Civil War digest: This week 150 years ago Dec. 31, 1862-Jan. 5, 1863 Dec. 24-30, 1862
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- Published on Friday, 04 January 2013 15:18
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Major Highlights for the Week
Wednesday, Dec. 31, 1862
BATTLE OF STONE’S RIVER, TENN., BEGINS
The Confederates at Murfreesboro, Tenn. waited for an assault from Major General William S. Rosecrans Federal army but it did not come on the 30th. General Braxton Bragg took the initiative immediately after dawn when Lieutenant General William J. Hardee’s Confederate corps opened fire on the Federal’s right flank. Rosecrans’s army held for several assaults on their northern flank, but were pushed back to the Murfreesboro-Nashville Pike and pinned with their backs against Stone’s River. Assaults continued until late afternoon and the armies rested as the December evening fell early upon the battlefield.
In Washington, President Abraham Lincoln met with his Cabinet to make final adjustments to the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln also approved an act admitting West Virginia into the Union as the 35th state and signed an agreement with a promoter for a colony of free Negroes on Ile a Vache, Haiti.
Thursday, Jan. 1, 1863
EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION
“I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free.” Thus read the final Emancipation Proclamation of Jan. 1, putting into effect President Abraham Lincoln’s preliminary proclamation of Sept. 22, 1862. No slaves were freed specifically at that moment as the proclamation specified that it applied to “the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States.” However, it paved the way for the subsequent passage of the Thirteenth Amendment which was passed on Jan. 31, 1865, and ratified nearly a year later.
At Murfreesboro, Tenn., it was a quiet day as both armies rested, tended to their wounded and celebrated New Year’s Day.
Friday, Jan. 2, 1863
BATTLE OF STONE’S RIVER CONTINUES
Late in the afternoon, General Braxton Bragg ordered Major General John C. Breckinridge’s Confederates to attack Colonel Samuel Beatty’s Federal division which was on a hill on the river’s east bank. Breckinridge initially protested but eventually relented to the attack. The attack was initially successful until the 45-guns of Captain John Mendenhall’s Federal artillery opened up on the Confederates and causing more than 1,800 Confederate casualties in the course of one hour, including many of the 1st Kentucky Brigade, which received it’s perpetual nickname as the “Orphan Brigade” after Breckinridge rode through its ranks crying out, “My poor Orphans! My poor orphans.” Bragg’s Confederates lost 1,294 killed, 7,945 wounded and 2,500 missing for a combined loss of 11,739 from approximately 35,000 engaged. Rosecrans’s Federals lost 1,677 killed, 7,543 wounded and 3,686 missing for a loss of 12,906 out of 41,400 engaged.
Salutes, celebrations and meetings followed the Emancipation Proclamation in many Northern cities. In Richmond, the New Year greeted people with high prices and more belt tightening.
Saturday, Jan. 3, 1863
The Federals pushed two brigades forward at Murfreesboro in a mild attack on Southern lines at Stone’s River. During the night, General Braxton Bragg’s Confederate Army of the Tennessee, despite apparent victory in the first stages of the battle, withdrew from Murfreesboro towards Tullahoma, Tenn.
Confederates failed in an attack on Moorefield, W.V.; and there was skirmishing at Burnsville, Miss.; Somerville and Cox’s Hill, Tenn.
Sunday, Jan. 4, 1863
On the Mississippi River, Major General John A. McClernand, with the Federal Army of the Mississippi, began an unauthorized move up the Arkansas River with 30,000 troops and 50 transports and gunboats towards Fort Hindman.
Skirmishing occurred at Murfreesboro and on the Manchester Pike as General Braxton Bragg continued his withdrawal to Tullahoma, Tenn.
Monday, Jan. 5, 1863
Federal troops entered Murfreesboro, although fighting on a minor scale continued at Lytle’s Creek, on the Manchester Pike, and on the Shelbyville Pike, Tenn. President Lincoln tendered the thanks of the country to Major General William Rosecrans for his victory at Stone’s River.
In Richmond, Confederate President Jefferson Davis told a crowd that the Confederacy was the last hope “for the perpetuation of that system of government which our forefathers founded – the asylum of the oppressed and the home of true representative liberty.”
Tuesday, Jan. 6, 1863
It was a day of light fighting along Linn Creek in Missouri; and at Fort Lawrence, Beaver Station, Mo., as part of the raid by Confederate Brigadier General John S. Marmaduke.
A British steamer was seized off Mobile, Ala., by the blockaders, one of the numerous captures by the day-in, day-out blockade of the Confederate coast.
Confederates captured a Northern riverboat, Jacob Musselman, near Memphis.
Where Minnesota Regiments were the week of Dec. 31, 1862-Jan. 6, 1863
1st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry – In camp near Falmouth, Va.
2nd Minnesota Volunteer Infantry – On guard duty at Gallatin, Tenn., until Jan. 29, 1863.
3rd Minnesota Volunteer Infantry – On duty at Fort Snelling, Minn., until Jan. 16, 1863.
4th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry – Duty at White’s Station and Memphis, Tenn., until Feb. 24, 1863.
5th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry – Companies B, C and D remained in Minnesota and Dakota Territory on garrison duty. The remaining companies were on Major General Ulysses Grant’s Central Mississippi Campaign until January 1863.
6th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry – On garrison duty at Fort Snelling, Glencoe, Forest City and Kingston until February 1863.
7th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry – On garrison duty in Mankato and other points in Minnesota until June 1863.
8th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry – On frontier duty at various points in Minnesota: Anoka, Princeton, Monticello, Kingston, Manannah, Paynesville, Fort Ripley, Sauk Center, Pomme de Terre, Alexandria and Fort Abercrombie until May 1864.
9th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry – On garrison duty in various frontier Minnesota communities until June 1863.
10th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry – Regiment on detached service for garrison duty at various outposts in frontier Minnesota until June 1863.
1st Regiment Minnesota Cavalry “Mounted Rangers” – Organized at St. Cloud, St. Peter and Fort Snelling for frontier duty against Indians until June 1863.
Brackett’s Battalion of Minnesota Cavalry – On expedition at Fort Heiman, Tenn.
1st Minnesota Light Artillery Battery – On Major General Ulysses Grant’s Central Mississippi Campaign near Vicksburg, Miss., until January 1863.
2nd Independent Battery, Minnesota Light Artillery – On duty at Nashville, Tenn., until Dec. 26, 1862.
2nd United States Sharpshooters, Company A – In camp at Falmouth, Va.
Memorial dedicated to 38 Dakota executed in 1862 unveiled in ceremony
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Story and photos by Jeffrey S. Williams Minnesota Civil War Commemoration Task Force“The cold air is nothing compared to what happened on this day 150 years ago,” said David Brave Heart, Mankato Mdewankantonwan Association chairman, as hundreds of people braving single digit temperatures and a slight breeze lined up between the Blue Earth County Library and the nearby railroad tracks in Mankato, Minn., Dec. 26, 2012, for the unveiling of a new memorial to the memories of the 38 Dakota Indians who were hanged in the largest mass execution in United States history.
Civil War digest: This week 150 years ago Dec. 24-30, 1862
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- Published on Saturday, 29 December 2012 10:57
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Major Highlights for the Week
Wednesday, Dec. 24, 1862
Union army forces occupied Galveston, Texas, already partially in control of the U.S. Navy. In Kentucky, Confederate Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan occupied Glasgow, after a skirmish. Fighting occurred near Nashville, Bolivar and Middleburg, Tenn. Sherman’s expedition from Memphis drew closer to Vicksburg.
A history of the arrival of Ferdinand Mielke Sr.
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- Published on Friday, 28 December 2012 16:33
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to America, then Stearns County
Reprinted from the March 7, 2002, Tri-County News
Ferdinand Mielke, a prominent farmer of Maine Prairie Township, was born in Pomer, Germany, on Dec. 13, 1843. He was the son of Ferdinand and Marie (Lodewick) Mielke, who spent the span of their years on a farm in Germany.
Ferdinand, the subject of this sketch, was reared in his native Germany. He was married on
July 20, 1864, to Amelia Bretzke, who was born in Karlsthal, Germany, on Oct. 27, 1844.
An American Tragedy: Revisiting the sad conclusion to the U.S.-Dakota War
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- Published on Friday, 28 December 2012 11:03
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By Jeffrey S. Williams
Minnesota Civil War
Commemoration Task Force
Following the U.S.-Dakota War in August-September, 1862, Henry Hastings Sibley was promoted to the rank of brigadier general in the United States Army on Sept. 29, 1862, and placed in command of Major General John Pope’s Department of the Northwest, which was created earlier in the month after Pope’s recent defeat at Second Bull Run. Sibley created a five-officer military commission comprised of Colonel William Crooks, 6th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry; Lieutenant Colonel William R. Marshall, 7th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry; Captains Hiram P. Grant and Hiram S. Bailey of the 6th Minnesota; and Lieutenant Rollin C. Olin of the 3rd Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, to conduct trials of the Indians that he thought had participated in the U.S.-Dakota War. The commission began its proceedings on Sept. 28.