Click 👉Today in History (general history) May 25.
On This Day in Confederate History, May 25.
1862: The First Battle of Winchester, Va. marks one of Maj. Gen. Stonewall Jackson's major victories in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1862. Jackson's 16,500 smashes the Federal right flank of Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks. Banks commanded 6,500 men in the battle. Key to the Confederate victory was Brig. Gen. Richard Taylor's Louisiana Tiger Brigade, reinforced by Fulkerson's and Scott's brigades, overlapped the Federal left. The victory also disrupted the Federal plans in the Peninsula Campaign. The Federals lost 62 men killed, 243 wounded, and 1,714 missing. Confederate casualties were 68 killed and 329 wounded.
1863: On this day in the Siege of Vicksburg, Miss. Federals appeared in force on the Warrenton and Hall's Ferry roads. There was the usual sharpshooting and at 6 o'clock that evening a cease-fire was agreed upon, the Federals were able to bury their dead and remove their wounded from the failed May 22 assault. About 100 prisoners were captured by the Confederates on this day.
At the Siege of Port Hudson, La., Col. I.G.W. Steedman advanced his men on the Confederate left about 500 yards to a new line of battle. He was supported by a section of Watson's Louisiana battery under the command of 1st Lt. Edmund A. Toledano. Maj. Gen. Franklin Gardner sent engineers and laborers to fortify this new line to give better protection with breastworks and rifle pits. The position became known as Fort Desperate. Gardner was convinced this would be a likely point of attack by the Federals.
1864: The Battle of New Hope Church, Ga., one of the major battles of the Atlanta Campaign, occurred on this day. Sherman had 16,000 men and the Confederates 4,000. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston had anticipated Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman's line of march and was waiting for him in the New Hope Church vicinity. Misjudging the Confederate force before him, Sherman ordered Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker's XX Corps attack, but when the bluecoats reached Johnston's main defense line, their attack was repulsed with severe casualties. The battle would continue into the next day. Texas Captain Samuel T. Foster, 24th Texas Cavalry (dismounted) reported that the Federals had lost 703 men killed and 350 captured on his part of the line. Overall losses were 1,665 for the Federals and 400 for the Confederates.
In the continuing Battle of North Anna River in Virginia, the battle has settled into a stalemate. The Federals tried to outflank the Confederate defenses at the Little River crossing but found it strongly guarded by Maj. Gen. Wade Hampton's Southern cavalry.
Confederate General Birthdays, May 25.
Brigadier General Henry Hopkins Sibley was born on this day in Natchitoches, Louisiana. He graduated from West Point in 1838 and fought in the Seminole and Mexican-American wars. Sibley invented the "Sibley tent" for the army and had extensive experience on the frontier before the War for Southern Independence. He resigned from the U.S. Army in 1861 and joined the Confederate Army. Sibley was given command of a brigade of cavalry in west Texas and with it invaded New Mexico. His battles there in 1862 included Valverde and Glorieta Pass. After returning to Texas, his command participated in the Battle of Galveston on Jan. 1. 1863 and was a major part of the victory. He led a brigade of Texas cavalry in the Bayou Teche Campaign in 1863 but was court-martialed on charges of cowardice but was found not guilty. However, he was censured and had a problem with alcoholism. Following the war, he served in the Egyptian Army from 1870 to 1873 as a military adviser but was dismissed for illness and disability. Returning to the U.S., he lived with his daughter in Fredericksburg, Va., and worked on military inventions, but died in poverty on Aug. 23, 1886, in Fredericksburg, and was buried there in the Fredericksburg Confederate Cemetery.
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