United States Civil War (1861 – 1865) in Real Time

Day 174 of the United States Civil War, October 2nd 1861

Virginia

The Confederacy sign a peace treaty with the Great Osage Indian Nation tribe, the Indian Territory.

Skirmish at Springfield Station, about twelve miles south of Washington, DC.

The Confederates were defeated at a skirmish near Chapmansville.

Missouri

The United States Army Provost-Marshal in St. Louis, Missouri seized the holdings of the Cherokee Nation, amounting to $33,000, in the St. Louis Savings and Loan since he considered that the nation had sided with the Confederacy and no longer was entitled to its government annuity.

Expedition to Bird’s Point and Charleston. United States forces moved from Bird’s Point to destroy a Confederate camp at Charleston, following a number of clashes in the area between pro-United States forces and Secessionist groups.

Alabama

Governor of Alabama, A.B. Moore attempts to rein-in the attempts of those merchants who wish to take advantage of the crisis to charge the highest rates for their goods.

Day 176 of the United States Civil War, October 4th 1861

District of Columbia

(United States) President Abram Lincoln views a tethered hot-air balloon demonstration by Thaddeus Lowe outside Washington, D. C. The balloon was considered a top secret observation instrument to be used for observation during battles.

Virginia

The Confederate States government enters into a treaty with the Shawnee and the Seneca.

Confederate States Army, Major General Earl Van Dorn arrived from Texas to assume command of an unofficial Corps in the Army of the Potomac. The other Corps was assigned to Confederate States Army, Major General Gustavus Woodson Smith. The army remained in the hands of General Joseph Eggleston Johnston, assisted by his second-in-command (effectively acting as Chief of Staff) Confederate States Army, General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard.

Incidents at Edwards Ferry and Cheat Mountain.

Department of the Pacific

United States Army, Colonel George Wright (9th US Infantry), assumes the command of the District of Southern California.

Kentucky

Skirmish at Buffalo Hill.

Maryland

United States Army, Brigadier General Charles Pomeroy Stone skirmished near Edwards Ferry.

New Mexico Territory

Skirmish at Alamoosa near Fort Craig.

North Carolina

Three days before, Confederates had captured a supply ship for a new United States garrison at Chicomacomico, above Hatteras Inlet. Georgia troops from Roanoke Island, aboard barges, made a dawn assault on this force, the 20th Indiana Infantry Regiment (United States), captured their camp, stores, and forty prisoners, and drove the rest back along the beach towards Cape Hatteras.

Louisiana

The gunboat USS SOUTH CAROLINA under the command of United States Navy, Commander James Alden captures two blockade runners, the EZILDA and JOSEPH H. TOONE, off the Southwest Pass of the Mississippi River, near New Orleans.

United Kingdom

Fearing that the Civil War will prevent any cotton trade, the United Kingdom works to develop a commercial relationship with India, which has already seen a three- fold increase in its cotton exports.

Day 178 of the United States Civil War, October 6th 1861

South Carolina

The screw steamship USS FLAG (6 × 8, 203 mm Parrott rifles), under the command of United States Navy, Commander Louis C Sartori, captured the Confederate blockade-running schooner ALERT near Charleston.

Department of New England

United States Army, Major General Benjamin Franklin Butler arrived to command the Department of New England.

Day 180 of the United States Civil War, October 8th 1861

District of Columbia

Alexander Peter Stewart, is appointed Brigadier General in the United States Army.

Virginia

Lovell Harrison Rousseau, is appointed Major General in the Confederate States Army.

Department of the Cumberland

United States Army, Brigadier General William T. Sherman issued General Orders No. 7 on October 8, 1861, establishing his command of the Department of the Cumberland:

General Orders, No. 7

Headquarters Department of the Cumberland,

Louisville, Ky., October 8, 1861.

Brigadier-General Robert Anderson having relinquished the command of this department in General Orders No. 6, of this date, the undersigned assumes command of this department.

W. T. Sherman,

Brigadier-General.

Florida

In retaliation for harassment and nuisance raids launched from Fort Pickens, Confederate States Army, Major General Braxton Bragg sent a raiding force to attack United States installations on Santa Rosa Island.

Kentucky

Incident at Hillsboro.

Missouri

Pro-Confederate Missouri State Guard, Major General Sterling Price reached the Osage River with 7,000 men retiring from Lexington. They crossed safely to the southern bank, untroubled by the pursuit of United States Army, Major-General John Charles Frémont. Price then continued his march to Neosho, where pro-Confederate Governor of Missour, Claiborne Jackson was planning to pass the ordinance of secession.

New York

New York City Volunteer firemen turned out to join a second infantry regiment, dubbed the Second Fire Zouaves, who wore fancy dress modeled on French North African native troops. Officially called the 73rd New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment the Unit left the state under the command of United States Army, Colonel William R. Brewster for Sickles" Brigade, Hooker"s Division, Army of the Potomac to serve three years.

The 2nd New York Cavalry Regiment (United States), officially known as the 2nd Regiment, New York Volunteer Cavalry, recruited from New York City, Hartford, Conn.,Newton, N. J.; Deckertown, N. J., Newburgh, Troy, Watertown Port Jervis, Fort Edward, Cambridge New York, and Fairhaven, Vt., was recruited at the direction of the Department of War, which initially kept it out of the state numbering system. It was later turned over to New York and dubbed the Second Cavalry.

Day 182 of the United States Civil War, October 10th 1861

Virginia

The steamship USS DAYLIGHT (4 × 32-pounder guns) under the command of United States Navy, Commander Lockwood, silenced a Confederate battery attacking the American ship JOHN CLARK anchored in Lynnhaven Bay.

Florida

Confederate troops at Tampa Bay captured the American sloop William Batty.

Louisiana

The screw frigate USS NIAGARA and Steam frigate USS MINNESOTA arrived off the Mississippi delta with United States Navy, Captain William W McKean, the new commander of the Mississippi blockading fleet. McKean planned to use his ships to enforce the blockade of New Orleans more thoroughly by blocking the Mississippi River. McKean ordered four United States Naval ships (USS RICHMOND, USS VINCENNES, USS PREBLE and USS WATER WITCH) to occupy the Head of Passes, closing the exits from the lower Mississippi delta. Head of Passes was a deep-water anchorage two miles long and a mile wide, where the river branched to create the lower delta. The presence of the United States blockaders forced Confederate vessels to take a longer diversion by way of Lake Pontchartrain and past Ship Island, which had been in United States control for over a month.

Missouri

A rump convention of the Missouri assembly, convened by former Governor of Missouri, Claiborne Fox Jackson, met in Neosho. They passed an ordinance of secession despite questions of the convention’s legality. The disputed state was accepted as the 12th member of the Confederacy.

Tennessee

United States Army, Brigadier General Ormsby McKnight Mitchel was ordered to plan an expedition into East Tennessee.

Day 184 of the United States Civil War, October 12th 1861

District of Columbia

(United States) Secretary of the Navy Welles wrote to United States Navy, Flag Officer Du Pont: "In examining the various points upon the coast, it has been ascertained that Bull's Bay, St. Helena, Port Royal, and Fernandina, are each and all accessible and desirable points for the purposes indicated [Fleet coaling and supply stations], and the Government has decided to take possession of at least two of them." Coaling and supply depots seized by the Navy on the Southern coast allowed blockaders to remain on station for longer periods without returning to Northern navy yards.

Virginia

A warning is given that Confederates had lined James River with powerful submarine batteries (mines).

Florida

The sloop-of-war USS DALE (14 × 32-pounder guns, 2 × 12-pounder guns) under the command of United States Navy, Commander Edward M Yard, captured the schooner SPECIE east of Jacksonville, bound for Havana with a large cargo of rice.

Kentucky

Skirmish near Upton’s Hill.

Louisiana

Incident at Bayles’ Crossroads.

Mississippi

Reconnaissance to the Mississippi River began.

(Mississippi) Battle of the Head of Passes

The flagship of the United States fleet occupying the Head of the Passes was the formidable USS RICHMOND. This vessel, a screw sloop with a ship rig, displaced 2,700 tons and mounted seven Dahlgren 9-inch smooth bores to a side and one rifled gun as a stern pivot. She also remounted one of her broadside guns as a bow pivot gun after anchoring by the lighthouse at the Head of Passes. Manned by an experienced crew of 260 well trained sailors, she was a behemoth compared to any vessel of the mosquito fleet.  38  Each of the Dahlgren guns weighed 9,020 pounds and was 9 feet long. One broadside from the RICHMOND carried more firepower than could be mustered by the entire Rebel fleet. Each 73.5 pound exploding shell would wreak havoc on a cotton clad vessel. Supporting the RICHMOND were the VINCENNES and PREBLE . Each ship mounted 14 and 16 32-pounder smooth bores respectively, and were sloops of war with no power other than sail. The VINCENNES also mounted a 9-inch smooth bore as a bow pivot gun. This was one of the guns intended for the shore battery at the lighthouse. Supporting the sail sloops was the WATER WITCH, a side-wheel steam powered gunboat mounting one 32-pound smoothbore and one rifled 12-pound howitzer. The Water Witch was to provide towing capacity for the sail vessels under unfavorable wind conditions.

The weak link in this concentrated chain of firepower was the fleet commander and captain of the Richmond, United States Navy, Captain John Pope. The range of the CSS IVY'S rifled gun alarmed Pope. On October 9, Pope reported to McKean, “I have to report that the Ivy has been down this afternoon and has made an attack upon these ships, throwing shot and shell over this ship and the PREBLE, keeping herself entirely out of range of any of the guns on either of the ships, her shot passing some 500 yards over this ship, which makes it evident we are entirely at the mercy of the enemy. We are liable to be driven from here at any moment, and, situated as we are, our position is untenable. I may be captured at any time by a pitiful little steamer mounting only one gun.” The IVY'S rifled gun did out range Pope’s smooth bores, but at extreme range could not score any hits. Pope neglected to set up picket boats, ranging posts or illuminated marker buoys, illumination fires, or to pre-plan concentrations of his ship's gunfire.

Hollins’ plan of attack was to put the CSS MANASSAS in the lead. Following would be TUSCARORA, MCRAE, and IVY moving three abreast. Each gunboat would push a fire raft, which would be ignited after a signal from MANASSAS indicating that she had crushed the USS RICHMOND. The fire rafts were chained together, and would be released by the gunboats to engulf the United States fleet as it milled helplessly after the destruction of the RICHMOND. If the MANASSAS was turned into an oven in the process, Hollins considered the sacrifice worthwhile. The CALHOUN, the flagship, would remain in the rear, as would the JACKSON and PICKENS, seeking targets of opportunity.

The PREBLE, anchored 200 yards upstream of the RICHMOND, was the first to detect the MANASSAS. She raised a red signal light into her rigging as a warning and opened fire. The MANASSAS presented only two and a half feet of armored deck above the waterline; the 32-pound shot of the PREBLE went high over her deck and scored no hits. The MANASSAS rang for flank speed, her engineers fed her fireboxes with the most flammable material on hand, and she surged forward in a dense cloud of black smoke and sparks from her stacks. The Richmond was anchored just off the lighthouse at the head of the Southwest pass on the east bank. Lashed to her port side was the coal schooner JOSHEP H. TOONE. The MANASSAS struck the RICHMOND a glancing blow on her port side just astern of the bow, wedging briefly between the TOONE and RICHMOND. The momentum of the MANASSAS tore the TOONE loose from Richmond and the MANASSAS continued past the RICHMOND ’S stern. One of the two engines of the MANASSAS was torn loose by the impact, and she lost power. She turned away from the RICHMOND and moved slowly back upriver.

As a signal to release the fire rafts she was to fire three rockets. The first of these rockets was fumbled and flew back inside the MANASSAS , briefly panicking her crew. Recovering, the three rockets were fired. Alarmed by the rafts, the vessels of the United States fleet slipped their anchor cables and moved downriver along the Southwest Passage, firing at the MANASSAS while doing so. Some of these projectiles knocked down one of the stacks of the MANASSAS, her only vulnerable projections above the rounded upper armor deck. Filling the ship with smoke while the crew cut loose the damaged stack, she grounded on the mud on the west bank of the head of the passes. The United States fleet headed to the southwest, pursued closely by the Confederate gunboats. The fire rafts grounded on the west bank of the southwest passage, south of MANASSAS. The rebel gunboats, once freed of the glare of the rafts between them and the targets, opened fire on the United States fleet.

Harper's Weekly: Confederate ironclad ram CSS MANASSAS attacks the USS RICHMOND in the Battle of the Head of the Passes, 12 October 1861



The RICHMOND grounded broadside to the bar in the center of the river mouth, and opened fire on the mosquito fleet. In turn the fleet maneuvered up river just out of range of the RICHMOND'S smooth bores, and returned fire with their longer ranged rifled guns. Despite the volumes of projectiles launched, few hits were scored. None of the Rebel vessels were hit; the RICHMOND was only hit twice, one shot wrecking one of the boats stored on the main deck, while another passed through a gun port and come to rest in the hull. By ten o’clock the mosquito fleet was running low on coal and ammunition. Hollins then ordered the fleet back upriver to Fort Jackson. The MANASSAS was taken back to the forts under tow.

Map: Sketch map of the ship positions at the time CSS MANASSAS rammed USS RICHMOND



In the last phase of the battle, United States Navy, Captain Handy of the USS VINCENNES misread a signal the RICHMOND made to the vessels outside the bar to “Get Underway”. Handy ordered the engineer to set and light a fuse to the magazine of the VINCENNES to blow her up, then ordered the crew to abandon ship and report to the Richmond. Fortunately for the VINCENNES, the engineer lit the fuse to the magazine as ordered, then cut off the burning end and threw it overboard. When no explosion was forthcoming, Handy and crew were ordered back to their ship by United States Navy, Captain Pope.

Missouri

Harper's Weekly: Newspaper illustration depicting the gunboat USS NEW ERA, later USS ESSEX in the final stages of completion in St. Louis, Missouri in 1861



Missouri

Confederate Partisan leader Meriwether Jefferson Thompson began operations at Ironton and Fredericktown.

Incidents near St Louis at Cameron, Clintonville, and Pomme de Terre.

The CITY-class ironclad gunboat USS ST LOUIS (2.5 in (64 mm) on the casemates and 1.25 in (32 mm) on the pilothouse) was launched at Carondelet.

South Carolina

John Slidell, appointed as Confederate commissioner to France, and James Murray Mason, appointed as commissioner to Great Britain, accompanied by their private secretaries, and their families, sailed from Charleston. Slipping through the United States blockade around the harbor aboard the small steamer THEODORE, the party landed at Nassua in the Bahamas and went on to Havana in Cuba. There they boarded the British mail packet TRENT on the next step in their journey.

Atlantic Ocean

The Confederate privateer SALLIE Sallie captured the American brig GRANADA.

Day 186 of the United States Civil War, October 14th 1861

District of Columbia

(United States) United States Secretary of War Simon Cameron, authorizes United States Army, Brigadier General Thomas West Sherman, commanding at Port Royal, South Carolina, to organize and arm, if necessary, squads of fugitive, captured slaves.

(United States) Secretary of State William Seward made public a circular issued to all the governors of the states bordering the Great Lakes between the United States and Canada recommending strongly that their harbors along the lakes be fortified against a possible attack from a foreign power. British and Canadian officials told the United States that this caused "uneasiness" and saw no need for such an order.

Virginia

The citizens of Chincoteague Island on the Eastern Shore of Virginia demonstrate the realities of war and the divisions in the Commonwealth when they take an oath of allegiance to the United States and denounce “the secession heresies.”

New York Illustrated News: The Blockading Squadron at anchor in Hampton Roads, off Fortress Monroe. Ships L-Rː: Gun-Boat LOUISIANA, HARRIET LANE, MINNESOTA Flag Ship, WABASH, Tow-Boat YONG AMERICA, Gun-Boat DAYLIGHT, CUMBERLAND , Gun-Boat UNION, Steam-Frigate SUSQUEHANNA, QUAKER CITY and ALBATROSS



Department of Alabama (Confederate States)

The Confederate Department of Alabama and West Florida is constituted, under the command of Confederate States Army, Major General Braxton Bragg.

Department of the Pacific (United States)

United States Army, Colonel George Wright, (9th US Infantry), transfers the command of the District of Southern California to United States Army, Colonel James H. Carleton, (1st California Infantry).

Missouri

Incidents at Bird’s Point, Linn’s Ridge or Linn’s Creek, and Rush Creek Road.

Skirmishes at Beckwith’s Farm, twelve miles from Bird’s Point, and at Underwood’s Farm.

Pro-Confederate Missouri State Guard, Brigadier General Jeff Thompson proclaimed in Southeastern Missouri that had come to Washington, Jefferson, Ste. Genevieve, St. Francois, and Iron counties to help residents throw off the yoke of the North.