Eric | May 18, 2012
May 18, 1862 (Sunday) The Spring of 1862 in the Shenandoah Valley was shaping up to be beautiful, and this quiet Sunday was no different. As the camp of Stonewall Jackson knelt in prayer near Mt. Solon, a very flustered and conflicted General Richard Ewell dropped by unannounced and without orders. This Sabbath would not [...]
Category: 1862 Campaigns, 1862 Naval Actions, Armies, Army of the Potomac, Battles, Campaigns & Raids, Confederate Armies, Navy (CSA), Navy (US), Shenandoah Valley '62, State Militia & Volunteers (US), State Troops & Home Guards (CS), Stonewall Jackson's Army, US Armies, Western Waters '62 |
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Eric | May 15, 2012
May 15, 1862 (Thursday) Drewry’s Bluff rose ninety feet above the James River. The small fort, eight miles away from Richmond, built by Virginia farmers in 1861 had been expanded to a veritable fortress with seven pieces of heavy artillery. When the Union Army of the Potomac began their campaign up the Virginia Peninsula, after [...]
Category: 1862 Campaigns, 1862 Naval Actions, Armies, Battles, Campaigns & Raids, Confederate Armies, Navy (CSA), Navy (US), State Troops & Home Guards (CS), The Peninsula '62, US Armies, Virginia Rivers '62 |
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Eric | May 13, 2012
May 13, 1862 (Tuesday) Robert Smalls was born a slave in Beaufort, South Carolina, moving to Charleston with his master when he was twelve. There, through being hired out to other slave owners, he was able to learn the art of navigating the water, and to finally become a seaman. In Charleston is where he [...]
Category: 1862 Naval Actions, Armies, Battles, Campaigns & Raids, Navy (CSA), Navy (US), South Atlantic Coast '62, State Troops & Home Guards (CS), US Armies |
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Eric | May 11, 2012
May 11, 1862 (Sunday) Well before dawn, the southeastern sky over Norfolk, Virginia burned a brilliant orange as Rebels set flames to ships, supplies and anything that would slow their flight to Richmond.1 The Federals had, the previous day, taken Norfolk, rendering the Naval Yard untenable. Many ships were sunk in the James River as [...]
Category: 1862 Campaigns, 1862 Naval Actions, Armies, Battles, Campaigns & Raids, Confederate Armies, Navy (CSA), Navy (US), The Peninsula '62, US Armies, Virginia Rivers '62 |
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Eric | May 10, 2012
May 10, 1862 (Saturday) The Union campaigns in the Spring of 1862 had bogged down. Both Generals Henry Halleck and George McClellan’s offensives had the crawling feel of being stuck in large pits of tar. In the west, the Army of the Tennessee, Halleck commanding, was inching and creeping closer and closer to the Rebels [...]
Category: 1862 Naval Actions, Armies, Battles, Campaigns & Raids, Confederate Armies, Hampton Roads '62, Navy (CSA), Navy (US), Politics, Union Politics, US Armies, Virginia Rivers '62, Western Waters '62 |
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Eric | May 4, 2012
May 4, 1862 (Sunday) From high in a balloon above the Yorktown defenses, Lt. George Armstrong Custer peered through the gray pre-dawn towards strange fires, as if buildings were ablaze and homes set to burning. He had not a clue what to make of it. He saw flashes, like blasts of heavy artillery. The dark [...]
Category: 1862 Campaigns, 1862 Naval Actions, Armies, Army of Northern Virginia, Army of the Potomac, Battles, Campaigns & Raids, Confederate Armies, The Peninsula '62, US Armies, Virginia Rivers '62 |
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Eric | April 30, 2012
April 30, 1862 (Wednesday) Union General Henry Halleck, commanding the Department of the Mississippi, had taken a steamer from his headquarters in St. Louis to the battlefield at Shiloh, where the Army of the Tennessee and Army of the Ohio, commanded by Generals Grant and Buell, respectively, had been victorious. In the span since the [...]
Category: 1862 Campaigns, 1862 Naval Actions, Armies, Army of Tennessee, Army of the Mississippi (US), Army of the Ohio, Army of the Tennessee, Battles, Campaigns & Raids, Confederate Armies, Iuka & Corinth '62, Navy (US), New Orleans '62, State Militia & Volunteers (US), US Armies |
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Eric | April 29, 2012
April 29, 1862 (Tuesday) Union Flag Officer David Farragut was again taking his title quite literally. He had threatened to bombard the city of New Orleans if United States flags were not flying over City Hall, the Mint and the Custom House by the following day. The city was without military defenses, and the Mayor [...]
Category: 1862 Campaigns, 1862 Naval Actions, Armies, Army of the Mississippi (US), Army of the Ohio, Army of the Tennessee, Battles, Campaigns & Raids, Confederate Armies, Navy (US), New Orleans '62, Politics, State Militia & Volunteers (US), State Troops & Home Guards (CS), Stonewall Jackson's Army, Union Politics, US Armies |
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Eric | April 28, 2012
April 28, 1862 (Monday) Half of his men had deserted. The guns had been spiked and many of the gunboats destroyed. Confederate General Johnson Duncan, commander of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, was a beaten man. Those soldiers who remained at the forts were completely demoralized. Before the Union fleet, under Flag Officer David Farragut, [...]
Category: 1862 Campaigns, 1862 Naval Actions, Armies, Battles, Campaigns & Raids, Confederate Armies, Navy (CSA), Navy (US), New Orleans '62, State Militia & Volunteers (US), State Troops & Home Guards (CS), US Armies |
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Eric | April 27, 2012
April 27, 1862 (Sunday) Way down south, at Forts Jackson and St. Philip, the Rebels had not yet surrendered to Captain David Porter, who commanded the fleet of mortar boats on the lower Mississippi River. Porter had demanded the surrender of the forts on April 24th, just after Farragut had steamed his fleet towards New [...]
Category: 1862 Campaigns, 1862 Naval Actions, Armies, Army of the Potomac, Battles, Campaigns & Raids, Confederate Armies, Navy (US), New Orleans '62, Shenandoah Valley '62, State Troops & Home Guards (CS), Stonewall Jackson's Army, US Armies |
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