Click 👉 TODAY IN HISTORY (general history) Jan. 31.
ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, Jan. 31.
1861: Louisiana Gov. Thomas Overton Moore ordered the seizure of the United States Mint in New Orleans on this day in 1861. An inventory of the mint taken by a committee of the Louisiana Secession Convention reported $483,983 in gold and silver coins. Mint employees stayed on as state employees. Also, seized on this day were the United States Customs House in New Orleans and the schooner Washington.
1862: Queen Victoria reiterates Great Britain's neutrality stand in the war between the Confederate States and the United States. Despite the official stance, Confederate commissioners had an unofficial "home" (consulate) in Britain. They also successfully had such ships as the CSS Alabama built in Liverpool and imported thousands of Enfield Rifles, uniforms, and other war supplies from Great Britain.
1863: Confederate and Federal forces fight at Unionville, Middleton, and Rover in Tennessee. This was a major raid by two Federal cavalry brigades consisting of six regiments and a section of artillery from Murfreesboro to Franklin, Tenn. totaling 1,328 bluecoat cavalrymen. It was commanded by Brig. Gen. Jefferson C. Davis. Resisting the raid was Co. B, 51st Alabama Cavalry under Capt. L.W. Battle, Lt. Col. John S. Prather, and the 8th Confederate Cavalry, 150 men. A half mile from the town of Rover the 7th Pa. Cav. charged about 400 Confederates and had a sharp conflict and the Confederates retreated. They captured 6 officers, and 43 enlisted men, besides 49 wounded. All but one of the wounds was from sabers. The Federals held Unionville for about an hour and captured at Middleton Confederate Col. DeWitt Clinton Douglass, 1 captain, 1 lieutenant, and 41 men.
CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, Jan. 31.
Brigadier General William Raine Peck was born on this day in 1818 in Jefferson County, Tennessee. He moved with his family to Madison Parish, Louisiana in the 1840s and became a successful plantation owner and one of the wealthiest men in the state. He represented his parish in the Louisiana legislature and at the Louisiana Secession Convention, at which he voted for secession. He then enlisted as a private in the 9th Louisiana Infantry Regiment and soon was elected a captain and rose to lieutenant colonel, colonel, and brigadier general near the end of the war. Among his battles were Gettysburg, and Second Winchester, and was promoted to colonel on Oct. 8, 1863. Peck also fought at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Third Winchester, where he was wounded. He was promoted to brigadier general on Feb. 18, 1864. Peck resumed running his plantation in Louisiana after the war and died Jan. 22, 1871, and was buried at Westview Cemetery in Jefferson City, Tenn.
Brigadier General Daniel Ruggles was born on this day in 1810 in Barrie, Massachusetts. He graduated from West Point in 1833 and had a long career in the U.S. Army. Ruggles participated in the Seminole War in Florida in 1839, and in the Mexican-American War fought in the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, the first two battles of the war, in Texas. Ruggles then served under Gen. Winfield Scott in the Mexico City Campaign fighting at Vera Cruz, San Antonio, Churubusco, Molino del Rey, Chapultepec, and Mexico City. He was breveted a major for Gallant and Meritorious Conduct after Churubusco and was breveted a lieutenant colonel after Chapultepec. He had married a Virginia woman, sided with the South, and resigned from the U.S. Army on May 7, 1861. Ruggles was commissioned a brigadier general in the Confederate Army on August 9, 1861, after having served briefly as a colonel in the Virginia militia. He led a division at the Battle of Shiloh and at the Battle of Baton Rouge in 1862. He was briefly in command of the Confederate Bastion at Port Hudson, La. on the Miss. River. He then took part in the Second Battle of Corinth, Miss. Later in the war, he served in various administrative posts. After the war, he was a real estate salesman and farmer in Virginia. Ruggles died June 1, 1897, in Fredericksburg, Va., and was buried in the Confederate Cemetery there.
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