October 11, 1864---Early voting

OCTOBER 11, 1864:           

U.S. Federal elections are traditionally held on Tuesdays due to the fact that holding elections on Mondays might force voters to travel on the Sabbath. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays were excluded due to a Constitutional requirement making the first Wednesday in December the deadline day for choosing Presidential Electors. Wednesdays, however, were usually market days in early agrarian America, and hence already very busy. The first federal Election Day law was passed in 1845, and most States followed suit out of convenience. However, to this day, local elections, primaries, and other public votes can be held any time. 

Today is Election Day in one-third of the Union States. Ballots are cast today, not for President, but for Governors and members of the House of Representatives (Senators are still elected by State legislatures). A carefully watching Confederacy prays for the northern Democrats to sweep; but in fact, today ends in a Republican landslide. While they don’t guarantee Lincoln’s re-election, the across-the-board victories of the Republican Party indicate that Lincoln will be swept into office come November. In any event, Republican control of Congress means that even if a Peace Administration wins the Presidency, it will probably be incapable of mustering support for a quick end to the war. 

Maryland formally abolishes slavery. 

Confederate morale continues to plummet. Desertions increase again.

October 10, 1864---Commerce Raiding off Sandy Hook

OCTOBER 10, 1864:                   

The C.S.S. TALLAHASSEE takes seven prizes in a single day off Sandy Hook, New Jersey at the mouth of New York harbor.

Far away, at Eastport, Mississippi on the Tennessee River, a squadron of Union transports and supply ships come under withering fire from hidden Confederate shore batteries. The U.S.S. AURORA and the U.S.S. KENTON are badly damaged, the U.S.S. PEKIN is forced to withdraw, and the U.S.S. KEY WEST and U.S.S. UNDINE provide covering fire while the men on the damaged ships and onshore reach safety. 

All in all, it was a good day at the beach for the Confederacy.

October 9, 1864---"Make Georgia howl."

OCTOBER 9, 1864:           

William Tecumseh Sherman sends a famous telegram to Ulysses S. Grant explaining the fate of Atlanta. In his message he proposes to “make Georgia howl”: 

It will be a physical impossibility to protect this road now that Hood, Forrest, Wheeler and the whole batch of Devils are turned loose without home or habitation. I think Hoods movements indicate a direction to the end of the Selma and Talladega road to Blue Mountain about sixty miles south west of Rome from which he will threaten Kingston, Bridgeport and Decatur and I propose we break up the road from Chattanooga and strike out with wagons for Milledgeville Millen and Savannah.

Until we can repopulate Georgia it is useless to occupy it, but utter destruction of its roads, houses, and people will cripple their military resources. By attempting to hold the roads we will lose a thousand men monthly and will gain no result. I can make the march and make Georgia howl. We have over 8,000 cattle and 3,000,000 pounds of bread but no corn, but we can forage the interior of the state.

 

The Battle of Tom’s Brook (“The Woodstock Races”):         

General Philip Sheridan U.S.A. is still methodically destroying the Shenandoah Valley, though he is nearing the end of his task.

Today, his forces meet General Jubal Early C.S.A.’s forces near Woodstock, Virginia. Sheridan orders George Armstrong Custer to “whip the enemy or be whipped yourself.”

Confederate Major General Tom Rosser of the Laurel Brigade says pompously: "That's General Custer, the Yanks are so proud of, and I intend to give him the best whipping today that he ever got."

As history will show, not quite. Unfortunately for Rosser, his whip hand is paralyzed when Custer’s men turn at bay and attack the Laurel Brigade head-on. The cavalrymen in gray immediately retreat at the gallop (giving the battle its ironic nickname), and the battle is over in just a few moments. Early, when apprised of Rosser’s defeat, remarks disgustedly, “"The laurel is a running vine".  

Although Tom’s Brook is a little-remembered and relatively bloodless battle, it finally gives the Union unquestioned mastery over the despoiled Shenandoah Valley. Early is forced to withdraw, since the ruined Valley cannot support his forces any longer.

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October 8, 1864---"The English had a right to . . . indulge to excess, to give our sympathy to the weaker side in any quarrel."

OCTOBER 8, 1864:            

The unabashedly pro-Confederate Illustrated London News publishes an editorial politely excusing itself for its own shameless partisanship and placing blame where it properly belongs, on the crude and violent Colonials who made them do it. The editorial reads in part:

We entirely approve of the remonstrances that have lately been offered by a portion of the London press against the tone which has been much too generally adopted by public speakers and writers in discussing the events of the American war . . . [W]e may fairly assert that at no period of the war have we permitted ourselves to be irritated into printing aught that . . .  can properly give offence to American readers. We . . . wish that partisans on both sides would remember that the exasperating interference of bystanders in a quarrel is much more slowly forgiven by combatants than the wrongs which each supposes himself to have sustained from his enemy.

It would be absurd to deny that the supposed weakness of the Confederates, and the gallant fight which they have made . . . have enlisted on the side of the South a very large share of British sympathy. Nearly all the leading newspapers of this country have seemed delighted to chronicle the successes of the Confederates, to make the most of the deeds of their Generals, and to speak slightingly of the efforts of the Unionists. Journals . . . now chronicle the story of the combat with warm admiration and treat each campaign as a new step towards Southern independence . . . the Federals . . . will not be entitled to complain of us . . . It is clear that both London and Washington were deceived as to the power and resolution of the South . . . If the Federals knew so little of the will and of the resources of provinces with which they were in daily and hourly communication, it was scarcely to be expected that we, at a fortnight's distance from New York, should be better informed . . . We saw the Federals beaten in the field, and . . .  impotent at sea; while the Confederates grew stronger and stronger . . . The South held its own, and holds it still; . . . [h]ereafter, the Federals will, we imagine, be ashamed of the language in which they have permitted their organs to revile the Southern combatants, who have shown themselves so worthy of the name of Americans.

Let it be admitted, therefore, that the English had a right to . . . indulge to excess, to give our sympathy to the weaker side in any quarrel. A small nation gallantly struggling against a great one is almost certain to find favour in England* . . . If we have given too strong expression to our admiration of the pluck of the Confederates, we have erred; . . . the Federal combatants . . .  have fought well, or the South needed not to have fought so hard. In fact, it would be worse than childish to allege that the great body of the English people did injustice to the efforts of the Federals, although the character of the war necessarily attracted attention to the resisting rather than to the assailing champions.

It is not unfair, nor is it unkind . . . to say that we in England had considerable provocation to speak somewhat frankly on American affairs. For ten years, at least, before the war the leading American journals were full of abuse of this country . . . [U]p to the very last mails, England is still abused and menaced for a neutrality which has been sternly preserved under the most difficult circumstances which ever complicated the relations of those who ought to be the firmest friends.

*Unless said nation is a British colonial possession, that is --- Konrei

October 7, 1864---The Battle of Darbytown and New Market Road

OCTOBER 7, 1864:            

The Battle of Darbytown and New Market Road (The Battle of Johnson’s Farm and Four Mile Creek). 

In an attempt to dislodge Union troops from the outer ring of Richmond’s defenses which were captured on September 29, during the Battle of Chaffin’s Farm and New Market Heights, Robert E. Lee throws two Divisions (about 10,000 men) against the Union line. The Federals are initially caught off guard and are driven from their positions. After rallying, the Union counterattacks, taking back control of the outer ring. After hard fighting, Lee, who has lost approximately 1000 men in this engagement, pulls these battered troops back into Richmond itself to refit. Union losses are about 450 killed, wounded, and missing.