November 12, 1863---Another Civil War

NOVEMBER 12, 1863:        

Polish, Lithuanian, and Ukrainian nationalists have been waging an armed rebellion against Tsarist Russia since January. This January Uprising will last until April 11, 1865. On this day, the United States declares its support for the Russian Empire. Russia immediately withdraws from the British-French-Russian entente that has been trying, less and less enthusiastically over time, to bring the American Civil War to a diplomatic conclusion. Britain has already ceased its “neutral” arms shipments to the Confederacy, and France is primarily concerned with propping up its puppet Mexican Empire. The entente collapses, and the last ghost of a chance that the Confederacy might benefit from foreign interventions vanishes on the wind. King Cotton has lost and President Lincoln has won the diplomatic war.

November 11, 1863---"Beast Butler" charms North Carolinians

NOVEMBER 11, 1863:        

Union General Benjamin “Beast” Butler, having alienated everyone in New Orleans, is assigned as Military Governor of North Carolina, where he immediately begins rounding up suspected Southern sympathizers---anyone who complains about him tops the list.  Butler does more to swell Confederate ranks in this last-seceding, deeply divided State than Jefferson Davis on his best day.

November 10, 1863---A Union war criminal is promoted

NOVEMBER 10, 1863:       

In what must rank as one of the most bizarre military tribunals in U.S. history, Private James Reilly of the famous 54th Massachusetts U.S.C.T. was accused of having intercourse with a mare, and was court-martialed. Although Reilly was exonerated and returned to active duty, a unit medical officer, Dr. Charles Briggs, decided to take matters into his own hands, and forcibly circumcised Reilly (without using any anaesthetic) as a punishment. Briggs then cauterized Reilly’s penis with a red-hot branding iron. Although Briggs was charged with a crime, he was never prosecuted. Indeed, he was ultimately promoted to Unit Surgeon. His atrocity went unpunished, a horrifying if forgotten testament to the different treatment meted out to white soldiers and black in the Union Army.

November 9, 1863---John Wilkes Booth's "Marble Heart."

NOVEMBER 9, 1863:          

President Lincoln was a devotee of the theatre. He preferred escapist comedies and swashbuckling action-adventures. Mary Lincoln, however, preferred melodramas and tragedies. Tonight, she convinced her husband to attend a performance of “Marble Heart,” a drama starring the famed actor John Wilkes Booth. 

November 8, 1863---Lee withdraws behind the Rapidan River

NOVEMBER 8, 1863:          

As Robert E. Lee withdraws southward, his nemesis General George Meade sends Union troops to harry his rear. Skirmishes break out all along the line, with a particularly large shootout at oft-embattled Brandy Station.