Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, Jan. 23.

 Click 👉TODAY IN HISTORY (general history) Jan. 23. 

ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, Jan. 23.

1861: The Louisiana Secession Convention convened in the state capital Baton Rouge. Gov. Thomas Overton Moore told the convention that compromise with the North had become impossible and that Louisiana must never accept "coercion into submission, by force of arms." Former Gov. Alexandre Mouton was elected president of the convention. A Committee of Fifteen was formed to report back with an Ordinance of Secession.

Alexandre Mouton was elected

president of the Louisiana Secession

Convention. He was a former governor

of Louisiana and a former U.S. Senator.

His father was an Acadian exile who came

to Louisiana as a child and became a 

successful planter. His son Alfred was a

graduate of West Point and became a

Confederate brigadier general.

 (Library of Congress)

1862: Martial law is enacted in St. Louis, Missouri which allows for the seizure of property and arrests of Confederate sympathizers.

1865: General Robert E. Lee is appointed commander-in-chief of all Confederate armies. By this time the armies of the Confederacy had been greatly reduced. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia was about 50,000 men by April; the Army of Tennessee under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston had been reduced to about 20,000 in the Carolinas; Lt. Gen. Richard Taylor's army in the Dept. of Miss., Ala; and E. La. could field about 12,000 men, and Lt. Gen. E. Kirby Smith commanded between 30 and 40,000 men in the Trans-Mississippi Department. Over the four years of the war, the Confederacy was able to enlist 1,082,119 men, compared to the Federals' 2,128,948, according to Statista.

Lt. Gen. Richard Taylor is made commander of the Army of Tennessee, which is recovering at Tupelo, Miss. from its defeat at the Battle of Nashville. Taylor was able to keep some of the troops in his department to reinforce Mobile, Ala., then under siege by the Federals before it was transferred to the Carolinas under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston.

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, Jan. 23.

Brigadier General John Randolph Chambliss Jr., in 1833, in Greenville County, Virginia. He graduated from West Point in the Class of 1853, ranking 31st out of 52 cadets. Chambliss had a short tenure in the U.S. Army as a brevet second lieutenant. He was appointed to teach at the cavalry school at Carlisle Barracks, Penn. but resigned in the spring. Chambliss then engaged in agriculture on the family plantation and as a major on the staff of Gov. Henry A. Wise from 1856 to 1861. After the war started; he was commissioned a colonel in command of the 13th Virginia Cavalry. He was promoted to brigadier general after the Bristoe Campaign and commanded Brig. Gen. Rooney Lee's old brigade. His service included the Maryland Campaign in the fall of 1862. His battles included Brandy Station, Aldie, Middleburg, Hanover, Gettysburg, the Bristoe Campaign, the Overland Campaign, and the Second Battle of Deep Bottom, Va. where he was killed in action on August 17, 1864. He is buried in the Chambliss Family Cemetery in Emporia, Virginia.

Brig. Gen. John R. Chambliss Jr.