1861 June 5th

June 5 1861 Wednesday

Pig’s Point, VA

Chesapeake Bay Blockade
McClellan’s West Virginia Campaign

Alabama. The USS Niagara, Captain William Wister McKean, captured the Confederate schooner Aid off the coast of Mobile.

Maryland. The gun and arms factory of Merrill and Thomas in Baltimore was taken over by government authorities. The company was noted for the Merrill carbine, a breechloader designed by gunsmith and inventor James H Merrill. It was one of several weapons manufactured or altered by Merrill for the US government. James H Merrill also produced or altered the Jenks-Merrill carbine, the Merrill rifle, and the Merrill, Latrobe, & Thomas Carbine.

Pig’s Point, Virginia, also known as Pig Point. The Union steamer USS Harriet Lane fired on the Confederate batteries at Pig’s Point near Hampton on the James River. The battery was constructed across the Nansemond River from Newport News and equipped with guns captured from the Gosport Navy Yard at Norfolk. Union Major-General Benjamin Butler ordered Captain John Faunce USN to ascertain the strength of the Confederate battery at Pig Point. Faunce attacked the battery but shallow water obliged him to fire his 30 shots from too great a distance. Most rounds fell short of the Confederate position. The Confederate gunners replied and wounded five of the Union steamer’s crew. Faunce determined that the battery was strong and withdrew the Harriett Lane in the face of superior enemy firepower. Confederate Captain Robert Pegram commanded the Pig Point battery (Portsmouth Rifles) and reported that the Harriet Lane fired 33 shots and inflicted no casualties or damage. The Confederates returned fire with 23 shots. A later account stated that the Harriet Lane had disabled a 48-pounder gun at the battery. The Confederates manned the Pig Point battery until they abandoned Norfolk and Portsmouth, Virginia, on 9 March 1862.

Virginia. Captain Garrett J Pendergrast USN reported the capture of the bark General Green by USS Quaker City, Commander Overton Carr, at the Capes of the Chesapeake.

Union Organisation

USA: Robert Cumming Schenck was confirmed Brigadier-General USV 5 June 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861.

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
Western Gunboat Flotilla: John Rodgers
Potomac Flotilla: James Harmon Ward

General–in-Chief: Winfield Scott

Department of Annapolis: John Adams Dix interim Nathaniel Prentiss Banks awaited

Department of the East: John Ellis Wool

Department of Florida: Harvey Brown

Department of Kentucky: Robert Anderson

Department of New Mexico: Edward Richard Sprigg Canby

Department of Northeastern Virginia: Irvin McDowell

Department of the Ohio: 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

Department of the West: Nathaniel Lyon

Confederate Organisation

CSA: The Department of Fredericksburg was established, comprising the field forces of the Potomac Line.
CSA: Command of the Department of Fredericksburg remained temporarily vacant.

CSA: The Potomac Line was discontinued and its field forces transferred to the Department of Fredericksburg.

CSA: Earl Van Dorn was promoted Brigadier-General PACS 5 June 1861.
CSA: Theophilus Hunter Holmes was promoted Brigadier-General PACS 5 June 1861.
CSA: Henry Alexander Wise was promoted Brigadier-General PACS 5 June 1861.

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

Department No 1: David Emanuel Twiggs

“Forces in New Orleans” “Army of Louisiana”: Braxton Bragg

Department of Fredericksburg: Vacant

Department of the Potomac: Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard

Army of the Potomac: Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard

Department of Norfolk: Benjamin Huger

Department of North Carolina: Theophilus Hunter Holmes

Defences of North Carolina: Theophilus Hunter Holmes

Department of the Peninsula: Daniel Harvey Hill temporary

Army of the Peninsula: Daniel Harvey Hill temporary

Department of South Carolina: Daniel Harvey Hill

Department of Southwestern Virginia: William Wing Loring

Department of Texas: Earl Van Dorn

Department of West Florida: Braxton Bragg

“Forces in Pensacola”: Braxton Bragg

Defences of Savannah: Alexander Robert Lawton

Indian Territory: Benjamin McCulloch

Forces in Harper’s Ferry”: Joseph Eggleston Johnston

Forces in Richmond: Thomas Turner Fauntleroy

Forces in the Kanawha Valley: Christopher Quarles Tompkins

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

Major-General PACS

David Emanuel Twiggs

Brigadier-General ACSA

Robert Edward Lee
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