31 March, 1862: Monday

Confederate - Government/Military
At Island No. 10 and New Madrid Bend on the Mississippi, Confederate Brigadier General William W. Mackall superseded Major General John Porter McCown in command.

Union - Government
In the Federal Department of the South at Hilton Head, South Carolina, Major General David Hunter assumed command.

President Lincoln, fearing for the safety of Washington, and pressured by those accusing General McClellan of deserting the capital, ordered back a large division under Louis Blenker to join Fremont in the Mountain Department. he told McClellan that he did so "with great pain, understanding that you would wish it otherwise."

(The picture of McClellan being denied troops was building up to engender the endless discussion that plagued the leaders of the Civil War and continues to this day.)

Union - Military
Tennessee
The Union troops complete its capture of Union City, Tennessee.

There is a skirmish near Adamsville, Tennessee.

North Carolina
There is a skirmish at Deep Gully, North Carolina.

Missouri
There is a skirmish near Pink Hill, Missouri.

Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

30 March, 1862: Sunday

Union -Military
Tennessee
Union troops descend on Union City, Tennessee.

Missouri
There is a skirmish near Clinton, Missouri.

Georgia
The first of several day's fighting begins on Wilmington and Whitemarsh Island, Georgia.

Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

Confederate: John Bankhead Magruder

From Wikipedia
John Bankhead Magruder (May 1, 1807 – February 19, 1871) was a career military officer who served in the armies of three nations. He was a U.S. Army officer in the Mexican-American War, a Confederate general during the American Civil War, and a postbellum general in the Imperial Mexican Army. Known as "Prince John" to his army friends, Magruder was most noted for his actions in delaying Federal troops during the 1862 Peninsula Campaign through elaborate ruses that gave Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan the impression that the Confederates had more forces than in actuality, and in successfully defending Galveston, Texas, against the Union Army and Navy early in 1863.

Early years and careerMagruder was born in Port Royal, Virginia. He first attended the University of Virginia, where, as a student, he had the opportunity to dine with former President Thomas Jefferson. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1830, where he was the roommate of William N. Pendleton. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 7th U.S. Infantry regiment. He was later assigned to the 1st U.S. Artillery.

Magruder served in the Second Seminole War in Florida, and then under Winfield Scott in the Army of Occupation in Mexico. He was appointed a brevet major for "gallant and meritorious conduct" at the Battle of Cerro Gordo, and lieutenant colonel for his bravery in the storming of Chapultepec. He served on frontier duty in California and at Fort Leavenworth in the Kansas Territory.

"Prince John" was tall and flamboyantly handsome. He spoke with a lisp, except when singing tenor, which he did frequently. His avocation was composing songs and staging concerts and amateur theater productions, something to relieve the tedium of peacetime garrison duty.

Civil War
At the start of the Civil War, Magruder was assigned to the artillery in the garrison forces of Washington, D.C.. However, he resigned from the U.S. Army when his native Virginia seceded, whereupon he was commissioned a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army. He was quickly promoted to major general. He commanded the small Army of the Peninsula defending Richmond, against Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan's invasion of the Virginia Peninsula in the early portion of the Union's Peninsula Campaign in 1862. This separate army was incorporated as a division in the Army of Northern Virginia on April 12, 1862.

During the Battle of Yorktown, Magruder completely deceived McClellan as to his strength by ostentatiously marching small numbers of troops past the same position multiple times, appearing to be a larger force. He moved his artillery around frequently and liberally used ammunition when Union troops were sighted, giving the impression of a large, aggressive defending force. This subterfuge caused McClellan's Army of the Potomac weeks of needless delay and brought Magruder praise from his superior, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. However, Magruder performed poorly and unaggressively in the subsequent Seven Days Battles.

Some blame heavy drinking for his erratic performance, others point to the unrelenting stress of his fending off McClellan at Yorktown. At the Battle of Malvern Hill, the last of the Seven Days, local guides led him and his men astray, causing a considerable delay in his arrival in the line of battle. Orders from new commander Robert E. Lee to attack, dispatched earlier in the day but with no time marked on them, were received only after Magruder finally got into proper position some hours later. They were mistaken as currently issued; the error was compounded when fresh orders from Lee arrived which, based on faulty intelligence, reaffirmed the attack. Magruder's execution of those orders as if they were current and accurate resulted in an uncoordinated assault that suffered considerable losses and made no headway. Lee afterward, when he personally surveyed the field, thought that no commander on the scene should have gone ahead with an attack. When he asked Magruder, "Why did you attack?" Magruder replied, "In obedience to your orders, twice repeated."

Lee reorganized his army after the Seven Days, replacing those he thought were ineffective commanders, and Magruder was soon reassigned to command the District of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.

On January 1, 1863, Magruder's forces won the Battle of Galveston, recapturing the city and port for the Confederacy. The First Confederate Congress published its official thanks:

... The bold, intrepid, and gallant conduct of Maj. Gen. J. Bankhead Magruder, Col. Thomas Green, Maj. Leon Smith, and other officers, and of the Texan Rangers and soldiers engaged in the attack on, and victory achieved over, the land and naval forces of the enemy at Galveston, on the 1st of January, 1863, eminently entitle them to the thanks of Congress and the country. ... This brilliant achievement, resulting, under the providence of God, in the capture of the war steamer Harriet Lane and the defeat and ignominious flight of the hostile fleet from the harbor, the recapture of the city and the raising of the blockade of the port of Galveston, signally evinces that superior force may be overcome by skillful conception and daring courage.

From August 1864 to March 1865, Magruder commanded the Department of Arkansas, but then returned to command the District of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona during the last months of the war until the entire Trans-Mississippi region was surrendered by General Edmund Kirby Smith.

Postbellum career
After the war, Magruder fled to Mexico and entered the service of Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico as a major general in the Imperial Mexican Army. However, by May 1867, the emperor's forces had succumbed to a siege and the emperor had been executed. Magruder returned to the United States and settled in Houston, Texas, where he died in 1871. He is buried in the Episcopal Cemetery at Galveston, the scene of his greatest military success.

29 March, 1862: Saturday

Military - Confederate
Mississippi
At Corinth, Mississippi, the Confederate Armies of Kentucky and the Mississippi are consolidated under General Albert Sidney Johnston. P. G. t. Beauregard was second-in-command, with corps under Leonidas Polk, Braxton Bragg, William J. Hardee, and George Bibb Crittenden.

Military - Union
Major General John C. Fremont took command of the Mountain Department in western Virginia from William S. Rosecrans.

South Carolina
There is a skirmish at Edisto Island, South Carolina.

Missouri
There is a skirmish on the Blackwater near Warrensburg, Missouri.

Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

28 March, 1862: Friday

Union - Military/Government
Brigadier General George W. Morgan is assigned to command the Seventh Division of the Federal Army of the Ohio with an important object in mind: he was to capture Cumberland Gap, the vital mountain pass at the junction of Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia.

Union - Military
New Mexico TerritoryAt Pigeon's Ranch in La Glorieta Pass, not far from Santa Fe, New Mexico Territory, the Union command of Colonel John P. Sough met a portion of H.H. Sibley's Confederates under Colonel W. R. Scurry.

After brisk fighting, the Union troops, both Colorado volunteers and regulars slowly fell back, outnumbered and on the defensive. Meanwhile, about 400 men commanded by Major J. M. Chivington scrambled over the mountains and descended upon the stationary Confederate wagons and supplies at Johnson's Ranch in the rear of the fighting column.

After Colonel Scurry heard of this disaster he was forced to retreat to Santa Fe, and the Southern invasion was nearly at an end.

The Confederates had about 1100 men in the fight, with 36 killed, 60 wounded, and 25 missing; the Union had 1,342 men in all, with 31 killed, over 50 wounded, and 30 missing.

Confederate - Military
Tennessee
There is a Confederate expedition in Scott and Morgan Counties.

Virginia
The first of several days of skirmishes begins on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad in Virginia.

Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

27 March, 1862: Thursday

Government/Military - Confederacy
In Richmond, General Joseph E. Johnston is ordered to reinforce the Confederate forces on the Peninsula under John Bankhead Magruder, which was on the point of being seriously threatened by McClellan's Army of the Potomac moving from For Monroe, Virginia.

Virginia
There are minor operations in the vicinity of Middleburg and White Plains.

Florida
There is a reconnaissance on Santa Rose Island, Florida.


Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

Major, Later Colonel John Chivington

From Wikipedia
John Milton Chivington (January 27, 1821 – October 4, 1894) was a 19th century United States Army officer noted for his role in the New Mexico Campaign of the American Civil War and in the Colorado War. He was celebrated as the hero of the 1862 Battle of Glorieta Pass against a Confederate supply train. Later he became infamous for his role in leading the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre of about 150 peacefully encamped Cheyenne and Arapaho, mostly women and children. He was also a member of the Freemasons, and the Masonic Square and Compass is featured prominently on his headstone.

Chivington was born in Lebanon, Ohio, the son of Isaac Chivington. He had fought under General William Henry Harrison against members of Tecumseh's Confederacy at the Battle of Tippecanoe. Drawn to Methodism, Chivington become a minister. Following ordination in 1844, his first appointment was to Payson Circuit in the Illinois Conference. However, along the journey from Ohio to Illinois Chivington contracted smallpox. He served the Illinois conference for ten years. During 1853, he worked in a Methodist missionary expedition to the Wyandot people in Kansas, a part of the Kansas-Nebraska Annual Conference. His outspoken views in favor of abolitionism put him in danger, and upon the advice of "Congressman Craig and other friends" Chivington was persuaded to leave the Kansas Territory for the Nebraska Territory.

As a result, the Methodist Church transferred Chivington to a parish in the Omaha, Nebraska. This appointment would ultimately disagree with Chivington, and he would serve it for one year. Historian James Haynes would offer the following concerning Chivington's pastoral abilities: "Mr. Chivington was not as steady in his demeanor as becomes a man called of God to the work of the ministry, giving his minsterial friends regret and even trouble in their efforts to sustain his reputation."[4] On May 8, 1860, Chivington moved with his family to the Colorado Territory, settling in Denver, Colorado.

He was selected as the Presiding Elder (P.E.) of the new Rocky Mountain District and served for two years (1860–62). Controversy would begin to mar Chivington's appointment, who stopped performing his function as P.E. During the 1862 conference, Chivington was not reappointed. Rather, his name was recorded as "located". According to early Methodist polity, describing a minister as located means that the minister has effectively been retired. Even this is not without controversy. Historian of Methodism Isaac Beardsley, a personal friend of Chivington, suggested that Chivington was "thrown out" due to its involvement with the armed forces, an association that would lead to Chivington's name to infamy.

Chivington's status as being "located" did not remove him completely from Methodist politics. His name would reappear as a member of the executive board of Colorado Seminary, the historic precursor of University of Denver and Iliff School of Theology. His name also appears in the incorporation document issued by the Council and House of Representatives of Colorado Territory, which was approved by then governor John Evans.

Civil War
When the Civil War broke out, Colorado Territory governor William Gilpin offered him a commission as a chaplain, but Chivington refused it, saying he wanted to fight. He was commissioned a major in the 1st Colorado Volunteers under Colonel John P. Slough.

During Confederate General Henry Hopkins Sibley's offensive in the East Arizona and New Mexico Territories, Chivington led a 418-man detachment to Apache Canyon. On March 26, 1862, they surprised about 300 Confederate Texans under Major Charles L. Pyron. The startled Texans were routed with 4 killed, 20 wounded and 75 captured, while Chivington's men lost 5 killed and 14 wounded. This small victory raised morale in Slough's army. On March 28, Slough sent Chivington and his men on a circling movement, with orders to hit Sibley in the flank once Slough's main force had engaged his front at Glorieta Pass. Chivington got into position above the Pass, but waited in vain for either Slough or Sibley to arrive. While they were waiting, scouts reported that Sibley's entire supply train was nearby at Johnson's Ranch.

Chivington's command descended the slope and crept up on the supply train. They waited for an hour in concealment, then attacked, driving off or capturing the small Confederate guard detail without any casualties. Chivington ordered the supply wagons burned, and the horses and mules slaughtered. Meanwhile, the Battle of Glorieta Pass was raging at Pigeon's Ranch. Chivington returned to Slough's main force to find it rapidly falling back. The Confederates had won the Battle of Glorieta Pass. Thanks to Chivington and his forces, however, they had no supplies to sustain their advance, and were forced to retreat. Chivington had completely reversed the result of the battle. Sibley's men reluctantly retreated back to Texas, never again to threaten New Mexico.

Chivington earned high praise for his decisive stroke at Johnson's Ranch, even though his discovery of the Confederate supply train was accidental. Critics have suggested that had Chivington returned quickly to reinforce Slough's army when he heard gunfire, his 400 extra men might have allowed the Union to win the battle. Chivington was unusual in becoming a (minor) military hero of the Civil War for an incident in which there were no casualties.

He was appointed colonel of the 1st Colorado Volunteer Regiment of Cavalry in April 1862. The darker side of Chivington was revealed in the complaints of a captured Confederate chaplain, who wrote that Chivington had threatened to kill the prisoners whom he took at Johnson's Ranch. In November 1862, Chivington was appointed brigadier general of volunteers, but the appointment was withdrawn in February 1863.

Sand Creek massacre
Black Kettle, chief of a group of around 800 mostly Southern Cheyenne, reported to Fort Lyon to surrender and establish peace for his band. After having done so, he and his band, along with some Arapaho under Chief Niwot, or Left Hand, set up camp at nearby Sand Creek, less than 40 miles north, having been assured that by doing so his people would be considered friendly by the government. The Cheyenne Dog Soldiers, who had aggressively led battles against the whites, were not part of this encampment. Assured by the US government's promises of peace, Black Kettle sent most of his warriors to hunt, leaving only 60 men in the village, most of them too old or too young to hunt. A U.S. flag was flown over Black Kettle's lodge, since he had been told "as long as he flew the American flag, he and his people would be safe from U.S. soldiers".

The governor of Colorado had received permission to raise a force to go against the Cheyenne, who had been attacking emigrant settlers. The Third Colorado Cavalry were essentially militia, volunteers who signed up for 100 days. They were put under Chivington's command and he felt pressure to use them before their terms expired at the end of 1864.

After Black Kettle and his band resettled, the commanding officer changed at Fort Lyon to one who was an ally of Chivington. In November, setting out from Fort Lyon, Colonel Chivington and his 800 troops of the First Colorado Cavalry, Third Colorado Cavalry and a company of First New Mexico Volunteers marched nearly to the reservation.

On the night of November 28, after camping, soldiers and militia drank heavily and celebrated the anticipated fight. On the morning of November 29, 1864, Chivington ordered his troops to attack. One officer, Captain Silas Soule, believing the Indians to be peaceful, refused to follow Chivington's order and told his men to hold fire. Other soldiers in Chivington's force, however, immediately attacked the village. Ignoring the US flag, and a white flag they raised shortly after the soldiers began firing, Chivington's soldiers massacred the majority of the mostly unarmed Cheyenne. The attack became known as the Sand Creek Massacre.

The US forces lost 15 killed and more than 50 wounded, mostly due to friendly fire (likely caused by their heavy drinking). Between 150 and 200 Indians were estimated dead, nearly all women and children (before a Congressional committee, Chivington testified that his forces had killed 500-600 Indians, and that few of them were women or children. Others testified against him.). A prominent mixed-race Cheyenne witness said that about 53 men and 110 women and children were killed.

With Chivington's declaring his forces had won a battle against hostile Cheyenne, the action was initially celebrated as a victory. Some soldiers displayed Indian body parts as trophies in Denver saloons. However, the testimony of Soule and his men resulted in a US Congressional investigation into the incident, which concluded that Chivington had acted wrongly.

Soule and some of the men whom he commanded testified against Chivington at his US Army court martial. Chivington denounced Soule as a liar. Soule was later murdered by a soldier who had been under Chivington's command at Sand Creek. Some believed Chivington may have been involved.

Chivington was condemned for his part in the massacre, but he had already resigned from the Army. The general post-Civil War amnesty meant that criminal charges could not be filed against him. An Army judge publicly stated that the Sand Creek massacre was "a cowardly and cold-blooded slaughter, sufficient to cover its perpetrators with indelible infamy, and the face of every American with shame and indignation." Public outrage at the brutality of the massacre, particularly considering the mutilation of corpses, was intense. It was believed to have contributed to public pressure to change Indian policy. The US Congress later rejected the idea of a general war against the Indians of the Midwest.

Because of Chivington's position as a lay preacher, in 1996 the United Methodist General Conference expressed regret for the Sand Creek massacre. It issued an apology to the Southern Cheyenne for the "actions of a prominent Methodist."

Later life
Although never punished, Chivington was forced to resign from the Colorado Militia. Public outrage also forced him to withdraw from politics and kept him out of Colorado's campaign for statehood. In 1865 he moved back to Nebraska and became an unsuccessful freight hauler.

After living briefly in California, Chivington returned to Ohio to farm. Later he became editor of a local newspaper. In 1883 he campaigned for a seat in the Ohio legislature, but when his opponents drew attention to the Sand Creek Massacre, he withdrew from the race.

He returned to Denver where he worked as a deputy sheriff until shortly before his death from cancer in 1894. His funeral took place at Trinity Methodist Church, modern day Trinity United Methodist Church, and he is interred at Fairmount Cemetery. To the end of his life, Chivington maintained that Sand Creek had been a successful operation. He argued that his expedition was a response to raids on white people. He ignored his betrayal of official agreements for protection of Black Kettle's friendly band. In addition, he overlooked the contribution of the massacre to the Cheyenne, Arapaho and Sioux bands strengthening their alliances and increasing raids on white settlers. Until he died, he always claimed to have been justified in ordering the attack, stating whenever anyone asked how he felt about his actions "I stand by Sand Creek."

In 1887, the unincorporated settlement of Chivington, Colorado was established and named after John Chivington. It was a railroad town on the Missouri Pacific Railroad line, fairly close to the massacre site. It was largely depopulated during the Dust Bowl days of the 1920s and 1930s, although some buildings still remain.

26 March, 1862: Wednesday

Government - Confederate
President DAvis writes to General Albert Sidney Johnson, at Corinth, Massachusetts. "You have done wonderfully well, and now I breathe easier in the assurance that you will be able to make a junction of your two armies." (He is speaking of PT Beauregard's and Johnston's meeting so they could face the Union troops moving on the Tennessee River before more Union reinforcements arrived from Nashville.

Military - Confederacy
New Mexico Terrtory
From Santa Fe, a Confederate column marches out on the Santa Fe Trail southeast, where it unexpectedly met a Union column of Colorado volunteers advancing from Fort Union to oppose the Confederate offensive.

At Apache Canyon near Johnson's Ranch, portions of the two forces converged. After severe fighting in the Valley, the Union troops, led by Major John M. Chivinggton, although victorious, fell back to Pigeon's Ranch near Glorieta.

Farther east, there is action at Humansville, on the Post Oak Creek at the mouth of the Brier.

Missouri
There is a skirmish near Gouge's Mill.




Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

25 March, 1862, Tuesday

Union - military
Tennessee
Union troops start a three-day reconnaissance from Murfreesboro to Shelbyville, Tullahoma, Machester and McMinnville.

Other troops also perform a reconnaissance to Agnew's FErry.

Missouri
Union troops begin a four-day reconnaissance in Moniteau County.

Virginia
There is a skirmish at Mount Jackson.


Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

24 March, 1862: Monday

Union - Government
Washington
The Union Congress continues to discuss the possibility of emancipation.

Lincoln writes a letter to Horace Greeley regarding his proposed gradual compensated emancipation, saying, "We should urge it persuasively, and not menacingly, upon the South."

Union - Civilian
Ohio
Abolitionist Wendell Phillips attempts to lecture in Cincinnati, he was pelted with eggs and rocks. The meeting eventually descended into a melee, and Phillips was taken away by friends.

Military - Confederacy
Tennessee
There is a skirmish at Camp Jackson.

Mississippi
At Corinth, Albert Sydney Johnston's army is completing its movement from Murfeesboro, Tennessee, preparing to oppose the Union's GEneral Grant, who was some 20 miles away at Pittsburg Landing.



Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

23 March, 1862: Sunday

Confederates - Military
Virginia
At the village of Kernstown, a few miles south of Winchester in the Shenandoah Valley, Stonewall Jackson's forces drove in on the Federal forces of General James Shields.

Confederate calvary under Turner Ashby, having fought a skirmish the day before, had reported only a rear guard left in Winchester. Jackson struck hard with his 3,500 troops, but found that Sheilds had 9,000 men.

Despite this disparity, Jacksons men fought well. Eventually, though, thhey gathered in their wounded and retreated southward up the Shenandoah. Jackson suffered 80 killed, 375 wounded, and 263 missing for a total of 718. Union forces had 118 killed, 450 wounded, and 22 missing for 590.

Kearnstown marks the opening of what will become the famous Shenandoah Valley Campaign. In addition, General J.E. Johnston had directed Jackson to divert Union attention from his main army and keep troops from the gathering Army of the Potomac.

Jackson did so by attacking. Washington, fearing a threat on Harper's Ferry and WAshington itself, ordered Banks and his troops to return to the valley and others that had been heading for the Peninsula were withdrawn from McClellan's command. The threat also influenced Lincoln to keep Irvin McDowell's large corps south of Washington, instead of sending it by sea to the Peninsula, for Lincoln had soon discovered that McClellan had not fully honored his agreement to protect Washington properly.

For the remainder of March, Jackson will withdraw up the Shenandooah, protected by Ashby's calvary, while Banks and his troops slowly pursue as far as Strasburg.

Florida
There is a skirmish as Smyrna.

Missouri
There is a Union expedition from Point Pleasant, near New Madrid, Missouri, to Litle River.

North Carolina
Near the town of Beaufort, North Carolina is a small, sandy island on which stands Fort Mason, a long fort constructed of brick. It had been garrisoned by a small command of Confederates. General Burnside as part of his attempted conquest of North Carolina, orders Brigadier General John G. Parke to move against the old-style fortification.

Parke arrives at the fort on this day, and demands its surrender, which is refused. They then begin their seige.



Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

22 March, 1862: Saturday

Confederate - Navy
The ostensibly British ship Oreto (destined to become the CSS Florida, sails from Britain for Nassau in the Bahamas.

Union - Government/Military
In Washington, the Middle Military Department is created with headquarters at Baltimore. It will be commanded by Major GEneral John Dix.

Union - Military
Virginia
Skirmishing occurs at Kernstown as General James Shields retreating Union forces clash with front elements of Stonewall Jackson's command.

Missouri
Skirmishes take place at Post Oak Creek and at Little Santa Fe, Missouri.


Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

21 March, 1862, Friday

Civilian - Confederacy
A Norfolk, Virginia newspaper, the Day-Book, complains about increased drinking, particularly among Confederate officers, who were said to imbibe "in quantities which would astonish the nerves of a cast-iron lamp-post, and a quality which would destroy the digeative organs of an ostrich.

Union - Military
Missouri
There is a small skirmish at McKay's farm.

Tennessee
There is a reconnaissance and skirmish at Cumberland Gap.

Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

Ship Island

Ship Island since 1969. The view is looking east, and West Ship Island is in the foreground.

Ship Island is the collective name for two barrier islands off the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, part of Gulf Islands National Seashore: East Ship Island and West Ship Island. Hurricane Camille split the once single island into 2 separate islands in 1969. West Ship Island is the site of Fort Massachusetts (built 1859-1866), as a Third System fortification.

Having the only deep-water harbor between Mobile Bay and the Mississippi River, the island served as a vital anchorage for ships bearing explorers, colonists, sailors, soldiers, defenders and invaders. The French, Spanish, British, Confederate and Union flags have all flown over Ship Island.

French explorer Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville charted Ship Island on 10 February 1699, which he used as a base of operations in discovering the mouth of the Mississippi River. The island served as a point of immigration to French colonies in the New World.

20 March, 1862, Thursday

Union - Military
Virginia
Union troops, threatened by Stonewall Jackson's forces, move back from Strasburg, Virginia toward Winchester in the Shenandoah. Banks' command has been weakened by the diversion of a major portion of his army toward Washington, which President Lincoln wants to protect the capitol. Jackson's men follow after them.

There is a Union reconnaissance at Gainesville, and another to Dumfries.

western Virginia
There is a skirmish at Philippi.

North Carolina
General Burnside's troops from New Berne, North Carolina march toward Washington, North Carolina (and will capture the town on the 21st.)

South Carolina
There are "operations" near Bluffton.

There are skirmishes at Buckingham and Hunting Island, part of the Union operations from Hilton Head.

Mississippi
After a long sea voyage, General Benjamin F. Butler arrives at Ship Island, Mississippi, and assumes command of the Department of the Gulf. This continues the build up of Northern forces massing to attack New Orleans.

Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

Union General James Shields

From Wikipedia
James Shields (May 10, 1810 – June 1, 1879) was an American politician and United States Army officer who was born in Altmore, County Tyrone, Ireland. Shields, a Democrat, is the only person in United States history to serve as a U.S. Senator for three different states. Shields was a senator from Illinois 1849 to 1855, in the 31st, 32nd, and 33rd congresses, from Minnesota from May 11, 1858 to March 4, 1859, in the 35th congress, and from Missouri from January 27, 1879 to March 4, 1879, in the 45th congress.

Early life and career
Shields was the nephew of another James Shields, also born in Ireland, who was a Congressman from Ohio. The younger Shields immigrated to the United States around 1826 and settled in Kaskaskia, Randolph County, Illinois where he studied and later practiced law. He served as a member of the Illinois House of Representatives, beginning to serve in 1836, and then as an Illinois Supreme Court justice and in 1839 as the state auditor. (He was elected when not yet a citizen; Illinois then required only that a legislator have been resident in the state for six months.)

Shields nearly fought a duel with Abraham Lincoln on September 22, 1842. Lincoln had published an inflammatory letter in a Springfield, Illinois, newspaper, the Sagamon Journal that poked fun at Shields, the State Auditor. Lincoln's future wife and her close friend, continued writing letters about Shields without his knowledge. Taking offense to the articles, Shields demanded "satisfaction" and the incident escalated to the two parties meeting on a Missouri island called Sunflower Island, near Alton, Illinois to participate in a duel.

Lincoln took responsibility for the articles and accepted the duel. Just prior to engaging in combat, Lincoln made it a point to demonstrate his advantage by easily cutting a branch just above Shields' head; the two participants' seconds intervened and were able to convince the two men to cease hostilities, on the grounds that Lincoln had not written the letters.

In 1846, Shields was selected as a brigadier general of volunteers to fight in the Mexican-American War. He served under Zachary Taylor along the Rio Grande River. He commanded the 3rd Brigade, Volunteer Division, at the battles of Vera Cruz and Cerro Gordo, where he was wounded. He returned to fight at the battles of Contreras and Churubusco, his brigade now part of the 4th Division. He was again wounded at the Battle of Chapultepec.

Following the war, on August 14, 1848, he was nominated by President Polk, and confirmed by the United States Senate to serve as governor of Oregon Territory that was created that same day.

However, he declined the position and Joseph Lane was nominated and became the first governor of the new territory.[4] He resigned to run for the Senate from Illinois. His election was voided by the Senate on the grounds that he had not been a United States citizen for the nine years required by the United States Constitution; having been naturalized October 21, 1840. He returned to Illinois and campaigned for re-election, and won the special election to replace himself, and was then seated.

In 1855, he was defeated for re-election, so he moved to Minnesota. He was elected as one of the two first Senators from that state, but his term was only from 1858 to 1859, and he was again not re-elected.

He was the editor of the 1854 book, A History of Illinois, from its Commencement as a State in 1818 to 1847.

Civil War and later career
Statue of Shields at the Minnesota State CapitalShields then moved to California and served as a brigadier general of volunteers from that state during the American Civil War. He commanded the 2nd Division of the V Corps, Army of the Potomac (subsequently part of the Army of the Shenandoah), during the Valley Campaign of 1862.

He was wounded at the Battle of Kernstown on March 22, 1862, but his troops inflicted the only tactical defeat of General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson during the campaign (or the war). The day after Kernstown, he was promoted to major general, but the promotion was withdrawn, reconsidered, and then finally rejected. His overall performance in the rest of the Valley Campaign was poor enough that he resigned his commission, and his departure was not resisted by the War Department.

In 1863 he moved to Mexico and operated mines, and then to Wisconsin, but in 1866 moved to Missouri, where he served as member of the Missouri State House of Representatives, and as railroad commissioner. In 1879, he was elected to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Senator Lewis V. Bogy. He served only three months and declined to run for re-election.

Shields died in Ottumwa, Iowa. He is buried in St. Mary's Cemetery, Carrollton, Missouri. He represents Illinois in the National Statuary Hall.

General Nathanial P. Banks

Hard to get good help these days... This blog entry was supposed to be published on March 19, as a companion piece to that day's war news! The reason why we are giving Bank's is because he's mentioned in the March 19 news entry.

From Wikipedia:
Nathaniel Prentice Banks (January 30, 1816 – September 1, 1894) was an American politician and soldier, served as the 24th Governor of Massachusetts, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and as a Union general during the American Civil War.

Early life
Banks was born at Waltham, Massachusetts, the first child of Nathaniel P. Banks, Sr., and Rebecca Greenwood Banks.[4] He received only a common school education and at an early age began work as a bobbin boy in a local cotton factory; throughout his life he was known by the humorous nickname, Bobbin Boy Banks. Subsequently, he apprenticed as a mechanic alongside Elias Howe; briefly edited several weekly newspapers; studied law with political mentor Robert Rantoul and was admitted to the bar at age 23, his energy and his ability as a public speaker soon winning him distinction. His booming, distinctive voice and oracular style of delivery made him a commanding presence before an audience. On April 11, 1847, at Providence, Rhode Island, he married Mary Theodosia Palmer, an ex-factory employee, after a lengthy courtship.

Political career
Banks in his younger years.Banks served as a Democrat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1849 to 1853, and was speaker in 1851 and 1852; he was president of the state Constitutional Convention of 1853, and in the same year was elected to the United States House of Representatives as a coalition candidate of Democrats and Free-Soilers. In 1854, he was reelected as a Know Nothing.

At the opening of the Thirty-Fourth Congress, men from several parties opposed to slavery's spread gradually united in supporting Banks for speaker, and after the longest and one of the most bitter speakership contests ever, lasting, from December 3, 1855 to February 2, 1856, he was chosen on the 133rd ballot. This has been called the first national victory of the Republican party. He gave antislavery men important posts in Congress for the first time, and cooperated with investigations of both the Kansas conflict and the caning of Senator Charles Sumner.

Yet, he also left a legacy of fairness in his appointments and decisions. He played a key role in 1856 in bringing forward John C. Frémont as a moderate Republican presidential nominee. As a part of this process, Banks declined, as pre-arranged, the presidential nomination of those Know-Nothings, opposed to the spread of slavery, in favor of Republican Frémont. For the next few years, Banks was supported by a coalition of Know-Nothings and Republicans in Massachusetts. His interest in the Know-Nothing legislative agenda was minimal, supporting only some tougher residency requirements for voting.

Re-elected in 1856 as a Republican, he resigned his seat in December 1857, and was governor of Massachusetts from 1858 to 1860, during a period of government contraction forced by the depression of those years. He made a serious attempt to gain the Republican presidential nomination in 1860, but discord within his party in Massachusetts, a residence in a "safe" Republican state, and his Know-Nothing past doomed his chances. He then was briefly resident director in Chicago, Illinois, of the Illinois Central Railroad, hired primarily to promote sale of the railroad's extensive lands.

Civil War
As the Civil War became imminent, President Abraham Lincoln considered Banks for a cabinet post, and eventually chose him as one of the first major generals of volunteers, appointing him on May 16, 1861. Perceptions that the Massachusetts militia was well organized and armed at the beginning of the Civil War likely played a role in the appointment decision, as Banks had also been considered for quartermaster general.

He was initially resented by many of the generals who had graduated from the United States Military Academy, but Banks brought political benefits to the administration, including the ability to attract recruits and money for the Federal cause.

First command
Banks first commanded at Annapolis, Maryland, suppressing support for the Confederacy in a slave-holding state that was at risk of seceding, then was sent to command on the upper Potomac when Brig. Gen. Robert Patterson failed to move aggressively in that area.

The Shenandoah Valley Campaign
When Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan entered upon his Peninsula Campaign in spring 1862, the important duty of keeping the Confederate forces of Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley from reinforcing the defenses of Richmond fell to the two divisions commanded by Banks. When Banks's men reached the southern Valley at the end of a difficult supply line, the president recalled them to Strasburg, Virginia, at the northern end.

Jackson then marched rapidly down the adjacent Luray Valley, driving Banks's retreating men from Winchester, Virginia, on May 25, and north to the Potomac River. Jackson's campaign of maneuver and lightning strikes against superior forces in the Valley—under Banks and other Union generals—humiliated the North and made him one of the most famous generals in American history.

On August 9, Banks again encountered Jackson at Cedar Mountain, in Culpeper County, and attacked him to gain early advantage, but a Confederate counterattack led by A.P. Hill repulsed Banks's corps and won the day. The arrival at the end of the day of Union reinforcements under Maj. Gen. John Pope, as well as the rest of Jackson's men, resulted in a two-day stand-off there. The Northern newspapers provided flattering versions of Banks's performance while Southern newspapers called the battle a Southern victory.

The Army of the Gulf
Banks next received command of the defense forces at Washington. In November 1862 he was asked to organize a force of thirty thousand new recruits, drawn from New York and New England. As a former governor of Massachusetts, he was politically connected to the governors of these states, and the recruitment effort was successful. In December he sailed from New York with a this large force of raw recruits to replace Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler at New Orleans, Louisiana, as commander of the Department of the Gulf.

According to the historian John D. Winters of Louisiana Tech University in The Civil War in Louisiana (1963), "Butler hated Banks and was jealous of his political success and his 'reputation of being the best general selected from civil life.'" Nevertheless, Butler, "swallowing his bitter pill with a show of good grace" welcomed Banks to New Orleans and briefed him on civil and military affairs of importance. Gideon Welles, secretary of the navy, doubted the wisdom of replacing Butler [a later Massachusetts governor] with Banks.

According to historian Winters, "Welles's opinion of the military abilities of both men was very low, but he did not question Butler's skill as a 'police magistrate' in charge of civil affairs. Banks, he thought did not have 'the energy, power or ability of Butler.' He did have 'some ready qualities for civil administration,' but was less reckless and unscrupulous' and probably would not be able to hold a tight enough rein on the people" once placed under Union control.

Mrs. Banks joined her husband in New Orleans and held lavish dinner parties for the benefit of Union soldiers and their families. On April 12, 1864, she played the role of the "Goddess of Liberty" surrounded by all of the states of the reunited country. She did not then know of her husband's unhappy fate at the Battle of Mansfield just three days earlier. By July 4, 1864, however, New Orleans had recovered from the Red River Campaign to hold another mammoth concert extolling the Union.

Banks issued orders to his men prohibiting pillage, but the undisciplined troops had chosen to disobey them, particularly when near a prosperous plantation. A soldier of the New York 114th wrote: "The men soon learned the pernicious habit of slyly leaving their places in the ranks when opposite a planter's house. ... Oftentimes a soldier can be found with such an enormous development of the organ of destructiveness that the most severe punishment cannot deter him from indulging in the breaking of mirrors, pianos, and the most costly furniture. Men of such reckless disposition are frequently guilty of the most horrible desecrations."

Under orders to ascend the Mississippi River to join forces with Ulysses S. Grant, who was then trying to capture Vicksburg, Banks first pushed a Confederate force up the Teche Bayou and marched to Alexandria, Louisiana, hauling off slaves, cotton, and cattle from a rich agricultural area.

Siege of Port Hudson
When the Confederates reduced their garrison at Port Hudson, Louisiana, on the Mississippi, he invested that place in May 1863. Two attempts to carry the works by storm during the Siege of Port Hudson, as at Vicksburg, were dismal failures. Port Hudson was the first time African American soldiers were used in a major Civil War battle, as permitted by Banks. Low on food and ammunition, the garrison surrendered on July 9, 1863, after receiving word that Vicksburg had fallen. The entire Mississippi River was then under Union control.

In the autumn of 1863, Banks organized two seaborne expeditions to Texas, chiefly for the purpose of preventing the French in Mexico from aiding the Confederates or occupying Texas, and he eventually secured possession of the region near the mouth of the Rio Grande and the Texas outer islands.

Red River Campaign
The Red River Campaign, March–May 1864, was considered a strategic distraction by his superior, Ulysses S. Grant, who wanted Banks to drive east to capture Mobile, Alabama, as part of a coordinated series of offensives in the spring of 1864. Banks in 1863 had disagreed with the Red River plan, hoping instead to mount sea expeditions to capture the Galveston area and Mobile, but the Red River movement was continually promoted by Chief of Staff Henry Halleck to Banks.

When preparations for the 1864 Red River expedition were far advanced Halleck wrote Banks he was withdrawing any suggestion as to action after receiving from Banks a detailed negative report about the operation from one of Banks's West Point-trained officers. Halleck continually implied to Banks, however, that the other major commanders favored the expedition. There is no evidence Halleck provided the negative report on the Red River to Grant who was being asked for input on overall operations at the time. Halleck began referring to the Red River expedition as Banks's plan in keeping with an established pattern of deflecting responsibility.

Banks' army was routed at the Battle of Mansfield by General Richard Taylor (son of former President Zachary Taylor) and retreated twenty miles to make a stand the next day at the Battle of Pleasant Hill. They continued the retreat to Alexandria where they rejoined with part of the Federal Inland Fleet. That naval force under David Dixon Porter had joined the Red River Campaign to support the army and to take on cotton as lucrative prizes of war, and Banks had allowed rich speculators to come along for the gathering of cotton. Added to the mix was a cooperating force unable to arrive overland from Arkansas, two attached corps belonging to General William T. Sherman acting semi-independently, and dangerously low water levels on the river that supplied the army.

Part of Porter's large fleet became trapped above the falls at Alexandria by the low water. Banks and others approved a plan proposed by Joseph Bailey to build wing dams as a means to raise what little water was left in the channel. In ten days, 10,000 troops built two dams, and managed to rescue Porter's fleet, allowing all to retreat to the Mississippi River.

After the campaign, just before General Sherman began his operations against Atlanta, Sherman called the Red River Campaign "One damn blunder from beginning to end."

Banks was removed from field command in Louisiana. On April 22, 1864, Grant wired Chief of Staff Halleck asking for Banks's removal.

The Confederates held the Red River for the remainder of the war. They finally surrendered June 1865, two months after Robert E. Lee sued for peace at Appomattox Court House in Virginia.

Administrative duties
While retaining his administrative command of the Army of the Gulf from New Orleans, he went on leave in fall 1864 to the North where President Lincoln delegated Banks to lobby through the winter for the president's reconstruction plans for Louisiana. Banks had earlier engineered the election victory of a moderate loyalist civilian government in Louisiana, inaugurated by elaborate celebrations he organized and funded.

The secret presidential investigating commission headed by conservative Democrats William Farrar Smith and James T. Brady in early 1865 devoted considerable effort to trying to connect Banks with vice and irregular trading permits in the New Orleans area. The somewhat one-sided final commission report, which did not specifically accuse him of wrongdoing, was never released. But Banks had definitely granted special favors without apparent compensation to men later connected to the Crédit Mobilier scandal and to a few others of questionable reputation.

Postbellum career
In August 1865, Banks was mustered out of the service by President Andrew Johnson, and from 1865 to 1873, he was again a representative in Congress, serving as chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee and sometimes as chair of the Republican caucus. He played a key role in the final passage of the Alaska Purchase legislation, supported women's suffrage and was one of the strongest early advocates of Manifest Destiny.

Banks's financial records strongly suggest he received a large gratuity from the Russian minister after the Alaska legislation passed. Banks wanted the United States to acquire Canada and the Caribbean islands to reduce European influence in the region. He also served on the committee investigating the Crédit Mobilier scandal.

Unhappiness with the course of the administration of President Ulysses Grant led in 1872 to his joining the Liberal-Republican revolt in support of Horace Greeley. While Banks was campaigning across the North for Greeley, an opponent successfully gathered enough support back in his Massachusetts district to defeat him as the joint Liberal-Republican and Democratic candidate. He thought his involvement with a start-up Kentucky railroad and other railroads would substitute for the political loss. But the Panic of 1873 doomed the railroad, and Banks went on the lecture circuit and served in the Massachusetts Senate.

In 1874, he was elected to Congress again as an independent and served the following two terms, again as a Republican (1875–1879). He was a member of the committee investigating the irregular 1876 elections in South Carolina. Defeated for yet another term, the president appointed him United States marshal for Massachusetts, a post he held from 1879 until 1888, when for the tenth time, he was elected to Congress as a Republican. This final term saw significant mental deterioration, and he was not renominated. He died at Waltham, Massachusetts, and is buried there in Grove Hill Cemetery.

Fort Banks in Winthrop, Massachusetts, built in the late 1890s, was named for him

19 March, 1862: Wednesday

Union-Military
Virginia
There is a skirmish at Elk Mountain, in Western Virhinia.
There is a skirmish at Strasburg, with Union troops under General James Shields advancing against Stonewall Jackson's retreating men. Most of the remaining men in General Banks' command had been ordered east toward WAshington, to help protect the capitol.

South Carolina
A reconnaissance by Union troops begins on the May River.

Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

George W. Walker

From Wikipedia:
George Wythe Randolph (March 10, 1818 – April 3, 1867) was a lawyer and the Confederate States Secretary of War during the American Civil War. He was also Thomas Jefferson's grandson.

Biography
Randolph was born at Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia, to Martha Jefferson Randolph, the daughter of U.S. President Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Mann Randolph Jr., a descendant of Pocahontas and John Rolfe. Named in honor of George Wythe, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, he was a relative of Edmund Randolph, who served in George Washington's cabinet as the first Attorney General of the United States, as well as colonist William Randolph through both his mother and father's sides of the family.

Randolph briefly attended school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and served as a midshipman in the United States Navy. He attended the University of Virginia before moving to Richmond. He read the law until he passed the bar and became a lawyer.

Marriage and family
On April 10, 1852, he married Mary Elizabeth Adams (1830–1871).

Career
As the Confederacy was established and the United States divided into two hostile camps, both sides moved toward open conflict. A special delegation, composed of Randolph, William B. Preston and Alexander H.H. Stuart, travelled to Washington, D.C. where they met President Abraham Lincoln on April 12, 1861. Finding the President firm in his resolve to hold the Federal forts then in the South, the three men returned to Richmond, Virginia on April 15.

Randolph joined the Confederate Army, serving as a major in the Battle of Big Bethel. He was promoted to brigadier general on February 12, 1862. Randolph was appointed by Jefferson Davis as Secretary of War on March 18, 1862, and he took office on March 24, 1862, but resigned on November 17, 1862.

After the Confederacy fell, he chose exile in Europe. He later returned to Virginia, where he died in 1867 from pneumonia. He is buried in the Jefferson family graveyard at Monticello.

Randolph was pictured on the $100 bill of the Confederate States of America.

Judah P. Benjamin

From Wikipedia
Judah Philip Benjamin (August 6, 1811 – May 6, 1884) was an American politician and lawyer. He was born a British subject in the West Indies, became a citizen of the United States and then the Confederate States of America. After the collapse of the Confederacy, he settled in England and died in France.

During his career in U.S. politics, Benjamin was a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives and a U.S. Senator from Louisiana; he was the second Jewish senator in U.S. history. Following the formation of the Confederate States of America, he held three different Cabinet posts in the government of Jefferson Davis. He was the first Jewish Cabinet-member in a North American government, and the first Jew seriously considered for nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court (he declined an offer of nomination twice).

Following his relocation to Europe, he was a distinguished barrister and Queen's Counsel in the United Kingdom.

Family and early life
Judah Philip Benjamin was born a British subject in Saint Croix, during the British occupation of the Danish West Indies (now U.S. Virgin Islands), to Phillip Benjamin, an English Jew, and his wife, Rebecca Mendes, a Portuguese Jew. He emigrated with his parents to the U.S. several years later and grew up in North and South Carolina.

In 1824, his father was one of the founders of the first Reform congregation in the United States, the "Reformed Society of Israelites for Promoting True Principles of Judaism According to Its Purity and Spirit" in Charleston. He attended Fayetteville Academy in North Carolina, and at the age of fourteen he entered Yale College, though he left without a degree. In 1832 he moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, where he continued his study of law, was admitted into the bar that same year, and entered private practice as a commercial lawyer.

In 1833 Benjamin made a strategic marriage to Natalie St. Martin, of a prominent New Orleans Creole family. He became a slave owner and established a sugar plantation in Belle Chasse, Louisiana. Plantation and legal practice both prospered. In 1842, his only child, Ninette, was born and in 1847 Natalie took the girl and moved to Paris, where she remained for most of the rest of her life. Benjamin did, however, make a trip each summer to France to see his wife and child.

In 1842, he was elected to the lower house of the Louisiana State Legislature as a Whig, and in 1845 he served as a member of the state Constitutional Convention. In 1850 he sold his plantation and its 150 slaves.

Senator
By 1852, Benjamin's reputation as an eloquent speaker and subtle legal mind was sufficient to win him selection by the state legislature to the U.S. Senate. The outgoing President, Millard Fillmore of the Whig Party, offered to nominate him to fill a Supreme Court vacancy after the Senate Democrats had defeated Fillmore's other nominees for that post, and the New York Times reported (on February 15, 1853) that "if the President nominates Benjamin, the Democrats are determined to confirm him."

He was the first Jewish-American to be formally offered a Supreme Court appointment. However, Benjamin declined to be nominated. He took office as a Senator on March 4, 1853. During his first year as a Senator, he challenged another young Senator, Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, to a duel over a perceived insult on the Senate floor; Davis apologized, and the two began a close friendship.

He quickly gained a reputation as a great orator. In 1854 Franklin Pierce offered him nomination to a seat on the Supreme Court, which he again declined. He was a noted advocate of the interests of the South, and his most famous exchange on the Senate floor was related to his religion and the issue of slavery: abolitionist and future Radical Republican Benjamin Wade of Ohio referred to him as "a Hebrew with Egyptian Principles."

The future Confederate replied that, "It is true that I am a Jew, and when my ancestors were receiving their Ten Commandments from the immediate Deity, amidst the thundering and lightnings of Mt. Sinai, the ancestors of my opponent were herding swine in the forests of Great Britain."

He was again selected to serve as Senator for the term beginning in 1859, but this time as a Democrat. During the 34th through 36th Congresses he was chairman of the Committee on Private Land Claims. Benjamin resigned his seat on February 4, 1861, after the secession of Louisiana from the Union.

Confederate statesman
Davis appointed Benjamin to be the first Attorney General of the Confederacy on February 25, 1861, remarking later that he chose him because he "had a very high reputation as a lawyer, and my acquaintance with him in the Senate had impressed me with the lucidity of his intellect, his systematic habits, and capacity for labor." Benjamin has been often referred to as "the Brains of the Confederacy."

In September 1861, he became the acting Secretary of War, and in November he was confirmed in the post. He became a lightning-rod for popular discontent with the Confederacy's military situation, and quarrelled with the Confederate Generals P.G.T. Beauregard and Stonewall Jackson. This came to a head over the loss of Roanoke Island to the Union "without a fight" in February 1862.

Roanoke's commander, Brig. Gen. Henry A. Wise was in desperate need of reinforcements when he was informed of the imminent Federal attack. He begged for the 13,000 idle men under the control of Maj. Gen. Benjamin Huger in nearby Norfolk, Va, but his pleas to Huger and secretary of war Benjamin went unheeded. The heavily outnumbered Confederate force of some 2,500 surrendered and were taken prisoner after losing nearly a hundred of their number — which was incorrectly presented in the South as their having "surrendered without a shot being fired" (at the Battle of Roanoke Island).

Cries of indignation and anger were heard throughout the South. Rather than publicly reveal the pressing shortage of military manpower that had led to the decision not to defend Roanoke, Benjamin accepted Congressional censure for the action without protest and resigned.

Benjamin urged foreign consuls in New Orleans to defend the city when attacked, but the diplomats were not otherwise ordered into Confederate military service. He ordered the seizure of fourteen privately-owned steamers at New Orleans. The impressed vessels were strengthened with iron casings at the bow to be used as rams. The ships kept civilian crews. Each vessel had a single heavy gun to be used in the event it was attacked by the Union. The Confederacy allocated $300,000 to outfit these vessels.

As a reward for his loyalty, Davis appointed him Secretary of State in March 1862. His foremost goal as Secretary of State was to draw the United Kingdom into the war on the side of the Confederacy. In 1864, as the South's military position became increasingly desperate, he came to publicly advocate a plan whereby any slave willing to bear arms for the Confederacy would be emancipated and inducted into the military; this would have the dual effect of removing the greatest obstacle in British public opinion to an alliance with the Confederacy, and would also ease the shortage of soldiers that was crippling the South's military efforts.

With Davis' approval, Benjamin proclaimed, "Let us say to every Negro who wishes to go into the ranks, 'Go and fight — you are free." Robert E. Lee came to be a proponent of the scheme as well, but it faced stiff opposition from traditionalists, and was not passed until March, 1865, by which time it was too late to salvage the Southern cause.

He is pictured on the CSA $2.00 bill.

Flight
After Robert E. Lee's surrender, Judah P. Benjamin fled south with Jefferson Davis and the rest of his cabinet, but he left the group shortly before they reached Washington, Georgia, where the last meeting of the Confederate Cabinet was held.

He is reported to have stayed in Ocala, Florida, with Solomon Benjamin, a relative, before continuing on south to Gamble Mansion in Ellenton, Florida. From there, assisted by William Whitaker and others, he was able to escape by boat to the Bahamas and then to England. His escape from Florida to England, though, was not without hardship. The small sponge-carrying vessel on which he left Bimini bound for Nassau exploded on the way, and he and the three crewmen had to be rescued by a British warship. His ship from the Bahamas to England caught fire on the way but managed to make it to port.

Exile
In the immediate aftermath of the end of the war, Benjamin was rumoured to have masterminded the assassination of Abraham Lincoln through his intelligence apparatus (based out of Montreal, Canada: John Wilkes Booth was purportedly seen several times meeting with Confederate representatives and receiving funds from them). Fearing that he could never receive a fair trial in the atmosphere of the time, he burnt his papers, took refuge at Gamble Plantation in Florida and then fled to England under a false name. Some historians believe that he may have briefly considered joining his brother, Joseph, and Colin J. McRae, the former Confederate Financial Agent in Europe, at New Richmond, British Honduras, in the Confederate settlements in British Honduras.

In late 1865 Benjamin provided considerable financial assistance to several friends in the former Confederacy. Varina Howell Davis biographer Joan Cashin stated that the Davis family received a gift of $12,000 from Benjamin, a windfall that supported not only their extended families but many of their relatives and friends during the early years of Reconstruction.

In June 1866, he was called to the bar in England, the beginning of a successful and lucrative second career as a barrister. In 1868, he published his Treatise on the Law of Sale of Personal Property, which came to be regarded as one of the classics of its field. The work's current edition remains authoritative under the name Benjamin's Sale of Goods. In 1872 he became Queen's Counsel. He died in Paris on May 6, 1884, and was interred at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

18 March, 1862: Tuesday - corrected!

Government - Confederacy
Judah P. Benjamin, often criticized for his management of the War Department, was named Secretary of State by President Davis, to succeed R.M. T. Hunter, who had resigned to go to the Senate.

George W. Randolph was appointed Secretary of WAr. General Thomas Bragg stepped down for Thomas H. Watts of Alabama.

The shifts represented internal politics of the Confederate government and its war-long search for an able Secretary of War.

Confederacy - Military
Mississippi:
The first units from General Albert Sidney Johnston's men from Murfeesboro began arriving in Corinth...and will continue to do so until March 24.

Virginia
There is a skirmish at Middletown

Missouri
There is a skirmish at Point Pleasant, part of Union General Pope's drive on Island No. 10.



Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

17 March, 1862: Monday

Union - Military
Virginia
At Alexandria, General McClellan began embarking the huge Army of the Potomac, en route to the James and York rivers and what was to become the Peninsula Campaign.

"Supposedly," according to Long, "he was to leave sufficient troops in the immediate vicinity of Washington to guard the capital from the Confederate army on the Rappahannock and in the Shenandoah." [but presumably did not do so?]

Tennessee
Major General Grant regained his active command and as two more divisions arrived, set up his headquarters oin a mansion at Savannah, north of the army comcentration point at Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River.

Missouri
There was a skirmish at Riddle's Point.

Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

16 March, 1862: Sunday

Military/Civilian - Union
Martial law is instituted in San Francisco, California, as city defenses were increased in view of rumors of possible attack.

Military - Confederate
Tennessee
There is light skirmishing in the Pittsburg Landing area of Tennessee as Confederates try to find out what the Union troops are doing.

Kentucky
There is a skirmish at Pound Gap.

Missouri
There is a skirmish at Marshall.

Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

15 March, 1862: Saturday

Government - Union
President Lincoln approved an act of Congress authorizing a joint commission of the United States, France and Great Britain to consider the means of preserving Atlantic fisheries.

The Federal Department of Florida was merged into the Department of the South with Major General David Hunter commanding, and headquarters at Hilton Head, South CArolina.

Government - Confederacy
President Davis tells General Joseph E. Johnson that there was no immediate necessity for throwing troops into Richmond and that the general should decisw on his new position.

Union - Military
Missouri
General Halleck, in St. Louis, exonerates General Grant of the rather superficial charges rising out of Fort Donelson and restored him to field command of the forces in tennessee. Grant replaced General Charles Ferguson Smith, incapacitated by a leg injury.

Tennessee
As the divisions of William Sherman and Stephen Hurlbut came into Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee, Major General Buell was ordered by Halleck to head from Nashville toward Savannah, Tennessee. Buell was to aid Grant's advancing army, but he was delayed by the lack of bridges over the Duck River.

Military - Confederacy
General John Hunt Morgan begins four days of operations around Gallatin, Tennessee.

Missouri
There is a skirmish near Marshall, Missouri.

Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

Atlanta and the War, by Webb Garrison

Atlanta and the War, by Webb Garrison
Rutledge Hill Press, 1995
249 pages plus Notes, Bibliography and index. A few b&w photos and illustrations scattered throughout the book
Library: 975.8 GAR
Description
In the summer of 1864, the Federal armies of the Division of the Mississipp swept over northern GEorgia and toward Atlanta. The Confederate Army of Tennessee was tenacious, and thus the Union victory came slowly.

The fall of Atlanta was crucial to the outcome of the Civil War because with the loss of Atlanta, morale in the South plummeted, one of the Confederact's last significant manufacturing centers was destroyed, and the flow of food and supplies to the Virginia battlefields were halted. Moreover, the publicity surrounding the taking of Atlanta played a large role in Abraham Lincoln's reelection campaign, thus ensuring that the war would continue until the Union was restored.

Webb Garrison tells the story of Atlanta and the war as if he were one of the correspondents following in the wake of William Tecumseh Sherman's armies or hovering near the headquarters of Joseph E. Johnston and John B. Hood. Drawing from the memoirs of Sherman and other generals, Garrison describes the campaign as a contest between two armies, not a struggle to gain or defend the ultimate prize of Atlanta. That moment did come, but it was long after the two sides had marched across the vast northern Georgia countryside.

Table of Contents
Introsuction
Part 1: Three Armies Head for DAlton
1. Indian country seemed just the place for an inland port
2. Hit hard on both fronts at once!
3. Far too strong for a frontal assault
4. Ready to destroy Joe Johnston
5. Ordrly withdrawal in lieu of all-out combat

Part 2: Slugging it out, mile by mile
6. Over the Oostenaula
7. Three or four miles a day
8. The Rubicon of GEorgia
9. Into the hell hole
10. The enemy must be in a bad condition
11. Judgment day at Kenesaw

Part 3: A Fresh Target and a New Foe
12. Joe Johnston Can Withdraw, Atlanta cannot
13. John B. Hood takes command
14. Peach Tree Creek
15. The Battle of Atlanta

Part 4: Too Strong to Attack, Too Large to Invest
16. Atlanta's defenses were something to see
17. iron rain poured during a red day in August
18. Firing never ceased, day or night
19. Atlamta is ours, and fairly won!

Part 5: New Gibraltar of the West
20. You must all leave
21. Am empty town, barely occupied
22. SAlywater!
23. Atlanta tipped the scales for a despondent Lincoln
24. Up from the ashes

Notes
Bibliography
Index

14 March, 1862: Friday

Government - Confederates
In a change of boundaries of departments, Major General John C. Pemberton was assigned to the Confederate Department of South Carolina and Georgia.

President Davis proclaimed martial law in threatened areas of southeastern Virginia.

Government - Union
In Washington, President Lincoln tried to explain that compensated eancipation of the slaves "would not be half as onerous, as would be an equal sum, raised now, for the indefinite prosecution of the war."

Union - Military
North Carolina
After the Union forces captured Roanoke Island, General Burnside, with about 11,000 men, moved on the community of New Berne. It was captured after some fighting - driving back the Confederate force of about 4,000 men under L. O. Branch.

The attack had begun on the 13th and worked its way up the right, or west, bank of the Neuse River through rain and over muddy roads. Casualties were 471 for the Union, including 90 killed, to nearly 600 for the Confederates, most of them captured or missing, with 64 killed. Another serviceable base had been established for Union inland expeditions and a new vntage point gained for cultivating the considerable pro-Union elements of North CArolina.

Missouri
Union forces moved in to New Madrid to find that the severe cannonading had caused the Confederates to flee the works there, to Island Number 10, or across the river. General John Pope had not yet conquered this bastion on the Mississippi, but he had made a good start.

Union soldiers now occupied the New Madrid earthworks, had secured considerable supplies and guns, and began to concentrate on the island itself, and the fortifications east of the river in Tennessee.

Tennessee
There is fighting at Big Creek Gap and Jacksborough. On the Tennessee River, General William T. Sherman, who had taken his command toward Eastport, Mississippi, returned toward Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, south of SAvannah. At Pittsburg Landing some explorations or reconnaisance were caried out.

Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

13 March, 1862: Thursday

Government - Confederate
In Richmond, General Lee is charged by President Davis with the conduct of military operations in the armies of the Confederacy, which seemed to be a sort of advisory post, never clearly defined.

Military - Union
General McClellan and his newsly named corps commanders hold a consequential conference at Fairfax Court House, Virginia. McClellan pressed his plan to shift the Army of the Potomac by boat to the York and James Rivers and head for Richmond from the Peninsula, rather than from Urbanna near the mouth of the Rapahannock.

The generals agreed, in particular because General Joseph E. Johnston's Confederates were now on the line of the Rapahannock.

President Lincoln once more emphasized to McClellan, through the Secretary of War, that manassas Junction and Washington must be left secure, although he agreed that the Army could move via the Peninsula. The letter ended, "at all events, move such remainder of the army at once in pursuit of the enemy by some route."

Missouri
In St. Louis, General Halleck assumed command of the new Department of the Mississippi.

Union forces under General John Pope bombard Confederate works at New Madrid, on the Mississippi.

Arkansas
There is fighting at Spring River.

Tennessee
There is fighting at Beach Creek Ridge, Tennessee.

North Carolina
Under the covering fire of the Navy, Union troops under GEneral Ambrose Burnside land on the west bank of the Neuse River south of New Berne and advance at once.

Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

12 March, 1862: Wednesday

Government - Confederacy
In Richmond, President Davis writes General Albert Sidney Johnson?: "We have suffered great anxiety because of recent events in Kentucky and Tennessee." The President was concerned about the adverse public reaction and blame that was being heaped on Johnston. Davis added: "I suppose the Tenn. or Mississippi River will be the object of the enemy's next campaign, and I trust you will be able to concentrate a force which will defeat ither attempt."

Union - Military
VirginiaUnion soldiers marched into Winchester, Virginia, "close on the heels" of Stonewall Jackson's Confederates, who were moving southward up the Shenandoah Valley.

Florida
Union naval forces under Lieutenant T. H. Stevens temporarily occupied Jacksonville, Florida.

Kansas
There is a skirmish near Aubrey.

North Carolina
A combined Union army-navy expedition sails from Roanoke Island, North CArolina to near the mouth of the Neuse River below New Berne.

Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

11 March, 1862: Tuesday

Union - Government/Military
President Lincoln signs War Order number 3, which officially relieves General McClellan of his post as General-in-Chief of the Federal Armies. He does retain his position as commander of the Department of the Army of the Potomac.

In the West, the departments are consolidated when Major GEneral Henry W. Halleck is given command of not only the Department of Missouri, but that of Kansas and part of the Department of Ohio as well. These became the Department of the Mississippi.

A new department in the mountains of Virginia and western Virginia to be termed the Mountain Department is created under the command of Major General Fremont (still in the Army despite the controversies over his Missouri reign.

All generals were to report directly to the Secretary of War.

There was to be no General-in-Chief, at least for a while.

In Washington, most Cabinet members and many other officials applauded Lincoln's command changes, although some were bitter over the downgrading of McClellan.

Government - Confederacy
In Richmond, President Davis refuses to accept the reports of Brigadier GEnerals Floyd and Pillow,, who had fled Fort Donelson before the surrender. Both officers were relieved of command.

Union - Military
Virginia
At Manassas, the Federal Army of the Potomac found the burning remains of supplies, wrecked railroad tracks and installations, and only a small amount of usable materiel, left behind by the retreating Confederates.

In the Shenandoah at Stephenson's Depot north of Winchester, there is another brief figh, but Stonewall Jackson's 4600 men complete their retreat from Winchester. They fall back rapidly up the valley, southward, follwed by Union soldiers from Banks' larger command.

Tennessee
There is a skirmish near Paris, Tennessee.

Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

Rush of new titles suggests lessons of the conflict remain relevant 150 years later

Kansas City Star: Rush of new titles suggests lessons of the conflict remain relevant 150 years later

Can anything new be said about the American Civil War?

Though the causes and campaigns have all been examined by ranks of historians, many books are coming this spring for the 150th anniversary of the war's start on April 12, 1861, when Confederate guns fired on Fort Sumter. More than 100 books - new works and reissues, visual guides and comprehensive histories - offer unexpected angles and fresh interpretations of the battles and key figures we thought we knew.

The lessons of the Civil War, these books suggest, remain relevant.

"The political process was so polarized that democratic compromise was almost impossible. Is our politics less polarizing today? Not really," explains David Goldfield, author of a monumental new appraisal of the war, America Aflame: How the Civil War Created a Nation (Bloomsbury Press). "Can we learn from this? I hope so."

A history professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Goldfield said two questions have hovered over his 30-year academic career: Why wasn't there a better way? How did we get to the point of solving disputes only by war? He found his answer and a fresh angle for his book in examining how evangelical Christianity drove a wedge between Southern and Northern interests.

"It intruded into the political process so that there was no middle ground. There was only good and evil," he says. "Self-righteousness doesn't make for good public policy. It poisons the process. That's the theme that frames my book, from the war's start to its aftermath."

Other new full-scale histories include:
Louis P. Masur's The Civil War: A Concise History (Oxford University Press),
The Great Struggle: America's Civil War by Steven E. Woodworth (Rowman & Littlefield),
Amanda Foreman's A World On Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War (Random House)
and Adam Goodheart's 1861: The Civil War Awakening (Alfred A. Knopf), which, though tied to the war's first year, shows how American identity would be remade during this agonizing chapter in the nation's history.
Jeffry D. Wert narrows his focus to a group that struck fear in Union hearts, the Army of Northern Virginia, in A Glorious Army: Robert E. Lee's Triumph, 1862-1863 (Simon & Schuster).

Nothing speaks more dramatically of the horrors of slavery than the sight of jagged whip scars on the back of a slave named Peter, whose 1863 photograph is included among many in
Discovering the Civil War (Foundation for the National Archives/Giles). This coffee table-size book draws from "one of the richest reservoirs of records in our holdings," writes David S. Ferriero, archivist of the United States.

Other visual records are Brady's Civil War (Lyons Press) and Brady's Civil War Journal (Skyhorse Publishing), both of which collect the work of famed photographer Mathew B. Brady not only during battles but in between them, as troops felt boredom and dread as they awaited the next fight.

The New York Times Complete Civil War: 1861-1865 edited by Harold Holzer and Craig Symonds (Black Dog & Leventhal) reproduces the paper's coverage, including reports and eyewitness accounts (with accompanying DVD).

A Lincoln scholar, Holzer lends his editorial efforts to several other books for the war's sesquicentennial, including Lincoln on War: Our Greatest Commander-in-Chief Speaks to America (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill) and Hearts Touched by Fire: The Best of 'Battles and Leaders of the Civil War' (The Modern Library).

The Civil War: The First Year Told by Those Who Lived It (Library of America) also provides a wide-ranging selection of eyewitness accounts. The student of the Civil War might turn to Michael Shaara's Pulitzer-winning novel "The Killer Angels" and the two subsequent books by his son Jeff, Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure, all reissued by Ballantine.


In the "unexpected angles" category, a reissue of William C. Davis' A Taste for War: The Culinary History of the Blue and Gray (Bison Books) shows how soldiers, far from the cooking of wives and mothers, made their own meals. The book comes with many recipes - including pork and parsnip hash and how to cook rabbit, rat and squirrel - for a truly intimate (sometimes gross) understanding of soldiers' lives.

Bevin Alexander's Sun Tzu at Gettysburg: Ancient Military Wisdom in the Modern World (W.W. Norton) analyzes the key battle of the Civil War - along with other battles in American history - through the eyes of Sun Tzu, an ancient Chinese royal advisor who composed The Art of War more than 2,000 years before Lee's disastrous defeat (if Lee had clung to certain principles, Alexander shows, the battle's outcome could have changed the course of the war).

Or, for a purely impressionistic record of the war, try a new Library of America edition of Stephen Crane's poems. Though born after the war, Crane is treated almost as its literary spokesman because of the novel The Red Badge of Courage. His poems give us vivid imagery of 19th century warfare that could have been written on the fields of Antietam. The wicked tone in his poem, "War is Kind," still crackles with grim irony today:

Great is the battle-god, great, and his kingdom -

A field where a thousand corpses lie.

Library seeks public’s help to grow Civil War archive

SWVAToday.com: Library seeks public’s help to grow Civil War archive
BY DAN KEGLEY
Staff

Tucked away in family Bibles and bank safe boxes across Virginia are letters, papers and manuscripts the Library of Virginia in Richmond is documenting and sharing as previously untold parts of American history.

The library is partnering with the Virginia Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Commission and its local committees to reach out to people who own these bits of history to scan and digitize the items into the library’s growing Civil War archive available online.

The library is also taking its scanner on the road, and John Clark, chairman of the sesquicentennial commission’s Smyth County committee, confirmed last week a scanning session is scheduled for Aug. 20 at the H.L Bonham Regional Development and Tourism Center in Chilhowie.

The sesquicentennial commission calls the Civil War 150 Legacy Project collaboration “a groundbreaking Civil War history document preservation project to capture diverse and compelling letters, papers and artifacts from the Civil War era.”
The commission said, “The state invites families to visit Virginia during the 150th
Commemoration, bring family treasures to be scanned and recorded and officially become part of history. The goal of the project is to encourage people to search through personal collections in attics, basements, desk drawers and other places to find documents containing vital information and insight into ancestors who experienced the Civil War in Virginia.

The project sends teams of professional archivists from the Library of Virginia to cities and towns throughout the state to digitally scan documents and images free of charge, so that their content can be preserved long beyond the life of the original. Those owning manuscripts, documents or images originating from 1859-1867 and reflecting social, political, military, business or religious life in Virginia during the Civil War and early Reconstruction are encouraged to bring those items for scanning.”

Richmond-area residents poured into the state library for the scanning, a statewide effort that began in September known as the Civil War 150 Legacy Project.
Library of Virginia archivists Laura Drake Davis and Renee M. Savits are doing the scanning, usually on weekends, with Davis working in the western part of the state and Savits the east.

“It’s amazing what people have. It just astounds me,” Davis said.
They have scanned thousands of documents, all of which will eventually be on display on the websites of the Library of Virginia at http://www.virginiamemory.com/cw150 and the sesquicentennial commission at http://www.VirginiaCivilWar.org/legacy.
“We’re so overwhelmed with materials, it’s taking us a while to get them online,” Savits said.

Information will become available later about scheduling appointments, but the library offers this guideline for estimating the time needed to scan various kinds of documents.

For scanning a photograph, allow five minutes per item; a diary, three hours; for a short letter of one to five pages, 15 minutes; a long letter of six to 10 pages, 45 minutes; a collection of manuscripts,11-25 pages, one hour; a collection of manuscripts, 26-50 pages, two hours; collection of manuscripts of more than greater than 50 pages will need special scheduling.

10 March, 1862: Monday

Government - Confederacy
In Richmond, President Davis tries to reassure General Joseph E. Johnston, falling back in Virginia, "you shall be promptly and adequately reinforced.

Government - Union
In Washington, President Lincoln wrote that "General McClellan is after him" [Johnston].

The President paid a visit to Liuetenant Worden, commnder of the Monitor, who had suffered an eye injury in the battle.

Congress discusses various aspects of slavery.

Civilian - North and South
The news of the battle at Pea Ridge, Arkansas, and the battle of the Monitor vs the Virginia, and the build-ups of the various armies arrives in the newspapers of various cities, both north and south.

Union - military
There is a brief skirmish in La Fayette County.

Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

9 Mar 1862, Sunday

Union military - Army
Virginia
In northern Virginia there was no fighting. Aware of the approaching Uion army under McClellan, General Joseph E. Johnston's Confederates pulled out of Centreville, and moved toward the Rapahhanock River. (The retreat would continue for two more days.)

The Union army marched on, substantially outnumbering the Confederates, but found only unoccupied Confederate camps camps for a brief time, before returning to Alexandria. They found scant supplie, abandoned huts and fortifications, some of them still mounting fake wooden guns.

There is skirmishing at Sangster's Station, Virginia, as Union troops from Grant's army led by Charles Ferguson Smith, probe towards Pursy Tennessee.

Tennessee
There is skirmishing near Nashville on the Granny White Pike.

Union troops of Grant's army, led by CF Smith, probe toward Purdy, Tennessee, in operations from Crump's Landing near Savannah on the Tennessee River.

Missouri
There is skirmishing at Big Creek and Mountain Grove, Missouri.

Union military - Naval
Virginia
About nine o'clock in the morning, the iron-built USSS Monitor with a single revolving turret housing two eleven-inch Dahlgren guns, sailed out to battle the CSS Virginia. (The Monitor was all iron, the Virginia was iron clad - iron - plating over the wooden hull.)

The battle lasted all day. Neither ship could gain the advantage. Lt. John Worden, commander of the Monitor, received a head wound and Lt. Samuel Green took over him. The remaining Union fleet could only stand by and watch as the two modern ships fought to a standstill. Finally, the Virginia retreated to Norfolk Harbor.

Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

8 Mar, 1862: Saturday

Union - Government
In Washington, President Lincoln conferred with GEneral McClellan over his planned move via Aquia Creek or the Peninsula southeast of Richmond, and also met with division commanders, who voted in favor of McClellan's plan.

The President provided in General War Order No. 2 that sufficient forces be left to defend Washington while McClellan made his move to the Peninsula.

The news of the destruction at Hampton Roads was telegraphed to Washington, causing great consternation.

Military - Union
Arkansas
Union troops commanded by General Curtis drive the Confederates from Pea Ridge in what was really the third day of the battle near Elkhorn Tavern. Van Dorn's Confederates retreated toward the Arkansas River. (They will arrive at Hunstville, Arkansas on 9 March, and then move on to Van Vuren, Arkansas.

The Confederate leaders knew this probably meant the permanent loss of Mississippi, and that they would also be hampered in their attempts to maintain the Mississippi River. (This will be the last major offensive of the South in the Trans-Mississippi until 1864.)

For Genral Curtis, this is the high point of the war. He and his outnumbered army had fought well. The Union had about 11,000 troops with 203 killed, 908 wounded, and 201 missing or captured. Van Dorn had 14,000 troops, with probably 600 killed and wounded, and 200 captured or missing.

Virginia
Union forces occupied Leesburg.

Missouri
There is a skirmish around Rolla.

Kentucky
William Sherman's division embarked at Paducah, Kentucky for its trip to Tennesse.

Confederate - Naval
Virginia
In Hampton Roads (the confluence of five rivers), the "clumsy, ill-engined, but heavily armored CSS Virginia (the re-furbished USS Merrimack, that had been ineptly scuttled by the US when they abandoned the Norfolk Naval Yard, steamed out of Norfolk Haror, under command of Flag Officer Franklin Buchanan. Opposed to the iron-clad Merrimack were the traditional fleet - including the forty-gun screw frigates Roanoke, and Minnesota, the frigate Congress, fifty guns, and the sloop Cumberland, twenty-four guns.

The Merrimack rammed the Cumberland and forced the badly damaged Congress aground. The Minnesota was damaged.

Buchanan was wounded, and Lieutenant Catesby ap Roger Jones took over. The Virginiareturned to Norfolk harbor that evening, intending to finish off the job the next morning.

In the evening, the Union ironclad, USS Monitor, which had departed from New York some days ago, arrived.

Confederate - Army
Tennessee
Confederate calvary under John Hunt Morgan raided suburbs of Nashville.

Chattanooga is occupied by Confederate forces.

Confederate E. Kirby Smith reached Knoxville and assumed command of troops in east Tennessee.

Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971