Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, Jan. 22.

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ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, Jan. 22.

1861: The New Orleans Daily Crescent reports that delegates to the Louisiana Legislature and the Louisiana Secession Convention are pouring into Baton Rouge, where the convention will convene the next day. The newspaper reports the general sentiment prevailing is for secession from the Union.

La. Gov. Thomas Overton Moore

led Louisiana out of the Union,

but former La. governor & U.S. Senator

Alexandre Mouton was president of the

La. Secession Convention.

President Alexandre Mouton of the

Louisiana Secession Convention

(Library of Congress)

An Early Secession Banner

1862: The New Orleans Daily Crescent reports that the Louisiana Militia will have a grand celebration for the first anniversary of the secession from the Union by Louisiana. The militia order notes, ". . . this great and glorious event should be celebrated in a manner worthy of a chivalrous and patriotic people, who disenthralled themselves and their political connection with a government whose principals were diametrically averse to the guaranteed constitutional rights, and their domestic institutions."

Louisiana Republic flag.

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, Jan. 22.

Brigadier General Merriwether Jeff Thompson was born in 1826 in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Before the war, he worked as a store clerk, and city engineer was elected the Mayor of St. Joseph, Mo., and presided over the first Pony Express ride in 1860. He started out the war as a lieutenant colonel in the Missouri State Militia and led a battalion in partisan attacks gaining them the nickname, "Swamp Fox of the Confederacy." He was promoted to brigadier general in the Missouri State Guard led cavalry raids on the enemy and was in several battles in Arkansas. He was captured in 1864. Exchanged, he participated in Major General Sterling Price's Missouri Expedition in 1864. Thompson fought in the battles of Westport, Mine Creek, and Newtonia. He surrendered on May 11, 1865. After the war, Jeff Thompson settled in New Orleans where he worked as a civil engineer. He moved to St. Joseph, Mo. where he died Sept. 5, 1876, and was buried in Mount Mora Cemetery.

Brig. Gen. M. Jeff Thompson

Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, Jan. 21.

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ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, Jan. 21.

Lieutenant General Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson was born on this day in 1824 in Clarksburg, Virginia. Of humble origins, Jackson was of Scotch-Irish heritage and both of his parents, Julia Beckwith Neale Jackson and Jonathan Jackson, an attorney, were dead by the time he was seven. He was raised by an uncle, Cummins Jackson. Thomas was admitted to West Point and graduated with the Class of 1846 ranking 17th out of 56 cadets. Jackson was assigned as a second lieutenant in Co. K, 1st U.S. Artillery and compiled an outstanding record in the Mexican-American War, rising to the rank of brevet major. He fought at the Siege of Vera Cruz, and the battles of Contreras, Chapultepec, and Mexico City. After the war, he reverted to first lieutenant and served in the Second Seminole War and frontier duty. He resigned because he could not get along with his commanding officer. Jackson then got a professorship at the Virginia Military Institute. During this period, he married Elinor Junkin Jackson who died from childbirth along with the baby boy. His second wife Martha Anna Morrison Jackson had one child, Julia, both of whom survived Jackson. After the War for South Independence started his military genius soon became apparent and he rose quickly from brigadier general to lieutenant general and commander of the Second Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia. Jackson gained his nickname "Stonewall" at First Manassas in 1861. Jackson then amazed the world with his victories, including the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1862, the Seven Days Battles, Cedar Mountain, Second Manassas, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville in 1863, where he was mortally wounded. He died May 10, 1863, at Guinea Station, Virginia. Stonewall Jackson was buried in Lexington, Va. His fame is enduring, and his military tactics were admired and used by several World War II generals.

Lt. Gen. Thomas J. Jackson

1863: Confederate cotton-clad gunboats Uncle Ben and Josiah Bell, with Lt. Dick Dowling's artillery company, Co. F, 1st Texas Heavy Artillery, and Capt. George O'Brien's Company E, 11th Bn. Tex. Vols. as sharpshooters, chased two Federal blockaders, Morning Light and Velocity, for 30 miles in the Gulf of Mexico off Sabine Pass, Texas. A sharp sea battle was fought and both Yankee ships were captured. This was the third battle won by the Confederates in Texas in January. The other two were the Battle of Galveston on Jan. 1, 1863, and the sea battle between the CSS Alabama commanded by Captain Raphael Semmes, and the USS Hatteras in the Gulf of Mexico near Galveston. 

Major Richard W. "Dicks" Dowling

(LLMVC, Hill Mem. Lib., LSU)

Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, Jan. 20.

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ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, Jan 20.

1861: Mississippi state militia seized Fort Massachusetts which is located on Ship Island in the Gulf of Mexico. The fort was as of yet unfinished. It would become a major base for the Federal's invasion of Louisiana. It was also an important port for refueling its blockaders in the Gulf of Mexico.

Early war Confederate with musket

side knife and "Jeff Davis and the

South" sign, probably photographed.

in Corinth, Miss. (Library of Congress)

1862: The blockade-running ship J.W. Wilder is beached when prevented from entering Charleston Harbor by a sunken ship that the Federals put there. The Northerners tried to land to seize the ship but were prevented from doing so by Confederate troops.

1863: President Jefferson Davis made five general appointments on the day. He promoted Joseph "Fightin' Joe" Wheeler to major general. The president also appointed the following to brigadier general: Frank Crawford Armstrong, William Lewis Cabell, George Blake Cosby, and Marcellus Augustus Stovall.

1864: President Jefferson Davis appointed two men to brigadier general in the Confederate Army on this day, and Nathaniel Harrison Harris, Clement Hoffman Stevens.

1865: President Jefferson Davis appointed William McComb as brigadier general in the Army of Northern Virginia. At Appomattox Courthouse, his brigade, in Heth's Division, consisting of the 2nd Battalion Maryland Infantry, 1st, 7th, 14th, 17th, 23rd, 25th 44th, and 63rd Tennessee infantry regiments.

Brig. Gen. William McComb

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, Jan. 20.

NONE.

Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, Jan. 19.

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ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, Jan.19.

1807: Robert Edward Lee was born at Stratford Hall in Westmoreland County, Virginia to Revolutionary War hero Henry Lee III and Anne Hill Carter Lee in 1807. He graduated from West Point in 1829, second in his class, with no demerits. He started his long military career in the U.S. Army with engineering assignments nationwide. Lee became a hero himself in the Mexican American War serving on Gen. Winfield Scott's staff as an engineer. He went on many dangerous assignments behind enemy lines finding the best routes to Mexico City. Married to the granddaughter of Martha Washington, Mary Anna Randolph Custis, Lee began a long residence in Arlington House. The couple would have seven children, three boys, and four girls. He became a Confederate general in 1861 and two of his sons also became Confederate generals and the third a Confederate captain. Lee is considered widely as one of the greatest military geniuses in world history and the embodiment of honor, duty, and integrity. After the war, he was the president of Washington College in Lexington, Va., and saved the college and put it on the road to being one of the great universities, now Washington and Lee University, in the nation. A devout Christian gentleman, he died on Oct. 12, 1870, at home at age 63. He is entombed in his family crypt under Lee Chapel, which he had built, on the university campus. Robert E. Lee is greatly revered by many people around the world and his birthday is an official holiday in several Southern states.

General Robert E. Lee

(Cdv, M.D. Jones collection)

1861: Georgia becomes the fifth state to secede from the Union on this date. The vote to secede is 208-89. Georgia would furnish 120,000 men to the Confederate Army in the War for Southern Independence.

Co. K, 4th Ga. Inf. in April 1861 with a First

National Confederate flag. Click on the image to enlarge it.

(Library of Congress)

1862: There is minor skirmishing near Williamsburg and the Burnt Ordinary in Virginia.

1865: General Robert E. Lee is made General-In-Chief of all Confederate armies.

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, Jan. 19.

General Robert Edward Lee was born in 1807 at Stratford Hall, Westmoreland County, Virginia. See the above biography. 

Gen. Robert E. Lee

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Brigadier General George Blake Cosby was born on this day in 1830 in Louisville, Kentucky. He graduated from West Point in the class of 1852 17th in a class of 42 cadets. Cosby was a 2nd Lt. in the U.S. Mounted Riflemen and was wounded fighting Indians at Lake Trinidad, Texas on May 9, 1852. He also served 2nd U.S. Cav., taught at West Point, and had risen to captain by the time he resigned in 1861 and joined the Confederate Army. He served in various staff positions as a captain, major, and colonel and was captured in the surrender of Fort Donelson, Tenn. in Feb. 1862. He was then promoted to brigadier general. After being exchanged, he was promoted to brigadier general on Jan. 20, 1863, and was given command of a cavalry brigade in the Dept. of Miss. & E. La. He served in the Vicksburg Campaign under Gen. J.E. Johnston at Jackson, Miss., and later was in the Battle of Thompson Station, Tenn., and in 1864 in the Dept. of S.W. Va., and the Dept. of W. Va. He disbanded his brigade when he got news of the surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, Va. After the war, he moved out west and lived in California and Oregon working as a sutler and in the California state government. He died June 29, 1909, at Oakland, Calif., and was buried in the City Cemetery in Sacramento, Calif.

Brig. Gen. George Blake Cosby

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Brigadier General Henry Gray was born on this day in 1816 in Laurens District, South Carolina. He was a graduate of South Carolina College in 1834 and had an outstanding career in law and politics in the states of Mississippi and Louisiana. He began the War for Southern Independence as a private in a Mississippi infantry company when his old friend President Jefferson Davis asked to go back to Louisiana to raise a regiment that became the 28th Louisiana Infantry Regiment. His regiment fought in the Bayou Teche Campaign of 1863 and the Red River Campaign of 1864 in Louisiana. He personally led Mouton's Brigade, still a colonel, in the Battle of Mansfield, La. April 8, 1864, and again the next day in the Battle of Pleasant Hill, La. Gray was then elected to the Confederate Congress when in the closing days of the was promoted to brigadier general and commanded a cavalry brigade in Louisiana. After the war, he resumed his distinguished law career and was a popular orator around the state of Louisiana. He died at his daughter's house in Coushatta, La. on Dec. 11, 1892, and was buried in the Springville Cemetery near Coushatta.

Brig. Gen. Henry Gray

(Library of Congress)

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Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, Jan. 18.

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ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, Jan. 18.

Confederate artillery captain

(Painting by W.L. Sheppard, 1903)

1862: Former U.S. President, and Confederate Congressman, John Tyler died and was buried on this day in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Va. which was the capital of the C.S.A. Tyler was the 10th U.S. President, but the Virginia native sided with the Confederacy when Virginia left the Union. 

1864: Protest meetings occur in North Carolina over the Confederate conscription law. Men 18 to 45 are subject to military conscription. But only a small percentage of the Confederate Army and over 90 percent are volunteers. The law was shortly expanded to ages 17 to 50. In the North, there was a major riot in New York City over the Federal conscription law. 

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, Jan. 18.

Brigadier General Abraham Buford was born on this day in 1820 in Woodford County, Kentucky.  An 1841 graduate of West Point, Buford was a veteran of the Mexican-American War. Buford was on frontier duty afterward. He resigned in 1854 and was a farmer until the War for Southern Independence when he became a brigadier general and commanded a brigade under Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest. His battles included Stones River, Champion Hill, Brice's Crossroads, Murfreesboro, Hood's Retreat, Richland Creek, Franklin, and Wilson's Raid. Following the war, he returned to farming and horse breeding in Kentucky. He died June 9, 1884, at Danville, Indiana, and was buried in Lexington Cemetery, Lexington, Ky.

Brig. Gen. Abraham Buford

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Brigadier General James Chesnut Jr. was born on this day in 1815 in Camden, South Carolina. He was a South Carolina aristocrat and politician who served in the U.S. Senate, the South Carolina Secession Convention was an aide to Gen. Beauregard in the firing on Fort Sumter in 1861 and at the First Battle of Manassas. He was appointed a colonel by President Davis and served as a military adviser to the President. Chestnut was the husband of Mary Chesnut, the famous Southern diarist. He was promoted to brigadier general in 1864 and commanded the South Carolina reserve forces. He was in the Battle of Tulifinny. After the war, he practiced law at Camden and formed the Conservative Party. Chesnut died Feb. 1, 1885, in Camden and was buried in the Chestnut Family Cemetery in Kershaw County, S.C.

Brig. Gen. James Chesnut Jr.

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Brigadier General Richard Caswell Gatlin was born on this day in 1809 in Lenoir, North Carolina. He was an 1832 graduate of West Point and ranked 35th in his class. Gatlin served in the Seminole War, on frontier duty, and defended Fort Brown, Texas in the Mexican-American War. He then served in the Third Seminole War (1855-58), and in the Utah War (1857-58) of Gen. Albert Sydney Johnston. He was captured by Confederates at Fort Smith, Ark. in 1861, was paroled, resigned his commission in the U.S. Army, and served his state as adjutant general of N.C. militia with the rank of major general. He joined the Confederate Army and was made a colonel and was assigned to coastal defense in N.C. Gatlin was promoted to brigadier general in August 1861 and assigned to command the Department of N.C. and coastal defenses. He was relieved from duty due to illness on March 19, 1862, and resigned in Sept. 1862, but later served as adjutant and inspector general of N.C. Following the war, he farmed in Sebastian County, Ark. In 1881 he moved to Fort Smith, Ark. He died at Mount Nebo, Ark. Sept. 8, 1896, and was buried at Fort Smith National Cemetery.

Brig. Gen. Richard C. Gatlin

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Brigadier General William Whann Mackall was born on this day in 1817 in Cecil County, Maryland. He was an 1837 graduate from West Point where he ranked 8th in a class of 50 cadets. While serving as a 1st Lt. in the 1st U.S. Artillery Regiment, he was severely wounded on July 9, 1839, at River Inlet, Fla. during the Second Seminole War (1835-42). In the Mexican American War, Mackall was in the battles of Monterey, Contreras, Churubusco, and Chapultepec where he was wounded on Sept. 13, 1847. He resigned from the U.S. Army on July 3, 1861. He became adjutant general on Gen. A.S. Johnston's staff and commanded a brigade in the defenses of Island No. 10 in the Mississippi River where he was taken, prisoner. Mackall was exchanged on Aug. 15, 1862. He had a series of staff jobs and then commanded a brigade in Maj. Gen. J.H. Forney's division in the Dept. of Miss. & E. La. in 1863-64. Mackall then became chief of staff for Gen. Joseph E. Johnston in the Army of Tennessee. He refused to serve under Gen. John Bell Hood and remained inactive at Macon, Ga. His last duty in the war was commanding Confederate forces in South Georgia in March and April 1865. After the war, Mackall was in the real estate business and died on Aug. 12, 1891, on his farm in Fairfax Co., Va., and was buried at Lewinsville Presbyterian Church Cemetery, McLean, Va.

Brig. Gen. William W. Mackall

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Brigadier General Lloyd Tilghman was born on this day in 1816 in Claiborne County, Maryland. Tilghman graduated from West Point in the class of 1836 near the bottom of his class. Afterward, he served for only three months as a second lieutenant in the 1st U.S. Dragoons and resigned. Tilghman then worked as a construction engineer, served as a volunteer in the artillery in the Mexican American War, and in 1852 lived in Paducah, Ky. In the War for Southern Independence, he served as colonel of the 3rd Ky. Inf.  Tilghman was then appointed to construct defenses on the rivers in Gen. A.S. Johnston's western department. He was captured by the Federals at Fort Henry and exchanged on Aug. 15, 1862.  Tilghman became a brigade commander and fought at the Second Battle of Corinth. In the Vicksburg campaign, Tilghman was killed in action on May 16, 1863, at the Battle of Champion's Hill, Mississippi. His body was removed in 1902 to be buried next to his wife at Woodlawn Cemetery, The Bronx, New York City.

Brig. Gen. Lloyd Tilghman

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Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, Jan. 17.

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ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, Jan. 17.

1862: The Memphis Daily Appeal newspaper reports the Confederate Congress passed an act granting bonuses to all privates, musicians, and non-commissioned officers who volunteered for 12 months, will be paid a $50 bonus for reenlisting for three years or the end of the war, if sooner. A fleet of Federal gunboats attacked Confederate Fort Henry on the Tennessee River on this day as a prelude to a major advance along the river by the Federal Army. The Confederate bastion was a star-shaped fort 12 miles west of Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River. Fort Henry had 17 heavy artillery pieces, including a 10-inch Columbiad. 

1863: The Memphis Daily Appeal reports the casualties of the 5th Regiment Mississippi Volunteers for the Battle of Murfreesboro: Field and Staff--Wounds: Lieut. Col. W. K. Sykes, severely in the shoulder; Adj't W.M. Oglesby, slightly in the head; Acting Serg't-Major W.K. Meeks, killed. . . .

President Davis appointed three Confederate major generals and four brigadier generals on this day. The major generals were Daniel Smith Donelson, Jubal Anderson Early, and Isaac Ridgeway Trimble. The brigadier generals were Henry Lewis Benning, Robert Frederick Hoke, Samuel McGowan, and William Tatum Wofford.

Two unidentified Mississippi Confederates

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, Jan. 17.

NONE.

Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, Jan. 16.

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ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, Jan. 16.

1863: CSS Florida slips out of Mobile Bay and past the blockade on this date to begin its naval campaign against Union commerce shipping. It was under the command of Lieutenant John Newland Maffitt. It was a sloop-of-war, 191 ft. long, 27.2 beams, 13 ft. draft, speed 9.5-knot speed, 1 46 crewmen. It had six, 6-inch rifled guns, two, 7-inch rifled guns, and one, 12-pounder boat howitzer.

1865: At the recently captured Fort Fisher, two drunken Federal soldiers foraging for loot enter with torches an ammunition magazine and blew up 13,000 pounds of gunpowder. Killed in the explosion were 25 and 66 wounded. It was the largest Confederate fort and was manned by the entire 36th North Carolina Infantry. It also had numerous large-caliber, 8- and 10-inch Columbiads and numerous other guns.

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, Jan. 16.

Major General George Edward Pickett was born on this day in 1825 in Richmond, Virginia. He graduated from West Point in 1846, the last in his class of 59 cadets. Pickett, a second lieutenant in the Mexican-American War, he fought in the Battle of Chapultepec, Mexico, and rose to the rank of captain. He participated Pig War of 1859. Resigning from the U.S. Army in 1861, he joined the Confederate Army and by January 1862 was a brigadier general. He led a brigade in The Peninsula Campaign, the Suffolk Campaign, the Battle of Gettysburg (most prominently in Pickett's Charge), the Second Battle of Petersburg, and finally the Appomattox Campaign and the Battle of Five Forks. Following the war, he moved to Canada and didn't return to Virginia in 1866. He died July 30, 1875, in Norfolk, Virginia, and was buried in Richmond, Va. at Hollywood Cemetery.

Maj. Gen. George E. Pickett

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Brigadier General James Phillip Simms was born on this day in 1837 in Covington, Georgia. Before the war he practiced law in Covington, Ga., and was a brigadier general in the Georgia militia. Starting out the War for Southern Independence as a second lieutenant, he served in the 6th Georgia Militia, and the 42nd Georgia Infantry, and worked his way up to a major in the 53rd Georgia Infantry, and then colonel of the regiment. He was with this regiment at the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Salem Church, and the Battle of Gettysburg. He and his regiment were with Longstreet's Corps in the Chattanooga Campaign and the Knoxville Campaign in Tennessee where he was wounded at the Battle of Fort Sanders. Simms commanded a brigade in Jubal Early's Valley Campaign of 1864 and distinguished himself at the Battle of Cedar Creek. He was promoted to brigadier general on Dec. 8, 1864, and was in the Siege of Petersburg, and the Battle of Sayler's Creek on April 6, 1865. Captured at Sayler's Creek, he was released on July 24, 1865. Returning to Georgia, he resumed practicing law and served a term in the Georgia legislature. He died on May 30, 1887, at Covington, Ga. where he was buried in Southview Cemetery.

Brig. Gen. James P. Simms