July 31 In Civil War History

Jim Klag

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This date in Civil War history

Compiled by Mitchell Werksman and Jim Klag

July 31, 1816 - George Henry Thomas born, Southampton County, Virginia.

July 31, 1817 - Philip Cook Jr, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1894)

July 31, 1825 - Thomas Hart Taylor, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1901)

July 31, 1837 - William Clarke Quantrill, Col (Confederate Army), born in Dover, Ohio (d. 1865)

July 31, 1861 - 11 Union officers are submitted to Congress to be promoted to brigadier general - including Grant, Sherman, Hooker, Franklin and others.

July 31, 1861 - The Pro-Union Missouri State Convention elects Hamilton R. Gramble as the new governor of Missouri, replacing Claiborne Jackson.

July 31, 1861 - Brig. Gen. John Pope, USA, issues General Order Number 3, and formulates a plan for the suppression of the lawless elements and permanent pacification of North Missouri.

July 31, 1861 - The Army of the State of Tennessee is transferred to the Confederate States of America.

July 31, 1862 - Confederate attack on the Union camps and shipping between Shirley and Harrison's Landing, VA. (Jul 31-Aug 1)

July 31, 1862 - In response to Union General John Pope's order that citizens be shot as spies, Confederate President Jefferson Davis orders Pope's officers be held as felons and not prisoners-of-war.

July 31, 1862 - Braxton Bragg [CS] and Kirby Smith [CS] meet in Chattanooga to agree on strategy against the Army of the Ohio.

July 31, 1863 - Skirmish at Lancaster, KY, with Col. John S. Scott's Confederate Raiders.

July 31, 1863 - Skirmish at Paint Lick Bridge, KY, with Col. John S. Scott, CSA.

July 31, 1863 - Skirmish at Stanford, KY, with Col. John S. Scott, CSA.

July 31, 1863 - Skirmish at Saint Catharine's Creek, near Natchez, MS, with 1,500 Union mounted men of Maj. Gen. John A. Logan's command.

July 31, 1863 - Skirmishes at Kelly's Ford, VA. (Jul 31-Aug 1)

July 31, 1863 - Skirmish at Moms' Mills, WV.

July 31, 1864 - The siege of Petersburg is ongoing.

July 31, 1864 - Affair near Watkins' Plantation, Northern AL.

July 31, 1864 - Action near Fort Smith, AR, with Federals under the command of Maj. Gen. Frederick Steele, USA, commanding the Dept. of Arkansas.

July 31, 1864 - Affair at Orange Grove, near Donaldsonville, LA, where the Confederate attack on the Union pickets results in no casualties on either side.

July 31, 1864 - Skirmish at Hancock, MD, as Brig. Gen. William W. Averell, USA, Cavalry is ordered against the Confederate Cavalry under Brig. Gen. John McCausland, CSA, which torched Chambersburg, PA.

July 31, 1875 - Andrew Johnson, 17th US President (Unionist: 1865-69), dies of a stroke at 66.
 

5fish

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July 31, 1863 - Skirmish at Lancaster, KY, with Col. John S. Scott's Confederate Raiders.

July 31, 1863 - Skirmish at Paint Lick Bridge, KY, with Col. John S. Scott, CSA.

July 31, 1863 - Skirmish
These are part if Scott's Raid... That started here...

Historic marker #513 in Whitley County notes the skirmish that occurred in Williamsburg, Kentucky during the Civil War.

On July 25, 1863, Confederate Colonel John S. Scott and his men were met by a group from the Union’s 44th Ohio Infantry in a skirmish in Whitley County. Scott’s men of about one thousand six hundred came into Kentucky from east Tennessee in an attempt to destroy the federal communication lines and refill their provisions. In Scott’s official report on his raid into southeastern Kentucky, he mentions the poor condition of his horses and their need for more supplies. He states, “My own horse stock were completely exhausted – fed with little but green food before starting, and the corn furnished for the trip so rotten as to be worse than useless; my horses were broken down.”

At the beginning of this raid into the Bluegrass state, Confederate forces encountered 100 men of the 44th Ohio lined up as pickets in Williamsburg. Within a day, Scott’s troops easily pushed the federal troop toward London. The 44th Ohio Infantry then retreated to the interior of the state, taking Mount Vernon road. Scott and his men left London the same night. Their journey was met with more picket fighting. Colonel John Scott reported, “In these encounters we lost 3 men killed and 10 wounded. The loss of the enemy was about 15 killed and 30 or 40 wounded, among the latter Colonel [William P.] Sanders. We paroled about 120 prisoners, besides capturing horses, commissary and quartermaster’s store, etc.” Scott’s Confederate forces went onto Winchester, but eventually retreated back to Tennessee.
 

5fish

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Another take on Scott's Raid....

Scott’s Raid in Clark County
(John Creed grave, John Owen Graveyard, Muddy Creek Rd. at Pinchem)
Col. John S. Scott’s 1st Louisiana Cavalry Brigade mounted a raid into Kentucky in
July-August 1863. Their object was to obtain horses and other supplies, while creating a
diversion for Gen. John Hunt Morgan’s Ohio raid. Scott had just over 1,000 men. He was
opposed by the 10th and 14th Kentucky Cavalry along with several other units, all under
Union commander Col. William P. Sanders. Scott’s raid began with some success at
Richmond but ended in near disaster with the separation of his command, loss of all his
artillery and 200 casualties. Several skirmishes took place during his retreat through Clark
County: on Lexington Road at Old Pine Grove, Asa Barrow’s place and the toll house (near
the Bypass); in Winchester near William Garner’s house (Lexington Avenue near the
cemetery), Ballard’s Woods (Maple Street at Belmont) and the intersection of Main Street
with Broadway; on Irvine Road at Tuttle Hill (just south of where Ky. 89 crosses Upper
Howard’s Creek); and Vienna.
Aunt Julia and Uncle John Creed
John C. Creed (1827-1917) lived at Pinchem, where he was a blacksmith, wagon
maker, furniture maker, farmer, Sunday school superintendent, and a Mason. He also owned
and operated several steamboats on the Kentucky and Ohio rivers. During the Civil War, he was an officer in the Home Guard, which was designated to provide local security and early
warning of Confederate incursions. Captain Creed spent much of the war playing hide-and-
seek from small rebel bands. Colonel Sanders called on Captain Creed for assistance during
Scott’s raid. When he was 80 years old, Creed wrote an account of the raid for the local
newspaper. John Creed is buried in the John Owen Graveyard near Pinchem.
“Scott’s Raid” by Capt. John Creed in the Winchester Sun-Sentinel, February 8, 1906; Frank F. Mathias,
Incidents & Experiences in the Life of Thomas W. Parsons, pp. 132-134, 189; Report of Col. John S. Scott, War of the
Rebellion, Official Records, Ser. 1, Vol. 23, Pt. 1, pp. 839-843.
Civil War Fort at Boonesboro
(Ford Rd., 1.2 miles east of Ky. 627)
In 1863, the federal government constructed a series of forts to cover the Kentucky
 

5fish

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Here another more detailed take on the raid...


In the latter part of July, Major General Buckner ordered Col. Scott on yet another cavalry raid into Kentucky. Under Scott's command were the 1st Louisiana Cavalry, 2nd Tennessee Cavalry, 5th Tennessee Cavalry, 10th Confederate Cavalry, 5th North Carolina Cavalry, Brown's Horse Artillery and the 1st Louisiana Mountain Howitzer Battery. Scott's raid into Eastern Kentucky was to take some of the forces in pursuit of Gen. Morgan in his raids into Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio.

On Saturday, July 25th, 1863, the advance of the brigade reached Williamsburg and fought a skirmish with the 44th Ohio Mounted Infantry, driving them from the town, toward London. On the evening of the 26th, the brigade reached London and drove the 44th Ohio from there and continued on toward Richmond, with a heavy skirmish with the enemy's advance, near Rogersville.

On Tuesday, July 28th, fought a pitched battle with the 112 Illinois Mounted Infantry, 2nd and 7th Ohio Cavalry, a detachment of the 10th and 14th Kentucky Cavalry, amounting to over 1,200 men, and after charging the enemy, which left in total disorder, and upon reaching Richmond, fought another skirmish with them and drove them from there and in the direction of Lexington.

While at Richmond, the 1st Louisiana Cavalry learned of the capture of General Morgan and his command and that the troops engaged in the pursuit of Morgan were being resupplied and sent to capture Scott's Brigade.

Reached Winchester on the 29th and learned that enemy troops were pouring into Lexington from Louisville and Cincinnati. Moved toward Irvine, trying to capture the 14th Kentucky Cavalry that was stationed there. The 1st Louisiana Cavalry was placed in the rear of the brigade to delay the enemy as the rest of the brigade on to Lexington. On the 31st of July, Lt. Col. Nixon and 6 companies of the 1st Louisiana Cavalry were attacked by the full force of the enemy and not getting any assistance from Col. Goode's 10th Confederate Cavalry or Lt. Col. Gillespie's 2nd Tennessee Cavalry, Lt. Col. Nixon and approximately 100 men of the 1st La. Cavalry, were captured. Col. Scott and the remainder of the 1st La. Cavalry and the guns of Robinson's battery, stopped the enemy that was in hot pursuit of the disorderly retreat of the 10th Confederate and 2nd Tennessee Cavalry.

The brigade started their withdrawal from Kentucky, destroying all the previously captured wagons, supplies, weapons, and such that they could not safely bring out with them. The 1st Louisiana Cavalry, along with the rest of the brigade, ended the raid in near total failure, with heavy casualties and the lost of their Commander.

Colonel John S. Scott resigned his command and rank on October 8, 1863 and returned to Louisiana.
 

5fish

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Looks like Scott a second chance ...

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Florida Parishes in the Civil War
The strategic location of Louisiana's Florida Parishes made them significant to Union forces during the Civil War.
BY SAMUEL C. HYDE

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Florida Parishes in the Civil War
COURTESY OF THE HISTORIC NEW ORLEANS COLLECTION.

Reproduction of an illustration of the Union Troops raising the U.S. Flag over the Louisiana State Capitol after its capture on December 28, 1863.

The Florida Parishes of southeast Louisiana were once part of West Florida and were not included in the Louisiana Purchase, but were incorporated into the state in 1812. This region of the state became an object of primary strategic significance to the Union during the Civil War, as it was home not only to the Baton Rouge, the state capital, but also to Camp Moore, the largest Confederate training base in the Gulf South and the obvious staging ground for any effort to recapture New Orleans.

In April 1862, a Union naval armada forced its way past the forts below New Orleans and captured the city, depriving residents of the Florida Parishes of their most important market outlet. That same month, the Fourth Louisiana Infantry Regiment, which had been heavily recruited from the Florida Parishes, was decimated at the Battle of Shiloh, bringing the bloody cost of the war home for the first time. Even more ominous, the bloodied but unbroken Union Army advanced into northern Mississippi, and the local population now feared invasions on two fronts.

Following their success at New Orleans, the Union troops moved quickly to intimidate the surrounding areas and subjugate the region. A Union naval flotilla ascended the Mississippi River, captured Baton Rouge, and established it as a base for further operations. Almost immediately the Union commanders began dispatching destructive raids into the interior of the Florida Parishes. In an effort to convince the local population to capitulate, Union forces burned homes, destroyed crops, and slaughtered or scattered livestock. With the exception of the 9th Louisiana Partisan Rangers and a few scattered elements of Mississippi cavalry, few Confederate troops remained in the area, for the bulk of manpower had been drained off to support distant operations in Virginia and Tennessee. As the Union raids increased in frequency and ferocity amid escalating shortages and deprivation, the region groaned under the burden of war.

In an effort to regain the initiative, the Confederates dispatched former vice president of the United States and Confederate General John C. Breckinridge in August 1862 at the head of a small army to attempt the recapture of Baton Rouge. Breckinridge arrived at the Confederate training base at Camp Moore, along the line of the New Orleans–Jackson–Great Northern Railroad in modern-day Tangipahoa Parish, in hopes of augmenting his force with fresh troops from the base. Instead Breckinridge found Camp Moore reeling from a measles epidemic, and few troops were healthy enough to join his army.

Undaunted, Breckinridge marched against Baton Rouge and along the way he picked up a number of citizens who, outraged by the theft and destruction occasioned by Union raids, enthusiastically joined his army with their shotguns and hunting rifles. The Confederate attack nearly succeeded in driving the Union army from Baton Rouge, but the firepower of the Union warships in the Mississippi River gave the troopers in blue a decided advantage. The Confederate ironclad ram Arkansas valiantly fought its way down the river to support the attack, but the Confederates were forced to scuttle the ram just north of Baton Rouge, ensuring the Union success. In the aftermath of the battle, the Confederates fortified the bluffs at Port Hudson just north of Baton Rouge and grimly held on to a small, yet vital, stretch of the great river between that point and the Confederate bastion at Vicksburg, Mississippi.

Through the fall of 1862 and spring of 1863, the Union army and navy applied increasing pressure on the region while the Confederates did their best to contain the growing Union presence. Feliciana towns such as Clinton and Jackson endured destructive raids, as did Madisonville and Mandeville in St. Tammany Parish along with the entire length of the New Orleans–Jackson–Great Northern Railroad line. Some notable expeditions, such as the renowned “Grierson’s Raid,” crossed the Florida Parishes, but most of the large-scale fighting remained concentrated near Port Hudson. Starved into submission after enduring the longest siege in American history, the defenders of Port Hudson finally capitulated in July 1863. The victors assumed that the fall of Port Hudson would effectively pacify the region, but the war in the Florida Parishes was far from over.

In early 1864, Colonel John S. Scott arrived to assume command of Confederate forces in the Florida Parishes. As commander of the First Louisiana Cavalry and a local resident, Scott inspired the local population to continue the fight. In the aftermath of Port Hudson the Union commanders issued General Order 33, which authorized Union forces to make war on the civilian population. Scott was aware that he could not match the enemy’s resources and power, so he allowed guerrilla operations against the Union forces to flourish. In the waning months of the conflict, the war descended to a new level of misery as the Union forces sought to devastate the region, and guerrillas responded with bushwhacking and ambushes. When the end finally came in the spring of 1865, the war ended amid a very dark chapter in the Florida Parishes, one that would leave a legacy of bitterness and bloodshed for generations to come.

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