Sunday, 26 March 1865
The cavalry command of Union Major General Phillip H. Sheridan crossed the James River and headed towards Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant's lines at Petersburg, Virginia, which would give Grant an even larger force and thin out Confederate General Robert E. Lee's already numerically inadequate defenders. Lee was preparing to give up Petersburg and Richmond so as to pull back westward to attempt a reunion with General Joseph E. Johnston in North Carolina. As Grant laid low and continued to apply pressure on the Army of Northern Virginia, he allowed the other Union armies to one by one dissect the other armies of the Confederacy.
President Abraham Lincoln reviewed troops and watched Sheridan's men cross the James River while on his visit to the main fighting front at Petersburg. Grant and Sheridan later conferred, and prepared instructions for the beginning of the forthcoming campaign. An incident occurred in which Mrs. Lincoln became enraged upon seeing the wife of a Federal general sitting horseback beside the president during the troop review. The first lady vented her wrath on both the general's wife and the wife of General Grant.
General Robert E. Lee wrote to President Davis: "I fear now it will be impossible to prevent a junction between Grant and Sherman, nor do I deem it prudent that this army should maintain its position until the latter shall approach too near." Lee prepared to abandon Petersburg and Richmond and move west to join Johnston in North Carolina.
Grant issued false orders for Sheridan's Federals to join William T. Sherman in North Carolina. Sheridan's true orders, issued in secret, were to lead the upcoming Union drive to destroy Lee's army.
On the Gulf Coast front, skirmishing erupted as Union troops led by Major General Edward Richard Sprigg Canby pushed in nearer to Spanish Fort and began firing on Spanish Fort outside Mobile, Alabama.
Other skirmishing occurred at Muddy Creek, Alabama.
Union forces enter Pollard, Alabama, in the Mobile Campaign.
Skirmishing broke out in Bath County, beyond Owingsville, Kentucky.
A Federal expedition moved from Bonnet Carre to the Amite River, Louisiana, in search of the Confederate guerrillas who captured the local provost-marshal of this parish, meeting with no success, as they reportedly searched everywhere.
A detachment of sailors led by Acting Ensign Peyton H. Randolph of the USS Benton joined troops under the command of Brigadier General Bernard G. Farrar in a combined expedition to Trinity, Louisiana, where they captured a small number of Confederate soldiers as well as horses, arms and stores.
Sherman boarded the steamer Russia this morning en route to City Point. He said: "I'm going up to see Grant for five minutes and have it all chalked out for me, and then come back and pitch in."
Confederate envoy James Mason conferred with the Earl of Donoughmore about the Confederacy's offer to free the slaves in exchange for British recognition. The earl stated that had the proposal been made before the Battle of Gettysburg, it would have been accepted. But now, Mason said: "He replied that the time had gone by."
The cavalry command of Union Major General Phillip H. Sheridan crossed the James River and headed towards Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant's lines at Petersburg, Virginia, which would give Grant an even larger force and thin out Confederate General Robert E. Lee's already numerically inadequate defenders. Lee was preparing to give up Petersburg and Richmond so as to pull back westward to attempt a reunion with General Joseph E. Johnston in North Carolina. As Grant laid low and continued to apply pressure on the Army of Northern Virginia, he allowed the other Union armies to one by one dissect the other armies of the Confederacy.
President Abraham Lincoln reviewed troops and watched Sheridan's men cross the James River while on his visit to the main fighting front at Petersburg. Grant and Sheridan later conferred, and prepared instructions for the beginning of the forthcoming campaign. An incident occurred in which Mrs. Lincoln became enraged upon seeing the wife of a Federal general sitting horseback beside the president during the troop review. The first lady vented her wrath on both the general's wife and the wife of General Grant.
General Robert E. Lee wrote to President Davis: "I fear now it will be impossible to prevent a junction between Grant and Sherman, nor do I deem it prudent that this army should maintain its position until the latter shall approach too near." Lee prepared to abandon Petersburg and Richmond and move west to join Johnston in North Carolina.
Grant issued false orders for Sheridan's Federals to join William T. Sherman in North Carolina. Sheridan's true orders, issued in secret, were to lead the upcoming Union drive to destroy Lee's army.
On the Gulf Coast front, skirmishing erupted as Union troops led by Major General Edward Richard Sprigg Canby pushed in nearer to Spanish Fort and began firing on Spanish Fort outside Mobile, Alabama.
Other skirmishing occurred at Muddy Creek, Alabama.
Union forces enter Pollard, Alabama, in the Mobile Campaign.
Skirmishing broke out in Bath County, beyond Owingsville, Kentucky.
A Federal expedition moved from Bonnet Carre to the Amite River, Louisiana, in search of the Confederate guerrillas who captured the local provost-marshal of this parish, meeting with no success, as they reportedly searched everywhere.
A detachment of sailors led by Acting Ensign Peyton H. Randolph of the USS Benton joined troops under the command of Brigadier General Bernard G. Farrar in a combined expedition to Trinity, Louisiana, where they captured a small number of Confederate soldiers as well as horses, arms and stores.
Sherman boarded the steamer Russia this morning en route to City Point. He said: "I'm going up to see Grant for five minutes and have it all chalked out for me, and then come back and pitch in."
Confederate envoy James Mason conferred with the Earl of Donoughmore about the Confederacy's offer to free the slaves in exchange for British recognition. The earl stated that had the proposal been made before the Battle of Gettysburg, it would have been accepted. But now, Mason said: "He replied that the time had gone by."
