The First From The Citadel

Confederate Colonel Charles Courtenay Tew was killed September 17^th 1862 while in action at the Battle of Sharpsburg.

Charles Courtenay Tew was born in Charleston, South Carolina October 17^th 1827, the son of Henry Shade and Caroline (Courtenay) Tew.  He was part of the first class of the South Carolina Military Academy which has become known at the Citadel.  Tew graduated in 1846 at the top of his class.  Following his graduation he taught at the school until 1852 when he spent a year in Europe studying military tactics.  Tew would return to the Citadel where he would be the Commandant of Cadets until 1857, when he became the superintendent of the Arsenal Academy in Columbia, South Carolina.

Tew was appointed June 20^th 1861, the Colonel of the 2^nd North Carolina Infantry by Confederate North Carolina Governor John Willis Ellis when that state seceded.  The 2^nd was attached to the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in Brigadier General George Burgwyn Anderson’s brigade.  When Anderson was killed at the Battle of Sharpsburg, Tew took over command of the brigade.  In the afternoon of September 17^th 1862, the brigade were located along the Sunken Road near the center of the Confederate line.  Tew and Colonel John Brown Gordon were placing men in line when both men were hit.  Gordon would say of this spot, "The first volley from the Union lines in my front sent a ball through the brain of the chivalric Colonel Tew, of North Carolina, to whom I was talking, and another ball through the calf of my right leg. On the right and the left my men were falling under the death-dealing crossfire."

When the Confederates left the area of the Sunken Road, Tew’s body was left behind.  He was never identified.  After war was over a former Union Captain, J W Bean sent a silver cup to Tew’s father in October 1874, claiming he had taken the cup off Tew’s body before his burial.

If I Cannot Whip Bobby Lee

Robert E Lee’s lost Special Order 191 was found by the Union Army on September 13^th 1862, leading to the Battle of Antietam.

Robert E Lee’s Special Order 191 was written in early September during the Maryland Campaign.  In it were the detailed movements of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.  Lee listed the routes and road that would be used, and the timing for taking Harpers Ferry.  Lee’s Adjutant Brigadier General Robert Hall Chilton wrote the copies of the Order and distributed copies to the Confederate generals.

In the morning of September 13^th 1862 Union Corporal Barton W Mitchell of the 27^th Indiana Infantry found an envelope wrapped around cigars in the grass at a vacated Confederate camp on the Best Farm.  Realizing he had found something important, Mitchell gave the paper to Sergeant John M Bloss, and it continued up to chain of command until it reached the hands of the Union commander Major General George B McClellan.  McClellan was said to have exclaimed, "Here is a paper with which, if I cannot whip Bobby Lee, I will be willing to go home."

To read more about this, check out General Robert E. Lee’s “Lost Order” No. 191, Hdqrs. Army of Northern Virginia, September 9, 1862

Lee's First Battle As A Confederate

The Battle of Cheat Mountain was fought September 12^th through 15^th 1861 in the Pocahontas and Randolph Counties area of Virginia, and was the first battle for Robert E Lee as a Confederate leader.

Union General William Starke Rosecrans had command of a force in Western Virginia, and he concentrated his men along the major transportation line in the area.  He left Union Brigadier General Joseph Jones Reynolds defending the Staunton and Parkersburg Turnpike in the Cheat Mountain area with about 1,800 men.  Confederate General Robert E Lee was sent into the western Virginia area to try to coordinate the Confederate forces in the area.  He first moved with the Army of the Northwest, which was under the command of Brigadier General William Wing Loring.  Lee developed a strategy to attack against Reynolds’ divided camps near the summit of Cheat Mountain and Tygart Valley.

The Confederates attacked in a heavy rain and fog.  Struggling with the visibility and mountain terrain the attack on Cheat Summit was uncoordinated.   The heavy fighting the Confederates faced from the 300 Union defenders, and misleading information given by captured Union soldiers caused Confederates Colonel Albert Rust and Brigadier Samuel Read Anderson to believe their 3,000 soldiers were outnumbered.  The Confederates who attacked Reynolds’ men at the Tygart Valley found the Union troops well entrenched and ready to hold.

Reynolds moved some troops up the road to Cheat Mountain to relieve the garrison there, but found it unnecessary.  Robert E Lee had the attack called off and moved his force to Valley Head.

The Youngest General

Confederate Brigadier General John Herbert Kelly, the youngest Confederate general to die during the war, died September 4^th 1864 at the age of 24.

John Herbert Kelly was born March 31^st 1840 in Pineapple, Pickens, Alabama, the son of Isham and Elizabeth (Herbert) Kelly.  As both of his parents died before he was seven, Kelly was raised by his Grandmother Harriet Herbert Hawthorne.  He received an appointment to the United State Military Academy at West Point with the help of an Uncle who was a Congressman.  After South Carolina seceded he left without graduating on December 29^th 1860.

Kelly joined the Confederate Army in Montgomery, Alabama with the rank of Second Lieutenant and was assigned to Fort Morgan at the mouth of Mobile Bay through the fall of 1861.  In late 1861 he joined the staff of Confederate Brigadier General William Joseph Hardee in Missouri.  In April 1862 he received at appointment to Major of the 9^th Arkansas Battalion and led them in the Battle of Shiloh.  May 5^th 1862 Kelly became the Colonel of the 8^th Arkansas Infantry.  He was wounded in the arm at the Battle of Murfreesboro, and commanded a brigade at the Battle of Chickamauga, where he had his horse shot out from under him.  On November 16^th 1863 Kelly received his promotion to Brigadier General, while only 23 years old.

While leading Cavalry on a raid to disrupt Union communication, near Franklin, Tennessee on September 2^nd 1864, Kelly was shot in the chest by a Union Sharpshooter.  He was carried from the field in a blanket to the Harrison House to be seen by a doctor.  To badly hurt to be moved he died there September 4^th 1864.  He was buried first in the garden of the Harrison House, but was moved in 1866 to the Magnolia Cemetery in Mobile, Alabama.

Was It A Military Target

The Platte Bridge Railroad Tragedy on September 3^rd 1861 occurred when some Confederate Irregulars derailed a train with about 100 passengers east of St Joseph, Missouri.

Confederate Irregulars weakened the lower timbers of the 160 foot long bridge that crossed the Platte River on September 3^rd 1861 on the Hannibal & St Joseph Railroad.  There was no moon that night when the westbound train from Hannibal, Missouri headed for St Joseph, Missouri crossed the bridge.  The supports gave way and the train, locomotive, and cars; including two passenger cars with about 100 passengers plunged 30 feet into the river.  The dead, which number about 20, and injured were carried to the Patee House a luxury hotel in St Joseph, Missouri.

The Union Army in the area were ordered to hunt down the Irregulars and execute them.  Confederate Major General Sterling Price protested this order stating that under the rules of warfare those captured should be treated as prisoners of war.  He argued that the train was a military target because it carried Union soldiers.  Union General Henry W Halleck replied that the Confederate Irregulars were "spies, marauders, robbers, incendiaries, guerrilla bands".

Numbers Count

The Battle of Dry Wood, also known as the Battle of the Mules was fought in Vernon County, Missouri September 2^nd 1861 between Confederate Missouri State Guard and Union Calvary.

After the Confederate victory at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, Major General Sterling Price occupied Springfield, Missouri.  He moved north with his 6,000 Missouri State Guard to take Fort Scott, Kansas.  Union Colonel James Henry Lane led his 600 man force of Cavalry out from Fort Scott, and about 12 miles from the fort they ran into Price near Big Dry Wood Creek.

The Union men surprised Price’s State Guard on September 2^nd 1861.  After two hours of fighting Lane’s smaller in number Cavalry were forced to retreat toward Fort Scott.  The Missouri State Guard captured mules from the Union troops, and then proceeded towards Lexington, Missouri to recruit.  Losses on both sides were light about 14 Union and 20 in the State Guard.

Covering The Retreat To Washington

The Battle of Ox Hill; also known as the Battle of Chantilly was an attempt by the Confederates to cut off the Union retreat following the their loss at Second Manassas, and was fought September 1^st 1862.

After losing at the Second Battle of Manassas on August 30^th 1862 Union Major General John Pope ordered his Army of Virginia to retreat.  By the next morning it was becoming clear that Pope had lost control of his army and was afraid that another attack by Lee would destroy the army and leave Washington, DC unprotected.  While Pope was trying to regroup his army, Confederate Major General Thomas J Stonewall Jackson began to move on Pope’s right flank.  Jackson was moving for Germantown, Virginia where Pope’s only two routes into Washington were located, but his men were worn out and were moving slowly.

During the night Pope learned of the Confederate force that was advancing on him.  He ordered the army to retreat from their location at Centerville to Washington.  Pope sent out troops from several Corps to cover the roads they would be using to retreat.  Jackson’s force reached Ox Hill near the Chantilly Plantation on the morning of September 1^st 1862 were Confederate Cavalry spent the morning skirmishing with Union infantry and cavalry.  About 3 pm Union Brigadier General Isaac Ingalls Stevens’ division arrived, and despite being outnumbered, attacked Confederate Brigadier General Alexander Robert Lawton’s division.  Although the Union troops were initially successful; routing Confederate Colonel Henry Strong’s Brigade, they were shortly driven back by a counterattack made by Confederate Brigadier General Jubal Anderson Early.  Stevens was killed during this attack.

About this time; around 5 pm, a thunderstorm hit the field limiting visibility and soaking ammunition.  Union Major General Philip Kearny arrived in the storm and deployed on Steven’s left, ordering an attack by Brigadier General David Bell Birney, which stalled in hand to hand fighting with men of Confederate Major General Ambrose Powell Hill’s division.  Kearny road into the Confederate lines and was killed as his other two brigades arrived on the field.  Using these last two brigades as rear guard Birney withdrew, bringing the battle to an end.  The Union Army withdrew during the night to Germantown and Fairfax Court House.