Response by LTC Stephen F. made Mar 31 at 2016 2:28 PM

LTC Stephen F. — Thu, 31 Mar 2016 14:28:36 -0400

I was shocked that in the Prisoner Exchange Cartel meeting in 1864 the CSA wanted to the USA to honor the acts of C. S. Congress in regard returning slaves to their owners when captured as part of colored units. I shudder as I imagine the process of “confirming” that a soldier is a slave and imagine very few, if any, would have been considered to be free men from the northern states serving of their own volition.
In 1865 BG George Armstrong Custer’s fresh troops arrived in the early afternoon. 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.’
In what must have been a scene reminiscent of Gettysburg, Custer’s troops unleashed a hail of lead with their repeating rifles against CS MG George Pickett’s troops once they were within close range to a devastating effect.
Since RallyPoint truncates survey selection text I am posting events that were not included and then the full text of each survey choice below:
1. March 31, 1861: General John Bankhead Magruder reassigned from Arkansas to Texas.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186103
2. Monday March 31, 1862 --- The Chicago Times publishes a story about Union troops making a raid in western Tennessee: “Col. Buford, of the Twenty-seventh Illinois, accompanied by his regiment, the Forty-second Illinois, the Douglas Brigade, Col. Roberts, and four hundred of the Fifteenth Wisconsin, Col. Heg, (Scandinavian,) all from Island No. Ten, and two companies of the Second Illinois cavalry, Colonel Hogg, and a detachment of artillery, the last two from Hickman, Ky., made a reconnoissance [sic] in force and descent upon Union City, Tenn; and after a forced march of twenty-four hours, discovered a large force of rebel cavalry and infantry, under the notorious Clay King. The cavalry dashed into the place at a furious rate. The utmost consternation seized the rebels, and they fled in every direction. Several of them were killed, and about one hundred taken prisoners; one hundred and fifty horses were captured, a large amount of forage and spoils, and several secession flags. The National forces returned to Hickman after destroying the tents and other property they could not carry away.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=March+31%2C+1862
3. Monday March 31, 1862 --- Surgeon Alfred L. Castleman, serving with McClellan’s army on the Peninsula, notes his skepticism of McClellan’s strategy in his journal: “To-day, whilst all were expecting orders to move forward, I received orders to build a log hospital. — What can this mean? The weather is beautiful, roads good, troops in fine condition, warm weather coming on, and here we are preparing as for a summer’s stay. God help us and our little General, but put it into his heart not to remain here till the enemy, whom we have found, has time to fortify against our approach. We have been a long time accomplishing nothing. Although the weather is fine, and it is now first of April, not a forest tree has started its buds. I am disappointed, for I expected by this time, in this climate, to be as in midsummer. But even the trees, and nature, seem to linger, and we should not blame our General.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=March+31%2C+1862
4. Monday March 31, 1862 --- Lt. Cyrus Hardaway, of the 1st U.S. Sharpshooters (Berdan’s Sharpshooters), serving with the Army of the Potomac, now on the Peninsula, writes home to his mother, expressing the optimism common among the soldiers concerning the coming campaign: “I have been here just a week to day, and have been on picket three times. it suits me exactly we take three or four prisoners every day and sometimes shoot at some when they are so far off that we cant hurt them any. One of the Massachusetts boys got paid last night for not shooting straight enough, a rebel scout crawled up and shot him in the leg but did not hurt him verry bad I have just had a good dinner, out of a secesh pig that the boys killed this morning we lay violent hands on every pig that comes in the way, they have to go a good ways to keep out of the way we get some turkeys and chickens and sometimes oysters and Clams. I spent part of one day in looking over the ruins of Hampton that the rebels burnt last summer. I think it must have been one of the most beautiful towns in the United States before it was burnt. One of the Oldest Churches in America was standing there and that was burnt with the rest The rebels have dug at every corner of it for the corner stone expecting to find some treasure but whether they did or not I cant tell. The town was well fortified on three sides with earth breast works but it seems that it did them no good as they were obliged to leave without making a stand.
You need not be surprised if you hear of Richmond being ours in one more week They will probably not give fight untill they get there. I do not think they can hold that long, there is enough Artillery here now to knock Richmond all to pieces in one day and they keep bringing in more everyday I thought I knew what it was to be a soldier when I left Washington but I find that I did not know anything about it at all We do not have any tents only what we make of our rubber blankets stretched over a stick that keeps the rain off and we keep warm the best way we can it is verry warm and pleasant during the day but the nights are verry cold”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=March+31%2C+1862
5. Tuesday March 31, 1863 --- F.J. Heywood, an infantryman from North Carolina, writes to a friend with details about life in Lee’s army with the Spring campaign season approaching. Heywood notes the singular awkwardness of the two armies’ picket lines being so close to each other: “I was on picket yesterday on the Rappahannock, but did not notice anything unusual among the yankee pickets; their pickets and areas are only separated by the river. Theirs on one bank and ours on the other, all conversation and exchange of papers between the pickets has been prohibited by Genl Lee. A man in the 23rd NC deserted to the Yankees on picket Two or three days [ago], and the Yankees raised a great howl of Triumph over him.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=March+31%2C+1863
6. Tuesday March 31, 1863 --- Maj. Gen. John C. Breckinridge, CSA, writes a letter to Gen. Samuel Cooper, Inspector General of the Confederate States Army, in protest to Gen. Bragg’s official report on the Battle of Murfreesboro (Stones River) concerning the action of Jan. 2, when Breckinridge undertook a suicidal charge under protest. Defending his role in the battle and that of his division, he asks for an investigation: “ SIR: Two days ago I read General Braxton Bragg's official report of the battles of Stone's River, before Murfreesboro, and, after a proper time for reflection, I think it my duty to send you this communication.
. . . And in regard to the action of Friday, the 2nd of January, upon which the commanding general heaps so much criticism, I have to say, with the utmost confidence, that the failure of my troops to hold the position which they carried on that occasion was due to no fault of theirs or of mine, but to the fact that we were commanded to do an impossible thing. My force was about 4,500 men. Of these, 1,700 heroic spirits stretched upon that bloody field, in an unequal struggle against three divisions, a brigade, and an overwhelming concentration of artillery, attested our efforts to obey the order.
I have the honor to request that a court of inquiry be appointed, to assemble at the earliest time consistent with the interests of the service, and clothed with the amplest powers of investigation. . . .
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=March+31%2C+1863
7. Tuesday March 31, 1863 --- Touring Confederate camps in Virginia, former Georgia Baptist Christian Index editor Joseph Walker offers his observations regarding revival among the soldiers, as related in this week’s Index. “The influence of Christianity in the army has been marked,” Walker summarizes, “and it still pervades large masses of the Confederate troops in different localities from Petersburg to Fredericksburg.”
Following descriptions of a few baptismal services, the former newspaper editor offers his commentary on the war at large. “War! bloody, terrible war! when will it end? O, when shall the sons, and brothers, and husbands, and fathers, return home again?–Some of them–alas! many of them, never. Never, oh! what a word! How it writhes the heart! How it thrills the soul and pervades the nervous system! Yet, it is a true word. A word which many a heart-stricken mother, widow, and sister must realize with aching eyes and scalding tears. I have myself buried over 5000 soldiers, many of them young men from Georgia and Alabama, on whose noble brows I have often looked both at home and in the army. There are, however, consolations also. Their blood–their murdered bodies are the price of our independence. Nothing less than such blood could release us from our cruel, heartless foe. Besides, God is moving on the hearts of our soldiers. Many of our Rulers, and our Generals are God-fearing men, and if the people confess their sins and trust in Jesus, we must succeed, and peace and prosperity will crown the land.”
http://civilwarbaptists.com/thisdayinhistory/1863-march-31/
8. Thursday March 31, 1864: During the Red River campaign, General E. Kirby Smith pleaded with Texas Governor Pendleton Murrah to put every available man in the field.
A. Monday March 31, 1862: Bombardment of Fort Pulaski, SC. Gen. David Hunter arrives in Port Royal, SC, to assume command of the Department of the South. Accompanying Gen. David Hunter was Brigadier General Henry W. Benham an engineer officer who proved himself in this campaign. Hunter is tasked with continued operations against Savannah and Charleston.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=March+31%2C+1862
Accompanying Gen. David Hunter was Brigadier General Henry W. Benham, an 1837 graduate of the United States Military Academy. An engineer officer, Benham had made his career with the army. Although highly regarded as an engineer, he had not thus far distinguished himself in the war.
Hunter and Brigadier General Henry W. Benham arrived at Port Royal Sound on March 31. Sherman briefed Hunter on the state of affairs, especially the progress of works against Fort Pulaski. Hunter immediately began reorganizing his Department of the South, which included Federally controlled enclaves in Georgia and Florida. He placed Benham in command of the Northern District, which covered the same territory previously commanded by Sherman. Sherman briefed Benham in detail about preparations against Pulaski. Hunter then officially thanked Sherman, and shortly thereafter Sherman departed for a new assignment in the West.
Although Thomas Sherman had not been a popular commander, Du Pont, who had worked with him longest, reflected: poor fellow, a more onerous, difficult, responsible, but thankless piece of work no officer ever had to do, and none ever brought to such a task more complete self-sacrificing devotion—he ploughed, harrowed, sowed, and it does seem hard that when the crop was about being harvested he is not even allowed to participate in a secondary position.
Since Benham's new areas of responsibility covered exactly those of Sherman, Du Pont felt this gave "more point to the recall, or rather making it [a] recall which was unnecessary if not unjust."
Benham immediately met with Gillmore to review plans for the bombardment of Fort Pulaski. Gillmore remained Benham's chief engineer; Porter, his chief of ordinance.
On April 1, Benham inspected the works on Tybee Island. He pressed Gillmore to complete the Tybee batteries; Benham was concerned about the lack of additional batteries at other sites that could provide concentric fire against the fort from opposite quarters. He ordered a mortar battery on the eastern end of Long Island and began reviewing the possibilities of battery sites on the South Carolina islands north of Fort Pulaski.
https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/civil_war_series/12/sec1.htm
B, Tuesday March 31, 1863: Battle of Grand Gulf MS. Union ships of Rear-Admiral Farragut, U. S. Navy are fired upon by 20-pounder Parrott guns of CS Brigadier General John S. Bowen commanding Grand Gulf batteries and defenses as part of outer Vicksburg defenses.
Engagement at Grand Gulf, Miss. Report of Brigadier General John S. Bowen, C. S. Army. HDQRS. 1ST BRIGADE, 2nd DIVISION, ARMY OF MISSISSIPPI, Grand Gulf, Miss., April 1, 1863 to Major R. W. MEMMINGER, Assistant Adjutant-General. “MAJOR: I have the honor to report that the enemy's boats, three in number, passed down the river yesterday evening at 8.15. There having been reports of their approach during the day, everything had been held in readiness, the men at their guns and a regiment in the trenches Night coming on, a detail was left at the guns (enough to manage them) and the infantry bivouacked in position. Owing to the negligence of the signal corps stationed over the river at Hard Times, and who should have been able to give timely notice, no warning was given during the afternoon, and at night no rocket was sent up to apprise us of their approach. They were perceived by the sentinel at the upper battery as they rounded the point and immediately opened upon. About twenty shots were fired from the heavy guns, twenty-one from the field pieces, and twenty-one from the Parrotts of Wade's battery. The vessels were struck repeatedly. Seven heavy shells were seen to take effect, one raking the Hartford from stem to stern. The firing from the field batteries was excellent, the shrapnel bursting over the decks; but I have no means of discovering what damage was inflicted on the ships [Rear-Admiral Farragut, U. S. Navy, reported that the Albatross was not struck; that the Hartford was struck once, killing 1 man and that the Switzerland was struck twice, but received no damage]; but, the steam ram which passed the Vicksburg batteries was struck once amidships, swung round broadside to the current, and floated down thus, firing a lee gun, which could only have been a signal of distress.
All the vessels lay about 10 miles below during the night and passed on down this morning. I regret to report than one of the 20-pounder Parrott guns burst at the fourth fire, killing 2, mortally wounding 1, and wounding 7, besides some scratches. I append a list [Nominal list, omitted, reports 2 men killed and 1 officer (Captain Henry Guibor) and 1 man wounded, of Guibor's battery; 1 officer (Lieutenant John Kearney) and 5 men wounded, of Wade's Battery] I entered the battery just as the gun exploded, and it affords me pleasure to bear testimony to the gallant conduct of the men there. Though many were knocked down, besides the wounded, only an imperceptible pause in the firing was occasioned, the men sprung up and to the other guns so quickly. The lieutenant of the burst gun replaced Numbers 1. of the next piece, who was killed, and it would not have been possible for the enemy to have discovered the accident from any slackening of the fire.
The firing from the upper battery (Captain [J. B.] Grayson's) was excellent. The lower battery, where the accident occurred, was manned by Wade's and Guibor's companies of light artillery.
I enclose a report on the circumstances attending and the causes of the bursting of the gun. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, Brigadier General John S. Bowen, Brigadier-General, Commanding.”
http://www.oocities.org/laheavy1/grandgulf_OR.html
C. Thursday March 31, 1864: The Prisoner Exchange Cartel meeting at Fortress Monroe. United States claimed that the cartel should be set aside because of the declaration of authorities of acts of C. S. Congress in regard to treatment of officers in command of colored troops and of their troops.
On this day 150 years ago, Major General Benjamin F. Butler met with Colonel Robert Ould, the Confederate States agent for exchange, at Union-held Fortress Monroe at the tip of Virginia's Peninsula. Someone, either Butler or one of his assistants, kept notes on what the two men discussed: the various problems besetting the existing arrangement for the exchange of prisoners. By the time of this meeting, the Confederate prisoner of war camp at Andersonville had been in operation for a little more than one month.
Memorandum of points discussed between Benjamin F. Butler, U.S. agent for exchange, and Robert Ould, C.S. agent for exchange, at a conference at Fort Monroe, March 31, 1864.
United States claim that the cartel should be set aside because of the declaration of authorities of Confederate States of December 23, 1862, of January 12, 1863, and acts of C. S. Congress in regard to treatment of officers in command of colored troops and of their troops.
Officers and men (not slaves), even if serving with slaves in the U. S. forces, shall be treated as prisoners of war.
That slave captured shall not be treated as prisoners of war, and that a right exists, at the pleasure of the Confederate States, to return them when captured to their former owners, being in the Confederacy.
By slaves are meant persons held to life service by masters belonging within the States of Missouri, Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky.
Confederate States claim paroles of all officers and soldiers (not citizens) captured and paroled by commanding officers of armies and expeditions prior to July 3, 1863, as per general orders, prior to Order Numbers 207, and all captured and paroled by officers of armies since.
It may be granted, except as to persons in the military and naval service, paroled, who could not be held and brought away, and held in confinement by the forces upon such expeditions.
To this it is answered that the United States have claimed, and had allowed in exchange, paroled men captured on raids like Kilpatrick's first raid, who could not have been brought away by the expeditionary force; and, if practicable, would be willing to adjust accounts in that way from the beginning, but do not believe it to be practicable.
It is suggested that Order Numbers 207 shall apply only to paroles granted after a reasonable time for the order to have reached the commanding officer giving the parole, time to be judged of in each case according to his position and distance from Washington.
For the purpose of the cartel, who shall be held to be commanders of armies in the field, a definition is suggested that, in addition to the general meaning, it ought to include a besieging force and the commander of the fortified place besieged, also to commanders of detailed forces, acting for the time independently of headquarters, either by order or because of the necessity of warlike operations when it is in the power of the captor to hold and bring off his prisoners.
If is further suggested, when the captured party is disabled or wounded, so that his transportation would endanger life or limb, then his own parole should be represented if he is released.
In other respects cartel to be carried out, and exchange and parole to go forward according to provisions.
In all cases of condemnation to death, imprisonment at hard labor, or confinement in irons, except upon sentence of death, of any person in the military or naval service of either belligerent, before execution of the sentence, the copy of the records of the trial and conviction shall be submitted to the agent of exchange of the accused party; and unless a communication of an order of retaliation within fifteen days thereafter be made to the agent of exchange furnishing the records, no retaliation for such execution or other punishment shall be claimed or executed by the other party.
http://www.civilwar-online.com/2014/03/march-31-1864-prisoner-exchange-cartel.html
D. March 31, 1865: Battle of White Oak Road. In combination with Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan’s thrust via Dinwiddie Court House, Maj. Gen. G.K. Warren directed his corps against the Confederate entrenchments along White Oak Road, hoping to cut Lee’s communications with George Pickett at Five Forks. The Union advance was stalled by a crushing counterattack directed by Maj. Gen. Bushrod Johnson, but Warren’s position stabilized and his soldiers closed on the road by day’s end. Total Confederate losses were estimated at between 800 and 1,000 men, while Sheridan had lost about 400 men killed, wounded or missing.
http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/white-oak-road.html
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….

Civil War Timeline / Chronology for March 1861

What was the most significant event on March 31 during the U.S. Civil War?

What was the most significant event on March 31 during the U.S. Civil War?

Response by SSG Leo Bell made Mar 31 at 2016 2:09 PM

Response by LTC Stephen F. made Mar 31 at 2016 2:28 PM

Response by SPC Donald Moore made Mar 31 at 2016 2:29 PM

Response by SP5 Mark Kuzinski made Mar 31 at 2016 3:06 PM

Response by SGT John " Mac " McConnell made Mar 31 at 2016 9:20 PM