Click 👉TODAY IN HISTORY (general history) Feb. 11.
ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, Feb. 11.
1861: Alexander Stephens of Georgia was sworn in on this day in 1861, which is also his birthday, as vice president of the Confederate States of America at the ongoing Confederate Congress at Montgomery, Alabama. President-elect Jefferson Davis left his plantation, Brierfield, in Mississippi and headed for Montgomery for his inauguration. Stephens was born in 1812 on a farm in Taliaferro County, Georgia near the town of Crawfordville. He became an orphan at age 14 when his father and stepmother died. Stephens and his siblings were divided among other relatives. However, he attended the University of Georgia at Athens and graduated at the top of his class in 1832. He then studied the law and was admitted to the bar in 1834. Stephens found success as a lawyer and was elected to the Georgia legislature in 1841 and to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1843 as a Whig. When the Whig Party dissolved he became a Democrat. He was known as a Unionist in Congress and a defender of slavery. When he killed a bill that would have excluded slavery from the Oregon Territory, Stephens was nearly stabbed to death in 1848 by Judge Francis H. Cone during a fight over the issue. He recovered but never regained full use of his right hand. Stephens opposed secession and supported Illinois Sen. Stephen Douglas in the 1860 election. Elected to the Georgia Secession Convention, he voted against withdrawing Georgia from the Union. But he still supported the right of secession of a state.
Vice President Alexander H. Stephens
1862: FORTS HENRY & DONELSON CAMPAIGN: Bowling Green, Ky. was evacuated by the Confederates after the defeat at the Battle of Mill Springs, Ky. Jan. 19, 1862, and the fall of Fort Henry, Tenn. in early February 1862. The city had been Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston's headquarters for his Western Department. They had held Bowling Green since Sept. 18, 1861. It was also the seat of the provisional state government of Confederate Kentucky.
Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston
1864: Confederates near Madisonville, La. fired a volley from ambush at the 3rd Maryland Cavalry which was on a patrol. The Federal casualties were three wounded and missing, including a lieutenant, Captain Adolph Bery, and one missing, Pvt. B.K. Jones. ambulance driver. They also lost three horses with equipment, 3 carbines, 2 sabers with accouterments, 2 saber blades, 1 pistol, and one ambulance with contents and two horses. No Confederate casualties were reported.
1865: Confederate cavalry wearing Federal uniforms attacked a Federal picket post at Williamsburg, Va. Both sides reportedly suffered casualties. There were also many Confederate uniforms being made of British Army cloth which was blue-gray in color, and which had been run through the blockade. These uniforms too could look more blue than gray. Confederacy imported thousands of yards of this material from England and the Peter Tait Co. in Limerick, Ireland also made complete uniforms as well from British Army cloth. Other Confederate Army Quartermaster Depots included ones in Richmond, Va. and Columbus, Ga. Houston became a major supply depot for the Trans-Mississippi Department during the war, also making arms, accouterments, and ammunition. Pvt. August Ritter, 1st Texas Heavy Artillery
is wearing a Houston, Tex. Depot-style Confederate
jacket possibly made from fine British Army
cloth. He worked in the Houston Quartermaster
Depot making uniforms.
Confederate soldier in Columbus, Ga. Depot
style shell jacket.
(Liljenquist Collection, Library of Congress)
Pvt. Alexander Harris wearing a Richmond, Va...
Depot-style Confederate jacket. He served
in Parker's Virginia Light Artillery.
(Liljenquist Collection, Library of Congress)
CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, Feb. 11.
NONE.
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