The Civil War Day By Day Sesquicentennial Thread

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January 25 1862

—William H. Seward, Secretary of State, issued an order to the Marshal of the District of Columbia, directing him “not to receive into custody any persons claimed to be held to service or labor within the District, or elsewhere, and not charged with any crime or misdemeanor, unless upon arrest or commitment, pursuant to law, as fugitives from such service or labor:” and “not to retain any such fugitives in custody beyond a period of thirty days from their arrest and commitment, unless by special order of competent civil authority.” The order was to be enforced ten days after its publication, and had no relation to arrests made by military authority.—(Doc. 19.)

—The Twentieth regiment of Kentucky Volunteers, under the command of Colonel Sanders D. Bruce, left Camp Wallace, for the seat of war. —Louisville Journal, January 25.

—The Eighth regiment of New-Hampshire Volunteers, under the command of Colonel Fearing, left Manchester for the seat of war.

—Governor Pierpont declared all the civil offices, on the Eastern shore of Virginia, vacant, and the Commanding General of the Federal forces, stationed on the Peninsula, issued a proclamation requesting the people to elect others.— National Intelligencer, January 25.

—The Wisconsin First Battery, Captain J. F. Foster, and the Wisconsin Third Battery, Captain Drury, arrived at Louisville, Ky. The batteries number three hundred men and twelve guns, and are splendidly equipped. The guns are six pounders, and twelve-pounder howitzers. Some of the members were armed with rifled yagers —saber bayonets. —Louisville Journal, Jan. 27.

—The Petersburgh, Express, of this date, contains the following: “An order, signed by John Withers, Assistant Adjutant General, has issued from the Inspector General’s office, at Richmond, Va. The two hundred and fifty Confederate States troops, ten officers, and two hundred and forty non-commissioned officers and privates, who were captured by the United States troops at Hatteras, N. C, subsequently released from Fort Warren, Boston harbor, and released on parole by General Wool, United States Army, are hereby released from said parole, and will immediately report for duty with their respective companies, General Wool having acknowledged, in exchange, the receipt of a like number of United States prisoners, sent to Fortress Monroe, Va., by the Confederate Government.

—The Fifty-fifth regiment of Illinois volunteers, under the command of Colonel M. M. Baine, arrived at Cairo, Ill., en route for the seat of war. —Cincinnati Gazette, January 27.
 
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#477
January 26 1862

—A force consisting of Willich’s Indiana regiment, Colonel Starkweather’s Wisconsin regiment and a company of Indiana cavalry, Captain Gaddis, made a rcconnoissance from Camp George Wood, near Munfordville, Ky., in the direction of the enemy. Willich’s regiment and the cavalry penetrated to Horse Cave, on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, eight miles beyond Green River. Colonel Starkweather’s regiment was placed in reserve about four miles out. Willich learned that Hindman had recently advanced with his brigade and had encamped only three miles beyond Horse Cave. The railroad track was destroyed in places up to and within five miles of the national camp, and the turnpike was blocked up by trees which the rebels had felled across the road for a distance of four miles this side of Horse Cave. Several reservoirs of water, which they passed, filled the air for some distance around with stench arising from the decaying cattle and hogs the rebels had thrown into them.— Cincinnati Gazette, January 31.

—This day was celebrated at New-Orleans as the anniversary of the secession of Louisiana from the United States. A parade of about fifteen thousand men took place, after which the Governor and principal officers partook of a collation at the St. Charles’ Hotel; the great sentiment of the occasion being the Independence of Louisiana.— New-Orleans Picayune, January 27.

—At St Louis, Mo., General Halleck issued a special order directing the President, and other officers of the St Louis Mercantile Association and the Chamber of Commerce, to take the oath of allegiance prescribed by law. In case of failure to do so for the space of ten days, the officer so failing shall be deemed to have resigned; and if he attempts to exercise the functions of his office, he shall be arrested for contempt and punished according to the laws of war.—(Doc. 20.)

—The Southern expedition left Port Royal, S. C, and consisted of all the light-draft steamers, light gunboats,and eight thousand troops. The object supposed to be an attack on Savannah, commencing with Fort Pulaski.

—Official despatches received at St. Louis, Mo., from the expedition sent from Cape Girardeau to Benton and Bloomfield. It captured Lieutenant-Colonel Farmer and eleven other officers and sixty-eight privates, with a quantity of arms, horses, saddles, etc. Most of the rebel officers were surprised and captured in a ballroom.—General Halleck’s Despatch.
 
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#478
January 27 1862

—In a speech delivered on the opening of the French Legislative Session to-day, the Emperor Napoleon made use of the following language in alluding to American affairs: “The civil war which desolates America has seriously compromised our commercial interests. Nevertheless, so long as the rights of neutrals are respected, we must confine ourselves to the utterance of wishes that these dissensions may soon be terminated.”

—In the Western Virginia Legislature a proposition was introduced to provide that no slave should be brought into the new State, and that all children born to slaves after July 4, 1865, should be free. The State was, also, to take measures for the apprenticeship of these children. The proposition was referred to the Committee on General Provisions.

—The following order was issued from the War Department, at Washington, to-day: “Ordered, that the Rev. Bishop Ames, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Hon. Hamilton Fish, of New-York, be and they are hereby appointed Commissioners to visit the prisoners belonging to the army of the United States now in captivity at Richmond, Virginia, and elsewhere, and under such regulations as may be prescribed by the authorities having custody of such prisoners, relieve their necessities, and provide for their comfort, at the expense of the United States, in pursuance of the order heretofore made on this subject, and that said Commissioners be requested immediately to signify by telegraph to the department their acceptance or refusal of this appointment, and report in person at Washington without delay.[1]

—Diplomatic correspondence passed between Earl Russell and Secretary Seward, in which the former condemns in strong terms the fact of the British schooner James Campbell, captured for a breach of the blockade, having been brought to New-York with the British flag flying under that of the United States. Mr. Seward replies that the unseemly act was occasioned by a misapprehension of his duty on the part of the Federal officer who directed it, and that orders have been issued to prevent a repetition of the same. [1] The Norfolk Day-Book of January 30th says of this appointment: The Hon. Mr. Edwin M. Stanton, who succeeds General Cameron in King Lincoln’s war office, favors us with a remarkable document, the cool effrontery of which excites our unqualified admiration. This document published in our issue of yesterday, after reciting the heroic services of the prisoners now in our hands, goes on sic: “It is therefore ordered that two Commissioners be appointed to visit the city of Richmond, in Virginia, and wherever else prisoners belonging to the United States army may be held.” The exquisite modesty of this proposition to send official Inspectors of our defences and general condition entitle Mr. Stanton to the reputation of being the most impudent man among all King Lincoln’s proverbially impudent subjects. The distinction has been earned—let it be awarded.
 
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#479
January 28 1862

—In the United States Senate a petition from citizens of Illinois, asking Congress not to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, and asking for the expulsion of members who advocate it, was presented by Mr. Saulsbury, of Delaware A resolution was offered by Mr. Foster, of Connecticut, and adopted, asking the Secretary of the Treasury whether any further legislation is necessary in order to take charge of the cotton and other lands of South-Carolina, now in possession of the Government, and to place them under cultivation, and also in relation to the blacks in these localities.

—Reconnoissances from Port Royal, S. C, having discovered the fact that the Savannah River, Ga., could be entered some distance above its mouth, and Fort Pulaski, commanding the entrance, flanked and cut off from all communication with the city of Savannah, an expedition of United States gunboats,under command of Captain C. H. Davis, U.S.N., and Captain C. R. P. Rodgers, U.S.N., was despatched yesterday for the purpose of entering the Savannah River in the rear of the Fort. Captain Davis’s detachment followed the Wilmington Narrows on the south side of the river, while Captain Rodgers sailed up Wall’s Cut, and thence into Wright River, on the north side. The two expedition appeared this morning on opposite sides of the savannah, both being detained by piles driven in to oppose their progress, or by the shallowness of the water. While in this position, Commodore Tatnall, of the Confederate Navy, came down the savannah with five rebel gunboats,and a fleet of lighters in tow with provisions for Fort Pulaski. The national gunboats immediately opened fire on him, and a triangular engagement took place, during which three rebel boats succeeded in reaching the Fort, and discharging their lighters. They then returned and passed between the National fleets, being nearly two miles distant from each, up the river. No damage was sustained by the National gunboats during the fight.—(Doc. 21.)

—A Division of the Union troops in Missouri, under command of Jeff. C. Davis, left Versailles on the march towards Springfield. The division comprised the Eighth and Twenty-second Indiana, the Thirty-seventh Illinois and Ninth Missouri, accompanied by two batteries of twenty-four pieces, and three companies of cavalry under Major Hubbard.
 
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#480
I didnt really see anything for the 29, but if someone sees anything please feel free to post :)



January 30 1862

—The Senate of the United States confirmed the nomination of Major Frederick Steele, of the Eleventh regiment Infantry, as Brigadier-General of Volunteers.

—Captain Ericsson’s iron-plated steam battery, the Monitor, that for some months past has attracted no small share of attention, was successfully launched to-day from Sneeden’s ship-yard, at Greenpoint, Long Island, N. Y. A large number of people witnessed the launch, and as the strange-looking craft glided swiftly and gracefully into its new element, the assemblage cheered rapturously, and several salutes were fired from vessels in the neighborhood in honor of the event—(Doc 23.)

—A Notorious rebel marauder, Captain John Morgan, seized a party of six Union men at a church near Lebanon, Ky., to-day. Five he allowed to leave with some of their clothing, and setting fire to the church, forced the remaining victim into the building, intending to burn him alive. After some ineffectual attempts to escape, the man finally succeeded, while the attention of his persecutors was drawn off. As soon as the news of the occurrence reached the camp of the First regiment of Ohio Cavalry, not far distant, two companies were despatched in pursuit, but owing to the bad condition of the roads, and impassable streams, the chase had to be abandoned. —Cincinnati Commercial.

—In the United States Senate, n. M. Rice, of Minnesota, offered a joint resolution, which was adopted, that the Secretary of War be authorized to procure from officers and soldiers, now prisoners in the so-called Confederate States, allotment pay for families; the Secretary of War to issue drafts on New-York or Boston, Mass., to families.
 
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#483
I eat up any history, geopolitical type of information. Thankfully, my job involves both. Keep up with the good work, I like reading the entries that you are making.
 
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#484
January 31 1862

—Wm. H. Seward, Secretary of State, directed to-day the release from Fort Lafayette of all the persons taken on board of vessels which had violated the blockade.—Baltimore American, February 3.

—George W. McCaddon, Sylvester Bartlett, and Amon Wells, of Harmar, and Wm. C. Olney, of Marietta, Ohio, were in Kentucky with a company who were putting up a telegraph line for the National army, and were captured by a party of rebels near Campbellsville, by whom they were taken South.—Ohio Statesman, February 8.

—Queen Victoria this day declared her determined purpose “to observe the duties of neutrality during the existence of hostilities between the United States and the States calling themselves ‘the Confederate States of America,’” and “to prevent, as far as possible, the use of her Majesty’s harbors, ports and coasts, and the waters within her Majesty’s territorial jurisdiction, in aid of the warlike purposes of either belligerent.”

—As act was passed to day in the Congress of the United States, authorizing the President to take possession of the telegraph and railroad lines in the United States, whenever, in his judgment, the public safety required it. Also, that any attempt to resist the unrestrained use by Government of such property, when too powerful to be suppressed by ordinary means, shall be punished by death, as a military offence. It was also enacted that three Commissioners be appointed by the President to assess and determine the damages suffered by railroad or telegraph companies in consequence of such seizures, the compensation of each Commissioner to be eight dollars per day while in active service. It was further enacted that the transportation of troops, munitions of war, etc., be under the immediate control of the Secretary of War, and such agents as he may appoint. Finally, the provisions of this act, so far as it relates to the operating and using said railroads and telegraphs, shall not be in force any longer than is necessary for the suppression of this rebellion.
 
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#485
February 1 1862

—At Leavenworth, Kansas, an interview was held between Mr. Dole, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and the chiefs of several of the loyal tribes of Indians. The chiefs were Opothleyoholo, of the Creeks, Alektustenuk, of the Seminoles, and several representatives of the Iowa tribes. The interview was of an impressive character, and the conference covered the entire range of topics relative to the status of the Indian tribes, their relations to the Government, and their position as regards the rebellion. Commissioner Dole informed the chiefs that the Federal Government had no intention of ever calling upon its red children to take a share in the contest, but a portion of the Indians having proved false to their allegiance, and, under the instigation of designing men,having driven the loyal Indians from their homes, the Government would march its troops down into the Indian country and compel submission.—(Doc. 24.)

—By order of the Provisional Government of Kentucky, the name of Wolfe County was changed to Zollicoffer County. The county of Zollicoffer will perpetuate on the records of Kentucky the name of one whose fame belongs to struggling freemen every where.—Louisville-Nashville Courier, February 3.

—A skirmish took place to-day near Bowling Green, Ky., on the Green River, between a party of rebels and a company of the Second Cavalry, Forty-first regiment Indiana Volunteers, commanded by Captain J. B. Presdee. The rebels lost three killed and two wounded; none of the National soldiers were injured.—(Doc. 25.)

—The Spanish steamer Duero arrived at Liverpool, Eng., from Cadiz, bringing as passengers the captains of three American ships, captured and burned by the privateer Sumter.—(Doc. 26.)
 
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February 2 1862

—Lieutenant-Colonel White’s cavalry encountered a force of Lincoln’s infantry in Morgan County, Tenn., on the mountain side. The Lincoln force was estimated at from one hundred to three hundred. White charged upon the enemy. Captain Duncan rallied his men twice, when he was shot through the head and killed by J. Roberts, a lad fifteen years old. The Kentucky Unionists were then completely routed and fled in confusion, leaving seven of their dead upon the field.—Norfolk Day Book, February 6.

—The bark Trinity left Boston, Mass., to-day, for Fortress Monroe, Va., with three hundred and eighty-six rank and file, and eleven officers, from Fort Warren, in Boston harbor, to be exchanged for an equal number of National soldiers in the hands of the rebels.— N. Y. Herald, February 3.
 
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#487
February 3 1862

—In accordance with the decision of the Administration of the United States, the privateersman who had been confined in the City Prison, were released from that place and confined as political prisoners in Fort Lafayette. The persons captured on the British ship M. S. Perry, and held as witnesses, were released entirely.

—In the Superior Court at Salem, Mass., Henry M. Bragg, Francis W. Bayley, Isaac M. Daggett, Martin L. Stevens, Joseph S. King, and George W. Edwards, all of Haverhill, indicted for tarring, feathering, and riding on a rail, in August last, the editor of the Haverhill Gazette, Mr. Ambrose L. Kimball, were severally held to bail for trial, in the sum of one thousand dollars each.

—In the United States Senate, Mr. Chandler presented resolutions from the Legislature of Michigan reaffirming loyalty to the Government and hatred of traitors, and asking the Government to speedily put down the insurrection, favoring the confiscation of the property of the rebels, and asking that, as slavery is the cause of the war, it be swept from the land.

—By the operation of Earl Russell’s circular of neutrality, the privateer Nashville was sent off from Southampton, Eng., to-day. The Union gunboat Tuscarora was anchored off Cowes, where the rebel vessel passed her. The Tuscarora steamed up and was ready to start in chase of her, when she was stopped by the British frigate Shannon, (fifty-one,) to be detained for twenty-four hours, in accordance with the strict letter of international law. The London Times and Post congratulate the English people on their seeing the last of both vessels, as well as of all other American naval belligerents.
 
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#488
February 4 1862

—The Richmond Examiner, of this date, has the following on the situation of affairs at the South: “We have a thousand proofs that the Southern people are not sufficiently alive to the necessity of exertion in the struggle they are involved in. Our very victories have brought injury upon the cause by teaching us to despise the public adversary. The immense magnitude of his preparations for our subjugation has excited no apprehension, and had little effect in rousing us to exertion. We repose quietly in the lap of security, when every faculty of our natures should be roused to action. “The evidences of the prevailing sentiment are manifold. They are proved by the set of men who are elected to responsible positions. Men of palliatives, expedients and partial measures, control in our public councils. Men who could not perceive the coming storm that is now upon us, and who continued to cry peace, peace, when peace had ceased to be possible, are these who receive the largest support for controlling stations. The government is almost turned over already to these passive characters, who look upon confiscation as barbarous, aggression as impolitic, and vigorous war as a policy to be avoided, because tending to incense the enemy against us. “The men who descried the cloud of war when it was no bigger than a man’s hand, and who can now see no peace but as the result of vigorous measures, and renewed and repeated victories, are relegated to subordinate positions, and their views being a burning rebuke to the statesmen, in position, they are laboring under the weight of implied censure. To win a fight by an aggressive movement is to incur a sort of obloquy; and to lose a battle in a brave push upon the foe is to provoke a chuckle of satisfaction, and the taunt, ‘I told you so.’ “Better to fight even at the risk of losing battles, than remain inactive to fill up inglorious graves. Better that government and people should be roused to duty by defeat, than that the army should go to sleep, the government doze and the people grow drowsy, in the very jaws of destruction. To fill our public councils with men of passive measures, who would administer war on Homoeopathic principles, who would whip the enemy by cowardice and sloth, is to paralyze the government and to enervate the people. The people are alive to the demands of the crisis, but if Congress frowns upon them, they grow tame and crouching. “In the midst of revolution, no greater calamity can befall a people, than for their affairs to pass into the control of men who could not understand it in the beginning, and are incapable of appreciating the demands of the crisis as they arise. The French, in their revolution, had an easy way of getting rid of such characters—they chopped off their heads. They felt it necessary, as all subsequent opinion has acknowledged, to push their revolution through to a climax, at any cost, and, though often with tears and sorrow, they guillotined the public men who leaned back against the harness. The revolution succeeded, and owed its success solely to their excesses. They passed to the promised land through a red sea of blood. Old institutions, abuses and enormities were swept away, with every relic of opinion that upheld them. France became a tabula rasa, upon which a new destiny was to be written. “All Europe moved against her more formidably than the Northern hordes are beleaguering our own country; but such was the fiery earnestness of her leaders and her people, that the gathering hosts of invasion were scattered to the four winds. At last, it must be confessed, that the subjugation of a nation is not to be defeated so much by armies and guns, as by the fierce resolution of its rulers and people. An unconquerable will and fierce combative purpose, are more effective than invincible arms. Docs such a fiery purpose blaze in our government, imparting its hot flame to the hearts of our people? “There are two things needful for the early extinction of this war. We must first banish from the country every stranger in it who cannot give a satisfactory account of his purposes and objects here. This riddance of spies is a measure of importance, but comparatively of minor importance. The next thing requisite is for the whole community to throw themselves heart and soul into the war, and practise all the self-denial that the crisis demands. Why should the country be taxed with the support of the hundreds of hack teams employed in Richmond, when, if each gentleman would consent to walk a few squares, horses enough for a dozen or two batteries, well broken and well conditioned, with a complement of teamsters, could be thus secured to the army?This is but a single instance to show what might be accomplished by a general spirit of patriotic self-denial. What a vast system of expenditure, now exhausted upon mere luxuries, might be turned to advantage in the war, if the pampered classes of society would but consent to a temporary sacrifice of useless pleasures! He who will take the pains to run through the whole catalogue of items which could thus be turned to valuable account in the war, will be astonished at the extent and value of latent resources which the country affords. The most efficient class to bring out the men and resources of the country in this war have been its women. In the great struggles of nations, like that in which we are engaged, they should have queens for their rulers; for it is woman alone who is proof against the persuasions of time-servers and the sin of backsliding. There has been but one Lot’s wife in all the tide of time.”

—The steamship Constitution, with the Bay State regiment, of Massachusetts, the Twelfth regiment Maine volunteers, and other troops, sailed from Fortress Monroe, Va., for Ship Island, in the Gulf of Mexico, this forenoon.—N. Y. Evening Post, February 5.

—At Richmond, Va., J. P. Benjamin, rebel Secretary of War, issued the following order: Bands of speculators have combined to monopolize all the saltpetre to be found in the country, and thus force from the government exorbitant prices for an article indispensable to the national defence. The department has hitherto paid prices equal to four times the usual peace rates in order to avoid recourse to impressment, if possible. This policy has only served to embolden the speculators to fresh exactions. It is now ordered, that all military commanders in the Confederate States, impress all saltpetre now or hereafter to be found within their districts, except such as is in the hands of the original manufacturers, or of government agents and contractors, paying therefor forty cents per pound, and no more. The price fixed is the lightest rate at which contracts have been made, and leaves very large profits to the manufacturers.

—Henry M. Naglee was confirmed to-day as Brigadier-General of volunteers, by a unanimous vote of the United States Senate. Mr. Naglee is a native of Philadelphia, Pa., and has been for some time a resident of California. He is an experienced and capable officer, having graduated at the West-Point Military Academy. —Philadelphia Press, February 5.

—In the Virginia House of Delegates the following debate took place on the subject of enrolling free negroes for the rebel army. The bill amending the Convention Act for the enrolment of free negroes was, on motion of Mr. Prince, taken up. Among the amendments in this bill, Mr. Prince called attention to the one allowing ten cents for each negro so enrolled to the sheriff or officer so enrolling them. He proposed to strike out this amendment, and insert in lieu of the proposed compensation that, if the said officers fail to comply with the requisition of this law, they be subjected to a penalty of not less than fifty nor more than one hundred dollars. As these officers were exempt from military duty, he said it was about as little as they could do to perform the service of enrolling the free negroes of their respective counties, as a part of their official duties. His amendment was adopted. Mr. Rives proposed that the amendment in the hill respecting the term of the enlistment of negroes, be amended to make the term ninety days, instead of a hundred and eighty. His reason for this was the fact that the families of many of the free negroes so enlisted, having no other means of support, would—as had been the case in his own county—suffer very much from want. Mr. Prince agreed to compromise with the gentleman on one hundred and twenty days. Mr. Anderson, of Botetourt, hoped that the amendment would not pass. One hundred and eighty days were only six months; and if white men could be drafted for two years, he saw no reason why free negroes should be entitled to such charitable discrimination. Mr. Rives replied, that he made the proposition from no particular friendship to free negroes; if it were in his power, he would convert them all into slaves to-morrow. But it was simply to call the attention of the House to the fact that, in his own county, many severe cases of suffering had occurred among the families of free negroes from this cause, and he thought that possibly some alleviation might be brought about by the amendment proposed. The amendment was rejected, and the bill was then ordered to its engrossment.—Richmond Examiner.

—This afternoon a skirmish occurred near the banks of the Occoquan, on the Potomac, Va. It was reported in the morning that a body of rebels was at Pohick Church. Captain Lowing, of the Third Michigan regiment, then on picket-duty in front of General Heintzelman’s Division, took thirty-four men,under command of Lieutenant Brennan, from Company F, and forty-four under Lieutenant Bryan, from Company H, and went to meet them. Arriving at Pohick Church, no rebels were seen. The party, however, proceeded to the banks of the Occoquan, opposite the town of that name. Arriving there early in the afternoon, a few unarmed men were observed drilling. They gave the alarm, when a number of rebels came from the houses and fired on the National soldiers. A brisk skirmish took place. Four of the rebels were seen to fall, and were carried off by their comrades. No injury was sustained by the National party, except by one man, who was slightly bruised by a spent ball. —Baltimore American, February 6.
 
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#489
February 5 1862

—Brigadier-General T. F. Meagher, accompanied by General Shields and a brilliant staff, formally took command of the Irish Brigade, in the army of the Potomac, amidst great enthusiasm and much rejoicing from officers and men. General Shields addressed the troops in most effective terms on the occasion,

—Jesse D. Bright was this day expelled from the Senate of the United States.—(Doc. 27.)

—The British schooner Mars, laden with salt, was captured to-day off Fernandina, Fla., by the United States steamer Keystone State. Her charter party indicated her intention of running the blockade. A small sum of money was found on board, among which were bank-bills and certificates of deposit in South-Carolina and Georgia banks.—Baltimore American, February 14.

—The Fourteenth battery of Ohio artillery, under the command of Captain Burrows, consisting of one hundred and forty-five men,one hundred and twenty-three horses, six pieces of cannon, six caissons, and one forge, left Cincinnati for St. Louis on the steamer J. W. Cheesman.

—Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury, received to-day the following telegram from the Governor of California: “Sacramento, January 31. “I am instructed by a resolution of the Legislature of California to inform you that this State will assume and pay into the Treasury of the United States the direct tax of $254,538 apportioned to this State by act of Congress. “Leland Stanford, Governor of California.” —Boston Advertiser, February 5.

—A monster meeting was held in Faneuil Hall, Boston, Mass., this evening, in behalf of Colonel Corcoran, confined at Richmond, Va. Mayor Wightman presided and made one of a number of speeches. Letters from several distinguished men were read, and strong resolutions were adopted.—N. Y. Tribune, February 6.

—The funeral of Adjutant George F. Hodges, of the Eighteenth regiment Massachusetts volunteers, who died of fever at Hall’s Hill, Va., on the thirtieth of January, took place this afternoon at Roxbury, Mass. —Boston Traveller, February 5.

—The Fourteenth regiment, Maine volunteers, under command of Colonel Wickerson, arrived at Boston, Mass., to-night from Augusta, Me., and were quartered in Faneuil Hall. They were attached to General Butler’s expedition.—N. Y. Times, February 6.

—Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, this day removed the prohibitions “subsisting under her majesty’s royal proclamations of the thirtieth day of November, and the fourth day of December, 1861, on the exportation out of the United Kingdom, or carrying coastwise, of gunpowder, saltpetre, nitrate of soda, brimstone, arms, ammunition, and military stores, (including percussion-caps and tubes,) and lead.”
 
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#490
February 6 1862

—Fort Henry, on the Tennessee River, was taken by the squadron of gunboats,commanded by Flag-Officer A. H. Foote. In consequence of the efforts of the enemy to reenforce the garrison, information of which had been received by General Grant, that officer determined, last night, to attack the fort to-day, although his troops had not then come up, and he issued orders accordingly. The First division, under General McClernand, was ordered to move at eleven o’clock this morning, and occupy the roads leading to Dover and Donelson, for the purpose of cutting off the retreat of the garrison, as well as to prevent the enemy from throwing reinforcements into the fort. The First and Second brigades of the Second division were ordered to take and occupy the high grounds on the west bank of the river, which commanded the works. The Third brigade of the Second division was ordered to advance up the eastern bank of the river, as rapidly as possible, and to hold itself in readiness to act as circumstances might require, either in assaulting the works or in supporting the First division. In the mean time, the gunboats were prepared for action, and at half-past twelve o’clock this morning, Flag-Officer Foote opened a fire on the enemy’s works, at seventeen hundred yards distance, from the iron-clad gunboats Cincinnati, (flag-ship,) Commander Stembel; Essex, Commander Porter; Carondelet, Commander Walke; and St. Louis, Lieut. Commanding Paulding. The old gunboats Conestoga, Lieut. Commanding Phelps; Tyler, Lieut. Commanding Gwin; and Lexington, Lieut. Commanding Shirk, forming a second division, also accompanied the assailing squadron, taking position astern and in-shore of it The First division, composed of the iron-clad gunboats,approached the fort in a parallel line, the Second division following at a short distance, and, as they slowly steamed up the river, the fire on both sides was warmly and skilfully conducted. At about half-past one the Essex received a shot in her boiler, which resulted in the wounding and scalding of twenty-nine officers and men, including Commander Porter; when she necessarily dropped astern, out of the line, and took no further part in the action. The firing continued with unabated rapidity and effect, as the three forward vessels approached the works, until a quarter before two o’clock, when the enemy ceased his fire, lowered his colors, and surrendered to the naval officers, to which arm of the service alone —the land forces not having participated in the action —the honor belonged. The works were very finely situated; and twenty pieces of artillery, mostly of heavy calibre, were mounted for their defence. These, together with barracks and tents capable of accommodating fifteen thousand men,a hospital-ship, containing sixty invalids; General Tilghman and some sixty or seventy men,and quantities of stores, etc., fell into the hands of the victors. The main body of the garrison escaped before the works were occupied by the victors. General Grant arrived at the fort within an hour after it had been surrendered, when Flag-Officer Foote gave up the fort and his prisoners, into the hands of the land forces, and, after having despatched Lieutenant Phelps, with the Conestoga, Tyler, and Lexington up the river, in pursuit of the enemy’s gunboats,the Flag-Officer, with the Cincinnati, Essex, and St. Louis, returned to Cairo. The Cincinnati received, during the action, thirty-one shots, and lost one man killed and nine wounded; the Essex received fifteen shots, and lost one man, exclusive of these injured by the escape of steam; the St. Louis received seven shots, and the Carondelet six, neither of them sustaining any loss of men.—(Doc. 28.)

—President Lincoln approved the bill authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to strike from the pension rolls the names of all such persons as have, or may hereafter, take up arms against the Government of the United States, or who have, in any manner, encouraged the rebels or manifested a sympathy with their cause.

—In the United States House of Representatives, the Treasury Demand Note Bill, with the “legal tender” clause included, was passed by a vote of ninety-three to fifty-four, substantially in the form in which it came from the hands of the Committee. The bill provides for the issue, by the Secretary of the Treasury, of demand notes to the amount of one hundred and fifty millions of dollars, which notes are to be received as a legal tender for all purposes.
 
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Battle of Fort Henry
February 6 1862

The Battle of Fort Henry was fought on February 6, 1862, in western Tennessee, during the American Civil War. It was the firstimportant victory for the Union and Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in the Western Theater.

On February 4 and February 5, Grant landed two divisions just north of Fort Henry on the Tennessee River. (Although the name was not yet in use, the troops serving under Grant were the nucleus of the

Union's successful Army of the Tennessee. [3] ) His plan was to advance upon the fort on February 6 while it was being simultaneously attacked by United States Navy gunboats commanded by Flag Officer Andrew Hull Foote. A combination of effective naval gunfire and the poor siting of the fort, almost completely inundated by rising river waters, caused its commander, Brig. Gen. Lloyd Tilghman, to surrender to Foote before the Army arrived.

The surrender of Fort Henry opened the Tennessee River to Union traffic past the Alabama border, which was demonstrated bya "timberclad" raid of wooden ships from February 6 through February 12. They destroyed Confederate shipping and railroad bridges downriver. Grant's army proceeded overland 12 miles (19 km) to the Battle of Fort Donelson.

Background

In early 1861 the critical border state of Kentucky had declared neutrality in the American Civil War. This neutralitywas firstviolated on September 3, when Confederate Brig. Gen. Gideon J. Pillow, acting on orders from Maj. Gen. Leonidas Polk, occupied Columbus. Two days later Union Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, displaying the personal initiative that would characterize his later career,seized Paducah, a major transportation hub of rail and port facilities at the mouth of the Tennessee. Henceforth, neither adversary respected the proclaimed neutrality of the state and the Confederate advantage was lost; the buffer zone that Kentucky provided was no longer available to assist in the defense of Tennessee. [4]

By early 1862, on the Confederate side, a single general, Albert Sidney Johnston, commanded all forces from Arkansas to the Cumberland Gap. But his forces were spread too thinly over a wide defensive line: his left flank was Polk in Columbus with 12,000 men; his right flank was Brig. Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner in Bowling Green, Kentucky, with 4,000; the center consisted of two forts under the command of Brig. Gen. Lloyd Tilghman, also with 4,000. Fort Henryand Fort Donelson were the sole positions to defend the important Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, respectively. If these rivers were openedto Union military traffic, two direct invasion paths would lead into Tennessee and beyond. [5]

Key commanders at the Battle of Fort Henry

Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, USA

Flag Officer Andrew H. Foote, USN

Brig. Gen. Lloyd Tilghman, CSA

The Union military command in the West suffered from a lack of unified command, organized into three separatedepartments:the Department of Kansas, under Maj. Gen. David Hunter; the Department of Missouri, under Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck; and the Department of the Ohio, under Brig. Gen. Don Carlos Buell. By January 1862, this disunity of command was apparent because they could not agree on a strategy for operations in the Western theater. Buell, under political pressure to invade and hold pro-Union eastern Tennessee, moved slowly in the direction of Nashville. In Halleck's department, Grant demonstrated up the Tennessee River to divert attention from Buell's intended advance, which did not occur. Halleck and the other generals in the West were coming under political pressure from President Abraham Lincoln to participate in a general offensive by Washington's Birthday. Despite his traditionalcaution, Halleck eventually reacted positively to Grant's proposal that he move against Fort Henry. He hoped that this would improve his standing in relation to his rival, Buell. But he and Grant were also concerned about rumors that Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard would soon arrive in the theater with large numbers of reinforcements, so celerity was warranted. On January 30, 1862, Halleck authorized Grant to take Fort Henry. [6]

Grant wasted no time, leaving Cairo, Illinois, at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, on February 2. His invasion force consisted of 15–17,000 men in two divisions, commanded by Brig. Gens. John A. McClernand and Charles F. Smith, and the Western Flotilla, commanded by United States Navy Flag Officer Andrew Hull Foote. Foote had four ironclad gunboats (flagship USS Cincinnati, USS Carondelet, USS St. Louis, and USS Essex) underhis direct command, and three wooden ("timberclad") gunboats (USS Conestoga, USS Tyler, and USS Lexington) under Lt. Seth Ledyard Phelps. There were insufficient transport ships this early in the war to deliver all of the army troops in a single operation, so two trips upriver were required to reach the fort.

Fort Henry

Fort Henry was a five-sided, open-bastioned earthen structure covering 10 acres (0.04 km 2 ) on the eastern bank of the Tennessee River, near Kirkman's Old Landing. [7] The site was aboutone mile above Panther Creek and about six miles below the mouth of the Sandy River and Standing Rock Creek. [8]

In May 1861, Isham G. Harris, the governor of Tennessee, appointed the state's attorney, Daniel S. Donelson, as a brigadier general and directed him to build fortifications on the rivers of Middle Tennessee. Donelson found suitable sites, but they were within the borders of Kentucky, then still neutral. Moving upriver to just inside the Tennessee border, he selected the site of the fort that would bear his name on the Cumberland River. Colonel Bushrod Johnson of the Tennessee Corps of Engineers approved of the site. [9]

As construction of Fort Donelson began, Donelson moved 12 miles (19 km) west to the Tennessee River and selected the site of Fort Henry, naming it after Tennessee Senator Gustavus Adolphus Henry Sr.. Since Fort Donelson was on the west bank of the Cumberland, he selected the east bank of the Tennessee for the second fort so that one garrison could travel between them and be used to defend both positions, which he deemed unlikely to be attacked simultaneously. Unlike its counterpart on the Cumberland, Fort Henry was situated on low, swampy ground, dominated by hills across the river. On the plus side, it had an unobstructed field of fire two miles (3 km) downriver. Donelson's surveying team—Adna Anderson, a civil engineer, and Maj. William F. Foster from the 1st Tennessee Infantry—objected strongly to the site and appealed to Colonel Johnson, who inexplicably approved it.

The fort was designed to stop traffic on the river, not to withstand infantry assaults, certainly not at the scale that armies would achieve during the war. Construction began in mid-June,usingmenfrom the 10th Tennessee Infantry and slaves, and the first cannon was test fired on July 12, 1861. After this flurry of activity, however, the remainder of 1861 saw little more because forts on the Mississippi River had a higher priority for receiving men and artillery. In late December, additional men from the 27th Alabama Infantry arrived along with 500 slaves. They constructed a small fortification across the river on Stewart's Hill, within artillery rangeof Fort Henry, naming it Fort Heiman. At about the same time, Brig. Gen. Lloyd Tilghman assumed command of both Forts Henry and Donelson. At Fort Henry were approximately 3,000–3,400 men, two brigades commanded by Colonels Adolphus Heiman and Joseph Drake. They were armed primarily with antique flintlock rifles from the War of 1812. [11]

Seventeen guns were mounted in Fort Henrybythe time of the battle, eleven covering the river and the other six positioned to defend against a land attack. There were two heavy guns, a 10-inch (250 mm) Columbiad and a 24-pounder rifled cannon, with the remainder being 32-pounder smoothbores. There were two 42-pounders, but no ammunition of that caliber was available. When the river was at normal levels, the walls of the fort rose 20 feet (6.1 m) about it and were 20 feet (6.1 m) thick at the base, sloping upward to about 10 feet (3.0 m) thick at the parapet. But in February 1862, heavy rains caused the river to rise and most of the fort was underwater, including the powder magazine. [12]

The Confederates deployed one additional defensive measure, which was then unique in the history of warfare: several torpedoes (in modern terminology, a naval minefield) were anchored below the surface in the main shipping channel, rigged to explode when touched by a passing ship. (This measure turned out to be ineffective, due to high water levels and the leaking metal containers of the

torpedoes.) [13]


Battle

Battle of Fort Henry and the movements to Fort Donelson.

On February 4 and February 5, Grant landed his divisions in two different locations: McClernand's three miles (5 km) north on the east bank of the Tennessee River to prevent the garrison's escape and C.F. Smith's to occupy Fort Heiman on the Kentucky side, which would ensure the fort’s fall. But the battle turned on naval actions and concluded before the infantry saw action. [14]

Tilghman realized that it was only a matter of time before Fort Henry fell. Only nine guns remained above the water to mount a defense. While leaving artillery in the fort to hold off the Union fleet, he escorted the rest of his force out of the area and sent them off on the overland route to Fort Donelson, twelve miles (19 km) away. Fort Heiman was abandoned on February 4, and all but a handful of artillerymen left Fort Henry on February 5. (Union cavalry pursued the retreating Confederates, but the poor conditions of the roads prevented any serious confrontation and they took only a few captives.) [15] Foote's seven gunboats began bombarding the fort onFebruary 6. This was the first engagement for the Western Flotilla, using newly designed and hastily constructed ironclads. Foote deployed the four ironclads in a line abreast, followed by the three wooden ships, which held back for long-range, but less effective, fire against the fort. It was primarily the low elevation of Fort Henry's guns that allowed Foote's fleet to escape serious destruction; the Confederate fire was able to hit the ships only where their thin armorwas strongest. One ship was seriously damaged, causing many casualties. A chance 32-pound shot penetrated USS Essex and hit her middle boiler, sending scalding steam throughout half of the ship. Thirty-two men were killed or wounded, including her commander, William D. Porter, and the ship was out of action for the remainder of the campaign. [16]


Aftermath and the timberclad raid

After the battle had lasted 75 minutes, Tilghman surrendered to the fleet, which had engaged the fort and closed within 400 yards (370 m). A small boat from the fleet was able to sail directly through the sally port of the fort and pick up Tilghman for the surrender ceremony on Cincinnati, demonstrating the extent of flooding. Twelve officers and 82 men surrendered; other casualties are estimated to be 15 men killed and 20 wounded. The evacuating force left all of its artillery and equipment behind. Tilghman was imprisoned, but exchanged on August 15. [17]

Tilghman wrote bitterly in his report that Fort Henry was in a "wretched military position. ... The history of military engineering records no parallel to this case." Grant sent a brief dispatch to Halleck: "Fort Henry is ours. ... I shall take and destroy Fort Donelson on the 8th and return to Fort Henry." Halleck wired to Washington: "Fort Henry is ours. The flag is reestablished on the soilofTennessee. It will never be removed." [18]

If Grant had been as cautious as other generalsinthe UnionArmy and had delayed his departure by two days, the battle would have never occurred, since by February 8, Fort Henry was completely underwater. The North treated Fort Henry as a glorious victory. On February 7, the gunboats Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Essex returned to Cairo with whistles blowing, flying Confederate flags upside down. The Chicago Tribune wrote that the battle was "one of the mostcomplete and signal victories in the annals of the world's warfare." [19]

Fort Henry's fall opened the Tennessee River to Union gunboats and shipping past the Alabama border. This was quickly demonstrated. Immediately after the surrender, Foote sent Lieutenant Phelps with the three timberclads, the Tyler, Conestoga, and Lexington, on a mission up river to destroy installations and supplies of military value. (The ironclads of the flotilla had sustained damage in the bombardment and were slower and less maneuverable for the mission at hand, which would include pursuit of Confederate ships.) The raid reached as far as Muscle Shoals, just past Florence, Alabama, the limit of navigability. The Union ships and their raiding parties destroyed numerous supplies and the important bridge of the Memphis & Ohio Railroad, 25 miles (40 km) upriver.Theyalso captured a variety of Southern ships, including the Sallie Wood, the Muscle, and an ironclad under construction, the Eastport. The Union ships returned safely to Fort Henry on February 12. However, Phelps made a major blunder during his otherwise successful raid. The citizens of the town of Florence asked him to spare their town and its railroad bridge, of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad. Phelps told them that he would, seeing no military importance to the bridge. Yet the loss of the bridge would have essentially split the Confederate theater in half. It was this bridge that Johnston's army would ride across on their journey to Corinth, Mississippi, in preparation forthe Battle of Shiloh. [20]

After the fall of Fort Donelson to Grant's army on February 16, the two major water transportation routes in the Confederate west became Union highways for movement of troops and material. And as Grant suspected, this action flanked the Confederate forces at Columbus, causing them to withdraw from that city and Western[21]
 
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February 7 1862

—General Lander’s forces occupied Romney, Va., without a fight. The rebels retreated toward Winchester.—Cincinnati Gazette, February 8.

—At four o’clock this morning eleven companies of the Cameron Dragoons, Colonel Friedman, started from their camp near Washington, D. C, in the direction of Germantown, about a mile and a half from Fairfax Court-House, Va. It was the intention to make a thorough examination of the enemy’s picket lines outside the division boundaries. Owing to the early hour of starting, and secrecy and silence of the advance, they surprised a rebel picket detachment at a house near Germantown. Surrounding the house they took twelve prisoners, a capture effected, however, not without some show of resistance on the part of the enemy. Over a dozen shots were fired from the house at the Nationals. Captain Wilson was hit by one shot in the right ear, the ball passing through and making an ugly but not dangerous wound in the back of the neck. Sergeant Crumley was shot in the right leg, causing a painful but not serious flesh-wound. These were the only shots of the enemy that took effect. While this firing was going on, a large company of mounted pickets, some of whom had escaped from the house, fled to a thicket near by and opened fire upon the National troops. Major Curry, placing his revolver at the head of one of the captured prisoners, called out to the men in the thicket if they fired another shot he would blow out the brains of every prisoner taken. This bold threat stopped the firing, and caused the rebels to plunge spurs into their horses and beat a rapid retreat across an open field. Subsequently, upon looking into the vacant wood, the body of a dead rebel was found, which, in their retreating haste, they had left. One of the prisoners gave the name of the deceased as William Birbanks, and his residence as Barnwell Court House, N. C. He says that the deceased was a lawyer, and belonged to one of the wealthiest and most influential families in that place. This was the only rebel killed, so far as known. From traces of blood it was evident that several had been severely wounded. Besides the twelve prisoners, eight horses were taken. The National cavalry proceeded to convey their prisoners and booty to the division headquarters. On the return the companies got separated. One squadron, under command of Captain O’Farrell, elated by their recent splendid performance, determined to make a dash towards Fairfax Courthouse on their own account. They had not advanced far before they had the satisfaction of taking four prisoners, one wagon and four horses. The men surrendered without opposition.—N. Y. Herald, February 8.

—A sword voted to Colonel Dixon H. Miles by the Legislature of the State of Maryland, was presented to him in the Hall of the House of Delegates, at Annapolis, in the presence of the members of both Houses and the Judges of the Court of Appeal. Speeches appropriate to the occasion were made by Governor Bradford and by Col. Miles.—Baltimore American, February 8.

—Harper’s Ferry, Va., was again the scene of stirring events resulting in the greater portion of it being reduced to ashes. A rebel flag of truce having approached the river, a boat was sent over to them, which was fired upon and one of the boatmen killed. Colonel Geary immediately ordered the shelling of the houses in which the rebel riflemen were concealed, including the Wager Hotel, all of which were subsequently burned. Another rebel flag afterwards approached the river, but Colonel Geary warned them off, refusing to receive it—(Doc. 29.)

—A resolution in favor of confiscating, liberating, and also arming the slaves of rebels, if it should become a military necessity, passed the State Senate of Maine to-day by a vote of twenty-four against four.

—The Lower House of Kansas, by a vote of sixty to seven, passed a resolution requesting President Lincoln to appoint General Lane a Major-General, and give him command of the Southern expedition.
 
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Battle of Roanoke
February 7, 1861

After the Federal seizure of Hatteras Island in August 1861, the North Carolina coast saw a period of relative peace (American Civil War). That state of affairs came to an end at the beginning of 1862. Towards the end of 1861 General Burnside had convinced General McClellan to let him raise a coastal division, specifically for use against the Confederacy’s vulnerable coastline. By the start of 1862 that division was ready for action.

Its first target was Roanoke Island, North Carolina. Since the capture of Hatteras Island, Roanoke had been fortified to defend the channel to Albemarle Sound to the north of the island. Once in Albemarle Sound, Burnside’s men would be in a position to capture a series of Confederate ports, and would also begin to threaten the naval base at Norfolk, Virginia, which was connected to the sound by a canal.

The defences of Roanoke Island were not very impressive. General Henry A. Wise commanded a force of 3,000 men. He had four gun batteries, containing a total of 32 guns, three facing the main channel west of the island and the fourth on the east side. These gun batteries were not well placed –the channel was narrowest at the southern end of the island, but they had been placed on the northern half of the island, meaning that they would be unable to interfere with any attempt to land on the island. Wise also had command of a tiny fleet of seven gunboats,each with only a single gun.

Burnside’s expedition reached Pamlico Sound by 4 February 1862. He had 12,000 men,and a fleet of sixteen fully armed gunboats. On 7 February his fleet entered the sound between Roanoke Island and the mainland. The Confederate fleet was protected by a line of piles across the sound. From behind this line they fired on the Federal gunboats,before being driven away by heavy gunfire. After a brief reappearance later in the day, the surviving six Confederate gunboats fled to Elizabeth City, where they were caught and defeated on 10 February.

The Confederate forts did rather better, managing to keep up a good rate of fire for much of the day. However, they were unable to prevent Burnside from landing 7,500 men at Ashby Landing, half way down the island. At the end of 7 February Burnside was firmly ashore, and outnumbered the Confederate garrison by well over two to one.

Wise’s one hope was the nature of the island. Burnside’s progress north was blocked by a swamp that ran all the way across the island. A road had been built along the middle of the island, but that road was guarded by a small fort with three guns. This position did provide something of a barrier to the Federal advance. In a foreshadowing of later events in the war, the Confederate defenders though that the swamp was impassable, but the Federal infantry proved them wrong, wading waist deep through the swamp until they had outflanked the Confederate position.

Once they had been forced out of this position, Confederate resistance soon folded. They were chased to the northern tip of the island, before surrendering unconditionally. 2,500 men were captured, although Wise himself escape. Sadly, his son was fatally injured during the evacuation. Union losses were 37 dead, 214 wounded and 13 missing, for a total of 264. The Confederates suffered 23 dead and 58 wounded before the surrender.

The capture of Roanoke Island gave the North control of most of the North Carolina coast, and gave Burnside the freedom to choose what ever target he wanted. Over the next couple of months the Confederates lost Elizabeth City (10 February), New Berne (14 March), South Mills (19 April) and Fort Macon (captured on 26 April after a siege). The only port in North Carolina still in their hands was Wilmington, on the Cape Fear River. It would take another the North another four years to finally block that last refuge of the blockade runners. The loss of Roanoke Island caused a political scandal in Richmond which forced Jefferson Davis to fire his Secretary of War Judah Benjamin (although he was soon restored to office as Secretary of State!).
 
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#494
February 8 1862

—A skirmish occurred on Linn Creek, Logan County, Va., to-day. Captain Smith, of the Fifth Virginia regiment, with twenty-one men, surprised a squad of Jenkins’s cavalry—thirty-two in number —killing eight, wounding seven, and taking the remainder prisoners, with thirty-two horses. The loss on the Union side was one killed and one wounded. Among the rebels killed was Stevens, one of the party who murdered three of Piatt’s Zouaves in such a shocking manner.—Louisville Journal, Feb. 15.

—Roanoke Island, N. C, with all its defences, was captured to-day by the combined military and naval forces of the United States, under General Burnside and Commodore Goldsborough. The expedition entered Roanoke Inlet yesterday morning; and, soon afterwards, it entered Croatan Sound, on the western front of Roanoke Island. The enemy’s gunboats occupied a position close in-shore under the guns of two heavy works, named respectively Forts Bartow and Blanchard; and at eleven o’clock the fire was opened between them and the flag-ship of the Union squadron, (the Southfield,) and as the opposing forces more nearly approached each other, the fire became more rapid. The enemy having obstructed the channel of Croatan Sound by an ingenious arrangement of piles extending nearly from the main-land to the island, the enemy’s gunboats,soon afterwards, fell back with the evident intent to draw the Union squadron into confusion within range of the guns of Fort Blanchard. In this, however, the enemy was not successful, and the guns of the squadron were turned on the fort with marked effect, setting fire to the barracks, etc., which burned with great fury during the remainder of the day. During the afternoon, the transports having come up, preparations were made to debark the troops; and at half-past three o’clock, covered by the gunboats,the Fifty-first New-York, the Twenty-first and Twenty-fifth Massachusetts, the Tenth Connecticut, Fourth and Fifth Rhode Island, and Fifty-first Pennsylvania regiments, and Companies E and K of the Ninth New-Jersey were landed at Ashly’s Harbor, about two miles below Fort Bartow, and waded through mud knee-deep to Colonel Ashly’s house, and bivouacked. The landing was guarded by one third of the disposable force of the enemy, under Colonel Jordan of North-Carolina, but the fire of the covering gunboats drove it from its position without resistance. During the afternoon the enemy’s gunboats renewed the action with the Union squadron, and a brisk engagement ensued, terminating, for the day, with the loss of the Curlew, the enemy’s largest steamer, and of the Forrest, one of his propellers, which was disabled. At about six o’clock, after having thrown about fifteen hundred missiles of various kinds into the enemy’s squadron and battery, the fire ceased for the day, both parties preparing for a renewal of the action. This morning, at about nine o’clock, the action between the Union gunboats and Fort Blanchard was renewed; but, after continuing about fifteen minutes, it ceased—other elements, meanwhile, having taken part in the struggle. The approach to the enemy’s works was through a swampy wood, with dense undergrowth, rendering it almost impenetrable. Immediately in front of the first of the series of defences, a distance of three hundred yards, the trees had been felled, in order that no obstruction should prevent a proper use of the guns; and it was also defended with a ditch eight feet wide and three feet deep. It was flanked by the same impenetrable swamps which skirted the approach to it; and a heavy force of skirmishers on the left furnished an ample support. Against this and the other defences of the island, at about half-past seven this morning, the troops were moved in three separate columns of attack. The centre, composed of a marine battery of six twelve-pounders, the Twenty-third, Twenty-fifth, and Twenty-seventh Massachusetts, and the Tenth Connecticut regiment, commanded by General Porter, moved up the narrow road, during which it encountered strong bodies of light troops, until it came in front of the enemy’s work, when its skirmishers were called in, and preparations were made for an assault. The marine battery opened its fire on the enemy’s works, and continued it with great spirit until its ammunition had been expended, and the Twenty-fifth Massachusetts, supported by the Tenth Connecticut, suffered very severely from the enemy’s fire. In the mean time, the left flanking column, composed of the Twenty-first Massachusetts, the Fifty-first New-York, the Ninth New-Jersey, and the Fifty-first Pennsylvania regiments, commanded by General Reno; and the right flanking column, composed of the Fourth and Fifth Rhode-Island, and the Ninth New-York regiments hastened through the dense woods and swamps toward either flank of the enemy’s position, without attracting his attention. A desperate attempt soon afterwards was made to turn the right flank of the central column of attack; and a very spirited encounter between parties from the Twenty-third and Twenty-seventh Massachusetts regiments and the Second Battalion of the Wise Legion, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Frank Anderson, resulted in the utter repulse of the latter with heavy loss, including Captain Robert Coles, killed, and Capt. O. Jennings Wise, mortally wounded. During this engagement the two flanking columns approached the works. That on the right (General Parke’s) passed the right of the central column, when the Ninth New-Yorkers (Hawkins’ Zouaves) were ordered to charge. Major Kimball headed the storming party, and with the peculiar cheer of the regiment, the men dashed forward. Almost at the same moment, General Reno, commanding the left column of attack, ordered the Fifty-first New-Yorkers (Shepard Rifles) and the Twenty-first Massachusetts to charge the enemy on his right flank; and, almost at the same moment, the two storming parties appeared on the opposite flanks of the enemy’s position. Without waiting for any nearer approach of the assailants, the enemy beat a precipitate retreat, casting off their knapsacks, haversacks, coats, etc., to facilitate their flight. The Fifty-first New-Yorkers were the first to enter the works, when they planted the stars and stripes, and the Twenty-first Massachusetts and the Hawkins’ Zouaves immediately afterwards dashed through the ditch into the captured redoubt. The three regiments which had taken the battery, immediately pushed forward in pursuit of the fugitives, and captured several prisoners— some of them, already in boats, pushing off from the shore in their flight from the island. The Twenty-first Massachusetts regiment diverged from the line of the enemy’s retreat to attack an encampment of North-Carolinians, which was to the northward of the captured battery, when, after a slight resistance, the enemy surrendered unconditionally to General Reno. A few minutes afterwards, the entire island, with all its defences, garrisons, etc., together with Fort Forrest, on the main, was surrendered to General Foster, and hostilities ceased. About three thousand prisoners, six batteries or forts, mounting forty guns, upwards of three thousand stand of small arms, and immense quantities of military stores, were taken by the Union forces, with the loss of about thirty-five killed and two hundred wounded, among the former Colonel Russell of the Tenth Connecticut, and Lieutenant-Colonel de Monteil of the Zouaves. —(Doc. 30.)



Edit: the Battle of Roanoke articles that I found were all dated for yesterday,
 
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#495
February 9 1862

—Secretary Stanton ordered the arrest and incarceration in Fort McHenry of one Doctor Ives, a correspondent of the New-York Herald, on the charge of being a spy, and for violating the rules and regulations of the War Department. According to the order of Secretary Stanton, Ives introduced himself into the chambers of the Department, when private consultations were being held, and demanded news for publication.

—The Seventy-sixth regiment of Ohio Volunteers, under command of Colonel C. R. Woods, passed through Columbus on their way to Kentucky.—Cincinnati Gazette, February 11.

—The efficiency of United States mortar-boats was fully tested to-day by Captain Constable, U. S. N., in the Mississippi River, just below Cairo, Ill., and near Fort Holt, on the Kentucky shore. The experiments showed that thirteen inch shells, filled with sand, could be thrown a distance of three and a half miles— the time of flight being thirty-one seconds, and the recoil of the gun-carriage about two feet. Filled with powder, the shells could be thrown much further.— (Doc. 31.)

—Brigadier-general Charles P. Stone was arrested in Washington this morning, at two o’clock, by a posse of the Provost Marshal’s force, and sent to Fort Lafayette, New-York harbor. The charges against General Stone are: First, for misbehavior at the battle of Ball’s Bluff; second, for holding correspondence with the enemy before and since the battle of Ball’s Bluff, and receiving visits from rebel officers in his camp; third, for treacherously suffering the enemy to build a fort or strong work, since the battle of Ball’s Bluff, under his guns, without molestation; fourth, for a treacherous design to expose his force to capture and destruction by the enemy, under pretence of orders for a movement from the commanding general, which had not been given.
 
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#496
February 10 1862

—The expedition which had been sent up the Tennessee River, after the capture of Fort Henry, returned to the railroad crossing, twenty-five miles above the fort. The expedition, embracing the gunboats Conestoga, Taylor and Lexington, under Lieutenant Phelps, left Fort Henry on the sixth inst., and on the same day it destroyed a quantity of camp equipage, which had been abandoned by the rebels. On the following day, (the seventh,) several rebel transport steamers were pursued, and two of them, laden with military stores, were abandoned and burned by their crews. On the same night, at Cerro Gordo, Tenn., the steamboat Eastport, in process of alteration into an iron-plated gunboat, and large quantities of timber and lumber, were seized, and the Taylor was left behind to protect them, until the return of the expedition. On the morning of the eighth, at Chickasaw, Miss., two other steamboats —the Sallie Wood and Muscle—were seized; and on the same day, at Florence, Ala., three other steamboats were burned, and great quantities of supplies for the rebel army were taken and destroyed. The expedition proceeded no farther up the river; but a deputation of citizens waited on Lieutenant Phelps and requested him to respect their persons and the property of the citizens, and the railroad bridge, which connects Florence with the railroad on the south bank of the river, all of which was complied with. Returning to Cerro Gordo, the prize steamboats Eastport, Sallie Wood and Muscle, were laden with upward of a quarter of a million of feet of valuable lumber and ship-timber, which, with all the iron, machinery, spikes, plating, nails, etc., belonging to the rebel gunboats,was carried down to the Union lines. A rebel encampment at Savannah, Tenn., was also broken up, and considerable quantities of arms, clothing, shoes, provisions, etc., were secured or destroyed. The expedition met with the most gratifying proofs of loyalty everywhere on the Tennessee River; twenty-five Tennesseans were enlisted at Cerro Gordo, by Lieutenant Gwin of the Taylor, and the most perfect success crowned the arduous labors of the party.—(Doc. 32.)

—Ethan A. Hitchcock was confirmed as Major General of Volunteers in the Army of the United States.

—General Hunter proclaimed martial law throughout the State of Kansas, and declared the crime of jayhawking should be put down with a strong hand and summary process.

—Commander Rowan, with fourteen vessels, left Roanoke Island yesterday afternoon, and at six minutes past nine, this morning, when off Cobb’s Point, N. C, he attacked the rebels’ squadron, which had fled from Roanoke, under Commander Lynch, and two batteries, mounting five guns. Within twenty minutes a schooner belonging to the enemy, struck her colors, and was burned by her crew; and immediately afterward, the crews of the Powhatan, Fanny, Sea Bird and Forrest, ran them ashore and set fire to them, while these of the Raleigh and Beaufort ran their vessels into the Canal and escaped; the Ellis was captured, and brought away by the Union forces. The battery on Cobb’s Point was also abandoned by the enemy, and occupied by acting Master’s Mate Raymond during the morning; and before ten o’clock Elizabeth City also surrendered. —(Doc. 33.)
 
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February 11 1862

—General Price, C. S. A., retreated from Springfield, Mo., towards Ozark and Wilson Creek, leaving a large amount of military stores and equipments, which were captured by General Curtis.

—An expedition under command of Colonel Reggin, returned to Fort Henry, Tenn., to-day, from up the Tennessee River, having captured seventy-five thousand dollars’ worth of contraband goods at Paris, Tenn. They also found the tents and camp equipage of the troops that left Fort Henry.—Chicago Journal.

—The rebel Congress passed and Jeff. Davis approved an act authorizing the construction of the railway between Danville, Va., and Greensboro, N. C, on the ground of its being a military necessity. —Richmond Examiner, February 13.

—The city of Edenton, at the west end of Albemarle Sound, N. C, was taken possession of this morning by an expedition under command of Lieutenant A. Maury, U.S.N. A portion of a rebel flying artillery regiment, situated in the town, fled on the approach of the National vessels, as did also many of the inhabitants. Eight rebel cannon and one schooner were destroyed, and two schooners captured.—(Doc. 40.)
 
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February 13 182

—The Constitutional Convention, in session at Wheeling, Va., adopted this morning the following as a section of the article on the fundamental provisions of the constitution of the proposed new State of Western Virginia, with the understanding that this action should be a settlement of the vexed question: “No slave or free persons of color shall come into this State for permanent residence after this constitution goes into operation.”

—This day an extensive fire occurred at Bowling Green, Ky., which resulted in the destruction of several large establishments. The soldiers worked hard, and finally succeeded in extinguishing the conflagration. Generals Johnston and Hardee, in person, directed the movements of the troops.—Lynchburgh (Va.) Republican, Feb. 16.

—In the United States Senate Mr. Davis introduced a series of resolutions declaring that the Constitution is the fundamental law of the Government, and that any attempt to abrogate the rights guaranteed by it would be inhuman and an outrage upon civilisation; that any rights and privileges suspended by the existence of the war be resumed at its termination; that no State, by any vote of secession, or any other act, can abrogate her rights or obligations, or the obligations of the United States, to preserve her people in all their rights, and guarantee to them a State republican government; that it is the duty of the United States to suppress the rebellion, to carry the “sword” in one hand and the “olive branch” in the other, and to restore the States as they were before the war.

—The Thirteenth regiment, Michigan volunteers, passed through Cincinnati, 0., to-day, en route for Kentucky.—New –York Times, Feb. 14.

—Springfield, Mo., was occupied by the National troops. At about three o’clock in the morning General Curtis’s army advanced in line of battle, and at daybreak the third division, headed by the Fourth Iowa, entered and took peaceful possession of the town. The rebel General Price had left at two o’clock the same morning, leaving over six hundred of his sick behind. Large quantities of forage wagons were also left. He had twelve thousand effective troops and fifty pieces of artillery.

—The Secretary of the Navy returned the thanks of the Department to Lieutenant Phelps, who commanded the recent gunboat expedition up the Tennessee River, destroying or capturing the rebel gunboats and stores, dispersing their forces, and breaking up their encampments. —(Doc. 35.)

—An expedition under command of Lieutenant William N. Jeflfers, U.S.N., left the mouth of North River, near Edenton, N. C., and proceeded to the mouth of the Chesapeake and Albemarle Canal, in North-Carolina, for the purpose of obstructing it, The proposed work was found to have been partially executed by the rebels themselves, some of whom were discovered engaged in sinking vessels across the canal. After driving off the rebels, the work was completed by sinking two schooners in the mouth of the canal and burning all that then remained above water.—(Doc. 41.)

—In the United States Senate the Treasury Note bill, with the legal tender clause, and the clause providing for the payment of the interest of the public debt in coin, was passed by a vote of thirty to seven.
 
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February 14 1862

—The Ninety-third regiment of New-York Volunteers, (Morgan Rifles,) under the command of Colonel John T. Crocker, left Albany for the scene of active service. The regiment embraces three companies from Washington county, two from Warren, one from Essex, one from Saratoga, Fulton and Hamilton, one from Oneida and Albany, one from Alleghany, and one from Rensselaer. There are five full companies of sharpshooters, and a large proportion of the other companies are good shots. Colonel Crocker is a lawyer by profession, and a native of Cambridge, Washington county. He was for a long time Colonel of the Thirtieth regiment N.Y.S.M.

—In the British House of Lords, in reply to a question from the Earl of Stanhope concerning the stone blockade at Charleston, S. C, Earl Russell spoke as follows, declaring his approval of that measure: “He said the government had no official information on this subject subsequent to that which had already been laid on the table of the House. However, the sinking of vessels at the mouth of a harbor was an operation of so much importance that he could not but believe that the reports which had appeared must have some foundation. He was happy to hear the noble Earl’s protest against the permanent destruction of any harbor. Considering that these were commercial harbors, and that in time of peace, when there was severe weather, vessels of all nations, even these not ultimately destined for them, ran there to find refuge, to destroy them was undoubtedly an act of barbarity. The noble Earl would have seen that the reply of the American Government was that these stone vessels were intended to be an obstruction in the channel to aid the blockade, but that they were not intended for the permanent destruction of the harbors. In conversing with the American Minister at this Court, that was the view which he took. He said that the permanent destruction of Charleston harbor was impossible; that the two rivers which formed the harbor would be sure to make a channel, and that it was impossible, even if it had been intended, to effect the permanent destruction of the harbor. That, he said, however, was not the intention. The intention was only to make a temporary obstruction, and when peace was restored that obstruction would be removed. That, he believed, was the view taken by the American government. There had been some communication between Her Majesty’s government and that of France on this subject, with regard to which the government of the Emperor took the same view as that of Her Majesty. But whether France has made any official representation on the matter to the Federal Government he was not able to say.”— London Times, February 15.

—Edwin M. Stanton, United States Secretary of War, issued an order releasing all political prisoners held in confinement, on condition that they would take an oath not to aid the rebellion, or in any way attempt to injure the Federal Government. The President also granted an amnesty to such persons for all past offences.

—General Lander made a forced reconnoissance last night and to-day, and, with four hundred cavalry, broke up the rebel nest at Blooming Gap, Va., taking seventeen commissioned officers, fifty-eight privates, and killing thirteen others, with the loss of only two men and six horses.

—Colonel Carroll, of the Fifth or Eighth Ohio regiment, made a very daring reconnoissance to Unger’s Store, in Va.

—General Dunning arrived at New-Creek from Moorefield, Va., at which place he captured two hundred and twenty-five beef-cattle, and dispersed the guerrillas there, with the loss of two of his men wounded. —(Doc. 36.)

—The iron-clad steam gunboat Mystic was launched at the town in Connecticut from which she takes her name. Her extreme length over all is two hundred feet, and her armor, which extends two feet below the water-line, is composed of longitudinal iron bars three and a quarter inches thick, showing four inches face, and bolted every six inches with three-quarter inch bolts. Her rig is that of a brigantine.—N. Y. Times, February 16.

—Hamilton Fish and Bishop Ames returned to Washington to-day, and made report to the Government of their mission to relieve Union prisoners in the South. They repaired to Fortress Monroe, and made known their commission to the Confederate authorities at Norfolk, by whom the matter was referred to Richmond. A reply came refusing to the Commissioners admission to the Confederate territory, but expressing readiness to negotiate for the general exchange of prisoners. The Commissioners opened negotiation, which resulted in perfect success. An equal exchange was agreed on, but the Confederates had three hundred more prisoners than the National Government; with commendable magnanimity, they proposed to release these also on parole, if the Government would agree to release three hundred of their men that may next fall into its hands.

—Three rebel schooners and one sloop, all heavily laden with rice, lying at anchor in Bull’s Bay, S. C, were destroyed by an expedition under command of Acting Volunteer Lieutenant Edward Conroy.—(Doc. 42.)

—A skirmish took place near Flat Lick Ford, on the Cumberland River, Ky., between two companies of cavalry under command of Col. Munday, and two companies of sharp-shooters from the Forty-ninth Indiana, and some rebel pickets, which were prowling around the Ford. The fight took place near some rebel batteries, and resulted in a rebel loss of four killed, four wounded, and three taken prisoners. The National troops met with no disaster.—Louisville Journal.
 
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Battle of Fort Donelson

Dates:

February 13-16, 1862

Location:

Stewart County, Tennessee.

Key Individuals Involved in the Battle of Fort Donelson:

Union: Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant Confederate: Brigadier General Simon P. Buckner

Brief Overview of the Battle :

The Union troops, hoping to make inroads into the heart of the confederacy along the Tennessee River were gathering troops under Ulysses S. Grant around Fort Donelson. To avoid starvation, the Confederate troops began an all-out attack against the Union forces in order to gain a route to safety. However, they were defeated and in the end General Buckner and the fort’s 12,000 men surrendered unconditionally.

Outcome:

Victory for the Union forces. 17,398 casualties. Of those, 15,067 were Confederate soldiers.

Significance of the Battle of Fort Donelson:

The Battle of Fort Donelson was a very important victory for the North. The fall of this heavily fortified fort on the Tennessee River was deep in the heart of the confederacy. It ensured that Kentucky would stay with the Union. It was also here that U.S. Grant earned his nickname “Unconditional Surrender” and his promotion to Major General. When Confederate commander Buckner asked for surrender terms and Grant responded that, “No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted.”
 
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