From the 2023 May American Battlefield Trust calendar.
MAY 1, 1863
** Battle of Chancellorsville, Virgina, begins.
MAY 4, 1865
** Abraham Lincoln buried in Springfield, Illinois.
MAY 5, 1865
** Battle of the Wilderness, Virginia, begins.
MAY 8, 1864
** Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, Virginia, begins.
MAY 10, 1863
** Stonewall Jackson dies of pneumonia at Guinea Station, Virginia.
MAY 10, 1865
* Union troops capture a fleeing Jefferson Davis in Georgia.
--Old Secesh
From the February 2023 American Battlefield Trust calendar.
FEBRUARY 15, 1861
** The Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America establishes a Peace Commission to prevent war with the United States.
FEBRUARY 18. 1861
** Jefferson Davis inaugurated as President of the Confederate States of America.
FEBRUARY 20, 1864
** Battle of Olustee, Florida.
FEBRUARY 21, 1862
Battle of Valverde,New Mexico Territory.
FEBRUARY 22, 1865
** Union captures Wilmington, North Carolina, the last major southern port on the east coast.
FEBRUARY 23, 1861
** President-elect Abraham Lincoln, arrives in Washington, D.C.
--Old Secesh
Both Winfield Scott and General Wool were quite elderly when the war began. Winfield Scott had been in the War of 1812.
Lee had been in command of troops at Harpers Ferry when John Brown attacked because he was senior officer present. JEB Stuart also there.
One task Lincoln gave Scott was to escort Mary Todd Lincoln to New York City to prevent her from spending too much money.
Scott recommended Lee to be commander of U.S. forces. Lincoln accepted the recommendation and made Lee an offer which Lee turned down because of loyalty to his state, Virginia.
Scott came up with the Anaconda Plan to defeat the South by carving it up and setting a blockade off its coasts.
*************************
Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. Davis had an extensive military background and Lincoln didn't. Davis backed his commanding generals regardless of performance. Lincoln did not. They had different perspectives on their generals.
--Old Secesh
Continued from Dec. 4. These were from the July McHenry County (Illinois) Civil War Table Discussion group.
Whiting was very much involved in the defenses and action around Charleston Harbor in March and April 1861.
He, however, got in trouble with Confederate President Jefferson Davis for declining the command of a brigade of five Mississippi regiments. Further problems came for his being very outrspoken about his superiors' shortcomings as he perceived them.
Whiting was at the Seven Days battles after which Lee replaced him and assigned him to the military district at Wilmington, North Carolina.
Promoted to major general in February 1863. After that, he briefly tookover the defense of Petersburg in May 1864.
--Old Secesh
THE BATTLE OF CORINTH (October 3-4, 1862)
Confederate General Earl Van Dorn's force was attacked and defeated. Van Dorn was originally well-liked by the Confederacy, but his popularity was declining because of scandal, inpropriety and professional misconduct. He was a bit of a wild man.
As a result, he was replaced in command in the area by John C. Pemberton. Now he faced a Court of Inquiry by November 28. Every allegation against him was fully disproved. That despite Sen.James Phelan of Mississippi accusing him of whoring and drunkeness.
Jefferson Davis decided to keep Van Dorn in Mississippi.
--Old Secesh
From the May 2022 American Battlefield Trust calendar.
MAY 1, 1863
** Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia, begins.
MAY4, 1865
** Abraham Lincoln buried in Springfield, Illinois.
MAY 5, 1864
** Battle of the Wilderness, Virginia, begins.
MAY 8, 1864
** Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, Virginia, begins.
MAY 10, 1863
** Stonewall Jackson dies of pneumonia at Guinea Station, Virginia.
MAY 10, 1865
** Union troops capture a fleeing Jefferson Davis in Georgia.
MAY 12, 1863
** Battle of Raymond, Mississippi.
MAY 12, 1865
** Battle of Palmito Ranch, Texas, begins.
--Old Secesh
Zachary Taylor's daughter, Ann Mackall Taylor Wood, married Robert Crooke Wood, who remained with the Union during the war. They had two sons and a daughter, Robert Crooke Wood Jr, who I wrote about in the last two posts. Also there was a daughter, Sarah Knox Wood (1835-1915).
John Taylor Wood led quite a life and compiled a remarkable record as a Confederate Navy officer during the Civil War. I will write more about his service in my Running the Blockade: Civil War Navy blog.
A short synopsis is here.
Served in U.S. Navy after graduating from the USNA in 1853. Resigned his commission, but U.S. Navy dismissed him. His family relationship with Jefferson Davis (his aunt was the first wife of Davis and the fact he was the grandson of a former president) gave him great influence in the Confederacy.
Was a second lieutenant on the CSS Virginia in the Battle of Hampton Roads and fight against the USS Monitor. Led surprise attacks on Union ships in the Chesapeake Bay area. Commanded the CSS Tallahassee on a commerce raiding expedition along the American coast and captured and destroyed 31 union ships, captured the Union warship USS Underwriter at New Bern, N.C..
He was also with Jefferson Davis at his capture in Georgia. Escaping to Cuba, he then went to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and lived there the remainder of his life.
--Old Secesh
Some of the Civil War split between North and South involved the children of U.S. presidents.
One of President Zachary Taylor's sons, Richard, rose to the rank of lieutenant general in the Confederate Army and was a top figure in the Trans-Mississippi theater of the war. He surrendered his army on May 4, 1865, four weeks after Robert E. Lee.
Another of Taylor's children, Sarah, married future Confederate president Jefferson Davis in 1835 at the age of 21. At the time, Davis was serving in the U.S. Army under Taylor and Taylor forbade the relationship, saying, "I will be damned if another daughter of mine will marry into the Army."
Sarah came down with malaria later in 1835 and died. Taylor, who did in office in 1850, reportedly never forgave Davis for her loss.
In addition, one of Taylor's grandsons, John Taylor Wood, served on the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia in its famed battle with the USS Monitor in Hampton Roads in March, 1862. He was the son of Taylor's eldest daughter Ann. He also commanded the CSS Tallahassee in a very successful commerce raid along the U.S. coast. That ship left out of Wilmington, North Carolina.
He also had a brother who served in the Confederate Army named Robert Crooke Wood, Jr.
--Old Secesh
From the American Battlefield Trust.
FEBRUARY 4, 1861
** The seceded states meet in Montgomery, Alabama, to form a government.
FEBRUARY 5, 1861
** The Battle of Hatcher's Run, Virginia, begins.
FEBRUARY 8, 1861
** The Confederate States of America adopts a provisional constitution.
FEBRUARY 9, 1861
** Jefferson Davis elected provisional Confederate President.
FEBRUARY 15, 1861
** The Provisional Confederate Congress establishes a Peace Commission to avoid war with the United States.
--Old Secesh
From the Encyclopedia Virginia.
In the last post, I mentioned that Lt. J. Rudhall White who was killed at the Battle of Shepherdstown as a member of the 118th Pennsylvania Infantry was a native of Warrenton, Virginia, and had been a member of the famed Black Horse Cavalry before he threw in his lot with the Union.
The Black Horse Cavalry was conceived by a gathering of Warrenton lawyers in 1858 and was among the local militia groups called to active duty by Governor Henry Wise in 1859.
The Black Horse Cavalry led a successful charge against Union forces at the First Battle of Bull Run, winning the special praise of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Known as Company H of the 4th Virginia Cavalry, the unit served as bodyguard, escort and scout for generals Joseph E, Johnston and Stonewall Jackson.
Following the war, a number of men from the group became prominent leaders in the state.
--Old Secesh
From the April 2021 Civil War Times magazine by Dana B. Shoaf.
This flag recently sold at auction for $50,787.50.
The Confederate flag in question here is a curious hybrid of the United States banner and the Southern battle flag.
The colorful flag is 33" by 52" inches in size, is made of red, white and blue cotton fabric with13 white stars, for the seceded states and two border states, applied in an "X" pattern to each side of the canton.
Its exact origin is not known.
A similar version was carried by the 22md/20th Arkansas Infantry and is part of Little Rock's Old State House Museum.
It is also possible that the flag, sold by Heritage Auctions, is an early prototype for the Confederate National Flag, and was one of several designs considered by Confederate Jefferson Davis.
--Old Secesh
From the American Battlefield Trust 2021 February calendar.
FEBRUARY 2
GROUNDHOG DAY: I wonder if the groundhog saw his shadow on this date during the war.
FEBRUARY 4
1861 The seceded states meet in Montgomery, Alabama, to form a new government.
FEBRUARY 8
1861 The Confederate States of America adopts a provisional constitution.
FEBRUARY 18
1861 Jefferson Davis inaugurated President of the Confederate States of America.
FEBRUARY 20
1864 Battle of Olustee, Florida.
FEBRUARY 21
1862 Battle of Valverde, New Mexico Territory
--Old Secesh
The soldiers bivouacked at the Capitol in 1861 were from the states of New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia. Emotions were high and at one point the soldiers discovered that one of the desks in the Senate chamber had belonged to Jefferson Davis, who was now the president of the enemy, the Confederate States of America.
They went after the desk with their bayonets but were stopped by the Senate doorkeeper, Isaac Bennett who ran among them and told them it was not his (Davis') desk, that it belonged to the government. "You were put here to protect, and not to destroy!" he shouted. "They stopped immediately and said I was right, they thought it belonged to Jefferson Davis."
Some of the men had already encountered battle before arriving at the Capitol. The Sixth Massachusetts had run into an angry Confederate mob when they had arrived at nearby Baltimore.
When they arrived at the Capitol, the doorkeeper described them as "a tired, bedraggled lot of men, showing every evidence of the struggle they had so recently passed through."
--Old Secesh
Continued from September 24, 2020.
From the September 19, 2020, Commonwealth Times "VCU approves removal of on-campus Confederate names, symbols" by Eduardo Acevedo.
These are among the names that will be victims of Confederadication on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University:
McGUIRE HALL-- Named after Hunter H. McGuire, surgeon in the Confederate Army. Not only will the name be removed, but also all associated mentions and references to McGuire Hall.
GINTER HOUSE-- All mentions and commemorations of Lewis Ginter will be removed on Monroe Park and MCV campuses.
JEFFERSON DAVIS MEMORIAL CHAPEL-- on the 17th floor of West Hospital on MCV campus. It honors the Confederate president and Kathryn Wittichen, former president of the UDC. The chapel will be permanently de-commemorated, permanently closed and four plaques honoring Davis and Wittichen will be removed from the chapel and West Hospital.
TOMPKINS-McCAW LIBRARY-- Named for five members of the Tomkins and McCaw families. James McCaw and Sally Tompkins operated Confederate hospitals in Richmond during the war. The board voted to remove the name and all associated mentions of the Tompkins-McCaw from the library. they also voted for the removal of Confederate plaques and a portrait of John Syng Dorsey Cullen, a surgeon in the Confederacy, from the library.
WOOD MEMORIAL BUILDING-- Houses VCU's School, of Dentistry. Named after Judson B. Wood, a dentist and private in the Confederate Army. His name will be removed from the building , and all associated mentions and references will be removed from VCU's campuses.
--O;d Secesh
