Click 👉Today in History (general history) June 1.
On This Day in Confederate History, June 1.
1861: The Battle of Fairfax County Courthouse, Va. takes place in which Confederate Captain John Quincy Marr of the Warrenton Rifles is killed, the first Confederate soldier killed in action by a Federal soldier in the war. The battle was between a Federal cavalry detachment and Confederate cavalry and the Warrenton Rifles, an infantry company. He was shot down at night when the Federals rode through the town and just after he challenged them. He was alone at the time.
1862: The Battle of Seven Pines and Fair Oaks and the Confederate advance resumes at 6:30 a.m. by Confederate Major General Benjamin Huger's division but was eventually forced to retreat. Brigadier General George Pickett's brigade also attacks but is also driven back. While the Federal advance was halted, the Confederates also fell back into Richmond's defenses. General Robert E. Lee, the new commander of the army, gets on with reorganizing the army so he can go on a more effective offensive which will begin in a few weeks. U.S. forces lost 790 killed, 3,594 wounded, and 647 captured or missing in the two-day battle. Confederate losses were 980 killed, 4,749 wounded, and 405 men captured or missing.
1863: In the Siege of Port Hudson, La., Confederate sharpshooters find that the Spanish moss-covered cypress trees make excellent platforms for their sharpshooting. At night they will climb into the trees, cover themselves with moss, and in the daytime pick off enemy soldiers as they try to dig their way closer to the Confederate defense line.
1864: The Battle of Cold Harbor, Va. sees some heavy fighting on this day in the same area as the Battle of Gaines' Mill in 1862. Maj. Gen. U.S. Grant makes some of his worst blunders of the war in this battle. General Robert E. Lee wins one of his most lopsided victories. Grant has between 108,000 and 117,000 men, while General Lee has between 59,000 and 62,000 men, but he also is a master at defensive fighting and has dug in and is ready. The Federal launch heavy attacks but the Confederates hold the line.
Confederate General Birthdays, June 1.
General John Bell Hood was born on this day in 1831 in Owingsville, Kentucky. He graduated from West Point in 1853, ranking 44th out of 52 graduating cadets. He was wounded by hostile Indians while on a patrol in Texas in1857. Hood resigned from the U.S. Army after Fort Sumter in 1861 and joined the Confederate Army as a captain of the cavalry but quickly move up in rank to colonel of the 4th Texas Infantry Regiment, and then brigadier general on March 26, 1862. He commanded the Texas Brigade which permanently took his name, Hood's Texas Brigade. Hood was promoted to major general effective in October 1862. Severely wounded at Gettysburg, he was even more seriously wounded at Chickamauga on September 20, 1863, in the thigh and lost a leg. After partly recovering, he commanded a corps in the Army of Tennessee and was then promoted to full general (temporary), when he replaced Gen. J.E. Johnston in command of the Army of Tennessee. After the Atlanta Campaign was lost, he led his army into Tennessee and gained a pyrrhic victory at the Battle of Franklin on Nov. 30, 1864. His major loss of the war came at the Battle of Nashville in December 1864, after which he resigned as commander of the army. Following the war, Hood lived in New Orleans, married, had 11 children, and worked in the insurance business. He also wrote his famous memoir, "Advance and Retreat." He died of yellow fever on Aug. 30, 1879, in New Orleans and was buried a Metairie Cemetery.
Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan is born on this day in 1825 in Huntsville, Alabama. Prior to the war he served in the Mexican-American War and was in the Battle of Buena Vista. He was then active in the Kentucky Militia and when war came in 1861, Morgan raised the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry and fought at the Battle of Shiloh. Morgan became one of the most successful Confederate cavalry raiders in the war and was promoted to brigadier general on Dec. 11, 1862. He was captured in his Ohio Raid in 1863 and made a famous escape. His battles included Shiloh, Hartsville, Tebb's Bend, Corydon, Buffington Island, Salineville, and Cynthiana. Morgan was shot in the back by a Federal cavalryman and killed on September 4, 1864, in Greeneville, Tennessee, and buried in Lexington Cemetery in Lexington, Ky.
Brigadier General Cullen Andrews Battle is born on this day in 1829 in Powelton, Georgia. He practiced law in Tuskegee, Alabama and after John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859, raised a militia company. During the war, he received a commission as a major in the 3rd Alabama Infantry. Promotions to colonel and brigadier general followed his outstanding performance in battle. Battle's battles and campaigns included the Peninsula Campaign, Seven Pines, South Mountain, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Mine Run, Bristoe Station, the Overland Campaign, and the Valley Campaign of 1864. Following the war, he worked as a farmer, and newspaper editor, and then was elected Mayor of New Bern, N.C. Battle died on April 8, 1905, in Greensboro, N.C., and was buried in historic Blanford Cemetery in Petersburg, Va.
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