Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ General General Birthdays, April 30.

 Click 👉TODAY IN HISTORY (general history) April 30. 

ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, April 30.

1863: Federal troops succeed in crossing the Mississippi River at Bruinsburg, Miss. The bluecoats cross without opposition. Maj. Gen. U.S. Grant crossed 17,000 men who began their drive to outflank the Vicksburg fortifications. Several battles will occur before the Northern invaders arrive before Vicksburg. Meanwhile, near Vicksburg, the Battle of Snyder's Bluff was in progress. The XV Corps under Maj. Gen. W.T. Sherman, 8 gunboats, and 10 transports assault the Confederate stronghold there under the command of Brig. Gen. Louis Hébert. Sherman's assault was a feint to keep Confederate attention away from Grant's movements.

1864: The Battle of Jenkins' Ferry, Ark. in the Camden Expedition phase of the Red River Campaign. Maj. Gen. Frederick Steele's 12,000 men were in retreat after devastating Confederate cavalry raids on Federal supplies. Lt. Gen. E. Kirby Smith's 10,000 Texans, Arkansans, and Missourians caught up with Steele at Jenkin's Ferry. The Federal rear guard successfully repulsed several Confederate assaults at Jenkin's Ferry, but the Confederates were left in control of the battlefield. Brig. Gen. James Fagan's 3,000 Confederates arrived too late to take part in the battle. The Confederates suffered about 1,000 casualties and the Federals about 700. Brigadier Generals William Scurry and Horace Randal, both leading brigades in Walker's Texas Infantry Division, were mortally wounded. Confederate Brigadier General Thomas Waul was severely wounded. On the Federal side, Brigadier General Samuel A. Rice was mortally wounded and died on July 6, 1864. Also, soldiers of the 2nd Kansas (Colored) Infantry reportedly killed wounded Confederates on the battlefield. Smith moved his portion of the Confederate Army back to Louisiana to help Maj. Gen. Richard Taylor finish off Bank's Federals, including the fleet, which was stuck by the low river level at the Alexandria Falls.

Brig. Gen. Horace Randal

Mortally wounded at Jenkin's Ferry.

1865: Lt. Gen. Richard Taylor, commanding the Confederate Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana, meets with Federal Maj. Gen. Edward Canby to arrange for the surrender of his department.

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, April 30.

NONE.

Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, April 29.

  Click 👉TODAY IN HISTORY (general history) April 29. 

ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, April 29.

1861: The Maryland State Legislature votes against seceding from the Union. The legislature met in a special session in the strongly pro-Union town of Frederick. The vote was 53-13 against secession.

1862: Admiral D.G. Farragut lands in New Orleans with 250 Marines from the USS Hartford and marches to City Hall and removes the Louisiana state flag. City officials had refused to lower their state flag and were still defiant. The flag was adopted by Louisiana in February 1861 to represent the state's new independent status after seceding on January 26, 1861.

Louisiana State Flag of the style removed at

New Orleans, La. City Hall.

1863: The Battle of Grand Gulf takes place south of Vicksburg. The Federal Gunboats of Admiral D.D. Porter begins bombarding the Confederate forts protecting Grand Gulf. While one of the forts is knocked out, Fort Wade, and Fort Coburn fights on, and the Federals decided to not try an amphibious landing there. Federal casualties were 18 killed and 57 wounded. The Confederates lost three dead and 19 wounded. The USS Tuscumbia is knocked out of action. The Federals will have to find another place to cross the river.

1865: President Jefferson Davis's party making its way to the Trans-Mississippi Department, reaches Yorkville, South Carolina. The president had hopes of continuing the struggle for Southern Independence in Texas as the base. There was still a large Confederate Army there and in Louisiana that had not yet surrendered. However, the army there was rapidly breaking up.

CONFEDERATE GENERAL HISTORY, April 29.

Brigadier General Henry Watkins Allen was born on this day in 1820 in Prince Edward County, Virginia. Prior to the war, he became a lawyer in Mississippi. Allen also gained some military experience serving as a volunteer in the Texas Army in 1842 as captain of the Mississippi Guards. He spent the summer on the western frontier in Texas fighting Mexicans and Indians. His term of service was up in October 1842 and he went back to Mississippi. He served in the Mississippi Legislature, studied law at Harvard University, and in 1852 became co-owner of a plantation in Louisiana. He was elected to the Louisiana Legislature in 1853. In the War for Southern Independence, Allen served as colonel of the 4th Louisiana Infantry and was seriously wounded at the Battle of Shiloh. He then led a brigade at the Battle of Baton Rouge on Aug. 5, 1862, and was wounded in both legs. While recuperating, he served as a military judge in Mississippi. Allen was also a major general in the Louisiana Militia and was commissioned a brigadier general in the Confederate Army on Aug. 19, 1863. Elected governor of Louisiana, Dr. Douglas Southall Freeman called him the best administrator in the Confederacy. Allen personally led a brigade of state militia in the Red River Campaign in 1864. After the war, his property having been destroyed by the enemy, he moved to Mexico City and died there on April 22, 1866. His body was reinterred in New Orleans 10 years later, then moved again years later and reburied on the grounds of the Louisiana State Capital in Baton Rouge.

Brig. Gen. Henry W. Allen

Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, April 28.

  Click 👉TODAY IN HISTORY (general history) April 28. 

ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, April 28.

1862: Forts Jackson and St. Philip on the Mississippi River about 70 miles South of New Orleans surrendered on this day to Admiral Farragut's Northern fleet, after a siege and bombardment of 12 days. Brig. Gen. Johnson K. Duncan was the Confederate commander commanding the heavy artillery in the forts. The two forts had about 177 guns. The Federals suffered 229 casualties and the Confederates 782, mostly captured.

Confederate National Flag captured at Fort Jackson, La.

(Jud McCranie, Wikipedia Commons)

1863: Maj. Gen. U.S. Grant with three army corps supported by Admiral D.D. Porter's gunboats plan to cross from the Louisiana side to the Mississippi side of the Mississippi River at Grand Gulf, Miss. Maj. Gen. John S. Bowen is in command of 4,200 men in the Confederate fortress. The Northern invaders had a fleet of 7 ironclad warships and 10,000 troops on transports. The primary fortresses for the Confederates were Fort Cobun and Fort Wade.

Brig. Gen. John S. Bowen

1864: Red River Campaign: On this day Maj. Gen. Camille Polignac's division of Louisiana and Texas infantry brigades crossed Monett's Ferry and moved toward Alexandria, La. on Bayou Cotile. The division was part of Mouton's Charge at the Battle of Mansfield on April 8, 1864, and was one of the best in Confederate service.

At Fort Sumter, S.C., the Confederate fortress is bombarded by Federal batteries. The bombardment would last for a week.

A 42-pounder heavy artillery gun at Port Hudson

State Historic site. It is similar to what they had at

Fort Sumter, S.C. The gun is a U.S. Navy model 1816 on a 

barbette carriage. It weighs 7,870 pounds and is 121 inches in length.

(Photo by M.D. Jones)

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, April 28.

NONE.

Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, April 27.

  Click 👉TODAY IN HISTORY (general history) April 27. 

ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, April 27.

1861: Virginia offers its state capital, Richmond, as the permanent home of the capital of the Confederacy. Richmond with its strategic geographic location and industrial capacity, and history, it is the logical choice for the capital of the Confederacy. 

Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus in Maryland and parts of the Mid-West, which gives him the power to have arrested those who oppose his war policies, such as newspaper editors and publishers.

1862: MUTINY AT FORT JACKSON, La. Four Confederate forts near New Orleans surrender due to the passage of the Federal fleet. The garrison of Fort Jackson mutiny and many of the men escape capture and imprisonment. Brigadier General Benjamin Butler and his army of occupation arrive at Fort St. Phillip below New Orleans.

1863: CHANCELLORSVILLE CAMPAIGN: The Federal Army of the Potomac under Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker begins its movement in Richmond, Va. by crossing the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers. Hooker has 133,868 men for the Chancellorsville campaign. Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia has 60,298 men present for duty. Lt. Gen. James Longstreet with two of his divisions of the First Corps are absent in the Suffolk, Va. area staging a siege there and gathering supplies for the ANV and missing the campaign.

1st Sgt. Wm. A. Hightower,

Co. E, 23rd Va. Inf. was among

the mortally wounded at Chancellorsville.

1864: CAMDEN EXPEDITION: Federal Maj. Gen. Frederick Steele is in the process of retreating back to Little Rock, Arkansas while Lt. Gen. Kirby Smith's Confederates are in rapid pursuit. Steele has 12,000 men to Smith's 10,000. But Steele's supplies have been seriously depleted by Confederate cavalry raids and Smith has the initiative. Part of Smith's command is made up of veterans of the recent victories in Louisiana, including Walker's Texas Infantry Division.

1865: The steam-powered riverboat Sultana suddenly explodes killing 1,238 Federal soldiers, mostly returning from Southern prisoner-of-war camps. The accidental explosion is the most catastrophic accident on the Mississippi River.

CONFEDERATE GENERAL HISTORY, April 27.

NONE.