What was the most significant event on October 4 during the U.S. Civil War?

2017-02-12T20:18:28-05:00

Lines of communication and supply have been important since armies have first engaged in contact. In 1864, Maj Gen William T. Sherman’s force was marching to the sea and cutting a swath through Georgia’s agricultural regions. Meanwhile CSA Gen John Bell’s Hood’s forces were doing their best to destroy the rail lines and rolling stock which kept Sherman’s armies supplied. This forced Sherman to send forces back to protect his supply line.
By October 1861, the Union blockade was becoming much more effective in intercepting confederate blockade runners which did their best to conceal their intentions. Sometimes confederates pretended to be British or another nation’s vessel. However, their deceptions were generally in vain.
In 1862, the strategic Union victory at Corinth, Mississippi dashed Confederate hopes of retaking Kentucky and western Tennessee.
In 1863, Maj Gen William T Sherman’s oldest son 9-year-old son Willie died. He sent a dispatch to Major General Halleck from Memphis, Tennessee: “My eldest boy Willie—my California boy—nine years old, died here yesterday, of fever and dysentery contracted at Vicksburg. His loss to me is more than words can express, but I would not let it divert my mind from the duty I owe my country”. . .W. T. SHERMAN, Maj.-General.”
In 1864, the National Black Convention met in Syracuse, New York. Citizenship and voting rights were high on their list. Meanwhile, the “New Orleans Tribune” became the first black daily newspaper.
Friday, October 4, 1861. The Chicamacomico Races. On Roanoke Island, Col. A.E. Wright, commander of a Georgia and North Carolina regiment, heard that a Union Indiana regiment had landed near Chicamacomico, thirty-five miles north of Union-held Fort Hatteras. Quickly, Wright devised a plan to surround and capture the Yankees.
The Georgians would land north of the Union troops, while the North Carolinians would land south of them, cutting off their escape to the fort. With the Union regiment disposed of, they would turn on and recapture Forts Clark and Hatteras.
Both the Georgians and Carolinians were loaded onto the small “Mosquito Fleet” and transported to the Outer Banks. By dawn, the Georgians had made landfall, but were spotted by the Indiana troops. Instead of putting up a fight, shooting the Confederates as they filed off the boats, the Yankees began their retreat south towards Fort Hatteras.
The Georgians, after gathering on the shore, made a hasty march after the Indiana boys. The Confederate fleet, in turn, sped down the shore to land the Carolinians and cut off the fleeing Federals. The Chicamacomico Races were on!
By 9am, the sun shown on the white sand, “heating the air as if it were a furnace,” as reported by a Union soldier. The Federals had no water, as the vessel carrying their supply had been captured a few days prior. “The first ten miles was terrible,” continued the Federal. “As the regiment pushed along, man after man would stagger from the ranks and fall upon the hot sand…. It was maddening. The sea rolling at our feet and nothing to drink.” [1]
By the middle of the afternoon, the Confederate fleet had pulled ahead of the Union troops and attempted to land the North Carolinians to cut them off. The ships, however, ran aground two miles from land. “We got out of our boats and tried to get ashore,” wrote a North Carolina soldier, “but after wading about a mile, the water got too deep and we had to go back.”
To avoid a possible capture, the Indiana troops moved to the ocean side of the island, where they made better time and the sound of the waves drowned out their marching. By midnight, they made it to Hatteras lighthouse.
The Georgians, unaware that the North Carolinians were still on the boats, made their camp between Keneekut and the lighthouse. Along the way, they had captured forty prisoners. The next day, thought Col. Wright, he and the Carolinians would bag the rest as well as the forts. [2]
[1] The Outer Banks of North Carolina, 1584-1958 by David Stick, UNC Press Books, 1990.
[2] The Civil War in North Carolina by John Gilchrist Barrett, UNC Press Books, 1995. http://civilwardailygazette.com/?s=October+4%2C+1861

Pictures: 1862-10-04 Battle of Corinth Map; 1861-10-04 USS South Carolina; 1862-10-04 Confederate dead near Battery Robinett - taken the day following the battle of Corinth. Mississippi - October 5; 1862-10-04 battle of Corinth union artillery battery

A. 1861: The 5-naval-gunned USS South Carolina commanded by Captain James Alden captured the Confederate blockade runner Joseph H. Toone in the South West Pass of the Mississippi River [5 days after they captured Confederate blockade runner Ezilda.] The Joseph H. Toone was bringing arms and contraband of war into the Southern States via New Orleans. The Rebel ship was five days out of Havana and trying to enter Barataria Bay. When she drew to within ten miles of the inlet, she spotted the USS South Carolina. Her commander, Captain Pennington, changed from the northerly to a southwesterly course.
Before long, the ship was captured and boarded in the waters between the South West Pass and the Timbalier lighthouse. The Joseph H. Toone claimed to be a British ship bound from Havana to Tampico, Mexico. The Mississippi Delta was about 450 miles off course.
The Toone‘s Captain Pennington and the ship itself were from New Jersey, while the crew was indeed from Britain. Her cargo, however, betrayed their peaceful disguise. She carried various contraband of war and 4,000 – 5,000 muskets to be used by Confederate troops. The Toone‘s crew were sent to New York as prisoners of war. The ship and her cargo became a prize for the United States Navy.
B. 1862: Battle of Corinth, Mississippi ends in Union victory. On the morning of October 4, the Confederate general Earl Van Dorn ordered his men forward into the face of devastating artillery and musket fire from the Union army. The attacks were delayed and improperly coordinated. As a result, the attacking Confederates were caught in a terrible bloodbath. Although they were able to storm Batteries Robinett and Powell, two critical forts along Maj Gen William Rosecran's inner line, they suffered such severe casualties that they were unable to hold the position. A few of Van Dorn's men reached the vital railroad junction in Corinth, but were soon driven away.
Rosecrans took the offensive against the battered Southern forces on the afternoon of October 4, 1862. Retaking Batteries Powell and Robinett, he forced the Confederate army into a general retreat. Although Earl Van Dorn was able to withdraw his troops from the battlefield, his casualties were severe.
The losses at the Battle of Corinth were lopsided. In launching his troops against strongly fortified positions, Van Dorn lost 4,838 men killed and wounded. Union losses in the battle were estimated at 2,359.
The vital rail junction at Corinth remained in Union hands and Van Dorn was unable to move in support of Braxton Bragg's Kentucky invasion. Even though he had not been defeated in a major battle, General Bragg was forced to withdraw from Kentucy when the anticipated help from Van Dorn failed to materialize.
C. 1863: CSA General Simon Bolivar Buckner circulated a petition to remove CSA General Braxton Bragg from command of the Army of Tennessee. Since Maj Gen William Rosecrans’ Federal Army of the Cumberland was holed up for two weeks in the city of Chattanooga, with Bragg’s Army of Tennessee besieging them. Bragg admitted that there was no way he could successfully attack the city, and so it had devolved into a stalemate, with Rosecrans due to receive myriad reinforcements. Bragg had sent Joseph Wheeler’s cavalry across the Tennessee to play upon Union supply lines. That was working well enough, but to do it, he made himself yet another enemy in Nathan Bedford Forrest.
The chorus of officers demanding the removal of Bragg was indeed swelling to a boisterous crescendo. So loud were the cries that they were heard in Richmond, where President Jefferson Davis sent Col. James Chesnut to see just what was brewing. Davis rather liked Bragg and even at this early stage had probably made up his mind to support him. The only officers that Davis felt could replace him were P.G.T. Beauregard and Joseph Johnson, both of whom he abhorred.
D. 1864: In Georgia, CSA General John Bell Hood’s men were in firm control of the Chattanooga-Atlanta Railroad lines, with fighting taking place at Moon’s Station, Lost Mountain and Acworth. Hood divided up his army to destroy the lines of communication and supply. Major General William T. Sherman received reports pleading for relief, he decided to provide it. Leaving only one corps to hold Atlanta, Sherman started back up the line to deal with Hood. But by this date, Sherman understood Hood’s path, “that he would strike our railroad nearer us” in the Kingston or Marietta area. He immediately ordered the Twentieth Corps, commanded by Henry Slocum, to hold Atlanta and the main bridge north of Atlanta across the Chattahoochee, while the rest of his army reacted to Hood.
At Kennesaw Mountain, Sherman established headquarters and got to work.
All through the night of the 3rd and day of the 4th, streams of blue flowed north out of Atlanta, crossing the river and bivouacking nearby. Come dawn, both armies would be on the move.

FYI SGT Mark Anderson PO3 Edward Riddle Maj William W. 'Bill' Price COL Private RallyPoint Member SSgt David M.] SPC Maurice Evans SPC Jon O. SGT Jim Arnold Amn Dale Preisach CW4 Private RallyPoint Member Sgt Jerry Genesio SSG Private RallyPoint Member LTC John Griscom LTC Thomas Tennant LTC David Brown LTC Private RallyPoint Member CWO3 Private RallyPoint Member SGT John " Mac " McConnell SFC Private RallyPoint Member CPL Ronald Keyes Jr

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Response by LTC Stephen F. made Feb 12 at 2017 8:21 PM

2017-02-12T20:21:26-05:00

In 1861, joint Federal Army-Navy operations were in infancy primary on the Carolina coasts. Meanwhile the Confederate government signed treaties with the Shawnee and Seneca Indians.
In 1864, after the fall of Atlanta, CSA General John Bell Hood tried to strategically flank Maj Gen William T Sherman’s forces marching to the sea as Hood’s forces cut Sherman’s lines of communication to the north in Tennessee.
On Saturday, October 4, 1862. As if defeat was not horrible enough – the last battle for Corinth, Mississippi dashed the Confederate hopes of taking Kentucky and western Tennessee. “The fighting of the previous day, while hard, went heavily in favor of the Confederates under Earl van Dorn and Sterling Price. They pushed the Yankees back against the important railroad town of Corinth, Mississippi. One more push should have decided it.
That push came at dawn of this date, following an artillery barrage that ended with the Rebels losing a gun to an enthusiastic Union skirmish line. Martin Green’s Division, with the farthest to go, stepped off first, angling through the woods in their front, emerging 600 yards from the Union lines. Their focus was Federal Battery Powell north of town. Protecting the battery was an irregular line formed by a tattered Union division that had been chewed to pieces the previous day.
With a deluge of steel being poured into them, the Rebels leaned into the storm and took the guns. Soon, the entire Federal right was wavering, fluttery back into town. Green’s Confederates, however, gave no chase.
The pause gave Federal commander William Rosecrans time to steady his men, fixing the lines anew. Before long, they counterattacked and retook their battery.
Two Union batteries were placed west of town and these were attacked shortly after Green began his assault. Batteries Williams and Robinett were hit hard by Dabney Maury’s Division, charging into battle far off Green’s right. The vicious Rebels attacked with all they were worth, but failed to see the Federals lying in wait for them at Battery Williams. Caught off guard, first, by one volley, and then many more, the Confederates melted away or ran for their lives.
Things went better for the Rebels at Battery Robinett, but only slightly. To take the battery, they had to scratch and claw their way up the parapets, while Yankees hurled hand grenades at them. As one would be hit, he would fall bloodied flailing back upon his friends, taking two or three with him in a broken, writhing mess. Somehow, enough Rebels made it to the top and took the battery, but soon other Union artillery, prepared for such an event, opened upon them. Grape and cannister inundated the tired mass of butternut and gore as a Federal Missouri regiment, joined by one from Ohio, dashed into the Rebels. They fought with muskets as clubs, with rocks and fists, with bayonets like pitch forks until the only Confederates left in Battery Robinett were dead or dying.
By late morning, the Confederate division to Green’s immediate right, between the taken and recaptured batteries, joined the ball. The Rebel charge came with a terrifying yell, throwing back, first skirmishers, and then the Union line. But, for all its ferocity, it could not break the Federals. Some Arkansas troops managed to pierce it and storm into the streets, but they were quickly sent tumbling back to their comrades.
The streets of Corinth had not seen their last block by block melee. General Maury’s rightmost brigade slipped south of the batteries and into town with hardly a notice until they were amongst the buildings. They were met with sharp resistance, but a few managed to capture forty pieces of artillery in the town square. Ultimately, they were hurled out of town by Rosecran’s reserves.
The attacks had been murderously repulsed on all fronts, except one. Mansfield Lovell’s Confederate division, on the extreme right, had met only token resistance that morning. Of course, that can mostly be attributed to the fact that Lovell never really advanced. His troops stepped off at dawn, sluggishly trudging a mile or so until they got a good look at what they’d have to attack. Lovell, choosing discretion over valor, declined. He was not alone in this decision. When one of his staff asked a brigade commander what he thought about making such an attack, he said that it simply wasn’t possible. “Suppose General Lovell orders you to take it?” he inquired. “My brigade will march up and be killed,” came the reply.
General Van Dorn soon ordered the retreat, placing Lovell’s Division as rear guard. The withdrawal was more or less orderly, and grew even more so when they were out of danger of a counterattack. They stopped for the night at Chewalla, ten miles west of Corinth.
Rosecrans, at first, didn’t realize the battle was over – that he had won. Though victorious, he could not pursue. The need for rest was too great. They had sustained over 2,500 casualties across the two days. Though relatively safe from an attack by way of Corinth, Van Dorn was nowhere near safe. General Ulysses S. Grant had correctly assumed that Rosecrans would hold his ground and send the Rebels reeling. From surrounding strongholds, he ordered Union troops to descend upon Van Dorn’s Army – to cut off their retreat, to capture their supplies, to destroy them. By nightfall, 8,000 Federals under Stephen Hurlbut had taken the bridge across the Big Muddy River, threatening to cut the Rebel line of retreat.
In a short and deadly twenty-four hours, things had all gone so wrong. Rather than victoriously reclaiming the fallen Corinth, the Rebels were facing a very possible decimation at the hands of the quickly enveloping Federals. [1]
[1] Sources: The Darkest Days of the War by Peter Cozzens; Banners to the Breeze by Earl J. Hess; Grant Rises in the West by Kenneth P. Williams.
http://civilwardailygazette.com/if-defeat-was-not-horrible-enough-the-last-battle-for-corinth-mississippi/
Sunday, October 4, 1863: A conspiracy gathers against Braxton Bragg. “For some time now, the ire against Braxton Bragg had been simmering, even growing. Even the victory at Chickamauga could not quell the seething. Bragg did himself no favors by blaming two of his generals (Leonidas Polk and Thomas Hindman) for not following orders, thus marring the success with a strange pall of regret.
Now, nearly two weeks after the battle, William Rosecrans’ Federal Army of the Cumberland was holed up in the Tennessee River city of Chattanooga, with Bragg’s Army of Tennessee besieging them. Bragg admitted that there was no way he could successfully attack the city, and so it had devolved into a stalemate, with Rosecrans due to receive myriad reinforcements. Bragg had sent Joseph Wheeler’s cavalry across the Tennessee to play upon Union supply lines. That was working well enough, but to do it, he made himself yet another enemy in Nathan Bedford Forrest.
The chorus of officers demanding the removal of Bragg was indeed swelling to a boisterous crescendo. So loud were the cries that they were heard in Richmond, where President Jefferson Davis sent Col. James Chesnut to see just what was brewing. Davis rather liked Bragg and even at this early stage had probably made up his mind to support him. The only officers that Davis felt could replace him were P.G.T. Beauregard and Joseph Johnson, both of whom he abhorred.
On the 3rd, Chestnut talked with Polk and on this date, James Longstreet, who had left his Army of Northern Virginia before Chickamauga and had joined the chorus shortly thereafter. Longstreet’s conversation with Chesnut lasted only ten minutes, and while he neglected to inform him that they needed more troops, he made sure to impress upon him the army’s “distressed condition, and urged upon him to go on to Richmond with all speed and to urge upon the President relief for us.” Of course, the relief to which Longstreet was referring was the relief of Bragg from his duties.After his brief meeting with Col. Chesnut, Longstreet met with several other like-minded officers. Among the attendees were Simon Buckner, D.H. Hill, and quite a few others (though probably not Forrest, and neither Polk nor Hindman, since they were sent to Atlanta). From this gathering came a petition that was signed by nearly all of the high ranking officers in Bragg’s Army. Not only did Longstreet, Hill and Buckner attach their names to it, but so did Patrick Cleburne, William Preston, William H. T. Walker, Randall Gibson, and John C. Brown (plus four others – twelve total).
The long petition addressed to President Jefferson Davis outlined the reasons that Bragg should be removed.
“Whatever may have been accomplished heretofore,” it read, “it is certain that the fruits of the victory of the Chickamauga have now escaped our grasp. The Army of Tennessee, stricken with a complete paralysis, will in a few days’ time be thrown strictly on the defensive, and may deem itself fortunate if it escapes from its present position without disaster.”
The petition expressed all the reasons that Chattanooga must be wrenched from the enemy’s hands, but reasoned that without a proper commander, “this campaign is virtually closed.”
The Federals were receiving numerous reinforcements, which “must be met as nearly as possible by corresponding re-enforcements to this army.” And while reinforcements were needed, with them, even “the ablest general could not be expected to grapple successfully with the accumulating difficulties of the situation.”
Still, the signers were looking for the ablest general they could find, which brought them to the crux of their argument. They were requesting Jefferson Davis to “assign to the command of this army an officer who will inspire the army and the country with undivided confidence.” Here, they were careful not to list the many criticisms they had with Bragg, instead, urging that he be relieved because “the condition of his health totally unfits him for the command of an army in the field.”
Though twelve had signed the petition, it was clear that it was written shortly before the meeting. Just who authored the letter was a point of debate. Though all who signed it no doubt knew the identity, all were quiet and even deceitful when it came to spilling the truth.
General Longstreet, who many believed instigated the meeting, denied authorship and claimed that he had no idea who wrote it. He did, however, hold onto the petition at his headquarters until others who could not make the meeting were able to sign it. As he claims, it wasn’t until well after the war, when he learned that D.H. Hill held the original pen.
And yet, Hill completely denied it. Though he had signed it, he claimed to have little more to do with it. Polk, he asserted, prodded Simon Buckner to write it. Further, according to one of Hill’s staff officers, the petition was left not at Longstreet’s headquarters to await more signatures, but at Hill’s.
The Official Records stated that the petition was “supposed to have been written by Buckner,” and that could very well be the truth, as he was probably the first to sign it. Others, apart from Hill, believed Buckner to be the author, including Leonidas Polk’s son.
Even as early as the evening of this date, Bragg learned of the petition, and that Buckner had authored it. This sent him not into a rage, but into a gloom of “distress and mortification,” as his aid put it. Soon, however, Bragg shuffled it aside, all but ignoring the problem, hoping for it to simply vanish. This would prompt the same aid to write several days later that Bragg was “blind as a bat to the circumstances around him.”
Bragg may have been blind, but Davis was not. Col. Chesnut would, the following day, urge the President to drop whatever it was that he was doing and come quickly to the Army of Tennessee. He would arrive on the 9th. [1]
[1] Sources: Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 30, Part 2, p64-65; Part 4, p728; Vol. 52, Part 2, p538; Mountains Touched with Fire by Wiley Sword; Autumn of Glory by Thomas Lawrence Connelley; Braxton Bragg and Confederate Defeat, Vol. 2 by Judith Lee Hallock; The Army of Tennessee by Stanley F. Horn.
http://civilwardailygazette.com/a-conspiracy-gathers-against-bragg/
Tuesday, October 4, 1864: ‘And make Atlanta a perfect Moscow of defeat’ – John Bell Hood stabs northward “When last we left John Bell Hood and his Army of Tennessee, he had decided to march his forces far west of Atlanta, to then swing north, circling around and fall upon the supply lines of General Sherman’s army within the city. This, he hoped, would cause the Federals to abandon Atlanta and fight Hood on ground of his own choosing. Thus far, it seemed to be working.
All were convinced that Sherman could not maintain his long lines of supply and communication from Chattanooga to Atlanta, and once they were severed, he would necessarily be forced to retreat. In a speech made before the Army of Tennessee, President Davis put it thusly: “Be of good cheer, for within a shot while your faces will be turned homeward, and you feet will press Tennessee soil, and you will tread your native heath, amid the blue-grass regions and pastures green of your native homes.
We will flank General Sherman out of Atlanta, tear up the railroad and cut off his supplies, and make Atlanta a perfect Moscow of defeat to the Federal army. Situated as he is in an enemy’s country, with his communications all cut off, and our army in the rear, he will be powerless, and being fully posted and cognizant of our position, and of the Federal army, this movement will be the ultima thule, the grand crowning stroke for our independence, and the conclusion of the war.”
These were undoubtedly words of inspiration, even for General Hood, who crossed the Chattahoochee River on September 29 and 30. By this date, he had already veered northward and fallen upon the enemy’s lines of communication.
By the night of the 2nd, Hood’s army was between Powder Springs and Lost Mountain, itself now north of Sherman with the river between them.
“This will, I think, force Sherman to move on us or to move south,” wrote Hood to Richmond. “Should he move towards Augusta [south], all available troops should be sent there with an able officer of high rank to command. Could General Lee spare a division for that place in such an event?”
In the meanwhile, Hood divided his army. It was the only way to effect any real damage to the lines. The corps under General A.P. Stewart was ordered to take Big Shanty, and if possible Ackworth, “and to destroy as great a portion of the railroad in the vicinity as possible.” Stewart was also instructed to send a division to Allatoona.”
Stewart arrived near Big Shanty in the afternoon of this date. He formed a brigade in line of battle and advanced upon the village. “The small force of the enemy took refuge in the depot,” he wrote in his report, “which was loop-holed. After the exchange of a few shots and a small loss in killed and wounded they surrendered – some 100 or more.”
Then, as instructed, Stewart sent a division under William Wing Loring to Ackworth, which would fall the next day. Still another brigade took the village of Moon’s Station between Big Shanty and Ackworth, “and by 3pm of the 4th the railroad was effectually torn up, the ties burned, and rails bent for a distance of ten or twelve miles. This work, the capture of some 600 prisoners, and a few killed and wounded, was effected with a loss of not more than 12 or 15, mostly wounded.”
This was exactly what Davis had expected of Hood. And there was more to come. Word had it that in Allatoona, just up the tracks from Ackworth, were large Federal stores guarded by only a handful of regiments. The day following, he would unleash General Samuel French to destroy them.
General Sherman was hardly blind to this. On October 1st, he put it all together. “Hood is evidently across the Chattahoochee, below Sweetwater,” he wrote to General Grant in Virginia. “If he tries to get on our road, this side of the Etowah, I shall attack him; but if he goes to the Selma & Talladega road, why will it not do to leave Tennessee to the forces which Thomas has, and the reserves soon to come to Nashville, and for me to destroy Atlanta and march across Georgia to Savannah or Charleston, breaking roads and doing irreparable damage? We cannot remain on the defensive.”
It was obvious which path Sherman wanted Hood to take – the unfinished railroad leading to Selma, Alabama via Talladega. This would not only give Hood a clear shot at Tennessee, but would free Sherman up to destroy whatever he wanted to.
But by this date, Sherman understood Hood’s path, “that he would strike our railroad nearer us” in the Kingston or Marietta area. He immediately ordered the Twentieth Corps, commanded by Henry Slocum, to hold Atlanta and the main bridge north of Atlanta across the Chattahoochee, while the rest of his army reacted to Hood.
All through the night of the 3rd and day of the 4th, streams of blue flowed north out of Atlanta, crossing the river and bivouacking near by. Come dawn, both armies would be on the move. [1]
[1] Sources: Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 39, Part 1, p812, 813; Part 3, p782; Memoirs by William Tecumseh Sherman; Advance and Retreat by John Bell Hood; Military Reminiscences by Jacob Cox; Nothing But Victory by Steven E. Woodworth; The Chessboard of War by Anne J. Bailey; Autumn of Glory by Thomas Lawrence Connelly.
http://civilwardailygazette.com/and-make-atlanta-a-perfect-moscow-of-defeat-hood-stabs-northward/
Below are several journal entries from 1861, 1862, 1863 and 1864 which shed light on what life was like for soldiers and civilians – the good, the bad and the ugly. … I am including journal entries from Sergeant Alexander G. Downing, Company E, Eleventh Iowa Infantry, Third Brigade, "Crocker's Brigade," Sixth Division of the Seventeenth Corps, Army of the Tennessee for each year. I have been spending some time researching Civil War journals and diaries and editing them to fit into this series of Civil War discussions.

Friday, October 4, 1861: Journal of Sergeant Alexander G. Downing, Company E, Eleventh Iowa Infantry, Third Brigade, “Crocker's Brigade,” “The third all-day rain. Our regiment, the Eleventh Iowa, commenced to build their new barracks, located on the east side of the camp ground. Lieutenant Durbin arrived today.”
Saturday, October 4, 1862: Journal of Sergeant Alexander G. Downing, Company E, Eleventh Iowa Infantry, Third Brigade, “Crocker's Brigade,” “During the night all was quiet and our brigade fell back to the last line of fortifications which, extending almost around the town, had been built in the last few days. Here we lay in line of battle all night. The rebels commenced to throw shells into town this morning at daylight. I was still on guard with the teams and we had to get out of that place in double quick. ^The rebels threw some ten or twelve shells before our battery in Fort Robinet could get the range of them, but when they did, they opened on them some sixty-four-pounders and soon put the rebel's battery out of commission. I was relieved and went to join the regiment, which had been advanced to support a battery. About 10 o'clock the rebels made a charge upon Fort Robinet, to our right, and tried to break our lines at that point but failed. This charge was made by a Texas cavalry, dismounted; they came clear over into the fort, driving some of our artillerymen from their guns, but they were soon overpowered, some being killed and some taken prisoner. The colonel of the regiment planted their flag on our fort, but he was almost immediately killed. The rebels' dead just outside of the fort lay three or four deep and the blood ran in streams down the trenches. The rebels finally withdrew about 4 p. m., leaving their dead and wounded. The Iowa Brigade was placed to the left of Fort Robinet, in support of a battery, but did not become engaged during the day. Some of our forces started after the fleeing rebels. We received orders to be ready to march in the morning, and have to lie in line of battle all night.”
Sunday, October 4, 1863: Journal of Sergeant Alexander G. Downing, Company E, Eleventh Iowa Infantry, Third Brigade “Crocker's Brigade,” “Our brigade was reviewed this morning at 7 o'clock by General McPherson, major-general commanding the Seventeenth Army Corps. The pickets were not relieved until about noon, and so we missed the inspection. The boys are in camp today reading or writing letters.”
Tuesday, October 4, 1864: Journal of Sergeant Alexander G. Downing, Company E, Eleventh Iowa Infantry, Third Brigade, “Crocker's Brigade,” “Rain early this morning. We stored away our tents in Atlanta and left in light marching order. The three corps started out on different roads, and the roads being muddy it made hard marching. We bivouacked for the night four miles west of Marietta, Georgia. The railroad bridge across the Tallahassee river here was partially destroyed by the rebels. They built a raft of logs and floated it down against the bridge, knocking out two piers. No news from the East.”

A. Friday, October 4, 1861: The 5-naval-gunned USS South Carolina commanded by Captain James Alden captured the Confederate blockade runner Joseph H. Toone in the South West Pass of the Mississippi River [5 days after they captured Confederate blockade runner Ezilda.] The Joseph H. Toone was bringing arms and contraband of war into the Southern States via New Orleans. The Rebel ship was five days out of Havana and trying to enter Barataria Bay. When she drew to within ten miles of the inlet, she spotted the USS South Carolina. Her commander, Captain Pennington, changed from the northerly to a southwesterly course.
Before long, the ship was captured and boarded in the waters between the South West Pass and the Timbalier lighthouse. The Joseph H. Toone claimed to be a British ship bound from Havana to Tampico, Mexico. The Mississippi Delta was about 450 miles off course.
The Toone‘s Captain Pennington and the ship itself were from New Jersey, while the crew was indeed from Britain. Her cargo, however, betrayed their peaceful disguise. She carried various contraband of war and 4,000 – 5,000 muskets to be used by Confederate troops. The Toone‘s crew were sent to New York as prisoners of war. The ship and her cargo became a prize for the United States Navy.
This wasn’t the USS South Carolina‘s first capture. Five days previous, the Confederate blockade runner Ezilda was captured thirteen miles from Timbalier lighthouse. She was commanded by a former US Navy officer, Captain William Anderson Hicks, late of the Naval Academy at Annapolis.
It was claimed that the Ezilda was a British ship, but there was not one Englishman on her crew. She had also been over 400 miles off course and carrying contraband of war (though not arms). She, like the Toone of this date, became a price for the US Navy.
B. Saturday, October 4, 1862: Battle of Corinth, Mississippi ends in Union victory. On the morning of October 4, the Confederate general Earl Van Dorn ordered his men forward into the face of devastating artillery and musket fire from the Union army. The attacks were delayed and improperly coordinated. As a result, the attacking Confederates were caught in a terrible bloodbath. Although they were able to storm Batteries Robinett and Powell, two critical forts along Maj Gen William Rosecran's inner line, they suffered such severe casualties that they were unable to hold the position. A few of Van Dorn's men reached the vital railroad junction in Corinth, but were soon driven away.
Rosecrans took the offensive against the battered Southern forces on the afternoon of October 4, 1862. Retaking Batteries Powell and Robinett, he forced the Confederate army into a general retreat. Although Earl Van Dorn was able to withdraw his troops from the battlefield, his casualties were severe.
The losses at the Battle of Corinth were lopsided. In launching his troops against strongly fortified positions, Van Dorn lost 4,838 men killed and wounded. Union losses in the battle were estimated at 2,359.
The vital rail junction at Corinth remained in Union hands and Van Dorn was unable to move in support of Braxton Bragg's Kentucky invasion. Even though he had not been defeated in a major battle, General Bragg was forced to withdraw from Kentucy when the anticipated help from Van Dorn failed to materialize.
A highly significant battle fought to reverse the tide created by the Battle of Shiloh, the Battle of Corinth ended Confederate dreams of retaking Kentucky and western Tennessee.
C. Sunday, October 4, 1863: CSA General Simon Bolivar Buckner circulated a petition to remove CSA General Braxton Bragg from command of the Army of Tennessee. Since Maj Gen William Rosecrans’ Federal Army of the Cumberland was holed up for two weeks in the city of Chattanooga, with Bragg’s Army of Tennessee besieging them. Bragg admitted that there was no way he could successfully attack the city, and so it had devolved into a stalemate, with Rosecrans due to receive myriad reinforcements. Bragg had sent Joseph Wheeler’s cavalry across the Tennessee to play upon Union supply lines. That was working well enough, but to do it, he made himself yet another enemy in Nathan Bedford Forrest.
The chorus of officers demanding the removal of Bragg was indeed swelling to a boisterous crescendo. So loud were the cries that they were heard in Richmond, where President Jefferson Davis sent Col. James Chesnut to see just what was brewing. Davis rather liked Bragg and even at this early stage had probably made up his mind to support him. The only officers that Davis felt could replace him were P.G.T. Beauregard and Joseph Johnson, both of whom he abhorred.
D. Tuesday, October 4, 1864: In Georgia, CSA General John Bell Hood’s men were in firm control of the Chattanooga-Atlanta Railroad lines, with fighting taking place at Moon’s Station, Lost Mountain and Acworth. Major General William T. Sherman received reports pleading for relief, he decided to provide it. Leaving only one corps to hold Atlanta, Sherman started back up the line to deal with Hood. At Kennesaw Mountain, he established headquarters and got to work.
Hood divided up his army to destroy the lines of communication and supply. But by this date, Sherman understood Hood’s path, “that he would strike our railroad nearer us” in the Kingston or Marietta area. He immediately ordered the Twentieth Corps, commanded by Henry Slocum, to hold Atlanta and the main bridge north of Atlanta across the Chattahoochee, while the rest of his army reacted to Hood.
All through the night of the 3rd and day of the 4th, streams of blue flowed north out of Atlanta, crossing the river and bivouacking nearby. Come dawn, both armies would be on the move.

Pictures: 1864-10 Atlanta before the burning; 1862-10-04 Battle of Corinth, Currier and Ive; 1862-10-04 Corinth Battle Map; 1864 Franklin–Nashville Campaign map

1. Friday, October 4, 1861:
2. Friday, October 4, 1861: New Orleans, Louisiana - On October 4, 2 Confederate blockade-runners tried to get through the Union naval blockade. The USS South Carolina captured the 2 Confederate ships off Southwest Pass, which is near New Orleans.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1861s.html
3. Friday, October 4, 1861: President Abraham Lincoln views a tethered hot-air balloon ascent outside Washington D. C. The balloon was considered a top-secret observation instrument to be used for observation during battles.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186110
4. Friday, October 4, 1861: Confederate government signs treaties with the Shawnee and Seneca Indians.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186110
5. Friday, October, 4, 1861: New York Times reports: Cotton is piling up in New Orleans’ warehouses with no place to ship; fearing that the Civil War will prevent any cotton trade, England works to develop a commercial relationship with India, which has already seen a three fold increase in its cotton exports. Later news stories report attempts to develop substantial cotton crops in Jamaica and Peru. The USS South Carolina was on patrol in the Gulf of Mexico gave chase below Southwest Pass and in short order captured both vessels Ezilda and Joseph R. Toone making for New Orleans. Together both (CSA) ships were carrying between 4000 and 5000 stands of arms. In securing their help, Confederate government signs treaties with the Shawnee and Seneca Indians. This reserved the right for the tribal authorities to inflict punishment on whites who illegally resided on their lands, something they had attempted to get the United States to allow them to do prior to the Civil War.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-a/part-twenty-five
6. Saturday, October 4, 1862: Battle for Corinth, Mississippi. After the Battle of Iuka, Maj. Gen. Sterling Price’s Confederate Army of the West marched from Baldwyn to Ripley where it joined Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn’s Army of West Tennessee. Van Dorn was senior officer and took command of the combined force numbering about 22,000 men. The Rebels marched to Pocahontas on October 1, and then moved southeast toward Corinth. They hoped to seize Corinth and then sweep into Middle Tennessee. Since the Siege of Corinth, in the spring, Union forces had erected various fortifications, an inner and intermediate line, to protect Corinth, an important transportation center. With the Confederate approach, the Federals, numbering about 23,000, occupied the outer line of fortifications and placed men in front of them. Van Dorn arrived within three miles of Corinth at 10:00 am on October 3, and moved into some fieldworks that the Confederates had erected for the siege of Corinth. The fighting began, and the Confederates steadily pushed the Yankees rearward. A gap occurred between two Union brigades which the Confederates exploited around 1:00 pm. The Union troops moved back in a futile effort to close the gap. Price then attacked and drove the Federals back further to their inner line. By evening, Van Dorn was sure that he could finish the Federals off during the next day. This confidence--combined with the heat, fatigue, and water shortages--persuaded him to cancel any further operations that day. Rosecrans regrouped his men in the fortifications to be ready for the attack to come the next morning. Van Dorn had planned to attack at daybreak, but Brig. Gen. Louis Hébert’s sickness postponed it till 9:00 am. As the Confederates moved forward, Union artillery swept the field causing heavy casualties, but the Rebels continued on. They stormed Battery Powell and closed on Battery Robinett, where desperate hand-to-hand fighting ensued. A few Rebels fought their way into Corinth, but the Federals quickly drove them out. The Federals continued on, recapturing Battery Powell, and forcing Van Dorn into a general retreat. Rosecrans postponed any pursuit until the next day. As a result, Van Dorn was defeated, but not destroyed or captured, at Hatchie Bridge, Tennessee, on October 5.
https://www.nps.gov/abpp/battles/ms002.htm
7. Saturday, October 4, 1862: Richard Hawes is inaugurated as Confederate governor of Kentucky. Braxton Bragg attends.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186210
8. Saturday, October 4, 1862: By daybreak the Union had regrouped. As the Confederates moved forward, Union artillery swept the field causing heavy casualties, but the Rebels continued on. They stormed Battery Powell and closed on Battery Robinett, where desperate hand-to-hand fighting ensued. A few Rebels fought their way into Corinth, but the Federals quickly drove them out. The Federals continued on, recapturing Battery Powell, and forcing Van Dorn into a general retreat. General Rosecrans (US) postponed any pursuit until the next day. As a result, Van Dorn was defeated, but not destroyed or captured. The Union losses included 315 dead, 1,812 wounded, and 232 taken as prisoners, while the Confederate losses included 1,423 dead, 5,692 wounded, and 2,268 prisoners. The Confederate defeat at Corinth allowed the Union to focus attention on capturing Vicksburg, Mississippi, the last major Rebel stronghold on the Mississippi River.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-b/part-seventy-seven
9. Saturday, October 4, 1862: Battle of Corinth, Mississippi ends. Earl Van Dorn [CS] and Sterling Price [CS] attack Maj Gen William S. Rosecrans northern perimeter, driving it back to a reinforced line. Rosecrans successfully defends the city.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186210
10. Sunday, October 4, 1863: Lincoln predicts outcome of rebellion to General Rosecrans: “If we can hold Chattanooga, and East Tennessee, I think the rebellion must dwindle and die. I think you and Burnside can do this; and hence doing so is your main object.” There is a small battle at Nelson's Bridge, near New Iberia, LA, as Major General William B. Franklin, (US), pressed on toward Sabine, Texas. Brig. General James Ronald Chalmer begins his Confederate raid from Salem, Mississippi into West Tennessee and North Mississippi to make strikes against the Memphis - Charleston Railroad. Union engineers completed the first of the flat-bottomed steamboats that they hoped to use to help supply the Army of the Cumberland (US) at Chattanooga.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-c/week-130
11. Sunday, October 4, 1863: In a dispatch sent to Major General Halleck from Memphis, Tennessee: “My eldest boy Willie—my California boy—nine years old, died here yesterday, of fever and dysentery contracted at Vicksburg. His loss to me is more than words can express, but I would not let it divert my mind from the duty I owe my country”. . .W. T. SHERMAN, Maj.-General.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-c/week-130
12. Tuesday, October 4, 1864: The National Black Convention meets in Syracuse, New York. Citizenship and voting rights are high on their list.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/1864/week-182
13. Tuesday, October 4, 1864: General Sterling Price (CSA) decides to go west toward Jefferson City, Missouri, instead of St. Louis.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/1864/week-182
14. Tuesday, October 4, 1864: The “New Orleans Tribune” becomes the first black daily newspaper.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/1864/week-182
15. Tuesday, October 4, 1864: Acworth, Georgia - On October 4, a Confederate corps entered the towns of Acworth and Big Shanty. In both towns, they quickly captured the Union garrison and tore up a total of 15 miles of railroad tracks.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1864s.html
16. Tuesday, October 4, 1864: Salem, Virginia - On October 4, Col. John S. Mosby and his 250 Confederate raiders headed to Salem. At Salem, a Union force and work crews were there to repair damaged railroad tracks. Mosby organized his force and 2 cannon south and east of the village. The cannon unlimbered on Stephenson's Hill, 1/2 mile from Salem. The skirmishers dismounted and fanned out while the main body remained mounted to charge through the streets. The Federals were working on the tracks and building a camp.
The cannon opened the battle with their fire but the rounds fell short of their target. With the cannon fire, the Federals tried to rally their force. By this time, the Confederate skirmishers were were among the Union tents and the mounted Confederates were attacking the work crews on the railroad. The Federals offered a token resistance as the majority of them and their work crews boarded the train or fled on foot toward Rectortown. The Confederates suffered 2 wounded but they captured 50 federals.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1864s.html
17. Tuesday, October 4, 1864: Moving north along the Western and Atlantic Railroad in an attempt to sever Sherman's supply line, John Bell Hood attacks blockhouses and encampments at Acworth and Moon's Station.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186410

A Friday, October 4, 1861. Bagging Rebel Blockade Runners; The USS South Carolina, a steamer carrying five naval guns, captured the Joseph H. Toone in the South West Pass of the Mississippi River. Captain James Alden suspected her of being a Confederate blockade runner, bringing arms and contraband of war into the Southern States via New Orleans. He was not mistaken.
The Rebel ship was five days out of Havana and trying to enter Barataria Bay. When she drew to within ten miles of the inlet, she spotted the USS South Carolina. Her commander, Captain Pennington, changed from the northerly to a southwesterly course.
Before long, the ship was captured and boarded in the waters between the South West Pass and the Timbalier lighthouse. The Joseph H. Toone claimed to be a British ship bound from Havana to Tampico, Mexico. The Mississippi Delta was about 450 miles off course.
The Toone‘s Captain Pennington and the ship itself were from New Jersey, while the crew was indeed from Britain. Her cargo, however, betrayed their peaceful disguise. She carried various contraband of war and 4,000 – 5,000 muskets to be used by Confederate troops. The Toone‘s crew were sent to New York as prisoners of war. The ship and her cargo became a prize for the United States Navy.
This wasn’t the USS South Carolina‘s first capture. Five days previous, the Confederate blockade runner Ezilda was captured thirteen miles from Timbalier lighthouse. She was commanded by a former US Navy officer, Captain William Anderson Hicks, late of the Naval Academy at Annapolis.
It was claimed that the Ezilda was a British ship, but there was not one Englishman on her crew. She had also been over 400 miles off course and carrying contraband of war (though not arms). She, like the Toone of this date, became a price for the US Navy. [1]
[1] Official Naval Records, Series 1, Vol. 16, p738-739.
http://civilwardailygazette.com/?s=October+4%2C+1861
B Saturday, October 4, 1862: Battle for Corinth, Mississippi. On the morning of October 4, the Confederate general Earl Van Dorn ordered his men forward into the face of devastating artillery and musket fire from the Union army. The attacks were delayed and improperly coordinated. As a result, the attacking Confederates were caught in a terrible bloodbath. Although they were able to storm Batteries Robinett and Powell, two critical forts along Maj Gen William Rosecran's inner line, they suffered such severe casualties that they were unable to hold the position. A few of Van Dorn's men reached the vital railroad junction in Corinth, but were soon driven away.
Rosecrans took the offensive against the battered Southern forces on the afternoon of October 4, 1862. Retaking Batteries Powell and Robinett, he forced the Confederate army into a general retreat. Although Earl Van Dorn was able to withdraw his troops from the battlefield, his casualties were severe.
The losses at the Battle of Corinth were lopsided. In launching his troops against strongly fortified positions, Van Dorn lost 4,838 men killed and wounded. Union losses in the battle were estimated at 2,359.
The vital rail junction at Corinth remained in Union hands and Van Dorn was unable to move in support of Braxton Bragg's Kentucky invasion. Even though he had not been defeated in a major battle, General Bragg was forced to withdraw from Kentucy when the anticipated help from Van Dorn failed to materialize.
A highly significant battle fought to reverse the tide created by the Battle of Shiloh, the Battle of Corinth ended Confederate dreams of retaking Kentucky and western Tennessee.
http://www.exploresouthernhistory.com/corinth3.html
C Sunday, October 4, 1863: A conspiracy gathers against Braxton Bragg. “For some time now, the ire against Braxton Bragg had been simmering, even growing. Even the victory at Chickamauga could not quell the seething. Bragg did himself no favors by blaming two of his generals (Leonidas Polk and Thomas Hindman) for not following orders, thus marring the success with a strange pall of regret.
Now, nearly two weeks after the battle, William Rosecrans’ Federal Army of the Cumberland was holed up in the Tennessee River city of Chattanooga, with Bragg’s Army of Tennessee besieging them. Bragg admitted that there was no way he could successfully attack the city, and so it had devolved into a stalemate, with Rosecrans due to receive myriad reinforcements. Bragg had sent Joseph Wheeler’s cavalry across the Tennessee to play upon Union supply lines. That was working well enough, but to do it, he made himself yet another enemy in Nathan Bedford Forrest.
The chorus of officers demanding the removal of Bragg was indeed swelling to a boisterous crescendo. So loud were the cries that they were heard in Richmond, where President Jefferson Davis sent Col. James Chesnut to see just what was brewing. Davis rather liked Bragg and even at this early stage had probably made up his mind to support him. The only officers that Davis felt could replace him were P.G.T. Beauregard and Joseph Johnson, both of whom he abhorred.
On the 3rd, Chestnut talked with Polk and on this date, James Longstreet, who had left his Army of Northern Virginia before Chickamauga and had joined the chorus shortly thereafter. Longstreet’s conversation with Chesnut lasted only ten minutes, and while he neglected to inform him that they needed more troops, he made sure to impress upon him the army’s “distressed condition, and urged upon him to go on to Richmond with all speed and to urge upon the President relief for us.” Of course, the relief to which Longstreet was referring was the relief of Bragg from his duties.After his brief meeting with Col. Chesnut, Longstreet met with several other like-minded officers. Among the attendees were Simon Buckner, D.H. Hill, and quite a few others (though probably not Forrest, and neither Polk nor Hindman, since they were sent to Atlanta). From this gathering came a petition that was signed by nearly all of the high ranking officers in Bragg’s Army. Not only did Longstreet, Hill and Buckner attach their names to it, but so did Patrick Cleburne, William Preston, William H. T. Walker, Randall Gibson, and John C. Brown (plus four others – twelve total).
The long petition addressed to President Jefferson Davis outlined the reasons that Bragg should be removed.
“Whatever may have been accomplished heretofore,” it read, “it is certain that the fruits of the victory of the Chickamauga have now escaped our grasp. The Army of Tennessee, stricken with a complete paralysis, will in a few days’ time be thrown strictly on the defensive, and may deem itself fortunate if it escapes from its present position without disaster.”
The petition expressed all the reasons that Chattanooga must be wrenched from the enemy’s hands, but reasoned that without a proper commander, “this campaign is virtually closed.”
The Federals were receiving numerous reinforcements, which “must be met as nearly as possible by corresponding re-enforcements to this army.” And while reinforcements were needed, with them, even “the ablest general could not be expected to grapple successfully with the accumulating difficulties of the situation.”
Still, the signers were looking for the ablest general they could find, which brought them to the crux of their argument. They were requesting Jefferson Davis to “assign to the command of this army an officer who will inspire the army and the country with undivided confidence.” Here, they were careful not to list the many criticisms they had with Bragg, instead, urging that he be relieved because “the condition of his health totally unfits him for the command of an army in the field.”
Though twelve had signed the petition, it was clear that it was written shortly before the meeting. Just who authored the letter was a point of debate. Though all who signed it no doubt knew the identity, all were quiet and even deceitful when it came to spilling the truth.
General Longstreet, who many believed instigated the meeting, denied authorship and claimed that he had no idea who wrote it. He did, however, hold onto the petition at his headquarters until others who could not make the meeting were able to sign it. As he claims, it wasn’t until well after the war, when he learned that D.H. Hill held the original pen.
And yet, Hill completely denied it. Though he had signed it, he claimed to have little more to do with it. Polk, he asserted, prodded Simon Buckner to write it. Further, according to one of Hill’s staff officers, the petition was left not at Longstreet’s headquarters to await more signatures, but at Hill’s.
The Official Records stated that the petition was “supposed to have been written by Buckner,” and that could very well be the truth, as he was probably the first to sign it. Others, apart from Hill, believed Buckner to be the author, including Leonidas Polk’s son.
Even as early as the evening of this date, Bragg learned of the petition, and that Buckner had authored it. This sent him not into a rage, but into a gloom of “distress and mortification,” as his aid put it. Soon, however, Bragg shuffled it aside, all but ignoring the problem, hoping for it to simply vanish. This would prompt the same aid to write several days later that Bragg was “blind as a bat to the circumstances around him.”
Bragg may have been blind, but Davis was not. Col. Chesnut would, the following day, urge the President to drop whatever it was that he was doing and come quickly to the Army of Tennessee. He would arrive on the 9th. [1]
[1] Sources: Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 30, Part 2, p64-65; Part 4, p728; Vol. 52, Part 2, p538; Mountains Touched with Fire by Wiley Sword; Autumn of Glory by Thomas Lawrence Connelley; Braxton Bragg and Confederate Defeat, Vol. 2 by Judith Lee Hallock; The Army of Tennessee by Stanley F. Horn.
http://civilwardailygazette.com/a-conspiracy-gathers-against-bragg/
D Tuesday, October 4, 1864: In Georgia, General Hood’s (CSA) men were in firm control of the Chattanooga-Atlanta Railroad lines, with fighting taking place at Moon’s Station, Lost Mountain and Acworth. Today, General Sherman (US) receives reports pleading for relief, he decides to provide it. Leaving only one corps to hold Atlanta, Sherman starts back up the line to deal with Hood. At Kennesaw Mountain, he establishes headquarters and gets to work.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/1864/week-182
FYI GySgt Jack Wallace CWO4 Terrence Clark SMSgt Lawrence McCarter LTC Trent Klug SFC Bernard WalkoSSG Franklin Briant SSG Byron Howard Sr CPL Ronald Keyes Jr SFC William Farrell CMDCM John F. "Doc" Bradshaw SPC Lyle Montgomery PO2 Marco Monsalve SPC Woody Bullard SSG Michael Noll SSG Bill McCoy SFC David Reid, M.S, PHR, SHRM-CP, DTM Sgt Christopher Collins SPC Private RallyPoint Member SPC Gary C. PO3 Lynn Spalding

If Defeat Was Not Horrible Enough – The Last Battle for Corinth, Mississippi

October 4, 1862 (Saturday) How had this all gone so incredibly wrong? The fighting of the previous day, while hard, went heavily in favor of the Confederates under Earl Van Dorn and Sterling Price.…

Response by TSgt Joe C. made Feb 12 at 2017 8:37 PM

2017-02-12T20:37:40-05:00

LTC Stephen F. great read today! I chose all events were important on Oct 4th.

Response by SFC William Farrell made Feb 12 at 2017 8:51 PM

2017-02-12T20:51:57-05:00

Thanks for the history LTC Stephen F. always good.

Response by SSgt Robert Marx made Feb 12 at 2017 8:57 PM

2017-02-12T20:57:32-05:00

I would say that the Battle of Corinth had a greater impact on the war than those other 3 events. Tennessee went on to be the only southern state to be fully conquered by Union forces during the war and it had the highest number of Unionist minded citizens of any of the seceding states.

Response by SP5 Mark Kuzinski made Feb 12 at 2017 9:06 PM

2017-02-12T21:06:12-05:00

First of all thank you for this post. I always look forward to them - second, keep them coming.

Response by SFC George Smith made Feb 12 at 2017 9:54 PM

2017-02-12T21:54:16-05:00

thanks for the History of the un-Civil War ... AKA War of Northern Aggression...

Response by SGT John " Mac " McConnell made Feb 12 at 2017 9:55 PM

2017-02-12T21:55:18-05:00

Thanks again for the civil war post's. Great historical information LTC Stephen F.

Response by SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL made Feb 12 at 2017 10:37 PM

2017-02-12T22:37:17-05:00

LTC Stephen F. absolutely magnificent and astute with defining articulate details. Great read/share with creativity. I am going with: 1863: CSA General Simon Bolivar Buckner circulated a petition to remove CSA General Braxton Bragg from command of the Army of Tennessee. Since Maj Gen William Rosecrans’

Response by SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth made Feb 13 at 2017 5:34 AM

2017-02-13T05:34:47-05:00

Nice to see the great Civil War history, thank you.

Response by LTC Trent Klug made Oct 6 at 2022 5:58 AM

2022-10-06T05:58:44-04:00

LTC Stephen Ford. Once again Braxton Bragg is involved in shenanigans. You'd have thought he'd learned after the first 2 or 9 times.