Saturday, October 14, 2023

Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, Oct. 14.

  Click 👉Today in History (general history) Oct. 14. 

On This Day in Confederate History, Oct. 14.

1862: Confederate Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton is given command of the Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana, which includes the two major Confederate fortifications on the Mississippi River, about 200 miles apart, Vicksburg, Miss. and Port Hudson, La., about 16 miles north of Baton Rouge. He is also in command of Confederate forces in Southwestern Tennessee.

1863: The Battle of Buzzard's Prairie, La. took place on Oct. 14-15 between Federal Brig. Gen. Stephen Burbridge's 4th Division, 13th Corps; Brig. Gen. Godfrey Weitzel's 1st Division, 19th Corps; and Confederate Brig. Gen. Tom Green's Cavalry Division including the brigades of Col. Arthur P. Bagby, Col. John P. Major, and Capt. Oliver Semmes' 1st Confederate Battery. The Federals were camped at Carencro, aka Buzzard's Prairie by the Cretien Plantation awaiting further orders and their advance across Southwest Louisiana to invade Texas. General Green's Confederate was making a reconnaissance in force to determine the strength of the invaders and harass them. The Confederates made sudden probing attacks and Semmes' Battery exchanged fire with Nim's Massachusetts Battery. The Confederates then withdrew about two miles to await more action on the following day.

1864: The Battle of Bristoe Station, Va. occurred on this day in the Bristoe Campaign. Confederate Lt. Gen. A.P. Hill's Third Corps, about 17,218 men, fought the Federal II Corps of Maj. Gen. G.K. Warren, about 8,383 men, which was the rear guard of Maj. Gen. George Meade's Army of the Potomac. Warren had a strong defensive position behind the embankment of the Orange & Alexandria Railroad. Warren ambushed two brigades of Brig. Gen. Henry Heth's Division and succeeded in capturing a battery of artillery. Hill sent reinforcements but they were unable to break the strong Federal line. Confederate Brig. Gen. Carnot Posey was mortally wounded in the battle and died on Nov. 13, 1863. The Confederates suffered an estimated 1,380 casualties to 540 for the Federals.

Confederate General Birthdays, Oct. 14.

Brigadier-General Ellison Capers was born on this day in 1837 in Charleston, South Carolina. An 1857 graduate of the South Carolina Military Academy, Capers was a math professor at SCMA and at Zion College in the prewar years. He joined the Confederate Army in 1861 as a major and was present for the bombardment of Fort Sumter and at the Battle of Secessionville. Capers served in the coastal defense forces in South Carolina then as the lieutenant colonel in the 24th South Carolina Infantry in the Battle of Chickamauga in the Army of Tennessee. He was severely wounded in the Battle of Franklin and promoted to brigadier general on March 1, 1865. Following the war, Capers was elected Secretary of State of South Carolina, became an Episcopal priest, taught at the University of the South, and became an Episcopal bishop. He died on Oct. 14, 1908, and was buried in the Trinity Episcopal Churchyard.

Brig. Gen. Ellison Capers

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