Portal:American Civil War/This week in American Civil War history/39

September 19

1862 - Iuka - Sterling Price's Army of the West was attacked and defeated by units of the Army of the Ohio and the Army of the Tennessee under William Rosecrans in the opening battle of the Iuka-Corinth campaign

1862 - Shepherdstown (Boteler's Ford) - Federal units under Fitz-John Porter are smashed while crossing the Potomac River by rear guard Confederate units under A. P. Hill

1863 - Chickamauga - Determined attacks by the Army of Tennessee under Braxton Bragg and James Longstreet defeat the Army of the Cumberland under William Rosecrans

1864 - Opequon - The Army of the Shenandoah under Philip Sheridan decisively defeated raiding troops under Jubal Early in Winchester, Virginia, forcing Confederate retreat to Fisher's Hill

September 20

1861 - Battle of the Hemp Bales - Missouri State Guardsmen under Thomas A. Harris created rolling breastworks composed of water-soaked hemp bales; the Guardsmen used the bales as cover until close enough to quickly overrun Union defenses

September 22

1862 - Emancipation Proclamation - After the Army of the Potomac's success at the Antietam, President Abraham Lincoln issued the first executive order freeing slaves in the former states rebelling against the Union on January 1, 1863

1864 - Fisher's Hill - Concentrated Confederate forces under Jubal Early are routed, leaving the important Shenandoah Valley open for scorched earth tactics by the Union victors

September 23

1862 - Wood Lake - Union volunteers under Henry Hastings Sibley avoid ambush in Yellow Medicine County, Minnesota, and defeat Sioux under Chief Little Crow in the Dakota War of 1862