The American Civil War - Chronologically

Dec. 31, 1862 Loss of the USS Monitor  Off Cape Hatters, NC (aka The Graveyard of the Atlantic)  https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=32134 The Loss of the USS Monitor In the age old battle of man against the sea, the USS Monitor, en route to Beaufort , North Carolina under tow by the USS Rhode Island, foundered in a gale sixteen miles off the coast of Cape Hatteras at approximately 1:30 a.m. on New Year's Eve 1862. "We had left behind us, one more treasure added to the priceless store which the Ocean so jealously hides. The Cumberland and Congress went first; the little boat that avenged their loss followed; in both noble souls have gone down. Their names are for history; and as long as we remain a people, so long will the work of the Monitor be remembered, and her story told to our children's children." - Greenville M. Weeks, Surgeon USS Monitor (back side of marker): Maritime Casualties of the American Civil War Jan. 15, 1862 - The Graveyard of the Atlantic claims the live...

Winter 1862 - 1863 Stafford, VA Aquia Creek Landing Defenses: NY Troops of the XII Corps, 2nd Division, Army of the Potomac  Union Infantry Winter Camp: XI Corps, 1st and 3rd Division, Army of the Potomac ( NY, OH, CT, PA, IL and WI units) https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=2191 " On the ridge to the north stood the third of three large fortifications or redoubts built during February and March of 1863 by the Army of the Potomac. This redoubt protected Aquia Landing and the nearby camps of the Union 12th Corps. The fortification was square-shaped and designed for a garrison of 100 men. It was supported by four 3-inch guns. The actual site of redoubt No. 3 is currently marked with a large granite memorial erected in 2005." The actual site of redoubt No. 3: https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=2192 "Established on this spot in February of 1863, by New York troops of the 12th Corps, 2nd Division, Army of the Potomac, Redoubt #3 was manned by up to 100 soldiers and supported by 4 rifled a...

December 17, 1862 Battle Of Goldsborough Bridge (AKA Goldsboro) Dudley (near Goldsboro), North Carolina, in Wayne County   Maj. Gen. John G. Foster (17th Massachusetts and 9th New Jersey; Lieutenant George Graham of the 24th New York Artillery and Lieutenant Barnabas Mann of the 17th Massachusetts set fire to the bridge) vs. Brig. Gen. Thomas Clingman (51st and 52nd North Carolina regiments; counterattack by 8th and 61st North Carolina plus Mallett’s Battalion ) * Here is the culmination of  Foster's Raid ( defeating smaller Confederate forces at Southwest Creek, Kinston, and Whitehall along the way)  to disrupt the railroad, though admittedly the Rebs rebuilt it within weeks. Ironically, the Rebs burned it down themselves when they fled from here in 1865 after Bentonville.  * Overshadowed by Fredericksburg, occurring almost simultaneously  https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=284089 Battle Of Goldsborough Bridge A "Perfect Success" —Foster’s Raid— Welcom...

Dec. 15, 1862 White's Ford North of Leesburg, VA "Confederate Maj. Elijah V. White returns by way of White's Ford from a raid on Poolesville, MD." yes, this gets its own page!

December 15-16, 1862 Battle of Whitehall present-day Seven Springs in Wayne County, NC  Maj. Gen. John G. Foster vs. Brig. Gen. B. H. Robertson * Foster heading toward the railroad bridge at Goldsboro , encounters the just-leaving Confederates at a bridge of the Neuse - and tries to destroy their ironclad. Returns the next day to try and slip past the Confederates, but it ends up being a long battle; Foster heads back to New Bern without getting the railroad bridge (don't worry - we'll get it later. * Foster left 100 dead on the field for the Confederates to find! Northern newspapers did NOT appreciate that.    * Roughly contemporaneous with the doomed Union assault at Fredericksburg, this was meant to keep the pressure on all along the line.  https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=207551 Battle of Whitehall  On December 15-16, 1862, on a raid at Whitehall, Union troops led by Gen. J.G. Foster damaged the Confederate Ram "Neuse."   Erected 1970 by State Department ...