Compatriots and friends of the camp,

With the start of the first full year of the war, generally the situation appeared to be moving in a favorable direction for the Confederate States of America. However, obviously, the longer the war ran the more the North could mobilize its personnel and industrial base. In fact, early 1862 saw several moves by the Union to start gnawing away at the boundaries of the Confederacy.

Ah, but that costs cubic money. Therefore, on 1 January 1862 the United States Government instituted the first-ever Federal income tax to help pay for the war. If you made between $600 and $10,000 a year, you paid a rate of 3%; over $10,000 income, the typical northerner paid 5%. President Lincoln’s signature of the Revenue Act on 5 August 1861 put the new tax on the books.

On New Years Day way down south, the Yankees took a stab at the Confederate defenses of Pensacola and Pensacola Bay when they took Fort McRee under fire. The post, located west of Santa Rosa Island and the Union-held Fort Pickens, underwent bombardment from Pickens as well as the steam frigate USS Niagara and steam sloop USS Richmond. Confederates managed to heavily damage Richmond, killing one sailor and wounding seven others and the Union forces ended their attack.

The North received better news on 11 January, following the surrender of Confederate Fort Hindman at Arkansas Post, about 45 miles southeast of Pine Bluff on the Arkansas River. This battle constituted one of the early events in the lengthy Vicksburg Campaign. About 5500 Southerners manned the post under the command of Brig Gen Thomas Churchill; starting on the 9th, they faced about 33,000 Northerners under the command of Maj. Gen. A. McClernand, the self-titled commander of the Union “Army of the Mississippi.”

Illinois politician McClernand, a classic “political general,” received his rank primarily due to his ability to swing votes in support of the Lincoln Administration and his demonstrated prowess in recruiting in his home state. And, like many politicians, he proved highly ambitious, working up the assault on Arkansas Post without the knowledge of either his departmental commander, Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck, or the department’s field commander, Maj. Gen. US Grant.

After ordering Brig Gen William T. Sherman to join on him, McClernand landed in the vicinity of Fort Hindman on 9 January. His troops quickly overran the defenses of the poorly supplied and largely sick Confederates, who were forced to fall back into the fort proper. On 10 January, a Union gunboat flotilla under Flag Officer David Dixon Porter took the post under fire and by the 11th pretty much removed the threat of southern artillery. Overwhelming numbers and firepower prevailed (do you detect a trend here?); despite orders to defend Fort Hindman no matter what, Brig Gen Churchill surrendered nearly 5000 men. This number, one quarter of all Southern forces in Arkansas, marked the largest mass surrender by the Confederacy in the western theater of the war.

McClernand received the acclaim that he desired but later ran into problems with his immediate superior, General Grant, during the Vicksburg siege. General  Churchill later commanded a division during the Red River Campaign and was promoted to major general. He served as governor of Arkansas from 1881 to 1883.

While all of this was going on, back in DC President Lincoln met with several senior officers - save for Maj Gen McClellan, who was apparently too busy to meet with the president - and directed them to come up with a plan for prosecuting the war with the Confederate States. The group included Army of the Potomac corps commanders Maj Gen Irving McDowell (who had received the Silver Medal at the Battle of Manassas the previous July) and William B. Franklin; Assistant Secretary of War; Thomas Scott (a colonel) in the Pennsylvania militia and vice president of the Pennsylvania Railroad); and Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase. Apparently during this meeting or shortly afterwards, the president made his famous comment, “If General McClellan does not want to use the army, I would like to borrow it for a time.”

McClellan responded on 12 January, bringing a plan to the White House covering his intent for the prosecution of the war. It involved shipping the Army of the Potomac to Urbanna, VA, on the Rappahanock above Chesapeake Bay and from there moving 50 miles to capture Richmond in valorous combat. However, beyond this basic sketch, General McClellan was rather vague about how and when he intended to execute his plan. In any event, the president - at least for the time being - agreed to back off and let his commanding general work up the details.

(Three days later, on 15 January, Lincoln named former Attorney General Edwin M. Stanton as the new Secretary of War, replacing the disgraced Simon Cameron. While forced to resign due to allegations of massive corruption, Cameron subsequently served as the US Minister to Russia and - believe it or not - won election to the US Senate postwar. Cameron’s probably best known for the following quote: “An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought.”

While all of these machinations took place in the District of Columbia, the Confederacy and the Union continued to jockey for position, particularly in eastern Kentucky. The 10 January Battle of Big Sandy River/Middle Creek set a tone for many of the war’s dust-ups: it matched Kentucky Confederates against Kentucky unionist units.

Brig Gen Humphrey Marshall, commanding the CSA’s Army of Southwestern Virginia (actually a brigade-strength formation), had established a fortified camp on Hager Hill in Johnson County, with an associated cavalry encampment near Paintsville, east of Frankfort near the Kentucky-Virginia border. Col James A. Garfield, a brigade commander in the Union Army of the Ohio, immediately received orders to move in and clean the Southerners out of eastern Kentucky. Short, sharp fight in miserable weather ensued; the successful movement the US 14th and 22nd Kentucky Infantry regiments to clear the hill of the CSA 5th Kentucky turned the battle in the favor of the Federals. Marshall pulled out that night; Garfield received a promotion to brigadier general, returned to the House of Representatives postwar and became the 20th president of the United States in 1880. Marshall, a Mexican War veteran as commander of the 1st Kentucky Cavalry and former US congressman, later served under Braxton Bragg before resigning his commission for a law practice and election as Confederate congressman from Kentucky.

Roughly a week after the Battle of Big Sandy, the two sides clashed again, this time near Logan’s Crossroads south of Lexington in the Battle of Mill Springs. Again, the Southerners - led by Maj. Gen. George B. Crittenden - fought not only Yankees but also illness, poor weather and inadequate supplies. Still, when Brig Gen George H. Thomas arrived with 4400 northerners, the Confederates went on the offensive and saw initial success. Then, tragedy struck; Confederate Gen Felix Zollicoffer was shot and killed when he inadvertently crossed the Union line and rode into the middle of the Union 4th Kentucky. In the resulting confusion, Thomas sent in additional troops on a flanking movement and the Southerners left the battlefield at a high rate of speed, abandoning a large number of artillery, horses and wagons.

The twin northern victories ensured that Kentucky would remain pretty much under Union control for another year. Crittenden, accused of drunkenness on the battlefield, saw his command broken up and he subsequently assumed corps command under Maj. Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner. Following a court of inquiry, Crittenden resigned his commission. Zollicoffer, a former newspaperman and US congressman, was the first Confederate general to die in the western war.

At the end of the month, President Lincoln finally grew tired of McClellan’s apparent stalling. On 27 January, he issued General War Order No. 1, which directed all Union field armies to begin offensive operations on 22 February, Washington’s birthday. On the 31st, the president specifically ordered the Army of the Potomac to attack Confederate forces in the vicinities of Manassas Junction and Centreville. McClellan immediately responded by letter objecting to the president’s order, and managed to convince Lincoln to let him proceed on his own timetable. Thus ended the first month of 1862.

Until then, hold high the flag!

Commander’s Dispatch - by Commander Mark Morgan     -    November 2011

Elsewhere on the 7th of November, a Union amphibious operation on Port Royal Sound under Flag Officer Samuel DuPont captured Forts Walker and Fort Beauregard. Both fortifications suffered substantial damage; the Confederates, out of shot, shell and powder, evacuated Walker first, followed by the troops in Fort Beauregard across the sound. In one of the war’s early ironies, the brief fight marked the classic “brother against brother” situation: one of the Union warships ships Confederate commander Brig. Gen. Thomas F. Drayton faced was USS Pocahontas, commanded by his brother, Commander Percival Drayton.

Finally, on the 8th, another fracas in Kentucky, this time on Ivy Mountain in the southeastern portion of the states. The mountain battle was the culmination of a running fight between CSA Col. John Stuart Williams and Union Brig. Gen. William “Bull” Nelson. After spending time in Kentucky recruiting, Williams’ troops found themselves short of provisions and started heading for Virginia; Nelson sent soldiers in to run the Southerners to ground. However, the Confederates turned and ambushed Nelson’s pursuing force and a brief, nasty battle ensued. When a hard rain started falling, Williams completed his movement into Virginia and safety. Their departure allowed the North to consolidate its hold on the eastern part of the state.

The same day that the Confederates evacuated southeastern Kentucky, a major diplomatic storm came up at sea with lasting repercussions. On 7 November, east of Cuba, the frigate USS San Jacinto fired on and halted the British mail ship Trent. US Navy personnel then boarded the English ship and seized James M. Mason and John Slidell, Confederate government commissioners to England and France, respectively. The US Navy warship then – under the direct orders of Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles – proceeded to Boston and Mason and Slidell went into captivity at Fort Warren. While the Northern press hailed the high seas seizure of the two diplomats as a great victory for the North, the British understandably reacted with great outrage. For one thing, the two men were underway on sovereign Crown property (the Trent) and therefore under the care and protection of the Queen of England, Victoria. Secondly, hadn’t the United States initiated a war with Great Britain in 1812 over the unlawful seizure of personnel from US ships by the Royal Navy?

Other than a couple of other smallish battles, the rest of month primarily involved political moves in several locations. On 20 November, Kentucky’s pro-Confederate elements of Kentucky’s primarily Unionist government passed an ordinance of secession in Bowling Green. The Confederacy accepted Kentucky about three weeks later, on 10 December. Going in the opposite direction, on 26 November a West Virginia Constitutional Convention convened in Wheeling, Virginia, with the intent of separating from the Old Dominion. Finally, on 28 November 1861, the CSA accepted Missouri as its 12th State.

Continuing with our review of the sesquicentennial, the month of August opened with the armies of the now two warring countries, the Confederate States of America and the United States of America, reorganizing and rebuilding following their clash at the First Manassas/First Bull Run. While this first battle proved a victory and major morale booster for the new Southern nation, the remainder of the month provided several challenges.

On the political front, on 1 August 1861 the State of Tennessee adopted the constitution of the Confederate States of America. That same day, the US Congress passed the first ever national income tax, which set a 3% tax on all who made more than $800 annually, effective 1 January 1862. However, the government failed to enforce the tax and instead revised it a year later.

The Feds followed up on 6 August with President Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the Confiscation Act of 1861, which allowed the government to seize property used in the “insurrection,” including any slaves armed by the Confederates or employed as a source of labor against the United States.

Locally, on 7 August 1861 the Department of War ordered a number of ironclad gunboats, built by James B. Eads of St Louis. Known as the City-class or “Pook’s Turtles” for designer Samuel M. Pook of Cairo, seven of the gunboats – USS Cairo, Carondelet, Cincinnati, Louisville, Mound City, Pittsburg and St Louis (later Baron de Kalb) – were built in St Louis and Mound City. Drawing only six feet – perfect for riverine operations – and capable of eight knots, each was armed with 13 guns. While initially assigned to the US Army, the ships subsequently became part of the Navy’s Mississippi River Squadron.

Two major regional events had a major impact on the conduct of the war, particularly the war in the west. On 8 August 1861, the US Army appointed Brigadier General U.S. Grant as commander of the District of Ironton, Missouri; at the end of the month, Gen John C. Fremont named Grant commander of the District of Cairo, stating he was “…a man of dogged persistence and iron will.”

They then attempted three assaults against the Yankees, but failed each time. During one assault General Lyon received fatal wounds and Major Samuel D. Sturgis assumed command of the Northern troops. Exhausted, the Confederates pulled back; Sturgis, his men too battered and worn out to pursue, retreated to Springfield. The battle, which became known as the “Bull Run of the West” (as well as the Battle of Oak Hills, to Southerners) gave the Confederacy control of the southwestern portion of Missouri. The death of Lyon – the first Northern general officer killed during the war – gave the Union a new hero.

Back East, on 7 August, the legislature of Maryland adjourned without voting on secession, postponing any decision until September. Two weeks later, the Second Wheeling Convention in the western counties of Virginia issued a resolution calling for the establishment of the Union state of Kanawha. After much political moving and back and forth, the region became the state of West Virginia on 20 June 1863…which, as we’ve discussed regularly in our meetings, meant the United States government happily accepted a new state through secession, while invading states which seceded from the Union.

President Jefferson Davis removed him from further command; Floyd returned to the Virginia Militia as a major general but died within a year due to poor health.

The minor victory in western Virginia notwithstanding, on 27 August the new Confederate States of America suffered a blow with the successful Yankee amphibious assault on Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. A US Navy flotilla of 8 ships under Flag Officer Silas H. Stringham landed some 900 Northerners under the command of Major General (and Massachusetts politician) Benjamin Butler. The Navy’s bombardment of Confederate Forts Clark and Hatteras allowed Butler’s troops to capture both, on 29 August; Southern losses totaled 5 killed, 51 wounded and 715 taken into captivity. The Union victory in North Carolina provided a major morale boost for the North and also ended blockade running in the Outer Banks.

Finally, on 30 August 1861, the Commander of the Western Department, US Army, Major General John C. Fremont, declared martial law in Missouri and freed all slaves held in the state. President Lincoln, fearing Fremont’s unauthorized action would push more border states into the Confederacy, relieved Fremont and replaced him with Major General Henry Wager Halleck. Later, in responding to criticism of Fremont’s removal by Horace Greeley of

the New York Tribune, Lincoln replied, “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it.

Hold high the flag,  Respectfully, Mark Morgan, Cmd