Lifting The Blockade

The CSS Palmetto State and CSS Chicora made a surprise attack January 31^st 1863 on the Union blockading force off Charleston, South Carolina.

The CSS Palmetto State was an ironclad ram built by the Cameron and Company of Charleston, South Carolina and under the command of Confederate Lieutenant Commander John Rutledge.  The CSS Chicora was her sister ram, also an ironclad was under Commander John Randolph Tucker.

The two Confederate ships slipped through a pre-dawn haze on January 31^st 1863 to make a surprise attack on the Union blockading force located off Charleston, South Carolina.  The ships sat low in the water, which allowed the Palmetto to ride under the guns of the USS Mercedita.  The Palmetto rammed the Union ship and fired into her, disabling the Mercedita.  The Confederate ram then went for the USS Keystone State.  The Keystone was hit by shells, puncturing her steam chests, putting her out of power and needing a tow.  As this was going on a long range gun battle ensued between the Chicora and the other Union blockaders, with little damage being done to either side.

The Palmetto and Chicora moved safely back into Charleston Harbor.  The battle caused a temporary lifting of the blockade of Charleston.

The Church Seceded Too

As southern states seceded from the Union, dioceses of the Episcopal Church in the south began forming the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Confederate States of America on January 30^th 1861.

As southern states began to secede from the Union in December 1860, the dioceses of the Episcopal Church in those states began to struggle over what their status was going to be.  The first diocese to separate from the main church was Louisiana’s.  The Episcopal bishop of Louisiana, Leonidas Polk on January 30^th 1861 issued a proclamation, saying, "The State of Louisiana having, by a formal ordinance, through her Delegates in Convention assembled, withdrawn herself from all further connection with the United States of America, and constituted herself a separate Sovereignty, has, by that act, removed our Diocese from within the pale of 'The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States.”  Although some bishops disagreed with Polk as to the causes, they did agree that the separation was made compulsory by changing politics.

The Confederate dioceses requested that representatives from all the dioceses of the seceded states meet at Montgomery, Alabama on July 3^rd 1861.  At the meeting a draft of the new constitution and canons were drawn up.  The meeting ended with the declaration that the “secession of the States ... from the United States, and the formation by them of a new government, called the Confederate States of America, renders it necessary and expedient that the Dioceses within those States should form among themselves an independent organization.”

After the end of the Civil War, with the southern states back in the Union the members of the Confederate Episcopal Church, rejoined the Episcopal Church of United States at a general convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

A Real Princess

The British blockade runner the Princess Royal was captured by the Union Navy January 29^th 1863 at Charleston, South Carolina.

The British ship the Princess Royal was a 774 ton iron hulled screw steam boat built in Glasgow, Scotland.  She was trying to run the Union blockade of Charleston, South Carolina on January 29^th 1863 when she was captured by the USS Unadilla.  She was purchased from the Philadelphia Prize Court in March 18^th 1863 and refitted as a cruiser.  Commissioned May 29^th 1863, she was placed under the command of Melancthon B Woolsey.

 The USS Princess Royal was sent to the Gulf of Mexico in June 1863.  Her first Union action was an engagement against Confederates in Donaldson, Louisiana on June 28^th 1863.  While serving off the Texas coast between 1863 and the end of the war in 1865, she captured or wrecked a number of blockade runners.  The Princess' last capture was the CSS Anna Sophia in February 7^th 1865 in Galveston Bay, a cotton loaded schooner.

Following the end of the war the Princess was sold, and she became a merchant steamer.  She was sunk January 10^th 1874 off the Cape Fear, North Carolina.

The Pass To New Orleans

Fort Macomb in Louisiana was occupied by the Confederates on January 28^th 1861.

Fort Macomb was built in 1822 on the western shore of Chef Menteur Pass.  It was a few miles from New Orleans, Louisiana.  Chef Menteur Pass is a water route to Lake Pontchartrain from the Gulf of Mexico.  It was seized by Confederate troops on January 28^th 1861 and used for a garrison.  The Union re-took the fort a year later.

A Battle In The Fog

The Battle of Fair Garden was fought January 27^th 1864 in Sevier County, Tennessee.

Confederate Lieutenant General James Longstreet who commanded the Department of East Tennessee ordered his troops to stop Union movements south the French Broad River.  On January 26^th 1864 Union Brigadier General Samuel D Sturgis positioned his cavalry watching two fords on the river.  There was some minor skirmishing between cavalry that day, but nothing decisive.

On the morning of January 27^th 1864 Union scouts detected Confederates assembling on the Fair Garden Road.  Sturgis ordered an attack.  Union Colonel Edward M McCook attacked in a heavy fog and drove Confederate Major General William T Martin’s troopers back.  The fighting continued until about 4 pm when the Union men charged with sabers drawn and smashed the Confederates.  The Union saw losses of about 100 men.  The Confederate Cavalry casualties numbered about 165.

Another State Leaves The Union

The Louisiana Secessionist Convention voted to secede January 26^th 1861 by a vote of 112 to 17.

A hundred and thirty men met at Baton Rouge, Louisiana to hold the Louisiana Secession Convention.  The fact that the Governor of Louisiana had, since the beginning of the new year seized Federal Forts and properties made the Convention a forgone conclusion.  The vote on January 26^th 1861 was 113 to 17 to secede straightaway from the Union.  The Ordinance of Secession was signed by 120 of the delegates.

“An ORDINANCE to dissolve the union between the State of Louisiana and other States, united with her under the compact entitled "The Constitution of the United States of America."

We, the people of the State of Louisiana, in Convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, That the ordinance passed by us in Convention on the 22d day of November, in the year 1811, whereby the Constitution of the United States of America and the amendments of the said Constitution were adopted; and all laws and ordinances by which the State of Louisiana became a member of the Federal Union, be and the same are hereby repealed and abrogated; and that the union now subsisting between Louisiana and other States, under the name of "The United States of America," is hereby dissolved.

We do further declare and ordain, That the State of Louisiana hereby resumes all rights and powers heretofore delegated to the Government of the United States of America; that her citizens are absolved from all allegiance to said Government; and that she is in full possession and exercise of all those rights of sovereignty which appertain to a free and independent State.

We do further declare and ordain, That all rights acquired and vested under the Constitution of the United States, or any act of Congress, or treaty, or under any law of this State, and not incompatible with this ordinance, shall remain in force, and have the same effect as if this ordinance had not been passed.”

A Doctor, A Lawyer, A General

Union Brigadier General Stephen Gardner Champlin died January 24^th 1864, from wounds he received.

Stephen Gardner Champlin was born July 1^st 1827 in Kingston, New York, the son of Jeffrey Clark and Allis Ellen Champlin.  He attended local academies and then began studying medicine.  In 1845 Champlin had a medical practice in Warwarsing, Ulster, New York.  He decided in 1849 to become a lawyer and attended a law school in Balston Spa, New York.  He was admitted to the New York State bar and opened a practice in Albany, New York.  Champlin moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1853 where he opened a law practice with Lucius Patterson.  Champlin joined the Michigan state militia and was elected the Captain of the Grand Rapids Light Artillery.  In the fall of 1858 Champlin was elected the Prosecuting Attorney of Kent County, Michigan.

Champlin entered the Union Army June 10^th 1861 as a Major in the 3^rd Michigan Infantry.  Their first action was a reconnaissance near Bailey’s Corners in Virginia on August 30^th 1861 for which Union Major General George B McClellan said of Champlin, I am “pleased with Major Champlin's dispositions on the occasion”.  Champlin was promoted to Colonel of the 3^rd Michigan October 28^th 1861.  He was wounded in the hip at the Battle of Seven Pines.  After partially recovering Champlin led the regiment at the Second Battle of Bull Run, and was again wounded.  While recovering from both wounds in Washington, DC, Champlin was promoted on November 29^th 1862, to Brigadier General.

Champlin was placed in command of the Draft Depot at Camp Cleveland, Ohio in 1863.  He was then re-assigned on September 22^nd 1863 to the Draft Depot in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Champlin’s wounds did not heal well, and on November 8^th 1863 he resigned his commission.  He died January 24^th 1864 at his home as a result of complications of his wounds and is buried in the Fulton Street Cemetery in Grand Rapids, Michigan.