March 29&30,1864-Forces under Colonel Powell Clayton move south from Mount Elba, Arkansas and surprises a Confederate supply train near Long View on the Sabine River. With 35 captured wagons and 260 prisoners, they return to Mt. Elba and establish a supply route to assist General Frederick Steele.
April 1,1864-General John M. Taylor fails to arrive at Arkadelphia, Arkansas with cavalry reinforcements in time to assist General Steele who departs for the Red River. With scant rations, men and pack animals are put on half rations. Confederate Cavalry under Generals Joseph Shelby and John S. Marmaduke continue to shadow and slow Steele's column.
April 2,1864-General Shelby's Confederate cavalry overtake the Union rear guard unit at Okolona, Arkansas, taking 160 prisoners.
April 3,1864-After encountering Confederate resistance, General Nathaniel Banks and his Army reach Grand Encore, Louisiana where they meet several army transports. The USS Eastport, Cricket, Mound City, Chillicothe, Pittsburg, Ozark, Neosho, Osage, Lexington, Fort Hindeman, and Louisville are carrying General Andrew Smith's corps. The combined armies prepare to move to attack Shreveport.
April 3,1864-Admiral Porter's 13 gunboats and 30 transports have difficulty at the Alexandria Rapids due to low water levels and may not be able to continue to Shreveport.
April 4,1864-The French policies of Napoleon III toward Mexico cause the U.S. House of Representatives to protest, resolving never to recognition a Monarch in the Western Hemisphere. America extended support of rebel forces under President Benito Juarez. (Ferdinand Maximilian became the second Emperor of Mexico on April 10,1864 and was ruler until he was executed on June 19,1867)
April 4,1864-The Army of the Potomac continues to reorganize. The XI and XII Corps are consolidated under General Joseph Hooker as the new XX Corps. General Jacob D. Cox takes charge of the XXIII Corps, and General Philip H. Sheridan succeeds General David M. Gregg as calvary commander.
April 4,1864-General John M. Schofield takes charge of the Union Army of the Tennessee's XXIII Corps. Army of the Tennessee commander is General James McPherson. He received command when General W.T. Sherman was promoted on March 12, 1864.
March 23,1864-The Union I Corps is discontinued and absorbed into the V Corps, commanded by General Gouverneur K. Warren. I Corp had been under General George Sykes since Malvern Hill in June of 1862.
March 23,1864-General Grant returned to Washington from his meeting in Nashville with General Sherman and begins to implement his plan to advance four different armies simultaneously across the South.
March 23,1864-General Frederick Steele cites chronic shortages of food and fodder for troops and pack animals as the reason for delaying the departure of his 10,400 Union troops out of Little Rock, Arkansas. He is to march east and link up with the Red River expedition being led by General Nathaniel Banks. He also was hesitant due to poor roads and the threat of Confederate Cavalry raids.
March 24,1864-General Winfield S.Scott returns to action for the first time since his injuries at Gettysburg. He is not fully recovered but resumes command of the II Corps, Army of the Potomac.
March 24,1864-The Union III Corp of the Army of the Potomac is disbanded and troops are folded into the II and VI Corps.
March 24,1864-A surprise raid by General Nathan B. Forrest captures Union City, Tennessee then moves on to Paducah, Kentucky, capturing Paducah the following day.
March 24,1864-General Nathaniel P. Butler arrives at Alexandria, Louisiana, a full week behind schedule. He was delayed in starting the Red River expedition due to the need to establish a civilian government in New Orleans. He discovers that General Andrew J. Smith's 10,000 troops have to re-joined General Sherman's Army no later that April 25th, and that water levels on the Red River continue to fall. While Admiral Porter may not be able to navigate the river due to low water, Butler orders the campaign to continue.
March 25,1864-The Army of the Potomac sees another staff change when General David Gregg replaces General Alfred M. Pleasonton as commander of the cavalry.
March 25,1864-At Paducah, Colonel Stephen G. Hicks refuses to surrender to General Forrest and withdraws into Fort Anderson. Forrest decides not to attack the strong fortification but Colonel Albert Thompson charges at the head of his 3rd and 7th Kentucky Cavalry. They are repulsed with bloody losses, including Colonel Thompson being killed. General Forrest does collect about 500 horses from area civilians.
March 26,1864-As Union forces approached Paducah, Kentucky, General Forrest retreats to Fort Pillow, Tennessee on the Mississippi River.
March 27,1864-General Grant rejoins the Army of the Potomac now at Culpeper Court House, Virginia.
March 27,1864-Large numbers of Northern prisoners begin to arrive at Camp Sumter in Andersonville, Georgia.
March 28,1864-General Banks advances from Alexandria, Louisiana to Shreveport.
March 28,1864-A violent anti-war riot in Charleston, Illinois results in gunfire between Union soldiers home on furlough and Knight's of the Golden Circle (Copperheads) in town to hear anti-war congressional candidate John R. Eden's speech. Six are killed and 20 injured. After extended prison time, President Lincoln grants clemency to the 29 Democrats jailed during the riot.
March 28,1864-Secretary of the Navy Gideon Wells urges Commander John C. Carter to have the USS Michigan ready to sail as soon as the Lake Erie ice breaks. Rumors of a Confederate takeover of the USS Michigan to raid and release Confederate Prisoners held on Johnson's Island at Sandusky, Ohio have been received.
March 29,1864-General George Meade is convinced by President Lincoln to drop his Court of Inquiry demand concerning newspaper coverage of Meade's performance at Gettysburg.
March 29,1864-Union forces under General Banks reach Natchitoches, Louisiana and move inland to a more direct route to Shreveport. Admiral Porter has been slowed by low water and has lost a vessel. Banks move inland takes his column away from Admiral Porter's gunboats and the protection the gunboats provide.
March 16,1864-After a landing party from the USS Osage under Commander Thomas O. Selfridge occupied Alexandria, Louisiana, General Andrew J. Smith's Union forces strengthened the occupation with support of nine gunboats. This is part of the naval move to Shreveport by Admiral David Porter.
March 16,1864-Confederate Colonel John M. Hughs led a cavalry attack on the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad near Tullahoma, Tennessee with 60 Union soldiers captured, several trains destroyed, and 20 African Americans killed.
March 16,1864-Captain Raphael Semmes drops anchor at Capetown, South Africa to take on supplies. The CSS Alabama Confederate Raider has been repaired and is now ready to sail.
March 17,1864-General Nathaniel Banks fails to rendezvous with General Andrew Smith at Alexandria due to the political leadership exchange in New Orleans.
March 17,1864-In a meeting at Nashville, General Grant announces that "Headquarters will be in the field and, until further orders, will be with the Army of the Potomac".
March 18,1864-Arkansas voters ratified a new constitution which included the abolition of slavery.
March 18,1864-The Military Division of the Mississippi combines all Union western army units and General William T. Sherman is formally appointed as commander.
March 19,1864-The Georgia legislature grants President Jefferson Davis a vote of confidence. They also suggest peace talks be arranged with Washington D.C. following the next significant Confederate victory but stipulate "only Southern independence".
March 21,1864-Nevada and Colorado statehood legislation is signed by President Lincoln. Nevada becomes a state on October 31,1864; Colorado statehood is ratified August 1,1876.
March 21,1864-Henderson Hill, Louisiana is the site of Union cavalry defeating Confederate troops and taking 250 prisoners, 200 horses, and four cannon. The Union Cavalry was led by General Joseph A. Mower, disrupting Confederate scouting and reconnaissance.
March 22,1864-General Lew Wallace is named commander of the Middle Department headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland.
March 22,1864-As General Frederick Steele departs Little Rock for the expedition on the Red River, General Nathan Kimball is named commander of the Union Department of the Arkansas.
March 9,1864-Recently promoted General Ulysses S. Grant succeeds General Henry W. Hallack as army general in chief. Hallack becomes Grant's chief of staff. General George Meade remains as the commanding officer of the Army of the Potomac, currently located near Brandy Station, Virginia.
March 9,1864-General Sherman is put in command of all Union armies in the West.
March 9,1864-In retaliation for the ambush and killing of Colonel Ulric Dahlgren, Union Cavalry led by General Hugh Kilpatrick burn a grain mill and other property near Carlton's Store in King and Queens County, Virginia.
March 10,1864-General Grant completes a conference with General Meade and departs for Nashville(by rail)for meetings with General Sherman.
March 10,1864-A large Union force pushes skirmishers of Colonel Mosby's Raiders back through Charlestown and Kabletown, Virginia.
March 10,1864-General Nathaniel Banks plans to start the Red River expedition by moving 10,000 men commanded by General Andrew Smith down the Mississippi River to the mouth of the Red River. These troops are on loan from General Sherman's force at Vicksburg. General Frederick Steele leaves Little Rock to advance a column of troops on Shreveport from the west. By seizing Shreveport, he can move on the Texas interior and stop Confederate supplies from moving eastward.
March 11,1864-General Banks is delayed in leaving New Orleans as he must turn over military leadership of Louisiana to the newly appointed Governor, Michael Hahn. General Smith departs as the unit commander with his troops aboard Army transports.
March 12,1864-Admiral Porter leads his armada of 13 ironclads, four tinclads, and four wooden gunboats up the Red River, Louisiana. He pauses to bombard Fort De Russy, Louisiana into submission.
March 13,1864-After receiving a signed petition from African Americans in Louisiana asking for the right to vote, President Lincoln encourages Governor Hahn to draft a new state constitution.
March 14,1864-Federal gunboats remain behind the rest of Admiral Porter's fleet to further reduce Fort De Russy. When General Smith's forces arrive, the fort is seized along with 325 prisoners and 12 cannons.
March 15,1864-Newly elected Governor Hahn of Louisiana receives power to form a civilian authority. The powers previously reserved for military control slowly revert back to politicians. Similar authority transfer was the basis of much of Southern reconstruction after the war ended.
March 2,1864-Ulysses S. Grant is elevated to the rank of lieutenant general by the U.S. Senate.
March 2,1864-In King & Queen County, Virginia, Colonel Ulric Dahlgren's 100 man Union detachment is ambushed. Colonel Dahlgren is killed and 92 of his men are captured. The Confederates recover papers outlining a plot to burn Richmond and assassinate President Jefferson Davis. The U.S. Government and Union General George Meade deny the scheme.
March 2,1864-At the mouth of the Red River in Louisiana, Admiral David Porter's Mississippi Squadron begins to move toward Shreveport and east Texas. One worry for Porter is the decreasing water levels on the river. The squadron proceeds as planned.
March 3,1864-General Grant is ordered to Washington D.C. for an official promotion ceremony.
March 4,1864-Andrew Jackson is promoted to Tennessee Governor by the U.S. Senate. Pro-Union governor Michael Hahn is sworn into office at New Orleans, Louisiana.
March 4,1864-Advanced units of General Sherman's army begins to arrive back at Vicksburg after the Meridian Campaign. There are about 5,000 slaves and 3,000 draft animals with the Army, all having traveled 360 miles since leaving Meridian on February 22nd.
March 5,1864-All Southern vessels are force to donate half of their cargo capacity to government shipments as supplies were running short in the field. This move could also reduce wartime profiteering by the ship owners.
March 6,1864-Confederate gunboats fire on Union forces occupying Yazoo City, Mississippi, forcing the Union troops to vacate the city.
March 6,1864-General Andrew J. Smith is appointed to lead Army elements in the Red River expedition. General Sherman instructs General Smith to fully cooperate with Admiral Davis D. Porter in this joint operation.
March 6,1864-On the North Edisto River, North Carolina, a Confederate torpedo boat rams the USS Memphis twice but the spar torpedo fails to detonate. The spar entered the Memphis eight feet below the water line but the vessels was able to float away.
March 7,1864-General Longstreet was again urged to resume offensive operations in Kentucky or Tennessee by President Davis.
March 8,1864-In a White House Ceremony, General Grant accepts the high honor of being the only general to attain such a lofty rank and the first ever Four Star General. (George Washington retired as a lieutenant general with 'Three Stars' after the Revolutionary War and therefore was outranked by later four and five star generals. This was repaired on October 11, 1976 when Washington was posthumously promoted "General of the Armies of the United States" with no officer of the United States Army outranking Washington on the Army list.)
March 8,1864-A Union expedition led by General Grenville Dodge to Moulton and Courtland, Alabama nets supplies, ammunition, and provisions. General Franz Sigel is ordered to clear Confederate units out of the Shenandoah Valley immediately after he was appointed commander of the new Department of West Virginia.
March 8,1864-About 100 Copperheads (Northeners sympathetic to the Confederacy) kill five Union soldiers on furlough in Charleston, Illinois.
February 23,1864-In light of disclosures in the "Pomeroy Circular", Secretary of Treasury Salmon P. Chase does not attend this weeks cabinet meeting.
February 23,1864-In General Sherman's Military District of the Mississippi, General John A. McClernand receives command of the XIII Corps.
February 23,1864-Ending the only major campaign into Florida during the Civil War, the battered column of General Truman Seymour returns to Jacksonville. Seymour left Hilton Head, South Carolina by boat on February 5th, arrived in Jacksonville on February 8th, advanced inland to occupy Gainesville on February 14th, and took a beating at Olustee, Florida on February 20th.
February 23,1864-Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston is forced to move further south to higher ground at Dalton, Georgia by a force of Union troops from the XIV Corps under General John D. Palmer.
February 24,1864-General Palmer continues to skirmish with Confederates near Tunnel Hill, Georgia, testing the strength of Johnston's Army. The Confederates take a strong position at Buzzard's Roost, near Tunnel Hill.
February 24,1864-General Braxton Bragg become de facto chief of staff when President Davis appoints him as Chief of Operations at Richmond.
February 25,1864-After encountering heavy resistance at Buzzards Roost Gap, General George Thomas confirms that General Johnston's Army of the Tennessee is now firmly entrenched around Dalton. Continued pressure applied by General Palmer's XIV Corps and other units lead to the recall of General Thomas J. Hardee's corp previously dispatched to aid General Polk in Mississippi.
February 26,1864-President Lincoln commutes all death sentences for desertion. Guilty deserters will be imprisoned for the duration of the war.
February 26,1864-Following the ill-fated Meridian expedition, General William Sooy Smith arrives in Colliersville, Tennessee, claiming the freeing of 3,000 slaves, burning of 2,000 bales of cotton, capture of 200 Confederates, and causing 314 Confederate losses(killed, wounded, missing). General Sherman dismisses the effort as "unsatisfactory".
February 27,1864-Andersonville Prison near Americus, Georgia receives its first Union captives. The sixteen and one-half acre stockade became known as the worst prison in the South, gaining infamy.
February 28,1864-Plans to free Union prisoners from Libby Prison in Richmond are approved by President Lincoln and Secretary of War Stanton after they received reports of very poor conditions. General Hugh J. Kilpatrick prepares for an extended raid using 3,500 cavalry troops. Kilpatrick is supported by General George Custer's diversion in Albemarle County, Virginia and General John Sedgwick's VI Corps creating another diversion at Madison Court House. Admiral John Dahlgren's son Colonel Ulric Dahlgren is on General Kilpatrick's staff.
February 29,1864-The U.S. Congress formally revives the rank of lieutenant general at the request of the president.
February 28,1864-Despite inclement weather, General Kilpatrick rides toward Richmond. He plans to split his forces and attack Richmond from two directions.
March 1,1864- President Lincoln nominates General Ulysses S. Grant for the rank of lieutenant general.
March 1,1864-General Kilpatrick calls off the raid on Richmond claiming high water in the James River, a sharp attack by Confederate General Wade Hampton's Cavalry, and heavy resistance from Confederate force in Richmond. Kilpatrick was within two and one-half miles of Richmond when he turned back. Richmond was lightly defended by civilians and invalids, according to reports.
February 16,1864-At Fairfield, North Carolina, under cover of a heavy snowfall, Union troops capture an entire company of Confederates in their camp.
February 16,1864-Federal troops begin a major campaign against hostile Indians at Fort Walla Walla in Washington Territory.
February 16,1864-Soldiers of the 54th Illinois engage in an altercation in Paris,(Edger County) Illinois. The soldiers disrupt local Democrats opposed to continuation of the war.
February 17,1864-The fourth session of the first Confederate Congress adjourns after suspending writs of habeas corpus related to arrest made by the president or congress, expanded the draft to include all white males aged 17 to 50, and allowed hiring of African American slaves as army laborers. Vice President Alexander H. Stephens protested the writ of habeas corpus but was overruled.
February 17,1864-A Union surprise attack at Piedmont, Virginia results in the capture of 13 of Major John S. Mosby's partisan rangers.
February 17,1864-The CSS Hunley submarine attacks the USS Housatonic in Charleston Harbor by ramming her spar torpedo under the Housatonic's starboard side. The explosion sinks the Union screw sloop with five sailors drowned. The Hunley signals to shore that all is well but only minutes later, the Hunley sinks with the entire crew lost.
February 18,1864-The Port of Brownsville, Texas is opened to trade by President Lincoln. The Union Blockade is lifted.
February 20,1864-John S. Mosby is promoted to lieutenant colonel but his day is ruined when Union troops raid his headquarters at Front Royal, Virginia.
February 20,1864-The highest percentage loss totals of any battle in the Civil War takes place at Olustee, Florida. Confederate troops under General Joseph Finnegan engage General Truman Seymour's Union forces. Each side has about 5,000 men. The 7th New Hampshire and the 8th U.S. Colored Infantry are pushed back with heavy losses. The 54th Massachusetts and the 35th U.S. Colored Infantry try to stem the tide but are also overrun. Total losses for the Union are 203 dead, 1,152 wounded, and 506 missing(1,861 or 37%). Confederate losses total 93 killed and 841 wounded (934 or 19%).
February 20,1864-General William T. Sherman abandons Meridian, Mississippi and moves back toward Vicksburg, searching for General William Sooy Smith's missing cavalry.
February 20,1864-General William Sooy Smith's cavalry enters an extended fire fight against Colonel Jeffery E. Forrest's Confederate cavalry near Prairie Station, Mississippi.
February 20,1864-Admiral John A.B. Dalgren urges Navy Secretary Gideon Wells to post a reward of $20,000 or $30,000 for capture or destruction of any submarine style craft. This comes after the CSS Hunley sinks the USS Housatonic.
February 21,1864-Partisan ranger's of Colonel John S. Mosby kill 15 and capture 70 in an attack on a Union raiding party near Dranesville, Virginia.
February 21,1864-Cavalry commanded by Colonel Jeffery Forrest continues to skirmish against General William Sooy Smith's cavalry at West Point, Mississippi. Colonel Forrest's older brother, General Nathan B. Forrest, sets up an elaborate ambush but General Smith withdraws, believing he is outnumbered. General Smith calls off any effort to join General Sherman.
February 22,1864-Kansas Senator Samuel Pomroy, believing that President Lincoln cannot win a second term, attempts to have Secretary of Treasury Salmon P. Chase nominated as the Republican candidate. There is a backlash against Chase when the "Pomeroy Circular" is printed. Chase offers to resign from the cabinet but President Lincoln does not accept his resignation.
February 22,1864-General George Thomas checks the position and size of the Confederate Army around Dalton, Georgia, believing that General Joseph E. Johnston may have sent detachments to either General Polk in Mississippi or General Longstreet in Tennessee. General Thomas dispatches General John Palmer's XIV Corps through Ringold Pass onto the plains near Tunnel Hill.
February 22,1864-General Nathan Bedford Forrest's men attack the rear guard of General Smith's cavalry and are repelled. Colonel Jeffery Forrest is killed and General Smith retreats to Pontotoc, Mississippi. General Forrest is low on ammunition and does not follow Smith's retreat.
