Click 👉TODAY IN HISTORY (general history) Feb. 8.
ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, Feb. 8.
1861: The Provisional Confederate Congress in Montgomery, Alabama adopts the Provisional Confederate Constitution. The document was similar to the U.S. Constitution with certain reforms, such as a single six-year term for the president and vice president (term limits), free trade, clean legislation, etc. Also, the slave trade was prohibited.
The signers and the states they represented were:
- Howell Cobb, President of the Congress
- South Carolina: R. Barnwell Rhett, R. W. Barnwell, James Chesnut, Jr., C. G. Memminger, Wm. Porcher Miles, Laurence M. Keitt, William W. Boyce, Tho. J. Withers
- Georgia: R. Toombs, Francis S. Bartow, Martin J. Crawford, E. A. Nisbet, Benjamin H. Hill, Augustus R. Wright, Thos. R. R. Cobb, A. H. Kenan, Alexander H. Stephens
- Florida: Jackson Morton, Jas. B. Owens, J. Patton Anderson
- Alabama: Richard W. Walker, Robt. H. Smith, Colin J. McRae, Jno. Gill Shorter, William Parish Chilton, Stephen F. Hale, David P. Lewis, Tho. Fearn, J. L. M. Curry
- Mississippi: W. P. Harris, Alex. M. Clayton, W. S. Wilson, James T. Harrison, Walker Brooke, William S. Barry, J. A. P. Campbell
- Louisiana: John Perkins, Jr., Alex. de Clouet, C. M. Conrad, Duncan F. Kenner, Edward Sparrow, Henry Marshall
- Texas: Thomas N. Waul, Williamson S. Oldham, John Gregg, John H. Reagan, W. B. Ochiltree, John Hemphill, Louis T. Wigfall. [Wikipedia]
1862: The Battle of Roanoke Island, North Carolina takes place. The Federals were under the command of Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside with a 10,000-man division and a flotilla of navy gunboats. The Confederate defenders were under the command of Brig. Gen. Henry A. Wise and Col. Henry M. Shaw with 3,000 men, two shore batteries, and four forts. The Federals also had another flotilla of gunboats under Flag Officer Louis M. Goldsborough. On the previous day, the gunboats bombarded the position and landed their troops and six howitzers without opposition. Wise came down sick and turned command over to Shaw. On the 8th, the Federals attacked and overwhelmed the outnumbered Confederates. The Northerners lost 2,64 killed, wounded, and missing. The Southerners lost 23 killed, 58 wounded, 62 missing, and 2,500 captured.
1865: Carolinas Campaign: Confederates battle Sherman's rampaging invaders at the South Edisto River in South Carolina. Confederate cavalry General Fighting Joe Wheeler receives a reply from Sherman to his complaint about Sherman's men's destruction of private property. The Federal general shows no concern.
CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, Feb. 8.
Lieutenant General Richard Stoddert Ewell was born on this day in 1817 in Georgetown, District of Columbia. Ewell was an 1840 graduate of West Point and ranked 13th out of the 42 cadets who graduated with him. He was promoted to 1st lieutenant by 1845 and in the Mexican-American War served under Gen. Winfield Scott's Mexico City Campaign. His gallantry in the battles of Contreras and Churubusco earned him a promotion to captain. After the war, he served on the frontier and was wounded in a skirmish with Apaches in 1859. Ewell resigned his commission in the U.S. Army on May 7, 1861, and was promoted to brigadier general in the Confederate Army on June 7, 1861. He commanded a brigade at the First Battle of Manassas, on July 21, 1861. Promoted to major general on Jan. 24, 1862, he led a division in Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign of 1862. After serving in the Seven Days Battles, he was severely wounded in the leg at the Battle of Cedar Mountain, Va. Aug. 9, 1862, and his leg had to be amputated. Ewell returned to duty before Gettysburg, and he was promoted to lieutenant general and given command of the late Stonewall Jackson's Second Corps. He won an outstanding victory at the Second Battle of Winchester but was criticized for his hesitancy to capture the high ground on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg. Ewell led the corps at the Wilderness and Spotsylvania in 1864 but his physical strength was failing, and Gen. Lee reassigned him to the command of the Richmond defenses. He was captured at the Battle of Sailor's Creek at the end of the war and wasn't released until July 1865. After the war, Ewell worked as a farmer near Spring Hill, Tenn. and he died Jan. 25, 1872, and was buried in the Old City Cemetery in Nashville, Tenn.
Brigadier General Bernard Elliott Bee Jr. was born on this day in 1824 in Charleston, South Carolina. Bee graduated from West Point with the Class of 1845, ranking 33rd of 41 cadets. He was breveted two times for bravery in the Mexican American War at the Battle of Cerro Gordo and was wounded at Chapultepec. After the war, he did garrison duty in Mississippi and then frontier duty in New Mexico and Minnesota. Bee was breveted to lieutenant colonel for the Utah War. He resigned from the U.S. Army on March 3, 1861, and was soon promoted to brigadier general and led his South Carolina Brigade at the First Battle of Manassas. He became famous there for giving Lt. Gen. T. J. "Stonewall" Jackson his famous nickname when he rallied his shattered command behind Jackson and his Virginians. Bee was mortally wounded in the stomach shortly afterward. He died the next day and was buried in St. Paul's Episcopal Church Cemetery in Pendleton, S.C.
Brigadier General John King Jackson was born on this day in 1828 in Augusta, Georgia. Prior to the war, he was a lawyer in Georgia and active in the state militia. At the beginning of the war, he was a lieutenant colonel in command of the Augusta Infantry Battalion and soon became a lieutenant colonel in the 5th Georgia Infantry, C.S.A. He fought at the Battle of Santa Rosa Island in 1861 and was promoted to brigadier on Jan. 14, 1862. Jackson led a brigade at the Battle of Shiloh, the Battle of Murfreesboro, at the Battle of Chickamauga, and Missionary Ridge, and was then assigned to Lake City, Florida. In late 1864, Jackson served in various posts in the Carolinas Campaign and surrendered with the Army of Tennessee on April 26, 1865. Jackson resumed his legal career in Augusta after the war but died on Feb. 27, 1866, and was buried in Augusta's City Cemetery.
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