What was the most significant event on May 13 during the U.S. Civil War?

LTC Stephen F. — Sat, 14 May 2016 18:49:39 -0400

Political Conventions in 1861 – to secede or not to secede: The First Wheeling Convention in Wheeling, West Virginia and North Carolina voters elect delegates to the Secession Convention.
The C.S.S. Planter Caper 1862: Just before dawn on May 13, 1862, Robert Smalls and a crew composed of fellow slaves, in the absence of the white captain and his two mates, slipped a cotton steamer the C.S.S. Planter off the dock, picked up family members at a rendezvous point, then slowly navigated their way through the harbor.
Re-orienting the lines at Spotsylvania 1864: Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, Virginia [May 8 – May 19] Hours before dawn, Lee’s troops pull back into the newly-fortified line across the base of the Mule Shoe salient, and skirmishing and firefights continue along that sector of the line. In the meantime, Grant intends to shift the ground of the battle and conduct an attack beyond the far right of the Confederate right flank.
First soldier buried at Arlington in 1864: First soldier died of measles 2 months after enlisting. The next day the first soldier killed in combat was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
End of gentlemen’s agreement leads to “Final Battle” of the Civil War 1865: The Battle of Palmito Ranch, Texas. Col. Theodore H. Barrett, commanding forces at Brazos Santiago, Texas, dispatched an expedition, composed of 250 men of the 62nd U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment and 50 men of the 2nd Texas Cavalry Regiment. Barrett’s force, started out towards Palmito Ranch, skirmishing most of the way. At Palmito Ranch, they destroyed the rest of the supplies not torched the day before and continued on. A few miles forward, they became involved in a sharp firefight. After the fighting stopped, Barrett led his force back to a bluff at Tulosa on the river where the men could prepare dinner and camp for the night. At 4:00 pm, a large Confederate cavalry force, commanded by Col. John S. “Rip” Ford, approached, and the Federals formed a battle line.
Pictures: 1864 Re-orienting the lines Spotsylvania Court House May 13; 1861 Queen Victoria; 1862 Robert Smalls, USN; 1862 CSS Planter
The US Congressman who Escaped Slavery | The Life & Times of Robert Smalls
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4Jqp3REwrw
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Robert Smalls, an American Civil War hero

The History Guy remembers Robert Smalls, a hero of the U.S. Civil War from South Carolina. Born into slavery, Smalls made a daring escape by commandeering a ...

Response by LTC Stephen F. made May 14 at 2016 6:53 PM

LTC Stephen F. — Sat, 14 May 2016 18:53:03 -0400

Monday, May 13, 1861: Federal troops under Gen. Benjamin Butler occupy Baltimore and establish martial law.
Tuesday, May 13, 1862 Charleston, South Carolina: Just before dawn on May 13, 1862, Robert Smalls and a crew composed of fellow slaves, in the absence of the white captain and his two mates, slipped a cotton steamer the C.S.S. Planter off the dock, picked up family members at a rendezvous point, then slowly navigated their way through the harbor. Smalls, doubling as the captain, even donning the captain’s wide-brimmed straw hat to help to hide his face, responded with the proper coded signals at two Confederate checkpoints, including at Fort Sumter itself, and other defense positions. Cleared, Smalls sailed into the open seas. Once outside of Confederate waters, he had his crew raise a white flag and surrendered his ship to the blockading Union fleet.
Friday, May 13, 1864: Pvt. William Henry Christman became the first Soldier to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery. On March 25, 1864 at the age of 20, Christman enlisted in the 67th Pennsylvania Infantry. Less than two months later he died of measles. Christman's brother Barnabas was killed during the Battle of Glendale, which took place June 30, 1862, in Henrico County, Va. "That's what spurred William to join," said Page. "He also wanted to help out his family" by joining, as he was a laborer and didn't make a lot of money.
1865: The Battle of Palmito Ranch, Texas. Since March 1865, a gentleman’s agreement precluded fighting between Union and Confederate forces on the Rio Grande. In spite of this agreement, Col. Theodore H. Barrett, commanding forces at Brazos Santiago, Texas, dispatched an expedition, composed of 250 men of the 62nd U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment and 50 men of the 2nd Texas Cavalry Regiment under the command of Lt. Col. David Branson, to the mainland, on May 11, 1865, to attack reported Rebel outposts and camps. Around 8:30 am, people on the Mexican side of the river informed the Rebels of the Federals’ whereabouts. Branson promptly led his men off to attack a Confederate camp at Palmito Ranch. After much skirmishing along the way, the Federals attacked the camp and scattered the Confederates. Branson and his men remained at the site to feed themselves and their horses but, at 3:00 pm, a sizable Confederate force appeared, influencing the Federals to retire to White’s Ranch. He sent word of his predicament to Barrett, who reinforced Branson at daybreak, on the 13th, with 200 men of the 34th Indiana Volunteer Infantry. The augmented force, now commanded by Barrett, started out towards Palmito Ranch, skirmishing most of the way. At Palmito Ranch, they destroyed the rest of the supplies not torched the day before and continued on. A few miles forward, they became involved in a sharp firefight. After the fighting stopped, Barrett led his force back to a bluff at Tulosa on the river where the men could prepare dinner and camp for the night. At 4:00 pm, a large Confederate cavalry force, commanded by Col. John S. “Rip” Ford, approached, and the Federals formed a battle line. The Rebels hammered the Union line with artillery. To preclude an enemy flanking movement, Barrett ordered a retreat. The retreat was orderly and skirmishers held the Rebels at a respectable distance. Returning to Boca Chica at 8:00 pm, the men embarked at 4:00 am, on the 14th.
Pictures: 1865_battle_of_palmito_ranch_texas_on_may_13_1865; 1865 Painting, The Battle of Palmito Ranch; 1864 Dead Confederate Soldier Vicinity of Spotsylvania Court House, May 1864; 1862 Photo from the 14 June 1862 edition of Harper's Weekly
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, May 13, 1861: In England, Queen Victoria pronounces her government’s official position of neutrality in the American conflict. Queen Victoria issued her proclamation of British neutrality on May 13, 1861. She did, however, acknowledge the Confederacy as belligerents. This recognition gave the Confederacy the ability to purchase arms from neutral nations and seize ships on open oceans.
B. Tuesday, May 13, 1862: Charleston, South Carolina - The C.S.S. Planter Caper: On this date, Robert Smalls, a slave who is also a trained and licensed harbor pilot in Charleston Harbor, decides to escape bondage along with a number of his friends and their families. The CSS Planter, a speedy, shallow-draft steamer, had been appropriated by the Confederate Navy and equipped with two swivel guns and used for transport duties around the intercoastal waterways near Charleston. A contingent of white officers and eight slaves were her crew.
Smalls is the ship’s quartermaster and chief helmsman. On the evening of May 12, the ship’s captain ties her up at the South Wharf at Charleston, and he, the mate, and the engineer go ashore to spend the night. After Smalls and some of his shipmates pick up their wives and children at another wharf, they steam into the night, blasting the steam whistle signals at the appropriate intervals as they pass Ft. Johnson, then Ft. Sumter, and then past Ft. Wagner at the mouth of the harbor, and Rebel signalmen begin to suspect something is wrong. Smalls pilots the Planter toward the USS Onward, with a white flag at the fore. Lt. Nickels of the Onward comes on board and hoists the U.S. colors on the Rebel vessel. Smalls and the Planter, supplemented by a small prize crew from the USS Augusta, steams to Port Royal and reports to Commodore John Dahlgren, who praises Smalls’ enterprise—and praises Smalls as "superior to any who has yet come into the lines, intelligent as many of them have been." Du Pont even insist that Smalls "continue to employ Robert as a pilot on board the Planter for the inland waters, with which he appears to be very familiar." Smalls is commissioned as Master’s Mate, a warrant officer rank, and eventually is made Captain of the Planter until the end of the war. After the war, Smalls serves in the South Carolina legislature, the State Senate, and then Congress, where he serves for 12 years.
C. Friday, May 13, 1864 Battle of Spotsylvania, Virginia Day 6. Reorienting the lines. Despite the significant casualties of May 12, Grant was undeterred. He telegraphed to the Army's chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck, "The enemy are obstinate and seemed to have found the last ditch." Hours before dawn, Lee’s troops pull back into the newly-fortified line across the base of the Mule Shoe salient, and skirmishing and firefights continue along that sector of the line. In the meantime, Grant intends to shift the ground of the battle and conduct an attack beyond the far right of the Confederate right flank. Grant planned to reorient his lines and shift the center of potential action to the east of Spotsylvania, where he could renew the battle. He ordered the Warren’s V and Wright’s VI Corps to move behind the Hancock’s II Corps and take positions past the left flank of the Burnside’s IX Corps. But the rain continues, and this movement ends up taking nearly 3 days, due to the bad condition of the roads, and the soldiers’ exhaustion.
D. Saturday, May 13, 1865: The Battle of Palmito Ranch, Texas [May 12-13, 1865] Since March 1865, a gentleman’s agreement precluded fighting between Union and Confederate forces on the Rio Grande. In spite of this agreement, Col. Theodore H. Barrett, commanding forces at Brazos Santiago, Texas, dispatched an expedition, composed of 250 men of the 62nd U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment and 50 men of the 2nd Texas Cavalry Regiment under the command of Lt. Col. David Branson, to the mainland, on May 11, 1865, to attack reported Rebel outposts and camps. Prohibited by foul weather from crossing to Point Isabel as instructed, the expedition crossed to Boca Chica much later. At 2:00 am, on May 12, the expeditionary force surrounded the Rebel outpost at White’s Ranch, but found no one there. Exhausted, having been up most of the night, Branson secreted his command in a thicket and among weeds on the banks of the Rio Grande and allowed his men to sleep. Around 8:30 am, people on the Mexican side of the river informed the Rebels of the Federals’ whereabouts. Branson promptly led his men off to attack a Confederate camp at Palmito Ranch. After much skirmishing along the way, the Federals attacked the camp and scattered the Confederates. Branson and his men remained at the site to feed themselves and their horses but, at 3:00 pm, a sizable Confederate force appeared, influencing the Federals to retire to White’s Ranch. He sent word of his predicament to Barrett, who reinforced Branson at daybreak, on the 13th, with 200 men of the 34th Indiana Volunteer Infantry. The augmented force, now commanded by Barrett, started out towards Palmito Ranch, skirmishing most of the way. At Palmito Ranch, they destroyed the rest of the supplies not torched the day before and continued on. A few miles forward, they became involved in a sharp firefight. After the fighting stopped, Barrett led his force back to a bluff at Tulosa on the river where the men could prepare dinner and camp for the night. At 4:00 pm, a large Confederate cavalry force, commanded by Col. John S. “Rip” Ford, approached, and the Federals formed a battle line. The Rebels hammered the Union line with artillery. To preclude an enemy flanking movement, Barrett ordered a retreat. The retreat was orderly and skirmishers held the Rebels at a respectable distance. Returning to Boca Chica at 8:00 pm, the men embarked at 4:00 am, on the 14th.
1. Monday, May 13, 1861: George McClellan [US] appointed Commander, Department of Ohio. The following day he is promoted major general, his rank in the Ohio militia. Only General-in-Chief Winfield Scott held a higher rank.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186105
2. Monday, May 13, 1861: The First Wheeling Convention in Wheeling, West Virginia
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186105
3. Monday, May 13, 1861: North Carolina voters elect delegates to the Secession Convention
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186105
4. Monday, May 13, 1861: Federal troops under Gen. Benjamin Butler occupy Baltimore and establish martial law.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=may+13%2C+1861
5. Wednesday, May 13, 1863: Two corps, under William Tecumseh Sherman and James McPherson, advance on Jackson. Mississippi
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186305
6. Wednesday, May 13, 1863: General Robert E. Lee rides from Fredericksburg to Richmond, Virginia
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186305
7. Wednesday, May 13, 1863—Captain Charles Wright Wills, a young officer in the 103rd Illinois Infantry Regiment, Lagrange, Tenn. writes in his journal of court-martial duty, of the progress of the war, and of Union successes: I have been on a General Court Martial for the last ten days, and we will not, in all probability, adjourn for some weeks yet. We tried Governor Yates’ brother. He is Adjutant of the 6th Illinois Cavalry. Another little reverse on the Rappahannock. All right! My faith is still large—in the army, but the commanders and citizens can be improved. We think that Grant is going to beat them all yet. But his army is more responsible for his good fortune than himself. Do you notice that one of our "raids" missed fire? Straight into Georgia, I mean. Grierson’s and Stoneman’s make up for all the rest though. We are constantly active here, in fact our troops move so much that I am unable to keep the run of even our brigade.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=may+13%2C+1863
8. Wednesday, May 13, 1863—George Templeton Strong writes in his journal about the death of the southern hero Stonewall Jackson: Today’s only news is a seemingly trustworthy report that that very salient rebel Stonewall Jackson died last Sunday of pneumonia, which attacked him while weakened by a recent amputation. He seems to have been a brave, capable, earnest man, good and religious according to his Presbyterian formulas, but misguided into treason by that deluding dogma of state allegiance.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=may+13%2C+1863
9. Friday, May 13, 1864: First soldier interred at Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186405
10. Friday, May 13, 1864: Pvt. William Henry Christman became the first Soldier to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery. On March 25, 1864 at the age of 20, Christman enlisted in the 67th Pennsylvania Infantry. Less than two months later he died of measles. Christman's brother Barnabas was killed during the Battle of Glendale, which took place June 30, 1862, in Henrico County, Va. "That's what spurred William to join," said Page. "He also wanted to help out his family" by joining, as he was a laborer and didn't make a lot of money.
https://www.army.mil/article/125880
11. Friday, May 13, 1864 --- Gen. Phil Sheridan, who is pursued by Confederate troops that try to pin him against the Chickahominy River, escapes this entanglement, and moves downstream.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=may+13%2C+1864
12. Friday, May 13, 1864 --- Alexandria, Louisiana: At last, Col. Bailey’s dam on the Red River is completed, and the remainder of Porter’s boats in the river are able to float over the cataracts. Porter’s fleet escapes to safety. Gen. Banks’ troops begin evacuating the town, also.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=may+13%2C+1864
13. Friday, May 13, 1864 --- Judith White McGuire, of Richmond, writes in her journal of the news of Stuart’s death: General Stuart died of his wounds last night, twenty-four hours after he was shot. He was a member of the Episcopal Church, and expressed to the Rev. Dr. Peterkin his resignation to the will of God. After much conversation with his friends and Dr. P., and joining them in a hymn which he requested should be sung, he calmly resigned his redeemed spirit to the God who gave it. Thus passed away our great cavalry general, just one year after the immortal Jackson. This seems darkly mysterious to us, but God’s will be done.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=may+13%2C+1864
14. Friday, May 13, 1864: Sheridan's Raid on Richmond, Virginia [May 9 – May 24]

A Monday, May 13, 1861: In England, Queen Victoria pronounces her government’s official position of neutrality in the American conflict.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=may+13%2C+1861
A+ Monday, May 13, 1861: In April 1861, the United States declared a state of insurrection against the Confederacy of rebellious southern states. In Europe, the ordeal was referred to as "The American Question." The question could not be evaded; a choice had to be made between neutrality and intervention. European attitudes towards the American Civil War would have a significant effect on the war's ultimate outcome.
Throughout the early months of the conflict, the reaction of Europe was of great interest to both sides; Queen Victoria's Great Britain, in particular. Would Queen Victoria recognize Confederate independence? Such recognition would legitimize the Confederacy and provide it with allies who could furnish weapons and supplies the Southern cause desperately needed. At the outbreak of the war, most foreigners were poorly informed about America, according to Leslie Stephen in 1865: The name of America five years ago, called up to the ordinary English mind nothing but a vague cluster of associations, compounded of Mrs. Trollope, Martin Chuzzlewit, and Uncle Tom's Cabin.
The choice between neutrality and intervention was not an easy one; either choice would lead to more choices. The question dealt with several issues, and it was difficult to read the conflict amidst threatening demands of angry belligerents. England had to guess the future in order to make a wise decision while balancing interests at home.
Europe's three greatest powers were England, France, and Russia. England and France had won control of Central and Eastern Europe by defeating Russia in the Crimean War (1854-1856) and now salivated at the prospect of a possible downfall of the United States government. Russia, on the other hand, needed the United States to balance its European enemies.
Britain, however, was the biggest concern of the warring factions across the Atlantic. Neither side wanted Britain to remain strictly neutral. The Union wanted Britain to deny belligerent status to the Confederacy. The Confederacy wanted open intervention on their behalf.
Queen Victoria issued her proclamation of British neutrality on May 13, 1861. She did, however, acknowledge the Confederacy as belligerents. This recognition gave the Confederacy the ability to purchase arms from neutral nations and seize ships on open oceans.
The war had a direct impact on United States foreign relations. The most important of these relations was with Great Britain and France, Europe's two greatest powers ("Europe and the American Civil War" internet no page number). Queen Victoria's recognition of the Confederates as belligerents was viewed as an unfriendly act by United States President Abraham Lincoln's administration.
http://www.123helpme.com/england-and-the-american-civil-war-view.asp?id=156810
B Tuesday, May 13, 1862: Charleston, South Carolina - The C.S.S. Planter Caper: On this date, Robert Smalls, a slave who is also a trained and licensed harbor pilot in Charleston Harbor, decides to escape bondage along with a number of his friends and their families. The CSS Planter, a speedy, shallow-draft steamer, had been appropriated by the Confederate Navy and equipped with two swivel guns and used for transport duties around the intercoastal waterways near Charleston. A contingent of white officers and eight slaves were her crew.
Smalls is the ship’s quartermaster and chief helmsman. On the evening of May 12, the ship’s captain ties her up at the South Wharf at Charleston, and he, the mate, and the engineer go ashore to spend the night. After Smalls and some of his shipmates pick up their wives and children at another wharf, they steam into the night, blasting the steam whistle signals at the appropriate intervals as they pass Ft. Johnson, then Ft. Sumter, and then past Ft. Wagner at the mouth of the harbor, and Rebel signalmen begin to suspect something is wrong. Smalls pilots the Planter toward the USS Onward, with a white flag at the fore. Lt. Nickels of the Onward comes on board and hoists the U.S. colors on the Rebel vessel. Smalls and the Planter, supplemented by a small prize crew from the USS Augusta, steams to Port Royal and reports to Commodore John Dahlgren, who praises Smalls’ enterprise—and praises Smalls as "superior to any who has yet come into the lines, intelligent as many of them have been." Du Pont even insist that Smalls "continue to employ Robert as a pilot on board the Planter for the inland waters, with which he appears to be very familiar." Smalls is commissioned as Master’s Mate, a warrant officer rank, and eventually is made Captain of the Planter until the end of the war. After the war, Smalls serves in the South Carolina legislature, the State Senate, and then Congress, where he serves for 12 years.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=may+13%2C+1862
B+ Tuesday, May 13, 1862 Charleston, South Carolina: Just before dawn on May 13, 1862, Robert Smalls and a crew composed of fellow slaves, in the absence of the white captain and his two mates, slipped a cotton steamer the C.S.S. Planter off the dock, picked up family members at a rendezvous point, then slowly navigated their way through the harbor. Smalls, doubling as the captain, even donning the captain’s wide-brimmed straw hat to help to hide his face, responded with the proper coded signals at two Confederate checkpoints, including at Fort Sumter itself, and other defense positions. Cleared, Smalls sailed into the open seas. Once outside of Confederate waters, he had his crew raise a white flag and surrendered his ship to the blockading Union fleet.
In fewer than four hours, Robert Smalls had done something unimaginable: In the midst of the Civil War, this black male slave had commandeered a heavily armed Confederate ship and delivered its 17 black passengers (nine men, five women and three children) from slavery to freedom.
Background: Our story begins in the second full year of the war. It is May 12, 1862, and the Union Navy has set up a blockade around much of the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. Inside it, the Confederates are dug in defending Charleston, S.C., and its coastal waters, dense with island forts, including Sumter, where the first shots of the Civil War were fired exactly one year, one month, before. Attached to Brig. Gen. Roswell Ripley’s command is the C.S.S. Planter, a “first-class coastwise steamer” hewn locally for the cotton trade out of “live oak and red cedar,” according to testimony given in a U.S. House Naval Affairs Committee report 20 years later.
After two weeks of supplying various island points, the Planter returns to the Charleston docks by nightfall. It is due to go out again the next morning and so is heavily armed, including approximately 200 rounds of ammunition, a 32-pound pivot gun, a 24-pound howitzer and four other guns, among them one that had been dented in the original attack on Sumter. In between drop-offs, the three white officers on board (Capt. C.J. Relyea, pilot Samuel H. Smith and engineer Zerich Pitcher) make the fateful decision to disembark for the night — either for a party or to visit family — leaving the crew’s eight slave members behind. If caught, Capt. Relyea could face court-martial — that’s how much he trusts them.
At the top of the list is Robert Smalls, a 22-year-old mulatto slave who’s been sailing these waters since he was a teenager: intelligent and resourceful, defiant with compassion, an expert navigator with a family yearning to be free. According to the 1883 Naval Committee report, Smalls serves as the ship’s “virtual pilot,” but because only whites can rank, he is slotted as “wheelman.” Smalls not only acts the part; he looks it, as well. He is often teased about his resemblance to Capt. Relyea: Is it his skin, his frame or both? The true joke, though, is Smalls’ to spring, for what none of the officers know is that he has been planning for this moment for weeks and is willing to use every weapon on board to see it through.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/history/which-slave-sailed-himself-to-freedom/
C Friday, May 13, 1864 --- Battle of Spotsylvania, Day 6: Hours before dawn, Lee’s troops pull back into the newly-fortified line across the base of the Mule Shoe salient, and skirmishing and firefights continue along that sector of the line. In the meantime, Grant intends to shift the ground of the battle and conduct an attack beyond the far right of the Confederate right flank. So, he order Warren’s V Corps and Wright’s VI Corps on a long, circular countermarch behind the lines to swing over to the east, behind Hancock’s and Burnside’s lines. But the rain continues, and this movement ends up taking nearly 3 days, due to the bad condition of the roads, and the soldiers’ exhaustion.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=may+13%2C+1864
C + Friday, May 13, 1864 Despite the significant casualties of May 12, Grant was undeterred. He telegraphed to the Army's chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck, "The enemy are obstinate and seemed to have found the last ditch." He planned to reorient his lines and shift the center of potential action to the east of Spotsylvania, where he could renew the battle. He ordered the V and VI Corps to move behind the II Corps and take positions past the left flank of the IX Corps. On the night of May 13–14, the corps began a difficult march in heavy rain over treacherously muddy roads.
C++ Friday, May 13, 1864 The Battle of Spotsylvania: At 8 AM Dana telegraphed again: Lee abandoned his position during the night--whether to occupy a new one in the vicinity or to make a thorough retreat is not determined ... Though our army is greatly fatigued, from the enormous efforts of yesterday, the news of Lee's departure inspires the men with fresh energy. The whole force will soon be in motion, but the heavy rain of the last thirty-six hours renders the roads very difficult for wagons and artillery ... The proportion of severely wounded is greater than either of the previous days' fighting. This was owing to the great use made of artillery.
At 6 PM in the afternoon of the same day, he dispatched: The impression that Lee had started on his retreat, which prevailed at the date of my dispatch this morning, is not confirmed. Our skirmishers have found the rebels along the whole line, and the conclusion now is, that the retrograde movement of last night was made to correct their position after the loss of the key-points taken from them yesterday, and they are still before us in force. Of course we cannot determine, without a battle, whether their whole army is still here, and nothing has been done to-day to provoke one. It has been necessary to rest the men, and accordingly we have everywhere stood upon the defensive.
He then claimed that, in changing his lines, Lee had uncovered the roads leading southward along his right, and that Grant had ordered Meade to withdraw Warren from the right and Wright from the center, around to the left, turn Lee's flank, and force him to move southward.
Notwithstanding Grant's recorded assertion, "I never maneuver,'" he spent from the 13th to the I8th of May in front of Lee, maneuvering and waiting for reinforcements, until he had rested his "tired" men, and 25,000 fresh troops were added to his numbers. On the 14th, at 7:10 of the morning, his dispatch read: The very heavy rains of the last forty-eight hours have made it impossible to move trains of artillery. Two corps were moved, last night, from our right to the left, with orders to attack at 4 a.m., but owing to the difficulties of the roads. have not fully got into position. This, with the continued bad weather, may prevent offensive operations today. http://www.civilwarhome.com/CMHspotsylvania.html
D Saturday, May 13, 1865: The Battle of Palmito Ranch, Texas [May 12-13, 1865] Since March 1865, a gentleman’s agreement precluded fighting between Union and Confederate forces on the Rio Grande. In spite of this agreement, Col. Theodore H. Barrett, commanding forces at Brazos Santiago, Texas, dispatched an expedition, composed of 250 men of the 62nd U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment and 50 men of the 2nd Texas Cavalry Regiment under the command of Lt. Col. David Branson, to the mainland, on May 11, 1865, to attack reported Rebel outposts and camps. Prohibited by foul weather from crossing to Point Isabel as instructed, the expedition crossed to Boca Chica much later. At 2:00 am, on May 12, the expeditionary force surrounded the Rebel outpost at White’s Ranch, but found no one there. Exhausted, having been up most of the night, Branson secreted his command in a thicket and among weeds on the banks of the Rio Grande and allowed his men to sleep. Around 8:30 am, people on the Mexican side of the river informed the Rebels of the Federals’ whereabouts. Branson promptly led his men off to attack a Confederate camp at Palmito Ranch. After much skirmishing along the way, the Federals attacked the camp and scattered the Confederates. Branson and his men remained at the site to feed themselves and their horses but, at 3:00 pm, a sizable Confederate force appeared, influencing the Federals to retire to White’s Ranch. He sent word of his predicament to Barrett, who reinforced Branson at daybreak, on the 13th, with 200 men of the 34th Indiana Volunteer Infantry. The augmented force, now commanded by Barrett, started out towards Palmito Ranch, skirmishing most of the way. At Palmito Ranch, they destroyed the rest of the supplies not torched the day before and continued on. A few miles forward, they became involved in a sharp firefight. After the fighting stopped, Barrett led his force back to a bluff at Tulosa on the river where the men could prepare dinner and camp for the night. At 4:00 pm, a large Confederate cavalry force, commanded by Col. John S. “Rip” Ford, approached, and the Federals formed a battle line. The Rebels hammered the Union line with artillery. To preclude an enemy flanking movement, Barrett ordered a retreat. The retreat was orderly and skirmishers held the Rebels at a respectable distance. Returning to Boca Chica at 8:00 pm, the men embarked at 4:00 am, on the 14th.
http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/palmito-ranch.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/
FYI CSM Charles Hayden SGT Tiffanie G. SGT Mary G.CPL Ronald Keyes Jr SPC Michael Duricko, Ph.D MAJ Roland McDonald SSG Franklin Briant CPO William Glen (W.G.) Powell 1stSgt Eugene Harless PO3 Private RallyPoint MemberMSG Greg KellyMSG Joseph ChristofaroLTC Greg Henning CPT Private RallyPoint Member SGT John " Mac " McConnell LTC John Griscom LTC Thomas Tennant MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca SFC George Smith SPC Michael Terrell

Civil War Timeline / Chronology for May 1861

What was the most significant event on May 13 during the U.S. Civil War?

What was the most significant event on May 13 during the U.S. Civil War?

Response by LTC Stephen F. made May 14 at 2016 6:53 PM

Response by MSG Brad Sand made May 14 at 2016 7:17 PM

Response by SP5 Mark Kuzinski made May 14 at 2016 8:41 PM

Response by PO1 William "Chip" Nagel made May 14 at 2016 9:05 PM

Response by CPT Lawrence Cable made May 16 at 2023 9:37 AM