1862 April 12th

April 12 1862 Saturday

Andrews’ Raid, GA (“The Great Locomotive Chase”)

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

CSA. Confederate General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard had brought the Army of Mississippi to Corinth after the defeat at Shiloh. The death of General Albert Sidney Johnston had created a vacancy for an officer of the highest grade of General. The available candidates currently with the army at the grade of Major-General to replace Johnston were Leonidas Polk, Braxton Bragg, William Joseph Hardee, and Braxton Bragg, all of whom were currently corps commanders. Polk’s experience was limited and he was not considered suitable for army command. Bragg and Hardee were both well qualified but Bragg was the senior and enjoyed the friendship and admiration of the President. Bragg was confirmed as General with his date of rank backdated to the battle of Shiloh, where he was considered to have performed well. Beauregard and Bragg were to share the command, with Bragg as Beauregard’s deputy and chief of staff, just as Beauregard had served under Johnston, until After Beauregard took an unauthorised leave of absence for sickness in May 1862, Bragg replaced him,

Alabama. USS Tyler and USS Lexington set out with troops from Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, for Chickasaw.

Georgia. Union Brigadier-General David Hunter declared all slaves near Fort Pulaski at Savannah, to be confiscated from their owners and free. This presumptive proclamation was repudiated on 19 May 1862 by US President Abraham Lincoln.

Georgia. Following the fall of Fort Pulaski, Confederate Captain Josiah Tattnall USN continued his attempts to break the Union blockade of Savannah with his Savannah River squadron of small gunboats. He later converted the steamer Fingal into the ironclad CSS Atlanta and also adapted CSS Savannah. The defences of the port of Savannah were supplemented by a torpedo (naval mines) station under military command. A new railroad allowed the timely movement of troops and supplies to Charleston and lessons learned at Fort Pulaski were incorporated into the defences of Charleston, South Carolina. On his release as a prisoner-of-war, the commander of Fort Pulaski, Confederate Colonel Charles H Olmstead, was assigned to engineer and gunnery duties at Charleston.

Andrews’ Raid, Georgia, also known as “The Great Locomotive Chase”, Mitchel’s Raid, or Pittinger’s Raid. Twenty-two Union volunteers attempted to cut the railroad between Marietta, Georgia, and Chattanooga, Tennessee. They had been ordered by Major-General Ormsby McKnight Mitchel to sever the link between Atlanta and Chattanooga. They were to burn bridges and blow up tunnels along the Western & Atlantic Railroad in order to assist Mitchel’s advance from Bridgeport.
The raiders were disguised in civilian clothes when they travelled to Marietta on 11 April 1862. During the morning they boarded a train to Big Shanty, twenty-five miles north of Atlanta. Despite finding a Confederate camp at Big Shanty, they stole the locomotive General with three boxcars during a breakfast halt. The train crew of Captain William A Fuller (engineer), Jeff Cain (workshop foreman) and Anthony Murphy ran after the train for two miles until they found a handcar. They boarded it and pursued the General but were derailed when they came across tracks destroyed by the raiders. They righted the handcar and reached Etowah where they found the locomotive Yonah.
Meanwhile, the Union raiders cut telegraph wires to prevent news of their progress from being communicated along the line. Andrews put the General into a siding at Kingston to allow a scheduled train to pass but two more unscheduled trains arrived. Andrews demanded the right to pass and learned that Mitchel’s advance to Huntsville had caused the re-routing of Confederate railroad traffic along the Georgia line. After a wait of 65 minutes, the raiders were allowed to proceed. The pursuing train crew arrived five minutes after their departure. They abandoned the Yonah and travelled north to find the engine William L Smith two miles further north. They were then halted by broken rails. At Adairsville, they requisitioned the locomotive Texas and began a high-speed pursuit of the General. Aware of the pursuit, the Union raiders uncoupled two boxcars to block the Texas and then left a burning boxcar on a bridge. The General ran out of water and fuel two miles north of Ringgold.
The ninety-mile chase ended as the raiders scattered into the surrounding woods. Most of the raiders were caught near the Tennessee line and jailed at Chattanooga and Atlanta. Two men escaped by boat down the Chattahoochee and Apalachicola Rivers to the coast. Others eluded capture and rejoined their regiments. The leader, James J Andrews, and seven of his men were caught and hanged as spies because they were not in uniform. Six raiders were held as prisoners of war and later exchanged. Eight others escaped after capture.

Missouri. Skirmish at the Little Blue River.

New Mexico Territory. Having concentrated his forces at Albuquerque, Confederate Brigadier-General Henry Hopkins Sibley waited in vain for an attack by Union Edward Richard Sprigg Canby. When this did not occur, Sibley was forced to abandon the town because his supplies were exhausted and none could be gleaned from the desolate and hostile region. His wagon train had been destroyed at Glorieta Pass and his artillery ammunition was exhausted. Sibley decided to abandon the expedition and marched back toward Texas. The army camped twenty miles to the south on the west bank of the Rio Grande at Los Lunas. The retreat was shadowed on the opposite bank by Canby. Although the two forces remained in sight of one another, skirmishing was desultory. Canby was too short of supplies himself to take and feed any prisoners and he allowed Sibley’s Confederates to make their starving withdrawal to Fort Bliss, Texas.

North Carolina. Incident at Fort Macon.

Tennessee. Union Brigadier-General William Tecumseh Sherman began a reconnaissance to Bear Creek.

Virginia. Reconnaissance by Union to Valley River by Union Brigadier-General Benjamin Franklin Kelley through Boothsville and Fairmont. During the raid, the Union troops detained agents recruiting volunteers for the Confederacy, and several were killed.

Virginia. Skirmish at Monterey involving Union Brigadier-General Robert Huston Milroy.

Virginia. Confederate General Joseph Eggleston Johnston consolidated his command of about 60,000 men to oppose the 112,000 men of the Union Army of the Potomac on the Yorktown peninsula. Johnston arrived on this date from the Rapidan River with the two divisions of Major-General James Longstreet and Major-General Gustavus Woodson Smith. He had managed to concentrate his forces and reunite the last two of his five divisions with the army of Major-General John Bankhead Magruder on the peninsula. That left only Major-General Richard Stoddert Ewell’s division with 8,000 men at Gordonsville, screening the army’s change of base. Ewell was instructed to cooperate with the forces in the Shenandoah Valley if the need arose. There were also 6,000 men at Fredericksburg (Major-General Theophilus Hunter Holmes) and 9,000 men at Norfolk (Major-General Benjamin Huger) but Johnston intended to assimilate Holmes’ and Huger’s forces into his army too, in order to maximise his strength for the defence of Richmond. The Confederate forces available in the Shenandoah Valley now numbered 4,200 men in the division of Major-General Thomas Jonathan Jackson and a further 3,000 men in the Upper Shenandoah Valley at McDowell (under Brigadier-General Edward Johnson).
The consolidated Confederate Army of Northern Virginia was now being restructured for the peninsula campaign, dividing into four parts to occupy the Yorktown Peninsula. The Left Wing was placed under Major-General Daniel Harvey Hill, the Centre Wing came under Major-General James Longstreet, the Right Wing was under Major-General John Bankhead Magruder, and the Reserve was assigned to Major-General Gustavus Woodson Smith. Longstreet’s Centre Wing comprised his own division of six brigades now led by Brigadier-General Richard Heron Anderson. The division had the former brigades of Brigadier-General Ambrose Powell Hill, Anderson himself, and Brigadier-General David Rumph Jones now under Colonel James Lawson Kemper, Colonel Micah Jenkins, and Brigadier-General George Edward Pickett. These were brought from Manassas, and were recently joined by Brigadier-General Cadmus Marcellus Wilcox’s brigade transferred from Major-General Gustavus Woodson Smith’s division. Brigadier-General Raleigh Edward Colston’s brigade from Huger’s division and Colonel Roger Atkinson Pryor’s brigade transferred from Magruder’s command. D H Hill’s Division had the brigades of Colonel Samuel Garland, Brigadier-General Robert Emmett Rodes, Brigadier-General Gabriel James Rains, and Colonel George Burgwyn Anderson. Major-General Benjamin Huger’s Division came from Norfolk with the brigades of Brigadier-General Lewis Addison Armistead, Brigadier-General William Mahone and Brigadier-General Albert Gallatin Blanchard.

Union Organisation

USA: Major-General Nathaniel Prentiss Banks arrived to command the Department of the Shenandoah.

USA: Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Maley Harris (10th West Virginia Infantry) assumed command of the Cheat Mountain District, succeeding Brigadier-General Robert Huston Milroy.

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: Thomas Maley Harris
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

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 Department of Norfolk was discontinued. Most of its territory was incorporated into the Department of Northern Virginia and the other part was incorporated into the Department of North Carolina.

CSA: The Department of the Peninsula was discontinued and its territory incorporated into the Department of Northern Virginia.

CSA: The Army of the Peninsula was discontinued and incorporated into the Army of Northern Virginia.

CSA: Braxton Bragg promoted General PACS 12 April 1862 to rank from April 6 1862.

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

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

CSA: William Yarnel Slack promoted Brigadier-General PACS 17 April 1862 to rank from 12 April 1862 posthumously. He died of wounds on 21 March 1862.

CSA: Brigadier-General Adley Hogan Gladden died of wounds received at Shiloh, Tennessee

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 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 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 DOW
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