1861 July 22nd

July 22 1861 Monday

First Bull Run Campaign
McClellan’s West Virginia Campaign
Patterson’s Shenandoah Valley Operations

Go to July 23 1861

USA. The US Congress authorised the President to organise regiments of volunteer soldiers accepted into service into divisions and brigades. Nominally, a Major-General could be appointed to command a division and a Brigadier-General to command a brigade. This initial ruling permitted the appointment of up to six new Major-Generals and up to eighteen Brigadier-Generals in the US Volunteers. This ruling was amended on 25 July 1861 to permit an unspecified number of Major-Generals and Brigadier-Generals to be appointed.

USA. Union naval forces captured the schooner Enchantress, which had been captured previously by CSS Jeff Davis and a prize crew put aboard under Walter W Smith. The crew were to be tried for piracy rather than held as prisoners of war.

CSA. After the “Stars and Bars” flag was confused with the Union National flag in battle at First Bull Run, Confederate General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard adopted the Battle Flag design as it was more distinctive and identifiable in action. It had a red field with a blue St Andrew’s cross displaying up to thirteen white stars.

Missouri. The Missouri State Convention reassembled at Jefferson City.

Missouri. The Governor of Missouri, Claiborne Fox Jackson, declared that his administration was the only legal ruling body of Missouri and that the state was aligned with the Confederacy, even though the Missouri State Convention had voted to abstain from leaving the Union.

Missouri. Skirmish at Etna.

Missouri. A Union force commanded by Missouri State Brigadier-General Thomas William Sweeny attacked local Confederate troops at Forsyth (Forsythe). The Confederates were driven away and Sweeny occupied the town. Sweeny reported two Union casualties and 15 for the Confederates.

New York. A black American sailor called William Tilghman brought the prize ship S J Waring into New York harbour, having killed three members of its Confederate prize crew and overwhelmed the others on 16 July 1861. He was feted as a hero by the city.

Virginia. The demoralised Union Army of Northeastern Virginia began to reach the defences of Washington after its defeat at Bull Run. This defeat convinced the US administration that the war would be a longer and costlier matter than had been first anticipated, and measures began to be put in place for an extended conflict. Following the disaster at First Bull Run, the US administration also decided to call Union Major-General George Brinton McClellan from his victories in western Virginia to Washington, DC. McClellan would soon supersede Brigadier-General Irvin McDowell in command of the main Union army in the eastern theatre.

Union Organisation

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 East: John Ellis Wool

Department of Florida: Harvey Brown

Department of Kentucky: Robert Anderson

Department of Maryland: John Adams Dix awaited

Department of Northeastern Virginia: Irvin McDowell

  • Army of Northeastern Virginia: Irvin McDowell

Department of the Ohio: George Brinton McClellan

  • Army of Occupation: George Brinton McClellan

Department of the Pacific: Edwin Vose Sumner

  • District of Oregon: George Wright

Department of Pennsylvania: Robert Patterson

  • Army of the Shenandoah: Robert Patterson

Department of the Shenandoah: Nathaniel Prentiss Banks awaited

Department of Texas: Vacant

Department of Virginia: Benjamin Franklin Butler

Department of Washington: Joseph King Fenno Mansfield

Western Department: Nathaniel Lyon interim John Charles Frémont awaited

  • District of Ironton: Benjamin Gratz Brown
  • Army of the West: Nathaniel Lyon

Confederate Organisation

CSA: Brigadier-General William Joseph Hardee arrived to command the District of Upper Arkansas in the Western Department.

CSA: Brigadier-General Barnard Elliott Bee died of wounds received at First Bull Run.

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
  • Army of the Kanawha: Henry Alexander Wise

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
  • Forces in Missouri: Benjamin McCulloch

Defences of Savannah: Alexander Robert Lawton

Indian Territory: Benjamin McCulloch

Forces in Richmond: Thomas Turner Fauntleroy

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

Brigadier-General USA (Staff)

Montgomery Cunningham Meigs (Quartermaster-General)

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
Barnard Elliott Bee DOW
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

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