Texas Day by Day
Find out what happened today in Texas history.
Commander of "Kirby Smith's Confederacy" dies
131 years ago today on March 28th, 1893
On this day in 1893, Edmund Kirby Smith, former commander of the Trans-Mississippi Department of the Confederacy, died in Sewanee, Tennessee. The Florida native attended West Point, served in the Mexican War, and was an officer in the Second United States Cavalry on the frontier. He entered the Confederate service in 1861 and rose to the rank of lieutenant general in October 1862, when he was given command of the Trans-Mississippi Department, including Texas. His competent administration of the department, sometimes called "Kirby Smith's Confederacy," and successful defense of the region against Union general Nathaniel P. Banks's Red River campaign in 1864 were marred by his inability to cooperate amicably with his principal field commander, Gen. Richard Taylor. In February 1864 Smith was promoted to the rank of full general, and during this time he presided over the Marshall Conferences. Kirby Smith was almost the last Confederate general in the field, but in a hopelessly isolated situation he finally surrendered to Gen. Edward R. S. Canby in June 1865.
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Confederate guerilla leader arrested by own side
159 years ago today on March 28th, 1864
On this day in 1864, Civil War guerrilla leader William Quantrill was arrested by Confederate forces in Bonham, Texas. The Ohio native, wanted for murder in Utah by 1860, collected a group of renegades in the Kansas-Missouri area at the beginning of the Civil War. He fought with Confederate forces at the battle of Wilson's Creek in August 1861 but soon thereafter began irregular independent operations. Quantrill and his band attacked Union camps, patrols, and settlements. While Union authorities declared him an outlaw, Quantrill eventually held the rank of colonel in the Confederate forces. After his infamous sack of Lawrence, Kansas, and the massacre of Union prisoners at Baxter Springs, Quantrill and his men fled to Texas in October of 1863. There he quarreled with his associate, William "Bloody Bill" Anderson, and his band preyed on the citizens of Fannin and Grayson counties. Acts of violence proliferated so much that regular Confederate forces had to be assigned to protect residents from the activities of the irregular Confederate forces, and Gen. Henry McCulloch determined to rid North Texas of Quantrill's influence. On March 28, 1864, when Quantrill appeared at Bonham as requested, McCulloch had him arrested on the charge of ordering the murder of a Confederate major. Quantrill escaped that day and returned to his camp near Sherman, pursued by more than 300 state and Confederate troops. He and his men crossed the Red River into Indian Territory. Except for a brief return in May, Quantrill's activities in Texas were at an end. Quantrill was killed by Union forces at the very end of the war.
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Texas Confederates whipped in New Mexico
161 years ago today on March 28th, 1862
On this day in 1862, Union and Confederate troops fought the key battle of the Civil War in the Far West at Glorieta Pass, New Mexico. When the Texans of Brig. Gen. Henry Hopkins Sibley's Army of New Mexico were defeated by Union forces, Confederate ambitions in the West were checked. In June 1987 a mass grave containing more than thirty bodies, casualties of the battle of Glorieta, was discovered. Only three bodies were identified, among them that of Ebenezer Hanna, the youngest fatality of the battle. All the bodies were reburied in Santa Fe National Cemetery in 1993. Hanna's journal is now in the Texas State Library.
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From Cabeza de Vaca's ship-wreck in 1528 through the Texas Revolution to present day—almost 500 years of recorded history—a myriad of significant events in Texas history have occurred. These events are arranged by day of the year to allow the reader to see into the past on any specific day.
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Recent & Upcoming Anniversaries
The following entries have anniversaries that occurred this month or will occur in the next 2 month(s)
470th Anniversary
- Spanish treasure ships wrecked on Padre Island 1 month 1 day from now
335th Anniversary
- Spanish explorer names the Nueces 1 week from now
- Coahuila governor discovers and names Guadalupe River 2 weeks from now
- Spanish explorer finds defunct French fort 3 weeks from now
315th Anniversary
- Expedition reaches future site of San Antonio 2 weeks from now
195th Anniversary
- Future Alamo defender and survivor elope 1 month 3 weeks from now
- Irish trader takes citizenship oath 1 month 3 weeks from now
185th Anniversary
- Republic of Texas defeats revolutionary plotters in key action 1 month 2 weeks from now
- "Village Blacksmith of Cumby" born in Tennessee 2 months 3 days from now
180th Anniversary
- Pioneer Texas doctor born in Alabama 1 month 3 weeks from now
- Historic steamer arrives in Texas 1 month 1 week from now
175th Anniversary
- Secessionist paper founded in Marshall 2 days from now
- Fort Inge established on Texas frontier 2 weeks ago
- German furniture artist arrives in Texas 1 month 3 weeks from now
170th Anniversary
- War Department orders surveys for Indian reservations 4 weeks from now
- Texas Germans declare slavery to be evil 1 month 2 weeks from now
- Prairie chicken namesake born in England 1 month 23 hours from now
160th Anniversary
- General Taylor foils Union campaign in Louisiana 1 week from now
- Former Texan rallies Union troops, awarded Medal of Honor 1 month 1 week from now
- Hood's Texas Brigade rallies around General Lee 1 month 1 week from now
- Confederate guerilla leader arrested by own side today
155th Anniversary
- Alleged participants in mob killing go on trial 1 month 3 weeks from now
- High court rules that Texas can sue in federal courts despite secession 2 weeks from now
150th Anniversary
- Governor Coke appoints commander of Frontier Battalion 1 month 5 days from now
- First letter from "Pidge" appears in Austin paper 4 weeks from now
- Wildcatter born in Lithuania 2 weeks ago
145th Anniversary
- First county in Panhandle organized 2 weeks from now
140th Anniversary
- World-famous animal trapper born in Texas 1 week ago
135th Anniversary
- Texas booster fair opens in Fort Worth 2 months 1 day from now
130th Anniversary
- March on Washington falters in desert 6 days ago
125th Anniversary
120th Anniversary
- West Texas Landscape painter born in Milford 3 weeks from now
- Black gold gushes in East Texas 3 weeks ago
100th Anniversary
- Congress establishes United States Border Patrol 2 months 23 hours from now
- West Texas Historical Association organized in Abilene 3 weeks from now
- Texas baritone makes professional debut in New York 3 weeks from now
95th Anniversary
90th Anniversary
- Murderers and bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde gunned down in Louisiana 1 month 3 weeks from now
85th Anniversary
- UT observatory dedicated in Davis Mountains 1 month 1 week from now
- Soil Conservation Board established 2 months 1 day from now
- Script writer and future Texan born in Chicago 1 week ago
80th Anniversary
- Medal of Honor recipient's plane shot down 3 weeks ago
- U.S. Supreme Court dooms white primary 6 days from now
70th Anniversary
- A jolly good barbecue 3 weeks ago
60th Anniversary
- Construction begins at Toledo Bend Reservoir 1 month 2 weeks from now
- Ruby found guilty 2 weeks ago
55th Anniversary
- Houston surgeon implants first artificial heart 1 week from now
- Famous horse wins at Aqueduct on the eve of his trainer's death 5 days from now
- Last passenger train leaves Dallas terminal 2 months 3 days from now
45th Anniversary
- Dallas designates Federal Reserve Bank a historic landmark 1 month 1 week from now
- Orange Show opens to the public 1 month 1 week from now
40th Anniversary
- Landmark public education suit filed 1 month 3 weeks from now
- Legendary jazz pianist dies 3 weeks from now