American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

March 16, 1864 Wednesday
Nine Union vessels had arrived at Alexandria, Louisiana, by morning and a landing party under Lieutenant Commander Selfridge, U.S.S. Osage, occupied the town prior to the arrival of Rear Admiral Porter and the troops. At Alexandria, Porter's gunboats and the soldiers awaited the arrival of Major General Banks' Army, which was delayed by heavy rains. For the Confederates, Nathan Bedford Forrest began an expedition into west Tennessee and Kentucky that lasted until April 14. In Virginia fighting broke out at Annandale and Bristoe Station and there was a Federal reconnaissance toward Snicker’s Gap. In Tennessee Confederates raided the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad near Tullahoma. Federals scouted in Cabell and Wayne counties, West Virginia. Skirmishing occurred near Palatka, Florida and at Santa Rosa, Texas. In Missouri a ten-day scout by Federals operated from Pilot Knob to the Arkansas line. Maj Gen Sterling Price took command of the Confederate District of Arkansas, succeeding Lieut Gen Theophilus Holmes.

_________________
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

March 17, 1864 Thursday
President Lincoln, pushing for emancipation in the Union state of Maryland, wrote to Representative John A.J. Creswell, “It needs not to be a secret, that I wish success to emancipation in Maryland. It would aid much to end the rebellion.”

At Nashville, Tennessee where he was conferring with Gen Sherman, Lieut Gen Grant formally assumed command of the armies of the United States and announced that “Headquarters will be in the field, and, until further orders, will be with the Army of the Potomac.” Gen’s Grant and Sherman then boarded a train for Cincinnati, Ohio

Fighting was confined to skirmishes at Manchester, Tennessee; on Red Mountain near Blue Rock Station, California; and at Corpus Christi, Texas. Union operations included a reconnaissance March 17-18 to Sperryville, Virginia; an expedition from Yorktown into Mathews and Middlesex counties, Virginia March 17-21; and a scout March 17 to April 1 from Lebanon, Missouri into northern Arkansas.

_________________
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

March 18, 1864 Friday
Arkansas voters ratified a pro-Union constitution which ended slavery in the state. Maj Gen William T. Sherman officially assumed command of the Military Division of the Mississippi. At the closing of the Sanitary Commission Fair in Washington, President Lincoln said, “if all that has been said by orators and poets since the creation of the world in praise of woman applied to the women of America, it would not do them justice for their conduct during this war.”

Fighting occurred at Monticello and Spring Creek, Arkansas; and Federals scouted from Island No 10, Tennessee to New Madrid, Missouri. Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, USA, and Major General William T. Sherman, USA, continue to discuss military strategy at Cincinnati, Ohio.

Lieutenant General E. Kirby Smith, CSA, ordered steamer New Falls City taken to Scopern's Cut-off, below Shreveport on the Red River, where she was to be sunk if the Union movement threatened that far upriver. Next day the General directed that thirty torpedoes be placed below Grand Ecore to obstruct the Red River. An officer from C.S.S. Missouri was detailed for this duty. General Smith's foresight would shortly pay dividends, for the hulk of New Falls City did block the way of the Union gunboats and U.S.S. Eastport was to be severely damaged by a torpedo.

_________________
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

March 19, 1864 Saturday
The Georgia legislature expressed its confidence in President Davis and resolved that the Confederate government should, after each victory, make an offer of peace to the North based on independence of the South and self-determination by the border states.

Minor fighting continued, with action at the Eel River, California; Beersheba Springs, Tennessee; on the Cumberland River, Kentucky; at Laredo, Texas; and Black Bay, Arkansas. Federals scouted for four days from Lexington, Missouri; and a Union expedition from Rolling Prairie to Batesville, Arkansas lasted until April 4.

_________________
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

March 20, 1864 Sunday
Skirmishing flared at Arkadelphia and Roseville Creek, Arkansas; while on the Red River of Louisiana fighting was at Bayou Rapides. The last ten days of the month saw Federal scouting in Jackson and La Fayette counties, Missouri with skirmishing against guerrillas. Famed raider C.S.S. Alabama arrived at Capetown, South Africa. U.S.S. Honeysuckle, commanded by Acting Ensign Sears, captured blockade running sloop Florida in the Gulf of Mexico west of Florida, with cargo of powder, shot, nails, and coffee. U.S.S. Tioga, commanded by Lieutenant Commander Edward Y. McCauley, captured blockade running sloop Swallow, bound from the Combahee River, South Carolina, to Nassau, laden with cotton, rosin, and tobacco.

Lieutenant Charles C. Simms, C.S.S. Baltic, wrote Commander Cap R. Jones that naval constructor John L. Porter "has made a very unfavorable report on the condition of the ship [Baltic] and recommended that the iron be taken from her and put upon one of the new boats that were built. . . . Between you and I [sic] the Baltic is rotten as punk and is about as fit to go into action as a mud scow." By July Baltic had been dismantled and her armor transferred to C.S.S. Nashville.

_________________
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

March 21, 1864 Monday
President Lincoln approved an act of the Federal Congress enabling the territories of Nevada and Colorado to become states, despite their relatively small populations.

Still the skirmishing continued, now at Reynoldsville, Tennessee; Moulton, Alabama; and Velasco, Texas. There was a small affair at Henderson’s Hill, Louisiana on the Red River.

President Lincoln told the New York Workingmen’s Democratic Republican Association, “Property is the fruit of labor – property is desirable – is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich, shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprize. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another….”

Confederate forces at Sabine Pass, Texas, destroyed steamer Clifton (ex-U.S.S. Clifton) to prevent her capture by blockading Union naval forces. The 900-ton Clifton had been attempting to run out of the Texas port when she grounded and could not be floated.

U.S.S. Hendrick Hudson, commanded by Lieutenant Commander Charles J. McDougal, rammed blockade runner Wild Pigeon, bound from Havana to the Florida coast; she struck Wild Pigeon amidships and the schooner sank immediately.

_________________
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

March 22, 1864 Tuesday
“I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing, that no man desires for himself,” President Lincoln wrote, apparently for an autograph album for a Sanitary Fair. Heavy snow fell in Richmond, Virginia. Federal Maj Gen Lewis Wallace ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lew_Wallace ) superseded Brig Gen Henry H. Lockwood ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_H._Lockwood ) in command of the Middle Department with headquarters in Baltimore.

Fighting erupted at Bald Spring Canon on Eel River, California; Langley’s Plantation in Issaquena County, Mississippi; Fancy Farms, Kentucky; Corpus Christi, Texas; and Winchester, Virginia.

_________________
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

March 23, 1864 Wednesday
From Little Rock, Arkansas Federal columns moved south under the command of Frederick Steele ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Steele ) to join Banks’ expedition coming up the Red River. If successful, the two-pronged advance would go far toward breaking up the Confederacy west of the Mississippi River. Even at first Steele’s men had to fight a bit – on the Benton Road toward Camden, Arkansas.

Gen Grant returned to Washington from his conferences with Sherman and others in the West, preparatory to a general advance of Union armies. Meanwhile, in the Army of the Potomac, Maj Gen G. K. Warren ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gouverneur_K._Warren ) superseded Maj Gen George Sykes ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Sykes ) in command of the Fifth Army Corps, an important shift. The 1st Army Corps, Federal Army of the Potomac, is discontinued, with its troops assigned to the 5th Army Corps, Federal Army of the Potomac. In Washington a number of “radical” members of Congress pressed for removal of Gen Meade as commander of the Army of the Potomac.

_________________
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

March 24, 1864 Thursday
Nathan Bedford Forrest was on the move again, this time into west Tennessee, where his command captured Union City. Other fighting took place near Goodrich’s Landing, Louisiana and at Oil Trough Bottom, Arkansas. Until the end of the month Federals operated from Batesville to Coon Creek and Devil’s Fork of the Red River in Arkansas. Rear Admiral Porter reported that his forces had seized more than 2,000 bales of cotton, as well as quantities of molasses and wool, since entering the Red River. In the far northwest a Federal expedition against Indians moved from Camp Lincoln near Canyon City to Harney Valley, Oregon March 24-Apr 16. In the evening President Lincoln and his new General-in-Chief conferred at the White House. The 3rd Army Corps, Federal Army of the Potomac, is discontinued, with its troops assigned to the 2nd Army Corps, Federal Army of the Potomac, and the 6th Army Corps, Federal Army of the Potomac.

U.S.S. Stonewall, Master Henry B. Carter, captured sloop Josephine in Sarasota Sound, Florida, with cargo of cotton.

_________________
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

March 25, 1864 Friday
Confederates were on the Ohio River. Federal outposts at Paducah, Kentucky were driven in sharply as Southern cavalry attacked the important Ohio River city. Although they occupied part of Paducah, two attacks by Forrest’s men were repulsed at Fort Anderson. Unable to destroy or capture the Federal garrison, the Confederates withdrew on the morning of March 26. The raid failed, but not before it had alarmed the Ohio Valley.

In other fighting the guns spoke at Rockport, Dover, White River, and in Van Buren County, Arkansas; in South Carolina at McClellansville. Two Federal scouts operated to the twenty-sixth – from Batesville to Fairview, Arkansas and from Beaufort to Bogue and Bear inlets, North Carolina.

Federal cavalry in Virginia had a temporary new commander when Brig Gen David McM. Gregg ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_McM._Gregg ) superseded Maj Gen Alfred Pleasonton, who was sent to Missouri.

A boat expedition under Acting Master Edward H. Sheffield from U.S.S. Winona, commanded by Lieutenant Commander A. W. Weaver, after making extensive reconnaissance of the area, captured blockade runner Little Ada loading cotton at McClellansville in the South Santee River, South Carolina. As Union sailors sought to bring the prize out, Confederate artillery opened on the vessel with devastating accuracy. The attack by Sheffield, carried on deep in Confederate-held territory, had begun in darkness, but as it was now fully light, the riddled prize had to be quickly abandoned to prevent capture of the boarding party.

A closely coordinated Array-Navy expedition departed Beaufort, North Carolina, on board side-wheel steamer U.S.S. Britannia. Some 200 soldiers were commanded by Colonel James Jourdan, while about 50 sailors from U.S.S. Keystone State, Florida, and Cambridge were in charge of Commander Benjamin M. Dove. The aim of the expedition was the capture or destruction of two schooners used in blockade running at Swansboro, North Carolina, and the capture of a Confederate army group on the south end of Bogue Island Banks. Arriving off Bogue Inlet late at night, the expedition encountered high winds and heavy seas which prevented landing on the beach. Early on the morning of the 25th, a second attempt was made under similarly difficult conditions, but a party got through to Bear Creek where one of the schooners was burned. Bad weather persisted throughout the day and the expedition eventually returned to Beaufort on the 26th with its mission only partially completed.

_________________
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

March 26, 1864 Saturday
Lieutenant General Grant was in Virginia again; he established his permanent headquarters with the Army of the Potomac at Culpeper Court House. Maj Gen James B. McPherson ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_B._McPherson ) assumed command of the Army of the Tennessee, under Sherman. Skirmishes took place near Black Jack Church, North Carolina; Quitman, Arkansas; and for several days at Long View and Mount Elba, Arkansas.

President Lincoln, in a new proclamation, explained his previous statements on amnesty by saying that it did not apply to prisoners of war but only to those free and at large who voluntarily came forward and took the oath of allegiance. President Davis was still arguing with governors of North and South Carolina over enforcement of policies of the Confederacy regarding trade and troop procurement and allocation.

_________________
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

March 27, 1864 Sunday
A few more routine affairs added to the mounting record; at Livingston, Mississippi; Louisville, Tennessee; Columbus, Kentucky; on the Ohio River, where Forrest’s men were operating; at Deepwater Township, Missouri; on the Eel River, California; and in the Federal movement into southern Arkansas, now known as the Camden Expedition, at Branchville and Brooks’ Mill.

_________________
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

March 28, 1864 Monday
“This afternoon a dreadful affair took place in our town,” said a Charleston, Illinois newspaper. About a hundred Copperheads vented long-pent-up feelings by attacking Federal soldiers on furlough at Charleston. By the time the fighting was ended by troop reinforcements, five men were dead and more than twenty wounded. It was one of the more severe anti-war outbreaks in the North ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charleston_Riot ).

The real war went on, with: an engagement on the Eel River, California; an affair at New Hope, Kentucky; a skirmish at Obey’s River, Tennessee; an affair at Bloomery Gap, West Virginia; and skirmishes at Danville and Mount Elba, Arkansas. Federal scouts were carried out to Caperton’s Ferry, Alabama; in Gloucester County, and to Aldie and Middleburg, Virginia. Federal troops moved northwestward from Alexandria, Louisiana as Banks’ Red River Campaign ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_River_Campaign ) entered a new phase, and Confederates under Gen Richard Taylor ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Taylor_(general) ) gathered to resist the invasion of the Trans-Mississippi.

U.S.S. Kingfisher, commanded by Acting Master John C. Dutch, ran aground and was totally wrecked in St. Helena Sound, South Carolina.

_________________
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

March 29, 1864 Tuesday
Fighting increased as March became more springlike. Scenes of battle were at Caperton’s Ferry, Alabama; about Monett’s Ferry and Cloutierville, Louisiana on the Red River; Bolivar, Tennessee in Forrest’s raid; and Roseville, Long View, and Arkadelphia, Arkansas. Union scouts moved from Lookout Valley to Deer Head Cove, Georgia; and from Bellefonte to Burrowsville, Arkansas.

President Lincoln, in his usual skillful way, dissuaded Gen Meade from formally requesting a court of inquiry in regard to Gettysburg. Criticisms of Meade’s command had been appearing in the press, possible written by other officers in the battle.

The low level of the Red River continued to hinder Rear Admiral Porter's efforts to get his gunboats above the rapids at Alexandria for the assault on Shreveport. He reported: "After a great deal of labor and two and a half days' hard work, we succeeded in getting the Eastport over the rocks on the falls, hauling her over by main force. . . ." All the Army transports maneuvered safely above the rapids, but hospital ship Woodford was battered against the rocks and sank. Porter added: "I shall only be able to take up a part of the force I brought with me, and leave the river guarded all the way through."

C.S.S. Florida, commanded by Lieutenant Morris, at 150º11' N, 34º25' W, captured ship Avon with a 1,600 ton cargo of guano. After removing the crew, Morris used the prize for gunnery practice and finally destroyed her by burning.

_________________
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

March 30, 1864 Wednesday
Fighting included an affair at Greenton, Missouri; action at Mount Elba and Big Creek, Arkansas; capture of a Confederate outpost at Cherry Grove, Virginia; and a Federal reconnaissance from Lookout Valley, Tennessee to McLemore’s Cove, Georgia. Federals scouted around Woodville and Athens, Alabama and from Columbus to Clinton and Moscow, Kentucky. Confederates attacked Snyder’s Bluff, Mississippi.

_________________
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