Click 👉TODAY IN HISTORY (general history) April 17.
ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, April 17.
1861: Virginia's Secession Convention voted 88 to 55 to secede from the Union. The measure would have to be ratified by a vote of the people. It was Lincoln's call for 75,000 volunteers to attack the South that was the final straw for many Virginians.
1862: Peninsular Campaign: Trench warfare continues on the Warwick Line in the Peninsular Campaign as both sides build up their forces. General McClellan ordered approach parallels dug toward the Confederate lines. His powerful siege guns included two 200-pounder Parrotts, 12 100-pounder Parrotts, rifled 20-pounder, and 30-pounder Parrotts, and 41 mortars, for a total of 70 heavy guns that could deliver 7,000 pounds of ordnance every time they were fired in unison.
1863: Marmaduke's Raid: Confederate Brig. Gen. John Marmaduke leads a 16-day cavalry raid into Missouri, while Federal Col. Benjamin Grierson leads his brigade on the 16-day raid through Mississippi to Baton Rouge, La.
1864: Red River Campaign: Brig. Gen. Polignac's Louisiana and Texas infantry division marches 25 miles in pursuit of the retreating Federals to near the Calcasieu River in the Red River Campaign in Louisiana. Confederate engineers begin building a pontoon bridge across the river.
1865: In the aftermath of the Battle of Columbus, Georgia, Wilson's Raiders ravage the city, a major Confederate manufacturing center. The bluecoats take many prisoners. The battle and destruction of the city was practically meaningless in ending the war since the major Confederate Army in the east had already surrendered and Johnston was in negotiations with Sherman to surrender the remnants of the Army of Tennessee.
CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, April 17.
Brig. Gen. Phillip St. George Cocke was born on this day in 1808 in Fluvanna County, Virginia. He graduated from West Point in 1832 and resigned from the Army in 1834. St. George Cocke became a plantation owner. He wrote a manual on running a plantation in 1852 and was president of the Virginia State Agricultural Society in 1856. He raised a militia company in 1859 after the Harper's Ferry Raid in 1859. During the War for Southern Independence, he was commissioned a brigadier general on April 21, 1861, and reported to General Robert E. Lee on April 24, 1861. However, he was demoted to colonel when the Confederate Army was organized. After the First Battle of Manassas, he was promoted to brigadier general on Oct. 21, 1861. He died by his own hand on December 26, 1861, after reportedly having a physical and mental breakdown after eight months of hard service.
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