The Battle of Fort Bisland was fought #OTD in 1863. General Nathaniel Banks marched his XIX Corps north out of New Orleans, with the goal of capturing Alexandria. The campaign was planned to coordinate with @USGrantNPS’s move toward @VicksburgNPS. #ConfederateHeritageMonth
Opposing Banks was Dick Taylor’s small confederate army, entrenched in an outpost named Fort Bisland near the Bayou Teche region of central Louisiana. It was the only major defensive position barring Banks’ advance.
Taylor’s men were able to hold off a series of US assaults, but ultimately were forced to abandon the fort when it became clear that a @USArmy division was in position to cut off their retreat. Banks was able to continue his advance, and occupied Alexandria for over a year.
John Doby Kennedy died #OTD in 1896. A law student prior to the #CivilWar, he elected to join the confederacy and commanded a regiment in the confederate losses at the Battles of @GettysburgNMP, Cedar Creek, Bentonville, and others. #ConfederateHeritageMonth
After the war he was elected to the @USHouseHistory, but was denied his seat when he refused to take the oath swearing allegiance to the federal government. He was also prominent in the effort to return South Carolina to majority white rule. #ConfederateHeritageMonth
General Robert Anderson, who had surrendered Ft. Sumter in April, 1861, returned to the fort #OTD in 1865 and raised the same flag over it as part of a national day of Thanksgiving for the end of the #CivilWar.
#OTD in 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was shot in the head by actor John Wilkes Booth while attending the play “Our American Cousin” at @fordstheatre in Washington, DC. It was less than a week after the surrender of Robert E. Lee’s army had effectively ended the #CivilWar.
Booth, an ardent confederate sympathizer and famed actor, had refused invitations to the White House that Lincoln had extended after seeing him perform. He wrote in his diary in March, 1865, that he missed an opportunity to kill Lincoln when he attended his second inauguration.
Booth and others had been discussing plans for several weeks to kill or abduct Lincoln in an attempt to force better terms for the confederacy. When he learned on the morning of April 14 that Lincoln would be attending the play, he decided to make the attempt that night.
The city of Raleigh, North Carolina, was occupied by US troops under General William T. Sherman #OTD in 1865, as retreating confederate forces under Joseph Johnston were no longer able to defend the state’s capital. #ConfederateHeritageMonth
Richard "Dick" Taylor died #OTD in 1879, at the age of 53. He was the only son of the late President of the United States, Zachary Taylor, but decided to join the confederacy at the outbreak of the #CivilWar. #ConfederateHeritageMonth
A graduate of @Yale, Taylor displayed his confederate heritage by running a forced labor farm in Mississippi prior to the war, which included enslaving over 200 Black people. He later sold it and bought a different one named "Fashion" in Louisiana. #ConfederateHeritageMonth
When his crops failed and he went heavily into debt, Taylor entered politics. He was elected to the Louisiana Senate, where he became a member of the Native American Party, better known as the Know Nothings. The party was known for its harsh xenophobic, anti-immigration policies.
The Fort Pillow Massacre took place #OTD in 1864, when confederate troops under Nathan Bedford Forrest captured the US outpost and killed over 200 Black soldiers and their officers, many murdered after they had been captured and disarmed. #CivilWar#ConfederateHeritageMonth