There had been high hopes among southerners that if they could just hold their ground against the Federal offensives that they could expect President Abraham Lincoln to be replaced in the upcoming elections by a candidate that might consider acknowledging Confederate independence. But key defeats at Mobile Bay and Atlanta had shifted momentum to the North and seriously dampened southern morale in September 1864.
One of the direst issues facing the South at this time was a lack of available manpower for the war effort. General Robert E. Lee, commanding the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia at Petersburg, wrote President Jefferson Davis, “Our ranks are constantly diminishing by battle and disease, and few recruits are received; the consequences are inevitable…” Lee urged the Confederate government to restrict exemptions to the conscription law.
Lee also voiced what was becoming a growing sentiment in favor of allowing free blacks and slaves in the Confederate military. Lee urged substituting blacks for whites “in every place in the army or connected with it when the former can be used.” Louisiana Governor Henry W. Allen seconded Lee’s view by writing, “The time has come for us to put into the army every able-bodied negro man as a soldier.” Such an opinion was considered almost treasonous when Major-General Patrick R. Cleburne first expressed it just nine months ago.
Davis wrote to various southern governors that “harmony of action between the States and Confederate authorities is essential to the public welfare.” Davis urged the repeal of certain state policies requiring immigrants to either serve in the military or leave the state, arguing that such policies deprived the Confederacy of needed manpower. He suggested encouraging immigrants to serve in non-military capacities.
West of the Mississippi River, Confederates under Brigadier-Generals Stand Watie and Richard M. Gano embarked on a raid from Camp Pike in northeastern Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) to draw Federal attention from Major-General Sterling Price’s Confederate raid in Missouri. They also intended to capture the large Federal supply trains coming and going from Fort Gibson. According to Gano, “It is true many of my men are dismounted, barefoot, and unarmed, but they would be better satisfied actively employed, than idling in camps. And there would be a pretty fair chance to capture arms, horses and clothing.”
The Confederates came up to Cabin Creek on the night of September 18 and advanced under the light of a full moon at 3 a.m. next morning. They routed the nearby Federals and sent them fleeing back to Fort Gibson while capturing their wagon train. A soldier of the 30th Texas Cavalry wrote that “this was a God-send to us, for we were almost destitute of clothing and provisions,” having “gone for three days on only a piece of fat bacon and one of my comrades had only an ear of corn.”
The Confederates captured an estimated $1.5 million worth of food, clothing, and other supplies intended for troops and refugees at Fort Gibson. This included over 200 wagons, five ambulances, 40 horses, and over 1,200 mules. Federal officials noted that the loss of this train was “of great magnitude, depriving this supply route of its transportation, and put the garrisons on the Arkansas in danger of starvation.” Raids such as these would continue in the Indian Territory until the end of the war.
In the North, Confederate operatives led by John Y. Beall planned to attack Federal shipping on Lake Erie. The objectives were to bombard nearby cities such as Detroit, Cleveland, and Buffalo into submission, as well as to capture the steamer U.S.S. Michigan, which held Confederate prisoners of war.
Beall and his men seized the steamer Philo Parsons, burned the Island Queen, then headed for the Michigan. Confederate Captain Charles H. Cole was to lead a prisoner uprising aboard the Michigan and seize the ship, but the Michigan’s commander learned of the plan and arrested Cole. With the plot foiled, Beall burned the Philo Parsons at Sandwich, Canada, and retreated.
On the Atlantic Coast, the Confederate defenders of Fort Sumter withstood a third major bombardment, which finally ended after 60 days. Nearly 15,000 rounds were fired into the fort, causing eighty-one casualties. Smaller bombardments followed, but the defenders refused to surrender.
Bibliography
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- Cutrer, Thomas W., Theater of a Separate War: The Civil War West of the Mississippi River. The University of North Carolina Press, (Kindle Edition), 2017.
- Faust, Patricia L. (Patricia L. Faust ed.), Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War. New York: Harper & Row, 1986.
- Josephy, Jr., Alvin M., War on the Frontier: The Trans-Mississippi West. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1983.
- Long, E.B. with Long, Barbara, The Civil War Day by Day. New York: Da Capo Press, Inc., 1971.
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- Thomas, Emory M., The Confederate Nation. HarperCollins e-books, Kindle Edition, 1976.