July 1, 1864---A mess at the Treasury; In the President's Pocket; The Long Shadow of Gettysburg

JULY 1, 1864:   

William Pitt Fessenden becomes the new United States Secretary of The Treasury. He finds the Department in chaos, an anticipatory parting gift from the scheming Salmon P. Chase, no doubt.

The harsh Wade-Davis Reconstruction Bill, requiring that a majority of southern State residents take an “Ironclad Oath” to the United States, and stripping of their rights any and all officials who worked under the Confederate governments of the southern States, passes the Senate 26-3-20. Most importantly, it strips the President of any power over Reconstruction. For all these reasons, and because the language of the Bill treats the South as a foreign and hostile power, President Lincoln objects to it. Although with Senate passage it is a breath away from becoming law, President Lincoln treats it to a pocket veto.

It is the first anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. 

June 30, 1864---President Lincoln Establishes Yosemite National Park; A Republican Tax Increase; A Schemer Scrams

JUNE 30, 1864:           

President Lincoln establishes Yosemite National Park.  

The Revenue Act of 1864, also signed by the President today, increased the marginal tax rates on wealthier Americans. 

Lincoln also accepted the resignation of his combative Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon P. Chase, this day. Chase, who had been Lincoln’s rival for the 1860 Republican Presidential nomination, still harbored dreams of being President in 1864 or afterward (a goal he never would attain), but of all Lincoln’s Cabinet members Chase had been the most duplicitous, feeding false information to Congress and to the Press in order to undercut Lincoln’s chances for renomination and reelection in favor of himself. A stiff, humorless, and unimaginative man, Chase lived on intrigues the way other men live on oxygen.

June 29, 1864---Canadian Railroad Tragedy; Closing in on Atlanta; Working on the Railroad

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. 

June 28, 1864---The repeal of the Fugitive Slave Acts

JUNE 28, 1864:          

The U.S. Congress repeals the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850.

The Battle of Sappony Church. Union cavalry raiding from the direction of Staunton Bridge passes around Richmond entirely from the south. General Rooney Lee C.S.A. and General Wade Hampton C.S.A. intercept them at the Stony Creek Depot of the Weldon Railroad, After a sharp skirmish, the Union troops fall back toward their lines. A large number of escaped slaves who had been moving with the Union forces were abandoned helter-skelter as the Union cavalry retreated. There is no record of casualties.

June 27, 1864---The Battle of Kennesaw Mountain

JUNE 27, 1864:           

The Battle of Kennesaw Mountain:              

Following John Bell Hood’s miserable showing at Kolb’s Farm, William Tecumseh Sherman U.S.A. is convinced that Joseph E. Johnston C.S.A.’s forces are on the ropes, and that his lines are stretched thin. 

Sherman decides to move in with the Civil War tactical standard, a frontal assault against the center of Johnston’s force. Wisely, he orders a pre-assault bombardment. 200 Union cannon open up at 6:30 A.M. and batter the Confederate lines around Kennesaw Mountain for two hours. Not long after the Union guns begin to speak, some 200 Confederate guns begin to answer, and the battlefield becomes a howling nightmare. This should have alerted Sherman as to the mettle of the Confederate forces in front of him, but, uncharacteristically, Sherman does not see what he is seeing, or perhaps he judges the price reasonable for the prize. Around 8:30, the Union troops begin moving against the center and the flanks both, in an encircling movement which fails when they reach the Confederate trenches. Lines of Confederates pop up and blaze away at the Union men at pointblank range. 

Other Rebels retreat up the mountain, cannons and all, and begin firing down on the Union troops. After ferocious hand-to-hand fighting in the trenches under a hail of cannonshot, the Union troops dig in across from the Confederates. Both sides nickname this place the "Dead Angle." 

The fighting ends around 10:45 A.M. Three thousand Union troops fall, compared with just 500 Confederates.

Although it was an overwhelming Confederate tactical victory, the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain is a strategic loss for Dixie.  Sherman remains in place for four days, still launching small, costly, but effective attacks against Johnston.  One of these attacks is successful in moving Union troops within 5 miles of the Chattahoochee River, closer to the last river protecting Atlanta than any unit in Johnston's army. Johnston can be flanked, and the road to Atlanta opened.