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

  Click 👉Today in History (general history) June 24.

On This Day in Confederate History, June 24.

1863: SIEGE OF VICKSBURG: Brig. Gen. Francis Shoup reports on his part of the Confederate defense line at Vicksburg, Miss., "Comparatively quiet. Rained during the night. Think the enemy is making galleries. An attempt was made to spring our mines; failed. The train was laid in gas pipes; will not communicate. Find by experiment that powder, when confined in a long tube, when ignited, will burst the tube a few feet from the end, and will not burn farther."

Brig. Gen. Francis Shoup

At the Siege of Port Hudson, La., Confederate Col. William R. Miles, in command of the right wing of the defense line, reported: "The fleet was again quiet last night. The land batteries have fired at intervals during the day. Sharpshooting, as usual, resulted in the killing of 1 man. The enemy's works on my right continue to progress rapidly toward completion. They threw up a parallel and traverse last night, the parallel distant about 150 yards from the brow of the hill upon which Battery No. 11 is placed. The enemy's fatigue parties have been driven from their work several times during the day by shells thrown by Capt. [S.M.] Thomas' pieces in the outer work on the Troth road. He has instructions to fire at distant intervals during the night, to prevent any further work, if possible."

1864: Maj. Gen. Wade Hampton's Confederate cavalry tries to block Maj. Gen. Phillip Sheridan's Federal cavalry from raiding Trevilian Station, Va. Sheridan countered by fighting a delaying action to protect a Federal supply train. The Yanks then return to their base at Bermuda Hundred.

In the Wilson-Kautz Raid, Kautz skirmishes with Confederate cavalry home guardsmen at Burkesville, Va. while Wilson's men tear up railroad tracks of the Richmond and Danville Railroad.

Confederate General Birthdays, June 24.

Brigadier General Birkett Davenport Fry was born on this day in 1822 in Kanawha County, Virginia. He attended both the Virginia Military Academy and West Point but didn't graduate with his Class of 1846. Fry then became a lawyer and served in the Mexican-American War as a first lieutenant. He moved to California after the war and became a filibusterer in William Walker's Nicaragua Campaign. After returning to California, he moved to Tallahassee, Alabama where he ran a cotton Mill business. Fry was appointed the colonel of the 13th Alabama Infantry in the Confederate Army and took part in the Peninsula Campaign, was wounded and the Battle of Seven Pines, Va. Fry then fought at the battles of Sharpsburg (wounded), Chancellorsville (wounded), and Gettysburg (wounded & captured). After being exchanged, he was in the Siege of Petersburg and promoted to brigadier general on May 28, 1864. Fry finished the war by commanding a military district in South Carolina and Georgia. Following the war, he moved to Cuba and lived in a hotel with other Confederates. He returned to Tallahassee, Alabama, and resumed his business career. He expanded his cotton mill to Florida and Virginia and moved to Richmond Va. Fry died on Jan. 21, 1891, in Richmond and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Montgomery, Alabama. 

Brig. Gen. Brikett D. Fry

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Brigadier General (Maj. Gen. in the Georgia Militia) Henry Rootes Jackson was born on this day in 1820 in Athens, Tennessee. He served in the Mexican-American War as the colonel of the 1st Georgia Infantry. After that war, Jackson was a Georgia judge, U.S. Chargé d'affaires to the Austrian Empire and was a prominent lawyer and popular speaker. During the War Between the States, Jackson served as a judge in the Confederate courts and was then made a brigadier general in the Confederate Army in June 1861 and was promoted to Major General in the Georgia Militia. His battles and campaigns included Cheat Moutain, the Atlanta Campaign, the Franklin-Nashville Campaign, and the Battle of Nashville. Following the war, he resumed his law and political careers and served as the minister to Mexico in 1885 and 1886. Jackson was also a railroad executive, and banker, and served 23 years as the president of the Georgia Historical Society. Jackson died May 23, 1877, in Savannah, Georgia, and was buried in Bonaventure Cemetery in Thunderbolt, Georgia.

Brig. Gen. Henry R. Jackson

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