American Civil War begins on this day 148 years ago!

At 4:30 a.m. Friday morning the bombardment of Fort Sumter started when the first artillery shell was fired from neighboring Fort Johnson in the Charleston Harbor. When the shelling subsided hours later there would be no casualties inflicted upon either side but the start of hostilities between the South and North would begin in earnest.

No one expected that the ensuing conflict would wage for four more years at a total cost of more than 600,000 lives. Two percent (2%) of the U.S. population would die between 1861 and 1865.

Previous posts to check out:

• Anderson refuses to surrender Sumter to Beauregaard
• Lincoln decides to NOT abandon Sumter
• Star of the West fired upon in Charleston Harbor
• Spirit Line cruises in Charleston give view of harbor
• Charleston residents watch bombardment of Sumter atop houses
• Confederate Military History on Fort Sumter
• Historic pictures of Ft Sumter

April 12th in the American Civil War?

What happened on this day during the Civil War – April 12th?

1. April 12th/13th, 1861 – The American Civil War officially begins when rebels in Charleston fire on the U.S. Fort Sumter in the harbor. Fire is returned from the Federals. There are no war-casualties. The fort is surrendered on the 13th.
2. April 12th, 1862 – Union raiders, led by James Andrews, steal a locomotive in Big Shanty, Georgia, and attempt to take it to Chattanooga. The great Civil War locomotive chase ensues.
3. April 12th, 1863 – Gen Hooker informs Lincoln he wishes to flank Robert E. Lee and capture Richmond, Virginia.
4. April 12th, 1864 – Confederate cavalryman, General Nathan Bedford Forrest captures Fort Pillow (TN) on the Mississippi River. Surrendered U.S. Colored Troops are massacred, sending shock waves throughout the country.
5. April 12th, 1865 – April 12 – Confederate forces make official surrender of arms at Appomattox.

For a complete timeline of the American Civil War, click here.

Key events in mid-April 1861 during the Civil War?

April 12/13 - The American Civil War officially begins when rebels in Charleston fire on the U.S. Fort Sumter in the harbor. Fire is returned from the Federals. There are no war-casualties. The fort is surrendered on the 13th.

April 15 – President Abraham Lincoln calls for 75,000 volunteers to serve a 90-day term in the U.S. Army to quell the rebellion. In December 1860 there were barely 16,000 men in the Army, most positioned in the Western region of the United States.

April 17 – the upper north part of Virginia secedes from the Union seizing the shipyard at Norfolk and the armory at Harper’s Ferry.

April 18 – Robert E. Lee rejects offer to head up the U.S. Army at request of Abraham Lincoln.

April 19 – Union soldiers of the 6th Massachusetts Infantry are attacked on the streets of Baltimore, Maryland. Four soldiers and twelve civilians are killed in the violence. Maryland would officially remain a border State throughout the war, though a slave-holding State.

April 19 – Lincolns orders a blockade of Confederate States.

See the complete Civil War Timeline here.

May 4, 1861 Harper's Weekly

For more information:

• Read: The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac, 1861-1865
• Read: Allegiance: Fort Sumter, Charleston, and the Beginning of the Civil War by David Detzer
• Read: Two Roads to Sumter: Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis and the March to the Civil War byBruce Catton
• See the complete Civil War Timeline here.

Key events in mid-late April 1865 during the Civil War?

April 12 - Confederate forces make official surrender of arms at Appomattox.

April 13 – Raleigh falls to Sherman.

April 14 – Lincoln assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C.

April 18 – Johnston and Sherman negotiate similar terms to Lee-Grant.

April 26 – Johnston accepts same term Grant gave Lee.

See the complete Civil War Timeline here.

Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia

For more information:

• Read the new book, “They Have Killed Papa Dead!”: The Road to Ford’s Theatre, Abraham Lincoln’s Murder, and the Rage for Vengeance by Anthony Pitch
• Read: Chasing Lincoln’s Killer by James L. Swanson
• See the complete Civil War Timeline here.

147th Anniversary of the Battle of Shiloh today

Today is the 147th anniversary of the Battle of Shiloh.  It was THE single bloodiest battle in the western theater during the first roughly twelve months of the American Civil War.

The Civil War Gazette has scores of posts on Shiloh in the archives. To commemorate this incredible event in our nation’s history, the CWG offers these photos taken of the battlefield and National Park. All photos are copyright protected.

The Shiloh National Military Park has several hiking-tour events planned for Monday – Wednesday, April 6-8th. Check them out here.

Interpretation center at Shiloh

Pittsburg Landing overlooking Tennessee River

Federal artillery, Schwartz's Battery at Shiloh

Confederate artillery at Shiloh, Washington (LA) artillery

Confederate artillery at Shiloh, 6th Mississippi, 23rd Tennessee

Sunken Road, showing position of Union forces at Shiloh in Hornet's Nest

Memorial to Minnesota artillery position at Hornet's Nest at Shiloh

Confederate Memorial at Shiloh

Union artillery at Shiloh showing rifled cannon design

National Military Cemetery at Shiloh Battlefield

Union dead buried at Shiloh National Battlefield

Key events in early April 1865 during the Civil War?

April 1 – Federals begin Mobile campaign to lay siege to Ft. Blakely. Capture it on the 9th.

April 2 - Confederate Government evacuates Richmond; Davis flees in a woman’s dress.

April 3 – Richmond, capital of the Confederacy falls.

April 4 – President Lincoln tours Richmond in person, now in Union control.

April 8 – Sherman resumes march on Johnston.

April 9 – Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia.
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April  9 – Pvt. Cyrus B. Harrington, 8th CT, dies on the last day of the Civil War.

April 10 – Robert E. Lee gives his formal farewell address to his Army of Northern Virginia.

See the complete Civil War Timeline here.

Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia

For more information:

• Read about the capture of Jefferson Davis in the New Georgia Encyclopedia.
• Read the new book, Pursuit: The Chase, Capture, Persecution, and Surprising Release of Confederate President Jefferson Davis by Clint Johnson.
• Read the new book, The Bloody Shirt: Terror After Appomattox by Stephen Budiansky.
• Read the new book, General Lee’s Army: From Victory to Collapse by Joseph Glatthaar
• See the complete Civil War Timeline here.

Confederate Congress approves use of black troops in combat during Civil War

On March 13, 1865 the Confederate Congress approved the use of black troops in combat. This was a last-ditch, desperate attempt by Jefferson Davis to win a war that was all but over by early Spring 1865.

One of the more interesting questions related to blacks serving in the American Civil War is this, did blacks (free or slave) serve in combat roles in the Confederate Army? Unquestionably the historical evidence is strong that some blacks – perhaps several thousand – did serve in the Confederate Army in unofficial, non-combat roles as servants, laborers, teamster, musician, cooks, etc. But the official record is very unsupportive that thousands of blacks served as official soldiers in the ranks of the Southern soldiers’ rosters.

For more read,  “Did blacks fight for the Confederacy?”

New book on battlefield preservation gives insight into first five Civil War parks

Dr. Timothy B. Smith has teamed up with the University of Tennessee Press to publish an interesting book titled; The Golden Age of Battlefield Preservation: The Decade of the 1890s and the Establishment of America’s First Five Military Parks. Professor Smith details the Golden Age of Battlefield Preservation, the decade of the 1890s, when Congress created and funded the first five Civil War military parks.

Care to take a guess what were the first five Civil War parks? If you said ‘Gettysburg’ you’d be correct but Gettysburg was not the first park, Chickamauga-Chattanooga was.  In fact, of the first five Civil War battlefields to get a national park, three were in the Western Theatre of the war: Chickamauga-Chattanooga, Shiloh and Vicksburg.

Civil War Gazette recently visited Shiloh and Chickamauga-Chattanooga. Flickr picture folders of each park are available here: Chickamauga-Chattanooga and Shiloh.

What happened in ‘March’ during the American Civil War?

1861

March 4 – Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated.

March 6 – The new Confederate Congress authorizes the use of 100,000 volunteer soldiers for twelve months.

March 29 – President Lincoln, after seeking counsel, decides to reinforce Ft. Sumter and not abandon it to the South.

1862

March 7/8 – Battle of Pea Ridge (Arkansas), also known as Elkhorn Tavern, is a Union victory and helps keep Missouri a Union State.

March 8 – Lincoln demotes McClellan to commander of just Army of the Potomac due to his cautiousness of prosecuting the Union war effort.

March 8/9 – Confederate iron-clad C.S.S. Virginia (formerly U.S.S. Merrimack) sinks two wooden Federal ships and runs others aground near Hampton Roads, Virginia. March 9th the C.S.S. Virginia duels with the U.S.S. Monitor to a draw. Dueling iron-clads will change naval history forever.

March 13 – U.S. article of war forbids Union army officers from returning fugitive slaves to their masters.

March 23 – Stonewall Jackson suffers a tactical defeat at the first battle of Kernstown in opening Shenandoah Valley Campaign.

1863

March 3 – Congress passes the Conscription Act, calling for the enlistment in military service of all able-bodied males between 20 and 45 years of age for terms of three years.

March 6 – white mobs in Detroit riot in the black section of the city, killing several blacks.

March 10 – Faced with an estimated 125,000 deserters, Lincoln issues o general amnesty for all who will report back to duty.

1864

March 2 – U.S. Grant named General-in-Chief of Union armies.

March 9 – Ulysses S. Grant receives formal promotion to Lt. General, the highest rank, only previously held by President George Washington.

March 18 – William T. Sherman assumes command of Union forces in the West.

March 25 – Union General Banks begins Red River campaign.

1865

March 2 – battle of Waynesboro.

March 3 – Union Congress creates the Freedmen’s Bureau.

March 4 – Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address

March 13 – Desperate now, Confederate Congress approves using black troops in combat.

March 19-21 – Sherman repulses Johnston’s attack at Bentonville, North Carolina.

March 24 – Sherman occupies Goldsboro, North Carolina, ending Caroilnas Campaign.

March 25 to April 2 – The Battle of Petersburg in Virginia.

March 28 – Lincoln, Sherman, Grant and Porter meet to confer on peace terms to end the long war.

March 29-31st – final Virginia Campaign begins with fighting around Dinwiddie Courthouse.

For a complete timeline of the American Civil War see the Civil War Gazette’s timeline here.

What happened in ‘February’ during the American Civil War?

1861

February 1 – Texas secedes from the Union, the sixth State to do so.

1862

February 6 – Under combined land/river forces led by Ulysses S. Grant and Andrew H. Foote, Federal forces capture Confederate-controlled Fort Henry on the Tennessee River.

February 16 – a second major blow is delivered in the Western theater in the same month when General Grant demands the ‘unconditional surrender’ of the Confederate forces at Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River in Tennessee. C.S.A. General Simon B. Buckner surrenders the fort to Grant.

February 22 – Jefferson Davis, from Kentucky, is formally inaugurated as President of the Confederate States of America, having served as provisional President.

February 25 – Nashville, Tennessee, becomes the first southern State capital to be captured by the Union, without a shot even being fired. It will remain in Federal control the remainder of the war. Also on this day, Lincoln signs the Legal Tender Act creating the first national currency.

1863

February 25 – National Currency Act goes into effect for the United States, (later to become known as the National Banking Act of 1864) making it easier to finance the war with government bonds.

1864

February 17, 1864 – H.L. Hunley – Confederate submarine – sinks a Union ship then disappears in the Charleston Bay. The entire crew is lost.

February 27 – first Federal prisoners are delivered to Andersonville Prison in Sumter County, Georgia. Some 43,000 Union soldiers will eventually spend time at the prison. Over 13,000 men died there. Less than 350 escaped.

1865

February 1 – Sherman begins Carolinas Campaign.

February 3 – February 3 – Lincoln meets with Confederate Peace Commission at Hampton Roads, Virginia.

February 6 – Robert E. Lee is named commander in chief of all Confederate armies by Confederate Congress.

February 17 – Columbia, South Carolina, falls to Sherman.

February 18 – Charleston seized by Union troops.

February 22 – Joseph E. Johnston re-called to command forces against Sherman.

For a complete timeline of the American Civil War see the Civil War Gazette’s timeline here.