Today in History (general birthday)/On This Day in Confederate Birthday/ Confederate General Birthdays, October 19.

 Click 👉Today in History (general history) Oct. 19.

On This Day in Confederate History, Oct. 19.

1862: Bragg's Heartland Campaign: The Army of Tennessee withdrew from Kentucky through the Cumberland Gap, and although historians deem it a major failure, Maj. Gen. Joseph "Fighting Joe" Wheeler later pointed out the tremendous material gain. He wrote: ‘We recovered Cumberland Gap and redeemed Middle Tennessee and North Alabama. Two months of marches and battles by the armies of Bragg and Kirby Smith had cost the Federals a loss in killed, wounded, and prisoners: 26,530. We had captured 35 cannons, 16,000 stands of arms, millions of rounds of ammunition, 1,700 mules, 300 wagons loaded with military stores, and 2,000 horses." In addition, Confederate War Department clerk John B. Jones noted Gen. Braxton Bragg" succeeded in getting away with the largest amount of provisions, clothing, etc., ever obtained by an army, including 8,000 beef cattle, 50,000 barrels of pork, and a million yards of Kentucky cloth."

1863:  Great Texas Overland Campaign: Brig. Gen. Tom Green's crack Confederate cavalry division in the Army of Western Louisiana continued harassing Maj. Gen. William B. Franklin's divisions of the Army of the Gulf, this time with skirmishing at Grand Coteau, Louisiana.

Click👉Confederate Guards Response Battalion

This is the history of one of the hardest-fighting Louisiana units in the War for Southern Independence, the Confederate Guards Response Battalion. It covers the unit's organization in New Orleans, the Battle of Shiloh and their campaigns in Louisiana, including the Bayou Lafourche Campaign in 1862, the Bayou Terche Campaign in 1863, the Texcas Overland Campaign in 1863, and the Red River Campaign in 1864. The book includes photographs, maps, illustrations, a bibliography, and an index.

1864: Lt. Gen. Jubal Early's Army of the Valley comes close to an overwhelming victory at the Battle of Cedar Creek, Va., but the morning victory turned into an overwhelming defeat in the afternoon. The battle pitted about 14,000 Confederates against 31,600 Federals under Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan. Gen. Early's morning attack catches the unprepared blue coats with coordinated frontal and flanking maneuvers. The Yankees are scattered and routed, but Early, thinking the enemy is defeated and the battle won, fails to follow up that afternoon. But the absent Sheridan comes back and gathers his men and stages a devastating counterattack that renders the battle a victory for the North. Confederate casualties were 320 killed, 1,540 wounded, and 1,050 captured or missing. The Federals lost 644 killed, 3,430 wounded, and 1,491 captured or missing. The dead include one Confederate general, Stephen Dodson Ramseur, and two Federal generals, Daniel Davidson Bidwell and Charles Russell Lowell.

Maj. Gen. Stephen D. Ramseur

Mortally wounded at the Battle of Cedar Creek

Confederate General Birthdays. Oct. 19.

None.

Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, October 20.

Click 👉Today in History (general history) Oct. 20. 

On This Day in Confederate History, Oct. 20.

1862: Confederate Cavalry under Col. John Hunt Morgan captured a federal supply train near Bardstown, Ky., and burned all 150 wagons. Morgan's Men were being pursued by Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger's Federal cavalry. Morgan's Brigade, on its first Kentucky Raid in 1862, consisted of the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry, Georgia Partisan Rangers, Tennesseans, and Texans.

A typical Confederate cavalryman wearing a shell jacket with cavalry

"C" buttons and holding a folded-up newspaper. One can only imagine

what the newspaper signifies. Perhaps he was sending a coded message? His

other hand also looks like some sort of coded message.

(CDV, M.D. Jones Collection, colorized by AI)

1863: Col. George G. Dibrell's Confederate Cavalry captured a large federal supply train for Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside's command destroyed it and inflicted 479 casualties on the bluecoats near Philadelphia, Tennessee.

1864: Lt. Gen. Jubal Early's Confederate Army of the Valley, badly beaten by the Federals the previous day at the Battle of Cedar Creek, has a skirmish with Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan's pursuing forces at Fisher's Hill and then continues its retreat.

Lt. Gen. Jubal Early

Oil on Canvas painting by John W. Lowes

(Virginia Historical Society)

Confederate General Birthdays, Oct. 20.

Maj. Gen. Benjamin Franklin Cheatham was born in Nashville, Tennessee, on this day in 1820. He served as a captain in the 1st Tennessee Infantry and as colonel of the 3rd Tennessee during the Mexican-American War. He also served as a brigadier general in the Tennessee Militia. Cheatham was commissioned a brigadier general in the Confederate Army on May 9, 1861, and was promoted to major general on March 10, 1862. His battles and campaigns included Belmont, Shiloh, Perryville, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Atlanta, Franklin-Nashville, and the Carolinas. After the war, he was the superintendent of the Tennessee State Prisons and postmaster of Nashville, and died Sept. 4, 1886, in Nashville and was buried there in Mount Olivet Cemetery.

                                        

                                             Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Cheatham

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Maj. Gen. Mansfield Lovell was born on this day in 1822 in Washington, D.C. He graduated from West Point in 1842, served in the Mexican-American War, and was severely wounded in the Battle of Chapultepec. In 1854, he resigned from the army to serve in a filibuster campaign to Cuba. Lovell then served as the deputy street commissioner in New York City. He was appointed a major general in the Confederate Army on Oct. 7, 1861, and commanded in New Orleans, Louisiana. He also fought in the Second Battle of Corinth, Miss. Following the war he farmed near Savannah, Georgia, worked as a civil engineer in New York City, died there on June 1, 1884, and was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York.

Maj. Gen. Mansfield Lovell

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Brigadier General. Francis Marion Cockrell was born on this day in 1824 in Walton County, Georgia. A prewar lawyer, he practiced in Warrensburg, Missouri. In 1861, Cockrell joined the Missouri State Guard and was commissioned in the Confederate Army in the 2nd Missouri Regiment and rose to the rank of colonel. He was promoted to brigadier general on July 18, 1863. His battles included Champion's Hill, Big Black River Bridge, the Siege of Vicksburg (wounded), the Atlanta Campaign, wounded in the Battle of Franklin, and defending Fort Blakely, Alabama. Following the war, Cockrell was elected to the U.S. Senate, serving from 1875 to 1905, and served on the Interstate Commerce Commission and on the Board of Ordnance and Fortifications for the War Department in Washington, D.C. He died on Dec. 13, 1915, in Washington, D.C.

Brig. Gen. Francis M. Cockrell

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Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, October 21.

Click 👉Today in History (general history), Oct. 21. 

On This Day in Confederate History, Oct. 21.

1861: The Battle of Ball's Bluff, Va. is another early war victory in this promising year of victories for the Confederates, including the First Battle of Manassas, Va., July 21, 1861; the Battle of Oak Hills (Wilson's Creek) Aug. 10, 1861; and the Battle of Ball/s Bluff, Va. Oct. 21, 1861. Brig. Gen. Charles Stone and Brig. Gen. Edward D. Baker (U.S. Sen. & Friend of Lincoln) was in command of about 1,720 Federals. Brig. Gen. Nathan G. Evans commanded 1,709 Confederates. The battle developed a reconnaissance and an intended raid on Leesburg, Va. They eventually ran into Gen. Evans' Confederates at 3 o'clock that afternoon which developed into a serious battle. The Southerners drove the Northerners to the rear of the bluff, with Baker being killed at about 4:30. The 17th Mississippi Infantry under Col. Winfield Scott Featherston arrived on the scene late in the battle and staged an assault that broke the Federal line and routed the blue coats. Many Northerners drowned while crossing the Potomac River. The Federals lost 223 killed, 226 wounded, and 553 captured. The Confederates lost 36 men killed, 117 wounded, and two captured. Baker is the only sitting U.S. Senator to ever be killed in battle. 

Col. Winfield Scott Featherston

of the 17th Miss. Inf. was promoted

to brigadier general for his gallantry

 at Ball's Bluff, Va.

(Restored & colorized with AI)

1863: The Battle of Opelousas, La. took place on this day at a railroad crossing three miles south of that important strategic town in St. Landry Parish, La. in the Great Texas Overland Expedition. Confederates have about nine regiments of cavalry, two battalions of infantry, and several artillery pieces under Brig. Gen. Tom Green. Maj. Gen. William B. Franklin, commanding the Army of the Gulf, had an overwhelming force. The powerful Federal artillery opened on the Southerners, and the arrival of infantry drove the Confederates back and the blue coats occupied Opelousas, one of the temporary capitals of the state. Franklin held this area while awaiting further orders. Here's an excerpt from Gen. Richard Taylor's report (Officia Records: Vol. 26, Pt. 1, P. 389):  "October 22,1863. General: I have the honor to report that, on yesterday morning, the advance of the enemy along his whole line compelled me to withdraw from Opelousas. The enemy’s advance of some 5,000 up the Teche road turned our position at Opelousas. This I was prepared to expect. After some skirmishing in front of Opelousas, in which we lost 2 killed, General Green withdrew to Washington, inflicting some loss on the enemy."

1st Lt. William B. Champlin, Co.D & F, 2nd La. Cav. 

He was captured on Nov. 30, 1863, near the Salt

Works near New Iberia, La., and exchanged Dec. 31, 1863.

1864: Franklin-Nashville Campaign: Gen. John Bell Hood's Army of Tennessee on this day raided the Nashville and Northwestern Railroad in Tennessee, which supplied Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman's Federal army from the major supply depot at Johnsonville, Tenn.

Confederate General History, Oct. 21.

None.

Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, October 18.

 Click 👉 Today in History (general history) Oct. 18.

On This Day in Confederate History, Oct. 18.

1861: Maj. Gen. David Twiggs, in poor health and over 70 years of age, resigned on Oct. 11, 1861, from his command of the Department of the South. No. 1 in Louisiana, and was succeeded by Maj. Gen. Mansfield Lovell on this day in 1861. Department No. 1 headquarters was in New Orleans, which was already under threat by Federal blockade runners and a build-up of Federal forces on Ship Island in the Gulf of Mexico.

1862: Brig. Gen John Hunt Morgan's Confederate cavalry brigade captured Lexington, Ky., after a short firefight during which Morgan's brother, Wash Morgan, was killed by friendly fire. The Confederates proceeded to destroy Federal military supplies in Lexington. The Southron forces then left the city.

1863: Confederate cavalry under Brig. Gen. Tom Green continued to harass Federals under Maj. Gen. William B. Franklin's Army of the Gulf at Carrion Crow (Carencro) Bayou in Louisiana during the Texas Overland Expedition. The Federal Army was trying to invade Texas by going across Southwest Louisiana after the defeat of the Second Battle of Sabine Pass on Sept.8, 1863. 

Brig. Gen. Thomas Green

One of the most aggressive cavalry commanders

of the war. (Restoration & colorization AI)

Pvt. James Dallas Collier, Co. D,

11th Battalion  (Spaight's) Texas Volunteers

(Musician) (Find A Grave)  (Restoration & colorization by AI)

Col. Ashley W. Spaight 

CLICK👉Swamp Angels: A History of the 11Battalion

(Spaight's) Texas Volunteers

A history of the 11th Battalion (Spaight's) Texas Volunteers in the War for Southern Independence. The unit fought on the Texas Gulf Coast and in Louisiana to fend off Northern invaders of their homeland. They fought in the First Battle of Sabine Pass, Texas, a sea battle of Galveston, Texas, the Battle of Stirling's Plantation, Bayou Bourbeau, and the Battle of Calcasieu Pass, all in Louisiana. The book also contains a roster of men who served in the battalion, pictures, maps, a bibliography, and an index.

1864: Gen. John Bell Hood's Army of Tennessee skirmished with Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman's Federals near Huntsville, Alabama, and then headed for Gadsen, Alabama. Hood then switched from attacking Sherman's supply lines to begin his Tennessee Campaign.

Confederate General Birthdays, Oct. 18.

Brigadier General Samuel Benton was born on this day in 1820 in Williamson County, Tennessee.  He was mortally wounded in the chest in the Battle of Atlanta, Ga. and died six days later, two days before his promotion to brigadier general reached him.

 Brig. Gen. Samuel Benton

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Brigadier General John Breckinridge Grayson was born on this day in 1806 in Fayette County, Kentucky. He died of pneumonia and tuberculosis on Oct. 21, 1861, in Tallahassee, Florida.

Brig. Gen. John B. Grayson

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Brigadier General Lucius Marshall Walker was born on this day in 1829 in Columbia, Tennessee. He died of wounds Sept. 7, 1863, received in a duel with Confederate Brig. Gen. John S. Marmaduke.

Brig. Gen. Lucius M. Walker

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Brigadier General Charles Sidney Winder was born on this day in 1829 in Talbot County, Maryland. He was mortally wounded on Aug. 9, 1862, in the Battle of Cedar Run, Va., and died later that evening.

Brig. Gen. Charles S. Winder

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Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, October 17.

 Click 👉 Today in History (general history) Oct. 17.

On This Day in Confederate History, Oct. 17.

1862: Brig. Gen. George Burgwyn Anderson, mortally wounded on Sept. 17, 1862, at the Battle of Sharpsburg, MD, died on this day in Raleigh, N.C., of complications from his wound. He had hoped to avoid amputation, but on Oct. 17, his foot was amputated, and he died following surgery. Anderson was buried in Historic Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh, N.C. He left behind a wife and child. The general was 31 years old.

1863: In Gen. Lee's Bristoe Campaign in Virginia, the Confederates and Federals skirmished at Groveton, Manassas Junction, Frying Pan Church, and other places, following which the Army of Northern Virginia moved back into its defenses at the Rappahannock River. The campaign concludes indecisively. But before the year ends, there will be one more campaign, the Mine Run Campaign. 

Gen. Robert E. Lee in 1863

(Library of Congress)

1864: After recovering from his serious wound from the Battle of the Wilderness, Lt. Gen. James Longstreet resumed command of the First Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia, which was engaged in the fateful Petersburg Campaign. Although his right arm was paralyzed and in a sling, he spent the rest of the Siege of Petersburg in command of forces in front of Richmond, the James River, and Bermuda Hundred. Longstreet taught himself to write with his left hand and eventually regained use of his right hand.

Lt. Gen. James Longstreet

Confederate General Birthdays, Oct. 17.

None.

Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, October 16.

Click 👉Today in History (general history) Oct. 16.

On This Day in Confederate History, Oct. 16.

1863: Skirmishing continues on a daily basis in Louisiana's Teche country as super-aggressive Confederate cavalry brigades under Brig. Tom Green relentlessly harasses Federal Maj. Gen. William B. Franklin's divisions of the Army of the Gulf. On this day, the skirmishing takes place at Grand Coteau. Franklin reports none killed and six wounded of his men in the skirmish. Confederate generals Alfred Mouton and Green, and Col. James P. Major were reportedly present, and the Confederates had about the same number of casualties.

Pvt. Benjamin W. Varnell, 

Co. B, 1st. Texas Cavalry Reg't.

Army of Western Louisiana

(Liljenquist Collection, Library of Congress)

(Colorization by AI)

1864: A skirmish happened on this day when Col. Ellison Capers' 24th South Carolina Infantry was ordered to go back to Ship's Gap, Ga., and hold the pass until ordered to retire. Capers positioned two companies under Capt. Roddey in advance about a fourth of a mile and to block the Federals as long as he could. The blue coats then appeared in force and quickly outflanked Roddey and his thin gray line, capturing most of it. However, the Federals soon encountered Capers' main battle line and were driven back by a withering fire from the South Carolinians. But Capers was soon informed he was about to be outflanked so he withdrew slowly to the foot of the ridge and was led to the bivouac of Brig. Gen. States Rights Gist's brigade on the Summerville Road.

Confederate General Birthdays, Oct. 16.

Brigadier General William Preston was born on this day in 1816 in Louisville, Kentucky. A prewar lawyer in Kentucky, he served in the Kentucky House of Representatives and then the U.S. House of Representatives as a Whig. Preston also served President James Buchanan as a diplomat in Spain. In the Mexican-American War, he served as a lieutenant colonel of the 4th Kentucky Volunteers. In 1861, he became an aide-de-camp to his brother-in-law Gen. Albert Sydney Johnston and was appointed a brigadier general in 1862. Johnston died in Preston's arms at the Battle of Shiloh. He led the Orphan Brigade in the Vicksburg Campaign in 1863. He served as a representative of the Confederacy to Emperor Maximilian in Mexico in 1864. Following the war, Preston was again elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives and died Sept. 21, 1887, in Louisville, Ky., and was interred there in Cave Hill Cemetery.

Brig. Gen. William Preston

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

 Click 👉Today in History (general history) Oct. 15. 

On This Day in Confederate History, Oct. 15.

1863: Confederate submarine C.S.S. Hunley tragically sank during a training accident in Charleston Harbor, S.C., drowning its inventor, Captain Horace Hunley, and seven other crew members. The other crewmen who died in that sinking were Robert Brockbank, Joseph Patterson, Thomas W. Park, Charles McHugh, Henry Baird, John Marshall, and Charles L. Sprague. There was also a prior sinking in a training exercise in which five crewmen died and three survived.

Also on this day, the second day of the Battle of Buzzard's Prairie, La. takes place. Early in the morning of the 15th of October, Brig. Gen. Tom Green advanced the 4th, 5th, and 7th Texas cavalry regiments to a plantation fence bordering the prairie. He placed Semmes' Battery on the left and the Valverde Battery on the right. Col. William Polk "Gotch" Hardeman of the 4th Texas led a contingent of skirmishers, made up of one company from each regiment, out onto the prairie to lure two Federal divisions into attacking the strong Confederate position. General William Franklin took the bait and ordered out Brig. Gen. Godfrey Weitzel's Division to attack across the open prairie, supported by artillery batteries. Advancing in full battle order with flags flying, the Federals crossed the prairie and easily pushed the Confederate skirmishers back to the fence line.      

Brig. Gen. Thomas Green

(Restored and colorized by AI)

The horse soldiers of the 4th, 5th, and 7th Texas cavalry regiments then made a wild dash and full-throated "Rebel Yell" on the right of Weitzel's line.  The soldiers from New York and Massachusetts became panic-stricken, and the  Yankee right collapsed. Coming to the rescue for the Federals was Lt. William Marland of Nim's Battery, who stopped the rout and drove the Confederates back with grape and canister, as well as exploding an ammunition chest of Semmes' Battery.

Pvt. Simeon J. Crews

Co. F, 7th Tex. Cav.

(Liljenquist Collection, Library of Congress)

       The battle then settled into an exchange of musket and cannon fire that lasted several hours. While the Federals had overwhelming numbers, Franklin didn't order another full-strength attack until about 10 o'clock that morning, led by the Midwesterners of Burbridge's Brigade. The Confederates withdrew behind Bayou Bourbeau while Hardeman had the 7th Texas Cavalry slow down the Yankees from concealed positions, around the Chretien Plantation. The 7th then withdrew across the bayou, and the 4th and 5th Texas began skirmishing with the Midwesterners to slow their advance. Green's men were driven off, but he accomplished his goal of taking the measure of the Federal Army's strength. 

CLICK👉The Battle of Stirling's Plantation and Bayou Bourbeau:
The Fall 1863 Campaign in Louisiana & Texas

The battles of Stirling's Plantation and Bayou Bourbeau in South Louisiana, and the Rio Grande Expedition in Texas, in the Fall of 1863, were a major Federal attempt to loot thousands of bales of cotton for Northern speculators, and to subjugate western Louisiana and Texas. The campaign left behind a swath of death and destruction that would lead to the even more destructive Red River Campaign of 1864.

Confederate General Birthdays, Oct. 15.

Major General Thomas Lafayette Rosser was born on this day in 1836 in Campbell County, Virginia. He attended West Point but left in 1861 to enlist in the Confederate Army as a first lieutenant and commanded the Second Company, Washington Artillery of New Orleans in the First Battle of Manassas. Rosser rose through the ranks to major general by November 1864. His battles included First Manassas, the Seven Days Battles, Mechanicsville, Second Manassas, South Mountain, Sharpsburg, Kelly's Ford, Hanover, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Trevillian Station, Cedar Creek, Tom's Brook, Petersburg, and Appomattox. After the war, he worked for an express company and a railroad, worked to have Confederate monuments constructed, bought a plantation, and was a brigadier general of U.S. volunteers in the Spanish-American War. Rosser died March 29, 1910, in Charlottesville, Va., and was buried there in Riverview Cemetery.

Maj. Thomas L. Rosser

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Brigadier General Henry Harrison Walker was born on October 15, 1832, in Sussex County, Virginia. He graduated from West Point in 1853, ranking 41st in a class of 53 cadets. Walker resigned from the U.S. Army on May 3, 1861, and joined the Confederate Army and serving as the lieutenant colonel of the 40th Virginia Infantry. He was appointed a brigadier general on July 1, 1863. His battles included Gaines' Mill, where he was wounded twice, Bristoe Station, Mine Run, lost a foot at Spotsylvania Court House, Siege of Petersburg, and was paroled May 7, 1865. Following the war, Walker became a stockbroker in New Jersey and died on March 22, 1912, in Morristown and was buried there in Evergreen Cemetery.

Brig. Gen. Henry H. Walker

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