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The bombardment of Fort Fisher continued throughout the day 150 years ago. Before it was completed, 1,652,638 pounds of projectiles would be directed at the installation. There were 200 casualties among the defenders, but more importantly, all but a single seaward facing gun were put out of action. An attempt to further reinforce the fort with a thousand man brigade brought downriver by boat, resulted in only 350 struggling into Fisher while the rest were driven away by artillery fire.
Fisher's commander, Colonel William Lamb, had been sending message after message to General Bragg describing the situation and begging for more reinforcements. What he received was General William Whiting who arrived with the 350, announced that there would be no more reinforcements coming, and that General Bragg had decided that the garrison was to be sacrificed. Whiting said that in those circumstances, he had come to share the fate of Fisher's defenders.
In Washington, General Benjamin Butler, dismissed as the commander of the Army of the James and the expedition against Fort Fisher, had been ordered to report to his hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts, and await orders. However, this was Butler, a completely political creature, and he was not about to slink away from the war while he still had powerful friends in Congress. Butler arranged for a special Congressional investigation by the Committee on the Conduct of the War, of the failed first attempt against Fisher. The Beast was completely confident that he would be exonerated, opening the way for him to demand another command. The hearing would get underway on the 16th, setting the stage for one of the war's better comic moments.
The bombardment of Fort Fisher resumed at dawn 150 years ago today. The plan called for the firing to continue until 3 pm at which time the assault would go forward. It was to be made by two columns, each aiming for the corners of the north facing wall so as to avoid the torpedo sown fields guarding the direct approach.
The NW corner would be attacked by a 3500 man regular infantry division under General Adelbert Ames. The NE corner was reserved for the 2000 strong naval brigade composed of marines with rifles and sailors with pistols and cutlasses. At 3 pm, right on schedule, the roaring guns fell silent, giving way to the bugles sounding the charge.
The nautical foot soldiers advanced to within 300 yards of the fort and went to ground when they were met by heavy defensive fire. They dug into the sand as best they could, held there for about forty minutes, and then gave way, retreating without orders back to the beach where they had landed. Among the frustrated naval officers trying to stop the flow to the rear was newly promoted Captain Wiliam Cushing, the man whose daring raid had sunk the ironclad Albermarle. Cushing's urgings failed to stem the flight.
At the northern corner, more success was found. Ames and his infantry had discovered that their approach was protected by trees and heavy shrubbery, allowing them to close to within 150 yards and them mount a rush. They stormed over the wall and drove away the defenders, planting three Union flags as a signal to send in the rest.
With the fort's walls compromised, the outcome would now be inevitable. Despite this, and despite the general loss of enthusiasm for the cause which was shrinking the rebel's armies, the defenders of Fisher fought with a do or die fury. Each of the now displaced defending guns had been mounted in traverses, and these served to divide the fort into sections. Each of those traverses had to be stormed one at a time, and when one was taken, the rebels would fall back to the next and make another stand. The fighting was recalled by all participants as especially savage. Darkness fell and still the killing went on. General Whiting and Colonel Lamb were both severely wounded and removed to a bombproof serving as the first aid station, and still the combat continued. Admiral Porter's fleet resumed fire on the southern end of the fort where the rebels had been pushed, inflicting heavy casualties on the defenders, and still the fight continued.
At 8 pm the Federals had gained control of the entire length of the walls, the rebels held only some interior buildings. A message was sent to Whiting and Lamb explaining the situation and asking for permission to surrender. Neither officer was willing to yield. Finally at ten pm, after seven bloody and furious hours, the rebels were at last forced to haul down the flag.
Of the 1700 plus defenders, 583 had been killed or wounded, the rest were taken prisoner. The assault had cost Terry more than 1300 casualties, but the victory was an important one. The loss of Fisher meant the loss of the mouth of the Cape Fear River, isolating Wilmington and making it useless as a port. It had been the last port which still had been managing to get blockade runners in and out, but it could not any longer. Lee's army would receive no more supplies from overseas. The Confederates were now cut off from the world everywhere save their border with Mexico, and most of the Confederacy was cut off from there by the Union control of the Mississippi River.
The Federal conquerors of the fort, and the sailors at sea, launched into a noisy celebration despite the high attrition paid to secure their objective. Whistles shrieked, rockets were fired, and a whiskey stash was discovered and "liberated" by the soldiers, leading to a post battle tragedy.
There were some 30 underground magazines in the fort containing the rebel supply of shot and powder. Guards were posted at each one with the exception of the largest, somehow overlooked. Two drunk union sailors with lighted torches wandered down inside searching for loot. They touched off the magazine and the monumental explosion which followed added another 104 to the Federal list of dead and wounded.
Artist's Fanciful Depiction Of The Storming Of Fort Fisher.....Things Are A Bit Too Orderly In This Painting...Plus All The Guns On The North Facing Wall Had Been Dismounted or Disabled Before The Assault Began
General William Whiting and Colonel William Lamb...Die Hards To The Last Bullet
150 years ago today the Joint Congressional Committee On the Conduct of the War held a special hearing for the sake of one man. General Benjamin Butler had complaints about the way he had been treated, removed from command for the supposedly timid way he had conducted the first attempt to capture Fort Fisher.
Butler was before friends who were eager to help him. They gave him attention as he brought out charts and reports from subordinates, all designed to establish that Butler had acted with perfect reason in calling off the assault. There had been inadequate support from Admiral Porter, the fort had been poorly surveyed and its bomb proof nature not established before the operation went forward. The torpedo field in front of the north facing wall had made an attack from that direction completely impossible.
All this was being received with sympathy by the Congressmen and a vote to exonerate Butler would just be a formality. Butler was wrapping up his presentation, assuring the investigators that his actions were justified because Fort Fisher was "impregnable", when in a bit if perfect timing, which if this had been a movie would have been seen as implausible, a great furor erupted outside the hearing room. Cheers were heard ringing the hallways and guns were being fired in salute. From the street below a voice came into the hearing room's window.
"Extra! Extra! Fort Fisher has fallen! Extra! Read the story! Fort Fisher taken!"
Butler babbled that it must be some mistake, but confirmation was quickly obtained. Laughter began in the room, small and embarrassed at first, then unrestrained. Eventually even Butler joined in, recovering his political instincts in an instant and rising to his feet to propose a moment of silence in thanks to the heavens for this great victory.
Then, despite the news and the proof that Fisher had not been impregnable to the right commander, the Committee passed a resolution resolving Butler of all blame for his failure.
His instant recovery aside, Butler was still through as a military commander. General Grant would not welcome him back under any circumstances and President Lincoln no longer needed Butler's influence with Democrats.
So Butler at last was sent packing, shelved along with the other failed political generals, Banks and Fremont, but unlike those gentlemen, Butler's political career was far from over. He would be elected and serve five terms as a Massachusetts Congressman, and then be elected governor of the state in 1883.
On this same day in Richmond, President Davis was attempting to mask his fury at the rebel Congress as they began debating various motions designed to reverse the tide of ill fortune to their arms. They were considering intervening in military matters, an area Davis viewed as his sole prerogative. Some wanted to restore General Joseph Johnston, Davis' long time foe, to a command position. Others were calling for a motion to abolish the Confederate Constitution and replace the civilian leadership with military men, at least until independence was secured.
No one was willing to go so far as that last proposal, but what they were willing to do was to establish the office of a supreme military commander of all the rebel armies. That supreme leader of course was to be General Robert E. Lee. He would hold the same position in the South as Grant held in the North.
Davis, the West Point graduate, the Mexican War hero, the former US Secretary of War, recognized no one in the South as his superior in military matters. He had been through four Secretaries of War and none had amounted to anything because Davis had always been his own Secretary of War, micromanaging the South's military affairs. This call for a supreme military commander was a clear vote of no confidence in Davis.
Led by Vice President Alexander Stephens, presiding over the debate in the Senate, the measure passed by a vote of 14-2. Tacked on was a codicil appointing Johnston supreme commander in the Carolinas, and General Beauregard supreme commander in Florida and Georgia.
Davis would wait the full ten days, considering a veto of the bill, before finally giving in and signing it on the 26th in what must have been one of the most bitter moments of his presidency.
Lee had in no manner sought the post, had attempted to discourage the idea, and had complained to Davis that he was already overwhelmed by his responsibilities for just the Army of Northern Virginia. Of course Lee, who placed duty above all else, felt compelled to accept once the bill was signed.
150 years ago today would have marked the start of General Sherman's march through the Carolinas but the movement had to be postponed. One division had already been sent to Beaufort, South Carolina, and Sherman's plan had been to travel there by ship, and then rejoin the rest of the army as it marched north.
A severe rainstorm foiled all this. Roads turned into bogs through which artillery and wagons could not pass without extreme difficulty. The foul weather would continue through the end of the month and the march would not get underway until February 1st.
It was also an especially galling day for President Davis, devoted to having to persuade General Lee into accepting an office, the existence of which Davis loathed. It was a lose/lose situation for the rebel leader. If Lee accepted the office, it was an affirmation that the Confederacy had lost confidence in Davis' abilities as a military leader. If Lee refused, then the position of General in Chief of the Confederate Armies would probably go to the next highest ranking officer, General Joseph Johnston. In that Davis worshiped the quicksand upon which Johnston walked, the lesser of the evils was clearly getting Lee to accept.
While Lee had treated all honors and promotions with the same formalities of modesty and coy protestations of inability, and then accepted, this time his reluctance seemed quite real. Lee was genuinely concerned that his increasingly fragile health would be over taxed by the responsibilities he already had. Lee recognized that this promotion for him was simultaneously a slap in the face of Davis, and wanted to play no part in this insult. Finally Lee could see that he was being made commander of a sinking ship. Outside of the Army of Northern Virginia, there was no longer a Confederate army of any consequence.
For all those reasons Davis found it necessary to do a face to face selling job, leaning on Lee's weak spot, his unrelenting sense of duty, to make him accept.
The Army of Northern Virginia was far too weak to even attempt an attack designed to break the siege at Petersburg, so the desperate Confederates decided to try and do what General Grant had been doing to them, strike at the enemy supply source.
In this case it was City Point on the James River, Grant's headquarters and the site of an immense Union supply depot and naval marshaling yard. Unable to get at it by land, the rebels would throw their James Squadron down river in a do or die attack.
The James Squadron was composed of three untried ironclads, the CSS Richmond and the CSS Fredericksburg, each mounting six guns, and the CSS Virginia II, mounting four. There were five wooden gunboats carrying two guns each, and three torpedo boats equipped with long spars for delivering their explosives. Commodore John K. Mitchell commanded the fleet.
City Point was well protected. There was a bank to bank field of torpedoes which guarded the approaches, and 30 large guns mounted in shore forts and batteries. Union naval vessels patrolled, and the time of the attack, the twin turreted USS Onondaga Monitor, along with two gunboats and a torpedo vessel, were on station. Captain William A. Parker was in charge of the ships, Colonel Henry H. Pierce commanded the land guns.
150 years ago this evening the rebel flotilla departed Chaffin's Bluff, hoping to slip past the union batteries in the dark. Instead they were spotted and a gun duel ensued. The Confederates got by the first bastion, Fort Brady, because its guns had been poorly sighted and were only able to deliver a handful of shots before the rebels were out of range.
Then they hit the torpedo field, situated below Trench's Reach. The Confederate supporting vessels attempted to clear a path through it while the fleet was under heavy gunfire from the shore. This effort took the entire night and by morning, the Union ships had arrived. Captain Parker made the rather inexplicable decision to back away from a fight, sailing downriver to where he claimed there was more room to maneuver. An infuriated Grant heard about the disengagement and ordered Parker to return.
Meanwhile the rebel fleet cleared the mines, only to run aground in the morning low tide. They were stuck there, under continuous shore fire, until 11 am when the incoming tide finally refloated them. By then Parker and his ships had returned. There was a brief battle between the Onodaga and the Richmond, with the Union vessel scoring eight hits to the rebel's one. With two of the wooden gunboats sunk, and all three of the ironclads damaged to one degree or another, Commodore Mitchell decided to withdraw. That night the rebel fleet had to run the same gauntlet of fire, now in reverse. They arrived intact, but hurt, at Chaffin's bluff, having failed to ever get close enough to City Point to fire a shot.
It wasn't an especially bloody affair, ten dead and fifteen wounded for the Confederates, three dead and forty wounded for the Union. However, the rebel fleet had lost two ships and all three ironclads were in bad shape, especially the Virginia II which could not be steered properly.
The battler produced no real result save for the removal of Mitchell who was replaced in command of what remained of the James Squadron by privateering hero, Captain Rafael Semmes.
The Battle of Trent's Reach....CSS Virginia II In The Foreground, CSS Fredericksburg Behind It
4500 troops, what remained of the Army of Tennessee, arrived 150 years ago today in Augusta, Georgia. They were to be incorporated into a new command under General Joseph Johnston which included 20,000 more troops being collected from the two Carolinas, Georgia and Florida.
They had been under General Hardee, who himself was subordinate to theater commander General Beauregard. General Lee, now in the position of Supreme Commander of all Southern armies, did not trust Beauregard, nor did he believe Hardee up to the task of defeating General Sherman. President Davis would not have restored his hated enemy, Johnston, to such a lofty position, but Lee would and did.
Apart from the troops from the Army of Tennessee, none of those collected into what Johnston decided to name "The Army of the South" had much combat experience, nor had they ever fought together as a group. Complicating identification, in the final days before surrendering, Johnston reorganized the army and renamed it the "Army of Tennessee." The consequence was that people then, and it has continued since, tended to reference the Army of the South as The Army of Tennessee.
There was a cavalry branch under General Hampton, but they were short on horses. There was an artillery division, but they were short on guns, ammunition and wagons. While waiting to see where Sherman would strike, the army was still scattered. Johnston placed the Tennessee veterans under General Stewart. Hardee retained command of those troops he had led out of Savannah, an ad hoc collection of Carolina, Georgia and Florida militias now absorbed into the regular Confederate army. General Bragg retained command of a single division in North Carolina, the one which he had refused to commit to the fight for Fort Fisher. When assembled, the Army of the South's maximum strength would reach about 25,000 soldiers, around ten percent of them without arms.
These were the men who were to stop Sherman who would be launching his invasion of South Carolina in two days. Sherman had 60,000 battle hardened veterans, well equipped, well fed and well rested after a month in Savannah. Another 20,000 reinforcements would be joining Sherman's force via coastal delivery as he advanced. Morale was high among the Northern soldiers and they were eager to get started on giving South Carolina the sort of treatment which they, and their commander, felt was very much merited.
General Joseph Johnston...Commanding An Army Once More
It had first been proposed in Congress in December of 1863. It had passed in the US Senate the following April by a 36-6 vote, but in June a 93-65 vote in favor in the House of Representatives, fell short of the needed two thirds majority by thirteen votes.
The Republicans toned down the proposal somewhat, softening language which suggested complete negro equality, and with the mandate of the 1864 election which increased the number of Republicans in Congress, they tried again. It once more easily cleared the Senate, and 150 years ago today, by a vote of 119 to 56, the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution was passed by Congress. The amendment made slavery illegal on all US territory.
President Lincoln had made passage of the bill his number one priority during the time between his reelection and the start of his second term. To this end he dispatched his most trusted political operative, Secretary of State William Seward, and assigned him the job of finding enough Democrat votes to produce the needed two thirds majority. Seward made a wide array of political deals, including the promise of supporting those Democrats against Republican opponents in the next election. In some cases, Seward resorted to direct bribery. Exactly how deeply Lincoln was involved and informed of these corrupt measures, remains unknown.
Had the eleven southern states in rebellion been present in Congress, they would have had sufficient votes to kill the proposal. Ironically, by being absent in order to protect the institution of slavery, they enabled the passage of a law designed to kill it. Tt would be presented to the states for ratification on February 1st.
Among the loyal states, only Kentucky, New Jersey and Delaware would vote no ( and later change their votes after ratification had taken place.) Under pre war conditions, the southern states would have been able to block ratification, but the Radical Republicans cleverly tied accepting the 13th Amendment with re-admission to the Union for the states which had rebelled.
Lincoln's home state of Illinois would be the first to ratify and would do so on the first day available to vote...150 years ago tomorrow. Ten state legislatures would ratify before a week had passed. In another irony, it would be Georgia's ratification on December 6th, 1865, which gave the amendment its two thirds majority and made it part of the Constitution. The nine states which had originally rejected it, would all change their votes to yea in the three months following the measure becoming law.
General Sherman's advance through the Carolinas got underway 150 years ago today. Only Sherman and a handful of others were aware that their actual line of march was to be directed at the South Carolina capitol, Columbia.
Sherman marched with the wing commanded by General Howard which had already shifted to Beaufort, SC. They would move north appearing to threaten Charleston, but then swing west to unite with General Slocum's wing which was advancing from Savannah and posing a threat to Augusta, Georgia. The idea was to keep the scattered Confederate defenders...scattered, until the last possible moment.
Howard's troops had the tougher going at the start. His wing was advancing through swampy country, the rivers and streams of which were swollen by the heavy rains which had been falling for two weeks. This created a need for constantly corduroying roads and building ad hoc bridges, slowing the march so that some days they moved only two miles in a day.
Sherman's instructions were the same as he had issued before the march through Georgia. All property of military utility was to be destroyed or confiscated, civilian homes were, in theory, to be left alone. That this order would not be enforced with any more severity than it was in Georgia, was tipped by Sherman's instructions to his cavalry commander, General Kilpatrick. He had asked Sherman by what means he could let his commander know where he was in advance of the army. Sherman replied "Just burn a barn or something" and the smoke would reveal Kilpatrick's location.
Confirming this, on the first night of their march Sherman slept in the abandoned farm home of a Mrs. McBride. When Sherman exited the house the next morning he saw that his soldiers had set fire to all of the structures on the farm, and then put the torch to the main house as soon as Sherman was through using it. Sherman observed all of this and did nothing to stop it.
Sherman's major concern was not the feeble opposition that the rebels were trying to organize against him, rather he was worried that General Lee would abandon his defense of Richmond and come South to deal with Sherman. As he told his staff officers:
Quote:
"if Lee is a soldier of genius, he will seek to transfer his army from Richmond to Raleigh If he is a man of detail, he'll remain where he is, and his speedy defeat is sure."
The first fighting of General Sherman's Carolina Campaign took place 150 years ago today on General Howard's front.
1200 rebels under General Lafayette McLaws attempted to block the Union crossing of the Salkehatchie River in Bamberg County. Two Union Corps, under Generals Blair and Logan, built bridges on either flank, crossed over and forced McLaws to evacuate his position and fall back. Howard's advance was delayed by one day as a consequence at the cost of 97 Confederate casualties in the skirmishing which took place. The Federals suffered 124 dead and wounded.
The clash foreshadowed the difficulties the march would face, for after the Salkehatchie River, there would be the Edisto, the Congaree, the Wateree, Pee Dee, the Lumber, the Cape Fear and the Neuse, all major rivers, all with creeks and streams feeding into them and swampy ground surrounding them.
To overcome these obstacles the Federals had organized a special 6600 strong Pioneers Corps who were specialists in turning forests into bridges and corduroying the roads. (Coduroying a road meant laying down a series of cut timber pieces in the mud and covering them with dry sand.) It was the only way to prevent a march from being bogged down by stuck wagons and foundering horses or mules.
Even unopposed, the march would have been a difficult one.
Sherman's Troops Sloshing Their Way Through Swampy Footing Near the Salkehatchie River
After two months of static siege warfare, 150 years ago today the fighting around Petersburg resumed with another attempt to overrun the Boydton Plank Road and the Weldon Railroad , the last remaining supply routes for General Lee's army.
The Corps of Generals Humphries and Warren would advance near the southern end of the rebel lines to pin those forces down while General Gregg's cavalry attacked the Boydton Plank Road. Countering these moves was the Confederate Corps under General John Gordon.
It was the same pattern as in the previous attempts to cut these supply lines. Attacks, counter attacks, and after three days of fighting, the result would be more or less the same as the earlier efforts. The Federals would fall short of of taking possession of the road and the railway, but the battle would extend the defensive lines even further south and west, thinning out Lee's lines once more. For this incremental gain, the Union suffered a bit over 1500 casualties, the rebels lost around 1200.
While it would appear that nothing monumental resulted from this movement, in the books as the Battle of Hatcher's Run, Lee recognized Grant's strategy. The more ground Lee was forced to defend, the more extended and thinly held that ground would be. The Federals, with the ability to raise and supply more manpower, could easily cover their gains, while Lee had no replacements to fill in the new gaps. Sooner or later the line would become so thin that it could be broken. Lee pointed all of this out to President Davis in a letter, but Davis, with no resources to send to Lee's aid, could do nothing about it.
On this same day President Lincoln convened a full cabinet meeting to present a proposal. It called for designating 400 million dollars to be paid to the South as compensation for freeing all slaves, provided that they ceased their rebellion by April 1st and recognized the restoration of Federal power in the southern states.
The president received a total of zero votes in support, the entire cabinet united against the measure. Their attitude was that the war was going to be won within the next few months and the slaves would be freed without having to pay for it. There was also a general resentment to the idea of paying anything to those who had cost the government so much in blood and treasure by their rebellion. Lincoln never re-raised the matter.
The Battle of Hatcher's Run
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