October 30, 1864---"Admiral" Forrest

OCTOBER 30, 1864:         

General Nathan Bedford Forrest C.S.A., generally famed for his cavalry exploits, and known for his brilliant tactics, captures several Union gunboats and troop transports, including the U.S.S. UNDINE, on the Tennessee River in order to assist the Army of Tennessee in crossing its namesake river. With his usual martial elan, Forrest fools the gunboats into thinking that there is an engagement along the riverbank (by firing his artillery at nothing), and when the ships come into range they are blasted to a stop and then raided by Confederate marines. This marks one of the very few times in history that naval forces are overcome by land troops.  Forrest makes use of the former U.S.S. UNDINE in several subsequent actions, but scuttles her on November 4^th in order to keep her from falling back into Yankee hands.  

October 29, 1864---Morbid entertainment; The Battle of Decatur, Alabama

OCTOBER 29, 1864:                    

Six Confederate prisoners held at the Gratiot Street Prison in St. Louis were executed near Lafayette Square. The executions were in retaliation for the murder of Union Major James Wilkinson and six of his men by Confederate guerrillas. A crowd of three thousand watched the executions.

The Battle of Decatur, Alabama. 5,000 Union land troops and a flotilla of gunboats block John Bell Hood’s 28,000-strong Army of Tennessee from crossing the Tennessee River. After several hot skirmishes that cost him minimal casualties, Hood decides the Union force is too strong to challenge and seeks another crossing point.

October 28, 1864---The Second Battle of Newtonia, Missouri

OCTOBER 28, 1864:                   

The Second Battle of Newtonia, Missouri:

General Sterling Price C.S.A.’s tattered Confederate column re-enters Missouri after its drubbing in Kansas. The pursuing Federal column which has been chasing Price all this time, falls upon his men yet again. A vicious firefight ensues, and Price flees across the border into Indian Territory. Price loses some 250 men, leaving him with a ragtag force of 5,550. Price’s defeat marks the end of formal Confederate military action in Missouri for the remainder of the war, though guerrillas and bushwhackers continue their depredations even after the war formally ends.

October 27, 1864---The Battle of Boydton Plank Road

OCTOBER 27, 1864:                   

The Battle of Boydton Plank Road:

In an attempt to cut the Southside Railroad, Petersburg’s last remaining connection to Richmond, Ulysses S. Grant orders General Winfield Scott Hancock U.S.A. to turn the Confederate flank along the Boydton Plank Road. 30,000 Union troops are engaged in the battle against only 12,000 for Dixie, but after being driven from their positions during the first wave of the attack, the Confederates manage to recapture the Boydton Plank Road and hold the Southside Railroad. Unable to dislodge the determined Confederates, Hancock moved his men back into the trenches around Petersburg. Union casualties in the battle were 1,750; the Confederacy lost 1,300 men. 

As it transpired, this was Hancock’s last battle. He resigned his commission in November and went home, still nursing a wound received at Gettysburg. This was also the last major action taken by the Union to break the Confederate line around Petersburg before winter set in. It was already unusually cool in central Virginia for the time of year. The winter promised to be harsh --- and it kept its promise.  

October 26, 1864---The bloody end of "Bloody Bill"

OCTOBER 26, 1864:                   

“Bloody Bill” Anderson is killed in a Union raid on Albany, Missouri. According to reports, the Union commander, Lieutenant Colonel Samuel P. Cox shot Anderson in the head, though whether Anderson was a prisoner or still fighting at the time is unclear. Cox ordered Anderson’s body placed on display. Also on display was a leather lanyard belonging to Anderson that sported 54 knots --- the number of lives he’d personally taken. (In fact, Anderson had been responsible, directly and indirectly, for the loss of hundreds of lives.)

  

“Bloody Bill’s” guerrilla band splintered apart soon after his death, and most of his men became notorious outlaws, including the Younger Brothers and the James Brothers, who often rode together. In 1869, during a bank robbery in Gallatin, Missouri, Jesse and Frank James tried to kill Samuel P. Cox in revenge for the death of Anderson, but were unsuccessful.    

Sometime after the war, Cole Younger found the location of “Bloody Bill’s” unmarked grave and had his body reinterred in a churchyard in Richmond, Missouri. 

In a signal occurrence illustrating the deep divisions within Missouri even after the war (and even to this day) an anonymous citizen had a grave marker erected for Anderson, and flowers began to appear regularly on his grave. In 1967, a new grave marker was installed by the town’s historical society. In 1988, a memorial to the “Confederate Partisan Rangers” killed at Albany was erected at the spot where Anderson was killed.