1861 September 16th

September 16 1861 Sunday

Cheat Mountain Campaign, West Virginia
Siege of Lexington
Confederate Invasion of New Mexico
Rosecrans’ West Virginia Campaign

Go to September 17 1861

USA. Captain Silas Horton Stringham USN tendered his resignation as commander of the Atlantic Blockading Squadron. He had received a letter from Acting Secretary of the Navy Gustavus Vasa Fox that he felt indicated disapproval of his measures to enforce the blockade. Stringham’s resignation was accepted on 18 September 1861.

USA. The US Ironclad Board recommended the construction of new ironclad vessels of light draught and floating batteries for river and harbour service. The Board approved the construction of three new designs of ironclad warships (USS Monitor, USS Galena, and USS New Ironsides). These ships and those that followed revolutionised naval warfare.

CSA. Leroy Pope Walker resigned as Confederate Secretary of War and sought a command in the Confederate Army.

Kentucky. USS Conestoga, Lieutenant Seth Ledyard Phelps, captured the Confederate steamers V R Stephenson and Gazelle on the Cumberland River.

Maryland. The Union 34th New York Infantry skirmished with enemy scouts at Seneca Creek, opposite Poolesville.

Mississippi. Confederate forces evacuated Ship Island in Mississippi Sound as the presence of Union naval forces made it impossible to sustain them.

Missouri. Confederate Missouri State “General” D R Atchison crossed the Missouri River to the southern bank during the night and prepared for a fight with Union troops reported to be in the area. Union Lieutenant-Colonel John Scott was encamped nearby in Centreville, ten miles north of Liberty, when he heard artillery fire in the distance.

Virginia. Colonel Robert Latimer McCook’s Union brigade joined Brigadier-General Jacob Dolson Cox near Carnifex Ferry and the combined force advanced to Spy Rock, on their way to confront the Confederates at Sewell Mountain.

Virginia. Incidents at Harper’s Ferry, Magruder’s Ferry, and Princeton.

Union Organisation

USA: William Nelson promoted Brigadier-General USV 16 September 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: 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: Benjamin Lloyd Beall
• District of Southern California: George Wright awaited

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

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

• 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

• 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
Horatio Gouverneur Wright
Edward Otho Cresap Ord
William Nelson

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

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
Simon Bolivar Buckner