To Make A Free State

Emory Washburn signed the legislation that recognized the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company April 26^th 1854.

The Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company was created in Boston, Massachusetts April 26^th 1854 to transport immigrants to the Kansas Territory to tip the balance and make Kansas a free state rather than a slave state.  The Company was set up by Eli Thayer, a second term United State Congressman from Massachusetts, following the Kansas Nebraska Act.  Thayer planned to focus on the antislavery movement in the Northern states, sending settlers to Kansas to buy land, and build houses, stores and mills.  The Massachusetts State Legislature gave the company five million dollars for working capital.  The company changed its name in 1855 to the New England Emigrant Aid Company.  The settlers to the territory were expected to support the free-state movement.  The Company was behind the creation of the towns of Lawrence and Manhattan Kansas, as well as playing a role in the founding the towns of Topeka and Osawatomie, Kansas.

There isn’t an exact number known for those who used the Company and emigrated but it’s thought to be somewhere around 2,000.

Made The Union Position Untenable

The Battle of Mark’s Mills was fought on April 25^th 1864 in Cleveland County, Arkansas and was part of the Camden Expedition.

Union troops were defeated April 18^th 1864 at the Battle of Poison Springs, but it still left Union Major General Frederick Steele in possession of Camden, Arkansas.  Confederate Major General Sterling Price set up a siege on the surrounding Camden countryside.  Union supplies were running low when Steele ordered Union Lieutenant Colonel Francis M Drake to use the Camden Pine Bluff Road to bring in provisions.

On the morning of April 25^th 1864 Drake’s command of about 1,800 with additional 300 or so African Americans were attacked near the intersection of the Camden Pine Bluff Road and Warren Road.  Confederate Brigadier General William L Cabell stopped Drake’s movement as Confederate Brigadier General Joseph Shelby launched an assault on the Union left.  Drake was seriously wounded, and finding himself facing overwhelming numbers he was forced to surrender his entire column.

Following this battle Steele’s position in Camden became untenable.  He left Camden on April 26^th 1864 and marched north toward Little Rock, Arkansas.

Another place on the web where you find more is Battle of Mark’s Mill (A History)

A Code Of Conduct

Francis Lieber

The Lieber Code was signed by President Abraham Lincoln on April 24^th 1863; it covered how Union soldiers were to conduct themselves.

The Lieber Code, also known as General Order Number 100 dictated how Union troops were to conduct themselves.  The Code was named for its creator Francis Lieber a professor at Columbia College in New York City, and was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln April 24^th 1863.  It included humane treatment of people in occupied areas, and forbade the giving of “no quarter” to prisoners.  The code also covered the use of torture, how to treat POW’s and what was a permissible means to use end insurrections.

The Code was a predecessor to the Hague Regulations, written in 1907.

If you’re interested in reading the original law I recommend General Orders No. 100 : The Lieber Code

Last East Of The Mississippi

John T Croxton

The Battle of Munford, Alabama fought April 23^rd 1865, was the last battle of the Civil War to take place east of the Mississippi River.

The Battle of Munford occurred on April 23^rd 1865.  It was a part of a raid through Alabama taken on by Union Cavalry under the command of General John T Croxton.  The Confederates which Croxton’s men came up against were made up mostly of home guards, convalescents and deserters known as “Hill’s Layouts”.  They numbered about 150, and they were led in the battle by Confederate General Benjamin Jefferson Hill.  The Confederates had two cannon placed on Academy Hill, which Lieutenant Lewis E Parsons managed to fire twice before being overrun by the Union troops.

The battle produced three deaths, one Confederate and two Union.

The Last To Die

Confederate General James Dearing was mortally wounded at the Battle of High Bridge and may have become the last officer to die in the war on April 22^nd 1865.

James Dearing was born in Campbell County, Virginia April 25^th 1840.  He received his early education at Hanover Academy, before receiving an appointment in 1858 to the United State Military Academy.  Dearing was first in his class at West Point and nearing graduation when Virginia seceded.  He resigned April 22^nd 1861 and accepted a commission of Lieutenant in the Virginia Artillery.

Dearing fought with the Washington Artillery of New Orleans at First Manassas.  He was with Confederate General George E Pickett at Yorktown, Williamsburg, Seven Pines and Fredericksburg.  He was promoted to Captain in late 1862.  By Gettysburg Dearing had been promoted to Major.  He commanded a battalion of artillery in the First Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia, taken part in the artillery leading up to Pickett’s Charge.  Dearing was appointed Brigadier General April 29^th 1864.  He served with the cavalry under Confederate Major General William H F Rooney Lee during the Siege of Petersburg.

Dearing shot and killed Union Colonel Theodore Read during the retreat to Appomattox at close range with a pistol at the Battle of High Bridge April 6^th 1865.  Dearing was then mortally wounded by another Union soldier.  Dearing died from his wound 17 days later on April 23^rd 1865 at the Ladies’ Aid Hospital in Lynchburg, Virginia.  He is buried in the Spring Hill Cemetery in Lynchburg.  Dearing may be the last Confederate officer to in the war.

Recruiting Irregulars

The Confederate Congress passed the Partisan Ranger Act on April 21^st 1862 to encourage the recruitment of irregulars.

The Confederate Congress on April 21^st 1862 voted to pass the Partisan Ranger Act.  The leadership would come to oppose the use of irregulars, as they became alarmed by a lack of discipline and rivalry between groups.  With insistence from Robert E Lee and other Confederate Army leaders the Act was repealed February 17^th 1864.  There were two partisan groups which were exempted and allowed to remain in force until the end of the Civil War.  These two ranger groups were Mosby’s Raiders and McNeill’s Rangers.

The Partisan Ranger Act read as follows:

Section 1. The congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the president be, and he is hereby authorized to commission such officers as he may deem proper with authority to form bands of partisan rangers, in companies, battalions, or regiments, to be composed of such members as the President may approve.

Section 2. Be it further enacted, that such partisan rangers, after being regularly received in the service, shall be entitled to the same pay, rations, and quarters during the term of service, and be subject to the same regulations as other soldiers.

Section 3. Be its further enacted, That for any arms and munitions of war captured from the enemy by any body of partisan rangers and delivered to any quartermaster at such place or places may be designated by a commanding general, the rangers shall be paid their full value in such manner as the Secretary of War may prescribe.