| Newburgh Raid | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the American Civil War | |||||||
 Fake cannons found after the Newburgh Raid | |||||||
| |||||||
| 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.[1] 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.[2]
- ^ Reid, Richard. Newburgh Raid (Sandefur Printing, 1992) p.10
- ^ "Raid History". Newburgh Museum. Retrieved October 5, 2016.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
