Posted on Dec 21, 2016
What was the most significant event on September 25 during the U.S. Civil War?
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In 1864, the future founder of Eli Lilly Pharmaceuticals became the ranking officer after every union officer above him was killed at Sulphur Trestle Fort. They held out against Nathan Bedford Forrest’ confederate forces as long as they could before they surrendered. The black soldiers were sold into slavery and white enlisted men were sent to a prison camp at Cahaba, Alabama. Lilly, who commanded the 9th Indiana cavalry Regiment, and the other remaining officers fared better and are sent to a prison camp in Enterprise, Mississippi. Yes, after the war and a failed cotton-planting venture and even losing his wife to illness, he returns North to his pharmaceutical chemistry roots and will become known worldwide for his Eli Lilly & Company.
In 1861: Freed men of color allowed in the Navy. “The United States Army had barred black men from service since the Militia Act of 1792, that only allowed “every free able-bodied white male citizen” to enlist in the militia. The Navy, on the other hand, never had such a rule. Limits, however, had been put into place during the Mexican War, ruling that only 5% of the Navy’s force could be made up of black men.
During the rush to recruit after Fort Sumter, nearly 300 black men enlisted (and in many cases, re-enlisted) in the US Navy. These numbers outgrew the 5% rule and were on pace to beat it three times over (by the Summer of 1862, 15% of all Navy recruits would be of African decent). [1]
In light of this trend, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, issued an order to deal with the “contrabands.”
The Department finds it necessary to adopt a regulation with respect to the large and increasing number of persons of color, commonly known as contraband, now subsisted at the navy yard and on board ships of war.
These can neither be expelled from the service to which they have resorted, nor can they be maintained unemployed, and it is not proper that they should be compelled to render necessary and regular services without a stated compensation. You are therefore authorized, when their services can be made useful, to enlist them for the naval service, under the same forms and regulations as apply to other enlistments. They will be allowed, however, no higher rating than “boys,” at a compensation of $10 per month and one ration a day. I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, Gideon Welles” [2]
1. Prologue Magazine, Fall 2001, Vol. 33, No. 3.
2. Official Navy Records, Series 1, Vol. 6. p252.
http://civilwardailygazette.com/confederate-general-henry-wise-relieved-of-duty-contraband-allowed-in-navy/
The Armies slip from Federal Maj Gen Don Carlos Buell and Confederate General Braxton Bragg in Kentucky in September 1862. “Confederate General Braxton Bragg was tired. His grand scheme was crumbling. Originally, he wanted Generals Earl Van Dorn and Sterling Price to join him with Kirby Smith’s troops in Middle Tennessee. Somehow or another it had all gotten away from him. Somehow, this grand army had turned into three, maybe four, individual forces separated by hundreds of miles. He was in Kentucky and even the most simple link up – with Smith following his capture of Lexington – had gone awry. The situation had spiraled out of his control.
The late summer and early autumn of 1862 in Kentucky were quite an exciting time. Two major cities, Louisville, Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio were the apparent targets of two large Rebel forces under Braxton Bragg and Kirby Smith. While Smith had seriously threatened the Ohio city, he never made an attack. The focus then turned to Lousiville, as the general Federal consensus believed Bragg to be headed there. The Union Army of the Ohio, 50,000-strong under Don Carlos Buell, had made a hellish 110-mile march, arriving in the panicked city on this date.
Bragg, however, was not headed to Louisville. His plan was to link up with Kirby Smith’s command around Bardstown. When Bragg and his 26,000 men arrived, however, he found only a letter from Smith, explaining that he had to remain around Lexington.
Kirby Smith’s force of 13,000 was scattered more or less around Lexington, with another 8,000 men at Cumberland Gap. Linking up would give Bragg’s Army of Mississippi around 47,000 troops. This was a formidable force, as it wasn’t just Buell’s army the Confederates had to reckon with. There were the volunteers in Cincinnati – green to be sure, but also over 50,000 in number. A similar call for volunteers took place in Louisville, where twenty-five regiments had been mustered into service (perhaps 20,000ish men).
Kirby Smith had some high hopes. Believing that Buell’s Union Army needed to be stopped from linking up with the force at Louisville, he also expected Bragg to be able to handle that himself. But since Bragg was moving to link up with Smith, Buell’s Federals were easily able to skirt the Confederates.
Buell’s Union Army of the Ohio entered Louisville as a ravenous pack of wolves. The march had been truly backbreaking. They were greeted with cheers and banners, brass bands and flags. City residents brought them pies, cakes, bread and food of all kinds.
They were marched through the city, directly to their camp, where they received new uniforms, shoes, supplies and much needed rest. Soon, however, one-third of the Federal army was absent without leave, taking full advantage of all the amenities the city of Louisville had to offer. Many entire regiments would be drunk for days. Buell did what he could to maintain command, but, like Bragg, he quickly lost control of his own army.
This did nothing to help Buell’s standing. He was a Democrat and was used to attacks by the Republican press upon his political leanings. New, however, were the attacks upon his military abilities. In truth, Buell had started his Army of the Ohio in Louisville. Now, roughly a year later, he was back with little to show for it and the enemy believed to be beating down the door.
He was accused by Andrew Johnson of using his army as a body guard. Zachary Chandler, a senator from Michigan who visited the troops, related that many in the army wanted a command change. Some in the ranks were calling him a coward, even a traitor. Others called for his death. This was echoed in the Indianapolis Daily Journal, whose editor mused that Buell “richly deserves to be shot.”
Over the next several days, Governors, Generals, Washington politicians, and the press would all be calling for Buell’s demise in one way or another. While retreat from Alabama, through Tennessee and into Kentucky had taken its toll upon his character, his seeming refusal to fight the Rebels under Bragg was the nail in his coffin.
Just as Buell appeared to be less than excited about battling Bragg, Bragg was trying to cope with Smith’s flippant response to the agreed upon meeting. Rather than gathering with Bragg at Bardstown, Smith decided to move his entire command southeast from Lexington to Proctor in hopes of cutting off General George Morgan’s Yankees on their way from Cumberland Gap.
Most disappointing, however, was the lack of support he had received from the people of the Bluegrass State.
“I regret to say we are sadly disappointed at the want of action by our friends in Kentucky,” wrote General Bragg to Richmond. “We have so far received no accession to this army.” While Smith had received about a brigade’s worth of recruits, that was “not half our losses by casualties of different kinds.”
Bragg had brought along a multitude of extra muskets in hopes that the people of Kentucky would flock to the Southern cause. They did not. “We have 15,000 stand of arms and no one to use them. Unless a change occurs soon we must abandon the garden spot of Kentucky to its cupidity.”
((Sources today: Braxton Bragg and Confederate Defeat, Vol. 1 by Grady McWhiney; Army of the Heartland by Thomas Lawrence Connelly; All for the Regiment by Gerald Prokopowicz; Perryville by Kenneth Noe; Days of Glory by Larry Daniel; War in Kentucky by James Lee McDonough; OR, 16.2, p873, 876.
http://civilwardailygazette.com/the-armies-slip-from-buell-and-bragg-in-kentucky/
Pictures: 1862 Johnsonville TN Diagram for kids; 1862-09-25 Buell's Army arrives in Louisville; 1861-09-25 Battle_at_Freestone_Point1; 1864-09 Sulphur Creek Fort diagram
A. 1861: Freestone Point, Virginia. The Union fleet of USS Jacob Bell (commanded by Lieutenant Edward P. McCrea) and Seminole, commanded by Lieutenant Charles S. Norton arrived just off Freestone Point when they were shelled by the Confederate shore batteries, commanded by Col. Louis T. Wigfall. The union fleet returned fire, but would eventually retire from the engagement.
B. 1862: Randolph, Tennessee. A Union force, commanded by Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman, entered the town of Randolph. The town had been a safe haven for Confederate troops. Sherman ordered Randolph to be burned, which the troops proceeded to do.
Meanwhile at Davis's Bridge, Tennessee, a Union cavalry reconnaissance party arrived at Davis's Bridge. The 200-man 11th Illinois Cavalry, commanded by Lt. Col. John McDermott, was surprised by a group of Confederate guerrillas. They forced the Federals to scatter suffering 70 killed and wounded.
C. 1863: Siege of Chattanooga, TN. After being ordered to move his XII Corps west to relive Chattanooga, Maj Gen Henry Slocum attempted to resign his commission because he did not want to work with Maj Gen Hooker who was placed in command of his XII Corps and the XI Corps. President Abraham Lincoln did not accept the resignation.
D. 1864: Battle of Sulphur Trestle, in Limestone County, Alabama cut a crucial Union supply line and was a victory for the Confederate forces under Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest. The engagement over the railroad bridge was the bloodiest to take place in north Alabama. The battle, which had lasted about five hours, proved costly for the Union: the Confederate's had severed the vital union supply line, and 200 Union troops were killed, with the remaining 800 taken prisoner. About 40 Confederate soldiers were lost. Forrest catalogued his captures as 700 small arms, 16 wagons, 300 cavalry horses and equipments, and medical, quartermaster, and commissary stores. The battle was north Alabama's bloodiest of the Civil War and participants attested to the awful carnage suffered by the Union. Although the loss of the trestle affected the Union Southern Campaign, it did not affect the overall war effort.
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In 1861: Freed men of color allowed in the Navy. “The United States Army had barred black men from service since the Militia Act of 1792, that only allowed “every free able-bodied white male citizen” to enlist in the militia. The Navy, on the other hand, never had such a rule. Limits, however, had been put into place during the Mexican War, ruling that only 5% of the Navy’s force could be made up of black men.
During the rush to recruit after Fort Sumter, nearly 300 black men enlisted (and in many cases, re-enlisted) in the US Navy. These numbers outgrew the 5% rule and were on pace to beat it three times over (by the Summer of 1862, 15% of all Navy recruits would be of African decent). [1]
In light of this trend, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, issued an order to deal with the “contrabands.”
The Department finds it necessary to adopt a regulation with respect to the large and increasing number of persons of color, commonly known as contraband, now subsisted at the navy yard and on board ships of war.
These can neither be expelled from the service to which they have resorted, nor can they be maintained unemployed, and it is not proper that they should be compelled to render necessary and regular services without a stated compensation. You are therefore authorized, when their services can be made useful, to enlist them for the naval service, under the same forms and regulations as apply to other enlistments. They will be allowed, however, no higher rating than “boys,” at a compensation of $10 per month and one ration a day. I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, Gideon Welles” [2]
1. Prologue Magazine, Fall 2001, Vol. 33, No. 3.
2. Official Navy Records, Series 1, Vol. 6. p252.
http://civilwardailygazette.com/confederate-general-henry-wise-relieved-of-duty-contraband-allowed-in-navy/
The Armies slip from Federal Maj Gen Don Carlos Buell and Confederate General Braxton Bragg in Kentucky in September 1862. “Confederate General Braxton Bragg was tired. His grand scheme was crumbling. Originally, he wanted Generals Earl Van Dorn and Sterling Price to join him with Kirby Smith’s troops in Middle Tennessee. Somehow or another it had all gotten away from him. Somehow, this grand army had turned into three, maybe four, individual forces separated by hundreds of miles. He was in Kentucky and even the most simple link up – with Smith following his capture of Lexington – had gone awry. The situation had spiraled out of his control.
The late summer and early autumn of 1862 in Kentucky were quite an exciting time. Two major cities, Louisville, Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio were the apparent targets of two large Rebel forces under Braxton Bragg and Kirby Smith. While Smith had seriously threatened the Ohio city, he never made an attack. The focus then turned to Lousiville, as the general Federal consensus believed Bragg to be headed there. The Union Army of the Ohio, 50,000-strong under Don Carlos Buell, had made a hellish 110-mile march, arriving in the panicked city on this date.
Bragg, however, was not headed to Louisville. His plan was to link up with Kirby Smith’s command around Bardstown. When Bragg and his 26,000 men arrived, however, he found only a letter from Smith, explaining that he had to remain around Lexington.
Kirby Smith’s force of 13,000 was scattered more or less around Lexington, with another 8,000 men at Cumberland Gap. Linking up would give Bragg’s Army of Mississippi around 47,000 troops. This was a formidable force, as it wasn’t just Buell’s army the Confederates had to reckon with. There were the volunteers in Cincinnati – green to be sure, but also over 50,000 in number. A similar call for volunteers took place in Louisville, where twenty-five regiments had been mustered into service (perhaps 20,000ish men).
Kirby Smith had some high hopes. Believing that Buell’s Union Army needed to be stopped from linking up with the force at Louisville, he also expected Bragg to be able to handle that himself. But since Bragg was moving to link up with Smith, Buell’s Federals were easily able to skirt the Confederates.
Buell’s Union Army of the Ohio entered Louisville as a ravenous pack of wolves. The march had been truly backbreaking. They were greeted with cheers and banners, brass bands and flags. City residents brought them pies, cakes, bread and food of all kinds.
They were marched through the city, directly to their camp, where they received new uniforms, shoes, supplies and much needed rest. Soon, however, one-third of the Federal army was absent without leave, taking full advantage of all the amenities the city of Louisville had to offer. Many entire regiments would be drunk for days. Buell did what he could to maintain command, but, like Bragg, he quickly lost control of his own army.
This did nothing to help Buell’s standing. He was a Democrat and was used to attacks by the Republican press upon his political leanings. New, however, were the attacks upon his military abilities. In truth, Buell had started his Army of the Ohio in Louisville. Now, roughly a year later, he was back with little to show for it and the enemy believed to be beating down the door.
He was accused by Andrew Johnson of using his army as a body guard. Zachary Chandler, a senator from Michigan who visited the troops, related that many in the army wanted a command change. Some in the ranks were calling him a coward, even a traitor. Others called for his death. This was echoed in the Indianapolis Daily Journal, whose editor mused that Buell “richly deserves to be shot.”
Over the next several days, Governors, Generals, Washington politicians, and the press would all be calling for Buell’s demise in one way or another. While retreat from Alabama, through Tennessee and into Kentucky had taken its toll upon his character, his seeming refusal to fight the Rebels under Bragg was the nail in his coffin.
Just as Buell appeared to be less than excited about battling Bragg, Bragg was trying to cope with Smith’s flippant response to the agreed upon meeting. Rather than gathering with Bragg at Bardstown, Smith decided to move his entire command southeast from Lexington to Proctor in hopes of cutting off General George Morgan’s Yankees on their way from Cumberland Gap.
Most disappointing, however, was the lack of support he had received from the people of the Bluegrass State.
“I regret to say we are sadly disappointed at the want of action by our friends in Kentucky,” wrote General Bragg to Richmond. “We have so far received no accession to this army.” While Smith had received about a brigade’s worth of recruits, that was “not half our losses by casualties of different kinds.”
Bragg had brought along a multitude of extra muskets in hopes that the people of Kentucky would flock to the Southern cause. They did not. “We have 15,000 stand of arms and no one to use them. Unless a change occurs soon we must abandon the garden spot of Kentucky to its cupidity.”
((Sources today: Braxton Bragg and Confederate Defeat, Vol. 1 by Grady McWhiney; Army of the Heartland by Thomas Lawrence Connelly; All for the Regiment by Gerald Prokopowicz; Perryville by Kenneth Noe; Days of Glory by Larry Daniel; War in Kentucky by James Lee McDonough; OR, 16.2, p873, 876.
http://civilwardailygazette.com/the-armies-slip-from-buell-and-bragg-in-kentucky/
Pictures: 1862 Johnsonville TN Diagram for kids; 1862-09-25 Buell's Army arrives in Louisville; 1861-09-25 Battle_at_Freestone_Point1; 1864-09 Sulphur Creek Fort diagram
A. 1861: Freestone Point, Virginia. The Union fleet of USS Jacob Bell (commanded by Lieutenant Edward P. McCrea) and Seminole, commanded by Lieutenant Charles S. Norton arrived just off Freestone Point when they were shelled by the Confederate shore batteries, commanded by Col. Louis T. Wigfall. The union fleet returned fire, but would eventually retire from the engagement.
B. 1862: Randolph, Tennessee. A Union force, commanded by Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman, entered the town of Randolph. The town had been a safe haven for Confederate troops. Sherman ordered Randolph to be burned, which the troops proceeded to do.
Meanwhile at Davis's Bridge, Tennessee, a Union cavalry reconnaissance party arrived at Davis's Bridge. The 200-man 11th Illinois Cavalry, commanded by Lt. Col. John McDermott, was surprised by a group of Confederate guerrillas. They forced the Federals to scatter suffering 70 killed and wounded.
C. 1863: Siege of Chattanooga, TN. After being ordered to move his XII Corps west to relive Chattanooga, Maj Gen Henry Slocum attempted to resign his commission because he did not want to work with Maj Gen Hooker who was placed in command of his XII Corps and the XI Corps. President Abraham Lincoln did not accept the resignation.
D. 1864: Battle of Sulphur Trestle, in Limestone County, Alabama cut a crucial Union supply line and was a victory for the Confederate forces under Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest. The engagement over the railroad bridge was the bloodiest to take place in north Alabama. The battle, which had lasted about five hours, proved costly for the Union: the Confederate's had severed the vital union supply line, and 200 Union troops were killed, with the remaining 800 taken prisoner. About 40 Confederate soldiers were lost. Forrest catalogued his captures as 700 small arms, 16 wagons, 300 cavalry horses and equipments, and medical, quartermaster, and commissary stores. The battle was north Alabama's bloodiest of the Civil War and participants attested to the awful carnage suffered by the Union. Although the loss of the trestle affected the Union Southern Campaign, it did not affect the overall war effort.
FYI SGT Mark Anderson PO3 Edward Riddle Maj William W. 'Bill' Price COL (Join to see) SSgt David M.] SPC Maurice Evans SPC Jon O. SGT Jim ArnoldAmn Dale PreisachCW4 (Join to see) Sgt Jerry GenesioSSG (Join to see)LTC John Griscom LTC Thomas Tennant LTC David Brown LTC (Join to see) CWO3 (Join to see) SGT John " Mac " McConnell SFC (Join to see) CPL Ronald Keyes Jr
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In 1862 at Sabine Pass, Texas the USS Kensington and USS Rachel Seaman and mortar schooner USS Henry James bombarded Sabine City, Texas, and forced Confederate troops to withdraw from the city. With Union control of Sabine Pass, the Texas coast could then be invaded.
The Sulphur Creek trestle bridge in northern Alabama “is believed by some scholars to have influenced Civil War veteran and writer Ambrose Bierce's story, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." Although the story recounts the hanging of a southern sympathizer in Tennessee and not a battle, the location described in the story strongly resembles the Sulphur Creek scenery, which Bierce had visited as a member of the Ninth Indiana Infantry while helping to repair the railroad in 1862.”
Wednesday, September 25, 1861: Confederate General Henry Wise was relieved of duty by General Robert E. Lee, “As dawn broke over the mountains in Western Virginia, General Lee could be found riding along the Confederate lines, observing the Union forces, a mile west. Though General Henry Wise, who had held the position for a week or more, assured Lee that the Union forces of Generals Cox and Rosecrans had not yet combined, it appeared to Lee that they had.
He could make out six to eight regiments dug in at the crest of Big Sewell Mountain, but due to the dense woods, could see no more. On the James River & Kanawha Turnpike, he noticed a wagon train that appeared to be independent of those regiments. Seeing this induced him to believe there was a larger number of troops before him. [1]
In actuality, few of General Rosecrans’ men had made it across the Gauley River at Carnifex Ferry. If Cox had any reinforcements on this date, they were from his own troops.
Though possibly greater in number, Lee could see that the Federals were not planning to attack. While their position was a good one, his was better. In a dispatch to General Floyd, twelve miles back at Meadow Bluff, Lee informed him that their position “was a strong point, if they fight us here.” He reasoned that “they can get no position for their artillery, and their men I think will not advance without it.”
Lee then asked Floyd, “how would it do to make a stand here?” He wasn’t asking Floyd to join him at Big Sewell, however. In a post script, Lee asked Floyd to send three days’ provisions for Wise’s Legion and Col. Heth’s Brigade. No mention was made for Floyd to move forward. [2]
This was a move both military and political in nature. Militarily, Floyd had to cover the rear. If Rosecrans somehow managed to make use of a small Wilderness Road that would place his force behind Lee’s at Big Sewell, Floyd had to be there to prevent complete destruction.
Politically, Floyd and Wise had never been able to get along. Floyd, who was Wise’s commander, had ordered him to fall back from Big Sewell. Wise refused. If Lee then ordered Floyd to Wise’s position, it would give strong support to Wise’s insubordination.
The rift had become so bad that Floyd wrote to Richmond after the Battle of Carnifex Ferry, describing how Wise refused to come to his aide. While that wasn’t quite true, he was very adamant that Wise be removed from command.
Finally, his prayers were answered. As Lee was reconnoitering the Confederate lines, a messenger from Richmond bore a dispatch from Acting Secretary of War Judah P. Benjamin. He carried two messages. The first was for General Floyd, and contained praise from the President over how he handled the affair at Carnifex, despite General Wise’s bungling.
The second, relieved Wise of his duty: “Sir: You are instructed to turn over all the troops heretofore immediately under your command to General Floyd, and report yourself in person to the Adjutant-General in this city with the least delay. In making the transfer to General Floyd you will include everything under your command. By order of the President: J. P. BENJAMIN” [3]
Floyd happily sent the messenger forward to Wise’s command.
In the meantime, Union skirmishers had been pushed forward to probe the Confederate right. Wise was personally directing the defenses as his own skirmishers fell back to the main line. He called upon an artillery officer to fire into the advancing Yankees.
As the battery let loose its fire, Wise received the dispatch from Richmond. He was mortified and embarrassed. After he had a few minutes to take it all in, he wrote to General Lee, asking his advice. Though he was ordered to Richmond “with the least delay,” surely the orders couldn’t mean that he should have to abandon his men in the midst of a battle!
Lee immediately replied that if he were Wise, he would “obey the President’s order.” [4]
Realizing that there was nothing he could do, Wise capitulated. That evening, he penned a terse farewell address to his beloved Legion.
It is not proper here to inquire into the reasons of this order. It is in legal form, from competent authority, and it could not have been foreseen by the President that it would reach me inopportunely whilst under the fire of the enemy…. But the order is imperative, requiring the least delay, and prompt obedience is the first duty of military service, though it may call for the greatest personal sacrifice. [5]
Wise returned to his tent and packed his bags. He would leave at dawn.”
1. Rebels at the Gate by Lesser.
2. Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 51 (Part 2), p312.
3. Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 5, p148-149.
4. Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 5, p879.
5. Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 51 (Part 2), p313.
http://civilwardailygazette.com/confederate-general-henry-wise-relieved-of-duty-contraband-allowed-in-navy/
Sunday, September 25, 1864: Robert E Lee has high hopes for Jubal Early’s Campaign. “If you feel strong enough,” wrote General Lee to Jubal Early, “better move at once after the enemy and attack him, and if possible destroy him.”
This was, of course, a brilliant idea. If Early would destroy Philip Sheridan’s army, the Valley of the Shenandoah would once more be in Confederate hands, and the crops not already destroyed by the Federals could be used to feed the army. But Lee knew how many men Early had – perhaps no more than 15,000 once joined again by Joseph Kershaw’s Division. Sheridan had over twice that number, though of this Lee could not be certain.
Two days prior, Lee had urged Early to encourage his troops, warning him “do not bring on battle until Kershaw joins you and your troops are rallied.” To that end, Early had to once more retreat.
Since the battle along the Opequon on September 19th, Early had retreated nearly seventy miles south and was now about to march at least ten more. Before the dawn, his small army moved from near Harrisonburg nearly east to Brown’s Gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains. There, he would wait for Kershaw.
From his headquarters in Port Republic, Early expressed the dire position of his army. “My troops are very much shattered,” he wrote to General Lee, “the men very much exhausted, and many of them without shoes.” Lee had already called for reinforcements to pour out of every garrison and crevasse in or near the Valley, but it was only a drop of what was needed.
Attempting to predict Sheridan’s next move, Early continued: “I think Sheridan means to try [David] Hunter’s campaign again, and his superiority in cavalry gives him the advantage.” Knowing his lack, Early asked Lee to spare Wade Hampton’s Division from Petersburg. Early had agreed that Sheridan must be beaten, and he vowed to at least try it upon Kershaw’s arrival. “I shall do the best I can, and hope I may be able to check the enemy, but I cannot but be apprehensive of the result.”
Hunter’s campaign had a policy akin to scorched-earth, and Sheridan was indeed planning such a campaign once Early was vanquished. Thus far, there had been some destruction, but for the post part, Early’s troops, even in retreat, were enough to keep the Federals busy. But now that they were sequestered in Brown’s Gap, unless they attacked, they were as good as defeated.
The day following, Grant would reassure Sheridan, informing him that Lee had dispatched no troops from the Petersburg defenses to reinforce Early. “Your victories have created the greatest consternation,” he concluded. “If you can possibly subsist your army to the front for a few days more, do it, and make a great effort to destroy the roads about Charlottesville and the canal wherever your cavalry can reach it.”
Over the ensuing week, Sheridan would plot his course. But until then, he would remain in Harrisonburg to rest his hard-traveled army. [1]
[1] Sources: Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 43, Part 1, p557-558; Part 2, p170-171, 177, 879; Personal Memoirs by Philip Sheridan; A Memoir of the Last Year of the War For Independence by Jubal A. Early; From Winchester to Cedar Creek by Jeffry D. Wert.
http://civilwardailygazette.com/lee-has-high-hopes-for-earlys-campaign/
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.
Wednesday, September 25, 1861: Journal of Sergeant Alexander G. Downing, Company E, Eleventh Iowa Infantry, Third Brigade, "Crocker's Brigade," Sixth Division of the Seventeenth Corps, Army of the Tennessee. “It rained all day and we had to drill in a big barn on the edge of town. We drilled in the barn on the "double quick." On account of the rain, business of all kinds is almost at a standstill.”
Thursday, September 25, 1862: Journal of Sergeant Alexander G. Downing, Company E, Eleventh Iowa Infantry, Third Brigade, "Crocker's Brigade," Sixth Division of the Seventeenth Corps, Army of the Tennessee. “Our knapsacks and tents arrived today by train from Corinth, and it will be more like living now. We have excellent water here, and there are large hotels for invalids, this having been a health resort for Southern people. There are quite a number of mineral springs here, some of sulphur and others of iron.”
Thursday, September 25, 1862: Sergeant J. Smith DuShane of the 100th Pennsylvania Vol. Inf. Reg., writes home to his to tell her of the wound he has received at the Second Battle of Bull Run: “My Dearest May, God bless you dearest for your kind and encouraging letter, it came like a sunbeam to brighten my pathway. while reading it I forgot my wounds and pain and in thought I was again with my my little curly headed pet again. do you know darling that thoughts of the happy hours spent with you are the kindliest ones that come to cheer me in my hour of loneliness, why is this? what wierd enchantment is this with-which you surrounded me that scarce do my thoughts wander to my loved ere they wander to my little teaze. but I suppose that it is one of your mischievous pranks so I’ll just grin and bear it.”
Thursday, September 25, 1862: Confederate War Department clerk John Beauchamp Jones writes in his journal: “The Northern papers contain intimations of the existence of a conspiracy to dethrone Lincoln, and put a military Dictator at the head of the government. Gen. Fremont is named as the man. It is alleged that this movement is to be made by the Abolitionists, as if Lincoln were not sufficiently radical for them!”
Thursday, September 25, 1862: Surgeon Alfred L. Castleman of the Army of the Potomac, writes in his journal, including this somewhat worrisome note about the pain with his hand: “25th—Well, Gen. Lee is, safely to himself, out of Maryland, into which he came in the confident expectation of adding at least fifty thousand men to his army, but which he left with fifteen thousand less than he brought in.
My hand is excessively painful, though all constitutional symptoms have left. Suppuration has fairly set in, and I no longer feel any uneasiness as to results.”
Friday, September 25, 1863: Journal of Sergeant Alexander G. Downing, Company E, Eleventh Iowa Infantry, Third Brigade, "Crocker's Brigade," Sixth Division of the Seventeenth Corps, Army of the Tennessee. “It is quite warm today. I was on fatigue duty, accompanying the quartermaster's wagons into Vicksburg to draw supplies for the regiment. The bales of hay and sacks of corn taxed our strength in loading them. Some of the boys on furlough returned today.”
Friday, September 25, 1863: On this date, President Lincoln sends a dispatch to Gen. Rosecrans advising him that two corps (the XI under Howard and the XII under Slocum) are being sent from the Army of the Potomac to Chattanooga, under the joint command of recalled Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker---a little more thn 15,000 men. Notice the comical note that Lincoln expects Rosecrans to do something about the near blood-feud between Hooker and Slocum: EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, September 25, 1863. MY DEAR GENERAL ROSECRANS: “We are sending you two small corps, one under General Howard and one under General Slocum, and the whole under General Hooker.
Unfortunately the relations between Generals Hooker and Slocum are not such as to promise good, if their present relative positions remain. Therefore, let me beg--almost enjoin upon you--that on their reaching you, you will make a transposition by which General Slocum with his Corps, may pass from under the command of General Hooker, and General Hooker, in turn receive some other equal force. It is important for this to be done, though we could not well arrange it here. Please do it.
Yours very truly, A. LINCOLN.”
Sunday, September 25, 1864: Journal of Sergeant Alexander G. Downing, Company E, Eleventh Iowa Infantry, Third Brigade, "Crocker's Brigade," Sixth Division of the Seventeenth Corps, Army of the Tennessee. “We arrived in Atlanta about 9 o'clock last night. I stayed overnight at the Soldiers' Home, in one of the vacant store buildings. I got my breakfast there and then with my knapsack on started for the headquarters of the Seventeenth Army Corps. From there I went to the headquarters of the Iowa Brigade and about noon joined my company. I was glad to see the boys. I received a large mail, one letter from father with $5.00 enclosed. Atlanta is quite a city, there being some fine buildings, one of the finest being the railroad station. But the town is low and in the timber.”
A. Wednesday, September 25, 1861: Freestone Point, Virginia. On September 25, the Union fleet arrived just off of Freestone Point. Confederate shore batteries, commanded by Col. Louis T. Wigfall, were here and immediately opened fire on the ships. The fleet returned fire, but would eventually retire from the engagement.
The Freestone Point batteries were shelled by the USS Jacob Bell (commanded by Lieutenant Edward P. McCrea) and Seminole, commanded by Lieutenant Charles S. Norton. On January 1, 1862, Cockpit Point was shelled by Anacostia (Lieutenant Oscar C. Badger commanding) and Yankee (Lieutenant Eastman commanding), with neither side gaining an advantage, though Yankee was slightly damaged.
B. Thursday, September 25, 1862: Randolph, Tennessee. A Union force, commanded by Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman, entered the town of Randolph. The town had been used as a safe haven for the Confederate troops. Sherman ordered Randolph to be burned, which the troops proceeded to do.
Meanwhile at Davis's Bridge, Tennessee, a Union cavalry reconnaissance party arrived at Davis's Bridge. The 200-man 11th Illinois Cavalry, commanded by Lt. Col. John McDermott, was surprised by a group of Confederate guerrillas. They forced the Federals to scatter suffering 70 killed and wounded.
C. Friday, September 25, 1863: Siege of Chattanooga, TN. After being ordered to move his XII Corps west to relive Chattanooga, Maj Gen Henry Slocum attempted to resign his commission because he did not want to work with Maj Gen Hooker who was placed in command of his XII Corps and the XI Corps. President Abraham Lincoln did not accept the resignation.
D. Sunday, September 25, 1864: At Sulphur Trestle Fort near the Tennessee border and Elkmont, Alabama, General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s (CSA) troops attack the fort, which was built to protect the railroad. After a five hour battle all the officers that outranked Eli Lilly (US) were either killed or wounded and Lilly found himself in charge of the garrison. Being hopelessly outnumbered, he asked for surrender terms. Forrest demanded an unconditional surrender, but Lilly held out for terms in which all defenders would be treated as prisoners of war. In all 200 Union troops were killed and 800 surrendered. The black soldiers were still sold into slavery, and white enlisted men were sent to a prison camp at Cahaba, Alabama. Lilly and the other remaining officers fared better and are sent to a prison camp in Enterprise, Mississippi. Yes, after the war and a failed cotton-planting venture and even losing his wife to illness, he returns North to his pharmaceutical chemistry roots and will become known worldwide for his Eli Lilly & Company.
E. All the above; None of the above; or other [please explain] many other actions are mentioned in my response below.
Pictures: 1863-09 Engraving of the view north from Point Lookout on Lookout Mountain over the Chattanooga region; The four-tiered, 780-foot-long railroad trestle bridge built by Federal engineers at Whiteside, Tenn; 1864-09-25 Battle Sulphur Creek; 1862-09-13-The-21st-Regt-Wisconsin-Vol.-crossing-the-pontoon-bridge-at-Cincinnati
1. Wednesday, September, 25, 1861: John Cabell Breckinridge, U.S. Senator from Kentucky and was the 14th Vice President of the United States (1857–1861), flees into Tennessee. He will shortly emerge a Brigadier General in the Confederate Army.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-a/part-twenty-four
2. Thursday, September 25, 1862: While blocking the Texas coast, the U. S. Navy encounters a Rebel regiment at Sabine Pass. After a Union shelling Rebels withdraw.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186209
3. Thursday, September 25, 1862: USS Kensington and Rachel Seaman and mortar schooner Henry James bombarded Sabine City, Texas, and forced Confederate troops to withdraw from the city. With Union control of Sabine Pass, the Texas coast could be invaded.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-b/part-seventy-six
4. Thursday, September 25, 1862: More skirmishes in Hardeman County, this time on the Hatchie River at Davis' Bridge in Tennessee.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-b/part-seventy-six
5. Thursday, September 25, 1862: Gen. Bragg’s plan for Kentucky has not worked out. He had originally conceived of having Kirby-Smith, Price, and Van Dorn all join him in Kentucky, which would have given him nearly 60,000 troops---or more, if Kirby-Smith could get all his men there. But Price and Van Dorn have gotten themselves tied up on northern Mississippi trying to outwit Grant.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+25%2C+1862
6. Thursday, September 25, 1862: Somehow, Gen. Buell and his army are able to slip around Bragg’s western flank and slips into Louisville on this date. However, Buell’s stock has fallen in the North, and he is attacked in the Press for going soft on the Rebels, and for not using his army since the Corinth campaign finished. As his overmarched and exhausted troops march into Louisville, the city greets them with celebrations, cakes, and drinks. For days, nearly one-third of the Army of the Ohio is absent-without-leave as they go on a drunken rampage, abusing the hospitality of their greeters.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+25%2C+1862
7. Thursday, September 25, 1862: Don Carlos Buell arrives in Louisville, KY, beating Braxton Bragg to the Ohio River.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186209
8. Thursday, September 25, 1862: Sergeant J. Smith DuShane of the 100th Pennsylvania Vol. Inf. Reg., writes home to his to tell her of the wound he has received at the Second Battle of Bull Run: “My Dearest May, God bless you dearest for your kind and encouraging letter, it came like a sunbeam to brighten my pathway. while reading it I forgot my wounds and pain and in thought I was again with my my little curly headed pet again. do you know darling that thoughts of the happy hours spent with you are the kindliest ones that come to cheer me in my hour of loneliness, why is this? what wierd enchantment is this with-which you surrounded me that scarce do my thoughts wander to my loved ere they wander to my little teaze. but I suppose that it is one of your mischiefous pranks so I’ll just grin and bear it.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+25%2C+1862
9. Thursday, September 25, 1862: Confederate War Department clerk John Beauchamp Jones writes in his journal: “The Northern papers contain intimations of the existence of a conspiracy to dethrone Lincoln, and put a military Dictator at the head of the government. Gen. Fremont is named as the man. It is alleged that this movement is to be made by the Abolitionists, as if Lincoln were not sufficiently radical for them!”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+25%2C+1862
10. Thursday, September 25, 1862: Surgeon Alfred L. Castleman of the Army of the Potomac, writes in his journal, including this somewhat worrisome note about the pain with his hand: “25th—Well, Gen. Lee is, safely to himself, out of Maryland, into which he came in the confident expectation of adding at least fifty thousand men to his army, but which he left with fifteen thousand less than he brought in.
My hand is excessively painful, though all constitutional symptoms have left. Suppuration has fairly set in, and I no longer feel any uneasiness as to results.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+25%2C+1862
11. Sunday, September 25, 1864: Jefferson Davis visits General John Bell Hood at Palmetto. Hood asks permission to relieve William Hardee.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186409
12. Friday, September 25, 1863: On this date, President Lincoln sends a dispatch to Gen. Rosecrans advising him that two corps (the XI under Howard and the XII under Slocum) are being sent from the Army of the Potomac to Chattanooga, under the joint command of recalled Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker---a little more thn 15,000 men. Notice the comical note that Lincoln expects Rosecrans to do something about the near blood-feud between Hooker and Slocum: EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, September 25, 1863. MY DEAR GENERAL ROSECRANS: “We are sending you two small corps, one under General Howard and one under General Slocum, and the whole under General Hooker.
Unfortunately the relations between Generals Hooker and Slocum are not such as to promise good, if their present relative positions remain. Therefore, let me beg--almost enjoin upon you--that on their reaching you, you will make a transposition by which General Slocum with his Corps, may pass from under the command of General Hooker, and General Hooker, in turn receive some other equal force. It is important for this to be done, though we could not well arrange it here. Please do it.
Yours very truly, A. LINCOLN.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+25%2C+1863
13. Friday, September 25, 1863: Lincoln described General Rosecrans (US) as “confused and stunned like a duck hit on the head.” 20,000 Union troops started their journey to support Rosecrans at Chattanooga, and President Abraham Lincoln is upset with Major General Ambrose E. Burnside's inability to assist at Chattanooga.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-c/week-128
14. Sunday, September 25, 1864: After losing Atlanta to General Sherman (US), Confederate President Jefferson Davis visits with General John Bell Hood (CSA) at Palmetto, Georgia. Hood asks permission to relieve General William Hardee, who he still blames for losing Atlanta.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/1864/week-181
15.
A Wednesday, September 25, 1861: Freestone Point, Virginia - On September 25, the Union fleet arrived just off of Freestone Point. Confederate shore batteries, commanded by Col. Louis T. Wigfall, were here and immediately opened fire on the ships. The fleet returned fire, but would eventually retire from the engagement.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1861s.html
A+ Wednesday, September 25, 1861: Freestone Point, Virginia. The Freestone Point batteries were shelled by the USS Jacob Bell (commanded by Lieutenant Edward P. McCrea) and Seminole, commanded by Lieutenant Charles S. Norton. On January 1, 1862, Cockpit Point was shelled by Anacostia (Lieutenant Oscar C. Badger commanding) and Yankee (Lieutenant Eastman commanding), with neither side gaining an advantage, though Yankee was slightly damaged.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cockpit_Point
B Thursday, September 25, 1862: Randolph, Tennessee - On September 25, a Union force, commanded by Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman, entered the town of Randolph. The town had been used as a safe haven for the Confederate troops. Sherman ordered Randolph to be burned, which the troops proceeded to do.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1862s.html
B+ Thursday, September 25, 1862: Davis's Bridge, Tennessee - On September 25, a Union cavalry reconnaissance party arrived at Davis's Bridge. The 200-man 11th Illinois Cavalry, commanded by Lt. Col. John McDermott, was surprised by a group of Confederate guerrillas. They forced the Federals to scatter suffering 70 killed and wounded.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1862s.html
C Friday, September 25, 1863: As a result of these orders, Maj. Gen. Henry Slocum attempts to resign his commission. He writes to Pres. Lincoln, reminding him that “my opinion of General Hooker both as an officer and a gentleman is too well known to make it necessary for me to refer to it in this communication” and that it should be clear that “the public service cannot be promoted by placing under his command an officer who has so little confidence in his ability as I have.” He would consider it “degrading” to accept command under Hooker. But Lincoln does not accept Slocum’s resignation, and promises to keep him and Hooker from having to work together.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+25%2C+1863
C+ Friday, September 25, 1863: Henry Slocum tries to resign; Robert E. Lee assumes the worst. “While General George Meade was disgruntled over the idea that two of his corps were being snatched from him to reinforce the defeated army of William Rosecrans at Chattanooga, Henry Slocum, head of one of those corps, was livid. Being a soldier, he would, of course, fight against the Rebels anywhere he was called. Fighting against the Rebels under the command of General Joe Hooker, however, was another thing entirely.
Hooker had been placed in command of the XI and XII Corps, and was to lead them in Tennessee. Slocum had been one of the ringleaders in the anti-Hooker faction after the Chancellorsville Campaign, which finally saw the removal of Hooker as head of the Army of the Potomac on the eve of the Battle of Gettysburg. Needless to say, things were about to get fairly awkward.
In the late morning of this date, as he was readying his corps at Brandy Station, Virginia for their long ride to Chattanooga, Slocum received Hooker’s letter of instruction. There was nothing harsh or demeaning in it, but there didn’t have to be. Slocum was hellbent not to serve under Hooker. To see that such a thing did not happen, he wrote the President.
“My opinion of General Hooker both as an officer and a gentleman is too well known to make it necessary for me to refer to it in this communication,” wrote Slocum to President Lincoln. “The public service cannot be promoted by placing under his command an officer who has so little confidence in his ability as I have. Our relations are such that it would be degrading in me to accept any position under him. I have therefore to respectfully tender the resignation of my commission as Major-General of Volunteers.”
Lincoln would not allow Slocum to resign, but promised to somehow keep him and Hooker separated. Time was essential and there was little of it to fine another commander for the XII Corps.
As Slocum grumbled at Brandy Station, Oliver Otis Howard, commanding the XI Corps had made it to Manassas. They would find their way to Alexandria before the day was through. Both were ready to be transported to Washington, and thence to Nashville, where they would be shuttled to Chattanooga. To General Meade, two things quickly became obvious. First, that no trains would arrive on this day for the XII Corps. Second, that the Rebels had probably already figured out what was happening behind the Federal lines.
The previous day, two Confederate messages were intercepted detailing the the XII Corps movements. Meade informed Slocum that since his “movements have been observed by the enemy, you should move your whole command, including trains of every kind, to Bealeton Station to-night. The movement should not commence until after dark, and no preparation for it made or anything done previous to its being dark, so as to conceal the movement as far as practicable. The troops should be screened at or in the vicinity of Bealeton Station from the observation of the enemy’s signal officer on Clark’s Mountain. Watery Mountain will be cleared by our cavalry.”
Bealton was about fifteen miles up the line, and across the Rappahannock from Brandy Station. The transportation wouldn’t be rounded up until late on the 27th. The trains to move Howard’s XI Corps would begin heading west on the 26th.
Sapped of two whole corps, Meade’s contemplation of a fall offensive was put to rest. Now, his main concern was that Lee would take advantage of the weakened Army of the Potomac. He believed, as he told Slocum, that the Rebels had spotted the movement and he figured that they had probably deduced what was going on. At this point in time, however, that was not true.
General Lee had indeed heard reports of the movement of Federal troops, but couldn’t suss out their meaning. The conclusion he came to on this date was the exact opposite of what was really going on. “I judge by the enemy’s movements in front and the reports of my scouts in his rear that he is preparing to move against me with all the strength he can gather,” wrote Lee to an officer in Richmond.
To James Longstreet, who, along with his corps, was detached to temporarily serve under Braxton Bragg near Chattanooga, Lee expressed similar sentiments. “Finish the work before you, my dear General, and return to me,” wrote Lee. “Your departure was known to the enemy as soon as it occurred. General Meade has been actively engaged collecting his forces and is now up to the Rapidan. All his troops that were sent north have returned and re-enforcements are daily arriving. […] We are endeavoring to maintain a bold front, and shall endeavor to delay them all we call till you return.” Lee would echo these thoughts on the following day, and the next.[1]
[1] Sources: Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 29, Part 1, p155, 156, 159, 161; Part 2, p749, 750, 753; The Life and Services of Major-General Henry Warner Slocum by Charles Elihu Slocum; The Bristoe Campaign by Adrian Tighe.
http://civilwardailygazette.com/slocum-tries-to-resign-lee-assumes-the-worst/
D Sunday, September 25, 1864: At Sulphur Trestle Fort near the Tennessee border and Elkmont, Alabama, General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s (CSA) troops attack the fort, which was built to protect the railroad. After a five hour battle all the officers that outranked Eli Lilly (US) were either killed or wounded and Lilly found himself in charge of the garrison. Being hopelessly outnumbered, he asked for surrender terms. Forrest demanded an unconditional surrender, but Lilly held out for terms in which all defenders would be treated as prisoners of war. In all 200 Union troops were killed and 800 surrendered. The black soldiers were still sold into slavery, and white enlisted men were sent to a prison camp at Cahaba, Alabama. Lilly and the other remaining officers fared better and are sent to a prison camp in Enterprise, Mississippi. Yes, after the war and a failed cotton-planting venture and even losing his wife to illness, he returns North to his pharmaceutical chemistry roots and will become known worldwide for his Eli Lilly & Company.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/1864/week-181
D Sunday, September 25, 1864: The September 1864 Civil War Battle of Sulphur Trestle, in Limestone County, cut a crucial Union supply line and was a victory for the Confederate forces under Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest. The engagement over the railroad bridge was the bloodiest to take place in north Alabama.
By 1864, Union forces had advanced deep into Confederate territory, even into Alabama. The food, ammunition, clothes, and weapons required to continue their campaigns were transported primarily via railroads to troops fighting the war. One of these, the Alabama and Tennessee Railroad, ran south from Nashville, Tennessee, through southern Tennessee and northern Alabama to Decatur, Morgan County, on the banks of the Tennessee River. From Decatur, the railroad connected with another line that extended east to Chattanooga. This line thus provided a continuous route for supplies that were offloaded from boats on the Cumberland River in Nashville and then sent via train to support Union forces in Chattanooga.
To protect this vital supply line, Union forces constructed forts at strategic points along the length of the railroad. Sulphur Trestle Fort was constructed by the Ninth and Tenth Indiana Cavalries on a gently sloping hill alongside the railroad tracks about one mile south of the town of Elkmont, Limestone County. (The Ninth was commanded by Eli Lilly who later founded the pharmaceutical company that bears his name.) This rudimentary fort was a square of 300-foot earthen embankments fortified with two wooden blockhouses. The fort was protected by steep ravines on three sides and overlooked an open clearing to the south, providing an exposed field of fire on advancing enemy troops. The fort, however, had a fatal flaw: for some reason, it had been located below the summit of adjacent hills.
Although small, the fort was important because it defended a vulnerable section of the railroad line, a wooden trestle, 300 feet long and 72 feet high, that spanned a broad valley bisected by narrow Sulphur Creek. The trestle was an inviting target for Confederate soldiers seeking to disrupt this prime supply line.
On Saturday, September 24, 1864, Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest's troops, about 500 mounted cavalry and infantry, who had just enjoyed a victory over a much larger force of Union troops in the town of Athens in Limestone County, six miles south of Sulphur Creek, advanced north with the intent of destroying the trestle. Confederate scouts engaged in a brief skirmish with a Union patrol late on Saturday evening, and the Union forces withdrew into the fort's perimeters; the opposing sides exchanged gunfire sporadically throughout the night. Forrest's troops were in position and ready for battle before dawn the next day. In the early hours of Sunday morning, September 25, Forrest's artillery opened fire against the earthen works.
The approximately 1,000 Union troops garrisoning the fort returned fire, but they had only two 12-pound artillery pieces versus Forrest's eight cannon. Although the Union defenders had the advantage of a fortified position, Confederate artillery and sharpshooters were able to fire down on the Union troops from the higher ground surrounding the fort. From their superior positions, Forrest's artillery reportedly poured 800 rounds into the fort in a little more than two hours. Union troops tried to take cover in the fortification's buildings, but the artillery fire either destroyed the structures or set them afire.
About mid-morning, a brigade of troops under the command of Col. David Campbell Kelley charged across the open field on the valley floor, losing a number of soldiers in this advance. Unable to breach the fort's defenses, they took up positions in a ravine within 100 yards of the fort. From there they fired continually at the defenders. The tide was clearly in the Confederates' favor. The cannon fire and the deadly accuracy of Confederate sharpshooters had decimated the Union ranks.
Around noon, Forrest demanded immediate and unconditional surrender, and Col. John B. Minnis, who had assumed command after the commanding officer, Col. William Hopkins Lathrop, was killed, complied. The Confederates took control of the fort and set the blockhouses and the trestle bridge afire, burning them to the ground. The battle, which had lasted about five hours, proved costly for the Union: the Confederate's had severed the vital supply line, and 200 Union troops were killed, with the remaining 800 taken prisoner. About 40 Confederate soldiers were lost. Forrest catalogued his captures as 700 small arms, 16 wagons, 300 cavalry horses and equipments, and medical, quartermaster, and commissary stores. The battle was north Alabama's bloodiest of the Civil War and participants attested to the awful carnage suffered by the Union. Although the loss of the trestle affected the Union Southern Campaign, it did not affect the overall war effort.
The Sulphur Creek trestle bridge is believed by some scholars to have influenced Civil War veteran and writer Ambrose Bierce's story, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." Although the story recounts the hanging of a southern sympathizer in Tennessee and not a battle, the location described in the story strongly resembles the Sulphur Creek scenery, which Bierce had visited as a member of the Ninth Indiana Infantry while helping to repair the railroad in 1862.
The gap that the trestle spanned was later filled in with dirt, and the railroad bed is now part of the Richard Martin Trail that runs from Veto at the Tennessee boarder, south to Hays Mill.
http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-2420
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 MontgomeryPO2 Marco MonsalveSPC Woody Bullard SSG Michael Noll SSG Bill McCoy SFC David Reid, M.S, PHR, SHRM-CP, DTMSgt Christopher Collins SPC (Join to see) SPC Gary C. PO3 Lynn Spalding
The Sulphur Creek trestle bridge in northern Alabama “is believed by some scholars to have influenced Civil War veteran and writer Ambrose Bierce's story, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." Although the story recounts the hanging of a southern sympathizer in Tennessee and not a battle, the location described in the story strongly resembles the Sulphur Creek scenery, which Bierce had visited as a member of the Ninth Indiana Infantry while helping to repair the railroad in 1862.”
Wednesday, September 25, 1861: Confederate General Henry Wise was relieved of duty by General Robert E. Lee, “As dawn broke over the mountains in Western Virginia, General Lee could be found riding along the Confederate lines, observing the Union forces, a mile west. Though General Henry Wise, who had held the position for a week or more, assured Lee that the Union forces of Generals Cox and Rosecrans had not yet combined, it appeared to Lee that they had.
He could make out six to eight regiments dug in at the crest of Big Sewell Mountain, but due to the dense woods, could see no more. On the James River & Kanawha Turnpike, he noticed a wagon train that appeared to be independent of those regiments. Seeing this induced him to believe there was a larger number of troops before him. [1]
In actuality, few of General Rosecrans’ men had made it across the Gauley River at Carnifex Ferry. If Cox had any reinforcements on this date, they were from his own troops.
Though possibly greater in number, Lee could see that the Federals were not planning to attack. While their position was a good one, his was better. In a dispatch to General Floyd, twelve miles back at Meadow Bluff, Lee informed him that their position “was a strong point, if they fight us here.” He reasoned that “they can get no position for their artillery, and their men I think will not advance without it.”
Lee then asked Floyd, “how would it do to make a stand here?” He wasn’t asking Floyd to join him at Big Sewell, however. In a post script, Lee asked Floyd to send three days’ provisions for Wise’s Legion and Col. Heth’s Brigade. No mention was made for Floyd to move forward. [2]
This was a move both military and political in nature. Militarily, Floyd had to cover the rear. If Rosecrans somehow managed to make use of a small Wilderness Road that would place his force behind Lee’s at Big Sewell, Floyd had to be there to prevent complete destruction.
Politically, Floyd and Wise had never been able to get along. Floyd, who was Wise’s commander, had ordered him to fall back from Big Sewell. Wise refused. If Lee then ordered Floyd to Wise’s position, it would give strong support to Wise’s insubordination.
The rift had become so bad that Floyd wrote to Richmond after the Battle of Carnifex Ferry, describing how Wise refused to come to his aide. While that wasn’t quite true, he was very adamant that Wise be removed from command.
Finally, his prayers were answered. As Lee was reconnoitering the Confederate lines, a messenger from Richmond bore a dispatch from Acting Secretary of War Judah P. Benjamin. He carried two messages. The first was for General Floyd, and contained praise from the President over how he handled the affair at Carnifex, despite General Wise’s bungling.
The second, relieved Wise of his duty: “Sir: You are instructed to turn over all the troops heretofore immediately under your command to General Floyd, and report yourself in person to the Adjutant-General in this city with the least delay. In making the transfer to General Floyd you will include everything under your command. By order of the President: J. P. BENJAMIN” [3]
Floyd happily sent the messenger forward to Wise’s command.
In the meantime, Union skirmishers had been pushed forward to probe the Confederate right. Wise was personally directing the defenses as his own skirmishers fell back to the main line. He called upon an artillery officer to fire into the advancing Yankees.
As the battery let loose its fire, Wise received the dispatch from Richmond. He was mortified and embarrassed. After he had a few minutes to take it all in, he wrote to General Lee, asking his advice. Though he was ordered to Richmond “with the least delay,” surely the orders couldn’t mean that he should have to abandon his men in the midst of a battle!
Lee immediately replied that if he were Wise, he would “obey the President’s order.” [4]
Realizing that there was nothing he could do, Wise capitulated. That evening, he penned a terse farewell address to his beloved Legion.
It is not proper here to inquire into the reasons of this order. It is in legal form, from competent authority, and it could not have been foreseen by the President that it would reach me inopportunely whilst under the fire of the enemy…. But the order is imperative, requiring the least delay, and prompt obedience is the first duty of military service, though it may call for the greatest personal sacrifice. [5]
Wise returned to his tent and packed his bags. He would leave at dawn.”
1. Rebels at the Gate by Lesser.
2. Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 51 (Part 2), p312.
3. Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 5, p148-149.
4. Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 5, p879.
5. Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 51 (Part 2), p313.
http://civilwardailygazette.com/confederate-general-henry-wise-relieved-of-duty-contraband-allowed-in-navy/
Sunday, September 25, 1864: Robert E Lee has high hopes for Jubal Early’s Campaign. “If you feel strong enough,” wrote General Lee to Jubal Early, “better move at once after the enemy and attack him, and if possible destroy him.”
This was, of course, a brilliant idea. If Early would destroy Philip Sheridan’s army, the Valley of the Shenandoah would once more be in Confederate hands, and the crops not already destroyed by the Federals could be used to feed the army. But Lee knew how many men Early had – perhaps no more than 15,000 once joined again by Joseph Kershaw’s Division. Sheridan had over twice that number, though of this Lee could not be certain.
Two days prior, Lee had urged Early to encourage his troops, warning him “do not bring on battle until Kershaw joins you and your troops are rallied.” To that end, Early had to once more retreat.
Since the battle along the Opequon on September 19th, Early had retreated nearly seventy miles south and was now about to march at least ten more. Before the dawn, his small army moved from near Harrisonburg nearly east to Brown’s Gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains. There, he would wait for Kershaw.
From his headquarters in Port Republic, Early expressed the dire position of his army. “My troops are very much shattered,” he wrote to General Lee, “the men very much exhausted, and many of them without shoes.” Lee had already called for reinforcements to pour out of every garrison and crevasse in or near the Valley, but it was only a drop of what was needed.
Attempting to predict Sheridan’s next move, Early continued: “I think Sheridan means to try [David] Hunter’s campaign again, and his superiority in cavalry gives him the advantage.” Knowing his lack, Early asked Lee to spare Wade Hampton’s Division from Petersburg. Early had agreed that Sheridan must be beaten, and he vowed to at least try it upon Kershaw’s arrival. “I shall do the best I can, and hope I may be able to check the enemy, but I cannot but be apprehensive of the result.”
Hunter’s campaign had a policy akin to scorched-earth, and Sheridan was indeed planning such a campaign once Early was vanquished. Thus far, there had been some destruction, but for the post part, Early’s troops, even in retreat, were enough to keep the Federals busy. But now that they were sequestered in Brown’s Gap, unless they attacked, they were as good as defeated.
The day following, Grant would reassure Sheridan, informing him that Lee had dispatched no troops from the Petersburg defenses to reinforce Early. “Your victories have created the greatest consternation,” he concluded. “If you can possibly subsist your army to the front for a few days more, do it, and make a great effort to destroy the roads about Charlottesville and the canal wherever your cavalry can reach it.”
Over the ensuing week, Sheridan would plot his course. But until then, he would remain in Harrisonburg to rest his hard-traveled army. [1]
[1] Sources: Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 43, Part 1, p557-558; Part 2, p170-171, 177, 879; Personal Memoirs by Philip Sheridan; A Memoir of the Last Year of the War For Independence by Jubal A. Early; From Winchester to Cedar Creek by Jeffry D. Wert.
http://civilwardailygazette.com/lee-has-high-hopes-for-earlys-campaign/
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.
Wednesday, September 25, 1861: Journal of Sergeant Alexander G. Downing, Company E, Eleventh Iowa Infantry, Third Brigade, "Crocker's Brigade," Sixth Division of the Seventeenth Corps, Army of the Tennessee. “It rained all day and we had to drill in a big barn on the edge of town. We drilled in the barn on the "double quick." On account of the rain, business of all kinds is almost at a standstill.”
Thursday, September 25, 1862: Journal of Sergeant Alexander G. Downing, Company E, Eleventh Iowa Infantry, Third Brigade, "Crocker's Brigade," Sixth Division of the Seventeenth Corps, Army of the Tennessee. “Our knapsacks and tents arrived today by train from Corinth, and it will be more like living now. We have excellent water here, and there are large hotels for invalids, this having been a health resort for Southern people. There are quite a number of mineral springs here, some of sulphur and others of iron.”
Thursday, September 25, 1862: Sergeant J. Smith DuShane of the 100th Pennsylvania Vol. Inf. Reg., writes home to his to tell her of the wound he has received at the Second Battle of Bull Run: “My Dearest May, God bless you dearest for your kind and encouraging letter, it came like a sunbeam to brighten my pathway. while reading it I forgot my wounds and pain and in thought I was again with my my little curly headed pet again. do you know darling that thoughts of the happy hours spent with you are the kindliest ones that come to cheer me in my hour of loneliness, why is this? what wierd enchantment is this with-which you surrounded me that scarce do my thoughts wander to my loved ere they wander to my little teaze. but I suppose that it is one of your mischievous pranks so I’ll just grin and bear it.”
Thursday, September 25, 1862: Confederate War Department clerk John Beauchamp Jones writes in his journal: “The Northern papers contain intimations of the existence of a conspiracy to dethrone Lincoln, and put a military Dictator at the head of the government. Gen. Fremont is named as the man. It is alleged that this movement is to be made by the Abolitionists, as if Lincoln were not sufficiently radical for them!”
Thursday, September 25, 1862: Surgeon Alfred L. Castleman of the Army of the Potomac, writes in his journal, including this somewhat worrisome note about the pain with his hand: “25th—Well, Gen. Lee is, safely to himself, out of Maryland, into which he came in the confident expectation of adding at least fifty thousand men to his army, but which he left with fifteen thousand less than he brought in.
My hand is excessively painful, though all constitutional symptoms have left. Suppuration has fairly set in, and I no longer feel any uneasiness as to results.”
Friday, September 25, 1863: Journal of Sergeant Alexander G. Downing, Company E, Eleventh Iowa Infantry, Third Brigade, "Crocker's Brigade," Sixth Division of the Seventeenth Corps, Army of the Tennessee. “It is quite warm today. I was on fatigue duty, accompanying the quartermaster's wagons into Vicksburg to draw supplies for the regiment. The bales of hay and sacks of corn taxed our strength in loading them. Some of the boys on furlough returned today.”
Friday, September 25, 1863: On this date, President Lincoln sends a dispatch to Gen. Rosecrans advising him that two corps (the XI under Howard and the XII under Slocum) are being sent from the Army of the Potomac to Chattanooga, under the joint command of recalled Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker---a little more thn 15,000 men. Notice the comical note that Lincoln expects Rosecrans to do something about the near blood-feud between Hooker and Slocum: EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, September 25, 1863. MY DEAR GENERAL ROSECRANS: “We are sending you two small corps, one under General Howard and one under General Slocum, and the whole under General Hooker.
Unfortunately the relations between Generals Hooker and Slocum are not such as to promise good, if their present relative positions remain. Therefore, let me beg--almost enjoin upon you--that on their reaching you, you will make a transposition by which General Slocum with his Corps, may pass from under the command of General Hooker, and General Hooker, in turn receive some other equal force. It is important for this to be done, though we could not well arrange it here. Please do it.
Yours very truly, A. LINCOLN.”
Sunday, September 25, 1864: Journal of Sergeant Alexander G. Downing, Company E, Eleventh Iowa Infantry, Third Brigade, "Crocker's Brigade," Sixth Division of the Seventeenth Corps, Army of the Tennessee. “We arrived in Atlanta about 9 o'clock last night. I stayed overnight at the Soldiers' Home, in one of the vacant store buildings. I got my breakfast there and then with my knapsack on started for the headquarters of the Seventeenth Army Corps. From there I went to the headquarters of the Iowa Brigade and about noon joined my company. I was glad to see the boys. I received a large mail, one letter from father with $5.00 enclosed. Atlanta is quite a city, there being some fine buildings, one of the finest being the railroad station. But the town is low and in the timber.”
A. Wednesday, September 25, 1861: Freestone Point, Virginia. On September 25, the Union fleet arrived just off of Freestone Point. Confederate shore batteries, commanded by Col. Louis T. Wigfall, were here and immediately opened fire on the ships. The fleet returned fire, but would eventually retire from the engagement.
The Freestone Point batteries were shelled by the USS Jacob Bell (commanded by Lieutenant Edward P. McCrea) and Seminole, commanded by Lieutenant Charles S. Norton. On January 1, 1862, Cockpit Point was shelled by Anacostia (Lieutenant Oscar C. Badger commanding) and Yankee (Lieutenant Eastman commanding), with neither side gaining an advantage, though Yankee was slightly damaged.
B. Thursday, September 25, 1862: Randolph, Tennessee. A Union force, commanded by Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman, entered the town of Randolph. The town had been used as a safe haven for the Confederate troops. Sherman ordered Randolph to be burned, which the troops proceeded to do.
Meanwhile at Davis's Bridge, Tennessee, a Union cavalry reconnaissance party arrived at Davis's Bridge. The 200-man 11th Illinois Cavalry, commanded by Lt. Col. John McDermott, was surprised by a group of Confederate guerrillas. They forced the Federals to scatter suffering 70 killed and wounded.
C. Friday, September 25, 1863: Siege of Chattanooga, TN. After being ordered to move his XII Corps west to relive Chattanooga, Maj Gen Henry Slocum attempted to resign his commission because he did not want to work with Maj Gen Hooker who was placed in command of his XII Corps and the XI Corps. President Abraham Lincoln did not accept the resignation.
D. Sunday, September 25, 1864: At Sulphur Trestle Fort near the Tennessee border and Elkmont, Alabama, General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s (CSA) troops attack the fort, which was built to protect the railroad. After a five hour battle all the officers that outranked Eli Lilly (US) were either killed or wounded and Lilly found himself in charge of the garrison. Being hopelessly outnumbered, he asked for surrender terms. Forrest demanded an unconditional surrender, but Lilly held out for terms in which all defenders would be treated as prisoners of war. In all 200 Union troops were killed and 800 surrendered. The black soldiers were still sold into slavery, and white enlisted men were sent to a prison camp at Cahaba, Alabama. Lilly and the other remaining officers fared better and are sent to a prison camp in Enterprise, Mississippi. Yes, after the war and a failed cotton-planting venture and even losing his wife to illness, he returns North to his pharmaceutical chemistry roots and will become known worldwide for his Eli Lilly & Company.
E. All the above; None of the above; or other [please explain] many other actions are mentioned in my response below.
Pictures: 1863-09 Engraving of the view north from Point Lookout on Lookout Mountain over the Chattanooga region; The four-tiered, 780-foot-long railroad trestle bridge built by Federal engineers at Whiteside, Tenn; 1864-09-25 Battle Sulphur Creek; 1862-09-13-The-21st-Regt-Wisconsin-Vol.-crossing-the-pontoon-bridge-at-Cincinnati
1. Wednesday, September, 25, 1861: John Cabell Breckinridge, U.S. Senator from Kentucky and was the 14th Vice President of the United States (1857–1861), flees into Tennessee. He will shortly emerge a Brigadier General in the Confederate Army.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-a/part-twenty-four
2. Thursday, September 25, 1862: While blocking the Texas coast, the U. S. Navy encounters a Rebel regiment at Sabine Pass. After a Union shelling Rebels withdraw.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186209
3. Thursday, September 25, 1862: USS Kensington and Rachel Seaman and mortar schooner Henry James bombarded Sabine City, Texas, and forced Confederate troops to withdraw from the city. With Union control of Sabine Pass, the Texas coast could be invaded.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-b/part-seventy-six
4. Thursday, September 25, 1862: More skirmishes in Hardeman County, this time on the Hatchie River at Davis' Bridge in Tennessee.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-b/part-seventy-six
5. Thursday, September 25, 1862: Gen. Bragg’s plan for Kentucky has not worked out. He had originally conceived of having Kirby-Smith, Price, and Van Dorn all join him in Kentucky, which would have given him nearly 60,000 troops---or more, if Kirby-Smith could get all his men there. But Price and Van Dorn have gotten themselves tied up on northern Mississippi trying to outwit Grant.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+25%2C+1862
6. Thursday, September 25, 1862: Somehow, Gen. Buell and his army are able to slip around Bragg’s western flank and slips into Louisville on this date. However, Buell’s stock has fallen in the North, and he is attacked in the Press for going soft on the Rebels, and for not using his army since the Corinth campaign finished. As his overmarched and exhausted troops march into Louisville, the city greets them with celebrations, cakes, and drinks. For days, nearly one-third of the Army of the Ohio is absent-without-leave as they go on a drunken rampage, abusing the hospitality of their greeters.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+25%2C+1862
7. Thursday, September 25, 1862: Don Carlos Buell arrives in Louisville, KY, beating Braxton Bragg to the Ohio River.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186209
8. Thursday, September 25, 1862: Sergeant J. Smith DuShane of the 100th Pennsylvania Vol. Inf. Reg., writes home to his to tell her of the wound he has received at the Second Battle of Bull Run: “My Dearest May, God bless you dearest for your kind and encouraging letter, it came like a sunbeam to brighten my pathway. while reading it I forgot my wounds and pain and in thought I was again with my my little curly headed pet again. do you know darling that thoughts of the happy hours spent with you are the kindliest ones that come to cheer me in my hour of loneliness, why is this? what wierd enchantment is this with-which you surrounded me that scarce do my thoughts wander to my loved ere they wander to my little teaze. but I suppose that it is one of your mischiefous pranks so I’ll just grin and bear it.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+25%2C+1862
9. Thursday, September 25, 1862: Confederate War Department clerk John Beauchamp Jones writes in his journal: “The Northern papers contain intimations of the existence of a conspiracy to dethrone Lincoln, and put a military Dictator at the head of the government. Gen. Fremont is named as the man. It is alleged that this movement is to be made by the Abolitionists, as if Lincoln were not sufficiently radical for them!”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+25%2C+1862
10. Thursday, September 25, 1862: Surgeon Alfred L. Castleman of the Army of the Potomac, writes in his journal, including this somewhat worrisome note about the pain with his hand: “25th—Well, Gen. Lee is, safely to himself, out of Maryland, into which he came in the confident expectation of adding at least fifty thousand men to his army, but which he left with fifteen thousand less than he brought in.
My hand is excessively painful, though all constitutional symptoms have left. Suppuration has fairly set in, and I no longer feel any uneasiness as to results.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+25%2C+1862
11. Sunday, September 25, 1864: Jefferson Davis visits General John Bell Hood at Palmetto. Hood asks permission to relieve William Hardee.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186409
12. Friday, September 25, 1863: On this date, President Lincoln sends a dispatch to Gen. Rosecrans advising him that two corps (the XI under Howard and the XII under Slocum) are being sent from the Army of the Potomac to Chattanooga, under the joint command of recalled Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker---a little more thn 15,000 men. Notice the comical note that Lincoln expects Rosecrans to do something about the near blood-feud between Hooker and Slocum: EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, September 25, 1863. MY DEAR GENERAL ROSECRANS: “We are sending you two small corps, one under General Howard and one under General Slocum, and the whole under General Hooker.
Unfortunately the relations between Generals Hooker and Slocum are not such as to promise good, if their present relative positions remain. Therefore, let me beg--almost enjoin upon you--that on their reaching you, you will make a transposition by which General Slocum with his Corps, may pass from under the command of General Hooker, and General Hooker, in turn receive some other equal force. It is important for this to be done, though we could not well arrange it here. Please do it.
Yours very truly, A. LINCOLN.”
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+25%2C+1863
13. Friday, September 25, 1863: Lincoln described General Rosecrans (US) as “confused and stunned like a duck hit on the head.” 20,000 Union troops started their journey to support Rosecrans at Chattanooga, and President Abraham Lincoln is upset with Major General Ambrose E. Burnside's inability to assist at Chattanooga.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/department-c/week-128
14. Sunday, September 25, 1864: After losing Atlanta to General Sherman (US), Confederate President Jefferson Davis visits with General John Bell Hood (CSA) at Palmetto, Georgia. Hood asks permission to relieve General William Hardee, who he still blames for losing Atlanta.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/1864/week-181
15.
A Wednesday, September 25, 1861: Freestone Point, Virginia - On September 25, the Union fleet arrived just off of Freestone Point. Confederate shore batteries, commanded by Col. Louis T. Wigfall, were here and immediately opened fire on the ships. The fleet returned fire, but would eventually retire from the engagement.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1861s.html
A+ Wednesday, September 25, 1861: Freestone Point, Virginia. The Freestone Point batteries were shelled by the USS Jacob Bell (commanded by Lieutenant Edward P. McCrea) and Seminole, commanded by Lieutenant Charles S. Norton. On January 1, 1862, Cockpit Point was shelled by Anacostia (Lieutenant Oscar C. Badger commanding) and Yankee (Lieutenant Eastman commanding), with neither side gaining an advantage, though Yankee was slightly damaged.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cockpit_Point
B Thursday, September 25, 1862: Randolph, Tennessee - On September 25, a Union force, commanded by Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman, entered the town of Randolph. The town had been used as a safe haven for the Confederate troops. Sherman ordered Randolph to be burned, which the troops proceeded to do.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1862s.html
B+ Thursday, September 25, 1862: Davis's Bridge, Tennessee - On September 25, a Union cavalry reconnaissance party arrived at Davis's Bridge. The 200-man 11th Illinois Cavalry, commanded by Lt. Col. John McDermott, was surprised by a group of Confederate guerrillas. They forced the Federals to scatter suffering 70 killed and wounded.
http://www.mycivilwar.com/battles/1862s.html
C Friday, September 25, 1863: As a result of these orders, Maj. Gen. Henry Slocum attempts to resign his commission. He writes to Pres. Lincoln, reminding him that “my opinion of General Hooker both as an officer and a gentleman is too well known to make it necessary for me to refer to it in this communication” and that it should be clear that “the public service cannot be promoted by placing under his command an officer who has so little confidence in his ability as I have.” He would consider it “degrading” to accept command under Hooker. But Lincoln does not accept Slocum’s resignation, and promises to keep him and Hooker from having to work together.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=September+25%2C+1863
C+ Friday, September 25, 1863: Henry Slocum tries to resign; Robert E. Lee assumes the worst. “While General George Meade was disgruntled over the idea that two of his corps were being snatched from him to reinforce the defeated army of William Rosecrans at Chattanooga, Henry Slocum, head of one of those corps, was livid. Being a soldier, he would, of course, fight against the Rebels anywhere he was called. Fighting against the Rebels under the command of General Joe Hooker, however, was another thing entirely.
Hooker had been placed in command of the XI and XII Corps, and was to lead them in Tennessee. Slocum had been one of the ringleaders in the anti-Hooker faction after the Chancellorsville Campaign, which finally saw the removal of Hooker as head of the Army of the Potomac on the eve of the Battle of Gettysburg. Needless to say, things were about to get fairly awkward.
In the late morning of this date, as he was readying his corps at Brandy Station, Virginia for their long ride to Chattanooga, Slocum received Hooker’s letter of instruction. There was nothing harsh or demeaning in it, but there didn’t have to be. Slocum was hellbent not to serve under Hooker. To see that such a thing did not happen, he wrote the President.
“My opinion of General Hooker both as an officer and a gentleman is too well known to make it necessary for me to refer to it in this communication,” wrote Slocum to President Lincoln. “The public service cannot be promoted by placing under his command an officer who has so little confidence in his ability as I have. Our relations are such that it would be degrading in me to accept any position under him. I have therefore to respectfully tender the resignation of my commission as Major-General of Volunteers.”
Lincoln would not allow Slocum to resign, but promised to somehow keep him and Hooker separated. Time was essential and there was little of it to fine another commander for the XII Corps.
As Slocum grumbled at Brandy Station, Oliver Otis Howard, commanding the XI Corps had made it to Manassas. They would find their way to Alexandria before the day was through. Both were ready to be transported to Washington, and thence to Nashville, where they would be shuttled to Chattanooga. To General Meade, two things quickly became obvious. First, that no trains would arrive on this day for the XII Corps. Second, that the Rebels had probably already figured out what was happening behind the Federal lines.
The previous day, two Confederate messages were intercepted detailing the the XII Corps movements. Meade informed Slocum that since his “movements have been observed by the enemy, you should move your whole command, including trains of every kind, to Bealeton Station to-night. The movement should not commence until after dark, and no preparation for it made or anything done previous to its being dark, so as to conceal the movement as far as practicable. The troops should be screened at or in the vicinity of Bealeton Station from the observation of the enemy’s signal officer on Clark’s Mountain. Watery Mountain will be cleared by our cavalry.”
Bealton was about fifteen miles up the line, and across the Rappahannock from Brandy Station. The transportation wouldn’t be rounded up until late on the 27th. The trains to move Howard’s XI Corps would begin heading west on the 26th.
Sapped of two whole corps, Meade’s contemplation of a fall offensive was put to rest. Now, his main concern was that Lee would take advantage of the weakened Army of the Potomac. He believed, as he told Slocum, that the Rebels had spotted the movement and he figured that they had probably deduced what was going on. At this point in time, however, that was not true.
General Lee had indeed heard reports of the movement of Federal troops, but couldn’t suss out their meaning. The conclusion he came to on this date was the exact opposite of what was really going on. “I judge by the enemy’s movements in front and the reports of my scouts in his rear that he is preparing to move against me with all the strength he can gather,” wrote Lee to an officer in Richmond.
To James Longstreet, who, along with his corps, was detached to temporarily serve under Braxton Bragg near Chattanooga, Lee expressed similar sentiments. “Finish the work before you, my dear General, and return to me,” wrote Lee. “Your departure was known to the enemy as soon as it occurred. General Meade has been actively engaged collecting his forces and is now up to the Rapidan. All his troops that were sent north have returned and re-enforcements are daily arriving. […] We are endeavoring to maintain a bold front, and shall endeavor to delay them all we call till you return.” Lee would echo these thoughts on the following day, and the next.[1]
[1] Sources: Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 29, Part 1, p155, 156, 159, 161; Part 2, p749, 750, 753; The Life and Services of Major-General Henry Warner Slocum by Charles Elihu Slocum; The Bristoe Campaign by Adrian Tighe.
http://civilwardailygazette.com/slocum-tries-to-resign-lee-assumes-the-worst/
D Sunday, September 25, 1864: At Sulphur Trestle Fort near the Tennessee border and Elkmont, Alabama, General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s (CSA) troops attack the fort, which was built to protect the railroad. After a five hour battle all the officers that outranked Eli Lilly (US) were either killed or wounded and Lilly found himself in charge of the garrison. Being hopelessly outnumbered, he asked for surrender terms. Forrest demanded an unconditional surrender, but Lilly held out for terms in which all defenders would be treated as prisoners of war. In all 200 Union troops were killed and 800 surrendered. The black soldiers were still sold into slavery, and white enlisted men were sent to a prison camp at Cahaba, Alabama. Lilly and the other remaining officers fared better and are sent to a prison camp in Enterprise, Mississippi. Yes, after the war and a failed cotton-planting venture and even losing his wife to illness, he returns North to his pharmaceutical chemistry roots and will become known worldwide for his Eli Lilly & Company.
https://sites.google.com/site/civilwarhardemancotn/departments/1864/week-181
D Sunday, September 25, 1864: The September 1864 Civil War Battle of Sulphur Trestle, in Limestone County, cut a crucial Union supply line and was a victory for the Confederate forces under Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest. The engagement over the railroad bridge was the bloodiest to take place in north Alabama.
By 1864, Union forces had advanced deep into Confederate territory, even into Alabama. The food, ammunition, clothes, and weapons required to continue their campaigns were transported primarily via railroads to troops fighting the war. One of these, the Alabama and Tennessee Railroad, ran south from Nashville, Tennessee, through southern Tennessee and northern Alabama to Decatur, Morgan County, on the banks of the Tennessee River. From Decatur, the railroad connected with another line that extended east to Chattanooga. This line thus provided a continuous route for supplies that were offloaded from boats on the Cumberland River in Nashville and then sent via train to support Union forces in Chattanooga.
To protect this vital supply line, Union forces constructed forts at strategic points along the length of the railroad. Sulphur Trestle Fort was constructed by the Ninth and Tenth Indiana Cavalries on a gently sloping hill alongside the railroad tracks about one mile south of the town of Elkmont, Limestone County. (The Ninth was commanded by Eli Lilly who later founded the pharmaceutical company that bears his name.) This rudimentary fort was a square of 300-foot earthen embankments fortified with two wooden blockhouses. The fort was protected by steep ravines on three sides and overlooked an open clearing to the south, providing an exposed field of fire on advancing enemy troops. The fort, however, had a fatal flaw: for some reason, it had been located below the summit of adjacent hills.
Although small, the fort was important because it defended a vulnerable section of the railroad line, a wooden trestle, 300 feet long and 72 feet high, that spanned a broad valley bisected by narrow Sulphur Creek. The trestle was an inviting target for Confederate soldiers seeking to disrupt this prime supply line.
On Saturday, September 24, 1864, Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest's troops, about 500 mounted cavalry and infantry, who had just enjoyed a victory over a much larger force of Union troops in the town of Athens in Limestone County, six miles south of Sulphur Creek, advanced north with the intent of destroying the trestle. Confederate scouts engaged in a brief skirmish with a Union patrol late on Saturday evening, and the Union forces withdrew into the fort's perimeters; the opposing sides exchanged gunfire sporadically throughout the night. Forrest's troops were in position and ready for battle before dawn the next day. In the early hours of Sunday morning, September 25, Forrest's artillery opened fire against the earthen works.
The approximately 1,000 Union troops garrisoning the fort returned fire, but they had only two 12-pound artillery pieces versus Forrest's eight cannon. Although the Union defenders had the advantage of a fortified position, Confederate artillery and sharpshooters were able to fire down on the Union troops from the higher ground surrounding the fort. From their superior positions, Forrest's artillery reportedly poured 800 rounds into the fort in a little more than two hours. Union troops tried to take cover in the fortification's buildings, but the artillery fire either destroyed the structures or set them afire.
About mid-morning, a brigade of troops under the command of Col. David Campbell Kelley charged across the open field on the valley floor, losing a number of soldiers in this advance. Unable to breach the fort's defenses, they took up positions in a ravine within 100 yards of the fort. From there they fired continually at the defenders. The tide was clearly in the Confederates' favor. The cannon fire and the deadly accuracy of Confederate sharpshooters had decimated the Union ranks.
Around noon, Forrest demanded immediate and unconditional surrender, and Col. John B. Minnis, who had assumed command after the commanding officer, Col. William Hopkins Lathrop, was killed, complied. The Confederates took control of the fort and set the blockhouses and the trestle bridge afire, burning them to the ground. The battle, which had lasted about five hours, proved costly for the Union: the Confederate's had severed the vital supply line, and 200 Union troops were killed, with the remaining 800 taken prisoner. About 40 Confederate soldiers were lost. Forrest catalogued his captures as 700 small arms, 16 wagons, 300 cavalry horses and equipments, and medical, quartermaster, and commissary stores. The battle was north Alabama's bloodiest of the Civil War and participants attested to the awful carnage suffered by the Union. Although the loss of the trestle affected the Union Southern Campaign, it did not affect the overall war effort.
The Sulphur Creek trestle bridge is believed by some scholars to have influenced Civil War veteran and writer Ambrose Bierce's story, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." Although the story recounts the hanging of a southern sympathizer in Tennessee and not a battle, the location described in the story strongly resembles the Sulphur Creek scenery, which Bierce had visited as a member of the Ninth Indiana Infantry while helping to repair the railroad in 1862.
The gap that the trestle spanned was later filled in with dirt, and the railroad bed is now part of the Richard Martin Trail that runs from Veto at the Tennessee boarder, south to Hays Mill.
http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-2420
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 MontgomeryPO2 Marco MonsalveSPC Woody Bullard SSG Michael Noll SSG Bill McCoy SFC David Reid, M.S, PHR, SHRM-CP, DTMSgt Christopher Collins SPC (Join to see) SPC Gary C. PO3 Lynn Spalding
Confederate General Henry Wise Relieved of Duty; “Contraband” Allowed in Navy
Wednesday, September 25, 1861 As dawn broke over the mountains in Western Virginia, General Lee could be found riding along the Confederate lines, observing the Union forces, a mile west. Though Ge…
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LTC Stephen F. thanks for this top notch read/share, wow just so much information. I am choosing:
1863: Siege of Chattanooga, TN. After being ordered to move his XII Corps west to relive Chattanooga, Maj Gen Henry Slocum attempted to resign his commission because he did not want to work with Maj Gen Hooker who was placed in command of his XII Corps an
Following the defeat of Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans' Union Army of the Cumberland at the Battle of Chickamauga in September, the Confederate Army of Tennessee under Gen. Braxton Bragg besieged Rosecrans and his men by occupying key high terrain around Chattanooga, Tennessee
1863: Siege of Chattanooga, TN. After being ordered to move his XII Corps west to relive Chattanooga, Maj Gen Henry Slocum attempted to resign his commission because he did not want to work with Maj Gen Hooker who was placed in command of his XII Corps an
Following the defeat of Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans' Union Army of the Cumberland at the Battle of Chickamauga in September, the Confederate Army of Tennessee under Gen. Braxton Bragg besieged Rosecrans and his men by occupying key high terrain around Chattanooga, Tennessee
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LTC Stephen F.
You are very welcome my friend and brother-in-Christ SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL and thank you for letting us know that you consider SEptember 25, 1863 "Siege of Chattanooga, TN. After being ordered to move his XII Corps west to relive Chattanooga, Maj Gen Henry Slocum attempted to resign his commission because he did not want to work with Maj Gen Hooker who was placed in command of his XII Corps an
Following the defeat of Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans' Union Army of the Cumberland at the Battle of Chickamauga in September, the Confederate Army of Tennessee under Gen. Braxton Bragg besieged Rosecrans and his men by occupying key high terrain around Chattanooga, Tennessee. as the most significant event of the events I listed for Sepetmber 25 during the US Civil War.
Following the defeat of Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans' Union Army of the Cumberland at the Battle of Chickamauga in September, the Confederate Army of Tennessee under Gen. Braxton Bragg besieged Rosecrans and his men by occupying key high terrain around Chattanooga, Tennessee. as the most significant event of the events I listed for Sepetmber 25 during the US Civil War.
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Good morning LTC Stephen F. from The Land of the Morning Calm! Great read in Civil War history on 25 Sept; I am choosing all the above as my selection today.
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LTC Stephen F.
Thank you my friend and brother-in-Christ TSgt Joe C. for letting us know that you consider all of the events I listed as significant for September 25 duing the US Civil War.
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LTC Stephen F.
You are very welcome, my deceased friend and brother-in-Christ SP5 Mark Kuzinski I am thankful that you are resting in peace with more joy than we can imagine. Periodically the LORD reminds me to pray for your widow Diana and children.
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Although you wrote about Bragg's failed attempt to take Kentucky, it's not on the ballot. Kentucky being occupied by the Union was of vital importance for a few reasons. Manpower-wise Kentucky provided over 75,000 men to the Union Army, then when African_Americans were allowed to join another 23,000 men enlisted ( second only to Louisiana by numbers). That is close to 100,000 men. That number is larger than any single Confederate army at any given time. Kentucky also provided a good portion of the horses and mules used by the Union/
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LTC Stephen F.
1stSgt Eugene Harless some days there are too many significant actions recorded on a particular day. I wrestle with what to include as a choice and what to write about in the question and my response.
Thanks for weighing in on the importance of Kentucky. You always provide well-reasoned responses.
I hope to complete the "what was the most significant event on .... in the US civil war by next summer" There are some days where I could add a part two and I might do that.
Thanks for weighing in on the importance of Kentucky. You always provide well-reasoned responses.
I hope to complete the "what was the most significant event on .... in the US civil war by next summer" There are some days where I could add a part two and I might do that.
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