JUNE 29, 1864:
The
First Battle of Ream’s Station. After being defeated at Sappony Church the day
before, the Union cavalry raiders are trying to make it back to their lines
when they are intercepted (again) by the hotly pursuing C.S. Generals Rooney
Lee and Wade Hampton, who give them another drubbing. There are 600 casualties,
mostly Union. Despite the twin defeats however, the raiders have managed to
destroy about 100 miles of crucial railroad track leading into Petersburg.
In Georgia, General
William Tecumseh Sherman U.S.A. keeps throwing troops at General Joseph E.
Johnston C.S.A.’s lines. These ongoing attacks, though they are producing a few
thousand Union casualties, keep Johnston off-balance. While Johnston is
focusing on the threat to his front he is unaware that he has been flanked.
Although Sherman can only send a few men at a time through the flank gap, and
although they cannot go very far, being limited to what they can carry on their
backs, this trickle of men is coalescing into an enemy force in Johnston’s
rear, and one lying between him and Atlanta.
Elsewhere in the
world, Canada suffers its worst train disaster in history at Mont-St.-Hilare,
Quebec when the through train ignores a red signal and passes onto an opened
swing bridge, falling into the Richelieu River. 99 people are killed, mostly
Eastern European immigrants.
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