150 Years Ago This Week

150 Years Ago This Week: Roanoke Island falls to Gen. Burnside

r_150YearsAgoFront

With the fall of Fort Henry in Tennessee on Thursday, Feb. 6, Gen. Albert S. Johnston, in command of Confederate troops in the western theatre of war, hurried available troops in Kentucky to Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River.
Read More »

150 Years Ago This Week: Lincoln rejects elephants

r_150YearsAgoFront

Two letters dated Feb. 14, 1861, and addressed to President James Buchanan were delayed in transit, and delivered to President Lincoln almost a year later. The letters were from the King of Siam (today’s Thailand); one letter accompanied royal gifts of a costly sword, a photograph of the king and his daughter, and two...
Read More »

150 Years Ago This Week: General War Order No. 1

r_150YearsAgoFront

The Confederate government on Sunday, Jan. 26, ordered Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard from the Potomac District in northern Virginia to the west, where he became second-in-command to Gen. Albert S. Johnston in that threatened area. This left Gen. Joseph E. Johnston (no relation to Gen. Albert Johnston) in full command in Virginia. Frustrated by months...
Read More »

150 Years Ago This Week: Cameron out; Stanton in

r_150YearsAgoFront

Saturday, Jan. 11: a fleet of some 100 vessels carrying Federal troops under Brig. Gen. Ambrose Burnside sailed from Hampton Roads, Va., for the coast of North Carolina. The naval squadron of about 15,000 commanded by Commodore Louis Goldsborough posed a new threat to the already severely intruded Southern coast. In Washington, President Lincoln accepted the public...
Read More »

150 Years Ago This Week: Winter military maneuvers, campaigns

r_150YearsAgoFront

Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s Confederate troops, moving from Bath in western Virginia, on Sunday, Jan. 5, in pursuit of Federal troops halted on the Potomac River across from Hancock, Md. For two days they bombarded Federal troops garrisoned in Hancock. Brig. Gen. Frederick Lander refused Jackson’s demands for surrender, and the Confederates searched unsuccessfully...
Read More »

150 Years Ago This Week: Pride swallowed, hearts torn

By
0
Dec. 29, 2011
r_150YearsAgoFront

December 1861 Tensions between the United States and Great Britain over the Trent affair were high as Christmas week in 1861 dawned. In Washington on Dec. 23, Lord Lyons, the British ambassador, conferred again with Secretary of State Seward. Lyons formally and officially presented the British note demanding the surrender of Confederate commissioners Mason...
Read More »

150 Years Ago This Week: Another British ship seized

By
Dec. 8, 2011
r_150YearsAgoFront

The first winter of the War was upon the people North and South, as the last month of 1861 opened. The conflict, which everyone expected to be over before the end of the Summer, now seemed to be dragging on. On Sunday, Dec. 1, President Lincoln asked some pointed questions about a possible forward movement of...
Read More »

150 Years Ago This Week: ‘Outrage on the British Flag!’

By
Dec. 1, 2011
r_150YearsAgoFront

Forces of the United States landed on Tybee Island, Georgia, on the Savannah River, on Sunday, Nov. 24. Federals now controlled the entrance to the harbor and gained a foothold for an attack on Ft. Pulaski, the brick fortification designed to protect the city of Savannah. There was skirmishing this day at Lancaster and...
Read More »

Gen. McClellan snubs his President

By
Nov. 18, 2011
r_150YearsAgoCivilWarBullRun

On Sunday, Nov. 10, President Jefferson Davis wrote to Gen. Joseph E. Johnston at Manassas that he was surprised the Army had shown so little increase since July, but that “we are restricted in our capacity to reinforce by want of arms.”
Read More »

The Trent affair begins

By
Nov. 14, 2011
r_150YearsAgoCivilWarBullRun

In the Shenandoah Valley Nov. 4, Maj. Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson assumed command of the new Shenandoah Valley District with headquarters at Winchester, soon to be the scene of his greatest triumphs.
Read More »

Battle on the Potomac River

By
Oct. 27, 2011
r_150YearsAgoCivilWarBullRun

Confederates commanded by Brig. Gen. Nathan Evans on Monday, Oct. 21, stopped a badly coordinated attempt by Union forces under Brig. Gen. Charles Stone to cross the Potomac River at Harrison’s Island and capture Leesburg. Forces numbered about 1,700 on each side. A timely Confederate counterattack, in which Col. William Barksdale of the 13th Mississippi established...
Read More »

The focus turns to Virginia again

By
Oct. 20, 2011
r_150YearsAgoCivilWarBullRun

Sharp fighting on Sunday, Oct. 13, near Henrytown, Missouri, resulted in the dispersal of a Confederate scouting party intent on raiding Federal communications between St. Louis and Springfield.  Another skirmish occurred at Cotton Hill in western Virginia.  Brig. Gen. Thomas Williams superceded Brig. Gen. Joseph K.F. Mansfield in Federal command in North Carolina.  The...
Read More »

150 Years Ago This Week for April 21

By
April 21, 2011
r_150YearsAgoCivilWarBullRun

On Saturday, April 13, Major Anderson surrendered Fort Sumter to General Beauregard’s forces. A white flag replaced the Stars and Stripes on the fort’s flagpole at 2.30 p.m. It was agreed that the formal surrender would take place the following day. Some 4,000 shells had been fired from both sides but no casualties sustained,...
Read More »

150 Years Ago This Week for April 7

By
April 7, 2011
r_150YearsAgoCivilWarBullRun

The line is drawn in the sand President Lincoln was still much involved in making Federal appointments, compiling lists and writing memoranda as the month of April opened. He signed an order to fit out the U.S.S. Powhatan on the advice of Secretary of State Seward to go to sea at the earliest possible...
Read More »

150 Years Ago This Week for March 31: A tinderbox emerges in Florida

By
March 31, 2011
r_150YearsAgoCivilWarBullRun

March 1861 Federal troops occupied both Fort Pickens in Pensacola, Fla. and Fort Sumter in Charleston, S.C. Both states were a part of the Confederate States, and neither could abide having a Federal military installation within their borders. On Tuesday, March 26, President Lincoln met with his Cabinet in Washington on the issues of...
Read More »

RappNews on Facebook



User Login