Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 217, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 September 1912 — CIVIL WAR [ARTICLE]

CIVIL WAR

FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK

August 26, 1862. A fight took* place near Madison Ky., between a Union force under Lieutenant Colonel Foster and a large body of Confederate irregulars, resulting in the retreat of the latter with considerable loss, according to northern reports. Col. Woodward’s force of Confederate partisans still loitering about Fort Donelson, which they had attacked on the previous day. Colonel Lowe of the Fifth lowa cavalry went out to head them off. In the skirmish that ensued the Nationals lost three men killed and twenty wounded. The Confederates withdrew, with the loss of their light battery of artillery. Brig. Gen. Lloyd Tilghman, in accordance with a special order issued by General Bragg, assumed command of “all abolition and Confederate officers and soldiers in the vicinity of Vicksburg, Miss., for the purpose of being exchanged or paroled,” and ordered them to report immediately at headquarters at Jackson, Miss. A large force of General Stuart’s Confederate cavalry, led by Fitz-Hugh Lee, entered Manassas, Va., and after scattering a Union force posted there, destroyed a railroad train, several buildings and large quantities of government stores and other property. The militia under Col. H. H. Sibley advanced against the Sioux in Minnesota. August 27, 1862. The British schooner Anna Sophia was captured by the United States gunboat R. R. Cuyler, while endeavoring to run the blockade at Wilmington, S. C. :■ The draft was postponed in Philadelphia until September 15. James Id- Graham, assistant adjutant general, sent the following despatch from Leavenworth, Kan., to the war department: “Major Champion Vaughan, of General Blunt’s staff . . . marched with 1,500 men from Fort Scott, August 17, and followed the rebels as far north as Lone Jack. The enemy declined an engagement and commenced a retreat. They .were hotly pursued by General Blunt, and driven in utter confusion across the Osage, with the loss of all their transportation and equipments, besides numerous arms, prisoners, etc. It is considered that the expedition saved the Missouri towns and the western border from devastation, besides striking terror into the hearts of the enemy as far south as the Arkansas lines. General Blunt’s column . . . marched nearly three hundred miles in six days.” A party of Confederate cavalry, under the command of Captain White, entered Waterford, Va., early in the morning, and captured a company of the National cavalry under Captain Means, who escaped. ( The battle of Kettle Run, near Bristow station, Virginia, was fought between the Union forces under General Hooker and a division of General Jackson’s army, under Ewell. The engagement lasted all day, without decisive results. The Confederates withdrew at dusk, having accomplished their purpose of holding Hooker at the river. August 28, 1862. The Twenty-third Kentucky Infantry, under Colonel Mundy, was roughly handled by the Confederate cavalry force under General Forrest tn a fight near Readyvllle, Tenn. A severe fight took place at a point six miles west of Centerville, Va., between the National forces under Generals Sigel and McDowell, and the Confederates under the command of General Jackson. Jackson was compelled to quit the field. City Point, on the James river, was completely destroyed by the National gunboat fleet under Commodore Wilkes, in the hope of putting a stop to the practice of Confederate partisans of firing on Union transports. The gunboat attack was precipitated by an attack from shore of a Confederate battery. The Union'troops occupied Hernando, Miss. The secretary of the treasury of the United States issued orders .establishing regulations concerning internal and coastwise commercial intercourse, with the purpose of preventing the conveyance' of arms, munitions of war, and other supplies to tfie insurrectionary districts, and the secretaries of war and the navy issued orders directing all officers of the army and navy to render such aid as might be necessary in carrying out. such regulations. August 29, 1862. The battle of Groveton, in the vicinity of Bull Run, was fought between two divisions of the Confederate army, under Jackson and Longstreet* and the entire Union army under Pope. The engagement commenced early in the morning and continued until night. 1 Twelve of the 71st Ohio having published a card ,in which they stated that they had advised Col? R. Mason to surrender Clarksville, Tbniu, to the enemy, an act for which "he was cashiered from the army for cowardice, were dismissed from the service by order of President Lincoln. A meeting called 12 miles east of .Memphis, Tenm, by southern sym-

pathlzers for the purpose of organising a partisan band, was surprised and surrounded by a force of Union cavalry and 18 men taken prisoners. A reconnoitering expedition moving out of St. Charles Court House, Louisiana, dispersed a kwge body of Confederate irregulars at Bonnet Carre. The Union gunboat Anglo-American, under the command of Captain Riley, left New Orleans and proceeded up the Mississippi on a reconnoitering expedition as far as Vicksburg. When opposite Port Hudson the AngloAmerican received the fire of twentytwo guns. She was hit sixty or seventy times, but continued on her though completely riddled. The result of the reconnoissance was entirely successful. August <3O, 1862. Three battles*were fought Ik the vicinity of Richmond, Ky., between a Union force under General Manson and a Confederate force under Gen. H. Kirby Smith, resulting in three successive defeats for the national troops. The Unionists fought the third battle under command of General Nelson, but it ended in their retreat. A severe fight took place at Bolivar, Tenn., between a force of Union troops under Colonel Leggett and a Confederate force under General Armstrong, in which the national soldiers gained an advantage after a fight lasting seven hours. Their loss was five killed, eighteen wounded arid sixty-four missing. Buckhannon, Va., was entered by a large band of Confederate partisans and plundered of a large amount of military stores, firearms, ammunition and other things of value and need to the Confederate army’ in the field. Private property wari respected. The inhabitants of the town attempted a defense, but without any succes i whatever. ' The second battle of Bull Run was renewed in the morning. General Pope, caught between General. Jackson’s wonderful flank movement through the Shenandoah and the main force of the Confederate army, was crushed and utterly defeated. He retreated upon Centerville, Va., in a demoralized condition. August 31, 1862. Fredericksburg, Va., was evacuated by the Union army under General Burnside. The three bridges across the Rappahannock constructed by the army, the railroad buildings, the commissary stores, and the machine shop and foundry were burned before the army left. The evacuation was made necessary by Pope’s defeat at Bull Run. The greatest excitement existed in Poston as a result of the news of the disaster to Pope’s army. General Andrews having requested linen, etc., for the wounded soldiers, the churches were converted into depots for their reception, and Immense quantities of almost everything required for the sick and wounded came rapidly in, until, at five o’clock, nine freight cars were dispatched, accompanied by six surgeons, for Washington. Huntsville, Ala., was evacuated by the Union army under General Buell. The railway guard at Medon Station, on the Mississippi Central, was attacked by- a force of * Confederate cavalry, but they were driven off. There was great excitement in Wheeling, W. Va., over the news of the activity of partisan rangers in their neighborhood. A regiment of militia left for Clarksburg to reinforce that point against the partisans. The Union force was driven out of Stevenson, Ala., by General Maxey’s Confederate brigade, and retreated in trains to Nashville, leaving behind stores, ammunition and accoutrements. ) September .1, 1862. The New York Tribune’s report of the second battle of Bull Run, in which Pope was seriously defeated by Jackson and Lee, provoked such resentment that the Tribune office was closed by the government. When the report was posted on bulletin boards in Philadelphia it caused a small riot A severe fight took place at Britton’s Landing, near Denmark, Tennessee, between a force of Union troops under Colonel Dennis of the Thirteenth Illinois, and a large force of Confederates. The Confederates Clarksville, Tenm, was captured by were compelled to withdraw after an engagement lasting several hours. Great excitement existed in Louisville, Ky., in consequence of the approach of a Confederate army under Gen. E. Kirby Smith. The governor issued a proclamation authorizing Colonel Gibson to bring all able bodied citizens into the field to resist the Confederate advance, which had already reached and occupied Lexington, Ky. t The Confederates attacked the Union army at Stevenson, Ala., while in a retrograde movement from Huntsville, Ala., to Nashville, Tennessee. The fight had begun the day before in a desultory way, and continued until the Confederates withdrew on the night of the first Major General Kearny and Brigadier General Stevens of the Untvjp army were killed at Chantilly while endeavoring to cover the retreat of Pope’s army from the fatal field of Bull Run. The Confederate forces, in pursuit, came up with the rear guard and attacked savagely, bnt were finally held off by the desperate Jed arals. The spirit ration to sailors in. the navy of the ’United States was stopped by the taking effect of a law passed by congress, prohibiting the use of spirits on board naval vessels for any purposes but medical Poindexter, Confederate partisan of fame in Missouri, was captured. (Copyright, 1912. by W. G. Chapmss*