August 9 1861 Friday
Wilson‘s Creek Campaign
Confederate Invasion of New Mexico
USA. Colonel Randolph Barnes Marcy was appointed as Inspector General of the US Army.
USA. A new group of officers expanded the Brigadier-General corps of the US Volunteers, with several being appointed on this day and the days before. They included 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, and George Henry Thomas. Six of these officers were later promoted to Major-General.
Missouri. Union Brigadier-General Franz Sigel arrived to reinforce Brigadier-General Nathaniel Lyon at Springfield. The Union Department commander John Charles Frémont had offered no practical support to secure the safety of Lyon’s and Sigel’s commands, so Lyon devised an offensive plan for his Army of the West to attack the Confederate troops of Brigadier-General Benjamin McCulloch and Missouri State Major-General Sterling Price (Missouri State Guard) who were encamped at Wilson’s Creek. The aim was to cause enough disruption to the Confederates, who outnumbered Sigel and Lyon so that an unhindered withdrawal could be conducted to a safer location. At the same time, McCulloch was planning his own surprise attack against the weaker Union force in Springfield but the rain caused him to cancel his plan.
Sigel proposed an aggressive plan for the main body to strike from the north while Sigel made a long flank march with 1,200 men to attack from the south. This attack was deferred after heavy rain forced the men back to camp overnight. The Union army finally marched out of Springfield during the rainy night, leaving about 1,000 men to protect their supplies and communications. Lyon’s command followed the Little York road and was joined by Major Samuel Davis Sturgis’ Regular troops and then went into bivouac at about 1 am. Sigel’s 1,200 men followed the Fayetteville road and made a long detour into the enemy’s rear by daylight. Union success was dependent on achieving surprise against the superior numbers of the Confederate army. The Union columns camped overnight within striking distance of the unsuspecting Confederates.
Missouri. A skirmish at Potosi resulted in 2 Confederates killed and 3 wounded.
North Carolina. The crew of the Confederate privateer York burned their ship off Cape Hatteras to avoid it falling to the USS Union.
Utah Territory. Incident at the Great Salt Lake.
Union Organisation
USA: Brigadier-General John Ellis Wool was appointed to command the Department of Virginia, arriving on 17 August 1861, to succeed Major-General Benjamin Franklin Butler.
USA: William Reading Montgomery confirmed Brigadier-General USV 9 August 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861.
USA: John Wolcott Phelps confirmed Brigadier-General USV 9 August 1861 to rank from 17 May
USA: Ulysses Simpson Grant confirmed Brigadier-General USV 9 August 1861 to rank from 17 May
USA: Darius Nash Couch promoted Brigadier-General USV 9 August 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861.
USA: Benjamin Mayberry Prentiss confirmed Brigadier-General 9 August 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861.
USA: Alpheus Starkey Williams confirmed Brigadier-General USV 9 August 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861.
USA: Israel Bush Richardson confirmed Brigadier-General USV 9 August 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861.
USA: Ambrose Everett Burnside confirmed Brigadier-General USV 9 August 1861 to rank from 6 August 1861.
USA: Louis Blenker was promoted Brigadier-General USV 9 August 1861.
USA: Henry Warner Slocum was promoted Brigadier-General USV 9 August 1861.
USA: James Samuel Wadsworth was promoted Brigadier-General USV 9 August 1861.
USA: John James Peck was promoted Brigadier-General USV 9 August 1861.
USA: Ormsby McKnight Mitchel was promoted Brigadier-General USV 9 August 1861.
USA: George Webb Morell was promoted Brigadier-General USV 9 August 1861.
USA: John Henry Martindale was promoted Brigadier-General USV 9 August 1861.
USA: Colonel Randolph Barnes Marcy was appointed Inspector-General of the US Army.
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
Military Division (Department) of the Potomac: George Brinton McClellan
- Department of Northeastern Virginia: Irvin McDowell
- Army of the Potomac: Irvin McDowell
- Department of Washington: Joseph King Fenno Mansfield
Department of the East: John Ellis Wool
Department of Florida: Harvey Brown
Department of Kentucky: Robert Anderson
Department of the Ohio: William Starke Rosecrans
- Cheat Mountain District: Joseph Jones Reynolds
- Cheat River District: Charles J Biddle
- 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 Pennsylvania: John Adams Dix
- Army of the Shenandoah: Vacant
Department of the Shenandoah: Nathaniel Prentiss Banks
Department of Texas: Vacant
Department of Virginia: Benjamin Franklin Butler interim John Ellis Wool awaited
Western Department: John Charles Frémont
- District of Ironton: Ulysses Simpson Grant
- District of North Missouri: John Pope
- Southern District of New Mexico: Benjamin Stone Roberts
- Army of the West: Nathaniel Lyon
Confederate Organisation
CSA: Isaac Ridgeway Trimble promoted Brigadier-General PACS 6 August 1861 to rank from 9 August 1861.
CSA: Daniel Ruggles promoted Brigadier-General PACS 6 August 1861 to rank from 9 August 1861.
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
- “Forces in New Orleans” “Army of Louisiana”: Braxton Bragg
Department of Fredericksburg: Daniel Harvey Hill
- District of Aquia: Daniel Ruggles
Department of Norfolk: Benjamin Huger
Department of North Carolina: Theophilus Hunter Holmes
- 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
- 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: Henry Alexander Wise
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
Major-General USV
John Adams Dix
Nathaniel Prentiss Banks
Benjamin Franklin Butler
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
David Hunter
Erasmus Darwin Keyes
Andrew Porter
Fitz-John Porter
William Buel Franklin
William Tecumseh Sherman
Charles Pomeroy Stone
Don Carlos Buell
Thomas West Sherman
Nathaniel Lyon
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
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
American Civil War High Command 