Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, November 19.

Click 👉 TODAY IN HISTORY (general history), Nov. 19

ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, Nov. 19

1863: SIEGE OF KNOXVILLE, Tenn.: Confederates under Lt. Gen. James Longstreet were now before Knoxville, Tenn., but the Confederate general knew he didn't have the manpower or firepower he would need for a real siege of the East Tennessee city. Longstreet wanted to try an attack on the formidable earthworks around the city; he knew it would grow stronger every day. He determined that the only vulnerable point was Fort Sanders. 

Lt. Gen. James Longstreet

(Library of Congress)

CLICK👉The Bloody 23rd Tennessee Infantry Regiment

Battling for Southern Independence

This is the history of one of the most fiercely fighting infantry regiments in the War for Southern Independence, the 23rd Tennessee Infantry. The regiment was raised predominantly from the Middle Tennessee counties, where there was considerable support for secession and Southern Independence. The men were overwhelmingly made up of yeoman farmers of predominantly Anglo-Celtic descent who were to face some of the largest, bloodiest, and most memorable battles of the war, both in the West and the East. They got their baptism of fire in the Battle of Shiloh, followed by the battles of Perryville, Murfreesboro, Hoover's Gap, Chickamauga, and Knoxville in the West with the famed Army of Tennessee. They were then transferred to the East, where they fought in the Bermuda Hundred Campaign in Virginia, under the legendary General P.G.T. Beauregard, and then in the famed Army of Northern Virginia in the Petersburg Campaign, and ended the war with the great General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Courthouse. The book covers the history of the regiment from letters, diaries, memoirs, and official records to cover both officers and men in a personal way. It also has an annotated roster of some 1,164 men who served in the regiment, as well as maps, photos, illustrations, bibliography, footnotes, and index.

1864: THE BLOCKADE THAT FAILED: ''The two outstanding facts concerning the blockade of the southern states by the United States Navy during the Civil War are, one, that it was, for the first three and a half years, almost totally ineffective, insofar as preventing supplies from reaching the rebels was concerned, and, two, that by the end of 1864, when it did become effective, the war was already over, for all practical purposes." Daniel O'Flaherty, American Heritage, August 1955. Click on the link for the entire article.''

The Anaconda Plan for the Blockade of the South.

(Library of Congress)

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, Nov. 19

Major General Fitzhugh Lee, in 1835, Fairfax, Virginia. The son of Commander Sydney Smith Lee, older brother of Gen. Robert E. Lee, Fitzhugh graduated from West Point in 1856 and served the prewar 2nd U.S. Cavalry under the command of Col. Albert Sidney Johnston and his uncle, Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee on the Texas Frontier. The young lieutenant distinguished himself in combat against the Comanche Indians and was severely wounded in May 1859. He resigned his commission when Virginia seceded and joined the Confederate Army. He was serving on the staff of Gen.Joseph E. Johnston at the First Battle of Manassas on July 21, 1861. Lee worked his way up to the rank of major general of cavalry and was one of the Confederate Army's finest cavalry commanders. After the war, he was active in Virginia politics in Virginia, serving as governor of that state from 1886 to 1890. During the Spanish-American War in 1898, he served as a major general in the U.S. Army and served as the military governor of Cuba in the postwar occupation. Lee died in Washington, D.C., on April 28, 1905, and was buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Va.

Maj. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee