Click 👉Today in History (general history) June 3.
On This Day in Confederate History, June 3.
1861: The Battle of Philippi, Va. took place on this day, the first land battle of the war. By later standards, it would only be considered a skirmish. A 3,000 man contingent of six Federal regiments overwhelmed 800 new Confederates in 5 battalions and regiments. The Confederates were caught by surprise while still sleeping and after firing a few shots were routed. The Confederates lost 26 men killed and wounded and the Federals suffered 4 killed or wounded.
1862: General Robert E. Lee plans his first great offensive of the war which will be called the Seven Days Battles. Lee uses every source available to learn the strengths and positions of the enemy and relies heavily on Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry to gather that information. Maj. Gen. Stonewall Jackson's Army of the Valley is also causing a big distraction for the Federals.
1863: Confederate garrisons in Vicksburg, Miss., and Port Hudson, La. continue to put up strong resistance to the Federals' efforts to dig approach trenches to the Confederate lines, dig tunnels for mines, and continue bombardments and sniping. At Vicksburg, the Federals are focusing on the Third Louisiana Redan and the Stockade Redan.
General Lee also starts his Army of Northern Virginia on a movement north from Fredericksburg, Va. that eventually results in the Battle of Gettysburg, Pa.
1864: General Lee wins one of his greatest victories at the Battle of Cold Harbor, Va. and General Grant suffers possibly his worst defeat of the war. Grant has apparently had still not learned his lesson about the futility of frontal assaults on Confederate trenches. Lee has proven to be a master of such fortifications. It has been estimated that as many as 7,000 bluecoats were cut down within about a 20- minute time span. The two combatant armies continued the face-off along that line for nine more days, but there are no more such bloody, suicidal frontal attacks.
Confederate General Birthdays, June 3.
President Jefferson Davis, commander-in-chief of all the Confederate armies, was born on this day at Fairview, Kentucky in 1808. He is the baby of the family is the last born of 10 children to Revolutionary War veteran Samuel Emory Davis and his wife Jane Cook. The family first moved to St. Mary Parish, Louisiana in 1811 and then in the same year to Wilkinson County, Mississippi. He was a graduate of West Point, took part in the Black Hawk War, and Mexican-American War, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate, U.S. Secretary of War, President of the Confederacy, and died Dec. 6, 1889, in New Orleans, La. and buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Va.
Brigadier General Martin Edwin Green was born on this day in 1815 in Fauquier County, Virginia. Green was a county judge in Lewis Co., Mo., and a leading secessionist. During the War for Southern Independence, he helped form the 1st Northeast Missouri Cavalry and served as its lieutenant colonel. He was promoted to brigadier general on July 21, 1862. His battles included Athens, First Lexington, Elk Horn Tavern, Iuka, Second Corinth, Champion Hill, and the Siege of Vicksburg where he was killed in action on June 27, 1863, and was buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery in Vicksburg.
Brigadier General Otto French Strahl was born on this day in 1831 at McConnelsville, Ohio. He was killed in action on Nov. 30, 1862, at the Battle of Franklin, Tenn. He was a supporter of states' rights and moved to Tennessee where he became a lawyer in Somerville. At the beginning of the war, he raised a company of infantry that became part of the 4th Tennessee Infantry Regiment. He rose through the ranks and was commissioned a brigadier general on July 28, 1863. His battles included Shiloh, Corinth, Perryville, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Atlanta, and Franklin, where he was killed in action on Nov. 30, 1863, and was buried in Old City Cemetery in Dyersburg, Tennessee.
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