August 2 In Civil War History

[Jim Klag]

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On this day in Civil War history

Compiled by Mitchell Werksman and Jim Klag

August 2, 1826 - William Denison Whipple, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Madison County, New York (d. 1902)

August 2, 1858 - In a straight up or down vote required by the U. S. Congress for admission, Kansas' Lecomption Constitution as modified by the English Bill is overwhelmingly defeated. It is so bad that both pro-slave and free state factions vote against it. The state must approve a different constitution.

August 2, 1861 - Federal reconnaissance from Ironton to Centreville, MO, with Col. B. Gratz Brown, 4th MO Infantry.

August 2, 1861 - Skirmish at Dug Springs, MO, near Springfield, Brig. Gen. Ben McCulloch, CSA, against Brig. Gen. Nathaniel Lyon, USA.

August 2, 1861 - Fort Stanton, New Mexico Territory, near Messilla, is abandoned due to the efforts of Capt. John Baylor, CSA.

August 2, 1862 - The U. S. Congress passes the first federal income tax, 3% on earnings greater than $800 dollars.

August 2, 1862 - Skirmish at Jonesborough, AR, as the Texas Rangers rout the Federals.

August 2, 1862 - Skirmish near Totten's Plantation, Coahoma County, MS.

August 2, 1862 - Skirmish at Austin, Tunica County, MS.

August 2, 1862 - Skirmish on Clear Creek, near Taberville, MO.

August 2, 1862 - Operations at Cumberland Gap and skirmish (Aug 6) near Tazewell, TN. (Aug 2-6)

August 2, 1862 - Federal reconnaissance from Harrison's Landing and the Union reoccupation of Malvern Hill, VA. (Aug 2-8)

August 2, 1862 - Skirmish at Orange Court-House, VA, with Maj. Gen. John Pope, USA, forces occupying the place, and forcing out Confederate Cavalry troops.

August 2, 1862 - Operations about Wyoming Court-House, WV, with a Rebel Cavalry raid from Jeffersonville. (Aug 2-8)

August 2, 1862 - Federal scout from Meadow Bluff to the Greenbrier River, WV. (Aug 2-5)

August 2, 1863 - Following Lee's retreat from Gettysburg, the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac establish lines with Virginia's Rappahannock River between them.

August 2, 1863 - Confederate scout from Pocahontas, AR, to Patterson, MO.

August 2, 1863 - Skirmish at Stumptown, MO, with bushwhackers.

August 2, 1863 - The Federal attack on the CSA steamer, Chesterfield, at Cummings' Point, SC, during the operations on Morris Island.

August 2, 1863 - Skirmish at Newtown, VA.

August 2, 1864 - The siege of Petersburg is ongoing.

August 2, 1864 - William Miller, CSA, is appointed Brig. Gen.

August 2, 1864 - Federal operations in Mobile Bay, AL, as the Federals attempt to close one of the last two Confederate open ports; the other being Wilmington, NC; Maj. Gen. Edward R.S. Canby, USA, commanding the Military Division of the West Mississippi, with Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger, USA, commanding the landing forces. (Aug 2-23)

August 2, 1864 - Federal naval expedition to Mclntosh County, GA, as the Yankees continue to exert pressure on the dwindling Confederate forces in this area of the Confederacy. (Aug 2-4)

August 2, 1864 - Federal reconnaissance from Berwick to Pattersonville, LA, as Brig. Gen. Robert A. Cameron, USA, commanding the District of La Fource sends the 93rd US Colored Infantry along.

August 2, 1864 - Skirmish at Hancock, MD, with Brig. Gen. John McCausland, CSA.

August 2, 1864 - Skirmish at Old Town, MD.

August 2, 1864 - Federal operations near Holden, MO, with skirmish on Norris Creek, as the Yankees chase the Rebels away from a Union crew working to repair the telegraph lines that were torn down. (Aug 8). (Aug 2-8)

August 2, 1864 - Skirmish at Green Springs Run, WV.

August 2, 1865 - The CSS Shenandoah learns the war is over from a passing British ship and heads to Britain to surrender.

 

[5fish]

August 2, 1862 - Skirmish at Jonesborough, AR, as the Texas Rangers rout the Federals.

I found a few accounts of this action...

LINK: https://www.battlefields.org/visit/heritage-sites/skirmish-jonesboro-arkansas

Craighead County was a Confederate stronghold throughout the Civil War. Numerous forces, on both sides, traveled through Jonesboro. On August 1, 1862, the Federals surprised an encampment of Confederates south of Jonesboro and captured 24 men, three wagons, and 30 horses. They marched the men in gray two miles to Jonesboro and locked their new prisoners in the new courthouse at Jonesboro. The following morning was a hot humid Saturday and the Confederates attacked the Union soldiers. The skirmish took place on the Craighead Courthouse grounds on August 2nd. Confederate forces under the command of Captain Mitchell A. Adair, 30th Arkansas Infantry, C.S.A. of the Trans-Mississippi Army attacked the 1st Wisconsin Cavalry, U.S.A. under the command of Lt. Charles Porter. Seven Yankees were killed and Lt. Ellison was the lone Confederate killed in the action. This freed the Confederates that were locked in the court house.

Snip here is another account... it has the lead up too...

LINK:https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/skirmish-at-jonesboro-3221/

Location:	Craighead County
Campaign:	La Grange’s Expedition into the Arkansas Delta
Dates:	August 2, 1862
Principal Commanders:	Lieutenant Charles Porter (US); Captain Mitchell A. Adair, Captain Edward M. Allen (CS)
Forces Engaged:	Company I, First Wisconsin Cavalry (US); Company I and H, Thirtieth Arkansas Mounted Infantry, and Fourth Missouri Home Guard (CS)
Estimated Casualties:	8 killed, 3 wounded (US); 1 killed (CS)
Result:	Confederate victory

In 1862, Jonesboro was a small hamlet and the Craighead County seat on Crowley’s Ridge. Captain Mitchell A. Adair, fresh from the Battle of Shiloh and the Battle of Corinth, was sent home to Jonesboro (Craighead County) with some of the Twenty-third Arkansas Infantry for rest and relaxation. Memphis, Tennessee, fell into Union hands in June 1862, and Adair and his men were not able to rejoin the Twenty-third Arkansas on the east side of the Mississippi River.
As there was no local Confederate force to protect local property and citizens, Adair and the men of Craighead County volunteered and helped form Company I of the Thirtieth Arkansas Infantry on July 2, 1862, at Jonesboro. They were assigned to the Fifth Regiment Trans-Mississippi under the command of Major General Thomas C. Hindman.
In late July, Major Henry S. Eggleston of the Second Battalion, First Wisconsin Cavalry, ordered Lieutenant Charles L. Porter to take a detachment north from Wittsburg (Cross County) and survey the counties. Eggleston was under the command of the newly promoted Lieutenant Colonel Oscar H. La Grange and Major General Samuel R. Curtis, commanding officer of the Army of the Southwest. Camped at Wittsburg, Porter foraged and scoured the country in all directions, arresting and examining suspicious characters, relaying dispatches, picking up the sick along the road, removing pockets of resistance, and seizing contraband property. Porter’s orders included taking twenty men of Squadron I, Second Battalion, back to Chalk Bluff in Clay County.
Adair and his men were camped two miles south of Jonesboro. The Confederates had received reports of Union troops coming along the ridge to attack all the county seats in northeast Arkansas. Adair expected the invasion to come from the north, but Porter was traveling north on the old Military Road.
Porter and his men surprised the Confederates by slipping past the pickets, catching the Confederates at rest, and so neither side had casualties. Porter could not wait to report to Eggleston the totals of the first recorded conflict in Craighead County. He had overrun seventy-five Confederates, taking twenty-four prisoners, thirty horses, and three wagons. The rest of the Confederates escaped into the underbrush. The Union soldiers marched their prisoners back to the north up the Military Road to Jonesboro. The First Wisconsin Cavalry locked their prisoners in the new Craighead County Courthouse. The skirmish was one of the few that took place on the grounds of a county courthouse.
All night, the remaining Confederates made plans for the daylight raid. Although the Confederates were outgunned, they had double-barrel shotguns with buckshot and a few good rifles they had seized at Shiloh and Corinth. Federal troops were using Belgian rifles and Springfield muskets, which were better at long range.
The morning of August 2 was hot as the Confederates set up a surprise attack. Adair gave the order to fire, and as the battle raged, the Union troops, who were trying to retreat and hold their ground at the same time, had to keep firing to give their comrades a chance to get to their horses. Some of the Rebels who had been at the Battle of Shiloh had learned the “Rebel yell” and used it so as to confuse the Federals even more. Augustus Ellison of the Fourth Missouri Home Guard was killed by Federal gunfire at the junction of Union Street and Washington Avenue. He was the lone Confederate killed in action. Union soldiers were not expecting an attack—especially one at dawn—and were not familiar with their surroundings, allowing themselves to be run out of town in the confusion. Federal soldiers suffered eight deaths, but in the end, the skirmish proved a rather isolated incident in the Civil War history of Arkansas.

Snip... Here is should photo's of the court house I do not think is the original building but it has a WWone statue in front of it...

Skirmish at Jonesboro - 2022 All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (with Photos) - Tripadvisor

www.tripadvisor.com

 

[5fish]

August 2, 1863 - The Federal attack on the CSA steamer, Chesterfield, at Cummings' Point, SC, during the operations on Morris Island.

Here is this... https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/confederate_ships/chesterfield.html

Chesterfield

(SwStr: t. 204)
Chesterfield, a light draft side-wheel cargo steamer built at Charleston, S.C., in 1853, was privately owned by Mr. John Ferguson, and chartered monthly by the Confederate Army as early as 1 June 1861 for South Carolina coast defense. Army-operated, she moved ammunition, ordnance, general supplies and troops from Charleston to Edisto, from Port Royal to Coles Island and among the various military posts in the harbor.
Chesterfield participated in the defense of Charleston from 1-20 August 1863, and was often under heavy fire while bringing in troops and supplies and removing sick and wounded. She continued to operate along the South Carolina coast throughout 1864.


Found this... https://www.historycentral.com/navy/cwnavalhistory/August1863.html

Confederate steamer Chesterfield, landing troops and ammunition at Cumming's Point, Morris Island, Charleston harbor, was taken under fire by a Union gunboat. She was forced to seek safety at Fort Sumter before she completed the landing of her stores. Brigadier General Ripley noted that the Union was "for the first time, attempting to interrupt our communication with Morris Island." Urging that some measures he taken to protect the Confederate transports, Ripley observed that if such actions continued, "our transportation, which is already of the weakest kind, will soon be cut up, and when that is gone our first requisite for carrying out the defense of Charleston is taken from us." General Beauregard asked Flag Officer Tucker on 2 August to provide "at least one of the ironclad rams. . . to drive away such vessels as disturbed and interrupted our means of transportation last night."

 

[5fish]

Here is something interesting about the steamer boats the confederates had in Charleston ... Sept. 1864...

LINK: https://markerhunter.wordpress.com/2014/09/21/assessment-steamers-charleston/

There are now in Charleston Harbor and under my control the following steam-boats, viz:
Celt: Built in Charleston Harbor and recently fitted up as a blockade-runner. It was loaded and ready to sail when I ordered it to be impressed for the use of the Government; in good condition, and capable of carrying 1,500 men at a trip.
Randolph: A good boat, but wanting a boiler; now undergoing repairs; capacity, 500 men.
Mary Francis: Doing duty, but wants a new steam-drum; capacity, 500 men.
Boston: Wants a new boiler; capacity, 1,000 men.
De Kalb: In wretched condition; thought nearly worthless; capacity, 600 men.
Rebel: In good order; capacity, 350 men.
Caldwell: Small boat, undergoing repairs; capacity, 250 men.
Chesterfield: Undergoing repairs; will be fit for service in two or three weeks; capacity, 1,200 men.
Coffee: Taken to pieces for the purpose, I believe, of being fitted up as a blockade-runner. Cannot be ready for service in less than four months; capacity, 600 men.
Torch: Will be ready for service in about three weeks; capacity, 500 men.
Hibben: In good order; capacity, 400 men.
Clinch: Was discharged on account of being sunk in harbor; has been raised by her owner, Mr. McCormick, and is now undergoing repairs.

Indeed, it is one thing to have a ship. It is another to have a properly crewed ship! Men who had been good watermen at Charleston were at that time outside Richmond serving other purposes. Another measure of how the campaigns of 1864 had forced the Confederacy into a bind. Of these vessels named, two – the Celt and the Randolph – would end up wrecked in some of the final attempts to break the Federal blockade in the winter of 1865. Others would end up among the various vessels damaged, burned, or otherwise left behind, among the debris from the long siege, when Charleston was abandoned.