From Soldier To Leader

Union Lieutenant General Ulysses S Grant became United States President Ulysses S Grant on March 4^th 1869.

Union Lieutenant General Ulysses S Grant became the 18^th President of the United States on March 4^th 1869, the first of many Civil War veterans to hold that office.  His first inauguration was performed by Supreme Court Chief Justice Salmon P Chase on the East Portico of the White House.  President Andrew Johnson refused to attend the inaugural ceremonies it is believed because President elect Grant had refused to sit with him in his carriage on the ride to his inauguration.  Grant’s inaugural parade included eight divisions of Army, and his inaugural ball was held that night in the Treasury Building.

If you’re interested in reading   

Ulysses S. Grant's First Inaugural Address  this is a good place to start.

Filling Up The Army

The United States Congress passed the Enrollment Act which is better known as the Civil War Military Draft, it was enacted March 3^rd 1863.

The Confederacy passed the first conscription act, or draft on April 16^th 1862.  About a year later the Union passed their own draft law.  The Union Enrollment Act which was enacted March 3^rd 1863 was controversial.  It called for every male, including immigrants who had filed for citizenship between the ages of 20 and 45 to enroll.  There were quotas set for the number of men to be raised in each congressional district.  A man could avoid the draft by providing a substitute or by paying $300.  This provision led to the saying of "rich man's war, poor man's fight."  In some cities, such as New York, the Act led to Draft Riots.

Congress amended the Act in 1864 shortening the length of time a man could be exempt from the draft by payment to one year.  There was another change made to the Act in March 1865 which imposed a loss of citizenship on any man who deserted or evaded the draft.

The Last Fight For Early

Confederate Lieutenant General Jubal Anderson Early’s last battle was fought March 2^nd 1865 at the Battle of Waynesboro in Virginia.

Union Major General Philip H Sheridan had orders to join his cavalry from Winchester, Virginia with Major General William T Sherman’s army in the Carolinas.  They began moving south February 27^th 1865.  Not wanting to leave Confederate Lieutenant General Jubal Early in his rear, Sheridan moved east through a cold rain and on March 2^nd 1865 and found Early’s Army at Waynesboro.

Early had his artillery placed in lined and took up a defensive position on a ridge along the South River.  The Confederate troops stood off a determined Union attack, before Union General George Armstrong Custer’s division of cavalry rolled up Early’s left flank.

Early and some of his staff got away, but the rest of the army, about 1,500 of his troops surrendered.  Sheridan having removed all organized Confederate resistance in the Shenandoah Valley moved south and joined with the Army of the Potomac near Petersburg, Virginia at the White House on the Pamunkey River on March 19^th 1865 in time for the Appomattox Campaign.  Early wouldn’t see another battle during the war.

The Military Photographer

Captain Andrew Joseph Russell a photographer became the first non-civilian Civil War photographer March 1^st 1863, when he was assigned to the United States Military Railroad Construction Corps.

Andrew Joseph Russell was born March 20^th 1829 in Walpole, New Hampshire the son of Joseph and Harriet (Robinson) Russell.  The family moved when Russell was young to Nunda, New York where he was raised.  Having interest and some talent in painting, he did portraits of local dignitaries and of railroads and trains.

Russell started his Civil War service by doing the painting on a diorama used for Union recruiting.  He joined the service August 22^nd 1862 in Elmira, New York, and became a member of the 141^st New York Infantry.  Russell was interested in photography, and so paid Egbert Guy Fowx a civilian photographer who did photos for Matthew B Brady to teach him wet-plate photography.  Some of Russell’s first photos were seen by Union Brigadier General Herman Haupt and they impressed the General enough to have Russell assigned on March 1^st 1863 to the Union Military Railroad Construction Corps as a photographer.  This made Russell the first non-civilian Civil War photographer.  He mostly took photos of transportation subjects, but is thought to be the photographer of the “Confederate Dead Behind the Stone Wall” at the Battle of Chancellorsville.

Following the end of the war, Russell worked for the Union Pacific Railroad photographing the construction of the eastern side of the transcontinental railroad.  One of his most iconic images is of the driving of the Golden Spike at Promontory Summit, Utah on May 10^th 1869.  He also did many spectacular photos of mountain scenery and desserts of the American west which the railroad was built across.  After he left the service of the Union Pacific, Russell opened a studio on Logan Street in Brooklyn, New York.  He died there September 22^nd 1902.

The To Fly Confederate Colors

The Confederate privateer the Rattlesnake ran aground February 28^th 1863 on the Ogeechee River in Georgia and was destroyed by the USS Montauk.

Starting life as the USMS Nashville a United States Mail Service ship, she was a1221 ton side wheeler, passenger steam ship.  She was built in 1853 at Greenpoint in Brooklyn, New York.  As the Nashville from 1853 to 1861 she ran a route between New York City and Charleston, South Carolina.  When the bombing of Fort Sumter began in April 1861, the Nashville sailed in to Charleston Harbor not flying the US colors and was fire on by the USRC Harriet Lane.  The Nashville docked at Charleston and after Fort Sumter fell she was captured by the Confederates.

The Confederates fitted her out as a cruiser and placed her as the CSS Nashville under the command of Lieutenant Robert B Pegram.  On October 21^st 1861 the Nashville ran the blockade and sailed for England, she became the first ship to fly the Confederate colors in English waters.  The Nashville returned to Beaufort, North Carolina in February 1862 after having captured prizes worth about $66,000.

She was sold as a blockade runner November 5^th 1862 and commissioned as the privateer the Rattlesnake.  On February 28^th 1863 she ran aground on Georgia’s Ogeechee River.  The USS Montauk fired on the Rattlesnake from a 15 inch turret gun destroying the ship.

Hell Opened

Union prisoners of war began arriving at Camp Sumter, better known as Andersonville on February 27^th 1864.

Andersonville began excepting Union POW’s on February 27^th 1864.  The prison started out with 16.5 acres of land, it had a 15 foot high stockade.  The camp would be expanded in June 1864 to 26.5 acres, and the stockade finished off at 1,620 feet by 779 feet.  The stockade had two entrances, both located on the west side and known as the North entrance and the South entrance.  There was an interior fence, built about 19 feet inside the stockade, known as the dead line.  Any prisoners crossing or touching this line were shot by the sentries located in what the prisoners called the pigeon roosts.

The Union prisoners and the Confederate staff of Andersonville were undersupplied and what foods they received were of poor quality.  Men died from disease, exposure and malnutrition.  During a seven month period a third of the men held there died from dysentery and scurvy. In July 1864 five Union prisoners were sent north by Captain Heinrich H Wirz with a petition asking that the Union reinstate prisoner exchanges, hoping to relive conditions.  When their petition was denied all five of the men returned to their comrades at Andersonville.

From the time Andersonville opened until it closed it held some 45,000 soldiers, of these 13,000 lost their lives.

He Turned In A Good Showing

Confederate Thomas Fentress Toon was elected Colonel of the 20^th North Carolina February 26^th 1863 following the Battle of Fredericksburg.

Thomas Fentress Toon was born in Columbus County, North Carolina June 10^th 1840 the son of Anthony and Mary (McMillian) Toon.  He began his education at Wake Forest College, graduating after the start of the Civil War and his own enlistment.

Toon joined the 20^th North Carolina Infantry, starting as their First Lieutenant and moving quickly to Captain.  After turning in a good showing at the battles of Seven Pines, South Mountain, and Fredericksburg, the men of the 20^th elected Toon their Colonel.  He led his regiment at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and Mine Run.  During the Overland Campaign, Toon took over command of the brigade, when his Brigadier General Robert D Johnston was wounded at the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse.  He continued to lead the brigade during Lieutenant General Jubal Anderson Early’s raid on Washington, DC in July 1864.  Johnston returned to command in August and Toon went back to the 20^th.  During the Confederate attack on Fort Stedman on March 25^th 1865, he was wounded for the seventh time, ending his active duty.

Toon returned to North Carolina after the war ended.  He served as the superintendent of public instruction.  Toon died February 19^th 1902 in Raleigh, North Carolina.  He is buried in the Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh, North Carolina.