American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

April 1, 1863 Wednesday
April 1863, began with minor skirmishes at Chalk Bluff and Clarendon, Arkansas; White River and Carroll County, Missouri; Columbia Pike, Tennessee; and near the mouth of Broad Run in Loudon County, Virginia. An engagement occurred at Rodman’s Point, North Carolina. April 1-5 Federals scouted from Linden to White River, Missouri. Federal expeditions in Tennessee from Murfreesboro to Lebanon, Carthage, and Liberty, and from Jackson to the Hatchie River lasted until April 8.

Longstreet’s command was reorganized by the Confederates to create the Department of North Carolina under Maj Gen D.H. Hill, the Department of Richmond under Maj Gen Arnold Elzey, and the Department of Southern Virginia under Maj Gen S.G. French.

Maj Gen Francis J. Herron superseded Brig Gen John M. Schofield in command of the Federal Army of the Frontier. William Babcock Hazen, USA, and John Bailie McIntosh, USA, were appointed to Brigadier General.

_________________
Gen Ned Simms
2/XVI Corps/AotT
Blood 'n Guts hisself, a land lovin' pirate. Show me some arty tubes and we'll charge 'em.
VMI Class of '00

April 2, 1863 Thursday
A mob crowded around a wagon in Richmond, demanding bread. What followed was the so-called “bread riot” of the Confederate capital. Exact causes are still obscure, but there was genuine want in Richmond and elsewhere in the beleaguered South. The unruly mob and allegedly disreputable citizens who gathered plundered other than bread as they broke into shops and purloined what met their fancy. President Davis addressed the throng from a wagon near the Capitol building, and threw them the money he had in his pocket. Careful action by militia and police dispersed the crowd and arrests were made without bloodshed. Although a minor incident, it gave pause to the Confederate government and was unsettling throughout the Confederacy.

Fighting included an engagement at Hill’s Point on Pamlico River in North Carolina. Skirmishing occurred on the Little Rock Road, Arkansas; on the Carter Creek Pike, and at Woodbury and Snow Hill, Tennessee; and an affair occurred in Jackson County, Missouri. April 2-6 there was a Union scout in Beaver Creek Swamp, Tennessee, and a reconnaissance by Federals from near Murfreesboro. A Federal expedition operated until the fourteenth to Greenville, Black Bayou, and Deer Creek, Mississippi.

Maj Gen O.O. Howard superseded Maj Gen Carl Schurz in command of the Eleventh Corps of the Army of the Potomac.

President Lincoln revoked exceptions to his August, 1861, proclamation banning commercial intercourse with insurgent states. Experience had shown, he said, that the proclamation as it was could not be enforced. Trading was restricted to that permitted by the Secretary of the Treasury.

Assistant Secretary Fox wrote Rear Admiral Farragut that President Lincoln, with characteristic understanding of how to use naval strength, was "rather disgusted with the flanking expeditions [at Yazoo Pass and Steele's Bayou], and predicted their failure from the first. . . . he always observed that cutting the Rebels in two by our force in the river was of greater importance. . . . Grant . . . has kept our Navy trailing through swamps to protect his soldiers when a force between Vicksburg and Port Hudson, the same length of time, would have been of greater injury to the enemy."

Lincoln informed Secretary Welles that Farragut had to be strengthened. Welles accordingly wrote Rear Admiral Du Pont to send all but two of his ironclads to New Orleans after the Charleston attack.

President Davis, in response to criticism of Northern-born Gen Pemberton, wrote, “by his judicious disposition of his forces and skilful selection of the best points of defence he has repulsed the enemy at Vicksburg, Port Hudson, on the Tallahatchie and at Deer Creek, and has thus far foiled his every attempt to get possession of the Mississippi river and the vast section of country which it controls.”

_________________
Gen Ned Simms
2/XVI Corps/AotT
Blood 'n Guts hisself, a land lovin' pirate. Show me some arty tubes and we'll charge 'em.
VMI Class of '00

April 3, 1863 Friday
President Davis wrote to Gov Harris Flanagin of Arkansas regarding the Mississippi Valley, “if we lost control of the Eastern side, the Western must almost inevitable fall into the power of the enemy. The defense of the fortified places on the Eastern bank is therefore regarded as the defense of Arkansas quite as much as that of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana.” Gov Milledge L. Bonham of South Carolina asked the legislature for measures to halt increasing speculation and hoarding of flour, corn, bacon, and other goods.

President Lincoln told Gen Hooker that he planned to visit the Army of the Potomac that weekend. Lincoln's traveling companions include his wife Mary, their son Tad, Attorney General Edward Bates, and journalist Noah Brooks. At Reading, Pennsylvania there was an uproar over the arrest of four men alleged to be members of the pro-Southern Knights of the Golden Circle.

Operations were confined to a four-day expedition through Logan and Cabell counties, West Virginia and a five-day scout from Carrollton to Yellville, Arkansas both by Federals.

An armed boat expedition of sailors and Marines under Acting Lieutenant McCauley, U.S.S. Fort Henry, reconnoitered the Bayport, Florida, area. The boats stood in for Bayport on the evening of the 2nd, arriving off the city the next morning. The first launch, exhibiting the "sluggish" qualities that were to be trying throughout the reconnaissance, slowed the expedition's progress through the intricate channel. "This waste of time," McCauley reported, "gave the rebels leisure to make all preparations for our reception." Two Confederate sloops and two small schooners ran into a bayou and grounded seeking to avoid destruction. Sloop Helen, carrying corn, was captured south of the harbor and destroyed. The Union boat crews engaged and forced the evacuation of a defending battery, and the Confederates burned a schooner with cargo of cotton. McCauley reported: "Having gained my object in her destruction and the clearing of the battery, the disabling of two of my guns, the unwieldiness of the first launch, which made it difficult to bring her gun to bear; the uncertainty of aim in the sea that was running, and consequent waste of ammunition, and the warnings of Mr. Ashley, the pilot, that if the ebb tide found us there we should be left aground, made me give up my design of trying to set the vessels in the bayou on fire by shelling." The boats withdrew out of range of a rifled gun which the Confederates brought up. In the next week the expedition examined the Chassahowitzka, Crystal, Homosassa, Withlacoochee, Waccassassa, and Suwannee Rivers, as small boats carried the message of seapower where deeper draft vessels could not pass.

Expedition under Lieutenant Commander Fitch, including U.S.S. Lexington, Brilliant, Robb, Silver Lake, and Springfield, destroyed Palmyra, Tennessee, in retaliation for Confederate guerrillas firing on a Union convoy (2 April), crippling U.S.S. St. Clair and damaging Army transports Eclipse and Luminary.

U.S.S. New London, commanded by Lieutenant Commander Abner Read, and U.S.S. Cayuga, commanded by Lieutenant Commander David A. McDermut, captured blockade running British schooner Tampico off Sabine Pass with cargo of cotton.

_________________
Gen Ned Simms
2/XVI Corps/AotT
Blood 'n Guts hisself, a land lovin' pirate. Show me some arty tubes and we'll charge 'em.
VMI Class of '00

April 4, 1863 Saturday
Federal forces failed to capture a strong Confederate battery in an engagement at Rodman’s Point, not far from Washington, North Carolina. Skirmishes occurred at Woodbury, on the Lewisburg Pike, and on Nonconnah Creek near Memphis, Tennessee and at Richmond, Louisiana. The latter involved forces of Grant’s command, who were moving from Milliken’s Bend toward New Carthage, Louisiana on the west side of the Mississippi River.

President Lincoln and his party consisting of Mrs. Lincoln and Tad, Noah Brooks, California journalist, Dr. Henry, Atty. Gen. Bates, and Capt Medorem Crawford of Oregon leave Navy Yard about 5 P.M. aboard steamer "Carrie Martin." Snowstorm forces them to stop for night in cove on Potomac opposite Indian Head, Md.

Rear Admiral Du Pont issued his order of battle and plan of attack on Charleston: ". . . The Squadron will pass up the main ship channel without returning the fire of the batteries on Morris Island, unless signal should be made to commence action. The ships will open fire on Fort Sumter when within easy range, and will take up a position to the northward and westward of that fortification, engaging its left or northeast face at a distance of from 600 to 800 yards firing low and aiming at the center embrasure. The commanding officers will instruct their officers and men to carefully avoid wasting shot and will enjoin upon them the necessity of precision rather than rapidity of fire. Each ship will be prepared to render every assistance possible to vessels that may require it. The special code of signals prepared for the ironclad vessels will be used in action. After the reduction of Fort Sumter it is probable that the next point of attack will be the batteries on Morris Island. The order of battle will be the line ahead. . . . A squadron of reserve, of which Captain J. F. Green will be the senior officer, will be formed outside the bar and near the entrance buoy, consisting of the following vessels, Canandaigua, Housatonic, Huron, Unadilla, Wissahickon, and will be held in readiness to support the ironclads when they attack the batteries on Morris Island."

C.S.S. Alabama, commanded by Captain Semmes, captured ship Louisa Hatch off the coast of Brazil with large cargo of coal. Semmes took the prize with him so that he would still have a means of obtaining a supply of coal if he failed to rendezvous as planned with the bark Agrippina at Fernando de Noronha Island. Semmes' foresight again paid off, for the bark did not arrive at the island. After coaling and provisioning from Louisa Hatch, Semmes burned her on 17 April.

_________________
Gen Ned Simms
2/XVI Corps/AotT
Blood 'n Guts hisself, a land lovin' pirate. Show me some arty tubes and we'll charge 'em.
VMI Class of '00

April 5, 1863 Sunday
President Lincoln conferred with Gen Hooker. There were skirmishes at Davis’ Mill, Tennessee and near New Carthage, Louisiana. Two-day Federal scouts operated from La Grange, Tennessee to Early Grove and Mount Pleasant, Mississippi and from Grand Junction to Saulsbury, Tennessee.

With ironclads and enough steamers to take them in tow if knocked out of action, Rear Admiral Du Pont departed North Edisto for Charleston, arriving off the Confederate stronghold that afternoon. As a last step before the assault, preparations were made to buoy the Stono bar to fix a safe channel. U.S.S. Patapsco, Commander Ammen, and U.S.S. Catskill, Commander George Rodgers, remained inside the bar to protect the buoys.

_________________
Gen Ned Simms
2/XVI Corps/AotT
Blood 'n Guts hisself, a land lovin' pirate. Show me some arty tubes and we'll charge 'em.
VMI Class of '00

April 6, 1863 Monday
President Lincoln, at Hooker’s headquarters, about this date expressed his opinion of military strategy in Virginia. In a memorandum he wrote, “our prime object is the enemies’ army in front of us, and is not with, or about Richmond….”

At Liverpool the British government seized the Confederate vessel Alexandria which was fitting out in the British harbor. Near New Carthage, Louisiana on the Mississippi River, skirmishing continued, and fighting broke out at Town Creek, Alabama; Nixonton, North Carolina; and Burlington, Purgitsville, and Goings’ Ford, West Virginia. Near Green Hill, Tennessee a Federal dash captured a few Confederates and destroyed a stillhouse with forty casks of liquor.

Commander Balch, U.S.S. Pawnee, reported that the Stono Bar had been buoyed, preparatory to the assault on Charleston. Rear Admiral Du Pont crossed the bar, his flag in U.S.S. New Ironsides, commanded by Captain Turner. Intending to attack Charleston that day, the Admiral took the other ironclads in with him: U.S.S. Passaic, commanded by Captain Drayton; Weehawken, commanded by Captain J. Rodgers; Montauk, commanded by Captain Worden; Patapsco, Commander Ammen; Catskill, Commander G. Rodgers; Nantucket, Commander Donald McD. Fairfax; Nahant, Commander John Downes; and Keokuk, Commander Alexander C. Rhind. After reaching an anchorage inside the bar, Du Pont reported, ". . . the weather became so hazy, preventing our seeing the ranges, that the pilots declined to go farther."

Captain William F. Lynch, CSN, wrote Senator George Davis of North Carolina from Wilmington regarding the status of ships building in the waters of that state: "One ironclad, the North Carolina, building here, is very nearly ready for her crew. . . . The other, the Raleigh, is now ready for her iron shield, and can in eight weeks be prepared for service, as far as the material is concerned. At Whitehall, upon the Neuse, we have a gunboat [Neuse] in nearly the same state of forwardness as the Raleigh; at Tarboro we have one with the frame up, the keel of one [Albemarle] is laid near Scotland Neck. . . ."

U.S.S. Huntsville, commanded by Acting Lieutenant W. C. Rogers, captured sloop Minnie off Charlotte Harbor, Florida, with cargo of cotton.

_________________
Gen Ned Simms
2/XVI Corps/AotT
Blood 'n Guts hisself, a land lovin' pirate. Show me some arty tubes and we'll charge 'em.
VMI Class of '00

April 7, 1863 Tuesday
Nine Federal ironclads under Flag Officer Samuel Du Pont steamed into Charleston Harbor and attacked Fort Sumter in the afternoon. Both Sumter and Fort Moultrie returned the fire. U.S.S. Weehawken was struck 53 times in 40 minutes, Passaic 35 times, Montauk 47 times, Nantucket 51 times, Patapsco 47 times. Other vessels were similarly hit and damaged. Confederates threw 2209 shells compared with 154 from the ironclads. Battered by the forts and endangered by obstructions and torpedoes or mines, the Federal fleet withdrew, five vessels disabled. At darkness Du Pont decided that Charleston could not be taken by naval force alone. Fort Sumter suffered severe damage to its walls and casemates, which nonetheless were readily repaired. U.S.S. Keokuk, hit ninety times, sank the next morning. Casualties were light on both sides.

Confederate Joseph Wheeler raided the Louisville and Nashville and the Nashville and Chattanooga railroads in Tennessee, April 7-11. Other fighting included skirmishes at Liberty, Tennessee and at Dunbar’s Plantation near Bayou Vidal, Louisiana. Federals operated from Gloucester Point to Gloucester Court House, Virginia. On the Amite River in Louisiana the Federal steamer Barataria was attacked and captured while making a reconnaissance. U.S.S. Barataria, commanded by Acting Ensign James F. Perkins, on a reconnaissance mission with troops embarked, struck a snag in Lake Maurepas, Louisiana, and was destroyed by her crew to prevent capture.

_________________
Gen Ned Simms
2/XVI Corps/AotT
Blood 'n Guts hisself, a land lovin' pirate. Show me some arty tubes and we'll charge 'em.
VMI Class of '00

April 8, 1863 Wednesday
McClernand’s men continued operations below Milliken’s Bend around New Carthage on the Mississippi River. In addition to preparing roads and bringing in supplies, skirmishing was frequent, including a brief fight at James’ Plantation. Skirmishing occurred on the Millwood Road near Winchester, Virginia and at St Francis County, Arkansas.

President Lincoln reviewed portions of Hooker’s army at Falmouth across the Rappahannock from Fredericksburg.

U.S.S. Gem of the Sea, commanded by Acting Lieutenant Baxter, seized blockade running British schooner Maggie Fulton off Indian River Inlet, Florida. "I am confident," Baxter reported to Rear Admiral Bailey, "that no vessels have run in or out of either Jupiter or Indian River inlets since the 6th of March, 1863, as our boats are in the river whenever the bar will permit them to cross."

_________________
Gen Ned Simms
2/XVI Corps/AotT
Blood 'n Guts hisself, a land lovin' pirate. Show me some arty tubes and we'll charge 'em.
VMI Class of '00

April 9, 1863 Thursday
A day of small operations with skirmishes at Sedalia, Missouri; White River, Arkansas; Franklin, and near the Obion River, Tennessee; Berwick Bay, Louisiana; Gloucester Point, Virginia; and Blount’s Mills, North Carolina. Halbert Eleazer Paine, USA, and Hector Tyndale, USA, were appointed to Brigadier General.

_________________
Gen Ned Simms
2/XVI Corps/AotT
Blood 'n Guts hisself, a land lovin' pirate. Show me some arty tubes and we'll charge 'em.
VMI Class of '00

April 10, 1863 Friday
“Let fields be devoted exclusively to the production of corn, oats, beans, peas, potatoes, and other food for man and beast; let corn be sown broadcast for fodder … and let all your efforts be directed to the prompt supply of these articles in the districts where our armies are operating;” wrote President Davis, concurring with congressional opposition to planting of cotton and tobacco. In a proclamation, the Confederate President said, “Alone, unaided, we have met and overthrown the most formidable combination of naval and military armaments that the lust of conquest ever gathered together for the subjugation of a free people…. We must not forget, however, that the war is not yet ended, and that we are still confronted by powerful armies and threatened by numerous fleets; and that the Government which controls these fleets and armies is driven to the most desperate efforts to effect the unholy purposes in which it has thus far been defeated.” Meanwhile, President Lincoln reviewed XI and XII Corps and visited Gen Oliver O. Howard's headquarters at Falmouth, Virginia and left Aquia Creek for Washington in the afternoon. He Invites Gens Sickles and Schurz to accompany the party to Washington.

Confederates under Earl Van Dorn attacked Federals at Franklin, Tennessee in a sharp engagement, but a counterattack forced the Confederates to withdraw ( http://civilwargazette.wordpress.com/20 ... l-10-1863/ ). Skirmishing on Folly Island, South Carolina; an expedition from Humboldt to Cottonwood, Kansas; and a two-day Federal scout from La Grange, Tennessee into Mississippi, completed the day’s activities. Colonel Ferris Forman, 4th California Infantry, assumes command of the Federal District of Southern California.

An expedition led by Lieutenant Commander Selfridge of U.S.S. Conestoga cut across Beulah Bend, Mississippi, and destroyed guerrilla stations that had harassed Union shipping on the river.

Boat crew under Lieutenant Benjamin F. Day from U.S.S. New London, while reconnoitering Confederate strength in the Sabine City area, captured a small sloop and four prisoners, including Captain Charles Fowler, who had commanded C.S.S. Josiah Bell when U.S.S. Morning Light and Velocity were captured in January 1863.

Landing party under Acting Master John C. Dutch, U.S.S. Kingfisher, captured Confederate pickets on Edisto Island, South Carolina.

_________________
Gen Ned Simms
2/XVI Corps/AotT
Blood 'n Guts hisself, a land lovin' pirate. Show me some arty tubes and we'll charge 'em.
VMI Class of '00

April 11, 1863 Saturday
Longstreet’s Confederate corps from the Army of Northern Virginia advanced upon Suffolk, south of the James, beginning a siege of nearly a month ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Suffolk ). Scouts and skirmishes filled the day with action at Williamsburg, and on the South Quay Road near the Blackwater in Virginia; near Pattersonville, Louisiana; La Grange to Saulsbury, Tennessee; Courtney’s Plantation, Mississippi; Webber’s Falls, Indian Territory; and near Squirrel Creek Crossing, Colorado Territory. In West Virginia from this day to the eighteenth Federals scouted from Beverly to Franklin. In Utah Territory there was an expedition by Federals against the Indians, April 11-20 from Camp Douglas to the Spanish Fork Canon.

Out from Nashville Col A.D. Streight ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abel_Streight ) moved with a force of seventeen hundred Federal cavalry on a raid to operate deep into Georgia.

President Lincoln, just returned from the camps of Hooker’s Army of the Potomac, conferred with Cabinet members and Gen Halleck on military problems.

General Beauregard, believing that a renewal of the naval attack on Charleston was imminent, wrote Lieutenant Webb, CSN, regarding an offensive measure to remove this threat: "Upon further reflection, after the discussion of yesterday with Captain Tucker and yourself, I think it would be preferable to attack each of the enemy's seven iron-clads (six monitors and one ironsides), now inside the bar, with at least two of your spar-torpedo row-boats, instead of the number (six in all) already agreed upon. I believe it will be as easy to surprise at the same time the whole of those iron-clads as a part of them. . . . about dark on the first calm night (the sooner the better) I would rendezvous all my boats at the mouth of the creek in the rear of Cummings Point, Morris Island. There I would await the proper hour of the night, which should not be too late, in order to take advantage of the present condition of the moon. . . . Having arrived at the point of the beach designated [opposite the fleet] I would form line of attack, putting my torpedoes in position, and would give orders that my boats should attack by twos any monitor or ironsides they should encounter on their way out, answering to the enemy's hail 'Boats on secret expedition' or merely 'Contrabands'. I feel convinced that with nerve and proper precaution on the part of your boats' crews, and with the protection of a kind Providence, not one of the enemy's monsters, so much boasted of by them, would live to see the next morning's sun." The next day, however, the Union ironclads withdrew outside the bar, foiling the proposed torpedo attack.

_________________
Gen Ned Simms
2/XVI Corps/AotT
Blood 'n Guts hisself, a land lovin' pirate. Show me some arty tubes and we'll charge 'em.
VMI Class of '00

April 12, 1863 Sunday
President Lincoln received a letter from Gen Hooker proposing to outflank Lee’s army, opposing Hooker on the Rappahannock River. Hooker would move across the river, turn the Confederate left, and use cavalry to sever connections with Richmond.

In Louisiana there was an affair on the Amite River. Skirmishing and reconnaissances occurred at Stewartsborough, Tennessee; from Gloucester Point to the vicinity of Hickory Forks, Virginia; Edenton, Providence Church, and Somerton Roads, Virginia and from Winchester up the Cedar Creek Valley of Virginia. In the Far West a Federal expedition operated against marauding Indians to the twenty-fourth from Camp Babbitt to Keysville, California.

Blockade running steamer Stonewall Jackson, attempting to get into Charleston, dashed past U.S.S. Flag and Huron. The blockaders poured a hail of shell after her, several of which holed her hull. Her commander finding escape impossible, Stonewall Jackson was run aground and destroyed with her cargo, including Army artillery and some 40,000 Army shoes.

The crew of a launch under Acting Master George C. Andrews, CSN, which had left Mobile on 6 April, captured steamboat Fox in the coal yard at Pass l'Outre, Mississippi. Andrews succeeded in running Fox into Mobile through the blockaders' fire on 15 April.

_________________
Gen Ned Simms
2/XVI Corps/AotT
Blood 'n Guts hisself, a land lovin' pirate. Show me some arty tubes and we'll charge 'em.
VMI Class of '00

April 13, 1863 Monday
President Lincoln ordered Adm Du Pont to hold his position inside the Charleston Harbor bar. The President had expressed anxiety over the failure of the Federal ironclads in their operations against the South Carolina port. In the Department of the Ohio, Gen Burnside ordered the death penalty for anyone guilty of aiding the Confederates and also ordering deportation of Southern sympathizers to Confederate lines.

Fighting flared in widely separated areas: at Porter’s and McWilliams’ plantations at Indian Head, Louisiana; Chapel Hill, Tennessee; Elk Run and Snicker’s Ferry, Virginia. Banks’ Federals assaulted Fort Bisland on Bayou Teche, Louisiana in a heavy engagement. The Confederates withdrew during the night. Federals carried out expeditions to the twenty-first from New Berne to Swift Creek Village, North Carolina.

U.S.S. Annie, commanded by Acting Ensign James S. Williams, captured schooner Mattie off the Florida Gulf coast.

_________________
Gen Ned Simms
2/XVI Corps/AotT
Blood 'n Guts hisself, a land lovin' pirate. Show me some arty tubes and we'll charge 'em.
VMI Class of '00

April 14, 1863 Tuesday
Federal troops marched into evacuated Fort Bisland, Louisiana on Bayou Teche. The Confederates burned two of their own gunboats and the former Federal gunboat Queen of the West, veteran of so many engagements, was destroyed by Federal naval fire.

Also in Louisiana there was an engagement at Irish Bend, and a skirmish at Jeanerette. In Virginia, not far from Suffolk, an engagement was fought at the mouth of the West Branch near the Norfleet House on the Nansemond River. As two days of heavy fighting near Suffolk, Virginia, closed, Lieutenant Cushing informed Rear Admiral S. P. Lee that U.S.S. Mount Washington had been temporarily disabled and grounded under heavy fire but had been brought off by U.S.S. Stepping Stones. Cushing's own ship, U.S.S. Commodore Barney, had been raked heavily by a Confederate shore battery, but he wrote: "I can assure you that the Barney and her crew are still in good fighting trim, and we will beat the enemy or sink at our post." The gunboats repeatedly drove Confederate gunners from their rifle pits, only to see them return when the ships' fire slackened. The gunboats were a decisive factor in the Confederates' inability to move across the river to surround the Union troops. In the vicinity of Rappahannock Bridge, and at Kelly’s, Welford’s, and Beverly fords, Virginia, cavalry of Hooker’s army carried out operations. Again President Lincoln impressed upon his officers the need for remaining before Charleston.

U.S.S. Sonoma, Commander Stevens, captured schooner Clyde in the Gulf of Mexico with cargo of cotton and rosin.

U.S.S. Huntsville, commanded by Acting Lieutenant W. C. Rogers, took blockade running British schooner Ascension off the Florida Gulf coast.

Commander Charles F. M. Spotswood wrote Commander Mitchell concerning service on ironclad C.S.S. Georgia on the Savannah station: ". . . anything that floats at sea will suit me. . . . for being shut up in an Iron Box (for she is not a vessel) is horrible, and with no steam power to move her, in fact she is made fast here to a pile pier. . . . She is not a fit command for a Sargent of Marines.

C.S.S. Missouri was launched at Shreveport, Louisiana. Though the steamer mounted six guns, she never saw action and remained above the obstructions in the Red River until war's end.

_________________
Gen Ned Simms
2/XVI Corps/AotT
Blood 'n Guts hisself, a land lovin' pirate. Show me some arty tubes and we'll charge 'em.
VMI Class of '00

April 15, 1863 Wednesday
Grant’s forces continued to move from Milliken’s Bend on the Mississippi River to below Vicksburg, skirmishing near Dunbar’s Plantation on Bayou Vidal, Louisiana. Confederate troops withdrew from their siege of Washington, North Carolina begun March 30, on the approach of a Federal relieving force. For the second day troops engaged near the Norfleet House, Virginia not far from Suffolk. A skirmish occurred at Piketon, Kentucky; and an expedition operated from La Grange to Saulsbury, Tennessee. Banks’ Federals occupied Franklin, Louisiana. From this day to May 2, Federals carried out an expedition from Corinth, Mississippi to Courtland, Alabama.

President Lincoln expressed concern to Gen Hooker over the slowness of Gen Stoneman’s cavalry operations on the Rappahannock.

C.S.S. Alabama, commanded by Captain Semmes, captured whalers Kate Cory and Lafayette off the island of Fernando de Noronha, Brazil. Semmes burned Lafayette this date and Kate Cory two days later.

U.S.S. Monticello, commanded by Lieutenant Commander Braine, captured schooner Odd Fellow near Little River, North Carolina, with cargo of turpentine and rosin.

U.S.S. William G. Anderson, commanded by Acting Lieutenant Frederic S. Hill, took schooner Royal Yacht in the Gulf of Mexico with cargo of cotton.

_________________
Gen Ned Simms
2/XVI Corps/AotT
Blood 'n Guts hisself, a land lovin' pirate. Show me some arty tubes and we'll charge 'em.
VMI Class of '00