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Rear Adm. D. D. Porter’s forces today trapped 11 Confederate steamers loaded with supplies and headed for Vicksburg. Despite this success, he wrote his superior, Secretary of the Navy Welles: ..”I am guarding the Yazoo River. The front...is heavily fortified. Unless we can get troops in the rear of the city I see no chance of taking it...though we cut off all their supplies.”
The Confederate Congress proposed yet again that the exchange of prisoners-of-war should be resumed. On this day, quite unexpectedly, Gen. Grant accepted the proposal. It had been his decision originally to discontinue the exchanges, on the grounds that the loss of trained soldiers, even in equal numbers, was much more damaging to the South than it was to his armies, due to the great superiority the North had in manpower availability.
1865 : Confederate Congress to resume prisoner exchanges
The Confederate Congress agrees to continue prisoner exchanges, opening a process that had operated only sporadically for three years.
In the first year of the war, prisoner exchanges were conducted primarily between field generals on an ad hoc basis. The Union was reluctant to enter any formal agreements, fearing that it would legitimize the Confederate government. But the issue became more important as the campaigns escalated in 1862. On July 2, 1862, Union General John Dix and Confederate General Daniel H. Hill reached an agreement. Under the Dix-Hill cartel, each soldier was assigned a value according to rank. For example, privates were worth another private, corporals and sergeants were worth two privates, lieutenants were worth three privates, etc. A commanding general was worth 60 privates. Under this system, thousands of soldiers were exchanged rather than languishing in prisons like those in Andersonville, Georgia, or Elmira, New York.
The system was really a gentlemen's agreement, relying on the trust of each side. The system broke down in 1862 when Confederates refused to exchange black Union soldiers. From 1862 to 1865, prisoner exchanges were rare. When they did happen, it was usually because two local commanders came to a workable agreement. The result of the breakdown was the swelling of prisoner-of-war camps in both North and South. The most notorious of all the camps was Andersonville, where one-third of the 46,000 Union troops incarcerated died of disease, exposure, or starvation.
Though the prisoner exchanges resumed, the end of the war was so close that it did not make much difference.
After two months, General Ambrose Burnside is removed as commander of the Army of the Potomac.
Burnside assumed command of the army after President Lincoln removed General George B. McClellan from command in November 1862. Lincoln had a difficult relationship with McClellan, who built the army admirably but was a sluggish and overly cautious field commander.
Lincoln wanted an attack on the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, which was commanded by Robert E. Lee. Burnside drafted a plan to move south towards Richmond. The plan was sound, but delays in its execution alerted Lee to the danger. Lee headed Burnside off at Fredericksburg, Virginia, on December 13. Burnside attacked repeatedly against entrenched Confederates along Marye's Heights above Fredericksburg with tragic results. More than 13,000 Yankees fell; Lee lost just 5,000. Northern morale sunk in the winter of 1862-1863.
Lincoln allowed Burnside one more chance. In January, Burnside attempted another campaign against Lee. Four days of rain turned the Union offensive into the ignominious "Mud March," during which the Yankees floundered on mud roads while the Lee's men jeered at them from across the Rappahannock River. Lincoln had seen enough--General Joe Hooker took over command of the army.
Gen. Burnside, his army back now in winter quarters after the disaster of the “Mud March”, met today with Lincoln. He demanded the removal of several other generals, or else. He threatened to resign himself from a command he had never much wanted in the first place. Lincoln took him up on it, and appointed Gen. Hooker in his place as commander of the Army of the Potomac.
Monday, Jan. 25, 1864
TREE TRINKETS TREASURED
Cpl. Lucius W. Barber, member of Co. D of the 15th Illinois Vol. Inf., took advantage of a slow day in at Camp Cowan, Miss., to write a letter home. “A good many of the boys were engaged in making keepsakes out of “Pemberton Oak”...the wood being gotten out of the tree under which Pemberton and Grant sat when the final terms of the surrender of Vicksburg were agreed upon. There was not a root or branch remaining...”
After the capture of Ft. Fisher, Admiral Porter had ordered that the “lighthouse” be left lit, as it had been the signal to blockade-runners that all was clear to enter Wilmington harbor. On this day, Acting Lt. Francis Green led a boarding party from the USS Tristam Shandy aboard the steamer Blenheim, just inside the sandbar at New Inlet, NC. This was the third ship captured in this slightly underhanded manner.
Gen. Pierre G.T. Beauregard, CSA, known as the “Creole” for his Louisiana origins, was reassigned today. The hero of Sumter and Manassas had been commanding forces in Virginia under Joseph E. Johnston. He was now ordered to Tennessee to be second in command to Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston.
On this day Gen. Hooker assumed command of the Army of the Potomac, and he received a letter from President Lincoln. While praising Hooker’s abilities, Lincoln warned him against becoming a victim of the same sort of backstabbing that Hooker himself had practiced against Burnside. Hooker had reportedly said that the country needed a dictator. Lincoln wrote: “Only generals who gain success can set up as dictators. What I ask of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship.”
President Lincoln on this day issued new regulations on the ticklish issue of “trading with the enemy.” The practice had, needless to say, been prohibited; however, as Union forces moved into larger areas of the South, many areas were no longer considered enemy territory. More liberal rules were therefore needed, and plans were to extend them as practicable as new areas were liberated.
Thursday, Jan. 26, 1865
SHERMAN’S SHADOWY SABER SEEN
Although Gen. Sherman remained aboard ship at Hilton Head, his orders caused bedevilment to Confederate forces. His intention was to make it seem that his attack was going to be directed at Charleston. This would, it was hoped, seem logical to the defenders, considering that this was the scene of Fort Sumter and the beginning of the war. In pursuit of this, he sent skirmishers to Pocotaligo, SC and as far as Paint Rock, Ala.
Gen. Pierre G.T. Beauregard, CSA, known as the “Creole” for his Louisiana origins, was reassigned today. The hero of Sumter and Manassas had been commanding forces in Virginia under Joseph E. Johnston. He was now ordered to Tennessee to be second in command to Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston.
On this day Gen. Hooker assumed command of the Army of the Potomac, and he received a letter from President Lincoln. While praising Hooker’s abilities, Lincoln warned him against becoming a victim of the same sort of backstabbing that Hooker himself had practiced against Burnside. Hooker had reportedly said that the country needed a dictator. Lincoln wrote: “Only generals who gain success can set up as dictators. What I ask of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship.”
President Lincoln on this day issued new regulations on the ticklish issue of “trading with the enemy.” The practice had, needless to say, been prohibited; however, as Union forces moved into larger areas of the South, many areas were no longer considered enemy territory. More liberal rules were therefore needed, and plans were to extend them as practicable as new areas were liberated.
Thursday, Jan. 26, 1865
SHERMAN’S SHADOWY SABER SEEN
Although Gen. Sherman remained aboard ship at Hilton Head, his orders caused bedevilment to Confederate forces. His intention was to make it seem that his attack was going to be directed at Charleston. This would, it was hoped, seem logical to the defenders, considering that this was the scene of Fort Sumter and the beginning of the war. In pursuit of this, he sent skirmishers to Pocotaligo, SC and as far as Paint Rock, Ala.
On this day in 1862, President Lincoln issues General War Order No. 1, ordering all land and sea forces to advance on February 22, 1862. This bold move sent a message to his commanders that the president was tired of excuses and delays in seizing the offensive against Confederate forces.
The unusual order was the product of a number of factors. Lincoln had a new Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, who replaced the hopelessly corrupt Simon Cameron. Lincoln was much more comfortable with Stanton. The president had also been brushing up on his readings in military strategy. Lincoln felt that if enough force were brought to bear on the Confederates simultaneously, the Confederates would break. This was a simple plan that ignored a host of other factors, but Lincoln felt that if the Confederates "...weakened one to strengthen another," the Union could step in and "seize and hold the one weakened." The primary reason for the order, however, was General George McClellan, commander of the Army of the Potomac in the east. McClellan had a deep contempt for Lincoln that had become increasingly apparent since Lincoln appointed McClellan in July 1861. McClellan had shown great reluctance to reveal his plans to the president, and he exhibited no signs of moving his army in the near future.
Lincoln wanted to convey a sense of urgency to all the military leaders, and it worked in the West. Union armies in Tennessee began to move, and General Ulysses S. Grant captured Forts Henry and Donelson on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, respectively. McClellan, however, did not respond. Lincoln's order called for strict accountability for each commander who did not follow the order, but the president had to handle McClellan carefully. Because McClellan had the backing of many Democrats and he had whipped the Army of the Potomac into fine fighting shape over the winter, Lincoln had to give McClellan a chance to command in the field.
Utterly fed up with the inactivity of his generals and their armies, President Lincoln today issued the extraordinary General War Order No. 1. This order directed that all Union forces, on land as well as at sea, were to advance upon the insurgents and attack them on Feb. 22. Specifically included were the armies of the Potomac, Kentucky, Western Virginia, and Ft. Monroe, and the naval forces in the Gulf of Mexico, just in case any of the commanders of these bodies might have wanted to sit still and claim that the order must have been directed toward somebody else.
Tuesday, Jan. 27, 1863
PHILADELPHIA PUBLISHER POSTS PROPAGANDA
A. D. Boileau, proprietor of the Philadelphia _Journal_, had been a thorn in the side of Union leaders for some time. His paper did not support the war effort in the least. On this day Mr. Boileau was arrested and shipped off to Washington to answer charges of publishing pro-secessionist and anti-war propaganda.
President Lincoln today issued orders to Gen. Steele in Arkansas regarding the reestablishment of civil authority. In some states it had been necessary to appoint a formal military government; however, in this case, Lincoln told Steele that the civil authorities could be allowed to remain in charge. There was one provison, though: the new government was required to keep the new constitution abolishing slavery.
Gen. Robert E. Lee wrote a rather despondent letter today to Richmond. In it he pointed out that absenteeism, and frequently outright desertion, from his Army of Northern Virginia was reaching critical proportions. While it was hardly unknown on either side for men to go absent with or without leave to deal with family emergencies, the problem now was that they were neglecting to come back. Lee stated “the ration is too small for men who have to undergo so much exposure and labor as ours”, and suggested the Commissary Department be encouraged to provide more and better food.
Flag Officer Andrew Foote, after consultation with Gen. Grant, informed Gen. Halleck that they thought Ft. Henry could be successfully taken with four gunboats and the troops who were presently available. Halleck protested that the river was flooding, and he wanted to wait until the roads were better. Foote protested back that because the river was flooding made it the best time to attack. Halleck won, this time. In the East the maritime actions were going a bit better: most of the ships assigned to the assault on Hatteras Inlet had gotten across the bar and into the bay, many of them having to be pulled of sandbars where they had gotten stuck. Demonstrating great capitalist ingenuity, seagoing sutlers sold supplies such as fruit to the troops still stuck on the transports and short of food.
Wednesday, Jan. 28, 1863
VITAL VICKSBURG VALUE VALIDATED
President Davis today sent a letter to Maj. Gen. T. H. Holmes, commander of the Confederate Department of Trans-Mississippi, imploring him to see to the defenses of both Vicksburg and Port Hudson, La. “The loss of either of the two positions,” he said, “...would destroy communications with the Trans-Mississippi Department and inflict upon the Confederacy an injury which I am sure you have not failed to appreciate.” Unfortunately Davis would be proven entirely correct. Equally unfortunate, Holmes was quite aware of this as well, but never was sent the manpower or supplies that would have been required to keep the river in Confederate hands. The lack of coordination of the overall defense, and actions of the various armies in East and West, was one of the shortcomings that doomed the secessionist cause.
There were occasions when the US Army felt the need for a ship that the US Navy did not feel the need to provide. Thus it came about that the Army procured some ships of their own, and one of them was busy off the southern shores today.It was a successful joint Army-Navy maneuver today as the US Army steamship “Western Metropolis” captured the British blockade-runner “Rosita” off the southern coast of Florida near Key West. Thanks to the efforts of the Army crew, and two Navy officers, Acting Lt. Lewis W. Pennington and Acting Master Daniel S. Murphy, who chanced to be on board, the cargo was successfully confiscated. The cargo consisted of the goods that could be resold at the highest profit in the Southern cities suffering under the afflictions of war: liquor and cigars.
One of the last hopes of the Confederate Navy, the CSS “Stonewall”, had had an interesting career already for a ship that had never fired a shot in anger. She had been constructed in France for the Confederacy. After some arm-twisting by the US government the order was cancelled and the ship sold to Denmark for use in the Schleswig-Holstein War. That conflict ended unexpectedly and the Danes refused to pay for the ship. It was purchased in Copenhagen by Confederate agent Capt. Thomas J. Page who named it the “Sphinx.” Four days ago she had rendezvoued with the CSS “City of Richmond” at Belle Isle in Quiberon Bay, France and by today she was was fully provisioned with crew, arms and supplies. All she was short of was coal. The “City of Richmond”, and “Stonewall” left port together, with the Stonewall under sail instead of steam to save fuel.
Kansas is admitted to the Union as free state. It was the 34th state to enter the Union. The struggle between pro- and anti-slave forces in Kansas was a major factor in the eruption of the Civil War.
In 1854, Kansas and Nebraska were organized as territories with popular sovereignty (popular vote) to decide the issue of slavery. There was really no debate over the issue in Nebraska, as the territory was filled with settlers from the Midwest, where there was no slavery. In Kansas, the situation was much different. Although most of the settlers were anti-slave or abolitionists, there were many pro-slave Missourians lurking just over the border. When residents in the territory voted on the issue, many fraudulent votes were cast from Missouri. This triggered the massive violence that earned the area the name "Bleeding Kansas." Both sides committed atrocities, and the fighting over the issue of slavery was a preview of the Civil War.
Kansas remained one of the most important political questions throughout the 1850s. Each side drafted constitutions, but the anti-slave faction eventually gained the upper hand. Kansas entered the Union as a free state, but the conflict continued in Kansas into the Civil War. The state was the scene of some of the most brutal acts of violence during the war. One extreme example was the sacking of Lawrence in 1863, when pro-slave forces murdered nearly 200 men and burned the anti-slave town.
Wednesday, Jan. 29, 1862
PONY-POWERED PARTY POOPERS PREVAIL
Even in wartime, even close to enemy lines or in this case the enemy capital, life must go on, including the social aspects thereof. Lee’s House, at Occoquan, Virginia, south of Washington, was the scene of a small dance party being held by a group of Confederates this day. Showing a distinct lack of social graces, a party of Federal troops swooped down, quite without an invitation. A minor skirmish ensued, and the revellers were compelled to disperse. In the campaign against Hatteras Inlet, foul weather was still making it difficult to get ships over the bar into the bay. The good news was that the ship carrying the signal corps finally showed up. It had been missing for two weeks and was feared sunk by the storms.
Financing a new nation is never an easy prospect, and to have to finance a war of independence at the same time is even harder. Despite all resolve to the contrary, budget deficits may prove almost impossible to avoid. Thus it was for the Confederacy, whose Congress today authorized the borrowing of $15 million, a huge sum for the time. A foreign middleman, French financier Emile Erlanger, provided the funding. The deal, like many of the financial bailouts that kept the Confederate government solvent, was probably arranged by Secretary of War Judah Benjamin. After the war he would move to England and write a law textbook that was used for a generation. In the South he served so loyally he was never quite socially accepted, because he was a Jew.
Blockade-running provided desperately needed resources to the Confederacy, and blockade runners were careful to keep funds on hand to pay off US Navy captains they might encounter on the seas. The amounts had to be considerable, since they were compensated to match. Lt. Cmdr James Chaplin, USN, was morally outraged by this, and wrote today to Admiral Dahlgren about the situation: “They are ...in possession of the necessary funds to bribe, if possible, captors for their release. Such an offer was made to myself of some 800 pounds .” The British pound was then the hardest currency in the world, making the bribe worth some $4000 US, a not-inconsiderable amount to ill-paid Naval officers.
Gen. William T. Sherman left his headquarters staff on Hilton Head Island and rejoined his troops on the march. The wily Sherman had been careful to spread his forces out on several roads, intending to confuse any opposition about what town would be his initial destination. Today, though, he made for the interior of South Carolina. Communication arrived indicating that reinforcements were on the way from Gen. George Thomas’ army in Tennessee. It was a closely held secret that Thomas’ force was making for Wilmington. Sherman began to slack off the pretense that he was heading anywhere other than Columbia, South Carolina’s capital.
The launching of the USS “ Monitor” made this a signifigant day in the history of naval warfare. The first ship constructed with a coating of iron was tipped into the water at Greenpoint, Long Island, NY. Crowds cheered and celebrated, and nearby vessels fired salutes. Designed by John ********, the ship marked yet another example of the speed that technological advances make under the pressure of wartime. In other nautical matters today, troops under U.S. Grant’s command boarded gunboats to make their progress up the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers in Kentucky. This was not so much to enable the men to move in comfort as it was to enable them to move at all; the roads were pure mud and marching would have been impossible.
Gen. U.S. Grant, who had been under pressure from accusations of crooked procurements by his quartermasters and drunkenness by himself, today announced that he was assuming personal command of the Federal attack upon Vicksburg. He told Admiral David D. Porter that he intended to dig a canal through the swamps at Lake Providence, La. to allow troops to attack the city from the rear. In fact, the hope was that when the new channel was opened the river would scour it wider and deeper, and eventually cut off the bight on which Vicksburg sat, leaving it high and dry. For now they would settle for a ditch wide enough to get gunboats through on a path that did not bring them under the guns on the cliffs. Since Porter was, by some accounts, the originator of the rear-attack theory, he was not inclined to complain.
This was the day on which several important Unior departments officially changed hands. The Federal Department of Missouri was a black hole for Union commanders, into which they tended to disappear, never to be seen in high command again. The whole state, although officially “Union” throughout the war, was a hotbed of factionalism and political infighting. Today saw the departure of Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield. He was succeeded by Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans, who had been found lacking in battlefield skills after Chickamauga and so was sent to administration. In addition, Maj. Gen. Frederick Steele assumed full command of the Department of Arkansas.
Serving under Gen. William T. Sherman was Maj. George W. Nichols, of the Army of the Tennessee. Gifted with a more literary turn of mind than was common for a military man, he also harbored just a teensy bit of hostility towards the state he and his men were crossing into today. He wrote a letter today: “The actual invasion of South Carolina has begun...(Carolina) has commenced to pay an installment, long overdue, on her debt to justice and humanity. With the help of God we will have principal and interest before we leave her borders. This cowardly traitor state, secure from harm, as she thought, in her central position, with hellish haste dragged her Southern sisters into the caldron of secession. Little did she dream that the hated flag would again wave over her soil, but this bright morning a thousand Union banners are floating in the breeze....”
Last Monday Abraham Lincoln had issued General War Order Number One. As seems suitable for the initial directive, Lincoln essentially had told his generals to get off their behinds and start doing something to bring the rebellious States back into the federal union. As this did not produce instant martial activity, he backed it up today with Special War Order Number One, which affected only the Army of the Potomac. As Gen. McClellan did not seem to have gotten the drift, Lincoln got very specific. McClellan was to go to “a point upon the Rail Road South Westward of what is known of [as] Manassas Junction,” to sieze and occupy it. He was welcome to take an army with him if he liked.
In midwinter a haze often gathers over Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. Out of the haze this morning came the shadowy forms of Confederate gunboats Chicora and Palmetto State.Their mission was to break the blockade strangling this major Southern port. Surprise and fierce gunfire wreaked havoc on the Federal ships. Mercedita was rammed, shelled, shot , run aground and surrendered (she later got back afloat and escaped.) Keystone State was the next target, taking shots in her boilers that killed 20 and wounded 20 more, most of the deaths being caused by scalding steam. Other Federal vessels were also damaged and the Confederates withdrew completely unscathed. It was announced abroad that the blockade was broken, but it was not. The Federals always had more ships
Ben Butler had not exactly endeared himself to the populace of New Orleans, but in many ways he had proven to be a ideal administrator of an occupied city.Aside from a fondness for lining his pockets with confiscated cotton and church bells, he had improved sanitation (probably averting a yellow fever epidemic in the process), kept the peace and averted outright bloodshed. His replacement, Gen. Nathaniel Banks, was not quite so adept at politics, so today he received some advice from a master of the art. Abraham Lincoln wrote that he was to prepare for elections. He could “adopt any rule which shall admit to vote any unquestionably loyal free state men and none others.” A loyalty oath was a required ticket to this dance.
Two major actions took place in the capitals of the countries at war today. In Washington D.C. the House of Representatives passed, by the required two-thirds majority, the proposed Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The amendment, which would outlaw slavery anywhere in the nation, had long since passed the Senate but had failed in the House repeatedly. There were rumors that political deals were made this time, perish the thought. ****her South, in Richmond an announcement was made that seemed just as inevitable. Robert E. Lee, long concerned only with the defenses of his beloved Virginia, was named today as commander of all the remaining armies of the Confederacy. Had such a position as General-in-Chief been filled far earlier, it might have made some impact on the outcome of the war.
The U.S. House of Representatives passes the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery in the United States. It read, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude...shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."
When the Civil War began, President Lincoln's professed goal was the restoration of the Union. But early in the war, the Union began keeping escaped slaves rather than returning them to their owners, so slavery essentially ended wherever the Union army was victorious. In September 1862, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves in areas that were still in rebellion against the Union. This measure opened the issue of what to do about slavery in border states that had not seceded or in areas that had been captured by the Union before the proclamation.
In 1864, an amendment abolishing slavery passed the Senate but died in the House as Democrats rallied in the name of states' rights. The election of 1864 brought Lincoln back to the White House and significant Republican majorities in both houses, so it appeared the amendment was headed for passage when the new Congress convened in March 1865. Lincoln preferred that the amendment receive bipartisan support--some Democrats indicated support for the measure, but many still resisted. The amendment passed 119 to 56, seven votes above the necessary two-thirds majority. Several Democrats abstained, but the 13th Amendment was sent to the states for ratification, which came in December 1865. With the passage of the amendment, the institution that had indelibly shaped American history and had started the Civil War was eradicated.
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