TODAY IN HISTORY (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, APRIL 18.

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ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTYR, April 18.

1860: SOUTH CAROLINA SECESSION: The South Carolina Legislature creates a special session to discuss the possibility of seceding from the Union. This is the start of the legal and constitutional process that leads to the first of the Southern states to secede.

Confederate artilleryman wearing

a secession badge.

(Liljenquist Collection, Library of Congress)

1862: Confederate infantry and Federal cavalry skirmish near Falmouth, Virginia.

1863: The Battle of Fayetteville, Arkansas took place on this day. Confederates under Brig. Gen. W.L. Cabell attacked the Federal garrison there under Col. M. LaRue Harrison. The Federals had 1,100 men and the Confederates 900 men and two light artillery pieces. The Southerners attacked the Northerners in downtown Fayetteville but were driven back. The Federals lost 4 killed, 26 wounded, 4 captured, and 35 missing. Confederates suffered around 20 killed, 30 wounded, and 20 missing. While the Federals won the battle, Cabell scored a strategic victory because the Northerners retreated to Missouri a week later.

Brig. Gen. William L. Cabell

Also in 1863, there was a bloody Skirmish at the Sabine Pass Lighthouse on the Louisiana side of the river. The Northern blockading gunboats had been sending landing parties to the abandoned lighthouse to spy on the Confederate forts on the Texas side of the river. Discovering this surreptitious activity, the Confederates set up an ambush on the Northern sailors as they were arriving by boat. The Northerners had six casualties and the Confederates lost Lt. E.T. Wright of Co. D, 20th Battalion Texas Infantry who was killed in action.

1864: Red River Campaign: Maj. Gen. Camille Polignac Louisiana and Texas Division were temporarily blocked from crossing the Calcasieu River while pursuing the Federals under Maj. Gen. N.P. Banks in the Red River Campaign. Attempts to build a pontoon bridge across the river had failed but they finally got the men across on a skiff and a flatboat while the horses swim across. The crossing wasn't finished until late at night. By marching most of the night they managed to make 17 miles when they reached Bayou Nezpique.

1865: SURRENDER OF THE ARMY OF TENNESSEE: Generals Johnston and Sherman reach a tentative and unauthorized agreement by neither government, to end the war by promising an amnesty to all Confederates and promising to all Southern state governments to resume governing as soon as they take the oath of allegiance to the Union. 

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, April 18.

NONE.

TODAY IN HISTORY (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, April 16.

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 ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, April 16.

1862: The Battle of Dam No. 1 along the Warwick River on the Yorktown, Va. defense line took place. Brig. Gen. Howell Cob wrote in his report, "During the engagement, which lasted about three hours, the enemy was twice successfully repulsed, and finally driven across the stream with severe loss." The Federal casualties in the three-hour battle were 35 killed, 121 wounded, and nine missing. Of the Confederate units in the battle that actually filed reports, only one man was listed as killed, Col. Robert M. McKinney of the 15th North Carolina Infantry, which was the most advanced Confederate unit. Also, two 15th North Carolina men were listed as wounded.

President Davis in Richmond, Va. approved the first Confederate Conscription Act which was introduced to Congress. The law provides for the conscription of men 18 to 35 but also provides for the discharge of men already serving who are under 18 or over 35. It also extended the enlistment of men within the age group two more years, for a total of three years' service, or the end of the war if it came earlier.

1863: Vicksburg Campaign: On a clear moonlit night, the Confederate batteries at Vicksburg, Miss. fail to stop 10 Federal warships, seven gunboats, and three empty transports, from running past the fortress city on the Mississippi River. The steamers hugged close to the shore and the guns on the bluff couldn't be depressed low enough and didn't do any serious damage to the ships, however, 22 men were wounded but no one was killed.

President Davis signs a bill allowing men under 21 to become commissioned officers in the Confederate Army.

1864: Red River Campaign: Maj. Gen. Camille Polignac's Louisiana and Texas Infantry Division marched 25 miles chasing the retreating bluecoats of the Federal Army of the Gulf down the Red River in Louisiana.

1865: The Battle of West Point, Georgia occurs at Fort Tyler. It was attacked by Wilson's Raiders. The commander of the fort, Brig. Gen. Robert Tyler became the last Confederate general to be killed in battle in the war. Total Confederate casualties were 19 killed, 28 wounded, and 218 captured. The Federals lost seven killed and 29 wounded. Tyler's garrison was composed of convalescent soldiers, invalids, and militiamen.

Brig. Gen. Robert C. Tyler

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, April 16.

Major General Edward "Allegheny" Johnson was born on this day in 1816 in Salisbury, Va. He got his nickname at the Battle of Allegheny Mountain early in the war in Virginia. Gen. Lee considered him one of the best division commanders in the army. His family moved to Kentucky when he was a child and he received his early schooling there and graduated in 1838 from West Point. Johnson had an outstanding record in the Mexican-American War and fought at Veracruz, Cerro Gordo, Churubusco, and Molino del Rey. For his gallantry, he was awarded brevet promotions to captain and then major, as well as a ceremonial sword. After resigning his U.S. Army commission, Johnson was made colonel of the 12th Georgia Infantry Regiment and fought in the early battles of Greenbrier River and Allegheny Mountain in western Virginia. He was promoted to brigadier general on Dec. 13, 1861. His first brigade was known as the Army of the Northwest. Johnson was severely wounded in the ankle in the Battle of McDowell and was out of action for nearly a year. With his recovery, in May 1863 he was promoted to major general and given command of a division in the Army of Northern Virginia. He led the division to victory at the Second Battle of Winchester, Va. Johnson's Division fought on Culp's Hill at Gettysburg and played a key role in thwarting the Federals in the Mine Rune Campaign. Johnson also performed well in 1864 at the Battle of the Wilderness but his division was overrun at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, and he was captured. After his exchange in August 1864, he was given command of a division in the Army of Tennessee which he commanded in the Franklin-Nashville Campaign. He was again captured at the Battle of Nashville, on Dec. 16, 1864. He didn't get paroled until July 22, 1865, because someone accused him of somehow being involved in the Lincoln Assassination, which was ridiculous since he was a P.O.W. the whole time. Following the war he farmed in Virginia and was active with other veterans in an early attempt to create a monument to Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Va. Johnson died March 2, 1873, and was given the honor of his body being laid in state in the state capitol before being buried in Hollywood Cemetery.

                                                               Maj. Gen. Edward Johnson

Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, April 15.

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ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, April 15.

1861: Lincoln's call for 75,000 volunteers backfires in the upper South and begins the process that will see Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas eventually withdraw from the Union and join the Confederacy. These states gave the Confederacy far more soldiers than 75,000.

Capt. Daniel Turrentine, Co. G, 12th Ark. Inf.

(Library of Congress)

1862: Peninsula Campaign: Federals prepare for an attack on the Confederate fortification on Dam No. 1 in the middle of the Yorktown, Va. siege line. The Confederate see the activity and reinforce the line at that point.

1863: The CSS Alabama commanded by Captain Raphael Semmes captured two Yankee whalers off the coast of a Brazilian island.

1864: In the Red River Campaign of 1864 in western Louisiana, the Confederate cavalry aggressively pursues the retreating Army of the Gulf.

1865: Lincoln died at 7:22 a.m. in a house across the street from Ford's theater in Washington, D.C. Vice President Andrew Johnson became the 17th U.S. President.

Generals W.T. Sherman and J.E. Johnston meet in North Carolina to discuss peace terms even though neither has that authority. 

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, April 15.

Brigadier General Evander McNair was born on this day in 1820 in Laurel Hill, Scotland County, North Carolina. As a child, he moved with his family to Mississippi. McNair joined Col. Jefferson Davis's 1st Mississippi Rifles and fought in the Mexican American War. He relocated to Arkansas in 1856 engaging in the mercantile business in Washington. In 1861, he commanded the colonel of the 4th Arkansas Infantry and fought at the battles of Oak Hill, Elk Horn Tavern, and was commissioned a brigadier general Nov. 4, 1862. His other battles included Richmond, Ky., Murfreesboro, Jackson, Miss., Chickamauga (wounded). McNair was transferred to the Trans-Mississippi Department in 1864 where his brigade took part in Price's Missouri Raid.  Following the war he lived in New Orleans, Hattiesburg, Miss, and Magnolia, Miss. He died Nov. 13, 1902, in Hattiesburg and was buried there in Magnolia Cemetery.

Brig. Gen. Evander McNair

Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, April 14.

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ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, April 14.

1861: Surrender of Fort Sumter: During the surrender ceremony at Fort Sumter, S.C., Confederate Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard gallantly allowed the defeated Federals to fire their cannons off before leaving. However, in the process of firing the cannon one Federal soldier was accidentally killed, another mortally wounded, and four were wounded. The captives, when allowed to leave, were taken out to a Federal ship offshore, which was part of the failed Federal effort to reinforce the fort. Beauregard then had a Confederate flag raised over the fort. The Confederacy held on to the fort until the very end of the war and kept large Federal army and navy forces tied up there. 

1863: Bayou Teche Campaign: Maj. Gen. Richard Taylor thwarted a plan of Army of the Gulf commander Maj. Gen. N.P. Banks to entrap the Confederates on Bayou Teche, La. Taylor had the Federal flanking force blocked at the Battle of Irish Bend, while the majority of the Confederate Army escaped the trap. Banks' Army of the Gulf consisted of the XIX Corps' 4th Infantry Division and Divisional Artillery. Taylor's Army of Western Louisiana included Mouton's Infantry Brigade with three batteries, Sibley's Texas Cavalry Brigade and one battery, and the unattached 2nd Louisiana Cavalry. Federal casualties were 43 enlisted men and 17 officers killed and 257 enlisted wounded. Confederate casualties were reported but the Federals found 21 Confederate dead left on the field and 35 wounded Confederates captured. The Army of Western Louisiana would be heard from again in the fall Great Overland Campaign in the same area.

1864: Red River Campaign: Mouton's Louisiana Infantry Division, the unattached 2nd Louisiana Cavalry and Texas Infantry Division, was now commanded by Maj. Gen. Camille Polignac marched 30 miles in the Red River Campaign and camped at Kirk's Mill, an important crossroads, near Huddleston, La. The division is the only heavy infantry left for Maj. Gen. Taylor, after Gen. Kirby Smith took Walker's Texas Infantry Division and Churchill's divisions of Arkansas and Missouri infantry with him to Arkansas. The late General Green is replaced by Maj. Gen. John Austin Wharton to command the cavalry. Taylor's force relentlessly harassed Banks' retreating Army of the Gulf.

Maj. Gren. John A. Wharton

1865: Lincoln Assassination: Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. A massive manhunt is launched for Booth and other suspects that results in a huge roundup of suspects. Secretary of State was severely wounded in his home by Lewis Powell. George Atzerodt was allegedly tasked with killing Maj. Gen. U.S. Grant, which didn't happen. Booth's motive was to avenge the South.

A depiction of the Lincoln assassination.

(click on the image to enlarge)

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, April 14.

Major General Harry Thompson Hays was born on this day on April 14, 1820, in Wilson County, Tennessee and partly raised in Mississippi. He received his higher education at St. Mary's College in Baltimore, Md. where he studied law. Hays moved to New Orleans and practiced law until the Mexican-American War and served in the 5th La. Cavalry. Resuming his law practice after the war, Hays was a supporter and elector for Winfield Scott with the Whig Party in the presidential election of 1852. With the coming of the War for Southern Independence, Hays became the colonel of the 7th Louisiana Infantry Regiment. He was promoted to brigadier general July 25, 1862. He commanded the famous 1st Louisiana Infantry Brigade, also called the "Louisiana Tigers." Hays' battles including 1st Manassas, Port Republic (wounded), Sharpsburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and Spotsylvania (wounded). Recovering from his wound, Hays was transferred to the Trans-Mississippi Dept. and promoted to major general near the end of the war by order of Gen. E. Kirby Smith, department commander. Returning home to New Orleans after the war, Hays was elected sheriff of Orleans Parish but was removed from office by order of Gen. Philip Sheridan, Northern commander of occupied Louisiana, following the New Orleans Riot of 1866. He practiced law until his death on Aug. 21, 1876, and was buried in Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 in New Orleans.

Maj. Gen. Harry T. Hays

(Click on image to enlarge)

Today in History (general history)\ On This Day in Confederate History, Confederate General Birthdays, April 13.

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ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, April 13.

1861: Battle of Fort Sumter: After 34 hours of bombardment on Fort Sumter, S.C., Major Robert Anderson notifies Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard he is ready to surrender the fort. No Federal soldiers were killed in the bombardment, but the fort is heavily damaged. One Confederate was mortally wounded when his own cannon misfired. The surrender ceremony is scheduled for the next day. This victory gets the new Confederate nation off to a good start showing it can successfully defend its claimed territory as a free and independent country.

Bombardment of Fort Sumter

(Currier & Ives)

1862: New Mexico Campaign: With Confederate food, water, and ammunition about to be exhausted, Brig. Gen. H.H. Sibley began withdrawing his Confederate brigade to El Paso, Texas on April 12 and continued on April 13.

On the Yorktown Peninsula in Virginia, Maj. Gen. J.B. Magruder received reinforcements building up to 34,000 men, which was barely enough to defend his fortifications across the peninsula anchored on Yorktown. Federal Maj. Gen. George McClellan built up his heavy siege artillery up to 15 batteries with more than 70 large caliber guns. 

1865: Battles After Appomattox: Despite the surrender of General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, fighting continues with skirmishes on this day at Wetumpka, Ala., Whistler, Ala., and Morrisville, N.C. in which Gen. J.E. Johnston's army continues battling Sherman's advance. Also, a Confederate torpedo (underwater mine) sank the U.S.S. Ida in Mobile Bay, Ala.

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, April 13.

Brigadier General Leroy Augustus Stafford Sr. was born this day in 1822 on Greenwood Plantation near Cheneyville, Louisiana. He was a prominent citizen soldier who before the war was a wealthy planter in Louisiana and sheriff of Rapides Parish and a veteran of the Mexican-American War. He organized the "Stafford Guards" as its captain in 1861 and then became colonel of the 9th Louisiana Infantry Regiment. Stafford commanded brigades temporarily as a colonel and was finally promoted to brigadier general. His battles included Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign of 1862, Second Manassas, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Rappahannock Station. General Stafford was mortally wounded on May 5, 1864, in the Battle of the Wilderness, Va., and died May 8, 1864, in Richmond, Va. He was temporarily buried at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Va., and was reinterred in 1886 on his Greenwood Plantation in Rapides Parish, Louisiana.

Brig. Gen. Leroy A. Stafford

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Brigadier General William Stephen Walker was born on this day in 1822 in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Raised in Mississippi and Washington, D.C. by an uncle, Walker served in the Mexican-American War. He rejoined the U.S. Army in 1855 and resigned in 1861 to join the Confederate Army. He held such positions as aide-de-camp to Gen. Robert E. Lee for a short period, inspector general of South Carolina, and was promoted to colonel and then a brigadier general in 1862. He led troops in battle at the First Battle of Pocotaligo, S.C., the Battle of Port Royal, S.C., Petersburg, Va., the Overland Campaign, and the Battle of Ware Bottom Church, where he was wounded, captured, and had a foot amputated. Walker was paroled on May 1, 1865, at Greensboro, N.C. Following the war, Walker lived in Georgia and died June 7, 1899, in Atlanta and was buried there in Oakland Cemetery.

Brig. William S. Walker

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Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, April 12.

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ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, April 12.

1861: BATTLE OF FORT SUMTER: After Lincoln's failure to negotiate with Confederate peace commissioners, and after misleading South Carolina officials and sending reinforcements to Fort Sumter to deliberately provoke Confederates, General P.G.T. Beauregard, acting on orders from his government, ordered Confederate shore batteries in Charleston, S.C. to open fire at 4:30 o'clock in the morning of 12 April 1861. He had given Major Robert Anderson a last chance to evacuate, but Anderson again rejected peace by giving a deceptive answer. Federal batteries on Fort Sumter returned fire at 7 o'clock. Lincoln got the war he provoked.

Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard in an

early war CDV photograph.

(M.D. Jones Collection)

1862: GREAT LOCOMOTIVE CHASE: In Georgia, 21 Northern spies and saboteurs penetrate Confederate lines, and steal the locomotive "General" but before they can destroy the Western and Atlantic Railroad between Atlanta a Chattanooga, alert railroad conductor William Fuller gets on their trail with a detachment of Confederate soldiers with the locomotive "Texas." The "Great Locomotive Chase" lasts for 87 miles before the Confederates catch up and arrest the spies and saboteurs. The master spy James J. Andrews and seven others were tried and convicted as spies and unlawful combatants and hanged. Others succeeded in escaping or were later exchanged for Confederate prisoners of war. Six of the returned spies were the first recipients of the U.S. Medal of Honor. Conductor Fuller was treated as a Confederate hero, receiving the commendation of the Georgia State Legislature and being commissioned by Gov. Joseph E. Brown a captain in the Independent State Road Guards. 

Captain William A. Fuller

Hero of the "Great Train Chase"

1863: The first day of the Battle of Bisland Plantation (aka Fort Bisland) in South Louisiana occurs in the Bayou Teche Campaign of 1863. Maj. Gen. Richard Taylor gathers the Army of Western Louisiana to try to stop Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks' Army of the Gulf which is invading Bayou Teche to clear out the rebels before commencing the Siege of Port Hudson, La., which was the southern anchor to Vicksburg, Miss. for keeping the Mississippi River open and the Trans-Mississippi connected to the eastern Confederacy.

1864: The Battle of Blair's Landing takes place in the Red River Campaign in Louisiana. Brig. Gen. Tom Green led his Texas and Louisiana cavalry and artillery in attacking the grounded Federal gunboats and transports on Red River at Blair's Landing. The fleet was defended by Brig. Gen. Kilby Smith's detachment of the 17th Army Corps fired back from behind cotton battles on the decks, and the gunboats' own guns. The Confederates were attacking vigorously and effectively until Green was decapitated by a Federal shell. The Confederates soon fell back.

Brig. Gen. Tom Green

KIA at Blair's Landing

1865: At Mobile, Alabama is occupied by Federal troops, but as Grant later inferred, it had come too late to be relevant to the outcome of the war. And the same could be said of the Federal occupation on the same day in Montgomery,  Alabama.

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, April 12.

Brigadier George Burgwyn Anderson was born on this day in 1831 near Hillsboro, North Carolina. He graduated in 1852 from West Point, 10th in ranking out of 43 cadets. He resigned from the U.S. Army on April 21, 1861, and was appointed colonel of the 4th North Carolina Infantry on July 16, 1861. He was promoted on June 9, 1862, to brigadier general. Anderson's battles and campaigns included Williamsburg, Malvern Hill, and South Mountain, where he was mortally wounded. The wound became infected and his foot had to be amputated. He died on Oct.  17, 1862.

Brig. Gen. George B. Anderson

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Brigadier General George Gibbs Dibrell was born on this day in 1822 in Sparta, Tennessee. In his prewar years, Dibrell practiced law, and served as a justice of the peace, clerk of court, and clerk at the Bank of Tennessee. In the War for Southern Independence, he organized and was the colonel of the 8th Tennessee Cavalry. Throughout the war he served under both of the two great western Confederate cavalry generals, Nathan Bedford Forrest and Joseph "Fighting Joe" Wheeler. His battles included Mill Springs, Corinth, Saltville, and Bentonville. Promoted to brigadier general in 1865, he escorted President Jefferson Davis at the end of the war from Greensboro, N.C. to Georgia. Anderson was then captured on May 9, 1865, and paroled. Following the war, he was involved in restoring railroads and industries. Dibrell also served as a delegate to the Tennessee state constitutional convention of 1870, in the Tennessee legislature for a short period, and was elected to the U.S. Congress. Dibrell died May 9, 1888, in Sparta, Tenn., and was buried in the Old Sparta Cemetery.

Brig. Gen. George G. Dibrell

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Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ General General Birthdays, April 11.

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On This Day in Confederate History, April 11.

1861: Fort Sumter Campaign: General Beauregard sends Col. James Chesnut Jr., James A. Chisholm, and Capt. Stephen Dill Lee to deliver an ultimatum to Major Anderson at Fort Sumter demanding the immediate evacuation of Fort Sumter or else hostilities would commence.

Col. James Chesnut Jr.

1862: The Siege of Fort Pulaski ends with the surrender of the fort by the Confederates. During the 112 day siege, one Federal was killed and several were wounded. The Confederates lost several men mortally wounded and 363 captured.

1863: The Siege of Suffolk, Va. commenced on this day. Lt. Gen. James Longstreet commanded 25,000 Confederates of the Army of Northern Virginia's First Corps. Maj. Gen. John Peck commanded 20,000 defenders of the fortifications. Longstreet's forces kept the Northmen bottled up while his quartermaster gathered much needed supplies for Gen. Robert E. Lee's ANV.

Confederate General Birthdays April 11.

None.

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