Chronological History of the American Civil War

P a g e | 231

Chambers (CSA) under the command of Major General Nathan B. Forrest captures the Union steamer, Mazeppa near Forts Henry and Heiman on the Tennessee River near the Tennessee and Kentucky borders. The ship is loaded with sutler goods (provisions sold to the army in the field, in camp, or in quarters), candies, nuts and other goodies. The good things are quickly handed out and devoured by Forrest’s men, who have eaten nothing lately, but hard tack and lean beef. Sunday, October 30, 1864 : Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest (CSA) is on the Tennessee River near Ft. Henry, and trying to get his men across the river. He knows there is Union activity close by, so he sets up a battery of cannons and starts firing at nothing. But soon the skipper of the gunboat U.S.S. Undine hears the firing and steams off to investigate, whereupon the guns now turned upon her. Four other Union vessels likewise come to either investigate or assist, and by the end of the day were all under new Confederate management. One ship is sunk, but two of the Union ships captured were troop transports, so now General Forrest (CSA) has no more trouble crossing the river. His newly captured ships can easily take them across. Sometimes you might need a name change, so not to be so easily noticed on the high seas, formerly the raider C.S.S. Tallahassee , is now the C.S.S. Olustee and she eludes the Federal blockade off the coast of Wilmington, North Carolina and begins looking for Federal commerce vessels to raid. Monday, October 31, 1864 : General John Bell Hood (CSA) arrives in Tuscumbia, Alabama to cross the Tennessee River, hoping the General William Tecumseh Sherman (U.S.) would be hot on his heels and moving away from Atlanta and the deep South. General Sherman (U.S.), however, was not buying this plan. He is already heading back for Atlanta. With just 8 days left until the presidential election of 1864, Nevada today, becomes the 36th state in the Union. Statehood was rushed to help ensure Abraham Lincoln’s reelection on November 8 and a post-Civil War Republican dominance in Congress, as Nevada’s mining- based economy ties it to the more industrialized Union. Tuesday, November 1, 1864 : Pressure mounts in the South to recruit black soldiers in order to regain depleted troop strength. A large number of slave-owners offer to free some of their slaves to fill the rosters. Reports say the Confederate conscription process is under development. The slave masters would be compensated, and the slaves will have their freedom and fifty acres each of land for their service. President Davis and others still reject this idea. Major General Forrest (CSA) now with captured boats from the Union, decides to use them to his advantage. He will man the boats and follow them along the river banks to Johnsonville, Tennessee (Johnsonville was a large supply depot for the Union). Lt. I. N. Stinson (CSA) and 25 men of Company B now become “Horse Marines” as they board one of the boats. Wednesday, November 2, 1864 : The Federal gunboats, U.S.S. Key West and the U.S.S. Tawah , attack Forrest’s (CSA) captured gunboat, U.S.S. Undine , and the transports, Cheesemen , and the Venus , at Davidson’s Ferry on the Tennessee River in Tennessee. This results in the Federal recapturing of the vessel, Venus , from Major General Nathan B. Forrest (CSA) who had captured this vessel the previous day. Forrest had been sailing up the Tennessee River, towards Johnsonville, Tennessee, but is now forced to retire to the safety of the Confederate batteries on the river at Fort Henry. Lt. Stinson (CSA) said after his ship got in the losing end of a battle with another Union ship, that he rather “do all my rid’in on a horse.” The Federals dispatched six more gunboats from Paducah, Kentucky. The U.S. Post Office Department establishes a domestic money order system. Thursday, November 3, 1864 : The six Paducah Union gunboats came under heavy cannon fire, as they approach Reynoldsburg Island, near Johnsonville. General Forrest positions more of