Click 👉 TODAY IN HISTORY (general history) March 28.
ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, March 28.
1862: The major fighting in the Battle of Glorieta Pass, N.M. occurs on this third day of the battle. In the morning, the Confederates and the Federals both decide to launch attacks. Federal Lt Col. J.P. Slough splits his forces and detaches Maj. Chivington's command is to make a flank attack while he is attacking the rebels from the front. Lt. Col. W.R. Scurry decides to attack the Federals in a frontal assault, but a small part of his command is detached to guard the supply place at Johnson's Ranch with one artillery piece. He is expecting reinforcements under Col. Tom Green. The two armies clash along the Glorietta River near Pigeon's Ranch and the Federals attack first. Scurry counterattacked and outflanked the Federals, but Texan Maj. John Shropshire is killed in the action and Texan Maj. Henry Raguet is mortally wounded. By the end of the day, Slough retreats to Kozloski's Ranch with the Confederate winning that phase of the battle. However, Maj. Chivington didn't flank the Confederates as ordered but attacks the small detachment at Johnson's Ranch and quickly overwhelms it, looting and destroying or capturing the vital Confederate supplies and livestock, including the artillery piece and some of the men. That phase is won by the Federals. The Confederates lost 222 men killed, wounded, and captured or missing. The Federal casualty total is 147.
1864: Confederate Maj. Gen. Richard Taylor on this day in the Red River Campaign gets positive word that Banks' Federal juggernaut has reached Cotile Landing just south of Natchitoches. Hoping to defend Natchitoches, but still waiting for Brig. Gen. Tom Green's Texas Cavalry Division, Taylor reluctantly orders his command to retreat to Pleasant Hill in Northwest Louisiana. The men, especially the Louisianians are anxious to stop the looting and burning of their state. Federal Brig. Gen. Albert Lee's cavalry is in the lead, followed by Maj. Gen. A.J. Smith's detachment from Vicksburg, and the elements of the 19th Army Corps and other units. The Federal flotilla brings added punch to the Northern offensive.
1865: Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest in Alabama scrambles to set up an effective defense against Wilson's Raiders which are headed for the major Confederate base at Selma. But the Federal cavalry is moving fast and Forrest has few men with little hope of stopping them.
CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, March 28.
Lieutenant General Wade Hampton III was born this day in 1818 in Charleston, South Carolina. A wealthy prewar planter and politician in South Carolina, Hampton was a citizen soldier who rose to the second-highest rank of generals in the War For Southern Independence. He organized Hampton's Legion early in the war, took part in the First Battle of Manassas, and is wounded, and fought in most of the major campaigns and battles of the Army of Northern Virginia, rising to the level of lieutenant general and commanding the cavalry of the army. He finished the war with Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's Army of Tennessee in North Carolina in 1865. In the post-war years, he was a major political figure in South Carolina fighting Reconstruction and serving as governor of the state. He died April 11, 1902, and is buried in Trinity Cathedral Churchyard, Charleston, in S.C.
Brigadier General Thomas Taylor Munford was born on this day in 1831 in Richmond, Virginia. He was an 1852 graduate of the Virginia Military Institute and in the War for Southern Independence rose to the rank of brigadier general. His battles were First Manassas, Cross Keys, White Oak Swamp, Second Manassas, Mile Hill, South Mountain, Gettysburg, Bristoe, Wapping Heights, Five Forks, High Bridge, and Sayler's Creek. Following the war, he worked as a cotton planter in Alabama and served as president of the Virginia Military Institute Board of Visitors. He died Feb. 27, 1918, in Uniontown, Alabama and was buried in Spring Hill Cemetery in Lynchburg, Va.
