July 31, 1862---The Cartel

JULY 31, 1862:            

A cartel, or agreement, is worked out between Union and Confederate officials regarding the exchange of Prisoners of War, war refugees, and other individuals who need cross the borders legally. 

Jefferson Davis, however, excludes U.S. General John Pope and his senior officers from any amnesty due to Pope’s “infamous orders”:  

“This Government has issued the enclosed General Order, recognizing General Pope and his commanding officers to be in the position which they have chosen for themselves---that or robbers and murderers.” 

This General Order allowed them to be subject to corporal or capital punishment if captured.

July 30, 1862---Dinner in Paris

JULY 30, 1862:         

400 Bushwhackers raid the Unionist town of Paris, Kentucky, imprisoning the Sheriff and town officials, relieving the townspeople of their cash and specie, forcing the Court Clerk to issue indictments against certain citizens, harassing the young ladies, and then forcing the townsfolk to cook a great dinner for them all, punctuated by brandy and cigars. For dessert, they loot all the stores in town, loading wagons with their plunder before decamping. Soon afterward, the 9th Pennsylvania Cavalry, having been alerted, arrives, and gives chase. They soon overtake the guerrillas, killing 27 and capturing 39.

July 29, 1862---Belle Boyd

JULY 29, 1862:  

      

 

  

After being betrayed by a lover, Confederate spy Marie Isabella "Belle" Boyd is arrested by Union troops and detained at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C. Upon her release one month later, she was given a trousseau by the prison's superintendent and shipped under a flag of truce to Richmond, Virginia.

It was the first of three arrests for this skilled spy who provided crucial information to the Confederates during the war. For her contributions, she was awarded the Southern Cross of Honor. Stonewall Jackson also gave her the rank of Captain and made her an honorary aide-de-camp.

The Virginian-born Boyd was just 17 when the war began. She was from a prominent slaveholding family in Martinsburg, Virginia (now West Virginia), in the Shenandoah Valley. In 1861, she shot and killed a Union solider for insulting her mother and threatening to search their house. Union officers investigated and decided the shooting was justified. Soon after the shooting incident, Boyd began spying for the Confederacy. She used her charms to engage Union soldiers and officers in conversations and acquire information about Federal military affairs.

Suspecting her of spying, Union officers banished Boyd, but her periods of exile were always brief and she always returned to spying.

July 28, 1862---The Battle of Moore's Mill, Missouri

JULY 28, 1862:           

The Battle of Moore’s Mill, Missouri. 

After a period of relative calm following the Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, the war in Missouri begins to heat up as Confederate recruiters begin to replenish the depleted ranks of the Secessionist militias. 

A series of escalating skirmishes mark the last week in July.  A force of some 750 Federals trap a force of some 350 Confederates near Moore’s Mill, and a bloody breakout attempt begins. Although the Rebels inflict some 70 casualties (13 killed) on the Union force, they exhaust their ammunition. Attacked as they attempt to withdraw, the Confederates suffer between 200-300 casualties, with perhaps 30 killed. 

The Battle of Moore’s Mill marks the beginning of the end of organized Confederate efforts in Missouri.

July 27, 1862---On General Pope: "His headquarters are where his hindquarters ought to be."

JULY 27, 1862:            

Robert E. Lee sends 48,000 more troops to Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley. 

Lee is outraged at Union General John Pope’s recent spate of abusive Field Orders and writes to Jackson:

“I want Pope to be suppressed. The course indicated in his orders, if the newspapers report them correctly, cannot be permitted and will lead to retaliation on our part. You had better notify him the first opportunity.” 

This sort of behavior and rhetoric from Pope leads General Lee to label him a “miscreant.” 

Pope had a habit of concluding dispatches saying that his “headquarters are in the saddle.”  Wits in response said that his headquarters were where his hindquarters ought to be.