Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable
April 7, 1863 - General Joseph Wheeler, Confederate Cavalry Commander, leads an attack on railroads of the Louisville and Nashville and the Nashville and Chattanooga lines at Antioch Station, Tennessee.
April 7, 1863 - Admiral Dupont, thankful for a "failure, not a disaster" in Charleston Harbor, withdraws and suspends action. Unfavorable tides kept his squadron from deploying within range of Ft. Moultrie and Sumter until late afternoon. DuPont then finds that the harbor is filled with submerged obstacles as well as floating range markers. His slow-firing monitors can only fire 139 rounds while the 77 mounted cannons on shore fire 2,200 shells, most with great accuracy due to the pre-tested and marked range. The USS Weehawken strikes a mine and takes 55 hits in only 40 minutes. The other eight ironclads are also battered with only the "Keokuk," hit several times near the water line, no longer controllable. Admiral DuPont plans to attack again tomorrow but yields to his captains and admits the city is too strong to be taken by sea power alone. This is the biggest defeat of the U.S. Navy during the Civil War.
April 8, 1863 - President Lincoln and General Hooker review the Army of the Potomac at Falmouth, Virginia, across the river from Fredericksburg.
April 8, 1863 - The USS Keokuk sinks outside of Charleston Harbor. The Confederates recover the Keokuk's signal books and can now read squadron communication.
April 8, 1863 - Edward C. Gabaudan, Admiral Farragut's secretary, floats past Vicksburg to join the fleet below the city. He uses a small boat covered with branches and reported that Confederate sentinels rowed close to him but decided his vessel was a log and returned to shore.
April 9, 1863 - The former merchant ship "Japan" is commissioned into the Confederate Navy as the raider CSS Georgia, off the French coast. Operating near the Cape of Good Hope, she eventually captures nine Union vessels but is decommissioned early due to poor sailing abilities.
April 10, 1863 - To produce needed food for the army, President Jefferson Davis lectures "Let fields be devoted exclusively to the production of corn, oats, beans, peas, potatoes, and other food for man and beast." Of course, more natural crops for these farmers would have been tobacco and cotton.
April 10, 1863 - General Earl Van Dorn orders an attack on Union positions at Franklin, Tennessee but loses 300 men when General Gordon Granger's cavalry troop responds.
April 11, 1863 - Admiral Samuel P. Lee of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron sends several vessels to aid in the defense of Suffolk, Virginia, south of the James River. General James Longstreet, with 20,000 veteran soldiers, holds a "loose siege" of Suffolk while General John J. Peck occupies the town and mans fortifications with 25,000 Federals.
April 11, 1863 - Over 1,700 Union Cavalry under Colonel Able D. Streight begin a raid into Georgia from Nashville. They are all infantrymen and are mounted on mules, anticipating rough terrain in northern Alabama.
April 12, 1863 - General Hooker explains to President Lincoln that he wishes to swing around General Robert E. Lee's left and threaten Richmond. The president reminds him that the complete destruction of Lee's army is paramount.
April 12, 1863 - General Nathaniel Banks' XIX Corps of 16,000 men move in three divisions up the Teche River to Irish Bend on Bayou Teche, Louisiana. Landing one division of 4,500 men north of the fort, the other two divisions open a three-hour artillery dual on Fort Bisland. Confederate General Richard Taylor commands about 4,000 men and plans to have General Henry Silby's Texas Brigade attack Bank's left flank the next day.
April 13, 1863 - General Silby fails to arrive at Irish Bend, Louisiana, either too sick or too drunk to comply with General Taylor's plan. The Union, far out-numbering the garrison in Fort Bisland, pushes their earthworks to within 400 yards of the fort. General Taylor decides to abandon the fort knowing that he will be crushed between Banks and the supporting division. General Taylor's men skirt the Union forces along the river and escape.
April 13, 1863 - President Lincoln instructs Admiral DuPont to maintain his position at Charleston Harbor, causing the Confederates to anticipate another attack.
April 13, 1863 - Commander of the Department of the Ohio, General Ambrose Burnside, suppresses the activities of Peace Democrats (Copperheads) by instituting military tribunal-and firing squads-for treasonable activities. Anyone displaying sympathy for the south could expect prompt removal across Confederate lines.
