- The Outer Banks of North Carolina are a series of long, narrow islands that separate Pamlico Sound from the Atlantic Ocean, and Hatteras Inlet is the only deep-water passage connecting the two. In the first months of the war, the Outer Banks have provided perfect conditions for surreptitious Confederate blockade runners and raiders. From a vantage point atop the Hatteras lighthouse, Confederate privateers can see the Gulf Stream which Northern ships use to increase speed traveling to Northern ports. Privateers lay in wait until ships appear on the horizon and then overhaul them. Northern insurance adjusters have put pressure on the Lincoln Administration’s War Department to do something about the losses. During the summer of 1861, the CSS Winslow has wreaked havoc on Union shipping off North Carolina, and Federal naval and army officials combined forces to bring the area under control. To protect Hatteras Inlet, the Confederates have built two fortresses of sand and wood, garrisoned with 350 soldiers. Today the United States Expeditionary Force under command of General Benjamin Butler and Flag Officer Silas Stringham which left Hampton Roads, Virginia, yesterday, arrives off Cape Hatteras in view of Forts Hatteras and Clark with preparation for battle in the morning./1861
- Skirmishes occur at Antietam Iron Works, Maryland, and in Virginia at Ball’s Cross Roads and Bailey's Cross Roads./1861
Showing posts with label Maryland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Maryland. Show all posts
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Hatteras Inlet, NC: Expedition arrives
Friday, August 26, 2011
Hatteras Expedition departs, Battle at Kessler's Cross Lanes
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| Hatteras Expedition leaves Hampton Roads |
- Skirmishing breaks out at Wayne Court House, Blue's House, and Cross Lanes, western Virginia/1861
- From his throne in Hawaii, King Kamehameha IV proclaims the neutrality of the Hawaiian Islands in the War./1861
- In Western Virginia, Brigadier General John Floyd, commanding Confederate forces in the Kanawha Valley, crosses the Gauley River and attacks Col. Erastus Tyler's 7th Ohio Regiment encamped at Kessler's Cross Lanes. The Union forces are surprised and routed with 245 casualties. Confederate losses are 40. Floyd then withdraws to the river and takes up a defensive position at Carnifex Ferry./1861
- Hampton Roads, Virginia, is the scene of the disembarkation of the first Federal expeditionary fleet from Fortress Monroe. Its mission is to attack and capture Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, a haven for blockade runners. The amphibious force, composed of eight vessels and 900 New York troops, is commanded jointly by Flag Officer Silas Stringham and General Benjamin Butler. This joint Army-Navy operation has 500 men from the German-speaking 20th New York Volunteers, 220 from the 9th New York Volunteers, 100 from an Army unit calling themselves Union Coast Guard (actually the 99th New York Volunteers), and 20 army regulars from the 2nd U.S. Artillery on board the USS Adelaide and USS George Peabody. Stringham’s naval assault includes the USS Minnesota, Cumberland, Susquehanna, Wabash, Pawnee, Monticello, the US Revenue Service cutter Harriet Lane (used at Fort Sumter), and the tug Fanny, needed to tow some of the landing craft. Hatteras Inlet was the most important of the four inlets deep enough for ocean-going vessels, so North Carolina has constructed two forts there, named Fort Hatteras and Fort Clark. Fort Hatteras is on the sound side of Hatteras Island. Fort Clark is a half a mile southeast, nearer to the Atlantic Ocean, but neither are strong. Fort Hatteras has only ten mounted guns, with five more unmounted within the fort. Fort Clark has only five. Most of them are inadequate for coastal defense, only relatively light 32-pounders or smaller and of limited range. Worse is the scant numbers of soldiers. North Carolina raised and equipped 22 infantry regiments at the beginning of the war, but 16 of these are defending Virginia. The 6 regiments left are deployed to defend the entire North Carolina coastline. Only a few companies of the 7th North Carolina Volunteers occupy both forts at Hatteras Inlet. Other coastal forts are in similar weak shape. Less than 1,000 men garrison Forts Ocracoke, Hatteras, Clark, and Oregon, and reinforcements are as far away as Beaufort. Unbelievably, North Carolina militia authorities did not keep the sad state of their coastal defenses a secret and allowed captured and shipwrecked Yankee sea captains and others free access to the forts and their environs. At least two have provided valuable full descriptions to the US Navy Department./1861
- Union Captain A.H. Foote is ordered by the War Department in Washington to relieve Commander J. Rodgers in command of the Army’s gunboat flotilla on the Western rivers./1861
- The US tug Fanny under Lieutenant Crosby reports the capture of the blockade runner sloop Mary Emma at the headwaters of the Manokin River, Maryland./1861
- The USS Daylight under Commander Lockwood recaptures the brig Monticello in the Rappahannock River, Virginia./1861
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Confederate operations against New Mexico Indians
- Skirmishes occur at Great Falls, Maryland, and Piggott's Mills, Western Virginia./1861
- Confederate troops begin operations against Indians around Fort Stanton, New Mexico Territory, to last until Sept. 8./1861
Friday, August 19, 2011
Confederate alliance with Missouri; More newspapers seized
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| Confederate bond |
- In Charleston, Missouri, the Battle of Charleston (Bird's Point) is a minor clash in which Union forces led by Col. Henry Dougherty destroy a Confederate camp. This skirmish is the culmination of several skirmishes in the Charleston and Bird's Point area for the past week between pro-Union forces and secession groups./1861
- Newspaper offices in Easton and West Chester, Pennsylvania, are seized by the Lincoln Administration for their supposed Southern sympathies. The editor of the Essex County Democrat in Haverhill, Massachusetts, is tarred and feathered for his pro-Confederate feelings/1861
- Trying to settle the political and military chaos in Missouri, the Confederate Congress in Richmond, Virginia, agrees to an alliance with Missouri's secessionist government The Congress also passes an Act authorizing the sale of Confederate Bonds. /1861
- US Assistant Secretary of the Navy Gustavus V. Fox orders 200 US Marines to report to Commander Dahlgren at the Washington Navy Yard for duty on board ships of the Potomac Flotilla for the purpose of scouting the Maryland countryside—especially Port Tobacco—for locations suspected of being Confederate depots for provisions and arms to be used for invading Maryland./1861
- In Washington, Henry Halleck is promoted to Major General./1861
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Spies in White House; Privateer Jefferson Davis wrecks
 Image via Wikipedia |
| St. Augustine, Florida, waterfront in 1860s |
- In Washington, President Lincoln receives a warning from Marshal Ward Lamon, in Philadelphia that too many eavesdroppers and traitors lurk about the White House. He urges that security measures be tightened, and a detective employed./1861
- Skirmishes at Pohick Creek, Virginia, and Sandy Hook, Maryland./1861
- Near St. Augustine, Florida, the Confederate privateer Jefferson Davis, commanded by Captain Coxetter, wrecks on the bar trying to enter St. Augustine, ending a very successful cruise. The Charleston Mercury (26 August 1861) writes: “The name of the privateer Jefferson Davis has become a word of terror to the Yankees. The number of her prizes and the amount of merchandise which she captured have no parallel since the days of the Saucy Jack [1812 privateer]."/1861
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Rumors of Davis-Beauregard breach
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| Pres. Davis |
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| Gen. Beauregard |
- In Richmond, Virginia, persistent rumors are being whispered of a growing breach in the relationship between President Jefferson Davis and General P.G.T. Beauregard. Clearly, Beauregard’s personal pride and Davis’ thin skin have not mixed well, but the personal problems could create big problems for the strategic future of the Confederacy. Jewish Attorney General Judah P. Benjamin, a close friend of the President’s, seems to have taken Davis’ side as well. The rumors say that after the brilliant victory at Manassas, that Beauregard wanted desperately to invade Maryland, surround the District of Columbia, and finish the work of independence quickly by forcing a treaty of peace. Davis, holding to the principle of self defense, refused Beauregard’s plan. Days or even a few weeks following the battle, a relatively Southern small force could have taken Washington, but whether Beauregard’s intelligence knew in time is now irrelevant since that window of opportunity has now passed./1861
- Near Cape Fear, North Carolina the USS Penguin under Commander John L. Livingston pursues the blockade runner Louisa, which strikes a shoal and sinks./1861
Monday, August 8, 2011
Davis calls for 400,000 volunteers to defend the South
- In Richmond, President Jefferson Davis calls for 400,000 volunteers to defend their homes in the Confederacy./1861
- At Washington, US Secretary of War Simon Cameron replies to another of General Benjamin Butler’s queries about making runaway slaves contraband. Cameron tells Butler that Union troops must adhere to fugitive slave laws, but only within Union territory. All states in insurrection are exempt from the protection and escaped slaves in those areas will not be returned to their owners but become property of the US government./1861
- In the Gulf of Mexico, the USS Santee, commanded by Captain Eagle, captures the blockade runner schooner C.P. Knapp./1861
- Brig. Gen. U. S. Grant assumes command of the district of Ironton, Missouri./1861
- At a public dinner and serenade in Baltimore, Maryland, in honor of John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky, his attempt to address the people is prevented by the rioting of Unionists./1861
Image via Wikipedia
Monday, July 4, 2011
27th Congress special session convenes
- It’s the big day in Washington, and not just because it is the first Independence Day since the war began. A special called session of the 27th Congress convenes, summoned by President Lincoln to handle his war measures, and fund his war to destroy the republic and preserve the Union. In a speech meant more for the press than the Congress, Lincoln addresses a joint session claiming the North has done everything in its power to maintain peace. He says his Administration has attempted to solve the problems without resorting to war, problems which he maintains the South has caused by seceding. The similarities between Lincoln’s list of tyrannical acts and claims and the offenses of King George III described in the Declaration of Independence are striking. Lincoln blames his entire fiasco at Fort Sumter on the South and insists that the United States must maintain its “territorial integrity against its own domestic foes.” If the man had any integrity himself, he would have understood that once the states seceded that they were no longer domestic foes. Again Lincoln belabors his position concerning the indivisibility of the Union, using that heretofore unknown national policy to justify his unconstitutional Presidential declaration of war on the Confederate States. Then the President concludes his address with a now-typical Lincoln request for 40,000 additional troops from the Northern states./1861
- Although no longer an official holiday in the South, this day still has an air of gratefulness to God and celebration of Freedom; and in honor of the day, President Jefferson Davis presents a Confederate flag to the Maryland Regiment in the Confederate Army. /1861
- At Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, Confederate and Federal troops briefly skirmish as they pour into the lower Shenandoah Valley./1861
Image by The Library of Congress via Flickr
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Daring capture of the SS Nicholas on the Potomac
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| R. Thomas Zarvona |
- Tonight, a group of undercover Confederate sympathizers led by former US Navy officers Richard Thomas Zarvona and George N. Hollins along with an undercover crew, makes a bold move based on intelligence to seize a private Maryland vessel. A native of Maryland, Hollins is a veteran of the War of 1812, having joined the US Navy at age 15. He was commanding a US warship in the Mediterranean when the war came, and being ordered back to New York, he resigned his commission and joined the Confederate navy as a captain. Zarvona, also a Marylander, is a former West Pointer and adventurer who had fought with pirates in China and Garibaldi revolutionaries in Italy. The group boards in two groups the side-wheel steamship St. Nicholas in Chesapeake Bay. Using the name Madame La Force, Zarvona disguises himself as a flirtatious French woman. Hollins then boards the St. Nicholas at its first stop disguised as an old man on a cane. The conspirators later retreat to the French woman's cabin, where they armed themselves from the heavy trunks “she” had had the St. Nicholas’ crew load for “her,” and then burst out to capture the surprised crew which surrendered easily. Hollins takes control of the vessel and stops on the Virginia bank of the Chesapeake to pick up a crew of Confederate soldiers. They go in search of the USS Pawnee which has been patrolling the Potomac River from Washington downstream, but to Zarvona’s great frustration it has returned to Washington Navy Yard to attend to the funeral of its commander, Lieutenant Ward, who was killed by a Confederate sharpshooter yesterday./1861
Monday, June 27, 2011
Pawnee repulsed; Baltimore marshal arrested
 Image via Wikipedia |
| USS Pawnee, 1861 |
- At Mathias Point, Virginia, after several days of shelling, Confederate batteries repel Union attempts at an amphibious landing of US troops, and a Confederate sharpshooter shoots and kills the USS Pawnee’s captain, Lieutenant John Ward./1861
- In Dover, Delaware, a peace convention urges recognition of the Confederacy./1861
In spite of General Benjamin Butler’s purging of the Baltimore, Maryland, city government of secessionists, today Butler’s successor General Nathaniel Banks arrests the Baltimore Marshal of Police, George P. Kane, at three o'clock in the morning for being a Southern sympathizer. Under the Lincoln regime, freedom of conscience has become a thing of the past./1861
Image via WikipediaG.P. Kane
- In Washington, representatives convene from the US Army, Navy, and Coastal Survey to plan military strategies for the Confederate coastline. This group would later make valuable recommendations throughout the war. From time to time, this board will make a number of reports, many implemented, stating how and where bases for land operation and blockades could be made successfully on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It was one of the most successful strategic planning boards of the war./1861
- In the Gulf of Mexico, the USS Massachusetts captures 4 Confederate vessels./1861
 Image via Wikipedia |
| 3am arrest of Marshal G.P. Kane |
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Beauregard: "Feds want Beauty and Booty"
- General P.G.T. Beauregard, newly commanding the Alexandria Line, issues a proclamation today that reads in part, “A reckless and unprincipled tyrant has invaded your soil. Abraham Lincoln...has thrown his abolition hosts among you, who are murdering and imprisoning your citizens, confiscating and destroying your property, and committing other acts...too revolting to humanity to be enumerated.” The Union rallying cry, he says, is “Beauty and booty,” implying threats to women as well as other property. The war would prove Beauregard a prophet./1861
- Federal marshals seize arms and gunpowder at the Du Pont works in Delaware and at Merrill & Thomas gun factory in Baltimore, Maryland, under suspicion that the munitions were headed to the South./1861
Monday, May 30, 2011
Merrimack raised; Lyon replaces Harney
- At the mouth of Aquia Creek on the Chesapeake Bay, the USS Freeborn returns with the USS Anacostia and USS Resolute and engage the Virginia Militia batteries for several hours for a second day with little effect./1861
- At a convention in Knoxville, Tennessee, a group of Unionists denounce Tennessee's secession./1861
- Colonel Benjamin F. Kelley with the 1st Virginia (US) Infantry and units which would become the 2nd West Virginia Infantry occupies the town of Grafton, in western Virginia, in order to protect the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad line./1861
- Confederates raise the scuttled U.S.S. Merrimack from the Elizabeth River at Norfolk, Virginia, and move it to Gosport's Dry Dock #1./1861
- At St. Louis, Missouri, US Brigadier General William S Harney is relieved of command of the Department of the West, including Missouri, by Congressman/Colonel Francis P. Blair, Jr. President Lincoln had previously granted authority for Blair to order at his discretion Harney’s removal because of the events surrounding the St. Louis Massacre on May 10-12 and the truce which gave the Missouri State Guard under Sterling Price control of the state leaving only St. Louis under Federal control. Nathaniel Lyon, whose arrogance and insubordination to Harney caused the St. Louis Massacre, is promoted to Brigadier General of Volunteers and assigned command of all the Union forces in Missouri. That is how things roll in the Lincoln Administration./1861
- United States Secretary of War Simon Cameron today sends orders to Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler in Maryland confirming what Butler has already been doing without permission – classifying Negro slaves under his jurisdiction as “contraband of war” and putting them to work as laborers for the Union army, virtually re-enslaving them. The question has caused a flurry of correspondence, debate and controversy in Washington, with everyone including Lincoln debating the subject./1861.
- President Lincoln asks Atty. Gen. Bates to present an argument to the Supreme Court on behalf of the Administration for the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus in the case of Ex parte Merryman. John Merryman is being held at Fort McHenry, Baltimore, Maryland, for treason without benefit of the writ of habeas corpus./1861
 Image by Allen Gathman via Flickr |
| Gen. Nathaniel Lyon |
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Jackson seizes 100mi of B&O; Commons debates CSA recognition
 Image via Wikipedia |
| B&O Railroad 1860 Map |
- Confederate troops under Virginia Militia Colonel Thomas J. Jackson seize nearly 100 miles of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad from Point of Rocks, Maryland, where the line crosses the Potomac into western Virginia to its re-crossing of the Potomac at Cumberland, Maryland./1861
- The USS Union begins the blockade of Savannah, Georgia./1861
 Image via Wikipedia |
| B&O double tracks in West Virginia today |
- US Brig. Gen. Robert Anderson assumes command of the Department of Kentucky while Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell assumes command of the Department of Northeastern Virginia./1861
- In the United Kingdom, the House of Commons takes up debate on recognition of the Confederate States of America./1861
- Brig. Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard receives instructions to report to President Jefferson Davis at Richmond, Virginia, the new capital of the Confederacy./1861
Friday, May 27, 2011
SCOTUS: Suspension of habeas corpus unconstitutional
 Image via Wikipedia |
| Chief Justice Taney |
- In Washington, D.C., the Supreme Court weighs in on Lincoln’s suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. John Merryman had been arrested May 25th and charged with treason for recruiting for the Confederate army. Merryman is being held at Fort McHenry, Baltimore, Maryland, by General George Cadwalader.
 Image via Wikipedia |
| MG Geo. Cadwalader |
Ex Parte Merryman is argued with considerable heat on both sides.Taney contends that: 1. according to the Constitution, the President has no right to suspend the writ of habeas corpus; and 2. The military can only arrest persons subject to the rules and articles of war.
The Lincoln Administration and military argue that Lincoln’s Proclamation 94 suspending the writ permitted Merryman’s arrest and imprisonment. The Administration further holds that in time of rebellion such actions are required in the interest of public safety.
But Chief Justice Roger B. Taney dissents, ruling that the President does not have the power to suspend the writ of habeas corpus, even in time of rebellion. Thus, the arrest and detention of John Merryman is illegal. President Lincoln, who has offended the Constitution with impunity already several times, simply ignores the Court’s ruling, defies the rule of law, and continues to lock up anyone his Administration suspects of disloyal thoughts, words, or actions for any length of time they want without showing just cause for charging them./1861
- Union troops under Gen. Benjamin F. Butler occupy Newport News Point, Virginia, and construct Camp Butler as part of the Federal naval blockade. Federal control of this point closes the river link between Norfolk and Richmond./1861
- In western Virginia, Colonel Benjamin F. Kelley and his 1st Virginia (Federal) Infantry along with troops that would become the 2nd West Virginia Infantry depart Wheeling at sunrise to move on Grafton, western Virginia, to protect the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. In coordination, the 14th Ohio Infantry under Colonel Steedman arrives in Parkersburg, western Virginia./1861
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Ellsworth funeral; Merryman arrested
- In Washington, the body of 24 year old US Colonel Elmer Ellsworth lies in state in the East Room of the White House where his funeral service is held today. Ellsworth was a personal friend of the Lincolns, and his dramatic death, the first Union officer killed – shot to death while tearing down a Confederate flag from an Alexandria, Virginia, hotel, all factor into making him the first martyr of the Union cause. The Lincoln Administration uses his death to great patriotic advantage./1861
- In order to prevent easy access to Washington for Confederate armies, Union troops destroy 7 bridges and 5 miles of railroad between Alexandria and Leesburg, Virginia./1861
- John Merryman, a Baltimore, Maryland, politician and first lieutenant of the Baltimore County Horse Guards, is arrested by military authorities at his home in Cockeysville, Maryland, for recruiting for the Confederate army, charged with treason, and sent to prison in Fort McHenry, Baltimore, Maryland, without benefit of a writ of habeas corpus. Merryman will petition for a writ of habeas corpus, which will be granted by Chief Justice Taney, but the writ will be disobeyed by General George Cadwalader, the arresting officer, under orders from President Lincoln, even though Taney will cite Cadwalader for contempt. Taney will declare Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus unconstitutional./1861
- Virginia troops under the command of Lieutenant Colonel William J. Willey, half brother of Waitman T. Willey, burn railroad trestles of the Baltimore & Ohio line between Mannington and Farmington, western Virginia./1861
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Jackson moves on B&O; Butler to Fortress Monroe
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| Col. T.J. Jackson in 1857 |
- Colonel Thomas J. Jackson, commanding Virginia Militia Forces at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, has realized that large quantities of coal are being shipped over the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad from the Ohio Valley to Union naval bases in Baltimore, Maryland, to fuel U.S. Navy steam warships for the blockade of the Southern States. Tonight, Jackson dispatches the 5th Virginia Infantry under Kenton Harper to Cherry Run, west of Martinsburg, western Virginia, and he simultaneously orders Captain John D. Imboden's cavalry to the Potomac at Point of Rocks, Maryland, east of Harpers Ferry, Virginia. The 5th Virginia takes up a position at the Potomac River bridge near Cherry Run, 32 miles east of Harpers Ferry north and west of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Martinsburg Shops. Imboden's cavalry set up at the signal tower west of Point of Rocks, Maryland 12 miles east of Harpers Ferry./1861
 Image via Wikipedia |
| B.F. Butler |
- US Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler is assigned to the command of Fortress Monroe, Virginia. He would become known as one of the most notorious of Federal officers of the War, and he will soon be embroiled in a legal and ethical controversy (and a public relations nightmare for the Lincoln Administration) over runaway slaves showing up at Fortress Monroe./1861
- Texas Militia under Santos Benavides defeat Mexican bandit leader Juan Cortina, at the Battle of Carrizo, Texas, near present day Zapata, Texas./1861
 Images via Wikipedia |
| Fortress Monroe from air |
Monday, May 16, 2011
Tennessee admitted; Kentucky proposes neutrality
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| First National CSA Flag with 9 stars |
- In Montgomery, Alabama, the Confederate Congress officially and with ceremony admits the State of Tennessee to the Confederate States of America. In other business, the Confederate Congress authorizes the recruitment of 400,000 men for military service to repel Mr. Lincoln’s invasion of a people who want only to be independent./1861
- Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, arresting anyone in Baltimore, Maryland, he thinks might be sympathetic to the Confederate cause, imprisons Ross Winans, long-time inventor and locomotive builder, of Baltimore, at Fort McHenry./1861
- The Confederate Treasury Department issues $50,000,000 in 8% bonds and $20,000,000 worth of treasury notes./1861
- The Kentucky legislature proposes that the state maintain a position of neutral status in the War./1861
- A bridge on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad is destroyed by Southern sympathizers/1861
- General Winfield Scott orders that Arlington Heights, Virginia, be fortified./1861
- US Commander John Rodgers is ordered to take command of United States naval operations on rivers of the American West./1861
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