Chronological History of the American Civil War

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claiming to be a Union patrol returning with prisoners, the Confederates eliminate the sentries. Galloping through the streets, and exchanging shots with other Union troops. General Forrest soon arrives at Beale Street, where the rebels divided off into several squads to pursue separate missions. One Union general was not in his quarters, and another escaped to Fort Pickering dressed in his night-shirt. According to Memphis legend, Confederate cavalrymen rode into the lobby of the luxurious Gayoso House Hotel, seeking the Yankee officers. A street in Memphis is named “General Washburn's Escape Alley” in commemoration of the ordeal. The attack on Irving Block Prison also fails, when Union troops stall the main body at the State Female College. After two hours of fighting, Forrest decided to withdraw, cutting telegraph wires, taking 500 prisoners and large quantities of supplies, including many horses. Although Forrest fails in Memphis, his raid influences Union forces to return there from northern Mississippi, and provide additional protection. This now leaves General Forrest free to roam as he pleases. After Lieut. General A. P. Hill’s recent attack on the Federal lines fails, General Robert E. Lee, (CSA) finally concedes the Weldon Railroad, a vital railroad link of Richmond and Petersburg. This forces the South to supply the area using more wagons. The South Side Railroad was now the only railroad left to supply Petersburg and Lee's army. Monday, August 22, 1864 : The ten articles, of this first treaty of the Geneva Convention are initially adopted by twelve nations, today. It defines "the basis on which rest the rules of international law for the protection of the victims of armed conflicts". This treaty helps form the International Red Cross in Geneva. U.S. citizen, Clara Barton was instrumental in campaigning for the ratification of the 1864 Geneva Convention by the United States, which eventually ratified it in 1882. Grant (U.S.) knew if he could control all the railways into the area around Petersburg and Richmond, it would only be a matter of time. General Lee (CSA) still wants prisoner exchanges. Just in the last few days of fighting, Grant’s Federal forces had lost about 4,500 casualties, but large numbers of these were prisoners, not fatalities. Grant could afford to lose the men, and afford to feed the prisoners he held. He knew that Lee’s situation was precisely the opposite. It would, however, be very hard on the Union captives. Tuesday, August 23, 1864 : Having withstood naval bombardment for more than two weeks, and attacks by Union soldiers ashore, Brigadier General Page surrenders Fort Morgan, the last Confederate outpost guarding the inlets to Mobile Bay. He said, “My guns and powder had all been destroyed, my means of defense gone… It was evident the fort could hold out but a few hours longer under a renewed bombardment.” Now gone is the last Confederate port of any size on the Gulf of Mexico not in Federal hands, leaving only Wilmington, North Carolina, as the last port open for Confederate blockade runners. Fifty guerrilla fighters at Webster, Missouri, enter the town and plunder and rob it, before moving on. Some fighting at Abbeville, Mississippi with Union troops of Brig. General Joseph A. Mower. Wednesday, August 24, 1864 : Union II Corps moves south of Petersburg are going about its assigned work today, which is destruction along the Weldon Railroad. At Duvall’s Bluff, Arkansas General Joseph O. Shelby (CSA) sets about destroying telegraph lines, tearing up railroad tracks, torching hay and machinery. Thursday, August, 25, 1864 : President Lincoln is in conference with Secretaries Seward, Stanton, Fessenden, and Henry J. Raymond on the subject of a peace mission to President Davis, which they all decide against. “The 2nd Battle of Reams’ Station,” on the Weldon Railroad is fought, as Lieut. General Ambrose P. Hill (CSA) attacks the U.S. Army Corps II under Major