Information courtesy of the
Minnesota Civil War Commemoration Task Force
(www.mncivilwar150.com and “Minnesota Civil War 150” on Facebook)
Major Highlights for the Week
Wednesday October 8, 1862
BATTLE OF PERRYVILLE
Along the Chaplin Hills near Perryville, Kentucky, Federal Major General Don Carlos Buell fought back two Confederate attacks by General Braxton Bragg. Due to an atmospheric phenomenon, the battle noise was not heard in the back of the lines. Buell did not know that a major fight was in progress until late in the day and failed to get his full force into battle. Parts of his army were still in the Frankfort area. Buell won at least a partial victory when Bragg pulled off to the southeast, ending the Confederate invasion of Kentucky. Out of 37,000 Federals engaged, Buell sustained 845 killed, 2,851 wounded and 515 missing for a total of 4,211. Bragg lost 519 killed, 2,635 wounded and 251 missing for a total loss of 3,405 out of 16,000 engaged.
Thursday October 9, 1862
The ending of the Perryville battle was anti-climactic with skirmishing along the Mackville Pike and Bardstown Road in Kentucky. There was also action at Dry Ridge, Dog Walk near Salt River, Kentucky and an affair near Humboldt, Tennessee.
The Confederate Congress organized military courts for the armies in the field and defined their powers.
Friday October 10, 1862
Fighting occurred at Harrodsburg and Danville Crossroads, Kentucky as General Braxton Bragg’s Confederates began their retreat east and southward. In Virginia, Confederate Major General James Ewell Brown (J.E.B.) Stuart crossed the Potomac on his raid, which began the day before, and entered Chambersburg, Pennsylvania in the evening. In Tennessee there was a skirmish at Medon Station, and a party of Sioux Indians fought with a boatload of miners on the upper Missouri River below Fort Berthold, Dakota Territory.
Confederate President Jefferson Davis asked Virginia for a draft of 4,500 Negroes to work on completion of fortifications of Richmond, and Major General John B. Magruder, Confederate hero of the siege of Yorktown earlier in the year, was assigned to command the District of Texas.
Saturday October 11, 1862
Confederate Major General J.E.B. Stuart at Chambersburg reported that all officials had fled on the approach of the Confederates. His men cut telegraph wires, seized horses and destroyed what military equipment they could not carry away. Railroad machine shops, depots, and several trains were also wrecked. In the afternoon, Stuart moved east and then south to Emmitsburg, Maryland and then to the Potomac River.
An act of the Confederate Congress, approved by President Jefferson Davis, amended the draft exemption law, enlarging the number of those exempt by reason of occupation. Most controversial was the exemption of an owner or overseer of more than twenty slaves. Richmond papers began to speak of a possible early peace from the result of recent Confederate successes.
Sunday October 12, 1862
Confederate Major General J.E.B. Stuart’s Confederate cavalry, after brief skirmishing near the mouth of the Monocacy River in Maryland, crossed the Potomac River back into Virginia near Poolesville, completing another ride around Federal Major General George B. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac.
Confederate Major General Earl Van Dorn assumed command of all troops in Mississippi.
President Abraham Lincoln, worried about Major General Don Carlos Buell’s follow-up after the Battle of Perryville in Kentucky, continued to ask for reports from the Western Theater.
Monday October 13, 1862
The second session of the First Congress of the Confederate States of America adjourned at Richmond after renewal of the law authorizing suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus until February 12, 1863. However, it was required that investigation be made of people arrested.
Fighting occurred at New Franklin, Missouri; Lancaster, Kentucky and near Nashville, Tennessee. Major General Jacob D. Cox assumed command of the Federal District of Western Virginia.
Confederate General Braxton Bragg’s troops took up the march for the Cumberland Gap.
Tuesday October 14, 1862
Congressional elections in Iowa, Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania resulted in gains by the Democrats, except in Iowa, where Republicans carried the state.
Confederate Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton assumed command of the Department of Mississippi and Eastern Louisiana. There was fighting at Hazel Bottom, Missouri; Trenton, Arkansas and at Manchester, Lancaster and Crab Orchard Road in Kentucky.
Where Minnesota Regiments were the week of October 8-14, 1862
1st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry – On duty at Harper’s Ferry, western Virginia.
2nd Minnesota Volunteer Infantry – Participated in the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky.
3rd Minnesota Volunteer Infantry – On duty at Fort Snelling.
4th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry – Participated in the pursuit to Ripley, Mississippi.
5th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry – Companies B, C and D remained in Minnesota and Dakota Territory on garrison duty. The remaining companies participated in the pursuit to Ripley, Mississippi.
6th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry – On garrison duty at Fort Snelling, Glencoe,Forest City and Kingston until February 1863.
7th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry – On garrison duty in Mankato and other points in Minnesota until June 1863.
8th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry – On frontier duty at various points in Minnesota: Anoka, Princeton, Monticello, Kingston, Manannah, Paynesville, Fort Ripley, Sauk Center, Pomme de Terre, Alexandria and Fort Abercrombie until May 1864.
9th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry – On garrison duty in various frontier Minnesota communities until June 1863.
10th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry – Regiment on detached service for garrison duty at various outposts in frontier Minnesota until June 1863.
1st Regiment Minnesota Cavalry “Mounted Rangers” – Organized at St. Cloud, St. Peter and Fort Snelling for frontier duty against Indians until June 1863.
Brackett’s Battalion of Minnesota Cavalry – On duty at Clarksville, Tennessee.
1st Minnesota Light Artillery Battery – Participated in the pursuit to Ripley, Mississippi.
2nd Independent Battery, Minnesota Light Artillery – Participated in Battle of Perryville. Assigned to duty at Perryville and Stanford, Kentucky.
2nd United States Sharpshooters, Company A – In camp near Sharpsburg, Maryland.
