Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, January 27.

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ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, Jan. 27.

1863: The Confederate Fort McAllister in Georgia undergoes a day-long bombardment by the Federal ironclad USS Montauk. The Yankee warship was firing from the Ogeechee River. 

1864: General Braxton Bragg is called by President Davis to Richmond, Virginia, if he is well. Bragg had failed miserably in the aftermath of his victory at the Battle of Chickamauga, Ga. in the debacle at the Battle of Missionary Ridge on November 25, 1863. Bragg resigned on Nov. 29, 1863, and Davis immediately accepted it. The president then gave Bragg a desk job as a military adviser.

1865: There is fighting between Confederates and Federals at DeKalb, Alabama. The Federals had been foraging in the area, and Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest sent a detachment to suppress them. The Confederates caught the foragers in an ambush. Several bluecoats were wounded, and the rest retreated and got away on their horses.

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, Jan. 27.

Lieutenant General Richard Taylor was born on this day in 1826 in Louisville, Kentucky. He was the son of General and President Zachary Taylor and was raised largely on the frontier at army posts where his father was stationed. He attended Harvard College and graduated from Yale. Taylor was also an avid reader of classical and military history. He had no military training or experience, except as a volunteer aide-de-camp for his father during the Mexican-American War. He settled into running the family plantations. His older sister, Sarah Knox Taylor, married Jefferson Davis, but the marriage ended in a tragedy three months later when she died of illness. Taylor was elected to the Louisiana Legislature from 1855 to 1861. He represented St. Charles Parish at the Louisiana Secession Convention and voted for secession. In the War for Southern Independence, after serving as a volunteer on the staff of Braxton Bragg at the beginning of the war, he was commissioned as a colonel of the 9th Louisiana Infantry. His regiment was too late to take part in the First Battle of Manassas. President Davis promoted Taylor to brigadier general on Oct. 21, 1861, and was given command of the First Louisiana Brigade. He led it with distinction in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1862. He was crippled with rheumatoid arthritis and missed the Seven Days Battles. Taylor received a promotion to major general on July 28, 1862, and was given command of the District of Western Louisiana. He had to build his army practically from scratch but was able to patch together some veteran regiments as a base and build it up to a crack fighting force. Greatly outnumbered, he had to use Fabian tactics against the enemy, but by 1864 was able to defeat the Federals in the Red River Campaign of 1864. Taylor was promoted to lieutenant general and was put in command of the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana in the final days of the war. He surrendered his department about a month after Appomattox. Afterward, he lived in New Orleans and wrote one of the best wartime memoirs, Destruction and Reconstruction, which has been much quoted by historians ever since. He died April 12, 1879, of dropsy and was buried at Metairie Cemetery.

Lt. Gen. Richard Taylor

👱

Brigadier General William Henry Fitzhugh Payne was born in 1830 in Fauquier County, Virginia. He attended the Virginia Military Institute for one year and studied law at the University of Virginia. Payne practiced law in Warrenton, Virginia. He also served as the Commonwealth's Attorney for Fauquier County for a few years. At the beginning of the war, he volunteered as a private, but later he became a captain in the Black Horse Cavalry. Payne was promoted to major in the 4th Virginia Cavalry and commanded the regiment in the Battle of Williamsburg in 1862, where he was severely wounded and captured. After being exchanged, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and fought at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, and was captured at the Battle of Hanover Station. Payne was again exchanged and promoted to brigadier general and led a brigade in Early's Valley Campaign of 1864, and afterward was severely wounded at the Battle of Five Forks in 1865. Following the war, Payne practiced law in Virginia and served as the general counsel for the Southern Railway Company and in the Virginia legislature. He died March 29, 1904, in Washington, D.C., and is buried in Warrenton City Cemetery.

Brig. Gen. William H.F. Payne

Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthday, January 26.

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ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, Jan. 26.

1861: On the fourth day of the Louisiana Secession Convention, the State of Louisiana seceded from the Union and became an independent republic. With this action, Louisiana brought to the soon-to-be Confederate States of America the largest city in the South, New Orleans, the largest port in the South, the largest manufacturing city in the South, and control of the mouth of the Mississippi River. It also brought to the Confederate Army one of its ablest generals, P.G.T. Beauregard. The convention voted 113 to 17 in favor of the Ordinance of Secession. Convention President Alexandre Mouton pronounced the connection between Louisiana and the United States dissolved and declared Louisiana "a free, sovereign, and independent power." The president then had a beautiful Pelican flag unfurled at his table. Around the state, the news was greeted with ringing church bells and volleys fired by the state militia.

Presbyterian Rev. Benjamin M. Palmer of New Orleans

was an influential supporter of the right of secession. His

sermons had an impact on Southern public opinion

and he reorganized the Presbyterian Church in the Confederacy.

Louisiana Secession Flag

Louisiana Ordinance of Secession

 

Also, on this day in 1861, the Georgia State Militia took possession of Oglethorpe Barracks and Fort Jackson in Savannah. Oglethorpe Barracks was built in the 1820s, and Fort James Jackson was constructed between 1808 and 1812. The fort was shelled by Federal blockade warships in 1862 and was held until 1864, when the Federals overran it in December 1864. Oglethorpe Barracks was taken when the Confederate Army retreated from Savannah in that same month.

Three Georgia Confederates

1865: Confederate troops skirmish with Federals near Pocotaligo, South Carolina, as Sherman's Federals burn their way across the state, which they particularly hate the most. Pocotaligo was an important depot on the Charleston and Savannah Railway, and for a short time, General Robert E. Lee in 1862 served in the state to protect the railway. 

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, Jan. 26.

None.

Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, January 25.

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THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, Jan. 25.

1861: On the 3rd day of the Louisiana Secession Convention, Charles Bienvenu introduced a resolution that would require the voters to approve an Ordinance of Secession from the Union. The proposal is defeated on an 84-43 vote. Also, that day, former South Carolina Gov. John L. Manning and former Alabama Gov. John A. Winston spoke to the convention and proposed the rapid formation of a Southern Confederacy. Winston says the Confederacy will be the greatest nation on earth within two years.

Louisiana Secession Flag (reproduction)

(M.D. Jones collection)

Louisiana Secession Convention

Former AL Gov. John A. Winston

(Encyclopedia of Alabama)

1864: Federal bombardment of Fort Sumter has been continuing since 12 Aug. 1863.  The Charleston Courier reported there was only one casualty, Private Westbury of 11th S.C. Volunteers, who "accidentally discharged his own gun, the ball from the gun entering his head and taking off a part of his skull."

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, Jan. 25.

Brigadier General Xavier Debray was born on this day in 1816, in Espinal, France. Debray reportedly attended École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr [A French Military Academy established in 1802]. He was also in the French diplomatic service. Debray came to the U.S. in 1848 and joined the U.S. Army in the 2nd Dragoons. After his service, he moved to Texas in 1852 and became a naturalized citizen in 1855 and a newspaper publisher in San Antonio. He also started a military academy and was a translator for the General Land Office. When war erupted in 1861, Debray raised a regiment of cavalry, the 26th Texas, and took part in the Battle of Galveston on Jan. 1, 1863. During the Red River Campaign of 1864, Debray led the 26th Texas Cavalry at the Battle of Mansfield on April 8, 1864, and the Battle of Pleasant Hill on April 9, 1864, as a colonel, and was put in command of his cavalry brigade. Department commander Gen. E. Kirby Smith promoted him to brigadier general on April 13, 1864, but his appointment was never confirmed by President Jefferson Davis. After the war, he lived in Houston, Galveston, and San Antonio, where he became a translator for the Texas General Office. Debray died on Jan. 6, 1895, and is buried in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin. 

Brig. Gen. Xavier Debray

Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, January 24.

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ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, Jan. 24.

1861: At the Louisiana Secession Convention, an ordinance was introduced by Joseph A. Rozier, unionist delegate of New Orleans, in place of a secession report by the Committee of Fifteen, calling for a convention of Southern states to propose amendments to the U.S. Constitution to secure Southern rights. The unionist's resolution was rejected by a vote of 106 to 24. A cooperationist resolution was introduced by James O. Fuqua of East Feliciana Parish, stating that Louisiana wouldn't cooperate with the Republican agenda and that any armed aggression against the Southern states would absolve Louisiana of allegiance to the Union. The resolution was also defeated, 73-47. In the war, Fuqua served as a captain in the 16th Louisiana Infantry and then on the staff of Brig. Gen. Daniel Ruggles as a colonel. Rozier promoted the Union cause in New Orleans during the war and served as the 30th Mayor of New Orleans for one day in 1866. He was a conservative Democrat who advocated a return to the Louisiana Constitution of 1852, minus slavery.

Richard Taylor, one of the

delegates to the La. Secession

Convention. Taylor, the son of

former President Zachary Taylor,

voted in favor of secession and, during the war, became a Confederate

Lieutenant General.

(Mansfield State Historic Site)

Also, in Georgia on this day in 1861, George State Troops under Col. A.R. Lawton seized the US Arsenal in Augusta. The arsenal was expanded in 1862 under Lt. Col. G.W. Rains to include enormous powder works. The arsenal produced a huge amount of war supplies for the Confederate Army during the war.

Pvt., later Lt., R.A. Mizell,

Co. A., 4th Ga. Inf. in 1861.

(Photographic History of the C.W.)

1862: President Jefferson Davis made the following general appointments: Richard S. Ewell, major general; Bushrod R. Johnson, James McQ. McIntosh, Lewis G. Arnold, brigadier generals.

1865: Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest took command of the District of Miss., E. La., and W. Tennessee on this day. 

 CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, Jan. 24.

Brigadier General John Pegram was born in 1832 in Petersburg, Virginia. He attended West Point and graduated 10th in his Class of 1854. As a second lieutenant, he served in several frontier forts with the dragoons, then as a cavalry instructor at West Point, and, while on leave, toured Europe in 1858-59. Pegram then was on frontier duty in 1860 and resigned from the U.S. Army in May 1861 after Virginia seceded. Pegram was commissioned as a lieutenant colonel in the 20th Virginia Infantry in the Confederate Army. During the Battle of Rich Mountain, Va., he was captured. After being exchanged, he was promoted to colonel and had staff jobs for generals Beauregard, Bragg, and E. Kirby Smith. Pegram was promoted to brigadier general in Nov. 1862 and was given command of a cavalry brigade. His other battles were Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, the Overland Campaign, the Valley Campaigns of 1864, and the Petersburg Campaign. Pegram was killed in action on Feb. 6, 1865, at the Battle of Hatcher's Run, Virginia. He had been married three weeks earlier to Miss Hetty Cary.

Brig. Gen. John Pegram

Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, January 23.

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ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, Jan. 23.

1861: The Louisiana Secession Convention convened in the state capital, Baton Rouge. Gov. Thomas Overton Moore told the convention that compromise with the North had become impossible and that Louisiana must never accept "coercion into submission, by force of arms." Former Gov. Alexandre Mouton was elected president of the convention. A Committee of Fifteen was formed to report back with an Ordinance of Secession.

f

Alexandre Mouton was elected

president of the Louisiana Secession

Convention. He was a former governor

of Louisiana and a former U.S. Senator.

His father was an Acadian exile who came

to Louisiana as a child and became a 

successful planter. His son Alfred was a

graduate of West Point and became a

Confederate brigadier general.

 (Library of Congress)

1862: Martial law is enacted in St. Louis, Missouri, which allows for the seizure of property and arrests of Confederate sympathizers.

1865: General Robert E. Lee is appointed commander-in-chief of all Confederate armies. By this time, the armies of the Confederacy had been greatly reduced. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia was about 50,000 men by April; the Army of Tennessee under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston had been reduced to about 20,000 in the Carolinas; Lt. Gen. Richard Taylor's army in the Dept. of Miss., Ala; and E. La. could field about 12,000 men, and Lt. Gen. E. Kirby Smith commanded between 30 and 40,000 men in the Trans-Mississippi Department. Over the four years of the war, the Confederacy was able to enlist 1,082,119 men, compared to the Federals' 2,128,948, according to Statista.

Lt. Gen. Richard Taylor is made commander of the Army of Tennessee, which is recovering at Tupelo, Miss. from its defeat at the Battle of Nashville. Taylor was able to keep some of the troops in his department to reinforce Mobile, Ala., then under siege by the Federals, before it was transferred to the Carolinas under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston.

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, Jan. 23.

Brigadier General John Randolph Chambliss Jr. was born in 1833 in Greenville County, Virginia. He graduated from West Point in the Class of 1853, ranking 31st out of 52 cadets. Chambliss had a short tenure in the U.S. Army as a brevet second lieutenant. He was appointed to teach at the cavalry school at Carlisle Barracks, Penn., but resigned in the spring. Chambliss then engaged in agriculture on the family plantation and as a major on the staff of Gov. Henry A. Wise from 1856 to 1861. After the war started, he was commissioned a colonel in command of the 13th Virginia Cavalry. He was promoted to brigadier general after the Bristoe Campaign and commanded Brig. Gen. Rooney Lee's old brigade. His service included the Maryland Campaign in the fall of 1862. His battles included Brandy Station, Aldie, Middleburg, Hanover, Gettysburg, the Bristoe Campaign, the Overland Campaign, and the Second Battle of Deep Bottom, Va., where he was killed in action on August 17, 1864. He is buried in the Chambliss Family Cemetery in Emporia, Virginia.

Brig. Gen. John R. Chambliss Jr.

Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays/ January 22.

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ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, Jan. 22.

1861: The New Orleans Daily Crescent reports that delegates to the Louisiana Legislature and the Louisiana Secession Convention are pouring into Baton Rouge, where the convention will convene the next day. The newspaper reports that the general sentiment prevailing is for secession from the Union.

La. Gov. Thomas Overton Moore

led Louisiana out of the Union,

but former La. governor & U.S. Senator

Alexandre Mouton was the president of the

La. Secession Convention.

President Alexandre Mouton of the

Louisiana Secession Convention

(Library of Congress)

An Early Secession Banner

1862: The New Orleans Daily Crescent reports that the Louisiana Militia will have a grand celebration for the first anniversary of the secession from the Union by Louisiana. The militia order notes, "... this great and glorious event should be celebrated in a manner worthy of a chivalrous and patriotic people, who disenthralled themselves and their political connection with a government whose principles were diametrically averse to the guaranteed constitutional rights, and their domestic institutions."

Louisiana Republic flag.

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, Jan. 22.

Brigadier General Merriwether Jeff Thompson was born in 1826 in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Before the war, he worked as a store clerk, and as a city engineer, was elected the Mayor of St. Joseph, Mo., and presided over the first Pony Express ride in 1860. He started out the war as a lieutenant colonel in the Missouri State Militia and led a battalion in partisan attacks, gaining them the nickname, "Swamp Fox of the Confederacy." He was promoted to brigadier general in the Missouri State Guard, led cavalry raids on the enemy, and was in several battles in Arkansas. He was captured in 1864. Exchanged, he participated in Major General Sterling Price's Missouri Expedition in 1864. Thompson fought in the battles of Westport, Mine Creek, and Newtonia. He surrendered on May 11, 1865. After the war, Jeff Thompson settled in New Orleans, where he worked as a civil engineer. He moved to St. Joseph, Mo., where he died Sept. 5, 1876, and was buried in Mount Mora Cemetery.

Brig. Gen. M. Jeff Thompson

Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, January 21.

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ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, Jan. 21.

Lieutenant General Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson was born on this day in 1824 in Clarksburg, Virginia. Of humble origins, Jackson was of Scotch-Irish heritage, and both of his parents, Julia Beckwith Neale Jackson and Jonathan Jackson, an attorney, were dead by the time he was seven. He was raised by an uncle, Cummins Jackson. Thomas was admitted to West Point and graduated with the Class of 1846, ranking 17th out of 56 cadets. Jackson was assigned as a second lieutenant in Co. K, 1st U.S. Artillery and compiled an outstanding record in the Mexican-American War, rising to the rank of brevet major. He fought at the Siege of Vera Cruz, and the battles of Contreras, Chapultepec, and Mexico City. After the war, he reverted to first lieutenant and served in the Second Seminole War and frontier duty. He resigned because he could not get along with his commanding officer. Jackson then got a professorship at the Virginia Military Institute. During this period, he married Elinor Junkin Jackson who died from childbirth along with the baby boy. His second wife, Martha Anna Morrison Jackson, had one child, Julia, who survived Jackson. After the War for Southern Independence started, his military genius soon became apparent, and he rose quickly from brigadier general to lieutenant general and commander of the Second Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia. Jackson gained his nickname "Stonewall" at First Manassas in 1861. Jackson then amazed the world with his victories, including the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1862, the Seven Days Battles, Cedar Mountain, Second Manassas, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville in 1863, where he was mortally wounded. He died May 10, 1863, at Guinea Station, Virginia. Stonewall Jackson was buried in Lexington, Va. His fame is enduring, and his military tactics were admired and used by several World War II generals.

Lt. Gen. Thomas J. Jackson

1863: Confederate cotton-clad gunboats Uncle Ben and Josiah Bell, with Lt. Dick Dowling's artillery company, Co. F, 1st Texas Heavy Artillery, and Capt. George O'Brien's Company E, 11th Bn. Tex. Vols. as sharpshooters, chased two Federal blockaders, Morning Light and Velocity, for 30 miles in the Gulf of Mexico off Sabine Pass, Texas. A sharp sea battle was fought, and both Yankee ships were captured. This was the third battle won by the Confederates in Texas in January. The other two were the Battle of Galveston on Jan. 1, 1863, and the sea battle between the CSS Alabama commanded by Captain Raphael Semmes, and the USS Hatteras in the Gulf of Mexico near Galveston. 

Major Richard W. "Dicks" Dowling

(LLMVC, Hill Mem. Lib., LSU)

USS Morning Light captured

(Nav Source Online)

CLICK👉Dick Dowling and the Jefferson Davis Guard 

Among the most famous Texas heroes of the 19th Century were Lt. Richard W. Dowling and the Jefferson Davis Guard, officially known as Company F, 1st Texas Heavy Artillery, Confederate States of America. They were among Confederate forces that won the Battle of Galveston, battled Federal blockade ships in the Gulf of America, as well the blocking a whole Federal invasion of Texas at Sabine Pass with just 42 artillerymen. The book tells of his life as well as the background of some of his individual soldiers. An Irish immigrant, like many of his men, he was a Houston entrepreneur and a great combat leader. This is their story.