Chronological History of the American Civil War

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Courtesies of War A few facts you might not know about the Great American Civil War. Sometimes civilians get in the way of fighting and must be arrested and moved for their own best interest. I guess this was one of those times. Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest made history in December of 1862 when his troops captured a female civilian at Holly Springs, Mississippi. It was then that Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant (Julia) became his prisoner-of-war; the only wife of a Union major general ever to enjoy that dubious distinction. Once identified, she was immediately escorted through the lines and safely reunited with her husband.

The Tides of War A few facts you might not know about the Great American Civil War. There are many opportunities to speculate on the “what-ifs” of the War, but one of the most interesting involved John S. Mosby. In the Spring of 1864, Mosby and a contingent of his “irregulars” sighted a force of Union cavalry west of Centreville, Virginia., near the Orange and Alexandria Railroad. Surprised by the sudden appearance of Southern horsemen and panicked by the realization that it was the dreaded “Gray Ghost,” the Federals were off at a dead run with Mosby close behind. The Yankees headed directly for the station at Warrenton Junction. The woods bordering the tracks offered some protection and the possibility (slim though it was) of escape. As the Federals crossed the tracks and plunged headlong into the forest with Mosby in hot pursuit, a plume of smoke signaled the approach of a westbound train. Had Mosby noticed the now visible train, he would have undoubtedly allowed the Union cavalry to escape in favor of the greater prize. And what a prize it would have been, for this was no ordinary train and its passengers no ordinary travelers. This was a special transport without a guard, carrying none other than the newly appointed commander of the Army of the Potomac, Ulysses S. Grant and members of his staff, including General George Armstrong Custer, back to the front lines from a strategy session with President Lincoln in Washington. Had Grant’s train arrived at Warrenton Junction just moments earlier, the course of the War could have been decidedly altered. When Grant and Mosby met face-to-face in 1872, the now President Grant immediately began telling the Gray Ghost how he nearly became Mosby’s prisoner. Mosby replied with a smile, “If I had (captured your train), things might have been changed - I might have been in the White House and you might be calling on me.” Benjamin Franklin Butler (pictured below) was a Major General in the Union Army, an American lawyer and politician who represented Massachusetts in the United States House of Representatives and later served as the 33rd Governor of Massachusetts. He earned the nickname “Beast Butler” while the Union commander of New Orleans for his harsh rules. His most notorious rule was General Order No. 28 of May 15, 1862, that if any woman should insult or show contempt for any officer or soldier of the United States, she shall be regarded and shall be held liable to be treated as a “woman of the town plying her avocation”, i.e., a prostitute. But what you might not know about Butler, is that in April 1860, he attended the Democratic National Convention held in Charleston, South Carolina. The party was split on who to choose for a presidential candidate, and most of the fighting was about the Supreme Court’s 1857 decision that declared that the Constitution protected slavery in all U. S. Territories. Northern moderate’s candidate, Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois thought voters should decide for themselves whether slavery would be allowed in each territory. The Southerner’s choice was John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky, with a more pro-slavery position for all U. S. Changing Alliances A few facts you might not know about the Great American Civil War.