Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, Feb. 2.

Click 👉 TODAY IN HISTORY (general history) Feb. 2.

ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, Feb. 2.

1862: Confederate batteries on the Vicksburg, Mississippi, bluffs fire on the Federal ship Queen of the West, but it slips by the city. The gunboat had a 30-pounder bow gun and three 12-pounder howitzers; it was also protected by cotton bales behind wood sheathing. 

1864: On the second day of the Battle of New Bern, N.C. Confederate raiders led by Commander John Taylor Wood boarded the Federal gunboat USS Underwriter and killed the commander. Three crewmen were going to sail it away, but the guns of Fort Stevenson opened fire and set it on fire. The Confederates evacuated the scene the next day.

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, Feb. 2.

General Albert Sidney Johnston was born on this day in 1803 in Madison County, Kentucky. After attending Transylvania University in Lexington, Ky., Johnston attended West Point and graduated 8th in his class of 41 cadets. As a young second lieutenant, he was posted in New York and Missouri before serving in the Black Hawk War of 1832. Johnston resigned in 1834 to take care of his wife, who was dying of tuberculosis in Kentucky. She died in 1836. Johnston then went to the Republic of Texas, where he served as Secretary of War from 1838 to 1840. He also remarried and settled on the China Grove plantation in Brazoria County. Later, he moved back to Kentucky and then back to Texas for the Mexican-American War as colonel of the 1st Texas Rifles under Gen. Zachary Taylor at the Battle of Buena Vista. He lived on his Texas plantation until 1849, when President Zachary Taylor made him a major in the U.S. Army. Then President Franklin Pierce gave him command of the 2nd U.S. Cavalry and in 1857, gave him a brevet promotion to brigadier general in recognition of his service in the Utah War. At the outbreak of the War for Southern Independence, Johnston resigned and joined the Confederate Army. President Jefferson Davis made him a full general and he was given command of the Western Department. Johnston didn't have nearly enough men to defend his huge department and his forces were

General Albert Sydney Johnston

driven back from Kentucky all the way down to Corinth, Miss., in early 1862. With his second in command, Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard, and the Army of the Mississippi, they counterattacked on April 6, 1862, at the Battle of Shiloh, Tenn., while on the verge of victory, he was killed in action. Johnston is buried in an ornate tomb at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin, Texas.

Brigadier General Abner Monroe Perrin was born on this day in 1827 in Edgefield District, South Carolina. Perrin served in Mexican American War as an infantry lieutenant, after which he studied law in South Carolina and practiced law after being admitted to the bar. In the War for Southern Independence, he became a captain in the 14th South Carolina Infantry in A.P. Hill's famous "Light Division." He rose in rank and was promoted to brigadier general on Sept. 10, 1863. Perrin's battles included the Seven Days, Second Manassas, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and the Wilderness, and he was killed in action at Spotsylvania Court House on May 12, 1864, after being shot seven times. Perrin is buried in the Confederate Cemetery in Fredericksburg, Va.

                                               

Brig. Gen. Abner M. Perrin

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Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthday, Feb. 1.

Click 👉TODAY IN HISTORY (general history) Feb. 1

ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, Feb. 1.

1861: Texas Gov. Sam Houston, anti-secession, is angered when the Texas Secession Convention votes to secede, the seventh state to do so. The action will have to be validated by a vote of the people. The convention then establishes the Committee of Public Safety and sends delegates to the meeting of seceded states in Montgomery, Alabama to form the Southern Confederacy. Houston turns down an offer from Lincoln to supply him with troops to fight secessionists.

 At the Texas Secession Convention, Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Oran Milo Roberts presides. The delegates voted for secession by a margin of 166 to 8. The Committee on Public Safety was given the power to continue operation after the convention adjourned on Feb. 4, 1861. The committee authorized the seizure of all Federal property in Texas and the forced evacuation of 3,000 troops in the state. 

Texas Brigade soldiers in 1861.

1864: Major General George Pickett is ordered to capture New Bern, North Carolina, which has been occupied by the Federals. Brig. Gen. Robert Hoke's Brigade clashed with the 132nd N.Y. Inf. at Bachelor's Creek until dark when the Yankees retreated to New Bern. Meanwhile Brig. Gen. Seth Barton attacked the 17th Mass. Inf. and 3rd N.Y. Light Artillery across the Trent River but fell back when he found the fortifications there too strong for a frontal attack. The battle continued on Feb. 2, 1864.

Brig. Gen. Robert Hoke

1865: The Federal Army under Sherman destroys much private property in the Carolinas Campaign, as they had through Georgia. President Davis appointed Gen. Joseph E. Johnston to command the Army of the South in the campaign. His three corps commanders were Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee, Lt. Gen. Alexander P. Steward, and Lt. Gen. Stephen D. Lee. Johnston's cavalry chief was Maj. Gen. Wade Hampton. Greatly outnumbered, Johnston had to use Fabian's tactics and wait for opportunities to strike the Yankees.

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, Feb. 1.

Brigadier General Edward Higgins was born in 1821 in Norfolk, Va. but his exact month and day of birth are unknown. He was reared in Louisiana by an uncle and was appointed a midshipman in the U.S. Navy on Jan. 24, 1836, when he was about 15 years old. Promoted to passed midshipman on July 1, 1842, Higgins worked his way up to master and then to lieutenant on Aug. 24, 1849, after having seen service in the Mexican-American War. He married Anna Zimmerman in 1851 and resigned from the Navy in 1854. He and his wife settled in New Orleans where he worked as a steamship agent. When the war started in 1861, he served as a captain in the 1st Louisiana Heavy Artillery regiment. He resigned on Jan. 2, 1865, to take the position of lieutenant colonel in the 21st  Louisiana Infantry, which was actually trained as heavy artillery and defended Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip on the Mississippi River. Higgins fought in the Battle of New Orleans and was captured on April 28, 1862. After being exchanged, on Oct. 16, 1862, he was promoted to colonel while still a prisoner and after his release was given command of the river batteries at Vicksburg. Captured again with the fall of Vicksburg, he was exchanged again on Oct. 13, 1863. He was then promoted to brigadier general and assigned to command the harbor defenses at Mobile, Ala. Higgins was relieved of his command on Feb. 18, 1865, for unknown reasons and never received another command. Following the war, he and his wife settled in Norfolk, Va. where he worked in the insurance and import businesses. They then moved to California in 1872 to work for the Pacific Mail  Steamship Company. Higgins died on Jan. 31, 1875, and was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, California.

Brig. Gen. Edward Higgins