Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, Jan. 22.

Click 👉Today in History (general history), Jan. 22.

ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, Jan. 22.

1861: The New Orleans Daily Crescent reports that delegates to the Louisiana Legislature and the Louisiana Secession Convention are pouring into Baton Rouge, where the convention will convene the next day. The newspaper reports the general sentiment prevailing is for secession from the Union.

La. Gov. Thomas Overton Moore

led Louisiana out of the Union,

but former La. governor & U.S. Senator

Alexandre Mouton was president of the

La. Secession Convention.

President Alexandre Mouton of the

Louisiana Secession Convention

(Library of Congress)

An Early Secession Banner

1862: The New Orleans Daily Crescent reports that the Louisiana Militia will have a grand celebration for the first anniversary of the secession from the Union by Louisiana. The militia order notes, ". . . this great and glorious event should be celebrated in a manner worthy of a chivalrous and patriotic people, who disenthralled themselves and their political connection with a government whose principals were diametrically averse to the guaranteed constitutional rights, and their domestic institutions."

Louisiana Republic flag.

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, Jan. 22.

Brigadier General Merriwether Jeff Thompson was born on this day in 1826 in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Before the war, he worked as a store clerk, and city engineer was elected the Mayor of St. Joseph, Mo., and presided over the first Pony Express ride in 1860. He started out the war as a lieutenant colonel in the Missouri State Militia and led a battalion in partisan attacks gaining them the nickname, "Swamp Fox of the Confederacy." He was promoted to brigadier general in the Missouri State Guard led cavalry raids on the enemy and was in a number of battles in Arkansas. He was captured in 1864. Exchanged, he participated in Major General Sterling Price's Missouri Expedition in 1864. Thompson fought in the battles of Westport, Mine Creek, and Newtonia. He surrendered on May 11, 1865. After the war, Jeff Thompson settled in New Orleans where he worked as a civil engineer. He moved to St. Joseph, Mo. where he died Sept. 5, 1876, and was buried in Mount Mora Cemetery.

Brig. Gen. M. Jeff Thompson