Currier and Ives editorial cartoon depicting conscription of Southern citizens. (Library of Congress)

October 5, 1862 – October 18, 1862

By Phil Kohn
Phil Kohn can be reached at USCW160@yahoo.com.

On October 5, 1862, Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn’s Confederates, compelled to withdraw from the fighting at Corinth, are caught between Rosecrans’s pursuing forces and troops coming from Tennessee, led by Maj. Gen. E.O.C. Ord. Van Dorn’s men fight their way out and safely reach Holly Springs, Mississippi. Without a shot being fired, a U.S. Navy force seizes Galveston, Texas. Corpus Christi and Indianola fall shortly after. In Kentucky, Gen. Braxton Bragg determines that Buell’s main Union force is headed toward Perryville, so he begins moving his troops there.

President Lincoln, frustrated by the lack of movement by the Army of the Potomac, which he characterizes as “General McClellan’s bodyguard,” on October 6 sends instructions to McClellan: “Cross the Potomac and give battle to the enemy or drive him south. Your army must move now while the roads are good.”

In Clay County, Missouri, on October 7, the first U.S. black units authorized to fight — the 1st and 2nd Kansas Colored Troops — clash with Confederate guerrillas.

On October 8, 55,000 U.S. troops under Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell march on Perryville, Kentucky. Only about a third of his force, some 13,000 soldiers of Maj. Gen. Alexander McCook’s corps, encounters about 16,000 (also roughly one third) of Braxton Bragg’s Confederates and fighting erupts. The Southerners come close to winning, but suffer heavy casualties and, in the face of overall superior Union numbers, withdraw southeastward during the night. In Florida, a large Confederate force returns to St. John’s Bluff and ousts the Union garrison there, forcing the abandonment of Jacksonville by Federal troops.

In the East on October 9, Confederate Maj. Gen. “Jeb” Stuart crosses Federal lines and leads 1,800 cavalrymen on four days of raids that once again circle the U.S. Army of the Potomac (still in Maryland after the Battle of Antietam). Stuart ranges as far as Chambersburg and Cashtown, in Pennsylvania, capturing livestock and supplies and destroying railroad trains before heading back into Virginia.

Maj. Gen. John Magruder — the hero of the siege of Yorktown during McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign — on October 10 takes over as Confederate commander in Texas, with headquarters at Houston, replacing Brig. Gen. Paul Hébert.

On October 11, Bragg’s Confederates begin withdrawing from Kentucky towards Chattanooga via the Cumberland Gap. Although Bragg fails to capture the Bluegrass State, the Southerners end up with improved positions overall in Tennessee. In Richmond, the Confederate Congress passes a bill, signed into law by President Davis, that amends the military draft law. Under the new regulation, anyone owning 20 or more slaves is exempt from service in the Confederate army. The amendment ignites much controversy, heightening a sense of class separation across the Confederacy, with some beginning to consider that the ongoing conflict has become “a rich man’s war, but a poor man’s fight.”

Pennsylvania-born Lt. Gen. John Pemberton assumes command of the Confederate Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana on October 14, 1862, with the prime responsibility of defending Vicksburg, on the Mississippi River.

Confederate guerrilla William Clarke Quantrill leads a raid on Shawnee Town, Kansas, on October 17. Citizens are corralled into the town square: two are killed, and thirteen wounded. Most of the town is looted, then burned to the ground.

On October 18, 1,500 Confederate mounted troopers under Col. John Hunt Morgan rout Federal cavalry near Lexington, Kentucky, capturing over 125 prisoners.