An Offer Of Land

William Hayden English

An offer to get the people of Kansas to except the Lecompton Constitution, the English Bill passed both houses of the United States Congress on April 30^th 1858.

The English Bill which was passed by both Houses of Congress on April 30^th 1858, it offered a grant of land of 3,500,000.  The grant required the acceptance of the Lecompton Constitution.  The bill was introduced by Democratic Representative William Hayden English.

The people of the Kansas Territory turned down the offer on August 21^st 1858 by a vote of 11,812 to 1,926.

A Minor Setback

Rear Admiral David D Porter and Major General Ulysses S Grant were defeated on April 29^th 1863 at the Battle of Grand Gulf, although it was a minor setback on the way to Vicksburg.

Union Admiral David D Porter took seven ironclads up the river in an attack against the batteries at Grand Gulf, Mississippi.  The attention was to shut down the Confederate guns and secure the landing area for troops of Union Major General John A McClernand.  At about 8am the ironclads began the attack and continued to fire on the Confederate batteries until about 1:30 pm.  The ships silenced the guns of Fort Wad, but the upper Confederate batteries at Fort Cobun continued their return fire.  The Union ironclads drew off, but returned again after dark engaging the Confederate gun, and running the steamboat troop transports down the river past Grand Gulf.

Grant moved his men overland below Grand Gulf across Coffee Point.  The transport ships landed at Disharoon’s plantation just below Grand Gulf.  Grant’s men loaded onto the transport.  They disembarked on the Mississippi shore and began marching overland towards Port Gibson, Mississippi.

Battle In Civil War Battles

Confederate General Cullen Andrews Battle was appointed a Major April 28^th 1861 of the 3^rd Alabama Infantry.

Cullen Andrews Battle was born June 1^st 1829 in Powelton, Hancock, Georgia the son of Doctor Cullen and June A (Lamon) Battle.  He read for the law under the Honorable John Gill Shorter before becoming a lawyer in 1851, and was active in local politics.  He was a Lieutenant Colonel in the militia.

At the beginning of the Civil War, Battle was appointed the Major of the 3^rd Alabama Infantry on April 28^th 1861, he moved up in rank quickly and was their Lieutenant Colonel by July 31^st 1861.  Following the Battle of Seven Pines, Battle was promoted to Colonel.  He was injured just before the Battle of Chancellorsville from a fall of his horse.  Battle was back in command by the Battle of Gettysburg.  He and the 3^rd where part Colonel Edward O’Neal’s Brigade and they saw heavy action on July 1^st 1863 on Oak Ridge.  Battle moved up following Gettysburg, being promoted to Brigadier General and command of a brigade during the Mine Run Campaign.  He continued to serve throughout the 1864 Overland Campaigning season, before a wound at the Battle of Cedar Creek put him out of action for the rest of the war.

With the Civil War over Battle returned to his law practice and became a newspaper editor.  He also served as the mayor of New Bern, North Carolina.  He was writing book about the 3^rd Alabama when he died April 8^th 1905 in Greensboro, North Carolina.  Battle is buried in the Blandford Cemetery in Petersburg, Virginia.

A Confederate Navy Man

Confederate Commander Thomas B Huger died from wounds April 25^th 1862 while fighting Union ships near Fort Jackson.

Thomas B Huger was born in South Carolina.  He became a midshipman in the United States Navy in March 1835.  By February 1848 he had become a Lieutenant.  When South Carolina seceded Huger resigned his commission.

In March 1861 Huger was made a First Lieutenant in the Confederate Navy.  He started off with command of a battery on Morris Island just off the coast of South Carolina.  Later that year Huger was appointed the commanding officer of the CSS McRae a steam powered barkentine.  The ship was placed in defense of the lower Mississippi River and New Orleans.

During a battle on April 24^th 1862 with Union ships near Fort Jackson and Fort St Philip, the CSS McRae was damaged by the USS Iroquois and Huger was mortally wounded.  Oddly Huger had been the First Lieutenant on the USS Iroquois before the Civil War started.  He died the next day April 25^th 1862.

A Borrowed Boat

When the civil War started the Union Navy needed vessels, and so on April 23^rd 1861 the USS Ice Boat was borrowed from the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The USS Ice Boat was owned by the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was also sometime called the Refrigerator and Release.  Right after the Civil War started Philadelphia offered her for the use of the Union Navy.  The USS Ice Boat was placed in service under the command of Commodore Oliver S Glisson on April 23^rd 1861.  She left Philadelphia that day to protect Union troops who were landing at Annapolis, Maryland.

The Ice Boat did duty on the Potomac River and Aquia Creek, trying to stop the trade between Virginia and Maryland.  When the Union lost at the First Battle of Bull Run, she returned to the Washington, DC area to defend the city.  After a month she returned to Aquia Creek where she served until late in November 1861, before being returned to the city of Philadelphia.

Plowed Up An Acre

An experimental weapon, the John Gilleland double barreled cannon was first fire tested on April 22^nd 1862.

John Gilleland was a builder, mechanic and dentist.  He designed a double barreled cannon, and had it cast a cost of $350 in Athens, Georgia at the Athens Steam Company under the supervision of Thomas Bailey.  The cannon’s two barrels were designed to shoot simultaneously, two cannon balls which were connected to each other with a chain.  Each one of the six pounder barrels could be fired independently or as one.  It was first tested near Athens on the Newton Bridge Road on April 22^nd 1862.  The powder combusted at a different rate, causing the cannon balls to go off center, causing them to travel in a circular course.  It was described by a witness as plowing "up about an acre of ground, tore up a cornfield, mowed down saplings, and then the chain broke, the two balls going in different directions."  On a second firing the ammo went into a pine thicket, and the third time the chain holding the cannon balls together tore off one knocking down a chimney and other ball killing a cow.

Gilleland tried to sell his gun to the Confederate Army, but they weren’t interested.  The double barreled cannon finally found a use in Athens, Georgia as a signal gun.  It was fired once on July 27^th 1864 to report Union troops approaching, but it was a false alarm.

One Last Slave Ship

The USS Saratoga captured the ship the Nightingale off the coast of Africa on April 21^st 1861 and found she was carrying 961 black men, women, and children.

The Nightingale sailed from New York City in the autumn of 1860 to England.  Although it was said she loading a cargo of cotton cloth, guns and powder from St Thomas, it quickly became known that she was slave ship.  The Nightingale made several trips between England, Angola and Cuba with somewhere around 2,000 African people bound for slavery.

The USS Saratoga anchored near the Congo River at Cabinda, Angola.  She sent two small boats sometime around midnight April 21^st 1861 to board the Nightingale.  Sailors and marines from the Saratoga found 961 blacks on board, chained between the decks.  The Nightingale was taken as a prize and was put under the command of Lieutenant James J Guthrie, who had led the boarding party.  They sailed first for Liberia to release the human cargo on the April 23^rd 1861, a fever killed 160 of the blacks and one of the crew before they reached shore on May 7^th 1861.

The Nightingale would be condemned in the New York prize court and was bought by the Union Navy.  She was commissioned August 18^th 1861 and served out the war in blockading duty.