Chapter 64: Beauregard Returns
On August 5, 1862 Confederate warships sat outside of Annapolis, Maryland and demanded the surrender of the city. Union commander Colonel Dixon Miles refused with a cannon shot from his forts guarding the city. In response Rear Admiral Franklin Buchanan opened up with a tremendous cannonade silencing many guns. Miles knowing he had no hope of holding out was buying time, and during the night withdrew his meager forces from the city. The next day a few of the townspeople sent word to the ships that the Yankee invader had left. Beauregard and his army immediately disembarked.
This wasn’t the same AEM that had left the shores of Maryland. This new army not only contained the veterans of the battles for Maryland and Delaware, but also refugee democrats from New England and New York, Irishmen, A brigade of Cuban infantry, a few regiments of French and Spanish Foreign Legion troops from Africa, plus two regiments of Louisiana Natives (free men of color & mulatto) Infantry.
troops disembarking at Annapolis
It was President Quitman who ordered that men of free color would be part of the liberation of Maryland and Delaware. This was the President and Bismarck’s way of showing Europeans that the South was willing to change that also bills in Congress were being pushed through to allow slaves the opportunity to gain their freedom for them and their families for time served
On August 5, 1862 Confederate warships sat outside of Annapolis, Maryland and demanded the surrender of the city. Union commander Colonel Dixon Miles refused with a cannon shot from his forts guarding the city. In response Rear Admiral Franklin Buchanan opened up with a tremendous cannonade silencing many guns. Miles knowing he had no hope of holding out was buying time, and during the night withdrew his meager forces from the city. The next day a few of the townspeople sent word to the ships that the Yankee invader had left. Beauregard and his army immediately disembarked.
This wasn’t the same AEM that had left the shores of Maryland. This new army not only contained the veterans of the battles for Maryland and Delaware, but also refugee democrats from New England and New York, Irishmen, A brigade of Cuban infantry, a few regiments of French and Spanish Foreign Legion troops from Africa, plus two regiments of Louisiana Natives (free men of color & mulatto) Infantry.
troops disembarking at Annapolis
It was President Quitman who ordered that men of free color would be part of the liberation of Maryland and Delaware. This was the President and Bismarck’s way of showing Europeans that the South was willing to change that also bills in Congress were being pushed through to allow slaves the opportunity to gain their freedom for them and their families for time served