Click 👉TODAY IN HISTORY (general history) Feb. 1
ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, Feb. 1.
1861: Texas Gov. Sam Houston, anti-secession, is angered when the Texas Secession Convention votes to secede, the seventh state to do so. The action will have to be validated by a vote of the people. The convention then establishes the Committee of Public Safety and sends delegates to the meeting of seceded states in Montgomery, Alabama to form the Southern Confederacy. Houston turns down an offer from Lincoln to supply him with troops to fight secessionists.
At the Texas Secession Convention, Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Oran Milo Roberts presides. The delegates voted for secession by a margin of 166 to 8. The Committee on Public Safety was given the power to continue operation after the convention adjourned on Feb. 4, 1861. The committee authorized the seizure of all Federal property in Texas and the forced evacuation of 3,000 troops in the state.
Texas Brigade soldiers in 1861.
1864: Major General George Pickett is ordered to capture New Bern, North Carolina, which has been occupied by the Federals. Brig. Gen. Robert Hoke's Brigade clashed with the 132nd N.Y. Inf. at Bachelor's Creek until dark when the Yankees retreated to New Bern. Meanwhile Brig. Gen. Seth Barton attacked the 17th Mass. Inf. and 3rd N.Y. Light Artillery across the Trent River but fell back when he found the fortifications there too strong for a frontal attack. The battle continued on Feb. 2, 1864.
1865: The Federal Army under Sherman destroys much private property in the Carolinas Campaign, as they had through Georgia. President Davis appointed Gen. Joseph E. Johnston to command the Army of the South in the campaign. His three corps commanders were Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee, Lt. Gen. Alexander P. Steward, and Lt. Gen. Stephen D. Lee. Johnston's cavalry chief was Maj. Gen. Wade Hampton. Greatly outnumbered, Johnston had to use Fabian's tactics and wait for opportunities to strike the Yankees.
CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, Feb. 1.
Brigadier General Edward Higgins was born in 1821 in Norfolk, Va. but his exact month and day of birth are unknown. He was reared in Louisiana by an uncle and was appointed a midshipman in the U.S. Navy on Jan. 24, 1836, when he was about 15 years old. Promoted to passed midshipman on July 1, 1842, Higgins worked his way up to master and then to lieutenant on Aug. 24, 1849, after having seen service in the Mexican-American War. He married Anna Zimmerman in 1851 and resigned from the Navy in 1854. He and his wife settled in New Orleans where he worked as a steamship agent. When the war started in 1861, he served as a captain in the 1st Louisiana Heavy Artillery regiment. He resigned on Jan. 2, 1865, to take the position of lieutenant colonel in the 21st Louisiana Infantry, which was actually trained as heavy artillery and defended Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip on the Mississippi River. Higgins fought in the Battle of New Orleans and was captured on April 28, 1862. After being exchanged, on Oct. 16, 1862, he was promoted to colonel while still a prisoner and after his release was given command of the river batteries at Vicksburg. Captured again with the fall of Vicksburg, he was exchanged again on Oct. 13, 1863. He was then promoted to brigadier general and assigned to command the harbor defenses at Mobile, Ala. Higgins was relieved of his command on Feb. 18, 1865, for unknown reasons and never received another command. Following the war, he and his wife settled in Norfolk, Va. where he worked in the insurance and import businesses. They then moved to California in 1872 to work for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. Higgins died on Jan. 31, 1875, and was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, California.
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