On This Day - 15th January Prev / Next
Tuesday January 15 1861
- The 2nd demand is made for the surrender of Fort Pickens, FL.
- The Depts. of California and Oregon are merged into the Dept. of the Pacific.
- Col. Albert Sidney Johnston, 2nd US Cavalry, Brvt. Brig. Gen. USA, assumes the command of the Dept. of the Pacific.
Wednesday January 15 1862
- Federal expeditions to Benton, Bloomfield, and Dallas, MO. (Jan 15-17)
- Federal reconnaissance from Paducah, KY, to Fort Henry, TN, a combined joint effort of Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, USA, along with Brig. Gen. John McClernand, USA, and Federal gunboats, against Brig. Gen. Lloyd Tilghman, CSA. (Jan 15-25)
Thursday January 15 1863
- Maj. Gen. David Rumph Jones, CSA, dies in Richmond, VA, from heart disease.
- Mound City, AR, is burned by the Union expeditionary forces.
Friday January 15 1864
- Federal scouts near Round Pairie, Jackson County, MO, against guerrillas. (Jan 15-17)
- Skirmish near Petersburg, WV.
Sunday January 15 1865
- Skirmish in Madison County, AR.
- Federal expeditions against guerrillas from Pine Bluff, AR. One local doctor fled from his house with about 25 other guerrillas as the Yankees gave pursuit. His wife screamed at the top of her lungs from her porch to the Federals, pleading with them not to kill her husband. (Jan 15-18)
- Federal scout against the Sioux Indians from Fort Larned to Pawnee Fork, Walnut Creek, and Smoky Hill River, KS. The Yankees fail to find any Sioux, but report the buffalo which were plentiful along their trip suddenly disappeared, indicating that the Indian tribes were in the vicinity and on the hunt. (Jan 15-21)
- Federal expedition from New Orleans aboard the schooner, Cazador, to Mandeville, LA, and capture of some prisoners, and provisions. (Jan 15-17)
- The assault on and the capture of Fort Fisher, near Wilmington, NC, by the expeditionary forces under Brig. Gen. Alfred H. Terry, USA, which effectively closes the last major Confederate port for blockade runners. Total casualties approximate 1,840.
- Maj. Gen. William Henry Chase Whiting, CSA, is mortally wounded at the Federal assault on Fort Fisher, NC, captured by the Federals and dying as a prisoner of war, on Mar 10)
- The US monitor, USS Patapsco, is destroyed in the Charleston Harbor, SC, after striking a Confederate torpedo.
- The 23rd US Army Corps, under Maj. Gen. James Schofield, USA, embarks at Clifton, TN, by water transports for the East, by way of Cincinnati, OH, then by rail to Washington, DC, and finally by ocean transport to later capture Wilmington, NC. (Jan 15-18)
- Maj. Gen. John Gibbon, USA, assumes the command of the 24th US Army Corps, the Richmond, VA, Campaign.
On This Day information kindly provided by Martin Cross, 2nd U.S. Artillery, Bty B.