Click 👉TODAY IN HISTORY (general history) April 10.
ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, April 10.
1861: Fort Sumter Campaign: Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard, who is in command of Confederate forces at Charleston, S.C., receives orders from Secretary of War Leroy Pope Walker in Richmond, Va., to require a surrender of the garrison at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. Beauregard has organized the shore batteries around Charleston to effectively reduce Fort Sumter if surrender isn't forthcoming.
1862: Fort Pulaski guarding Savannah, Ga., is prepared for an assault by Federal forces, but instead the Northerners begin a long-range bombardment and within 30 hours the fort is surrendered because the walls have been breached.
1863: The First Battle of Franklin, Tenn. occurs between Confederate Cavalry under Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn and Federal cavalry under Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger. The two sides clash just outside the town with the Confederate launching a halting attack, and then the Federals counterattack and capture a battery. However, Brig. Gen. N.B. Forrest counterattacks and recaptures the battery. But Van Dorn decides to retreat to Spring Hill, leaving the Federals in control of the battlefield. The Confederates lost 137 men and the Federals 100.
1864: Confederate numbering 7,000 men, under Maj. Gen. Sterling Price, clash with Federals under Maj. Gen. Frederick Steele numbering 13,00 bluecoats. This was the Arkansas phase of the Red River Campaign, also called the Camden Expedition. They clash in a series of engagements between April 9 and April 13 called the Battle of Prairie D'Ane. Steele loses heavily in supply wagons and eventually decides to retreat back to Little Rock to save his army. The Federals lost 100 men in the skirmishing and the Confederates 50.
1865: President Davis and his cabinet at Danville, Va., learning of Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House, decide to move to what they hope will be greater security at Greensborough, North Carolina.
CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, April 10.
Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk was born on this day in 1806 in Raleigh, North Carolina. He was an an1827 graduate of West Point ranking 8th in a class of 38 cadets. By that time, he had a religious awakening and decided to become a priest in the Episcopal Church and soon resigned from the U.S. Army. In his long career as a clergyman, he became the Missionary Bishop of the Southwest in 1838 and was then elected in 1841 the first Episcopal Bishop of Louisiana. Polk was also the leading founder of the University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee. With the outbreak of the War for Southern Independence, he pulled the Louisiana Convention of the Episcopal Church, out of the Episcopal Church of the U.S. and organized the Protestant Episcopal Church in the C.S.A. Polk was given a major general commission in the C.S. Army by his old friend and West Point classmate, President Jefferson Davis. He also retained his position as bishop while he was in the army. Promoted to lieutenant general, he led the First Corps of the Army of the Mississippi at the Battle of Shiloh and then led his corps in such major battles and at Perryville, Murfreesboro, and Chickamauga. Polk was killed in action on June 14, 1864, on Pine Mountain, Cobb County, Ga. during the Atlanta Campaign. He is buried in the front floor sanctuary of Christ Church in New Orleans, La.
Brigadier General Thomas Reade Rootes Cobb was born on this day in 1823 in Jefferson County, Georgia. Pre war he was a lawyer and ardent secessionist, a founder of the University of Georgia Law School and a delegate at the Georgia Secession Convention. Cobb was elected to the Confederate Congress and later in 1861 was commissioned a colonel in the Confederate Army. Cobb led Cobb's Legion in the Army of Northern Virginia and took part in its campaigns in 1862. Cobb was promoted to brigadier general Nov. 1, 1862. He was mortally wounded on December 13, 1862, and died the same day. Cobb was buried at Oconee Hill Cemetery in Athens, Georgia.
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