A daily recap of the War of the Rebellion. When you see the little spool of thread emoji 🧵it means you shouldn’t just read the first tweet.
As a young officer, Burnside had been engaged to a woman named Charlotte “Lottie” Moon, but she left him at the altar by proclaiming “No siree Bob!” to the minister’s question of whether she took Burnside to be her husband. She later became a confederate spy. 
General Nathaniel Banks commanded 9,000 men in the Valley, and concentrated near Strasbourg. A smaller force of about 1,000 under Colonel John Kenly held Front Royal, which Jackson approached on the morning of May 23rd. 
After Grant was unable to defeat Lee at the two-week long Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, he met with his commanders and determined to move the army around Lee's flank to the south, hoping again to draw him into a full-scale battle on open ground. 
archives.gov/milestone-docu…
Two days earlier, Sumner had given a lengthy speech critical of slaveholders and of the politicians responsible for the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, including Brooks' cousin, Senator Andrew Butler. 
He opened a law practice in Charleston, WV, and was elected as a Democrat to the US House of Representatives in 1856, and again in 1858. Upon his father's death, he inherited his plantation, Green Bottom, in 1859. 
The town had been founded two years earlier by abolitionists from Massachusetts, backed by funding from the New England Emigrant Aid Company and from Amos Adams Lawrence, a wealthy philanthropist and @Harvard graduate after whom the town was named. 
French served mostly on the frontier, and at the outbreak of the #CivilWar was serving as a Captain in the 1st US Artillery at Fort Duncan, Texas. Rather than surrender his command to the local confederates, he marched them to the coast and sailed to Key West. 
Originally part of the Territory of New Mexico, cities in the south of the territory had attempted to separate as a territory with legal slavery in the 1850’s but their petition was denied. After the Civil War began, the confederacy recognized the area as the Arizona Territory. 
It was a short, fierce engagement in which 1,400 of the 10,000 engaged troops became casualties. After it ended, Beauregard had his men construct the Howlett Line of defensive positions, further bottling up Butler’s larger force in the Bermuda Hundred Peninsula. 
Though Zollicoffer did not support secession, he volunteered his service to the Provisional Army of Tennessee when it was formed. He had some brief experience in the @USArmy during the Second Seminole War, and so was named a brigadier general in the state’s army in July, 1861. 
He denounced slavery as well as the authors of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, including Sen. Andrew Butler of South Carolina, saying he had “chosen a mistress to whom he has made his vows..who though polluted in the sight of the world is chaste in his sight—I mean the harlot, slavery.” 
Grant ordered General Winfield Scott Hancock to take II Corps toward the Fredricksburg-Richmond Railroad, and then march south, hoping that Lee would send his army to intercept the isolated Corps and give Grant an opportunity to engage them before they could entrench again. 
Born into a prominent family in Lexington, KY, in 1821, Breckinridge received a law degree from @Transy University in 1841 and opened a law practice. He left that practice in 1847, and was commissioned as a Major in the 3rd Kentucky Infantry for service in the war with Mexico. 
The confederate commander, John Pemberton, ordered John Bowen to hold the east bank of the river to delay the @USArmy advance, which was led by General John McClernand’s XIII Corps. 
He settled in Paducah, KY, and was still living there at the outbreak of the war. His familiarity with the area and engineering background led to his appointment to construct Fort Henry and @FortDonelsonNPS along the Tennessee River. 
The confederate theater commander, Joseph Johnston, ordered John C. Pemberton, commanding three divisions totaling 23,000 men, to attack Grant's forces near the town of Clinton. Feeling this would be disastrous, Pemberton instead set out to attack the U.S. supply trains. 
A member of the Grafton Guards militia, he was returning from a recruiting rally on May 22, 1861, when he encountered 3 confederates near Fetterman. The two groups exchanged fire, and Brown was killed, becoming the first @USArmy soldier killed by enemy fire during the Civil War. 
In command of the effort was General Franz Sigel. He was ordered to move up the Valley toward Lynchburg, which he was to seize and destroy along with its supply center and railroad. Standing in his way was a makeshift force of 4,000 confederates under John Breckinridge. 
Before reaching the city, they had to deal with the confederates in Fort Darling on Drewry's Bluff, south of the city. The 8 guns there looked down upon the river and commanded the entire approach. The detachment manning them was commanded by Ebenezer Farrand and Augustus Drewry. 
After probing the confederate lines on May 13, Sherman’s subordinate, General James McPherson, launched more aggressive assaults the next day, which were repulsed. 
