Click 👉 Today in History (general history) Aug. 26.
On This Day in Confederate History, Aug. 26.
1862: The Second Battle of Manassas is rapidly taking shape when Lt. Gen. Stonewall Jackson's wing of the Army of Northern Virginia, now in the rear of Yankee Maj. Gen. John "My headquarters are in the saddle," Pope's much larger army, and captures Manassas Junction. The railroad junction has mountains of supplies for the Federal Army. The always hungry Confederates feasted on the Yankee rations and carried off everything they could use and burned the rest. The other wing of the ANV, with General Lee and General Longstreet, is rapidly approaching and will be on Pope's flank before the Northern general even knows it.
1863: Confederate Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard gives an update on what happened in the Siege of Charleston, S.C. on this day: "On the 26th, 130 shots were fired at Sumter, Batteries Wagner and Gregg receiving the bulk of the fire. At 5 o'clock in the evening, the enemy concentrated his fire on our rifle pits in front of Battery Wagner. Between 7 and 8 p.m. the rifle pits in front of Battery Wagner. Between 7 and 8 p.m., the rifle-pits were carried by an overwhelming force, who also succeeded in capturing 76 out of 89 men of the Sixty-first North Carolina Volunteers, who formed the picket."
1864: North and South clash again in the Shenandoah Valley at the Battle of Smithfield Crossing, W. Va. between Aug. 25-29. Lt. Gen. Jubal Early's two infantry divisions crossed the Opequon Creek there when on the 29th forced back the Federal cavalry division of Maj. Gen. Westley Merritt. However, a federal infantry division stopped the Confederate advance on Charles Town. It is ranked as a tactical stalemate with about 300 casualties on both sides.
Confederate General Birthdays, Aug. 26.
Brigadier General Theodore Washington Brevard was born on this day in 1821 in Tuskegee, Alabama. A prewar lawyer in Florida, he was elected to the Florida House of Representatives and served in 1858 and 59. He got military experience serving in the Florida Militia as an adjutant and inspector general. He resigned from that position to serve as a first lieutenant in the Florida Mounted Volunteers in the Seminole War in 1857. After he was promoted to major and promoted to the militia adjutant general again. In the War for Southern Independence, he started as a captain in the 2nd Florida Infantry, was appointed a major and commander of Brevard's Partisan Rangers and fought in the Battle of Olustee. Then, with Finegan's Brigade, Brevard was promoted to colonel of the 11th Florida Infantry in the Battle of Cold Harbor, Va., the Second Battle of Ream's Station, the Battle of Globe Tavern, the Battle of Hatcher's Run, and the Battle of Sailor's Creek and was made a brigadier general April 6, 1865, when he was captured. He may not have learned he was a brigadier general until after the war. He returned to his home in Tallahassee, Florida, and died there on June 20, 1882. Brevard was buried in St. John's Episcopal Church Cemetery.
Brigadier General Danville Ledbetter was born on this day in 1811 in Leeds, Maine. He graduated from West Point in 1836 third in a class of 49 cadets. Commissioned as a second lieutenant, he served until he resigned in 1857 and settled in Alabama. Ledbetter joined the Confederate Army on March 16, 1861, to oversee the construction of Mobile, Ala. defenses. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel on Nov. 11, 1861, and to brigadier general on Feb. 27, 1862, and put in command of the 1st Brigade of the District of East Tennessee. He then became the Chief Engineer of the department and of the Army of Tennessee in 1863. Ledbetter oversaw the building of the defenses of Knoxville, Tenn. He next was put in command of the District of the Gulf where he ended the war. After the war, Ledbetter moved to Mexico and then Canada where he died in 1866. He was buried at Magnolia Cemetery in Mobile, Ala.
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