Click 👉 TODAY IN HISTORY (general history) Feb. 12.
ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, Feb. 12.
1861: Louisiana Republic President Mouton and Lieutenant Governor Henry M. Hyams processed to Lafayette Square and raised for the first time the new Louisiana National Flag on the flagpole of New Orleans City Hall. It had a red canton with a single gold star, and 13 stripes alternating between blue, white, and red. The president was escorted by a military color guard and when the flag was raised, the New Orleans Washington Artillery fired a 21-gun salute. Three cheers were given by the onlookers.
Meanwhile, President-elect Jefferson Davis was making his way to Montgomery, Alabama, and speaking to cheering crowds along the way.
1862: The Confederate cruiser CSS Florida captures and burns the Yankee clipper Jacob Bell and its $2 million worth of cargo. The Florida was built in Liverpool, England by William C. Miller & Son and launched in December 1861. It was commissioned by the Confederate Navy on Oct. 7, 1862, and placed under the command of Commander John Newland Maffitt. It was 191 ft. in length, a beam of 27 ft. 2-in., and a draft of 13 ft. 0 in., with both sails and a steam engine. It had a top speed of 9.5 knots under steam and 12 knots under sail. The crew complement was 146. The Florida's armament was 6, 6-inch rifled cannon, two, 7-inch rifled cannon, and one 12-pounder cannon. In its career, Florida took 37 prizes, two of which were absorbed by the CS Navy as the CSS Tacony and CSS Clarence. Those two ships took an additional 23 prizes. Florida's career ended on Oct. 7, 1864, at anchor at Bahia, Brazil while Maffitt and half of his crew were ashore. Florida was illegally captured at that time by Cmdr. Napoleon Collins of the sloop-of-war USS Wachusett. It was towed to Newport News, Va. where it suspiciously sank in a collision with the Army Transport USAT Alliance on Nov. 28, 1864, while it was under a court order to be delivered to Brazil.
1864: Confederates battle Federals at Decatur and Chunky Station as Sherman and Sooy Smith close in on Meridian, Mississippi.
1865: As the Federals approached Columbia, South Carolina, they drove off Confederate defenders at the Orangeburg Bridge on the North Edisto River.
CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, Feb. 12.
Major General Robert Ransom Jr. was born on this day in 1828 in Warren County, North Carolina. A West Point graduate in 1850, he served in the 1st U.S. Dragoons and attended cavalry school at Carlisle Barracks, Pa. He was promoted to second lieutenant in 1851. Ransom then served on the frontier in New Mexico until 1854 when he became a cavalry instructor at West Point. Promoted to the first lieutenant is served in the 1st U.S. Cavalry at Fort Leavenworth, Kanas. Ransom had become a captain by the time he resigned from the U.S. Army on Jan. 31, 1861. He joined the Confederate Army as a captain and was made the colonel of the 1st North Carolina Cavalry on Oct. 31, 1861. Ransom was promoted to brigadier general on March 1, 1862, and led a brigade in the Peninsula Campaign in 1862 in Huger's Division. That same year his brigade at Harpers Ferry led a division at Marye's Heights in the Battle of Fredericksburg. He was promoted to major general in 1863 and did duty around Richmond, Va. and in 1864 led a division under Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard in the Battle of Drewry's Bluff, Va. Illness in that year forced him out of front-line service and he held various administrative positions until the end of the war. Following the war Ransom was a city marshal in Wilmington, N.C., and a farmer, among other occupations. He died on Jan. 14, 1892, in New Bern, N.C., and was buried at Cedar Grove Cemetery.
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