came some seven miles in this direction, where we encamped and cooked dinner. Before we left the enemy appeared with their cannon, and as we were leaving commenced firing upon us. One of their shells burst in our regiment, killing four and wounding several more.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=march+27+1862
i. Friday March 27, 1863 --- At the Bayth Ahabah Synagogue of Richmond, Virginia, the Rabbi M.J. Michelbacher delivers a sermon refuting the spurious charges that the Jews in the South are not supporting the Confederate cause: BY THE REV. M. J. MICHELBACHER. RICHMOND: BRETHREN OF THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL: It is due to you, to whom I always speak of your faults, without fear, favour or affection, to say, I have carefully investigated your conduct from the commencement of this war to the present time, and I am happy in coming to the unbiassed conclusion, that you have fulfilled your duties as good citizens and as men, who love their country. It has been charged by both the ignorant and the evil-disposed against the people of our faith, that the Israelite does not fight in the battles of his country! All history attests the untruthfulness of this ungracious charge, generated in the cowardly hearts and born between the hypocritical lips of ungenerous and prejudiced foes. . . . In respect to those Israelites who are now in the army of the Confederate States, I will merely say, that their patriotism and valor have never been doubted by such men as have the magnanimous souls of Lee, Johnston, Jackson and others of like manhood. . . . http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=march+27+1863
j. Friday March 27, 1863 --- Pres. Lincoln meets with a delegation of chiefs from the Southern Plains nations -- Cheyenne, Kiowa, Arapahoe, Caddo, Comanche, Apache – to talk peace. Lincoln talks with them, and sends them away with promises of peace. http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=march+27+1863
k. Friday March 27, 1863 --- Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside is given command of the Dept. of Ohio and Kentucky, which includes Eastern Tennessee and its many pockets of Union sympathy and loyalty.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=march+27+1863
l. Sunday March 27, 1864 --- Gen. Ulysses S. Grant spends a good deal of today in conference with Pres. Lincoln, Gen. Halleck, and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton.
m. Sunday March 27, 1864 --- Colonel John M Hughes, commanding the 25th Tennessee Infantry Regiment, CSA, makes contact with Federal troops in Sparta, Tennessee, and asks to take the U.S. oath of allegiance.
n. Sunday March 27, 1864 --- John Beauchamp Jones, of Richmond, notes glumly in his diary of the failure of some of his gardening efforts: Bright morning, but windy; subsequently warmer, and wind lulled. Collards coming up. Potatoes all rotted in the ground during the recent cold weather. I shall rely on other vegetables, which I am now beginning to sow freely. We have no war news to-day.
o. Sunday March 27, 1864 --- Maj. Gen Nathaniel Banks, in command of the Federal Army of the Gulf, campaigning in the Red River Valley, writes to the Adjutant-General of the Army, explaining his raising and use of black soldiers in his army: HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF, Alexandria, March 27, 1864 ADJUTANT-GENERAL OF THE ARMY, Washington, D. C.: SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 7th instant, relating to the organization of the negro troops in this department, under General Orders, No., 47, and to state in reply thereto that the order was issued while the army was on the march at Opelousas. Up to the date of the order, three regiments of negroes had been organized according to the provisions of the Army Regulations. These regiments absorbed all the material that was available at that time. It became necessary during the campaign of last year to organize new regiments for instant service. The men, of course, were utterly unused to everything appertaining to military service, the negroes of Central and Northern Louisiana being perhaps less adapted to this service than those of any other State. The officers, with few exceptions, were necessarily taken from the ranks. These regiments being required for immediate service, it was necessary that the number of men should be limited, so that inexperienced officers might render wholly uninstructed troops available in the shortest possible time. The number of each company was limited to 50, it being the intention as soon as more country opened to us to fill the regiments to the minimum or maximum number, and also to recruit from the plantations within the lines of the army, in accordance with the instructions which I had received from General Halleck. . . . From the moment these regiments were organized they entered active service, and have been from that day constantly in the presence of the enemy, from Brashear to Port Hudson. Two brigades will participate in this campaign. I was conscious that there was a departure from the Regulations of the Army on this subject, but the necessities of the case seemed to justify it. These regiments did excellent service, and it is no more than just to say that the campaign of last year could hardly have been accomplished without their aid. The restrictions as to numbers are in accordance with military experience in regard to the organization of recruits intended for immediate service. To one instance I may properly refer. In France, under Napoleon, when intended for immediate service the battalions were limited to 300 instead of 1,000 men. My experience in this department fully justifies this practice when the troops are required for instant service. Under other circumstances a departure from the Army Regulations would be inexcusable. It is my intention to fill these regiments to the minimum and maximum numbers as soon as possible, and I hope that this campaign may furnish the material for such purpose. With much respect, your obedient servant, N. P. BANKS, Major-General, Commanding.
p. Sunday March 27, 1864 --- Captain Augustus C. Brown, commander of Co. H of the 4th New York Heavy Artillery Regiment—now being transformed into infantry—writes in his diary about leaving the comforts of their barracks in the fort, arriving in in the field at Brandy Station, and having to sleep in canvas shelter tents: Sunday, March 27th. At 7 o’clock this morning, being relieved by the 3d Pennsylvania Artillery, a German regiment, the company was formed for the last time on the parade ground in front of the old barracks, and one hundred and eighty-two men answered to their names at roll call. Filing slowly out of the little fort which we had built and had garrisoned for nearly two years, we formed with Co.’s A and I, and marched to Fort Ethan Allen, where we found the other companies of the regiment just falling into line. After the usual delays we took up the line of march about nine o’clock for Alexandria, where we found a train of cars awaiting us, and arrived at Brandy Station about ten o’clock that night. Here we had our first experience with shelter tents, which we pitched near the depot, and in an incredibly short time, notwithstanding the state of the weather, which was decidedly cold and unpleasant, "sleep and oblivion reigned over all." Brandy Station, as we saw it, presented but few inducements for permanent residence. A few tents, sheds and dilapidated old buildings standing in the midst of a rolling prairie and immediately surrounded by acres of boxes, bags, bales, barrels and innumerable other army stores, comprised all the natural or architectural beauties of the place, but, being then the terminus of the railroad, the whole Army of the Potomac drew its supplies from this point. Should the track be relaid to Culpepper, however, in two days’ time no passing traveler would be able to locate the ancient site of Brandy Station.
q. Sunday March 27, 1864 --- Oliver Norton Willcox, an officer serving with the 8th U.S. Colored Troops, writes home to his sister, and tells of his awakening to the pleasures of the game of chess: Do you want to know how I spend my time here? Well, in the first place I am a member of a court-martial that meets every morning at 10 o’clock. If there is business enough we sit till 3 or 4 p. m., and then adjourn, but usually we get through much earlier. Then I come back to camp, and after dinner I read or write or play chess. I play a great deal lately and the more I learn the more I like it. It is a noble game and I am determined to be no mean player. I have already beaten the best player I can find in the regiment, and I mean to get so I can do it every time. Last winter I used to play "euchre" or "old sledge," but it never improved me much. Chess on the contrary is a never ending study. Dr. Franklin called it the "King of Games."
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=March+26%2C+1864
March 27, 1862
1 Friday March 27, 1863: On the Friday prior to Good Friday, President Jefferson Davis of the Confederate States calls for yet another day of fasting and prayer for the Southern cause on this date. http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=march+27+1863
Sunday March 27, 1864
2 March 27, 1865: Union Major General E.R.S. Canby’s XIII and XVI corps traveled along the eastern shore of Mobile Bay, forcing the Confederates back into their defenses and making Spanish Fort and Fort Blakeley the focus of their efforts. March 27, 1865 marks the siege of Spanish Fort as Canby’s forces rendezvoused at Danley’s Ferry.
The Battle of Spanish Fort took place from March 27 – April 8, 1865, during which the Union Forces embarked on a land campaign in an attempt to capture Mobile from the East. By April 1, they enveloped the fort and captured it on April 8, 1865. Most of the Confederate forces, under the command of Brig. Gen. Randall L. Gibson, escaped by fleeing to Mobile.
During the American Civil War, Spanish Fort was heavily fortified as an eastern Confederate defense for the Mobile area. Fort Huger, Fort Tracey, Fort McDermott, Fort Alexis, Red Fort, and Old Spanish Fort were all part of the Mobile defenses.
After Spanish Fort’s fall on April 8, 1865, and Gen. Robert E Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, Fort Blakeley remained the last organized resistance to Northern occupation east of the Mississippi River. On April 9, 1865 Fort Blakeley fell to the Union troops in the Battle of Fort Blakeley. The fall of both Spanish Fort and Fort Blakeley allowed Union troops to enter Mobile unopposed after the conclusion of the Civil War. http://www.cityofspanishfort.com/GettoKnowUs/History.aspx
3 March 27, 1865: President Abraham Lincoln meets with Union generals Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman at City Point, Virginia, to plot the last stages of the Civil War. Lincoln went to Virginia just as Grant was preparing to attack Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s lines around Petersburg and Richmond, an assault that promised to end the siege that had dragged on for 10 months. Meanwhile, Sherman’s force was steamrolling northward through the Carolinas. The three architects of Union victory convened for the first time as a group–Lincoln and Sherman had never met—at Grant’s City Point headquarters at the general-in-chief’s request.
As part of the trip, Lincoln went to the Petersburg lines and witnessed a Union bombardment and a small skirmish. Prior to meeting with his generals, the president also reviewed troops and visited wounded soldiers. Once he sat down with Grant and Sherman, Lincoln expressed concern that Lee might escape Petersburg and flee to North Carolina, where he could join forces with Joseph Johnston to forge a new Confederate army that could continue the war for months. Grant and Sherman assured the president the end was in sight. Lincoln emphasized to his generals that any surrender terms must preserve the Union war aims of emancipation and a pledge of equality for the freed slaves.
After meeting with Admiral David Dixon Porter on March 28, the president and his two generals went their separate ways. Less than four weeks later, Grant and Sherman had secured the surrender of the Confederacy.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/lincoln-sherman-and-grant-meet
4 March 27, 1866: President Johnson vetoes the Civil Rights Act of 1866 on the grounds that it was unconstitutional because he had always been a firm believer in the rights of states to regulate their own affairs. Congress eventually overrode the veto.
The civil rights acts of 1866 and 1875 were passed by the U.S. Congress in an effort to make full citizens of and guarantee the rights of the freed slaves. The Thirteenth Amendment (1865) had abolished slavery throughout the nation, and Congress was faced with how to enfranchise this population. Both pieces of legislation proved to be controversial.
Early in 1866 Congress approved an act which stated that states could not infringe on the rights of their citizens. But President Andrew Johnson (1808–75) vetoed it. When the South seceded from the Union in 1861, Johnson, then a senator from Tennessee, remained in Washington, D.C.; he believed the act of secession was unconstitutional. When President Abraham Lincoln (1861–65) ran for a second term in 1864, he chose the southern Democrat as his running mate in an effort to heal the nation's wounds. Having won the election, Lincoln had just begun his second term when he was assassinated (April 1865); Johnson succeeded him in office. When the Civil Rights Act arrived on his desk, Johnson refused to sign it; he had always been a firm believer in the rights of states to regulate their own affairs. For the first time in history, Congress mustered enough votes to overturn a presidential veto and enacted the law anyway. It was the first of numerous veto overturns that came during the years of Reconstruction (1865–77), as Congress and the president squared off over how to restore the Union.
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2 [login to see] .html
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Baptists and the American Civil War: March 27, 1862 | Baptists and the American Civil War: In...
The influence of Southern women upon Confederate soldiers bears upon the minds of Southern Baptists. Alcohol, identified as one of the greatest evils in camp life — and considered a catalyst for other evils — must be curtailed. Home front Southern Baptist ministers and denominational leaders look to women to save men from evil spirits.
"a. March 27, 1862: “Baptists and the American Civil War: The influence of Southern women upon Confederate soldiers bears upon the minds of Southern Baptists. Alcohol, identified as one of the greatest evils in camp life — and considered a catalyst for other evils — must be curtailed. Home front Southern Baptist ministers and denominational leaders look to women to save men from evil spirits. But are Southern women doing enough to save the Confederacy? An editorial in the Baptist press takes women to task for falling short of their duty: “
“The experience of the South in the present conflict demonstrates, (if demonstration were needed) how grossly Plato misconceived the true source of woman’s power to strengthen her country in time of war, when he made it the law of his perfect ‘Republic,’ that she should be trained to arms. Woman must first belie her sex, before she could assume the part of the soldier. Hers is a nobler mission.
he is the soldier’s mother, wife, sister, daughter. Her influence in these relations, the gentlest, purest and strongest, which appeals to our nature from the human side, serves to hold him steadfast in the way of honor.
She is the soldier’s intercessor. Her prayers, ascending day and night, win to his succor the aids of grace–the only influence appealing to our nature from the divine side, and therefore infinitely outweighing all others.
She is the soldier’s benefactress. Lavish of her means and patient in her toil, she cheers the camp with countless tokens of remembrance, to supply his wants and to alleviate his privations.
She is the soldier’s nurse. When disease wastes him, when he languishes from wounds received in the shock of battle, more than the good Samaritan lives again in her, for the offices which the Samaritan entrusted to others, she illumes with her own presence and performs with her own hands.
She is the soldier’s exemplar. The scorn with which she repels disloyalty, the fearlessness with which she confronts danger, the smile with which she treads the path of unwonted self-denials–these are an inspiration, and as he looks upon them he kindles into a hero.
But we have somewhat against woman in the matter of the present war. She has not sufficiently fulfilled the functions of the soldier’s mentor. She has flattered and feted drunken officers, until they have brought our cause to the verge of ruin. A thousand murders may lie “bosomed up” in the intemperance of an officer; it may work out the dire results of treason, and bind the yoke of the oppressor about our necks; and yet woman has affected not to see it–has labored to mould no popular sentiment which might frown it down–has suffered the deadly current to sweep on, without putting forth her utmost might of influence to arrest it. Oh, if she would but address herself to this task new, if in conversation and by letter, she would become the earnest (and therefore eloquent) advocate of sobriety, if she would bar the officer who loves strong drink from the Eden of her presence, would not our military affairs soon take a more hopeful aspect? We make no doubt of it.”
http://civilwarbaptists.com/thisdayinhistory/1862-march-27/
Baptists and the American Civil War: March 27, 1862 | Baptists and the American Civil War: In...
The influence of Southern women upon Confederate soldiers bears upon the minds of Southern Baptists. Alcohol, identified as one of the greatest evils in camp life — and considered a catalyst for other evils — must be curtailed. Home front Southern Baptist ministers and denominational leaders look to women to save men from evil spirits.