1863 Mar Am Civil War Gazette

The Extra!!! Edition of the American Civil War Gazette contains back issues as well as additional articles that did not appear in the daily edition.


"Sergeant Mason, Corporals Pettinger and Benedick, and Privates Benninger, Buffman and Parrott... have received the first medals awarded by the War Department for meritorious conduct."
-- New York Times, March 26, 1863

Highlights of the March 1863 Edition:

- Medal of Honor (March 25, 1863)
- The first Medals of Honor are awarded to six former PoWs involved in the Great Locomotive Chase (Andrew's Raid)

- The Fall of Vicksburg
- The Petersburgh Express and Memphis Bulletin report a great battle at Vicksburg
- Also reported is the retreat of Confederate forces
- The news is not repeated in Richmond
- Washington disavows the news

- Grant's Vicksburg Campaign continues
- Work on Grant's Canal abandoned
- Lake Providence Expedition (a.k.a. Lake Providence Boondoggle)
- Yazoo Pass Expedition repulsed
- Steele's Bayou Expedition
- Duckport Canal

- Longstreet's Tidewater Operations begin
- Battle of Fort Anderson

- Middle Tennessee Operations continue
- Battle of Thompson's Station
- Battle of Vaught's Hill
- Battle of Brentwood

- Lower Seaboard Theatre
- Battle of Fort McAllister

- Eastern Theatre
- Battle of Kelly's Ford/Kellysville
- Implications for Gettysburg

- Lincoln
- His term in office reaches the two year midpoint March 4, 1863
- "The Time Half Out, And The Task More Than Half Done"
- Offers amnesty to all deserters

- Gen. E.V. Sumner (USA) dies of a heart attack in New-York

- Although not originated in March 1863, the terms 'Copperhead' and 'Skedaddler' become common usage

- Congress
- Adjournment of the 37th United States Congress
- Resolution passed supporting Lincoln's position of no foreign mediation
- Idahoe and Montano Territory [sic]
- The Senate changes the name of the Montano territory to Idahoe
- Establishes a temporary government for the Territory of Idahoe
- A condition of establishment is that slavery is forever prohibited

- Utah
- Reports that the Governor of Utah calls upon the U.S. Army to arrest Brigham Young and other Mormon leaders
- Col. Conner, Third Infantry, California Volunteers denies reports

- The Territory of Arizona is organized
- Boundaries same as modern Arizona, splitting the New Mexico Territory on a North-South line
- Significantly different from C.S.A. organization of Arizona which split the NM Territory on an East-West line

- Supreme Court of the United States
- Rules that the blockade is legal
- "To justify the capture of prizes, a war must exist de facto"
- "Under the Law of Nations, to prosecute a war it was not necessary that both parties should be sovereign nations."
- "We are of the opinion that the President had a right jure belli, to proclaim a blockade which neutrals were bound to observe."