Newburgh Raid

Fake cannons found after the Newburgh Raid

Date	July 18, 1862
Location	Newburgh, Indiana
Result	Confederate victory

Belligerents

United States (Union)

Confederate States

Commanders and leaders

Union Bethell

Adam Rankin Johnson

Units involved

Indiana Legion

Confederate partisan rangers

The Newburgh Raid was a successful raid by Confederate partisans on Newburgh, Indiana, on July 18, 1862, making it the first town in a northern state to be captured during the American Civil War. Confederate colonel Adam Rankin Johnson led the raid by using a force of only about 35 men he had recruited from nearby Henderson, Kentucky. They confiscated supplies and ammunition without a shot being fired by tricking Newburgh's defenders into thinking the town was surrounded by cannons. In reality, the so-called cannons were an assemblage of a stove pipe, a charred log, and wagon wheels, forever giving the Confederate commander the nickname of Adam "Stovepipe" Johnson.

The raid convinced the federal government to supply Indiana with a permanent force of regular Union Army soldiers to counter future raids and proved to be a significant boost for Union recruiting in Indiana.

Using the language of the 1862 Confederate Partisan Ranger Act, Johnson pictured himself in a book he wrote later in life as part of a military force operating in an irregular manner under the authority of such superiors as General Nathan Bedford Forrest and General John C. Breckenridge. Yet at the time of the raid, Johnson's own account suggests he had no formal appointment as an officer, wore no uniform, and commanded a hastily assembled body of civilians—more guerrillas than soldiers. Union authorities certainly viewed him as little or nothing more than a brigand, and later rejected the authority of the paroles he had issued to his eighty prisoners.

However, Johnson was not without some experience and authority. Prior to the raid he served as a scout for Gen. Forrest, just missing the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862, in south-central Tennessee, rejoining Forrest at the Confederate base of operations in Corinth, Mississippi. Johnson was ordered by Forrest to go to Henderson, Kentucky, to give a secret message to Mr. D. R. Burbank, a former employer of Johnson's. Just before launching the raid, Johnson's partisans camped at the Soaper Farm in Henderson. With thirty-five men by Johnson's later count (other counts say 32), formed by combining three-man guards for Breckinridge with recruits from Kentucky, Johnson formed a group of partisan rangers that would engage in guerrilla warfare.

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Wikipedia