Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 100, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 April 1913 — CIVIL WAR FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK [ARTICLE]

CIVIL WAR FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK

April 13, 1863. i The National transport Bteamer Escort, with re-enforcements, ammunition, and supplies for General bottled up at Washington, N. C., ran the Confederate batteries on the Pamlico river and succeeded in reaching her destination. ■} A detachment of National troops, under command of Colonel Speal, Eleventh Pennsylvania cavalry, attached a body of Confederate troops in the vicinity of Suffolk, Va. After a sharp skirmish the Unionists were compelled to withdraw behind breastworks. In thq afternoon the same party, heavily, re-enforced, sallied forth again and drove the enemy with considerable loss. General Burnside, in command of the department of the Ohio, issued an order threatening with death any who should be convicted of aiding, within hiß lines, the enemy. The order aroused the bitter antagonism of Clement L. Vallandigham, and did much to make many people dissatisfied with the extra constitutional methods adopted by the administration or its a&ents. April 14, 1863.

The Confederate works on the Bayou Teche; Louisiana, were attacked by the National forces under Generals Banks and Emory, and the Confeden ates driven out, after a desperate resistance of several hours. The Confederate gunboats Diana, Hart and Queen of 'the West were also destroyed. The two former were burned by their crew to prevent them falling into the hands of the Federals, and the last was attacked and set afire the United States gunboats Calhoun, Estralla and Arizona. The United States gunboat West End, lying in the Nansemond river, four miles below Suffolk, Va., was attacked by a Confederate battery and badly damaged. Seven of her crew were killed or wounded. General Foster escaped from Washington, N. C., where he had been surrounded by Confederates, in the steamer Escort, which ran the Confederate blockade of batteries on the Pamlico river. ::: The United States gunboats Commodore Barney, Mount Washington and Stepping Stones, attacked and silenced a heavy Confederate battery on the Nansemond river, Virginia. The fight lasted four hours. April 15, 1863. Franklin, St. Mary’s parish, Louisiana, was occupied by* the National forces under General Banks. The siege of Washington, N. C., was raised. The Confederate forces, which had invested the town for three weeks, left suddenly. General Foster, who had been hemmed up in the place, and who escaped the night before on the steamer Escort, was in Newbern organizing an expedition for the relief of the place when the newß of the Confederates withdrawal reached him. A detachment of two hundred of the Thirty-ninth Mounted Kentucky infantry, Colonel Dills, made a forced march on Pikesvllle, Ky., and, after a sharp fight, captured seventeen Confederate officers and Bixty-one privates. At the same time eight scouts from the command of Gen. Julian White captured a captain and twelve privates in Breathitt county. Fighting was continued on the Nansemond river and its vicinity, where two engagements between Confederate batteries and Union gunboats had taken place the previous day. A battalion of cavalry arrived in New Tork City from San Francisco, Cal Colonel Evans, with a force of National troops, attacked and defeated a war party pf Indians sevehty miles south of Great Salt lake, Utah, killing thirty of them. April 16, 1863. A fleet of eight National gunboats and several transports under the command of Admiral Porter passed the Confederate batteries at Vicksburg at night, without any material damage, except the loss by fire of one of the transports, laden with commissary stores and forage, and joined Grant's army at Bruinsburg. A party of Indians attacked eight soldiers at Medalia, thirty miles from Mankato, Minn., killing one and wounding two, besides killing a boy and two men belonging to the settlement. The British steamer Gertrude was captured off Harbor island by the National gunboat Vanderbilt, while on her way from Nassau to the blockaded coast of the Confederate States. April 17, 1863. Brig. Gen. Daniel A. Donelson, a nephew of Andrew Jackson, and commander of tbs Confederate department of Bast Tennessee, died near Knoxville. The Confederate schooner Alabama was captured off Mobile by the National steamer Sunquehanna while endeavoring to run the blockade. A large detachment of the Ninetyninth and One Hundred and Thirtieth New Tork had a successful skirmish wtth Confederates at South Quay road, near Suffolk, Va«, succeeding in killing and wounding a considerable number. The Nationals had two killed and three wounded. Col H. B. Grierson, in command of

a strong force of Union cavalry, left La Grange, Tenrn, on a raid through the State of Mississippi. A skirmish tok place on Bear creek, Tennessee, between a party of Nationals under General Dodge and Confederates, resulting in the withdrawal of -the latter. Captain Cameron of the Ninth Illinois cavalry was killed. A detachment of National troops under General Grover encountered a large force of Confederates at Bayou Vermilion, La., and drove them from their position with artillery fire. April 18, 1863. The Confederate side wheel steamer St. John was captured while endeavoring to run the blockade into Cape Romaine inlet, by the National steamer Stettin. A reconnoissance of Sabine Pass, Tex., was made by a party from the National gunboats Cayuga and New London. On landing near the light house they were fired on by concealed Confederates, Captain McDermont.of the Cayuga being killed and his crew of five men being captured. Captain Reed of the New London was wounded, together with four of his men. Fayetteville, Ark., garrisoned by a force of National troops under Colonel Harrison, was attacked by a strong body of Confederates. For six hours the fight raged in front of the town. The Confederates were compelled eventually to withdraw, being able to do no more than wear themselves out against the National forces.

April 19, 1863. A force of Nationals, consisting of three regiments of infantry and one of cavalry, from Memphis, Tenn., on a reconnoitering expedition, see-sawed for two days with a detachment of Blythe’s Confederate cavalry about Nonconnah, Tenn. The first fight occurred on the 18th. On the morning of the 19th the Confederates were driven across the Coldwater river. Being re-enforced, the Confederates advanced, and the Unionists fell back to Hernando, whdlre they were in turn re-enforced, and moved out again. The last fight, continuing until sundown, resulted in a draw. Major General Dix, in a dispatch to the war department, said: “I deem it due to the forces at Suffolk to notice briefly their gallant conduct during the last six days. On Tuesday General Peck’s right was attacked, and the enemy’s advance was gallantly met by Colonel Foster’s light troops, driving him back to the line of his pickets. Anderson’s division was engaged at the same time on the waterfront with four gunboats and batteries, and suffered materially. On Wednesday a Confederate battery of twenty pounder rifled guns was effectually silenced, and on the Smith Briggs, an armed quartermaster’s boat, was repulsed. Repeated attempts have been made on our lines, but have all been foiled. The storming of. the enemy’s battery near the mouth of the Nansemond by General Getty and the gunboats, under Lieutenant Lamson of the navy, and the capture of six guns and two hundred prisoners, closes the operations of six days against the enemy’s large force very satisfactorily.’’ The Eightyninth New York and Eighth Connecticut were the storming party. (Copyright, 1913, by W. G. Chapman.)