1862 February 21st

February 21 1862 Friday

Formation of Permanent Confederate Government
Battle of Valverde, NMT (CWSAC Major Battle – Confederate Victory)

Burnside’s Expedition to North Carolina
Sibley’s Operations in New Mexico

Go to February 22 1862

CSA. The permanent Confederate States’ government was announced, ending the Provisional status of the preceding government, and confirming all of its officers in post.

Arkansas. Expedition to Fayetteville began. Union Brigadier-General Samuel Ryan Curtis’ Army of the Southwest moved from Sugar Creek towards Fayetteville. Two divisions marched twelve miles south to Cross Hollows and two more divisions reached Bentonville twelve miles to the southwest. Cavalry was moved to Osage Springs.

Valverde, New Mexico Territory, also known as Fort Craig. Confederate Brigadier-General Henry Hopkins Sibley and the Army of New Mexico had crossed to the east side of the Rio Grande to the ford at Valverde, north of Fort Craig.
After leaving detachments and garrisons along his line of march, his original force of 2,800 men was reduced to about 2,600 men. He aimed to cut Union communications between the fort and military headquarters in Santa Fe. During the night Sibley’s Confederate army camped several miles from Valverde ford, During the night many of their mules and horses stampeded but were later recaptured. In the morning, Sibley sent an advance party consisting of four companies of the 2^nd Texas Mounted Rifles under the command of Major Charles Pyron to scout ahead to the ford, with the 4^th Texas Mounted Rifles under Lieutenant-Colonel William Read Scurry following close behind. The rest of Sibley’s brigade remained in theircamp, intending to follow later.
Union scouts informed Union Colonel Edward Richard Sprigg Canby of the Confederate movements towards the north. After establishing the Confederate strength and position after his repulse of the previous evening, Canby left Fort Craig with more than 3,800 men in Regular and volunteer units to prevent the Confederates from crossing the river. Canby sent a mixed force of infantry, cavalry, and artillery under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Benjamin Stone Roberts of the 5^th New Mexico Infantry to hold the ford. The infantry and artillery slowed the column down so Roberts sent Major Thomas Duncan ahead with the cavalry to secure the ford. Following Roberts’ departure, Canby sent forward additional reinforcements from the fort’s garrison and assigned several companies of New Mexico militia to observe the enemy, harass his flanks and rear, and impede his movements.
The Confederates were unaware that Union forces had arrived to guard the ford until they arrived at the riverside. Pyron sent for reinforcements from the 4^th Texas Infantry while his men took cover in an old river bed, which served as an excellent defensive position. Despite their numerical advantage, the Union cavalry deployed a skirmish line instead of trying to drive the Confederates out of their position. This forced the Union artillery to remain on the western bank of the Rio Grande. When Scurry arrived, he deployed his regiment to Pyron’s right, with the regimental artillery on the Confederate left.
Skirmishing started in earnest at 8 am and by 11.30 am each side had brought up reinforcements. Despite their numerical superiority, the Confederates were mostly armed with short-range shotguns, smoothbore weapons, and pistols, which could not reach the Union positions three hundred yards away. Nor could the small-calibre Confederate howitzers reach the Union artillery on the far bank of the river. Meanwhile, Canby ordered most of the remaining garrison at Fort Craig to march to Valverde, leaving militia to guard the fort.
When he arrived, Canby moved most of his command, including the artillery, across to the eastern bank, leaving the 1^st New Mexico Infantry and 2^nd New Mexico Infantry on the western bank as a reserve. By early afternoon, the remainder of the Confederate force (the 5^th Texas Mounted Rifles under Colonel Thomas Green and a battalion of the 7^th Texas Mounted Rifles under Lieutenant Colonel John Sutton) arrived at the ford. Sibley, who had remained with the wagons during the morning, because he was either ill or intoxicated, relinquished command of the brigade and Green took over. Green then handed command of the 5^th Texas Infantry to Major Samuel Lockridge.
Around 2 pm, Green authorised a company of lancers to attempt a charge on what they thought was an inexperienced New Mexico company on the Union extreme right. That company turned out to comprise a well-disciplined Colorado company who repelled the charge. Twenty of the lancers were killed and wounded during the charge, with almost all of their horses disabled or killed as well. When they had returned to the Confederate line, the lancers quickly rearmed with pistols and shotguns and continued fighting in the battle.
By late afternoon, Canby decided that a frontal assault would fail and planned to attack the Confederate left. He ordered one of his batteries to redeploy closer to the Confederate line and moved several companies to his right, including the 1^st New Mexico. However, this repositioning of the troops left the centre of the Union line around the battery weak, with only untested New Mexico volunteers supporting the battery. Hoping to stall the anticipated Union attack, Green ordered Raguet to attack the Union right with his battalion; this attack was repulsed by frontal fire and a flank attack from the 1^st New Mexico. The Union right advanced to follow the retreating Confederates. At this point, Green ordered the Confederate right wing under the command of Scurry to charge the Union centre. The attack force of 750 men was arranged into three successive waves. The shock of the charge routed over half of the troops supporting the battery and Lockridge was mortally wounded. The Union countered with a cavalry charge but the main Confederate force continued to press their assault on Canby’s left flank, capturing a battery of six artillery pieces and breaking the Union battle line. This soon turned into a more general rout across the river.
Canby managed to reorganise his men and ordered a retreat back to the fort. Sibley was about to order another attack when Canby sent a white flag asking for a truce to remove the bodies of the dead and wounded, to which Sibley agreed. This was in part a ruse, for Canby to buy time to escape pursuit.
The Confederates claimed a victory but suffered heavy casualties. Some reports stated that the Confederates lost 230 men killed and wounded out of 2,590 men engaged. Other accounts say 150 Confederates were wounded and killed while the Union sustained about 80 dead and 150 wounded. Alternatively, 46 Confederates were reported killed and just over 150 wounded while the Union suffered 475 to 500 men out of 2,800 men engaged). Probable losses were around 187 to 200 Confederates and 263 Union. (CWSAC Major Battle – Confederate Victory)

New York. The notorious convicted slave trader, Nathaniel Gordon, was hung in New York City.

North Carolina. Expedition to Winston ended.

Tennessee. Expedition to Clarksville ended.

Union Organisation

USA: Brigadier-General John Milton Brannan arrived to command the Department of Key West.

USA: The Army of West Tennessee was established in the District of West Tennessee. The Army was often but incorrectly referred to as the “Army of the Tennessee”. Its proper full designation was the Army of the District of West Tennessee.
USA: Major-General Ulysses Simpson Grant assumed command of the Army of West Tennessee.

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

General–in-Chief: George Brinton McClellan

Department of Florida: Lewis Golding Arnold

Department of Kansas: David Hunter

Department of Key West: John Milton Brannan

Department of the Missouri: Henry Wager Halleck

• District of West Tennessee: Ulysses Simpson Grant
  • Army of West Tennessee: Ulysses Simpson Grant
• District of Cairo: William Tecumseh Sherman
• District of St Louis: John McAllister Schofield
• District of Central Missouri: James Totten
• District of North Missouri: John McAllister Schofield
• District of Southeast Missouri: Ulysses Simpson Grant
• District of Southwest Missouri: Samuel Ryan Curtis
  • Army of the Southwest: Samuel Ryan Curtis

Department of New Mexico: Edward Richard Sprigg Canby

Department of New York: Edward Denison Morgan

• Southern District of New Mexico: Benjamin Stone Roberts

Department of North Carolina: Ambrose Everett Burnside

Department of the Ohio: Don Carlos Buell

• Army of the Ohio: Don Carlos Buell

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

• District of Harper’s Ferry and Cumberland: Frederick West Lander
• Army of the Potomac: George Brinton McClellan

Department of Texas: Vacant

Department of Virginia: John Ellis Wool

Department of Western Virginia: William Starke Rosecrans

• District of the Kanawha: Jacob Dolson Cox
• Cheat Mountain District: Robert Huston Milroy
• Railroad District: Benjamin Franklin Kelley

Confederate Organisation

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: Vacant

Department No 1: Mansfield Lovell

Department of Alabama and West Florida: Braxton Bragg

• Army of Pensacola: Samuel Jones
• Army of Mobile: John Bordenave Villepigue

Department of Henrico: John Henry Winder

Department of the Indian Territory: Douglas Hancock Cooper

Department of Norfolk: Benjamin Huger

• District of Albemarle: Henry Alexander Wise

Department of North Carolina: Richard Caswell Gatlin

• District of Cape Fear: Joseph Reid Anderson
• District of Pamlico: Lawrence O’Bryan Branch
• District of Roanoke Island: Henry Marchmore Shaw

Department of Northern Virginia: Joseph Eggleston Johnston

• District of Aquia: Robert Augustus Toombs
• Army of the Potomac: Joseph Eggleston Johnston
  • I Corps Potomac: James Longstreet
  • II Corps Potomac: Gustavus Woodson Smith
• 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, Georgia and East Florida: Robert Edward Lee

•  District of Middle and East Florida: William Montgomery Gardner
• 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: John Clifford Pemberton
  • 5^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
• District of Galveston: Ebenezer B Nichols
• District of Houston: John Creed Moore
• Defences of Pass Cavallo: John W Glenn

Western Department: Albert Sidney Johnston

• First Geographical Division: Leonidas Polk
• Trans-Mississippi District: Earl Van Dorn
• District of East Tennessee: George Bibb Crittenden
• Army of Central Kentucky: William Joseph Hardee
• Army of Eastern Kentucky: Humphrey Marshall
• Army of the West: Benjamin McCulloch interim Earl Van Dorn awaited

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

John Adams Dix
Nathaniel Prentiss Banks
Benjamin Franklin Butler
David Hunter
Edwin Denison Morgan
Ethan Allen Hitchcock
Ulysses Simpson Grant

Brigadier-General USA

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
Don Carlos Buell
Thomas West Sherman
John Pope
George Archibald McCall
William Reading Montgomery
Philip Kearny
Joseph Hooker
John Wolcott Phelps
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
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

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

Leonidas Polk
Braxton Bragg
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

Brigadier-General PACS

Alexander Robert Lawton
Benjamin McCulloch
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
Benjamin Franklin Cheatham
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
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
John Porter McCown
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
James McQueen McIntosh
Bushrod Rust Johnson
James Patton Anderson
Howell Cobb
George Wythe Randolph
Joseph Brevard Kershaw
James Ronald Chalmers
Joseph Lewis Hogg
Daniel Marsh Frost