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21 Oct, 4 tweets, 2 min read
The Battle of Ball’s Bluff was fought #OTD in 1861. An early test of the newly formed Army of the Potomac under General George McClellan, it proved to be a debacle. A raid by nearly 2,000 Union troops resulted in a rout - more than half the force became casualties. #CivilWar
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More from @CivilWarOTD

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22 Oct
Lt. Col. Charles R. Mudge was born #OTD in 1839. A graduate of @Harvard in 1860, Mudge was wildly popular with his classmates and served a term as Vice President of @TheHastyPudding club. He joined the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry as a Lieutenant at the outbreak of the #CivilWar. ImageImage
Mudge was wounded in May, 1862 at the First Battle of Winchester. He returned to duty in time to distinguish himself at the Battle of @Antietamnps1862, after which he was promoted to Major. Seeing action again at the Battle of Chancellorsville, he was breveted to Lt. Colonel. ImageImageImageImage
He found himself in command of the regiment as they marched into @GettysburgNMP as part of XII Corps. They took position on Culp’s Hill on the Union right flank, and defended the position against repeated confederate assaults on July 2 and 3, 1863. ImageImage
Read 10 tweets
Civil War On This Day Profile picture
22 Oct
The Battle of Pocotaligo, SC was fought #OTD in 1862, when the @USArmy’s X Corps under General John Brannan moved to sever the Charleston and Savannah Railroad, burn railway bridges, and isolate Charleston from receiving supplies and reinforcements. #CivilWar ImageImage
Brannan and his 4200 men steamed up the Broad River on troop transport ships, protected by gunboats for a Naval Squadron. They disembarked at Mackey Point, with Brannan marching most of the force toward Pocotaligo while a smaller force headed for the bridge at Coosawhatchie. ImageImageImage
Opposing them was a 2000-man confederate force under William Walker. He deployed detachments to defend bridges, with his main body opposing Brannan’s. He fought a delaying action back into his works at Pocotaligo, awaiting reinforcements from Charleston. ImageImage
Read 7 tweets
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21 Oct
The Battle of Little Blue River was fought #OTD in 1864. Part of Sterling Price’s raid of Missouri, the engagement took place as U.S. forces attempted to slow Price’s advance, the final major confederate offensive in the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the #CivilWar.
Price’s raid had started a month earlier and met with only scattered opposition as he moved his force across the state, as the U.S. commander in Missouri, Gen. William Rosecrans, scrambled to coordinate a defense. Price was slow to move, allowing Rosecrans time to request troops.
Among those moving to oppose Price were troops from Kansas under Gen. James Blunt. He initially halted his 2000 men at the Little Blue River and established a line to slow Price’s advance, but then withdrew to Independence, leaving only a small unit under Col. Thomas Moonlight.
Read 8 tweets
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20 Oct
Samuel “Champ” Ferguson, a confederate guerrilla who was one of just two men to be be charged, convicted and hanged for war crimes during the #CivilWar, was hanged #OTD in 1865 in Nashville, TN. He was 43 years old. Image
During the Civil War, Ferguson organized a company of guerrillas and attacked and killed civilians in East Tennessee who he believed were pro-Union. Given a confederate commission, Ferguson operated in concert with confederate forces, but continued to commit atrocities. ImageImageImage
Among the more notorious of these atrocities occurred after the Battle of Saltville, where Ferguson and his men reportedly murdered several Black soldiers of the 5th Cavalry Regiment of U.S. Colored Troops who had already surrendered.
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20 Oct
General Daniel Sickles was born #OTD in 1819. A member of Congress from New York before the #CivilWar, he gained notoriety for killing the son of Francis Scott Key when he learned Key was having an affair with his wife. He was acquitted after claiming temporary insanity. ImageImageImage
When the war began, Sickles raised several regiments of troops, which formed the Excelsior Brigade. Promoted steadily throughout the war, he found himself a Major General in command of III Corps of the Army of the Potomac at the Battle of @GettysburgNMP. ImageImageImage
During the battle, Sickles advanced his corps forward to the Peach Orchard without orders, placing them in a precarious position. James Longstreet’s attack on the battle’s second day slammed into the Corps, eventually routing them. Image
Read 11 tweets

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