1814 – The British schooner Phoenix fell to Marines of the USS Constitution.1817 – Walter Paye Lane (d.1892), Brig General (Confederate Army), was born.
1823 – Mexican Emperor Augustin de Iturbide reconfirms the land grant made by the governor of New Spain to the late Moses Autin, made transferable to his son, Stephen F. Austin. This tract along the Rio Grande will become home to over 300 families brought in by Austin in 1825.
1827 – Confederate General Lewis Armistead is born in New Bern, North Carolina. Armistead is best known for leading Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg, where he was mortally wounded. Armistead’s father, Walker Keith Armistead, and his five uncles served in the military during the War of 1812. One of them, George Armistead, commanded Fort McHenry at Baltimore during the British bombardment that produced the Star Spangled Banner. Lewis Armistead entered West Point in 1834 but did not graduate due to poor grades, although some sources indicate that the reason was a fight with another cadet, Jubal Early, who was later a comrade in the Army of Northern Virginia. Despite this, Armistead joined the military as a second lieutenant and fought in the Seminole War in Florida and was cited for heroism three times in the Mexican War. During the 1850s, he served on the frontier and developed a very close friendship with another officer, Pennsylvanian Winfield Scott Hancock. When the Civil War broke out, he resigned his commission to join his home state, Virginia. At the beginning of the war, Armistead commanded the 57th Virginia Infantry, but by April 1862 he was in a brigadier general. He fought during the Seven Days’ battles in June and July 1862, but played only minor roles at Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. On July 2, 1863, he led a brigade in Pickett’s division during the climactic charge at Gettysburg. In a tragic coincidence, Armistead’s men attacked Hancock’s corps at the center of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge. Armistead crossed the wall that protected the Federal cannon, representing the high water mark of the Confederacy. He fell wounded there, and the attack stalled. Armistead was found by Captain Henry Bingham, an aide to Hancock, and Armistead told him to, “Say to General Hancock for me that I have done him and done you all an injury which I shall regret the longest day that I live.” Armistead lingered for two days, and he requested that his personal effects be given to Hancock, who was also seriously wounded that day. Armistead was buried in a family plot at St. Paul’s Church in Baltimore, Maryland.
1841 – The 1st continuous filibuster in US Senate began and lasting until March 11.
1842 – The House of Representatives passed a resolution requesting the Committee on Commerce to make an inquiry into the expenditures of the Lighthouse Establishment since 1816. This was to explore the possibility of cutting down on expenses, to examine the question of reorganizing the establishment and administration, and also to ascertain whether the establishment should be placed under the Topographical Bureau of the War Department.
1846 – “It having been represented to the (Navy) Department, that confusion arises from the use of the words “Larboard” and “Starboard,” in consequence of the similarity of sound, the word “Port” is hereafter to be substituted for “Larboard.” –Navy Department General Order
1850 – The city of SF was incorporated.
1861 – Jefferson F. Davis was inaugurated as the Confederacy’s provisional president at a ceremony held in Montgomery, Ala., where the Confederate constitutional convention was held. Davis was sworn in on Feb 22 in Virginia.
1861 – Southern Arapaho Indian Agent, Albert Boone, grandson of the famous Daniel Boone, held a council attended by some of the Southern bands of the Arapaho tribe and a few Cheyenne. He reported he had gotten consent for the cession of their land in exchange for a small reservation on Colorado’s Sand creek. It is not clear whether they understood the terms or not, as their chief interpreter, Left Hand was not there. Hunting buffalo from Sand Creek would be very hard as they ranged east and north of the reservation. At Sand Creek, the Cheyenne were to have the eastern half and the Arapaho the western. The Northern Arapaho did not consent to the cession.
1864 – President Lincoln ended the blockade of Brownsville, Texas, and opened the port for trade.
1865 – Following the fall of Fort Fisher at the mouth of the river, Union forces had repositioned for an attack on Fort Anderson, N.C on the Cape Fear River. Federals attacked from the land and river. After three days of fighting, the Confederates evacuated the fort at night. Union gunboats started firing at first light, unaware that Federal soldiers were breaching the walls of the fort. The infantry frantically waved sheets and blankets to stop the deadly fire from their own forces.
1865 – Union forces under Major General William T. Sherman set the South Carolina State House on fire during the burning of Columbia.
1865 – The big guns of Rear Admiral Porter’s fleet in the Cape Fear River silenced the Confederate batteries at Fort Anderson. Under a relentless hail of fire from the ships and with Union troops investing the fort from two sides, the Southerners evacuated their defensive position and fell back to Town Creek. Simultaneously, the Confederates dug in at Sugar Loaf Hill on the east bank of the river, adjacent to Fort Anderson, withdrew to Fort Strong, a complex of fortifications comprising several batteries some three miles south of Wilmington. The combined Army-Navy movement was now pushing irresistibly toward the city.
1865 – Battle of Ft. Moultrie, SC.
1878 – John Tunstall is murdered by outlaw Jesse Evans, sparking the Lincoln County War in Lincoln County, New Mexico.
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