June 16, 1864 Thursday
Beauregard stripped his Bermuda Hundred defense line facing Butler to a mere thousand and pulled in all the troops he could to the Petersburg line, which even then numbered only 14,000. More Federal troops came up after crossing the James River. Burnside’s Ninth Corps arrived at 10 A.M. and by midnight Warren’s Fifth Corps came in; only the Sixth Corps of Wright had yet to arrive. Federal attackers captured a redan in the morning and about 6 P.M. assaulted heavily and, despite severe losses, captured three redans and some trenches. Confederates failed to recover the works, and had to take up temporary entrenchments farther back. On the Bermuda Hundred front Federals hit the weakened Confederate lines and took them. Lee, still not convinced that Grant was in force south of the James River, felt compelled to send two divisions to reoccupy the Bermuda Hundred positions. Pickett’s division drove the Federals out about 6 P.M.
Farther west in the Valley of Virginia Federals under Hunter invested Lynchburg and the Confederates under Breckinridge, but Early came up rapidly (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lynchburg ). Skirmishes flared near Lynchburg on Otter Creek, near Liberty, and at New London, Virginia.
Gen Joseph E. Johnston’s left had been weakened by Federal advances and he made readjustments around Gilgal Church, retiring to a new line near Mud Creek.
Major General Joseph J. Reynolds (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_J._Reynolds ), USA, is assigned command of the forces being assembled at Morganza, Louisiana, to operate against Mobile, Alabama. Other action included a skirmish at West Point, Arkansas; an affair near Preston, Missouri; and a foray by Federals from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. In West Virginia there was a scrap at Spencer. The Confederate War Department authorized Lieut Bennett H. Young to organize raiders in Canada to dash into New England. A small army-navy expedition by Federals took five small enemy schooners near the mouth of Pamlico River, North Carolina.
President Lincoln traveled to Philadelphia for the Great Central Fair. The President made several speeches and in the main address at the Sanitary Fair (
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/te ... oln7%3A878 ) he said, “War, at the best, is terrible, and this war of ours, in its magnitude and in its duration, is one of the most terrible…. We accepted this war for an object, a worthy object, and the war will end when that object is attained.”
Captain Semmes, C.S.S. Alabama, wrote Flag Officer Barron in Paris: "The position of Alabama here has been somewhat changed since I wrote you. The enemy's steamer, the Kearsarge, having appeared off this port, and being but very little heavier, if any in her armament than myself, I have deemed it my duty to go out and engage her. I have therefore withdrawn for the present my application to go into dock, and am engaged in coaling ship." Semmes noted in his journal "The enemy's ship still standing off and on the harbor."
Commander Catesby R. Jones, commandant of the Confederate Naval Gun Foundry and Ordnance Works at Selma, Alabama, wrote Major General Dabney H. Maury at Mobile that the submersible torpedo boat Saint Patrick, built by John P. Halligan, would be launched "in a few days." He added: "It combines a number of ingenious contrivances, which, if experiments show that they will answer the purposes expected, will render the boat very formidable. It is to be propelled by steam (the engine is very compact), though under water by hand. There are also arrangements for raising and descending at will, for attaching the torpedo to the bottom of vessels, etc. Its first field of operation will be off Mobile Bay, and I hope you may soon have evidence of its success." Although the South hoped to take Saint Patrick against the blockading forces off Mobile as the submarine H. L. Hunley had operated earlier in the year off Charleston, delay followed delay in getting her to sea and it was not until January 1865 that she went into action.