American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

November 11, 1864 Friday
Federals at Rome, Georgia destroyed bridges, foundries, mills, shops, warehouses, and other property of use to the enemy, and started off for Kingston and Atlanta. The railroad in and about Atlanta and between the Etowah and the Chattahoochee rivers was ordered destroyed. Garrisons from Kingston were sent to take up the rails from Resaca back toward Chattanooga. Action included skirmishes at Shoal Creek, Alabama; at Russellville, east Tennessee; at Manassas Junction and near Kernstown, Virginia; and a two-day Federal scout from Springfield, Missouri to Huntsville and Yellville, Arkansas. William Montague Browne, CSA, is appointed to Brigadier General.

At a Washington Cabinet meeting the sealed document disclosing Lincoln’s doubts about the election and pledging Cabinet members to support the President-elect after the election was opened. This had been signed, unread, by the Secretaries Aug 23.

Commander Henry K. Davenport, U.S.S. Lancaster, captured Confederates on board steamer Salvador, bound from Panama to California, after having been informed that they intended to seize the ship at sea and convert her into a raider. Salvador's captain had warned naval authorities at Panama Bay that the attempt was to be made, and Davenport and his men arranged to search the baggage of the passengers after the vessel passed the territorial limits of Panama. The search revealed guns and ammunition, along with a commission from Secretary Mallory for the capture; the Confederates were promptly taken into custody. This daring party, led by Acting Master Thomas E. Hogg, CSN, was one of many attempting to seize Union steamers and convert them into commerce raiders, especially with a view toward capturing the gold shipments from California. Union warships usually convoyed the California ships to prevent their capture.

U.S.S. Wachusett, under Commander Collins, arrived at Hampton Roads with the captured commerce raider C.S.S. Florida.

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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

November 12, 1864 Saturday
Sherman’s army now “stood detached and cut off from all communication with the rear.” Four corps totaling 60,000 infantry, plus about 5500 artillery, were ready for one of the great military adventures. Sherman sent his last message to Gen Thomas and began to concentrate his force toward Atlanta. In that city the Federals were at work destroying the city, except for houses and churches. Far to the north, in the Shenandoah Valley, action picked up briefly as Early’s and Sheridan’s men fought at Newton or Middletown, and at Cedar Creek and Ninevah, Virginia. Out in Missouri troops skirmished near Centreville. C.S.S. Shenandoah, commanded by Lieutenant Waddell, seized and bonded clipper ship Kate Prince and brig Adelaide in mid-Atlantic near the equator.

_________________
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

November 13, 1864 Sunday
Confederates in the Shenandoah Valley moved back to New Market and a good portion of Early’s force was detached to strengthen the siege lines at Richmond and Petersburg. Since June Early marched some 1670 miles and fought 75 engagements of one kind or another. The 1864 Valley Campaign was to suffer by comparison with Jackson’s in 1862, but, considering the condition and size of the Confederate force and the strength of Sheridan’s opposition, it had been a memorable attempt to bring the war closer to the North. As happened so often these days, conflict with Indians flared, this time at Ash Creek near Fort Larned, Kansas. In Missouri Federals carried out a four-day scout against guerrillas in Pemiscot County.

C.S.S. Shenandoah commanded by Lieutenant Waddell, captured and burned schooner Lizzie M. Stacey in mid-Atlantic near the equator with cargo of pinesalt and iron. Lizzie's mate, an unabashed Irishman, told Waddell: ". . . my hearty, if we'd had ten guns aboard her, you wouldn't have got us without a bit of a shindy, or if the breeze had been a bit stiffer, we'd given her the square sail, and all hell wouldn't have caught her." Two of the schooner's seamen joined Shenandoah's crew voluntarily and another was impressed. She was the last prize the raider would take for some three weeks.

_________________
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

November 14, 1864 Monday
Sherman’s 60,000 men were in and around Atlanta, preparing to depart for the coast. The cavalry of Judson Kilpatrick had already started toward Jonesborough and McDonough. Slocum took the Twentieth Corps out to Decatur and Stone Mountain, burning bridges and tearing up railroads as other units went to work in Atlanta itself. Sherman wanted to make sure that Atlanta’s military, manufacturing, and communications facilities could not be immediately reactivated by the Confederates.

Meanwhile, Thomas was getting his troops in Tennessee into position, with John M. Schofield ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Schofield ) commanding two corps at Pulaski, south of Nashville. Near Florence, Alabama Hood prepared for his northward march and waited for Forrest to come in from Corinth, Mississippi. A skirmish near Russellville, Tennessee marked John C. Breckinridge’s operations in southwest Virginia and east Tennessee. Otherwise there was a minor brush on Cow Creek, Kansas.

President Lincoln accepted the resignation of Maj Gen George B. McClellan and named Sheridan to the rank of Major General in the Regular Army. Lincoln wrote Maj Gen Stephen A. Hurlbut in Louisiana that there appeared to be “bitter military opposition to the new State Government of Louisiana.” He called for cooperation by Federal officers with the new civil government. On Nov 29 Hurlbut replied that Lincoln was misinformed and added that the new government had done nothing “to protect and prepare the emancipated bondsmen for their new status & condition.”

_________________
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

November 15, 1864 Tuesday
As most of Sherman’s men moved out from Atlanta on their March to the Sea, others finished laying waste to the city, creating desolation and a scar that has never been fully erased from the hearts of the people of Georgia. Light skirmishing between militia and cavalry broke out near Atlanta at Jonesborough, East Point, near Rough and Ready, and at Stockbridge. Otherwise the action was near Collierville, Tennessee and at Clinton, Louisiana. Joseph Benjamin Palmer, CSA, is 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

November 16, 1864 Wednesday
Gen William T. Sherman, riding with the Fourteenth Corps, left Atlanta, signaling the real start of the new campaign in Georgia. Behind him was a smoking city, its economy in ruins, what people remained desolate and bitter. Since Sherman had cut communications with the rear, the North would hear little of him for weeks to come. Sherman’s force encountered only light opposition from militia and a few cavalry units. Skirmishing, heavier at first than later in the campaign, occurred at Lovejoy’s Station, Bear Creek Station, and Cotton River Bridge. “My first object was, of course, to place my army in the very heart of Georgia,” Sherman wrote.

On the Tennessee River front in northern Alabama skirmishes occurred along Shoal Creek. Forrest brought his cavalry in from Corinth, Mississippi to join Hood at Tuscumbia and Florence. In east Tennessee Breckinridge’s Confederates skirmished at Strawberry Plains before pulling back into southwest Virginia. There was a skirmish near Lee’s Mill, Virginia; plus several Federal expeditions: Nov 16-23 from Brookfield to Salisbury, Missouri; and Nov 16-25 from Cape Girardeau to Patterson in Wayne County, Missouri. The expeditions were designed to counter guerrilla activities, for Federals could not occupy in force the vast territory they had cleared of major Confederate armies. Nov 16-18 Federals scouted from Devall’s Bluff to West Point, Arkansas. Dudley McIver DuBose, CSA, is 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

November 17, 1864 Thursday
Sherman’s troops headed east and south toward the Georgia coast, taking four routes to confuse the enemy. However, there was not much in the way of any enemy to confuse. A small affair did occur at Towaliga Bridge, Georgia. Meanwhile, skirmishing increased in northern Alabama, with fighting near Maysville and New Market. Breckinridge’s Confederates skirmished at Flat Creek, east Tennessee. Federal expeditions operated from Brashear City to Bayou Portage, Louisiana and from Little Rock too Fagan’s Ford on the Saline River, Arkansas. Godfrey Weitzel, USA, is appointed to Major General.

President Lincoln told a Maryland committee, according to a Washington paper, that he was gratified at the election results and that it confirmed “the policy he had pursued would be the best and the only one that could save the country.”

President Davis wrote to a group of Georgia state senators expressing strong objection to any suggested possibility of separate state action for peace negotiations.

_________________
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

November 18, 1864 Friday
Sherman’s army marched generally between the Ocmulgee and Oconee rivers in Georgia. Sherman himself was with the left wing. Heavy storms and other still unexplained factors had delayed Hood’s advance into Tennessee, but he was now about to begin. Skirmishing flared at Fayette, Missouri and Kabletown, West Virginia.

President Davis told Gen Howell Cobb at Macon to “get out every man who can render any service even for a short period” to oppose Sherman and to employ Negroes in obstructing roads.

_________________
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

November 19, 1864 Saturday
Gov Joe Brown of Georgia called for men between the ages of sixteen and fifty-five to oppose Sherman, but to no significant avail. President Lincoln ordered the blockade lifted at Norfolk, Virginia, Fernandina and Pensacola, Florida. Federals fought Indians near Plum Creek Station, Nebraska Territory and a skirmish took place at Duckett’s Plantation near Paint Rock River, Alabama. A Union expedition moved from Terre Bonne to Bayou Grand Caillou, Louisiana.

C.S.S. Chickamauga, commanded by Lieutenant Wilkinson, ran the blockade into Wilmington under cover of heavy fog. He has miscalculated his position the day before and successfully run through the blockade to Masonboro Inlet instead of New Inlet. Wilkinson dropped down the coast and early in the morning of the 19th anchored under the guns of Fort Fisher to await high tide when Chickamauga could cross the bar and stand up Cape Fear River to Wilmington. As the fog lifted, blockaders U.S.S. Kansas, Wilderness, Cherokee, and Clematis opened on what they at first took to be a grounded blockade runner. Chickamauga broke the Confederate flag and returned the fire, joined by the heavy guns of Fort Fisher. Fog and the range of the Fort's guns thwarted efforts to destroy the cruiser; by mid-morning Chickamauga was safely in the river and nearing Wilmington.

_________________
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

November 20, 1864 Sunday
Sherman’s advancing army skirmished with cavalry, militia, and “pickup” troops at Clinton, Walnut Creek, East Macon, and Griswoldville, Georgia. Federals skirmished with Indians near Fort Zarah, Kansas.

_________________
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

November 21, 1864 Monday
John Bell Hood moved his Army of Tennessee out from Florence, Alabama and headed for Tennessee. His object was to get between the Federals at Pulaski and Nashville. Benjamin F. Cheatham’s ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_F._Cheatham ) corps led, going to Rawhide, Alabama. Stephen D. Lee ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_D._Lee ) and A.P. Stewart ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_P._Stewart ) followed, accompanied by Forrest’s cavalry. The Confederates numbered some 30,000 infantry plus 8,000 cavalry. On the other major front, Sherman’s forces defeated Georgia state troops at Griswoldville ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Griswoldville ), and skirmishing broke out near Macon, at Gordon, near Eatonton and Clinton, Georgia. None of these actions significantly hampered Sherman’s advance.

President Abraham Lincoln wrote a letter to be known the world over, although the original manuscript has disappeared.

To Mrs. Lydia Bixby he wrote that he had learned she was the mother “of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.

“I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.”

“I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom.” The President’s eloquence was misplaced, for only two sons had been killed, two were said to have deserted, and the fifth was honorably discharged.

U.S.S. Iosco, under Commander John Guest, captured blockage running schooner Sybil with cargo of cotton, at sea off the North Carolina coast.

Boats from U.S.S. Avenger, commanded by Acting Lieutenant Charles A. Wright, captured a large quantity of supplies on the Mississippi River near Bruinsburg, Mississippi, after a brief engagement. Union gunboats maintained a vigilant patrol to prevent Confederate supplies from crossing the Mississippi River for the armies in Alabama and Tennessee.

_________________
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

November 22, 1864 Tuesday
Gen Slocum’s wing of Sherman’s army occupied the Georgia state capital at Milledgeville. Howard and Kilpatrick were in or near Gordon. The Georgia legislature passed a levy en masse for troops and fled. The first stage of Sherman’s campaign had been more than successful. Georgia was in ferment, nearly powerless to oppose the Federals. Yankee “bummers” and foragers operated far and wide along the paths of the various corps, taking what they needed and a lot they did not need, occasionally burning and looting, particularly if residents had departed. The unenviable reputation that would endure permanently was being made. Another fight broke out at Griswoldville.

In the Confederate advance toward Nashville there was action at Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. Schofield pulled back north from Pulaski toward Columbia since the Confederates at Lawrenceburg were in a position to flank him and get in his rear. Minor action flared at Front Royal and Rude’s Hill, Virginia and Federals scouted from Devall’s Bluff to Augusta, Arkansas.

President Davis wired officers in Georgia “that every effort will be made by destroying bridges, felling trees, planting sub-terra shells and otherwise, to obstruct the advance of the enemy.” Supplies in danger were to be destroyed. Bragg was told to go to Georgia from Wilmington to join Hardee, Beauregard, and others.

_________________
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

November 23, 1864 Wednesday
Schofield’s Union force in Tennessee moved northward from Pulaski toward Columbia. A few miles to the west, Hood’s Confederates advanced toward the same place. There was skirmishing at Henryville, Fouche Springs, and Mount Pleasant, Tennessee.

In Georgia much of Sherman’s army was grouped in and around the state capital at Milledgeville, where there was yet another skirmish. Other skirmishes occurred at Ball’s Ferry and the Georgia Central Railroad Bridge on the Oconee River. Gen William J Hardee ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J._Hardee ) took command of troops opposing Sherman, a difficult assignment, since he did not know Sherman’s intended route and had too few troops to block even one road.

Elsewhere, the action included skirmishes at Morganza, Louisiana; an expedition by Federals lasting until Dec 10 from Fort Wingate against Indians in New Mexico Territory; and a Federal expedition from Vicksburg to Yazoo City, Mississippi which lasted until Dec 4. Gen Grant and other officers conferred with the President, Sec Stanton, and Gen Halleck in Washington.

_________________
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

November 24, 1864 Thursday
Moving before daylight, Schofield’s Union force marched northward on the road from Pulaski, Tennessee toward Columbia. Jacob D. Cox got to Columbia first; he found a skirmish going on between Federals and Forrest’s cavalry and drove the Confederates away. Schofield followed with the rest of his force to Columbia, beating Hood’s Army of Tennessee to the important river crossing on the main road to Nashville. The Federals took a strong position south of the Duck River. Action at Campbellsville and at Lynnville, Tennessee also marked the campaign.

Skirmishes took place at St Charles, Arkansas and near Prince George Court House, Virginia. Federal Att Gen Edward Bates, who had gradually found himself out of place in the Cabinet, resigned.

In Georgia Sherman continued on from Milledgeville. Referring to Sherman, President Davis told Gen W.J. Hardee, “When the purpose of the enemy shall be developed, every effort must be made to obstruct the route on which he is moving, and all other available means must be employed to delay his march, as well to enable our forces to be concentrated as to reduce him to want of necessary supplies.”

U.S.S. Chocura, commanded by Lieutenant Commander Meade, sighted schooner Louisa and chased her ashore on the bar off San Bernard River, Texas. A heavy gale totally destroyed the schooner before she could be boarded.

_________________
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

November 25, 1864 Friday
The public was not aware just what Sherman was doing in Georgia; as least he had departed Atlanta for the sea. They were uncertain, too, just what was up in Tennessee south of Nashville. But they did learn the details of a flamboyant, somewhat harebrained scheme to set fire to New York City.

Confederate agents, arranged for in Canada, set fires in ten or more New York hotels and in Barnum’s Museum. None of the hotel fires was at all successful and the blaze at Barnum’s caused little more than excitement. Help from the Copperheads in New York was not forthcoming, and there were even rumors that the chemist who compounded the combustibles purposely made them defective. Southern agent R.C. Kennedy was later captured and hanged for setting the fire at Barnum’s.

Sherman’s troops moved toward Sandersville, Georgia where Slocum’s men skirmished with Wheeler’s cavalry before entering the town on Nov 26. At Columbia, Tennessee, Schofield was entrenching both south and north of the Duck River, while Hood was delayed in getting his force to Columbia. Fighting occurred against Indians at Plum Creek Station, Nebraska Territory, and Adobe Fort on the Canadian River, New Mexico Territory. There was also an affair at Raccourci, near Williamsport, Louisiana.

_________________
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