Tuesday Oct. 22 1861
BALL’S BLUFF BOONDOGGLE BROADCAST

The survivors of the Army of the Potomac were still straggling back across the river (those who hadn’t drowned, been captured or run away that is) as the word of the Union defeat began to hit the newspapers of Washington and Richmond. As the news spread across the telegraph wires of the country, the magnitude of the losses had a very disturbing effect on the North. The loss at Bull Run earlier in the summer had been bad enough, but now this second foray into Virginia meeting a similar repulse made it clear that the War would be much longer than expected. The death of Colonel (and former Oregon Senator) Edward D. Baker was also the cause of much wailing, despite the fact that it was his own poor planning that led in large part to his own demise, along with many others of his command.



Wednesday Oct. 22 1862
WATERY WABASH WEAPONRY WIELDED

In theory, there was land-based cannon and ship-mounted cannon, and never the twain were supposed to mix. For one thing, land-based weaponry was mounted on carriages (or, rarely, railroad cars) to get it from place to place, while ships’ guns were supposed to be bolted firmly to the deck to keep them from going from place to place and squashing their operators. Necessity, that mother of invention, gave birth to some occasional exceptions however, and one such case occurred today. Three 12-pound guns (the poundage refers to the weight of the projectile fired and not the weight of the weapon itself) were dismounted from their usual places on the deck of the USS Wabash and transferred into small boats. These were used in support of the Union assault on Pocogaligo, South Carolina. The assault was a miserable failure.



Thursday Oct. 22 1863
GIMPY GENERAL GRANT GETS GRIMY

Yesterday Gen. Ulysses S. “Sam” Grant had paused for a day in Stevenson, Georgia, in order to confer with Gen. William Starke Rosecrans, late commander of the Army of the Cumberland. Rosecrans, after a very successful campaign across the state of Tennessee, had come to grief in the battle of Chickamauga when Bragg’s Army of Tennessee had stopped him, defeated him, and nearly cut him off entirely. Since then his army had been bottled up in the deserted streets of Chattanooga. Today, conference ended, Grant continued on his journey to join the army there. The roads, due to fall rains, were deep in mud and travel was miserable at best. It was worse for Grant, who was still suffering the effects of leg injuries sustained when his horse fell on him some weeks ago. Afoot he had to use crutches.



Saturday Oct. 22 1864
PRICE PREPARES PREEMPTIVE POUNCE

Gen. Sterling Price had set forth intending to take Missouri out of the Union. At the moment, however, he would have been more than happy to take himself out of Missouri, and his Confederate and Missouri State Guard force with him. This ambition was being hindered by having Union forces on three sides of him, and the Missouri River on the fourth. Therefore he was in the planning stages of a breakout attempt. His orders were for the supply train to head south along the river, and then have Jo Shelby and James F. Fagan attack the Union Army of the Border, while John S. Marmaduke protected the rear from Pleasanton’s cavalry brigade. Surrounded and heavily outnumbered, the plan was desperate in the extreme, but Price had no choice but attack or surrender.

Hood at Guntersville, Alabama
Confederate General John Bell Hood pulls his battered army into Guntersville, Alabama, but finds the Tennessee River difficult to cross. Plotting another attack against the Yankees, he continues traveling westward with his defeated army.

Hood's Army of Tennessee had been having a difficult time in the previous months. Hood became commander in July 1864 as the army was pinned inside of Atlanta by Union General William T. Sherman. Hood made a series of desperate attacks to drive the Yankees away, but failed and nearly destroyed his force. After holding Sherman off for a month, Hood was forced to evacuate Atlanta to the south. After Union troops captured the city, Hood moved his force west and attacked Sherman's supply line, which ran from Chattanooga, Tennessee, 100 miles northwest of Atlanta. On October 5, Union troops held off the Confederates at Allatoona, Georgia. Over the next two weeks, Hood did capture parts of Sherman's supply line and forced the Union general to move back toward Chattanooga to take on Hood. Hood hoped to draw Sherman into battle, but his own generals were unanimously opposed to such a move. A shocked Hood consented to their opinion, though, and he headed into Alabama before Sherman arrived.

Hood had no intention of retreating for long. Although his army was demoralized after Atlanta, Hood still hoped to draw Sherman from Georgia. He planned an invasion of Union-held Tennessee, where he hoped he could recapture Chattanooga and Nashville. But now Hood, usually confident and determined, began to show signs of confusion and timidity. On October 22, Hood's army marched from Gadsden to Guntersville to cross the mighty Tennessee River. Unfortunately, Hood forgot to retrieve his army's pontoon bridge, which lay across the Coosa River in eastern Alabama. Hood's superior officer, General Pierre G.T. Beauregard, sent the bridge to Guntersville but arrived to find that the army was gone. Hood had continued west past Decatur, Alabama, before finally crossing the Tennessee at Courtland. The move took the Rebels more than 50 miles out of their way and made a surprise attack on the state of Tennessee unlikely. When Hood did move into Tennessee, Sherman's force was ready and waiting. In November and December, Hood nearly destroyed the remnants of his army at the Battles of Franklin and Nashville.

1970

While participating as Federal infantry in a hardcore event that featured unscrïpted tacticals conducted a tad south of the DMZ in Quang Tri Province of the former Republic of South Vietnam a young North Vietnamese soldier took umbrage at my presence.  Using current reenactment jargon, on this good day some 39 years ago a hit was taken.  

You sure it was NVA? Maybe Bill just dropped his rifle?

Bill,did I happen to make your acquaintance back in the Orient?

Quote :

Curtis Makamson wrote : Bill,did I happen to make your acquaintance back in the Orient?

Curtis,

I sort of doubt it. When you took your "hit" I was in a lovely place called LZ Uplift in Binh Dinh Province, down in the Two Corps area, near the coast.