1861 July 9th

July 9 1861 Tuesday

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

USA. The US House of Representatives resolved that it was not the duty of US soldiers to capture and return fugitive slaves. This decision was a contradiction to the Fugitive Slave Act but opened the possibility for an advantageous new ruling that escaped slaves could be deemed to be contraband of war. As such, they could be held freely as property, and not returned to their owners, as a war measure.

USA. The Union Army at this time had 48 nominated General Officers – 6 Major-Generals (three each in the Regular Army and the US Volunteers), 7 Brigadier-Generals in the Regular Army plus one Brigadier-General of the Staff, and 34 Brigadier-Generals in the US Volunteers. Of this latter group, 28 were awaiting confirmation of their appointments.

CSA. Five new Brigadier-Generals were promoted in the Confederate Army, bringing the number in their General Officer corps up to 38 – 4 Generals, 2 Major-Generals, 2 Brigadier-Generals (Regular Army), and 30 Brigadier-Generals (Provisional Army). All but four of these were confirmed.

Florida. At Pensacola, enough carefully secreted materials were recovered to piece together a lighthouse to be installed for the Union’s first deep water port to be captured in Confederate territory. The Union Navy had been carefully shipping most lenses and apparatus from lighthouses around the Confederate coastline to the New York lighthouse depot for re-issue, although some were put back to use almost immediately.

Mississippi. A twenty-minute exchange of fire occurred between the Confederate garrison in Fort Twiggs on Ship Island and the screw steamer USS Massachusetts. Ship Island was later abandoned by the Confederates because it could not be adequately garrisoned or supplied past the Union blockade. The USS Massachusetts returned and took possession of Ship Island in September 1861.

Missouri. Skirmishes occurred at and near Monroe Station, involving the 16th Illinois Infantry under Colonel Robert F Smith.

North Carolina. The Confederate privateer Jefferson Davis captured the American brig Mary E Thompson of Bangor en route to Antigua, and the schooner Mary Goodell of New York en route to Buenos Aires.

Texas. USS South Carolina, Commander James Alden, seized and destroyed the schooner Tom Hicks with a cargo of lumber off Galveston.

Virginia. Incident at Belington.

Virginia. Skirmish at Vienna.

Virginia. Union Major-General George Brinton McClellan’s forces reached the vicinity of Rich Mountain in western Virginia and halted at Roaring Creek.

Virginia. Union Brigadier-General Irvin McDowell’s Army of Northeastern Virginia was scheduled to march to Manassas Junction but a lack of supplies deferred the movement.

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: 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

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 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

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

Confederate Organisation

CSA: Samuel Read Anderson promoted Brigadier-General PACS 9 July 1861.

CSA: Gideon Johnson Pillow promoted Brigadier-General PACS 9 July 1861.

CSA: Benjamin Franklin Cheatham promoted Brigadier-General PACS 9 July 1861.

CSA: Daniel Smith Donelson promoted Brigadier-General PACS 9 July 1861.

CSA: Felix Kirk Zollicoffer promoted Brigadier-General PACS 9 July 1861.

Confederate Seniority

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

District of Harper’s Ferry: Joseph Eggleston Johnston

Army of the Shenandoah: Joseph Eggleston Johnston

Indian Territory: Benjamin McCulloch

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 (Quartermaster-General)

Confederate Generals

Note: Italics, awaiting confirmation of the commission

General ACSA

Samuel Cooper
Albert Sidney Johnston
Robert Edward Lee
Joseph Eggleston Johnston

Major-General PACS

David Emanuel Twiggs
Leonidas Polk

Brigadier-General ACSA

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
Richard Caswell Gatlin
Daniel Smith Donelson
Samuel Read Anderson
Gideon Johnson Pillow
Benjamin Franklin Cheatham
Felix Kirk Zollicoffer