In mid-April 1864 the Confederate War Department announced an important command change. On Monday, April 18, the flamboyant but controversial General Pierre G.T. Beauregard was assigned to lead the Department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia. Despite his prior conflicts with Jefferson Davis, Beauregard was transferred from Charlestown, South Carolina and assumed personal responsibility for Richmond’s defenses, as well as defending southern Virginia and the northern part of North Carolina. Union forces under General Benjamin Butler would soon invade from the Atlantic coast and push northwesterly, threatening Richmond from the east and south. On April 20 the Confederate War Department named General Samuel Jones, who had previously served the South as military commander in both western Virginia and in eastern Tennessee, as Beauregard’s replacement at Charlestown.
00000174-b11b-ddc3-a1fc-bfdbb1a20000The Schreiner University Department of History is honoring the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War with a series of short vignettes focusing on events from 1861 through 1865. The Civil War was the most destructive conflict in American history, but it was also one of our most defining moments as a people and as a nation. Let us know what you think about "This Week in the Civil War." E-mail your comments to Dr. John Huddleston at jhuddles@schreiner.edu.Airs: Weekdays at 5:19 a.m., 8:19 a.m., 4:19 p.m. on KTXI and 4:49 a.m., 9:29 p.m. on KSTX.