Posted on 05/20/2008 6:07:26 AM PDT by mainepatsfan
May 20th
• The Provisional Confederate congress votes to move the national capital from Montgomery, AL to Richmond VA.
• A North Carolina state convention votes for secession and ratifies the Confederate constitution.
• The Kentucky legislature declares the state's neutrality in the upcoming war.
• The USS Crusader captures the Confederate blockade runner Neptune near Fort Taylor, FL.
1862:
• The Army of the Potomac is ordered to halt eight miles from Richmond by it's commander George McClellan.
• Union troops reoccupy Tucson.
• The USS Oneida shells Vicksburg, MS.
• The U.S. Congress passes the Homestead Act.
1863:
• The Confederate schooner R. T. Renshaw is captured by armed boats from the USS Louisiana at Tar River, NC.
1864:
• Battle of Ware Bottom Church, VA in which Confederate forces under Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard attacked Union Gen. Benjamin Butler's Bermuda Hundred line. After driving back Butler's advanced pickets, the Confederates constructed the Howlett Line, effectively bottling up the Federals at Bermuda Hundred. This shortened the Confederate line which allowed Beauregard to send General Lee badly needed reinforcements.
• General Nathaniel Banks' army crosses the Atchafalaya River marking the end of his failed Red River campaign.
1865:
• The 2nd Arkansas surrenders to the USS Grosbeak at Laconia, AK.
• The CSS Stonewall is handed over to the captain General of Cuba for $16,000 by it's captain Thomas J. Page. Page uses the money to pay his crew.
Military history ping
Thanks maine...
On this date in 1861, Robert E. Lee resigned his commission in the United States Army saying,
“I cannot raise my hand against my birthplace, my home, my children.”
Thanks for the ping, indcons. Now that I’m an old man, my one remaining ambition is to travel to as many Civil War battle sites as possible. As a kid I went to Petersburg and Fredricksburg and some other minor sites around northern VA and DC, now I want to see the rest, especially the big ones and some of the minor ones that had more influence than commonly acknowledged.
A decision I'm sure today's Democrats would have been overjoyed with...
I hope the day finds you well.
A trip to Winchester, VA can cover quite a few of those :)
McClellan wasn’t too popular among Republicans at that time.
Nope. But he was with Democrats...and continued to be after losing his command. And that's why I posted he'd fit right in today with our current crop.
Wasn’t McClellan the Democratic candidate for President in 1864? I know he ran but I think he was the candidate.
Yes, he was the candidate. And, frankly, he stood a good chance of winning. It was the intervention of Sherman taking Atlanta, other wartime successes, and the military (for the first time in US history) giving Lincoln over 70% of their vote, that helped Lincoln gain a second term.
It also didn't help that the Democrats were severely split between anti-war and pro-war factions. They nominated a pro-war candidate (McClellan) and an anti-war ticket; a ticket which McClellan rejected. This also had to play into his defeat.
By May 20, 1863, the southern leadership was in serious debate as to whether some of Lee's forces should be sent west to help defend Vicksburg.
Lee argued no (!!), and proposed his alternative -- a march through the Shenandoah Valley into Pennsylvania, there to hit and defeat the Union Army on it's own ground, thus forcing Lincoln to give up the fight.
So Lee proposed not that some of his brigades be sent west to support Vicksburg, but rather that his forces be reinforced, to help insure victory in the north.
Lee won the debate about sending his units west, but lost in his request for more reinforcements to invade the north.
He’d swear Al Qaeda had five billion members.
It shows how the mood of the soldiers had changed since so many of them voted for Lincoln despite the popularity McClelland had enjoyed while commanding them.
Imagine telling someone on that date in 1862 that in a few months the Confederates would be invading Maryland. Not too many folks would have taken that bet.
He’d have already evacuated Iraq for Taiwan.
That's true. But keep in mind, their allegiance to McClellan came from the Army of the Potomac. The other, Western armies held him in no such regard. Nor did they hold the Army of the Potomac in too much regard.
But it would have been a very orderly evacuation :)
True. The Union soldiers hadn’t fought that many battles only to stop now.
Even with Petersburg evolving into what seemed a no-end-in-sight situation, there still remained a desire to get the job done, and soon. I doubt few in the trenches around Petersburg, or elsewhere, saw any encouraging signs comeing from a Democratic administration.
Like any great general, Lee believed the best defense was an aggressive and highly mobile offense. Neither his predicessor, Johnston, nor his opponent, McClellan, understood it quite as Lee did.
Southern leadership in general (i.e., Davis) favored digging in behind rivers and other natural barriers. Lee, like Napoleon, understood that the only effective way to defend a river was with the river BEHIND you.
It's astonishing how even today we can see so many political McClellans and Johnstons, so few Lees.
Lee was motivated by the need to protect Richmond, therefore, moving the war as far away from the Confederate capital as possible was a practical yet enlightened decision.
The problem was, the Confederacy didn’t have the infrastructure to support his moves North over an extended period of time. And circumstances prevented them from living off the land as Sherman did in Georgia and the Carolinas.
OTOH, Lee himself liked to dig in. But in a position where topography gave him all the advantages should Union forces take him on. This too was where he was a cut above.
It's funny how history repeats itself.
Except when his opponent did him the favor of attacking him right where he wanted them to at Fredricksburg.
The Democrat Party is little different than it was back in the 1850's-1860's. It was the peace party, and tolerant of slavery. Today, it's still the peace party> And while no one is enslaved, Democrat elites use Blacks and other minorities to further their aims. It's still a racial issue.
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