Opening The Tennessee River

In western Tennessee on February 6th 1862 the Battle of Fort Henry was fought.

Fort Henry was a Confederate earthen fort located on the Tennessee River. February of 1862 found the fort partly under water from the flooded river. General Ulysses S Grant began to land his troops north of the Fort, in two places, one on the east bank of the Tennessee River and the other on the higher ground on the Kentucky side of the river, on February 4th and 5th . On February 6th 1862 the Battle opened with Flag-Officer Andrew Hull Foote’s gunboats bombing the fort. Grant’s plan was to attack at the same time, however it turned out to be primarily a naval battle.

The commander of Fort Henry, General Lloyd Tilghman, knew it would be just a matter of time before the fort fell. There were only nine big guns above the water and usable. He left artillery at the fort to hold off the Union fleet, while the rest of the garrison went the ten miles to the safety of Fort Donelson. Tilgman returned to Fort Henry and surrendered to the fleet. The whole battle lasted only about 75 minutes. The fall of Fort Henry opened up the Tennessee River for shipping all the way to Muscle Shoals, AL.

Supreme Court and Slaves

Before the United State Supreme Court on February 1, 1847 is brought the case Jones v Van Zandt.

John Van Zandt was a farmer and abolitionist from Hamilton County, Ohio. On April 24th 1842,he concealed nine runway slaves from Boone County, Kentucky in his wagon. The of the slaves were owned by Wharton Jones. When slave catchers show up in Ohio, they took seven of the slaves and John Van Zandt back to Kentucky, where they were placed in jail, in Covington, Kentucky. Van Zandt was released, but charged with the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793. He was represented by Ohio attorney Salmon P Chase, but loosing in both the lower and appellate courts, they appeal the case to the Supreme Court. Before reaching the Supreme Court, New York Lawyer William Seward joined the case. The court under Chief Justice Roger B Taney found against Van Zandt, up holding as constitutional the Fugitive Slave Law.

The Thirteenth

The House of Representatives passed the Thirteenth Amendment on January 31, 1865. The 13th Amendment provides that “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

The 13th Amendment would be adopted on December 6th 1865, when the necessary number of states ratified it. When the amendment was ratified, slavery was legal only in the states of Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri, and New Jersey; where slaves born before 1804 could still be kept as “apprentices”. Abraham Lincoln and members of his government pushed for the Thirteenth Amendment as they were concerned that the Emancipation Proclamation would be considered a temporary measure of war. The Senate passed the amendment by 38 to 6 in April 1864, the House voted it in, in January 1865 by 119 to 56.

She Changed Shipping Forever

The USS Monitor, with its turreted center gun was launched today, January 30th 1862. The Monitor was the first ironclad commissioned by the United States Navy. She is more famous for the Battle of Hampton Roads on March 9th 1862 in which the Monitor fought the Confederate ship the CSS Virginia.

The Monitor was designed by John Ericsson a Swedish engineer, but Saratoga Springs, New York‘s Theodore Timby designed the revolving gun turret. She was described as a “cheese box on a raft”. The deck was armored and sat just above the waterline, and was built at the Continental Iron Works in Brooklyn,NY. Although the Monitor preformed well in river combat, she was not made for the rough waters of the ocean. She became swamped during a storm by high waves off Cape Hatteras,North Carolina on December 31st 1862. Sixteen of her sixty-two crew were lost in the storm.

The Fight Going On in Utah

In the war out west, the Battle of Bear River [aka Massacre at Boa Ogoi] between the US Army and the Shoshone Indians took place on January 29th 1863.

A detachment of the United States Army under Colonel Patrick Edward Connor entered the Cache Valley, an area north of the Utah / Idaho state line, at the convergence of the Bear River and Beaver Creek. They were part of an expedition looking for the Shoshone Chief, Bear Hunter. There was deep snow at six am when the 2nd California Cavalry began to arrive. Moroni Timbimboo said his grandfather Chief Sagwitch saw the approach of the Union soldiers.

The Cavalry started with a frontal attack against the positions held by the Shoshone, but the Indians overwhelmed them with return fire. Col Connor retreated and regrouped his men. He than sent small groups in a flanking move around the village, blocking any Shoshone from fleeing the battle. About two hours into the battle the Indians ran out of ammo, at this point the battle became a massacre. Most of the Shoshone men had been killed, and soldiers proceeded to molest and kill the women and children, and burn everything down. There were about 67 US soldiers killed and about 384 Shoshone.

This battle pretty much wiped out the Shoshone in the Cache Valley and surrounding area. The members of the tribe who escaped eventually became member of the Mormon church and help establish the town of Washkie,UT. Colonel Connor and his California Cavalry were treated as heroes. Conner was promoted to Brigadier General and continued his army career against the Native American population.

Son of a President

Richard Taylor the son of United States President Zachary Taylor and Lady Margaret was born January 27th 1826 on the family estate near Louisville, Kentucky. He spent most of his childhood on the frontier with his father before attending private schools in Kentucky and Massachusetts. Richard began college at Harvard, but graduated in 1845 from Yale. When his father died in 1850, he inherited the families Sugar Plantation “Fashion” in Louisiana, and soon had about 200 slaves.

At the start of the Civil War, Confederate General Braxton Bragg asked Taylor to be his assistant in Pensacola, Florida. While serving in Florida he was appointed the Colonel of the 9th Louisiana Infantry, and served at the Battle of First Manassas. In October of 1861 Taylor was promoted to General and given command of a Louisiana brigade under General Richard Ewell. He was promoted over more senior officers which caused of cries of favoritism, as he was the brother-in-law of Jefferson Davis. He proved his capability as a leader at many battles including the First Battle of Winchester. In July 1862 at the age of thirty-six, he became the youngest Major General in the Confederacy and was given command of the District of West Louisiana. After John B Hood’s failures in Tennessee, Taylor was placed in command of what was left of the Army of Tennessee. Union General Edward Canby excepted Taylor’s surrender on May 8th 1865; the last of the Confederates east of the Mississippi to give up.

After the war Richard was active in democratic party politics and was a leading opponent of the policies of Reconstruction. He published a memoir of the war in 1879the year he died in New York City. He is buried in the Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans.

Six To One Odds

Union forces of the 9th Illinois Mounted Infantry under Captain Emil Adams were attacked at the Battle of Athens on January 26th 1864.

At about four in the morning in Athens, Alabama 600 men of the 1st Alabama Cavalry under Lieutenant Colonel Moses Hannon made an attack against the Union defenders. Although out numbered by six to one and with no fortification Captain Adams’ men were able to hold for two hour, and finally forced the Confederates to retreat. There were about twenty Union and thirty Confederate casualties.