Click 👉Today in History (general history) May 24.
On This Day in Confederate History, May 24.
1861: In Alexandria, Va. proprietor of the Madison House, James Jackson, shoots and kills Col. Elmer Ellsworth of the 11th New York Regiment when Ellsworth removed a Confederate flag from the roof of his hotel. Jackson is then shot and killed by Pvt. Brownell. Ellsworth is said to be the first Federal officer to be killed in the war.
1863: At the Siege of Vicksburg, the Federal Navy mortar fleet kept firing upon the Confederate fortifications all day. Also, that afternoon, the Confederates drove off an attempt by the Federals to mine the Jackson Road. The Southerners drove off the Federals with hand grenades. The Confederates also sank an enemy coal barge. General Carter L. Stevenson's command also collected ammunition from the Federal dead in front of the part of the line. General John C. Pemberton said they were particularly in need of percussion caps because they had one million more cartridges than caps.
At the Siege of Port Hudson, La., Lt. Col. Paul Francis DeGournay's 12th Louisiana Heavy Artillery exchanges fire with the Federal mortar fleet. One shell from Captain W.B. Sewall's battery strikes the USS Monongahela on the bow. The Confederate batteries suffered a little damage from shell fragments, but none of them were put out of action. On Colonel William Miles's segment of the line on the southern part of the Confederate fortifications, three men are killed by the bombardment, and three are wounded.
1864: The Battle of North Anna River, Va. continues on this day, and Confederates repulse an attack by Federal Brigadier Gen. James H. Ledlie on the Confederates' Ox Ford position at the apex of the inverted V formation Gen. Robert E. Lee has intended to be a trap for the enemy. But with Lee still sick, no one else can carry out his plan.
At the Atlanta Campaign in Georgia, Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler's Confederate cavalry keeps the pressure on the Federal supply lines by launching sporadic attacks on them. There are skirmishes this day at Cass Station, Burnt Hickory, and near Dallas, Georgia, as the two sides continue to maneuver.
Confederate General Birthdays, May 24.
Brigadier General Charles Clark was born on this day in 1811 in Warren County, Ohio. Before the war, he practiced law in Mississippi, became a large plantation owner, and was elected to the Mississippi State Legislature. Clark also served as the colonel of the 2nd Mississippi Regiment in the Mexican American War and was a brigadier general in the Mississippi State Militia. During the War for Southern Independence was a brigadier general and fought at the Battle of Shiloh and the Battle of Baton Rouge, La., where he was wounded and captured. When he was paroled, he was promoted to major general of Mississippi State Troops and was elected governor of Mississippi. Following the war, Clark was removed from office by Federal occupiers and briefly imprisoned at Fort Pulaski, Ga. After being released, he continued serving as ex officio President of the University Board of Trustees and lived in Natchez, Mississippi. Clark died in Bolivar County, Mississippi, and was buried in his family cemetery.
