May 29 1861 Wednesday
Aquia Creek, VA
Chesapeake Bay Blockade
McClellan’s West Virginia Campaign
USA. Union Brigadier-General William Selby Harney, commanding the Department of the West, was formally relieved of command. He had been previously suspended because of the embarrassment caused by his expression of explicit pro-slaveholding views in Missouri. By exposing Harney’s partiality to the secessionist cause, Union Brigadier-General Nathaniel Lyon eliminated the Confederate sympathiser Harney from military command in Missouri. Harney retained his commission in the US Army but was never assigned again to a significant command.
District of Columbia. The US Secretary of War Simeon Cameron accepted the offer of Dorothea Dix to establish Federal Military hospitals.
Louisiana. The Confederate privateer J C Calhoun captured the American brig Panama, which was taken to New Orleans with two earlier prizes, the American schooners Mermaid and John Adams.
Louisiana. USS Powhatan, Commander David Dixon Porter, captured the schooner Mary Clinton attempting to run the blockade near Southwest Pass of the Mississippi River.
Maryland. Union forces began to move through Maryland towards Harper’s Ferry, Virginia.
Virginia. The Confederate garrison at Harper’s Ferry retired to Martinsburg as enemy forces approached the Potomac River from the north.
Virginia. Union forces including 1st Vermont Infantry, Colonel John A Bendix’s 7th New York Infantry, 4th Massachusetts Infantry, Scott’s Life Guards, and a detachment of US Regular artillerymen completed the occupation of Newport News. Major-General Benjamin Franklin Butler established a camp within artillery range of Fort Monroe at Hampton and set up another fortified camp at Newport News, about 8 miles from the fort.
Aquia Creek, Virginia. The USS Thomas Freeborn (a converted 250-ton paddle-wheel steamer mounting three guns) bombarded Confederate batteries near the mouth of Aquia Creek. The Confederate garrison under Colonel Daniel Ruggles prepared for a landing of troops, but this did not arise. The Confederates reported that the USS Thomas Freeborn fired 14 shots and wounded one man in the hand.
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
Western Gunboat Flotilla: John Rodgers
Potomac Flotilla: James Harmon Ward
General–in-Chief: Winfield Scott
Department of Annapolis: John Adams Dix
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
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: William Selby Harney
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
Department No 1: David Emanuel Twiggs awaited
- “Forces in New Orleans” “Army of Louisiana”: Braxton Bragg
Department of Alexandria: Milledge Luke Bonham
- Army of the Potomac: Milledge Luke Bonham
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 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
Potomac Line: Daniel Ruggles
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
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
American Civil War High Command 