Response by LTC Stephen F. made Mar 30 at 2016 8:04 PM

2016-03-30T20:04:44-04:00

It would have been very interesting if Robert E. Lee had been in command of the 2nd US Cavalry Regiment in Texas while Texas voted to secede. Unlike the Mexican War-disabled and recently brought back to active duty Brigadier General David E. Twiggs who surrendered all Federal assets I expect R.E. Lee would have been firmer with the secessionists. If that had happened, he may have not accepted a commission in the confederacy. We know he had misgivings.
The fact that McClellan's advance on the Peninsula negated Stonewall Jackson’s control of the B&O Railroad after 10 months of inactivity while the confederate stripped the rails for their own purposes was important. This enabled the rails to be re-laid and bridges and other infrastructure repaired and connect Maryland to Ohio once again helped the war effort.
It took much longer than usual to develop todays question because I found a lot of bad information posted. I always double check and sometimes triple check before I post the question and choices.
Since RallyPoint truncates survey selection text I am posting events that were not included and then the full text of each survey choice below:
a. Monday March 30, 1863: --- Gen. John McClernand sends troops to seize Richmond, Mississippi on this date; the Yankees drive off a force of Rebel cavalry after a two-hour fight.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=March+30%2C+1863
b. Monday March 30, 1863: --- Battle of Somerset, Kentucky – Federal troops under Gen. Quincy Gillmore encounter Rebel cavalry under Gen. Pegram. After a sharp battle, the Revels are routed and driven with “great loss.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=March+30%2C+1863
c. Monday March 30, 1863: --- Rebel guerillas under a Col. Jenkins attack Point Pleasant, Virginia, in the western mountains, and are held off by a much smaller force---a mere company of the 13th Virginia Infantry (Union), who use the courthouse as a blockhouse for defense. After suffering heavy casualties, the Rebels retreat.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=March+30%2C+1863
d. Monday March 30, 1863: --- Rebel War clerk John Beauchamp Jones writes more about the Richmond famine in his journal: The gaunt form of wretched famine still approaches with rapid strides. Meal is now selling at $12 per bushel, and potatoes at $16. Meats have almost disappeared from the market, and none but the opulent can afford to pay $3.50 per pound for butter. Greens, however, of various kinds, are coming in; and as the season advances, we may expect a diminution of prices. It is strange that on the 30th of March, even in the “sunny South,” the fruit-trees are as bare of blossoms and foliage as at mid-winter. We shall have fire until the middle of May,—six months of winter! I am spading up my little garden, and hope to raise a few vegetables to eke out a miserable subsistence for my family. My daughter Ann reads Shakspeare to me o’ nights, which saves my eyes.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=March+30%2C+1863
e. Wednesday March 30, 1864 ---Jenkin Lloyd Jones, an artilleryman from Wisconsin, writes in his journal about the visit that ladies make to their camps, and the differences in the soldiers’ behavior there by such a visit: At dress parade we were looked upon by four Northern ladies, one of whom was Mother Bickerdyke, having ridden up from town in an ambulance. The ranks, which before they came under the soft glances of women, were irregular, steps broken, heads drooping, all carelessness, now closed up and all moved with true military precision. A natural impulse to please took hold of them, I guess. After parade they were conducted through camp examining our quarters, with a pleasant smile and a kind word for all, spreading sunshine as they went and filling the heart with fond recollections and pleasing hopes. All were Northern women upon missions of love, one I understood a Wisconsin one, a young lady of twenty-five, the others elderly.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=March+30%2C+1864
f. March 30, 1865: Cavalry skirmish at Montevallo, Alabama during Wilson's Raid
http://www.civilwar.org/150th-anniversary/this-day-in-the-civil-war.html?
g. March 30, 1865: Battle of Spanish Fort, Alabama [March 27 – April 8] continuing.
h. March 30, 1865: Appomattox Campaign in Virginia [March 29 – April 9] continuing.
A March 30, 1861: Robert E. Lee relieved of command of the Second U.S. Cavalry Regiment at Fort Mason, Texas as Texas was on the verge of secession. General Scott ordered him to report to Washington by March 30th. As Lee left Texas for the journey east, Brigadier General David E. Twiggs surrendered the Army’s posts and materiel in Texas, to the secessionists.
The Substitution of General Twiggs for Lee in Texas
Lee’s return from Texas raised some eyebrows: A year earlier, Brigadier General David E. Twiggs, a hero in the War with Mexico, had been in command of the Department of Texas. In December 1859, due to advanced age and acute illness, Twiggs, a native Georgian, left Texas on a leave of absence, taking up residence in New Orleans. Lee took his place. On November 7, 1860, just as Lincoln was elected president, General Scott ordered Twiggs back to duty. In December 1860, Twiggs arrived at Army headquarters in San Antonio and relieved Lee of the department’s command. Lee then removed himself to the headquarters of the Second Cavalry Regiment at Fort Mason, a hundred and forty miles away.
The question was asked at the time: Why should Robert E. Lee, sound of mind and body, be relieved at such a perilous moment and Twiggs, a true invalid, pushed in his place? The answer given, is that either the secessionists wanted Lee out of command, or Lee, himself, wanted out of the command. In either event, General Scott accommodated him, by ordering him to report to Washington by March 30th. And, as Lee left Texas for the journey east, Twiggs surrendered the Army’s posts and materiel in Texas, to the secessionists.
It is inconceivable, given what is known about Lee, that, had he remained in command of the Department of Texas when the secessionists came to San Antonio in force, he would have surrendered the military post and its stores to the secessionists. Presumably, Lee would have acted as Major Robert Anderson was acting in command at Fort Sumter. Lee would have probably resisted the secessionists’ effort to take possession of the military post and its stores with force of arms.
Had this happened, it seems likely to have placed him, in the public eye, clearly in support of the Union’s effort to coerce the seceded states and made him a political liability in the eyes of Southern leaders, making him unacceptable as a commander of Confederate forces. A reasonable suspicion arises from this that the Southern politicians, led by then Secretary of War, John Floyd, of Virginia, may have induced General Scott to order Twiggs back to duty; indeed, Twiggs may well have returned to duty, prompted to do so by the politicians; for no sooner had Twiggs arrived in San Antonio than he was peppering Scott with messages seeking to be relieved. Scott accommodated Twiggs by ordering Colonel C.A. Waite, commanding the First Infantry Regiment at Camp Verde, to assume Twiggs’s position. Waite arrived at San Antonio on February 18, just after Twiggs surrendered the post and a day after Lee had passed through the town on his way to the coast to take passage home. Why was it necessary to do this, when Lee was already in command? Some would say there had been treachery in Texas.
http://americancivilwar.com/authors/Joseph_Ryan/150-Year-Anniversary/March-1861/What-Happened-March-1861.html
B March 30, 1862: B&O Railroad once again under Union control after confederates confiscated railroad tracks. By early March 1862 Major General McClellan's advance on the Peninsula was bringing pressure on the Confederate Army of the Potomac to pull back from Centreville, Virginia. A new wooden bridge at Harpers Ferry was built on a rushed accelerated schedule and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad officially reopened for service on March 30, 1862 after ten full months of closure with six of those months under Confederate control.
Entire main line reopened from Baltimore to Ohio.
http://www.borail.net/Timeline.html
Background: Colonel Stonewall Jackson's operations against the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1861 were aimed at disrupting the critical railroad used heavily by the opposing Union Army as a major supply route. A second goal was to capture the maximum number of locomotives and cars for use in the Confederate States of America. During this point in the war, the state of Maryland's stance was not yet determined. The B&O Railroad, then owned by the state of Maryland, ran through Maryland and along the Potomac River Valley in its pass through the Appalachian Mountains, but took a crucial turn at Harpers Ferry and passed south, through Virginia and Martinsburg while crossing the Shenandoah Valley. The railroad then continued on through much of present-day West Virginia, which then was still part of Virginia, meaning that the railroad continued for a major portion of its route through a state which later seceded.
During the early portions of the summer of 1861, Major General McClellan was able to gain control of the B&O RR northwest of Grafton, West Virginia and occasionally the B&O would push work crews in to restore and repair portions of the main stem, having considerable bridge repairs to perform. The repair languished, however, and the plight of the B&O "was sufficient to make many recall that the problems of the B&O were helping increase the profits of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Northern Central, in which [the Secretary of War] Cameron had a major interest."
The total amount of repair work facing the B&O was extraordinary, including 26 bridges (127 spans with a total length of 4,713 feet), 102 miles (164 km) of telegraph line and a pair of water stations. "This was in addition to all the rolling stock lost and burnt at Martinsburg."
This initial long term service outage and blow to the B&O Railroad and Union effort finally received more attention from the War Department under Stanton, who placed more interest in restoring the line. By early March 1862 Major General McClellan's advance on the Peninsula was bringing pressure on the Confederate Army of the Potomac to pull back from Centreville, Virginia, who just happened to be using six miles (10 km) of the B&O's rail bars that had been seized in this raid and stored in Winchester, Virginia. The Great Train Raid bounty had supplied the Confederate Army with the materials to build the Centreville Military Railroad, where Captain Sharp was once again managing much of the effort. After Centreville was abandoned and the lower Shenandoah Valley was left lightly defended, the B&O Railroad came under Federal control, and B&O work crews were able to repair bridges and lay track during the entire month of March. A new wooden bridge at Harpers Ferry was built on a rushed accelerated schedule and the B&O Railroad officially reopened for service on March 30, 1862, and once again the transportation path from Baltimore to Ohio was finally clear, after ten full months of closure.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson%27s_operations_against_the_B%26O_Railroad_(1861)
C Monday March 30, 1863: Battle of Washington, N.C. As part of Gen. Longstreet’s Spring tidewater operations he sends a column of troops under Gen. D.H. Hill to threaten the Federal hold on New Berne and Washington, two principal ports in tidewater North Carolina. In Washington, on the Tar River, Union General John G. Foster and a brigade of 2,000 are posted. Hill marches his brigades to this point launches an attack on the Union-fortified town. Besides the infantry, Foster has three gunboats on the Tar River to help defend the town. Rebel brigades under Richard Garnett and Johnston Pettigrew invest the town, and conduct an assault, but the Federal gunboats drive them back, and the Siege begins.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=March+30%2C+1863
March 30, 1863: Siege of Washington, NC took place from March 30 to April 19, 1863, in Beaufort County, North Carolina, as part of Confederate Lt. Gen. James Longstreet's Tidewater operations during the American Civil War.
Siege
(CSA) Maj. Gen. John G. Foster, a West Point trained Army engineer, put his skills to good use improving the town's defenses as well as employing the use of three gunboats in the defense. By March 30, the town was ringed with fortifications, and Brig. Gen. Richard B. Garnett's brigade began the investment of Washington. Meanwhile, Hill established batteries as well as river obstructions along the Tar River to impede reinforcements. He also posted two brigades south of Washington to guard for any relief efforts coming overland from New Bern. The Confederates sent a reply to Foster demanding surrender. Foster replied saying "If the Confederates want Washington, come and get it." Despite this defiance, Foster lacked the strength to dislodge the besiegers, and Hill was under orders to avoid an assault at the risk of sustaining heavy casualties. Thus, the engagement devolved into one of artillery, and even so the Confederates limited their bombings to conserve their ammunition. In time both sides were running low on supplies, and conditions grew miserable in the rain and mud. Despite the lack of progress against Washington, Hill was accomplishing a vital objective in the form of foraging parties so long as the Federals were pinned down.
Relief Efforts
A Federal relief column under Brig. Gen. Henry Prince sailed up the Tar River. Once Prince saw the Rebel batteries, he simply turned the transports around. A second effort under Brig. Gen. Francis Barretto Spinola moved overland from New Bern. Spinola was defeated along Blount's Creek and returned to New Bern. Foster decided that he would escape Washington and personally lead the relief effort leaving his chief-of-staff, Brig. Gen. Edward E. Potter in command at Washington. On April 13, the USS Escort braved the Confederate batteries and made its way into Washington. The Escort delivered supplies and reinforcements in the form of a Rhode Island regiment. It was aboard this ship on April 15 that Foster made his escape. The ship was badly damaged and the pilot mortally wounded, but Foster made it out.
Raising the Siege
About the same time Foster made an escape, Hill was faced with numerous reasons that ultimately led to his withdrawal: the completion of his foraging efforts, Union supplies reaching the Federal garrison, and finally a message arrived from Longstreet requesting reinforcements for an assault on Suffolk. Hill broke off the siege on April 15 and began to withdraw Garnett's brigade fronting Washington's defenses.
Meanwhile, Foster had made it back to New Bern and immediately began organizing a relief effort. He ordered General Prince to march along the railroad towards Kinston to hold off Confederates in the vicinity of Goldsboro, while Foster personally led a second column north from New Bern towards Blount's Creek where General Spinola had earlier been turned back. On April 18, Foster ordered Spinola to drive the Confederates from their road block at Swift Creek guarding the direct road from Washington to New Bern. At the same time, General Henry M. Naglee attacked the Confederate rear guard near Washington capturing several prisoners and a regimental battle flag. On April 19 Foster returned to the Washington defenses and by April 20 the Confederates had completely withdrawn from the area.
Background: After the culmination of Burnside's North Carolina Expedition little attention had been given to North Carolina by the Confederate Army. In December 1862 a Union expedition from New Berne destroyed the railroad bridge at Goldsboro, N.C. along the vital Wilmington and Weldon Railroad. This expedition caused only temporary damage to the railroad, but did prompt Confederate authorities to devote more attention to the situation along the coast of Virginia and North Carolina.
Following the Confederate victory at Fredericksburg, General Robert E. Lee felt confident enough to dispatch a large portion of his army to deal with Union occupation forces along the coast. The whole force was put under the command of Lt. Gen. James Longstreet. While Longstreet personally operated against Suffolk, Maj. Gen. D. H. Hill led a column which moved against Federal garrisons at New Berne and Washington, North Carolina.
Maj. Gen. John G. Foster, commanding the Department of North Carolina, was responsible for the overall defense of the Union garrisons along the North Carolina coast. After Hill's attack against New Berne failed, Foster arrived in Washington to take personal command of the garrison.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Washington
March 30, 1865: As Ulysses S. Grant extends his lines east of Richmond, Phil Sheridan's cavalry, along with some infantry support, come in contact with the Confederate right flank at Dinwiddie Court House. Throughout the day, Sheridan’s scouting patrols had probed north of Dinwiddie Court House, occasionally exchanging desultory gunfire with sodden Rebel pickets, a portion of the 10,000 troops commanded by Maj. Gen. George Pickett and hidden behind entrenchments dug near Five Forks. It became all too apparent to the Union soldiers that a rugged fight was in the offing.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186503
Background: The winter of 1864-65 was ending, but to the soldiers in the trenches dug into the tortured landscape around Petersburg, Virginia, the onset of spring in the devastated region simply promised a wet, muddy agony brought on by the heavy rainfall of the season. While both sides suffered in the inclement weather, the Southern troops and the Confederacy were in a particularly perilous position. General Robert E. Lee’s vastly outnumbered Army of Northern Virginia manned a long arc of earthworks and trenches that protected the city of Petersburg and thinly shielded the Southside Railroad — Lee’s only remaining line of supply and communication. If Petersburg fell, that railroad would be his last line of retreat and the only possible avenue he could take to link up with General Joseph Johnston’s Army of Tennessee. Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant also realized the strategic importance of the Southside Railroad and decided to open his spring offensive — which would become known as the Appomattox campaign — with a thrust at Lee’s vulnerable right flank in an effort to pierce the rail line and force the Southern general to evacuate Petersburg. Desiring to move swiftly, Grant ordered elements of Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan’s cavalry division, toughened by their trouncing of Maj. Gen. Jubal Early’s force in the Shenandoah Valley during the preceding fall, to lead the advance while the Federal II and V corps followed in support. Grant directed Sheridan to strike out for Dinwiddie Court House, a small hamlet that lay beyond the right of the Confederate line and that would serve as a launching point for further assaults upon the Rebels. Lee divined Grant’s intentions, and to protect his right he ordered his cavalry and two infantry divisions, an overall strength of about 19,000 soldiers, to the crossroads of Five Forks, a few miles north of Dinwiddie Court House. The road from Dinwiddie Court House led directly to the Confederate rear and the Southside Railroad. The sleepy little courthouse town was suddenly the focal point of the spring campaign, and absolutely critical to the Confederate cause. On March 28, 1865, the day before the Union troopers were to move out, they readied their mounts and drew five days’ rations and ammunition. Sheridan’s force totaled about 9,500 men, many armed with repeating rifles, a decisive advantage over their foes. Early on March 29, the horsemen broke camp and headed out for the right flank of the Confederate army. Brigadier General Charles H. Smith’s 3rd Brigade of Maj. Gen. George Crook’s 2nd Division left before dawn. Saving the better roads for the infantry, Smith’s blue-coated cavalry moved cross-country through woods and fields, following rough back roads when possible. The troopers reigned up at Rowanty Creek, dismayed to find that the bridge had been burned by the Confederates, who glared insolently at them from the other side of the stream. Nonplussed by the temporary setback, some troopers swam their horses across the muddy, rain-swollen stream, chased off the Rebel pickets and felled two large trees over the floodwaters. The enterprising Yankees soon fashioned a temporary bridge by lashing the trees together and laying down hay-covered fence rails as footboards. ‘It was a rickety structure,’ remembered an officer of the 13th Ohio Cavalry, ‘but we crossed safely in columns of four.’ The Federal advance guard arrived at Dinwiddie Court House around sunset after a 25-mile march. A.D. Rockwell of the 13th Ohio observed that the country was ‘low and flat, covered with forest and thick underbrush, and abounding in swamps and sluggish streams that drained the water slowly. The soil, in its mixture of clay and mud, was most uncertain and treacherous.’ A chilling rain began to fall, and the saturated woods and fields soon took on the appearance of a swamp. Major General George Armstrong Custer’s 3rd Division had followed behind the advance, escorting the wagon train, and became hopelessly bogged down in the red Virginia mud. By nightfall the wagons had traveled a mere seven miles before camp was set up at Rowanty Creek. Cursing troopers worked all night in the cold rain and muck to move the heavily laden wagons, their efforts gaining another three miles by morning. While Custer’s men struggled with the recalcitrant supply train and Crook’s soldiers spent a miserable night near Dinwiddie Court House, straining to listen for the approach of hostile troops over the rain and wind, Sheridan and his staff escaped the downpour and mud by taking over a ramshackle tavern for their headquarters. The atmosphere was pleasantly enhanced when the officers compelled two young women residents of the tavern to play the piano and sing songs. Overall, Sheridan was pleased with the day’s events. The advance had gone well despite the rough weather and stuck wagons, and Sheridan retired upstairs to a feather bed. The following morning, March 30, found the bulk of Crook’s division in camp around Dinwiddie Court House while scattered detachments picketed the roads and stream crossings leading to the area from the west and north. The rain continued to pelt the Federals. ‘The ground soon became so wet,’ remembered Carlos MacDonald of the 6th Ohio, ‘that it was impossible to sleep on it, so we got up and stood around our camp fires…. Boots and saddles sounded and we prepared to move, but did not, on account of the rain, which fell steadily all day.’ Custer’s troopers found the going especially rough on March 30. Foot by foot, mile by agonizing mile, the mud-covered men pushed the wagons forward. They had worked 24 hours the previous day, and the 30th was no different, except the rain fell even harder. To make progress, Custer’s men had to corduroy the road, a thankless and infuriatingly slow task. ‘Nothing short of corduroying every inch would enable the train to move, and then it must be very slowly and carefully, or legs of mules will be broken,’ wrote a Northern soldier. The troopers had to unload wagons and physically lift them to move them forward. Cavalryman John Hannaford recalled that ‘first a force was cutting down the pine trees that grew nearby, these flung into the road were laid as near together as the[y] would lie, then other[s] were covering these with fence rails, & still another force were dragging the tops of the pine trees & covering the rails with pine limbs, even all this was disappear[ing] a foot or two under the water & mud when the wagons were on it, the bottom seemed literally to have tumbled out.’ The water was so deep that the logs literally floated, and ‘were an obstacle instead of a benefit.’ Hannaford also recalled the plight of a fellow soldier whose horse plunged into a water-filled hole in the road. Loaded down with weapons, ammunition and a full haversack, he tumbled off his floundering horse and ‘came blame near drowning, disappearing entirely in the mud & water.’ Working all day and night, the train advanced another 10 miles, but was still five miles from Dinwiddie Court House. Throughout the day, Sheridan’s scouting patrols had probed north of Dinwiddie Court House, occasionally exchanging desultory gunfire with sodden Rebel pickets, a portion of the 10,000 troops commanded by Maj. Gen. George Pickett and hidden behind entrenchments dug near Five Forks. It became all too apparent to the Union soldiers that a rugged fight was in the offing. Despite such ominous reports, Sheridan spent another festive evening at his tavern headquarters as the rainstorm continued to rage outside. Officers ‘betook [them]selves to merry song, and harmony ruled the hour,’ claimed one staff member. After another cold and wet night, the rains ceased at dawn on March 31 and sunny skies prevailed by 10 a.m. The improving weather did a great deal to boost the spirits of the soldiers on both sides, despite impending battle. ‘I never saw the men in better spirits,’ wrote one of Crook’s regimental commanders. They had complete faith in Sheridan, and they knew that they had infantry support on their right. Custer’s men, after 48 tortured hours in the mud with wagons and mules, were especially eager to reach the front. The Southern troops, equally energized by the sun’s warming rays, were on the move by 9 a.m. Pickett hoped to smash his opponents and regain some of the luster his reputation had lost after his division’s debacle at Gettysburg. His plan for attack was sound: Brig. Gen. Thomas T. Munford’s cavalry would remain at Five Forks, holding the road to Dinwiddie Court House, while Maj. Gen. William H. Fitzhugh Lee’s cavalry swung south along the west bank of Chamberlain’s Run to strike the Union left flank. Pickett’s infantry division would follow closely behind. Chamberlain’s Run was normally a narrow, sluggish Virginia stream, but after two days of downpours it had turned into a raging torrent nearly 100 yards wide. The first Confederates to arrive gazed uneasily at the roiling, muddy water. The 6th and 13th Ohio Cavalry, 1st Maine Cavalry and 2nd New York Mounted Rifles — all of General Smith’s brigade — were charged with guarding Sheridan’s extreme left flank and posted in the woods bordering Chamberlain’s Run near a crossing point known as Fitzgerald Ford. Suddenly aware of the Confederate column bearing down upon their position, the Union men began to quickly construct breastworks of logs, rails and ‘anything that would stop a bullet.’ A contingent from the 1st Maine crossed the flooded stream at about 11 a.m. and immediately ran into a detachment of Rebel cavalry. Carbines popped as sharp skirmishing began, and the outnumbered Northerners prudently withdrew under heavy fire, throwing themselves into the water alongside their horses in an attempt to avoid enemy fire. That fire came from Brig. Gen. Rufus Barringer’s brigade, consisting of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th North Carolina Cavalry. Barringer had deployed the dismounted 1st and 5th regiments in the woods at the edge of the ford. Colonel William H. Cheek, commander of the 1st North Carolina, recalled that ‘the stream was very swollen by recent heavy rains, and at places was impassable by reason of briars and swamp undergrowth. In my immediate front it was over one hundred yards wide and as deep as the men’s waists.’ The Southern men advanced into the cold, fast-moving water and took their turn at facing a galling fire from a larger enemy force. Bullets from the repeating rifles of the 13th Ohio and 1st Maine peppered the water, and several Tarheels were shot down in the ford or swept away by the raging current to drown. The high water rendered the Confederates defenseless, for the men had to carry their weapons and cartridge boxes above their heads as they advanced and could not return fire. When they reached the other side, Cheek’s dripping troopers took shelter in the heavy woods, which afforded some degree of protection. Colonel James H. McNeill’s 5th North Carolina, however, had the misfortune to emerge into an open field. The heavy firing brought the rest of the 1st Maine, stationed along the road about a mile to the rear, and the 6th Ohio on the run. The 13th Ohio held the woods against Cheek and the 1st North Carolina. The detachment of the 1st Maine that had just recrossed Chamberlain’s Run continued to deliver hot repeater fire into the exposed flanks of McNeill’s regiment, though the Federals were badly outnumbered and falling back into the open field. The rest of the 1st Maine and 6th Ohio appeared opportunely on the field and shot down many of McNeil’s men. When McNeil himself fell with a bullet through his head, the entire gray line gave way and struggled back across the creek. The fight, which lasted about 30 minutes, was over. As the cavalry was fighting desperately at Fitzgerald Ford, Pickett succeeded in crossing his infantry over Chamberlain’s Run about a mile upstream. The Southern infantrymen drove toward Sheridan’s center and right, assisted by Munford’s cavalry moving down from Five Forks. Heavy Federal gunfire and spirited countercharges slowed the Confederate advance, but Pickett succeeded in isolating Sheridan’s right flank, held by cavalry under the command of Brig. Gen. Thomas Devin. The hard-pressed Federal position began to crumble. A New Yorker remembered that ‘the woods were alive with Johnnies, and we were all mixed up in hand-to-hand encounters.’ Union horses, soldiers, bands and separated regiments all clogged the woods in confused retreat. Determined to press his advantage, Pickett wheeled his men to the south in order to concentrate his attack on Sheridan’s center, which was falling back steadily toward Dinwiddie Court House. Sheridan was in desperate trouble. His forces were scattered, his right wing was falling back in confusion and a much larger infantry force was assailing his center. One ray of hope remained for Sheridan — the dogged resistance of Smith’s men at Fitzgerald Ford had stabilized the Union left flank, their stand buying time for Custer to come up and for the Federals to construct a defensive line in front of Dinwiddie Court House. The Confederate success to this point in the engagement had not been without cost, as the Southerners had suffered appalling losses in the morning fight. Tabulating his casualties from the combat at Fitzgerald Ford, Barringer ruefully reported that ‘in this short conflict…twenty officers [were] killed and over one hundred men killed and wounded’ — a testament to the effectiveness of the Union’s breechloading carbines. The bloody fighting in this sector was not finished, however. In the afternoon, Pickett once again ordered the cavalry to take Fitzgerald Ford and join the advance on the fragile Union line. One of Barringer’s staff officers expressed shock that the ‘bloody work had to be done all over again.’ Deadly sharpshooting had continued across Chamberlain’s Run during the lull in the combat at Fitzgerald Ford, turning the open field at the crossing into a killing ground. The constant shooting had exhausted the ammunition of the Ohio troopers in the woods by the ford, and a courier was sent to bring more rounds to the Buckeyes. George Fisher, a member of the 6th Ohio, galloped his horse through a hail of bullets to get his comrades a box of cartridges. Fisher leaped from his saddle with his precious cargo, and the box was quickly split open with a saber and the ammunition passed along the line. A soldier remembered that ‘the regimental band came down in rear of the line, and before the boys knew it was there, struck up ‘Yankee Doodle,’ making those woods ring as they probably never did before. The boys received it with hearty cheers, and the rebels with yells and shouts of derision. In short time a rebel band, over across struck up ‘Dixie,’ at which the boys in blue yelled…. Till late in the afternoon the two bands kept up a musical duel.’ As this symphonic warfare was being waged, Sheridan searched for a point on which his scattered brigades could make a defensive stand. He found a suitable location in a slight rise of ground northwest of Dinwiddie Court House. Sheridan wrote that ‘it was now about 4 o’clock in the afternoon and we were in a critical situation.’ As the tired troopers straggled to the summit of the rise, Sheridan ordered them to entrench. The horsemen checked and loaded their weapons, nervously eyeing the enemy-held ground to the north while they awaited Custer’s arrival. Custer was, in fact, making haste to join his beleaguered comrades, and after two days of fussing with mud and sinking wagons, the flamboyant general was ready for a fight. After receiving Sheridan’s entreaty for assistance, Custer quickly gathered Colonels Henry Capehart’s and Alexander C.M. Pennington’s brigades and began advancing the three or four miles to the fighting at a gallop. Although Custer rode zestfully to succor Sheridan, many of his troopers went with attitudes made somber by the sound of heavy firing ahead of them. Major L.H. Tenney of Pennington’s brigade remembered that he was ‘very uneasy to know how the day [was] going.’ A nervous 2nd Ohio cavalryman recalled that ‘on the route we passed hundreds of dead and wounded that lay in the mud or sat braced up by trees…. Some had arms in slings, and with their clothes cut open to bind up their wounds, and their faces and hands besmeared with blood and powder smoke.’ The cavalrymen steeled themselves against such ghastly remnants of the morning’s battle and pounded toward Sheridan’s smoke-shrouded position. The rising crescendo of gunfire only seemed to make Custer more gleeful. ‘General Sheridan and those fellows up there don’t know whether school is going to keep or not!’ he shouted. Upon reaching the ridge, Custer had his men quickly dismount and take up positions in the center of the Union line, where they built, said one Federal, the ‘most miserable apology for breastworks [that] ever was seen, consisting of rotten fence rails [and] brushwood, with a little earth.’ To make matters worse, wrote another Union soldier, Custer’s men ‘could see their comrades retreating before long lines of Confederate infantry, and ‘knew that there was work ahead.’ To bolster the sprits of his men, Custer added another musical touch to the scrape by ordering his band to play the rousing tune ‘Garry Owen.’ By 4 p.m., Barringer’s North Carolinians were girded and ready to resume their push at Fitzgerald Ford. As the Confederates moved toward the water, an officer from the 1st Maine Cavalry remembered that ‘a Rebel yelled out ‘wind up them guns, Yanks!” — a reference to the Federal breechloaders. Moments later, with Cheek’s 1st North Carolina in the van, the gray line swept forward and moved boldly into the fast current as bullets swept the water around them. From his vantage point on the east bank of Chamberlain’s Run, a Federal horse-soldier noted that ‘the enemy advanced within 15 or 20 steps of us, while we mowed them down like grain before a reaper. Their line wavered, but their officers urged them on.’ The Rebels gave as good as they got. A member of the 13th Ohio Cavalry remembered that ‘our comrades were falling all around us; we lost more than half of our company in less than half an hour.’ It was about as ‘unhealthy in the rear as it was in the front,’ recalled another Yankee, ‘as a rebel battery had range of the road, and was playing havoc with our wounded.’ As the sun began to set, and long shadows crossed the fields and woodlots near Chamberlain’s Run, the troops of Smith’s brigade began to fall back before the Southern attack with a ‘dogged obstinacy,’ said one North Carolinian. The Federals ‘would rally and re-form, only to be broken and dispersed,’ wrote another Confederate. A.D. Rockwell of the 13th Ohio remembered it more frankly as ‘a pell-mell retreat. It was getting dark, everything was confusion and disorder.’ The Federals came to a turn in the road, and, according to Colonel Stephen R. Clark of the 13th Ohio, spied the Union troops in Sheridan’s defensive line ‘on the ridge in front of us throwing up a line of works. We were soon with them, filling the place that had been left for us.’ As Smith’s fought-out troopers clambered behind their earthworks, Pickett’s men advanced steadily southward toward Sheridan’s ridge-top stronghold. Sheridan’s confidence had returned with the arrival of Custer’s division, and his blood was up. As he watched the Rebels approach through the deepening dusk, he turned to Custer and roared: ‘Do you understand? I want you to give it to them!’ Custer quickly assented and sent groups of his horsemen forward as skirmishers. The men galloped to the shelter of a hillock topped with a house and dismounted. As his unit drove to the knoll and pushed back the skirmishers screening the Southern onslaught, a 2nd Ohio cavalryman remembered passing by the retreating remnants of the center of Sheridan’s morning position. Hunkering down by the homestead, the Ohioan watched as ‘the Rebels [kept] coming and it was really magnificent to see them as they came, a double line, the men standing shoulder to shoulder…as tho’ on parade. [Their] line halts and fires a unified volley at the house. From their open mouths I could see the rebel yell was echoing, but not a sound of it was heard, owing to the racket made by the balls on the weatherboards.” The face of the sun had now half descended behind the western hills, and the whole surface of the ground about it was bathed in one immense crimson bath,’ remembered another Union veteran. The 2nd Ohio held the position for five minutes before mounting up and retreating to a fence line. A wounded Ohio man wrote: ‘I…sat behind a stump and pulled off my boot, which was full of blood. I think at least one dozen balls struck the stump while I was there. There was such a storm of lead I thought it best to follow up [a] swale….My clothes were [still] cut in several places.’ The Confederates swirled around the house and fired at the retreating cavalry that ‘[flew] over the field like leaves in wild weather.’ It was nearly dark. A mounted column arrived behind the Union line, carrying all sorts of banners and flags. Sheridan, Custer and their staff officers rode along the breastworks, drawing enemy fire. Confederate bullets emptied several saddles, including that of a reporter for the New York Herald. As Pickett’s men tramped across the open plain in the dusk, accurate Union horse-artillery opened gaping holes in their ranks. A Federal recalled that ‘every time the guns were discharged the grape swept that part of the line away, and the line would wheel into column and fill up the gap just vacated, only to meet the same fate.’ The Southern infantry continued to advance despite the iron hail. On the ridge, the Union cavalry crouched behind their meager barricades and waited until Pickett’s troops were within close range before they opened fire. With a blinding flash, Custer’s fresh soldiers used their repeating rifles to pour out what was described as’ such a shower of lead that nothing could stand up against it.’ Somehow the Confederates weathered this storm of shot and were able to return fire. A witness recalled: ‘I saw volleys fired at Copeland’s and Pennington’s brigades of such extent as to make a perfect sheet of lead. It seemed as if no man within the range could escape….[I was] expecting to see the ground covered with killed and wounded. Fortunately, most of the volleys were fired too high.’ The weapons of both sides spat flame for the next few minutes, until it became too dark to see. ‘Gradually the fire from the enemy became fitful and irregular, and soon ceased all together,’ recalled an Ohio soldier behind the barricade. ‘The fight was short. The darkening hours of night now closed the murderous work.’ Pickett’s force camped on the damp battlefield about a hundred yards from the Union works, built fires and began the grim work of tallying their dead and wounded. Barringer’s North Carolina brigade had suffered nearly 50 percent casualties, and only two field officers were left in his three regiments. Company H of the 5th North Carolina Cavalry was particularly hard hit; every man except the captain had been killed or wounded. One Confederate counted 27 bullet holes in his clothing and equipment. Total Confederate losses were estimated at between 800 and 1,000 men, while Sheridan had lost about 400 men killed, wounded or missing. The lighter number of losses did not mean the Union men did not mourn: Major T.H. Tenney of the 2nd Ohio wrote simply in his diary that ‘many good men [were] lost.’ From the ridge the Yankees glared down with envy at their blaze-warmed foes, for Sheridan had forbade the lighting of fires. ‘It was a miserable night, & to make it still worse, the rebels…had built up rousing great fires, around which they were moving, singing, yelling & shouting until near midnight, we could hear the sound of their voices plain,’ said a Federal trooper.‘ By midnight the fires were mostly but a tinkel, a few still burned bright, flaring up every once in a while, showing it had been replenished & a figure could be seen moving about…. The night was cold, with slight frost, & we suffered bitterly,’ recalled an Ohioan. Some Union troopers spent the night digging and improving the works, an activity that traded lack of sleep for the warmth of physical labor. By morning, the once weak earthworks ‘were now fit to resist horse, foot, or dragoons,’ recalled another Union trooper. Although the day had gone generally in favor of the Confederates, Sheridan remained in control of Dinwiddie Court House, and he was therefore still in a position to launch another threat toward Five Forks and the Southside Railroad. Furthermore, Pickett’s men were on their own, separated from the main Rebel fortifications encircling Petersburg. The enemy’s ‘force is in more danger than I am in [for] it is cut off from Lee’s army, and not a man in it should ever be allowed to get back to Lee,’ determined Sheridan, who also vowed to hold on to Dinwiddie Court House at all costs. Early the next morning, Pickett learned that Federal infantry — soldiers of the V Corps — were coming up on his left flank to reinforce Sheridan. Reading the situation and the danger it portended, he ordered his troops to fall back to their breastworks at Five Forks. The exhausted men were roused, and the first of the infantry trudged back to Five Forks at 3 in the morning. By 10 all of Pickett’s men were back safely behind the breastworks. At dawn, a thick covering of fog hid the battlefield and its gory crop of dead and wounded. As the mist began to lift, Sheridan, Custer and a flock of staff officers rode forward to inspect the ground. Trooper Hannaford remembered that Sheridan ‘passed out behind our lines, peering toward the rebel camp, with his hand up over his eyes. Every minute added to the light & we soon saw that the rebels were indeed gone….We mounted, moving toward the rebel camp, meeting some of our boys bearing back [one of our men] who had lain all night badly wounded out in the bitter cold.’ Satisfied that the Rebels had fled, Sheridan mobilized his men for another advance that approached the Confederate works at Five Forks in midafternoon. Reinforced by heavy columns of infantry, the Union troops rushed the Rebel position, spilling over the log-and-earth defenses at twilight and swallowing the outnumbered Southerners in a blue tide. The fighting was furious, brutal and hand to hand. The Confederates broke and retreated with heavy casualties. Amazingly, Pickett and several of his generals were satisfying their appetites at an ill-advised shad bake when the fight began. By the time the well-supped officers arrived on the scene, their tardy efforts at direction could do little to stop the Northern advance. The Battle of Five Forks sealed the fate of the Army of Northern Virginia. The skeletal remains of this once-potent fighting force struggled westward out of Petersburg in a losing race with the Federal army that would end at another courthouse town — Appomattox — on April 9, 1865.Although overshadowed by the momentous events surrounding the Confederate surrender and the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, the tough engagement at Dinwiddie Court House gave Grant the lodgment on the Confederate flank he had been hoping for. Far more than just another bloody fight, the Battle of Dinwiddie Court House was the linchpin that led to final Union victory in the east.
http://www.historynet.com/battle-of-dinwiddie-court-house.htm

The American Civil War 150 Years Ago Today: Search results for March 30, 1863

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.

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

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

Response by SFC William Farrell made Mar 30 at 2016 7:56 PM

Response by LTC Stephen F. made Mar 30 at 2016 8:04 PM

Response by SP5 Mark Kuzinski made Mar 30 at 2016 8:10 PM

Response by Alan K. made Mar 30 at 2016 8:53 PM