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J.E.B. Stuart

J.E.B. Stuart

James Ewell Brown Stuart (February 6, 1833 – May 12, 1864) was an American soldier from Virginia and a Confederate Army general during the American Civil War. He was known to his friends as "Jeb". Stuart was a cavalry commander known for his dashing image (red-lined gray cape, yellow sash, hat cocked to the side with a peacock feather, red flower in his lapel, often sporting cologne) and his audacious tactics. Through his daring raids and reconnaissance missions, he became Robert E. Lee's eyes and ears and inspired Southern morale. He was killed late in the War, and was much missed by Lee and the Confederacy.

Childhood

James Ewell Brown Stuart was born at Laurel Hill, a plantation in Patrick County, Virginia on the dividing line between the piedmont and the mountains and within sight of the boundary line of North Carolina and Virginia. His father, Archibald Stuart, was a prominent politician and attorney and represented Patrick County in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly and served one term in the United States House of Representatives. Elizabeth Stuart, his mother, was known as a strict religious woman with a great love of nature. Both traits could be seen in the personality of their most famous offspring. He was the 7th of 10 children, and the youngest son. James Stuart passed a happy boyhood. He loved the old homestead with all the enthusiasm of his nature; and one of the fondest dreams of his manhood was that he might own the place of his birth, and there end his days in quiet retirement. An encounter with hornets when he was 10 years old gave an indication of the courage he later showed as a general. While an older brother fled, young Jeb narrowed his eyes against the angry insects and with a stick dashed the hornets' nest to the ground.

Education

At the age of fourteen years, young James was placed at school in Wytheville. He attended Emory and Henry College from 1848 to 1850. On July 1st, 1850, Stuart entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York during the time that Robert E. Lee was Commandant of the Academy. A diligent, hard-working man, he graduated 13th in his class of 46 in 1854. He achieved the rank of cavalry sergeant, the highest rank attainable for these cadets.

United States Army

In 1854, Second Lieutenant Stuart's first assignment was to the regiment of Mounted Rifleman in Texas. For his outstanding leadership, he was soon transferred to and promoted in the newly formed 1st Regiment, US Cavalry. Stuart's ability to lead men in the face of danger and adversity struck his commanders. He became a veteran of Indian fighting on the plains and of Bleeding Kansas. Stuart was seriously wounded in the chest in July, 1857, while fighting on the frontier against Native Americans. In 1859, Stuart carried the orders for Colonel Robert E. Lee to proceed to Harpers Ferry to crush John Brown's raid on the U.S. Arsenal there. During the siege, Stuart volunteered to be Lee's aide-de-camp, and read the ultimatum to Brown before the final assault. He was promoted to captain on April 22, 1861, but resigned from the US Army on May 14, 1861 to join the Confederate Army following the secession of his home state of Virginia.

Confederate Army

J.E.B. Stuart was commissioned as a Captain of Cavalry in the Confederate Army on May 24, 1861, and rose quickly. His later appointments included:
- Colonel, 1st Virginia Cavalry (July 16, 1861)
- Brigadier general, CSA (September 24, 1861)
- Major general, CSA (July 25, 1862) Stuart's commands in the Army of Northern Virginia included:
- Cavalry Brigade (October 22, 1861 – July 28, 1862)
- Cavalry Division (July 28, 1862 – September 9, 1863)
- Second Corps (temporarily replacing Jackson,May 3–6, 1863)
- Cavalry Corps (September 9, 1863 – May 11, 1864). After early service in the Shenandoah Valley, Stuart led his regiment in First Bull Run and participated in the pursuit of the routed Federals. He then directed the army's outposts until given command of the cavalry brigade. He led the cavalry in the Army of Northern Virginia at
- Peninsula Campaign and the Seven Days Battles
- Second Battle of Bull Run
- Antietam
- Fredericksburg
- Chancellorsville
- Gettysburg
- Wilderness Stuart was also a raider. Twice he slipped around McClellan's army, once in the Peninsula Campaign and once after the Battle of Antietam. While these exploits were not militarily significant, they improved Southern morale. During the Second Bull Run Campaign, he lost his signature plumed hat and cloak to pursuing Federals, but in a later raid, managed to overrun Union army commander John Pope's headquarters and not only captured his full uniform, but also intercepted orders that provided Lee with much valuable intelligence. At the end of 1862, Stuart led a raid north of the Rappahannock River, inflicting some 230 casualties while losing only 27 of his own men. In May, 1863, at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Stuart was appointed by Lee to take command of the Second Corps for a few days after Stonewall Jackson had been mortally wounded and did as well commanding infantry as he did cavalry. Returning to the cavalry, the Gettysburg Campaign represented two low points in Stuart's career. He commanded the Southern horsemen at the Battle of Brandy Station, the largest cavalry engagement on the North American continent, on June 9, 1863. The battle was a draw and the Confederates held the field. However, falling victim to a surprise attack was an embarrassing blow to a cavalryman and the fight revealed the rising competency of the Union cavalry and foreshadowed the decline of the formerly invincible Southern mounted arm. As Lee and Union General George G. Meade marched toward each other at Gettysburg, Lee ordered Stuart to screen the Confederate army as it moved down the Shenandoah Valley and to maintain contact with the lead element, Richard S. Ewell's Second Corps, as it advanced in the direction of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Stuart somehow interpreted these orders to once again attempt to circle the Union army and he found himself well to the east of Ewell, out of contact with the Union army and out of communications with Lee. Lee was left in serious difficulty, in enemy territory without detailed knowledge of the terrain, roads, or his opponent's strength and positions. And this lack of knowledge was the primary reason that the battle started almost by accident on July 1, 1863, before Lee could concentrate his army as he had planned. Stuart arrived late on the second day of the battle, bringing a caravan of captured Union supply wagons with him, and receiving a stinging rebuke from Lee. (It is unlikely Lee would have attacked on July 2 in the way he did if he had known the disposition of the Union forces at the Peach Orchard.) On the final day of the battle, Stuart failed to get into the enemy's rear and disrupt their line of communications, being checked by Union cavalry under Generals David McM. Gregg and George Armstrong Custer. During the Overland Campaign, Grant's drive on Richmond in the spring of 1864, Stuart halted Philip Sheridan's cavalry at Yellow Tavern on the outskirts of Richmond on May 11. A Union sharpshooter (at a distance of thirty feet) shot him; he died the next day in the Confederate capital. He was 31 years old, and was buried in Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery.

Heritage, memorials

Like his intimate friend, Stonewall Jackson, General Stuart was a legendary figure, ranking as one of the greatest cavalry commanders of all time. Stuart was a son-in-law of Brigadier General Philip St. George Cooke of the Union service; his wife's brother was Brigadier General John Rogers Cooke of the Confederacy. He was survived by his wife and his children, J.E.B. Stuart Jr. and Virginia Pelham Stuart. His widow, Flora Cooke Stuart, would wear the black of mourning for the remaining 49 years of her life. A statue of General J.E.B. Stuart by sculptor Frederick Moynihan was dedicated on Richmond's famed Monument Avenue at Stuart Circle in 1907. Like General Stonewall Jackson, his equestrian statue faces north, indicating that he died in the War. The U.S. Army named two models of World War II tanks, the M3 and M5, the Stuart tank in their old adversary's honor. On the television show, The Dukes of Hazzard, one of the Duke cousins (who only appears in one episode) is named "Jeb Stuart Duke". Stuart, J.E.B. Stuart, J.E.B. Stuart, J.E.B. Stuart, J.E.B. Stuart, J.E.B. Stuart, J.E.B. Stuart, J.E.B. Stuart, J.E.B. Stuart, J.E.B.

February 6

February 6 is the 37th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 328 days remaining, 329 in leap years.

Events


- 337 - Julius I is elected pope.
- 1778 - American Revolutionary War: In Paris the Treaty of Alliance and the Treaty of Amity and Commerce are signed by the United States and France signaling official recognition of the new republic.
- 1788 - Massachusetts becomes the sixth state to ratify the United States Constitution.
- 1806 - Royal Navy victory off Santo Domingo - Action of 6 February 1806.
- 1815 - New Jersey grants the first American railroad charter to a John Stevens.
- 1819 - Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles founds Singapore.
- 1820 - The first 86 African American immigrants sponsored by the American Colonization Society started a settlement in present-day Liberia
- 1840 - Signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, founding document of New Zealand.
- 1843 - The first minstrel show in the United States The Virginia Minstrels opens (Bowery Amphitheatre in New York City).
- 1862 - American Civil War: Ulysses S. Grant gives the United States its first victory of the war, by capturing Fort Henry, Tennessee, known as the Battle of Fort Henry.
- 1899 - Spanish-American War: The Treaty of Paris (1898), a peace treaty between the United States and Spain is ratified by the United States Senate.
- 1900 - The international arbitration court at The Hague is created when the Netherlands' Senate ratifies an 1899 peace conference decree.
- 1922 - Achille Ratti becomes Pope Pius XI.
- 1922 - The Washington Naval Treaty was signed in Washington, DC, limiting the naval armaments of United States, Britain, Japan, France, and Italy.
- 1933 - The 20th Amendment to the United States Constitution goes into effect.
- 1936 - 1936 Winter Olympic Games open in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
- 1951 - The Broker, a Pennsylvania Railroad passenger train derails near Woodbridge Township, New Jersey. The accident kills 85 people and injures over 500 more. The wreck is one on the worst rail disasters in American history.
- 1952 - Elizabeth II becomes Queen upon the death of her father George VI. At the exact moment of succession, she was in a treehouse in a tree-top hotel in Kenya.
- 1958 - Bobby Charlton survived the Munich air disaster in Germany, which killed eight of his teammates with Manchester United F.C.
- 1959 - Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments filed the first patent for an integrated circuit.
- 1959 - At Cape Canaveral, Florida, the first successful test firing of a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile is accomplished.
- 1968 - 1968 Winter Olympic Games open in Grenoble, France.
- 1978 - The Blizzard of 1978, one of the worst Nor'easters in New England history, hit the region, with sustained winds of 65 mph and snowfall of 4" an hour.
- 1985 - Steve Wozniak leaves Apple Computer
- 1996 - A Turkish Airlines Boeing 757 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Dominican Republic killing 189
- 1998 - Washington National Airport is renamed Ronald Reagan National Airport.
- 2004 - In Russia, a suicide-attack in a Moscow metro kills 40 commuters, and injures a hundred and twenty-nine. The blast is blamed on Chechen separatist groups.
- 2005 - Super Bowl XXXIX: The New England Patriots win their third title in four years by defeating the Philadelphia Eagles 24-21.
- 2005 - Jerrick De Leon, born 13 weeks premature, becomes the world's smallest infant to survive an open-heart procedure called an arterial switch.

Births


- 1564 - Christopher Marlowe, English playwright (d. 1593)
- 1577 - Beatrice Cenci, Italian noblewoman who conspired to kill her father (d. 1599)
- 1608 - Antonio Vieira, Portuguese writer (d. 1697)
- 1611 - Chongzhen, Emperor of China (d. 1644)
- 1639 - Daniel Georg Morhof, German writer and scholar (d. 1691)
- 1664 - Mustafa II, Ottoman Sultan (d, 1703)
- 1665 - Queen Anne I of the United Kingdom (d. 1714)
- 1695 - Nicolaus II Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician (d. 1726)
- 1744 - Pierre-Joseph Desault, French anatomist and surgeon (d. 1795)
- 1748 - Adam Weishaupt, founder of the Bavarian Illuminati (d. 1811)
- 1756 - Aaron Burr, Vice President of the United States (d. 1836)
- 1833 - JEB Stuart, American Confederate general (d. 1864)
- 1834 - Ema Puksec, Croatian singer (d. 1889)
- 1853 - Ignacij Klemenčič, Slovenian physicist (d. 1901)
- 1887 - Josef Frings, German Archbishop of Cologne (d. 1978)
- 1892 - William Parry Murphy, American physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1987)
- 1894 - Eric Partridge, New Zealand lexicographer (d. 1979)
- 1895 - Babe Ruth, baseball player (d. 1948)
- 1899 - Ramon Novarro, Mexican actor (d. 1968)
- 1901 - Ben Lyon, American actor (d. 1979)
- 1902 - George Brunies, American musician (d. 1974)
- 1903 - Claudio Arrau, Chilean-born pianist (d. 1991)
- 1905 - Władysław Gomułka, Polish leader (d. 1982)
- 1910 - Irmgard Keun, German author (d. 1982)
- 1910 - Carlos Marcello, Tunisian-born gangster (d. 1993)
- 1911 - Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States (d. 2004)
- 1912 - Eva Braun, German mistress of Adolf Hitler (d. 1945)
- 1913 - Mary Leakey, British anthropologist (d. 1996)
- 1914 - Thurl Ravenscroft, American voice actor (d. 2005)
- 1917 - Zsa Zsa Gabor, Hungarian actress
- 1918 - Lothar-Günther Buchheim, German author
- 1922 - Bill Johnston, Australian cricketer
- 1922 - Patrick Macnee, British actor
- 1922 - Denis Norden, British television abd radio personality and scriptwriter
- 1926 - Haskell Wexler, American cinematographer
- 1929 - Pierre Brice, French actor
- 1931 - Rip Torn, American actor and director
- 1931 - Mamie Van Doren, American actress
- 1932 - Camilo Cienfuegos, Cuban revolutionary (d. 1959)
- 1932 - François Truffaut, French film director (d. 1984)
- 1939 - Mike Farrell, American actor
- 1940 - Tom Brokaw, American news anchorman
- 1943 - Fabian Forte, American singer
- 1943 - Gayle Hunnicutt, American actress
- 1945 - Bob Marley, Jamaican singer and musician (d. 1981)
- 1946 - Jim Turner, American politician
- 1949 - Jim Sheridan, Irish film director
- 1950 - Natalie Cole, American singer
- 1951 - Marco Antonio, Brazilian footballer
- 1954 - Argusto Emfazie, American occultist and author
- 1956 - Kristoffer-Oscar Alexander Lövmür Angebretsen, Norwegian politician
- 1957 - Kathy Najimy, American actress and comedian
- 1957 - Robert Townsend, American comedian, actor, director, and producer
- 1958 - Barry Miller, American actor
- 1960 - Megan Gallagher, American actress
- 1962 - Axl Rose, American singer (Guns N' Roses)
- 1966 - Rick Astley, British singer
- 1972 - David Binn, American football player
- 1975 - Svend-Allan Sørensen, Danish artist
- 1976 - Kim Zmeskal, American gymnast
- 1984 - Darren Bent, English footballer
- 1991 - Kara Borden, American Causes Celebre
- 1991 - Brett R. Cohen, Great American Citizen

Deaths


- 891 - Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople
- 1378 - Jeanne de Bourbon, queen of Charles V of France (b. 1338)
- 1497 - Johannes Ockeghem, Flemish composer
- 1515 - Aldus Manutius, Italian printer
- 1585 - Edmund Plowden, English legal scholar (b. 1518)
- 1593 - Jacques Amyot, French writer (b. 1513)
- 1593 - Emperor Ogimachi of Japan (b. 1517)
- 1617 - Prospero Alpini, Italian scientist (b. 1553)
- 1685 - King Charles II of England (b. 1630)
- 1740 - Pope Clement XII (b. 1652)
- 1775 - William Dowdeswell, English politician (b. 1721)
- 1783 - Capability Brown, English landscape gardener (b. 1716)
- 1793 - Carlo Goldoni, Italian playwright (b. 1707)
- 1799 - Étienne-Louis Boullée, French architect (b. 1728)
- 1833 - Pierre André Latreille, French entomologist (b. 1762)
- 1834 - Richard Lemon Lander, British explorer (d. 1804)
- 1855 - Josef Munzinger, Swiss Federal Councilor (b. 1791)
- 1916 - Rubén Darío, Nicaraguan writer (b. 1867)
- 1918 - Gustav Klimt, Austrian painter (b. 1862)
- 1950 - Georges Imbert, Alsatian chemist (b. 1884
- 1952 - King George VI of the United Kingdom (b. 1895)
- 1976 - Vince Guaraldi, American musician (b. 1928)
- 1986 - Minoru Yamasaki, American architect (b. 1912)
- 1989 - Roy Eldridge, American musician (b. 1911)
- 1989 - Chris Gueffroy, last person killed escaping over the Berlin wall (b. 1968)
- 1989 - Barbara Tuchman, American historian (b. 1912)
- 1991 - Salvador Luria, Italian-born biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1912)
- 1991 - Danny Thomas, American singer, comedian, and actor (b. 1914)
- 1993 - Arthur Ashe, American tennis player (b. 1943)
- 1993 - Joseph Mankiewicz, American director, producer, and writer (b. 1909)
- 1994 - Joseph Cotten, American actor (b. 1905)
- 1994 - Jack Kirby, American comic book writer (b. 1917)
- 1995 - James Merrill, American poet (b. 1926)
- 1996 - Guy Madison, American actor (b. 1922)
- 1998 - Falco, Austrian singer (b. 1957)
- 1998 - Carl Wilson, American musician (The Beach Boys) (b. 1946)
- 2002 - Max Perutz, Austrian-born molecular biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (b. 1914)
- 2005 - Lazar Berman, Russian pianist (b. 1930)

Holidays and Observances


- Feast day of Saint Paul Miki and companions
- National holiday for the Sami people
- Waitangi Day - New Zealand  

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/6 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20050206.html The New York Times: On This Day] ---- February 5 - February 7 - January 6 - March 6 -- listing of all days February 06 ko:2월 6일 ms:6 Februari ja:2月6日 simple:February 6 th:6 กุมภาพันธ์

1833

1833 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar).

Events


- January 3, British invades the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.
- March 2, President Andrew Jackson signs the Force Bill, which authorizes him to use troops to enforce Federal law in South Carolina.
- March 3 -Ayya Vaikundar incarnated in a human body from the sea of Thiruchendur.
- May 11 - French-American farmhand Antoine le Blanc murders family of three.
- May 28 - Royal pretender Karl Wilhelm Naundorf arrives in Paris on foot
- June 6, US President Andrew Jackson becomes the first President to ride a train.
- August 29 - Child labor - in United Kingdom, parliament passes an act that makes illegal to employ children less than 9 years old in factories and limits the child workers 9 to 13 years of age to maximum of 9 hours a day
- September 2, Oberlin College is founded by John Shipherd and Philo P. Stewart.
- September 29, the infant Isabella II becomes Queen of Spain, under the regency of her mother, Maria Cristina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. Her uncle Don Carlos, Conde de Molina challenges her claim, beginning the First Carlist War.
- December 14, assassination of Kaspar Hauser, dies three days later in December 17
- Charles Babbage described his analytical engine. (see also history of computing hardware)
- The dawn of biochemistry: discovery of the first enzyme, diastase, by Anselme Payen
- The British Parliament passes the Slavery Abolition Act giving all slaves in the British Empire their freedom.

Births


- January 1 - Robert Lawson, New Zealand architect (d. 1902)
- February 11 - Melville Weston Fuller 8th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court (d. 1910)
- February 19 - Élie Ducommun, Swiss journalist and activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1906)
- February 25 - John St. John, American temperance movement leader (d. 1916)
- February 28 - Alfred von Schlieffen, German field marshal (d. 1913)
- May 7 - Johannes Brahms, German composer (d. 1897)
- July 27 - Thomas George Bonney, English geologist (d. 1923)
- August 20 - Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States (d. 1901)
- September 20 - Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, Italian pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1918)
- October 21 - Alfred Nobel, Swedish inventor of dynamite, creator of the Nobel Prize (d. 1896)
- November 6 - Jonas Lie, Norwegian author (d. 1908)
- November 9 - Émile Gaboriau, French writer (d. 1873)
- November 12 - Alexander Borodin, Russian composer (d. 1887)

Month/day of birth unknown


- Francis Anstie, British physician and medical researcher (d. 1874)

Deaths


- January 10 - Adrien-Marie Legendre, French mathematician (b. 1752)
- January 23 - Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth, British admiral (b. 1757)
- April 7 - Antoni Radziwiłł, Polish politician (b. 1775)
- April 22 - Richard Trevithick, English inventor (b. 1771)
- July 2 - Gervasio Antonio de Posadas, Argentine leader (b. 1757)
- July 5 - Nicéphore Niépce, French photography pioneer (b. 1765)
- September 27 - Roy, Ram Mohan, Hindu reformer (b. 1772)
- September 29 - King Ferdinand VII of Spain (b. 1784)
- November 23 - Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, French marshal (b. 1762)
- Ninian Edwards, Governor of Illinois and Senator from Illinois (b. 1775) Category:1833 ko:1833년 ms:1833 simple:1833

1864

1864 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar).

Events

January - March


- January 21 - Maori Wars: The Tauranga Campaign starts.
- February 1 - Danish-Prussian War (Second war of Schleswig) begins. 57.000 Austrian and Prussian troops cross Eider River to Denmark.
- February 27 - American Civil War: The first Northern prisoners arrive at the Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia.
- March 1- Alejandro Mon Menéndez takes office as Prime Minister of Spain
- March 10 - American Civil War: The Red River Campaign begins as Union troops reach Alexandria, Louisiana.
- March 11 - A reservoir near Sheffield bursts; 250 dead

April - June


- April 18 - Danish-Prussian War (Second War of Schleswig): Battle of Dybbøl. The Prussian army fielding 10,000 men defeats the Danish defending army of 9,200 at Dybbøl Mill after an artillery bombardment from April 7 to April 18.
- April 22 - The U.S. Congress passes the Coinage Act of 1864 which mandates that the inscription "In God We Trust" be placed on all coins minted as United States currency.
- May 5 - American Civil War: The Battle of the Wilderness begins in Spotsylvania County, Virginia.
- May 7 - American Civil War: The Army of the Potomac, under General Ulysses S. Grant, breaks off from the Battle of the Wilderness and moves southwards.
- May 11 - American Civil War: Battle of Yellow Tavern - Confederate General JEB Stuart is mortally wounded at Yellow Tavern, Virginia.
- May 12 - American Civil War: Battle of Spotsylvania Court House: The "Bloody Angle" - thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers die.
- May 13 - American Civil War: Battle of Resaca - the battle begins with Union General Sherman fighting toward Atlanta.
- May 15 - American Civil War: Battle of New Market, Virginia - Students from the Virginia Military Institute fight alongside the Confederate Army to force Union General Franz Sigel out of the Shenandoah Valley.
- May 18 - Civil War gold hoax - New York World and the New York Journal of Commerce publish a fake proclamation that president Abraham Lincoln has issued a draft of 400,000 more soldiers
- May 20 - American Civil War: Battle of Ware Bottom Church - In the Virginia Bermuda Hundred Campaign, 10,000 troops fight in this Confederate victory
- May 26 - Montana is organized as a United States territory.
- June 5 - American Civil War: Battle of Piedmont - Union forces under General David Hunter defeat a Confederate army at Piedmont, West Virginia, taking nearly 1,000 prisoners.
- June 10 - American Civil War: Battle of Brice's Crossroads - Confederate troops under Nathan Bedford Forrest defeat a much larger Union force led by General Samuel D. Sturgis in Mississippi.
- June 12 - American Civil War: Battle of Cold Harbor: - General Ulysses S. Grant pulls his troops from their positions at Cold Harbor, Virginia and moves south.
- June 15 - Arlington National Cemetery is established when 200 acres (0.8 km²) of Arlington Mansion are officially set-aside as a military cemetery by U.S. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.
- June 15 - American Civil War: Battle of Petersburg begins - Union forces under General Grant and troops led by Confederate General Robert E. Lee battle for the last time.

July - September


- July 18 - President Lincoln issues a true proclamation of conscription of 500.000 men for the US Civil War
- July 20 - American Civil War: Battle of Peachtree Creek - Near Atlanta, Georgia, Confederate forces led by General John Bell Hood unsuccessfully attack Union troops under General William T. Sherman.
- June 21 - Maori Wars: The Tauranga Campaign ends.
- July 22 - American Civil War: Battle of Atlanta - Outside of Atlanta, Georgia, Confederate General Hood leads an unsuccessful attack on Union troops under General Sherman on Bald Hill.
- July 24 - American Civil War: Battle of Kernstown - Confederate General Jubal Early defeats Union troops led by General George Crook in an effort to keep the Yankees out of the Shenandoah Valley.
- July 28 - American Civil War: Battle of Ezra Church begins - Confederate troops led by General Hood make a third unsuccessful attempt to drive Union forces under General Sherman from Atlanta, Georgia.
- July 29 - American Civil War: Confederate spy Belle Boyd is arrested by Union troops and detained at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, DC.
- July 30 - American Civil War: Battle of the Crater - Union forces attempt to break Confederate lines by exploding a large bomb under their trenches.
- August 1 - foundation of Elgin Watch Company in Elgin, Illinois
- August 5 - American Civil War: Battle of Mobile Bay begins - At Mobile Bay near Mobile, Alabama, Admiral David Farragut leads a Union flotilla through Confederate defenses and seals one of the last major Southern ports.
- August 18 - American Civil War: Battle of Weldon Railroad - Forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant try to cut a vital Confederate supply-line into Petersburg, Virginia, by attacking the Weldon Railroad forcing the Confederates to use wagons.
- August 22 - International Red Cross founded in Geneva, Switzerland.
- September 1 - American Civil War: Confederate General Hood evacuates Atlanta after a four month siege mounted by Union General Sherman.
- September 1 - 8 - Delegates from the Canadian colonies meet at the Charlottetown Conference to discuss Canadian Confederation.
- September 2 - American Civil War: Union forces under General Sherman enter Atlanta a day after the Confederate defenders fled the city.
- September 7 - American Civil War: Atlanta, Georgia is evacuated on orders of Union General William Tecumseh Sherman.

October - December


- October 2 - American Civil War: Battle of Saltville - Union forces attack Saltville, Virginia but are defeated by Confederate troops.
- October 5 – Cyclone kills 70.000 in Calcutta, India
- October 9 - American Civil War: Battle of Tom's Brook - Union cavalrymen in the Shenandoah Valley defeat Confederate forces at Tom's Brook, Virginia.
- October 28 - American Civil War: Second Battle of Fair Oaks ends - Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant withdraw from Fair Oaks, Virginia, after failing to breach the Confederate defenses around Richmond, Virginia.
- October 30 - Second war of Schleswig concluded. Denmark renounces all claim to Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg, which come under Prussian and Austrian administration.
- October 30 - Helena, Montana is founded after four prospectors discover gold at "Last Chance Gulch."
- October 31 - Nevada is admitted as the 36th U.S. state
- November 4 - American Civil War: Battle of Johnsonville - At Johnsonville, Tennessee, troops under the command of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest bombard a Union supply base with artillery and destroy millions of dollars in materiel.
- November 8 - U.S. presidential election, 1864: Abraham Lincoln is reelected in an overwhelming victory over George McClellan.
- November 15 - American Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea begins - Union General Sherman burns Atlanta and starts to move south, destroying everything in his path in order to punish the Confederates for starting the war.
- November 22 - American Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea: Confederate General John Bell Hood invades Tennessee in an unsuccessful attempt to draw Union General Sherman from Georgia.
- November 29 - Indian Wars: Sand Creek Massacre - Colorado volunteers led by Colonel John Chivington massacre at least 400 Cheyenne and Arapahoe noncombatants at Sand Creek, Colorado (where they had been given permission to camp).
- November 30 - American Civil War: Battle of Franklin - The Army of Tennessee led by General Hood mounts a dramatically unsuccessful frontal assault on Union positions around Franklin, Tennessee (Hood lost six generals and almost a third of his troops).
- December 4 - American Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea - At Waynesboro, Georgia, forces under Union General Judson Kilpatrick prevent troops led by Confederate General Joseph Wheeler from interfering with Union General Sherman's campaign of destroying a wide swath of the South on his march to the Gulf of Mexico (Union forces did suffer more than three times the casualties as the Confederates, however).
- December 15-16- American Civil War: Union forces decisively defeat the Confederate Army of Tennessee at the Battle of Nashville
- Imperial forces assault the Taiping capital of Nanking in the last great battle of the civil war.
- James Clerk Maxwell discovers microwaves
- First Geneva Convention
- Danevirke destroyed
- Syllabus errorum: Pope Pius IX condemns theological liberalism as an error and claims for the supremacy of Roman Catholic Church authority over the civil society. He also condemns rationalism and socialism
- Russia completes its conquest of the North Caucasus, annexing Abkhazia and Circassia and expelling many of the Abkhazians and all of the Ubykhs
- Haiti declares independence
- Brazil invades Uruguay in support of Venancio Flores. Paraguay attacks Brazil.
- John Wisden publishes first edition of Wisden Cricketer's Almanack. It goes on to become the major annual cricket publication.
- Asa Mercer travels from Seattle to the US East Coast and recruits 11 "Mercer Girls", potential wives for men on the West Coast

Births


- January 1 - Alfred Stieglitz, American photographer (d. 1946)
- January 8 - Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence (d. 1892)
- January 13 - Wilhelm Wien, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1928)
- January 24 - Marguerite Durand, French actress, journalist, and feminist leader (d. 1936)
- March 13 - Alexej von Jawlensky, Russian impressionist painter (d. 1941)
- March 15 - Johan Halvorsen, Norwegian composer (d. 1935)
- March 19 - Charles Marion Russell, American artist (d. 1926)
- April 21 - Max Weber, German sociologist (d. 1920)
- May 10 - Léon Gaumont, French film pioneer (d. 1946)
- June 11- Richard Strauss, German composer (d. 1949)
- June 25 - Walther Nernst, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1941)
- July 13 - John Jacob Astor IV, American businessman and inventor (d. 1912)
- July 20 - Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1931)
- August 9 - Roman Dmowski, Polish politician (d. 1939)
- September 14 - Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, English politician and diplomat, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1958)
- October 25 - Alexander Gretchaninov, Russian composer (d. 1956)
- November 11 - Alfred Hermann Fried, Austrian writer and pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1921)
- November 20 - Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Swedish writer (d. 1931)
- November 23 - Henry Bourne Joy, American business leader (d. 1936)
- November 24 - Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, French painter (d. 1901)
- December 6 - William S. Hart, American film actor (d. 1946)
- December 12 - Paul Elmer More, American critic and essayist (d. 1937)
- Cosmo Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1945)

Date unknown


- Bishop James Cannon, Jr., American religious and temperance movement leader (d. 1944)

Deaths


- January 13 - Stephen Foster, American composer (b. 1826)
- May 19 - Nathaniel Hawthorne, American author (b. 1804)
- June 1 - Hong Xiuquan, Chinese rebel (b. 1812)
- October 12 - Roger Taney, United States Supreme Court Justice (b. 1777)
- November 6 - Tuanku Imam Bonjol, Indonesian religious and military leader (b. 1772)
- December 8 - George Boole, English mathematician and philosopher (b. Nov. 2 1815)
- December 19 - Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, French anarchist (b. 1809)
- Emil Nobel, younger brother of Alfred Nobel (killed in an explosion) ko:1864년 ms:1864 simple:1864 th:พ.ศ. 2407

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia is one of the original thirteen states of the United States that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution, and is part of the South. It is one of four states that use the name commonwealth. Virginia was the first part of the Americas to be colonized permanently by England. Virginia's U.S. postal abbreviation is VA, and its Associated Press abbreviation is Va. Kentucky and West Virginia were part of Virginia at the time of the founding of the United States; but the former was admitted to the Union as a separate state in 1792, while the latter broke away from Virginia during the American Civil War. Virginia is known as the "Mother of Presidents", because it is the birthplace of eight U.S. presidents, more than any other state. Five of them were re-elected to a second term: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe and Woodrow Wilson. William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, and Zachary Taylor round out the list of American Presidents from the Commonwealth of Virginia. (Harrison and Taylor died while in office.)

History

Native Americans

At the time of the English colonization of Virginia, among Native American people living in what now is Virginia were the Cherokee, Chickahominy, Mattaponi, Meherrin, Monacan, Nansemond, Nottaway, Pamunkey, Pohick, Powhatan, Rappahannock, Saponi, and Tuscarora. The natives are often divided into three groups. The largest group are known as the Algonquian who numbered over 10,000. The other groups are the Iroquoian (numbering 2,500) and the Siouan. [http://oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/education/projects/webunits/vahistory/tribes.html]

Virginia Colony: 1607–1776

At the end of the 16th century, when Great Britain began to colonize North America, Virginia was the name that Queen Elizabeth I of England (who was known as the "Virgin Queen" because she never married) gave to the whole area explored by the 1584 expedition of Sir Walter Raleigh along the coast of North America, eventually applying to the whole coast from South Carolina to Maine. The London Virginia Company became incorporated as a joint stock company by a proprietary charter drawn up on April 10, 1606. It swiftly financed the first permanent English settlement in the New World, which was at Jamestown, named in honor of King James I, in the Virginia Colony, in 1607, which settlement was founded by Captian Christopher Newport and Captain John Smith. Its Second Charter was officially ratified on May 23, 1609. Jamestown was the original capital of the Virginia Colony, and remained so until the State House burned (not the first time) in 1698. After the fire, the colonial capital was moved to nearby Middle Plantation, which was renamed Williamsburg in honor of William of Orange, King William III. Virginia was given its nickname, "The Old Dominion", by King Charles II of England at the time of the Restoration, because it had remained loyal to the crown during the English Civil War.

A new state

In 1780, during the American Revolutionary War, the capital was moved to Richmond at the urging of then-Governor Thomas Jefferson, who was afraid that Williamsburg's location made it vulnerable to a British attack. In the autumn of 1781, American troops trapped the British on the Yorktown peninsula in the famous Battle of Yorktown. This prompted a British surrender on October 19, 1781, formally ending the war and securing the former colonies' independence, even though sporadic fighting continued for two years. Patrick Henry served as the first Governor of Virginia, from 1776 to 1779, and again from 1784 to 1786. On June 12, 1776, the Virginia Convention adopted the Virginia Declaration of Rights, a document that influenced the Bill of Rights added later to the United States Constitution. On June 29, 1776, the convention adopted a constitution that established Virginia as a commonwealth independent of the British Empire. In 1790 both Virginia and Maryland ceded territory to form the new District of Columbia, but in an Act of the U.S. Congress dated July 9, 1846, the area south of the Potomac that had been ceded by Virginia was retroceded to Virginia effective 1847, and is now Arlington County and part of the City of Alexandria.

American Civil War

Virginia is one of the states that seceded from the Union to become the Confederacy during the Civil War. When it did, some counties were separated as Kanawha (later renamed West Virginia), an act which was upheld by the United States Supreme Court in 1870. More battles were fought on Virginia soil than anywhere else in America during the Civil War. Virginia formally rejoined the Union on January 26, 1870, after a period of post-war military rule.

20th century

When Douglas Wilder was elected Governor of Virginia on January 13, 1990, he became the first African-American to serve as Governor of a U.S. state since Reconstruction.

Law and government

The capital is Richmond: the current Governor is Mark Warner, a Democrat. Tim Kaine, also a Democrat, is the governor-elect. Previous capitals included Jamestown (1609–1699) and Williamsburg (1699–1780). The Virginia State Capitol building in Richmond was designed by Thomas Jefferson and the cornerstone was laid by Governor Patrick Henry in 1785. In colonial Virginia, the lower house of the legislature was called the House of Burgesses. Together with the Governor's Council, the House of Burgesses made up the General Assembly. The Governor's Council was composed of 12 men appointed by the British Monarch to advise the Governor. The Council also served as the General Court of the colony, a colonial equivalent of a Supreme Court. Members of the House of Burgesses were chosen by all those who could vote in the colony. Each county chose two people or burgesses to represent it, while the College of William and Mary and the cities of Norfolk, Williamsburg, and Jamestown each chose one burgess. The Burgesses met to make laws for the colony and set the direction for its future growth; the Council would then review the laws and either approve or disapprove them. The approval of the Burgesses, the Council, and the Governor was needed to pass a law. The idea of electing burgesses was important and new. It gave Virginians a chance to control their own government for the first time. At first the burgesses were elected by all free men in the colony. Women, indentured servants, and Native Americans could not vote. Later the rules for voting changed, making it necessary for men to own at least fifty acres (200,000 m²) of land in order to vote. Founded in 1619, the Virginia General Assembly is still in existence as the oldest legislature in the Western Hemisphere. Today, the General Assembly is made up of the Senate and the House of Delegates. Like many other states, by the 1850s Virginia featured a state legislature, several executive officers, and an independent judiciary. By the time of the Constitution of 1901, which lasted longer than any other state constitution, the General Assembly continued as the legislature, the Supreme Court of Appeals acted as the judiciary, and the eight elected executive officers were the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of the Commonwealth, State Treasurer, Auditor of Public Accounts, Superintendent of Public Instruction and Commissioner of Agriculture and Immigration. The Constitution of 1901 was amended many times, notably in the 1930s and 1950s, before it was abandoned in favour of more modern government, with fewer elected officials, reformed local governments and a more streamlined judiciary. Virginia currently functions under the 1970 Constitution of Virginia. It is the state's ninth constitution. Under the Constitution, the State Government is composed of three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. The legislative branch or state legislature is the Virginia General Assembly, a bicameral body whose 140 members make all state laws. Members of the Virginia House of Delegates serve two-year terms, while members of the Virginia Senate serve four-year terms. The General Assembly also selects the state's Auditor of Public Accounts. The statutory law enacted by the General Assembly is codified in the Code of Virginia. The executive branch comprises the Governor of Virginia, the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, and the Attorney General of Virginia. All three officers are separately elected to four-year terms in years following Presidential elections (1997, 2001, 2005, etc) and take office in January of the following year. The Governor serves as chief executive officer of the Commonwealth and as Commander-in-Chief of the State Militia. State law forbids any Governor from serving consecutive terms. The Lieutenant Governor serves as President of the Senate of Virginia and is first in the line of succession to the Governor. The Attorney General is chief legal advisor to the Governor and the General Assembly, chief lawyer of the state and the head of the Department of Law. The Attorney General is second in the line of succession to the Governor. Whenever there is a vacancy in all three executive offices of Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General, then the Speaker of the House of the Virginia House of Delegates becomes Governor. The Office of the Governor's Secretaries helps manage the Governor's Cabinet, comprised of the following individuals, all appointed by the Governor:
- Governor's Chief of Staff
- Secretary of Administration
- Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry
- Secretary of Commerce and Trade
- Secretary of the Commonwealth
- Secretary of Education
- Secretary of Finance
- Secretary of Health and Human Resources
- Secretary of Natural Resources
- Secretary of Public Safety
- Secretary of Technology
- Secretary of Transportation
- Assistant to the Governor for Commonwealth Preparedness The judicial branch consists of the Supreme Court of Virginia, the Virginia Court of Appeals, the General District Courts and the Circuit Courts. The Virginia Supreme Court, composed of the chief justice and six other judges is the highest court in the Commonwealth (although, as with all the states, the U.S. Supreme Court has appellate jurisdiction over decisions by the Virginia Supreme Court involving substantial questions of U.S. Constitution law or constitutional rights). The Chief Justice and the Virginia Supreme Court also serve as the administrative body for the entire Virginia court system. The 95 counties and the 39 independent cities all have their own governments, usually a county board of supervisors or city council which choose a city manager or county administrator to serve as a professional, non-political chief administrator under the council-manager form of government. There are exceptions, notably Richmond, Virginia, which has a popularly-elected Mayor who serves as chief executive separate from the city council.

Political control

After William Mahone and the Readjuster Party lost control of Virginia politics around 1883, the Democratic Party held a strong majority position of state and federal offices for over 85 years. In 1970, Republican A. Linwood Holton Jr. became the first Republican governor in the 20th century. In the years thereafter, Republicans made substantial gains, and for a time, controlled both houses of the Virginia General Assembly, as well as the Governorship from 1994 until 2002.
- Republicans hold both seats in the U.S. Senate, 8 of 11 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, hold a majority in the Virginia House of Delegates and the Virginia Senate, and a Republican is Virginia's Lieutenant Governor-Elect. A republican is also temporarily serving as attorney general having been appointed to fill the seat left by Jerry Kilgore. However, the recent election for attorney general to fill the open seat has not been decided and a recount will occur to determine the election.
- Democrats control the remaining 3 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Governor and Governor-Elect are both Democrats. The Democrats have steadily been gaining seats in the Virginia House of Delegates and may soon take control, however the State Senate will likely remain under Republican Leadership. Incumbent Virginia governors cannot run for re-election under the state constitution and In the November 2005 election, the race to succeed Democratic Governor Mark Warner, Democrat Timothy M. Kaine beat Republican Attorney General Jerry Kilgore (Scott County), and State Senator Russ Potts (Winchester) (longtime Republican) running as an independent. Kaine will become governor of the state at his inauguration on January 14, 2006.

Geography

2006 2006 Virginia is bordered by West Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia (across the Potomac River) to the north, by Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, by North Carolina and Tennessee to the south, and by Kentucky and West Virginia to the west. The Chesapeake Bay divides the state, with the eastern portion (called 'the Eastern Shore of Virginia'), a part of the Delmarva Peninsula, completely separate (an exclave) from the rest of the state. Geographically, Virginia is divided into the following 5 regions:
- Tidewater - Stretching from the Atlantic coast to the fall line
- Piedmont - East of the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Tidewater Region
- Blue Ridge Mountains - East of the Appalachian Mountains to the Blue Ridge Mountain Region
- Valley and Ridge - Appalachian Mountains and Shenandoah Valley Region
- Appalachian Plateau - West of the Appalachian Mountains Virginia's long east-west axis means that metropolitan northern Virginia lies much closer to New York and New England than to the rural western panhandle of its own state. Conversely, Lee County, at the tip of the panhandle, is closer to 8 state capitals than it is to Richmond.

Demographics

As of 2004, Virginia's population was estimated to be 7,459,827. The state had a foreign-born population of 679,500 (9.1% of the state population), of which an estimated 100,000 were illegal aliens (15% of the foreign-born). The state's population increased by 1.3 million between 1990 and 2004, a growth of 21% Race and Ancestry
The racial makeup of the state:
- 70.2% White non-Hispanic
- 19.6% Black
- 4.7% Hispanic
- 3.7% Asian
- 0.3% Native American
- 2% Mixed race The five largest reported ancestry groups in Virginia are: African American (19.6%), German (11.7%), American (11.2%), English (11.1%), Irish (9.8%). Historically, as the largest and wealthiest colony and state and the birthplace of Southern and American culture, a large proportion (about half) of Virginia's population was made up of black slaves who worked the state's tobacco, cotton, and hemp plantations. The twentieth century Great Migration of blacks from the rural South to the urban North reduced Virginia's black population to about 20 percent. Today Blacks are concentrated in the eastern and southern tidewater and piedmont regions where plantation agriculture was most dominant. The western mountains are populated primarily by people of British and American ancestry. People of German descent are present in sizable numbers in the northwestern mountains and Shenandoah Valley. And due to recent immigration, there is a rapidly growing population of Hispanics (particularly Central Americans) and Asians in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC. 6.5% of Virginia's population were reported as under 5, 24.6% under 18, and 11.2% were 65 or older. Females made up approximately 51% of the population.

Religion

The religious affiliations of the people of Virginia are:
- Christian – 84%
  - Protestant – 69%
    - Baptist – 32%
    - Methodist – 8%
    - Episcopal – 3%
    - Presbyterian – 3%
    - Other Protestant or general Protestant – 23%
  - Roman Catholic – 14%
  - Other Christian – 1%
- Other Religions – 2%
- Non-Religious – 12%

Economy

Virginia's economy has long been regarded as one of the better-balanced in the United States with diverse sources of income, including military installations concentrated in the Hampton Roads area, tobacco and peanut farming all through Southside Virginia, manufacturing and transportation, and the location of Northern Virginia as a bedroom community for the federal government and its vendors. Virginia, arguably the wealthiest southern state before the Civil War, recovered from the civil war and the Great Depression much faster than the rest of the south. Today it is still significantly wealthier than the rest of the south, although much of that is from the northern influence around Washington D.C.

Transportation

Northern Virginia Virginia is served by a network of Interstate Highways, arterial highways, several limited access tollways, bridges, tunnels, and three bridge-tunnel complexes. The [http://www.springfieldinterchange.com/ Springfield Interchange Project] (also known as "The Mixing Bowl") and the replacement of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, two of the country's largest highway improvement projects, are taking place in the state ten miles apart. Major airports are located in these areas: Northern Virginia (Reagan-National and Dulles), Richmond-Petersburg (Richmond), Virginia Peninsula (Newport News), South Hampton Roads (Norfolk), and the Roanoke Valley (Roanoke). Virginia has extensive waterways. In addition to the lower portion of the Chesapeake Bay, navigable rivers include the Elizabeth River at Hampton Roads, the James River, the York River, the Rappahannock River, and the Potomac River. The Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway passes through eastern Virginia. Virginia has Amtrak passenger rail service along several corridors and Virginia Railway Express (VRE) maintains two commuter lines into Washington, D.C. The Washington Metro serves Northern Virginia as far west as Fairfax County.

Sports

Virginia is by far the most populous U.S. state without a major professional sports league franchise. The reasons for this include the close proximity of Washington, D.C. which has franchises in all four major sports, and the lack of any dominant city or market within the state. An attempt to bring a National Hockey League expansion franchise to Hampton Roads in the 1990s was rejected by the NHL. A proposal to relocate the Montreal Expos to Northern Virginia was considered by Major League Baseball, but MLB eventually settled on the national capital as the Expos' new home. Virginia is home to many minor league clubs, especially in baseball and soccer.

Baseball


- Bluefield Orioles (Appalachian League)
- Bristol White Sox (Appalachian League)
- Danville Braves (Appalachian League)
- Lynchburg Hillcats (Carolina League)
- Norfolk Tides (International League)
- Potomac Nationals (Carolina League)
- Pulaski Blue Jays (Appalachian League)
- Richmond Braves (International League)
- Salem Avalanche (Carolina League)
- [http://www.winchesterroyals.com Winchester Royals] ([http://www.valleyleaguebaseball.com Valley League])

Basketball


- Roanoke Dazzle (NBDL)

Ice hockey


- Norfolk Admirals (AHL)
- Richmond RiverDogs (UHL)
- Roanoke Valley Vipers (UHL)

Indoor football


- Richmond Bandits (AIFL)

Soccer


- Chesapeke Athletic (Super Y-League)
- Hampton Roads Piranhas (W-League)
- Northern Virginia Majestics (W-League)
- Northern Virginia Royals (USL Second Division)
- Richmond Kickers (USL First Division)
- Richmond Kickers Destiny (W-League)
- Richmond Kickers Future (Premier Development League)
- Virginia Beach Mariners (USL First Division)
- Virginia Beach Submariners (Premier Development League)
- Williamsburg Legacy (Premier Development League)

Important cities and towns

Under the laws in effect in Virginia, all municipalities incorporated as cities are independent of any county. Of the 43 independent cities in the United States, 39 are in Virginia. The complete list of Virginia independent cities follows: Some other municipalities are incorporated towns, which are not independent of a county, but rather, located within one of the 95 counties in Virginia. These incorporated towns include: Finally, Arlington County, which lies across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., is a completely urbanized community, much like a city, but remains organized as a county, and has no towns within its borders. There are also hundreds of other unincorporated communities (sometimes informally called villages or towns) in Virginia.

Colleges and universities

Miscellaneous information


- State motto: "Sic semper tyrannis." (Thus always to tyrants.)
- State bird: Cardinal
- State dog: American Foxhound
- State flower: Dogwood
- State tree: Dogwood
- State insect: Tiger swallowtail
- State bat: Virginia Big-Eared Bat
- State song: none; the former state song, "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny," was retired in 1997 because some found its lyrics to be racially offensive
- State dance: Square dance
- State boat: Chesapeake Bay deadrise
- State fish: Brook trout
- State shell: Oyster
- State fossil: Chesapecten Jeffersonius
- State beverage: Milk USS Virginia was named in honor of this state.

See also


- List of school divisions in Virginia
- Lost counties, cities and towns of Virginia

Other places

There are also places named Virginia in the States of