June 24, 1863 Wednesday
Longstreet’s and A.P. Hill’s corps of the Army of Northern Virginia began crossing the Potomac River in order to join Ewell in Maryland and then invade Pennsylvania (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg_Campaign ). A skirmish broke out at Sharpsburg, Maryland.
Rosecrans, moving forward in middle Tennessee, fought Bragg’s men at Middleton, near Bradyville, Big Springs Ranch, and Christiana. June 24-26 saw skirmishes at Hoover’s Gap, and June 24-27 at Liberty Gap, Tennessee.
On the third front, the situation inside Vicksburg grew more and more serious; Federal shelling continued and the people suffered from lack of food and other supplies. With reinforcements, the Federal grip became even stronger.
Skirmishes flared at Mound Plantation and near Lake Providence, Louisiana and at Bayou Boeuf Crossing and Chacahoula Station in western Louisiana.
Gen Hooker, at Headquarters of the Army of the Potomac, wrote Washington that he would send a corps or two across the Potomac, make Washington secure, and then strike on Lee’s probably line of retreat. He asked for orders, since, he said, except in relation to his own army, “I don’t know whether I am standing on my head or feet.”
Brigadier General Benjamin Franklin Kelley, USA, assumes command of the newly created Federal Department of West Virginia. Rear Admiral Dahlgren was detached from duty at the Washington Navy Yard and as Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance and ordered to relieve Rear Admiral Du Pont at Port Royal in command of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. Originally, the Navy Department ordered Rear Admiral Foote to the Blockading Squadron, but the hero of the western waters suffered a relapse from his long illness occasioned by the wound sustained at Fort Donelson and was unable to accept the command.
C.S.S. Tacony, commanded by Lieutenant Read, captured ship Shatemuc, from Liverpool to Boston with a large number of emigrants on board. Read bonded her for $150,000. Tacony later captured fishing schooner Archer. "As there were now a number of the enemy's gunboats in search of the Tacony," Read wrote, "and our howitzer ammunition being all expended, I concluded to destroy the Tacony, and with the schooner Archer to proceed along the coast with the view of burning the shipping in some exposed harbor, or of cutting out a steamer." Therefore, the next morning Read, applied the torch to the Tacony and stood in for the New England coast with Archer.
U.S.S. Sumpter, commanded by Acting Lieutenant Peter Hays, collided with transport steamer General Meigs in heavy mist near Hampton Roads and sank.