Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General History, Feb. 18.

Click 👉TODAY IN HISTORY (general history) Feb. 18. 

ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, Feb. 18.

1861: President Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as the president of the Confederate States of America on the front portico of the state capitol in Montgomery, Alabama. The president notes in his inauguration address that consent of the governed is required for the American idea of government and that the South only wants to be left alone in peace to govern itself. For the time being, Montgomery is the capital of the new Confederate nation.

President Jefferson Davis

1862: The CSS Virginia, the Confederate Navy's first ironclad warship, is commissioned in Virginia. It was built on the hull of the scuttled USS Merrimack at Norfolk, Virginia.

CSS Virginia, May 1862

1865: General Lee endorsed the proposal of Confederate Rep. Ethelbert Barksdale of Mississippi to enlist black men into the Confederate Army to help achieve Southern Independence. Lee wanted black men to fight as free men.

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, Feb. 18.

Brigadier General Lewis Addison Armistead was born on this day in 1817 in New Bern, North Carolina. He attended West Point but didn't graduate. However, he got a commission as a second lieutenant in the 6th Infantry in 1839. In the Mexican-American War, he fought in the battles of Contreras, and Churubusco, and was wounded at Chapultepec. He was breveted a major for his distinguished service in the war. Armistead resigned from the U.S. Army in 1861 and was appointed a major in the 57th Va. Inf., C.S.A.  His battles included Seven Pines, Seven Days Battles (Malvern Hill), Sharpsburg, and Fredericksburg.  Armistead was mortally wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg on July 3, 1863, in Picket's Charge and died July 5, 1864, in captivity. He was buried in the Old Saint Paul's Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland.

Brig. Gen. Lewis A. Armistead

👱

Brigadier General James Deshler was born on this day in 1833 in Tuscumbia, Alabama. He graduated from West Point in 1854 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He served in the Utah War in 1858 and was stationed at Fort Wise until 1861 when he resigned. Deshler was commissioned as captain of the artillery in the C.S. Army and served in the Battle of Cheat Mountain, the Battle of Camp Allegheny, and was promoted to colonel and commanded a Texas brigade in the Army of Tennessee. He was captured at the surrender of Arkansas Post on Jan. 11, 1863. After being exchanged, he was promoted to brigadier general on July 28, 1863. Deshler was killed in action instantly on September 20, 1863, at the Battle of Chickamauga, Ga. A Federal artillery shell tore his heart from his body. Initially buried on the battlefield, he was later reinterred at Oakwood Cemetery in Tuscumbia, Alabama.

Brig.  Gen. James Deshler

👱

General Alfred Mouton was born on this day in 1829 at Opelousas, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana. He graduated from West Point in 1850 ranking 38th in a class of 44 cadets. He resigned soon after graduation and resumed his life as a Louisiana planter. However, he was active in the Louisiana state militia in which he was a brigadier general. Mouton also led a force of 600 mounted men in a vigilante militia to victory in the Battle of Queue de Tortue, against anti-vigilantes in a fortified compound on Sept. 3, 1859. The vigilantes were eradicating rampant criminal activity in South Louisiana. In the War for Southern Independence, he was the colonel of the largely French-speaking 18th Louisiana Infantry and was seriously wounded on April 7, 1862, in the Battle of Shiloh. While recovering from his Shiloh wound, he was promoted to brigadier general and given command of a Louisiana infantry brigade of the Army of Western Louisiana. He led the brigade in the Bayou Lafourche Campaign in October 1862, the Bayou Teche Campaign in the spring of 1863, and the Great Texas Overland Campaign in the fall of 1863. Mouton then led a division made up of his Louisiana brigade and a Texas brigade led by Brig. Gen. Prince Camille de Polignac in the Red River Campaign in 1864. Mouton was killed in action on April 8, 1864, at the Battle of Mansfield while leading a charge that broke the Federal lines. He was treacherously killed by five Federal soldiers who first laid down their guns to surrender, then picked them up and shot the general. Initially buried on the battlefield, postwar his body was removed to his hometown of Vermilionville, today Lafayette, Louisiana and he was laid to rest in St. John The Baptist Catholic Church Cemetery. 

                                                

Brig. Gen. Alfred Mouton 

👋