1861 October 4th

October 4 1861 Thursday

Go to October 5 1861

District of Columbia. Professor Thaddeus Lowe demonstrated a balloon ascent to US President Abraham Lincoln.

Indian Territory. The Confederates concluded Peace Treaties with the Cherokee and Shawnee Indian Nations.

Kentucky. Skirmish at Buffalo Hill.

Louisiana. USS South Carolina, Commander James Alden, captured the Confederate schooners Ezilda and Joseph H Toone off the South West Pass of the Mississippi River, carrying four to five thousand stand of arms.

Maryland. Union Brigadier-General Charles Pomeroy Stone skirmished near Edwards Ferry.

New Mexico Territory. Skirmish at Alamoosa near Fort Craig.

North Carolina. The Confederates probed Union positions at Chickacomico.

Virginia. Confederate Major-General Earl Van Dorn arrived from Texas to assume command of an unofficial Corps in the Army of the Potomac. The other Corps was assigned to Major-General Gustavus Woodson Smith. The army remained in the hands of General Joseph Eggleston Johnston, assisted by his second-in-command (effectively acting as Chief of Staff) General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard.

Virginia. Incidents at Edwards Ferry and Cheat Mountain.

Union Organisation

USA: Brigadier-General George Wright arrived to command the District of Southern California.

Commander in Chief: President Abraham Lincoln

Vice-President: Hannibal Hamlin

Secretary of War: Simon Cameron

Secretary of the Navy: Gideon Welles

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

General–in-Chief: Winfield Scott

Department of the Cumberland: Robert Anderson

Department of the East: Vacant

Department of Florida: Harvey Brown

Department of New England: Benjamin Franklin Butler awaited

Department of the Ohio: Ormsby McKnight Mitchel

• District of Grafton: Benjamin Franklin Kelley

Department of the Pacific: Edwin Vose Sumner

• District of Oregon: Benjamin Lloyd Beall
• District of Southern California: George Wright

Department of the Potomac: George Brinton McClellan

• 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
• Western Army: John Charles Frémont

Department of Western Virginia: William Starke Rosecrans awaited

Confederate Organisation

CSA: Brigadier-General Daniel Harvey Hill arrived to command the District of Pamlico.

Hill, Daniel Harvey / South Carolina / Born 12 July 1821 York, South Carolina / Died Charlotte, North Carolina 24 September 1889
USMA 1 July 1842 28 /56 Artillery-Infantry / Cadet USMA 1 July 1838 / 1^st US Artillery 1 July 1842 / 3^rd US Artillery 20 October 1843 / 2^nd Lieutenant USA 4^th US Artillery 13 October 1845 / 1^st Lieutenant USA 3 March 1847 / Resigned USA 28 February 1849 / Colonel PACS 1^st North Carolina Infantry 10 May 1861 / Brigadier-General PACS 10 July 1861 / Major-General PACS 25 March 1862 to rank from 26 March 1862 / Resigned PACS 1 January 1863 Refused / Lieutenant-General PACS (Special) 11 July 1863 Unconfirmed Expired 11 October 1863 / Reverted Major-General PACS 15 October 1863 / ADC (P G T Beauregard) 5 May 1864-17 May 1864 / ADC (P G T Beauregard) 21 May 1864-13 June 1864 / Assistant Inspector-General 10 July 1864 / Paroled Greensboro, North Carolina 1 May 1865 / Brevet 2^nd Lieutenant USA 1 July 1842 Brevet Captain USA 20 August 1847 Brevet Major USA 13 September 1847 / WIA Big Bethel 10 June 1861
Department of South Carolina 27 May 1861-20 August 1861 / Department of the Peninsula 31 May 1861-17 June 1861 / Army of the Peninsula 31 May 1861-17 June 1861 / Department of Fredericksburg 17 July 1861-22 October 1861 / District of Pamlico 29 September 1861-16 November 1861 / Hill’s Division Army of the Peninsula November 1861 / 1^st Brigade 3^rd Division Department of Northern Virginia 16 November 1861-January 1862 / Hill’s Division District of the Potomac January 1862-March 1862 / 4^th Division Army of Northern Virginia 14 March 1862-31 May 1862 / Centre Wing Northern Virginia 14 March 1862-1 June 1862 / Hill’s Division Left Wing Army of Northern Virginia 1 June 1862-10 July 1862 / Department of North Carolina 17 July 1862-19 September 1862 / Valley District 6 September 1862-29 December 1862 / Hill’s Division Defences of Richmond 14 January 1863-26 February 1863 / Department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia 14 January 1863-16 February 1863 / Department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia 23 February 1863-26 February 1863 / Department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia 28 May 1863-1 July 1863 / Department of Richmond 1 July 1863-13 July 1863 / II Corps Tennessee 24 July 1863-14 October 1863 / Hill’s Division Department of Richmond 17 May 1864-21 May 1864 / Assistant Inspector-General Department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia 10 July 1864 / District of Georgia 21 January 1865-10 April 1865 / Army of Tennessee 22 February 1865-16 March 1865 / I Corps Tennessee 16 March 1865-8 April 1865 / Hill’s Division II Corps Army of Tennessee 9 April 1865-26 April 1865

CSA: Major-General Earl Van Dorn was appointed to command I Corps (Potomac), succeeding General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard who became the Second-in-Command or Chief of Staff to General Joseph Eggleston Johnston.

Van Dorn, Earl / Mississippi / Born 17 September 1820 Port Gibson, Mississippi / Died Spring Hill, Tennessee 7 May 1863
USMA 1 July 1842 52/56 Infantry / Cadet USMA 1 July 1838 / 7^th US Infantry 1 July 1842 / 2^nd Lieutenant USA 30 November 1844 / 1^st Lieutenant USA 3 March 1847 / Captain USA 2^nd US Cavalry 3 March 1855 / Major USA 28 June 1860 / Resigned USA 31 January 1861 / Brigadier-General Mississippi Militia 23 January 1861 / Major-General Mississippi Militia 18 February 1861 / Colonel ACSA Infantry 16 March 1861 / Colonel PACS 1^st Confederate Regular Cavalry 25 April 1861 / Brigadier-General PACS 5 June 1861 / Major-General PACS 19 September 1861 / Brevet 2^nd Lieutenant USA 1 July 1842 Brevet Captain USA 18 April 1847 Brevet Major USA 20 August 1847 / WIA Belen Gate 3 September 1847 WIA Wichita, Indian Territory 1 October 1858
Department of Texas 11 April 1861-17 September 1861 / 1^st Division Army of the Potomac 24 September 1861-10 January 1862 / I Corps Potomac 4 October 1861-10 January 1862 / Trans-Mississippi District 10 January 1862-30 May 1862 / Army of the West 19 January 1862-24 June 1862 / District of Southern Mississippi and Eastern Louisiana 26 May 1862-5 September 1862 / Department No 1 20 June 1862-25 June 1862 / District of the Mississippi 2 July 1862-5 September 1862 / Army of West Tennessee 28 September 1862-9 December 1862 / Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana 12 October 1862-13 October 1862 / 1^st Division Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana 9 December 1862-17 December 1862 / I Corps Mississippi 7 December 1862-14 December 1862 / Army of Mississippi 9 December 1862-16 December 1862 / Cavalry Division Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana 13 January 1863-20 January 1863 / Cavalry Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana 20 January 1863-February 1863 / Cavalry Division Army of Tennessee February 1863-16 March 1863 / Cavalry Corps Tennessee 16 March 1863-7 May 1863

CSA: Major-General Gustavus Woodson Smith arrived to command II Corps (Potomac).

Smith, Gustavus Woodson / Kentucky / Born 1 January 1822 Georgetown, Kentucky / Died New York, New York 24 June 1896
USMA 1 July 1842 856 Engineers / Cadet USMA 1 July 1838 / Engineers 1 July 1842 / 2^nd Lieutenant USA 1 January 1845 / 1^st Lieutenant USA 3 March 1855 / Resigned USA 18 December 1854 / Major-General PACS 19 September 1861 / Resigned as Major-General PACS 17 February 1863 / ADC (P G T Beauregard 1863 / Major-General Georgia Militia 1 June 1864-26 April 1865 / Paroled 26 April 1865 / Brevet 2^nd Lieutenant USA 1 July 1842 Brevet 1^st Lieutenant USA 18 April 1847 Brevet Captain USA 20 August 1847 / CIA Macon 20 April 1865
2^nd Division Army of the Potomac 25 September 1861-5 February 1862 / II Corps Potomac 25 September 1861-14 March 1862 / 1^st Division Army of the Potomac 5 February 1862-14 March 1862 / 2^nd Division Army of Northern Virginia 14 March 1862-23 March 1862 / Left Wing Northern Virginia 14 March 1862 -25 June 1862 / 5^th Division Army of Northern Virginia 5 May 1862-May 1862 / District of Aquia 22 March 1862-6 September 1862 / Department of Northern Virginia 31 May 1862-1 June 1862 / Army of Northern Virginia 31 May 1862-1 June 1862 / Defences of Richmond 2 July 1862-30 August 1862 / Department of Richmond 30 August 1862-12 December 1862 / Department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia 19 September 1862-14 January 1863

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: David Emanuel Twiggs

• District of Alabama: Jones Mitchell Withers

Department of Fredericksburg: Daniel Harvey Hill

• District of Aquia: vacant

Department of Middle and Eastern Florida: John Breckinridge Grayson

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 the Peninsula: John Bankhead Magruder

• Army of the Peninsula: John Bankhead Magruder

Department of the Potomac: Joseph Eggleston Johnston

• Army of the Potomac: Joseph Eggleston Johnston
  • I Corps Potomac: Earl Van Dorn
  • II Corps Potomac: Gustavus Woodson Smith
• Army of the Valley: Thomas Jonathan Jackson

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

Department of West Florida: Braxton Bragg

• “Forces in Pensacola”: Braxton Bragg

Western Department: Albert Sidney Johnston

• First Geographical Division: Leonidas Polk
• District of Upper Arkansas: William Joseph Hardee
• District of East Tennessee: Felix Kirk Zollicoffer
• District of the Indian Territory: Benjamin McCulloch
• Army of Central Kentucky: Simon Bolivar Buckner
• Western Army: Benjamin McCulloch

District of Arizona: John Robert Baylor

Defences of Savannah: Alexander Robert Lawton

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
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

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

David Emanuel Twiggs
Leonidas Polk
Braxton Bragg
Earl Van Dorn
Gustavus Woodson Smith

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
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
John Henry Winder
Richard Caswell Gatlin
Daniel Smith Donelson
Samuel Read Anderson
Gideon Johnson Pillow
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
John Breckinridge Grayson
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