Gen. Albert Sydney Johnston leads his Confederates/Wikimedia Commons
April 6, 1862 – April 19, 1862
By Phil Kohn
Phil Kohn can be reached at USCW160@yahoo.com.
In western Tennessee, on April 6, 1862, Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston launches his 44,000 Confederates at Ulysses Grant’s unsuspecting Union force, camped at Pittsburg Landing. The name of a small church in the vicinity gives the ensuing two-day bloody battle the name it is widely known by in the North: Shiloh. While the Confederates have successes on the first day, they are poorly organized. The arrival of Federal reinforcements allows Grant to counterattack on the morning of the second day, forcing the Confederates to retreat to Corinth, Mississippi. The toll of 13,000 Union casualties and 10,700 Confederates shocks both nations: the numbers are greater than those of the American Revolution, the War of 1812 and the Mexican War combined. In addition, Confederate Gen. Johnston is mortally wounded on the first day, the highest-ranking officer of either side killed in action during the war. Confederate command is assumed by Gen. Pierre Beauregard.
After months of maneuvering by Federal naval vessels and ground troops led by Brig. Gen. John Pope, the Confederate garrison of 7,000 defenders at Island No. 10 in the Mississippi River near New Madrid, Missouri, surrenders on April 7. The loss of Island No. 10 represents a serious break in the Confederate defense of the Mississippi. In the New Mexico Territory, Col. Canby’s combined Union force nears Albuquerque, lightly defended by 200 Confederates and three cannon.
On April 8, Sibley’s Brigade, whose supply train had been destroyed at Glorieta Pass in March, leaves Santa Fe, New Mexico Territory, in a retreat down the Rio Grande Valley toward Albuquerque.
Federal troops pull out of Jacksonville, Florida, on April 9, with Confederates quickly moving in and emplacing an artillery battery in the city. In New Mexico, Sibley’s Confederates begin arriving in Albuquerque from Santa Fe, reinforcing the garrison there.
At Savannah, Georgia, Fort Pulaski, which guards the city, on April 10 comes under fire from Federal long-range, rifled artillery situated across the Savannah River on Tybee Island. The masonry fort is no match for the powerful Union shells and is heavily damaged. Some 360 Confederates are taken prisoner and the fort’s 40 guns are captured.
On April 11, Maj. Gen. Henry Halleck — overall Federal commander in the West — arrives at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, to organize the “Grand Army” that has collected there. With a force comprising the combined troops of generals Grant, Buell and Pope (who has arrived from New Madrid), Halleck intends to follow up the victory at Shiloh by moving on Gen. Beauregard’s Confederate positions at Corinth, Mississippi. Meanwhile, a Federal force under Brig. Gen. Ormsby Mitchel — capitalizing on the fact that there are few Confederate troops between Corinth, Mississippi, and Chattanooga, Tennessee — captures Huntsville, Alabama.
At Big Shanty, Georgia, on April 12, a group of 21 volunteer Federal soldiers led by a civilian, James Andrews, steals a locomotive (“The General”) and three cars of its train in a plan to burn bridges and wreck the tracks of the Western & Atlantic Railroad, which runs between Atlanta and Chattanooga. However, the train’s conductor follows in three different locomotives (including, lastly and most famously “The Texas”) and foils the plan in what becomes popularly known as “The Great Locomotive Chase.” Andrews and seven of his volunteers are captured and executed. The others escape or are captured and later paroled. The first-ever Medals of Honor are bestowed upon some of the U.S. soldiers who survive the raid. In New Mexico, Sibley’s Confederates begin heading southward from Albuquerque. They have 20 days’ food and one day’s ammunition for the 240-mile trek to Mesilla, the capital of the Confederate Arizona Territory. Lacking the resources to support the taking of prisoners, Col. Canby’s Union force does not engage the Confederates, but shadows them southward.
Union forces take Decatur, Alabama, on April 13. In the Far West, the main body of Col. James Carleton’s California Column of roughly 2,350 Union infantry, cavalry and artillery begins heading eastward from Fort Yuma, California. On the same day, Arizona Ranger Lt. Jack Swilling arrives in Tucson and reports that his detachment ran into Union Army forward elements at Stanwix Station, about 80 miles east of Fort Yuma. Based on that information, Capt. Sherod Hunter posts 10 Arizona Rangers as pickets at Picacho Peak, about 50 miles to the northwest. From that high ground, the Confederates can observe the surrounding, flat countryside for miles.
Being exceedingly low on ammunition, Brig. Gen. Sibley on April 14 moves his Confederate column to the west side of the Rio Grande, while Canby’s Union force continues to shadow him on the east bank.
In New Mexico, the forces of Sibley and Canby catch up with each other on April 15 at the village of Peralta, strung out for around a mile along both banks of the Rio Grande. The two sides begin firing at each other across the river, but the thick-walled adobe structures provide good cover and minimize casualties. Finally, a thick sandstorm ends the action. The Confederates withdraw and continue their movement southward. Farther west, forward elements of the Federal California Column learn of Confederates in the vicinity of Picacho Peak and plan a two-pronged attack on the position on April 15. The plan: Two small diversionary cavalry detachments will attack from the east and south while the main body of troops will attack from the north. For some reason, Lt. James Barrett of the 1st California Cavalry doesn’t wait for the main body to approach or even for the other diversionary detachment to attack from the south, but instead prematurely leads his diversionary detachment of 12 troopers into thickets at the base of Picacho Peak from the east. There, he and his men are ambushed by the waiting Arizona Rangers that had been posted there as pickets. Following fierce and confused fighting that lasts over 90 minutes, Barrett and two of his troopers are killed and three more are wounded. Three Arizona Rangers are captured and taken prisoner. The Union cavalrymen retreat (with their prisoners) and rejoin the still-approaching main body. Thinking they are facing a larger Confederate force than is the case, they all take flight back to the Pima Indian villages, some 107 miles away. The remaining seven Arizona Rangers return to Tucson and warn Capt. Hunter of the Union soldiers’ arrival. The fighting at Picacho Peak is considered the farthest-west battle of the Civil War.
After several weeks of preparation, Confederate President Jefferson Davis on April 16 signs into law a bill that will require a military draft in the Confederate states of men between the ages of 18 and 35; service will be for three years. In Alabama, Tuscumbia is captured by Brig. Gen. Ormsby Mitchel’s Federal troops. In Washington, President Lincoln signs into law a bill that bans slavery in the District of Columbia.
Caught between Col. Edward Canby’s shadowing force behind him and the strong Fort Craig — which he had bypassed on his way north — ahead of him, Brig. Gen. Henry Sibley on April 17 abandons his wagons and horses, leaves his wounded to the mercy of Col. Canby, and has his men head west on foot into the rugged and hostile Magdalena Mountains to bypass Fort Craig.
Attempting a move on Richmond, Virginia, from the south, a Federal force is defeated at South Mills, North Carolina, on April 19. After its retreat from Picacho Peak in Confederate Arizona Territory, the forward element of the 1st California Cavalry arrives at the Pima Indian villages (near present-day Phoenix) and establishes Fort Barrett nearby, named for the Union officer killed at Picacho Peak.
