On this date in 1861, Confederate Brigadier General Magruder burned Hampton, Virginia, the most destructive act yet directed at civilian property during the war.
"Prince" John Magruder had served most of his life in the US Army, and was a favorite of his fellow Virginian Winfield Scott during the Mexican War. He burned Hampton because it was in the long run indefensible, and "was the harbor of runaway slaves and traitors."
Magruder later found some success delaying George McClellan's advance in the Peninsula Campaign, and, on New Year's Day 1863, recapturing Galveston, Texas, from Admiral David Farragut.
That admiral decided to leave Galveston in Rebel hands to focus on his top priority, the Mississippi River campaign, which was arguably the product of the much mocked Anaconda Plan of former chief General Winfield Scott. Scott, unlike Magruder, stayed loyal to the United States.
Farragut was another loyal son of the South. He and the midwestern border-state men Lincoln and Grant were turning Scott's plan into action. Magruder, left behind in Texas and Arkansas west of the Mississippi, was condemned to strategic irrelevance.
After the war, he was among the unreconstructed Confederates who went off to serve the Austrian prince who had been installed by the French emperor as emperor of Mexico, and met with no greater success.
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