Chronological History of the American Civil War

P a g e | 261

their families in areas invaded by the Union armies. The Southern spirit, on the other hand, remains unshaken, by what was regarded in the North as a sign of defeat. The Richmond Daily Examiner editorialized: “We cannot help thinking that ‘our friends, the enemy,’ are a little premature in assuming the South to be at their feet. There are Southern armies of magnitude in the field, and Richmond, the capital, is more impregnable at this hour than it has been at any period of the war.” Wisconsin becomes the 16th state to ratify the 13th Amendment, which will abolish slavery, if it passes, meanwhile New York rejects it. At Philadelphia, Tennessee, Brig. General Davis Tillson (U.S.) commends the Federal officer in charge for him to take no guerrillas as prisoners, that all the enemy today, are to be killed. Major General Philip H. Sheridan’s (U.S.) and Brig. General Wesley Merritt (U.S.) meets up with Lieut. General Jubal Early (CSA) cavalry. They are fighting again, this time at Mount Crawford, Virginia. Thursday, March 2, 1865 : An engagement at Waynesboro, Virginia, where acting under Major General Philip H. Sheridan’s (U.S.) command, Brig. General George Armstrong Custer (U.S.) completely routs the Confederates, under Lieut. General Jubal A. Early (CSA) capturing over 1,000 and over 200 wagons of supplies. The remaining Confederates march, toward Richmond. This engagement is effectively the last in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. The Chattanooga Gazette carries an account of the capture on the Tennessee River of a Confederate torpedo boat, accessory equipment, and a nine man party. The expedition had been organized in Richmond, in early January, and had gone by rail to Bristol, Tennessee. Here a boat was obtained, and launched in the Holston River. Its mission was to destroy Union commerce, and key bridges on the Tennessee River. The expedition was captured near Kingston, Tennessee, by a local group of armed civilians. With little means, the South sought desperately to strike at the Union stranglehold. Friday, March 3, 1865 : Lieut. General Forrest (CSA) in Mississippi addresses his troops and warns them, “Be not allured by the sire song of peace, for there can be no peace save upon your separate independent nationality. You can never again unite with those, who have murdered your sons, outraged your helpless families....” Jackson, Mississippi newspapers also reports, that General Forrest (CSA) lists their efforts for the past year: 50 battles, in which they have killed or captured 16,000 of the enemy; captured 2,000 horses and mules, 67 pieces of artillery, 14 transports, 20 barges, 300 wagons, 50 ambulances, and 105 stands of arms; and destroyed 36 railroad bridges, 2,000 miles of track, 6 locomotives, and 100 railroad cars, amounting to $15,000,000 in property. ($15 million in 1864 would be like $244 million in 2017) Before adjourning, the 38th Congress of the U.S. establishes the Bureau for the Relief of Freedmen and Refugees, designed to manage and supervise all abandoned lands controlled by the U.S., and to provide assistance to the refugees and freed slaves. Lincoln instructs Grant not to meet with Lee, unless to accept their surrender, or about a purely military issue. Fighting continues at Cheraw, Big Black Creek, and Hornsborough in South Carolina. Saturday, March 4, 1865 : U.S. Chief Justice, Salmon P. Chase swears in Abraham Lincoln, for his 2nd term as President with Tennessean Andrew Johnson, as Vice President in Washington, D.C.. “Parson” Brownlow is elected the first post-war governor of Tennessee. Major General Cadwallader C. Washburn (U.S.) assumes the command of the District of West Tennessee. The transport, U.S.S. Thorn strikes a torpedo on the Cape Fear River and sinks near Fort Anderson, North Carolina.