Click 👉TODAY IN HISTORY (general history) Jan. 13.
ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, Jan. 13.
1861: President Buchanan receives envoys from South Carolina Gov. Francis W. Pickens and Major Robert Anderson, commander of Fort Sumter, to find a peaceful settlement of the standoff at Fort Sumter, Charleston, South Carolina. Buchanan refuses any surrender of Fort Sumter. His efforts at compromise fail. While many modern historians rate Buchanan as the worst U.S. president, from a strict constitutionalist point of view, his approach was the correct approach. And if his approach had been followed, a peaceful resolution may have eventually been found, hundreds of thousands of lives saved, and the country or countries may have had a much more peaceful and prosperous future.
1863: Confederate Major General Earl Van Dorn, leaving with his cavalry command at Tupelo, Miss., was ordered to move to Middle Tenn. and joined the Confederate Army of Tennessee in Middle Tenn.
1865: U.S. Navy warships begin the bombardment of Fort Fisher, North Carolina in preparation for the landing of troops. The Confederate bastion is armed with 47 heavy artillery pieces and 2,000 crack troops to man the trenches and 6,000 more nearby. Federal General Alfred H. Terry successfully lands 8,000 troops north of the fort and dig in.
CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, Jan. 13.
Brigadier General William Whedbee Kirkland was born on this day in 1833, in Hillsborough, North Carolina. He was appointed to West Point in 1852 but did not graduate and was commissioned a 2nd lt. in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1855. Kirkland participated in the Battle of Barrier Forts, China with a U.S. Navy and Marines detachment against Chinese forces in 1856. The Americans won. He resigned his commission in the U.S.M.C. in 1860. In 1861, Kirkland was elected colonel of the 21st N.C. Infantry. He was at the First Battle of Manassas, Va. but was not seriously involved in the fighting. He was seriously wounded at the First Battle of Winchester in 1862. While recovering Kirkland served on the staff of Gen. Patrick Cleburne at the Battle of Murfreesboro, Tenn. After returning to Virginia, he took part in the Battle of Gettysburg, Pa. with the 21st N.C. and was promoted to brigadier general in August. He was again wounded in action at the Battle of Bristoe Station and recuperated in time to take part in the Battle of the Wilderness and the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House. Kirkland was wounded for the third time at the Battle of Cold Harbor. Transferred to Maj. Gen. Robert Hoke's Division, he took part in the defense of Fort Fisher at Petersburg, the defense of Fort Fisher, N.C., and the Battle of Bentonville, N.C. Kirkland moved to Savannah, Ga. after the war where he was in the commission business. Gen. Kirkland died May 12, 1915 and was buried at Elmwood Cemetery.
Brigadier General Humphrey Marshall was born on this day in 1812 in Frankfort, Kentucky. He graduated from West Point in 1832, took part in Black Hawk War, and was breveted a 2nd lt. He resigned from the army in 1833 to study law but continued his military service in the Kentucky state militia. Marshall was a colonel of the 1st Kentucky Cavalry in the Mexican American War and fought at the Battle of Buena Vista, Mexico. Afterward, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives from Kentucky after that war. In the War for Southern Independence, he was commissioned as a brigadier general in the Confederate Army and saw limited action in Western Virginia, including a loss at the Battle of Middle Creek. Marshall resigned in June 1862 but rejoined to take part in Bragg's Kentucky Campaign of 1862. Resigning again, he moved to Richmond, Va. to practice law. He was then elected to the Second Confederate Congress. After the war, Marshall moved to New Orleans, then to Louisville, Ky. to practice law. He died there on March 28, 1872, and was buried in the State Cemetery in Frankfort, Ky.
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