1861 August 20th

August 20 1861 Tuesday

Hawk’s Nest, VA

Confederate Invasion of New Mexico
Rosecrans’ West Virginia Campaign

Missouri. A small Confederate force attacked a train travelling from Jefferson City to Lookout Station and took all the valuables and money from the passengers. One Union Home Guard soldier was killed and six wounded. Two Confederates were reported killed, several wounded and five captured

Missouri. Skirmish at Fish Lake, involving the Union 1st Illinois Cavalry.

Virginia. After taking command of the Army of the Potomac, Union Major-General George Brinton McClellan began to undermine the position of the commanding General-in-Chief Major-General Winfield Scott. McClellan felt that Scott was obstructive, old-fashioned, slow, and resistant to change. McClellan’s efforts finally succeeded in forcing Scott’s retirement at the end of October and McClellan thereby secured his own elevation to the highest command. In the meantime, tension grew between Scott and McClellan about the future conduct of the war in Virginia.

Virginia. In a skirmish at Hawk’s Nest in the Kanawha Valley, the Union 11th Ohio Infantry lost two men wounded and one missing.

Hawk’s Nest, Virginia. The Gauley River was one of the main routes for the transport of commerce and supply into western Virginia. Confederate General Robert Edward Lee split his army: the right wing was the Army of the Northwest under Brigadier-General William Wing Loring at Summersville, and the left wing was Brigadier-General John Buchanan Floyd’s Army of the Kanawha, including the command of Brigadier-General Henry Alexander Wise near Hawk’s Nest. Wise’s command was involved in two skirmishes as his demonstration at Pig Creek on the New River was repulsed. A few men were killed and wounded on both sides.

Virginia. Skirmish at Laurel Fork Creek

Virginia. The pro-Union Second Constitutional Convention in Wheeling passed an ordinance to establish a new state in western Virginia. The name proposed for the new state was Kanawha, based on the Kanawha River which ran through the area. The new state currently comprised those 39 counties, mostly in the far northwest, which later became the main body of the US state of West Virginia formed on 24 October 1861, which had voted to secede from the state after Virginia joined the Confederate States of America on 17 April 1861.
During the First Constitutional Convention in Wheeling on 3 December 1861, a motion was made to strike the name Kanawha from the new state constitution. The intention was to avoid confusion with the County of Kanawha and to reflect the origin of the region as part of Virginia. During the subsequent discussion, names such as “Allegheny”, “Augusta”, “Columbia”, “New Virginia”, “Vandalia”, “West Virginia”, and “Western Virginia” were suggested. After a roll call, 30 of the 44 delegates had selected “West Virginia”. During the constitutional convention, the boundaries of the new state went through various changes.

Union Organisation

USA: Major-General George Brinton McClellan arrived to command the Department of the Potomac, succeeding Brigadier-General Irvin McDowell.
USA: The Army of the Potomac transferred to the Department of the Potomac.
USA: Major-General George Brinton McClellan assumed command of the Army of the Potomac, succeeding Major-General Irvin McDowell.

USA: Brigadier-General Henry Washington Benham assumed command of the Cheat River District, succeeding Colonel Charles John Biddle (42nd Pennsylvania Infantry).

USA: William Farquhar Barry was promoted Brigadier-General USV 20 August 1861.
USA: John Fulton Reynolds was promoted Brigadier-General USV 26 August 1861 to rank from 20 August 1861.

Commander in Chief: President Abraham Lincoln
Vice-President: Hannibal Hamlin
Secretary of War: Simon Cameron
Secretary of the Navy: Gideon Welles

Atlantic Blockading Squadron: Silas Horton Stringham
Gulf Blockading Squadron: William Mervine
Pacific Squadron: John Berrien Montgomery
West Indies Squadron: Garrett J Pendergrast
Western Gunboat Flotilla: John Rodgers
Potomac Flotilla: Thomas Tingey Craven

General–in-Chief: Winfield Scott

Department of the Cumberland: Robert Anderson awaited

Department of the East: Vacant

Department of Florida: Harvey Brown

Department of the Ohio: William Starke Rosecrans

Cheat Mountain District: Joseph Jones Reynolds
Cheat River District: Henry Washington Benham
District of Grafton: Benjamin Franklin Kelley
Army of Occupation: William Starke Rosecrans

Department of the Pacific: Edwin Vose Sumner

District of Oregon: George Wright

Department of the Potomac: George Brinton McClellan

Army of the Potomac: George Brinton McClellan

Department of Texas: Vacant

Department of Virginia: John Ellis Wool

Western Department: John Charles Frémont

District of Ironton: Benjamin Mayberry Prentiss
District of North Missouri: John Pope
Southern District of New Mexico: Benjamin Stone Roberts

Confederate Organisation

CSA: Brigadier-General Richard Caswell Gatlin arrived to command the Department of North Carolina, succeeding Brigadier-General Theophilus Hunter Holmes.

Commander in Chief: President Jefferson Finis Davis
Vice-President: Alexander Hamilton Stephens
Secretary of War: Leroy Pope Walker
Secretary of the Navy: Stephen Russell Mallory

Military Adviser to the President: Robert Edward Lee

Department No 1: David Emanuel Twiggs

Department of Fredericksburg: Daniel Harvey Hill

District of Aquia: Daniel Ruggles

Department of Norfolk: Benjamin Huger

Department of North Carolina: Richard Caswell Gatlin

Defences of North Carolina: Theophilus Hunter Holmes

Department of the Peninsula: John Bankhead Magruder

Army of the Peninsula: John Bankhead Magruder

Department of the Potomac: Joseph Eggleston Johnston

Army of the Potomac: Joseph Eggleston Johnston

Department of South Carolina: Daniel Harvey Hill

Department of Southwestern Virginia: William Wing Loring

Department of Texas: Earl Van Dorn interim Paul Octave Hébert awaited

Defences of Galveston: John Creed Moore

Department of West Florida: Braxton Bragg

“Forces in Pensacola”: Braxton Bragg

Western Department: Leonidas Polk

District of Upper Arkansas: William Joseph Hardee
Western Army: Benjamin McCulloch

District of East Tennessee: Felix Kirk Zollicoffer

Defences of Savannah: Alexander Robert Lawton

Indian Territory: Benjamin McCulloch

Forces in Richmond: Thomas Turner Fauntleroy

Army of the Kanawha: John Buchanan Floyd

Army of Liberation: Gideon Johnson Pillow

Army of the Northwest: William Wing Loring

Union Generals

Note: Italics, awaiting confirmation of the commission

Major-General USA

Winfield Scott
George Brinton McClellan
John Charles Frémont
Henry Wager Halleck

Major-General USV

John Adams Dix
Nathaniel Prentiss Banks
Benjamin Franklin Butler
David Hunter

Brigadier-General USA

John Ellis Wool
William Selby Harney
Edwin Vose Sumner
Joseph King Fenno Mansfield
Irvin McDowell
Robert Anderson
William Starke Rosecrans

Brigadier-General USV

Samuel Peter Heintzelman
Erasmus Darwin Keyes
Andrew Porter
Fitz-John Porter
William Buel Franklin
William Tecumseh Sherman
Charles Pomeroy Stone
Don Carlos Buell
Thomas West Sherman
John Pope
George Archibald McCall
William Reading Montgomery
Philip Kearny
Joseph Hooker
John Wolcott Phelps
Ulysses Simpson Grant
Joseph Jones Reynolds
Samuel Ryan Curtis
Charles Smith Hamilton
Darius Nash Couch
Rufus King
Jacob Dolson Cox
Stephen Augustus Hurlbut
Franz Sigel
Robert Cumming Schenck
Benjamin Mayberry Prentiss
Frederick West Lander
Benjamin Franklin Kelley
John Alexander McClernand
Alpheus Starkey Williams
Israel Bush Richardson
James Cooper
James Brewerton Ricketts
Orlando Bolivar Willcox
Michael Corcoran
George Henry Thomas
Ambrose Everett Burnside
Henry Hayes Lockwood
Louis Blenker
Henry Warner Slocum
James Samuel Wadsworth
John James Peck
Ormsby McKnight Mitchel
George Webb Morell
John Henry Martindale
Samuel Davis Sturgis
George Stoneman
Henry Washington Benham
William Farrar Smith
James William Denver
Egbert Ludovicus Vielé
James Shields
John Fulton Reynolds
William Farquhar Barry

Brigadier-General USA (Staff)

Montgomery Cunningham Meigs (Quartermaster-General)
Henry Knox Craig
Lorenzo Thomas (Adjutant-General)
James Wolfe Ripley (Ordnance)

Confederate Generals

Note: Italics, awaiting confirmation of the commission

General ACSA

Samuel Cooper
Albert Sidney Johnston
Robert Edward Lee
Joseph Eggleston Johnston
Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard

Major-General PACS

David Emanuel Twiggs
Leonidas Polk

Brigadier-General ACSA

Braxton Bragg

Brigadier-General PACS

Alexander Robert Lawton
Milledge Lake Bonham
Benjamin McCulloch
William Wing Loring
Charles Clark
John Buchanan Floyd
William Henry Talbot Walker
Henry Rootes Jackson
Theophilus Hunter Holmes
Henry Alexander Wise
Earl Van Dorn
William Joseph Hardee
Richard Stoddert Ewell
David Rumph Jones
Benjamin Huger
John Bankhead Magruder
James Longstreet
Edmund Kirby Smith
John Clifford Pemberton
Thomas Jonathan Jackson
Henry Hopkins Sibley
John Henry Winder
Richard Caswell Gatlin
Daniel Smith Donelson
Samuel Read Anderson
Gideon Johnson Pillow
Benjamin Franklin Cheatham
Felix Kirk Zollicoffer
Daniel Harvey Hill
Jones Mitchell Withers
Richard Heron Anderson
Robert Augustus Toombs
Samuel Jones
Arnold Elzey
William Henry Chase Whiting
Jubal Anderson Early
Isaac Ridgway Trimble
Daniel Ruggles
George Bibb Crittenden
John Breckinridge Grayson
Roswell Sabine Ripley
Albert Pike
Paul Octave Hébert