Click 👉Today in History (general history) May 26.
On This Day in Confederate History, May 26.
1861: The Confederate ports of New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama are blockaded by Federal warships. These port cities did the best they could to strengthen their defenses against this blatant Northern aggression. The blockade gave foreign nations the right to recognize the Confederates as lawful combatants under international conventions and Admiralty Law.
1863: At the Siege of Port Hudson, La. a 10-inch Columbiad gun on the bluffs is dismounted for several days when it is hit by a shell from the U.S.S. Monongahela. The Confederate batteries shell a Federal work party building a bridge in a willow swamp. That night, Maj. Gen. Franklin Gardner has 24-pounder rifles moved from the bluffs to the landward side in anticipation of a major assault on Confederate lines. He also adjusts his regiments, battalions, and batteries along the lines, under Col. I.G.W. Steedman on the left, Brig. Gen. W.N.R. Beall in the center, and Col. William Miles on the Confederate right. Each soldier in the line also has multiple guns at the ready.
1864: The second day of the Battle of New Hope Church, Ga. takes place. There is firing across the lines throughout the day but no assaults. Maj. Gen. Alexander P. Stewart was commended by both Generals J.E. Johnston and J.B. Hood for the handling of his division in the Confederate victory.
On the third and last day of the Battle of North Anna, Va. the two sides continue to skirmish but at the end of the day Maj. Gen. U.S. Grant gives up trying to break the Confederate line and withdraws his Federals for another wide flanking maneuver. Total casualties for the Confederates are 124 killed, 704 wounded, and 724 missing or captures. The Federals lost 591 killed, 2,734 wounded and 661 captured or missing.
Confederate General Birthdays, May 26.
Brigadier General Edward Porter Alexander was born on this day in 1835 in Washington, Georgia. He graduated from West Point in 1857 ranking 3rd in a class of 38 cadets. He resigned his U.S. Army commission on May 1, 1861, joined the Confederate Army, and was assigned to Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard's staff at Manassas, Va. In the First Battle of Manassas, as a signal officer, he played a key role in warning the Confederates were being flanked. He was also notable for having commanded the artillery for Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg. During the course of the war, he was in charge of ordnance and artillery and rose steadily in rank to brigadier general. His battles and campaigns included First Manassas, Williamsburg, Gaines' Mill, Second Manassas, Sharpsburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Knoxville, Spotsylvania Court House, Cold Harbor, the Crater, and Chaffin's Farm. Alexander was wounded by a sharpshooter on June 30, 1864, and surrendered with Lee at Appomattox. Following the war he was a college professor, and railroad executive, and wrote a famous war memoir, Fighting for the Confederacy. Alexander died on April 28, 1910, in Savannah, Georgia, and was buried in Magnolia Cemetery in Augusta, Georgia.
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