Click 👉Today in History (general history) Aug. 7.
On This Day in Confederate History, Aug. 7.
1861: Brig. Gen. John B. Magruder, in command of the Confederate troops on the Yorktown Peninsula in Virginia, on this day ordered his troops to burn enemy-occupied Hampton, Va. near Fort Monroe to prevent the town from being used as a staging area for attacks on the Confederates.
1864: The Battle of Moorefield, (W.) Va. occurred on this day between Confederate and Federal cavalry. Brig. Gen. John McCausland is in command of 3,000 Confederate cavalrymen and Brig. Gen. William Averell is commanding 1,760 Federal cavalrymen. The Confederates were taken by surprise early in the morning and many were captured and others scattered. Confederates had 488 casualties, mostly captured, and the Federals had 42.
Confederate General Birthdays, Aug. 7.
Major General Evander McIver Law was born on this day in 1836 at Darlington, South Carolina. He was an 1856 graduate of the South Carolina Military Academy and afterward, was a professor of history at King's Mountain Military Academy from 1858 to 1861. In 1861, he served as a captain in the Alabama Militia. Law fought in the First Battle of Manassas in Brig. Gen. Barnard E. Bee's brigade and he was wounded in the army in the battle. He was promoted to colonel on Oct. 28, 1861, and was made the commander of a brigade. Law led the Alabama Brigade in a number of battles before being promoted to brigadier general for almost a year before being officially promoted to brigadier general on Oct. 3, 1862. His other battles and campaign's included the Peninsula Campaign, Gaines' Mill, Malvern Hill, Second Manassas, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Siege of Suffolk, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Knoxville, Cold Harbor, and the Siege of Petersburg. He finished the war commanding a brigade in South Carolina. Law's promotion to major general came too late to be confirmed by Congress. Following the war, Law administered the interests of his father-in-law's estate, organized the Alabama Grange in 1872, and founded a military school in Florida. He also served on the board of education in Polk County, Florida, and was editor of the Bartow Courier Informant newspaper. Law died on Oct. 31, 1920, in Bartow, Florida, and was buried there in the Oak Hill Cemetery. He was considered the last Confederate major general.
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