Two 30-pdr. Parrott guns and stacks of shells inside Fort Putnam, Morris Island, S.C., 1865. Library of Congress.

August 2, 1863 – August 15, 1863

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

Having begun the bombardment of Confederate positions around Charleston Harbor several days previously, the Federals on August 4, 1863, begin preparing to deploy an enormous, 200-pounder Parrott rifle known as the “Swamp Angel” that will fire incendiary shells.

On August 5, at Helena, Arkansas, Maj. Gen. Frederick Steele assumes command of 12,000 Federal troops, now designated as the Army of Arkansas. He begins planning operations against Confederate positions at Little Rock, the state capital, and other locales along the Arkansas River.

Commanded by Capt. Raphael Semmes, the raider CSS Alabama on August 6 captures the U.S.-flagged bark Sea Bride off Africa’s Cape of Good Hope.

Gen. Robert E. Lee, ill and dejected by his defeat at Gettysburg, offers on August 8 to resign as commander of the Army of Northern Virginia. Confederate President Jefferson Davis rejects the proposal.

Federal troops of the Army of Arkansas depart Helena, Arkansas, on August 10, marching westward toward Little Rock.

Heavy shelling from Confederate guns at Fort Sumter and Battery Wagner, on August 11, temporarily halts the Federal offensive at Charleston, South Carolina.

August 12 sees a resumption of the Federal bombardment of Confederate positions around Charleston Harbor, South Carolina.

Spurred by vicious attacks in Kansas and Missouri by the Confederate guerrilla band known as Quantrill’s Raiders, Brig. Gen. Thomas Ewing, Jr., — commanding the Federal Department of the Border, comprising Kansas and western Missouri — in April 1863 had ordered the detention of any civilians giving aid to the group, including women and children. Among those incarcerated were several female relatives of Quantrill’s group. They were housed in a makeshift jail in a dilapidated building in Kansas City, Missouri. On August 14, the building collapses, killing five of the women, including the 14-year-old sister of one of Quantrill’s chief subordinates, the dangerous and deadly William “Bloody Bill” Anderson. The enraged partisans claim the collapse is deliberate: that Union soldiers had removed support beams in the building to enlarge the jail space. (Later studies indicate that the likely cause was alterations to the building next door that caused a common wall to buckle, leading to the collapse.)