August 5 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 5, 1819 - Preston Smith Brooks, South Carolina Congressman, famous for assault on Senator Charles Sumner born, Edgefield District, South Carolina.

August 5, 1829 - Milo Smith Hascall, American banker, real estate executive, and Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Le Roy, New York (d. 1904)

August 5, 1850 - James Pearce Plan for the Compromise of 1850 is proposed. Under this plan Texas retains more land and receives $10 million for the land it gives up. It is this plan that is finally adopted in the Compromise.

August 5, 1861 - Abraham Lincoln approves a wide variety of bills passed during a special session of Congress including a new issue of bonds, tariff increase and the first direct income and real estate tax.

August 5, 1861 - The blockade runner, the CSS Alvarado, is captured and burned off the Florida coast near Fernandina, FL, by the US steamer, the USS Vincennes.

August 5, 1861 - Skirmish at Athens, MO.

August 5, 1861 - Brig. Gen. Nathaniel Lyon, USA, retreats from Dug Springs, MO, towards Springfield.

August 5,1861 - Skirmish in Virginia, opposite Point of Rocks, MD.

August 5, 1862 - Albert Gallatin Jenkins, CSA, is appointed Brig. Gen.

August 5, 1862 - Skirmish near New Market, AL, where Brig. Gen. Robert Latimer McCook, USA, is mortally wounded. Brig. Gen. Robert Latimer McCook, USA, is mortally wounded, shot in the abdomen. Scouting the area for a campsite for his troops, between Athens, GA, and Decherd, TN, he was riding in a carriage because of camp fever he developed, was overcome by Confederate partisans and shot by Capt. Frank Gurley.

August 5, 1862 - Federal expedition from Helena to the mouth of the White River, AR, with the Union gunboat, Benton, the steamers, latan, Louisville, and the Mound City, and the rams, Bragg, Monarch, and Switzerland. (Aug 5-8)

August 5, 1862 - Engagement at Baton Rouge, LA, including the rebel gunboat, CSS Arkansas, with the Confederates, under Maj. Gen. John C. Breckinridge, CSA, repulsed by Brig. Gen. Thomas Williams, USA. Brig. Gen. Williams is instantly killed while leading his men against the Confederate forces, receiving his death wound in the chest by a Confederate bullet at the beginning of the Union countercharge.

August 5, 1862 - Skirmish near Cravensville, Daviess County, MO.

August 5, 1862 - Skirmish at Montevallo, MO, with the Union occupation of the town.

August 5, 1862 - Skirmish at Sparta, TN.

August 5, 1862 - Federal expedition from Fredericksburg to Fredericks's Hall Station, VA, with skirmishes, as Brig. Gen. Gibbon, USA, is engaged. (Aug 5-8)

August 5, 1862 - Skirmish at Thornburg, or Massaponax Church, VA.

August 5, 1862 - Skirmish at White Oak Swamp Bridge, VA.

August 5, 1862 - Skirmish at Wyoming Court-House, WV.

August 5, 1862 - Union forces under Joseph Hooker retake Malvern Hill with only light Confederate resistance. These troops withdraw the next day.

August 5, 1863 - Maj. Gen. Frederick Steele, USA, assumes command of the Federal forces at Helena, AR.

August 5, 1863 - Skirmish at Mount Pleasant, MS.

August 5, 1863 - Federal expedition from Kempsville, VA, into Currituck and Camden Counties, NC, with some Rebel prisoners. (Aug 5-12)

August 5, 1863 - Engagement at Dutch Gap, James River, VA, with the US ironclads, USS Cohassett, and with the USS Commodore Barney, sustaining damages from the explosion of a Confederate electronic torpedo.

August 5, 1863 - Skirmish at Little Washington, VA.

August 5, 1863 - Skirmish near Rixeyville Ford, near Culpeper, VA.

August 5, 1863 - Skirmish at Muddy Run, VA, toward Culpeper, as the Union Cavalry under Brig. Gen. David McM. Gregg, USA, find a considerable force of the enemy.

August 5, 1863 - Brig. Gen. William Wood Averell's, USA, raid into West Virginia. (Aug 5-31)

August 5, 1963 - Brig. Gen. William Averell's, USA, expedition sets out from Winchester, VA, into West Virginia.

August 5, 1863 - Skirmish at Cold Spring Gap, WV, with Brig. Gen. William W. Averell, USA.

August 5, 1863 - In a letter to Nathaniel Banks, Abraham Lincoln states 'I am an anti-slavery man' and goes on to state he would never return a "negro" freed under the Emancipation Proclamation to slavery.

August 5, 1864 - The siege of Petersburg is ongoing.

August 5, 1864 - 18 Union ships sail past the entrance to Mobile Bay. The C. S. S. Tennessee, prize ironclad of the Confederate Navy awaited the attack. As the U. S. S. Tecumseh sinks Admiral David Farragut orders "Damn the torpedoes, go ahead." His flag vessel Hartford took the lead. The ships destroyed the Confederate fleet.

August 5, 1864 - Philip Cook, CSA, is appointed Brig. Gen.

August 5, 1864 - Archibald Campbell Godwin, CSA, is appointed Brig. Gen.

August 5, 1864 - Joseph Abel Haskin, USA, is appointed Brig. Gen.

August 5, 1864 - Skirmish near Remount Camp, AR, as the Yankees lose men when the Confederates, dressed in Union garb, surprise them.

August 5, 1864 - Skirmish at Concordia Bayou, LA.

August 5, 1864 - Affair at Doyal's Plantation, LA, where the Federals are surrounded by the Confederates, but refuse to surrender, and escape by cutting a path through the Rebels.

August 5, 1864 - Skirmish at Olive Branch, LA.

August 5, 1864 - Skirmish at Keedysville, MD.

August 5, 1864 - Skirmishes at Williamsport and Hagerstown, MD.

August 5, 1864 - Skirmish at Cabin Point, VA, the Richmond, VA, Campaign.

August 5, 1864 - The explosion of a Confederate mine in front of the 18th US Army Corps, the Richmond, VA, Campaign.

August 5, 1864 - Skirmish at Huttonsville, WV.
 

5fish

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August 5, 1864 - Skirmish near Remount Camp, AR, as the Yankees lose men when the Confederates, dressed in Union garb, surprise them.
Arkansas saves the day...

LINK: https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/skirmish-at-remount-camp-6795/


Location:White County
Campaign:None
Date:August 5, 1864
Principal Commanders:Captain Charles A. Adamson (US); Unknown (CS)
Forces Engaged:Third Michigan Cavalry (US); Confederate Partisan Irregulars (CS)
Casualties:2 wounded, 1 captured (US); None (CS)
Result:Confederate victory

Brigadier General Joseph O. Shelby assumed command of all Confederate forces north of the Arkansas River beginning in late May 1864. Union control of the Arkansas River and the capital at Little Rock (Pulaski County) effectively isolated Shelby from the secessionist state government and most Confederate fighting forces in the southwest corner of the state. Three years of warfare had taken its toll; poverty and devastation were rampant in Arkansas’s northern counties, and the area was full of deserters from both armies. Civilians who did not or could not flee their homes teetered on the verge of starvation, as passing Union and Confederate forces pressed the common citizens for supply and forage, while roving guerrilla bands freely plundered whatever was left. In this climate, Shelby was tasked with recruiting an army from the local population. In late May, Shelby’s standing force numbered about 1,200 men. Within three months, he had successfully bolstered his numbers to more than 7,000 and was very successful in orchestrating hit-and-run operations against Union garrisons and supply lines in central Arkansas.

At about 5:00 p.m. on August 5, a very brief skirmish occurred between three Union soldiers and five Confederate guerrillas near the Union’s Remount Camp in White County, near Searcy (White County). Captain Frederick C. Adamson was part of a detachment of eighty men from the Third Michigan Cavalry, which was standing guard over the herd of horses at the camp. That afternoon, Adamson, along with a corporal and a private, rode to a nearby house and asked for a drink of water but was followed and attacked by five Confederate guerrillas disguised in Union uniforms. The guerrillas wounded Adamson and the corporal, took the private prisoner, and quickly left with the horses and arms used by Adamson and his two comrades. Major Lyman G. Willcox was commander over this Third Michigan detachment and forwarded the details of this incident to Union command at Little Rock.

In retaliation for the mayhem wrought by Shelby and his Iron Brigade all throughout the summer, the Union mounted an expedition to White and Jackson counties to neutralize him, launching on August 6. The expedition was hampered by logistical problems and a low White River, which prevented adequate troop movement, and was abandoned after ten days.

The Skirmish at Remount Camp is a sterling example of how the war was fought across Arkansas, particularly toward the end of the war. Even in instances where there was no standing Confederate army in a given locality, the fighting carried on with partisan guerrillas who frequently fought in plain clothes or disguise to escape detection by local authorities. In the instance of the Remount Camp skirmish, clearly identified Union soldiers were attacked; all too frequently, both Union- and Confederate-leaning guerrillas targeted non-combatants for violence, plunder, or vengeance. These depredations compounded the horrors of war for the average Arkansan in a way the Union or Confederate armies almost never did.
 
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