July 31 1861 Wednesday
Confederate Invasion of New Mexico
USA. The US Congress authorised the appointment of an Assistant Secretary of the Navy. In due course, the position was given to Gustavus Vasa Fox.
Louisiana. Commander George Nichols Hollins CSN assumed command of the Confederate naval defences of New Orleans and the Mississippi River.
Missouri. The pro-Union Missouri State Convention elected Hamilton Rowan Gamble as the new Provisional Governor of Missouri, replacing Claiborne Fox Jackson who had aligned himself with the Confederacy and fled the capital.
Missouri. Union Brigadier-General John Pope issued his General Order Number 3 which stipulated his measures for the suppression of lawless elements and the permanent pacification of North Missouri. The harsh measures were resented by pro-Confederate sympathisers who were antagonised into continued resistance.
Missouri. Instructions were issued for 16 9-inch guns and 30 12-inch mortars to be made and sent from Pittsburgh to Missouri, in preparation for service aboard boats on the western waters.
Missouri. The pro-Confederate Missouri State Guard was reinforced by Confederate Brigadier-General Benjamin McCulloch and Arkansas state militia Brigadier-General N Bartlett Pearce. This formed a mixed force of Missouri, Arkansas, and Confederate of over 12,000 men located southwest of Springfield. Confederate Colonel Martin Edwin Green and the 2nd Division of the Missouri State Guard occupied Edina, stampeding the local Home Guards. He then proceeded toward his target of Springfield. Colonel David Moore’s Union 1st Northeast Missouri Home Guard was in Athens where several hundred of his men received new Springfield rifled muskets. These weapons greatly outclassed the improvised arms of the Confederate forces. In order to control the Missouri river and suppress Confederate sympathisers in the area, a Union garrison was established in Lexington, Missouri, under Colonel Charles Stifel and his 5th Regiment US Reserve Corps, composed of Germans from St Louis. Stifel and his command were soon replaced by five companies of Lafayette County Home Guards under Captain Frederick W Becker. These were later supplemented by the 14th Home Guard under Lieutenant-Colonel Robert White, who assumed command. White was followed in turn by Colonel Thomas A Marshall, who arrived with the 1st Illinois Cavalry.
North Carolina. The Confederate privateer Dixie captured the American bark Glenn and took her into Beaufort harbour.
Tennessee. Confederate Major-General Leonidas Polk established his headquarters at Memphis and began to concentrate troops near Union City. Polk planned to occupy the strategic key point of Columbus, Kentucky, in order to dominate access to the Mississippi and western rivers. Polk took command of the Western Department in June 1861 and now led about 25,000 troops scattered in training camps and garrisons along the Mississippi River.
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
- District of North Missouri: John Pope
- Army of the West: Nathaniel Lyon
Confederate Organisation
CSA: Captain George Nichols Hollins assumed command of the Naval Defences of New Orleans and the Mississippi River.
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
American Civil War High Command 