Chronological History of the American Civil War

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Friday, November 28, 1862 : The Battle of Cane Hill in northwestern Arkansas was part of a Confederate attempt to push the Yankees back into Missouri and recapture ground lost during the Pea Ridge campaign of early 1862, when Union forces secured parts of northern Arkansas. Union troops under James Blunt surprise attacked Confederate forces under John Marmaduke. Blunt pursued Marmaduke's forces for 12 miles before the Confederates reached the safety of the hills. Though the conflict lasted for nine hours, casualties were light. The Yankees suffered 41 men killed or wounded, while the Confederates lost 45. Saturday, November 29, 1862 : Lee had reorganized his army after the Seven Days, replacing those he thought were ineffective commanders and today, General John Magruder (CSA) is reassigned to command the District of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Sunday, November 30, 1862 : By this time the year before, most soldiers, were in winter quarters, but this year it seems this is not going to happen. Most want “one” battle that will end the war. The North with its new commander, General Burnside (U.S.), was still preparing to cross the river at Fredericksburg, Virginia. Meanwhile on the other side of the river, General Lee’s (CSA) army was digging in for a fight and ‘Stonewall’ Jackson arrives with his men bringing the total number of Confederate soldiers in the town to 80,000. In Leavenworth, Kansas the Daily Times writes: “A detachment of soldiers from the Fort, yesterday, under command of a Lieutenant, hunted up a wagon load of soldiers' clothing, saddles, etc., which they seized as the property of the U. S., having been sold or pawned to the various dealers in that line, by the soldiers.” Monday, December 1, 1862 : Just 10 weeks before, President Lincoln had issued his “Emancipation Proclamation”, which declared that slaves in territories still in rebellion as of January 1, 1863, would be free. The bill was not well received by everyone in the North; it came across with considerable resistance from conservative Democrats who did not desire to fight a war to free slaves. Lincoln addressed the 37th Congress in the capital and proposes three amendments to the U. S. Constitution. First, all slaves would be gradually emancipated until 1900. Second, slaves freed during the war would remain free. Third, the United States Congress may appropriate money, and otherwise provide for colonizing free colored persons with their own consent, at any place or places outside the U.S. Now crossing out of Tennessee into Mississippi, General Grant was on his first march to Vicksburg, following the Mississippi Central Railroad out of Southeast Tennessee. He is met with resisting Mississippi Confederates north of Abbeville, Mississippi, entrenchments along the Tallahatchie River. Tuesday, December 2, 1862 : After Confederate, General Braxton Bragg’s defeat at Perryville,

Kentucky on October 8, 1862, he and his Confederate Army of the Mississippi retreated, reorganized, and were re-designated as the Army of Tennessee. They then advanced to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and geared up to move into winter quarters. Nevertheless, the Union had different thoughts. In Mississippi, Union XIII Corps' cavalry commander, Col. T. Lyle Dickey (U.S.) (pictured) ordered to pursue the southern Confederates, gathered his troops near Abbeville and skirmishes with Major General Earl Van Dorn's (CSA) rear guard through town, down the railroad, and through Oxford. Wednesday, December 3, 1862 : The Army of the Potomac (U.S.) was either in winter camps guarding the perimeter of Washington, D.C., or else still perched on the bluffs across the Rappahannock River from Fredericksburg, Virginia. Further west, was an attack on a Union supply train on Hardin Pike near Nashville, Tennessee, and a few shots exchanged near Moorefield, western (but not yet West) Virginia.

In Mississippi, more action was going on, as was to be expected considering that Ulysses S. Grant (U.S.) was leading an army through the countryside. Col. Dickey (U.S.) divided his force in 4 different parts: 1 regiment was left to secured Oxford, Mississippi; Col. John K. Mizner's men, dispatched west, roved the right flank looking for the Confederates; while Cols. Albert L. Lee (U.S.) and Edward Hatch (U.S.) headed up 2 columns. Edward Hatch's column traveling the Coffeeville Road south and Albert L.