March 9, 1865---The Book of Job

MARCH 9, 1865:        

Though the combatants cannot know it, the Civil War enters its last month on this day. The Confederate States of America is beginning its death throes as a nation.

And so it is perhaps fitting that the Richmond Post-Dispatch provides an editorial which draws heavily on the Book of Job to present to its readership. It reads in part:

Without presuming to intrude into the province of the clergy, we may conceive it possible that some of them will, tomorrow, give us a text from the book of Job . . .

  . . . Homo histrio, Deus vero pæta est; 'God is the sovereign poet'; and we cannot refuse the part which he appoints us to bear in the scene . . . 

It is a tradition of the Jews that when Moses was sent by God into Egypt, and beheld the grievous affliction of his people under Pharaoh, he took the pains to trans late the book of Job into their language out of the Syriac, wherein it was first written, to comfort them in their lamentable condition. "Be ye constant, oh children of Israel," said Moses, "do not faint in your minds, but suffer grief, and bear these evils patiently, as did that man whose name was Job; who, though he was a righteous and faithful person, yet suffered the sorest torment . . .  Do not despair of a better condition; you shall be delivered as Job was . . . 

The condition of Job in his prosperity was not unlike that of many large planters and farmers of the South in better days. He was rich in land and cattle, and had large numbers of slaves. The most unlimited plenty and hospitality reigned in his dwelling . . .  It was upon such a man as this — devout, generous, genial, illustrious for virtue as for wealth — that the Devil was permitted to turn loose fire, sword, hurricane, disease; to strip him of children, servants, prosperity and health; to make him an object of scorn . . .  and to reduce him . . . low in the regards of men . . .  How many a Southern patriarch, exiled from his home, and bereft of his possessions, can look back with Job, and say: "Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me" . . .  Yet, amidst all his reverses and humiliations, Job did not deny the Providence of God; he bore his disasters with resolution, with resignation, and even with hearty thanksgiving. 

If such a man could be permitted thus to suffer, and could conclude that the best of men are but vile in the sight of God, we of this generation can scarcely present any superior claims to the indulgence of Heaven. The purest and noblest of our people . . . have been reduced from alllorence to poverty, and are mourning over better days . . .

 . . . [H]eed the counsel of St. Basil: "Remember all the past happiness thou hast enjoyed, and oppose better unto worse. No man's life is entirely and thoroughly happy. If thou art grieved at what is present, fetch thy comfort from what thou hast received before. Now thou weepest, but formerly thou didst laugh; now thou art poor, but there was a time when thou wanted nothing. Then thou drankest of the pure fountain of life; be content and drink now more patiently of the troubled waters. Behold the rivers, their streams are not clear in all places; and our life, thou knowest, is like to one of them, which slides away continually, and is ofttimes full of waves, which come rolling one upon another: one part of this river is passed by, and another is running on its course. This part of it is gushing out from the fountain, and the next is ready to follow as soon as it is gone.--And thus we are all making great haste to the common sea; Death, I mean, which swallows up all at last." 

March 8, 1865---The Battle of Wyse Fork, N.C.

MARCH 8, 1865:      

 The Battle of Wyse Fork (The Second Battle of Kinston):

Although it has long been William Tecumseh Sherman’s intention to march across North Carolina into Virginia and act as the second jaw of the vise that will crush the life out of The Army of Northern Virginia, conditions in the Eastern Theatre have changed. In a matter of less than two weeks, Joe Johnston has turned a worrisome pack of armed men in central North Carolina into a threatening army standing athwart Sherman’s route.

Sherman, for his part, is not worried about the seeming coming battle. His men are primed for a brawl and they outnumber Johnston’s forces at better than 3:1. They are well-fed and rested and armed to the teeth, something that cannot be said of Johnston’s men.  They have esprit de corps.  

Sherman is not fooling himself. He has seen Confederate esprit rise like a phoenix from the ashes too many times to be sanguine about his chances with Johnston. There is always a chance of defeat.

Ironically enough, the two men think alike.

Well east of Sherman’s inland route, Braxton Bragg is moving his troops north as he has since the fall of Wilmington. Sherman is concerned that Bragg’s force (which was supposed to have joined with Johnston’s) may just do that. Given that Johnston and Bragg cordially hate one another, a divided Confederate command may be to Sherman’s favor, but he doesn’t like Bragg wandering around in odd corners while he must needs keep his eye on Johnston.

Sherman orders forces out of Wilmington to take on Bragg’s contingent. 12,000 Union men are dispatched to break Bragg’s force of 8,500. The two forces meet at Wyse Fork on Southwest Creek near the town of Kinston, and Sherman’s concerns about Confederate esprit are proven in action.

Bragg is holding the crossroads to Goldsboro, a position which will let him fall on Sherman’s flank once the U.S. Army is in range. Robert F. Hoke, who so valiantly defended Wilmington before being ordered to withdraw, is leading North Carolina regiments, and they fight like furies when confronted by the Union force from Wilmington. An entire Union regiment is destroyed, and then another, and the battle hangs in the balance. But the Confederates have no reserves, while a call to Wilmington brings the entire Union XXIII Corps to the area.

Bragg cannot hope to hold against such numbers and after remaining in the area for several more days to demonstrate and skirmish, he withdraws. The Union loses 1,100 men in the battle. The Confederacy loses 1,500. Bragg is left with only 7,000 troops at the end of the Battle of Wyse Fork.   

March 7, 1865---"A strong Union party"

MARCH 7, 1865:        

Ray W. Potter of New York City patents the tintype.

 

General William Tecumseh Sherman and his rampaging army reach the northern border of South Carolina at Cheraw, on the Great Pee Dee River. He halts his force before crossing over into North Carolina to issue new Orders:

"All officers and soldiers of this command are reminded that the State of North Carolina was one of the last States that passed the ordinance of secession. And from the commencement of the war there has been in this State a strong union party...it should not be assumed that the inhabitants are enemies of our government, and it is to be hoped that every effort will be made to prevent any wanton destruction of property, or any unkind treatment of citizens."

North Carolina was in fact the last State to secede and join the Confederacy, and it has contributed more men to the Union cause than any other seceded State, excepting Tennessee (which sent more men north than south).

Most of the Tidewater Coast of North Carolina has been firmly in Union hands since 1862 at the latest, and the western, mountainous third of the State is so heavily pro-Union that Confederate recruiters lose their lives traveling there. Only central North Carolina --- the region Sherman plans to cross --- has a sizeable contingent of Confederates, mostly among its tobacco and cotton planters and among its slaveholding smallholders. Having used the stick in Georgia and the torch in South Carolina, Sherman believes that North Carolina can be won over with the carrot. The terrified Tarheels, having heard word of Sherman’s merciless degradation of South Carolina and Georgia, are shocked when his massive army marches into the State and proceeds northeastward in picture-book ranks.

Sherman has his depot at Wilmington, and does not need to forage for supplies. He knows his army of 80,000 is facing Joe Johnston’s army of 25,000 only a few miles across the State. He keeps his men organized and on high alert, ready for a fight.

For his part, General Joseph E. Johnston C.S.A. could be more ready, but he has no choice. Just as the grass begins to green, there is going to be a showdown amidst the rolling hills of North Carolina. Whether Johnston knows this is the endgame or not, it must be played out.

March 6, 1865---The Battle of Natural Bridge, Florida

MARCH 6, 1865:       

The Battle of Natural Bridge:

Florida is the forgotten child of the Confederacy. With a tiny population in 1860 (140,000, divided 60% White-40% Black), Florida’s manpower contribution to the Confederacy was less than 20,000. It did, however, send more of its men to fight than any other State, North or South per capita.

Florida’s Civil War history is obscure. There are no great Floridian Generals. No massed armies fought in Florida. Florida missed its opportunity to be the birthplace of the Civil War in early April 1861 when local Confederates permitted the Union to resupply Fort Pickens in the Panhandle rather than draw a line in the sand as the South Carolinians did at Fort Sumter a week later.

The Union bottled up Florida’s ports fairly early in the war, and the State’s largest city --- Key West ---flew the Stars and Stripes throughout the war (although the city acted in effect as a neutral port serving both combatants).

Florida’s role in the war was as a supply depot for the Rebel Cause. The State provided the Confederacy with millions of tons of salt, beef, pork, cereals, grains, fruits, lumber, and other supplies between 1861 and 1865. 

The battles in Florida rate only footnotes in the great histories of the Civil War. Even the largest battle in the State, at Olustee in February 1864, hardly rates a mention but for the fact that it ended in a Confederate victory that saw the slaughter of negro Union troops.

For the most part, the Union dominated Florida in the Civil War though it did not retake it. The State became a refuge for deserters and for people fleeing the battles further north. An unknown number of fighting men disappeared down into the heart of the peninsula or moved southward along the coasts.

There was a strong Unionist contingent in the State, even though Florida’s politics were dominated by the Panhandle-based Plantation Belt. As of March 1865, only two State capitals remained in Confederate hands --- faraway Austin in the Trans-Mississippi, and Florida’s own Tallahassee.

On February 26^th, a large Union force made an amphibious landing at Cedar Key, planning to seize (and burn) Tallahassee before moving north through westernmost Georgia. Opposing them were a mere handful of toothless Confederate regiments worn out from battle elsewhere, a few companies of well-drilled State Militia, and a grab-bag collection of ill-armed, ill-trained, but determined County and local irregulars.

The invading Union force was made up largely of U.S.C.T.

The defending Confederate force was led by Generals William Milton C.S.A. (the son of the Governor), William Miller C.S.A., and Samuel Jones C.S.A. 

The Union troops had been harried in their progress up the St. Marks River, and when they reached Natural Bridge, just before Tallahassee, they were met by a force consisting of every local man who could hold a rifle, including squads of teenaged cadets from West Florida Seminary’s Day School (now Florida State University).

Intending to take the natural bridge that spanned the St. Marks River (and gave the town its name at the time --- it is now Woodville), the Union forces struck aggressively at the C.S. force. Driven back, for a time the Grays yielded the natural bridge to the Blues, but soon regrouped, called for reinforcements, and drove the Yankees away from the river. The Confederates poured fire into the Union ranks, especially the U.S.C.T. units, who sustained heavy casualties.

The Union launched three separate assaults on the Confederate force as the day wore on. The fight degenerated into hand-to-hand combat with bayonets. Battered but defiant, the worn-out Southern regiments and irregulars held the natural bridge against all odds and expectations, denying the Union access to Tallahassee. As the shadows lengthened, the Union commander called off the attack, and withdrew down the St. Marks River back to Cedar Key. The Confederates did not pursue. 

The Union commander, General John Newton, a Virginian by birth, later admitted he was surprised at the tenacity of the local forces. The Confederate veterans of the fight afterward expressed the general opinion that the Union too readily sacrificed U.S.C.T. units. As at Olustee, the Floridian forces were convinced of the inferiority of black soldiers, though no post-battle butchery of blacks went on.  By now familiar with Confederate sentiments toward black fighting men, the Union commanders tried to leave no man behind.

The Union lost 150 men in the battle, while the Confederates lost only 25. A small battle in scale, the Battle of Natural Bridge nevertheless was historically significant as the final Confederate strategic victory of the Civil War.  The South held on to Tallahassee, and the destruction planned for far western Georgia never took place.