September 10 1861 Monday
Battle of Carnifex Ferry, VA (CWSAC Major Battle Union Victory)
Lucas Bend, MO
Confederate Invasion of New Mexico
Cheat Mountain Campaign, West Virginia
Rosecrans’ West Virginia Campaign
Kentucky. Union Brigadier-General George Henry Thomas was ordered to take command at Camp Dick Robinson and to prepare the recruits for a campaign in eastern Kentucky.
Missouri. Reconnaissance to Columbus ended.
Missouri. Union Brigadier-General John Alexander McClernand began a reconnaissance to Norfolk.
Lucas Bend, Missouri. The gunboats USS Conestoga (Lieutenant Seth Ledyard Phelps) and USS Lexington (Commander Stembel) covered a troop advance and silenced the guns of a Confederate battery. They also put an 8-inch shot through the side and the wheelhouse of the gunboat CSS Jackson (formerly the steamer Yankee) at Lucas Bend, forcing the ship to retire on one engine.
North Carolina. USS Pawnee (Commander Stephen Clegg Rowan) captured the schooner Susan Jane off Beaufort in Hatteras Inlet.
North Carolina. USS Cambridge (Commander W A Pqrker0 captured the British blockade-running schooner Revere off Beaufort with a cargo of salt and herring.
Virginia. The 79th New York Infantry and 5th Wisconsin Infantry began a reconnaissance to Lewinsville.
Virginia. Incidents at Little River Turnpike, Gauley Bridge, and Gauley River.
Virginia. Union Brigadier-General Joseph Jones Reynolds’ brigade was guarding the Staunton-Parkersburg road and held entrenchments on the summit of Cheat Mountain and in the Tygart Valley. The Union 14th Indiana Infantry under Colonel Nathan Kimball was holding the summit of Cheat Mountain, seven miles distant along the mountain trail and eighteen miles by wagon road through Huttonsville. The remainder of Reynolds’ force was at Elkwater. Reynolds’s brigade blocked the line of advance that Confederate General Robert Edward Lee intended to follow with the Army of the Northwest, which was led locally by Brigadier-General William Wing Loring. Lee overrode Loring’s opinion that poor weather had produced impassable roads and enforced inactivity in the region. Loring was ordered to advance despite the conditions and he soon found two concealed routes to attack Reynolds’ main position. Loring’s main force had three brigades under Colonel Jesse S Burks, Brigadier-General Daniel Smith Donelson, and Colonel William Gilham. They advanced along the valley towards Elkwater to the west of Cheat Mountain.
Meanwhile, Confederate Colonel Albert Rust had discovered a way to envelop the Cheat Mountain position from the west and he was directed to make a surprise attack with his 2,000 men. To complete the manoeuvre, a further brigade under Brigadier-General Samuel Read Anderson was to penetrate two and a half miles deeper behind Kimball on Cheat Mountain while Brigadier-General Henry Rootes Jackson’s brigade waited to occupy the summit along the Monterey road. The advancing force set out to their objectives through the rugged mountain terrain.
Carnifex Ferry, Virginia. After the Confederate forces under Brigadier-General John Buchanan Floyd had crossed the Gauley River in August and routed the inexperienced 7th Ohio Infantry of Colonel Erastus Barnard Tyler at Kessler’s Cross Lanes, Floyd encamped near Carnifex Ferry. The Confederates began throwing up entrenchments on the Henry Patterson farm (located on the rim of the Gauley River Canyon near Summersville).
Concerned about Floyd’s drive to reclaim the Kanawha Valley, Union Brigadier-General William Starke Rosecrans decided to move southwards from Clarksburg to support Tyler’s exposed regiment. Union Brigadier-General Benjamin Franklin Kelley was left to defend the Upper Potomac, while Brigadier-General Joseph Jones Reynolds protected the Cheat Mountain district. Rosecrans’ advance was made by the brigades of Brigadier-General Henry Washington Benham, Colonel Robert Latimer McCook, and Colonel Eliakim Parker Scammon. Moving into position during the afternoon, Rosecrans advanced from Sutton against Floyd’s campsite at Carnifex Ferry and attacked. Benham’s brigade and the 10th Ohio Infantry were the only part of the force to deliver an attack against the well-organised defences at about 3 pm. Several unsuccessful assaults were made in heavy woodland by these five Union regiments but most of the 7,000 men available nearby at Sutton could not reach the field. By nightfall, Rosecrans had called off the attack as he could not bring all his troops into action.
Although Floyd held his positions, the strength of the Union artillery convinced him to retreat during the night across Carnifex Ferry to the south side of the Gauley River. After dark, the Confederates retired from camp Gauley toward Dogwood Gap. They subsequently moved eastward to Meadow Bluff near Lewisburg. Floyd, seeking to deflect the blame for the retreat, placed the responsibility on his co-commander Brigadier-General Henry Alexander Wise who was encamped twelve miles distant. Floyd and Wise each refused to march to the aid of the other, furthering the dissension that marked the Confederate high command in western Virginia.
The Union attack was a tactical failure but it nevertheless assured Union control of the Kanawha Valley. This small but significant victory was an important factor in the successful vote for the separation of the new state of West Virginia from Virginia.
Casualties on both sides combined were about 250 men, alternatively, the Confederate Army of the Kanawha numbered between 3,500 and 5,800 men and reported 20 casualties. Union casualties were reported as 17 killed and 141 or 142 wounded. (CWSAC Major Battle Union Victory)
ORDER OF BATTLE: CARNIFEX FERRY, VA
Union Department of the Ohio: Brigadier-General William Starke Rosecrans
Army of Occupation: Brigadier-General William Starke Rosecrans
1st Brigade (Occupation): Brigadier-General Henry Washington Benham
2nd Brigade (Occupation): Colonel Robert Latimer McCook
3rd Brigade (Occupation): Colonel Eliakim Parker Scammon
Confederate Department of the Potomac: General Joseph Eggleston Johnston
Army of the Kanawha: Brigadier-General John Buchanan Floyd
Floyd’s Brigade (Kanawha): Brigadier-John Buchanan Floyd
Union Organisation
USA: James Wolfe Ripley confirmed Brigadier-General USA 10 September 1861 to rank from 3 August 1861 Chief of Ordnance
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: Andrew Hull Foote
Potomac Flotilla: Thomas Tingey Craven
General–in-Chief: Winfield Scott
Department of the Cumberland: Robert Anderson awaited
Department of the East: Vacant
Department of Florida: Harvey Brown
Department of the Ohio: William Starke Rosecrans
- Cheat Mountain District: Joseph Jones Reynolds
- District of Grafton: Benjamin Franklin Kelley
- Army of Occupation: William Starke Rosecrans
Department of the Pacific: Edwin Vose Sumner
- District of Oregon: 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
Confederate Organisation
CSA: The Western Department was extended to include Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and Arkansas.
CSA: General Albert Sidney Johnston assumed command of the Western Department, succeeding Major-General Leonidas Polk.
CSA: The Indian Territory was discontinued as an autonomous military command and designation and the region was subordinated to the Western Department as the District of the Indian Territory.
CSA: The District of the Indian Territory was established in the Western Department.
CSA: Brigadier-General Benjamin McCulloch assumed command of the District of the Indian Territory.
CSA: The District of East Tennessee was transferred and subordinated to the Western Department.
CSA: Brigadier-General Felix Kirk Zollicoffer retained command of the District of East Tennessee.
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
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
- Defences of North Carolina: Theophilus Hunter Holmes interim Joseph Reid Anderson awaited
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
- Army of the Valley: Thomas Jonathan Jackson
Department of South Carolina: Roswell Sabine Ripley
Department of Southwestern Virginia: William Wing Loring
Department of Texas: Henry Eustace McCullough temporary Paul Octave Hébert awaited
- Defences 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 the Indian Territory: Benjamin McCulloch
- Western Army: Benjamin McCulloch
- District of East Tennessee: Felix Kirk Zollicoffer
Defences of Savannah: Alexander Robert Lawton
Forces in Richmond: Charles Dimmock
Army of the Kanawha: John Buchanan Floyd
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
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
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
Brigadier-General ACSA
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
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
American Civil War High Command 