1861 July 28th

July 28 1861 Sunday

Confederate Invasion of New Mexico

Arkansas. Confederate Brigadier-General William Joseph Hardee was concentrating recruits at Pitman’s Ferry but was not yet ready to move his untrained troops against Union positions in Missouri.

District of Columbia. After taking command of the forces in and around Washington, Union Major-General George Brinton McClellan assigned two regiments of Regular infantry as provost guards and imposed military order and discipline over the undisciplined and demoralised troops who had retreated from Manassas. He commenced the construction of new fortifications and defences for the capital and instigated a new programme of training for the existing troops and new arrivals. McClellan began the process of building a disciplined, well-trained, and enthusiastic army for his future campaigns in Virginia.

Missouri. New Madrid was occupied by 12,000 Confederates from Tennessee under Brigadier-General Gideon Johnson Pillow. The town was a promising location to build batteries to block traffic on the Mississippi River in southeastern Missouri.

Missouri. Confederate troops under Missouri State Major-General Sterling Price, Arkansas State Brigadier-General N Bartlett Pearce and Confederate Brigadier-General Benjamin McCulloch concentrated at Cassville, fifty miles from the main Union camp at Springfield.

Missouri. Union Home Guards captured 28 Confederates at Hickory Hill.

North Carolina. USS Union, Commander J R Goldsborough, destroyed the former American brig B T Martin north of Cape Hatteras, where she had been run aground by its captors from the Confederate privateer York.

North Carolina. The Confederate privateer Gordon captured the American schooner Protector off Cape Hatteras.

South Carolina. The Confederate privateer Petrel left Charleston harbour and encountered the frigate USS St Lawrence. Unable to escape, Captain William Perry decided to fight. In a twenty-minute gun battle, Petrel’s hull was holed and she began sinking. Perry then hauled down his flag. Four members of the crew of forty were lost with the ship and the remainder were rescued by the frigate’s boats. The survivors, including Perry, were put in irons and taken to Philadelphia, where they, like the crew of the privateer Savannah, were to be tried for piracy. The Petrel had been named the US Revenue Cutter William Aiken before the war. Seized by the state of South Carolina, she was offered to the Confederate States Navy but was rejected as unsuitable. Renamed Petrel, she was sold to private interests who outfitted her as a privateer.

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

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 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: vacant

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

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 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