Chronological History of the American Civil War

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Arkansas, the Cumberland, the Ohio, and the Tennessee, (as Union departments were named after rivers). Here they both board a train, and leave for Cincinnati, Ohio, where they will settle the finally details of what will be known as the "Anaconda Plan," which eventually would squeeze the Confederacy out of existence. At Sperryville, Virginia, Federals capture a Rebel major conscripting (drafting) local boys for Confederate service. Some skirmishing with Indians in California, on Red Mountain, seven miles southwest of Blue Rock Station, where the Federals rout an Indian party and pursuing them to the Eel River, fighting continues again two days later. Friday, March 18, 1864 : Must be a promotion day as Major General Sherman (U.S.) was given formal command of the Military Division of the Mississippi and Lieut. General James Longstreet (CSA) resumes the command of the Department of East Tennessee. Saturday, March 19, 1864 : Union forces attack Laredo, Texas. Even though the Federals have superior rifles, the southern Texans barricade the town and force a Union withdrawal. In Georgia, the legislature there passed a couple of resolutions. One resolution was just to show confidence, in the leadership and decisions of President Jefferson Davis. The second was a little trickier: it resolved that the Confederate Government in Richmond should, after each Southern victory, offer to end the war. Terms would be independence for the South, of course, as well as self-determination for border states. In Missouri, guerrillas and bushwhackers going after the Union troops at Jackson. Sunday, March 20, 1864 : Lt. Charles Simms (CSN) was given command of C.S.S. Baltic, but he was not very happy with his new assignment. After reading the inspector’s report, he wrote his boss “he made a very unfavorable report...and recommended that the iron be taken from her and put upon one of the new boats. Between you and I the Baltic is rotten as punk and is about as fit to go into action as a mud scow.” By July, the C.S.S. Baltic will be dismantled and her armor transferred to the new C.S.S. Nashville . Monday, March 21, 1864 : Lincoln is on his campaign trail today, giving a speech to the The New York Workingmen’s Democratic Republican Association. They received a lecture on “Property.” He said, “Property is desirable--it is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich, shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him, who is houseless pull down the house of another.” Abraham Lincoln also signs legislation allowing Nevada and Colorado to become states, even though they don’t meet population demands. You don’t think it's because there is gold and silver in them hills, do you? At Sabine Pass, Texas, Confederate forces destroy the steamer C.S.S. Clifton (ex- U.S.S. Clifton ) to prevent her capture by blockading Union naval forces. The 900-ton C.S.S. Clifton had been attempting to run out of the Texas port, when she grounded and could not be floated. Tuesday, March 22, 1864 : Back in Jackson, Tennessee, Nathan Bedford Forrest (CSA) had the following dispatch, delivered throughout the surrounding territory: “Whereas it has come to the knowledge of the Maj. Gen. commanding that Col. Fielding Hurst [US] . . .has been guilty of wanton extortion upon the citizens of Jackson, Tennessee and other places guilty of depredation upon private property, guilty of house burnings, guilty of murders, both of citizens and soldiers of the Confederate States . . . I therefore declare . . . (them) outlaws, and not entitled to be treated as prisoners of war . . . .” Jackson residents also warned Forrest of another ‘nest of outlaws’ currently holed up in an old abandoned Confederate fortification, Fort Pillow, overlooking the Mississippi River 40 miles north of Memphis. The New York Times predicts at the Republican Convention supporters of Tennessee’s Governor Andrew Johnson, will name him as Vice-President on the ticket with Lincoln.