April 11, 1864---"An aptly-named dense obstructive object."

APRIL 11, 1864:

Alexander Long (December 24, 1816 – November 28, 1886) was a Democratic Congressman from Ohio (1863-1865). Long was a prominent Copperhead. Long addressed Congress on April 8^th, and said (in part):

I believe now that there are but two alternatives, and these are, either an acknowledgment of the independence of the South as an independent nation, or their complete subjugation and extermination as a people, and of these alternatives I prefer the former . . . I do not believe there can be any prosecution of the war against a sovereign State under the Constitution, and I do not believe that a war so carried on can be prosecuted so as to render it proper, justifiable, or expedient. An unconstitutional war can only be carried on in an unconstitutional manner, and to prosecute it further under the idea of the gentleman from Pennsylvania, [Thaddeus Stevens, the leader of the Radical Republicans] as a war waged against the Confederate States as an independent nation, for the purpose of conquest and subjugation, as he proposes, and the Administration is in truth and in fact doing, I am equally opposed.

Long’s speech so enrages the Radical Republicans that a vote is held to expel him. On this day, Congressman Fernando Wood (1812-1881) of New York, the leader of the Copperhead faction, makes a dramatic speech in favor of Mr. Long:

But we are told that the whole speech gives aid and comfort to the enemy. If that be true, whoever else may take exception to giving aid and comfort to the enemy, it ought not to come from that side of the House, or from gentlemen who represent that party. Their whole political career since the commencement of this war, official and otherwise, has given aid and comfort to the enemy. It has been the fanatical and destructive course . . . it has been the declaration and practical effort to carry fire and sword into every household of the South . . . leaving the South no alternative but resistance or death, that this war has been prolonged . . . This is " the aid and comfort" which has been given 10 the enemy, and it came from the men who affect now to be indignant at the expressions of the gentleman arraigned.

Wood’s speech so polarizes Congress that the Radical Republicans can only muster the votes for a censure on the grounds of "treasonable utterances."

The ultimate Tammany Hall machine politician, Congressman Wood was notoriously inflammatory. He first went to Congress from 1841 to 1843, where he had an unremarkable term. Elected Mayor of New York City in 1855, Fernando Wood proved himself so corrupt that the New York State Assembly voted to shorten his term by two years.  Not that it helped --- he recruited gangs like the Dead Rabbits to stuff the ballot box and got himself reelected.

In 1857, Wood bought the New York City police force in whole. New York’s Finest was legislatively dissolved as a result, and was immediately reconstituted under new laws. Wood refused to acknowledge the New York State Assembly’s authority over New York City. Holed up in City Hall with “his” police, the now illegal “Municipals,” Wood fought a pitched battle with the “Metropolitans,” the legal NYPD. 52 police were injured, several severely. Wood refused to surrender until Federal troops arrived with artillery, ready to blast City Hall to smithereens.

Regardless, Wood was re-elected again. In the early days of the Civil War, Mayor Wood was a secessionist who wanted to declare New York a “Free City” and take it out of the Union. When even his allies in the City chose not to implement this scheme, they mollified Wood by sending him back to Congress (1863-1865), where he became “an aptly-named dense obstructive object” in the words of Thaddeus Stevens.  In his last and longest Congressional stint (1867-1881) he was Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and undoubtedly contributed much to the Public Debt of the United States.

April 10, 1864---"Wherever Lee goes . . . "

APRIL 10, 1864:          

Even as the Red River Campaign winds down, Ulysses S. Grant U.S.A. issues campaign orders. He tells Generals George Meade and William Tecumseh Sherman, "Wherever Lee goes, you will go there."

April 9, 1864---The Battle of Pleasant Hill, LA; the Battle of Prairie D'Ane, AR

APRIL 9, 1864:           

The Battle of Pleasant Hill.    

Confederate forces flush with victory at Mansfield the day before, reengage with retreating Union forces in what develops into a brutal three hour battle. At first the Gray overwhelms the Blue, but Union forces are able to redeploy in good order. They drive the Confederates from the field with slaughter. The Union lost 1,400 men, with 150 killed, and the rest wounded, captured and missing. The Confederacy lost 1,600 men, mostly killed. Immediately after the battle, Banks continued his retreat of the day before. 

 

The Battle of Prairie D’Ane. 

The Arkansas offensive in the Red River Campaign scores a minor Union victory, driving Confederate troops away from Washington, the capital of Confederate Arkansas. However, with the fracturing of the Red River Campaign as a whole, the Union forces in Arkansas do not move toward Shreveport.

April 8, 1864---The Battle of Mansfield, Louisiana

APRIL 8, 1864

The Battle of Mansfield (The Battle of Sabine Crossroads). The Red River Campaign grinds ignominiously to a halt for the Union when General Nathaniel P. Banks decides to move inland from the line of the low-running Red River and away from his naval forces. On a narrow road and strung out in a line miles long, Banks’ army is crippled in forming a viable defensive line. Without the fear of fire from the U.S. Navy, a large Confederate force of 14,000 is able to swoop down on Banks’ 12,000 men and chop up Banks’ line piecemeal in a five hour long battle.

The Union forces suffered 113 killed, 581 wounded, and 1,541 captured as well as the loss of 20 cannon, 156 wagons, and a thousand horses and mules killed or captured. Confederate losses were 1,200 killed and wounded. Several hundred men were buried in unmarked graves not discovered until 2008. 

After the defeat, Banks retreated away from Shreveport without ever entering Texas to support the isolated Union forces there. The Texas Unionists were either defeated, captured and hanged, or went underground in order to survive.

Banks was soon after relieved of military command in Louisiana. The Trans-Mississippi remained in Confederate hands until the end of the war.

April 7, 1864---The Gray and The Blue: Two Generals in Virginia

APRIL 7, 1864:            

General James Longstreet C.S.A. is recalled to Virginia to work with Robert E. Lee. General Philip Sheridan U.S.A., assumes command of all cavalry forces of the Army of The Potomac.