Dec 12, 1806: Cherokee leader and Confederate General Stand Watie is born On this day in 1806, Confederate General Stand Watie is born near Rome, Georgia. Watie, a Cherokee Indian, survived the tribe’s Trail of Tears in the 1830s and became the only Native American to achieve the rank of general during the Civil War.…

Alice Shirley A resident of Wexford Lodge, born in Vicksburg to a family of Northern stock, Alice and her brothers kept their Union sympathies to themselves when their state seceded. Federal troops later besieged their home, Wexford Lodge, which fell within the front lines. With their home riddled with shot and shell, the family was…

John Bell Hood Confederate general Served from 1853–1861 (US), and 1861–1865 (CSA) Hood attended the United States Military Academy, supposedly against his fathers’ wishes. Although Hood was native to Kentucky, he preferred his adoptive state of Texas, and joined the Confederate army on the 4th Texas Infantry where he quickly became a colonel. Hood was…