American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

January 16, 1863 Friday
There was a Federal expedition from Fort Henry to Waverly, Tennessee. Federal gunboat Baron De Kalb seized guns and munitions at Devall’s Bluff, Arkansas.

C.S.S. Florida, commanded by Lieutenant John N. Maffitt, ran the blockade out of Mobile in the early morning after having remained in that port for some 4 months in order to complete repairs to her equipment. Confusion in the blockading fleet enabled Florida to escape, for the Confederate commerce raider passed within 300 yards of U.S.S. R. R. Cuyler, under Commander George F. Emmons. Upon her arrival at Havana on 20 January to debark prisoners from her first prize, U.S. Consul-General Robert W. Shufeldt described the raider: "The Florida is a bark-rigged propeller, quite fast under steam and canvas; has two smoke-stacks fore and aft of each other, close together; has a battery of four 42's or 68's of a side, and two large pivot guns. Her crew consists of 135 men . . . is a wooden vessel of about 1,500 tons."

_________________
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

January 17, 1863 Saturday
President Lincoln signed a resolution of Congress providing for the immediate payment of the armed forces, and asked for currency reforms to halt the additional issue of notes that increased the cost of living through inflation. McClernand’s Army of the Mississippi began its move downriver to Milliken’s Bend near Vicksburg. There was a skirmish near Newtown, Virginia. From this day to the twenty-first there was a reconnaissance by Federals from New Berne to Pollocksville, Trenton, Young’s Cross Roads, and Onslow, North Carolina with skirmishes on the nineteenth at White Oak Creek and on the twentieth near Jacksonville.

Brigadier General Daniel Smith Donelson ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Smith_Donelson ), CSA, is assigned command of the Confederate Department of East Tennessee. The following appointments are made to Major General: Daniel Smith Donelson, CSA; Jubal Anderson Early, CSA; and Isaac Ridgeway Trimble, CSA. The following appointments are made to Brigadier General: Henry Lewis Benning, CSA; Robert Frederick Hoke, CSA; Samuel McGowan, CSA; and William Tatum Wofford, CSA.

_________________
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

January 18, 1863 Sunday
There was a skirmish in the Cherokee Country of the Indian Territory, and there was fighting as the Federal expedition proceeded up the White River in Arkansas. U.S.S. Wachusett, Rear Admiral Charles Wilkes, and U.S.S. Sonoma, under Commander Thomas H. Stevens, seized steamer Virginia off Mugeres Island, Mexico. Virginia was sent to Key West for adjudication. U.S.S. Zouave, Pilot John A. Phillips, captured sloop J. C. McCabe in the James River. Confederate steamer Tropic accidentally caught fire and burned attempting to run the blockade at Charleston with cargo of cotton and turpentine.

_________________
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

January 19, 1863 Monday
The Confederate Congress debated the Emancipation Proclamation. There was a Federal scout from Williamsburg and a skirmish at Burnt Ordinary, Virginia. In Tennessee there was a skirmish near Woodbury. C.S.S. Florida, commanded by Lieutenant Maffitt, captured and burned brig Estelle bound from Santa Cruz to Boston with cargo of sugar, molasses, and honey. The master of Estelle wrote: "Generosity and courtesy on the part of enemies should not pass unheeded by, as the rigors of a sad and unnatural war may be somewhat mitigated by politeness and manly forbearance. I would add that Captain Maffitt returned our personal effects, but retained the chronometer and charts."

On the Rappahannock River Burnside’s Federal army began to move in his long-contemplated second attempt to cross the river. Shortly after noon the troops started for U.S. Ford, about ten miles above Fredericksburg. By night the grand divisions of Hooker and Franklin were near the ford. Weather had been mostly excellent since the December battle of Fredericksburg.

President Lincoln, in answer to an address from Manchester, England, workingmen, said he knew and deplored the sufferings among mill hands in Manchester and Europe caused by the cotton shortage, but it was the fault of “our disloyal citizens.”

An intercepted letter from Nassau indicated the blockade's effectiveness: "There are men here who are making immense fortunes by shipping goods to Dixie. . . . Salt, for example, is one of the most paying things to send in. Here in Nassau it is only worth 60 cents a bushel, but in Charleston brings at auction from $80 to $100 in Confederate money, but as Confederate money is no good out of the Confederacy they send back cotton or turpentine, which, if it reaches here, is worth proportionally as much here as the salt is there. . . . It is a speculation by which one makes either 600 to 800 per cent or loses all."

_________________
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

January 20, 1863 Tuesday
Burnside, northwest of Fredericksburg, spent the day changing his plans for crossing the Rappahannock River, and by evening rain began. The Union general said, “From that moment we felt that the winter campaign had ended.” During the night guns and pontoons were dragged into position through the mud and along “shocking” roads. A midwinter storm swept the East, and it snowed in Washington.

Confederate Marmaduke took Patterson, Missouri in his continuing raiding. Maj Gen David Hunter, U.S. Army, resumed command of the Department of the South. Joseph Wheeler, CSA, is appointed to Major General. The following appointments are made to Brigadier General: William Lewis Cabell, CSA; George Blake Cosby, CSA; and Marcellus Augustus Stovall, CSA.

_________________
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

January 21, 1863 Wednesday
The winter rains continued to be Burnside’s worst enemy along the Rappahannock. His advance bogged down in the mud and slime, failing to progress to any appreciable extent. At Sabine Pass, Texas two Federal blockaders were seized by Confederate steamers. There was a skirmish near Columbia, Missouri. A Federal forage train was taken near Murfreesboro, Tennessee while other Union troops carried out a reconnaissance from that city. U.S.S. Ottawa, commanded by Lieutenant Commander William D. Whiting, captured schooner Etiwan off Charleston with cargo of cotton. U.S.S. Chocura, commanded by Lieutenant Commander William T. Truxtun, seized blockade running British schooner Pride at sea cast of Cape Romain, South Carolina, with cargo of salt. U.S.S. Daylight, commanded by Acting Master Joshua D. Warren, forced a blockade running schooner (name unknown) aground off New Topsail Inlet., North Carolina, and destroyed her.

President Davis in Richmond ordered Joseph E. Johnston to go to Bragg’s army and investigate the retreat from Murfreesboro and criticisms of Bragg’s conduct. Davis stated that there was a lack of confidence in their commander among Bragg’s officers, and that it was vital that the situation be cleared up. In Ashton, England the president of the British Board of Trade urged continuation of the policy of neutrality.

At Washington, President Lincoln endorsed a letter from Halleck to Grant explaining the revocation of Grant’s Order No 11. It stated that the President did not object to expelling “traitors and Jew peddlers,” but “as it in terms proscribed an entire religious class, some of whom are fighting in our ranks, the President deemed it necessary to revoke it.” President Lincoln formally ordered that Maj Gen Fitz John Porter be cashiered and dismissed from the service of the nation and forever disqualified from holding any office of trust or profit in the government. This came after an investigation of the proceedings against Porter for his part in Second Manassas. In 1879 a review of Porter’s case resulted in a decision in his favor, but it was not until 1886 that he was reappointed to the rank of colonel but without back pay. President Lincoln establishes the width of track of Pacific railroads at five feet ( http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/te ... oln6%3A125 ).

_________________
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

January 22, 1863 Thursday
The Federal winter campaign to cross the Rappahannock had failed again, this time due to weather; the Army of the Potomac was literally stalled in the mud. Ammunition trains and supply wagons were mired, horses and mules dropping dead, the whole army dispirited, wet, and hungry. No longer was it a question of how to go on, but of how to get back to the camps opposite Fredericksburg. Ironically President Davis wrote to Lee of his concern over Burnside’s movement and pointed out the hazards of retreat if the Federals crossed the Rappahannock.

In the West Grant assumed command of all the Union troops in Arkansas within reach of his orders, reducing McClernand from expedition chief to corps commander. President Lincoln let McClernand down gently, writing him, “for my sake, & for the country’s sake, you give your whole attention to the better work.” Major General Joseph Wheeler ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Wheeler ), CSA, is assigned command of all cavalry in Middle Tennessee.

Meanwhile, Grant renewed his attempt to cut a canal across “Swampy Toe” opposite Vicksburg in an effort to move boats and men around the fortress city. There was little fighting except a skirmish in Pocahontas County, West Virginia.

U.S.S. Commodore Morris, commanded by Lieutenant Commander James H. Gillis, keeping a constant vigil for contraband goods being carried on the river, seized oyster sloop John C. Calhoun, schooner Harriet, and sloop Music near Chuckatuck Creek, Virginia.

The chronic shortage of iron, as well as other critical materials, plagued the Confederacy throughout the conflict. The Secretary of War appointed a committee to determine what railroad tracks could best be "dispensed with" in order to provide iron "for the completion of public vessels."

C.S.S. Florida, commanded by Lieutenant Maffitt, captured and burned brigs Windward and Corris Ann near Cuba.

_________________
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

January 23, 1863 Friday
Another severe winter storm continued to buffet Virginia as Burnside’s Federal army pulled back to Fredericksburg, the famed “mud march” a miserable failure. Burnside, stung by defeat and dissension in his army, issued orders to be approved by the President that Hooker, William B. Franklin, W.F. Smith, and others be removed from command. Hooker was to be dismissed from the service entirely. The proposed orders accompanied a request to see the President. They were never carried out.

There was skirmishing at Carthage, and on Bradyville Pike near Murfreesboro, Tennessee; and a scout by Federals Jan 23-27 from Fayetteville to Van Buren, Arkansas. Meanwhile, a Union expedition moved until Feb 1 from Beaufort, South Carolina up the St Mary’s River, in Georgia and Florida. U.S.S. Cambridge, under Commander William A. Parker, captured schooner Time off Cape Fear, North Carolina, with cargo of salt, matches, and shoes.

President Lincoln began to draw up orders returning Gen Butler to New Orleans in place of Gen Banks. They were never completed, and the action never taken.

_________________
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

January 24, 1863 Saturday
The soggy Army of the Potomac settled back into its winter quarters across from Fredericksburg while the arguing, bickering, and quarreling increased. There was a skirmish at Woodbury, Tennessee and a scout in Fauquier County, Virginia. President Lincoln conferred with Halleck on the military situation and awaited the arrival of Burnside.

_________________
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

January 25, 1863 Sunday
President Lincoln conferred early in the day with Gen Burnside, who pressed for removal of Hooker, Franklin, and others from command. If this were not done, Burnside would resign as head of the Army of the Potomac. Later in the morning Lincoln told Halleck and Sec of War Stanton that he was relieving Burnside and naming Joseph Hooker ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Hooker ) to command the Army of the Potomac. In addition, Lincoln relieved E.V. Sumner ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._V._Sumner ) and W.B. Franklin ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_B._Franklin ) from duty with the army. For not quite three months Burnside, who had been reluctant to accept the job in the first place, had commanded the Federal army in Virginia. He had been defeated by Confederates and by mud, and had proved inept, if earnest. Now a new commander was chosen – Hooker, a man who allegedly wanted the job and who was known as a fighter. The news was not unexpected by the army.

In military action Marmaduke’s raiding Confederates reached Batesville, Arkansas; there was a skirmish near Mill Creek, Tennessee; a Union reconnaissance from Murfreesboro to Auburn, Tennessee; and a Yankee scout between Bolivar, Tennessee and Ripley, Mississippi.

The organization of the first regiment of Union Negro South Carolina soldiers was completed on the Carolina 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

January 26, 1863 Monday
Maj Gen Joseph Hooker proudly took command of the Federal Army of the Potomac at Fredericksburg. But President Lincoln, in one of his most famous letters ( http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/te ... oln6%3A148 ), had advice for the new commander: “there are some things in regard to which, I am not quite satisfied with you. I believe you to be a brave and skilful soldier, which, of course, I like. I also believe you do not mix politics with your profession, in which you are right. You have confidence in yourself, which is a valuable, if not an indispensable quality. You are ambitious, which, within reasonable bounds, does good rather than harm. But I think that during Gen. Burnside’s command of the Army, you have taken counsel of your ambition, and thwarted him as much as you could, in which you did a great wrong to the country, and to a most meritorious and honorable brother officer. I have heard, in such way as to believe it, of your recently saying that both the Army and the Government needed a Dictator. Of course it was not for this, but in spite of it, that I have given you the command. Only those generals who gain successes, can set up dictators. What I now ask of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship.”

Major General Darius Nash Couch ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darius_Nash_Couch ), USA, assumes command of the Right Grand Division, Federal Army of the Potomac from Maj Gen EdwinV Sumner. Major General George Gordon Meade ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Meade ), USA, assumes command of the Center Grand Division, Federal Army of the Potomac from Maj Gen William B Franklin. Skirmishing occurred at Township, Florida; Mulberry Springs, Arkansas; Grove Church near Morrisville, Virginia, and near Fairfax Court House and Middleburg, Virginia. Simon Cameron interviews President Lincoln to protest sending Gen Butler to New Orleans because Butler is likely a candidate for the next President and must be in Washington for political reasons.

C.S.S. Alabama, commanded by Captain Semmes, captured and burned bark Golden Rule off Haiti in the Caribbean Sea. Semmes noted in his log: "This vessel had on board masts, spars, and a complete set of rigging for the U.S. brig Bainbridge, lately obliged to cut away her masts in a gale at Aspinwall [Panama]." He later added: "I had tied up for a while longer, one of the enemy's gun-brigs, for want of an outfit. It must have been some months before the Bainbridge put to sea."

_________________
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

January 27, 1863 Tuesday
Ironclad U.S.S. Montauk, under Commander John L. Worden, and U.S.S. Seneca, Wissahickon, Dawn, and mortar schooner C. P. Williams engaged Confederate batteries at Fort McAllister, Georgia, on the Ogeechee River. Worden was acting under orders from Rear Admiral Du Pont to test the new ironclads; though McAllister was an important objective itself, Du Pont was primarily readying his forces for the spring assault on Charleston-for the success of which the Department relied greatly on the monitor class vessels. Worden, unable to proceed within close range of the fort because of formidable sunken obstructions which "from appearances" were "protected by torpedoes," engaged for four hours before withdrawing. Worden reported that the Confederate fire was "very fine, striking us quite a number of times, doing us no damage." Du Pont wrote to Benjamin Gerhard: "The monitor was struck some thirteen or fourteen times, which would have sunk a gunboat easily, but did no injury whatever to the Montauk--speaking well for the impenetrability of those vessels--though the distance was greater than what could constitute a fair test. But the slow firing, the inaccuracy of aim, for you can't see to aim properly from the turret . . . give no corresponding powers of aggression. I asked myself this morning while quietly dressing, if one ironclad cannot take eight guns--how are five to take 147 guns in Charleston harbor."

C.S.S. Alabama, commanded by Captain Semmes, captured and burned brig Chastelaine off Alta Vela in the Caribbean Sea. Chastelaine was en route to Cienfuegos, Cuba, to take on sugar and rum for delivery in Boston. U.S.S. Hope, Master John E. Rockwell, seized blockade running British schooner Emma Tuttle off Charleston.

There were affairs at Bloomfield, Missouri; near Germantown, Tennessee; a Federal reconnaissance on the Neuse, Dover, and Trent roads, North Carolina; and a skirmish at Deserted House near Suffolk, Virginia. The proprietor of the Philadelphia Journal, A.D. Boileau, was arrested and taken to Washington for printing anti-Northern material. President Davis complimented Gov Brown of Georgia for cutting back cotton cultivation and urging produce cultivation, adding, “The possibility of a short supply of provisions presents the greatest danger to a successful prosecution of the war.”

_________________
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

January 28, 1863 Wednesday
President Davis wrote Maj Gen T.H. Holmes ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theophilus_H._Holmes ) in the Trans-Mississippi that “The loss of either of the two positions, - Vicksburg and Port Hudson – would destroy communication with the Trans-Mississippi Department and inflict upon the Confederacy an injury which I am sure you have not failed to appreciate.”

There were skirmishes at Indian Village, Louisana; Nashville, Yorkville, and Collierville, Tennessee; and a Federal scout from La Grange, Tennessee toward Ripley, Mississippi. John Daniel Imboden, CSA, was appointed to Brigadier General. U.S.S. Sagamore, commanded by Lieutenant Commander English, captured and destroyed blockade running British sloop Elizabeth at the mouth of Jupiter Inlet, Florida.

In St Louis a mass meeting ratified the Emancipation Proclamation. Still another heavy snowstorm hit Virginia and the armies on the Rappahannock.

_________________
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

January 29, 1863 Thursday
Federal troops defeated the Bannock tribe of Indians in an engagement at Bear River or Battle Creek in Utah Territory ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_River_Massacre ). There was skirmishing near Richmond, Louisiana; a Confederate expedition to Daufuskie Island, South Carolina; and Federal ships again bombarded defenses of Galveston. U.S.S. Unadilla, commanded by Lieutenant Commander Stephen P. Quackenbush, seized British blockade runner Princess Royal attempting to run into Charleston with cargo of arms, ammunition, and two steam engines for ironclads. "The P[rincess] R[oyal]," Du Pont wrote, "we have had on our list, traced her through consular reports from the Thames to Halifax, etc. She has a valuable cargo. . . ."

The Confederate Congress authorized the borrowing of $15,000,000 through the French financier Emile Erlanger. President Davis, still apprehensive over Vicksburg, wired Pemberton, “Has anything or can anything be done to obstruct the navigation from Yazoo Pass down?”

_________________
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

January 30, 1863 Friday
Gen Grant assumed immediate command of the entire expedition against Vicksburg and proceeded with various plans to isolate the city. Federal gunboat Isaac Smith ( http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-u ... -smith.htm ), reconnoitering in the Stono River near Charleston, was fired upon by Confederate batteries, went aground, and was captured. There was an engagement at Deserted House or Kelly’s Store, near Suffolk, Virginia in which Confederates withdrew. A skirmish also occurred at Turner’s Mills, Virginia.

U.S.S. Commodore Perry, commanded by Lieutenant Commander Charles W. Flusser, on a joint expedition with Army troops, landed at Hertford, North Carolina, and destroyed two bridges over the Perquimans River. As a result of the successful mission, Flusser reported: "There are now no bridges remaining on the Perquimans, so that the goods sent from Norfolk to the enemy on the south side of the Chowan (by whom they are conveyed to Richmond) have to be passed over a ford, and the roads leading from that ford can be guarded by the troops at Winfield." Three days later (2 February), Commodore Perry anchored at the mouth of the Yeopim River; two boats were sent into the river and succeeded in capturing three Confederate small boats. Two of the captures contained cargoes including salt. The constant harassment and interruption of supply lines through the Union Navy's control of the waterways hurt the Confederacy sorely.

_________________
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