Sunday, November 19, 2023

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

Click 👉 TODAY IN HISTORY (general history), Nov. 19

ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, Nov. 19

1863: SIEGE OF KNOXVILLE, Tenn.: Confederates under Lt. Gen. James Longstreet were now before Knoxville, Tenn. but the Confederate general knew he didn't have the manpower or firepower he would need for a real siege of the East Tennessee city. Longstreet wanted to try an attack on the formidable earthworks around the city he knew it would grow stronger every day. He determined that the only vulnerable point was Fort Sanders. 

Lt. Gen. James Longstreet
(Library of Congress)

1864: THE BLOCKADE THAT FAILED: ''The two outstanding facts concerning the blockade of the southern states by the United States Navy during the Civil War are, one, that it was, for the first three and a half years, almost totally ineffective, insofar as preventing supplies from reaching the rebels was concerned, and, two, that by the end of 1864, when it did become effective, the war was already over, for all practical purposes." Daniel O'Flaherty, American Heritage, August 1955. Click on the link for the entire article.''

The Anaconda Plan for the Blockade of the South.
(Library of Congress)

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, Nov. 19

Major General Fitzhugh Lee, in 1835, Fairfax, VirginiaThe son of Commander Sydney Smith Lee, older brother of Gen. Robert E. Lee, Fitzhugh graduated from West Point in 1856 and served the prewar 2nd U.S. Cavalry under the command of Col. Albert Sidney Johnston and his uncle, Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee on the Texas Frontier. The young lieutenant distinguished himself in combat against the Comanches Indians and was severely wounded in May 1859. He resigned his commission when Virginia seceded and joined the Confederate Army. He was serving on the staff of Gen.Joseph E. Johnston at the First Battle of Manassas on July 21, 1861. Lee worked his way up to the rank of major general of cavalry and was one of the Confederate Army's finest cavalry commanders. After the war he was active in Virginia politics in Virginia, serving as governor of that state from 1886 to 1890. During the Spanish-American War in 1898, he served as a major general in the U.S. Army and served as the military governor of Cuba in the postwar occupation. Lee died in Washington, D.C. April 28, 1905, and was buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Va.

Maj. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee

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