1861 November 1st

November 1 1861 Thursday

Port Royal Expedition
East Kentucky Operations

Go to November 2 1861

USA. The high command of the Union armies experienced a radical reformation. Following an extended effort by Union Major-General George Brinton McClellan to secure the removal of the superannuated General-in-Chief, Major-General Winfield Scott finally retired from active military command. Scott was acknowledged as the greatest commander of the US Army of the 19^th Century to date but McClellan was nevertheless able to manipulate his retirement. McClellan exhibited the youth and dynamism demanded by the public and he was chafing under the apparent slowness of his superior officer. To the public, Scott appeared old, infirm, rigid, pompous, and out of touch. Scott accepted that he was incapable of field command due to age and infirmity but his strategic acumen was sound. His so-called “Anaconda Plan”, devised at the outbreak of war, remained the guiding strategic vision of the Union high command until it was successfully fulfilled in 1865.
McClellan was appointed in Scott’s place as General-in-Chief in supreme command of the US Army and the Union armies. McClellan combined this role with active field command of the Department and Army of the Potomac. The following day, as one of the first actions of the post-Scott era, the inept Major-General John Charles Frémont would be replaced in the Western Department.
McClellan enjoyed the title of General-in-Chief but he did not question or revise Scott’s original “Anaconda Plan” as the over-arching strategic vision. McClellan’s primary and almost exclusive focus was the capture of the Confederate capital and his attention remained fixed almost exclusively on Virginia. He saw this as the fulcrum of the war and he would leave his subordinates to manage affairs in the other theatres. With Scott’s departure, only three Major-Generals were now active in the US Army – McClellan, Frémont, and Henry Wager Halleck. Frémont – next in seniority behind McClellan – would return to a new command in the spring of 1862, only to fail again. Halleck directed the major operations in the West. No more Major-Generals would be appointed in the US Regular Army until 1863, and that was only after James Ellis Wool was retrospectively promoted on his retirement on 1 August 1862 to rank from 16 May 1862. Ulysses Simpson Grant would not be promoted to the grade until 7 July 1863, in recognition of his victory at Vicksburg on 4 July 1863.
For the time being at least, McClellan held supreme authority and enjoyed the confidence of the President, the Army, and the people. His prominence depended on achieving success promptly in the eastern theatre.

Missouri. Expedition from Rolla began.

Missouri. Skirmish at Renick.

Missouri. Union forces under Brigadier-General Alexander Asboth and Brigadier-General Franz Sigel reported that the Confederate advanced guard was at Wilson’s Creek, nine miles away from their own camps. The enemy’s main body was detected on the road leading from the headquarters of Missouri State Major-General Sterling Price at Cassville.

South Carolina. The Union expeditionary fleet approaching Port Royal maintained its formation as it moved down the coast until it had passed Cape Hatteras. As it passed into South Carolina waters, however, the wind increased to gale force. In the mid-afternoon, Captain Samuel Francis Du Pont USN ordered the fleet to disregard the order of sailing and for each ship to make its own way. Most of the ships managed to ride out the storm, some had to abort their mission and return home for repairs, while others were lost. The gunboat USS Isaac Smith had to jettison most of her guns in order to stay afloat. Three ships carrying food and ammunition (Union, Peerless, and Osceola) were sunk or driven ashore without loss of life. Confederate authorities deduced from observation that the objective of the large Union naval expedition that left Hampton Roads, Virginia on 27-28 October 1861 was Port Royal.

Texas. Incident at Peosi River. A Confederate force commanded by Colonel Henry Eustace McCullough engaged a group of Indians at the Peosi River and drove them away.

Virginia. Skirmishes at Gauley Bridge and Cotton Hill. A Confederate force commanded by Brigadier-General John Buchanan Floyd opened fire with artillery on the Union camp of Brigadier-General William Starke Rosecrans at Cotton Hill near Gauley Bridge. The Confederates attempted for two days to dislodge the Union troops from their position but had no means of crossing the New River. The Confederates held their ground so Rosecrans planned his next movement to force their withdrawal.

Union Organisation

USA: Winfield Scott retired as General-in-Chief of the US Army.

USA: George Brinton McClellan was appointed Commanding General or General-in-Chief of the US Army, succeeding Major-General Winfield Scott.

USA: George Washington Cullum promoted Brigadier-General USV 12 November 1861 to rank from 1 November 1861.

Commander in Chief: President Abraham Lincoln
Vice-President: Hannibal Hamlin
Secretary of War: Simon Cameron
Secretary of the Navy: Gideon Welles

North Atlantic Blockading Squadron: Louis Malesherbes Goldsborough
South Atlantic Blockading Squadron: Samuel Francis Du Pont
Gulf Blockading Squadron: William McKean
Pacific Squadron: John Berrien Montgomery
Western Gunboat Flotilla: Andrew Hull Foote
Potomac Flotilla: Thomas Tingey Craven

General–in-Chief: George Brinton McClellan

Department of the Cumberland: William Tecumseh Sherman

Department of Florida: Harvey Brown

Department of New England: Benjamin Franklin Butler

Department of New York: Edward Denison Morgan

Department of the Ohio: Ormsby McKnight Mitchel

• District of Grafton: Benjamin Franklin Kelley

Department of the Pacific: George Wright

• District of Oregon: Albemarle Cady
• District of Southern California: James Henry Carleton

Department of the Potomac: George Brinton McClellan

• District of Harper’s Ferry and Cumberland: Benjamin Franklin Kelley
• Army of the Potomac: George Brinton McClellan

Department of Texas: Vacant

Department of Virginia: John Ellis Wool

Western Department: John Charles Frémont

• District of Western Kentucky: Charles Ferguson Smith
• District of North Missouri: John Pope
• District of Southeast Missouri: Ulysses Simpson Grant
• Southern District of New Mexico: Benjamin Stone Roberts

Department of Western Virginia: William Starke Rosecrans

• District of the Kanawha: Jacob Dolson Cox

Confederate Organisation

CSA: The Army of Eastern Kentucky was established in the Western Department, to defend the Cumberland Gap and eastern Kentucky.
CSA: Brigadier-General Humphrey Marshall assumed command of the Army of Eastern Kentucky.

Commander in Chief: President Jefferson Finis Davis
Vice-President: Alexander Hamilton Stephens
Secretary of War: Judah Philip Benjamin
Secretary of the Navy: Stephen Russell Mallory

Military Adviser to the President: Robert Edward Lee

Department No 1: Mansfield Lovell

Department of Alabama and West Florida: Braxton Bragg

• District of Alabama: Jones Mitchell Withers
• Army of Pensacola Braxton Bragg

Department of Georgia: Alexander Robert Lawton

Department of Henrico: John Henry Winder

Department of Middle and Eastern Florida: James Heyward Trapier

Department of Norfolk: Benjamin Huger

Department of North Carolina: Richard Caswell Gatlin

• District of Cape Fear: Joseph Reid Anderson
• District of Pamlico: Daniel Harvey Hill

Department of Northern Virginia: Joseph Eggleston Johnston

• District of Aquia: Robert Augustus Toombs
• District of the Potomac: Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard
• Army of the Potomac: Joseph Eggleston Johnston
  • I Corps Potomac: Earl Van Dorn
  • II Corps Potomac: Gustavus Woodson Smith
• Valley District: Thomas Jonathan Jackson
  • Army of the Valley: Thomas Jonathan Jackson

Department of the Peninsula: John Bankhead Magruder

• Army of the Peninsula: John Bankhead Magruder

Department of South Carolina: Roswell Sabine Ripley

Department of Southwestern Virginia: William Wing Loring

Department of Texas: Paul Octave Hébert

• District of Galveston: John Creed Moore
• Defences of Pass Cavallo: John W Glenn

Western Department: Albert Sidney Johnston

• First Geographical Division: Leonidas Polk
• District of Upper Arkansas: William Joseph Hardee
• District of the Indian Territory: Benjamin McCulloch
• Army of Central Kentucky: Albert Sidney Johnston
• Army of Eastern Kentucky: Humphrey Marshall
• Western Army: Benjamin McCulloch
• District of East Tennessee: Felix Kirk Zollicoffer

District of Arizona: John Robert Baylor

Forces in Richmond: Charles Dimmock

Army of the Northwest: William Wing Loring

Union Generals

Note: Italics, awaiting confirmation of the commission

Major-General USA

Winfield Scott RET
George Brinton McClellan
John Charles Frémont
Henry Wager Halleck

Major-General USV

John Adams Dix
Nathaniel Prentiss Banks
Benjamin Franklin Butler
David Hunter
Edwin Denison Morgan

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
Erasmus Darwin Keyes
Andrew Porter
Fitz-John Porter
William Buel Franklin
William Tecumseh Sherman
Charles Pomeroy Stone
Don Carlos Buell
Thomas West Sherman
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
George Henry Thomas
Ambrose Everett Burnside
Henry Hayes Lockwood
Louis Blenker
Henry Warner Slocum
James Samuel Wadsworth
John James Peck
Ormsby McKnight Mitchel
George Webb Morell
John Henry Martindale
Samuel Davis Sturgis
George Stoneman
Henry Washington Benham
William Farrar Smith
James William Denver
Egbert Ludovicus Vielé
James Shields
John Fulton Reynolds
William Farquhar Barry
John Joseph Abercrombie
John Sedgwick
Charles Ferguson Smith
Silas Casey
Lawrence Pike Graham
George Gordon Meade
Abram Duryée
Alexander McDowell McCook
Oliver Otis Howard
Eleazar Arthur Paine
Daniel Edgar Sickles
Charles Davis Jameson
Ebenezer Dumont
Robert Huston Milroy
Lewis Wallace
Willis Arnold Gorman
Daniel Butterfield
Horatio Gouverneur Wright
Edward Otho Cresap Ord
William Nelson
William Thomas Ward
John Gross Barnard
Innis Newton Palmer
Seth Williams
John Newton
Winfield Scott Hancock
Thomas Leonidas Crittenden
George Wright
Isaac Ingalls Stevens
Thomas Williams
George Sykes
William Henry French
William Thomas Harbaugh Brooks
John Milton Brannan
William Wallace Burns
John Porter Hatch
David Sloane Stanley
William Kerley Strong
Albin Francisco Schoepf
Lovell Harrison Rousseau
James Scott Negley
Thomas John Wood
Richard W Johnson
Adolph Wilhelm August Friedrich Von Steinwehr
Joseph Bennett Plummer
John Gray Foster
George Washington Cullum

Brigadier-General USA (Staff)

Montgomery Cunningham Meigs (Quartermaster-General)
Henry Knox Craig
Lorenzo Thomas (Adjutant-General)
James Wolfe Ripley (Ordnance)

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

Leonidas Polk
Braxton Bragg
Earl Van Dorn
Gustavus Woodson Smith
Theophilus Hunter Holmes
William Joseph Hardee
Benjamin Huger
James Longstreet
John Bankhead Magruder
Mansfield Lovell
Thomas Jonathan Jackson
Edmund Kirby Smith

Brigadier-General PACS

Alexander Robert Lawton
Milledge Lake Bonham
Benjamin McCulloch
William Wing Loring
Charles Clark
John Buchanan Floyd
Henry Rootes Jackson
Henry Alexander Wise
Richard Stoddert Ewell
David Rumph Jones
John Clifford Pemberton
Henry Hopkins Sibley
John Henry Winder
Richard Caswell Gatlin
Daniel Smith Donelson
Samuel Read Anderson
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
Isaac Ridgway Trimble
Daniel Ruggles
George Bibb Crittenden
Roswell Sabine Ripley
Albert Pike
Paul Octave Hébert
Joseph Reid Anderson
Simon Bolivar Buckner
Leroy Pope Walker
Albert Gallatin Blanchard
Gabriel James Rains
James Ewell Brown Stuart
Lafayette McLaws
Thomas Fenwick Drayton
Thomas Carmichael Hindman
Adley Hogan Gladden
John Porter McCown
Lloyd Tilghman
Nathan George Evans
Cadmus Marcellus Wilcox
Philip St George Cocke
Robert Emmett Rodes
Richard Taylor
Louis Trezevant Wigfall
James Heyward Trapier
Samuel Gibbs French
William Henry Carroll
Hugh Weedon Mercer
Humphrey Marshall
Daniel Marsh Frost