April Showers, War's Weirdly Worst Month

JPK Huson 1863

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Joined
Feb 14, 2012
Location
Central Pennsylvania
horse funeral springfield.jpg

Taken in May, after April's funeral train finally ended in Springfield, Illinois even Lincoln's horse Old Bob wears trappings of the mourning we'd been plunged into April 15th, 1865. April could have been missed in 1865 and really, through the rest of the war. What is it with April? Old Bob seems reflective of the whole thing.

Ever occur to anyone else that April was a ridiculously eventful, mostly awful month every year through the war. If anyone had had the forethought, they should have called a time-out between March and May.

It's still weirdly crowded with History's shambles, disasters and plain, old bad news. To set the seal on 30 days fated to be endured despite all those daffodils, some genius stuck tax day smack in the middle. Ok, so it contains a few moments of relief although the surrender wasn't terrific news in the Confederacy. My daughter was born in April so things were looking up- and not, like my poor daughter in law, on tax day. It seems inevitable the Titanic disaster was not just in April, all those people died April 15th, 1912. So why not tax day, too? Columbine happened one tragic April and now we'll always mark the anniversary of The Day Notre Dam burned. April. Like I said, we should all take the month off. Maybe organize bunkers, get some graham crackers, chocolate and marshmallows and wait it out.

By no means comprehensive, April was exhausting and almost predictably awful from 1861 through the worst war year, 1865. What a very bad month.

Apr 1 1865 Battle of Five Forks, around 6,000 casualties

Apr 2 1865 Battle of Petersburg ends , around 11,000 casualties

April 6, 1862, The Battle of Shiloh, nearly 24,000 casualties

April 8, 1864 Battle of Mansfield, Louisiana, around 4500 casualties

April 9, 1864 Battle of Pleasant Hill, Louisiana, 3,000 casualties

April 9, 1865 Surrender at Appomattox

April 11th, 1863, Washington DC’s Grand Illumination, marking the end of the war

April 12
1861 Fort Sumter , South Carolina comes under attack by the Confederacy, beginning the Civil War

Apr 13 Battered by 34 hours of bombardment, Fort Sumter surrenders .

Apr 14, 1861 formal surrender of Fort Sumter.

April 14, 1862 Battle of Fort Pillow, a controversy raging over events there rages into 2019.

April 14th, Lincoln assassination, Edwin Booth, a vainglorious actor even by Victorian standards shot President Lincoln in the back of his head as he held his wife’s hand in the Presidential Box at Ford’s New Theater, 10th and E Street, Washington. April 14th, 1865. He lived a few more hours, dying

April 14th, 1865 , William Henry Seward, son Frederick stabbed by Lewis Powell, an ex soldier and part of Booth's comprehensive conspiracy. Both lived as did messenger Emerick Hansell.

April 15th, 1865, Lincoln dies

April 15th 1861, Lincoln’s proclamation calls up 75,000 men

April 19, 1865, Lincoln’s funeral procession , Washington, DC

April 20th, 1861 Lincoln calls for the blockade of southern ports.

April 27th, 1865 , The Sultana Disaster, by Congressional Resolution the greatest maritime disaster in United States history. 1,200 of the more than 2,100 passengers and crew were killed when three of the boat’s four boilers exploded on steamer Sultana, largely carrying returning prisoners of war.

April 29 1863, Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia, 12,000 casualties

Yes, I realize there's more and probably some inaccuracies here- but you get the point. We need Easter, which nearly always falls in April. A break in the clouds.

HOPE to bring April, 1861-1865 photos here to the thread. There are far too many to post- a photographic synopsis only of war's worst month.

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The funeral procession, Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, DC. April 19th, 1865
 
Now that we're well into May this isn't relevent BUT would love to see the awful casualty list from April, 1865 too. Once in awhile you run into someone killed in last minute fighting or dying in a hospital, April 1865. How awful, families holding their breath through an entire war and losing someone with the end in sight.
 
Now that we're well into May this isn't relevent BUT would love to see the awful casualty list from April, 1865 too. Once in awhile you run into someone killed in last minute fighting or dying in a hospital, April 1865. How awful, families holding their breath through an entire war and losing someone with the end in sight.
Yes, it's awful. I have often thought of the fact that every war has a first and a last person to die. The ones in between are equally tragic, of course.
 
April was an indeed a very "active" month.The "April" list is a long one ;Virginia seceeded, Island # 10, the Great Locomotive Chase, the Grierson Raid,The Bread Riot, Saylers Creek , Johnston surrendered , Booth killed etc. The list goes on. We could add many more events, incidents and happenings.I often wondered about how active April was but sort of figured that I was pretty much alone in thinking so. It seems I wasnt all by myself in thinking so.
 
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