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

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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.

 

Confederate soldiers of Co. B, 9th Miss. Inf. at

Pensacola, FL in 1861. (J.D. Edwards Photo)

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

Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, Jan. 9.

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ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, Jan. 9.

1861: The State of Mississippi's Secession Convention votes 85-15 to secede from the Union. Federal transport The Star of the West bringing 250 reinforcements to the Federal garrison at Fort Sumter, Charleston, South Carolina, is fired upon by a battery manned by South Carolina Military Academy (The Citadel) cadets and assisted by Charleston Zouave Cadets. The cadets were operating four, 24-pounders under the command of Maj. P.F. Stevens on Morris Island fired a shot across the steamer's bow. It continued on and Fort Moultrie joined in the firing. After being fired upon and hit, the ship turned around and headed back to New York without reaching Fort Sumter. No one was injured and the garrison at Fort Sumter did not return fire. Negotiations with the Buchanan administration resumed.

Cadets from S.C. Military Academy fire

on the steamer Star of the West bringing

reinforcements for Fort Sumter.

Citadel Cadets of the South Carolina Military Academy

like these fired the first shot of the war.

1865: General Hood's Army of Tennessee arrives in Tupelo, Mississippi where it can regroup and recover from the defeat at the Battle of Nashville, Tenn. Lt. Gen Richard Taylor, commander of the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana briefly in command of the Tennessee army after Gen. John Bell Hood resigned. Tupelo was an important refuge for Confederate armies throughout the war at Town Creek as well as a strategic railroad center and food growing area that soldiers considered "good duty." It usually had plenty of food for them to eat with kitchens to cook it and canvas tent flies for them to sleep under. Tupelo was also the site of the Battle of Tupelo on July 14, 15, 1864.

Pvt. Jacob Gerhard, Co. B, 20th La. Inf.

Gibson's Brigade, Army of Tennessee

(Library of Congress)

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, Jan. 9.

None.

Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, Jan. 8.

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ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, Jan. 8.

1861: Florida State Troops under Col. William Henry Chase demanded the surrender of Fort Barrancas at Pensacola. Federal Major John H. Winder (who later became a Confederate general), commanded the fort, but in his absence, acting commander Lt. Adam Slemmer ordered his 50-man contingent to fire upon the Florida troops. However, Slemmer decided the fort was indefensible had his supplies loaded on flatboats, and moved across the bay to the more defensible Fort Pickens. The Florida State troops then occupied it.

1863: Second Battle of Springfield, Mo. The battle was between Federal forces under Brig. Gen. Egbert Brown numbering 2,099, and Confederate Brig. Gen. John S. Marmaduke with 1,870 men. The Confederates attacked the Federal depot there but were repulsed. Federal casualties were 231 and Confederate, 290.

1864: Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan returns from captivity having made his escape and is celebrated in Richmond, Virginia.

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, Jan. 8.

Lieutenant General James Longstreet was born on this day in 1821, in Edgefield District, South Carolina. He graduated from West Point in 1842 in the Class of 1842 ranked 54th out of 56 cadets. Longstreet served with distinction in the Mexican American War being wounded in the thigh at the Battle of Chapultepec. After that war, he served on frontier duty until 1861 when he resigned from the U.S. Army and joined the Confederate Army. Longstreet was promoted to brigadier general to date from Jun 17, 1861, then led a brigade in the skirmish at Blackburn's Ford and then the First Battle of Manassas in 1861. In 1862 he fought in the Battle of Williamsburg, Va. in the Peninsula Campaign, the Battle of Seven Pines, and the Seven Days Battles under Gen. Robert E. Lee. The Army of Northern Virginia became almost invincible under the leadership of Lee, Longstreet, and Stonewall Jackson. More victories followed at Second Manassas, Sharpsburg, and Fredericksburg at the end of the Year. In 1863, then a lieutenant general, Longstreet's Corps was absent from Lee and Jackson's great victory at Chancellorsville. Many blamed Longstreet for the Confederate loss at Gettysburg, but Lee still had faith in his "Old War Horse," and took all the blame on himself. Longstreet's Corps was sent to Georgia in 1863 and played a major role in the Confederate victory at the Battle of Chickamauga, Ga., and finished the year with a loss at the Siege of Knoxville, Tenn. In 1864, back with the ANV, Longstreet was severely wounded at the Wilderness and would be out of action until October but still with a paralyzed right arm. He fought at the Siege of Petersburg for the rest of 1864 to the end of the siege in 1865. He was with the army in the last campaign and surrendered with Lee at Appomattox on April 9, 1865. After the war, he became a Republican and served in several important positions. Longstreet died on Jan. 2, 1904, just days before his 83rd birthday. He was buried in Alta Vista Cemetery in Gainesville, Ga., where he had a farm. 

Lt. Gen. James Longstreet

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Brigadier General James Holt Clanton was born in 1827 in Columbia County, Georgia. In his pre-war years, he was a lawyer and legislator and served in the Mexican-American War. Although opposed to secession, when war came, he stood with the South and became colonel of the 1st Alabama Cavalry. He served at the Battle of Shiloh, Tenn., then at smaller battles at Farmington, Miss., and Booneville. Promoted to brigadier general on Nov. 16, 1863, Clanton then served as an aide-de-camp to Lt. Gen. Leonidas Polk. He then led a cavalry brigade during the Atlanta Campaign and was in several engagements. Clanton was severely wounded on March 25, 1865, and captured at Bluff Springs, Fla. He was paroled and returned home. After the war, he resumed his law career and was killed in a shootout with an opponent on Sept. 27, 1871, in Knoxville, Tenn. where he was living. He was buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Knoxville.

Brig. Gen. James H. Clanton

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Brigadier General Thomas Green was born in 1814 in Amelia County, Virginia. He moved with his family to Tennessee in 1817 and grew up there. After graduating from college in 1834, Green went to Texas in 1835 and enlisted in the Texas Army. He fought in the Battle of San Jacinto as part of the artillery on one of two guns, both called the "Twin Sisters." After the war, he went back to Tennessee to study law and then came back to Texas. As a veteran, he received a large land grant and settled in Texas where he became a prominent citizen serving in the House of Representatives and various administrative offices. In the Texas military, he served in various campaigns against the Indians and Mexican incursions. In the Mexican-American War, he raised a company of Texas Rangers and fought at the Siege of Monterrey. In the War for Southern Independence, Green was elected colonel of the 5th Texas Cavalry and led the Confederate forces to victory at the Battle of Valverde in Feb. 1862 in the New Mexico Territory. Turning his men into "Horse Marines," his cavalrymen manned the cotton-clad steamer Bayou City in helping capture the USRC Harriet Lane at the Battle of Galveston, on Jan. 1, 1863. Green then led the First Cavalry Brigade in the Bayou Teche Campaign of 1863 and was promoted to brigadier general on May 20, 1862. His cavalry helped capture a Federal detachment in the Battle of Stirling's Plantation on Sept. 29, 1863 and was elevated to command a cavalry division in the Army of Western Louisiana. He led the left wing of the army on April 8, 1864, in the great Confederate victory at the Battle of Mansfield, La. Green was killed in action on April 12, 1864, at the Battle of Blair's Landing, Louisiana. He was buried at Oakwood Cemetery in Austin, Texas. 

Brig. Gen. Thomas Green

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Brigadier General John Seldon Roane was born in 1817 in Wilson County, Tennessee. A pre-war lawyer, Roane served in the Mexican-American War with the Arkansas Mounted Rifles and when the commander, Archibald Yell, was killed at the Battle of Buena Vista, he became the commander. He was elected governor of Arkansas and served from 1849 to 1852. In the War for Southern Independence, he was appointed brigadier general commanded the First Arkansas Infantry Brigade, and defended his state in several battles. He died on April 7, 1867, and is buried at Oakland Cemetery in Little Rock, Ark.

Brig. Gen. John S. Roane

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Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, Jan. 7.

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ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, Jan. 7.

1861: Louisiana Secession: Louisianians go to the polls and elect a majority of pro-secession delegates to the Louisiana Secession Convention, which is to convene on Jan. 23, 1861. Elected were 80 secessionists, 44 co-operationists (meaning cooperating with other Southern states in secession), and six "doubtful" delegates.

A young secessionist wearing a secession badge & ribbon.

(9th Plate Ambrotype, M.D. Jones Collection)

Seizure of Fort Marion, Fla.: Florida state militia seizes Fort Marion, St. Augustine, Florida. The seizure was carried out peacefully and with no violence. Only one Federal sergeant was on duty. About 125 Florida militiamen took part in the seizure.

Pvt. William Denham, Florida Confederate

(Pinterest)

1862: Romney Expedition, Va.:Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson runs into a blinding snowstorm during his campaign for Romney, W. Va. while the advance guard of his army was repelled by a Federal force at Blue's Gap. The historical marker at the site reads: "Confederate troops under Captain George F. Sheets were defeated by Colonel S. H. Dunning's 5th Ohio Infantry here, Jan. 7, 1862. North River Bridge and several buildings were burned by the Federals."

Confederate soldier with musket, pistol, and secession

badge and ribbon. (Library of Congress)

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, Jan. 7.

Brigadier General Lucius Jeremiah Gartrell was born in Wilkes County, Georgia on this day in 1821. He was a pre-war Georgia politician who served in the Georgia House of Representatives & for two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. He resigned from Congress in 1861, organized the 7th Georgia Infantry, and was then elected to the Confederate Congress. In 1864 he was appointed a brigadier general in the Confederate Army. Following the war, he served in the Georgia Constitutional Convention in 1877. He also ran for governor in 1882 but was beaten by Alexander Stephens. Gartrell died April 7, 1891, in Atlanta, Ga., and is buried in Oakland Cemetery there.

Brig. Gen. Lucius J. Gartrell

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Brigadier General James Morrison Hawes was born on this day in 1824 in Lexington, Kentucky. He graduated from West Point in 1845 and served as a second lieutenant of dragoons and fought in the Mexican-American War in the Siege of Veracruz, the battles of Contreras, Churubusco, and Molino del Rey. He achieved the rank of first lieutenant in the war. He resigned in 1861 to first serve as a captain in the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry. He was promoted to colonel of the regiment but then resigned for a commission as major in the regular Confederate Army. Promoted to brigadier general, Hawes fought at the Battle of Shiloh, the Battle of Milliken's Bend, and the Battle of Young's Point, and served in Mobile, Alabama, and at the end of the war was in Galveston, Texas. After the war, he lived in Covington, Ky., and became a hardware merchant. Hawes died on Nov. 22, 1889, at his home.

Brig. Gen. James M. Hawes

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Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, Jan. 6.

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ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, Jan. 6.

1861: Florida Governor Madison S. Perry ordered the Florida State Militia to seize the U.S. Arsenal at Apalachicola. The arsenal contained a six-pounder cannon with 326 shots and a canister, 57 flintlock muskets, 5,122 pounds of powder, 173,476 small arms cartridges, and a variety of accouterments. Colonel W.J Gunn led the 7th Regiment of Florida militia and a home guard unit, the Quincy Young Guards, in carrying out the governor's seizure order. The arsenal was surrendered without a fight.

Pvt. Walter Miles Parker

1st Florida Cavalry

1862: Confederate War Clerk John B. Jones in the War Department in Richmond, Va. enters into his daily diary on this day: "No news."

1864: Confederate partisans attack a Yankee steamer, the Delta, on the Mississippi River. In New Mexico, a Federal force led by Colonel Kit Carson traps Navajo Indians in Canyon de Chelly. The Indians will be forced to make a 300-mile march, with much suffering, to Fort Sumner, New Mexico.

1865: President Davis accuses Vice President Stephens in a letter of undermining the people's confidence in his conduct of the war effort.

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, Jan. 6.

Maj. Gen. John C. Brown

Major General John Calvin Brown was born on this day in 1827 in Giles County, Tennessee. Brown was a lawyer, the younger brother of a former Tennessee governor, Neill S. Brown, and was an elector in the 1860 presidential election for Constitutional Union Party candidate John Bell. Brown was opposed to secession until the firing on Fort Sumter and then like most of Middle Tennessee, he switched sides to support the Confederacy. In the war, he originally enlisted as a private but soon was elected colonel of the 3rd Tennessee Infantry. He commanded a Tennessee brigade at Fort Donelson and was taken prisoner when the fort failed. Brown was exchanged, promoted to brigadier general, and commanded a brigade in the Army of Tennessee. He was wounded in the battles of Perryville, Chickamauga, and Franklin. Brown was promoted to major general in August 1864. He recovered from his last wound in time to take part in the AOT's last campaign, the Carolina Campaign, and the Battle of Bentonville, N.C. in 1865. After the war, he resumed his practice of law, served in the Tennessee General Assembly, and as governor of the state. He died Aug. 17, 1889, and is buried in Maplewood Cemetery in Pulaski, Tennessee. 

Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, Jan. 5.

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ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, Jan. 5.

1861: U.S. Senators for seven Southern gathered for a meeting and recommended the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, join South Carolina in secession. Also on this date, Alabama seized Fort Gaines and Fort Morgan to defend Mobile. In addition, the Star of the West, a merchant ship, set sail from New York with 250 reinforcements and supplies for Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, S.C.

1863: In the days after the Maj. Gen. John Bankhead Magruder's liberation of Galveston, Texas on New Year's Day, the nearby city of Houston celebrates the deliverance from the pending scourge of Northern occupation, or worse, by the vindictive Federal Army. Magruder is made the "Toast of Texas and the much-admired hero of the people of both cities. Also, 1st Lt. Dick Dowling and his Irish-Texan Jefferson Davis Guard, the Company F, 1st Texas Heavy Artillery, are lauded by the Houston Weekly Telegraph, which writes, ". . . The artillery boys acted nobly and covered themselves with glory. They manned their guns as nimbly as though they were behind breastworks. Where all did so well, I feel cautious to draw comparisons; the Irish boys surpassed the expectations of their friends." 

Maj. Richard W. Dowling

(Lawrence T. Jones Collection, DeGolyer Library, SMU Libraries)

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS

Major General Joseph Brevard Kershaw was born in 1822 in Camden, South Carolina. A lawyer and South Carolina legislator, Kershaw also was a combat-tested veteran of the Mexican-American War. During the War for Southern Independence, he commanded the 2nd South Carolina Infantry at the Battle of Fort Sumter, on Morris Island, and the First Battle of Manassas in Brig. Gen. Milledge Bonham's Brigade and promoted to brigadier general on Feb. 13, 1862. His campaigns and battles also included the Peninsula, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, the Shenandoah, and Sayler's Creek at the end of the war. After the war, he served his state again in the State Senate, a judgeship, and postmaster of Camden. He died on April 13, 1894, and is buried in his hometown at the Quaker Cemetery.

Maj. Gen. Joseph B. Kershaw

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Brigadier General John Doby Kennedy was born in 1840 in Camden, South Carolina. A prewar attorney, in the War for Southern Independence he started out as a captain in the 2nd South Carolina Infantry and was wounded in the First Battle of Manassas. He was promoted to colonel when Kershaw was promoted to brigadier general and fought in the Seven Days Battles, at Sharpsburg, where he was wounded again. After recovering he led his regiment and the 8th South Carolina at Fredericksburg, then at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. In 1864 he was promoted to temporary brigadier general in the Richmond and Shenandoah Valley Campaigns. At the end of the war, he was in Carolina's Campaign and the Battle of Bentonville. In all, he survived six wounds during the war and was reportedly hit by spent balls 15 times. After the war, he was elected to the U.S. Congress but wasn't allowed to serve because he refused to take the "ironclad" oath. Kennedy also served as lieutenant governor of his state from 1880 to 1882. His last service was as a U.S. Consul in China. He died on April 14, 1896, and is buried in the Quaker Cemetery in Camden.

Brig. Gen. John D. Kennedy

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Brigadier General Thomas Neville Waul was born in 1813in Sumter District, South Carolina. Before the war, he worked in Alabama as a teacher, in Vicksburg, Miss. as a lawyer, and then in Gonzales County, Texas as a planter. Waul was also an unsuccessful candidate for U.S. Congress and served as a delegate to the Texas secession convention. During the War for Southern Independence, he served in the Confederate Congress and then entered the Confederate Army as a colonel and recruited Waul's Legion, which served in the Siege of Vicksburg. He was promoted to brigadier general on Sept. 18, 1863, while a prisoner of war. Exchanged in October 1863, Waul commanded a brigade in Walker's Texas Infantry Division and fought at the battles of Mansfield, Pleasant Hil, La., and Jenkin's Ferry, Ark. in the Red River Campaign of 1864. He was wounded in the left arm at Jenkin's Ferry. His final service was as a division commander in the Trans-Mississippi Dept. After the war, he practiced law, was a farmer, and died July 28, 1903, at age 90 in Hunt County, Texas, and is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Fort Worth, Texas.

                                                  

Brig. Gen. Thomas N. Waul

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Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, Jan. 4.

Click 👉 TODAY IN HISTORY (general history) Jan. 4.

ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, Jan. 4.

1861: Alabama State Troops, under orders from Alabama Governor Andrew B. Moore, seized the U.S. Arsenal at Mount Vernon, Ala., which was under the command of Capt. Jesse L. Reno would become a major general in the Federal Army. The transfer was peaceful, and the arsenal was held by the Confederacy until near the end of the war.

1863: Skirmishing continues with a clash on the Manchester Pike during General Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee withdrawal from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. They then moved on to the town of Manchester. Also, Confederate Brig. Gen. Roger W. Hanson died from the wounds this day received on January 2, 1863, in the Battle of Murfreesboro.

1864: Captain Felix Pierre Poché with Mouton's Louisiana Brigade in winter camp near Monroe, Louisiana writes in his diary: "We are having a terrible winter again today, to the point that I doubt if we can move on the road when we have to leave this awful hole where we are camping."

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, Jan. 4.

Brigadier General Horace Randal was born in 1833 in McNairy County, Tennessee. He was appointed brigadier general to date from April 8, 1864, by General E. Kirby Smith, Trans-Mississippi Department commander. Randal moved to Texas with his family when he was a child in 1839. He attended West Point, graduated in 1854, and was the second Texan to do so. His U.S. Army career included service in the First Dragoons and frontier duty in the Indian Territory, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. Randal resigned from the U.S. Army on Feb. 27, 1861. He accepted a commission in the Confederate Army on March 16, 1861. After serving on the staff of Gen. Braxton Bragg, and Maj. Gen. Gustavus Smith, he was commissioned a colonel and raised the 28th Texas Cavalry (Dismounted). Randal and his regiment served with distinction in the famous Walker's Texas Infantry Division. He was appointed to the command of a brigade on Sept. 3, 1862, which he led at the Battle of Milliken's Bend, La. in 1863, and the Red River Campaign in 1864. Randal's Brigade joined Polignac's Brigade and Mouton's Brigade in Mouton's Charge at the Battle of Mansfield, on April 8, 1864. He was mortally wounded at the Battle of Jenkin's Ferry, Ark. April 30, 1864, and died on May 2, 1864. His remains were returned to Texas after the war and reburied in the Old Marshall Cemetery, Marshall, Texas. His appointment to brigadier general was never confirmed by the Confederate Congress.

Brig. General Horace Randal

Click👉Randal;'s Texas Brigade