July 25 1861 Thursday
Crittenden Resolution
Fort Fillmore, NMT
Confederate Invasion of New Mexico
Patterson’s Shenandoah Valley Operations
Venezuela. CSS Sumter, Commander Raphael Semmes, captured the schooner Abby Bradford. Semmes was denied the right to enter Venezuela with prizes and he dispatched the captured vessel to enter a Confederate port instead.
USA. The US Congress passed the Crittenden Resolution, declaring the object of the war to be the preservation of the Union rather than the end of slavery.
CSA. Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter was appointed provisionally as Confederate Secretary of State. He succeeded Robert Augustus Toombs who left office to serve in the Confederate Army as a Brigadier-General.
District of Columbia. The Union steamer USS Resolute brought two captured schooners and a sloop as prizes into Washington.
District of Columbia. Union Major-General George Brinton McClellan arrived in Washington to take command of military operations around the capital. His elevation resulted from his series of small but strategically important victories which had brought most of western Virginia rapidly under Union control and protected the most exposed section of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. While McClellan’s achievements may appear small in comparison to later campaigns, at the time they represented the Union’s only substantial and strategically important land victories of the war.
McClellan established the Military Division (Department) of the Potomac comprising the Department of Washington and the Department of Northeastern Virginia. In reality, the command was not of a stature to justify the title of a Military Division, which term did not come into official usage until late in 1863 but is described in this resource as the Military Division (Department) of the Potomac. It can be seen as the first stage in the formation of the future Department of the Potomac from these two constituent commands. To improve the command structure, the Department of Washington was subordinated to McClellan’s Military Division (Department) of the Potomac and the former Inspector-General, Brigadier-General Joseph King Fenno Mansfield was appointed to command. Brigadier-General Irvin McDowell, despite his defeat at First Bull Run, retained command for the time being of the Department of Northeastern Virginia. Both were to be subordinated to McClellan. At the same time, the restructured Department of Pennsylvania and the Department of the Shenandoah were taken over respectively by Major-General John Adams Dix and Nathaniel Prentiss Banks. In addition to the General-in-Chief, Major-General Winfield Scott in Washington, DC, operational command of this critical theatre of operations was thus to be entrusted to the Generals currently ranking 2nd, 4th, 5th, 7th, and 10th respectively in the Union Army hierarchy.
Florida. The Confederate privateer Dixie captured the American schooner Mary Alice off the eastern coast.
Missouri. The Committee appointed by the Missouri Convention on 23 July presented its report to the Missouri Convention. It alluded to the unparalleled condition of disorder in the state, the reckless actions of secessionist members of the Missouri Government, and the flight of the governor and other state officers from the capital. The Committee declared the Missouri offices of Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and Secretary of State to be vacant, and provided that their vacancies would be filled by the Missouri Convention, the officers so appointed to hold their positions until August 1862, at which time a special election would be held by the people of Missouri. The resolution effectively deposed the pro-Confederate Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson who had retreated with the pro-Confederate forces to the southwestern corner of the state.
Missouri. Expedition to Forsyth and Springfield ended.
Missouri. Incidents at Dug Springs and Harrisonville.
Missouri. Union Major-General John Charles Frémont gave orders for the fortification of St Louis, Cape Girardeau near Cairo, the railheads at Ironton and Rolla. and the state capital at Jefferson City. He also made plans to build two protected gunboats and 38 mortar boats to move downriver to secure Cairo, Illinois, at the confluence of the Ohio River and Mississippi River.
New Mexico Territory. Operation at San Augustine Springs.
Fort Fillmore, New Mexico Territory. The Confederate 2nd Battalion Texas Mounted Rifles under Lieutenant-Colonel John R Baylor crossed the Rio Grande into Mesilla to the cheers of the local population. A company of Arizona Confederates joined Baylor and were convinced to muster into the Confederate Army. Leaving a small guard, the Union garrison of 700 men of the 7th US Infantry under Major Isaac Lynde came out from the nearby Fort Fillmore to confront Baylor’s force of 380 men. The Union force was supported by detachments from Companies B and F of the US Mounted Rifles. Lynde approached the town with his command and demanded Baylor’s surrender. When Baylor refused, Lynde deployed his men into a skirmish line and opened fire with his mountain howitzers. The infantry was ordered to advance but heavy sand and cornfields disrupted their attack. Lynde then ordered his cavalry, the two companies of the US Mounted Rifles, to charge Baylor’s men. The Confederates managed to kill four and wound seven of the Union soldiers immediately and disorganised the attack. The Union assault was repulsed and both sides began skirmishing at long range. Lynde reformed his command but decided to retreat back to the fort with the Confederates troops and armed Arizona citizens in pursuit. Lynde lost between three and thirteen men killed and six wounded, while Baylor lost perhaps two killed dead and seven wounded. Afraid of being cut off from his line of retreat, Lynde gave orders for his ill-disciplined command to abandon the fort overnight and they headed for Fort Stanton, located 150 miles beyond the Organ Mountains.
North Carolina. The Confederate privateer Mariner, Captain W B Berry, captured the American schooner Nathaniel Chase off Ocracoke Inlet.
North Carolina. The Confederate privateer Gordon captured the American brig William McGilvery off Cape Hatteras with a cargo of molasses.
Virginia. The aeronaut John La Mountain began to make ascensions by balloon from Fort Monroe for the observation of Confederate movements and positions.
Virginia. Union Brigadier-General Jacob Dolson Cox led a brigade up the Kanawha River and occupied Charleston. The Confederate brigade of Brigadier-General Henry Alexander Wise fell back to Gauley Bridge and then to White Sulphur Springs, in order to avoid being cut off.
Union Organisation
USA: The Military Division (Department) of the Potomac was established, comprising the Department of Washington and the Department of Northeastern Virginia.
USA: Major-General George Brinton McClellan was appointed to command the Military Division (Department) of the Potomac, arriving on 27 July 1861.
USA: The Department of Northeastern Virginia was subordinated to the Military Division (Department) of the Potomac.
USA: Brigadier-General Irvin McDowell retained command of the Department of Northeastern Virginia.
USA: The Army of Northeastern Virginia was discontinued and renamed the Army of the Potomac.
USA: The Army of the Potomac was established in the Department of Northeastern Virginia.
USA: Major-General Irvin McDowell assumed command of the Army of the Potomac.
USA: The Department of Washington was subordinated to the Military Division (Department) of the Potomac.
USA: Brigadier-General Joseph King Fenno Mansfield retained command of the Department of Washington.
USA: The Department of Maryland was discontinued and merged into the Department of Pennsylvania.
USA: Prince George’s County, Montgomery County, and Frederick County of Maryland were transferred from the Department of Pennsylvania to the Department of Washington.
USA: Washington and Allegheny counties of Maryland were transferred from the Department of Pennsylvania to the Department of the Shenandoah.
USA: All the parts of Pennsylvania in the Department of the Ohio were transferred to the Department of Pennsylvania.
USA: All the parts of Pennsylvania in the Department of Maryland were transferred to the Department of Pennsylvania.
USA: Major-General John Adams Dix assumed command of the Department of Pennsylvania, succeeding State Major-General Robert Patterson.
USA: Washington and Allegheny counties of Maryland were transferred from the Department of Pennsylvania to the Department of the Shenandoah.
USA: Major-General Nathaniel Prentiss Banks arrived to command the Department of the Shenandoah.
USA: Major-General John Charles Frémont arrived to command the Western Department, succeeding Brigadier-General Nathaniel Lyon.
USA: The Cheat River District was established in the Department of the Ohio, comprising the areas of Tygart’s Valley and the Cheat River in Virginia.
USA: Colonel Charles John Biddle (42nd Pennsylvania Infantry) assumed command of the Cheat River District.
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 awaited
- 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 John Biddle
- 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: Robert Patterson
Department of the Shenandoah: Nathaniel Prentiss Banks
Department of Texas: Vacant
Department of Virginia: Benjamin Franklin Butler
Western Department: John Charles Frémont
- District of Ironton: Benjamin Gratz Brown
- Army of the West: Nathaniel Lyon
Confederate Organisation
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
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
American Civil War High Command 