Click 👉Today in History (general history) May 8.
On This Day in Confederate History, May 8.
1862: The Battle of McDowell, Va. occurs in the Shenandoah Valley Between Maj. Gen. Stonewall Jackson with about 10,000 men and Brig. Gen. Robert Schenk's 6,000 Federals. Jackson places his men on Sitlington's Hill, repulses a Federal attack, and chases the Yankees for several days before returning to the Valley. The Confederates have around 500 casualties to the Federals 256.
1864: General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia beats Maj. Gen. U.S. Grant's Army of the Potomac to Spotsylvania Court House and dig in blocking the Brock Road. The Federals had about 110,000 men and the Confederates had about 63,000. The Confederates repulse a cavalry attack and an attack by the V Corps at Laurel Hill. Fighting here would go on for 21 bloody days.
Maj. Gen. Richard Taylor near Alexandria, La. in the Red River Campaign, reports that they are recovering the guns from the Federal gunboats they have captured. He notes that he needs more artillery horses and ammunition. He also says his men have been fighting for sixteen consecutive days.
Two days after the Battle of Calcasieu Pass, La., ignorant of the battle, the Federal transport Ella Morse, carrying a detachment of the 2nd New Orleans (Union) Infantry, approached the USS Granite City, which had been captured. The gunboat was manned by Confederate gunners, and Southern sharpshooters opened up on the Ella Morse and wounded the pilot. The Federal transport quickly retreated back into the Gulf of Mexico.
Confederate General Birthdays, May 8.
Brigadier General Bryan Morel Thomas was born on this day in 1836 in Milledgeville, Georgia. He graduated from West Point in 1858, 22nd in a class of 54 cadets. Thomas served in the 8th U.S. Infantry and did garrison duty in New York, Utah Territory, and was stationed at Fort Union in New Mexico Territory in 1861. Thomas resigned from the U.S. Army on April 6, 1861. He then joined the Confederate Army and became a major in the 18th Alabama Infantry. At the Battle of Shiloh, he was on the staff of Maj. Gen. Jones M. Withers, who was his father-in-law. Thomas was afterward given command of the Reserve Corps artillery in the Army of Tennessee and took part in the Kentucky Campaign of 1862 and the Battle of Murfreesboro at the end of that year. His next assignment in 1863 was as assistant inspector general of Wither's Division and was then promoted to colonel in command of the 12th Mississippi Cavalry. Thomas was appointed a "temporary" brigadier general on Aug. 4, 1864, and commanded a brigade at Mobile, Alabama. He was captured with his command at Fort Blakely at Mobile on April 9, 1865, and released from captivity at Fort Gaines until June 1865. Following the war, Thomas farmed in Georgia, served as a deputy U.S. Marshal, founded a private academy, and was superintendent of city schools in Dalton, Ga. He died July 16, 1905, in Dalton and was buried there at West Hill Cemetery.
No comments:
Post a Comment