Ft. Sumter in ruins.
November 1, 1863 – November 14, 1863
By Phil Kohn
Phil Kohn can be reached at USCW160@yahoo.com
After spending ten days in Opelousas, Louisiana, Federal troops under Maj. Gen. William Franklin on November 1, 1863, begin retreating down Bayou Teche. They are attacked by Maj. Gen. Richard Taylor’s much-smaller force near Opelousas on November 2 and at Grand Coteau on November 3. U.S. casualties: 604; C.S.: 181.
President Lincoln on November 2 receives an invitation to come to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to make “a few appropriate remarks” at the dedication later in the month of a new national cemetery located there. The main speaker is to be orator and statesman Edward Everett. The president decides to accept.
On November 4, Lt. Gen. James Longstreet is sent north from Chattanooga to Knoxville with two divisions plus Wheeler’s cavalry — a total of some 20,000 men — to reinforce Confederate troops around Knoxville and to try to wrest control of the city from Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside and his 25,000 Union soldiers. The move has been ordered by President Jefferson Davis, in part to reduce continuing and growing friction between Bragg and his generals, as Longstreet is now also not getting along with Bragg. In addition, the capture of Knoxville would restore rail communications with Virginia.
Some 3,500 men under Union Brig. Gen. William Averell defeat 1,700 Confederates led by Brig. Gen. John Echols at Droop Mountain, West Virginia, on November 6. This allows Averell to disrupt railroad travel and communications between Virginia and the southwest.
On November 7, in Virginia, Union Maj. Gen. George Meade orders a rare night attack on Gen. Robert E. Lee’s bridgehead across the Rappahannock River. The Confederates are pushed back and must withdraw to the Rapidan River with 2,023 casualties. Both armies end up where they originally started the previous month.
Enjoying a favorite pastime, Abraham Lincoln on November 9, 1863, attends a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C.: The Marble Heart, starring prominent actor John Wilkes Booth. In Virginia, President Jefferson Davis returns to Richmond after his journey through the South and West of the Confederacy.
A nine-day Federal cavalry raid in Missouri begins on November 10 and heads westward — from Benton through Hot Springs and Caddo Gap to Mt. Ida — with the intent of quashing Confederate guerrilla activity and support. To their surprise, the Federal raiders find that most residents of the region are, in fact, Union sympathizers. In South Carolina, Federal artillery has fired 1,753 rounds over the past three days at the pile of rubble in the harbor that is Fort Sumter. The bombardment has caused few Confederate casualties.
On November 11, Confederates raid Union-held Suffolk, in southeastern Virginia, with modest results.
The Confederate troops of Lt. Gen. James Longstreet and Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler arrive at Loudon, Tennessee, about 35 miles southwest of Knoxville, on November 12. Longstreet and Wheeler begin organizing their forces for an assault against Maj. Gen. Burnside’s Union troops at Knoxville.
November 14 finds Confederate Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest taking over his new cavalry command of around 300 troopers at Okolona, in northern Mississippi. His new superior is Maj. Gen. Stephen D. Lee (only very distantly related, if related at all, to Robert E. Lee). Forrest’s first task: enlarging his force.
