March 1, 1865 Wednesday
As the month of March opened, General Grant was preparing for a massive spring attack against General Lees lines defending Richmond. Throughout the North optimism ran high and the feeling prevailed that the offensive would be the final thrust and that Grant would take Richmond. It was widely believed that the Confederacy was on the threshold of defeat. Since the beginning of the new year, Charleston and Wilmington had fallen, scaling off the South from the sustaining flow of supplies from Europe. Moreover, General Sherman's army had devastated the heart of the Confederacy in its march through Georgia and South Carolina; by the end of February Sherman was preparing to enter North Carolina. The Union's confidence was further fed by the wide spread knowledge that General Lee and Confederate officials were openly grappling with the problem of desertions. During the winter these had become considerable as men became concerned about their families in areas invaded by the Union armies. Finally, Lee further revealed his hardpressed position by appealing to the civilian population to search their households for any spare guns, cutlasses, equestrian gear and tools.
The Southern spirit, on the other hand, remained unshaken by what was regarded in the North as portents of defeat. The Richmond Daily Examiner editorialized on March 1: "We cannot help thinking that 'our friends, the enemy,' are a little premature in assuming the South to be at their feet. There are Southern armies of magnitude in the field, and Richmond, the capitol, is more impregnable at this hour than it has been at any period of the war."
A week later the Richmond Daily Dispatch expressed its confidence in the Confederate cause by comparing the South's position in the spring of 1865 with that of the American patriots in 1781. "In the American Revolution," wrote the editor, "three-fourths of the battles were gained by the British [and they] held all the major seaports and cities. They marched through South Carolina, precisely as Sherman is doing now. They had the most powerful empire in the world at their back; had the aid of armed tories in every county; they excited the blacks to insurrection; and let loose the scalping knife of the Indian. . . . What is there in our condition as gloomy, as terrible, as protracted, as the long and dreary wilderness through which they marched to freedom and independence?"
The cavalry of Philip Sheridan, moving rapidly south in the Shenandoah Valley in pursuit of remnants of Jubal Early’s force, skirmished near Mount Crawford, Virginia. Sherman pushed slowly but firmly ahead in South Carolina, with skirmishing at Wilson’s Store. Federal troops moved out from Baton Rouge until Mar 12 to Jackson and Clinton, Louisiana; another expedition operated from Gravelly Springs to Florence, Alabama until Mar 6. A skirmish occurred near Philadelphia, Tennessee. Alexander William Campbell, CSA, and Ellison Capers, CSA, are appointed to Brigadier General. Brigadier General Douglas H. Cooper (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_H._Cooper ), CSA, assumes command of the Confederate District of the Indian territory, and the superintendency of Indian Affairs. Brigadier General Benjamin H. Grierson (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Grierson ), USA, is assigned command of the Federal Military Division of West Mississippi. Major General Jacob D. Cox (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Dolson_Cox ), USA, assumes command of the Federal District of Beaufort, South Carolina.
The Thirteenth Amendment was still a prime subject in the North. Wisconsin ratified the amendment, but New Jersey rejected the measure to abolish slavery constitutionally.
President Jefferson Davis sent a Resolution adopted by the Confederate Congress to Mr. John Lancaster of England thanking him for his gallant and humane conduct in the rescue of Captain Raphael Semmes and 41 of his officers and men after the sinking of C.S.S. Alabama by U.S.S. Kearsarge (see 19 June 1864). It was particularly gratifying to the Confederacy that Lancaster's yacht Deerhound had sailed for England with the rescued Confederates rather than turning them over to Kearsarge as would have been customary under international law. This incident became even more galling for the Union Navy after Semmes and his officers were socially lionized during their stay in England.
Rear Admiral Dahlgren, upon receiving the report that his naval forces had occupied Georgetown, South Carolina, decided to proceed there and have a personal "look at things." He inspected the formidable but evacuated Fort White and the four companies of marines which held Georgetown. This date, Dahlgren's flagship Harvest Moon was steaming down Georgetown Bay enroute Charleston; the Admiral was awaiting breakfast in his cabin. "Suddenly, without warning," Dahlgren wrote in his diary, "came a crashing sound, a heavy shock, the partition between the cabin and wardroom was shattered and driven in toward me, while all loose articles in the cabin flew in different directions. . . . A torpedo had been struck by the poor old Harvest Moon, and she was sinking." The flagship sank in five minutes, but fortunately only one man was lost. The Admiral got off with only the uniform he was wearing.