March 4 In Civil War History

[Jim Klag]

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On this day in Civil War history
Compiled by Mitchell Werksman and Jim Klag

March 4, 1798 - John Joseph Abercrombie, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Baltimore, Maryland (d. 1877)

March 4, 1824 - In Harrisburg, the Pennsylvania Convention nominates Andy Jackson for President, and Calhoun for Vice-president. Calhoun subsequently withdraws from the race for President to run for Vice-President.

March 4, 1826 - John Buford, American Major General (Union Army), born in Woodford County, Kentucky (d. 1863)

March 4, 1826 - Theodore Judah, American railroad engineer, Chief Engineer of the Central Pacific portion of the 1st transcontinental railroad. (d. 1863)

March 4, 1828 - Elisha Franklin "Bull" Paxton, Brigadier General (Confederate Army) born in Rockbridge County, VA. (d. 1863)

March 4, 1841 - William Henry Harrison is inaugurated President of the United States. John Tyler becomes Vice President

March 4, 1850 - Too ill to deliver his prepared text to the Senate against Clay's compromise plan, John C. Calhoun listens as Virginia Senator James M. Mason reads the text for him.

March 4, 1855 - With the state legislature divided (the northern part of the state was abolitionist while the southern half was pro-slavery) Indiana begins an almost 2 year period without a U. S. Senator.

March 4, 1857 - James Buchanan inaugurated President of the United States

March 4, 1861 - Confederate Convention in Montgomery adopts the "Stars and Bars" as the nation's flag

March 4, 1861 - Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated President of the United States. 7 states had already seceded.

March 4, 1861 - President Abraham Lincoln's initial cabinet consisted of:
Edward Bates - Attorney General, from MO
Montgomery Blair - Postmaster General, from MD
Simon Cameron - Secretary of War, from PA
Salmon P. Chase - Secretary of Treasury, from OH
William H. Seward - Secretary of State, from NY
Caleb Blood Smith - Secretary of Interior, from IN
Gideon Welles - Secretary of Navy, from CT

March 4, 1862 - The following are appointed Confederate Brigadier Generals:
Hamilton Prioleau Bee, CSA
Thomas James Churchill, CSA
Patrick Ronayne Cleburne, CSA
Winfield Scott Featherston, CSA
Samuel Bell Maxey, CSA
Albert Rust, CSA
William Booth Taliaferro, CSA

March 4, 1862 - Andrew Johnson, USA, is appointed Brig. Gen.

March 4, 1862 - Maj. Gen. Braxton Bragg, CSA, announces his resumption of the command of the Dept. of Alabama and West Florida.

March 4, 1862 - Amelia Island, FL, is occupied by the Union forces.

March 4, 1862 - Santa Fe, New Mexico Territory, is abandoned by the Union forces, under Capt. Herbert M. Enos, USA, and subsequently occupied by Brig. Gen. Henry Hopkins Sibley, CSA.

March 4, 1862 - Federal scout through Laclede, Wright, and Douglas Counties, MO, including skirmishes at Fox Creek (Mar 7) and Mountain Grove (Mar 9), by Col. George E. Waring, Jr, 4th MO Cavalry. (Mar 4-11)

March 4, 1862 - Maj. Gen. John Clifford Pemberton, CSA, assumes the command of Dept. of South Carolina, Georgia, and East Florida, replacing Gen. Robert E. Lee, CSA, who was ordered to Richmond, VA, the day before.

March 4, 1862 - In what is generally regarded as an underhanded trick, Halleck relieves Grant from command and replaces him with Charles Ferguson Smith.

March 4, 1863 - Robert Brank Vance, CSA, is appointed Brig. Gen.

March 4, 1863 - Skirmish (Mar 4) near Franklin, TN, and engagement (Mar 5) at Thompson's Station, or Spring Hill, TN, where Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn, CSA, captures several Union regiments under the command of Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans, USA. (Mar 4-5)

March 4, 1863 - Federal expedition from Murfreesboro toward Columbia, TN, with skirmishes:
(Mar 4) at Rover and Unionville,
(Mar 5) at Chapel Hill
(Mar 9) at Thompson's Station and
(Mar 10-11) at Rutherford Creek, TN.
(Mar 4-14)

March 4, 1863 - Skirmish at Independent Hill, Prince William County, which is 8 miles from Dumfries, VA.

March 4, 1863 - March 5, 1863 - Battle of Spring Hill
Battle of Unionville - Confederate Cavalry under Earl Van Dorn and Nathan Bedford Forrest drive Union Cavalry off on the 4th, then surround and engage the remaining infantry. After heavy fighting on the 5th, the Union garrison surrenders.

March 4, 1864 - Republican Michael Hahn is inaugurated governor of Louisiana.

March 4, 1864 - Operations in Florida, as Maj. Gen. James Patton Anderson, CSA, assumes command of the District of Florida and reports the continuous landing of Federal troops while there is no let up in the number of Confederate troops in the district being drawn off for service in other parts of the Confederacy. (Mar 4-14)

March 4, 1864 - Skirmish at Rodney, MS.

March 4, 1864 - Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman's, USA, Federal column returns to Vicksburg, MS, from its Meridian, MS, Expedition.

March 4, 1864 - The US Senate confirms Andrew Johnson as the Military Governor of Tennessee.

March 4, 1864 - Skirmish near Murfreesboro, TN.

March 4, 1864 - Confederate demonstration on Portsmouth, VA, is repelled with the combined effort of Maj. Gen. David Birney, USA, Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick's, USA, Cavalry, and Union gunboats. (Mar 4-5)

March 4, 1865 - The siege of Petersburg is ongoing.

March 4, 1865 - The Confederate States of America adopts the "Blood Stained Banner" as its official flag.

March 4, 1865 - William Wirt Allen, C.S.A., is appointed Maj. Gen.

March 4, 1865 - Young Marshall Moody, CSA, is appointed Brig. Gen.

March 4, 1865 - Affair near Pine Bluff, AR, where the Yankees sneak up on the camp of a small band of Rebels in the dark and scatter the Confederates in all directions, as they are taken by surprise.

March 4, 1865 - The US transport, Thorn, strikes a torpedo on the Cape Fear River and sinks near Fort Anderson, NC.

March 4, 1865 - Skirmish at Phillips' Crossroads, NC.

March 4, 1865 - Federal expedition from near Cheraw to Florence, SC, and skirmishes. (Mar 4-6)

March 4, 1865 - Maj. Gen. Cadwallader C. Washburn, USA, assumes the command of the District of West Tennessee.

March 4, 1865 - Lincoln outlines his second term talking directly to the Confederate people "...with malice toward none; with charity for all..." Andrew Johnson, replacing Henry Hamlin as Vice-president gives a rambling, drunk speech. He had been given too much whiskey as medicine by a doctor.

March 4, 1865 - "Parson" Brownlow is elected the first post-war governor of Tennessee.

March 4, 1869 - Ulysses S. Grant inaugurated 18th President of the United States.

March 4, 1883 - Vice President of the Confederate States of America Alexander Stephens dies in Atlanta.

March 4, 1906 - John McAllister Schofield, former U.S. Secretary of War and Commanding General of the U.S. Army dies in St. Augustine, FL. (b. 1831)

 

[5fish]

March 4, 1862 - Amelia Island, FL, is occupied by the Union forces.

This day goes down in infamy... The Invasion of Florida... https://www.floridamemory.com/blog/2012/04/18/march-1862-invasion/


For months, east coast Confederate and Unionist Floridians had expected Federal troops to land in Florida. Although a Federal raiding party occupied the Gulf port of Cedar Key in January 1862, under orders from General Robert E. Lee, General James H. Trapier, the commander of Confederate forces in the Department of Middle and East Florida (the area from the Atlantic to the Choctawhatchee River in the west), concentrated the bulk of his forces for the defense of Amelia Island. Meanwhile in Jacksonville, a city with a strong Unionist element, pro-Union men and women awaited the liberation of their city, where many of them were threatened by secessionist vigilance committees.

Snipe... Firing on a train with civilians... A war crime...

By March 1862, however, the Unionists had more cause for optimism than the secessionists. Confederate defeats in Tennessee during February resulted in the Richmond government’s decision to withdraw its troops from Florida to reinforce Tennessee. As the Union fleet approached, General Trapier ordered the withdrawal of his troops from Amelia Island. On March 4, the Federals occupied Fernandina after the last train carrying troops and fleeing civilians crossed the bridge to the mainland under the fire of the USS Ottawa, a Union gunboat. Fernandina remained under Union control for the rest of the war and became a place of refuge for hundreds of escaped slaves from Florida and southeast Georgia.

The Union followed up its capture of Amelia Island with an advance down the coast towards Jacksonville, St. Augustine, and New Smyrna. Confederate disarray and a lack of defensive preparations at the mouth of the St. Johns River allowed a Union flotilla to land the 4th New Hampshire Regiment and occupy Jacksonville on March 12. The New Hampshire men encountered a largely deserted city clouded in smoke from fires set by retreating Rebels. The day before, the Union also seized St. Augustine without a fight; the old Spanish capital remained under Northern control for the duration of the war. The Union forces that landed at New Smyrna were not as lucky, however. Confederate forces guarding cargo from a recently successful blockade running mission ambushed the Union raiding party, killing several Federal sailors in the brief engagement.

As Unionists in Jacksonville and St. Augustine celebrated, fear and recrimination spread across Confederate Florida. Politicians and the populace blamed General Trapier for the fall of Amelia Island. Even though Trapier had been under orders to evacuate, the hasty withdrawal and the Union seizure of the island resulted in Trapier’s removal from command. In Tallahassee, Governor Milton blamed the Confederate government and Florida’s secession convention for the defeat and Florida’s poor defenses. Milton never thought Amelia Island could have been defended in the face of the Union’s naval superiority. He wanted the Confederacy to concentrate on the defense of Middle Florida, especially Apalachicola, which he saw as the key to Florida’s control of the interior from the Gulf Coast to the Georgia border. Once the Confederate government ordered most of its troops out of Florida, it was only a matter of time before Apalachicola stood defenseless.

Here is OR's report on the take over of Amelia Island...

The War of the Rebellion

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