Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 284, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 November 1912 — The CIVIL WAR FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK [ARTICLE]

The CIVIL WAR FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK

November 18, 1862. A skirmish took place at Rural Hills, Tenn., between a force of Union troops under Colonel Hawkins, and a body of Confederates, resulting in a retreat of the latter, who left a number of wounded on the field. Lieutenant-Colonel John Mjix, with a force of the Third New York cavalry, went from Newbem, N. C., on a reconnoissance on the Dover road toward Kinston. At Cove Creek they encountered the Tenth regiment of North Carolina Confederate infantry, and a large portion of the Second cavalry, who, after a spirited engagement, retreated from the field, leaving a number of arms, blankets, and other equipments. Falmouth, Va., was occupied by the advance column of the Army of the Potomac, on its advance toward Fredericksburg, where the entiTe Confederate force was awaiting them. The British schooners Ariel and Ann Maria were captured off Little Run, S. C., by the United States gunboat Monticello, under command of Captain Braine. November 19, 1862. * Colonel Dodge. of the New Yort Mounted Rifles, made a descent on a body of Confederaates, jit Blackwater, Va., and dispersed them, capturing numbers of tents, rifles and other implements of war. James A. Seddon was appointed secretary of war for the Confederate states, to succeed G. -W. Randolph, resigned. A skirmish took place near Wallen’s Creek, Ky., between a small force of the Harlem county State Guard and a body of Confederate irregulars, in which the later were routed with the loss of all their horses and camp equipage. The Confederate privateer Alabama, which had been bottled up in the harbor of Martinique, succeeded in escapng. November 20, 1C62. Colonel Carlin’s expedition, which had been patroling the country between Nashville and Clarksville, Tenn., returned to the former place this evening, having captured fortythree Confederates, eighteen horses, twenty mqles, and one hundred muskets. » Jußt before daybreak a party of Confederate cavalry made a sudden descent on the Union pickets stationed at Bull Run Bridge, Va., and captured three of their number. Both Warrenton and Leesburg were occupied by the Confederate cavalry. November 21, 1862. General Patrick, provost marshal of the Army of the Potomac, crossed the Rappahannock to Fredericksburg under a flag of truce, conveying to he Confederate authorities of the city a letter from Major-General Sumner, commanding right grand division of the army, demanding its surrender. A sharp skirmish took place at Bayou Bontouca, near Fort Pike, La., between a small detachment of Union troops commanded by Captain Darling, of the Thirty-first Massachusetts, and a band of Confederate partisans, under Captain Evans. After a savage fight lasting an hour, the Confederates withdrew. Charles A. Davis, a chaplain in the army of the United States, was expelled from the Methodist Conference of Virginia by that body in session at Petersburg. ( Salem, Va., was occupied by the Confederates. November 22, 1862. A party of National troops, consistng of detachments from the four companies of the Fourth New York cavalry, under Captain Hawkins, had a skirmish with a body of Confederates near Winchester, Va., and succeeded n capturing four men and thirty horses, Major-General Sumner, commanding the right division of the Army of the Potomac in front of Fredericksburg, Va., in reply to a communication from the mayor of the town praying that the town should not be fired on, informed them that he was authorized to say that so long as no hostile demonstration was made from the town it would not bp shelled. Commander 'Foxhall A. Parker, of the steamer Mahaska, in conjunction with a body of land forces ‘under Brigadier-General Naglee, made an expedition into Mathew county, Va., and destroyed twelve salt works, with a large quantity of salt; burned five schooners, two sloops, a number of scows and boats, and captured a lighter .and twenty-four large canoes. l also burned a vessel on the stocks. _ —„—|_ A party of Confederates made an attack on the National forces near Hall town, Va., but were driven bask by the fire of six guns which General Geary had disposed in masked battery. The secretary of war issued an order discharging from military custody all persons who had been arrested for discouraging voluntary enlistments, opposing the draft, or for otherwise giving aid and comfort to the Confederate States, and sent from such states for loyalty or hostility to the government of the United States, ujpon glvi their promise to do no act of hostility against the government, nor render aid to its enemies.

November 23, 1882. v Lieutenant Cushing, th command of the United States steamer Ellis, proceeded up the New river, N. C., on a reconnoitering expedition. At Jacksonville he captured two schooners, and in returning down "the river succeeded in running his own vessel on a shaol and losing her. November 24, 1862. General Kelly sent out a party of Union scouts, who captured a picket of twelve Confederates near Winchester, Va., from whom it was learned that the Confederate' Gen. Stonewall Jackson had left that place with all his force excepting a regiment of cavalry, on his way to Richmond. Notice was given to women desiring to go their friends in the Southern states that their applications would have to be presented in writing, and verified by oath previous to the sixteenth day of December following. The schooner Retribution ran the blockade at Wilmington, N. C. Gen. R. H. Milroy, commanding the Cheat Mountain (Virginia) division of the Union army, issued an order suppressing the circulation of the Wheeling Press within the lines. Confederate irregulars attacked a wagon train of forty-seven wagons between Hartsville and Houston, thirty miles south of Lebanon, in Missouri, and succeeded in making off with twenty of the wagons, after a fierce struggle with the train guard, which consisted of a detachment of the Third Missouri cavalry. The schooner Agnes and sloop Ellen, which had • run into Indian river, Florida, and discharged their cargoes, when returning In ballast were captured by a boat expedition from the United States gunboat Sagamore. (Copyright, by W. G. Chapman.)