Click 👉Today in History (general history) May 31.
On This Day in Confederate History, May 31.
1861: Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard is put in command of the Army of the Potomac, which in the future was renamed the Army of Northern Virginia. Beauregard organized the army into six brigades which he referred to as the "First Corps." This army, along with Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's Army of the Shenandoah would fight the first large battle of the war, the First Battle of Manassas.
1862: The Battle of Seven Pines, Va. started on this day and is a major turning point in the war because Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston is severely wounded and General Robert E. Lee replaces him. The Confederate Army of Northern Virginia numbered about 39,000 men and the Federal Army of the Potomac about 34,000. It is an attempt by Johnston to go on the offensive against Maj. Gen. George McClellan. The Yanke general has pushed his Federal Army up the Yorktown Peninsula to the outskirts of Richmond. Johnston is wounded on the first day of the battle and initially, Major General G.W. Smith is supposed to assume command but is incapacitated. General Lee is given the command of the Army of Northern Virginia by President Davis the next day, June 1.
1863: At the Siege of Vicksburg, Miss. Confederate engineers continue their constant work to repair and strengthen the entire Confederate defense line. The breach in the redan on the left of Jackson Road is filled up and the parapet is repaired with sandbags. Confederate and Federal engineers played important roles in the siege.
1864: Skirmish in Georgia and Virginia: Maneuvering and constant skirmishing continue both in Georgia and in Northern Virginia between the Blue and the Gray. Sherman is battling Johnston in Georgia and Grant versus Lee in Virginia. All the armies have learned the value of fortifying their lines.
Confederate General Birthdays, May 31.
Major General William Henry Fitzhugh "Rooney" Lee was born on this day in 1837 at Arlington, Virginia to General Robert E. Lee and Mary Custis Lee. Unlike his older brother, George Washington Custis Lee who was at the top of the class at West Point, Rooney Lee received a civilian education at Harvard College. However, Rooney received a commission as a second lieutenant in the 6th U.S. Infantry Regiment in 1857 and resigned his commission in 1859 to operate the plantation he inherited from his grandfather, White House Plantation in Virginia. At the outbreak of war in 1861, Rooney Lee received a commission as a captain in the Confederate cavalry and worked his way up through merit to major general in the course of the war. He suffered a severe wound to the thigh in the Battle of Brandy Station in 1863 and was captured by the enemy. Lee was finally released on Feb. 25, 1865, in exchange for Federal Brig. Gen. Neal S. Dow. He then continued his outstanding record in the cavalry. His battles and campaigns included Wester Virginia, Shenandoah, Romney, the Seven Days Battles, Catlett's Station, South Mountain, Sharpsburg, the Chambersburg Raid, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Brandy Station, the Wilderness, Todd's Tavern, Spotsylvania, Petersburg, Sappony Church, First Ream's Station, Second Deep Bottom, the Beefsteak Raid, Boydton Plank Road, Namozine Church, and Appomattox. Following the war, he had a distinguished career in farming than in politics when he was elected to the Virginia State Senate and U.S. House of Representatives. Lee died Oct. 15, 1891, in Alexandria, Va., and was entombed in the Lee family tomb in the University Chapel on the campus of Washington and Lee University.
Major General Stephen Dodson Ramseur is born on this day in Lincolnton, North Carolina. He graduated from West Point in 1860 and served in the 3rd and 4th U.S. Artillery. Rameur resigned from the U.S. Army in 1861 and joined the Confederate Army in Alabama. He then became a lieutenant colonel in the 3rd North Carolina Infantry. Ramseur was elected colonel of the 49th North Carolina Infantry on April 12, 1862, brigadier general on Nov. 1, 1862, and major general in 1863. His battles included the Seven Days Battles, Malvern Hill, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, Cold Harbor, Opequon, and Cedar Creek. Severely wounded at the Battle of Malvern Hill on July 1, 1862, Ramseur was mortally wounded at the Battle of Cedar Creek on Oct. 19, 1864, and died the next day near Middletown, Virginia. He is buried in his hometown of Lincolnton.
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