10 November 1865
On this date in 1865…
Federal authorities in Washington D.C. hanged Confederate Major Henry Wirz, commander of the Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia, after a farcical show trial found him guilty of supposed acts that occurred before he even took over as commandant of the post.
Other Years:
- 1782 – George Rogers Clark attacked the Miami tribe with 1,000 troops along the Licking River in Kentucky. Clark’s campaign helped secure American claims to Kentucky.
- 1801 – Kentucky outlawed dueling.
- 1813 – Andrew Jackson’s force of 2,000 Americans and allied Indians attacked William Weatherford’s 1,000 strong band of “Red Stick” Creeks who had laid seige to a pro-white group of Creeks at Talladega, Alabama. More than 400 Red Sticks were killed in the route while Jackson’s force lost only fifteen men.
- 1954 – The Iwo Jima Memorial was dedicated in Arlington, Virginia.
- 1973 – Burglars murdered Southern comedian and musician David “Stringbean” Akeman and his wife in their home at Ridgetop, Tennessee. Stringbean was 58 and had finally achieved modest financial success after a long career.
- 1982 – The newly finished Vietnam Veterans Memorial was opened to its first visitors in Washington, D.C.
- 1988 – The U.S. Department of Energy announced that Texas would be the home of the atom-smashing super-collider, a project later cancelled by Congress in Oct. 1993.
Read: Why Know Southern History?
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