FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

William Bruce Mumford (December 5, 1819^[1] – June 7, 1862) was a North Carolinian native and resident of New Orleans, who was hanged for tearing down a United States flag during the American Civil War.

FLAG INCIDENT

On April 25, 1862, as Union Navy ships approached Confederate New Orleans, Commodore David Farragut ordered two officers to send a message to Mayor John T. Monroe requesting removal of Confederate flags from the local customhouse, mint and city hall and their replacement with U.S. flags. Monroe refused, claiming it was beyond his jurisdiction. On April 26, Capt. Henry W. Morris sent ashore Marines from the USS Pocahontas to raise the U.S. flag over the mint. Morris did so without any order from Farragut, who was still trying to receive an official surrender from the mayor.

As the Marines raised the flag, a number of locals gathered around in anger. The Marines told them that the Pocahontas would fire on anyone attempting to remove the flag. However, a group of seven individuals, including Mumford, decided to remove the flag from the mint. The Pocahontas fired and Mumford was injured by a flying piece of brick. With cheers from local onlookers, he carried the flag to the mayor at city hall, but onlookers tore at it as he walked, reducing it to a stub.

TRIAL AND EXECUTION

Three days later Union Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler, the commander of the Union ground forces, heard about the incident and decided to arrest and punish Mumford. When the Union Army occupied the city on May 1, Mumford was arrested and charged with “high crimes and misdemeanors against the laws of the United States, and the peace and dignity thereof and the Law Martial.” On May 30, he was tried before a military tribunal and convicted, even though there was no clear attempt to determine whether the city was actually occupied when the event occurred.

On June 5, Butler issued the following Special Order No. 70:

William B. Mumford, a citizen of New Orleans, having been convicted before a military commission of treason and an overt act thereof, tearing down the United States flag from a public building of the United States, after said flag was placed there by Commodore Farragut, of the United States navy: It is ordered that he be executed according to sentence of said military commission on Saturday, June 7, inst., between the hours of 8 a.m. and 12 a.m. under the directions of the provost-marshal of the District of New Orleans, and for so doing this shall be his sufficient warrant.

On June 7, a little before noon, Mumford was taken to be hanged in the courtyard of the mint itself, a place that Butler had decided “according to the Spanish custom” would be the ideal place. Many people came to the spot, and Mumford was allowed to give a final speech in which he spoke of his patriotism for the Confederacy and his love for what he considered the true meaning of the U.S. flag, a symbol he had fought under in the Seminole Wars and the Mexican–American War.

TODAY’S ALMANAC

Question of the Day

What kind of crops should I plant to create some green manure for next year’s garden?

Good choices are soybeans, sweet clover, and alfalfa. Plow them under at the end of the season wherever you intend to start a new garden next season.

Advice of the Day

Always confess the worst thing first.

Home Hint of the Day

Cut flowers can be kept fresh longer if you put them in a vase containing a solution of 2 tablespoons of vinegar, 3 tablespoons of sugar, and 1 quart of water.

Word of the Day

Nevada

Means “snowcapped” in Spanish

Puzzle of the Day

I hire parsons. (Form a single word from this sentence.)

Parishioners

Born

• Beau Brummel (fashion leader) – 1778
• Sir James Young Simpson (one of the founders of modern gynecology) – 1811
• Jessica Tandy (actress) – 1909
• Gwendolyn Brooks (poet and first African American to receive a Pulitzer Prize) – 1917
• Dean Martin (singer & actor) – 1917
• Rocky Graziano (boxer) – 1922
• Tom Jones (singer) – 1940
• Liam Neeson (actor) – 1952
• Prince (musician) – 1958
• Anna Kournikova (tennis player) – 1981
• Jordan Fry (actor) – 1993

Died

• Jean Harlow (actress) – 1937
• Dorothy Parker (author) – 1967
• Dennis Potter (writer) – 1994
• Kenny Rankin (singer & songwriter) – 2009

Events

• Louis XIV crowned King of France– 1654
• In the Continental Congress, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed a resolution calling for a Declaration of Independence– 1776
• William Bruce Mumford became the first U.S. citizen hung for treason– 1862
• Two men left NYC for a 55-day row across the Atlantic Ocean– 1896
• Hudson Stuck’s expedition reached summit of Mt. McKinley, Alaska– 1913
• King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain became the first reigning British monarchs to visit the U.S.– 1939
• The $64,000 Question made its television debut– 1955
• Priscilla Presley opened Graceland to the public– 1982
• Patent for chain saw cleaning brush granted to an 11-year-old– 1988

Weather

• The Year without summer hit Danville, Vermont, with drifts of snow and sleet up to 20”– 1816
• 42-tornado outbreak began in Upper Midwest– 1984

COURTESY www.almanac.com