CLICK 👉 TODAY IN HISTORY (general history) May 1.
ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, May 1.
1861: Lee and Jackson's Partnership: Gen. Robert E. Lee sends forces under Col. Thomas J. Jackson to occupy the U.S. Arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. The arsenal had been partly burned by retreating Federals on April 18, but the South gained possession of the Armory's ordnance stock and machinery before the Confederates burned the remaining buildings. The Confederates moved the machinery to Richmond and manufactured a Confederate version of the U.S. Springfield Model Rifle. This event possibly marks the beginning of the famous partnership between these two military geniuses that would make military history.
1863: The first day of the Battle of Chancellorsville, Va. takes place when the two sides collided at 11:20 o'clock in the morning. Lt. Gen. Thomas J. Stonewall Jackson led the attack for the Confederates and Maj. Joseph Hooker for the Federals. At 2 o'clock that afternoon, Hooker ordered a withdrawal to a defensive position, despite having a numerical advantage. Hooker thought he could entice the Confederates to make costly frontal attacks, but Jackson and General Robert E. Lee would have other plans.
The Battle of Port Gibson, Miss. takes place when Maj. Gen. U.S. Grant's Federals clash with Maj. Gen. John Bowen's Confederates, are overwhelmed by superior numbers. Bowen had 8,000 men to try to block Grant's 23,000 men as they march on Vicksburg from the south. Casualties are 787 for the Confederates and 861 for the Federals. Gen. Pemberton's lack of cavalry would greatly hamper the Confederate response.
1864: Skirmishes take place on this day at Ashton, La., Ashwood Landing, La., and Clinton, La. In Arkansas, skirmishes happen between blue and gray at Lee's Creek and Pine Bluff.
CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, May 1.
Major General John Bankhead Magruder was born on this day in 1807 in Port Royal, Virginia. He graduated 15th in his class from West Point in 1830. During the Mexican-American War, he saw action at the battles of Palo Alto, Cerro Gordo, and Chapultepec, and was slightly wounded at the Battle of Mexico City. He was one of the leading artillerists in the U.S. Army. Magruder resigned his commission after Virginia seceded and joined the Confederate Army and was in command at the Battle of Big Bethel, on June 10, 1861, a Confederate victory. By August 1861 he had risen to the rank of major general and was given command of the Yorktown Peninsula and performed impressively in the Peninsula Campaign in 1862. After the Seven Days Campaign, he was assigned to command the Department of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Galveston had been captured by the Federals before he arrived in Texas, but he immediately organized a counterattack, and the port city was liberated on Jan. 1, 1863, in a brilliant Confederate victory. The city remained under Confederate hands for the rest of the war. His Texas forces also won important victories at Sabine Pass and defeated another attempted invasion on the lower Texas coast. He commanded the Department of Arkansas in 1864 and returned to command in Texas before the end of the war. Following the war, Magruder moved to Mexico but returned to the U.S. in 1867 and traveled extensively lecturing. He settled in Houston, Texas in 1870 and died there at the Hutchins House Hotel on Feb. 18, 1871, and was buried in the Episcopal Cemetery there. In 1876, the remains of the Hero of the Battle of Galveston were moved to the Episcopal Cemetery there and a monument was erected in his honor.
Brigadier General Thomas Harrison was born on this day in 1823 in Jefferson County, Alabama. He was raised in Mississippi and moved to Brazoria County, Texas in 1843, and practiced law in Waco, Texas. During the Mexican American War, Harrison served in the 1st Mississippi Rifles commanded by Col. Jefferson Davis. After that war, he moved back to Texas and served in the state legislature and the Texas militia. During the War for Southern Independence, his militia company became part of Terry's Texas Rangers and fought with the Confederate cavalry at the battles of Shiloh, and at Murfreesboro, where he was wounded. Recovering from that wound, he saw continued cavalry service commanding brigades as a colonel and was finally promoted to brigadier general on Feb. 18, 1865, but to date from Jan. 14, 1865. Harrison finished the war fighting in the Carolinas Campaign and was wounded at the Battle of Monroe's Crossroads, N.C. on March 10, 1865. He was paroled on May 31, 1865, at Macon, Ga. Following the war, he was elected a district judge in Waco, Texas, and opposed Reconstruction. Another highlight of his postwar career was being elected a Democrat Presidential Elector in 1872. Harrison died July 14, 1891 in Waco, Texas and was buried there. His older brother, James Edward Harrison, was also a Confederate brigadier general.
Brigadier General William Young Conn Humes was born this day in 1830 at Abington, Virginia. He graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1851 as a "distinguished graduate." After a period of teaching, he became a lawyer in Knoxville and then Memphis, Tennessee. During the War for Southern Independence he became a first lieutenant in the Confederate Regular Artillery, was promoted to captain and served in fortifications at New Madrid, Mo. protecting the Mississippi River. Captured there in April 1862, he was exchanged in September. He was promoted to major and commanded the artillery in Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler's cavalry corps. Humes was promoted to brigadier general on Nov. 16, 1863, and fought at the Battle of Missionary Ridge, the Atlanta Campaign in 1864, Wheeler's 1864 Tennessee Campaign, and was wounded near the end of the war at the Battle of Monroe's Crossroads, N.C. on March 10, 1865. He was still able to fight at the Battle of Bentonville, N.C. March 19-21, 1865, and surrendered with Johnston's Army of Tennessee on April 26, 1865. Following the war, he practiced law in Memphis, Tenn., and Huntsville, Ala., where he died Sept. 11, 1883, and was buried in Memphis.
Brigadier General William Steele was born on this day in 1819 in Albany, New York. He graduated from West Point in 1840 ranking 31st in a class of 42 cadets. Steele served in the cavalry in the Seminole War in Florida and in the Mexican-American War in the battle of Palo Alto, Monterey, Vera Cruz, Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Churubusco, and Molino de Rey and was promoted to brevet captain. Steele resigned from the U.S. Army May 30, 1861 and became the colonel of the 7th Texas Cavalry in Confederate Army. He was promoted to brigadier general on Sept. 12, 1862, and saw action in the New Mexico Campaign, commanded the Eastern Sub-district in Texas, led a brigade of cavalry in the Red River Campaign of 1864, and was in command of a cavalry division at the end of the war in Texas. Following the war, Steele became a cotton merchant in Texas and became the Adjutant General of the Texas militia. He died in San Antonio, Texas Jan. 12, 1885, and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Austin, Texas.
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