The American Civil War, day by day - Page 61 - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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#15160977
March 14, Saturday

During the night, Admiral Farragut in his flagship Hartford leads his Union squadron up the Mississippi past the batteries of Port Hudson, Louisiana. Hartford and Albatross succeed in getting through, but Monongahela and Richmond are damaged and have to drop back. Mississippi runs aground and is under severe fire. She is set ablaze and abandoned, soon exploding in the river. Confederate batteries are deadly accurate and for a time threaten to destroy the entire flotilla. Meanwhile, General Banks’s troops carry out demonstrations on the land side of Port Hudson.

There is a skirmish at Davis’ Mill, Tennessee.
#15161108
March 15, Sunday

There are skirmishes at Hernado, Mississippi; Rover, Tennessee; an affair near Dumfries, and a Federal scout from Harpers Ferry to Leesburg, Virginia.

In San Francisco authorities seize the schooner J. M. Chapman, about to depart with twenty alleged secessionists and six Dahlgren guns.

The British Britannia successfully runs the blockade into Wilmington, North Carolina, but all along the coasts this spring interceptions of blockade runners have been increasing.
#15161208
March 16, Monday

The Federal expedition through the Yazoo Pass makes two more efforts to get their gunboats past Fort Pemberton. Both are met by furious gunfire from the fort. “Give them blizzards, boys!” cries the defenders’ commander, General William W. Loring, who will be know to the Confederates ever after as “Old Blizzards.” The Federal commander isn’t doing so well, Lieutenant Commander Smith displaying all the indications of what Admiral Porter will later call “aberration of mind.” Among other things, Smith grows incoherent, shouting orders to his men that no one can understand. The Federals suffer relatively few casualties from their three attempts on the fort, but they are checked. At last, the expedition turns around and heads back on the long journey to Yazoo Pass. Its leaders are greatly downcast at this anticlimactic outcome—tomorrow Smith will ask to be relieved—but the enlisted men and junior officers think it has turned out just fine. The private soldiers have had great fun, and the long stay on the boats has been a rest from hard campaigning.

While the Yazoo Pass expedition is ending at Fort Pemberton, Admiral Porter finds himself involved in the fourth of the bayou experiments. Midway in the course of the Yazoo Pass expedition, General Grant began to worry that the waterborne troops heading down the Yazoo might become trapped, and he asked for an exploration of the waterways at the lower end of the river, in case he had to mount a rescue mission. Now, Porter invites Grant for a boat ride. By now all danger to the Yazoo Pass participants appears to be over, but Porter thinks he might have discovered a new way into Vicksburg. They start up the Yazoo on board Porter’s flagship, the Black Hawk. The river is in flood, not only because of the incessant rains but also because of the millions of gallons of the Mississippi that have been let in at the Yazoo Pass. Suddenly, as they pass a tree-lined bank downriver from Haynes’ Bluff, Porter calls for a hard turn to port. The vessel wheels left, and the astonished Grant finds himself sailing sedately through the woods. There are trees on all sides; leafy boughs are interlaced overhead. The water’s depth at this point is fifteen feet; under the Black Hawk runs a road that once carried cotton to the river. Much of the surrounding forest is similarly flooded, Porter points out. Though strips of high ground lace the inundated areas, a boat can go almost anywhere.

Soon they are northbound in a waterway called Steele’s Bayou. It links up eventually, Porter explains, with a channel called Black Bayou and then another known as Deer Creek. Both of these also extend northward. Branching off to the east from Deer Creek is Rolling Fork, and Rolling Fork connects in turn with the Sunflower River. The Sunflower heads back south and ultimately empties into the Yazoo. It is a zany route. A vessel following it would take five waterways and would travel 200 miles to wind up only twenty miles northeast of where it started. But in the process it would outflank the Chickasaw Bluffs and Haynes’ Bluff defenses north of Vicksburg and carry troops into position for an attack on the city from the rear. Porter has explored only as far as Deer Creek, but he considers the entire route navigable. Grant is captivated. He authorizes the expedition as soon as he is back at his headquarters this evening. Porter wants to lead the Steele’s Bayou venture himself. Grant approves, and orders Sherman and 10,000 men to accompany him.

There is also a Federal expedition from Jackson to Trenton, Tennessee.
#15161351
March 17, Tuesday

With General Hooker’s ascension to command of the Army of the Potomac in late January, his first task was to restore the army to fighting trim. The men have not tasted victory since Antietam in September, they had not been paid in six months, and they were falling sick by the thousands. Moreover, men were deserting at an alarming rate. Those who remained in camp were either dejected or diseased, or both. Scurvy, dysentery, and malnutrition were rife; the army’s medical inspector general, Thomas F. Perley, complained angrily about the shortage of proper food, especially fresh vegetables and bread. Poor sanitation is also a factor. In the hills near Falmouth, the men have built a city of log and canvas huts in which they live four to a shelter. Although the structures provide better protection from the winter weather than do tents, there were virtually no provisions for keeping the huts—or the men that live in them—clean; disease was the inevitable result.

Hooker has set about improving the lot of his troops with energy and determination. By enforcing sanitation regulations—requiring the use of proper latrines, regular bathing, and frequent airing of bedding—and by improving rations, he quickly cuts the sick call in half. Fresh bread, onions, and potatoes are made available several times a week, along with occasional rations of tobacco. At the same time, Hooker initiates measures designed to discourage desertion. He grants furloughs and fills the empty hours of camp life with drills and instruction periods. Congress, in the meantime, finally makes arrangements to get the soldiers their back pay. Hooker also revises his command structure. He scraps Burnside’s grand division arrangement and orders his seven infantry corps commanders to report directly to him. He detaches the cavalry units from the infantry divisions and organizes a separate cavalry corps under Major General George Stoneman. Henceforth, Federal horsemen will operate as an autonomous force, carrying out large-scale screening, reconnaissance, and offensive missions in the manner of Confederate General Jeb Stuart’s celebrated legions. Hooker sets up a Bureau of Military Information to compile and coordinate intelligence reports from such varied sources as cavalry patrols, a new corps of scouts, balloon observations, prisoners of war, and enemy deserters. The Army of the Potomac has responded favorably to Hooker’s efforts. Many of the men had put no trust in his bluster, believing that he would simply get them killed as Burnside did. But by now, attitudes have changed—between the new discipline, overhauled departments, clean camps, and better food, he is seen as “energetic, crafty, and a fighting general.”

On the other side of the river, winter has brought far greater suffering to the Army of Northern Virginia. In January the Confederate command, chronically short of supplies, was forced to impose a further, drastic reduction in meat and sugar rations. By now, Lee laments that there does not seem to be enough food to sustain the health and stamina of the men. “Symptoms of scurvy are appearing among them, and, to supply the place of vegetables, each regiment is directed to send a daily detail to gather sassafras buds, wild onions, lamb’s quarter, and poke sprouts; but for so large an army the supply obtains is very small.” Another desperate shortage, that of shoes and proper winter clothing, is outlined by a Louisiana staff officer in a letter to his Representative in the Confederate Congress. Of the 1,500 men available for duty in his brigade, the officer reports, 400 have no shoes and so cannot render effective service due to the frozen ground. Large numbers of men have no blankets, and some are without underclothing, shorts, or socks. “Overcoats, from their rarity, are objects of curiosity.” The Confederates are also handicapped by an acute shortage of manpower. Lee’s army, already heavily outnumbered at the Battle of Fredericksburg, is further depleted in February when Longstreet is dispatched with Pickett’s and Hood’s divisions to southern Virginia and coastal North Carolina to forage for provisions and defend railroad communications. Thus Lee has lost the services of 13,000 troops and three of his seasoned and reliable commanders.

With both Hooker and Lee preoccupied by supply and organization problems, there is little contact between the two armies during the later winter months except for a few cavalry raids and skirmishes. The largest and most important of these occurs today in the vicinity of Kelly’s Ford. The raid is initiated by Federal Brigadier General William Averell, a division commander in General Stoneman’s cavalry corps. In the beginning of March, Averell went to Hooker for permission to take his horsemen up the Rappahannock, cross the river, and drive off the Confederate cavalry units reported to be in the area. It seems to Averell to be a good opportunity to test the new independent cavalry organization, and perhaps in the process change Hooker’s low opinion of troopers—scathingly expressed on one recent occasion when Hooker asked, “Who ever saw a dead cavalryman?” Averell has a further, more personal motive. The Confederate cavalry commander in the Kelly’s Ford area—Brigadier General Fitzhugh Lee, a nephew of Robert E. Lee—attended West Point at the same time as Averell, and a spirited rivalry exists between the former classmates. Fitz Lee, as he is known, has sent Averell messages taunting him about the inferiority of Federal cavalry. In his latest missive, Lee has dared his old friend to come across the river and bring some coffee with him.

With Hooker’s approval, Averell eagerly accepts the challenge and sets out with six full regiments and portions of two others—3,000 cavalrymen in all—together with a battery of artillery. The bulk of the horsemen arrive at Kelly’s Ford in the morning. First on the scene is an advance guard of the 4th New York Cavalry, commanded by Captain William Hart. The troopers soon spot an abatis blocking the road on the far bank, and Hart sends a message back to Averell asking for men with axes to cut through the obstacle. Twenty dismounted troopers of the 16th Pennsylvania Cavalry soon arrive and wade into the frigid, waist-deep water, only to be driven back by heavy carbine fire from the Confederate defenders. Two fieldpieces are then ordered forward to rake the Confederates; under the covering fire, nineteen troopers of the 1st Rhode Island Cavalry ride into the ford, followed by the Pennsylvanians, who are still on foot and carrying their axes. Only three of the Rhode Island horsemen make it to the far shore, but these survivors and the Pennsylvanians gain a foothold and succeed in breaching the abatis. More members of the 1st Rhode Island swiftly splash across the stream, scattering the Confederate pickets and taking 25 prisoners.

When word of the encounter reaches Fitz Lee at Culpeper, ten miles west of the ford, he surmises that the Federals are moving against the Orange & Alexandria Railroad. He rides forward and deploys his 800 cavalrymen in a blocking position on the road between Kelly’s Ford and Brandy Station, a small town on the railroad line six miles northwest of the ford. As Fitz Lee’s skirmishers probe forward toward the Rappahannock, they find to their surprise that the Federal cavalrymen, some of them dismounted and stationed behind a stone wall, are deployed in defensive positions just a mile and a half from the ford. Averell, a conscientious and thorough professional soldier, is also a cautious one. He is not confident that his force outnumbers Fitz Lee’s and has decided against rushing headlong into a fight with his resourceful classmate. Averell faces some formidable opponents he doesn’t know about. By chance, Fitz Lee has at his side not only the redoubtable Jeb Stuart, but also the dashing artillery officer who was one of the heroes of Fredericksburg, Major John Pelham. Stuart has joined the action because he happened to be in Culpeper attending a court-martial. The handsome young Pelham, who is known for his interest in the ladies, is there because he wrangled a brief leave of absence to pay a call on a young woman at nearby Orange Court House. Fitz Lee orders a squadron to dismount, take a forward position, and open fire on the Federals behind the stone wall as a preliminary to a charge by the rest of the regiment; Stuart himself watches over the movement. Pelham goes to the rear to advise Lee’s artillery commander in the placement of his guns, then dashes back to the front just as the mounted men reach the wall. The troopers turn to their left, firing at the Federals with their pistols as they ride, searching for an opening or a low spot in the wall where they can break through. Pelham draws his sword and gallops across the field at an angle to join the charge at its head. Just as he catches up with the Virginians, they find a gate and pour through it to try to turn the Federal right. Pelham reins in, stands in his stirrups, and waves his sword as he shouts encouragement to the attacking horsemen. Just then a shell explodes with a flash and a roar above Pelham’s head, knocking him from his horse to the ground. Though there is no immediately visible sign of a wound, a sliver of metal has entered the back of his head—he survives an ambulance ride to Culpeper but dies soon after arriving.

Shortly after Pelham is hit, a Federal countercharge drives the Virginians from the stone wall. Meanwhile, on the Federal left, Averell’s most dashing subordinate, Colonel Alfred Duffié, moves up his 1st Brigade, hoping to entice the rest of the Confederate cavalry into attacking his position. The Virginians on their right oblige, and are startled to find Duffié responding with a charge of his own. As Duffié’s four regiments sweep forward, the outnumbered Confederates turn to retreat, but not in time for all of them to escape. A number of Virginians are killed or captured in the melee. Duffié’s success doesn’t embolden Averell, however, and he orders the charging horsemen to rein in. Then he mandates a cautious pursuit, halting once again barely a mile beyond the stone wall. Fitz Lee’s horsemen charge this line, reinforcing Averell’s conviction that he faces a strong enemy. At this point he learns from Confederate prisoners that Jeb Stuart is in the fight. This news quenches any desire Averell might have for further action, and he “deems it proper to withdraw.” A bugle sounds recall, and the Federal troops head back across the Rappahannock. Averell leaves behind two wounded Confederate officers, a sack of coffee, and a message for his old classmate: “Dear Fitz. Here’s your coffee. Here’s your visit. How do you like it?”

The engagement is notable on two accounts. The Federal cavalry corps in its first large-scale fight demonstrates unprecedented spirit. And the engagement has cost the Confederates dearly—they have lost 133 men, compared to the Federals’ 78 casualties, and the price is magnified by the death of one of the Confederate Army’s most promising young officers. John Pelham is revered throughout the South, and he holds a special place in the esteem of both his commander, General Stuart, and his general in chief, Robert E. Lee. Accompanied by a guard of honor, the body of the fallen artilleryman is taken to lie in state at the Capitol at Richmond, then returned to Pelham’s native Alabama.

There are skirmishes at Bealeton Station, Herndon Station, and near Franklin, Virginia.

On the Mississippi Farragut is off Natchez with USS Hartford and Albatross.

Lincoln answers a complaining telegram from General Rosecrans, “ ... you wrong both yourself and us, when you even suspect there is not the best disposition on the part of us all here to oblige you.”
#15161550
March 18, Wednesday

Since January, General James McPherson has been working at the task General Grant gave him to open a canal from the Mississippi to Lake Providence then through the bayous south to the Red River and back to the Mississippi. With great difficulty, a 30-ton steamer has been transported overland from the Mississippi to Lake Providence for use in reconnaissance and McPherson has established his headquarters aboard the vessel. Today McPherson is able to report to Grant that his men have successfully dug a canal a hundred feet wide and two feet deep between the Mississippi and the lake. However, the bayous south prove to be more of a challenge. Immense cypress trees bar the way; they have to be cut down and removed without leaving stumps underwater to block the passage of transports. In order to get at the stumps after the trees are cut down, McPherson’s men invent an underwater saw. They mount a circular saw on a shaft that can be lowered from a floating platform. When the blade is in position at the required depth, men on the platform turn the shaft and the saw bites into the stump. The new tool works admirably; once the stumps are severed, they bob to the surface for disposal. But it is obvious that the work is going to be long and hard. After the work drags on without much progress, Grant concludes that the distance is too great and the obstacles too forbidding.

President Lincoln writes Congressman Henry Winter Davis in regard to the House of Representatives, “Let the friends of the government first save the government, and then administer it to their own liking.”

In Paris the house of Erlanger opens a loan of three million pounds to the Confederacy based on 7 percent bonds for twenty years.

Lieutenant General Theophilus H. Holmes assumes command of the Confederate District of Arkansas.
#15161554
President Lincoln writes Congressman Henry Winter Davis in regard to the House of Representatives, “Let the friends of the government first save the government, and then administer it to their own liking.”

This gives an insight into Lincoln's attitude towards democratic processes during the Civil War - he believed they had to be suspended for the duration. And given the fact that this was a civil war rather than a foreign one, and was therefore an existential threat to the United States, it's difficult to disagree with him.

In Paris the house of Erlanger opens a loan of three million pounds to the Confederacy based on 7 percent bonds for twenty years.

That was remarkably optimistic of them. :lol:
#15161558
Potemkin wrote:This gives an insight into Lincoln's attitude towards democratic processes during the Civil War - he believed they had to be suspended for the duration. And given the fact that this was a civil war rather than a foreign one, and was therefore an existential threat to the United States, it's difficult to disagree with him.

Yeah, it reminds me of a sci-fi boardgame I played decades ago, called the Amoeba Wars. All the players were interstellar empires fighting each other for first place, but all around the fringes were giant space amoebas and if the players didn’t unite occasionally—or at least call a truce—to prune them back they’d eventually roll over everyone. More than one empire has fallen to internal divisions, such as the Byzantine Empire (though it took centuries after the disaster at Manzikert for the logic to play out).

That was remarkably optimistic of them. :lol:

More on this later on. :D
#15161725
March 19, Thursday

In England, James Bulloch’s accomplishment in delivering the Florida and Alabama into Confederate hands last summer was all the more remarkable because he has been forced to operate with scant cash and severely limited lines of credit. The Confederate government, short of gold and silver, relies heavily on bond issues. At first banks, commercial houses, and individuals responded with enthusiasm. But the specie this obtained has been quickly sucked out of the country, going through the Liverpool offices of Fraser, Trenholm, and into the hands of Confederate purchasing agents like Bulloch, and eventually into the bank accounts of European suppliers. When voluntary support fell off drastically last year, the government began relying for its operating expenses on paper notes with no gold or silver backing. So rapidly have these notes declined in value that Confederate soldiers are sometimes paid in sounder Northern greenbacks, which are accepted by many Southerners as a subsidiary tender.

To make things even more difficult for the Confederates in Europe, Union operatives spread stories to the effect that the Confederacy and its securities are poor credit risks. Northern purchasing agents, well supplied with Federal gold, endeavor to bid up the cost of war materials so high that the South cannot afford them. Thus Henry Sanford bought the entire European supply of saltpeter, an essential ingredient of gunpowder. When he heard that Confederate agents were about to sign a contract with a Belgian manufacturer for 60,000 rifles, he immediately made a higher bid and secured the guns for the Union. In desperation, the Confederacy tries to float loans. The most ambitious of these is the Erlanger loan, which grew out of a meeting in Paris between John Slidell and representatives of Emile Erlanger, head of the most influential banking house in France. Erlanger agrees to a $15 million loan secured by bonds exchangeable for cotton, which are sold to the bondholders at the unprecedented low price of sixpence—about 12 cents—a pound. Since cotton is currently selling for 21 cents a pound on the open market, the margin for profit is enormous. Erlanger insists on a 5 percent commission for selling the bonds, along with stiff interest rates. Confederate Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin thinks the terms verge on extortion, but after obtaining a few minor concessions he has approved the loan anyway, hoping that the close ties the bankers are rumored to have with the French court might help tilt the French toward recognizing the Confederacy. When the bond issue goes on sale today, it is at first heavily oversubscribed. William Gladstone, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, is among the enthusiastic buyers. But Federal propaganda—together with the Confederate losses come summer—will discredit the securities and cause their market price to drop precipitously. Although British investors will lose fortunes, the Erlangers will make a handsome six million dollars in interest and commissions, leaving the Confederate government some nine million dollars in gold-backed British and French currency.

Farragut’s Hartford and Albatross runs past the Grand Gulf, Mississippi, batteries just below Vicksburg.

Skirmishing increases on the various fronts with action near Winchester, Virginia; at Frog Bayou, Arkansas; Mount Sterling and Hazle Green, Kentucky; and Richland Station, Spring Hill, Liberty, and College Grove, Tennessee. In Missouri from this day to the twenty-third there is a Federal scout toward Doniphan.

Two divisions of the Federal Ninth Army Corps embark at Newport News headed for the Department of the Ohio.
#15161731
The most ambitious of these is the Erlanger loan, which grew out of a meeting in Paris between John Slidell and representatives of Emile Erlanger, head of the most influential banking house in France. Erlanger agrees to a $15 million loan secured by bonds exchangeable for cotton, which are sold to the bondholders at the unprecedented low price of sixpence—about 12 cents—a pound. Since cotton is currently selling for 21 cents a pound on the open market, the margin for profit is enormous. Erlanger insists on a 5 percent commission for selling the bonds, along with stiff interest rates. Confederate Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin thinks the terms verge on extortion, but after obtaining a few minor concessions he has approved the loan anyway, hoping that the close ties the bankers are rumored to have with the French court might help tilt the French toward recognizing the Confederacy. When the bond issue goes on sale today, it is at first heavily oversubscribed. William Gladstone, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, is among the enthusiastic buyers. But Federal propaganda—together with the Confederate losses come summer—will discredit the securities and cause their market price to drop precipitously. Although British investors will lose fortunes, the Erlangers will make a handsome six million dollars in interest and commissions, leaving the Confederate government some nine million dollars in gold-backed British and French currency.

The Erlangers were being smarter than I thought. The real "useful idiots" were the British investors. Serves them right for investing in a bunch of slave-owning rebels. Lol. :)
#15161751
@Potemkin, yup, wealthy financiers don’t become wealthy financiers by gambling big, they leave that to their vict— that is, their customers. :D
#15161921
March 20, Friday

President Lincoln, concerned over Vicksburg, asks Major General Stephen A. Hurlburt at Memphis, “What news have you? What from Vicksburg? What from Yazoo Pass? What from Lake Providence? What generally?” Hurlburt tells him of the various unsuccessful efforts to reach Vicksburg.

There is a small engagement at Vaught’s Hill near Milton, Tennessee, and an affair at St. Andrew’s Bay, Florida.
#15162131
March 21, Saturday

Admiral Porter’s Federal Deer Creek expedition attempting to flank Vicksburg, Mississippi, is a madcap adventure almost from the start. For eight or ten miles the trees are far enough apart so that the expedition’s eleven ships can steam through them in a straight line. Then the forest thickens, and 100-year-old trees bar the way. But the ground around their root system has been softened by water, and as Porter’s vessels nudge the trunks the trees slowly fall over. The watercourse grows narrower; at one point it consists of an old canal that is almost exactly the width of the Federal gunboats. After a while the channel begins to twist—at one point Porter can look into the woods and see five boats, each following another bow-to-stern, but all pointing in different directions as they conform to the winding path of the stream. Occasionally a gunboat will become jammed between two trees and have to be chopped free. To add to the Navy’s problems, the dead trees are full of vermin of all sorts. The area’s wildlife has been driven into the trees by the flood waters, and as the vessels brush by underneath there is a steady deluge of creatures. Rats, mice, snakes, raccoons, cockroaches, and lizards come raining down on the decks and are promptly swept overboard by sailors armed with brooms. As well, the gunboats are harassed by sharpshooting Confederates along the banks.

Other fighting is in Tennessee: skirmishing at Salem and Triune, a Confederate guerrilla attack on a railroad train between Bolivar and Grand Junction, and a two-day Union scout from La Grange to Saulsbury. For the last part of the month, there are two Federal expeditions operating, one from New Orleans to Ponchatoula, Louisiana, and another from Bonnet Carré to the Jackson Railroad and Amite River, Louisiana.

Farragut’s gunboats anchor just below Vicksburg on the Mississippi.

Federal Major General Edwin Vose Sumner, an aged yet sturdy fighter, who had done well on the Peninsula and at Antietam, dies at Syracuse, New York.
#15162330
March 22, Sunday

Confederates under Basil Duke of Morgan’s cavalry begins a new campaign with the capture of a Federal garrison at Mount Sterling, Kentucky. Other Confederates under John Pegram operate in Kentucky until April 1.

There is a skirmish at Blue Springs near Independence, Missouri; another near the head of White River, Arkansas; yet another near Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Affairs occur at Seleeman’s Ford and Mrs. Violet’s near Occoquan, Virginia.
#15162463
March 23, Monday

Federal troops carry out operations near Jacksonville, Florida. The Federal Hartford and Albatross attack the Confederate batteries at Warrenton on the Mississippi below Vicksburg. Other fighting is at Winfield, North Carolina; Thompson’s Station, Tennessee; and Little River Turnpike near Chantilly, Virginia.

A Confederate act provides for the funding of treasury notes issued previous to December 1, 1862, and for further issuance of treasury notes for not less than $5 nor more than $50 each.

President Lincoln writes Governor Horatio Seymour of New York, sometime opponent of the Administration, “there can not be a difference of purpose between you and me. If we should differ as to the means, it is important that such difference should be as small as possible—that it should not be enhanced by unjust suspicions on one side or the other.”
#15162602
March 24, Tuesday

In the watery web of Steele’s Bayou north of Vicksburg, Admiral Porter and his men run into real trouble. Within sight of the Sunflower River, they are halted by a tangle of willow so thick that no boat can penetrate. While they are trying to extricate themselves, they spot a vessel landing a force of gray-clad men on a levee along the Sunflower. Porter, mindful of Watson Smith’s laggard ways moving down from the Yahoo Pass, has not let himself be slowed by the troop transports; by this time Sherman and his infantrymen are many miles to the rear. All at once, Confederate artillery fire begins to descend on Porter’s ships. Hastily, the admiral scrawls a note to Sherman and entrusts it to a local Black man who knows the way. “Dear Sherman,” the note reads. “Hurry up, for Heaven’s sake. I never knew how helpless an ironclad could be steaming around through the woods without an army to back her.” Sherman puts a rescue party aboard a troop transport and a coal barge that has to be towed through the bayous by tug. It is not long before trees carry away the tug’s superstructure: pilot house, smokestacks and everything above deck. By nightfall the Federal soldiers have gone as far as they can by boat, so they clamber out and make their way through canebrakes on fingers of high ground. Late at night they sleep briefly, then rise at dawn to continue on their way.

Basil Duke with part of Morgan’s Confederate cavalry fight at Danville, Kentucky. There is skirmishing at Rocky Hock Creek, North Carolina; on Davis’ Mill Road near La Grange, Tennessee; and an affair on Ocklockonnee Bay, Florida. Federal scouts operate from Fayetteville, Arkansas, during the last week of the month.
#15162713
March 25, Wednesday

By the time the Federal rescue party reaches the beleaguered boats at Black Bayou north of Vicksburg, Admiral Porter has begun to retreat under fierce enemy fire. He has covered his gunwales with slime to ward off boarders, and is preparing for the worst. The attacking Confederates have chopped down trees across the route to the Sunflower, and they are just beginning to do the same behind Porter to close the trap when Sherman’s troops arrive. Backed by the Federal infantry, Porter’s boats continue their retreat. The craft have no room to turn around, so their rudders are unshipped to keep them from snagging, and with the utmost care the vessels are backed out of the maze of bayous.

Another bayou experiment has failed. Confederates who have captured a Federal officer ask him what Grant thought he was doing: “Hasn’t the old fool tried this ditching and flanking five times already?” “Yes,” replies the prisoner, “but he has thirty-seven more plans in his pocket.” The fact is, Grant has only one more plan in his pocket. With the conclusion of the Steele’s Bayou expedition the initial phase of the Vicksburg campaign is over. It is almost April; the weather is growing warmer, and the time for experiments is past. For weeks, while the bayou adventures have been under way, Grant has been spending long hours at his headquarters near Milliken’s Bend, puffing his cigars and planning. The best approach to Vicksburg, without doubt, is the one he began back in December—down the Mississippi Central Railroad to the town’s rear. But to try it again, Grant would first have to move his army from its camps on the Mississippi’s west bank back up the river to Memphis, the terminus of the railroad. That movement is manifestly ill-advised—not because of any considerations of strategy or geography, but for political reasons. Civilian morale in the North has never been lower. In the East there has been no Union victory since the costly triumph at Antietam last September, and there has been one terrible, bloody defeat, at Fredericksburg. In the West, Federal forces have managed only a few successes since Shiloh. All of Grant’s experiments have been recognized in Washington as failures, and he is coming under increasing press criticism. To seem to be retreating toward Memphis now is out of the question. It is entirely possible that such a move would force President Lincoln’s hand and cost Grant his job. That leaves only one approach. Grant must take his army still farther down the west bank of the Mississippi, well below Vicksburg. Then he must cross over and attack from the south. This time he will not send just a division or a corps; he will move with three corps, risking everything on one throw of the dice. And he will command the operation himself.

Two Federal rams attempt to run the Vicksburg batteries from north to south. Lancaster, struck some thirty times, sinks with most of the crew escaping. Switzerland, badly disabled, floats down out of firing range.

Confederate Forrest raids Brentwood and Franklin, Tennessee. There is skirmishing at Jacksonville, Virginia; an affair at Norfolk, Virginia; skirmishing near Louisa, Kentucky; and a Federal expedition from Belle Plain into Westmoreland County, Virginia.

General Burnside, former commander of the Army of the Potomac, supersedes Major General Horatio G. Wright in command of the Department of the Ohio.

Federal monitors are reported leaving Hilton Head for Charleston Harbor.
#15162838
March 26, Thursday

The voters of West Virginia approve gradual emancipation of slaves.

A Confederate congressional act authorizes the impressment of forage or other property, including slaves, when necessary for the army in the field.

There is a Federal reconnaissance from Murfreesboro to Bradyville, Tennessee.

President Lincoln writes to Governor Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, “The colored population is the greatest available and yet unavailed of, force for restoring the Union. The bare sight of fifty thousand armed, and drilled black soldiers on the banks of the Mississippi, would end the rebellion at once.”
#15163057
March 27, Friday

There is a skirmish at Palatka, Florida, and another on the Woodbury Pike, Tennessee.

President Lincoln addresses representatives of a number of Amerind tribes, saying, “I can see no way in which your race is to become as numerous and prosperous as the white race except by living as they do, by the cultivation of the earth.”
#15163058
Doug64 wrote:March 27, Friday

There is a skirmish at Palatka, Florida, and another on the Woodbury Pike, Tennessee.

President Lincoln addresses representatives of a number of Amerind tribes, saying, “I can see no way in which your race is to become as numerous and prosperous as the white race except by living as they do, by the cultivation of the earth.”

...or by building casinos. Whichever works best. Lol. :excited:
#15163070
Potemkin wrote:...or by building casinos. Whichever works best. Lol. :excited:

Especially considering the land they were “given” for reservations. And don’t forget oil and gas leases.
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