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Thursday, July 9, 1863

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Army Events:

			Expedition from:	Batesville, AR	May 30 - February 3, 1864
			Expedition from:	Beaver Creek, KY	July 3 - 11, 1863
			Skirmish:	Beaver Creek, MD	July 9, 1863
			Skirmish:	Benevola, MD	July 9, 1863
			Skirmish:	Brandenburg, KY	July 9, 1863
			Skirmish:	Chester Gap, VA	July 9, 1863
			Skirmish:	Clinton, MS	July 9, 1863
			Skirmish:	Corydon, IN	July 9, 1863
			Skirmish:	Cross Hollow, AR	July 1863
			Affair:	Fort Lyon, VA	July 9, 1863
			Campaign:	Gettysburg, PA	June 3 - August 11, 1863
			Raid:	Indiana, Morgan's Raid in, IN	July 9 - 13, 1863
			Skirmish:	Jackson, MS	July 9, 1863
			Campaign:	Jackson, MS	July 5 - 25, 1863
			Expedition to:	James Island, SC	July 9 - 16, 1863
			Attack:	Mississippi River	July 7 - 10, 1863
			Operation:	Morgan's Raid	July 2 - 26, 1863
			Operation:	Navajo Indians, New Mexico Territory	July 7 - August 19, 1863
			Expedition from:	Pocohontas, TN	July 7 - 22, 1863
			Expedition to:	Pontotoc, MS	July 7 - 22, 1863
			Surrender:	Port Hudson, LA	July 9, 1863
			Expedition to:	Pound Gap, KY	July 3 - 11, 1863
			Skirmish:	Redwood Creek, CA	July 9, 1863
			Expedition:	Sioux Expedition, Dakota Territory	June 16 - September 13, 1863
			Expedition against:	Snake Indians, Idaho Territory	May 4 - October 26, 1863
			Expedition to:	Southwestern Virginia	July 3 - 11, 1863

(Source: Compendium of the War of the Rebellion Vol. I, p. 660-991. Frederick H. Dyer.)

Naval Events:

Port Hudson, Louisiana, surrendered after a prolonged attack by Union naval and land forces. The journal of U.S.S. Richmond recorded: "This morning at daylight our troops took possession of the rebel stronghold. . . . At 10 a.m. the Hartford and Albatross came down from above the batteries and anchored ahead of us. General Banks raised the stars and stripes over the citadel and fired a salute of thirty-five guns." A week later Rear Admiral Farragut wrote from New Orleans: "We have done our part of the work assigned to us, and all has worked well. My last dash past Port Hudson was the best thing I ever did, except taking New Orleans. It assisted materially in the fall of Vicksburg and Port Hudson." The long drive to wrest control of the entire Mississippi River, beginning in the north at Fort Henry and in the south at New Orleans early in 1862, was over.

Farragut, off Donaldsonville, Louisiana, wrote Rear Admiral Porter: "The Department, I presume, anticipated the fall of Vicksburg and Port Hudson by the time their dispatch would reach me, in which they tell me that 'I will now be able to turn over the Mississippi River to you and give my more particular attention to the blockade on the different points on the coast.' . . . There are here, as above, some 10,000 Texans, who have 15 or 20 pieces of light artillery, and have cut embrasures in the levee and annoy our vessels very much." Farragut requested Porter to send down one or two ironclads which "would then be able to keep open the communications perfectly between Port Hudson and New Orleans."

Commander Bulloch wrote Secretary Mallory from Paris regarding the ironclads being built in Europe for the South. Noting that it had not been difficult to sign crews for commerce raiders C.S.S. Alabama and Florida because they held out to the men, "not only the captivating excitment of adventure but the positive expectation of prize money," he revealed that it was a much greater problem to man the ironclads. "Their grim aspect and formidable equipment," he wrote, "clearly show that they are solely intended for the real danger and shock of battle. . . ."

Recognizing that Wilmington was the key port through which blockade runners were finding passage, Bulloch recommended that the warships be sent to that port "as speedily as possible . . . [to] entirely destroy the blockading vessels." Once this was accomplished, the ships could turn their attentions elsewhere for "a decisive blow in any direction, north or south." Bulloch suggested that they could steam up the coast, striking at Washington, Philadelphia, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The high hopes placed on these ironclads were to no avail, however, for they were seized by the British prior to their completion and never reached Confederate waters.

Boat crew from U.S.S. Tahoma, commanded by Lieutenant Commander A. A. Semmes, captured an unnamed flatboat with cargo of sugar and molasses near Manatee River, Florida.

(Source: Civil War Naval Chronology 1861-1865. pp. I:1-41; II:1-117; III:1-170; IV:1-152; V:1-134. 1971: Naval History Division, Navy Department.)

Additional Information:

The Battle of Port Hudson, Louisiana. (LA010) (Siege of Port Hudson [May-July 1863]).

After learning of the Confederate surrender of Vicksburg, Mississippi, Major General Franklin Gardner, CSA, formally surrenders Port Hudson, Louisiana, to Major General Nathaniel P. Banks, USA, after prolonged attack by Northern sea and land forces. Port Hudson was the last Confederate position along the Mississippi River. The Union had won the war in the West, giving the Federals control of the Mississippi River, thus splitting the Confederacy, and adds 6,500 Confederate troops to Union prisons.

The Battle of Williamsport, Maryland. (MD004) (Gettysburg Campaign [June-July 1863]).

The Battle of Corydon, Indiana. (IN001) (Morgan's Raid in Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio [July 1863]).

Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan, CSA, crosses the Ohio River into Indiana, at Cumming's Ferry, Kentucky, and at Bradenburg, Kentucky, near Louisville, Kentucky (July 8-9, 1863).

(Source: Civil War Sites Advisory Commission Report: Battle Summaries. National Park Service. In The Civil War Battlefield Guide, 2nd ed., 1998. Edited by Frances H. Kennedy; The Chronological Tracking Of The American Civil War Per The Offical Records Of The War of the Rebellion pp. 1-336. Ronald A. Mosocco.)