August 30 1861 Friday
Confederate Invasion of New Mexico
Rosecrans’ West Virginia Campaign
Maryland. A number of pro-Confederate newspapers in Baltimore were ordered to be suppressed by US authorities.
Missouri. Union operations in northeastern Missouri began.
Missouri. Union Major-General John Charles Frémont proclaimed martial law in Missouri and ordered the confiscation of slaveowners’ property. He also declared the freedom of the slaves of Missouri residents who were aiding the Confederacy. Frémont had come under increasing pressure for decisive action, as the Confederates controlled half of Missouri and guerrillas were causing havoc by cutting railroads and telegraph lines, burning bridges, raiding farms, and attacking Union forces. Confederate sympathies in the stronger slave-holding counties needed to be reduced or suppressed. As a result of their depredations, thousands of Union loyalists had taken refuge in Illinois, Iowa, and Kansas. Frémont came under the influence of radical abolitionists in his camp and of his wife Jessie to free the slaves of those Confederates who were causing trouble in loyal Union counties. Frémont was persuaded that the Confederates were in rebellion and therefore no longer protected by the Constitution. He deemed it legal to confiscate the property of rebels, including their slaves. Without notifying President Lincoln, he issued a controversial proclamation putting Missouri under martial law. The edict stipulated that civilians in arms would be subject to court-martial and execution, the property of those who aided secessionists would be confiscated, and the slaves of rebels would be emancipated. His military proclamation was unauthorised and President Abraham Lincoln described Frémont’s actions as “dictatorial” and without authorisation. LIncoln subsequently revoked the proclamation of emancipation when Frémont refused to modify or withdraw it.
Virginia. Incident at Bailey’s Corner.
Virginia. The Confederate tug Harmony attacked USS Savannah at Newport News, inflicting minor damage before withdrawing.
Virginia. As Union Major-General George Brinton McClellan continued to reorganise the Union Army of the Potomac, he formed its first three divisions between 24 August and 30 August 1861. One division was allocated to Brigadier-General Irvin McDowell, comprising the brigades of Brigadier-General Erasmus Darwin Keyes and Brigadier-General James Samuel Wadsworth. Brigadier-General William Buel Franklin took over the second division that comprised his own brigade and that of Brigadier-General Philip Kearny. Brigadier-General Fitz-John Porter received command of the third division containing two brigades. By October, McClellan had formed twelve divisions of infantry but he was not authorised to group them into Corps. Several new commissions as Brigadier-General (John Joseph Abercrombie, John Sedgwick, Charles Ferguson Smith, Silas Casey, Lawrence Pike Graham. George Gordon Meade, and Abram Duryée) were confirmed the following day in part to provide officers to command the increasing number of organised brigades .
Union Organisation
USA: Captain Andrew Hull Foote USN assumed command of the Western Gunboat Flotilla, succeeding Commander John Rodgers USN.
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
Western Gunboat Flotilla: Andrew Hull Foote
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: Colonel Charles Dimmock assumed command of the Forces in Richmond, succeeding Colonel Thomas Turner Fauntleroy.
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: vacant
Department of Middle and Eastern Florida: John Breckinridge Grayson
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
- Army of the Valley: Thomas Jonathan Jackson
Department of South Carolina: Roswell Sabine Ripley
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: Charles Dimmock
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
American Civil War High Command 