Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, Jan. 10.

Click 👉 TODAY IN HISTORY (general history) Jan. 10.

ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, Jan. 10.

1861: Florida secedes from the Union. The vote for secession was 67 to two at the secession convention in Tallahassee. In doing so Florida joined the states of South Carolina and Mississippi. The new flag of Florida was unveiled by Gov.-elect John Milton at the state capitol. It consisted of three stars representing the three seceded states in a gold-bordered circle, in the first two-thirds of the flag; and the last third consists of 13 red, white, and blue stripes.

FLAG OF INDEPENDENT FLORIDA AFTER SECESSION

In Louisiana, Gov. Thomas Overton Moore orders the state militia to seize the U.S. Arsenal and adjacent barracks at Baton Rouge. Colonel Braxton Bragg and about 600 militia surround the arsenal and demanded the arsenal surrender. After a short standoff, Major Joseph A. Haskin with about 80 U.S. Troops, surrendered. The vast supplies at the arsenal included 50,000 stands of small arms (a stand of arms includes a musket, sling, waist belt & buckle, cartridge box, cap box, bayonet & scabbard), four howitzers, 20 pieces of heavy artillery, one battery of 6-pounders, one battery of 12-pounders, three hundred barrels of powder, and ammunition. Also seized that day state militia seized Forts St. Phillip and Jackson on the Mississippi River, and Fork Pike at the Rigolets sometime afterward.

Louisiana secession flag

1863: Federal blockaders bombard Galveston, Texas, which had been liberated from Federal troops and navy on January 1. The city, the largest in Texas at the time, would continue to be held by the Confederacy until the end of the war.

Lt. Sidney Sherman Jr.
Co.A, 1st Tex. Heavy Artillery
Killed at the Battle of Galveston
(San Jacinto Museum of History)

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, Jan. 10.

Brigadier General Alexander Travis Hawthorn was born on this day in 1825 in Conecuh County, Alabama. A prewar lawyer in Camden, Arkansas, when the war came, he was elected lieutenant colonel in 1861 of the 6th Arkansas Infantry and the following spring was promoted to colonel. He took part in the Battle of Shiloh where he distinguished himself and was elevated to brigade command afterward. Hawthorn also fought at the Battle of Prairie Grove, Ark., the Battle of Helena, Ark., the Little Rock Campaign, the Red River Campaign in Churchill's Division, the Battle of Pleasant Hill, La., and the Battle of Jenkins' Ferry, Ark. Hawthorn was promoted to brigadier general on Feb. 13, 1863. After the war, Hawthorn immigrated to Brazil in 1867, but came back to the U.S. in 1874 and ran a business in Atlanta, Ga. In 1880 he was ordained a Baptist preacher and moved to Dallas, Texas. Hawthorn died May 31, 1899, and was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Marshall, Texas.

Brig. Gen. Alexander T. Hawthorn

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