His Company Built The Gun That Won The West

Oliver Fisher Winchester was born November 30th 1810.

Oliver Fisher Winchester the son of Samuel and Hannah (Bates) Winchester was born November 30th 1810 in Boston, Massachusetts. He married in Boston February 20th 1834 to Jane Ellen Hope, they had three children.

Winchester was a clothing manufacturer in the New York City and New Haven, Connecticut areas. He found out that Smith & Wesson, who had new patents for arms, were having financial trouble. Seeing a money making opportunity, Winchester bought the Volcanic Repeating Arms division of the Smith & Wesson Company in 1850. By 1856 he had moved the company to New Haven Connecticut and renamed it the New Haven Arms Company. An engineer working for the company, Benjamin Tyler Henry redesigned the Volcanic Repeating rifle, enlarging the frame and magazine so it could use his new all-brass .44 rimfire cartridges. It was this .44 cartridge that built the company, and made the Henry Rifle famous.

With the success of the Henry Rifle, Winchester reorganized and renamed his company the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. The repeating rifles had some limited use in the Civil War. Since it was new technology, the Union Army didn't trust them and stuck with the breech-loading single shot rifles. But the Repeaters were popular with civilians and became known as the gun “that won the West“.

Winchester was active in politics. He was the New Haven City Commissioner and an delegate for the Republican Presidential election of 1864, and he was the Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut in 1866 - 1867. Winchester died December 11th 1880 and his company passed to his son William Wirt Winchester.

The Surrender House

The Wilmer McLean house known as the “Surrender House” as it was the house in which Ulysses S Grant excepted Robert E Lee’s surrender, was sold at auction on November 29th 1869.

The house was built in 1848 by Charles and Eliza D Raine. In 1863 the Raine estate was sold to Wilmer McLean. The first major battle of the Civil War; the Battle of First Manassas took place on the Wilmer McLean farm in Virginia. After that battle McLean decided to move south in an attempt to avoid the war. He bought the house at Appomattox, Virginia.

McLean made a nice fortune during the war smuggling sugar, however most of it was in Confederate money. With the end of the war the currency was worthless. In 1867 McLean left Appomattox and returned to his wife’s estate in Prince William County, Virginia. The bank in Richmond, Virginia obtained a judgment for the default of loans made to McLean. The house known as the “Surrender House” was sold on November 29th 1869 at auction to recover money owed on loans. It was purchased by John L Pascoe, who rented the house to the Ragland family of Richmond, Virginia.

Hood Lost His Chance

The Battle of Spring Hill begun on the night of November 28th 1864 has been called a non-fighting event.

Confederate General John Bell Hood and the Army of Tennessee marched on the night of November 28th 1864 toward Spring Hill Tennessee. The object was to seal off Union Major General John McAllister Schofield’s supply line. As the Confederate’s advanced cavalry on both sides had skirmishes. With Union Brigadier General James H Wilson fighting the Confederate troopers led by Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest.

The next day November 29th 1864 Schofield was holding the crossroads at Spring Hill with reinforcements. Late that afternoon the Union troops were able to repulse an Confederate infantry attack. Hood’s assault was piecemeal at best and poorly executed. During the night the Union troops moved through Spring Hill to Franklin. Many have called this battle "one of the most controversial non-fighting events of the entire war.
Hood lost his best chance to envelop the Union command, and Schofield punished him for that failure the next day at Franklin Tennessee.

End Of Winter Fighting

A battle fought during the Winter Campaign, the Battle of Payne’s Farm occurred on November 27th 1863.

General George Gorden Meade attempted to march through the Wilderness in late November 1863. He planed to hit the right flank of the Confederate army located to the south of the Rapidan River. Confederate Major General Jubal Anderson Early was in command of Ewell’s Corp and he marched his troops east along the Orange Turnpike, where they met the Union III Corp near Payne’s Farm on November 27th 1863.

The Union division attacked twice, the Confederates made a counterattack, but the ruff terrain and heavy Union fire scattered the Rebels. After dark General Robert E Lee pulled back to Mine Run where fortifications were made. The next day there was intense skirmishing, but no major attack. Meade decided on the night of December 2nd that the Confederate line was to strong and left the field, ending the winter campaign for 1863.

Hold The Union And Buy Some Time

Maj Gen Patrick Cleburne

To gain a little time, the Confederates held up Hooker’s Union forces on November 26th 1863 at the Battle of Ringgold Gap.

Confederate General Braxton Bragg’s troops were stretched out for over 15 miles after the Battle at Missionary Ridge. Union Major General Joseph Hooker was right behind them. Looking to gain a little time, Bragg chose Major General Patrick Cleburne. As Bragg went through the city of Ringgold he sent orders to Cleburne to cover the Confederate retreat until they could reorganize in Dalton, Georgia.

At 3 am on November 26th 1863 as Cleburne and his men marched towards Ringgold, they passed through the gap where the Western and Atlantic Railroad drops towards Atlanta. Cleburne had men and two cannons placed in that gap, where they could watch the Union troops approaching. The Confederate troops held their fire until the Union troops were in the gap. The volley sent a withering fire and the soldiers retreated. Hooker decided to try the flanks of Confederate force, but Cleburne anticipated this and moved his troops, repulsing the Union attacks. The Battle continued for five hours.

Bragg had by this time reorganized at Dalton, Georgia and sent orders to Cleburne to join him there. Cleburne with just 4100 Confederate soldiers held off Hooker’s 12,000 Union troops. Although Hooker reported his losses at less than 500 men, descriptions of the battlefield indicate losses were higher. General Ulysses S Grant noted this on the bottom of report filed by Hooker.

The Confederate Army Of Manhattan

A group of Confederate’s attempted on November 25th 1864 to burn New York City.

The Civil War was in its last stages on November 25th 1864 when the “Confederate Army of Manhattan” planned to start fires around New York City. The scheme was hatched by Jacob Thompson. Eight southern sympathizers would slip into New York City coming down from Canada. On Friday night at about 8:45 they were going to start fires at the same time in nineteen hotels, P T Barnum’s museum and a theater. The idea being that all these fire would overwhelm the cities firefighter.

The fires either failed to start or were quickly brought under control. All of the Confederates got away save one. Robert Cobb Kennedy a Louisiana native, was caught in January 1865 traveling from Canada to the Confederate capital in Richmond, Virginia. He was found guilty after a trial and was executed at Fort Lafayette in New York on March 25th 1865.

A Thousand Witnesses

A leading American abolitionist Theodore Dwight Weld was born November 23rd 1803.

Theodore Dwight Weld was born November 23rd 1803 in Hampton, Connecticut. He went to Phillips Andover Academy in 1820. His eyesight which was failing caused him to leave school in 1822. After several years he entered the Oneida Manual Labor Institute in Oneida New York, from here he moved to Hamilton College. Along the way Weld picked up the cause of Emancipation.

Weld would become in the 1830’s one of the leaders and founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society, working along the side of the Grimke Sisters, Arthur and Lewis Tappan, James G Birney and Gamaliel Bailey. He married one of the Grimke sisters; Angelina on May 14th 1838. In 1839 Weld along with the sisters wrote the important book “American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses”.

Weld launched a school in 1854 in Eagleswood, New Jersey, which accepted all students regardless of sex of race. He moved in 1864 to Hyde Park, Massachusetts, where Weld opened another school with same ideology. He continued until his death in 1895 to work for the rights of women and African Americans.