What was the most significant event on May 26 during the U.S. Civil War?

2016-05-27T21:59:48-04:00

1862: As Gen. McClellan closes in slowly around Richmond, some of the tension inside of the city subsides a little. C.S. War Department clerk John Beauchamp Jones writes in his journal, noting the atmosphere amongst the citizens and the chagrin of the tobacco traders who are hoping to sell their store at a huge profit to the Yankee invaders: “Gen. Lee is still strengthening the army. Every day additional regiments are coming. We are now so strong that no one fears the result when the great battle takes place. McClellan has delayed too long, and he is doomed to defeat. The tobacco savers know it well, and their faces exhibit chagrin and disappointment. Their fortunes will not be made this year, and so their reputations may be saved.”
1862: Surgeon Alfred L. Castleman, serving with the Union’s Army of the Potomac, just outside of Richmond, notes in his journal the ghastly (and all too common) neglect of the sick by the Medical Corps of the U.S. Army, and the often insurmountable task that the medical officers face: “To-day, was so far recovered that I reported myself for duty at the Liberty Hall Hospital. [ Liberty Hall was a plantation house which had been the home of Patrick Henry] I found there about four hundred sick, about one hundred of whom were crowded into the house. The rest were lying about in stables, alive with vermin—chicken houses, the stench of which would sicken a well man, on the ground, exposed alternately to beating rain and the rays of the scorching sun. There were no beds, no blankets, no straw, no cooking utensils and nothing to cook. The sick were lying on the bare floor, or on the bare ground, without covering, and this was the third day they had been in this situation without food, or without any one to look after them, except as they could mutually aid each other. All kinds of diseases prevail, from simple intermittent to the lowest camp typhus, complicated with scurvey; from simple diarrhœa to the severest of dysentery. My first effort has been to separate the simple from the infectious diseases. To pitch what few tents I have, and to get as many as I can under shelter, I have before me, in the organization of this hospital, a Herculean task for a man not quite recovered from a spell of sickness. But what I can, I will do.”
Stonewall Jackson’s leadership is missed 1863: Gen. Robert E. Lee, without Stonewall Jackson to command half of the Army of Northern Virginia, decides to divide his army into three corps, each corps consisting of 3 divisions. Although the I Corps remains under James Longstreet, he gives command of the II Corps to Richard S. +Ewell and the new III Corps to A.P. Hill.
Unconditional Surrender Grant 1863: NY Times praises U.S. Grant. “Why has Gen. GRANT thus at last distanced every other commander? . . . Gen. GRANT, though perhaps possessed of no great military genius, yet combines qualities which, in such a war as this, are even better calculated to insure success, and which scarcely any of his brother Generals have exhibited in similar complete combination.
First, he has absolute singleness of purpose. From the beginning he has addressed himself strictly to the military work he had in hand, without a thought about cotton speculations or about political advantage. .
Second, his Spartan simplicity of character. . . .
Third, his modesty, his straightforwardness, his entire freedom from jealousy. . . .
Fourth, whether he has genius or not, he has sound judgment and sterling sense. . . .
And, Fifth, he has, what tells more than all else, a most extraordinary combination of energy and persistence. In these two moral elements, he probably has not his equal. Nothing daunts him, nothing discourages him. . . .
U.S. GRANT — or, as his soldiers style him, Unconditional Surrender GRANT — has given the Confederacy blows such as no other arm has dealt, and, if he is let alone, as we trust he will be, he will in due time bring the whole concern to the dust.”
the last confederate surrender on land 1865: Confederate Lt. Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith commanding the Trans-Mississippi Department surrendered his command on May 26. Following his surrender, the former West Point graduate and U.S. Army officer fled to Mexico and then Cuba to avoid prosecution for treason. After learning of President Johnson's May 29, 1865 proclamation concerning amnesty and pardon, Smith returned to Virginia in November to take the amnesty oath.

Pictures: 1864 Battle of North Anna May 25-26; 1862 from the Shenandoah to McClellan's Siege of Richmond, Virginia; 1862 May 21-June 9; 1864 History of the Fifth Massachusetts Battery 02; 1863 Ulysses Grant

Response by LTC Stephen F. made May 27 at 2016 10:02 PM

2016-05-27T22:02:41-04:00

Monday, May 26, 1862: Katherine Prescott Wormeley, a nurse serving with the United States Sanitary Commission, in company with Frederick Law Olmstead, writes in her journal about trying to evacuate a large number of sick soldiers by steamboat from West Point, Virginia, near the front lines on the James Peninsula. She has particular trouble with the steamboat captain, who does not want to carry sick men: “It was night before the last man was got on board. There were fifty-six of them, — ten very sick ones. The boat had a little shelter-cabin. As we were laying mattresses on the floor, while the doctors were finding the men, the captain stopped us, refusing to let us put typhoid fever cases below the deck, — on account of the crew, he said, — and threatening to push off at once from the shore. Mrs. Howland and I looked at him. I did the terrible, and she the pathetic; and he abandoned the contest.” I expect that mean one woman acted terribly angry while the other pouted pathetically.
Tuesday, May 26 1863: Lt. Col. Arthur Fremantle, a British officer, writes in his journal, making observations about some of the wounded Confederates he meets on his journey: “The spirit with which wounded men return to the front, even although their wounds are imperfectly healed, is worthy of all praise, and shows the indomitable determination of the Southern people. In the same car there were several quite young boys of fifteen or sixteen who were badly wounded, and one or two were minus arms and legs, of which deficiencies they were evidently very vain.”
Tuesday, May 26 1863 --- James A. Graham, of Hillsborough, North Carolina, serves in the 27th North Carolina Infantry Regiment, and writes home of the sporadic sparring between Rebel troops and the Yankee troops that occupy so much of coastal North Carolina in a camp near Kinston: “My dear mother, We have just returned from a trip after the Yankees. Last Friday morning we received orders to be ready to march and about eleven o’clock we left camp and started in the direction of Gum Swamp, on the road to Newbern, where it was reported that our forces were engaged with the Yankees. Soon after we started I heard that the enemy had surrounded and taken the whole of the 56th Reg’t and a part of the 25th Reg’t also.
I met some of those Reg’t soon after and found out that the 25th Reg’t had escaped and also part of the 56th, but could hear nothing of Robert except that he was very likely taken prisoner.
About five or six miles from Kinston our Brigade formed line of battle and commenced advancing on the Yankees who had already taken the back track toward Newbern. We caught up with the Yanks after a short while and had a little skirmishing and artillery firing with them, but they soon skedaddled and we followed right on their track.
We kept the chase up till about midnight skirmishing with them whenever we could catch up with them and trying out artillery on them when they were too far for our rifles. Their artillery would reply once in a while. Next morning we came up with them at Core Creek, drove their pickets across the creek and followed them till night, driving then as far as Batchelor’s Creek about 8 miles from Newbern, and then started on our return.
We reached Camp yesterday morning pretty well tired and as dirty and black a set as I ever saw. . . . Our company lost no men at all and our Brigade very few, al-though we were in front all the time, for it was a hard matter to get up wit the Yanks and they always ran whenever we fired on them. I met Robert yesterday morn-ing as we came to Camp. He got out all safe after laying in the swamp some time. Lt. Ray, the 1st Lt. of his company, was wounded and taken prisoner I understand. Johnny told me that 19 of his men were taken. We are camped about 3 or 4 miles from Kinston in the same camp we occupied a little over a year ago. I think we will very likely stay here some time. I must close. Love to all. Write soon
Your affectionate son, James A. Graham
P.S. I have seen Uncle James Bryan several times since we have been at Kinston but have not seen Uncle John yet, as we started on this trip just about the time he came home.”
Pictures: 1864 Map of Confederate defenses in an inverted V at Ox Ford. North Anna River; 1864 Jericho Mill from the north bank. After an easy crossing, Union Gen. Gouverneur Warren informed Gen. George Meade; 1864 History of the Fifth Massachusetts Battery-04; 1864 redoubt at north anna
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 26, 1862: As Stonewall Jackson speeds northward toward Charles Town, West Virginia and Harper’s Ferry, President Lincoln issues orders to Gen. Fremont (whose army is operating in the mountains west of the Shenandoah Valley) to begin an immediate and rapid movement westward on the highway to Harrisonburg, south of Winchester, in order to cut off the Rebels from their base of supply. But Fremont interprets his orders broadly, and ignores the presidential instruction. Fremont heads north instead, staying parallel to—but outside of—the Shenandoah. Lincoln also orders Gen. McDowell in Fredericksburg to detach at least 20,000 of his troops and send them west to try and trap Jackson. The President also directs McDowell to move his headquarters north to Manassas, and to take operational command of the whole Valley plan.
B. Tuesday, May 26 1863: Maj Gen U.S. Grant sent Blair's division up the Yazoo River to drive out a force of the enemy supposed to be between the Big Black and the Yazoo. The country was rich and full of supplies of both food and forage. Blair was instructed to take all of it. The cattle were to be driven in for the use of our army, and the food and forage to be consumed by our troops or destroyed by fire; all bridges were to be destroyed, and the roads rendered as nearly impassable as possible. Blair went forty-five miles and was gone almost a week. His work was effectually done. Grant requested Porter at this time to send the marine brigade, a floating nondescript force which had been assigned to his command and which proved very useful, up to Haines' Bluff to hold it until reinforcements could be sent.
On the 26th Grant also received a letter from Banks, asking me to reinforce him with ten thousand men at Port Hudson. Of course I could not comply with his request, nor did I think he needed them. He was in no danger of an attack by the garrison in his front, and there was no army organizing in his rear to raise the siege.
C. Thursday, May 26, 1864 Battle of the North Anna River: Confederate Victory yet Grant outflanks Lee. Gen. Grant decides to keep up the skirmishing, and then move his army by night to the east and south, around Lee’s right flank. To deceive the enemy, Grant sends Brigadier General James H. Wilson's Union cavalry division off heading straight west, crossing at Jericho Mill and setting out on its diversion. Riding west of the Rebel army, Wilson's men put on a conspicuous show to make Lee think that the flanking movement will be in the opposite direction. Wilson destroys large portions of the Virginia Central railroad, and key supply link for Richmond, but fails to draw Lee after him. After dark, the units of the Army of the Potomac begin to pull out of line, and head east and south to the crossings over the Pamunkey River near Hanovertown. Warren and Wright pull out first, while Hancock and Burnside hold. Confederate Victory.
D. Friday, May 26, 1865: Confederate Lt. Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith commanding the Trans-Mississippi Department surrendered his command on May 26. Following his surrender, the former West Point graduate and U.S. Army officer fled to Mexico and then Cuba to avoid prosecution for treason. After learning of President Johnson's May 29, 1865 proclamation concerning amnesty and pardon, Smith returned to Virginia in November to take the amnesty oath.
1. Sunday, May 26, 1861: Postmaster General Montgomery Blair announces severing cross-border postal connections with the states currently in rebellion.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=May+26%2C+1861
2. Monday, May 26, 1862 --- Gen. Nathaniel Banks hastens his retreat northward, and crosses his armies into Maryland, abandoning even Harper’s Ferry. A young soldier in Banks’ division writes a complaint about being “utterly exhausted . . . every joint, muscle, and tendon in [my] body as a sore as a blood boil . . . [a] sickening craving for food . . . on the point of freezing to death . . . what could add to one’s misery?”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=May+26%2C+1862
3. Monday, May 26, 1862 --- As Gen. McClellan closes in slowly around Richmond, some of the tension inside of the city subsides a little. C.S. War Department clerk John Beauchamp Jones writes in his journal, noting the atmosphere amongst the citizens and the chagrin of the tobacco traders who are hoping to sell their store at a huge profit to the Yankee invaders: “Gen. Lee is still strengthening the army. Every day additional regiments are coming. We are now so strong that no one fears the result when the great battle takes place. McClellan has delayed too long, and he is doomed to defeat. The tobacco savers know it well, and their faces exhibit chagrin and disappointment. Their fortunes will not be made this year, and so their reputations may be saved.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=May+26%2C+1862
4. Monday, May 26, 1862 --- Surgeon Alfred L. Castleman, serving with the Union’s Army of the Potomac, just outside of Richmond, notes in his journal the ghastly (and all too common) neglect of the sick by the Medical Corps of the U.S. Army, and the often insurmountable task that the medical officers face: “To-day, was so far recovered that I reported myself for duty at the Liberty Hall Hospital. [ Liberty Hall was a plantation house which had been the home of Patrick Henry] I found there about four hundred sick, about one hundred of whom were crowded into the house. The rest were lying about in stables, alive with vermin—chicken houses, the stench of which would sicken a well man, on the ground, exposed alternately to beating rain and the rays of the scorching sun. There were no beds, no blankets, no straw, no cooking utensils and nothing to cook. The sick were lying on the bare floor, or on the bare ground, without covering, and this was the third day they had been in this situation without food, or without any one to look after them, except as they could mutually aid each other. All kinds of diseases prevail, from simple intermittent to the lowest camp typhus, complicated with scurvey; from simple diarrhœa to the severest of dysentery. My first effort has been to separate the simple from the infectious diseases. To pitch what few tents I have, and to get as many as I can under shelter, I have before me, in the organization of this hospital, a Herculean task for a man not quite recovered from a spell of sickness. But what I can, I will do.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=May+26%2C+1862
5. Monday, May 26, 1862 --- Katherine Prescott Wormeley, a nurse serving with the United States Sanitary Commission, in company with Frederick Law Olmstead, writes in her journal about trying to evacuate a large number of sick soldiers by steamboat from West Point, Virginia, near the front lines on the James Peninsula. She has particular trouble with the steamboat captain, who does not want to carry sick men: “It was night before the last man was got on board. There were fifty-six of them, — ten very sick ones. The boat had a little shelter-cabin. As we were laying mattresses on the floor, while the doctors were finding the men, the captain stopped us, refusing to let us put typhoid fever cases below the deck, — on account of the crew, he said, — and threatening to push off at once from the shore. Mrs. Howland and I looked at him. I did the terrible, and she the pathetic; and he abandoned the contest.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=May+26%2C+1862
6. Tuesday, May 26 1863 --- Gen. Robert E. Lee, without Jackson to command half of the Army of Northern Virginia, decides to divide his army into three corps, each corps consisting of 3 divisions. Although the I Corps remains under James Longstreet, he gives command of the II Corps to Richard Ewell and the new III Corps to A.P. Hill.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=May+26%2C+1863
7. Tuesday, May 26 1863: Siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186305
8. Tuesday, May 26 1863 --- Confederate cavalry raid Morgantown, West Virginia, taking over 200 horses and many thousands of dollars of private property.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=May+26%2C+1863
9. Monday, May 26, 1862 --- Near Vicksburg, Mississippi, Farragut decides that an assault on the city would be impractical and that he does not have enough troops to hold the city even if it falls. Farragut leaves behind 8 vessels to watch the city, and with the rest of his flotilla, begins to drop back down the river to New Orleans.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=May+26%2C+1862
10. Tuesday, May 26 1863 --- Today the New York Times publishes an editorial evaluating Gen. U.S. Grant and his rising legacy:
“Gen. Grant and His Splendid Success at Vicksburgh.
The track of this war is strewed with faded and with ruined military reputations. As we look back to the first year of the war, we are absolutely amazed to find how few who then stood out as Generals of mark have retained their place in the public regard. . . . Gen. GRANT’s fame has been steadily gaining from the outset. Though but a man of forty, at the commencement of the war he had seen more hard fighting than any other officer, having been in every battle of Mexico except that of Buena Vista. Yet, when he took command at Cairo, he was not much known, and attracted little attention. The public had set its heart upon other favorites. If he obtained some little praise for crossing the Ohio so promptly and seizing Paducah in anticipation of the rebels, it was lost the same season, by his battle of Belmont, which the public in its inexperienced judgment of that time, insisted upon styling a defeat because an advance was followed by a retreat. It was, in fact, simply an expedition . . . to break up the enemy’s camp, and to prevent reinforcements. . . . This was effectually accomplished, and therefore the movement, though it cost blood, was a complete success.
At Fort Donelson, where Gen. GRANT next appeared on the stage, he won a victory unexampled in its results; but the public still were inclined to attribute it to good fortune rather than to any special military capacity, and were even disposed to find fault that a quarter of the rebel army had been allowed to escape in the night before the surrender. At Pittsburgh Landing [Shiloh], his next scene of action, it was conceded that he fought splendidly; but he was reproached for having been on the enemy’s side of the river at all, without intrenchments and without open communications in the rear. The ultimate victory was again ascribed to nothing but good fortune.
At Vicksburgh, his next theatre of operations, he has labored, everybody admitted, with great energy, yet the impression has generally prevailed that it would be to no purpose. The manifold expedients that he adopted, in order to get a chance at the rebel stronghold, were regarded with a good deal of curiosity, but with very little confidence. The expedient, which at last succeeded, struck the public with not a little surprise. He got his chance at last. The style in which he followed it up — his extraordinary celerity of movement, his striking at unexpected points, his success in thwarting the attempts of the enemy to concentrate, his whipping them in detail every time in six distinct battles, and the magnitude and completeness of his final conquest, which casts into the shade all of the other achievements of the war — all this is now a marvel, and the public is quite ready to accept the conclusion, which the Army of the Tennessee long since formed — that, take him all in all, Gen. GRANT is the most serviceable, and, therefore, the most valuable, officer in the national army.
Why has Gen. GRANT thus at last distanced every other commander? . . . Gen. GRANT, though perhaps possessed of no great military genius, yet combines qualities which, in such a war as this, are even better calculated to insure success, and which scarcely any of his brother Generals have exhibited in similar complete combination.
First, he has absolute singleness of purpose. From the beginning he has addressed himself strictly to the military work he had in hand, without a thought about cotton speculations or about political advantage. .
Second, his Spartan simplicity of character. . . .
Third, his modesty, his straightforwardness, his entire freedom from jealousy. . . .
Fourth, whether he has genius or not, he has sound judgment and sterling sense. . . .
And, Fifth, he has, what tells more than all else, a most extraordinary combination of energy and persistence. In these two moral elements, he probably has not his equal. Nothing daunts him, nothing discourages him. . . .
U.S. GRANT — or, as his soldiers style him, Unconditional Surrender GRANT — has given the Confederacy blows such as no other arm has dealt, and, if he is let alone, as we trust he will be, he will in due time bring the whole concern to the dust.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=May+26%2C+1863
11. Tuesday, May 26 1863 --- James A. Graham, of Hillsborough, North Carolina, serves in the 27th North Carolina Infantry Regiment, and writes home of the sporadic sparring between Rebel troops and the Yankee troops that occupy so much of coastal North Carolina in a camp near Kinston: “My dear mother, We have just returned from a trip after the Yankees. Last Friday morning we received orders to be ready to march and about eleven o’clock we left camp and started in the direction of Gum Swamp, on the road to Newbern, where it was reported that our forces were engaged with the Yankees. Soon after we started I heard that the enemy had surrounded and taken the whole of the 56th Reg’t and a part of the 25th Reg’t also.
I met some of those Reg’t soon after and found out that the 25th Reg’t had escaped and also part of the 56th, but could hear nothing of Robert except that he was very likely taken prisoner.
About five or six miles from Kinston our Brigade formed line of battle and commenced advancing on the Yankees who had already taken the back track toward Newbern. We caught up with the Yanks after a short while and had a little skirmishing and artillery firing with them, but they soon skedaddled and we followed right on their track.
We kept the chase up till about midnight skirmishing with them whenever we could catch up with them and trying out artillery on them when they were too far for our rifles. Their artillery would reply once in a while. Next morning we came up with them at Core Creek, drove their pickets across the creek and followed them till night, driving then as far as Batchelor’s Creek about 8 miles from Newbern, and then started on our return.
We reached Camp yesterday morning pretty well tired and as dirty and black a set as I ever saw. . . . Our company lost no men at all and our Brigade very few, al-though we were in front all the time, for it was a hard matter to get up wit the Yanks and they always ran whenever we fired on them. I met Robert yesterday morn-ing as we came to Camp. He got out all safe after laying in the swamp some time. Lt. Ray, the 1st Lt. of his company, was wounded and taken prisoner I understand. Johnny told me that 19 of his men were taken. We are camped about 3 or 4 miles from Kinston in the same camp we occupied a little over a year ago. I think we will very likely stay here some time. I must close. Love to all. Write soon
Your affectionate son, James A. Graham
P.S. I have seen Uncle James Bryan several times since we have been at Kinston but have not seen Uncle John yet, as we started on this trip just about the time he came home.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=May+26%2C+1863
12. Tuesday, May 26 1863: Confederate Naval flag introduced by Secretary of the Navy Stephen Russell Mallory
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186305
13. Thursday, May 26, 1864: Territory of Montana is formed from the Territory of Idaho
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186405
14. Tuesday, May 26 1863 --- Lt. Col. Arthur Fremantle, a British officer, writes in his journal, making observations about some of the wounded Confederates he meets on his journey: “The spirit with which wounded men return to the front, even although their wounds are imperfectly healed, is worthy of all praise, and shows the indomitable determination of the Southern people. In the same car there were several quite young boys of fifteen or sixteen who were badly wounded, and one or two were minus arms and legs, of which deficiencies they were evidently very vain.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=May+26%2C+1863
15. Thursday, May 26, 1864 --- Battle of New Hope Church, Georgia (cont.): The fighting along Johnston’s hastily-constructed line continues, but degrades into mere skirmishing as the Federals begin to entrench to protect their own lines.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=May+26%2C+1864
A Monday, May 26, 1862: As Stonewall Jackson speeds northward toward Charles Town and Harper’s Ferry, Pres. Lincoln issues orders to Gen. Fremont (whose army is operating in the mountains west of the Shenandoah Valley) to begin an immediate and rapid movement westward on the highway to Harrisonburg, south of Winchester, in order to cut off the Rebels from their base of supply. But Fremont interprets his orders broadly, and ignores the presidential instruction. Fremont heads north instead, staying parallel to—but outside of—the Shenandoah. Lincoln also orders Gen. McDowell in Fredericksburg to detach at least 20,000 of his troops and send them west to try and trap Jackson. The President also directs McDowell to move his headquarters north to Manassas, and to take operational command of the whole Valley plan.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=May+26%2C+1862
B May 26, 1863: Grant's siege lines around Vicksburg take shape. As Grant's army settled into siege lines outside Vicksburg, Mississippi, he re-established his supply line to the north. Grant had briefly cut loose from his supplies in order to pursue his lightning campaign against Jackson, but now that he was on the Mississippi River, he could draw supplies of every kind--ammunition, food, and coffee--while starving the Confederates in Vicksburg of almost all supply.
After the unsuccessful assault of the 22d the work of the regular siege began. Sherman occupied the right starting from the river above Vicksburg, McPherson the centre (McArthur's division now with him) and McClernand the left, holding the road south to Warrenton. Lauman's division arrived at this time and was placed on the extreme left of the line.
In the interval between the assaults of the 19th and 22d, roads had been completed from the Yazoo River and Chickasaw Bayou, around the rear of the army, to enable us to bring up supplies of food and ammunition; ground had been selected and cleared on which the troops were to be encamped, and tents and cooking utensils were brought up. The troops had been without these from the time of crossing the Mississippi up to this time. All was now ready for the pick and spade. Prentiss and Hurlbut were ordered to send forward every man that could be spared. Cavalry especially was wanted to watch the fords along the Big Black, and to observe Johnston. I knew that Johnston was receiving reinforcements from Bragg, who was confronting Rosecrans in Tennessee. Vicksburg was so important to the enemy that I believed he would make the most strenuous efforts to raise the siege, even at the risk of losing ground elsewhere.
My line was more than fifteen miles long, extending from Haines' Bluff to Vicksburg, thence to Warrenton. The line of the enemy was about seven. In addition to this, having an enemy at Canton and Jackson, in our rear, who was being constantly reinforced, we required a second line of defence facing the other way. I had not troops enough under my command to man these. General Halleck appreciated the situation and, without being asked, forwarded reinforcements with all possible dispatch.
The ground about Vicksburg is admirable for defence. On the north it is about two hundred feet above the Mississippi River at the highest point and very much cut up by the washing rains; the ravines were grown up with cane and underbrush, while the sides and tops were covered with a dense forest. Farther south the ground flattens out somewhat, and was in cultivation. But here, too, it was cut up by ravines and small streams. The enemy's line of defence followed the crest of a ridge from the river north of the city eastward, then southerly around to the Jackson road, full three miles back of the city; thence in a southwesterly direction to the river. Deep ravines of the description given lay in front of these defences. As there is a succession of gullies, cut out by rains along the side of the ridge, the line was necessarily very irregular. To follow each of these spurs with intrenchments, so as to command the slopes on either side, would have lengthened their line very much. Generally therefore, or in many places, their line would run from near the head of one gully nearly straight to the head of another, and an outer work triangular in shape, generally open in the rear, was thrown up on the point; with a few men in this outer work they commanded the approaches to the main line completely.
The work to be done, to make our position as strong against the enemy as his was against us, was very great. The problem was also complicated by our wanting our line as near that of the enemy as possible. We had but four engineer officers with us. Captain Prime, of the Engineer Corps, was the chief, and the work at the beginning was mainly directed by him. His health soon gave out, when he was succeeded by Captain Comstock, also of the Engineer Corps. To provide assistants on such a long line I directed that all officers who had graduated at West Point, where they had necessarily to study military engineering, should in addition to their other duties assist in the work.
The chief quartermaster and the chief commissary were graduates. The chief commissary, now the Commissary-General of the Army, begged off, however, saying that there was nothing in engineering that he was good for unless he would do for a sap-roller. As soldiers require rations while working in the ditches as well as when marching and fighting, and as we would be sure to lose him if he was used as a sap-roller, I let him off. The general is a large man; weighs two hundred and twenty pounds, and is not tall.
We had no siege guns except six thirty-two pounders, and there were none at the West to draw from. Admiral Porter, however, supplied us with a battery of navy-guns of large calibre, and with these, and the field artillery used in the campaign, the siege began. The first thing to do was to get the artillery in batteries where they would occupy commanding positions; then establish the camps, under cover from the fire of the enemy but as near up as possible; and then construct rifle-pits and covered ways, to connect the entire command by the shortest route. The enemy did not harass us much while we were constructing our batteries. Probably their artillery ammunition was short; and their infantry was kept down by our sharpshooters, who were always on the alert and ready to fire at a head whenever it showed itself above the rebel works.
In no place were our lines more than six hundred yards from the enemy. It was necessary, therefore, to cover our men by something more than the ordinary parapet. To give additional protection sand bags, bullet-proof, were placed along the tops of the parapets far enough apart to make loop-holes for musketry. On top of these, logs were put. By these means the men were enabled to walk about erect when off duty, without fear of annoyance from sharpshooters. The enemy used in their defence explosive musket-balls, no doubt thinking that, bursting over our men in the trenches, they would do some execution; but I do not remember a single case where a man was injured by a piece of one of these shells. When they were hit and the ball exploded, the wound was terrible. In these cases a solid ball would have hit as well. Their use is barbarous, because they produce increased suffering without any corresponding advantage to those using them.
The enemy could not resort to our method to protect their men, because we had an inexhaustible supply of ammunition to draw upon and used it freely. Splinters from the timber would have made havoc among the men behind.
There were no mortars with the besiegers, except what the navy had in front of the city; but wooden ones were made by taking logs of the toughest wood that could be found, boring them out for six or twelve pound shells and binding them with strong iron bands. These answered as cochorns, and shells were successfully thrown from them into the trenches of the enemy.
The labor of building the batteries and intrenching was largely done by the pioneers, assisted by negroes who came within our lines and who were paid for their work; but details from the troops had often to be made. The work was pushed forward as rapidly as possible, and when an advanced position was secured and covered from the fire of the enemy the batteries were advanced. By the 30th of June there were two hundred and twenty guns in position, mostly light field-pieces, besides a battery of heavy guns belonging to, manned and commanded by the navy. We were now as strong for defence against the garrison of Vicksburg as they were against us; but I knew that Johnston was in our rear, and was receiving constant reinforcements from the east. He had at this time a larger force than I had had at any time prior to the battle of Champion's Hill.
As soon as the news of the arrival of the Union army behind Vicksburg reached the North, floods of visitors began to pour in. Some came to gratify curiosity; some to see sons or brothers who had passed through the terrible ordeal; members of the Christian and Sanitary Associations came to minister to the wants of the sick and the wounded. Often those coming to see a son or brother would bring a dozen or two of poultry. They did not know how little the gift would be appreciated. Many of the soldiers had lived so much on chickens, ducks and turkeys without bread during the march, that the sight of poultry, if they could get bacon, almost took away their appetite. But the intention was good.
Among the earliest arrivals was the Governor of Illinois, with most of the State officers. I naturally wanted to show them what there was of most interest. In Sherman's front the ground was the most broken and most wooded, and more was to be seen without exposure. I therefore took them to Sherman's headquarters and presented them. Before starting out to look at the lines—possibly while Sherman's horse was being saddled —there were many questions asked about the late campaign, about which the North had been so imperfectly informed. There was a little knot around Sherman and another around me, and I heard Sherman repeating, in the most animated manner, what he had said to me when we first looked down from Walnut Hills upon the land below on the 18th of May, adding: "Grant is entitled to every bit of the credit for the campaign; I opposed it. I wrote him a letter about it." But for this speech it is not likely that Sherman's opposition would have ever been heard of. His untiring energy and great efficiency during the campaign entitle him to a full share of all the credit due for its success. He could not have done more if the plan had been his own.
On the 26th of May I sent Blair's division up the Yazoo to drive out a force of the enemy supposed to be between the Big Black and the Yazoo. The country was rich and full of supplies of both food and forage. Blair was instructed to take all of it. The cattle were to be driven in for the use of our army, and the food and forage to be consumed by our troops or destroyed by fire; all bridges were to be destroyed, and the roads rendered as nearly impassable as possible. Blair went forty-five miles and was gone almost a week. His work was effectually done. I requested Porter at this time to send the marine brigade, a floating nondescript force which had been assigned to his command and which proved very useful, up to Haines' Bluff to hold it until reinforcements could be sent.
On the 26th I also received a letter from Banks, asking me to reinforce him with ten thousand men at Port Hudson. Of course I could not comply with his request, nor did I think he needed them. He was in no danger of an attack by the garrison in his front, and there was no army organizing in his rear to raise the siege.
http://www.civilwar-online.com/2013/05/may-26-1863-grants-siege-lines-around.html
C Thursday, May 26, 1864 --- Battle of the North Anna River [May 23-26, 1864] Day 4: Seeing that there are no opportunities to turn Lee’s line, Gen. Grant decides to keep up the skirmishing, and then move his army by night to the east and south, around Lee’s right flank. To deceive the enemy, Grant sends Brig. Gen. James Wilson and his cavalry off heading straight west, to make Lee think that the flanking movement will be in the opposite direction. Wilson destroys large portions of the Virginia Central railroad, and key supply link for Richmond, but fails to draw Lee after him. After dark, the units of the Army of the Potomac begin to pull out of line, and head east and south to the crossings over the Pamunkey River near Hanovertown. Warren and Wright pull out first, while Hancock and Burnside hold. Confederate Victory.
Losses: Union 2,623; Confederate 1,552
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=May+26%2C+1864
C+ Thursday, May 26, 1864 Battle of the North Anna River: May 26 saw more rain, forcing troops of both armies to hunker low behind earthworks slippery with mud and knee-deep in water. By noon, Brigadier General James H. Wilson's Union cavalry division was crossing at Jericho Mill and setting out on its diversion. Riding west of the Rebel army, Wilson's men put on a conspicuous show. "Fences, boards, and everything inflammable within our reach were set fire to give the appearance of a vast force, just building its bivouac fires," a Federal rider remembered.
A Union infantry division meanwhile re-crossed the North Anna and began a looping march toward the Pamunkey. All day, wagons carried the army's baggage over the river and returned for fresh loads. Sightings of the constant wagon traffic persuaded Lee that the Union commander was planning some sort of movement, and Wilson's cavalry activity suggested that a shift west was in the making. From "present indications," Lee wrote the Confederate War Secretary, Grant "seems to contemplate a movement on our left flank." Grant's ruse had worked to perfection.
Shortly after dark, Meade began evacuating his entrenchments in earnest, concealing his departure with clouds of pickets. "Such bands as there were had been vigorously playing patriotic music, always soliciting responses from the rebs with Dixie, My Maryland, or other favorites of theirs," a Union man noted. Soldiers marched along rain-soaked trails in the pitch black, slipping in mud "knee deep and sticky as shoemaker's wax on a hot day," a participant recalled. One hole sucked troops in to their waists, and a few unfortunates reputedly disappeared over their heads in viscous ooze and suffocated. Miraculously, the last of the Federals were across the river by daylight. Engineers pulled up the pontoon bridges and a Union rearguard set fire to Chesterfield Bridge to delay pursuit.
By sunup, Lee understood that the Federals had gotten away and were marching east. Uncertain of Grant's precise route, he decided to abandon the North Anna line and shift fifteen miles southeast to a point near Atlee's Station, on the Virginia Central Railroad. This would place him southwest of Grant's apparent concentration toward Hanovertown and position the Army of Northern Virginia to block the likely avenues of Union advance toward Richmond.
Long overlooked by historians, Grant's masterful move had turned Lee out of his North Anna line in much the same manner that Grant had maneuvered the Confederates from their strongholds in the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House. Lee's response, however, was equally cunning, as it enabled the Confederates to confront the Union army head-on along a new line of their selection, once again blocking the approaches to Richmond. The chess match between Grant and Lee would resume on new ground and soon add new names—Totopotomoy Creek, Bethesda Church, and Cold Harbor—to the battle flags of both armies.
http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/northanna/north-anna-history-articles/northannarhea.html
D Friday, May 26, 1865: Less than two weeks later, Smith, succumbing to the inevitable, surrendered his command on May 26. Following his surrender, the former West Point graduate and U.S. Army officer fled to Mexico and then Cuba to avoid prosecution for treason. After learning of President Johnson's May 29, 1865 proclamation concerning amnesty and pardon, Smith returned to Virginia in November to take the amnesty oath.
https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2015/spring/cw-surrenders.html

The American Civil War 150 Years Ago Today: Search results for May 26, 1861

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

Response by SP5 Mark Kuzinski made May 27 at 2016 10:52 PM

2016-05-27T22:52:55-04:00

Thanks for the night read and a good one at that.