This Day…

1863-Port Hudson, Mississippi, the only remaining Confederate fortress on the Mississippi River, falls to Union forces. The Union has split the Confederacy in half, thereby realizing one of it main objectives.

1891-Winfield Scott Stratton, a carpenter who has been prospecting gold in his spare time for 20 years, stakes a claim where he has discovered gold in the Cripple Creek field of the Rockies, south of Denver, Colorado. The claim, which Stratton named Independence, turns out to be a rich vein of gold; soon Stratton is staking out other claims that prove equally valuable. Stratton himself will eventually make millions and become one of the legendary Bonanza Kings of Cripple Creek, where since January 1891-when Bob Wamack struck the El Paso lode, many have taken fortunes from the field.

1899-Black Jack Ketchum got into an argument over a card game with two miners in a saloon near Camp Verdee, Arizona and killed them both.

1854-Pennsylvania lawyer Andrew Reeder is appointed the first territorial governor of Kansas (the first of seven territorial governors in the next seven years).

1888-A posse led by Heck Thomas trailed a gang of train robbers to an illegal still on Snake Creek in the Indian Territory. Moonshiner, Aaron Purdy, opened fire and hit Thomas twice before being gunned down by the other deputies. The train robbers surrendered.

1894-Eugene Debs, who had established his American Railway Union on 20 June 1893, calls for a general strike by all railway workers to show sympathy with the striking Pullman workers.

1892-New Mexico, still a territory, openes its university; Congerss will later grant over 300,000 acres to support the school.

1880-Feared ex-Marshal George Flatt was on a Saturday night toot in Caldwell, Kansas and got into a bit of trouble with new Marshal Frank Hunt. Flatt was later ambushed and killed on his way to eat supper and witnesses identifited hunt fleeing the scene.

1881-Bill Leonard and Harry Head were killed by Ike and Jim Haslett in Eureka, New Mexico. Leonard and Head were in the gang that tried to robe the Kennear Stage near Contention, Arizona on March 15, 1881.

1892-After back shooting Jesse James in 1882, Bob Ford became a saloon keeper in Creede, Colorado. Ford was shotgunned by Ed Kelly in a dispute over a missing diamond ring. The shotgun blast drove a collar button through Ford’s throat.