Click 👉Today in History (general history) Aug. 31.
On This Day in Confederate History, Aug. 31.
1862: The Confederate victory in the Second Battle of Manassas, Va. was one of the most impressive in military history and a masterfully planned and carried out campaign by General Robert E. Lee. Casualties for the Federals were 1,747 killed, 8,452 wounded, and 4,263 captured or missing for a total of 14,462. Casualties for the Confederates were 1,096 killed and 6,202 wounded for a total of 7,298.
1863: Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard reports on what happened in the Siege of Charleston, S.C.: "Early on the morning of the 31st, as the steamer, Sumter was returning from Morris Island with troops on board, she was unfortunately fired into from the Sullivan’s Island batteries and sunk. Four men were killed or drowned, and the greater portion of the arms was lost. Between 11 a. m. and 12 m. one of the monitors approached Fort Moultrie, and when within range was opened on by the fort. The enemy replied with shrapnel, all of which fell short. After about an hour’s engagement, the monitor withdrew. About 2 p. m. the enemy again approached with four monitors, and engaged the fort for four hours. A steady fire was kept up on them from Fort Moultrie and other Sullivan’s Island batteries. During the engagement, the enemy fired about 60 shots, striking Fort Moultrie fifteen times, but doing no damage. The fort fired 132 shots. The enemy’s fire on Fort Sumter was slack throughout the day. Captain [Samuel] Le Roy Hammond, Twenty-fifth South Carolina Volunteers, reported during the day that, in obedience to instructions, he had made a reconnaissance of Light-House Inlet and the south side of Black Island. On the island, he saw pickets and bivouac fires, but discovered no earthworks."
1864: The first day of the Battle of Jonesborough, Ga. takes place on this day in the Atlanta Campaign. Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood misinterprets the relocation of two Federal armies from in front of Atlanta, which Hood thought was a retreat, but which was actually a flank march to cut the last two Confederate rail lines into the city. Hood sends only 24,000 men from the Army of Tennessee under Lt. Gen. William Hardee, to confront Maj. Gen. W.T. Sherman's Army of the Tennessee and Army of the Cumberland, 70,000 men in all. The Federals were already well entrenched and ready to receive the frontal attacks of Hood's Corps, commanded by Maj. Gen. Patrick Cleburne, and Lt. Gen. Stephen D. Lee's Corps, but were easily repulsed. Cleburne's Corps suffered 400 casualties and Lee's 1,300 casualties. Hood withdrew Lee's Corps back to Atlanta.
Brigadier General Goode Bryan was born on this day in 1811 in Hancock County, Georgia. He graduated from West Point in 1834 ranking 25th in his class of 36 cadets. Bryan resigned from the army 10 months after entering it and became a lawyer in Alabama and was elected to the state assembly in 1843. In the Mexican-American War, he took part as a major in the 1st Alabama Infantry. Following that war, he moved back to Georgia where he practiced law and farmed. After serving as a delegate in the Georgia Secession Convention, he joined the Confederate Army as a captain in the 16th Georgia Infantry. Promotions followed to lieutenant colonel, then colonel, and finally to brigadier general in 1864. His battles and campaigns included the Peninsula Campaign, the battles of Second Manassas, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Mine Run, the Wilderness, Cold Harbor, and the Siege of Petersburg. Suffering from chronic health problems, Bryan resigned on Sept. 20, 1864, and went back home to Georgia. Following the war, he never regained his health and lived in Augusta, Georgia, and helped establish the Confederate Survivors Association. Bryan died on August 16, 1885, in Augusta and was buried there in Magnolia Cemetery.
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