Today in History for Aug. 5, 2014

U.S. Admiral David Farragut

Aug. 5, 1829 – James Calloway Travis, the brother of William Barrett Travis, was born in Evergreen. He entered Confederate service as a private on Oct. 1, 1861 in Co. E of the 4th Alabama Infantry and continued until the end of the month before being discharged on account of being a cripple (His right hip was three inches shorter than his left hip). He served as a 2nd Lt. in the home guards at Stallington, Ala. under Capt. Nathan Wright from April 1, 1861 to Oct. 1, 1861. He was conscripted in the summer of 1862 and was held at Camp Watts for 60 days, examined and discharged not able to serve.

Aug. 5, 1862 – During the Civil War, a skirmish occurred near New Market, Ala.

Aug. 5, 1864 – The Battle of Mobile Bay began on this day as U.S. Admiral David Farragut, with a force of 14 wooden ships, four ironclads, 2,700 men, and 197 guns, overpowered Confederate defenses guarding the approach to Mobile Bay. The fall of Mobile Bay was a huge blow to the Confederacy, and the victory was the first in a series of Yankee successes that helped secure the re-election of Abraham Lincoln later that year.

Aug. 5, 1867 – The Burnt Corn post office was reestablished, after being discontinued on July 25, 1866, with E.P. Clingman as postmaster.

Aug. 5, 1908 – L. Jackson sold the City Grocery in Evergreen to A.A. Williams and Coley Millsap.

Aug. 5, 1917 - Members of the Alabama National Guard Brigade, which had been federalized in 1916, were discharged from guard service, so that they can be drafted into the regular army. Once drafted, the guardsmen were assigned to their former units, and one of these, the 4th Alabama, would become the 167th U.S. Infantry Regiment and serve with distinction in France during World War I as a part of the famed 42nd "Rainbow" Division.

Aug. 5, 1944 – Charles Young Henderson, 23, of Conecuh County lost his life in an airplane accident over Italy during WWII. He was a turret gunner on a B-24.

Aug. 5, 1953 – Installation of 216 parking meters in downtown Evergreen began on East and West Front Streets, Rural Street and Court Street.

Aug. 5, 2002 – Divers recovered the USS Monitor’s turret, 140 years after it sank in a storm off Cape Hatteras, N.C. during the Civil War.