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18641776 Club

Confederates strike from behind; a Union column is wrecked in Gainesville's square

Colonel Harris loses 188 men captured and a howitzer before he can even form a line.

Union troops rode into Gainesville, Florida on August 17, 1864, expecting to hold a town they had raided before. Captain John Jackson Dickison's Confederate cavalry hit Colonel Andrew Harris's column from the rear before it could deploy, and two hours of fighting in the town square ended with the Union force shattered. Only about 40 of Colonel Harris's men, including Harris himself, made it out; the rest were killed, captured, or scattered in the retreat. Gainesville stayed in Confederate hands for the rest of the war…

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More from August 17
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19431776 Club
A five-week race up the island ends with the Seventh Army first through the gates.
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More from Civil War & Reconstruction
1861

Tennessee votes to leave the Union; the eleventh state is also the last

Middle Tennessee swings from 51 percent against secession in February to 88 percent in favor today, providing the decisive margin, though East Tennessee refuses to accept the result.
1863

Pleasonton crosses the Rappahannock at dawn; Stuart's cavalry fights all day to hold Fleetwood Hill

Eleven thousand Union horsemen hit the Confederate camps from two directions at once, and though the Federals withdraw by nightfall, the aura of easy Southern dominance on horseback does not survive the day.
1865

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