1861 July 3rd

July 3 1861 Wednesday

McClellan’s West Virginia Campaign
Patterson’s Shenandoah Valley Operations

Go to July 4 1861

Cuba. CSS Sumter, Commander Raphael Semmes, captured and burned the American ship Golden Rocket near the coastal Isle of Pines.

USA. US President Abraham Lincoln promoted John Charles Frémont to the grade of Major-General in the US Regular Army, backdating his date of seniority to the same date as that of George Brinton McClellan. Frémont had been a Republican candidate for the Presidency and had great political influence, as well as having a reputation for audacity and courage earned before the war. Frémont immediately rose into third place in the Union Army hierarchy behind only the Commanding General Winfield Scott and Major-General George Brinton McClellan. While McClellan took the most important command in the east at Washington, DC, Frémont was assigned to lead the immense western theatre from his headquarters at St Louis, Missouri. The new Western Department was established to comprise Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, and the Indian Territory. New Mexico Territory was also absorbed after its autonomous Department was discontinued. While Frémont’s reputation and popularity were high, ineptitude and controversy would characterise his period in command of this strategically vital command.

Arkansas. The Military Board of Arkansas called for 10,000 men to repel a possible future invasion by Union forces.

Missouri. Pro-Confederate Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson and State Major-General Sterling Price combined their forces in Lamar and started to organise effective command for the Missouri State Guard. The army grew to 6,000 men, many of whom had joined along the march south. However, they were poorly armed only with hunting rifles, shotguns, and knives, and about a third had no weapons at all. They had seven pieces of artillery. Confederate Brigadier-General Benjamin McCulloch was awaited to bring his military experience to the force.

Missouri. Union Brigadier-General Nathaniel Lyon departed from Boonville with 2,000 men to pursue the pro-Confederate forces into southwestern Missouri.

New Mexico Territory. Fort McLean was abandoned by Union forces

Virginia. Union Major-General Robert Patterson occupied Martinsburg following the engagement at Hoke’s Run (Falling Waters). He halted his advance until 15 July while he tried to ascertain the enemy’s strength facing him.

Union Organisation

USA: The Department of New Mexico was discontinued and its area was incorporated into the Western Department.

USA: The Department of the West was discontinued and incorporated into the Western Department.

USA: The Western Department was established, with headquarters at St Louis, Missouri, comprising Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska Territory, Colorado Territory, Dakota Territory and Indian Territory from the discontinued Department of the West; Missouri and Illinois were taken from the Department of the Ohio; New Mexico Territory was taken from the discontinued Department of New Mexico. Missouri and Illinois were transferred from the Department of the Ohio to the Western Department.
USA: Major-General USA John Charles Frémont was appointed to command the Western Department, arriving on 25 July 1861.
USA: Brigadier-General Nathaniel Lyon retained temporary command of the Western Department. pending the arrival of Major-General USA John Charles Frémont.
USA: The Army of the West transferred from the Department of the West to the Western Department.
USA: Brigadier-General Nathaniel Lyon retained command of the Army of the West pending the arrival of Major-General USA John Charles Frémont.

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: Stephen Clegg Rowan

General–in-Chief: Winfield Scott
Department of Annapolis: Nathaniel Prentiss Banks
Department of the East: John Ellis Wool
Department of Florida: Harvey Brown

Department of Kentucky: Robert Anderson

Department 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 Texas: Vacant

Department of Utah: Philip St George Cooke

Department of Virginia: Benjamin Franklin Butler

Department of Washington: Joseph King Fenno Mansfield

Western Department: Nathaniel Lyon interim John Charles Frémont awaited

• 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: Theophilus Hunter Holmes

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: Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard

• Army of the Potomac: Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard

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 Harper’s Ferry”: Joseph Eggleston Johnston

Forces in Richmond: Thomas Turner Fauntleroy

Army of the Kanawha: Henry Alexander Wise

Army of Liberation: Gideon Johnson Pillow

Army of the Northwest: Robert Selden Garnett

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

Brigadier-General USA (Staff)

Montgomery Cunningham Meigs

Confederate Generals

Note: Italics, awaiting confirmation of the commission

General ACSA

Samuel Cooper
Albert Sidney Johnston
Robert Edward Lee

Major-General PACS

David Emanuel Twiggs
Leonidas Polk

Brigadier-General ACSA

Joseph Eggleston Johnston
Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard
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
Robert Selden Garnett
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
John Henry Winder