Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable
August 19, 1862 - James B. McPherson from Clyde, Ohio is appointed brigadier general, U.S. Army.
August 19, 1862 - Colonel John H. Morgan's Confederate Cavalry raids several spots along the Louisiana and Nashville Railroad near Gallatin, Tennessee.
August 19, 1862 - General Horatio G. Wright becomes commander of the reconstituted Union Department of the Ohio. This Army includes units from Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and eastern Kentucky.
August 20, 1862 - With General Pope protected by the Rappahannock River, General Lee abandons his plan to strike Pope's Army. Skirmishes between Federal troops from General Pope's Army and advancing Confederate troops under General Thomas J. Jackson's erupt near Brandy Station, Raccoon Ford, and Kelly's Ford, Virginia.
August 20, 1862 - Sioux tribesmen attack at New Ulm, Minnesota and are driven back by armed settlers and militia.
August 20, 1862 - Horace Greeley's editorial in the New York Tribune urges President Lincoln to enact emancipation. Greeley's column is entitled "A prayer of 20 millions."
August 20, 1862 - General Hamilton Bee arrives in Corpus Christi, Texas to organize Confederate resistance to Captain Kittredge's planned assault.
August 21, 1862 - Postage stamps are issued by the Federal Government to help fund the war effort.
August 21, 1862 - Northern Commanders found in command of African-American troops are to be executed by order of the Confederate military authorities. Generals David Hunter and John W. Phelps are to be treated as felons, in particular, for their roll in freeing and arming slaves for service in the Union Army. General Phelps resigned, not because of the Confederate threat but because the Federal Government disavowed his efforts.
August 21, 1862 - General Bragg positions his force above Chattanooga while the city of Gallatin, Tennessee surrenders.
August 21, 1862 - Confederate forces try to cross the Rappahannock River and are defeated with 700 causalities and 2,000 men taken prisoner.
August 21, 1862 - Sioux Chief Little Crow leads a raid on Fort Ridgely, Minnesota but is driven off by 180 soldiers and three cannons from Lt. Timothy Sheehan's Company. The Sioux raiders continue the siege of the fort and await the arrival of more Sioux warriors.
August 22, 1862 - General J.E.B. Stuart and 1,500 troops attempt to cross the Rappahannock River, intent on cutting the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, a major supply route for the Union Armies. They occupy the town of Warrenton, Virginia and advance on Catlett's Station. They are about 11 miles south of the Manassas/Bull Run battlefield.
August 22, 1862 - The band of Santee (Sioux) of Chief Little Crow is joined by Sisseton and Wahpeton bands to make a tribal force of about 800. They make another attack on the 180 men at Fort Ridgley but are forced to withdraw, suffering about 100 killed.
August 22, 1862 - General Benjamin Butler actively recruits African American slaves into the Union Army at New Orleans.
August 22, 1862 - President Lincoln responds to Horace Greeley's editorial by stating, "My paramount objective in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery."
August 22, 1862 - Secretary of the Navy Gideon Wells directs Admiral Goldsborough to assist in the evacuation of Union soldiers from Fortress Monroe, completing the abandonment of the Peninsula by the Northern forces.
August 23, 1862 - General J.E.B. Stuart is informed that General Pope is in the vicinity of Catlett's Station and he advances under cover of a driving rainstorm. Stuart's cavalry collects about 300 prisoners, General Pope's personal baggage and uniforms, and military correspondence. General Lee now has information indicating the Union plan to unite Pope's 51,000 man Army of Virginia with the 100,000 strong Army of the Potomac under McClellan. General Lee does not have a large enough force to counter the combined Union Army. His immediate plan is to attack before they can merge.
August 23, 1862 - Confederate General Edmund Kirby-Smith marches into Lexington, Kentucky and then to Richmond, Kentucky, dispersing Union forces massing there.
August 23, 1862 - New Ulm, Minnesota is defended by citizens and the Sioux are driven off but the town is burned.
August 24, 1862 - General Robert E. Lee boldly divides his Army, detaching General Thomas J. Jackson's 25,000 men with orders to cut the Orange and Alexandria Railroad thereby cutting off General Pope's supply. Lee hopes to draw the Northern Army up from near Washington D.C. and into the open.
August 25, 1862 - Radical Republicans call for added troop strength in the Union Army, prompting Secretary of War Stanton to authorize the recruitment of up to 5,000 African-American soldiers. Five Regiments are to be formed by General Rufus Saxton, military Governor of the South Carolina Sea Islands.
August 25, 1862 - New Ulm, Minnesota is evacuated with 1,000 residents moving to Mankato, some 30 miles away.
August 25, 1862 - General Jackson's corps begins a wide flanking movement around General Pope's right. General Jackson's infamous "foot cavalry" marches are repeated when his corps moves 56 miles in two days and arrives behind the Union Army of Virginia. Jackson is now positioned between General Pope's Army and Washington, D.C.
