Today in the Shenandoah Valley Union forces rout Confederate troops in the Battle of Guard Hill (also known as the Battle of Crooked River). The Union victory proves to be the definitive turning point in Federals taking control of the Valley from the Confederates. Soon, Robert E. Lee‘s army, confined to the trenches around Petersburg…
Today in Alabama’s Mobile Bay, the Confederacy’s Fort Gaines surrenders. The Stars and Stripes are raised, and the United States formally assumes control of the bay. Northward in the battle for Atlanta, a Confederate Baptist layman is captured by Union forces, for the second time. Walter Noel Leake (1844-1920), born in Kentucky, as a child…
In the Atlanta Campaign’s Battle of Utoy Creek, begun on August 4, a Union offensive attempts to seize the railroad between East Point and Atlanta. The rail lines represent the Confederate’s supply route. Infighting among Union officers, however, provides Rebel defenders time to better entrench in anticipation of the Union attack. Unable to overpower the…