200 years ago today: Attempting to deprive the British of their chief source of flour, Gen. George Izard had sent a brigade of about 1,200 men, consisting of the 5th, 14th, 15th and 16th U.S. Infantry with some detachments of riflemen and U.S. Dragoons to take Cooks Mills on Lyons Creek in Ontario. In response, Gen. Gordon Drummond dispatched about 750 men (the 6th Regiment, the Glengarry Light Infantry and the flank companies of the 104th Regiment, with a 6-pounder gun and a Congreve rocket detachment) under Lt. Col. Christopher Myers to reconnoitre the American force. Myers came into contact with our pickets just east of the mills and a half-hour fight ensued. Fearing that he was being outmaneuvered, Myers ordered a retreat, and we pursued his column before returning to Cooks Mills to destroy all the grain and flour we could find. 150 years ago today: After an audacious night march, Gen. Jubal Early’s Confederates attacked Gen. Philip Sheridans forces near Cedar Creek in the Shenandoah Valley. A thick morning fog concealed the number and direction of the rebel attackers and confused the Union ranks, and they were driven from their camps. But the fog also caused Confederate units to become jumbled in the aftermath of their morning assault, and many of Earlys soldiers were starving and the abandoned Union camps presented the perfect opportunity to fill their haversacks and stomachs. Early was unable to reorganize his forces for a final blow, during which time Sheridan saddled Rienzi and rode furiously to the battlefield, rallying stragglers along the way. His arrival restored the spirits of his beleaguered troops who, Sheridan said, would be back in their camps by nightfall. The Federals launched a counterattack around 4 p.m., forcing the rebels to yield the ground theyd captured only hours before. As the sun set, not only had the Union regained all the lost ground, but any hopes of further Confederate offensives in the Shenandoah Valley had been extinguished. To one of his staff officers, Early said, The Yankees got whipped and we got scared.” Union casualties were 569 killed, 3,425 wounded, and 1,770 missing or captured. Confederate casualties were 320 killed, 1,540 wounded, and 1,200 missing or captured. Sea King, the sleek, fast ship that James Dunwoody Bulloch, the top Confederate foreign agent in Great Britain, had obtained in England, rendezvoused with tender Laurel north of Las Desertas in the Madeiras. She was sold to the rebel govt and renamed CSS Shenandoah, after which guns, powder, supplies, and crewmembers from Laurel were loaded. Lt. James Iredell Waddell, who had sailed from England in Laurel, assumed command and remarked: Each of us asked himself instinctively, what great adventures shall we meet in her? What will be her ultimate fate? Shenandoah would become one of the most effective commerce raiders and the last warship to sail under the Confederate flag. USS Mobile, Acting Lt. Pierre Giraud, captured schooner Emily off San Luis Pass, Texas with a cargo of 150 bales of cotton. 100 years ago today: Near the Belgian city of Ypres, Allied and German forces begin the first of what would be 3 battles to control the city and its advantageous positions on the north coast of Belgium. The Germans wanted Ypres and other channel ports so they could control the outlets to the North Sea. The battle would continue until Nov. 22, when winter forced it to a halt. The BEF sustain 7,960 killed, 29,562 wounded, and 17,873 missing, while the French incurred between 50,000 and 85,000 casualties of all types. The Belgians took 21,562 casualties, and German losses for their efforts totaled 19,530 killed, 83,520 wounded, 31,265 missing. Many of the German losses were sustained by reserve formations comprised of students and other youth, with their losses dubbed the Massacre of the Innocents of Ypres.
Posted on: Sun, 19 Oct 2014 14:21:01 +0000
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