Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable
September 8, 1863 - With the final conquest of Battery Wagner, General Quincy Gillmore joins Admiral John A. B. Dahlgren in an amphibious expedition against Fort Sumter.
September 8, 1863 - General Braxton Bragg leaves Chattanooga with his 65,000 men and moves south toward Lafayette, Georgia.
September 8, 1863 - At the mouth of the Sabine River near the Texas/Louisiana border, a 42-man battery from the 1st Texas Heavy Artillery engages Union General William B. Franklin's 4,000-man amphibious expedition. Lieutenant Richard Dowling (age 20) of the 1st Texas positions his six heavy smoothbore cannons at Fort Griffin and waits for the Union vessels to move within close range. He also sets range markers in the river. Two of the four gunboats are disabled with 19 dead, 37 missing, and 315 captured. Dowling's unit suffers no casualties prompting President Davis to state: "One of the most brilliant and heroic achievements in the history of warfare." General Banks shifts his attention to the Rio Grande.
September 9, 1863 - The "Laird Rams" built in Britain are officially prevented from entering Confederate service by action of the British government.
September 9, 1863 - General James Longstreet's I Corps of General Robert E. Lee's army is detached and sent to Lafayette, Georgia to reinforce Braxton Bragg's Army of the Tennessee.
September 9, 1863 - General Ambrose Burnside regains control of the Cumberland Gap in eastern Tennessee.
September 9, 1863 - Chattanooga surrenders to General Rosecrans without a shot being fired. Bragg's army reaches Lafayette, Georgia and awaits reinforcements. Lafayette is about 28 miles south of Chattanooga, Tennessee.
September 9, 1863 - At Charleston Harbor, Fort Sumter again comes under assault from Admiral Dahlgren's gunboats. The Confederates had earlier recovered a code book from the sunken USS Keokuk and could decipher Union signals so were aware of the attack. They rebuffed the Union advance and took about 100 prisoners. Admiral Dahlgren requested additional monitor craft from Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles but was refused. The Charleston Harbor bombardment ceased and became a blockade.
September 10, 1863 - Georgia troops sack the "North Carolina Standard' newspaper office when an editorial favoring a negotiated settlement with the Union was published.
September 10, 1863 - Rosecrans' army is widely disbursed with General Alexander Cook's corps at Alpine, Georgia, the XIV Corps at McLamore's Cove, and General Thomas Crittenden's XXI Corps at Chattanooga. Rosecrans is unaware that Braxton Bragg is regrouping and receiving reinforcements at Lafayette, Georgia.
September 11, 1863 - President Lincoln authorized General Andrew Johnson, Military Governor of Tennessee, to form a civilian government in his state. President Lincoln also does not accept General Burnside's latest attempt to resign.
September 12, 1863 - Heavy skirmishing takes place below Chattanooga between scattered Confederate and Union forces.
September 13, 1863 - General R. E. Lee, weakened by the detachment of Longstreet's corp, falls back across the Rapidan River. General George Meade occupies Culpeper Court House as the Confederates evacuate.
September 13, 1863 - General Ulysses S. Grant is instructed to transfer all available forces from Corinth, Mississippi to Tuscumbia, Alabama in support of General William Rosecrans at Chattanooga.
September 13, 1863 - General Leonidas K. Polk is ordered to attack Crittenden's isolated XXI Corps at Lee and Gordon's Mill, northern Georgia. Polk waits for more reinforcements and fails to move. General Rosecrans recognizes the danger his scattered army faces and all three corps begin to consolidate at Lee and Gordon's Mill on Chickamauga Creek.
September 14, 1863 - General Meade crosses the Rapadan River seeking to find General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Skirmishes at Somerville, Raccoon, and Robert's Fords, Virginia result.
