June 24, 1863

June 24, 1863

---Siege of Vicksburg, Day 33

---Siege of Port Hudson, Day 28

The Gettysburg Campaign:

---Jeb Stuart writes orders to detail off two of his brigades---under Grumble Jones and Beverly Robertson, under Robertson’s overall command---to harass and scourge the Yankees, and to keep a screen between the enemy and Lee’s army, “keeping on its right and rear.”  In the meantime, Stuart is apparently taking the option of riding around the Yankee army with his three remaining brigades of Hampton, Lee, and Chambliss.

---Chambersburg, Penn. -- Gen. Ewell’s men of the II Corps enter Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, one of the key points that Lee needs to supply his campaign.  The men of Rodes’ division enter first, and the locals are surprised and gratified that the Rebels are not looting and ransacking the town.  Gen. Early’s division detaches Gen. Steuart (no relation to Jeb) with his infantry brigade to move west from Greencastle to Mercersburg and then McConnellsburg, due west of Chambersburg.  Ewell sends Early east from Chambersburg toward Cashtown and then the crossroads town of Gettysburg.  Rodes’ division will continue to follow the main pike towards Shippensburg (where Jenkins’ small cavalry brigade is) and then Carlisle, where a modest force of Yankee cavalry and infantry await. 

---Gen. Richard Anderson’s division of A.P. Hill’s III Corps crosses the Potomac into Maryland today.

---Andrew J. Proffitt, a young Confederate soldier in Longstreet’s I Corps, writes home from a friends’ home and tells of the killing march through Virginia on the way to Pennsylvania:

. . . we have had another hard march from Fredericksbur toward Win-chester the march was so hard and the weather so hot that hundred give out I marched three days un-til I could go no more they halled me one day but the ambulances were so crowded that they broke part of them down so the doctors give me a pass to shift for myself I am at a first rate place & can stay as long as I choose I do not know when I will be able to go on but I suppose I will in a week or so.  There is nothing the matter more than I am broken down, my feet worn out & my head pains me right smartly. All of which make me quite weak I can say to you that A. N. give out & was sent back to Culpepper he was right sick but I hope not dangerous. It was said that many marched until they fell dead on this march you need not be uneasy that I will do that I guess that I have been some where since I left home.  do not be uneasy about me I am treated as kindly as I would at home.

(from the Louis Round Wilson Special Collections, U. of North Carolina)

---The renowned Pennsylvania Reserves division is called up into active service again.  Gen. Samuel W. Crawford is given command of the 1^st and 3^rd Brigades, with the 2^nd brigade is added to the troops protecting Washington.

---Gen. Rosecrans’ Federal troops skirmish with Confederate troops in Tennessee, near Guy’s, Liberty, and Hanover gaps.

---Col. Mizener (Misener?) and a raiding force of Federal cavalry return to La Grange, Tennessee from a raid down into Mississippi, leaving a wake of destruction in his path.