1862 April 11th

April 11 1862 Friday

Battle of Fort Pulaski, GA (CWSAC Major Battle Union Victory)
Siege of Beaufort, NC
Hampton Roads, VA

Burnside’s Expedition to North Carolina
Peninsula Campaign – Siege of Yorktown
Operations at New Orleans
Siege of Fort Pulaski
Sibley’s Operations in New Mexico

Go to April 12 1862

Gibraltar. Commander Thomas A Craven of USS Tuscarora reported that the commerce raider CSS Sumter had been abandoned at Gibraltar after USS Tuscarora had closely blockaded the ship in the port. In a spectacular but abbreviated career aboard CSS Sumter, Captain Raphael Semmes had captured 18 vessels to an estimated value of $1,000,000.

CSA. The Confederate Nitre and Mining Corps was established under the control of the Ordnance Bureau to ensure the supply of nitrates, coal, lead, iron, and saltpetre for the production of munitions. Captain Isaac Munroe St John was appointed to command the Bureau.

Alabama. A Union force commanded by Brigadier-General Ormsby McKnight Mitchel entered the city of Huntsville on the Memphis & Charleston Railroad. This was the deepest penetration into Confederate territory that any large Union force had yet achieved. Mitchel headed a detached division of the Army of the Ohio and was responsible for the defence of Nashville from his headquarters in the vicinity of Shelbyville. He seized Huntsville without a shot being fired after his troops made a surprise march from Shelbyville. The Confederates from Major-General Edmund Kirby Smith’s command were unable to defend Huntsville and were forced to withdraw.

Colorado Territory. John Evans was appointed Governor of Colorado Territory, arriving on May 16 1862.

District of Columbia. The US House of Representatives voted 93-39 to gradually abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. Calculations of the value of slaves suggested that compensated emancipation of all slaves in the District of Columbia, Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri would cost no more than three months of the expense of continuing the war. US President Abraham Lincoln proposed this policy to Congress but it was rejected with little debate.

Georgia. At midnight, James J Andrews and 22 Ohio volunteer raiders met up at Marietta after travelling south by train from Chattanooga, Tennessee, with the intention of carrying out sabotage along the Georgia State Railroad.

Fort Pulaski, Georgia. The Union artillery bombardment of Fort Pulaski on Tybee Island continued until 2 pm and enlarged the breach made the previous day. Overnight, Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont’s flagship USS Wabash detached 100 sailors under Commander Christopher Raymond Perry Rodgers to man four 30-pounder Parrott rifles at Battery Sigel. During the morning, with the wind picking up from right to left and affecting shell trajectories the Union artillery resumed the bombardment, concentrating their fire to enlarge the breach. The Confederate gunners responded but could only harass the besiegers. Using 36 guns, including the new James Rifled Cannon and 30-pounder Parrott rifles, Union gunners began the lengthy bombardment of Fort Pulaski. The rifled projectiles could be accurately fired farther (4 to 5 miles) than the larger and heavier smoothbore projectiles. Within 30 hours, the new rifled cannon had breached one of the fort’s corner walls. Shells passed through the fort dangerously close to the main powder magazine, which held twenty tons of powder. Fearing a catastrophic explosion, Olmstead reluctantly surrendered the fort at 2.30 pm to Union Brigadier-General Thomas West Sherman.
Union Captain of Engineers Quincy Adams Gillmore succeeded unexpectedly quickly because of the range and striking power of his new rifled guns, which had caused massive damage to the walls of the fort. The rapid reduction of Fort Pulaski by rifled artillery proved in a single day that all other masonry fortifications around the world were obsolete.  Gillmore was rewarded with a promotion to Brigadier-General of US Volunteers.
Within six weeks of the surrender, Union forces had repaired the Fort and all shipping in and out of Savannah ceased. Fort Pulaski became a final destination on the Underground Railroad as slaves throughout the area were freed upon arrival on Cockspur Island. The garrison of Union soldiers reached 600 during the initial occupation, but as it became obvious that the Confederates forces could not retake the fort, the garrison was later reduced to about 250 men. Later in the war, the fort held prisoners of war.
The fall of the fort meant that the port of Savannah was closed to Confederate traffic and blockade runners although the city remained in Confederate hands until 1864. The Union Navy was able to extend its blockade and aids to navigation down the Atlantic coast, and then redeployed most of the 10,000 troops allocated to the attack. The Confederates blocked any further Union advance towards the city for over three months and secured the city from occupation from the seaward direction until 1865.
The Confederates lost one man killed, one wounded and 360 captured while the Union lost one man killed in the siege. (CWSAC Major Battle Union Victory)

ORDER OF BATTLE: FORT PULASKI, GA

Union Department of the South: Major-General David Hunter
Northern District (South) Brigadier-General Henry Washington Benham
Forces, Daufuskie Island (South): Brigadier-General Egbert Ludovicus Viele
Forces, Tybee Island (South): Brigadier-General Quincy Adams Gillmore

Confederate Department of South Carolina and Georgia: Major-General John Clifford Pemberton
District of Georgia: Brigadier-General Alexander Robert Lawton
Fort Pulaski (Georgia): Colonel Charles H Olmstead
Mosquito Fleet: Commodore Josiah Tatnall CSN

Louisiana. The chain obstruction drawn across the Mississippi by Confederates at Fort Jackson was partially destroyed by high waters.

Missouri. Incident at Shiloh.

North Carolina. Expedition to Laurel Valley ended.

Beaufort, North Carolina. Union Major-General Ambrose Everett Burnside’s expeditionary force laid siege to Beaufort.

Tennessee. Incident at Wartrace.

Tennessee. Union Brigadier-General George Washington Morgan arrived at Cumberland Ford with orders to capture Cumberland Gap, fourteen miles to the south. If successful he was to penetrate into the much-coveted region around Knoxville. Morgan commanded with 8,000 men in the 7^th Division detached from the Army of the Ohio while Major-General Don Carlos Buell operated with the rest of the army along the Tennessee River. The Confederate garrison under Colonel James Edward Rains numbered about 4,000 men.

Tennessee. Union Major-General Henry Wager Halleck arrived at Pittsburg Landing to assume field command of the three combined armies for the campaign towards Corinth. He led the Army of West Tennessee under Major-General Ulysses Simpson Grant, the Army of the Ohio under Major-General Don Carlos Buell, and the Army of the Mississippi under Major-General John Pope.

Virginia. Reconnaissance to Yorktown ended.

Virginia. As the two armies dug in at Yorktown, the Union Army Balloon Corps aeronaut Professor Thaddeus S C Lowe used two balloons, the Constitution and the Intrepid, to perform aerial observations. Intrepid carried Brigadier-General Fitz John Porter aloft, but unexpected winds sent the balloon over enemy lines, causing great consternation in the Union command before other winds returned him to safety. Confederate Captain John Bryan suffered a similar wind mishap in a hot air balloon over the Yorktown lines.

Virginia. Confederate Major-General Daniel Harvey Hill joined the Army of the Peninsula near Yorktown with 4,000 reinforcements, raising the force to about 31,000 men. Major-General John Bankhead Magruder stretched his army along a fourteen-mile front, facing an estimated 100,000 Union troops landing at Fort Monroe.

Hampton Roads, Virginia. The ironclad warship CSS Virginia rounded Sewell’s Point to make a second appearance in Hampton Roads. Under the protection of CSS Virginia, CSS Jamestown (Lieutenant Barney) and CSS Raleigh (Lieutenant-Commander Joseph W Alexander) captured three Union transport ships. The USS Monitor continued to blockade the port of Norfolk and the mouth of the James River but refused this second challenge to face the CSS Virginia.

Union Organisation

USA: Cassius Marcellus Clay promoted Major-General USV April 11 1862.

USA: Ormsby McKnight Mitchel promoted Major-General USV 14 April 1862 to rank from 11 April 1862.

USA: Grenville Mellen Dodge promoted Brigadier-General USV 11 April 1862 to rank from 21 March 1862.

USA: Edward Richard Sprigg Canby promoted Brigadier-General USV 11 April 1862 to rank from 31 March 1862

USA: Francis Engle Patterson promoted Brigadier-General USV 15 April 1862 to rank from April 11 1862.

USA: Quincy Adams Gillmore promoted Brigadier-General USV 30 April 1862 to rank from 11 April 1862.

Commander in Chief: President Abraham Lincoln
Vice-President: Hannibal Hamlin
Secretary of War: Edwin McMasters Stanton
Secretary of the Navy: Gideon Welles

North Atlantic Blockading Squadron: Louis Malesherbes Goldsborough
South Atlantic Blockading Squadron: Samuel Francis Du Pont
West Gulf Blockading Squadron: David Glasgow Farragut
East Gulf Blockading Squadron: William McKean
Pacific Squadron: Charles H Bell
Western Gunboat Flotilla: Andrew Hull Foote
Potomac Flotilla: Robert Harris Wyman

Chairman of the War Board: Ethan Allen Hitchcock

Department of the Mississippi: Henry Wager Halleck

• District of West Tennessee: Ulysses Simpson Grant
  • Army of West Tennessee: Ulysses Simpson Grant
• District of the Mississippi: John Pope
  • Army of the Mississippi: John Pope
• District of the Ohio: Don Carlos Buell
  • Army of the Ohio: Don Carlos Buell
• District of Cairo: William Kerley Strong
  • Sub-District of Columbus: Isaac Ferdinand Quinby

Department of the Missouri: Henry Wager Halleck

• District of St Louis: Lewis Merrill
• District of Central Missouri: James Totten
• District of Southeast Missouri: Frederick Steele
• District of Southwest Missouri: Samuel Ryan Curtis
  • Army of the Southwest: Samuel Ryan Curtis
• District of Northeast Missouri: John Montgomery Glover
• District of Northwest Missouri: Benjamin Franklin Loan
• District of Kansas: Samuel Davis Sturgis

Department of the Gulf: Benjamin Franklin Butler

• Army of the Gulf: Benjamin Franklin Butler

Middle Department: John Adams Dix

• District of the Eastern Shore of Maryland: Henry Hayes Lockwood

Mountain Department: John Charles Frémont

• Cheat Mountain District: Robert Huston Milroy
• Railroad District: Benjamin Franklin Kelley
• District of the Kanawha: Jacob Dolson Cox
• District of the Gap: Samuel Powhatan Carter
• District of the Valley of the Big Sandy River: James Abram Garfield

Department of New Mexico: Edward Richard Sprigg Canby

• Southern District of New Mexico: Benjamin Stone Roberts

Department of New York: Edward Denison Morgan

Department of North Carolina: Ambrose Everett Burnside

Department of the Pacific: George Wright

• District of the Humboldt: Francis James Lippitt
• District of Oregon: Albemarle Cady
• District of Southern California: James Henry Carleton

Department of the Potomac: George Brinton McClellan

• Army of the Potomac: George Brinton McClellan
  • II Corps Potomac: Edwin Vose Sumner
  • III Corps Potomac: Samuel Peter Heintzelman
  • IV Corps Potomac: Erasmus Darwin Keyes

Department of the Rappahannock: Irvin McDowell

• Military District of Washington: James Samuel Wadsworth

Department of the Shenandoah: Nathaniel Prentiss Banks awaited

Department of the South: David Hunter

• Northern District of the South: Henry Washington Benham
• Southern District of the South: John Milton Brannan
• Western District of the South: Lewis Golding Arnold

Department of Texas: Vacant

Department of Virginia: John Ellis Wool

Confederate Organisation

CSA: The 4^th Sub-District of South Carolina was extended to the Coosawhatchie River.

CSA: Martin Luther Smith promoted Brigadier-General PACS 19 March 1862 to rank from 11 April 1862.

CSA: Franklin Gardner promoted Brigadier-General PACS 12 April 1862 to rank from 11 April 1862.

CSA: William Nelson Rector Beall promoted Brigadier-General PACS 12 April 1862 to rank from 11 April 1862.

CSA: Captain Isaac Munroe St John appointed Chief of the Bureau of Nitre and Mining.

Commander in Chief: President Jefferson Finis Davis
Vice-President: Alexander Hamilton Stephens
Secretary of War: George Wythe Randolph
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: Samuel Jones

• Army of Mobile: William L Powell

Department of Middle and Eastern Florida: William Scott Dilworth interim Joseph Finegan awaited

Department of East Tennessee: Edmund Kirby Smith

• Army of East Tennessee: Edmund Kirby Smith

Department of Henrico: John Henry Winder

Department of the Indian Territory: Douglas Hancock Cooper

Department of Norfolk: Benjamin Huger

Department of North Carolina: Theophilus Hunter Holmes

• District of Cape Fear: Samuel Gibbs French
• District of Pamlico: Robert Ransom temporary
• District of Roanoke Island: Henry Marchmore Shaw

Department of Northern Virginia: Joseph Eggleston Johnston

• District of Aquia: Gustavus Woodson Smith
• Army of Northern Virginia: Joseph Eggleston Johnston
  • Right Wing Northern Virginia: James Longstreet
  • Left Wing Northern Virginia: Gustavus Woodson Smith
  • Centre Wing Northern Virginia: Daniel Harvey Hill
• 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 and Georgia: John Clifford Pemberton

• District of Georgia: Alexander Robert Lawton
• District of South Carolina: Roswell Sabine Ripley
  • 1^st Sub-District of South Carolina: Arthur Middleton Manigault.
  • 2^nd Sub-District of South Carolina: Roswell Sabine Ripley
  • 3^rd Sub-District of South Carolina: Nathan George Evans
  • 4^th Sub-District of South Carolina: Maxcy Gregg
  • 5^th Sub-District of South Carolina: Daniel Smith Donelson
  • 6^th Sub-District of South Carolina: Thomas Fenwick Drayton

Department of Southwestern Virginia: William Wing Loring

• District of Lewisburg: Henry Heth

Department of Texas: Paul Octave Hébert

• Eastern District of Texas: Paul Octave Hébert
• Western District of Texas: Henry Eustace McCullough
• Sub-District of Houston: John C Bowen
• Sub-District of Galveston: Ebenezer B Nichols
• Sub-District of the Rio Grande: Hamilton Prioleau Bee awaited
• Defences of Pass Cavallo: John W Glenn

Western Department: Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard

• Trans-Mississippi District: Earl Van Dorn
• District of North Alabama: Daniel Ruggles
• Army of Mississippi: Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard
  • I Corps (Mississippi): Leonidas Polk
  • II Corps (Mississippi): Braxton Bragg
  • III Corps (Mississippi): William Joseph Hardee
  • Reserve Corps (Mississippi): John Cabell Breckinridge
• Army of the West: Earl Van Dorn

District of Arizona: Henry Hopkins Sibley

• Army of New Mexico: Henry Hopkins Sibley

Forces in Richmond: Charles Dimmock

Union Generals

Note: Italics, awaiting confirmation of the commission

Major-General USA

George Brinton McClellan
John Charles Frémont
Henry Wager Halleck

Major-General USV

Asterisk indicates concurrently Brigadier-General USA

John Adams Dix
Nathaniel Prentiss Banks
Benjamin Franklin Butler
David Hunter
Edwin Denison Morgan
Ethan Allen Hitchcock
Ulysses Simpson Grant
Irvin McDowell*
Ambrose Everett Burnside
William Starke Rosecrans*
Don Carlos Buell
John Pope
Samuel Ryan Curtis
Franz Sigel
John Alexander McClernand
Charles Ferguson Smith
Lewis Wallace
Ormsby McKnight Mitchel
Cassius Marcellus Clay

Brigadier-General USA

Brackets indicates concurrently Major-General USV

John Ellis Wool
William Selby Harney
Edwin Vose Sumner
Joseph King Fenno Mansfield
(Irvin McDowell)
Robert Anderson
(William Starke Rosecrans)
Philip St George Cooke

Brigadier-General USV

Samuel Peter Heintzelman
Erasmus Darwin Keyes
Andrew Porter
Fitz-John Porter
William Buel Franklin
William Tecumseh Sherman
Charles Pomeroy Stone
Thomas West Sherman
George Archibald McCall
William Reading Montgomery
Philip Kearny
Joseph Hooker
John Wolcott Phelps
Charles Smith Hamilton
Darius Nash Couch
Rufus King
Jacob Dolson Cox
Stephen Augustus Hurlbut
Robert Cumming Schenck
Benjamin Mayberry Prentiss
Benjamin Franklin Kelley
Alpheus Starkey Williams
Israel Bush Richardson
James Cooper
James Brewerton Ricketts
Orlando Bolivar Willcox
Michael Corcoran
George Henry Thomas
Henry Hayes Lockwood
Louis Blenker
Henry Warner Slocum
James Samuel Wadsworth
John James Peck
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
Silas Casey
Lawrence Pike Graham
George Gordon Meade
Abram Duryée
Alexander McDowell McCook
Oliver Otis Howard
Eleazar Arthur Paine
Charles Davis Jameson
Ebenezer Dumont
Robert Huston Milroy
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
Jeremiah Tilford Boyle
Christopher Columbus Augur
Schuyler Hamilton
Jesse Lee Reno
George Washington Morgan
Julius Stahel
John McAllister Schofield
Thomas Jefferson McKean
John Grubb Parke
Zealous Bates Tower
Jefferson Columbus Davis
James Henry Lane
John McAuley Palmer
William High Keim
James Abram Garfield
Lewis Golding Arnold
Frederick Steele
William Scott Ketchum
Abner Doubleday
John Wynn Davidson
Napoleon Jackson Tecumseh Dana
David Bell Birney
Thomas Francis Meagher
Henry Morris Naglee
Andrew Johnson
James Gallant Spears
Eugene Asa Carr
Thomas Alfred Davies
Daniel Tyler
William Hemsley Emory
Andrew Jackson Smith
Marsena Rudolph Patrick
Isaac Ferdinand Quinby
Hiram Gregory Berry
Orris Sanford Ferry
Daniel Phineas Woodbury
Henry Moses Judah
Richard James Oglesby
John Cook
John McArthur
Robert Latimer McCook
Jacob Gartner Lauman
Horatio Phillips Van Cleve
John Alexander Logan
Speed Smith Fry
Alexander Asboth
James Craig
Mahlon Dickerson Manson
Gordon Granger
Edward Richard Sprigg Canby
Grenville Mellen Dodge
Robert Byington Mitchell
James Gilpatrick Blunt
Francis Engle Patterson
Quincy Adams Gillmore

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/PACS

Samuel Cooper
Robert Edward Lee
Joseph Eggleston Johnston
Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard
Braxton Bragg

Major-General PACS

Leonidas Polk
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
George Bibb Crittenden
John Clifford Pemberton
Richard Stoddert Ewell
William Wing Loring
Sterling Price
Benjamin Franklin Cheatham
Samuel Jones
John Porter McCown
Daniel Harvey Hill
Jones  Mitchell Withers

Brigadier-General PACS

Alexander Robert Lawton
Charles Clark
John Buchanan Floyd
Henry Alexander Wise
David Rumph Jones
Henry Hopkins Sibley
John Henry Winder
Richard Caswell Gatlin
Daniel Smith Donelson
Samuel Read Anderson
Richard Heron Anderson
Robert Augustus Toombs
Arnold Elzey
William Henry Chase Whiting
Jubal Anderson Early
Isaac Ridgway Trimble
Daniel Ruggles
Roswell Sabine Ripley
Albert Pike
Paul Octave Hébert
Joseph Reid Anderson
Simon Bolivar Buckner
Albert Gallatin Blanchard
Gabriel James Rains
James Ewell Brown Stuart
Lafayette McLaws
Thomas Fenwick Drayton
Thomas Carmichael Hindman
Adley Hogan Gladden
Lloyd Tilghman
Nathan George Evans
Cadmus Marcellus Wilcox
Robert Emmett Rodes
Richard Taylor
James Heyward Trapier
Samuel Gibbs French
William Henry Carroll
Hugh Weedon Mercer
Humphrey Marshall
John Cabell Breckinridge
Richard Griffith
Alexander Peter Stewart
William Montgomery Gardner
Richard Brooke Garnett
William Mahone
Lawrence O’Bryan Branch
Edward Johnson
Maxcy Gregg
Raleigh Edward Colston
Henry Heth
Johnson Kelly Duncan
Sterling Alexander Martin Wood
John George Walker
John King Jackson
George Edward Pickett
Bushrod Rust Johnson
James Patton Anderson
Howell Cobb
George Wythe Randolph
Joseph Brevard Kershaw
James Ronald Chalmers
Joseph Lewis Hogg
Ambrose Powell Hill
James Johnston Pettigrew
Carter Littlepage Stevenson
Daniel Leadbetter
William Whann Mackall
Charles Sidney Winder
Robert Ransom
John Bell Hood
Daniel Marsh Frost
Winfield Scott Featherston
Thomas James Churchill
William Booth Taliaferro
Albert Rust
Patrick Ronayne Cleburne
Samuel Bell Maxey
Hamilton Prioleau Bee
James Morrison Hawes
George Hume Steuart
William Duncan Smith
James Edwin Slaughter
Charles William Field
John Horace Forney
Paul Jones Semmes
Lucius Marshall Walker
Seth Maxwell Barton
Dabney Herndon Maury
John Bordenave Villepigue
Henry Eustace McCullough
John Stevens Bowen
Benjamin Hardin Helm
John Selden Roane
States Rights Gist
William Nelson Pendleton
Lewis Addison Armistead
Joseph Finegan
Martin Luther Smith
Franklin Gardner
William Nelson Rector Beall
Henry Little