Friday, November 22, 2013

July 22- 28, 1862

Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President 

Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable


July 22, 1862 - The Emancipation Proclamation is presented to President Lincoln's entire Cabinet. Secretary of State William Seward suggests that the proclamation be held from public reading until a clear Union victory in the field.


July 22, 1862 - An exchange agreement for war prisoners is reached between Confederate and Union officials. The agreement works satisfactorily until the fall of 1863 when the question of treatment of black soldiers ends the plan.


July 22, 1862 - Secretary of War Stanton announces an Army plan for the confiscation of personal property for military use and the employment of black laborers in the military.


July 22, 1862 - Confederate Raider John H. Morgan moves south to Tennessee after an extended raid into Kentucky. Union officials discover the tapping of their telegraph system allowing the intercept of all army dispatches for the past 12 days.


July 22, 1862 - Captain William Porter aboard the USS Essex leads the USS Queen of the West in an attack on the CSS Arkansas below Vicksburg on the Mississippi River. The battle is a draw until the CSS Arkansas leaves the safety of the land based cannons of Vicksburg and is rammed by the USS Queen of the West with engine damage the result.


July 23, 1862 - General Halleck, newly arrived in Washington, suggests the combining of General George McClellan's army with the army of General John Pope.


July 23, 1862 - General John Pope tightens the Union military hold in the Shenandoah by ordering all men of military age to take an oath of allegiance or face deportation to the South. Violators to be executed and their property confiscated.


July 23, 1862 - General Braxton Bragg transfers about 31,000 Confederate Soldiers from Tupelo, Mississippi to Chattanooga, Tennessee in the largest rail transfer by the Confederacy during the war. About 32,000 Confederate troops remain in the Tupelo and Vicksburg areas under Generals Sterling Price and Earl Van Dorn. No clear line of authority is established between these two headstrong leaders to the detriment of the Confederacy.


July 24, 1862 - Falling water level on the Mississippi River coupled with crew sickness prompts Rear Admiral David Farragut to move his squadron from below Vicksburg to New Orleans. He also advises that naval force alone cannot take Vicksburg; a large, well-equipped army is his suggestion.


July 24, 1862 - Former President Martin Van Buren, eighth U.S. President, dies at age 80 at Kinderhook, New York.


July 24, 1862 - Union General John Gibbon reconnoiters Orange Court House, Virginia from his Fredericksburg field position.


July 24, 1862 - A Union gunboat flotilla steams to Helena, Arkansas to stem the flow of men and supplies coming from Texas and Arkansas. The flotilla is under command of Admiral Charles H. Davis and they plan to disrupt communications as well. Helena is located on the Mississippi River below Memphis.


July 25, 1862 - J. E. B. Stuart is appointed Major General, C.S.A.


July 27, 1862 - John Buford is promoted to Brigadier General of Cavalry, U.S. Army.


July 28, 1862 - Colonel John B. Morgan arrives back in Livingston, Tennessee after a successful raid into Kentucky.


July 28, 1862 - Governors of Texas, Louisiana, Missouri, and Arkansas ask President Jefferson Davis to appoint a strong commanding general to lead the defense of their states. They also ask for more men, supplies, and money.