Chronological History of the American Civil War

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attempt to purchase the freedom of Confederate prisoners confined in Chicago, Illinois. The estimated casualties of the battle were 1,793 total (U.S.) 1,500 and (CSA) 293. Tuesday, April 26, 1864 : It is bad enough to know you lost a fight, but you can’t retreat, because the water level is so low you can’t go anywhere. Now that was bad. The Union fleet is trapped, because the water level of the Red River is dropping due to an ongoing drought. Admiral Porter’s (U.S.) flagship U.S.S. Cricket , and others are being hit repeatedly by small arms and even artillery fire from General Richard Taylor’s (CSA) men. In North Carolina, after the loss of Fort William, General Grant (U.S.) decides the area is not worth fighting to keep. John Houston Bills of the Pillars in Bolivar writes in his diary, “Everybody conscripted by the Confederates, immense distress, great weeping. Security wanted & not to be found. I hear my overseer Scott was Conscripted & carried off to Neely’s headquarters. What shall I do? - Everything wrong.” Wednesday, April 27, 1864 : General Grant (U.S.) orders his Northern armies break winter

camp in readiness for the Spring campaigns against the South. Leader of the Confederate Secret Service, Jacob Thompson, (pictured) of Oxford, Mississippi, is sent to Canada unofficially by Jefferson Davis in attempt to find cooperative Canadians to initiate discussions with the United States to achieve a truce, or ceasefire to end the war. C.S.S. Alabama , Captain Semmes (CSN) captures and burns the ship Tycoon at sea, east of Salvador, Brazil. It was transporting cargo of merchandise including some valuable clothing. Semmes described the capture: “We now hailed, and ordered him to heave to, whilst we should send aboard of him, hoisting our colors at the same time. . . . The whole thing was done so quietly, that one would have thought it was two friends meeting.”

Thursday, April 28, 1864 : Once again Fort Sumter, South Carolina is bombarded by Union artillery for a week. In Johnson County, Missouri Brig. General Egbert B. Brown (U.S.) sends Union cavalry after the guerrillas led by William Clarke Quantrill, who ambushed and killed some Federal soldiers. Admiral D. D. Porter (U.S.) fleet on the Red River in still in big trouble. He writes: “I find myself blockaded by the fall of 3 feet of water.... seven feet being required to get over; no amount of lightning will accomplish the object.... in the meantime the enemy are splitting up into parties... and bringing in artillery.” Friday, April 29, 1864 : Upon hearing of plans by the Confederates to refloat ships and set them on fire to send down river into his own trapped fleet, Admiral Porter (U.S.) listens to Lt. Col. Joseph Bailey (U.S.) deranged plan to build a dam across the shallow rapids. This would raise the water level under the ships enough that when the dam was blown, they would all get downstream. Porter agreed to let him try it. Saturday, April 30, 1864 : At Jenkins’ Ferry crossing on the Saline River in Arkansas, Union troops under General Frederick Steele (U.S.) fight off the Confederate army under General Edmund Kirby Smith (CSA) as the Yankees retreat towards Little Rock, Arkansas. Brig. General William Read Scurry (CSA) is one of the 443 Confederates mortally wounded. Scurry bled to death, refusing to be taken from the battlefield to surgeons, who probably could have saved his life. 521 Union soldiers died as well, but gave the remaining Federals a chance to regroup again at Little Rock. All of Richmond is in mourning as news spreads as President Jefferson Davis and his wife Varina suffered the loss of their beloved 5 year old son, Joe Davis, today. Somehow, he fell