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On the last day of February, General Custer had routed his long time friend, General Rosser, from his position defending the Middle River bridge near Mount Crawford. Custer had sent regiments upstream and downstream from the bridge. The troopers swam their horses across and fell on the flanks of Rosser's 300 man command. Badly outnumbered, Rosser's force attempted unsuccessfully to fire the bridge before fleeing. Custer's troopers extinguished the flames and rode across in pursuit of General Early's tiny army.
So confident in Custer's ability to handle whatever he encountered moving south, General Sheridan then exercised the discretion which General Grant had left him in his orders. Grant had advised that Sheridan continue south until he linked up with General Sherman's forces advancing through North Carolina, but left the final decision in Sheridan's hands. Sheridan determined that he would rather be in on the finish of General Lee's army than marauding around the Carolinas with Sherman, so he turned the rest of his cavalry army east and headed for Petersburg.
Custer's division was 2500 troopers strong and 150 years ago today he came upon the remains of Early's force at Waynesboro, 1600 men divided into two brigades and dug in on the side of a low ridge. Custer rolled his horse artillery to the front and began bombarding the enemy to hold his attention to the center. Meanwhile, a dismounted regiment, armed with repeating rifles, made their way around Early's left flank. At 3:30 pm the flankers struck, simultaneous to Custer sending two brigades forward in the center.
Early's men held but for a few minutes before the entire line cracked and ran. Early had chosen his position poorly in terms of a retreat, the South River was to his rear and there was but a single bridge across it. As the rebels funneled toward this crossing, Custer's men rode among them, scooping up prisoners by the dozen. Early and his staff of fifteen men managed to make their escape, another 80 soldiers got away as well, but the Army of the Valley was eliminated entirely with Custer bagging 1500 prisoners and all of the army's artillery, wagons and baggage. All this had cost Custer but nine casualties among his men.
This was the last organized bloodshed in the Valley which had seen so much of it over the past three years. Early wrote to Lee, offering to start recruiting men to rebuild the army, but Lee no longer had any confidence in the man whose last four battles had ended with his men running from the field. Of course being the sensitive gentleman that he was, Lee let Early down as easily as possible, writing to him:
Quote:
While my own confidence in your ability, zeal, and devotion to the cause is unimpaired, I have nevertheless felt that I could not oppose what seems to be the current of opinion, without injustice to your reputation and injury to the service. I therefore felt constrained to endeavor to find a commander who would be more likely to develop the strength and resources of the country, and inspire the soldiers with confidence. ... [Thank you] for the fidelity and energy with which you have always supported my efforts, and for the courage and devotion you have ever manifested in the service ...
Early's war was over. He would flee to Cuba after the rebel surrender and not return to the US until he was pardoned by President Johnson in 1868. He would remain an unreconstructed rebel to his dying day, and like General Hood, would publish memoirs which excused himself of all blame associated with his failures in the Valley. He would die at the age of 61 in 1877, after receiving severe injuries in a fall down a flight of stairs, becoming at last, the late Jubal Early.
Sheridan crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains and carried out his orders to destroy the locks for the James River Canal. He would continue on south, rejoining Grant's command at Petersburg on the 26th, in time to play a critical role in the final defeat of Lee.
The Battle of Waynesboro...Final Clash In The Valley
The Union had grown so confident that the final victory was near that 150 years ago today it began to turn its attention to the post war environment.
Sponsored by President Lincoln, Congress passed an act which established the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, which became commonly called "The Freedmen's Bureau." It set up the structure which was to have overall supervisory powers in the South for the first year after the war concluded. It would be headed by the deeply religious, one armed pre-war abolitionist, General Oliver Howard.
The function was to find employment and housing for ex slaves, as well as providing emergency aid for those left in conditions of starvation. It would set up a series of schools for the former slaves and would assist them in locating displaced family members.
The Bureau, extended beyond its first year by Congress, was the first in the series of reconstruction acts which would begin remaking the defeated South, but eventually would be overturned by the white southerners who employed the Black Codes and KKK terror to take away the gains that blacks were making as a consequence of the Bureau's assistance.
The Bureau would be an active force for the first few years, lose a lot of its steam by 1870, and be out of business completely by 1872. Its one legacy of effectiveness was the survival of a number of black colleges which were created under the Bureau's supervision, the most well known of which is Howard University, named for the supervising general. Thurgood Marshall is perhaps the most famous of its graduates which have included UN Ambassador Andrew Young and Mayor David Dinkins of New York.
Elsewhere on this day, General Grant , under direct instructions from the president, had to give a thumbs down to proposed direct peace talks with Grant which General Lee had hoped to start. It was made unambiguously clear to Grant that his authority in peace matters extended no further than accepting the surrender of enemy armies. Grant had no problem with this, but his friend General Sherman would get into a heap of trouble when he would later attempt this sort of thing with General Johnston in North Carolina.
Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office to commence his second term 150 years ago today. In his first inaugural address in 1861 he had been seeking some means for avoiding war until the "better angels of our nature" restored nationwide love of the Union. Now he was speaking from a position of advantage, the war almost having been won, but the president did not call for celebration or revenge. Instead his second address had reconciliation as its theme.
He began with a succinct summary of what had brought everyone to the present state of affairs.
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On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil-war. All dreaded it -- all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war -- seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide effects, by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.
But Lincoln did not place the blame all on the South, instead he explained that slavery had been the sin of the nation as a whole and the war the price being paid for that sin by both sides.
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Fondly do we hope -- fervently do we pray -- that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether"
The president's vision for post war America closed the short speech.
Quote:
With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.
This was Lincoln, the man of character, who in his greatest opportunity for self promotion, the salvation of the Union, scorned the victory dance in favor of humility and forgiveness.
Lincoln would serve but 42 days in his second administration. The man responsible for this abbreviated term, attended today's event.
Lincoln ( lower circle) Delivering His Second Inaugural Address. Watching From Above (upper circle) Was John Wilkes Booth
Having captured Wilmington, NC, the next step in General Schofield's operations was to move inland toward Goldsboro for the planned link up with General Sherman's forces as they passed. In that Goldsboro was the next obvious target for Schofield's army, General Johnston decided that it was the proper place to finally concentrate the elements of his Army of the South, which meant bringing General Hardee's force north to unite with that of General Bragg who was already in the vicinity after retreating from Wilmington.
While waiting for Johnston and Hardee, Bragg's 8500 men were what was available to try and stop, or at least slow Schofield's advance. Bragg entrenched his army along Southwest Creek east of Kinston, a blocking position between Schofield and Goldsboro. 150 years ago today the advance elements of Schofield's force, under General Jacob Cox, came upon Bragg's position.
Bragg determined that the best defense would be a surprise offense and on this day he was at first successful. He hit the Union left flank with a brigade under General Robert Hoke and the rebels were able destabilize Cox's line, capturing a regiment and sending the rest reeling back. Bragg then acted quickly to put in reserves to exploit the breakthrough, but here the rebel manpower shortages became a factor. The troops in the reserve were composed of unblooded militia and they chickened out. They advanced, decided that they wanted no part of the combat, and went to ground, refusing to go further. This broke the momentum of Bragg's attack, allowing Cox to bring up his reserves and restore the line.
The two sides would spend the next two days skirmishing only, until the 10th when Bragg made a second attempt to turn the Yankee's left flank. By this time Cox's line was strong and filled with artillery. The attack was beaten back with heavy losses and Bragg ordered a withdrawal from the field. Bragg lost about 1500 of his 8500 present, Schofield's army suffered about 1100 casualties from the 12,000 men of Cox's division.
The fight, called the Battle of Wyse Fork, served to delay Schofield's advance, but could not stop it.
Artist's Depiction Of The Fight
Marie Boozer was the 19 year old daughter of the four times married Mrs. Amelia Sees Harned Burton Boozer Feaster. Mrs. Featser was 37 years old and widely viewed as one of the most attractive women in South Carolina. The most attractive, it was generally agreed, was Marie.
They were wealthy residents of Columbia who each day took a carriage ride around the city in what residents had come to call "The Beauty Box." Both women were northern sympathizers, and in fact Amelia had become estranged from her fourth husband when he had enlisted in the Confederate army. When Sherman's troops arrived in the capitol city, they were able to be more open in their embracing of the northern cause.
Their home had been one of the ones destroyed in the fire that swept the city the night of Sherman's arrival, so when the Yankee army departed, the two ladies accompanied them in their carriage. Numerous Union officers vied for the honor of escorting the women, but command has its privileges and it was the hard drinking, prostitute frequenting General Kilpatrick who decided to make the ladies his special protective project. Now they traveled with the general and before long, Kilpatrick and Marie were conducting a not at all well hidden affair. Many times on the march Kilpatrick had dismounted from his horse and ridden in the Beauty Box with his new lover, his head in her lap and his boots sticking outside the carriage window.
150 years ago today Kilpatrick and one of his three brigades were camped by the Pee Dee River near the NC/SC border. His troops had been pursuing the undermanned cavalry under General Hampton, but now Hamilton learned that Kilpatrick had divided his force and he determined to strike the lone brigade in raid at dawn.
The rebel attack was a complete surprise, catching the Federals just before reveille. Hearing the sudden noise of the assault, Kilpatrick jumped from the bed he was sharing with Marie and raced outside in his nightshirt just as three rebel horseman rode up and demanded of him where they could find General Kilpatrick's headquarters. Kilpatrick directed them to a spot down the road, and when they had left, he made a run for the cover of a nearby swamp.
The surprise of the attack had sent the Union camp into great chaos, but after a time it became apparent to the Union men that there actually were not all that many rebels involved in the raid. The Yanks began to rally and using their repeating rifles, eventually drove the Confederates back and retook their camp. Kilpatrick was able to emerge from hiding. A terrified Marie Boozer had watched the fight from a ditch where a Union officer had deposited her for safe keeping.
The humiliated Kilpatrick reported 19 dead, 75 wounded and 103 captured. The rebels claimed to have captured more than 350. Their own losses were particularly heavy among the higher ranking officers. Three generals had been wounded and one of the attacking brigades had lost every single one of their field officers. The basic strategic situation was unaltered by the scrape.
The action was enough to cure Marie and her mother of their attachment to the army, and they broke away, headed for the coast and took ship north on a Federal packet. Marie would go on to marry a wealthy northern industrialist, divorce him in a public scandal, then move to Europe and marry a French count where she became the belle of European society.
And then she seems to have vanished from history, some said she had become the mistress of Japan's prime minister. Another story insisted that she had become the concubine of a Chinese warlord who forced her to fatten up to 300 pounds to prevent her running away. There is also a claim that she died in Italy in 1908.
Marie Boozer
General Sherman brought the war to North Carolina interior 150 years ago today, the first time the Yankees had appeared in that state anywhere other than their coastal penetrations.
The day before the citizens of Fayetteville, in the path of Sherman's advance, had gone through several mood swings. In a state of panic over the pending arrival of Sherman, they had suddenly swarmed out into the streets in joy as rebel cavalry arrived, to save them they were certain. The next morning when General Hampton and a dozen troopers charged boldly at a company of Federal horsemen who were scouting in advance, and sent them fleeing, the townspeople once more went wild with celebration, as if that was all there was to repelling Sherman's army.
Then the Union infantry arrived, the rebel cavalry grabbed the food that the joyous townspeople had brought out into the streets for them, and fled. The town reverted to their original panic mode. Sherman rode in and made his headquarters at the old US Arsenal, which now sported the stars and stripes for the first time in more than four years. It would not last long, Sherman had the arsenal blown up when the Federals departed, with Sherman commenting "I hope the people of Washington will have the good sense to never trust North Carolina with an arsenal again."
Edward Monagan was a Fayetteville resident who had been a classmate of Sherman's at West Point. When Union soldiers began looting his home, he sought an audience with Sherman, confident that their past friendship would secure an intervention on his behalf.
Monagan was waiting at Sherman's headquarters when the general rode up and dismounted. Monagan approached with a big smile and open arms. For a moment Sherman's face glowed with happy familiarity, but then his expression changed.
"We were friends, weren't we?" Sherman asked, "You shared my friendship and my bread, didn't you?"
"Oh, yes" Monagan happily agreed.
"You have betrayed all" Sherman went on "betrayed me, your friend, betrayed the country that educated you for its defense. And you, a traitor, asking me to be your friend once more, to protect your property...
...turn your back on me forever, I won't punish you. Only go your way."
The following day the US Navy tug Davidson would steam up the Cape Fear River to Fayetteville, opening the supply line by sea for Sherman.
While Sherman was occupying Fayetteville, his opponent General Johnston was trying to get his Army of the South assembled as one unit for the first time, bringing General Hardee's force north to unite with the division under General Bragg which had been knocked out of Wilmington. Both wings of Johnston's army had to hurry north to get in front of Sherman, so that they could retreat before him.
Johnston had a fatalistic attitude about his job. He believed that the only reason that he had once more been given command was so that he would be the man left having to hand over his sword in surrender. He knew his tiny, inexperienced army had no hope of frustrating Sherman's progress, He had confided these thoughts to famed diarist Mary Chestnut who recorded that Johnston had passed the time with her explaining all the mistakes that had been made by Lee, Jackson and especially President Davis. He left leaving Mrs. Chestnut with the feeling that "..his sympathies are on the other side."
Marie Boozer was the 19 year old daughter of the four times married Mrs. Amelia Sees Harned Burton Boozer Feaster. Mrs. Featser was 37 years old and widely viewed as one of the most attractive women in South Carolina. The most attractive, it was generally agreed, was Marie.
They were wealthy residents of Columbia who each day took a carriage ride around the city in what residents had come to call "The Beauty Box." Both women were northern sympathizers, and in fact Amelia had become estranged from her fourth husband when he had enlisted in the Confederate army. When Sherman's troops arrived in the capitol city, they were able to be more open in their embracing of the northern cause.
Their home had been one of the ones destroyed in the fire that swept the city the night of Sherman's arrival, so when the Yankee army departed, the two ladies accompanied them in their carriage. Numerous Union officers vied for the honor of escorting the women, but command has its privileges and it was the hard drinking, prostitute frequenting General Kilpatrick who decided to make the ladies his special protective project. Now they traveled with the general and before long, Kilpatrick and Marie were conducting a not at all well hidden affair. Many times on the march Kilpatrick had dismounted from his horse and ridden in the Beauty Box with his new lover, his head in her lap and his boots sticking outside the carriage window.
150 years ago today Kilpatrick and one of his three brigades were camped by the Pee Dee River near the NC/SC border. His troops had been pursuing the undermanned cavalry under General Hampton, but now Hamilton learned that Kilpatrick had divided his force and he determined to strike the lone brigade in raid at dawn.
The rebel attack was a complete surprise, catching the Federals just before reveille. Hearing the sudden noise of the assault, Kilpatrick jumped from the bed he was sharing with Marie and raced outside in his nightshirt just as three rebel horseman rode up and demanded of him where they could find General Kilpatrick's headquarters. Kilpatrick directed them to a spot down the road, and when they had left, he made a run for the cover of a nearby swamp.
The surprise of the attack had sent the Union camp into great chaos, but after a time it became apparent to the Union men that there actually were not all that many rebels involved in the raid. The Yanks began to rally and using their repeating rifles, eventually drove the Confederates back and retook their camp. Kilpatrick was able to emerge from hiding. A terrified Marie Boozer had watched the fight from a ditch where a Union officer had deposited her for safe keeping.
The humiliated Kilpatrick reported 19 dead, 75 wounded and 103 captured. The rebels claimed to have captured more than 350. Their own losses were particularly heavy among the higher ranking officers. Three generals had been wounded and one of the attacking brigades had lost every single one of their field officers. The basic strategic situation was unaltered by the scrape.
The action was enough to cure Marie and her mother of their attachment to the army, and they broke away, headed for the coast and took ship north on a Federal packet. Marie would go on to marry a wealthy northern industrialist, divorce him in a public scandal, then move to Europe and marry a French count where she became the belle of European society.
And then she seems to have vanished from history, some said she had become the mistress of Japan's prime minister. Another story insisted that she had become the concubine of a Chinese warlord who forced her to fatten up to 300 pounds to prevent her running away. There is also a claim that she died in Italy in 1908.
Marie Boozer
Kilpatrick was Gloria Vanderbilt's great grandfather, great great grandfather to Anderson Cooper.
We had previously seen how the Confederate House of Representatives had passed a measure legalizing the recruitment of slaves to be used as soldiers in the rebel army. That bill had been derailed in the Senate but President Davis had continued pushing for it and 150 years ago a slightly modified version did pass the Confederate Senate.
It had been hung up in the Senate over the issue of offering freedom for the slave volunteers as a reward for their service. Davis, backed on this by General Lee, had insisted that unless freedom was offered the slave soldiers would rapidly desert to the other side as soon as an opportunity presented itself, knowing that the northerners did offer freedom. The opponents argued that the idea of the central government passing a law which usurped the property rights of the slave owners flew in the face of the entire idea behind the rebellion.
The result was a compromise. The bill which was passed called for each state to retain the power to make freedom for enlisted slaves an option. It was the best that Davis could get and he immediately signed the bill into law, but not before delivering a dressing down of Congress for having delayed the measure so long. Nevertheless, there it was. Four years and one day after launching a war to establish an independence which would permit them to preserve their rights to be slave owners, the South now was willing to free slaves in order to preserve that independence. The political structure was created to protect the rights of slave ownership, and now slave ownership was being put at risk to protect that structure.
Davis turned out to be right about the fatal nature of the delay. Richmond would fall three weeks from this day, and the process of recruiting and training slaves as soldiers had only just begun when the war came to an end. None of slaves recruited under this law would ever see any combat.
General Johnston's Army of the South was finally assembled 150 years ago today, and fighting resumed as General Sherman's army departed Fayettevile, targeting Goldsboro but feinting toward Raleigh with General Slocum's wing to keep the rebels off balance.
The Army of the South was composed of General Hardee's mix of mostly militia troops with some veteran units, around 9000 men, General Bragg's command of about 5000 which had unsuccessfully tried to defend Wilmington and the Cape Fear River, the 5000 cavalry under Generals Hampton and Wheeler, and the 4500 veterans of the Army of Tennessee under General Stewart, who had managed to reach North Carolina. 23, 500 soldiers, many of questionable quality, to stop Sherman and his 60,000, who now were being reinforced by another 20,000 under General Schofield.
While the Army of the South suffered terribly from want of supplies (to every request made by Johnston he received the same reply from Richmond...all that was available was going to General Lee's besieged command in Virginia), the newly formed army enjoyed a surfeit of high ranking officers. Under his command Johnston had Bragg, another full general, and Hardee, a lieutenant general, two officers who despised one another. There were two other lieutenant generals, fourteen major generals, and a couple of dozen brigadiers. It was a classic case of too many Hermans and not nearly enough Hermits. There were also an outsized number of flags. Instead of combining casualty/desertion reduced units into normal sized divisions, the structure was left intact even though there were now company sized regiments, regiment sized brigades and brigade sized divisions. At least all these small commands did provide employment for the excess of officers.
In the early afternoon, General Kilpatrick's cavalry, scouting in advance of Sherman's march, had been engaged in the usual skirmishing with General Wheeler's grey horse soldiers. On the road to Raleigh near the village of Averasboro, Kilpatrick's men were brought to a halt when they came upon ranks of infantry blocking the road. Badly outnumbered, Kilpatrick threw up breastworks and dug in to try and hold until Sherman's infantry could arrive.
The opposition consisted of a newly formed division under General Taliaferro, composed of the heavy artillerymen who lost their relatively cushy posting when Charleston was evacuated. Now they were handed rifles and told that they were infantrymen. Despite their lack of combat experience, they wound up giving a surprisingly good account of themselves. They held a strong defensive position on a small peninsula bordered by the Cape Fear and Black Rivers, blocking the road to Raleigh. Not content to wait behind their barricades, Taliaferro sent them forward in a spirited series of attacks while Kilpatrick's men fought desperately to hold on until help arrived.
It came just as the sun was setting, an infantry brigade under General Hawley arrived, followed shortly by the Division of General Williams. When the former heavy gunners renewed the attacks the next day, they were thrown back with heavy casualties. Skirmishing continued throughout the day, and the rebels withdrew that night. They had fought bravely, losing 865 to the Federal's 682 casualties, and handed Sherman's troops their first real combat test since the fighting around Atlanta.
Among those captured in the battle was quite possibly the most arrogant man on either side. This was Colonel Albert Rhett, the son of wealthy Congressman Barnwell Rhett. Until recently, Albert Rhett had been the commander of Fort Sumter's garrison. Now a group of Kilpatrick's troopers penetrated the rear areas and came across the young Colonel dressed in one of the most expensive looking uniform they had ever seen. Taking the horsemen to be rebel cavalry, Rhett began issuing orders to them. When they smiled rather than obeying, Rhett exploded and began lecturing them how to address and respond to their superiors.
The troopers responded by demanding Rhett's surrender. "Surrender!!??" he sputtered "Do you have any idea who you are talking to? You'll watch your language when you speak to me.! General Hampton will hear of this!"
Finally the actual situation was made clear and Rhett was taken back before General Kilpatrick. The cavalry general listened to a few minutes of Rhett boasting how 50,000 fresh men would rise up and drive the Yankees into the ocean before growing weary and sending him along to Sherman. The big mouthed Colonel continued his bragging and threatening ways with the commander, but Sherman found him amusing and ordered that Rhett be treated with respect.
Battle of Averasborough
General Edward Canby was last mentioned in this thread three years and one month ago when he led the victorious Union forces at the Battle of Glorietta Pass, turning back the Confederacy's attempt to seize New Mexico. For a time he served as commander of troops in New York, not a position designed to reap glory for its occupant.
He was assigned to replace General Banks after the disastrous Red River campaign, but there was no further fighting in that theater. He did manage to get himself wounded by a sniper while a passenger on a riverboat, but other than that had not been in combat since Glorietta.
Now in the war's waning days, he got his second opportunity. 150 years ago today, with his army reinforced to 45,000, he was dispatched to take the city of Mobile, still in rebel hands despite the loss of the entrance to the Bay. The plan called for twin advances by Canby's two Corps, one marching from Pensacola, the other working its way north along the eastern shore of the Bay.
The opposition was a 10,000 man command under General St. John R. Liddell. They were divided between two bastions, Spanish Fort and Fort Blakely. These positions would be enveloped by Canby's force by the beginning of April, but hold out until the 9th and 12th respectively, the final surrender and occupation of Mobile coming three days after General Lee's surrender at Appomattox, thus making the accomplishment an anti-climactic one.
Canby was a much more able administrator than he was a soldier, and after the war he would head several of the Reconstruction military departments.
Back in the field for the Modoc War against the renegade Captain Jack in Oregon, Canby would gain his greatest fame by becoming the only general killed in the western Indian wars, being murdered by Captain Jack while attending a peace conference.
General Edward Canby...Also Looked More Like An Administrator Than A Soldier
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