AUGUST 13 1864 – Second Deep Bottom Run Campaign begins. ...It had several other names, New Market Road, Bailey’s Creek, Charles ity Road, and White’s Tavern.
The southerners called it Fussell’s Mill. Union Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock v Robert E. Lee and Charles W. Field. The result: Confederate Victory. Union General Ulysses Grant had erroneously believed that this section between Richmond and Petersburg was lightly defended, and concentrated his troops in that area. On the night of August 14, Hancock and his men crossed James River at Deep Bottom to invade Richmond, organizing a movement against the Weldon Railroad at Petersburg.
Between August 14 and the 20th, the Union army attempted to find a weak point, and initially had some success breaking through the Confederate Line and Fussell’s Mill. However Confederate counterattacks drove the Yankees out of a line of captured works. The battle raged on throughout the rest of the day. By the 20th, the Yankees returned to the south side of James and the Confederates accomplished their mission of driving back the Union forces. The Federals lost around 3,000 men, the Rebels around 1,500, including Confederate general John Chambliss during cavalry fighting on Charles City Road.
After continual skirmishing, the Federals returned to the Southside of the James on the 20th, maintaining their bridgehead at Deep Bottom.
1887 – Happy birthday Julius Freed. He had an orange juice stand in LA in the 1920s. It did pretty well, raking in over $20 per day, or well over $250 by today’s currency. His real estate broker, Bill Hamlin, came up with a sweet version to drink it so the acid wouldn’t bother his stomach so much. Julius threw in some powdered egg whites and cream to make it frothier and sweeter, and people started lining up the streets at his stand, yelling, Give me an orange, Julius! His contribution to American us still in huge demand at every mall in America and beyond to this day.
1860 – Happy birthday Annie Oakley. She was an amazing sharpshooter from the Old West who toured with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. She was born Phoebe Ann Moses on August 13, 1860 in Drake County, OH. She recalled her best shot came when she was eight years old. She used a rifle to shoot a squirrel in the head to preserve the meat for that night’s squirrel stew supper.
Later on in life, she beat a professional shooter named Frank Butler by one clay pigeon. The two had a mutual respect for each other, and married in June 1876. Annie and Frank were a team on exhibition shows and she was called the peerless wing and rifle shot. Sitting Bull was particularly fond of her, calling her Little Sure Shot.
They joined Balliol Bills Wild West tour, where she would either shoot a cigar out of her husband’s mouth or a quarter from his fingertips. She could also hit playing cards from 30 paces and even shoot distant targets from behind while looking in a mirror. In the 1900s during WWI she raised money for the Red Cross, taught women how to shoot. She was in a nearly debilitating car crash in the early 1920s, but she did manage to perform a bit in 1924. She died upon retirement in Greenville, OH, at age 66. Her husband, Frank, died 18 days later. She was immortalized in 1946 in the Irving Berlin Annie Get Your Gun, and countless other film, book and TV adaptation. Reba McIntyre played the role of Annie in the Broadway musical.
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