Today in the WBTs, October 30th 1861 Skirmish near Morgantown, KY. Skirmish near Greenbriar, WV. 1862 Maj. Gen. William S Rosecrans, USA, assumes command of the Department of the Cumberland, superseding Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell, USA. Union General Ormsby MacKnight Mitchell, commander of the Department of the South, dies at Beaufort, South Carolina. Born in Kentucky in 1809, Mitchell grew up in Lebanon, Ohio. He attended West Point and graduated in 1829 along with future Confederate leaders Joseph Johnston and Robert E. Lee. He excelled at mathematics and graduated 15th out of a class of 56 cadets. Mitchell taught at West Point before becoming a surveyor on the Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad. He served another stint in the military when he went to St. Augustine, Florida, but he found his true calling when he accepted a professorship at Cincinnati College in 1836. He soon gained wide acclaim as a lecturer on astronomy. His lecture tours in the United States and Europe helped fund the Cincinnati Observatory, which he directed when it opened in 1845. When the war erupted in 1861, Mitchell used his West Point education as a brigadier general in the Army of the Ohio under General Don Carlos Buell and participated in operations in Kentucky and Tennessee in 1862. Mitchell also directed raids into northern Alabama, capturing Huntsville in April 1862. Mitchell was a critic of the soft war, or limited approach, of many northern generals, and his actions made him a target of conservative northern newspapers. Advocating a tougher stance against Southern civilians and the institution of slavery, he confiscated the property of prominent Confederates and protected slaves who escaped to his lines well before the practice was mandated by Federal policy. In July 1862 he was named commander of the Department of the South. He moved to headquarters on the Sea Islands of South Carolina, where he oversaw the building of schools and homes for slaves in the captured territory. This movement, begun by his predecessor, General David Hunter, is considered the first experiment in the reconstruction of the South. However, Mitchells death from yellow fever cut short his participation in the experiment. 1863 Second day of skirmishing at Fourteen Mile Creek, the Indian Territory. Skirmishing in the area surrounding Salyersville, KY. Skirmish in the vicinity of Opelousas, LA. Skirmish near New Berne, NC. The federal steamer Chattanooga delivers supplies to famished Federal defenders at Chattanooga, TN, Skirmish at Leiper’s Ferry (on the Holston River) and skirmishing to push Confederates away from Brown’s Ferry, Tennessee. More skirmishing near Catlett’s Station, VA. 1864 Second day of skirmishing in the vicinity of Muscle Shoals (or Raccoon Ford), near Florence, AL Capture of the gun boat, Undine (No. 55) and transports near Fort Heiman, KY, by Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest. Skirmish at Bainbridge, TN Federal forces recaptured Plymouth, NC.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 10:31:55 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015