Monday Oct. 28 1861
CONFEDERATE COMMAND CHANGE CONDUCTED

In yet another of the bureaucratic shuffles that characterized the early days of the war, one general was in and another was out in the Western theater. Confederate Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner had been more or less in charge of military affairs in Kentucky since the preemptive strike that had moved troops into a state that was supposed to be neutral ground. He was out, replaced by Gen. Albert Sydney Johnston, and the forces were named the Army of Central Kentucky. In yet another sad example of neighbor turning against neighbor, a man in Braintree, Mass., was accused of spreading pro-secessionist statements. He was ridden out of town on a rail.



Tuesday Oct. 28 1862
SCORCHED STEAMER SPREADS STINKY SMELL

The lure of the sea has long been a force inducing young people to join the naval services. “Join the Navy and see the world” was not a new idea even in the days of the War. It was, of course, understood that some difficulty and sacrifice might be required of one, but the terms took on a whole new meaning today in the defense of the Confederate States of America. The Federal steamer Alleghanian was anchored at the mouth of the Rappahannock River, thought to be safe territory. A landing party led by Lt. John Taylor Wood, CSA, crept aboard the vessel as it was preparing to sail for London. They set it afire and escaped in the confusion. The ship was loaded with guano, or bat defecation, the finest fertilizer in the world.



Wednesday Oct. 28 1863
NIGHTTIME NASTINESS NOT NEGLIGIBLE NEWS

The “Cracker Line” was the name for the supply line cut through to the Union army bottled up in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It had barely been established, and in fact was still under threat by Confederate forces on Raccoon Mountain overlooking vital Brown’s Ferry. The threat was obvious to both sides, and on this night in the war, Gen. James Longstreet’s men came to try to knock it out. Brig. Gen. John W. Geary’s troops in the Lookout Valley and Wauhatchie were the defenders in this action, and despite intense action and being outnumbered, the Federal lines held. It was one of the rare nighttime actions of the war. Most combat was over by 4 a.m. The Cracker Line was not threatened again.



Friday Oct. 28 1864
CURTIS CORNERS CONFEDERATE COLUMNS

It was surely the end of the line for Confederate Gen. Sterling Price. Trying desperately to get his remaining men and supply wagons to the safety of Arkansas, he was set upon today by the Union forces of Gen. Samuel Ryan Curtis. They attacked today and although the Southerners fought fiercely, Curtis got reinforcements in and forced Shelby’s cavalry to withdraw. It looked like curtains as night fell. Price was saved by a telegram from the War Department in Washington, ordering most of Curtis’ troops back to their stations with Rosecrans in St. Louis. By the time Curtis got the mess straightened out with Halleck, Price had managed to slip away yet again.


Second Battle of Fair Oaks concludes
Union forces withdraw from Fair Oaks, Virginia, after failing to breach the Confederate defenses around Richmond. The assault was actually a diversion to draw attention from a larger Union offensive around Petersburg.

The scene of one of the Seven Days' Battles in June 1862, Fair Oaks was located on the defensive perimeter around the Confederate capital of Richmond. General Robert E. Lee's army constructed five lines of trenches that stretched 25 miles south to Petersburg. For five months, Lee's troops had been under siege by the forces of Union General Ulysses S. Grant. The monotony of the siege was broken only periodically by a Union attempt to break Lee's lines. One such attack came at Hatcher's Run, southwest of Petersburg, on October 27. At the same time, Grant ordered an attack at Fair Oaks, about 24 miles from the assault at Hatcher's Run.

The Richmond defenses were formidable, so any direct assault was unlikely to succeed. By attacking at Fair Oaks, Grant hoped to prevent Lee from shifting any troops along the Richmond-Petersburg line to reinforce the lines at Hatcher's Run. Troops from General Benjamin Butler's Tenth Corps moved north of the James River and conducted a two-pronged offensive against Richmond on October 27. Confederate General James Longstreet, in charge of the Richmond section of the Confederate defenses, skillfully positioned troops to thwart the Yankees. Union General Godfrey Weitzel, commander of part of the attack, enjoyed some initial success but could not significantly penetrate the Rebel trenches. On October 2, he determined that he had accomplished all that he could, and he withdrew his troops.

Some 1100 Union men were killed, wounded, or captured during the attack, while the Confederates lost just 450. The planned diversion did not work--at the far end of the defenses, the Yankees failed to move around the end of the Confederate line at Hatcher's Run.

October 27th, 2009: After 3 hours of searching for a "Day By Day" history of the Confederacy, find one does not exist. Imagine that.