GREAT CONFEDERATE TRAIN RAID

Following the creation and organization of the Confederate States government in the early months of 1861, on April 4, the Virginia Secession Convention met and voted “NO” to secession. However, on 15 April, after President Abraham Lincoln called for a 75,000-man army to invade the “rebelling” states, the Virginia Secession Convention reconvened and voted on 17 April, provisionally, to secede, on the condition of ratification by a statewide referendum.

The Governor of Virginia immediately began mobilizing the Virginia State Militia to strategic points around the state, including the assignment of Maj. Gen. Kenton Harper to the "Forces In and About Harper’s Ferry, Virginia" on 18 April. Nine days later, on 27 April, Col. Thomas J. (later “Stonewall”) Jackson, then of the Virginia State Militia, was ordered to relieve Harper. He began the task of organizing the defense of Virginia at that location. Harper’s Ferry held not only important arms production factories, but was a chokehold on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, and key telegraph trunk lines connecting Baltimore and Washington, D.C. to the Ohio Valley and interior of the United States.

"Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. View of Maryland Heights at confluence of Shenandoah and Potomac rivers." Wet plate glass negative (1865) by James Gardner. Civil War glass negative collection, Library of Congress.

During this point in the Civil War, the state of Maryland's stance in the war was also not yet determined. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, then owned by the state of Maryland, ran through Maryland and along the Potomac River Valley in its pass through the Appalachian Mountains, but took a crucial turn at Harper's Ferry and passed south, through Virginia and Martinsburg while crossing the Shenandoah Valley. The railroad then continued on through much of present-day West Virginia, which then was still part of Virginia, meaning that the railroad continued for a major portion of its route through potentially “southern” territory. This exposed the railroad to raids and capture by Confederate forces if either Virginia or Maryland seceded from the Union.

As the inevitable war approached, the president of the B&O Railroad, John Garrett, who was sympathetic to the Union, did all he could to placate both sides in order to protect the railroad operations. Colonel Jackson, gathering intelligence on freight passing on the line, determined that coal was being shipped in large quantities from the Ohio Valley to Union naval bases in Baltimore which were fueling U.S. Navy warships attempting to blockade the more southern states. Jackson then devised a covert plan to destroy B&O Railroad operations while simultaneously benefiting Virginia and possibly the Confederacy.

Jackson complained to the B&O Railroad that the trains disturbed the rest of his
troops, and notified John Garrett that trains would only be allowed to pass through Harper’s Ferry between the hours of 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. in order to ensure their rest was not disturbed. This timetable bottleneck caused the B&O Railroad to pile up trains in yards on either side of Harper’s Ferry in order to maximize their throughput during this new curfew.

Harper's Ferry Armory burning during the great Confederate Train Raid of 1861.

On May 24, Colonel Jackson executed a raid to cut the B&O Railroad lines east of Martinsburg and west of Point of Rocks, thereby trapping a large quantity of
rolling stock in between, especially in the rail yard at Martinsburg. Jackson sent the 5th Virginia Infantry to Cherry Run, west of Martinsburg, to sever the line in that location, and he sent Col. John D. Imboden to Point of Rocks, east of Harper's Ferry, to sever the line there. From Martinsburg, the Winchester & Ohio Railroad ran as a spur off the mainline south to Winchester, Virginia, allowing Jackson to move his captured rail assets quickly to Winchester.


With the assistance of Captain Sharp and wagoners in Winchester, Jackson’s forces moved a total of 56 locomotives with tenders and over 300 railroad cars off the B&O Railroad and into Virginia State Militia hands. The wagoners in Winchester rigged special carriages and dollies to transport this equipment, especially the disassembled locomotives, south from Winchester along the Valley Turnpike over 100 miles to Staunton, Virginia. Although the locomotives and rail cars could have been placed on the Manassas Gap Railroad at Strasburg, Virginia, this would have required their transit via the Manassas Junction, which was considered too vulnerable and risky at the time to use. In an incredible and historical feat of engineering, the Virginia militia soldiers pulled the locomotive boilers with 40-horse teams, rigged artillery-style, through downtown Winchester south on the Valley Pike to the railhead at Staunton. These captured steam locomotives were subsequently sent into service on Confederate rail lines all throughout the South.

There will be a Re-enactment of the Great Train Raid this Memorial Day weekend in Strasburg, Virginia.



Various rail assets continued to be moved up the valley through the summer months of 1861, and for a period of the next two years, many of the railroad cars were still being secretly hauled away up the Valley to points deeper south for service in Confederate hands.

On 23 May the Commonwealth of Virginia conducted its popular vote, and secession was formally ratified. Immediately Major General Joseph E. Johnston, then of the Virginia State Militia, relieved Colonel Jackson and took command at Harpers Ferry on 24 May. Shortly afterward, on 8 June, all Virginia State troops were transferred to the authority of the Confederate States.

Following the war, all but one locomotive were returned to full service in the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The one locomotive not returned had been damaged by a Union raid, and was installed as the boiler for an engine in a Confederate gunboat. This railroad heist holds the record for being the largest train robbery and railroad theft in history.

.

ON THIS DAY IN 1862 . . .

. . . J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry sacks Chambersburg, Pennsylvania . . .





. . . just up the road a piece from where I'm currently located . . . S.L.


.

THE MOST SPECIAL FOURTH OF JULY

The din of muskets and cannon had faded but the stench and pall of battle still hung in the air; two American armies stared at one another in a heavy rain across bloody fields on the Fourth of July in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, 1863.

Both armies began to collect their remaining wounded and bury some of the dead. Between 46,000 and 51,000 Americans were casualties of the three-day battle. Union casualties list 23,055 (3,155 killed, 14,531 wounded, 5,369 captured or missing), while Confederate casualties are estimated 23,231 (4,708 killed, 12,693 wounded, 5,830 captured or missing).

Bear in mind this was an era when anything more than a simple flesh wound meant certain slow death by infection, and prisoner-of-war captivity was almost a death sentence.



Gettysburg Day 1: Union dead along McPherson Ridge.


Nearly 8,000 Americans were killed outright; the bodies lying in the hot summer sun needed to be buried quickly. A proposal by Lee for a prisoner exchange was rejected by Meade. Nearly a third of Lee’s general officers were killed, wounded, or captured in the Gettysburg campaign. Total casualties for both sides during the entire campaign were 57,225.



Gettysburg Day 2: Union and Confederate dead near the Emmittsburg Road.



Gettysburg Day 3: "Harvest of Death" - aftermath of Pickett's Charge.



Lee started moving the Army of Northern Virginia late in the evening of July 4 towards Fairfield and Chambersburg. Meade’s army followed, although his pursuit was half-spirited. The recently rain-swollen Potomac trapped Lee’s army on the north bank of the river for a time, but when the Federals finally caught up, the Confederates had forded the river.

Also on July 4, 1863 the Vicksburg garrison surrendered to Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant; another significant turning point of the war when the Federals regained control of the Mississippi, an important supply route.


GETTYSBURG IS SPECIAL

On July 1, 2, and 3, 1863, more Americans fought and died here than any other battle in American history. Although the Battle of Gettysburg did not end the war, it was the turning point when the ultimate victory of the North over the South – and the preservation of the Union – was determined.

As brilliant as the Founding Fathers were in establishing the Republic, they knew their work was not complete as long as the question of States Rights could not be resolved, in the areas of commerce but most visibly with slavery. This struggle was addressed and postponed for almost seventy years until things finally came to flash point at Ft. Sumter.

The Civil War was not only the most important war America ever fought, it was also the most stupid; because it was Americans killing Americans. What occurred at Gettysburg was not simply a key battlefield victory of a single war but THE pivotal battle that preserved our Republic from a tragic war that had to be fought, and just as importantly had to be won. Without a Union victory at Gettysburg, the Confederacy may possibly have prevailed; had such a circumstance come about, America as we know it would not exist.

This point was driven home by Lincoln’s brilliant Gettysburg Address, given five months later on the same battlefield:






Despite my sympathies for the Southern Cause - particularly regarding States Rights – I am aware that the Union had to ultimately prevail. This is the sad irony of this terrible war. This Fourth of July I will travel with my family to pay my respects at Gettysburg. - Sean Linnane

GUERRILLA WARFARE 1861-1866

Quantrill's Raiders were a loosely organized force of pro-Confederate bushwhackers who fought in the American Civil War under the leadership of William Clarke Quantrill. The name "Quantrill's Raiders" seems to have been attached to them long after the war, when the veterans would hold reunions.



William Clarke Quantrill, Confederate Guerrilla Leader



Origins

Missouri was fertile ground for the outbreak of guerrilla warfare in late 1861. Secessionists had already been organized to some extent by the proslavery "Border Ruffian" movement of the 1850s, in which Missourians crossed the border into the Kansas Territory in an effort to make it a slave state. Unionists were less well organized, but the populace was nevertheless deeply divided.



The Territory of Kansas 1854 - 1861




In 1861, pro-Union abolitionist and regular U.S. army commander Nathaniel Lyon, with the help of German immigrants living in Missouri succeeded in forcing pro-Southern forces known as the Missouri State Guard under the command of the Missouri Governor Claiborne Jackson and General Sterling Price, across the state, from St. Louis to Springfield, Missouri.


Nathaniel Lyon (July 14, 1818 – August 10, 1861) was the first Union general to be killed in the American Civil War


Lyon and Frank Blair a St. Louis politician, also effectively cut-off all routes south, preventing Missourians from traveling in that direction to join the Confederate army. These swift actions trapped pro-Southern Missourians in the state and behind enemy lines. Missouri became occupied by pro-Union forces. Men trapped in the state fought any way they could. Loose organizations of pro-Southern men were called partisans, irregulars, guerillas, bushwhackers and rangers.



Claiborne Fox Jackson (April 4, 1806 – December 6, 1862) - lawyer, soldier, and politician. He was the 15th Governor of Missouri in 1861, then governor-in-exile for the Confederacy during the American Civil War.



Sterling Price (September 20, 1809 – September 29, 1867) - lawyer, planter, soldier and 11th Governor Missouri (1853 to 1857), also served as a United States Army brigadier general during the Mexican-American War, and a Confederate Army major general during the American Civil War.



Francis Preston Blair, Jr. (February 19, 1821 – July 9, 1875) American politician and Union Army general during the American Civil War.



An insurgency flared in those areas where Union forces were weakest. As Union soldiers concentrated to fight against Price's State Guard and regular Confederate forces under General Ben McCulloch, few were available to occupy the territory to the rear. It was only in late 1861, as garrisons were established in important towns, that the weaker and more poorly organized Confederate guerrillas were defeated, and stronger, more capable units came together. The most notorious of these was that led by William Clarke Quantrill.



Benjamin McCulloch (November 11, 1811–March 7, 1862) was a soldier in the Texas Revolution, a Texas Ranger, a U.S. marshal, and a brigadier general in the army of the Confederacy.



Methods and legal status



Quantrill was not the only Confederate guerrilla operating in Missouri, but he rapidly won the greatest renown. He and his men ambushed Union patrols and supply convoys, seized the mail, and occasionally struck towns on either side of the Kansas-Missouri border. Reflecting the internecine nature of the guerrilla conflict in Missouri, Quantrill directed much of his effort against Unionist civilians, attempting to drive them from of the territory where he operated.



1851 Navy Colt


Under Quantrill's direction, Confederate partisans also perfected military tactics such as coordinated and synchronized attacks, planned dispersal after an attack using pre-planned routes and relays of horses, and other technical methods, including the use of the long-barreled revolvers that later became the preferred firearm of western lawmen and outlaws alike. The James-Younger Gang, many of whose members had ridden with Quantrill, applied these same techniques after the war.



Jesse and Frank James, 1872


Quantrill claimed sanction under the Confederate Partisan Ranger Act, which authorized certain guerrilla activities, and apparently he had received a regular Confederate commission as a captain. However, like almost all of the Missouri bushwhackers, he operated outside of the Confederate chain of command.


Battle of Lawrence, Kansas


Quantrill's most notable operation was the Lawrence Massacre a revenge raid on Lawrence, Kansas in August 1863. It had been generally regarded for years as the base of operations of Unionist irregular raids by Redlegs and Jayhawkers into Missouri both before and during the war. Also, just a month prior, some of the imprisoned family members, women and children, of Quantrill's men had been killed in the collapse of the overcrowded prison in Kansas City.

According to Union records, 167 men and teenage boys were massacred in this raid. Confederate authorities were appalled; their lawless presence proved an embarrassment to the Confederate command. Yet the Confederate generals appreciated his effectiveness against Union forces, which never gained the upper hand over Quantrill.

Among Quantrill's men was a free African-American man named John Noland. He was one of Quantrill's scouts, indeed reputed to be his best one. Noland who helped in scouting Lawrence, Kansas before the raid by Quantrill's men in 1863. He joined Quantrill's Raiders because of the abuse his family suffered at the hands of Kansas Union Jayhawkers. Post-war pictures show Noland sitting with his comrades at reunions of the Raiders.



Quantrill's Raiders Ninth Annual Reunion



Dissolution and Aftermath


Quantrill lost his hold over his men during the winter of 1863-64, when he led his men behind Confederate lines into Texas. In early 1864, the guerrillas that he had led through the streets of Lawrence returned to Missouri from Texas in separate bands, none of them led by Quantrill himself as "Bloody Bill" Anderson seems to have assumed general command by this time). Though Quantrill would gather some of his men again at the very end of 1864, the days of Quantrill's Raiders were over.

Quantrill died at the hands of Union forces in Kentucky in May 1865, but his legacy would live on. Many of his men, including Frank James, rode in 1864 under one of his former lieutenants, "Bloody Bill" Anderson, who was killed in October 1864. Much of that group remained together under the leadership of Archie Clement, who kept the gang together after the war, and harassed the Republican state government of Missouri during the tumultuous year of 1866. In December 1866, state militiamen killed Clement in Lexington, Missouri, but his men continued on as outlaws, emerging in time as the James-Younger Gang.

THE GRAY GHOST

On 13 October 1864, Confederate partisan cavalry leader John Mosby raided Harpers Ferry. This action was a part of the 1864 Shenandoah campaign; a series of brutal clashes between Brig. Gen. George Armstrong Custer and Confederate Partisan Ranger John Singleton Mosby. This second Shenandoah Campaign featured numerous incidents that can only be described as atrocities and war crimes, even by Civil War standards.

Colonel Mosby and his Confederate Rangers adopted an irregular form of warfare; after a skirmish, Mosby’s men returned to their own homes rather than to camp, agreeing to meet again at a future date and place. Each man acquired his own horse, arms and uniforms, but was entitled to share in whatever public or personal property was captured. Mosby was soon the only organized military force in northern Virginia, and so firmly ruled the area that it became known as ‘Mosby’s Confederacy.’




Mosby's Rangers are considered a part of the shared lineage of modern U.S. Army Rangers and U.S. Army Special Forces.




Mosby initially spoke out against secession, but joined the Confederate army nonetheless. Many years after the war, Mosby explained why, although he disapproved of slavery, he fought on the Confederate side. While he believed the South had seceded to protect slavery, he said, in a 1907 letter, that he had felt it was his patriotic duty to Virginia. "I am not ashamed of having fought on the side of slavery —a soldier fights for his country — right or wrong — he is not responsible for the political merits of the course he fights in . . . The South was my country."

After impressing J.E.B. Stuart with his ability to gather intelligence, Mosby was promoted to First Lieutenant and assigned to Stuart's cavalry scouts. He helped the general develop attack strategies. He was responsible for Stuart's "Ride around McClellan" during the Peninsula Campaign.

Captured by Union cavalry, Mosby was imprisoned in the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C., for ten days before being exchanged. Even as a prisoner, Mosby spied on his enemy. During a brief stopover at Fort Monroe, he detected an unusual buildup of shipping in Hampton Roads. He found they were carrying thousands of troops under Ambrose Burnside from North Carolina on their way to reinforce John Pope in the Northern Virginia Campaign. When he was released, Mosby walked to army headquarters outside Richmond and personally related his findings to Robert E. Lee.

In January 1863, Stuart, with Lee's concurrence, authorized Mosby to form and take command of the 43rd Battalion Virginia Cavalry, Partisan Rangers. This was later expanded into Mosby's Command, a regimental-sized unit of partisan rangers operating in Northern Virginia. The Confederate government certified special rules to govern the conduct of partisan rangers. These included sharing in the disposition of spoils of war. Mosby was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on January 21, 1864 and to Colonel, December 7, 1864.

Mosby's Rangers


Mosby is famous for carrying out a daring raid far inside Union lines at the Fairfax County courthouse in March 1863, where his men captured three high-ranking Union officers, including Brig. Gen. Edwin H. Stoughton. The story is told that Mosby found Stoughton in bed and roused him with a slap to his rear. Upon being so rudely awakened, the general shouted, "Do you know who I am?" Mosby quickly replied, "Do you know Mosby, general?" "Yes! Have you got the rascal?" "No, but he has got you!" His group also captured 30 or more sentries without firing a shot.

Several weeks after General Robert E. Lee's surrender in April 1865, Mosby simply disbanded his Rangers, as he refused to surrender formally. Mosbys' Rangers however were the carriers of the surrender orders and documents to Appomattox Court House.


The Gray Ghost never surrendered his colors.


After the war, Mosby served as U.S. consul to Hong Kong (1878–1885), served as a lawyer in San Francisco, worked for the Department of the Interior, and as assistant Attorney General in the Department of Justice (1904–10). He knew a young George S. Patton III and enjoyed making "Battle plans" with Patton in the sand.

Mosby died in Washington, D.C. May 30, 1916

“War loses a great deal of it’s romance after a soldier has seen his first battle. I have a more vivid recollection of the first than the last one I was in. It is a classical maxim that it is sweet and becoming to die for one’s country: but whoever has seen the horrors of a battlefield feels that it is far sweeter to live for it." - John Singleton Mosby, Colonel, CSA