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This Day in History
Feb 10
Civil War
Davis learns he is Confederate president, 1861
On this day in 1861, Jefferson Davis, a former U.S. senator from Mississippi who served as U.S. secretary of war in the 1850s, receives word he has…
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Irvin McDowell
(born Oct. 15, 1818, Columbus, Ohio, U.S.—died May 4, 1885, San Francisco) U.S. Federal army officer who, after serving through the Mexican War, was promoted to brigadier general in 1861 and put in command of the Department of Northeastern Virginia.
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Lewis Wallace
(born April 10, 1827, Brookville, Ind., U.S.—died Feb. 15, 1905, Crawfordsville, Ind.) American soldier, lawyer, diplomat, and author who is principally remembered for his historical novel Ben-Hur.
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Robert F. Stockton
(born Aug. 20, 1795, Princeton, N.J., U.S.—died Oct. 7, 1866, Princeton) U.S. naval officer and public leader who helped conquer California in the Mexican War (1846–48).
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Stephen Watts Kearny
(born Aug. 30, 1794, Newark, N.J., U.S.—died Oct. 31, 1848, St. Louis, Mo.) U.S. Army officer who conquered New Mexico and helped win California during the Mexican War (1846–48).
(Born Feb. 27, 1823, York, Pa., U.S.—died March 8, 1903, Hartford, Conn.) Union general during the American Civil War (1861–65) who was particularly active in the early years of fighting around Washington, D.C.
Franklin graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., in 1843 and served in the Mexican War (1846–48). When the Civil War broke out, he was appointed a brigadier general of volunteers and fought at the First Battle of Bull Run (July 1861). He was then advanced to division commander in the Army of the Potomac and served in the Peninsular Campaign in 1862.
Franklin was a major general at the Battle of Antietam, Md. (September 1862); he was later partially blamed for the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg (December 1862) by both his commanding officer, General A.E. Burnside, and a congressional committee on the conduct of the war. However, the committee did not have access to a copy of Burnside's orders to his subordinates, which were acknowledged to be confusing. Franklin was inactive for some months before serving inauspiciously in the Southwest. He resigned from the army in 1866 and was engaged in business at Hartford after the war.
Copyright © 1994-2011 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. For more information visit Britannica.com.
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