Thursday Oct. 10 1861
DETERMINED DAVIS DETAILS DEFENSES

Jefferson Davis took seriously his title of “commander in chief” of his nation’s military forces. In fact he often practiced what a later day would call micromanagement, as shown today by a letter he wrote to Maj. Gen. Gustavus Woodson Smith as a follow-up to their conference in Centerville on the first of the month. In the letter Davis discussed his concerns about the Southern railroad network, the organization of troops and the need for efficiency in staff officers. Davis went so far as to discuss the use of Negro laborers for the army, then wound up with further comment on the ultimate objectives: the Union army around Washington.



Friday Oct. 10 1862
PERRYVILLE POSTscrïpt PROCEDING PONDEROUSLY

The biggest battle of the Civil War to occur in Kentucky had been over for two days now. Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg, although heavily outnumbered, had fought well enough that the Union forces had pulled back. Realizing that the numbers still left the odds against him, Bragg began to withdraw towards Tennessee as well. Today fighting still went on around the edges of both forces. Skirmishing took place in Harrodsburg and Danville Cross Roads, Ky. Bragg was attempting to move south and east, and having a difficult time of it.

John Bankhead Magruder sent to Texas:

Confederate General John Bankhead Magruder is given command of the Trans-Mississippi Department.

A Maryland native, Magruder attended West Point and graduated in 1830. He distinguished himself during the Mexican War when he commanded a company during General Winfield Scott's campaign from Vera Cruz to Mexico City. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel for meritorious service. After the war, he served in a variety of military positions, including a stint as an observer in France. Magruder garnered a reputation as a playboy prone to heavy drinking and lavish entertainment and became known as "Prince John."

When the war broke out in 1861, Magruder resigned his commission and joined the Confederate army. He was placed in charge of defenses between the York and James Rivers. On June 10, 1861, Union General Benjamin Butler attacked Magruder's force at Big Bethel. The Confederates repulsed the assault in what is considered the first land battle of the war. Although the credit actually belonged to junior officers John Bell Hood and Daniel Harvey Hill, Magruder made the most of the modest victory, and the Southern press inflated the stories to make him an early Confederate hero.

The next year, Magruder brilliantly defended the James Peninsula during Union General George McClellan's campaign against the Confederate capital at Richmond. Magruder dammed streams, flooded lowlands, placed painted logs called "Quaker guns" at strategic points to fool the Yankees, and marched parts of his 13,000-man army back and forth to give the illusion of greater strength. McClellan fell for the ruse and spent more than a month outside of Yorktown while the Confederates moved more troops into place.

Magruder's reputation soon unraveled. At the Seven Days' battle, Magruder was tentative and sluggish as a field commander. He seemed to crack under pressure, but this was probably the result of an allergic reaction to morphine, which was part of a medication he was taking for acute indigestion. At the Battles of Fair Oaks, Savage's Station, and Malvern Hill, Magruder made a series of costly mistakes. Confederate commander General Robert E. Lee expressed his disappointment with Magruder for his slow reaction to attacking the retreating Yankees, even though General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson exhibited a similar sluggishness during the same engagements and Lee said nothing about him. As a result, President Jefferson Davis reassigned Magruder to command Confederate forces in Texas.

Magruder enjoyed some success in Texas and partly restored his reputation when he captured Galveston in 1863. He spent the rest of the war in the West before fleeing to Mexico after the collapse of the Confederacy. He returned to the United States in 1867 and died in 1871.




Saturday Oct. 10 1863
WESTERN WATER WOES WEAKEN WAR WORK

Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman had a job to do and was anxious to get on with it. His assignment: march through Tennessee to Chattanooga, and secure it for the Union. His problem: the campaign was designed in such a way that support and supply was required to be provided by gunboats on the Tennessee River, and the water just wasn’t there to do it. It had been a very dry year and the level of the rivers was low all over. Admiral David D. Porter apologized to Gen. Sherman’s boss Gen. U. S. Grant for the situation. Porter, conceding that there was nothing he could do about the river, offered to find shallow-draft boats if necessary, as it was the heavily-armored ironclads that were having the difficulties.



Monday Oct. 10 1864
WATERY WARFARE WOES WIDEN

A year to the day after Sherman had his difficulties on the waters of the Western theater, another group of Union men found themselves in an even more dire situation. A group of gunboats were offloading troops at Eastport, Mississippi, on the Tennessee River. Suddenly there was the sound of cannon fire and the men and ships were under a blistering crossfire from hidden Confederate shore batteries. The transports Aurora and Kenton were hit almost at once and began to drift downstream out of control. Lt. King, captain of the USS Key West and commander of the expedition, ordered another vessel, the Undine, to follow and corral the stray ships. King remained behind to evacuate the men who had already gone ashore, and to cover the escape of the lightly-armed and armored USS Pekin.