Chronological History of the American Civil War

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Sunday, October 13, 1861 : General Charles Fremont (U.S.) had gotten a force together and was moving towards where he thought Missouri Militia commander Sterling Price (CSA) might be. Today telecommunication outages took place near Henrytown, at a locale known variously as Dutch or Monday Hollow, and also as Wet Glaize, Mo. Federal scouts caught Sterling Price's people at it, and a small battle ensued.

Monday, October 14, 1861 : Lincoln orders General Winfield Scott (U.S.) (pictured) to suspend the “writ of habeas corpus” from Maine to the Federal capital. This stopped a person’s right to appear before a judge or magistrate and hear the charges against him. He served as Commanding General of the United States Army for twenty years, longer than any other holder of the office. Tuesday, October 15, 1861 : Confederacy starts selling postage stamps.

Jefferson Davis was on the first stamp. (pictured). Jeff Thompson's Southern Raiders strike a party of Union soldiers near Potosi, Missouri, capture 50,

and burn the Big River Bridge. In an effort to catch the vessel that supposedly carries the Confederate commissioners to Europe, Slidell and Mason, three Union boats leave New York searching for the Nashville . However, Slidell and Mason are proceeding to Cuba on the Theodora . Wednesday, October 16, 1861 : Federals and Confederates clash near Harper's Ferry, Virginia. Union forces take over Lexington, Missouri, though the Confederates have already evacuated. Hardeman County plantation owner/planter, merchant, and civic leader, John Houston Bills (The Pillars)

wrote in his diary: “Wednesday morning raining slowing. I spent last night at the Soldiers home. Two of the Soldiers, Sanders & Sellers very ill. At 7 ½ AM, Sanders yields to the crushing influence of his disease, “Neumonia” after & the effect of measles. Sellers will soon follow him. Other patients (12 in number) improving.” Thursday, October 17, 1861 : Jefferson Davis was learning the perils of creating a new government, new institutions, and particularly a new army from scratch. The Confederate States of America essentially had no army as a nation, just whatever troops were volunteered by the governors of the several states. Furthermore the men themselves were quite insistent that they remain under the command of men from their own state, and if possible stay in their state’s borders. Volunteers from Kentucky who had come to fight for the South requested to return home now that fighting was occurring there, and were very irate when Davis refused them. Friday, October 18, 1861 : Attacks and skirmishes are reported across Missouri, at Lebanon, Shanghai, Pilot Knob, and Wilson’s Mill. Sporadic fighting continues near Harper’s Ferry. The Petersburg (Virginia) Express reports a naval engagement at New Orleans. General Zollicoffer’s troops (CSA) conduct a series of raids on southern Kentucky. President Lincoln meets with his cabinet to discuss the 'voluntary' retirement of General Winfield Scott. General McClellan is among those who would like to see Scott retire. Saturday, October 19, 1861 : General U.S. Grant assumes command of the Armies of the Ohio, the Cumberland, and of Kentucky. George Thomas (U.S.) replaces Rosecrans as commander of the Army of the Cumberland. Rosecrans, ordered to Cincinnati where he will eventually be reassigned, will never again play a major role in the war. Sunday, October 20, 1861 : A woman, whose identity is unknown, walked into the Confederate War Office in Richmond today, dropped off a parcel of papers, and walked back out. The papers included explicit descriptions of the plans for Banks’ forces’ advance on Manassas, as well as Burnside’s expedition into North Carolina and Butler’s into Louisiana. The lady had gathered this information at a dinner party in Washington D. C. several days earlier, where General John A. Dix (U.S.) was one of the guests.