1802 – Washington, D.C., was incorporated as a city, with the mayor appointed by the president and the council elected by property owners.
1821 – The Richmond [Virginia] Light Artillery was organized.
1855 – American adventurer William Walker departs from San Francisco with about 60 men to conquer Nicaragua. William Walker (May 8, 1824 – September 12, 1860) was an American lawyer, journalist and adventurer, who organized several private military expeditions into Latin America, with the intention of establishing English-speaking colonies under his personal control, an enterprise then known as “filibustering.” Walker became president of the Republic of Nicaragua in 1856 and ruled until 1857, when he was defeated by a coalition of Central American armies. He was executed by the government of Honduras in 1860.
1861 – Lincoln asked for 42,000 Army Volunteers and another 18,000 seamen.
1863 – Stonewall Jackson’s arm was amputated and buried. Jackson told his medical director, Dr. Hunter McGuire, “If the enemy does come, I am not afraid of them; I have always been kind to their wounded, and I am sure they will be kind to me.” His words followed an order from Robert E. Lee to move Jackson to Guiney’s Station, fearing that nearby Federal troops might capture him. Following perhaps his greatest performance, leading a brilliant flanking maneuver against Union Major General Joseph Hooker at Chancellorsville, he was mistakenly shot by his own troops while scouting ahead of their lines after dark. Jackson sustained severe wounds to the left arm and minor wounds to the right hand that later led to his death.
1863 – General Joseph Hooker and the Army of the Potomac abandon a key hill on the Chancellorsville battlefield. The Union army was reeling after Stonewall Jackson’s troops swung around the Union right flank and stormed out of the woods on the evening of May 2, causing the Federals to retreat some two miles before stopping the Confederate advance. Nonetheless, Hooker’s forces were still in a position to deal a serious defeat to Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia because they had a numerical advantage and a strategic position between Lee’s divided forces. But Lee had Hooker psychologically beaten. Union forces controlled the key geographical feature in the Chancellorsville area: Hazel Grove, a hill that provided a prime artillery location. General J.E.B. Stuart, the head of the Confederate cavalry, assumed temporary command of Stonewall Jackson’s corps after Jackson was wounded the night before (a wound that proved fatal a week later) and planned to attack Hazel Grove the next morning. This move was made much easier when Hooker made the crucial mistake of ordering an evacuation of the decisive hill. Once Stuart’s artillery occupied Hazel Grove, the Confederates proceeded to wreak havoc on the Union lines around Chancellorsville. Rebel cannons shelled the Union line, and the fighting resulted in more Union casualties than Jackson’s attack the day before. Hooker himself was wounded when an artillery shell struck the column he was leaning against. Stunned, Hooker took a shot of brandy and ordered the retreat from the Chancellorsville area, which allowed Jackson’s men to rejoin the bulk of Lee’s troops. The daring flanking maneuver had worked. Hooker had failed to exploit the divided Army of Northern Virginia, and allowed the smaller Rebel force to defeat his numerically superior force.
1863 – Having paved the way for a final assault on Grand Gulf with the attack of 29 April, Rear Admiral Porter once again moved his gunboats against the strong Confederate batteries. The Southerners, however, finding their position totally untenable, Grant having taken his army into the country back of Grand Gulf, had evacuated. The great land-sea pincer could now close on Vicksburg.
1885 – The US Navy transferred the USS Bear to the Revenue Cutter Service. The Bear became one of the most famous cutters to sail under the Revenue Cutter & Coast Guard ensigns.
1898 – Lt Dion Williams and Marines from the USS Baltimore raised the American flag over Cavite, Philippines.
https://thisdayinusmilhist.wordpress.com/2014/05/03/may-3/
