To Destroy Supplies

The Second Battle of Springfield was fought January 8th 1863 in Springfield, Missouri.

Three Confederate Cavalry columns under the command of Brigadier General John S Marmaduke left Lewisburg, Arkansas on December 31st 1862. Their objective was to destroy the Union Army supply depot in Springfield, Missouri. The three Cavalry columns under Marmaduke, Colonel Emmett MacDonald and Colonel Joseph C Porter were to converge on Springfield from different directions and capture the city’s warehouses.

The Union commander in Springfield, Brigadier General Egbert Brown learned of the approach of the Confederate Cavalry the night of January 7th 1863. Brown was told there were about 5,000 Confederates to his 1,343 soldiers. Brown could destroy the supplies and retreat, or stay and fight. He decided to defend the city of Springfield.

In the early morning hours of January 8th 1863 Marmaduke approached Springfield from the south. While waiting for the other two columns of Confederate Cavalry to arrive Marmaduke’s troops foraged and captured some Missouri Militia about five miles from Springfield. At about 10:30 am the Confederates began to push into Springfield. They found homes on the outskirts of the city burning. Brown had ordered the houses burnt to provide a view for the artillery on Springfield's South Ave. After several assaults from the south failed, Confederate Colonel Joseph Orville Shelby took up an oblique attack from the west. The fighting was hand to hand and house to house with heavy casualties. The Confederates were able to capture a cannon. The Union troops were able to hold on and even push the Confederates back. With the sun about to go down Marmaduke led a final assault against Fort Number 4. The Union troops held saving the supply depot and ending the Battle of Springfield. During the night the Confederates withdrew and in four days were back in Arkansas.

He Ran Stores And Led Men

Union Brigadier General Samuel Emerson Opdycke was born January 7th 1830.


Samuel Emerson Opdycke was born on a farm in Hubbard, Ohio January 7th 1830. He came from a family with a long military history. Opdycke attended local schools, and then operated various businesses in Ohio. He went to California during the Gold Rush and opened a mercantile store.

Shortly after the First Battle of Bull Run, Opdycke enlisted in the Union army as a First Lieutenant in the 41st Ohio Infantry. He saw action with the 41st at the Battle of Shiloh. Opdycke resigned and went back to Ohio in September 1862 to recruit the 125th Ohio Infantry. He was there as a Colonel when the 125th saw action at Horseshoe Ridge during the Battle of Chickamauga. Opdycke and the 125th were also present at Missionary Ridge, the Battle of Chattanooga and Battle of Resaca where he was badly wounded in the arm. Opdycke had recovered enough to be at the head of his men during the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, and at the Battle of Franklin. He received a promotion to Brigadier General July 26th 1865. Opdycke resigned from the army in 1866.

Following the war Opdycke moved to New York City. He opened a dry good store, was active with veterans affairs, and wrote about the war. While he was cleaning a pistol, Opdycke accidentally shot himself in the stomach. He died April 25th 1884 and is buried in the Oakwood Cemetery in Warren, Ohio.

Slavery Immoral and Non Christian

The New England Anti-Slavery Society was formed by William Lloyd Garrison on January 6th 1832.

The New England Anti-Slavery Society was located in Boston, Massachusetts. It supported abolition, viewing slavery as immoral and non-Christian. The society also opposed sending freed slaves back to Africa. The society sent out lecturers through out New England. They would speak in churches and town halls, encouraging the formation of more local anti-slavery societies. They held yearly anti-slavery conventions to mobilize their members. By 1833 there 33 societies in New England alone.

The Man Who Fired The First Shot

The ardent slave holder, supporter of the Confederacy and the man who fired the first shot of the Civil War, Edmund Ruffin was born January 5th 1794.

Edmund Ruffin was born January 5th 1794 in Price George County, Virginia. He was educated at home with a private tutor until he entered the College of William & Mary in 1810. He was dismissed form the school in 1812 as he showed more interest in outside activities then school work. He saw military service in the War of 1812. Ruffin became a farmer and edited the “Farmers Register”. He was interested in bogs and swamps and ways to improve the for agriculture.

In the 1859 Ruffin made a point of attending the execution of John Brown, obtaining some of the pikes Brown had used to arm slaves to send to southern Governors. Ruffin left Virginia as sectional hostilities grew, and moved to South Carolina. It is claimed that Ruffin fired the first cannon shot on Fort Sumter in April 1861, he was one the first to enter the Fort after it fell into Confederate hands. He was present at the Battle of First Manassas, but was to old to fight.

In 1865 following General Robert E Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, Ruffin wrote in his diary, “I here declare my unmitigated hatred to Yankee rule—to all political, social and business connection with the Yankees and to the Yankee race. Would that I could impress these sentiments, in their full force, on every living Southerner and bequeath them to every one yet to be born! May such sentiments be held universally in the outraged and down-trodden South, though in silence and stillness, until the now far-distant day shall arrive for just retribution for Yankee usurpation, oppression and atrocious outrages, and for deliverance and vengeance for the now ruined, subjugated and enslaved Southern States! And now with my latest writing and utterance, and with what will be near my latest breath, I here repeat and would willingly proclaim my unmitigated hatred to Yankee rule--to all political, social and business connections with Yankees, and the perfidious, malignant and vile Yankee race.” On June 18th 1865, shortly after writing these words Ruffin draped himself in the Confederate flag and shot himself in the head.

A Career Military Man

Union Brigadier General John Joseph Abercrombie died January 3rd 1877.


John Joseph Abercrombie was born March 4th 1798 in Baltimore, Maryland. He attended the United State Military Academy at West Point, graduating 37th out of class of 40 in 1822. Abercrombie’s military career began in Baton Rouge, Louisiana with garrison duty. In 1828 Abercrombie served in the Black Hawk War and received a promotion to First Lieutenant. He then saw action during the Seminole Wars getting a brevets to Major for service at the Battle of Lake Okeechobee. His next promotion to Lieutenant Colonel came during the Mexican - American War when he was honored after the Battle of Monterrey. After the war Abercrombie was assigned to North Dakota where he over saw the construction of new fort.

The start of the Civil War found Abercrombie aged 63, as one of the oldest commanders in the Union or Confederacy. He was the commanding officer of the 7th Minnesota Infantry with the rank of Colonel. Abercrombie commanded troops in the Shenandoah Valley and at the Battle of Falling Waters. He was promoted to Brigadier General and assigned to the command of the Second Brigade of I Corps’ in the Army of the Potomac. Abercrombie was wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines, and his command repulsed a Confederate attack at the Battle of Malvern Hill. Following the Peninsula Campaign, Abercrombie was relieved of field command and spent the rest of the war handling defenses of Washington DC and supply depots. Abercrombie was placed back in command defending a depot in Fredericksburg, Virginia from Hampton’s Legion in June 1864. He retired from the Army June 12th 1865 at Fort Schuyler, New York with the rank of Brigadier General.

Following his retirement, Abercrombie spent the next three year serving the United States Court-martials duty. He died January 3rd 1877 in Roslyn, Long Island, New York, and is buried in the Woodland Cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

A good web site for more information is FORT ABERCROMBIE Biography of General John J. Abercrombie

First Superintendent, First Cannon

The Louisiana State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy, now known as the Louisiana State University, opened January 2nd 1860 with its first superintendent Colonel William Tecumseh Sherman.


The Louisiana State General Assembly passed legislation creating the Seminary of Learning of the State of Louisiana in 1853. The schools main building was completed near Pineville, Louisiana in November 1859. The school opened with five professors and nineteen cadets including its first superintendent Colonel William Tecumseh Sherman. In March 1860 the school’s name was changed to the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning & Military Academy.

After Louisiana seceded from the Union January 1861, Sherman resigned. Most of the students and faculty enlisted in the Confederate military in April 1861. The school closed June 30th 1861. It re-opened April 1st 1862, until April 23rd 1863 when the Union invaded the area as part of the Red River Campaign. The library and most other items were destroyed by Union General T Kilby Smith. The school was re-opened after the war in April 1865. Sherman donated two cannon to the school which had been used by the Confederates to fire on Fort Sumter starting the Civil War.

First To File For Goverment Land

Daniel Freeman a physician and soldier was the first person to file a land claim using the Homestead Act on January 1st 1863.


The Homestead Act signed into law by Abraham Lincoln May 20th 1862, was designed to give away 160 acres of undeveloped federal land. Any one over the age of 21 who had never taken up arms against the United State, including freed slaves could file a claim. There were three steps; an applicant would file an application, make improvements to and live on the land and file for the deed of title. This was an expansion of the Preemption Act of 1841, which the South fought, fearing that an increase of free farms would threaten the plantation system. Once the south seceded in 1861, the Homestead Act passed quickly. The first person to file an claim was Daniel Freeman. He was a physician living in Ottawa, Illinois when he enlisted in the 17th Illinois Infantry. Freeman filed on a claim January 1st 1863 in Beatrice, Nebraska Territory, just ten minutes after the Act went into effect. The site of Freeman’s claim is now the Homestead National Monument of America.

A couple of other very good web sites on this subject are Daniel Freeman and the Homestead Act and Teaching With Documents: The Homestead Act of 1862