Wednesday Oct. 9 1861
PENSACOLA PICKETS PARTIALLY PERTURBED

One thousand angry soldiers landed in Pensacola today and the result was about what you would expect: fights broke out all over. Of course, this was the intention when Confederate Gen. Richard Heron Anderson led his troops on Santa Rosa Island. They were trying to capture the batteries guarding the entrance to Pensacola Bay, with the final objective of capturing Ft. Pickens, which lay within. The night attack began successfully, with the first battery being promptly overrun. After that things bogged down, and when reinforcements began issuing from the fort itself, Anderson exercised the better part of valor and withdrew.



Thursday Oct. 9 1862
STEALTHY STUART STAGES SPECTACULAR SNEAK

After the ferocity of the last Confederate invasion of Maryland, which ended with the battle of Antietam Creek in Sharpsburg, Md., it was hardly to be expected that any other such incursion would be attempted so soon. Therefore that was exactly what James Ewell Brown Stuart did today, leading his cavalrymen across the fords of the Potomac River into Union territory. By nightfall he was at Chambersburg, Pa., and he was not a comfortable guest to have. Every telegraph line in the route of march was cut or torn down, every horse of any possible military use was taken, and then he started burning pubic buildings and records. McClellan, as usual, did nothing.



Friday Oct. 9 1863
BRISTOE BATTLES BARELY BEGUN

There had been indications for some time that Robert E. Lee was not ready to quit for the winter in the Eastern Theater. Things had been relatively slow since Gettysburg, with most of the action taking place in the Western Theater and on the Carolina coast. Parts of both armies had even been shifted to the West (Longstreet’s Corps from the Army of Northern Virginia, and the 11th and 12th Corps of the Army of the Potomac) to strengthen the combatants there. Lee now hoped to take advantage of the weakening of Meade’s forces around Washington, and today took his army back across the Rapidan River yet again. The hope was to turn Meade’s right flank and open the way for an assault on Washington.



Sunday Oct. 9 1864
CUSTER CAUSES CONSIDERABLE CONFEDERATE CAVALRY CASUALTIES

The campaign to run the Confederate cavalry force of Jubal Early out of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia continued apace today. Phil Sheridan delegated the job to a couple of fellows reasonably well-known in their own right: Wesley Merritt and George Armstrong Custer. Under overall command of Gen. A.T. A. Torbet, they attacked and then pursued men under Confederate generals Rosser and Lomax for several miles, capturing some 300 prisoners. Federal losses for the day were only 9 killed and 48 wounded. The pursuit continued.

More:
Battle of Tom's Brook
Union cavalry in the Shenandoah Valley deal a humiliating defeat to their Confederate counterparts at Tom's Brook, Virginia.

Confederate General Jubal Early's force had been operating in and around the Shenandoah area for four months. Early's summer campaign caught the attention of Union General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant, who was laying siege to Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia. Grant was determined to neutralize Early and secure the Shenandoah for the North. He dispatched one of his best generals, Philip Sheridan, to pursue the Rebels there.

Sheridan took command in August but spent over a month gathering his force before moving against Early. He quickly turned the tables on the Confederates, scoring major victories at Winchester and Fischer's Hill in September. Early's battered force sought refuge in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, while Sheridan began systematically destroying the Shenandoah's rich agricultural resources. Sheridan used his cavalry, under the command of General Alfred Torbert, to guard the foot soldiers as they burned farms and mills and slaughtered livestock. Confederate cavalry chief General Thomas Rosser nipped at the heels of the marauding Yankee force, but Torbert refused to allow his generals, George Custer and Wesley Merritt, to counterattack. He insisted they continue to stick close to the Union infantry. Sheridan heard of this and demanded that Torbert attack.

At dawn on October 9, Custer and Merritt and their respective forces attacked the two wings of the Confederate cavalry. Merritt's 3,500 Yankees overwhelmed General Lunsford Lomax's 1,500 troopers, but Custer had more difficulty. His 2,500 men faced 3,000 under the command of Rosser, who was, coincidentally, a close friend of Custer's at West Point before the war. Custer observed that the Rebels were protected by the high bank of Tom's Creek, so he sent three of his regiments around Rosser's flank. Both groups of Confederates broke in retreat. The Yankees pursued the defeated Confederates for over 20 miles, a flight called the "Woodstock Races." The chase ended only when the Confederates reached the safety of Early's infantry.

The Yankees captured 350 men, 11 artillery pieces, and all of the cavalry's wagons and ambulances. Nine Union troopers were killed, and 48 were wounded. It was the most complete victory of Union cavalry in the eastern theater during the entire war.