While Sherman moves closer to the South Carolina capital of Columbia, further south in Florida a small battle is fought this day. Near Cedar Key the Battle of Station Four unfolds early in the morning when a contingent of Union raiders, comprised of a contingent of men from the 1st and 2nd Florida U.S. Cavalry…
In the Battle of Hatcher’s Run, Virginia that begins this day, Union forces fail to cut off several Confederate supply routes during the Siege of Petersburg. The fighting goes on for three days in a pitched battle, after which the two sides settle back down into their former positions. The Federals, however, do manage to…
In the middle of the bitter winter cold, Confederate General Robert E. Lee, embedded in the trenches near Petersburg, writes to the Confederate Secretary of War in the nearby Southern capital of Richmond. The subject is army desertion. “I have endeavored to ascertain the causes [of the] alarming frequency of desertions,” the general writes. Lee…