Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, April 24.

Click 👉 TODAY IN HISTORY (general history) April 24

ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, April 24.

1862: Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip: Confederate Forts Jackson and St. Philip on the Mississippi River south of New Orleans fiercely defend against the Federal fleet, but it slips by them and encounters the Confederate River fleet led by the ironclad ram CSS Manassas. The Manassas rammed the USS Mississippi and USS Brooklyn, but neither was disabled. The Confederate ironclad eventually went aground and was mercilessly bombarded, but the crew escaped. The vessel broke loose and drifted, but exploded and sank. The Federals continued on toward New Orleans.

The nighttime Battle of Forts Jackson and Philips was

intense and deadly, as well as spectacular visually.

(Library of Congress)

CSS MANASSAS

(Naval History & Heritage Command)

1865: President Davis gives his approval of the peace agreement worked out by Sherman and Johnston. However, Grant brings word to Sherman that the Lincoln government doesn't accept it and tells Sherman he exceeded his authority. Sherman notifies Johnston that the truce will end within 48 hours.

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, April 24.

Brigadier General James Edward Harrison was born on this day in 1815 in Greenville District, South Carolina. Harrison moved to near Waco, Texas, in 1857 and in 1861, became a commissioner to Texas Indian tribes to persuade them to join the Confederacy. He then became a member of the Texas secession convention. During the War for Southern Independence, Harrison served in the 15th Texas Infantry regiment and fought in the Bayou Teche Campaign in Louisiana and operations against the Federals along the Atchafalaya River in 1863. Harrison was also promoted to colonel in 1864 and served in the Red River Campaign. He was promoted to brigadier general by President Davis to take effect as of December 22, 1864, and commanded a brigade in the last days of the war. Following the war, he returned to Waco and became a trustee for Baylor University. Harrison died on Feb. 23, 1875, in Waco and was buried there in the First Street Cemetery.

Brig. Gen. James E. Harrison

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Brigadier General Robert Brank Vance was born on this day in 1828 in Buncombe County, North Carolina. The brother of North Carolina Governor Zebulon Vance, he was a Whig politician and merchant in Asheville before the war. In the war, he was elected colonel of the 29th North Carolina Infantry and fought in the Kentucky Campaign of 1862 and the Battle of Murfreesboro, from Dec. 31, 1862, to Jan. 4, 1863. After surviving a bout with typhoid fever, Vance was promoted to brigadier general on March 4, 1863. He was captured and incarcerated at Fort Delaware. Vance received special parole to buy clothing for Confederate P.O.W.s, on the stipulation that he would not participate further in the war. Following the war, Vance became a U.S. Congressman and assistant commissioner of patents. He also served a term in the North Carolina legislature. Vance died Nov. 28, 1899, near Asheville and was buried in Riverside Cemetery in Asheville.

Brig. Gen. Robert B. Vance

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Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate

Click 👉 TODAY IN HISTORY (general history) April 23.

ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, April 23.

1862: Battle of Forts Jackson & St. Philip, La.: Confederate-held Forts Jackson and St. Philip under Brig. Gen. Johnson K. Duncan is intensely bombarded by Commander David D. Porter's 21 mortar schooners under the overall command of Admiral David G. Farragut south of New Orleans. The city was the Confederacy's largest and one of the great ports in the world. It was in the process of becoming a wartime industrial powerhouse for the C.S.A. A fierce artillery duel developed between the Southern forts and the Northern steam warships, which had the advantage of speed and maneuverability.

Confederate cannoneer

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

One of Porter's mortar schooners shows what

a 13-inch mortar looked like. 

(click on image for enlargement)

(Library of Congress)

1864: Red River Campaign: The Battle of Monett's Ferry, La., occurred on this day in the Red River Campaign. About 2,500 to 3,000 Confederate cavalry under Brig. Gen. Hamilton Bee holds back 25,000 to 30,000 Federals under Maj. Gen. N.P. Banks. But the Federals eventually outflanked Bee's force, causing him to order a retreat. Maj. Gen. Richard Taylor, commander of the Army of Western Louisiana, blamed Bee and removed him from command. Taylor kept up the pressure on the Federals.

Brig. Gen. Hamilton P. Bee

(DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University)

1865: Fighting between blue and gray continues at Henderson, North Carolina, and Munford, Alabama. Johnston's Army of Tennessee has not yet surrendered.

CONFEDERATE GENERAL HISTORY, April 23.

None.

Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, April 22.

Click 👉 TODAY IN HISTORY (general history) April 22.

ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, April 22.

1861: ARKANSAS SECESSION: Arkansas Gov. H.M. Rector refuses Lincoln's demand to contribute Arkansas men to his call for  75,000 volunteers, nationwide, to subjugate the seceded Southern states. The reaction to Lincoln's war was similar in Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina--SECESSION. 

Maj. Micajah R. Wilson

1st Battalion, Arkansas Infantry

1863: VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN: At Vicksburg, Miss., 18 Federal vessels run past the Confederate guns but 7 are sunk (one transport and 6 barges), and 11 make it and bring supplies to Grant's army. President Davis suggested to Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton that he send fire rafts downriver to obstruct Federal river traffic.

1864:  Red River Campaign: At Natchitoches, La., Confederate cavalry under Brig. Gen. William Steele saves the town from being burned down by retreating Federals of A.J. Smith's division from Sherman's army. Steele reported he had only one regiment available to him that morning, the 19th Texas Cavalry of Parson's brigade, and he ordered them to press the retreating bluecoats. The Northern arsonists lit several fires, but before they could burn the town, the Confederate horse soldiers drove them out and saved the community. The Federals, further down the road to Alexandria, burned Magnolia Plantation's main house and killed the overseer on the front porch.

Brig. Gen. William Steele

(Colorized)

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, April 22.

None.

Click 👉TODAY IN HISTORY (general history) April 21. 

ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, April 21.

1864: Red River Campaign: Maj. Gen. N.P. Banks orders the Army of the Gulf to retreat from Grand Ecore through Natchitoches and to Alexandria. The demoralized Yankees began burning every building in their reach along the way. A soldier in the 114th New York Infantry wrote, "At night, the burning buildings mark our pathway." The Louisiana soldiers were fighting to defend and avenge their families that were being terrorized, and the Texas soldiers were fighting to keep the Northmen out of Texas, which accounts for their great fierceness in battle.

Cpl. Paul Thibodaux,

Consolidated 18th La. Inf. Reg't.of

Mouton's Brigade. The Louisiana

soldiers were fighting in defense of

their homes and families in the Red

River Campaign. (Courtesy of C.J. Knobloch, grandson)

1865: The famous "Gray Ghost," Colonel John Singleton Mosby, disbanded his 43rd Va. Cavalry Battalion (Mosby's Rangers, Mosby's Raiders, and Mosby's Men) at Salem, Virginia. While some of his men to the Federals were paroled, Mosby moved south with other officers, planning to continue the fight with General Johnston in North Carolina. 

Col. John S. Mosby

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, April 21.

Brigadier General Louis Trezevant Wigfall was born on this day in 1816 at Edgefield District, South Carolina. He had a long political career in the South before the war, which included service as well as service as a lieutenant in the Second Seminole War in Florida. He also had the reputation of a duelist in South Carolina before moving to Texas in 1848, where he set up a law practice. He was also elected to the Texas House of Representatives and then the Texas Senate. He then became a leading advocate of secession. After Texas seceded from the Union, he became the colonel of the 1st Texas Infantry Regiment, which soon went to Virginia. Wigfall had also served as an aide to General Beauregard during to Fort Sumter crisis. He soon received a promotion to brigadier general but resigned in February 1862 to serve in the Confederate Senate, where he served through the duration of the war. Following the war, he first went into exile in London, England,  but returned to the United States in 1870 and settled in Baltimore, Maryland, and moved to Galveston, Texas, in January 1874. Wigfall died there on Feb. 18, 1874, and was buried in the Episcopal cemetery in Galveston.

Brig. Gen Louis T. Wigfall

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

Click 👉TODAY IN HISTORY (general history) April 20. 

ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, April 20.

1861: Robert E. Lee resigned from the U.S. Army and was commissioned as commander of the Virginia Militia two days later. General Lee was one of the first five full Confederate generals and went on to become one of the greatest commanders in all history. He said, "Save in the defense of my native state, I never desire again to draw my sword." 

Robert E. Lee with son

William H.F. Lee c. 1845.

The style for men at this

was the clean-shaven look.

(Wikipedia/Public Domain)

1863: Skirmishes happened on this day at Bloomfield, Missouri, Patterson, Missouri, and Sandy Ridge, North Carolina.

1864: Skirmishes occur near Camden, Arkansas, and near Natchitoches, Louisiana in the Red River Campaign in those two states during the Red River Campaign, also called the Camden Expedition in Arkansas. General E. Kirby Smith commanded the Confederates, and Maj. Gen. Frederick Steele, the Federals. The climactic battle of the Arkansas occurred at Jenkins' Ferry on April 30, 1864.

Gen. E. Kirby Smith

The Battle of Plymouth. The Federal garrison at Plymouth, North Carolina surrendered to Confederate Major General Robert F. Hoke after a three-day battle on land and sea. The Federal casualties totaled 2,000, including captured, one ironclad ship sunk, and one ironclad ship damaged. Among the Northern casualties was Lt. Charles W. Flusser, USN, of the U.S.S. Miami. The Confederates lost a total of 800 casualties, including Col. John T. Mercer, commanding Hoke's Brigade, killed in action. This is an example of a Confederate victory that overcame the naval advantage of the  North, which had five gunboats to the South's ironclad CSS Albemarle and the CSS Cotton Plant.

1865: President Davis advocates the continuation of the struggle for Southern Independence through partisan warfare, but both General R.E. Lee and General J.E. Johnston express their opposition and want a cessation of hostilities.

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, April 20.

Brigadier General Alfred Holt Colquitt was born this day in 1824 in Walton County, Georgia. He was a prewar attorney at law in Georgia and a veteran of the Mexican-American War. After the war, he served as a major and paymaster in the U.S. Army and one term as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1853-1855). Colquitt was a delegate in the Georgia secession convention and voted for secession. At the beginning of the War for Southern Independence, he started out as a captain in the 6th Georgia Infantry but rose to colonel of the regiment. Colquitt led his regiment in the Peninsula Campaign and then assumed command of the brigade of Brig. Gen. Gabriel Rains after Rains was wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines. He led the brigade successfully at South Mountain and Sharpsburg where he was promoted to brigadier general as of Sept. 1, 1862. His other battles included Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. Colquitt and his brigade were then transferred to Charleston, S.C. and in Feb. 1864, took part in the Confederate victory at the Battle of Olustee, Fla. Colquitt's brigade then returned to Virginia for a while and finished the war in North Carolina in 1865. Following the war, Colquitt was elected to two terms of Georgia's governor and then to the U.S. Senate. He died while still serving in the Senate on March 26, 1894, in Washington, D.C., and was buried in Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon, Ga.

Brig. Gen. Alfred H. Colquitt

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Brigadier General John Smith Preston was born on this day in 1809 in Abingdon, Virginia. He practiced law in Columbia, S.C. served in the state senate between 1848 and 1856, and was a delegate in the South Carolina Secession Convention in 1860. With the coming of war, he was commissioned a brigadier general in the Confederate Army and headed the conscription bureau in Richmond, Va. Following the war, Preston moved to England and did not return to the U.S. until 1868. He died at Columbia, S.C. May 1, 1881, and was buried at the Trinity Cathedral Cemetery there.

Brig. Gen. John S. Preston

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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.

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

CLICK👉Today in History (general history), CLICK,  April 18.

1861: Colonel Robert E. Lee, U.S. Army, was offered command of the U.S. Army by Lincoln, through Francis Preston Blair in Washington, D.C. Lee's reply was, "I declined the offer he made me to take command of the army that was to be brought into the field, stating as candidly and as courteously as I could, that though opposed to secession and deprecating war, I could take no part in an invasion of the Southern States." He later told one of his daughter's, he was not "contending for the perpetuation of slavery."

Portrait of Gen. Robert E. Lee circa 1861

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. W.L. Cabell

1864: Camden Expedition

Date(s):

April 1864

Principal Commanders:

Colonel James Williams [US] John Marmaduke [CS]

Forces Engaged:

1100 total (US 1100; CS 0;)

Estimated Casualties:

415 total (US 301; CS 114;)

Description:

Dwindling supplies for his army at Camden forced Maj. Gen. Fred Steele to send out a foraging party to gather corn that the Confederates had stored about twenty miles up the Prairie D'Ane-Camden Road on White Oak Creek. The party loaded the corn into wagons, and on April 18, Col. James M. Williams started his return to Camden. Brig. Gen. John S. Marmaduke's and Brig. Gen. Samuel B. Maxey's Confederate forces arrived at Lee Plantation, about fifteen miles from Camden, where they engaged Williams. The Rebels eventually attacked Williams in the front and rear forcing him to retreat north into a marsh where his men regrouped and then fell back to Camden. The Union lost 198 wagons and all the corn.

Results:

Confederate Victory [National Park Service Summary]

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS ON APRIL 18: NONE.