Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, July 6.

Click 👉Today in History (general history) July 6. 

On This Day in Confederate History, July 6.

1863: The Battle of Williamsport, Md. takes place between elements of Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia as part of the Gettysburg Campaign. On that day two Confederate Cavalry Brigades fought Federal Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick's Cavalry Division retrograde through Hagerstown, Maryland until the rest of Confederate Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's Cavalry Corps arrived and drove off Kilpatrick.

Private David M. Thatcher of Company B, Berkeley Troop, 

1st Virginia Cavalry Regiment. He was mortally wounded

Oct. 19, 1863, in the Battle of Buckland Mills, Va., and died

on Oct. 20, 1863. (Liljenquist Collection, Library of Congress)

1864: First Battle of Hagerstown, Md.: Lt. Gen. Jubal Early sends Brig. Gen. John McCausland's Brigade to Hagerstown, Maryland to capture the town and demand reparations for damages caused by Federal Maj. Gen. David "Black Dave" Hunter in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Early instructs McCausland to demand $200,000 from the town. McCausland does indeed capture the town and threatens to burn it if the town officials don't pay $20,000 (McCausland felt $200,000 was too much). The town pays the amount demanded. Early and his army then turned toward Washington, D.C.

Confederate General Birthdays, July 6.

Brigadier General Edmund Winston Pettus was born on this day in 1821 in Limestone County, Alabama. A pre-war lawyer in Tuscumbia, Alabama, Pettus was elected a judge, served in the Mexican-American War in the Alabama volunteers, and lived a few years in California afterward. He returned to Alabama in about 1853 and served as a court solicitor. During the War for Southern Independence, Pettus became lieutenant colonel of the 20th Alabama Infantry. He was promoted to colonel on May 28, 1863, and then to brigadier general on Sept. 1863. His battles and campaigns include Murfreesboro (captured), Vicksburg (captured), Chattanooga, Atlanta, the Carolinas Campaign, Battle of Bentonville, N.C. (wounded and captured). He was still a P.O.W. when the war ended and was paroled on May 2, 1865. Following the war, he again practiced law in Alabama, farmed, and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1896 and died while still in office on July 27, 1907, in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and was buried in Live Oak Cemetery in Selma, Alabama.

Brig. Gen. Edmund W. Pettus