April 6, 1862

April 6, 1862: Western Theater, Tennessee Valley Campaign - THE BATTLE OF SHILOH, Tennessee. Day One. Early in the morning, a Colonel Peabody in Prentiss’ division, camped with the rest of the Army of the Tennessee at Pittsburg Landing, sends out more patrols, which run into the advance of the Confederate army. The Federals retreat. The Rebels, exhausted after a three-day march through torrential rains and muddy roads, approach in the pre-dawn deployed in a four-brigade front of Hardee’s corps, followed by Bragg’s corps in a six-brigade front---and then Polk’s corps in column of brigades, and Breckenridge in column of brigades. (A nervous colonel tells Sherman that Rebels are massing on his front, and an annoyed Sherman retorts, "Colonel, take your damn regiment back to Ohio! There are no rebels nearer than Corinth!")

The Confederate attack comes bursting out of the woods minutes afterward, catching the Federals unprepared, smashing into Sherman’s division and Prentiss’ division on Sherman’s left. Behind them were two more divisions—Hurlbut on the left, and McClernand on the right, and then W.H.L. Wallace’s division between them and back closer to the rear, at Pittsburg Landing, which was also the army’s only escape route. The last division, 5,000 men under Lew Wallace, is several miles downriver, at Crump’s Landing, so the Federals are facing the Confederate attack of 40,000 men with only 38,000 troops. The Rebels, intending to flank Sherman’s left, end up in a frontal assault into Sherman’s hastily-forming line. Prentiss is pushed back, but rallies enough of his men to form the center of a line for which WHL Wallace’s men make up the right flank, and Hurlbut’s troops make up the left flank. As Sherman falls back, McClernand forms another line behind him and to the right of the Wallace-Prentiss-Hurlbut line.

The Union troops mostly fight well, although some regiments and even whole brigades simply dissolve and run to the rear. In no time, thousands of fled Yankees are hiding behind the river bluffs at the landing. Gen. Grant takes a fast steamer upriver from his headquarters to the battle, and immediately begins to build a defensive line at the Landing. He sends word for Lew Wallace to move up, but it takes Wallace all day to get there.

The Hornet's Nest

Meanwhile, Prentiss and Wallace form a line along a sunken wagon road, with artillery, and with Wallace’s troops and some of Hurlbut’s, holds. Soon, Wallace is mortally wounded. Eleven Rebel charges against this position decimate the Southern ranks, and yet Prentiss holds at what is now called The Hornet’s Nest, while the rest of the Federals pull back to the heights at Pittsburg Landing to re-group. Grant comes to Prentiss and asks him to hold as long as he can. 

Brig. Gen. Benjamin Prentiss

Prentiss begins with 4,400 men. Late in the afternoon, the Rebels launch an attack with 62 cannon assisting. Some troops of Wallace’s and Hurlbut’s commands break and run. Prentiss is surrounded, and has about 2,200 men left when he surrenders finally at 5:30 PM.

Gen. A.S. Johnston, the Rebel commander, while leading a single brigade in an attack, is shot in the leg, severing an artery, and bleeds to death. Beauregard in command, he orders an assault on Grant’s new line–studded with artillery, and strengthened with Lew Wallace’s Lost Division, and with Nelson’s division ferried across from Savannah. But the Rebel attack is shredded before it can get close. Beauregard orders his exhausted men to stand down and get some rest, intending to finish the Yankees off in the morning, thinking he has them trapped against the river. He sends a message to Richmond, claiming a great victory, and giving the news of Johnston’s death. The Southern troops collapse where they are, and no attempt is made at re-forming regiments or brigades. All night long, thunder, lightning, and rain lash the area, and Union gunboats toss shells into the Confederates.

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Army of the Tennessee   U.S. Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant 43,000	Army of the Mississippi   C.S. Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston Gen. Pierre G.T. Beauregard 40,000 men
1st Div. Maj. Gen. John McClernand 1 Brig. - A. M. Hare 2 Brig. - C. Marsh 3 Brig. - J. Raith 2nd Div. Brig. Gen. WHL Wallace 1 Brig. - J. Tuttle 2 Brig. - J. McArthur 3 Brig. - T. Sweeney	I Corps Maj. Gen. Leonidas Polk 1st Div. Brig. Gen. Charles Clark 1 Brig. - R. Russell 2 Brig. - A.P. Stewart 2nd Div. Brig. Gen. Benj. F. Cheatham 1 Brig. - Bushrod Johnson 2 Brig. - W. Stephens Unatt. - 47th Tennessee Inf. Reg. 1st Miss. Cav. Reg.
3rd Div. Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace 1 Brig. - M.L. Smith 2 Brig. - J. Thayer 3 Brig. - C. Whittlesey 4th Div. Brig. Gen. Stephen Hurlbut 1 Brig. - N. Williams 2 Brig. - J. Veatch 3 Brig. - J. Lauman	II Corps Maj. Gen. Braxton Bragg 1st. Div. Brig. Gen. Daniel Ruggles 1 Brig. - P. Gibson 2 Brig. - P. Anderson 3 Brig. - P. Pond 2nd Div. Brig. Gen. Jones Withers 1 Brig. - A. Gladden 2. Brig. - J. Chalmers 3 Brig. - J. Jackson Alabama Cav. Battalion
5th Div. Brig. Gen. William T. Sherman 1 Brig. - J. McDowell 2 Brig. - D. Stuart 3 Brig. - J. Hildebrand 4 Brig. - R. Buckland	III Corps Maj. Gen. William J. Hardee 1 Brig. - T. Hindman 2 Brig. - Patrick Cleburne 3 Brig. - S. Wood
6th Div. Brig. Gen. Benjamin Prentiss 1 Brig. - E. Peabody 2 Brig. - M. Miller	Reserve Corps Brig. Gen. John C. Breckenridge 1 Brig. - R. Trabue 2 Brig. - John S. Bowen 3 Brig. - W. Statham
Unattached troops: 15th Iowa Inf. Reg. 23rd Mo. Inf. Reg. 18th Wisc. Inf. Reg. 14th Wisc. Inf. Reg. 15th Mich. Inf. Reg. 11th Ill. Cav. Reg. 8 assorted artillery batteries	Unassigned Cavalry: 3 Regiments

April 5, 1862

April 5, 1862: At Yorktown, Virginia, Gen. McClellan, unable to lure Gen. Magruder and his Rebels out of the fortifications, cancels the planned march up the Peninsula toward Richmond begins, on this date, siege operations against Yorktown, and begins shelling the town. Meanwhile, Gen. Keyes, in command of one of the Union corps, reports that the "back door" into Yorktown is also closed and heavily fortified. Meanwhile, Magruder and his 13,000 Rebels march hither and yon, in a showy game of intimidation, which works: McClellan is convinced that Magruder has many more troops than he has.


—Surgeon Alfred L. Castleman, there at Yorktown with Union army, records:

5th.—A day of cooling rain, and warming excitement. Marched three miles, and found the enemy strongly entrenched behind a line of fortifications, on a narrow neck of land between the York and the James Rivers. Artillery duel at long range began about 12 o’clock, in which we had quite a number killed and wounded.

—Western Theater, Tennessee Valley Campaign : Gen. Sherman, commanding one of Grant’s divisions, reports to Gen. Grant that his line of pickets ran into Rebel troops and were captured, early in the morning. Sherman orders out a larger force, which clashes with a substantial force of Southern infantry, perhaps as much as two regiments, supported by artillery.


—At Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, Alexander G. Downing of the 11^th Iowa Infantry, records a hard day’s drill in his journal:

Saturday, 5th—We had company drill this morning as usual. Lieutenant Compton took the company out on the drill ground this afternoon for company drill, and he said: "Now, boys, we drill in earnest for an hour, then return to our quarters, put away our rifles, and then to the branch for bathing." It was warm, but the men all went into it and after a hard drill we had a good wash-off in the branch.
(This was the last time that Lieutenant Compton ever drilled our company, for the poor fellow was killed in the battle on the next day, Sunday, a little after noon. He was a fine drillmaster, and kind to his men, especially to those who tried to do their duty.—A. G. D.)

April 4, 1862

April 4, 1862: On the road to Shiloh, the Confederates are having a tough time. Heavy rains lash the columns and make the roads impassable for wagons and artillery. Also, the confusing array of highways lead to confusion and blocked routes. Johnston and Beauregard decide that an attach on the morrow, April 5, is impossible. The troops camp where they are.

—Alexander G. Downing, an infantryman in the Army of the Tennessee, under Grant, writes in his diary:
Friday, 4th—It rained and hailed this afternoon, and by night it got very warm. We were ordered under arms at 6 p. m., and we formed a hollow square on the parade ground. We remained in line until 10 o’clock, when we were ordered back to our tents. It was reported out in front that the rebels were advancing in force from Corinth, but at 10 o’clock the word came that they had bivouacked for the night.

—Josiah Marshall Favill, an officer in the Army of the Potomac, writes of his division’s advance deeper into Virginia, and how the Virginian people behave in inconsistent ways towards the dreaded Yankees:
On the 25th, we marched to Warrenton Junction, meeting with no resistance, the cavalry alone doing a little skirmishing. Blenker’s division of Germans marched with us, and appeared to be a bad lot of fellows, without order or discipline. . . . This advance to Warrenton has been a regular romance, brilliant weather, enemy running away, plenty to eat, and as we are now accustomed to sleeping in the open air, we all feel well, and enjoyed it immensely. We remained in and about Warrenton until the 1st of April, having our headquarters at a fine large mansion house, still occupied by the ladies of the family. We spent the evenings in the parlor, with the young women, who entertained us with rebel songs and music. They were very rebellious, but quite delighted with the attention they received from so many of us; besides we stocked their larder, supplied them with coffee, tea, sugar, placed guards over their barns and stock, and in many other important respects, greatly benefited them. Nearly all the inhabitants had fled, those remaining being exclusively women and superannuated men. These Southern men, although heaping most outrageous abuse upon the Northern armies, seem to have no fear for their wives and daughters, whom they leave behind in charge of their property with apparent confidence, which proves that they do not really believe what they say about us. A little politeness on the part of these women invariably brings safety to their fences, horses, and barns, and a full supply of coffee, sugar, and tea, which in the confederacy are already an expensive luxury.

April 3, 1862

April 3, 1862: A.S. Johnston and Beauregard get the Army of the Mississippi moving late in the day, but the snarl of traffic in Corinth and lack of coordination amongst the corps commanders result in little progress. The generals move the march time back 24 hours. Meanwhile, Johnston drafts new marching orders, and orders for battle deployment when the army reaches the battlefield: an unusual formation, with the three main corps in column, rather than spread over a wider front. He issues orders to his army:
Soldiers of The Army of the Mississippi: I have put you in motion to offer battle to the invaders of your country, with the resolution and discipline and valor becoming men, fighting, as you are, for all worth living or dying for. You can but march to a decisive victory over agrarian mercenaries sent to subjugate and despoil you of your liberties, property and honor.
Remember the precious stake involved, remember the dependence of your mothers, your wives, your sisters, and your children, on the result Remember the fair, broad, abounding lands, the happy homes, that will be desolated by your defeat. The eyes and hopes of eight million people rest upon you. You are expected to show yourselves worthy of your valor and courage, worthy of the women of the South, whose noble devotion in this war has never been exceeded in any time. With such incentives to brave deeds, and with the trust that God is with us, your general will lead you confidently to the combat, assured of success.
—On this date, Pres. Lincoln issues orders that, contrary to Gen. McClellan’s wishes, his I Corps, under command of Gen. Irwin McDowell, is to be detached from the Army of the Potomac to remain in protection of Washington, and not to go to the Peninsula.

—Julian C. Ruffin, of the Confederate Army, writes home to his wife Lottie, and shares an interesting dilemma with southern Quaker draftees in the army–who believe neither in war nor slavery:
There are some Methodists here from Dinwiddie, who have prayer meetings at night_ sometimes they only sing. I have been around to their rooms on several such occassions. There are also some quakers brought from Southampton. You know that it is contrary to their religion to fight. They are determined not to do any thing to help on the war. They say they wont stand up in line for drill, nor will they answer to their names. They will not even cut the food provided by government for our subsistence. I understand that the Commandant says that they shall be held up in the ranks by a man on each side if they will not stand up. It would be much better to let them go home. Religious persecution never did any good.

April 2, 1862

April 2, 1862:  In Congress, today is issued this historical document advocating Compensated Emancipation:

Congressional Joint Resolution on Compensated Emancipation

Joint Resolution declaring that the United States ought to coöperate with, affording pecuniary Aid to any State which may adopt the gradual Abolishment of Slavery.

Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the United States ought to coöperate with any State which may adopt gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such State pecuniary aid, to be used by such State in its discretion, to compensate for the inconveniences, public and private, produced by such change of system.

—In response to this resolution, the New York Times offers commentary upon members of both Houses who opposed this bill, and any bill that would free slaves:
Congress upon Mr. Lincoln’s Emancipation Message.

The President’s Emancipation policy has been made the policy of the Government. The joint resolution, which so readily passed the House of Representatives, was yesterday passed in the Senate, the vote being thirtytwo for the measure and ten against it. The Executive signature will at once complete this all-important act.
It must always be a source of mortification to remember the almost perfect unanimity of the Border State members in opposition to the benignant proposition of Mr. LINCOLN. The President appealed directly to the justice and patriotism of the Border States. . . .
But Mr. LINCOLN’s presentation of the matter left these people without excuse. The demonstration was too palpable to be mistaken. In shutting their eyes to it, and in this post meridian of the nineteenth century, and during the very twelvemonth which has seen Slavery effervesce into treason, to record their testimony in favor of the condemned institution, shows an impenetrability to reason and right, which is simply inconceivable. . . . We tell these Knights of the Border, who have rewarded the President’s tolerance of their sluggish loyalty by throwing themselves compactly into the ranks of opposition, that the ground is crumbling under them, and that the people they speak for are already making ready to approve and fully support the Administration, even in its plan of enfranchisement.
  

　
　
—In Corinth, Mississippi, at the Confederate base for the new Army of the Mississippi, Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston and Gen Pierre G.T. Beauregard have been drawing up plans, knowing that the Union armies of Buell and Grant are planning to converge at Pittsburg Landing prior to a big push toward Corinth.  To prevent this juncture, they decide to attack the Union forces in detail, beginning with Grant.  Johnston issues orders for the army to be ready to march in the morning:
HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
Corinth, Miss., April 2, 1862.

GENERAL: The commander of the forces directs that you hold your command in hand ready to advance upon the enemy in the morning by 6 a.m., with three days' cooked rations in haversacks, 100 rounds of ammunition for small-arms and 200 rounds for field pieces. Carry two days cooked subsistence in wagons and two tents to the company.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,
THOMAS JORDAN,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, CSA

April 1, 1862

April 1, 1862:  Near New Madrid, Missouri, Commodore Andrew Foote, laying siege to Island No. 10, sends a picked force of soldiers from the 42^nd Indiana Infantry and some sailors by rowboat to the Confederate fortifications on the island, where they landed in the face of a rising electric storm and spiked (made inoperable) 6 large cannon in the Rebel lines, and rowed back across the river just as the storm was whipping up into a frenzy.  That night, a tornado sweaps through New Madrid, and swept along the river; it struck Union and Confederate camps and killed several men in each.

---The Richmond Daily Dispatch, on this date, publishes an editorial pleading for public cooperation in donating church bells for the making of cannon:

The Ordnance Bureau of the Confederate States the use of such bells as can be spared during the war, for the purpose of providing light artillery for the public defence. While copper is abundant, the supply of deficient to convert the copper into bronze. Bells contain so much tin that 2400 pounds weight of bell metal, mixed with the proper quantity of copper, will suffice for a field battery of six pieces.

Those who are willing to devote their bells to his patriotic purpose will receive receipts for them and the bells will be replaced, if required, close of the war. . . .

---In the U.S. Senate, Sen. Wright of Indiana speaks on the proposed bill to free the slaves in the District of Columbia:

. . . I am no apologist for slavery. I am opposed to it. But I cannot vote for this bill abolishing slavery in the District.

My reason is that the Senate has decided against the principle of colonization. In Indiana we have settled this question explicitly and firmly by constitutional provision. Illinois is doing it. Ohio will do it. We tell you that the black population shall not mingle with the white population in our States. We tell you that in your zeal for emancipation you must ingraft colonization upon your measure. We intend that our children shall be raised where their equals are; and not in a population partly white and partly black; and we know that equality never can exist between the two races.

 

April 1, 1862 APRIL FOOL'S!

April 1, 1862:  ---THE BATTLE OF CORINTH, Mississippi.  Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, in a bid to surprise the gathering Confederate force at Corinth (before they try to attack his army at Shiloh), marches 30 miles in 32 hours, drives in the Rebel pickets, and throws his divisions into line of battle.  The Rebels are caught by surprise, but Gen. Beauregard quickly forms a fortified line of artillery while Gen. Johnston directs the wavering lines of infantry.  As Grant advances his line in the wake of the fleeing Rebels, he outmarches his artillery.  When he comes up against Beauregard’s line, and orders an assault by McClernand’s and Hurlbut’s divisions.  This attack ends in disaster.  Grant order’s Sherman’s division forward, with Prentiss in support.  Sherman briefly breaks the Southern line, but rebel guns have done great damage to the advancing Federals.  Sherman himself is killed, and Gen. Prentiss captured.  Grant spurs forward to rally his troops, and is killed by an artillery round.  The Union army retreats in a rout, and Gen. Hardee’s infantry and Forrest’s gray cavalry harasses them all the way back to Pittsburg Landing.  By April 4, Johnston will have the Federals, now under the command of Lew Wallace, bottled up in the elbow of Owl Creek, where they surrender.

Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.  R.I.P.

---The Confederate Navy has been experimenting with hot air balloons, as the Union Army has been using on the Peninsula.  But Professor Skylark Byrd and Commander Gabriel Angell demonstrate the first successful heavier-than-air aircraft, on a flat beach near Norfolk, Virginia.  The aircraft, named the Calhoun, powered by a steam engine, flies over Hampton Roads and drops artillery shells on the Union camps near Fort Monroe.  The Federals scatter in a panic. 

---Confederate invasion of California: Six transports, loaded with nearly 1,500 Confederate soldiers, sail into Monterey Bay, and capture the town.  There, they meet two more regiments of Californians who have formed and trained to fight for the Confederacy.  As they march north, they meet Unionist militia near Santa Cruz and, in a sharp fight, send the Unionists into a retreat all the back to San Francisco.  As the sun sets, in San Francisco Bay, two ironclad sloops (CSS Austin and CSS Raleigh), two schooner (CSS Rapidan and CSS Cape Fear), a captured clipper (now the CSS Chesapeake), and the commerce raider CSS Florida---all flying Confederate ensigns---sail into the bay’s waters, and land marines on the docks.

---Canada declares war on the United States, and three armies (consisting of British regulars and Canadian militia) cross the borders on this date.  One army crosses into Vermont heading to St. Albans, another is amphibiously floated from Toronto across Lake Erie to Sandusky, Ohio, where they land unopposed and march inland.  Another army crosses the border between Ontario and Minnesota, with the purpose of joining with the Sioux in a planned uprising along the Minnesota River Valley. 

---Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, with a brigade of Confederate cavalry, dashes northward from Culpepper Court House, riding by back roads behind Union lines.  On the night before, they ride across the Long Bridge into Washington, D.C., catching the Union pickets completely by surprise, at 11:00 PM, and ride up 14^th Street to Pennsylvania Avenue and the White House.  The Rebels capture the White House guards without a shot.  Gen. Stuart and his staff walk into the President’s study, where Lincoln is writing letters.  The President surrenders, and signs a prepared Cease Fire treaty.  The Rebels put the President in a carriage as a prisoner (pending a formal peace treaty), with guards, and his secretary John Hay, and ride back into Virginia.  The Civil War is over.

---Ironically, at the same time, Pres. Jefferson Davis announces to reporters that he has Negro ancestors, and then resigns in disgrace from the Presidency.

---Sen. William Yancey of the Confederate Senate, introduces a bill to free all of the slaves in the Confederacy, arguing that “we can rob the Yankees of their last weapon against us.”  When news of Lincoln’s capture reaches Richmond, Yancey withdraws the bill.