[Mike12]

But there were always a few, and they the most competent to understand a gifted nature, who declared Jackson to be a man of mark. To these chosen intimates he unbosomed himself, modestly, yet without reserve. His views of public affairs were broad, and elevated far above the scope of the party journals which assumed to dictate public opinion. His mind was one which would have made him a subtile and profound juris. One instance may be noted among many.
In the summer of 1856, he employed his long vacation in a European tour, in which he visited England, France, and Switzerland. During this journey he carefully examined the field of Waterloo, and traced out upon it the positions of the contending armies
.But the most important feature of Jackson's character was the religious ; and this is the most appropriate topic for illustra- tion at this place, because it was mainly developed at Lexington. His peculiar posture towards Christianity upon coming there, has been described. He had been baptized, upon profession of his faith, by an Episcopal clergyman, but refused to be consid- ered as committed to Episcopacy. In this state of opinion ho had been admitted, at least once, to the communion of the Lord's Supper. While his religious knowledge was defective, and his Christian character consequently failed at that time in symmetry, it was sincere and honest, and, from the purity of his morals and his devotional habits, it was consistent.

During this season of discipline his health suffered seriously, and his friends induced him, in the summer of 1856, to make a European tour, in the hope that the spell might be broken which bound him in sadness. He visited England, Belgium, France, and Switzerland, spending about four months among the venerable architectural remains, and momitain scenery of those countries. This journey was the source of high enjoy- ment to him

Their view of those powers was founded on the foUowmg historical facts, which no well-informed American hazards his credit by disputing: -That the former colonies of Great Britaha emerged from the Revolutionary War distinct and soverei-n political communities or commonwealths, m a word, separate nations, though allied together, and as such were recog- nized by all the European powers: That, after some years existence as such, they voluntarily formed a covenant, called the Constitution of the United States, which created a species of govermnent restmg upon this compact for its existence and rights; a government which was the creature of the sovereign States, actmg as independent nations in forming it: That this compact conferred certain defined powers and duties upon the Central Govermnent, for purposes common to all the States alike, and expressly reserved and prohibited the exerciseof aU other powers

It has been said of him, that he was as often found leading his men in the prayer-meeting as in the field of battle ; and those who knew not whereof they affirmed, have loved to represent him as a sort of Puritan Independent, of the school of Cromwell, Harrison, and Pride, assuming the functions of a preacher among his troops. No Christian could possibly be further from all such intrusions, both in principle and in temper. When called on by proper authority to lead his brethren in social prayer, he always obeyed. But he loved best to mingle with his rough and hardy soldiers, in the worship of God, as a simple lay-worshipper

There was then living in the village of Weston a German smith, one of those neighborly, ingenious, gossiping men, who are as busy in discussing their neighbors' affairs as in repairing their implements of labor.

Popular read- ers may form to themselves some conception of the disastrous influence of this fact, by representing to themselves the inland kingdom of Bavaria, assailed at once on four sides, by Austria, Switzerland, and the German States, all united under a single hostile will. The similitude is unequal only in this, that the Confederate States have a larger area than Bavaria. The professional reader will comprehend our disadvantage more accurately, by considering that our enemies thus had two pairs of bases of operations, at right angles to each othe

General Jackson a respite from the 6th to the 10th of September, at Frederick; which he improved in resting and refitting his command. The day after his arrival was the Sabbath. Such was the order and discipline of the invading army, that all the churches were opened, and the people attended their worship, with their wives and children, as in profound peace. Jackson himself appeared in the German Reformed Church, as a devout worshipper. He expressed to his wife his lively delight in par- ticipating in the divine service again, after so many weeks of privation, with a regular Christian assembly, and in a commo- dious temple, consecrated to God., Jackson crucified the not ignoble thirst for glory which animated his youth, until his abnegation of self became as pure and magnani- mous as that of Washington. Cromwell's religion was essen- tially fanatical ; and, until it was chilled by an influence as malign as fanaticism itself — the lust of power, it was disorganizing. Every fibre of Jackson's being, as formed by nature and grace alike, was antagonistic to fanaticism and radicalism. He believed indeed in the glorious doctrines of providence and redemption, with an appropriating faith j he believed in his own spiritual life and communion with God through Plia grace, and lived upon the Scripture promises ; but he would never have mistaken the heated impulses of excitement for the inspirations of the Holy Ghost, to be asserted even beyond and against His own revealed word; nor would he have ever presumed on such a profane interpretation of His secret will, as to conclude that the victory of Dunbar was sufficient proof, without the teachings of scriptural principles of duty, of the righteousness of the invasion of Scotland.

In all Western Virginia, the owners of land and their sons were accustomed to labor on their farms with their own hands, more than any population of equal wealth and comfort in America. This was ihe consequence partly, of the industrious habits which the Presbyterian Scotch and Irish, the ruling caste in those regions, brought from their native lands ; partly of the comparative scarcity of labor, both slave and hired; and partly, of the absence of the abundant means of literary and profes- sional cultivation, which an older society offers to the wealthy. Even in the households of slaveholders, like Cummins Jackson, who in that country were few, the males, when not at school, were regularly occupied in rural labors, except in that large allowance of time reserved for country sports. The reader will thus understand that Thomas, although in no sense re- duced by his orphanage to a condition beneath that of the youths around him, was occupied, like his uncle, in the works of the farm and mills. Here he was always resolute and efficient. One of his most frequent tasks seems to have been, to transport from the woods the huge stems of the poplars and oaks, to be converted by the saw-mill into lumber.

Thomas, now six years old, slipped away to the nearby woods, where he hid, only returning to the house at nightfall. After a day or two of coaxing and numerous bribes, the uncle finally persuaded the children to make the trip, which took several days, with the help of their mother. When they arrived at their destination, they became the pets of an indulgent grandmother, two maiden aunts, and several bachelor uncles, all of whom were known for their great kindness of heart and strong family attachment. Thomas and Laura were indulged in every way, and to an extent well calculated to spoil them. In August, 1835, Thomas and Laura's grandmother died.

The following year, after giving birth to Thomas's half-brother Willam Wirt Woodson, Julia died of complications, leaving her three older children orphaned.His father also died of a typhoid fever on March 26, 1827, after nursing his daughter.

[Mike12]

The assumptions they resisted were precisely those of that radical democracy, which deluged Europe with blood at the close of the eighteenth century, and which shook its thrones again in the convulsions of 1848; the agrarianism which, under the name of equality, would subject all the rights of individuals to the will of the many, and acknow- ledge no law nor ethics, save the lust of that mob which happens to be the larger. This power, which the old States of Europe expended such rivers of treasure and blood to curb, at the begin- ning of the century, had transferred its immediate designs across the Atlantic, was consolidating itself anew in the Northern States of America, with a wealth, an organization, an audacity, an extent, to which it never aspired in the lands of its birth, and was preparing to make the United States, after crushing all law there under its brute will, the fulcrum whence they should extend their lever to upheave every legitimate throne in the Old World. Hither, by emigration, flowed the radicalism, discontent, crime, and poverty of Europe, until the people of the Northern States became, like the rabble of Imperial Rome, the colluvies gentium. The miseries and vices of their early homes had alike taught them to mistake license for liberty, and they were incapable of comprehending, much more of loving, tlie enlightened structure of English or Virginian freedom. The first step in their vast designs was to overwhelm the Conservative States of the South. This donC; they boasted that they would proceed; first, to engross the whole of the American continent; and then to emancipate Ireland; to turn Great Britain into a democracy, to enthrone Red Eepublicanism in France; and to give the crowns of Germany to the Pantheistic humanitarians of that racC; who deify self as the supreme end; and selfish desirO; as the authoritative expression of the Divine Will. This, in truth; was the monster whose terrific pathway among the nationS; the Confederate States undertook to obstruct, in behalf not only of their own children, but of all the children of men.
To fight this battle, eleven millions, of whom four millions were the poor Africans, lately feeble savages, prepared to meet twenty million.

[Mike12]

Gen. Jackson's remains were shrouded by his Staff, Sunday evening, in his military garments, and deposited in an open coffin of wood, which was procured near by. His coat had been almost torn to pieces by his friends, in their eagerness to reach and bind up his wounds, the night he fell; and it was now replaced by the civilian's coat which he sometimes wore in his hours of relaxation. But his military overcoat covered and concealed this exception. The Congress of the Confederate States had a short time before adopted a design for their flag, and a large and elegant model had just been completed, the first ever made, which was intended to be unfurled from the roof of the Capitol. This flag the President now sent, as the gift of the country, to be the winding sheet of the corpse. The Governor of Virginia, assuming the care of the funeral, sent up a metallic coffin, with a company of embalmers, on Sunday night, together with a deputation of eminent civilians and military men, to es- cort the remains to Richmond. During that night they were finally prepared for the tomb, and on Monday morning, May 11th; were conveyed to tlie Capital by a special train, attended by the General's Staff, his widow and her female friends, and the Governor's Committe. Every place of business was closed, and every avenue thronged with , solenm and tearful spectators, while a silence more impressive than that of the Sabbath, brooded over the whole town. When the hearse reached the steps of the Capitol, the pall bearers, headed by Gen. Longstreet, the great comrade of the departed, bore the corpse into the hall of the lower house of the Congress, where it was placed upon a species of altar, draped with snowy white, before the Speaker's chair. The coffin was still enfolded with the white, blue, and red, of the Confederate flag."And this was the last, and surely, not the least glorious tribute which was offered to him, before his remains were finally sealed up for the tomb. The Government shrouded Jackson in their battle-flag; but the people shrouded him in Mayflowers. The former contributed to the funereal pomp the outward circumstances of grandeur, the procession, the drooping banners, the dirge, and the gloomy thunders of the burial-salute ; but the true tribute paid to the memory of Jackson was that given by the unprompted homage of the people. No ceremonial could be so honorable to him as the tears which were dropped around his corpse by almost every eye, and the order, and solemn quiet, in which the vast crowds assembled and dispersed. No such homage was ever paid to an American.

[Mike12]

This was the true explanation of that seeming recklessness, with which he sometimes exposed himself on the field of battle. The populace, who love exaggerations, called him fatalist, antd imagined that, like a Mohammedan, he thought natural precautions inconsistent with his firm belief in an over- ruling Providence. But nothing could be more untrue. He always recognized the obligations of prudence, and declared that it was not his purpose to expose himself without necessity. He affected no kingly mien, nor martial pomp; but always bore himself with the modest propriety of the Christian. His port on the battle-field was usually rather sug- gestive of the zeal and industry of the faithful servant, than of the contagious exaltation of the master-spirit. His was a master- spirit ; but it was too simply grand to study dramatic sensations. It impressed its might upon the souls of his countrymen, not through deportment, but through deeds. How did that calm eye kindle the fire of so passionate a love and admiration in the heart of his people ? He was brave ; but not the only brave. He revealed transcendent military talent; but the diadem of his country glowed with a galaxy of such talent. He was successful ; but it had more than one captain, whose banner never stooped before an enemy. The solution is chiefly to be found in the singleness, purity, and elevation of his aims. Every one who observed him was as thoroughly convinced of his unselfish devotion to duty, as of his courage, it was no more evident that his was a soul of perfect courage, than that no thought of personal advance- ment, of ambition or applause, ever for one instant divided the homage of his heart with his great cause, and that " all the ends he aimed at were his country's, his God's and truth's." The corrupt men, whose own patriotism was merely the mask of ambition or greedy avarice, and who had been accustomed to mock at disinterested virtue in their secret hearts, as an empty dream, when they saw the life of Jackson, had as heartfelt a conviction of his ingenuous devotion, as the noblest spirits who delighted to form their souls by the mirror of his example.

[Potemkin]

This, in truth; was the monster whose terrific pathway among the nationS; the Confederate States undertook to obstruct, in behalf not only of their own children, but of all the children of men.
To fight this battle, eleven millions, of whom four millions were the poor Africans, lately feeble savages, prepared to meet twenty million.

Yeah, because abolishing chattel slavery is morally equivalent to abolishing law and order entirely.

[Mike12]

What I try to remind myself of every day when I am almost overcome by perplexities, what I try to remem- ber, is what the people at home are thinking about. I try to put myself in the place of the man who does not know all the things that I know and ask myself what he would like the policy of this country to be. Not the talkative man, not the partisan man, not the man who remembers first that he is a Republican or a Democrat, or that his parents were German or Eng- lish, but the man who remembers first that the whole destiny of modern affairs centers largely upon his being an American first of all. If I per- mitted mvself to be a partisan in this present struggle, I would be unworthy to represent you.
we need not and should not form alliances with any nation in the •world. Those who are right, those who study their consciences in deter- mining their policies, those who hold their honor higher than their advan- tage, do not need alliances. You need alliances when you are not strong, and you are weak only when you are not true to yourself. You are weak only when you are in the wrong; you are weak only when you are afraid to do the right; you are weak only ■when you doubt your cause and the majesty of a nation's might asserted. There is another corollary. John Bar- ry was an Irishman, but his heart crossed the Atlantic with him. He did not leave it in Ireland. And the test of all of us— for all of us had our ori- gins on the other side of the sea — is whether we will assist in enabling America to live her separate and inde- pendent life, retaining our ancient affections, indeed, but determining everything that we do by the interests that exist on this side of the sea. Some Americans need hyphens in their names, because only part of them has come over; but when the whole man has come over, heart and thought and all, the hyphen drops of its own weight out of his name. This man was not an Irish-American; he was an Irishman who became an American. I venture to say if he voted he voted with regard to the questions as they looked on this side of the water and not as they affected the other, side; and that is my infal- lible test of a genuine American, that when he votes or when he acts or when he fights his heart and his thought are centered nowhere but in the emotions and the purposes and the policies of the United States.

[Mike12]

Yeah, because abolishing chattel slavery is morally equivalent to abolishing law and order entirely.

Seeking an army, Daenerys sails to Astapor in Slaver's Bay to purchase the Unsullied slave soldiers. She negotiates with Kraznys mo Nakloz, promising a dragon in payment, but she betrays the Good Masters and commands the Unsullied to kill the slavers. Daenerys frees the Unsullied and the slaves. She later conquers the city of Yunkai and gains the service of Daario Naharis, who commands a large mercenary company. As Daenerys marches on Meereen, she learns one of her companions is Barristan Selmy, a knight of Robert Baratheon's Kingsguard.

[Doug64]

August 23, Tuesday

In Georgia, the struggle for Atlanta has reached a stalemate. Sherman’s right flank is just short of East Point. Daily life has taken on the trappings of trench warfare. Despite orders from Hood that anyone caught fraternizing with the enemy would be shot, Confederates are crossing the battle lines to trade tobacco for the Federals’ coffee; enemy soldiers even pick blackberries from the same bush. The troops in the trenches engage in nightly singing duels—the Federals often lead off with “Yankee Doodle” and the Confederates respond with “Dixie.” The singing typically ends with voices on both sides joining together for “Home, Sweet Home”

But the shelling goes on day and night, and so does the skirmishing. After sundown, soldiers on both sides place balls of cotton soaked in turpentine between the lines and set fire to them so that their sharpshooters can pick off anyone who ventures beyond the breastworks. And the casualties mount. One day a Confederate marksman spots the XVI Corps commander, Grenville Dodge, peering through a peephole in the Federal breastworks. The bullet plows a furrow in Dodge’s scalp, sending him North with a painful wound.

These doldrums are hard on the restless Sherman. He detests static warfare and grows irritable and pessimistic. Sherman knows too that this stalemate in Georgia contributes to the growing mood of apathy and discouragement in the North. With General Grant stalled indefinitely in front of Petersburg, the Union’s waning hopes fasten on Atlanta. So long as the city holds out, the prospects for Lincoln’s reelection and successful prosecution of the war seems faint. No one feels this more acutely than President Lincoln himself. A pessimism over possible defeat in the election and a feeling that a new President, supposedly General McClellan, will not carry out the war aims apparently weigh upon him. Today at a Cabinet meeting the President asks members to sign, without reading, a memo: “This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly. Probable that this Administration will not be re-elected. Then it will be my duty to so co-operate with the President elect, as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration; as he will have secured his election on such ground that he can not possibly save it afterwards.”

That Sherman is the one man in a position to produce a military victory spectacular enough to reelect Lincoln must strike both men as ironic. Sherman hates politics and has doubts about democracy as well. But even as the President locks his gloomy prognostication in a desk drawer, the general in Georgia is acting on a plan to break the stalemate. To strangle Hood’s life line, he will now cut loose from his own rail supply and march against the Macon & Western with virtually his entire army. For this hazardous maneuver, Sherman streamlines his force to about 60,000 men. He sends all surplus troops, baggage, and wagons back to the Chattahoochee and orders twenty days’ provisions for the march.


Since the 17th, Fort Morgan has been besieged by troops in the rear and completely shut off from Mobile. Now after fierce bombardment yesterday by land batteries, three monitors, and other Union naval vessels, the last major Confederate post at the entrance to Mobile Bay falls to the Federals. But General Page refuses to send his sword to Farragut; he breaks it and flings the pieces away. The admiral calls Page’s defiance “childish spitefulness.” The fall of Fort Morgan gives Federals control of the port, although the Confederates still hold the city itself.


Early continues to demonstrate against Sheridan at Halltown in the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley. At Petersburg Hancock’s Federal corps destroys portions of the Weldon Railroad on the left of the Union siege lines. Brief action flares on the Dinwiddie Road near Reams’ Station during this work of destruction, and there are indications that the Confederates will attempt to halt this breakup of the railroad. President Davis expresses his apprehension over loss of the Weldon Railroad and other supply lines.


Other action includes a skirmish at Abbeville, Mississippi; an affair at Webster, Missouri; and a skirmish at Kearneysville, West Virginia. Union scouts operate until the 26th from Ozark, Missouri, to Dubuque Crossing and Sugar Loaf Prairie; through the 29th from Clinton, Louisiana, to the Comite River; and through the 28th from Caseville, Missouri, to Fayetteville, Arkansas.

[Mike12]

[Doug64]

August 24, Wednesday

By this evening, having destroyed eight miles of track, along the Weldon Railroad outside Petersburg, Hancock’s two divisions bivouac at Ream’s Station, five miles south of Globe Tavern, where some half-completed earthworks were thrown up last month. This evening, signalmen report to Meade that a large number of Confederates, perhaps 10,000, are moving out of their lines toward the southwest. They are obviously going to attack either Warren or Hancock, and Meade alerts both commanders. Hancock is the target. Lee wants the Weldon Railroad back, and he has given the assignment to A.P. Hill. It is Hill’s corps, along with Hampton’s two cavalry divisions, that the Federal signalmen have spotted. In fact, skirmishing breaks out near Reams’ Station and on the Vaughan Road nearby.


Elsewhere, skirmishing flares at Annandale, Virginia, Huttonsville, and Sutton, West Virginia, while at Halltown, West Virginia, Early’s Confederates continue demonstrating against Sheridan’s forces on the Potomac. Skirmishes take place at Clairborne, Georgia; on Gunter’s Prairie, Indian Territory; and there are actions at Ashley’s and Jones’ stations near Devall’s Bluff, Arkansas.

President Lincoln writes politician and editor Henry J. Raymond that Raymond might seek a conference with Jefferson Davis to discuss peace, and to tell him hostilities will cease “upon the restoration of the Union and the national authority.”

[Potemkin]

August 24, Wednesday
President Lincoln writes politician and editor Henry J. Raymond that Raymond might seek a conference with Jefferson Davis to discuss peace, and to tell him hostilities will cease “upon the restoration of the Union and the national authority.”

In other words, after the unconditional surrender of the Confederacy. They clearly weren’t ready for that yet.

[Doug64]

In other words, after the unconditional surrender of the Confederacy. They clearly weren’t ready for that yet.

They never were. There’s a reason why fighting major wars when the Idealist generation is in charge can have catastrophic results.

[Doug64]

August 25, Thursday

This morning, General Hancock cautiously sends his cavalry out on reconnaissance. Gregg’s riders find only the usual detachments of Rooney Lee’s cavalry, which have been harassing the Federals all along; Gregg reports that there is no large enemy force in the area. On hearing this at noon, Hancock orders John Gibbon, just back from leave, to take his division south and resume the destruction of the railroad. Gibbon’s men have just started out when the Federal cavalry pickets west of the railroad are attacked and driven in. Assuming this is to be just another annoying skirmish, Gregg deploys his cavalry to deal with it, but the troopers soon run into Confederate infantry. Gregg is confronting more firepower than he can handle, and the enemy units break through his line to the Federal left and rear. With help from Gibbon, Gregg eventually drives the Confederates back to the west, and for a time the fighting ends—it has been a reconnaissance, not a full-scale attack.

But Hancock knows that an attack is coming and that his situation is perilous. He has taken prisoners from no fewer than three Confederate divisions, and the temporary breakthrough has shown how easily his force might be cut off from the rest of the army. Hancock orders Gibbon’s division back into the earthworks at Reams’s Station. The works form three sides of a square, each side roughly 1,000 yards long, with the open end on the east. Gibbon takes the left, or southern, half while the right is manned by Barlow’s division, now commanded by Brigadier General Nelson A. Miles. (Barlow, whose health failed after the fight at Fussell’s Mill, was carried from Reams’s Station on a stretcher.) At 2 pm, a pair of Confederate brigades attack Miles’s line. They are repulsed, yet they leave dead and wounded men lying within a few yards of the Federal breastworks. In the meantime, the Confederates are massing for a larger assault under Major General Wilcox—A.P. Hill also having been incapacitated by illness.

In midafternoon Hancock receives word from Meade that plenty of help is on the way: Hancock’s own 3rd Division under Gershom Mott and an additional IX Corps division. But instead of marching five miles straight south from Globe Tavern, these reinforcements have been sent on a circuitous 12-mile route that approaches Reams’s Station from the south. It will be several hours before they are available.

At 5 pm, Hill’s batteries, under 23-year-old Lieutenant Colonel William Johnson Pegram, open a furious barrage on the Federal trenches. Pegram’s fire causes few casualties, but it seriously demoralizes the large number of draftees and recruits in II Corps, many of whom have never been in combat before. The shelling especially panics the men on the west and south sides of the rectangle, which are enfiladed and even taken in the rear by the enemy cannon. In order to escape the fire, some of Gibbon’s men seek shelter outside their earthworks.

After a quarter-hour bombardment, six Confederate brigades of Heth’s and Wilcox’s divisions launch their assault, once again at Miles’s division on Hancock’s right. And now, after so many engagements in which Federal infantrymen have fought better than their officers deserved, two of the best officers in the Army of the Potomac—Miles and Hancock—are let down by their men. At first the Confederate advance is staggered by the concentrated fire from Miles’s division. But just when it looks as though the attack will be repulsed, two regiments in the center of Miles’s line flee from their breastworks. Miles orders Colonel Horace Rugg’s brigade up from reserve to close the gap, but to his astonishment Rugg’s men fall prone and refuse to open fire. Other Federals fire wildly into the air and offer little resistance once the Southern troops gain the works. General Heth leads the Confederate charge in person, against his prewar Army friend, Hancock. In his enthusiasm, Heth at one point tries to snatch the flag from the hands of a North Carolina color-bearer, and when the man refuses to relinquish it they carry the colors together. Soon the gap in the Federal line widens, and the attackers begin rolling up the defenders on either side. When the Confederates break through the Union entrenchments on the right of Lieutenant Henry Granger’s Massachusetts battery, the artillerists stick to their guns. They have little choice: All but one of the battery’s horses have fallen to enemy fire. Granger wheels the right-hand gun, fires a load of canister into the oncoming North Carolinians of Brigadier General William McRae’s brigade, then scrambles to the next gun, and so on down the line, sending deadly charge of iron balls tearing through the ranks of his assailants. But Granger’s bravery is to no avail; within minutes all four guns are in Confederate hands.

Hancock is faced with disaster, and he knows it. Disregarding his own safety, he gallops from point to threatened point, railing at his men to stand fast, until suddenly his horse drops under him. Hancock leaves the animal for dead, but a few minutes later it clambers to its feet, unharmed by a glancing blow to the spine that had temporarily paralyzed it. Hancock remounts and continues the fight. He orders Gibbon to retake the trenches and guns from the enemy, but Gibbon’s division, part of which has already been rolled up on the right, flinches from the task. They are being fired on, albeit lightly, from the right and rear and stay huddled in the ditches behind their breastworks. Hancock is mortified by the sorry performance of his once-proud corps.

Now only General Miles stands between II Corps and catastrophe. While his staff officers try desperately to rally the fleeing infantrymen, Miles orders Lieutenant George K. Dauchy to swing the three Napoleon guns of his New York battery around to face the Southerners pouring through the gap on his left. Dauchy has already lost one cannon to the attackers and is eager for revenge. As a column of Confederate troops nears his guns, Dauchy gives the command to fire, and a triple charge of canister mows down the leading ranks. Within minutes the battery is overrun, but in the time thus bought, Miles has managed to rally a New York regiment. He leads it back to his original line and beyond, moving in front of the Federal works to sweep along the entrenchments, driving out the enemy and recapturing Dauchy’s guns. Gibbon’s officers try to get some of the 2nd Division troops on their feet to help in this effort, but again the men refuse to move.

Earlier, Wade Hampton had withdrawn his Confederate cavalry divisions, apparently leaving the fight. In reality, however, Hampton has been moving around to Hancock’s left. There he has had his men dismount, and just as Miles is starting to succeed with his counterattack, Hampton’s men strike Gibbon’s left flank. The Federals, now completely unnerved, desert their entrenchments and fall back. General Gregg, who with the exception of Miles has the only Federal force on the field still functioning, is guarding the left. He dismounts his men and fires into Hampton’s flank, stopping the Confederate advance. But when Hampton’s two divisions turn their full attention to Gregg, the latter is forced to join his line with Gibbon’s, some distance behind the entrenchments.

The Federals can’t stay where they are—in the open without breastworks. They must either retake their fortifications or withdraw. Miles and Gibbon want to attack, but Gibbon confesses that his division isn’t up to it. Having lost almost 2,400 casualties (2,150 of whom have been taken prisoner) and nine guns, with no sign of the promised reinforcements, Hancock gives the order to pull out after dark. Orlando Willcox’s IX Corps division arrives in time to act as a rearguard for the retreat, which goes smoothly because the Confederates don’t try to follow up their success. “Had our troops behaved as they used to I could have beaten Hill,” Hancock tells Willcox. “But some were new, and all were worn out with labor.” Willcox will write later that Hancock has never looked better, and the withdrawal “was more like abdication than defeat.”

But more has been lost this day than a position; the invincible II Corp has collapsed, losing twelve battle flags despite the best efforts of the commander they call “Hancock the Superb.” Gibbon later tries to explain to his corps commander why his division behaved so badly. Among other reasons, he points out that in four months his four brigades have lost nine brigade and forty regimental commanders, with the result that sergeants are leading companies, and captains, regiments. Hancock is so unsympathetic that Gibbon considers himself insulted and offers to resign. There are heated exchanges and unfortunate accusations. Both men calm down eventually, Hancock taking back his harsh words and Gibbon his resignation. But their close friendship is over. Soon both will leave the corps that has been at the center of their lives for so long.

However devastating the affair at Reams’s Station has been to Hancock and II Corps, Grant is entirely satisfied. Lee’s men are hungry, and without the Weldon Railroad they will get hungrier still; they are spread too thin along their fortifications, and now they have to extend their lines even farther to cover the Federal threat from the south. Already weary, they continually have to dash north, then south, of the James to parry vicious Federal threats they can’t see coming until almost too late. Above all, Lee needs more men. “Unless some measures can be devised to replace our losses,” he warns the Confederate Secretary of War, “the consequences may be disastrous.” As confident as Grant remains, he understands that his army, too, is almost used up. Moreover, there are fortifications to extend along his newly gained positions, and for these reasons he temporarily puts a stop to offensive operations.


Although he suffered serious losses in his attack on Sheridan four days ago and could find no weakness in Sheridan’s compact defensive lines, Early still underestimates his new opponent. Today, assuming that Sheridan will withdraw as his predecessors have done when threatened with a flanking movement, Early heads north to cross the Potomac again. Kershaw’s infantry and General John McCausland’s cavalry open heavy fire to hold the Federals in place while the rest of Early’s infantry under General John Breckinridge marches north to Shepherdstown. Sheridan suspects that the firing on his front is a diversion, however, and sends General Torbert with two divisions of cavalry to see what Early is up to.

Near Leestown, about eight miles south of Shepherdstown, Torbert’s horsemen run into the Confederate cavalrymen who are screening Breckinridge’s march. Torbert attacks, his troopers brushing aside the enemy riders—only to confront Breckinridge’s infantry divisions. Both sides are startled by the engagement; the Federals manage to drive back the lead Confederate units, but at heavy cost. Soon Torbert’s outnumbered and outgunned troopers are fleeing toward the Potomac. While Torbert and most of his brigades quickly get out of harm’s way, George Custer’s Michigan troopers get trapped between the Potomac and Breckinridge’s infantry. Custer backs cooly toward the river, forestalling with sheer bravado a Confederate charge. Then, using a little-known ford. Custer’s men wade across the Potomac and out of the trap. The maneuver draws cheers even from Breckinridge’s men.

Early now has a clear path into Maryland, but he dares not take it. Sheridan’s cavalry has discovered exactly where his army is, and the Federal infantry, camped to the east between Charles Town and Harpers Ferry, is in position to trap him.


CSS Tallahassee runs the blockade into Wilmington, North Carolina, after a successful three-week cruise in which she captured 31 Northern ships.

There are skirmishes at Morgan’s Ferry and on the Atchafalaya River, Louisiana, and scouting in Jackson, Platte, and Cass counties of Missouri.

[Doug64]

August 26, Friday

Sherman’s movement against the Macon & Western Railroad began last night. While Kenner Garrard’s cavalry dismounts and temporarily occupies the trenches, two corps of Thomas’s Army of the Cumberland pull out of their lines on the northern edge of Atlanta. One of them, XX Corps, marches all the way back to the Chattahoochee to guard the wagon trains and the vital rail bridge over the river. The other, IV Corps, follows partway and then turns south to join with XIV Corps, which is already west of the city with Schofield’s Army of the Ohio. Threatening East Point, south of Atlanta, Schofield’s Federals mass and demonstrate as other units of Sherman’s army come into position, endangering Hood’s last entry lines into and out or Atlanta. Skirmishes take place along the Chattahoochee and at Pace’s and Turner’s ferries, Georgia.

Meanwhile, the battered city has been galvanized by the cessation of the artillery bombardment and the sudden disappearance of the Federal armies. After Confederate skirmishers find the enemy trenches north of the city abandoned this morning, Atlanta’s residents pour into the shell-pocked streets to celebrate their apparent good fortune. A victory ball is even scheduled, and trainloads of women steam up from Macon to join in the festivities. The Federals are gone, and people assume that Sherman’s armies are retreating.

At first, this happy speculation prevails even in the Confederate high command. Hood and his top generals now think Wheeler’s cavalry have so devastated the Federal supply line that Sherman is pulling back across the Chattahoochee. Diverse bits of evidence support their belief. Wheeler is sending back glowing—and inflated—dispatches about his activities. Federal prisoners report—erroneously—that Confederate cavalry have burned the rail bridge over the Etowah River and destroyed the tunnel at Tunnel Hill. There are also reports from prisoners and others that Federal rations are running low. An elderly woman who lived outside Atlanta has told William Hardee and Hood she had applied to a Union general for food and been turned down because his soldiers don’t have enough. And as if to confirm such stories, today Confederate horsemen arrive in Atlanta driving a herd of cattle Wheeler captured from the Federals near Dalton last week. Wheeler’s absence prevents Hood from finding out precisely what Sherman is up to. With half the cavalry gone, Hood lacks enough troopers to penetrate the curtain of blueclad cavalry screening the Federal movement west of Atlanta. On some wild impulse, Wheeler has disobeyed orders and pushed into eastern Tennessee.


This night, Grant tells Sheridan that heavy assaults by the Army of the Potomac on Confederate lines near Petersburg have inflicted 10,000 casualties on Robert E. Lee’s main army in the past two weeks. Lee will have to call back the reinforcements he has sent Early, Grant predicts. “Watch closely, and if you find this thing correct, push with all vigor.” At Halltown, West Virginia, near Harpers Ferry, the Confederates find it impossible to attack Sheridan and decide to move back to west of the Opequon toward Bunker Hill and Stephenson’s Depot, Virginia. Skirmishing takes place at Halltown, and near Charles Town, West Virginia, and at Williamsport, Maryland.


In Louisiana there is skirmishing near Bayou Tensas.

[Doug64]

August 27, Saturday

Last night it was Howard’s Army of the Tennessee’s turn to join Sherman’s offensive against Hood, pulling out of its trenches around Ezra Church and moving west toward Sandtown until it comes into position facing south on the right of Thomas’s Army of the Cumberland. These two armies execute a grand left wheel to the southeast, pivoting on Schofield’s Army of the Ohio, which remains temporarily in position below Utoy Creek and west of East Point.

Sherman’s army is ready. Much of it is in position southwest of Atlanta on the Sandtown Road, ready to push farther south and swing east toward Jonesborough to cut Hood’s last railroads into the city. Hood and the Confederates haven’t been able to interfere with the preparations to any extent. Fighting breaks out at Farmer’s Ferry and Fairburn, Georgia.


Early, back at Bunker Hill, West Virginia, with one division at Stephenson’s Depot, Virginia, has given up attacking Sheridan’s strong positions around Harpers Ferry. Fighting occurs at Nutter’s Hill and Duffield’s Station, West Virginia. For much of the fall Union Troops carry out an expedition against Amerinds from Fort Boise to Salmon Falls, Idaho Territory, with several skirmishes. There is action at Backbone, Indian Territory, fighting at Owensborough, Kentucky; and Federals carry out an expedition from Little Rock and Devall’s Bluff to Searcy, Fairview, and Augusta, Arkansas, until September 6th.

Admiral Farragut asks for leave due to poor health.

[Mike12]

Demopolis was founded in the early 1800s after the fall of Napoleon's empire. It was named by a group of French expatriates, a mix of exiled Bonapartists and other French refugees who had settled in the United States after the overthrow of the colonial government in Saint-Domingue by enslaved workers. Napoleon had sent troops there in a last attempt to regain control of the island, but they were defeated, largely by high mortality due to yellow fever.
Organizing first in Philadelphia, French expatriates petitioned the U.S. Congress to sell them property for land to colonize. Congress granted approval by an act on March 3, 1817, that allowed them to buy four townships in the Alabama Territory at $2 per acre, with the provision that they cultivate grape vines and olive trees. Following advice obtained from experienced pioneers, they determined that Alabama would provide a good climate for cultivating these crops.
Among the wealthiest and most prominent of the group was Count Lefebvre Desnouettes, who had been a cavalry officer under Napoleon, with the rank of lieutenant-general. He had ridden in Napoleon's carriage during his failed invasion of Russia.
Upon learning of the survey and that the French grants lay elsewhere, American settlers began to quickly purchase the property of the former French settlement, intending to develop it as a major river port on the Tombigbee.

The name, meaning in Greek "the People's City" or "City of the People" (from Ancient Greek δῆμος + πόλις), was chosen to honor the democratic ideals behind the endeavor. First settled in 1817, it is one of the oldest continuous settlements in the interior of Alabama.
Mainline Protestant churches were slow to take root; no churches were built in Demopolis until 1840. Prior to that time, various denominations met in a log assembly house on the town square. It was torn down in 1844. A Baptist group was established in the 1820s but disbanded due to a lack of support. The Episcopalians established a congregation in 1834, but did not build Trinity Episcopal Church until 1850. A Presbyterian congregation was established in 1839 and completed its first church in 1843, a brick structure on the town square. The Methodist congregation was established in 1840 and completed its first building in 1843.
By 1860, the population within the town limits had grown to approximately 1,200 people.

With the surrender of the last of the Confederates, Demopolis found itself a much different city from what it had been prior to the war. At the end of May 1865, the townspeople learned that an occupying force of Federal soldiers, the 5th Minnesota Infantry, were en route to occupy the town. Once there, they occupied the former fairgrounds. Despite the usual unpleasantness associated with the occupation of many defeated Southern towns, two of the Minnesota commanders, Colonel William B. Gere and General Lucius Frederick Hubbard, apparently came to be well-liked by the townspeople. Despite some bright spots in relations, the Episcopal Church in the South was slow to give up on the notion of the Confederacy, resulting in the military governor of Alabama closing all Episcopal churches in the state, effective on September 20, 1865. Trinity Episcopal Church in Demopolis was put under Federal guard, and during this time the church mysteriously burned down. Blame was placed on the soldiers for intentionally burning it, but this has never been borne out by the facts. Aside from all of this, the more pressing matter was the devastated economy of the community and surrounding countryside, a problem that would continue through the Reconstruction era.[26] They negotiated the purchase of the Presbyterian church on the town square, now known as Rooster Hall, for the sum of $3,000. It was conveyed to the county on April 8, 1869. The county built a fireproof brick building next door to the former church in 1869–70 to house the probate and circuit clerk offices. This building serves as Demopolis City Hall today.

[Mike12]

[Mike12]

[Mike12]

[Mike12]

Chalcedonian Christianity is the branch of Christianity that accepts and upholds theological and ecclesiological resolutions of the Council of Chalcedon, the Fourth Ecumenical Council, held in 451.
Today, Chalcedonian Christianity encompasses the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and Protestant denominations, while non-Chalcedonian, or Miaphysite, Christianity encompasses the Oriental Orthodox Churches.