Today an enormous explosion rocks City Point, Virginia, the headquarters of the Union Army during the current siege of Petersburg. Several large buildings, 180 feet of wharf, and some two million dollars worth of military munitions and supplies are destroyed, while more than forty workers lose their lives. Union General Ulysses S. Grant quarters…
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln imposes himself upon General Ulysses S. Grant less than his other generals. Nonetheless, in the midst of Northern frustrations with drawn-out trench warfare at Petersburg, last month’s rather close call in the form of the failed Confederate raid upon Washington, D.C. does expose some friction between the two men, who had…
Today in the Battle of Tupelo in Lee County, Mississippi, Union General Major General A. J. Smith, commanding some 14,000 men, is attacked by Confederate Lieutenant General Stephen D. Lee wielding a force of some 8,000. The Rebel attack, however, is largely uncoordinated, allowing Smith and his forces to easily repel the enemy. Within a…