Today in History (general history)/On This Day in History/ Confederate General birthdays, April 19.

Click 👉 TODAY IN HISTOfRY (general history) April 19. 

ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, April 19.

1861: Baltimore Riot of 1861: While marching through Baltimore, Maryland, changing trains on the way to Washington, D.C., troops from the 2nd Massachusetts Militia are attacked by a rioting mob. Four soldiers and 12 civilians were killed in the riot. The city was soon occupied by Northern forces who suppressed the secessionists and made arbitrary arrests. James Ryder Randall was inspired to write a famous song, "Maryland, My Maryland," which became a Confederate war song and the state song of Maryland after the war. One of his friends, Francis X. Ward, was killed in the riot. Randall later joined the Confederate Navy.

 

A Maryland Confederate ca. 1861.

(6th Plate, M.D. Jones Collection,colorized)

Baltimore Riot of 1861

(Currier & Ives)

James Randall Ryder at age 22

Northern President Lincoln proclaims a blockade of Southern ports. The blockade was part of the North's Anaconda strategy to cut the South off from trade with foreign nations. However, the blockade also had the legal result of de facto recognition of the Confederate States of America and enabled foreign nations to recognize the Confederacy as a lawful belligerent since under international and maritime law a nation can close its own ports but can only blockade a belligerent nation. The Confederacy responded with blockade running, and Confederate Ironclads and Confederate torpedo boats and submarines attacked the blockade ships. It also commissioned Confederate States Cruisers like the CSS Alabama to attack U.S. Merchant ships worldwide. 

Blockade runner CSS Robert E. Lee

1864: The Battle of Plymouth, North Carolina takes place from April 17-20. In a combined rare Confederate army navy attack, Maj. Gen. Robert F. Hoke's three brigades of infantry, the 8th Va. Cav., the Virginia Horse Artillery battery, and the CSS Albemarle ironclad ram, a total of 4,500 men, attacked the Federal garrison at Plymouth, North Carolina. The Federal garrison consists of 8 regiments of infantry, two regiments of cavalry, two batteries of artillery, five gunboats, and one transport, for a total of 2,500 men. The garrison commander was Brig. Gen. Henry W. Wessells. The Albemarle sinks one gunboat, damages another, and drives off the rest of the ships. 

Maj. Gen. Robert F. Hoke

Click👉The Fighting First Louisiana Infantry Regiment

In the Army oof Northern Virginia

The 1st Louisiana Infantry Regiment was one of the hardest fighting units of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the War for Southern Independence. They were one of Generals Lee's and Jackson's most reliable infantry regiments that were often used for hard hitting charges as well as to cover fighting withdrawals. It served in Nicholl's 2nd Louisiana Infantry Brigade for most of the war. They fought in the Peninsula Campaign, 2nd Winchester, the Seven Days, Cedar Mountain, Sharpsburg, 2nd Manassas, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Mine Run, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Monocacy, 3rd Winchester, Fisher's Hill, Cedar Creek, and Appomattox.  This is its history of their glory, gallantry, and enormous sacrifice.

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, April 19.

None.