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Posted on 06/02/2004 12:00:08 AM PDT by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans.
Where the Freeper Foxhole introduces a different veteran each Wednesday. The "ordinary" Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine who participated in the events in our Country's history. We hope to present events as seen through their eyes. To give you a glimpse into the life of those who sacrificed for all of us - Our Veterans.
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Prelude In the second half of 1863 Union armies won important victories at Vicksburg, Gettysburg, and Chattanooga. Four of the 11 Confederate States were completely in Union Hands. The strong positions Union armies held all around the Confederacy were further strengthened when Lincoln unified all the various commands and named Gen. Ulysses Grant supreme commander on March 9, 1864. Grant took command of the Army of the Potomac and placed William T. Sherman in charge of the western armies. This coordination of the Union war effort resulted in two great armies poised for the simultaneous invasion of the South. The Union plan for war in the west was to bisect the South east of the Mississippi with Sherman's army working out of Chattanooga and Nashville, Tennessee. His task was to destroy the Confederate Army led by Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, occupy Atlanta, Georgia, and if possible, go on to Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina. From May to September, 1864, Sherman fought doggedly through northern Georgia, finally forcing, with the aid of a change in the Confederate command, the evacuation of Atlanta.  Early in the Atlanta campaign, the Confederate high command had considered the possibility of attacking from Mississippi Sherman's vulnerable supply line- the one-track railroad from Nashville to Chattannoga. Late in May, Confederate Gen. Stephen D. Lee, who commanded the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana, directed Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, an unschooled farmboy who had become a millionaire before he was 40 and had risen from private to major general, to strike Sherman's line of communications in middle Tennessee. Forrest had distinguished himself by his ability to move fast and fight hard. He lacked formal training in military science, but he acted on the simple maxim that in warfare it was all-important to get to the decisive point of the battle first with the most men. Gifted with daring and inspirational leadership, he had an uncanny ability to carry into execution his theory of successful warfare. So on June 1, 1864, Forrest put his columns in motion at Tupelo, Mississippi, and three days later was in Russellville, Alabama, a day's march from the Tennessee River. Sherman knew that his supply line was vulnerable and therefore charged Gen. Samuel D. Sturgis to move out of Memphis, Tennessee into northern Mississippi and hold Forrest there. Alerted by Gen. Stephen D. Lee of Sturgis' move, Forrest hurried back to Tupelo, Mississippi.  June 10, 1864, Maj. Gen. N.B. Forrest. Forrest began concentrating his forces, which numbered approximately 3,500 men along the railroad between Guntown, Baldwyn, and Booneville, Mississippi. On the evening of June 9, 1864, he knew from his scouts that Gen. Sturgis, with about 8,100 men, was in camp at Stubbs Farm 13 to 16 kilometers (8 to 10 miles) from Brice's Crossroads. Both armies marched at dawn. Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest "owned" northern Mississippi and southwestern Tennessee in mid-1864, but that was not where the war was being won or lost. Port Hudson, Louisiana, and Vicksburg, Mississippi, had fallen in July 1863, giving the Union control of the Mississippi River. Gen. William T. Sherman was advancing steadily on Atlanta. Grant was engaging Lee at Cold Harbor and Petersburg, Virginia, in the push toward Richmond.  First Main Battle Line Still, Forrest's command worried Union planners. His cavalry could move fast, and when dismounted, strike hard. Sherman maintained only a single railroad line to supply depots in central Tennessee. Preservation of that rail link was essential if the push toward Atlanta was to continue. That "lifeline" was particularly vulnerable to attack from the southwest - Forrest's theater of operations. These larger considerations brought about the battle at Brice's Cross Roads that took place on June 10, 1864. Forrest had actually begun to move on Sherman's lines on June 1, 1864, the same day that Brig. Gen. Samual D. Sturgis left Memphis to engage Forrest's attention in Mississippi and Tennessee in order to keep him from mounting an attack on Sherman's supply line. Sturgis left Memphis with 8,100 troops - Forrest was ordered back to Mississippi to meet the Union invasion. After eight days of marching, Sturgis met Forrest's 3,500 cavalry in the dense brush east of Tishomingo Creek.  Federal Line Of Battle In the mire and muck of the rain-soaked Mississippi roads, Sturgis has allowed his command to string out for more than six miles. After a brief initial skirmish, Forrest engaged the advance Union cavalry units about noon with a superior force of dismounted cavalry, pushing the northerners back to a second line of battle hastily mounted by arriving infantry. The Union cavalry retired as infantry units were thrown into line as they reached the front - weary from the double-time march along impassable roads and exhausted by the heat of the day. Forrest launched another attack about 2:00 p.m. against the second Union line. Again outnumbered by Forrest's troops, the Yankees broke under several charges. It was only a concerted stand at the Cross Roads by Union artillery and a staunch defense by rear guard infantry at the Tishomingo Creek Bridge that allowed most of the Union troops to retreat west of the bridge.  Federal Retreat From The "Crossroads" Forrest's (now mounted) cavalry pressured the retreating Union force for more than 25 miles, resulting in heavy Union losses. Federal losses amounted to 223 killed, 394 wounded, and 1623 missing. Eighteen artillery pieces (of 20) and the entire train of 200 supply wagons were lost. Confederate losses amounted to 96 killed and 396 wounded. In explaining his victory, Gen. Forrest is quoted as saying, "Well, I got there first with the most men." However, by late July, Atlanta had fallen, Grant laid siege to Petersburg and Richmond in October, and Forrest's command was again bottled up in northern Mississippi by Maj. Gen. Andrew J. Smith. When Forrest finally moved east into Alabama in November to join Maj. Gen. John Bell Hood's ill-fated invasion of central Tennessee, he had little effect on the major theaters of the larger war during 1864. Students and critics of military tactics agree that the engagement at Brice's Crossroads was characterized by the hardest kind of fighting and was a brilliant tactical victory for Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest. Despite this, the battle at Brice's Crossroads did not bring relief to the Confederacy. Union Gen. William T. Sherman, on this and other occasions, forestalled any attack on the Nashville-Chattanooga railroad by sending small commands into northern Mississippi. Assured of adequate reinforcements and supplies, he won the Atlanta and later campaigns which made the collapse of the Confederacy inevitable.  Federal Retreat From The "Crossroads" Brice's Crossroads and Tupelo were small parts of a new kind of warfare - what the 20th century would call "total war." After Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant took command in the spring of 1864, all Union armies worked together for the first time. From the west, Union Gen. William T. Sherman drove into Georgia, battled the large Confederate army there, and destroyed anything which might feed, clothe, or arm Southern soldiers. In the east, Grant pounded Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's powerful army, never relenting until Lee's exhausted soldiers surrendered. Elsewhere small Union commands prevented scattered Southern forces from annoying Grant and Sherman. President Abraham Lincoln liked the plan, and remembering his rabbit-hunting days, summed it up in a homey phrase - "Those not skinning can hold a leg." At Brice's Crossroads and Tupelo, Union Generals Samuel D. Sturgis, A. J. Smith, and Joseph A. Mower were holding a leg while Sherman did the skinning in Georgia.
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The battle had ended most disastrously. The enemy captured all the union artillery. The whole wagon train, 250 in all fell into their hands. Another star in Forrests crown of successes.
Gloomy were the soldiers as they marched along that gloomy night.
This was the only time in all the four years service that the 3rd Iowa Cavalry had to pass through the humiliating experience of defeat and retreat!
This was all owing to the incompetency of Gen. Sturgis, in command of the expedition on this occasion.
Not long after a new commander was placed in charge of the fighting forces in and about memphis. This was Maj Gen. A J Smith, the man who saved Gen. Banks' army in Louisana from destruction. Gen Smith knew how to march and how to maneuver and how to fight! The soldiers believed in Smith.
www.misscivilwar.org
store3.yimg.com
www.iowa3rdcavalry.com
www2.cr.nps.gov
community-2.webtv.net/raycousins
www.usereep.com
www.civilwarart.com
www.civilwarphotos.net
| After the battle, the Union Army again accused Forrest of massacring black soldiers. However, historians believe that charge unwarranted, because later prisoner exchanges undermined the Union claim of disproportionate death. Later Gen. Sherman would remark to Secretary of War Stanton , "I will have the matter of Sturgis critically examined, and if he should be at fault, he shall have no mercy at my hands. I cannot but believe he had troops enough, and I know I would have been willing to attempt the same task with that force; but Forrest is the very devil and I think he has got some of our troops under cower. I have two officers at Memphis who will fight all the time, A.J. Smith and Mower. The latter is a young brigadier of fine promise, and I commend him to your notice. I will order them to make up a force and go out to follow Forrest to the death, if it costs ten thousand lives and breaks the treasury. There will never be peace in Tennessee until Forrest is dead." |
Who They Are: Operation: Stitches Of Love was started by the Mothers of two United States Marines stationed in Iraq.
What They Are Doing: We are gathering 12.5"x12.5" quilt squares from across the country and assembling the largest quilt ever produced. When completed we will take the quilt from state to state and gather even more squares.
Why They Are Doing This: We are building this quilt to rally support for the Coalition Forces in Iraq and to show the service members that they are not forgotten. We want the world to know Nothing will ever break the stitches that bind us together as a country.
Ideas to start a local project:
Obtain enough Red, White and Blue material (cloth) for a 12.5 x 12.5 quilt square.
If you have someone in your family that sews, make it a weekend project and invite neighbors to join you.
Consider this tribute as a project for your civic group, scouts, church or townhall group.
Locate an elementary school with an after school program in your neighborhood or locate an after school program in your neighborhood not attached to a school and ask if you could volunteer one or two afternoons and create some squares with the kids.
Invite some VFW posts to share your project in honor of their post.
Send us webmaster@patriotwatch.com for digital photos of in progress and finished project for various websites, OIFII.com and the media.
PDN is making this appeal in support of Operation: Stitches Of Love
Media Contact: Deborah Johns (916) 716-2749
Volunteers & Alternate Media: PDN (916) 448-1636
Your friends at PDN
Good Night Snippy.
Good night Sam.
Godd night All
Night shift Bumperoni for the Foxhole
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
Huff-Daland "Early Bird" (1920)
Folks, be sure to update your anti-virus software.
Another picture taken on 13th Sept 1945. The flags were made by the prisoners from parachutes. The plane is a B-29 coming in to drop supplies.
On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on June 02:
1491 Henry VIII King of England (1509-47)
1740 Marquis de Sade 1st known sadist, writer (Justine)
1821 Ion Bratianu (Lib), premier of Romania (1876-88)
1835 St Pius X 257th Roman Catholic pope (1903-14)
1840 Thomas Hardy England, poet/novelist (Mayor of Casterbridge)
1857 Edward Elgar Broadheath, England, composer (Pomp & Circumstance)
1890 Hedda Hopper gossip columnist (From Under My Hat)
1901 Michael Todd producer (Around the World in 80 Days)
1904 John Weissmuller actor (Tarzan)/100m swimmer (Olympic-gold-1924, 28)
1930 Charles Pete Conrad Jr Phila, USN/astro (Gem 5 11, Ap 12, Skylab 2)
1936 Sally Kellerman Long Beach Cal, actress (M*A*S*H, Back to School)
1940 Constantine II deposed king of Greece (-1967)
1941 Charlie Watts drummer (Rolling Stones-Brown Sugar)
1941 Stacy Keach Savannah Ga, actor (Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer)
1943 Charles Haid SF Ca, actor (Andy Renko-Hill St Blues, Altered States)
1944 Garo Yepremian NFL place kicker (Miami Dolphins)
1944 Marvin Hamlisch US, composer/pianist (The Sting, Chorus Line)
1948 Jerry Mathers Sioux City Iowa, actor (Beaver-Leave It To Beaver)
1955 Dana Carvey comedian (Sat Night Live-Church Lady/George Bush)
1955 Garry Grimes SF, actor (Summer of '42, Class of '44)
Mornin Sam! At the same time that Forrest was spanking Sturgis the South suffered a loss off the coast of France with the sinking of the Alabama.
http://www.civilwarhome.com/duel.htm
Bedford Forrest Bump -- Thank you SAMWolf!
Never underestimate the power of the self-taught individual.
Good read Sam.
Seems the South needed more men with the talent of Forrest. So many "what if's" with every read of TWBTS.
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