This Day In Texas History - March 4
Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 4:58 pm
1836 - Sam Houston is appointed Major General of the Army of the Republic of Texas including regular, volunteer, and militia. Houston takes command immediately and begins to organize the army.
1846 - A vanguard of sixty men under Maj. William Graham from Gen. Zachary Taylor's army of occupation, was dispatched to the crossing on Santa Gertrudis Creek to establish a supply depot for the main army which would follow. Called Taylor's Trail, it was one of the most important paths of conquest used by an American army on American soil. Composed of nearly 4,000 troops, Taylor's army marched 174 miles in twenty days during March 1846, along a route from Corpus Christi to the bank of the Rio Grande opposite Matamoros.
1855 - The Second United States Cavalry, one of four new regiments approved by Congress, was organized specifically for service on the Texas frontier. It was an elite organization. The troopers rode the finest horses and were issued the latest equipment and firearms. The officers were handpicked by Jefferson Davis, secretary of war for President Franklin Pierce. Thus the regiment was known as "Jeff Davis's Own." Most of the officers, like Davis, were West Point graduates and southerners. The regiment was known for the outstanding quality of the sixteen general officers it produced in the 6½ years of its existence. Eleven of these became Confederate generals, and the Second Cavalry supplied one-half, or four, of the full generals of the Confederate Army-Albert Sidney Johnston, Robert E. Lee, Edmund Kirby Smith, and John Bell Hood.
1904 - The Batson-Old oilfield, located on Pine Bayou in southwestern Hardin County, reached its peak daily production. That day the field yielded more than 150,000 barrels of crude. Along with the Spindletop, Sour Lake, and Humble fields, Batson helped to establish the Texas oil industry. Batson field was first drilled in 1903 and was still producing in its tenth decade when its cumulative production reached more than 45 million barrels in 1993.
1933 - John Nance Garner of Texas left his position as speaker of the House to become vice president of the United States. Garner was born in 1868 in a log cabin near Detroit, Texas. He was admitted to the bar in 1890 and moved to Uvalde.
1941 - The Texas legislature passed a bill legalizing the teaching of Spanish in public schools, which ended the state's English-only policy adopted in 1917.
1944 - Neel E. Kearby, Medal of Honor recipient, had just claimed his twenty-second victory, when he was shot down on March 4, 1944, over Wewak, New Guinea. He was born in 1911 in Wichita Falls.
1846 - A vanguard of sixty men under Maj. William Graham from Gen. Zachary Taylor's army of occupation, was dispatched to the crossing on Santa Gertrudis Creek to establish a supply depot for the main army which would follow. Called Taylor's Trail, it was one of the most important paths of conquest used by an American army on American soil. Composed of nearly 4,000 troops, Taylor's army marched 174 miles in twenty days during March 1846, along a route from Corpus Christi to the bank of the Rio Grande opposite Matamoros.
1855 - The Second United States Cavalry, one of four new regiments approved by Congress, was organized specifically for service on the Texas frontier. It was an elite organization. The troopers rode the finest horses and were issued the latest equipment and firearms. The officers were handpicked by Jefferson Davis, secretary of war for President Franklin Pierce. Thus the regiment was known as "Jeff Davis's Own." Most of the officers, like Davis, were West Point graduates and southerners. The regiment was known for the outstanding quality of the sixteen general officers it produced in the 6½ years of its existence. Eleven of these became Confederate generals, and the Second Cavalry supplied one-half, or four, of the full generals of the Confederate Army-Albert Sidney Johnston, Robert E. Lee, Edmund Kirby Smith, and John Bell Hood.
1904 - The Batson-Old oilfield, located on Pine Bayou in southwestern Hardin County, reached its peak daily production. That day the field yielded more than 150,000 barrels of crude. Along with the Spindletop, Sour Lake, and Humble fields, Batson helped to establish the Texas oil industry. Batson field was first drilled in 1903 and was still producing in its tenth decade when its cumulative production reached more than 45 million barrels in 1993.
1933 - John Nance Garner of Texas left his position as speaker of the House to become vice president of the United States. Garner was born in 1868 in a log cabin near Detroit, Texas. He was admitted to the bar in 1890 and moved to Uvalde.
1941 - The Texas legislature passed a bill legalizing the teaching of Spanish in public schools, which ended the state's English-only policy adopted in 1917.
1944 - Neel E. Kearby, Medal of Honor recipient, had just claimed his twenty-second victory, when he was shot down on March 4, 1944, over Wewak, New Guinea. He was born in 1911 in Wichita Falls.
