The American Civil War, day by day - Page 29 - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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#15051438
Potemkin wrote:Presumably the slaves were not paid for their efforts. If not, then it's a rather ironic moment....


The slaves gotta be grateful they were pulled out of African tribes and put to work because hey, they were civilized. ;)

They became Christians and taught to be speaking English only, and know how to labor in an organized and orderly manner.

Therefore, they were better off under the greatness of the USA's confederate states than allowed to roam ignorant and inferior back in their African homelands.

There is no official end of slavery celebration day due to the anger of the Southern states....who felt the end of slavery was nothing to celebrate.

You would think the Southern states should be the least racists of all the states of the USA...because they ássimilated the most African people to a culture of greatness. But no? They keep resenting that the Black people are not exact replicas of the whites who lived among them for years but wanted to be separated from the people they Christianized.

It is indeed ironic Potemkin.
#15051511
Potemkin wrote:Presumably the slaves were not paid for their efforts. If not, then it's a rather ironic moment....

True enough, though considering who the installations were targeting many of the slaves were probably eager to do the work.
#15051512
Doug64 wrote:True enough, though considering who the installations were targeting many of the slaves were probably eager to do the work.

Indeed. But all the same... hmm.... :eh:
#15051663
November 29, Friday

Flames are visible along much of the south Atlantic coast near Charleston and Savannah as Southern planters burn cotton to prevent it from falling into Federal hands. “Let the torch be applied whenever the invader pollutes our soil,” the Charleston Mercury exclaims.

At Warner’s Ranch, California, southeast of Los Angeles, Federal troops finally capture the Showalter Party, who they have been pursuing since November 20.
#15051850
November 30, Saturday

British Foreign Secretary Lord John Russell writes a draft of instructions for Lord Lyons, Minister to the United States, and has it considered and approved by the Cabinet. It requires that the seized Confederate commissioners are to be delivered to Lord Lyons along with an apology for the insult to the British flag. If an answer is not forthcoming in seven days, Lyons is instructed to leave Washington with his legation and return to London. The memo is dispatched to Windsor Castle with Lord Russell's respectful request that they be returned “without loss of time, as the packet goes tomorrow evening.” At the same time Lord Russell directs the British Navy to take such measures as circumstances require, but to refrain from any act of hostility. The draft arrives at Windsor late that evening and Queen Victoria discusses it with her husband Prince Albert, at this moment a dying man. He takes the memo to his bedroom.

In Washington, high level meetings on the Trent Affair continue. The bloom is off, as sober minds reconsider and see the danger of serious trouble with Britain and France, perhaps even war. The cheering for Wilkes’s gallantry is dying away; lawyers and diplomates argue and are concerned; fine points of international law are debated.

There is skirmishing at Grand River, Missouri, and near the mouth of Little Cacapon River, western Virginia.

A “suspicious” lady passenger on a steamer at Baltimore is found to have gloves, stockings, and letters intended for the South, while a small boy on board carries a quantity of quinine. Both are allowed to pass after their cargo has been confiscated, just one of numerous such incidents.
#15052047
December 1, Sunday

After a sleepless night, Prince Albert is up at dawn to write a memorandum for the Queen’s response to the Government, suggesting that the language of the response should be modified so that, while still requiring due acknowledgement of error, President Lincoln would have room to make a dignified retreat. The Cabinet readily agrees, and the response is amended as suggested before being dispatched. Included with the message is a verbal addition that, along with returning the Confederate commissioners to the British, a statement to the effect that Wilkes acted without instructions will suffice—a nation cannot be asked to apologize for what it didn’t do, after all.

President Lincoln in a memorandum to General McClellan asks some pointed questions about a possible forward movement of the Army of the Potomac and “how long would it require to actually get in motion?”

There is skirmishing near Camp Goggin, and at Whippoorwill Creek, Kentucky; Morristown, Tennessee; and Shanghai, Missouri, with two weeks of minor operations around Mill Springs and Somerset, Kentucky.

Federal gunboats demonstrate near Fort Holt, Kentucky.

US gunboat Penguin captures the blockade runner Albion of Nassau off Charleston. Her rich cargo includes arms, ammunition, salt, fruit, provisions, oils, tin, copper, saddles, bridles, and cavalry equipment valued at $100,000 (almost $1,630,000 today).
#15052206
December 2, Monday

The second session of the Thirty-seventh Congress of the United States gets underway in Washington against a background of exasperation over the military defeats at Ball’s Bluff and First Bull Run, over the failure of the army in Virginia to take action during the fall, and over the Trent Affair. There are many expressions of discontent about the administration of the war and the nation in general. Slavery, too, is more and more an issue.

President Lincoln authorizes General Halleck in the Department of the Missouri to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeus corpus whenever he finds it necessary.

There is a small skirmish at Annandale, Virginia.

Four Federal gunboats engage Confederate steamer Patrick Henry near Newport News, Virginia. In the two-hour bombardment Patrick Henry is damaged.
#15052383
December 3, Tuesday

“The Union must be preserved, and hence, all indispensable means must be employed. We should not be in haste to determine that radical and extreme measures, which may reach the loyal as well as the disloyal, are indispensable.” So writes President Lincoln in his annual State of the Union message to Congress. The President covers many fields, foreign and domestic, as well as reporting on the war effort. He claims that “the insurrection is largely, if not exclusively, a war upon the first principle of popular government—the rights of the people.” Then, turning to what he calls popular institutions, he writes, “Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of Labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed.... Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights.” He concludes this long, moderate message with “The struggle of today, is not altogether for today—it is for a vast future also.” In general he finds the condition of the nation good, despite the war, and calls again for colonization of free Blacks, a plan which is becoming more and more a part of Lincoln’s policy. One thing that is not mentioned in the message is anything to do with the Trent affair, the burning question of the day. The President has not forgotten it, his opinion simply runs counter to that of the majority of the North at this time and he is seeking room to allow emotions to continue to cool.

Meanwhile, the war itself has pretty much reached a droning stage, although there is action at Salem, Missouri, and Vienna, Virginia, and Federal forces reoccupy Ship Island, in preparation for moving against New Orleans or the Gulf Coast.
#15052509
December 4, Wednesday

The Federal Senate, voting 36 to 0, expels Senator John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky. After the start of the war he had remained in his seat during the special summer session, seeking if possible to bring about peace, but in November he had joined the Confederate Army.

There is a skirmish near Burke’s Station, Virginia.

Confederate newspapers increase their clamor for strong military action in many areas of the South.

Queen Victoria of Britain in a proclamation forbids export of gunpowder, firearms, and materials for manufacturing them.

In St. Louis General Halleck orders the arrest of those giving aid to the secessionists.
#15052658
December 5, Thursday

In the Federal Congress petitions and bills calling for the abolition of slavery, especially among slaveholders “in rebellion,” are introduced.

There are 682,971 men in the Federal Army and Navy according to the reports of the Secretaries of War and the Navy.

Major General William J. Hardee assumes command of the Confederate Central Army of Kentucky.

December 5-8 there is a Federal scout in the vicinity of Russellville, Kentucky, and from the fifth through ninth another expedition in the Current Hills of Missouri.
#15052807
December 6, Friday

For two days Federals operate in the area around Port Royal Ferry and Beaufort, South Carolina, from their growing base on Hilton Head Island.

Brigadier General George G. Meade leads a foraging expedition to Gunnell’s Farm, near Dranesville, Virginia.
#15053018
December 7, Saturday

USS Santiago de Cuba under Commander Daniel B. Ridgely halts the British schooner Eugenia Smith near the mouth of the Rio Grande and seizes J.W. Zacharie, New Orleans merchant and Confederate purchasing agent. This incident adds to the heat already created by the Trent Affair.

There is a small skirmish near Glasgow, Missouri.
#15053149
December 8, Sunday

Three minor skirmishes break the Sabbath near Romney and Dam No. 5 on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in western Virginia and at Fishing Creek near Somerset, Kentucky.

CSS Sumter under Commander Semmes captures the Federal whaler Eben Dodge in the mid-Atlantic.

The American Bible Society announces it is distributing seven thousand copies of the Scriptures a day to Northern soldiers.
#15053243
December 9, Monday

Following a lengthy discussion of military “disasters,” the US Senate approves 33 to 3 the setting up of what will become the famous (or infamous) Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, whose investigations will cause great furor and criticism as well as considerable approval. In the course of their work they will question many generals and other officers in regard to battles and campaigns. In some cases they will seem to have applied liberal coats of whitewash, and in others they will be able to be charged with being overly critical for political reasons. But their interrogations will be revealing in many instances and provide excellent material for historical appraisal and research. Formation of the committee has been urged mainly by the “radical” senators who desire an investigation of the Ball’s Bluff fiasco and want to wage a swift and ruthless war against the Confederacy and immediately proclaim the emancipation of the slaves.

Southern planters on the Georgia and South Carolina coasts continue burning cotton to prevent it from falling into Federal hands. The Charleston Courier says that this action has deprived the Federals of “the extensive spoils with which they have feasted their imagination, and the obtainment of which was one of their chief objects.”

There is skirmishing at Union Mills, Missouri.

In an engagement at Chusto-Talash (Bird Creek or High Shoal), Indian Territory, not far from Tulsey Town (now Tulsa), Confederate forces, mainly Amerinds, defeat pro-Federal Creek Amerinds seeking to withdraw into Kansas. But the Southern forces are compelled temporarily to break off their drive against the Creeks under Opothleyahola, due to lack of supplies and the tenacious defense.
#15053244
Potemkin wrote:As I said earlier, if the Secession of the Southern states had not been firmly stamped on, it's not impossible that the whole federal United States might have unravelled shortly thereafter. If Lincoln had not possessed the personal qualities he did, and if he had not been President during that crisis, there might not be a nation called 'the United States of America' right now.

Or if the Confederates had used their brains. There was nothing to stop States cooperating while part of the Union. There was nothing to stop them combining militias and generally laying the foundations of an independent State. They could have called it a Caucus or something. Its my view that if they played their cards intelligently they could have forced the Northern States into expelling them, or at the very least begging them to leave.

As long as Southern members retained their seats within the House and Senate, it was almost impossible for the Republicans to effectively organise and counter the Southerners. Britain made the same idiotic mistake over Brexit. You negotiate while you're still a a full member, with full rights and full presence at all meetings, while you've still got the ability to totally mess things up for them. You don't leave then try and negotiate a deal. That's just stupid.
#15053401
December 10, Tuesday

An act of the Confederate Congress in Richmond admits the state of Kentucky to the Confederacy, thus completing the thirteen states, including Missouri and Kentucky, which are considered by the South to be members of the Confederate States of America. The Kentucky and Missouri Confederate governments will be in exile or shifting continuously throughout the war.

The US House of Representatives approves the Senate resolution for the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, passed the day before. Soon the committee will be in full operation.
#15053563
December 11, Wednesday

A disastrous fire sweeps the business district of Charleston, South Carolina, east of King Street and near the Cooper River. Suffering as it is from the blockade and the threat of Federals at Hilton Head Island, this is a new blow to the spiritual center of the Confederacy.

There is skirmishing near Bertrand, Missouri, and at Dam No. 4 on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in Virginia.

President Lincoln attends the Senate memorial services for Senator Baker of Oregon, killed at Ball’s Bluff. It is unusual at this time for the President to enter either House.
#15053573
One Degree wrote:Only 5% of Southerners owned slaves. If you look at the last chart here...
https://faculty.weber.edu/kmackay/stati ... lavery.htm
You can see virtually all the slaves were owned by a small fraction of that 5%.
I have read the arguments about how this doesn’t matter and everyone benefitted from slavery and therefore fought the Civil War for the sole purpose of preserving it. I call bullshit. This is the equivalent of saying I would fight a war for a few rich men to own Cadillacs.
Our history is very distorted by the winners and further distorted by the civil rights movement. You don’t kill people over slaves you don’t own. You will kill them to have the right to make your own decisions.

Understand :(
#15053580
This is the equivalent of saying I would fight a war for a few rich men to own Cadillacs.

But that is, in effect, exactly what happened. The Southern States seceded over the issue of slavery. That's a fact. We know it's a fact because they said so themselves. So yeah, poor whites fought and died in the Civil War just so a few rich men could own slaves. The irony is that they would do the same thing all over again just so a few rich men could own Cadillacs. They have learned nothing from experience.
#15053685
December 12, Thursday

Federal Marines and naval forces operate on the Ashepoo River in South Carolina, part of nearby rivers, inlets, and communities. There is also skirmishing at Charleston, Missouri; Gradyville, Kentucky; and on the Greenbrier River in western Virginia.
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