July 24, 1863---The Battle of Big Mound; Mr. Minde takes up arms

JULY 24, 1863:          

The Battle of Big Mound, Dakota Territory (now North Dakota). 

Sioux warriors call for a parley with United States forces in the Dakota Territory. As the parley begins, a Sioux brave, angered at what appears to be the impending surrender of his people, kills the Union interpreter, sparking a battle between some 1,500 Sioux and 2,000 U.S. troops. After a small handful of men on both sides are killed, the battle ends as the Sioux retreat. Total casualties are less than 20. 

Mathias Johnson Minde is among the Union troops fighting the Sioux on the western frontier.  His name is variously spelled "Minde" and "Mindy" in the records, though his signature clearly has an "e."

July 23, 1863---The Battle of Manassas Gap

JULY 23, 1863: 

The Battle of Manassas Gap, Virginia. 

Meade’s following force, having harassed Lee since leaving Gettysburg tries to block the Army of Northern Virginia’s passage into the Shenandoah Valley. Despite outnumbering Lee’s rearguard, Meade’s forces are delayed long enough to allow the greater body of the Army of Northern Virginia to escape. 

July 22, 1863---Grant and Sherman

JULY 22, 1863: 

General Grant writes to President Lincoln recommending the promotion of William Tecumseh Sherman. His letter reads in part:

“I would most respectfully but urgently recommend the promotion of Maj.-Gen. W. T. Sherman…to the position of brigadier-general in the regular army. The first reason for this is…great fitness for…command…Second…great purity of character…Third [he has] honorably won this distinction upon many well-fought battlefields…To General Sherman I was greatly indebted for his…forwarding to me, during the siege of Fort Donelson, reinforcements…At the battle of Shiloh, on the first day, he held with raw troops the key points to the landing. To his individual effort I am indebted for the success of that battle. Twice hit, and (I think three) horses shot under him on that day, he maintained his position with his raw troops…I do not believe there was another division commander on the field who had the skill or experience to have done it.”

Lincoln did not know it yet, but in Grant, Sherman and Philip Sheridan he had found the Union answer to Lee, Jackson and Stuart. 

July 21, 1863---The greatest mistake Meade never made.

JULY 21, 1863:            

Union forces continue to harry the Rebels retreating from Gettysburg. Although the Confederate army is too enervated to turn and fight, General George Meade, commanding the Army of the Potomac, stubbornly refuses to engage Robert E. Lee in a major battle. This angers President Lincoln, who, recalling General McClellan’s inaction for weeks after Antietam, is convinced that Meade is the same sort, unwilling to strike a decisive blow. However, some historians have been kinder to Meade, saying that a major pursuit was “the greatest mistake Meade never made” as the army’s commander. Lincoln was not present on the field; Meade was, and Meade knew just how battered his army really was. Bad weather after July 3^rd would have turned any pursuit into a Mud March. He had had to send lightly wounded men to New York to quell the Draft Riots for the simple reason that he had no unwounded men to send. Having been in command only a week he had had no time to establish a chain of command, and what chain of command there had been had been broken at Gettysburg. Had Meade engaged the Army of Northern Virginia with his bruised force, it is quite possible that that equally bruised Rebel force might have turned at bay, and found the strength for one more good fight. Even a minor Confederate success in the shadow of Gettysburg would have damaged Northern morale and inflated Southern morale correspondingly.  By limiting his army to harassing actions, Meade allowed his troops to regroup even as he kept the retreating Confederates off balance.