Friday, November 22, 2013

October 14 - 20, 1862

Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President 

Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable


October 14, 1862 - Elections in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Iowa result in Democratic Party gains. Democrats oppose emancipation and propose accommodation of the Confederacy.


October 14, 1862 - General John C. Pemberton takes command at Vicksburg, of the Department of Mississippi as well as Louisiana.


October 15, 1862 - Captain Semmes aboard the CSS Alabama captures and burns the Union bark Lamplighter off Nova Scotia.


October 15, 1862 - Permission is granted for Colonel John Morgan to move through central Kentucky and make raids on Union communications. General Edmund Kirby-Smith is Morgan's commanding officer.


October 15, 1862 - The Army of the Potomac begins to move from Sharpsburg to reconnoiter Harper's Ferry and then continue on to Smithfield in western Virginia.


October 16, 1862 - The Federal militia draft is violently opposed in several Pennsylvania Counties.


October 16, 1862 - Braxton Bragg continues to move his Confederate force through the Cumberland Gap with no interference from General Buell's nearby Union force.


October 16, 1862 - The Department of the Tennessee is reactivated by General Ulysses Grant and an immediate campaign against Vicksburg is planned.


October 17, 1862 - Colonel Morgan's 1,800 Cavalry Troops depart from their position southeast of Richmond and head toward Lexington, Kentucky on a second major raid into the area.


October 18, 1862 - Morgan's raid on Lexington nets 125 Union prisoners and drives the Union forces out of the town. Colonel Morgan then cuts across Kentucky, destroying railroad bridges and tracks. This raid lasts 12 days.


October 19, 1862 - The defeated Army of the Tennessee completes the move south through the Cumberland Gap, led by General Braxton Bragg. General Buell is criticized for allowing the Confederates to withdraw without a Union pursuit.


October 20, 1862 - Union forces on Gallatin Pike near Nashville, Tennessee successfully defend themselves when attacked by General Nathan B. Forrest.


October 20, 1862 - Near Bardstown, Kentucky, Confederates capture 81 Union supply wagons.


October 20, 1862 - General Grant's plan of action at Vicksburg, Mississippi, becomes complicated when President Lincoln directs former politician General John A. McClernand to mount an expedition against the same objective. The force McClernand employs is made up of troops from Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa and is named the Army of the Mississippi.