[Doug64]

March 10, Thursday

General Grant is given the official authority to take command of the Armies of the United States, but the general himself is not in Washington to receive the order. Assured that his duties in Washington have been fulfilled, Grant has one more sensitive matter to dispose of—he has traveled the sixty miles to Brandy Station, Virginia, where the Army of the Potomac has its headquarters, to meet the army’s commander, Major General George Meade. The patrician Meade, seven years Grant’s senior, knows that his job is in danger because of his failure to bring Lee to bay. Earlier, Grant had contemplated replacing Meade with one of his own generals from the West—either Sherman or William F. (Baldy) Smith. Meade, like George McClellan, it seems, is unwilling to take the risks that might lead to ultimate victory. But now Grant’s plans are changing. Meade, a somber man with great bags under his eyes, is known for his temper-fired tongue, but he greets Grant warmly at Brandy Station. Moreover, he immediately disarms Grant by offering to step down. Meade urges Grant not to hesitate because of concern for Meade’s pride. “The work before us is of such vast importance to the whole nation, that the feelings or wishes of no one person should stand in the way of selecting the right men for all positions.” Grant likes Meade’s forthrightness and tells him he had “no thought of substituting anyone” for him. The generals discuss the position, condition, and future of the army, and work out their relationship to each other, for Grant expects to be in the field with his army commander. A week later Meade will write his wife, “I was much pleased with Grant. You may rest assured he is not an ordinary man.”

In another command change the controversial Major General Franz Sigel supersedes Brigadier General Benjamin F. Kelley in command of the Federal Department of West Virginia. German-born Sigel is a prime example of the Civil War generals who attain high rank without having demonstrated their military competence. When the war began, Sigel had been superintendent of schools and a leader of the large German community in St. Louis, Missouri. He received a commission, and rapid promotion to major general, primarily to encourage enlistment among the 1.25 million German-Americans living in the North. His high visibility no doubt spurred thousands of these Germans to volunteer. But his qualifications to be a commander are dubious at best. He claims to have led troops in three battles during the German revolts of the 1840s. he fails to mention that he was resoundingly defeated each time. Worse, he uses his high standing among German-Americans to pressure the government, urging his fellow immigrants to regard any setback to his career as an insult to their nationality. After the Federal defeat at Fredericksburg, for example, Sigel was put temporarily in command of one of the grand divisions of the reorganized Army of the Potomac. When he was returned to his own corps, which unhappily for him was not the largest, he demanded to be relieved. For a year he stumped the country raising a great German uproar over his misfortune. At length President Lincoln has given him command of this department largely to shut him up.

In the Southwest the first detachment of what is to become the Federal expedition up the Red River in Louisiana leaves Vicksburg, the XVI and XVII Corps from Sherman’s hardbitten Army of the Tennessee, commanded by Brigadier General Andrew J. Smith, sailing for the mouth of the Red River in twenty transports. With them comes Brigadier General Alfred W. Ellet’s Marine Brigade and Porter’s gunboat flotilla and supply ships. The armada totals about sixty vessels mounting 210 guns, the largest naval force ever seen in Western waters. For some time General Nathaniel Banks, in the New Orleans area, has been readying a massive effort aimed at the heartland of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi domain. Ships, troops, and transports are heading for concentration points before starting into Louisiana. Plans also call for Union troops to the north to strike south through Arkansas and join Banks.

Confederate raiders hit Clinton and Mayfield, Kentucky; and skirmishing flares near Charles Town and at Kabletown, West Virginia. A three-day Federal expedition operates from Batesville to Wild Haws and Strawberry Creek, Arkansas.

[Doug64]

March 11, Friday

Grant returns to Washington from Virginia, and in the evening leaves for Nashville, Tennessee, to confer with Sherman, now to be commander in the West.

For the rest of the month there will be operations about Sparta, Tennessee, with a few skirmishes.

President Davis tells General Pemberton that he thinks his defense of Vicksburg was the correct action and that if it had not been attempted, “few if any would have defended your course.”

March 12, Saturday

The Confederates in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas are aware of the movements of the fleet and armies surrounding them. General Edmund Kirby Smith, in charge of the Confederacy’s Trans-Mississippi Department since his abortive invasion of Kentucky in 1862, has quickly begun deploying what defensive forces he possesses. The troops already in Louisiana under Richard Taylor—which includes Walker’s Texans and a separate brigade of Texas infantry led by a young French enthusiast for the Southern cause named Camille Polignac—have been told to harass the Federal advance as best they can. At the same time, Kirby Smith has summoned reinforcements from Texas, including Thomas Green’s veterans, ordering them to join Taylor as fast as possible, and he has instructed Major General Sterling Price to march south with his divisions of Missouri and Arkansas Confederates. As he moves, Price is to try to thwart Steele’s advance from Little Rock, Arkansas.

Only Walker’s 3,800 Texans and three companies of Louisiana cavalry are anywhere near the mouth of the Red River, however, when Porter’s fleet enters the river and lands A.J. Smith’s two corps at Simsport. Heavily outnumbered, the Confederates evacuate a half-completed entrenchment on nearby Yellow Bayou and fall back past their principal bastion in the region, Fort De Russy, leaving only a small garrison there.

The official order setting up the new top command of the United States Armies is announced, albeit somewhat after the event. Major General Halleck is relieved, at his own request, as General in Chief and named chief of staff; Grant, of course, is assigned command of all the armies; Major General W.T. Sherman is assigned to the Military Division of the Mississippi commanding the Departments of the Ohio, the Cumberland, the Tennessee, and the Arkansas; Major General J.B. McPherson replaces Sherman in command of the Department and Army of the Tennessee. In the general orders the President also expresses his approbation and thanks to Halleck for “able and zealous” service.

A skirmish near Union City, Tennessee, and a Federal scout to Nola Chucky Bend near Morristown, Tennessee, are recorded actions.

President Davis suspends the execution of a deserter.

The Lincolns entertain a number of top-ranking military men, but General Grant is not there—he is heading west to confer with Sherman. President Lincoln writes General Butler that two ladies, seeking to visit Maryland, cannot do so unless they take the oath of allegiance.

[Doug64]

March 13, Sunday

President Lincoln “barely” suggests to the recently elected free-state governor of Louisiana, Michael Hahn, that some of the “very intelligent” Blacks be seated in a convention which would define the elective franchise.

As to skirmishing, it happens at Cheek’s Cross Roads and Spring Hill, Tennessee; Carrollton, Arkansas; and Los Patricios, Texas. For nearly the rest of March, Federals scout from Yellville to the Buffalo River, Arkansas.

[Doug64]

March 14, Monday

On the Red River in Louisiana, the Federals soon show the sort of combined naval and military muscle that General Banks is counting on to win the campaign. While Porter’s gunboats move up the river, one of A.J. Smith’s divisions under Brigadier General Joseph A. Mower prepares to attack by land. A onetime carpenter from Vermont who began his military career as a private in the Mexican War, Mower is a hard-fighting, hard-marching soldier. He wastes no time leading his men across the lush Avoyelles Prairie south of the Red to come at Fort De Russy from the rear. Then, as Porter’s heavy guns blaze away at the fort from the river, Mower’s men storm the earthweorks. At a cost of only 38 killied or wounded, the Federals capture 300 of the shellshocked defenders along with ten cannon. The way is now open for A.J. Smith and Porter to move another thirty miles up the Red to the town of Alexandria; there they are scheduled to meet Banks’s troops, who are still marching overland up the Teche. The Union Red River operation looks promising.

Otherwise skirmishing erupts at Bent Creek, Tennessee; Claysville, Alabama; Jones County, Mississippi; and Hopefield, Arkansas. Fort Sumter is hit by another bombardment, with 143 rounds fired.

Arkansas’s new pro-Union constitution is ratified by popular vote.

President Lincoln issues a draft order for 200,000 men for the Navy and to provide “an adequate reserve force for all contingencies” in the entire military service.


March 15, Tuesday

Governor Michael Hahn of Louisiana is invested with powers previously held by the military governor of Louisiana as President Lincoln acts to reconstruct occupied areas of the South. The President also says that the United States should not “take charge of any church as such” in New Orleans.

At Fort De Russy on the Red River, A.J. Smith reembarks most of his two Union corps on the naval transports and sets off upriver with Porter’s gunboats for Alexandria, Louisiana, leaving behind only enough men to thoroughly dismantle the fort.

A skirmish at Marksville Prairie is part of the campaign. Skirmishing also occurs at Bull’s Gap and Flat Creek Valley, Tennessee, and at Clarendon, Arkansas. A Federal scout in Arkansas from Batesville to West Point, Grant Glaize, and Searcy Landing lasts for seven days.


March 16, Wednesday

After a one-day trip up the winding, mud-banked Red River, the fleet of Union gunboats and A.J. Smith’s two corps reach the town of Alexandria, Louisiana, as the expedition proceeds up the important Confederate-held stream. Heavy rains and muddy roads have delayed the bulk of General Banks’s command, but by now all of his troops are on their way—XIX Corps and two divisions of XIII Corps recalled from Texas, about 17,000 men in all.

For the Confederates, Nathan Bedford Forrest begins an expedition into west Tennessee and Kentucky that lasts until April 14th. In Virginia fighting breaks out at Annandale and Bristoe Station and there is a Federal reconnaissance toward Snicker’s Gap. In Tennessee, Confederates raid the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad near Tullahoma. Federals scout in Cabell and Wayne counties, West Virginia. Skirmishing occurs near Palatka, Florida, and at Santa Rosa, Texas. In Missouri a ten-day scout by Federals operates from Pilot Knob to the Arkansas line.

Major General Sterling Price takes command of the Confederate District of Arkansas, succeeding Lieutenant General Theophilus Holmes.


March 17, Thursday

Lincoln, pushing for emancipation in the Union state of Maryland, writes to Representative John A.J. Creswell, “It needs not to be a secret, that I wish success to emancipation in Maryland. It would aid much to end the rebellion.”

At Nashville, Tennessee, where he is conferring with General Sherman, Lieutenant General Grant issues General Order No. 1, which begins: “I assume command of the Armies of the United States, headquarters in the field, and until further notice these will be those of the Army of the Potomac.” Meade will continue to lead the fight against Lee, but Grant will map the way—not fromWashington or from the West (as Sherman has repeatedly urged him), but from a tent not far from Meade’s.

Fighting is confined to skirmishes at Manchester, Tennessee; on Red Mountain near Blue Rock Station, California; and at Corpus Christi, Texas. Union operations include a reconnaissance through tomorrow to Sperryville, Virginia; an expedition from Yorktown into Mathews and Middlesex counties, Virginia, through the next four days; and a scout until the 1st of April from Lebanon, Missouri, into northern Arkansas.


March 18, Friday

Major General William T. Sherman officially assumes command of the Military Division of the Mississippi. He accompanies his old friend and superior, General Grant, part of the way to Washington in order to discuss strategy. At Cincinnati the two generals leave the train, secret themselves in a room in the Burnet House, a local hotel, and unfurl their maps. At this point those maps show the Union in possession of the Mississippi river, from St. Louis south to New Orleans at the river’s mouth on the Gulf of Mexico; the mouth of the Rio Grande; nearly all the state of Tennessee, from Memphis to Chattanooga; West Virginia; and that part of Virginia north of the Rapidan River. The Union also holds the Virginia seaport of Norfolk as well as Fort Monroe; the North Carolina ports of Plymouth, Washington, and New Bern; the South Carolina coastal town of Beaufort, and Hilton Head, Folly, and Morris Islands; and in Florida the Federals possess Fernandina, St. Augustine, Pensacola, and Key West. Nevertheless, Grant characterizes that part of the South still in Confederate control as “an empire in extant.” To defeat this empire, Grant has under his command about 662,000 soldiers, organized in 22 corps. Of these men, probably 533,000 are combat-ready effectives—the largest host any American officer has ever commanded.

Now Grant begins describing his plan for defeating this empire in the coming spring offensive. His plan of action is uncomplicated but unique to the Civil War, and gives substance to the strategy that President Lincoln has urged upon his generals in vain virtually since the outbreak of the war three years ago. No longer, as Grant will write later, will the Federal armies in the East and West act “independently and without concert, like a balky team, no two pulling together.” Instead, he intends to put all his armies on the move this spring in simultaneous, concerted offensives that will exhaust the enemy and destroy the Confederacy’s logistical capacity to continue the war. Grant’s primary objective is not to occupy territory, but to conquer the two strong armies the South still has in the field: Lee’s forces in Virginia and the consolidated Western army now commanded by General Joseph E. Johnston. After two days of talks, Grant travels on to Washington and Sherman returns to his headquarters in Nashville.

Arkansas voters ratify a pro-Union constitution which ends slavery in the state.

At the closing of the Sanitary Commission Fair in Washington, President Lincoln says, “if all that has been said by orators and poets since the creation of the world in praise of woman applied to the women of America, it would not do them justice for their conduct during this war.”

Fighting occurs at Monticello and Spring Creek, Arkansas; and Federals scout from Island No. 10, Tennessee, to New Madrid, Missouri.


March 19, Saturday

The lead elements of General Banks’s cavalry ride into Alexandria, Lousiana, joining A.J. Smith and Admiral Porter; within a week the rest of the main Federal force of 17,000 men will arrive. Muddy and disheveled from their march through the swampy country of the Teche—and almost a week behind schedule—the men, like their leader, seem nonetheless eager to get on with the expedition up the Red River.

The Georgia legislature expresses its confidence in President Davis and resolves that the Confederate government should, after each victory, make an offer of peace to the North based on independence of the South and self-determination by the border states.

Minor fighting continues, with action at the Eel River, California; Beersheba Springs, Tennessee; on the Cumberland River, Kentucky; at Laredo, Texas; and Black Bay, Arkansas. Federals scout for four days from Lexingon, Missouri; and a Union expedition from Rolling Prairie to Batesville, Arkansas, will last until April 4th.


March 20, Sunday

Skirmishing flares at Arkadelphia and Roseville Creek, Arkansas; while on the Red River of Louisiana fighting is at Bayou Rapides. The last ten days of the month see Federal scouting in Jackson and La Fayette counties, Missouri, with skirmishing against guerrillas. Famed raider CSS Alabama arrives at Capetown, South Africa.


March 21, Monday

Brigadier General Joseph A. Mower strikes another blow at the Confederates along the Red River. In rain, hail, and sleet, he leads six regiments of infantry, a battery of artillery, and a brigade of Banks’s newly arrived cavalry into a swampy area 23 miles northwest of Alexandria. Come night at Henderson’s Hill, as the storm rages, Mower’s troops surround the camp of the 2nd Louisiana Cavalry, Richard Taylor’s principal mounted unit. Helped by their guides—Confederate deserters who know the Louisiana troopers’ countersign—the Federals seize the pickets and walk into the camp, capturing about 250 men, most of their horses, and a battery of four guns without firing a shot.

Still the skirmishing continues, now at Reynoldsville, Tennessee; Moulton, Alabama; and Velasco, Texas. There is a small affair at Henderson’s Hill, Louisiana, on the Red River.

Lincoln approves an act of the Federal Congress enabling the territories of Nevada and Colorado to become states, despite their relatively small populations.

President Lincoln tells the New York Workingmen’s Democratic Republican Association, “Property is the fruit of labor—property is desirable—is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich, shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprize [sic]. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another....”

[Doug64]

March 22, Tuesday

“I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing, that no man desires for himself,” Lincoln writes, apparently for an autograph album for a Sanitary Fair.

Heavy snow falls in Richmond, Virginia.

Federal Major General Lew Wallace supersedes Brigadier General Henry H. Lockwood in command of the Middle Department with headquarters in Baltimore.

Fighting erupts at Bald Spring Canyon on Eel River, California; Langley’s Plantation in Issaquena County, Mississippi; Fancy Farms’ Kentucky; Corpus Christi, Texas; and Winchester, Virginia.

[Doug64]

March 23, Wednesday

In Arkansas, General Steele has been taking his time departing from Little Rock. Many of his troops are on furlough, he explained. Besides, Arkansas roads are impassible from the spring rains and forage difficult to obtain. Instead of moving against Shreveport, Steel proposed merely making a demonstration in Arkansas. This would divert Confederate troops who might otherwise rush to defend the Red. General Grant has never liked the idea of a Red River expedition, but he doesn’t want it to fail, either. “Move your force in full cooperation with General N. P. Banks’s attack on Shreveport,” he ordered Steele. “A mere demonstration will not be sufficient.” Receiving this blunt command, Steele reluctantly commits his small army. Federal columns move south from Little Rock on their way to join Banks’ expedition coming up the Red River, a week and a half after Grant’s order. If successful, the two-pronged advance will go far toward breaking up the Confederacy west of the Mississippi. Even at first Steele’s men have to fight a bit—on the Benton Road toward Camden, Arkansas. Yet there is a major flaw in the Federal scheme. With Banks and Steele so far removed from each other, it is impossible to coordinate their movements. In addition, the sometimes arrogant Porter, although under orders to cooperate with Banks, also exercises independent command. The result: No single commander has complete charge of the various forces—about 45,000 Federal soldiers and sailors—that are heading toward Shreveport.

In Tennessee, Sherman’s first task is to inspect his command. His Military Division of the Mississippi embraces three major forces—the Armies of the Cumberland, the Tennessee, and the Ohio—scattered about the state of Tennessee and extending into northern Alabama and Mississippi. These armies can field a fighting force of about 100,000 troops—nearly double Johnston’s numbers at Dalton, Georgia—for the march south. For the most part, these are vetern troops. Many already have signed up for another three-year tour of duty, motivated variously by patriotism, by bounties, and by the exhortations of unit commanders who back up their speeches with liberal rations of whiskey. The troops are also well rested. Except for the Sherman-led Meridian campaign last month, and a simultaneous demonstration against the Confederates at Dalton, they have spent the months since November in winter quarters. Many have even had a month at home on furlough.

Nevertheless, Sherman faces a mammoth problem: making provision for supplying his troops on the march. His supplies first have to be brought to Chattanooga over the single ribbon of rails that run more than 300 miles to his rear: 150 miles northwest to Nashville, and then 185 miles farther north to the main depot at Louisville. Although Grant since February has made much progress repairing and securing the railroad, the slender lifeline is still vulnerable along its entire length to slashing attacks by local guerrillas and by Confederate cavalrymen such as the legendary Nathan Bedford Forrest.

Meanwhile, in the Army of the Potomoac, Major General G.K. Warren supersedes Major General George Sykes in command of V Corps, an important shift.

In Washington a number of “radical” members of Congress press for removal of General Meade as commander of the Army of the Potomac.

[Doug64]

March 24, Thursday

Nathan Bedford Forrest is on the move again, this time into west Tennessee, where his command captures Union City. Other fighting takes place near Goodrich’s Landing, Louisiana, and at Oil Trough Bottom, Arkansas. Until the end of the month Federals operate from Batesville to Coon Creek and Devil’s Fork of the Red River in Arkansas. In the far northwest a Federal expedition against Amerinds moves from Camp Lincoln near Canyon City to Harney Valley, Oregon, through April 16th.

In the evening President Lincoln and his new General in Chief confer at the White House.

[Doug64]

March 25, Friday

Confederates are on the Ohio River. Federal outposts at Paducah, Kentucky, are driven in sharply as Southern cavalry attack the important Ohio River city. Although they occupy part of Paducah, two attacks by Forrest’s men are repulsed at Fort Anderson. Unable to destroy or capture the Federal garrison, the Confederates will withdraw in the morning. The raid fails, but not before it has alarmed the Ohio Valley.

In other fighting the guns speak at Rockport, Dover, White River, and in Van Buren County, Arkansas; in South Carolina at McClellansville. Two Federal scouts operate through tomorrow—from Batesville to Fairview, Arkansas, and from Beaufort to Bogue and Bear inlets, North Carolina.

Federal cavalry in Virginia has a temporary new commander when Brigadier General David McMurtrie Gregg supersedes Major General Alfred Pleasonton, who is sent to Missouri.

[Doug64]

March 26, Saturday

General Mower’s raid, which has deprived Taylor of his Confederate cavalry scouts, has forced the Confederate leader to retreat to the area of Natchitoches, another forty miles up the river. But General Banks is unable to take advantage of this opening. Despite recent rainstorms, the Red River’s annual spring rise has yet to take place, and the river is abnormally low. Porter has often boasted that he can take his ships “wherever the sand is damp,” but the 50-year-old admiral refuses to risk them by trying to run the Alexandria rapids. When at last the river begins to rise, the first ship to attempt the rapids, the powerful ironclad Eastport, runs aground, blocking the channel for almost three days. Unwilling to advance without the fleet’s firepower, Banks stays put. While enduring these frustrating delays, Banks today receives a peremptory message from General Grant. If it appears he cannot take Shreveport in the next month, Grant writes, he must return A.J. Smith’s 10,000 men to Sherman by April 15th.

Lieutenant General Grant is in Virginia again; he establishes his permanent headquarters with the Army of the Potomac at Culpeper Court House. Major General James B. McPherson assumes command of the Army of the Tennessee, under Sherman. Grant issues succinct orders to Meade: “Lee’s army will ber your objective point. Wherever Lee goes, there you will go also.” Grant also plans to put two additional Federal armies on the move in Virginia. Major General Sigel has 26,000 men spread over northern Maryland and West Virginia, covering primarily the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Grant orders Sigel to drive south through the Shenandoah Valley to deprive Lee of food and rail support from that quarter. Grant’s other army in Virginia, under Major General Benjamin Butler, is concentrated on the Peninsula, between the York and James Rivers. Grant informs Butler that his ultimate objective is to be the Confederate capital of Richmond. Butler is to advance up the south bank of the James River with 30,000 men to City Point, just south of Petersburg. There he is to fortify his position and look for an opportunity to join Meade’s Army of the Potomac in a massive pincers movement. Lee’s Confederate scouts will learn that the wives of the Federal officers have begun to leave the camp across the river.

Skirmishes take place near Black Jack Church, North Carolina; Quitman, Arkansas; and for several days at Long View and Mount Elba, Arkansas.

President Lincoln, in a new proclamation, explains his previous statements on amnesty by saying that it does not apply to prisoners of war but only to those free and at large who voluntarily come forward and take the oath of allegiance.

President Davis is still arguing with the governors of North and South Carolina over enforcement of policies of the Confederacy regarding trade and troop procurement and allocation.

[Doug64]

March 27, Sunday

A few more routine affairs add to the mounting record: at Livingston, Mississippi; Louisville, Tennessee; Columbus, Kentucky; on the Ohio River, where Forrest’s men are operating; at Deepwater Township, Missouri; on the Eel River, California; and in the Federal movement into southern Arkansas, now known as the Camden Expedition, at Branchville and Brooks’ Mill.

[Doug64]

March 28, Monday

Upon his arrival in Texas, Quantrill reported at Bonham on October 26th, to General Henry E. McCulloch. Quantrill and his men were ordered to help round up the increasing number of deserters and conscription-dodgers in North Texas. The band captured a few but killed even more, whereupon McCulloch pulled them off this duty. The General then sent them to track down retreating Comanches from a recent raid on the northwest frontier, which they did without success. After these failures the band engaged in a prolonged drinking spree. No one in authority knows quite what to do about them. In fact, Confederate officials are growing increasingly uneasy about Quantrill and his men. Missouri Governor Tom Reynolds, a secessionist, has already compared the gang to “an elephant won in a raffle.” Confederate Army commanders have begun to question whether Quantrill is as dedicated to the Confederate cause as he is addicted to bloodlust and booty. And, to a man, the Confederate Army officers abhor Quantrill’s brutal methods of fighting.

During the idle months in Texas, Quantrill loses control of his command. His obvious loss of esteem among Army regulars has disillusioned many of his followers; others chafe at the inequities in the division of the spoils; and still others, apparently, are sickened by the bloody excesses of the past. At any rate, the gang breaks into factions—both George Todd and Bill Anderson have their own followers—and quarrel bitterly. At one point, Quantrill and Todd actually exchange fire; the fight is stopped by some of the men before any blood is shed, but the acrimony remains. Finally, General McCulloch, determined to rid North Texas of Quantrill’s influence, arrests Quantrill, on the charge of ordering the murder of a Confederate Major. However, Quantrill escaps, returning to his camp near Sherman, Texas, pursued by over 300 state and Confederate troops. His band then crosses the Red River into Indian Territory, where they resupply from Confederate stores and start the long journey back to Missouri. As they go the guerrilla band begins to break up into several smaller units and his vicious lieutenant, “Bloody Bill” Anderson, known for wearing a necklace of Yankee scalps into battle, will continue to terrorize the state of Missouri.

For Quantrill, once in Missouri a showdown between him and Todd occurs almost immediately. While they are playing cards in a farmhouse, Quantrill accuses Todd of cheating. Todd pulls a gun on Qunatril, and the guerilla leader decides not to press the issue. William Quantrill walks out of the room—and, as an effective leader, out of the Missouri-Kansas border wars.

“This afternoon a dreadful affair took place in our town,” says a Charleston, Illinois, newspaper. About a hundred Copperheads vent long-pent-up feelings by attacking Federal soldiers on furlough at Charleston. By the time the fighting is ended by troop reinforcements, five men are dead and more than twenty wounded. It is one of the more severe anti-war outbreaks in the North.

The real war goes on with an engagement on the Eel River, California; an affair at New Hope, Kentucky; a skirmish at Obey’s River, Tennessee; an affair at Bloomery Gap, West Virginia; and skirmishes at Danville and Mount Elba, Arkansas. Federal scouts are carried out to Caperton’s Ferry, Alabama; in Gloucester County, and to Aldie and Middleburg, Virginia. Federal troops move northwestward from Alexandria, Louisiana, as Banks’ Red River Campaign enters a new phase and Confederates under General Richard Taylor gather to resist the invasion of the Trans-Mississippi.

[Potemkin]

For Quantrill, once in Missouri a showdown between him and Todd occurs almost immediately. While they are playing cards in a farmhouse, Quantrill accuses Todd of cheating. Todd pulls a gun on Qunatril, and the guerilla leader decides not to press the issue. William Quantrill walks out of the room—and, as an effective leader, out of the Missouri-Kansas border wars.

Good riddance. I've never understood why Quantrill was mythologised after the end of the War - he was a poor leader, and in the end the Confederacy chased him away, and then his own men chased him away. Nobody wanted him. Good riddance.

[Doug64]

Good riddance. I've never understood why Quantrill was mythologised after the end of the War - he was a poor leader, and in the end the Confederacy chased him away, and then his own men chased him away. Nobody wanted him. Good riddance.

Amen! Good riddance to bad rubbish, though I’d argue that what got mythologized was more the raid on Lawrence than Quantrill himself (other than as a bogeyman).

Just think how different the war in the West would have been if the LDS Church hadn’t been chased out of first Missouri and then Illinois!

[Potemkin]

Amen! Good riddance to bad rubbish, though I’d argue that what got mythologized was more the raid on Lawrence that Quantrill himself (other than as a bogeyman).

Just think how different the war in the West would have been if the LDS Church hadn’t been chased out of first Missouri and then Illinois!

Indeed.

[Doug64]

March 29, Tuesday

Spring is budding through Virginia when Lieutenant General Grant commandeers a plain brick house in Culpeper and has tents pitched on the lawn for his staff. He is just down the road from General Meade’s headquarters at Brandy Station and—as Northern newspapers are quick to point out—six miles closer to the front. Having settled into his new post, Grant reviews the proud veterans of V Corps. For many of the men this is their first look at the new commander, and most of them are unimpressed. Grant’s reuptation has preceded him. In Northern households his initials are said to stand for “Unconditional Surrender.” Yet a vein of skepticism runs through the Army of the Potomac. As Grant hears until he is sick of it, “You’ve never met Bobby Lee and his boys, and mind you, Lee is just over the Rapidan.” And one of Grant’s opening moves is not popular. To streamline the army, Grant disbands the understrength I and III Corps—which were decimated at Gettysburg—and distributes the men between II and V Corps. The abolition of those proud commands doesn’t endear the new commander to the battle-hardened veterans. But if they are disgruntled, the soldiers are at least disposed to give their taciturn new general a chance. He cannot be weaker or more inefficient than the generals who have wasted the lives of their comrades during the past three years, many think.

Fighting increases as March becomes more springlike. Scenes of battle are at Caperton’s Ferry, Alabama; about Monett’s Ferry and Cloutierville, Louisiana, on the Red River; Bolivar, Tennessee, in Forrest’s raid; and Roseville, Long View, and Arkadelphia, Arkansas. Union scouts move from Lookout Valley to Deer Head Cove, Georgia; and from Bellefonte to Burrowsville, Arkansas.

President Lincoln, in his usual skillful way, dissuades General Meade from formally requesting a court of inquiry in regard to Gettysburg. Criticisms of Meade’s command have been appearing in the press, possibly written by other officers in the battle.

[Doug64]

March 30, Wednesday

Fighting includes an affair at Greenton, Missouri; action at Mount Elba and Big Creek, Arkansas; capture of a Confederate outpost at Cherry Grove, Virginia; and a Federal reconnaissance from Lookout Valley, Tennessee, to McLemore’s Cove, Georgia. Federals scout around Woodville and Athens, Alabama, and from Columbus to Clinton and Moscow, Kentucky. Confederates attack Snyder’s Bluff, Mississippi.

[Doug64]

March 31, Thursday

Skirmishing at Matchitoches, Louisiana, marks the Red River Campaign. Other action includes skirmishes near Arkadelphia, Arkansas; at Palatka, Florida; at Forks of Beaver in east Kentucky; and an affair at Spring Island, South Carolina. Federals scout from Bridgeport, Alabama, to Caperton’s Ferry.

[Doug64]

April 1864

Not since last fall has there been a major confrontation between North and South. Nevertheless, the war still bears heavily on the people. It is unavoidable. General Banks’ Union army on the Red River is running into trouble from General Taylor’s opposition, low water in the rivers, and geography. In Arkansas the cooperating Federal columns are stumbling, too. At Charleston the Federal guns still fire occasionally, still making further rubble of Fort Sumter. Elsewhere, raids, sniping, patrols, reconnaissances, and guerrilla activities continue. But eyes turn anxiously toward Virginia—when will it again become the focal point of the struggle? Grant is with Meade’s Army of the Potomac, but in front of him is Lee and the now legendary Army of Northern Virginia. In the South dissatisfaction with Davis and his administration increases as the territory of the Confederacy dwindles.

April 1, Friday

April wafts in with the monotonous small war in far-off, strange places. Federals and Confederates fight a skirmish at Arkadelphia, Arkansas, about seventy miles southwest of Little Rock, as the Northerners of Frederick Steele head south to join Banks on the Red River. There is also action at Fitzhugh’s Woods near Augusta, Arkansas; and skirmishes break out near Plymouth, North Carolina and Bloomfield, Missouri. US transport Maple Leaf sinks after hitting a torpedo or mine in St. John’s River, Florida. A Federal expedition operates from Palatka to Fort Gates, Florida; another expedition patrols for ten days along the Pearl River in Louisiana. Fort Sumter receives only irregular fire during April.

[Doug64]

April 2, Saturday

The list of skirmishes lengthens once more: Cleveland, Tennessee; Grossetete Bayou, Louisiana; Crump’s Hill, Louisiana; Okolona, Antoine or Terre Noir Creek, and Wolf Creek, Arkansas; Cedar Creek and Cow Ford Creek near Pensacola, Florida. Cape Lookout Light, North Carolina, is destroyed by Confederates.

[Doug64]

April 3, Sunday

Time for General Banks’s Red River expedition is running out, but just as his timetable seems on the verge of ruin another rise of the river frees the Eastport. Though a hospital steamer is wrecked, twelve more gunboats and thirty other ships safely pass the Alexandria rapids. The rest of the fleet is left below to protect the Federal line of communication and supply. The combined force continues up the Red, Banks’s men riding and walking along rough riverside trails while A.J. Smith’s troops lounge on the decks of the laboring, chugging transports. By today, ships and men have cleared Natchitoches, which Taylor and his Confederates have abandoned, and proceed to Grand Ecore, a village about fifty miles upstream from Alexandria, where most of Smith’s troops come ashore. Eight gunboats and three other vessels bring reinforcements to the Union expedition. Shreveport is now only four days’ march ahead, but the deadline for returning Smith’s troops to Sherman is only a week and a half away. To meet the stringent schedule, Banks decides to march the bulk of his army by what he thinks will be the fastest route, the stagecoach road that runs from Grand Ecore to Shreveport.

Forrest and his men fight near Raleigh in their West Tennessee Campaign. Other skirmishes are near Cypress Swamp, Tennessee; Ducktown Road, Georgia; Clinton, Mississippi; and Fort Gibson, Indian Territory. In addition, there is an engagement at Elkin’s Ferry on the Little Missouri River, Missouri, and an affair at Clarksville, Arkansas. There are four nights of brisk mortar shelling of Fort Sumter.